Election 2010

[grovester]

ROAD TRIP

[KCMax]

GOP unveils ""Pledge to America"

Jobs:

- Stop job-killing tax hikes

- Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income

- Require congressional approval for any new federal regulation that would add to the deficit

- Repeal small business mandates in the new health care law.

Cutting Spending:

- Repeal and Replace health care

- Roll back non-discretionary spending to 2008 levels before TARP and stimulus (will save $100 billion in first year alone)

- Establish strict budget caps to limit federal spending going forward

- Cancel all future TARP payments and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Reforming Congress:

- Will require that every bill have a citation of constitutional authority

- Give members at least 3 days to read bills before a vote

Defense:

- Provide resources to troops

- Fund missile defense

- Enforce sanctions in Iran

[grovester]

Small business?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39317328/ns/politics/

A number of companies with multi-billion dollar revenues have been registered as small businesses for tax purposes, according to a report.

Among them were the "biggest companies in the world and the richest people in this country" Keith Olbermann said in a special report on his msnbc cable show Wednesday night titled, "Small Business in Name Only."

The term "small business" was an "utter misnomer," he claimed.

Because IRS tax returns are not public record, the names of companies were ascertained from public documents such as court records or the companies' postings:

Among the examples given on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" were:

..?Enterprise Products Partners, L.P., a pipeline company with 2009 revenues of $25 billion.
?Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a Wall Street firm with $445 million in revenue in 2009.
?Price Waterhouse Coopers, an accounting firm with $26 billion in revenue in 2009.
?Koch Industries, a conglomerate of partnerships with 70,000 employees.
?The Hillman Company, an investment founded by billionaire philanthropist/industrialist Henry Hillman.
?Venn Strategies, Inc., whose chief operating officer is Brian Reardon, a former special assistant to former President George W. Bush.
?Ferrellgas, a propane and propane accessories business, with $2 billion in revenues in 2009 and 1 million customers.
?CoorsTek, a ceramics manufacturer founded by Adolph Coors, with 2009 revenue of $549 million.
?Dead River Co., with $500 million in revenue and 1,200 employees.
?McIlhenney Co., the Tabasco maker, with $250 million in revenue in 2007.

On CBS' "Face The Nation" on Sept. 12, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, conceded that a nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that 3 percent of small-business people would be impacted if Bush tax cuts for the rich would expire.

"Well, it may be 3 percent, but it's half of small business income," House minority leader told Bob Schieffer. "Because, obviously, the top 3 percent have half of the gross income for those companies that we would term small businesses. And this is why you don't want to punish these people at a time when you have a weak economy."

Fewer than 750,000 people, less than 0.25 percent of the country, would be affected by the top rate, according to Joint Committee on Taxation figures quoted by Olbermann.

[NDTeve]

Probably true Grovester. And if those $750,000 got a better accountant...they could probably find a way out of it too.

[FangKC]

Yes, Koch Industries is a small, family-run business--like Johnson and Johnson and Wal-Mart. 

[grovester]

just trying to track the rhetoric, most folks think they shoud support "small business" but don't want to bail out "big business".  They don't realize what they are actually doing.  Democrats burden.

[zlohban]

So what is your point?  Big business, small business, businesses DO NOT pay taxes...customers pay taxes, you and me; do you want to pay more taxes? If so, why not just donate to the feds. Why should I work my ass off to keep a good job, pay my mortgage and pay my bills on time, not have any credit card debt just to have the feds equal the playing field for EVERYONE with my tax dollars. I attended the same public schools as everyone else, I didn't get any breaks, I just work.

[phxcat]

So what is your point?  Big business, small business, businesses DO NOT pay taxes...customers pay taxes, you and me; do you want to pay more taxes? If so, why not just donate to the feds. Why should I work my ass off to keep a good job, pay my mortgage and pay my bills on time, not have any credit card debt just to have the feds equal the playing field for EVERYONE with my tax dollars. I attended the same public schools as everyone else, I didn't get any breaks, I just work.

That's not necessarily true.  They cannot pass taxes on the the consumer any more than the market will allow, and if they could, they would be charging higher prices as it is.  Prices would rise a bit, but as not all businesses would be affected equally, the rise in market price would not be 1:1, and businesses would have to find somewhere else to cut (hopefully profit).  Now, depending on what the feds do with the tax dollars (such as a single payer health care system) businesses may actually benefit from paying more taxes by reducing the costs of doing business.

[zlohban]

Businesses do not print money.  All the money that businesses collect comes from a good or service purchased by consumers. All taxes are passed onto the consumer. Period.

[grovester]

do you not see that health care costs are a burden to business and a net negative in international terms?

[aknowledgeableperson]

Health care costs are a burden to American business but then health care costs are a burden to European companies as well, either through direct costs or taxes.  The question is to what degree is it a burden?  And with regards to American companies does ObamaCare increase or decrease the burden?  In the immediate future most assume it increases the burden.  For example, A Company might be providing insurance coverage for a total of 5,000 employees and dependents.  Now that families can have a dependents up to age 26 added to A Company's coverage the insurance company now has to pay for health care costs for, say, 5,100 people.  That extra 100 people will increase costs to the insurance company and that insurance company will pass those costs on to A Company.

[shinatoo]

Again, I don't see the rights argument that ObamaCare is a burden to small buisness, if anything the opposite is true. If I am a buisness owner in 2013, suddenly everyone is required to buy health-care, and there are exchanges where they can buy health-care, they you just saw the last day that I feel obligated to provide heath-care for my employees. Maybe I give them all a raise to make them feel better.

[Highlander]

Health care costs are a burden to American business but then health care costs are a burden to European companies as well, either through direct costs or taxes.  The question is to what degree is it a burden?  And with regards to American companies does ObamaCare increase or decrease the burden?  In the immediate future most assume it increases the burden.  For example, A Company might be providing insurance coverage for a total of 5,000 employees and dependents.  Now that families can have a dependents up to age 26 added to A Company's coverage the insurance company now has to pay for health care costs for, say, 5,100 people.  That extra 100 people will increase costs to the insurance company and that insurance company will pass those costs on to A Company.

Many European companies also offer private supplemental health insurance to their employees as many countries (the UK for example) have a smaller but commonly more responsive parallel private health care option.  European companies also take on a lot of other types of costs that American companies do not have to deal with such as extended maternity leave, mandated 5 weeks vacation time (which forces them to hire more people), and less flexibility about staff reduction...not to mention tax differences.  

[DaveKCMO]

wow.

J.J. Rizzo vs. Will Royster: Alleged fishiness at polls in primary election

Court affidavits by witnesses at Northeast polling places contain allegations of people voting more than once, and members of the area's Somali immigrant community being coached on how to vote.

[phxcat]

wow.

J.J. Rizzo vs. Will Royster: Alleged fishiness at polls in primary election

It seems like a story that is begging for more information.  It doesn't really go into the people voting more than once, though it does talk about someone showing a few women how to vote.  All it really goes into detail about, however, are the 53 New Years birthdays (which I think is common with refugee populations where birth records are lost and therefore not significant), and a handful of people who list an address where there is either not a building or no tax records.  Those could easily be transcription errors- if fraud was involved, I would think that they would at least be given a working address?  On the other hand, at what point are refugees in able to gain citizenship and therefore the right to vote?  You need to speak English, which would make the "coaching" story a bit odd.

[aknowledgeableperson]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39748015/ns ... ision_2010

Exactly two weeks until Election Day, Republicans remain poised to make significant midterm gains across the country, with 50 percent of likely voters preferring a GOP-controlled Congress, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

What's more, Republicans appear to be benefiting from the public's pessimistic mood, as approximately six in 10 registered voters think that the country is on the wrong track, and that the economy will get worse or stay the same in the next 12 months.

"Election Day is coming, the hurricane force has not diminished and it is going to hit the Democrats head on," said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

[KCMax]

A star has emerged from the NY Governor's debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0

He IS a karate expert.

[AllThingsKC]

Wow.  That NY Governor's race is becoming quite the comedy tour.

[phuqueue]

If the GOP really is going to sweep into power next month, I certainly hope some of them have a stronger grasp of basic constitutional principles than Christine O'Donnell apparently does.

[AllThingsKC]

From the unbiased mouth of Rush Limbaugh today:

""Separation of church and state" is not in the Constitution, and the fact that people laughed about this is what's really scary.  Most of the Framers and the congressmen who were first elected to the House and Senate prayed every day and went to church in Congress on Sundays, and in fact the House is opened every day with a prayer!  Apparently back in the day, the Founders didn't know that there was separation of church and state.  All the Founders said was that the state shall not establish an official religion.  It does not say that people in government shall not practice or cannot practice a religion.  The Senate opens with a prayer every day, as does the House.  The House has a chaplain, for crying out loud!

So this story was purposely written to make it look like Christine O'Donnell does not know what's in the First Amendment, when she was right.  Nowhere in the Constitution will you find the words "separation of church and state," and nowhere in the Constitution will you find anything written to convey the meaning that religion is not permitted to be part of government.  All it says is that the government shall "establish" one.  The United States government cannot proclaim, "This is a Christian nation." It cannot proclaim, "This is a Jewish state," cannot proclaim the official religion of our country is Islam. They cannot do it.  But we can have Islamists in government, we can have Christians in government, we can have Jews in government, and they can pray while serving!  This has been one of the tricks of the left for as long as I've been alive."

More here.