The Maryland Tax Rape Plan
Nov 19, 2007 Political
The legislature of Maryland wrapped up the Special Session called by Governor O’Malley and the result is going to be very painful to Maryland residents. For the past three weeks the legislature has been mulling over how to screw the citizens of this state out of their hard earned money and they finally succeeded at doing just that. When O’Malley was elected I predicted that he would raise our taxes and hurt us. I think he believes that Hillary will select him for a position in her administration and he will not have to worry about paying for what he did when the next election rolls around (in Maryland it will be 2010).
The special session was called to address a budget shortfall for a budget that does not yet exist. They then addressed gasoline taxes, which do not go into the general funds and cannot reduce any perceived deficit, then they increased health care assistance which adds to the budget which is contrary to why the session was convened. Additionally, a half billion dollars in cuts were recommended to the governor but he is free to dismiss the cuts which he likely will. The whole process was a sham in order to raise our taxes starting on 1 January despite the fact that the current budget is in place until July and I might add that it is balanced.
Marylanders received a 20% increase in the sales tax and the income taxes, which were a fair flat tax, were changed to a progressive tax so that wealthier people pay more of the share for government than other wage earners. Yep, the wealthy in the state will now pay more to government despite the fact that the wealthy use far fewer government services. This is Socialism 101 and Governor O’Malley is the Karl Marx of Maryland.
There are many wealthy liberals who are very upset that they will pay a higher percentage of taxes than much of the state and I am happy about that. The service industry will also take a big hit because taxes have been extended to a lot of things that were not taxed in the past. The people who provide these services are getting screwed as well and many of them will likely question why they voted for O’Malley in the first place. All I can say is I hope it hurts the people who voted for him so badly that they are eating cat food for dinner so they can afford to heat their homes. I am tired of the liberals in this state imposing their will upon the people and screwing us so it is time that they paid for their stupidity. I hope the cat food tastes good.
I know which of my elected ‘leaders’ voted to increase my taxes and I will actively work to defeat them during the next election. I will work to ensure that the citizens of this state do not forget who they were and what they did. I am hoping that this is the straw that finally broke the camel’s back and people will vote the Democrats out of office so that we can get true leadership in here.
There will no doubt be an exodus of people from this state. Some will sell their homes and move and others will just go to other states to shop. I will not purchase any big ticket item in Maryland and I will try to get my services from entities outside the state. and I know there will be many others who do the same. Those living close to Delaware or Virginia will go to those states for gas and other items in order to pay less in taxes. I imagine it will not be long before the tax Nazis from Annapolis are waiting at the borders to confiscate good purchased elsewhere.
The bills will be signed into law today and that will be the death of this state and, as is true of all bad times in Maryland, it will come on a Democrat’s watch.
Interestingly, the legislature decided to put a slot machine bill on the ballot for referendum which means the people will vote on it in 2008 and, if it passes, it will become part of the Constitution of the state. Only a moron would make this part of the Constitution because then any changes will require a change to the Constitution which means by referendum and vote of the people. Slots have been a big issue for five years and the Democrats have always voted them down because they are evil (actually they did not want the Republican governor to get credit for the income) and now they are pushing the issue farther down the road because they lack the leadership necessary to address the issue. If the people pass slots the revenue will not begin to flow for a few more years. It could have been flowing by now were it not for the obstructive Democrats. If the measure fails they will raise our taxes again because a lot of what they are spending is based upon projected revenue from slots and many items in the special session were tied to slots.
I would have preferred they put the tax question directly to the people. Of course, since nearly 80% of the citizens opposed raising taxes they were not going to let us vote on it. They do not trust us to make those decisions even though they work for us.
We need a recall election in Maryland to get rid of O’Malley and we need to vote every person who raised our taxes OUT OF OFFICE.
This Thursday is Thanksgiving. Today however, is Thankstaking, the day Maryland government will give thanks for what it will take from its citizens.
Others with similar items:
Stop the ACLU, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Blog For All, guerrilla radio, Right Truth, The Populist, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Nuke’s, third world county, Allie Is Wired, DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Wolf Pangloss, Dumb Ox Daily News, High Desert Wanderer, and Stageleft, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Tags: billion dollars, budget shortfall, Democrats, Hillary, karl marx, o malley, progressive tax, sham, socialism, special session, wage earners
Warren Buffet Should Heed Own Advice
Nov 14, 2007 General
Billionaire Warren Buffet said that he favors the estate tax and that it should be higher to tax the wealthy on the amount of their estates. The estate tax currently sits at 45% (and will increase to 55% without reform), which means that 45 out of every 100 dollars someone leave to an heir goes to the government. This is a tax on money that was already taxed at least once in the lifetime of the person and probably more than once, in all reality. The government taxes the money when it is earned, taxes any interest on investment and then gets nearly half of it when a person dies. This is why estate planners make a lot of money, to figure ways to pass wealth without paying taxes AGAIN.
Buffet though, does not live by this philosophy of taxing estates. He has ensured that his estate will be given away so that he avoids any taxes. His fortune is well over 40 billion dollars so his heirs would have to pay around 20 billion in taxes when he dies. This would help with the burden he says that the middle class bears but it is not what is good for him. He is giving a lot of his money to five foundations, most notably the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There will be no taxes when he gives this so he avoided paying an estate tax. He has set up one billion dollar foundations for each of his children and they are to do philanthropic work with the money, no doubt after they draw hefty management fees from the foundations. This will avoid estate taxes and allow him to pass a great deal of money to his children.
Buffet is another do as I say liberal who thinks it is perfectly acceptable for the government to take money it did not earn from the pockets of people who received it from a loved one. He feels that it is OK so long as he (or technically, his estate) is not the one paying the taxes. Buffet cries about the plight of the middle class but he could make 1000 people millionaires for every billion dollars he has. If he is so concerned about people why does he not take 20 billion and make 20,000 people millionaires?
That would probably do more good than giving money to foundations that already have billions of dollars. But Buffet would rather see the wealthy taxed to death and since he has figured out how to avoid the estate tax he really does not care.
Of course, he assumes that other rich people are not as bright as he and therefore cannot avoid paying estate taxes.
Tax schemes created by the government lead people to think of creative ways to avoid paying those very taxes and the richer people are, the more creative they become. Besides, if Buffet is really concerned about the government, he can donate money to the treasury and they will be happy to take it.
I wonder why, if he really cares, he didn’t send his money there instead?
Source:
al Reuters
Tags: bill and melinda gates foundation, billion dollars, government taxes, management fees, millionaires, philanthropic work, warren buffet