This Will Go No Where
Apr 13, 2011 Political
Dick Turban, a Senator, will introduce legislation to force companies that sell things over the Internet to calculate and collect taxes for the state (or locality) to which it is shipped. States complain that items bought over the Internet do not have the appropriate taxes collected and they miss out on revenue.
To me this is no different than when someone stops in one state and makes a purchase and then takes the item to his home state. What did the state in which the person resides do to warrant receiving revenue?
The matter will go nowhere for a number of reasons. There are thousands of taxes in many localities and it would be a daunting task to try to program websites to calculate the taxes. To top it off, some states like Maryland will raise taxes on a regular basis so that will mean more work and higher costs for web retailers.
The matter also has some Constitutional issue around it. Matters of taxes are supposed to originate in the House and the man introducing the legislation is in the Senate. Unless he gets someone in the House to introduce it, I don’t see how it can be introduced. Also, this is about state and local taxes so why is a member of the federal government involved in the issue?
Finally, the House is controlled by Republicans and regardless of whether one thinks this is a good idea or not, they do not want to be blamed for imposing taxes on people.
Even if this made it to the Senate I can’t see how they get the 60 votes needed for cloture.
This will be a sticky issue because more and more people shop online. Government likes to find things people do and tax it so it can get more money.
Dick Turban is saying that the playing field needs to be leveled so that brick and mortar stores can compete with Internet retailers.
Why is it that everything has to be a level playing field? Imagine if Major League Baseball required all teams to be the same…
I have an idea though. If Durbin wants a level playing field then have the states and localities eliminate sales taxes all together. Then the brick and mortar stores will be on a level playing field…..
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: dick durbin, internet, taxes
Business As Usual In Maryland
Apr 4, 2011 Political
The People’s Republic of Maryland is a sorry place with regard to the elected slugs in Annapolis. Blair Lee has a great piece outlining what is taking place in the Legislature and it is not pretty. The Governor and his Democrats are playing games with tax increases (after raising taxes to historic levels a few years ago) and pretending that there are no increases. They are calling tax increases fees (something they hammered former Governor Ehrlich over) and they are moving money all over the place.
Speaking of hoaxes, lawmakers are pulling a fast one with the new money that the teachers and state employees must contribute to their woefully underfunded pension fund. O’Malley and the legislature are siphoning off $120 million of new pension contributions to pay for other programs. Yep, it’s another raid just like the raids on the transportation fund, the parks fund, the university’s reserves, etc.
This is the kind of crap that got us into trouble in the first place. They have a tax set up for one thing and then they rape that fund to provide money for some social program or to pay bribes to supporters and then they whine that there is not enough money in the previously funded program and then claim thy need to raise taxes AGAIN. They are guilty of malfeasance and should all be tried, convicted and sent to jail.
Read the article and see if there is any way to make what the Maryland politicians are doing ethical. Look and see if this kind of crap is OK with you or if it makes your blood boil. If you live in Maryland get out and vote to get rid of these cretins and replace them with people who actually know how to manage money.
It is time to jail these criminals and start over.
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: blair lee, lies, malfeasance, Maryland, taxes
Maryland You Got What You Asked For
Mar 29, 2011 Political
The People’s Republic of Maryland reelected Martin O’Malley to serve as governor. O’Malley beat out Bob Ehrlich who was in office for one term before being beaten by O’Malley. During the last election Ehrlich warned the people of Maryland that O’Malley was using bogus information about the health of the state and the need for taxes. Ehrlich rightly pointed out that O’Malley used federal Stimulus money to pay state debt and appease the public worker unions and that the money has dried up and there will be problems.
O’Malley hammered Ehrlich as out of touch and reminded people that the fees Ehrlich raised were really taxes. O’Malley made a point of this and told people that Ehrlich really raised taxes when he raised all the fees (I said they were taxes when they were raised). O’Malley said he did not intend to raise taxes on those in maryland even though he had already raised them to record highs during his first term.
Now O’Malley and his Democrats have put forth a budget that will raise taxes and, get this, raise FEES. O’Malley and his libtards are not calling them taxes because they assert they are fees. These fees are the same kind that O’Malley lambasted Ehrlich for and spent the campaign insisting were taxes. Now that he is doing it, well they are only fees. None of the local members of the Media wing of the Democrat party are expected to bring this issue up.
Their master has said they are fees so by damn, they are fees.
This article points out very clearly why Ehrlich can tell Maryland “I told you so” on the issue of taxes.
This article lists all the taxes that will be raised by the governor who campaigned on NOT raising taxes.
Will this information phase any of the O’Maley supporters? Probably not. Most of them do not pay taxes and only consume the fruits of another’s labor. As for O’Maley, he is term limited and looking to a higher office so he really does not care about broken promises. He is a liberal moron and all he knows is how to tax and spend.
As for those who did not vote or decided that O’Malley was the right one, get use to paying more. Those fees are going to get you along with everyone else and you will certainly pay more for gas because of the gas tax increase.
As for the rest of you, shop in Delaware or Virginia and deny Maryland the sales tax.
It is time to take the money away from the slugs in Annapolis and make them live within their means.
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Down To Brass Tax, Caterpillar Might Move
Mar 28, 2011 Political
When the census numbers came in it was obvious that states with higher taxes lost population and those with lower taxes gained population. While a number of reasons could be responsible it is not unreasonable to assume that the tax situation played a part in the population shift. No one likes to pay more taxes, even Democrats who like to raise them.
The same is true of businesses. Case in point, Caterpillar and the state of Illinois. Illinois governor Pat Quinn raised taxes in January and that increase hurt business. Republicans who opposed the tax increase worried that businesses would leave the state. How right they were. Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman wrote a letter to the governor indicating that he is considering moving the business out of Illinois to a more business friendly state(read lower tax state) and he goes on to cite examples of offers from several states that might entice him to move.
I have been called, ‘cornered’ in meetings and ‘wined and dined’ — the heat is on,” Oberhelman wrote. “Before, I never really considered living anywhere else and certainly never considered the possibility of Caterpillar relocating. But I have to admit, the policymakers in Springfield seem to make it harder by the day. Pantagraph
A Republican who commented on the issue made an astute observation in noting that he is concerned about the number of businesses being approached that the state knows nothing about.
One can bet that if Caterpillar was approached many other businesses are being approached as well.
This is what happens when politicians impose taxes that rise to the level of a punitive action. Businesses move to places where they are welcomed and where they are not made the scape goats for financial difficulties encountered because of poor management by government.
This is nothing new. Businesses have been leaving the country because of the crippling taxes imposed by government. Caterpillar is feeling at the local level what many businesses have felt at the federal level and that company might now vote with its feet.
Like the people who have fled high tax states for those with lower taxes, Caterpillar must do what is in its own best interests and those of the shareholders.
The unfortunate reality is that politicians will fail to recognize the root problem and Caterpillar will end up being made the bad guy by Democrats hell bent on squeezing every last cent from those who produce.
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: caterpillar, illinois, pat quinn, taxes
Maryland Governor O’Malley Is An Idiot
Feb 27, 2011 Political
Or is he a moron? Wait, he is a moronic idiot. Yeah, that’s it.
Martin O’Malley, the Governor of the People’s Republic of Maryland, is the new attack dog for the Democrats who want to destroy Chris Christie of New Jersey before he decides to change his mind and run for president. This is the tactic the left uses when it is scared. The left did this when Sarah Palin was selected as John McCain’s running mate because the left was scared of her. She drew a lot of attention and a lot of people liked listening to her. The left and its media wing set out to destroy her.
Think they were not worried? Why did the campaign go from being Obama against McCain to Obama against Palin? They were scared. They effectively created a narrative that plenty of people believe and that is, Palin is not very bright. Think what you may but she is not stupid and has more experience than the dunce in the White House.
And we know where she was born.
But let’s get back to the moron O’Malley. He chided Christie for his bombastic approach to balancing the budget in New Jersey. O’Mally, who has no business concerning himself with New Jersey, does not approve of Christie and others making public sector employees and their unions the scapegoats for the financial problems that the states are facing. O’Malley does not think that budgets should be balanced on the backs of the public sector union employees.
No, this moron would rather raise the taxes of the people who pay for the public sector employees. O’Malley chides Christie and others for pointing out that public sector unions have very, very, good deals where they pay very little toward their benefits. The people in the private sector pay for their own benefits (and at multiples of what the public sector union types pay) and they pay for those union benefits.
The union employees are up in arms all over because they feel entitled to the money that others produce. They feel entitled to have better benefits than the people who pay them (read their bosses) and they feel that anyone who gets in the way is taking something that belongs to them.
The reality is that THEY are taking things that belong to we the people. The taxpayers are footing the bill and we have some say in how OUR money is spent. If the public sector employees do not like this they can quit and get a job in the private sector. Let’s see how well they do there.
As for O’Malley, he cares not about the public sector employees and he will screw them if it will get money to his campaign war chest. He has already raised plenty of items that Maryland employees have to pay but two things factor in. First, he is a Democrat so no one will speak ill of him. Second, he extorted money from non union public sector employees to pay off the unions. That’s right, Maryland employees who are not in the union will have money TAKEN from their paychecks each pay period and it will go directly to the union. It was a payoff. As a commenter at the source site put it (and I see nothing incorrect in the comment with regard to content. Spelling is another matter):
And he is unsing [sic] the state employee to pay off the union. He pushed through a bill in our legislature last year to allow the public sector unions to take money from all state workers, whether they volunteer to join the union or not. So, starting July 1 the union will gain an addition 30,000 fee payers that would not have choosen [sic] to join the union. The union gains over 11 million dollars, the state employees loose 11 million dollars. In addition to the the unions in Maryland public sector have NO POWER. There are always “qualifiers” with and promises the union gets from the Governor. So, final decision on if state workers get the “union gains” rests totally on the Governor and legislatures. And in the past three years state employees in Maryland have had furloughs, increased health care contributions, no promised 401 matches, layoffs (seniority is never considered) and increased workloads. State workers in Maryland and currently facing increased contribution to the pension plan (they currently contribute 5% for a multiplier of 1.8, which is one of the lowest in the country), and increased healthcare costs again. Co-pays on perscriptions are about to double, and retires will not have healthcare benefits other than medicare. So, how is O’Malley NOT attacking the state workers in Maryland???? What Christy is doing in NJ is small potatoes compared to O’Malley. NJ employees have higher salaries and much lower contribution rates than those in Maryland. After Christy’s [sic] cuts the NJ state employees will STILL be better off than those State employees in Maryland working under Martin O’Malley. O’Mally is a real peice [sic] of work!
So what Moron O’Malley is actually saying in his feud with Christie is; You don’t have to be bombastic to get things under control with unions. All you have to do is make a few underhanded deals, screw over non union employees and make sure the unions get more money. Take care of them and they will take care of you.
Yeah, O’Mally is a moron. He is also delusional. He thinks that the reason he and other Democrat governors were elected or reelected last November is because they are doing what the people want. No, absolutely not. O’Malley is in an extremely blue state. Osama bin Laden could win here if he ran as a Democrat. The only people who think Democrats are doing a good job are the misguided, uneducated or welfare recipients who would vote Democrat no matter what.
In the rest of the country, Republicans won a resounding victory and if I am not mistaken, only one Democrat took a seat that belonged to a Republican but many Republicans took Democrat held seats (in elections for governor). The one that was taken was a term limited Republican in California and that Republican was in name only. California is a lot like Maryland with regard to voting Democrat.
In any event, O’Malley is in office, not because he is wonderful, but because of his proximity to DC and the huge number of Democrats dependent on government for their “check.” Maryland suburbs around DC are full of Democrats who support big government and vote Democrat. Add Baltimore and its entitlement population to the mix and Democrats win in this state. They lose almost all subdivisions in the state but they only need to win three to achieve victory.
In any event, O’Malley bribed the union in order to do what Christie is doing and he is delusional about why he is in office. He is a moronic idiot who has aspirations of a residence on Pennsylvania Avenue.
I would think that America is not that stupid but look at the current occupant of the White House…
Perhaps Martin O’Malley should shut his yap and worry about balancing his own budget and he should try doing so without raising taxes on the people who work and pay HIS salary as well as the salaries of all public sector employees.
We are tired of morons and we are certainly tired of O’Malley.
So there Marty, want to counter attack? Have at it but you know you can’t defend yourself without LYING.
Moron.
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: budgets, chris christie, lies, martin o'malley, Maryland, morons, new jersey, taxes, unions