Forty one cents
Washington spends $1.70 for every dollar they have. Put another way, the federal government needs to borrow 41 cents of every dollar they spend. Still, Paul Krugman, eminent Nobel Prize winning economist and darling of New York Times readers is screaming in near panic that Obama is not spending nearly enough.
Since the Nobel panel has honored Barack Obama, Al Gore and Yasser Arafat with the Peace Prize, it is only fitting to award the prize in Economics to Paul Krugman.
Tax increases you never hear about.
WOR radio host John Gambling reported on a move to require airlines to include incidental third party fees in the price of a ticket. The given reason is simplification for the consumer. Sounds good. The real reason is to increase federal tax revenue. Not so good.
A federal tax of 7.5% is charged on the price of every airline ticket. By including the ancillary charges in the ticket price, the 7.5% will apply to the fees as well as to what the airline charges for your seat. Some of these fees are themselves taxes, in which case, you will be paying taxes on taxes.
This type of tax increase is incremental and goes unnoticed. Neither new legislation nor Congressional approval is required. All it takes is a rule change that falls within the authority of a government regulator. It is taxation by fiat.
Safe sexual harassment.
If a Congressman or Senator sexually harasses a staffer and the staffer brings charges resulting in an award for damages, who pays the bill? The American taxpayer pays the bill. Fines have been assessed approaching million dollars, yet the guilty politician pays not a whit cent of it, not even the legal fees.
Bob B
RANDOM THOTS 