BHO: Wrong on taxes, wrong on Arizona

BHO: Wrong on taxes, wrong on Arizona

   Nobody ever accused the mainstream media of being independent thinkers.

For the most part, they define the pack mentality better than wolves on a caribou carcass.

   But a few media types are starting to learn that their unwavering support for a president whose approval rating has dipped in the 40-percent range is no longer cool. Even the former ESPN sports guy turned liberal lapdog on MSNBC is criticizing BHO.

   One unscientific poll showed that the president’s approval rating among media types has fallen from 100 percent to 99.95 percent. This survey,

predictably, failed to make headlines.

   What ought to be making headlines, though, are the job-killing actions of this administration and its accomplices in the Reid-Pelosi 111th

Congress. For example, on Jan. 1, 2011, the tax rates facing small businesses are set to increase. This will result in more lost jobs and lower

wages, as employers will be forced to send more of their hard-earned dollars to Washington. As Gary Lewis points out in his column on this page, the top

two income tax rates now stand at 33 percent and 35 percent. Congress and BHO want to increase them to 36 percent and 39.6 percent.

   “These increases will hit small businesses hard,” said Curtis Dubay, an economist at The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org).

   In testimony before Congress, Dubay said: “A widely propagated myth contends that raising top tax rates has little effect on small businesses

because only a small percentage of them pay rates at that level. But the number of businesses that pay top rates is economically meaningless because

so many small businesses represent the part-time (and full-time) efforts of their owners. An economically meaningful measure shows that raising top

income tax rates would slam the small businesses that contribute the most to our economy. 

   “Many small businesses are struggling to survive as economic recovery remains slow. The primary focus of economic policy should be to improve the health of the overall economy,” Dubay said. “There is much the federal government can do in this regard, and mostly it involves allowing the recovery to continue without the threat of punitive new taxes and burdensome new regulations. Reducing the budget deficit solely through spending

reductions would also benefit the overall economy by reducing the threat of a sovereign debt crisis here in the U.S. such as is now under way in Greece

and threatening Portugal, Spain, and other countries.”

   Dubay also cautions Congress that thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, signed into law by BHO, small

businesses can expect substantial tax increases in the near future. There’s also a “little-noticed provision added to the PPACA (that) will burden small

businesses with new paperwork: Under current law, businesses are required to issue 1099s in a limited set of situations, such as when paying outside

consultants.

     The health care bill includes a vast expansion in this information reporting requirement.

     Businesses will now have to issue 1099s whenever they do more than $600 of business with another entity. Small businesses will now have to issue

possibly billions of new forms to the IRS. While large businesses can absorb the cost of this new bureaucracy with their large legal and accounting

teams, the new requirements will slam small businesses.”

   And with so many new tax forms being sent to the IRS, guess what? This bloated federal behemoth will become even bigger as thousands of new

staffers will be required to process the pointless paperwork.

   Congress should avoid any net tax hike, Dubay said, noting “The yearly threat of a tax hike ties the hands of many small businesses and holds them

back from making important business decisions.”

   Anyone who has gone into business and discovered he has a new partner with the initials IRS, knows Dubay is right. But will Congress listen? Of

course not.

   Congress will not pay heed to a Heritage Foundation scholar anymore than BHO will listen to many of the nation’s Democratic governors who want the

administration to stay clear of a legal showdown over Arizona’s laws on illegal immigration.

   The New York Times reports that in a private meeting with White House officials “Democratic governors voiced deep anxiety about the Obama

administration’s suit against Arizona’s new immigration law, worrying that it could cost a vulnerable Democratic Party in the fall elections.”

   The Democrats’ meeting provided a window on tensions between the White House and states over the suit, which the Justice Department filed last week in federal court in Phoenix, the Times said.

   Democrats up for re-election realize that the Arizona law has widespread support (more than 70 percent according to a Rasmussen poll) and that at

least 10 other states (no, Ohio is not one of them) are considering similar laws. 

   Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said this week the Obama administration’s lawsuit against Arizona could tip the

balance of power in Congress.

   “Thanks to the Arizona lawsuit, the Obama administration has made sure that the immigration issue will play in every major campaign and that will

work against the interests of incumbent Democrats,” Stein said. “Illegal immigration is a huge concern among voters, certainly in the West, and all

across the country. The Democratic governors are telling the administration, ‘Hey, you guys are out of your mind.’”

   Meanwhile, BHO Attorney General Eric Holder didn’t help his party much when he announced on “Face the Nation” that he may file a second lawsuit if the first lawsuit fails in to stop the Arizona law from taking effect on July 29. (No wonder lawyers are so popular.)

   With a record-high national debt of $14 trillion, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, high unemployment, even more onerous taxes waiting around the

bend for every productive American, this administration wants to sue the Grand Canyon state over its much-needed effort to curb illegal immigration.

Never mind that virtually every Democrat in Arizona supports S.B. 1070, the Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.

   “Since President Obama took office, we’ve seen nothing more than a complete disregard for state’s rights,” said Randy Pullen, chairman of the

Arizona GOP. “It’s ironic that they have accused Arizona of pre-empting federal authority when they have seemingly trampled on the 10th Amendment

from day one. Quite simply, Gov. Jan Brewer courageously stepped up and did what the federal government has refused to do. ... The crisis caused by

illegal immigration in Arizona’s porous border is plainly obvious. For those who live along the border, and for those who have taken the time to visit

understand the truth: Our southern border has been under attack for years and is now in the control of the Mexican drug cartels.

   “We in Arizona have waited for Washington to act. But decades of federal inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unstable

situation on the border. We can no longer wait while an inept president condones the destruction along our southern border,” Pullen said.

   Supposing the administration succeeds in its lawsuit against Arizona, and supposing another dozen or more states pass similar laws, and supposing

the administration sues each one of them, too, at what point do we remove the word “illegal” from illegal immigration?

   Maybe the administration would prefer Arizona copy Mexico’s laws on illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is a felony in Mexico, punishable

by two years in prison for a first offense and 10 years in prison for a second offense. Of course no one really wants to go to Mexico – legally or illegally.

   Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.

Nobody ever accused the mainstream media of being independent thinkers.

For the most part, they define the pack mentality better than wolves on a caribou carcass.

   But a few media types are starting to learn that their unwavering support for a president whose approval rating has dipped in the 40-percent range is no longer cool. Even the former ESPN sports guy turned liberal lapdog on MSNBC is criticizing BHO.

   One unscientific poll showed that the president’s approval rating among media types has fallen from 100 percent to 99.95 percent. This survey, predictably, failed to make headlines.

   What ought to be making headlines, though, are the job-killing actions of this administration and its accomplices in the Reid-Pelosi 111th Congress. For example, on Jan. 1, 2011, the tax rates facing small businesses are set to increase. This will result in more lost jobs and lower wages, as employers will be forced to send more of their hard-earned dollars to Washington. As Gary Lewis points out in his column this week, the top two income tax rates now stand at 33 percent and 35 percent. Congress and BHO want to increase them to 36 percent and 39.6 percent.

   “These increases will hit small businesses hard,” said Curtis Dubay, an economist at The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org).

   In testimony before Congress, Dubay said: “A widely propagated myth contends that raising top tax rates has little effect on small businesses

because only a small percentage of them pay rates at that level. But the number of businesses that pay top rates is economically meaningless because so many small businesses represent the part-time (and full-time) efforts of their owners. An economically meaningful measure shows that raising top income tax rates would slam the small businesses that contribute the most to our economy. 

   “Many small businesses are struggling to survive as economic recovery remains slow. The primary focus of economic policy should be to improve the health of the overall economy,” Dubay said. “There is much the federal government can do in this regard, and mostly it involves allowing the recovery to continue without the threat of punitive new taxes and burdensome new regulations. Reducing the budget deficit solely through spending reductions would also benefit the overall economy by reducing the threat of a sovereign debt crisis here in the U.S. such as is now under way in Greece and threatening Portugal, Spain, and other countries.”

   Dubay also cautions Congress that thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, signed into law by BHO, small businesses can expect substantial tax increases in the near future. There’s also a “little-noticed provision added to the PPACA (that) will burden small businesses with new paperwork: Under current law, businesses are required to issue 1099s in a limited set of situations, such as when paying outside consultants.

     The health care bill includes a vast expansion in this information reporting requirement.

     Businesses will now have to issue 1099s whenever they do more than $600 of business with another entity. Small businesses will now have to issue possibly billions of new forms to the IRS. While large businesses can absorb the cost of this new bureaucracy with their large legal and accounting teams, the new requirements will slam small businesses.”

   And with so many new tax forms being sent to the IRS, guess what? This bloated federal behemoth will become even bigger as thousands of new staffers will be required to process the pointless paperwork.

   Congress should avoid any net tax hike, Dubay said, noting “The yearly threat of a tax hike ties the hands of many small businesses and holds them back from making important business decisions.”

   Anyone who has gone into business and discovered he has a new partner with the initials IRS, knows Dubay is right. But will Congress listen? Of course not.

   Congress will not pay heed to a Heritage Foundation scholar anymore than BHO will listen to many of the nation’s Democratic governors who want the

administration to stay clear of a legal showdown over Arizona’s laws on illegal immigration.

   The New York Times reports that in a private meeting with White House officials “Democratic governors voiced deep anxiety about the Obama administration’s suit against Arizona’s new immigration law, worrying that it could cost a vulnerable Democratic Party in the fall elections.”

   The Democrats’ meeting provided a window on tensions between the White House and states over the suit, which the Justice Department filed last week in federal court in Phoenix, the Times said.

   Democrats up for re-election realize that the Arizona law has widespread support (more than 70 percent according to a Rasmussen poll) and that at

least 10 other states (no, Ohio is not one of them) are considering similar laws. 

   Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said this week the Obama administration’s lawsuit against Arizona could tip the balance of power in Congress.

   “Thanks to the Arizona lawsuit, the Obama administration has made sure that the immigration issue will play in every major campaign and that will work against the interests of incumbent Democrats,” Stein said. “Illegal immigration is a huge concern among voters, certainly in the West, and all across the country. The Democratic governors are telling the administration, ‘Hey, you guys are out of your mind.’”

   Meanwhile, BHO Attorney General Eric Holder didn’t help his party much when he announced on “Face the Nation” that he may file a second lawsuit if the first lawsuit fails in to stop the Arizona law from taking effect on July 29. (No wonder lawyers are so popular.)

   With a record-high national debt of $14 trillion, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, high unemployment, even more onerous taxes waiting around the bend for every productive American, this administration wants to sue the Grand Canyon state over its much-needed effort to curb illegal immigration.

Never mind that virtually every Democrat in Arizona supports S.B. 1070, the Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.

   “Since President Obama took office, we’ve seen nothing more than a complete disregard for state’s rights,” said Randy Pullen, chairman of the Arizona GOP. “It’s ironic that they have accused Arizona of pre-empting federal authority when they have seemingly trampled on the 10th Amendment from day one. Quite simply, Gov. Jan Brewer courageously stepped up and did what the federal government has refused to do. ... The crisis caused by illegal immigration in Arizona’s porous border is plainly obvious. For those who live along the border, and for those who have taken the time to visit understand the truth: Our southern border has been under attack for years and is now in the control of the Mexican drug cartels.

   “We in Arizona have waited for Washington to act. But decades of federal inaction and misguided policy have created a dangerous and unstable situation on the border. We can no longer wait while an inept president condones the destruction along our southern border,” Pullen said.

   Supposing the administration succeeds in its lawsuit against Arizona, and supposing another dozen or more states pass similar laws, and supposing the administration sues each one of them, too, at what point do we remove the word “illegal” from illegal immigration?

   Maybe the administration would prefer Arizona copy Mexico’s laws on illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is a felony in Mexico, punishable by two years in prison for a first offense and 10 years in prison for a second offense. Of course no one really wants to go to Mexico – legally or illegally.

   Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.