For decades, according to deathbed testimony, the IRS made engineer Andrew Stack’s life a living hell, repeatedly seizing so much of his accrued assets as to leave him with virtually nothing for his retirement. On Feb. 18, Stack, 53, set fire to his own house and then flew his single-engine plane into an office building […]
Did President Obama truly set up Thursday’s televised health care forum with Republican congressional leaders at Blair House, across the street from the White House, “to try to hammer out a compromise with Republicans,” as The Associated Press reported? The Democratic scheme is to impose higher taxes and fewer choices on the 85 percent of […]
The cyclical nature of life is reassuring. We are less afraid of the privations of winter because we’re assured the spring will come again. Similarly, those who claim expertise in such matters — those currently encouraging us to buy stocks and government bonds, for example — insist that the market always comes back. Given a […]
In North Las Vegas, as in most places, the recession is causing tax revenues to fall. The city has undergone five rounds of budget trims since December, 2008, and now aims to cut an additional $33.4 million from planned spending to make it through fiscal year 2011. So the city announced this month it might […]
Back in 1963, one Ernesto Arturo Miranda was arrested for robbery in Arizona. While in custody he confessed to raping an 18-year-old woman two days before his arrest. He was convicted on the more serious charge. But in 1966 the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, threw out the confession — and with […]
Back in 2007, Washington state voters approved Initiative 960, which barred any state tax increase from being OK’d without a two-thirds vote of their state Legislature. Liberal lawmakers, who refuse to set any maximum limit on the taxes working stiffs should be required to pay, complained that was a hard standard to meet.
About one third of the way into his State of the Union speech on Jan. 27, President Barack Obama said an astonishing thing. He said: “I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean […]
Although President Barack Obama “expressed interest” in the idea last summer, “the White House staff reviewing funding options never embraced the idea” of a punitive tax on sugared soft drinks, the Chicago Tribune now reports. A key congressional committee, “after initially seeming receptive, ended up refusing to consider it.” Why? “Several minority advocacy groups, including […]
President Barack Obama said some interesting things in his Jan. 27 State of the Union speech. They’re interesting not so much because they’re lies (we all know that, to determine whether a lawyer or politician is lying, you merely watch to see if their lips move) but because the political class — the kind of […]