Jan Larimer's Blog – April 2010 Archive (16)

Unintended Consequences

After Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid pushed through the mammoth health care takeover in the dark of night without any meaningful Republican input, it should be no surprise that the…

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The RNC has rolled out a new website to illustrate the ways in which the Obama Administration has put our Constitution under attack. From wanting to ban police from monitoring convicted sex offenders, to wanting to give citizens to free health care and job training at taxpayer expense, the Obama Administration and their judicial nominees have interpreted the Constitution in ways the Founders could have never contemplated.



For instance,… Continue

According to the latest quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economics, about 73% of those surveyed said employment at their company is neither higher nor lower as a result of the $862 billion federal stimulus package signed into law by President Obama.



Republicans said from the… Continue

A report on the estimated effects of the new health care law released on Friday by the chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pulls the cover off of the Obama Administration’s claims that the law is fiscally responsible.



According to the report, national health care expenditures are now expected to rise by $311 billion, and health… Continue

In Washington, they don't ask if the chicken comes before the egg. They ask if the spending comes before the taxes.



Under the Democrat leadership in our nation's capitol, no amount of spending is too absurd or too disrespectful of the taxpayers. The latest instance is the news that Nancy Pelosi has now unveiled light fixtures in the House office buildings that cost $140,000 and will take almost 10 years to pay off in saved… Continue

In the past weeks, the American public was warned that the Obama Administration was looking at several new ways to tax the people to fund their initiatives. Not content with raising taxes nearly $700 billion already, presidential advisers began floating the idea of levying a Value Added Tax on nearly every good or service purchased in the United States.



When the American people began to speak out against yet another attack on their wallets, the White House quickly backpedaled. When… Continue

Last week came news reports that the Democrats in control of the U.S. House and Senate may decline to pass a budget this year. According to the Daily Caller, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that while Democrats “would like to pass the budget, we have to see whether we have the votes to do so.”



“It’s difficult to pass budgets in election… Continue

We have already seen President Obama sign into law more than $670 billion in tax increases, a tax hike of about $2,100 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The middle class has not been left out of this assault on the taxpayers’ checkbooks, with at least 14 different tax increases signed into law that target taxpayers making less than $250,000 per year.



Now comes the news that the… Continue

At a speaking engagement last week, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman suggested that the IRS would target people who are uninsured under ObamaCare with attempts to “reduce or confiscate” the tax refunds of those individuals.



This should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the development of President Obama’s health care takeover. Having already stuffed the bill with billions of dollars in new tax… Continue

In the media, and no doubt in some offices in the White House, Tax Day will be treated today almost as a holiday. To the liberals in the White House and in Congress, today is a day to celebrate the ever growing size of government and its involvement in the lives of the American people.



Tax Day is no holiday. To be sure, some taxes are necessary to provide national security and to pay for the necessary functions of government called for in the Constitution. But today’s tax code is so… Continue

Some of the deficit numbers facing America are so large they are difficult to put in context. Dollar figures in the trillions are so enormous they don’t seem real. But if the recent debt crisis in Greece teaches us anything, it is that deficits matter and that at some point the bill for our national debt will come due. When that day comes for America, it’s not hard to guess who will pay – the American taxpayers.



The numbers coming out of Washington are startling. According to the… Continue

A new report from the U.S. Commerce Department confirms what millions of Americans have known for months – since President Obama was sworn in real personal income has fallen significantly.



According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis report, real personal income - excluding government payouts such as Social Security - has fallen by 3.2 percent since President Obama took office in January 2009. While government has grown… Continue

Tax Freedom Day, the day on which American taxpayers have worked enough days to pay his or her tax bill for the year, fell this year on April 9th. According to the Tax Foundation, the average American now pays more in local, state and federal taxes every year than he or she pays for food, shelter and clothing combined.



If that news doesn’t brighten your Monday, consider that the Tax Freedom Day… Continue

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the beginning of the rest of my life.



It was twelve years ago today that I officially became cancer free and a survivor of breast cancer. I am alive today because my family and my faith sustained me, and because I had access to the best doctors and the best health care system in the world. I am a survivor because I had the freedom to make my own choices about which doctors to see and which treatment options to pursue.



I am just one of… Continue

A common solution for the Obama Administration when they have been confronted with a problem has been simple: just raise taxes on American individuals and small businesses.



Now we see that White House economic adviser Paul Volcker at least had the courage to give voice to what the Obama White House is thinking when it comes to runaway federal spending. According to news accounts, Volcker at an event in New York City… Continue

The Obama Administration and its allies in Congress celebrated last week that a new jobs report showed 162,000 jobs were created in the past month. Given the economy’s performance since the Democrats assumed control of the White House along with Congress, any reports of job creation are good news. Unfortunately, these numbers don’t tell the whole story.



A large portion of those jobs… Continue