Tag Archives: taxes

SHOCKER: Richest GOP Member Of Congress Wants To Cut Taxes For Rich

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GOP Rep Pledges “Blood Covenant With America” Not To Raise Taxes On The Rich

GOP Rep. Phil Gingrey thinks the phrase “contract with America” is played out, so he suggests the GOP call their pledge not to raises taxes on the rich a “covenant with America, just as God’s covenant with Moses.” He goes on the say he’d sign such a promise in blood. Eat the poor, y’all.

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Quote Of The Day II – Michael Bloomberg

“I said to David Paterson, I said, ‘You know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun. If there’s ever a great video it’s you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying you know read my lips, the law of the land is this and we’re going to enforce the law.'” – Michael Bloomberg, telling Gov. …

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Google To Pay LGBT Employees Extra To Cover Tax Inequities

Beginning today Google will cover the added tax charged to LGBT employees whose partners are covered by their insurance plan. “It’s a fairly cutting edge thing to do,” said Todd A. Solomon, a partner in the employee benefits department of McDermott Will & Emery, a law firm in Chicago, and author of “Domestic Partner Benefits: An Employer’s Guide.” Google is …

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NEW YORK: Sen. Ruben Diaz Kills Attempt To Allow Same-Sex Tax Filings

Two weeks ago openly gay New York state Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell sponsored an addendum to the state budget that would allow legally married same-sex couples to jointly file their state income tax returns. Senate Democrats need their full one-vote majority to approve the budget, but arch homophobe Sen. Ruben Diaz threatened to derail the entire mega-billions funding package unless O’Donnell’s …

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FL GOP Senate Candidate Marco Rubio: Give The Rich Permanent Tax Cuts

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Bronx Pol: If You Tax Cigarettes Too Much, The Terrorists Have Won

A just-approved hike in the state tax on cigarettes will raise the cost to around $12/pack in NYC, prompting Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benjamin to claim that Gov. Paterson hates Israel. Because higher cigarette prices encourages bootlegging. Which is done by terrorists. “Criminals and terrorists will be further enticed to take advantage of the price differential between high tax and low …

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NEW YORK: Daniel O’Donnell Introduces Bill To Allow Joint State Tax Filings

Openly gay New York state Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell today introduced legislation that would allow legally married gay couples to jointly file their state income tax returns. Via press release: If enacted, New York State would recognize legal same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions regardless of whether the federal government does so. Specifically, A.11479 creates an exception to the statutory rule …

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IRS Recognizes Community Property Law For California’s Gay Couples

In a major reversal, the Internal Revenue Service has recognized California’s community property law for registered domestic partners. The decision, which was issued in a private-letter ruling on Friday, reverses a position the IRS took in 2006, when it said California’s registered domestic partners should each report on their own federal tax return only the income they personally earned, not …

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Taxes At Lowest Level In 60 Years

The truth about taxes is something that the teabaggers either won’t believe or deliberately lie about. Despite big tax cuts included last year’s economic stimulus package, the latest CBS News/New York Times poll finds that as many as 34% of Americans think President Obama raised their taxes. William Gale, head of the Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution, tells …

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J.K. Rowling Wants To Pay Her Share

Unlike many of Britain’s uber-wealthy, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling isn’t dodging her taxes by setting up a home in another country. I chose to remain a domiciled taxpayer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and …

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RNC Launches Scare Campaign On Taxes And Health Care Reform

Taxes! Drumbeat! Obama! Bigger drumbeat! Scary!

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Red State Ripoff

The Fourth Branch provides the above graph depicting which states receive more in federal funding than they contribute in taxes. They note that the map rather closely tracks the result of the 2008 election. There is a very strong correlation, then, between a state voting for Republicans and receiving more in federal spending than its residents pay to the federal …

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Syracuse University Takes The Sting Out Of Taxed Partner Benefits

Syracuse University will now pay LGBT employees a $1000 bonus to defray the tax penalty of having their partners on their insurance. Syracuse University has adopted a policy — possibly the first in higher education — of paying $1,000 each to its gay and lesbian employees who use the university’s domestic partner program to provide health insurance for their partners. …

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What Kind Of Planet Are We On?

JMG reader Sean Chapin tips us to this astonishingly well-produced clip from Rock For Equality which exposes the inequities of Social Security benefits for same-sex couples. Rock For Equality will be staging protest rallies at Social Security offices in Los Angeles and Washington DC during tax week.

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Atheist Group Sues To End Housing Tax Breaks For Clergy

Clergy who live in church-owned housing do not pay taxes on that benefit. Clergy who own their own homes can write off their housing costs. The Freedom From Religion Foundation says these tax breaks violate the establishment clause of the Constitution and they have filed suit against the federal government to end the policy. The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation …

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Canada Revokes Tax Exempt Status Of Anti-Gay Church

This ought to fuel America’s wingnuts for the foreseeable future. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has revoked the charitable status of Kings Glory Fellowship (KGF), a Christian church in Calgary. CRA cites a number of issues with KGF’s application, but the decision is based, in part, on the ground that certain KGF Board members have spoken out strongly against abortion, …

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Protesting The Botax

Upset about a pending tax on cosmetic surgery, plastic surgeons and office temps saving up for a boob job protested in Times Square this weekend. Don’t tax our ta tas! That was the word Sunday from New York women outraged over a Washington proposal to add a 5% tax on all elective cosmetic surgery – everything from boob jobs to …

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A Truly Black Friday

While cities around the country try to beef up this week’s Black Friday (traditionally the #1 retail sales day of the year) by granting temporary suspensions of sales tax on clothing or other goods, the state of South Carolina will let you buy GUNS tax-free. Via NY Daily News: The great state of South Carolina is putting its own sick …

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The High Cost Of Being A Gay Couple

Today’s New York Times features a fascinating breakdown of the added costs that gay couples bear as incomplete and unrecognized members of society. The authors created a hypothetical gay couple and enlisted tax, insurance, and financial planning experts to run many scenarios on how much more it costs to be a gay couple in the United States. Our goal was …

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