New York says, "Screw you, peasants!"
New York State Tax Refunds Put On Hold
For hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, the check won't be in the mail -- at least not on time. New York State has stopped paying tax refunds and won't start again until next month.
The tax refund delay is part of a bigger cash crunch.
Message to New Yorkers: don't start spending your tax refund money because it's going to be delayed.
Half a billion dollars' worth of refund checks were put on hold last Friday, and state beancounters won't start sending you your money until at least April 1.
Nevermind that the Federal Reserve was chief engineer of the financial crisis, they want more power.
Fed Wants to Keep Power to Oversee Banks
“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke urged Congress on Wednesday to let the Fed keep all of its banking oversight, arguing that information gleaned from that process helps the central bank guide the economy.”
Sounds like an argument against Fed power.
Obama's Corporatism.
ObamaCare Is a Sop to Big PhRMA
From the invaluable Tim Carney:
But drug industry lobbyists, according to Politico, spent the weekend “huddled with Democratic staffers” who needed the drug lobby to “sign off” on proposals before moving ahead. Meanwhile, we learn that the drug lobby is buying millions of dollars of ads in 43 districts where a Democratic candidate stands to suffer for supporting the bill. The doctors’ lobby and the hospitals’ lobby are also on board with the Senate bill.
(And the insurers are not opposed to the whole package. On the bill’s central planks — limits on price discrimination, outlawing exclusions for pre-existing conditions, a mandate that employers insure their workers and a mandate that everyone hold insurance — insurers are on board. They object mostly that the penalty is too small for violating the individual mandate.)
What? Politicians lie?
Obama Misleads Voters about ObamaCare’s Effects on Premiums
Under ObamaCare, people would not have the option to buy the same low-cost plans they do today. That’s the whole problem: under an individual mandate, everybody must purchase the minimum level of coverage specified by the government. That minimum benefits package would be more expensive than the coverage chosen by most people in the individual market. Their premiums would rise because ObamaCare would take away their right to choose a more economical policy.
Note also that the CBO predicts premiums would rise by an average of 10-13 percent in the individual market. Consumers who currently purchase the most economic policies would see larger premium increases.
Most. Transparent. Government. Evah!
Government Secrecy Increases Under Obama
Government agencies keep finding excuses to keep an alarming number of public records secret as President Obama sits idly watching his promise of unprecedented transparency repeatedly mocked.
The commander-in-chief’s open-government guarantee has turned out to be a big joke that has actually led to more secrecy than under the Bush Administration. Federal agencies have increasingly used “legal exemptions” to withhold information that should probably be made public, according to an analysis conducted by a national news organization.
In Obama’s first year in office, major government agencies abused legitimate exemptions to withhold information tens of thousands of times more often than during George W. Bush’s final year, according to the findings. The federal agencies rejected public records requests 312,683 times in 2008—Bush’s last year—compared to 466,872 in 2009, Obama’s first in the White House.
Hear no evil, see no evil.
Obama Justice Department Shut Down Federal ACORN Investigation According to Documents Obtained by Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detailing federal investigations into the alleged corrupt activities of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The documents reference serious allegations of corruption and voter registration fraud by ACORN as well as the Obama administration’s decision to shut down a criminal investigation without filing criminal charges.
The documents include background information on two specific complaints filed in October 2008 by Lucy Corelli and Joseph Borges, Republican Registrars of Voters in Stamford and Bridgeport, Connecticut, respectively, during the 2008 election season.
A constitutional "right" to my money?
ACORN Has A Constitutional Right To Your Money
If you thought you sent representatives and senators to Washington, D.C., to exercise the constitutionally mandated power of the purse — you’re wrong.
Silly you. You wasted all that time in civics class learning a whole bunch of outdated claptrap about separation of powers and the lawmaking process for nothing.
The spending power belongs to federal judges now, regardless of what that quaint little document called the U.S. Constitution says.
That’s what ACORN’s favorite federal judge, Nina Gershon of the Eastern District of New York ruled Wednesday.
Can America continue relying on unfettered government?
Nope.
Unfettered government is driving America to her grave. Fast.
I used up a bunch of cap losses last year, and they had to write me a check for once. Fortunately, due to borderline neurotic record-keeping, I did my taxes the day I got my W-2 (I think that's what it is called), and already have my refund and have it safely invested in no-carry (but likely to appreciate) assets.