June 1, 2009
From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer
Organizations (FCTO)
Contact: Susan Kniep,
President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
READ ABOUT….
The Campaign for Liberty,
The Jekyll
Island Project 2009
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=18888
and
Upcoming Tea Parties for July 4 and more
http://officialctteaparty.com/
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TAX TALK JUNE 1, 2009
In
this edition of Tax Talk:
Ø Taxpayers will own
60% of GM
Ø U S Debt Clock
Ø Bankruptcy filing
brings risks for automaker, investors, taxpayers
Ø North Korea Puts Long-Range
Missile on Launch Pad
Ø General Motors
files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York
Ø General Motors
will close 9 more plants, idle 3 others as part of reorganization
Ø Analysis: Obama now owns GM, though he says he is taking it only for
a short time
Ø Federal bankruptcy
judge approves sale of most of Chrysler's assets to Fiat
Ø Government
Taps Bailout Contractors With Conflicts of Interest
Ø Senator Fined for
Forgery
Ø Lawmakers Bill
Taxpayers for TVs, Cameras, Lexus
Ø Barack Obama's budget - Wishful, and dangerous, thinking
Ø Connecticut’s Revenue
Collections have Fallen $1.2 billion
Ø Who Pays
Connecticut’s Income Tax by the Yankee Institute
Ø State unions run
ads costing over $100,000 promoting tax increases
Ø Conn. House Votes To
Open Health Insurance Plan
Ø Visit Dowd Muska’s website
Ø A short video with
Jeff Benedict, author of Little Pink House.
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Taxpayers Will Own 60% of GM
Add this to the $1.7 Trillion Already Committed to the
Stimulus and Financial Bailouts
And you will quickly realize WE ARE BROKE!
See How Broke:
U S DEBT CLOCK
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
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GM
faces hard road back to profitability, Bankruptcy filing brings risks for
automaker, investors, taxpayers, June 1, 2009,
msnbc.com, Roland Jones, It’s an outcome that was nearly unthinkable just six
months ago. General Motors, a company once synonymous with America’s
industrial might, is following its smaller rival Chrysler into bankruptcy court
for a government-forced reorganization.
Now, for the sake of taxpayers, investors and the economy as a whole, GM needs to emerge from the
largest industrial bankruptcy in U.S. history as a leaner company
that makes cars people want to buy. By every measure, it’s a tall order.
Chrysler, which filed for a government-backed bankruptcy April 30, has
demonstrated that it is possible for a large enterprise, pushed by the strong
arm of the federal government, to move smoothly and rapidly through bankruptcy
court. Chrysler, which plans to sell most of its assets to Italian carmaker Fiat, is nearing a quick exit from
bankruptcy protection. Continued at …. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31004038/
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North
Korea Puts Long-Range Missile on Launch Pad, Reports Say
John M. Glionna, The Los Angeles Times, June
1, 2009: "North Korea
has positioned its most sophisticated long-range ballistic missile at a launch
site for a test firing that could come within weeks, a newspaper here reported
Monday. Pyongyang, which last month raised tensions worldwide by conducting a
nuclear test, could even fire its missile when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak meets President Obama
in Washington
on June 16, according to the report."http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-north-korea-missile2-2009jun02,0,4799191.story
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MORE AUTO BAILOUT NEWS….
General
Motors files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York
http://www.courant.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-automakers,0,6987632.story
General
Motors will close 9 more plants, idle 3 others as part of reorganization, http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-gm-plant-closures,0,3781988.story
Analysis:
Obama now owns GM, though he says he is taking it
only for a short time
http://www.courant.com/business/sns-ap-us-automakers-obama-analysis,0,645527.story
Federal
bankruptcy judge approves sale of most of Chrysler's assets to Fiat
http://www.courant.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-chrysler-fiat,0,7654469.story
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Senator
fined for forgery, By Paul Hughes, Republican-American, May 28, 2009 … HARTFORD —
State Sen. Joseph J. Crisco Jr., D-Woodbridge, agreed to pay a $4,000 fine
Wednesday for falsifying sworn election filings. As part of the settlement,
state election officials agreed not to initiate further proceedings against
Crisco, including referring his case for possible criminal prosecution. Crisco admitted to the State Elections
Enforcement Commission that he filled in the signatures for his designated
campaign treasurer and deputy treasurer on registration forms and
affidavits. The filings contained
notices that clearly warned that making false statements on the forms could
lead to criminal penalties, including up to one year in jail, a maximum fine of
$2,000, or a jail term and a fine….
He said he has paid the $4,000 penalty. The settlement stated that Crisco's
violations of election laws were "material improprieties" and
represented "substantial noncompliance" with the requirements of the
publicly-financed Citizens' Election Program.
It additionally said that Crisco "grossly failed to appreciate the
seriousness of the requirements of the Connecticut
campaign finance laws and the CEP, as well as the significance of legal
signatures." To read the complete
story see Thursday's Republican-American or our electronic edition at http://republicanamerican.ct.newsmemory.com.
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Lawmakers
Bill Taxpayers for TVs, Cameras, Lexus WASHINGTON, May 20,
2009, Wall Street Journal On Line -- Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings spent $24,730
in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan. Ohio
Rep. Michael Turner expensed a $1,435 digital camera. Eni
Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony
TVs. The expenditures were legal,
properly accounted for and drawn from allowances the U.S. government grants to
lawmakers. Equipment purchased with office expense accounts must be returned to
the House or the federal General Services Administration when a lawmaker leaves
office. Continued at ….. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124364352135868189.html
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Government Taps Bailout Contractors With
Conflicts of Interest,
Firms With Ties to Banks Can Work Both Sides of Rescue , The Washington Independent, May 30, 2009, As the Wall Street
bailout nears its first anniversary, the controversy over giving public money
to private banks has become public knowledge. But an equally risky aspect of
the financial rescue has flown largely under the radar: the government’s
reliance on private contractors – many with potentially significant conflicts
of interest – to help revive the stalled economy.
The Treasury Department knows that the law firms and
investment managers hired to aid its salvage effort could be influenced by
their ties to bailed-out banks; in fact, the department released a rule in
January aiming to mitigate the problem.
That rule, however, has raised questions from watchdogs by asking
contractors to identify and police their own conflicts of interest. And a
careful review of bailout
hiring agreements reveals an
inconsistent set of rules applied to the types of private deals that
contractors can make while serving as agents of the U.S. government. “It’s just a
wonderfully closed circle,” Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the
International Monetary Fund and leading
critic of the bailout, said in a
recent interview. Continued …. http://washingtonindependent.com/44659/fed-taps-bailout-contractors-with-conflicts-of-interests
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From the Economist.com - Barack Obama's budget - Wishful, and dangerous, thinking - The
president has not explained to Americans that if they want bigger government,
they will have to pay for it …. A PRESIDENT’S first budget proposal is more than a set of
figures. It is also an outline of his philosophy of government. The plan Barack Obama delivered on
February 26th envisages an ambitious and costly expansion of the government’s
role in the lives of Americans. Its centrepiece is a
big expansion of state-provided health care—for which he has budgeted $634
billion over the next decade while admitting that yet more will be needed. He
will fill in the details in coming weeks (see article) while insisting the plan meets several criteria: it must
extend insurance to the 15% of Americans who now lack it, it must help slow the
growth in costs, and it must be paid for.
Add increased spending on education, energy and other initiatives, and
federal expenditures, excluding defence, would rise
to a new high of 18% of GDP in the coming decade. Small-government conservatives fume, yet this is what Mr
Obama victoriously campaigned on and, at least in the
case of health care, what Americans seem to want. The ranks of the uninsured
have grown as care becomes more expensive and more employers, through whom most
workers get insurance, drop or curtail benefits. Losing a job often means
losing health insurance too, making unemployment doubly traumatic. Continued at … http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?STORY_ID=13237211
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Connecticut’s Revenue Collections have Fallen $1.2
billion
Connecticut House Finds $154 Million In Budget Savings, By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, May 23, 2009 - For the fifth time
this fiscal year, the House of Representatives voted Friday to reduce the
state's gigantic budget deficit. But the projected deficit will still be $820
million — and state officials have yet to tackle the budget for the next two
fiscal years. Friday's action was
necessary because the Wall Street collapse and the deep recession have caused
the state's revenue collections to fall by $1.2 billion from the original
amounts the state expected to collect when the budget was crafted. Continued at
…. http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-deficit-house-0523.artmay23,0,4064592.story
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Who Pays Connecticut’s Income Tax
By the
Yankee Institute
http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/blog/wp-content/incometax.pdf
***************
Is this a joke?
STATE UNIONS ARE PAYING OVER $100,000 FOR TELEVISION ADS
TELLING OVER-TAXED TAXPAYERS TO TELL THEIR STATE REPS TO INCREASE TAXES WHILE
SOME UNION MEMBERS RECEIVE 6% WAGE INCREASES AND OTHERS A TWO YEAR NO LAYOFF
GUARANTEE. IN THE REAL WORLD, MANY
PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYEES HAVE NO OPTION – THEY ARE FORCED TO GIVE BACK THEIR
JOBS!
STATE UNIONS SHOULD CUT THE ADS AND DONATE THEIR MONEY TO
THE THOUSANDS OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS IN CONNECTICUT!!!!!!!!!!!
Statewide
Teachers' Union Affiliate Agrees To Concessions In Guilford
The Hartford
Courant by Don Stacom , May 26, 2009 …. In Guilford, school administrators met with the
union's executive committee for months to reach a deal. In mid-May, they
announced that they had traded a no-layoff guarantee and an early retirement
incentive in exchange for teachers' giving back
about half of their roughly 4 percent raise that takes effect July 1.
Continued …. http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-local-budgets-givebacks-0526.artmay26,0,5479978.story
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Conn.
House Votes To Open Health Insurance Plan
HARTFORD, Conn._Connecticut legislators voted
Wednesday to open the state's employee and retiree health insurance plan to
municipalities, small businesses and nonprofit agencies even though the
governor had already vetoed a similar bill.
Supporters of the change, led by Democratic House Speaker Christopher
Donovan, said pooling everyone will save money because of the greater
bargaining power and the ability to spread out more of the risk. Continued at …. http://www.insurancenewsnet.com/article.asp?a=prod_lh&neid=uLE9xsHxy4KYRa2SfMwqtJJnrRGYCRfcz-1_cfNvCX48E9nRnERL7DUdgJGXzkgy796WnRkOsr0qgC6NvJIPhw**
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Visit Dowd Muska
at
http://dowdmuska.com/
D. Dowd Muska is a writer, commentator and lecturer.
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A
short video with Jeff Benedict, author of Little Pink House - A True Story of Defiance and Courage (Grand Central
Publishing 2009), which tells the backstory to the
infamous Supreme Court eminent domain decision Kelo
v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) (available from Amazon here).
http://www.inversecondemnation.com/inversecondemnation/2009/05/video-of-kelos-new-london-neighborhood-with-author-jeff-benedict.html
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