Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

From: The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032

PUBLIC IS INVITED

RESERVE YOUR SEAT TODAY

CANDIDATES FOR U. S. SENATE

ROB SIMMONS, SAM CALIGIURI, and JOHN MERTENS TO SPEAK

AT THE

THE FEDERATION OF CONNECTICUT TAXPAYER ORGANIZATIONS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2009 BREAKFAST MEETING

September 26, 2009, Breakfast Meeting

8 AM to 12 Noon

Chatfield, 1 Chatfield Dr., West Hartford

Across from West Farms Mall

Includes Continental Breakfast

Reserve Your Seat Today�

Call (860) 841-8032 or (860) 528-0323

Email at fctopresident@aol.com.�

From The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations:

We are excited to announce that on Saturday, September 26, 2009, during The Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations� Breakfast Meeting, Candidates for U. S. Senate Rob Simmons, Sam Caligiuri, and John Mertens will be speaking in a nonpartisan venue and bringing us their views on what they will bring to this very important position.�

As seating is limited, we encourage you to reserve your seat today.�� During the Sept 26 Breakfast Meeting attendees will also have an opportunity to network among taxpayers throughout the State.�

A suggested donation of $10, which includes a continental breakfast, is optional.��

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TAX TALK SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

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The following is also contained in today�s Tax Talk:

� Supreme Court Poised to Overhaul Parts of Campaign Finance System

� ANALYSIS: Long-fought battle for income tax change bears fruit

� Census Bureau severs ties with ACORN in 2010 count

� Visit the Website of the Yankee Institute

� Protestors March on Washington

� Ralph Nader: �Rolling the Dice Again�

� Federal deficit hits $1.38 trillion through August

� Role of White House Czars Sparks Battle

� Has anything changed on Wall Street?

� Bailout tracker: What's going, what's coming,

� See where Connecticut Ranks among other states in unemployment and foreclosures

� See where Banks are failing

� Geithner: Work to be done on economy

� Americans Are Getting Poorer, and It's Going to Get Worse

� Go, Pratt, Go! By� Dowd Muska

� Amid budget crisis, California legislators still wined, dined on lobbyists' dime

Supreme Court Poised to Overhaul Parts of Campaign Finance System Opensecrets.org, published by Lindsay Renick Mayer on September 9, 2009 If the Supreme Court is currently the dam blocking the flow of unlimited corporate funds used for political expenditures, today's re-hearing of the campaign finance case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission indicated that the justices may be poised to put at least a few holes in that barricade.� At issue is whether corporations, unions and issue advocacy organizations should be allowed to use unlimited amounts of money from their treasuries on independent political expenditures in support or opposition of a candidate. Continued at �.� http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/09/supreme-court-poised-to-overha.html

and more at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112702586

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ANALYSIS: Long-fought battle for income tax change bears fruit, By Keith M. Phaneuf, Journal Inquirer, Published: Saturday, September 12, 2009 9:52 AM EDT HARTFORD � For the past decade, a growing wing of the Democratic Party has fought to revise the state income tax, only to beat its head against an immovable stone wall in the form of two Republican governors. Five times, Democrat-controlled legislatures have approved higher rates for wealthy households. Five times, Govs. John G. Rowland or M. Jodi Rell shot them down.

Until, that is, this year.� Lost amid the headlines when Rell announced she would allow the latest legislative budget to become law was the most sweeping change to the income tax since a middle-income credit to offset property taxes was enacted in 1996. This year�s budget includes a new 6.5 percent tax rate on income above $1 million for couples and $500,000 for singles. Continued at �. http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=analysis%20budget.htm&location=State_-_Budget&buttonname=State%20-%20Budget

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Census Bureau severs ties with ACORN in 2010 count

BY HOPE YEN, ASSOCIATED PRESS, 09/12/2009, WASHINGTON (AP) � The Census Bureau on Friday severed its ties with ACORN, a community organization that has been hit with Republican accusations of voter-registration fraud.� "We do not come to this decision lightly," Census director Robert Groves wrote in a letter to ACORN, which was obtained by The Associated Press. Continued at �. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/1512EF1F662164C386257630000E2EDB?OpenDocument

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Visit the Website of the Yankee Institute: http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/

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Protestors March on Washington, Wall Street Journal, Sept 13, 2009 By JAKE SHERMAN� WASHINGTON � Tens of thousands of demonstrators descended on Capitol Hill Saturday, protesting the expansion of government spending and illustrating the network of conservative activists that has emerged in opposition to President Barack Obama's policies. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125276685577405975.html#mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

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Ralph Nader: �Rolling the Dice Again�, September 11th, 2009 � By Ralph Nader, The Wall Street gang is at it again! It�s been one year since Wall Street�s collapse and bailout took trillions from taxpayers and the sinking economy. The speculative instruments that pulled down the economy were those super-risky sub-prime mortgages, credit default swaps, collaterized debt obligations�you know�Las Vegas East, using other peoples� savings. As if to elaborate their gigantic con job, the investment banks, guaranteed by you the taxpayers, are now packaging life insurances policies in what sane, on the ground businesses would consider deranged exotic money plays.� Here is how the New York Times described the new securitization packages emerging from such corporate welfare goliaths as Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and their eager rating agency, DBRS.� �The bankers plan to buy �life settlements,� life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash��depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to �securitize� these policies�by packaging hundred or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell these bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.� Continued at �..

http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/09/ralph-nader-rolling-the-dice-again/

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Federal deficit hits $1.38 trillion through August By MARTIN CRUTSINGER (AP) � Sept 12, 2009, WASHINGTON � The federal deficit surged higher into record territory in August, hitting $1.38 trillion with one month left in the budget year. The soaring deficits have raised worries about the willingness of foreigners to keep purchasing Treasury debt. The Chinese, now the largest foreign owners of U.S. Treasury securities, have expressed concerns about runaway deficits. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other administration officials have sought to address those concerns by insisting that once the recession is over and the financial system is stabilized, the administration will move forcefully to get the deficits under control. Continued at �. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWWPT8cAUpUCsmOZoABze-6XhwTAD9ALBNU00

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Role of White House Czars Sparks Battle , Wall Street Journal, By NEIL KING JR. , WASHINGTON, Sept 11, 2009,� -- The uproar over former White House adviser Van Jones has heightened attention on the ranks of nonconfirmed policy "czars" within the Obama administration.� The use of special White House advisers and the czar moniker itself go back decades, but government watchers say President Barack Obama has appointed an unusual number of senior coordinators, especially for a president so early in his administration. They have responsibilities ranging from health care and climate change to Afghanistan and the auto sector. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125261851127501015.html

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Has anything changed on Wall Street? Politico, Sept 13, 2009,� By Eamon Javers,� ��.. On Monday, Obama will make what�s being billed as a �major� economic address at Federal Hall in New York City. He�s expected to say the economy has improved, largely as a result of the forceful steps his administration took in the heat of the crisis. And he�ll urge Congress to pass his financial reform package, which he sent to the Hill in June. Yet as the president goes to Wall Street, some insiders fear the ingredients are all there for another crash just a few short years from now. Only next time, the banks that fail will be much bigger and more emboldened to take dangerous risks now that the government has decided they are too big to fail � an effect of the bank bailouts started under President George W. Bush and continued under Obama. Continued at �.. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27072.html

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Bailout tracker: What's going, what's coming, The government has gotten back hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout loans, but it still has more than $2 trillion to wind down.� By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer, NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) Sept 11, 2009 -- As government regulators switch from crisis-mode to rescue mode, many of the biggest and most successful bailout programs are well on their way to extinction. But there are plenty of others that are gaining momentum as the economy heads toward a recovery.� In fact, the wind-up has nearly cancelled out the wind-down, and the government still has about $2.2 trillion of loans to reclaim.� "These programs were crutches helping banks and institutions get through this crisis," said Larry Kaplan, former special counsel at the Office of Thrift Services and counsel in the banking and financial institutions practice at Paul Hastings. "There are some whose bones have healed, but not everyone's has. The world isn't repaired yet."� Still, the Fed, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Treasury Department have insisted that their rescue initiatives will have to be rolled back or terminated as the recovery gains traction. Continued at �. http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/11/news/economy/bailout_repayment_tracker/?postversion=2009091113

See where Connecticut Ranks among other states in unemployment and foreclosures:� http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/gapmap/

See where Banks are failing: ��http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bank_failures/

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Geithner: Work to be done on economy, Sept 10, 2009, By VICTORIA MCGRANE, Politico,� LThe Obama administration isn�t �anywhere near to saying mission accomplished� on the financial crisis that gripped the country a year ago, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said during a town hall on CNBC Thursday night.� The hour-long event touched on everything from bailouts to taxes to China, but Geithner repeatedly voiced the administration�s belief that Wall Street needs new rules to prevent future crises.� �People should be angry,� Geithner said of the bailouts, which he said were necessary to prevent more economic damage and suffering but fundamentally unfair. �People should be deeply angry and frustrated, and that�s why it�s so important that we find the will as a country to fix this, not just to get growth back.� http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27022.html

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Americans Are Getting Poorer, and It's Going to Get Worse, 9/11/09,�
Tony Pugh, McClatchy Newspapers: "The early impact of the worst recession since the 1930s pushed median incomes down, forced millions more people into poverty and left more Americans without health care in 2008, according to new annual survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau." http://www.mcclatchydc.com/economy/story/75201.html

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Sept 10, 2009

An Excellent Article by Dowd Muska, dowd@dowdmuska.com

Visit Dowd�s website at: www.dowdmuska.com

Go, Pratt, Go!

The furor over Pratt & Whitney�s possible transfer of work done at the East Hartford-based Connecticut Airfoil Repair Operations and Cheshire Engine Center to facilities in Georgia, Japan, and Singapore offered a teachable moment to state policymakers.� The moment quickly passed. Pols preferred to stick with what they always do when jobs flee the state: mug before television cameras, holler free trade-bashing nonsense at rallies, and devise a taxpayer-financed �incentive package.� Continued at �. http://www.dowdmuska.com/

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Amid budget crisis, California legislators still wined, dined on lobbyists' dime By Phillip Reese | Sacramento Bee, Sept 13, 2009, While their constituents coped with the worst recession in decades and the state suffered through another budget crisis, California's legislators and leaders ate about 8,000 free meals, pocketed about 2,000 free event tickets and accepted enough flowers to open their own shop, all courtesy of lobbyists. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/75334.html

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