From: The Federation of
Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website: http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone: 860-841-8032
TAX TALK JULY 20, 2010
REPORT WORTH READING….TOP
SECRET AMERICA - A hidden world, growing beyond control, Washington Post, by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin The top-secret world the government
created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so
large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs,
how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how
many agencies do the same work. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-world-growing-beyond-control/
Top Secret America is a
project nearly two years in the making that describes the huge national
security buildup in the United
States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. | Read More »
More than a dozen Washington
Post journalists spent two years developing Top Secret America. | See the details »
*****************************
Government for Sale: How Lobbyists Shaped the Financial
Reform Bill Capitol Tax Partners, one of 1,900 firms that
house more than 11,000 lobbyists registered to operate in Washington. Last year, according to the
Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), firms like Capitol Tax were paid a total
of $3.49 billion for unraveling the mysteries of the tax code for businesses
involved in everything from health insurance to defense contracting to
international trade.
Read the complete article at Time Magazine, By Steven Brill Jul
01, 2010 http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2000880,00.html
*****************************
25 years of Mastery Tests helped shape state's public
education
2 By Robert
A. Frahm July 15, 2010 CTMirror.com, The release of Connecticut
Mastery Test results today marks the
25th anniversary of a multi-million dollar testing program that critics and
supporters alike agree has sharply altered the course of public education
across the state.The annual exam shaped curriculum,
spurred classroom drills, provided evidence in lawsuits, and grabbed the
attention of politicians, parents and even real estate agents. http://ctmirror.com/story/6807/mastery-test-25-shaping-connecticuts-schools-71510
Connecticut Mastery Test
*****************************
SEE LIST OF LOCAL PORK PROJECTS State
Bond Commission Approves $17 Million More in Bonding July 14, 2010
There's always room for pork, even in a state budget crisis
0 By Keith
M. Phaneuf , CTMirror.com ….. budget has a built-in gap that the legislature's nonpartisan
Office of Fiscal Analysis estimates at $3.37 billion. That figure
equals nearly 20 percent of the entire $19.01 billion state budget
for this fiscal year.
http://ctmirror.com/story/6773/theres-always-room-pork-even-state-budget-crisis
*****************************
State's bloated benefits pie Republican American – July 18, 2010
Here's a shock: Your taxes are paying for free lifetime
health insurance for 42,000 state retirees and their spouses — the average premium
this year is $13,500 per person — and the people in charge of tracking your
money have no idea how many of those retirees are former elected officials or
political appointees. Here's another shock: The Post Retirement Health and Life
Fund from which those premiums are paid is $24 billion short of what's needed
to pay all the promises politicians have made to state employees. Ultimately,
that massive unfunded liability — $27,000 for a family of four — will fall to
you, presuming you don't flee the state. When the bill comes due, retired
unionized government employees, and former governors, constitutional officers,
legislators and political appointees will enjoy until the day they die the very
best care private insurance can buy while you're stuck dealing with long lines
for doctors, tests and medical procedures, and suffering through the coming
health-care rationing under Obamacare and Medicare.
In the liberal lexicon, this is known as you paying your fair share. http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2010/07/18/opinion/495760.txt
*****************************
Banks Financing Mexico Gangs
Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal, Bloomberg, Just
before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport
in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles
east of Mexico City.
As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them
away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and
searched the jet. They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of
cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered
from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City, Mexican prosecutors later found.
Law enforcement officials also discovered something else. The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they
transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010
issue. Continued at ….. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.html
*****************************
Wall Street Is Laundering
Drug Money and Getting Away with It
Wall Street has been caught laundering massive amounts of
drug money. So why isn't anybody being punished? Continued at …. http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010072919/wall-street-justice-where-are-indictments
************************
PERKY PERKS –
DODD WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!!
Senate VIP Loans Mount,
Countrywide Dealt With More Lawmakers and Staffers Than Previously Known, Wall Street Journal, U.S. senators or Senate employees
received 30 loans—far more than had previously been known—under a controversial
lending program at Countrywide Financial Corp. that provided cut-rate terms to
favored borrowers. The information is contained
in a letter sent to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics by Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), who has been spearheading the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee's investigation into Countrywide's
so-called VIP mortgage program. No specific loan recipients were named in the
letter. But Mr. Issa's letter said borrowers on a
dozen loans listed their place of employment as the office of "Senator
Robert Bennett." Available public records don't indicate that Sen.
Bennett, a Utah
Republican and member of the Senate Banking Committee, received a Countrywide home loan. Read the complete report at …. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704746804575367402389009686.html
************************
PARTY! PARTY!
PARTY!
SEE WHO YOUR
CONGRESSMAN IS PARTYING WITH!!!!!
http://politicalpartytime.org/
http://politicalpartytime.org/search/Beneficiary/Synergy%20PAC/
************************
CNBC's Top States For
Business 2010—And The Winner Is Texas July 13, 2010 by Scott Cohn – Read entire article at http://www.cnbc.com/id/37642856
Connecticut Ranks 47 as it
relates to Business. See where Connecticut stands in
the other rankings…..
http://www.cnbc.com/id/37516043/
*****************************
Grab a Helping of Stimulus
Data from Our Latest Recovery Tracker from ProPublica http://www.propublica.org/article/grab-a-helping-of-stimulus-data-from-our-latest-recovery-tracker
************************
Wall St. bill boosting
Washington economy By Ian Swanson - 07/22/10
06:00 AM ET The Wall Street reform bill President Obama
signed into law Wednesday is serving as a fiscal stimulus for Washington.At least a thousand new government workers will
be hired as a direct result of the legislation, which triggers a massive wave
of rulemaking by regulatory agencies. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/110249-wall-street-bill-is-boosting-the-dc-economy
************************
Dems Start to Panic As Midterm Reality Sets In Time.com, By Mark Halperin Monday, Jul. 19, 2010 http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2004646,00.html
************************
Bankruptcy filings rise to
6,000 a day as job losses take toll USA Today
Consumer and commercial bankruptcy filings are on pace to reach a
stunning 1.5 million this year, according to a report from Automated Access to
Court Electronic Records. While well
below the record 2 million filings in 2005, the number of filings is up sharply
from last year's 1.1 million, says Robert Lawless, professor of law at the University of Illinois. http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-06-03-bankruptcy-filings-unemployment_N.htm
************************
Judge hears arguments over Ariz. immigration law
Rights groups, feds trying to prevent law from taking effect
next week
by JACQUES BILLEAUD, PAUL DAVENPORT , Associated Press, July
22, 2010, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38366437/ns/us_news-immigration_a_nation_divided/
************************
Groups line up against fiscal commission Walter Alarkon and Eden
Stiffman - 07/21/10 07:49 PM ET Interest groups from both the right and
left are ramping up efforts against the White House fiscal commission. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/110225-groups-on-the-left-and-right-line-up-against-fiscal-panel
************************
Rangel charged with multiple
violations by House ethics panel,
Susan Crabtree and Molly K. Hooper, The Hill, 7/22/2010 http://thehill.com/homenews/house/110429-ethics-committee-files-charges-against-rangel
************************
Obama presidency losing confidence of public, Gallup says
The latest Gallup Poll on U.S. institutions
shows something we all sense -- Americans are losing faith. That includes the presidency, which enjoys
the high confidence of only 36% of Americans, according to the poll. President Obama can
take heart from the fact that the rating is still better than that of Congress;
only 11% of Americans have a great deal or a lot of confidence in it, dead last
among the 16 groups rated. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/07/obama-presidency-losing-confidence-of-public-gallup-says/1
*****************************
The Retirement Nightmare:
Half of Americans Have Less Than $2,000 Banked for Their Golden Years Scott Thill, AlterNet: Continued
at http://www.alternet.org/economy/147570/the_retirement_nightmare:_half_of_americans_have_less_than_$2,000_banked_for_their_golden_years/
*****************************
Dems:
Party too vague on deficit Jared Allen and Russell Berman - 07/20/10 07:43 PM ET Some Democrats are
criticizing their party for failing to back specific deficit-reduction
proposals. http://thehill.com/homenews/house/109939-dems-party-too-vague-on-deficit
************************
U.S. House votes to restore
jobless aid for millions By Lori
Montgomery Washington Post Staff Writer July 22, 2010; 2:40 PM Congress has approved a six-month extension
of emergency jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. On a vote of 272 to
152, the House gave the measure final approval and sent it on to the White
House, where aides said President Obama plans to sign
it immediately. The Senate passed the measure Wednesday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/22/AR2010072203825.html?nav=rss_email/components
************************
How to Cap a Banker's Bonus, Michael Scott Moore, Miller-McCune:
"A week or so before the U.S.
Senate passed the biggest Wall Street overhaul since the Depression, the
European Parliament voted for some of the world's strictest rules on bankers'
compensation. These 'bonus caps' should be imported quickly to Washington, while the
spirit of reform is still fresh." Continued at …. http://www.miller-mccune.com/business-economics/how-to-cap-a-bankers-bonus-19489/
************************
Congress Overhauls Your Portfolio By ELEANOR LAISE Wall Street Journal July 17, 2010 Overlooked
amid the thousands of pages that comprise the Dodd-Frank bill are major changes
affecting mutual funds, retirement plans, single-stock investments and other
holdings. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704682604575369750342795016.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_personalfinance
************************
Lost in Taxation, The IRS's
vast new ObamaCare powers, July 17, 2010, Wall
Street Journal, Continued at ….
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518904575365223062942574.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
************************
America's Municipal Debt Racket - State and local borrowing as a percentage
of U.S.
GDP has risen to an all-time high of 22% in 2010.
By STEVEN MALANGA, Wall Street Journal, June 2010 This
tale of woe has become familiar in the world of municipal finance. Governments
have loaded up on debt, stretched out repayment times, and used slick maneuvers
to avoid constitutional borrowing limits. While the country's economic troubles
have helped expose some of these practices, a sharp decline in tax revenues has
prompted more abuse as politicians use long-term debt to kick short-term fiscal
problems down the road. Continued at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704269204575270802154485456.html