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

TAX TALK AUGUST 20, 2010

Homeowners� Rebellion: Could 62 Million Homes Be Foreclosure-Proof? Over 62 million mortgages are now held in the name of MERS, an electronic recording system devised by and for the convenience of the mortgage industry. A California bankruptcy court, following landmark cases in other jurisdictions, recently held that this electronic shortcut makes it impossible for banks to establish their ownership of property titles � and therefore to foreclose on mortgaged properties. The logical result could be 62 million homes that are foreclosure-proof. Mortgages bundled into securities were a favorite investment of speculators at the height of the financial bubble leading up to the crash of 2008. The securities changed hands frequently, and the companies profiting from mortgage payments were often not the same parties that negotiated the loans. At the heart of this disconnect was the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, a company that serves as the mortgagee of record for lenders, allowing properties to change hands without the necessity of recording each transfer. http://seekingalpha.com/article/221344-homeowners-rebellion-could-62-million-homes-be-foreclosure-proof

Leery of Washington, Alaska Feasts on Its Dollars� New York Times, Aug 18, 2010, PALMER, Alaska � Backed by a blue row of saw-toothed mountain peaks, the Republican state lawmaker Carl Gatto finds himself on a fine roll. Roll it back, he says, roll back this entire socialistic experiment in federal hegemony. Give us control of our land, let us drill and mine, and please don�t let a few belugas get in the way of a perfectly good bridge. �I�ve introduced legislation to roll back the federal government,� he says. �They don�t have solutions; they just have taxes.� And what of the federal stimulus, from which Alaska receives the most money per capita in the nation? Would he reject it? Mr. Gatto, 72 and wiry, smiles and shakes his head: �I�ll give the federal government credit: they sure give us a ton of money. For every $1 we give them in taxes for highways, they give us back $5.76.� Continued at �.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/business/19stimulus.html?_r=2&hpw

Chamber of Commerce, Other Groups Skirt Letter of Law in Reporting Political Ads ��August 20, 2010 "If the Campaign Legal Center had infinite resources, we might file complaints in this area out of principal -- to force the Federal Election Commission to either acknowledge that these groups are breaking the law or to claim to the public that the Commission doesn't view the ads as candidate ads," Paul Ryan, an attorney with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center told OpenSecrets� http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2010/08/chamber-of-commerce-other-groups-sk.html

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Oil Plume Is Not Breaking Down Fast, Study Says By JUSTIN GILLIS and JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF� NYTimes Published: August 19, 2010The study, the most ambitious scientific paper to emerge so far from the Deepwater Horizon spill, casts some doubt on recent statements by the federal government that oil in the gulf appears to be dissipating at a brisk clip. Continued at .. �http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/science/earth/20plume.html?_r=1&src=mv

Indicted PMA Group Boss Paul Magliocchetti Spread Wealth to Dozens of Politicians �By Dave Levinthal of OpenSecrets� August 6, 2010 Paul Magliocchetti, the former head of now-defunct lobbying shop PMA Group, was indicted Thursday in federal court on charges he made hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions. http://www.opensecrets.org/MT/mt-search.cgi?search=PMA&IncludeBlogs=8

In Vanity Fair:� Washington, We Have a Problem How broken is Washington? Beyond repair? A day in the life of the president reveals that Barack Obama�s job would be almost unrecognizable to most of his predecessors�thanks to the enormous bureaucracy, congressional paralysis, systemic corruption (with lobbyists spending $3.5 billion last year), and disintegrating media. Inside the West Wing, the author talks to Obama�s top advisers about the challenge of playing the Washington game, ugly as it has become, even while their boss insists they find a way to transcend it. By Todd Purdum�� Illustration by Edward Sorel� September 2010 http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/09/broken-washington-201009

South Carolina To Cover Obesity Surgery Next Year� SEANNA ADCOX | 08/13/10 03:31 PM | COLUMBIA, S.C. � Obese government workers in South Carolina can get stomach-shrinking surgery through the state health plan under a pilot program that starts in January. The state's employee insurance plan will cover gastric-bypass or Lap-Band surgery costs for 100 people statewide on a first-come, first-serve basis, said Stephen VanCamp, director of the employee insurance program. The surgeries - which involve either surgically creating a smaller stomach or shrinking intake with a belt-like, adjustable device - cost about $24,000 each. Lawmakers required the test program in the 2010-11 budget as a way to address the state's growing obesity problem. The Budget and Control Board was directed to create it as part of workers' benefits plan for 2011, which it approved Thursday.

The Legislature funded the program, as well as an additional $19 million in costs next year because of the new federal health care law - largely for extending coverage to dependents up to age 26 - so employees' monthly health premiums will not change. Nearly 394,000 public workers, their dependents and retirees are covered under the state health plan. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/16/south-carolina-to-cover-o_n_683068.html

Car Czar: Billions lost with GM is 'best stimulus around', August 19, 2010 FORTUNE -- General Motors, fresh off two profitable quarters, is planning a public offering expected to raise as much as $16 billion. Does this mean election-year vindication for President Obama's much-maligned decision to take control of the Detroit automaker? Maybe not. Watch for a round of late-summer political thunder as lawmakers latch onto the fact that despite this first step toward reducing a 61% government stake in the automaker, taxpayers still stand to lose billions on the bailout. "We never said we were going to be made whole," Steven Rattner, the investment banker who led the administration's restructure of GM and Chrysler, tells Fortune. "I think the administration would rather lose money and get out sooner." http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/19/news/companies/rattner_gm_bailout.fortune/

Europe to America: Your bailout funds were greatly appreciated, The Examiner, Cullen Linebarger, August 12th, 2010 9:55 pm, The $700 billion TARP package that was signed into law almost two years ago was supposed to stabilize America�s banks and our money supply. While it is debatable whether the bailout succeeded in America, one thing we learned today is that some foreign banks made out like bandits. http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-washington-dc/europe-to-america-your-bailout-funds-were-greatly-appreciated-1

Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling, Too bad it's not in U.S. waters.� Aug 18, 2010, Wall Street Journal, ��You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html

Why is Washington ignoring its biggest corruption scandal? By: Tom Fitton OpEd Contributor� August 15, 2010 Too few in Washington have been digging into the scandals behind the collapse of the �government-sponsored entities� (GSE's) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their role in helping trigger the global financial crisis. Their collapse has cost taxpayers $146 billion thus far. Freddie Mac sought an additional $1.8 billion in taxpayer support just last week. There is no end in sight, as the Obama administration, through executive fiat, has placed no upper limit on the taxpayer liability for these two monstrosities. � http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Tom-Fitton-Why-is-Washington-ignoring-its-biggest-corruption-scandal-100727554.html

Dems, GOP Prepare for Battle over Bush Tax Cuts Aug 18, 2010 Democrats in Congress want to extend those tax breaks for individuals making under $200,000 each year and couples making under $250,000 while letting the others expire. Their plan is to permanently extend tax cuts for taxpayers falling in the 10, 25 and 28 percent tax brackets. Taxpayers falling in the 33 percent bracket move up to 35 if they make over $250,000 as a family. The 35 percent bracket then goes up to 39 percent. Republicans are calling that the largest tax increase in U.S. history and are calling for an extension of all the tax cuts. But Democrats counter that extending tax cuts for the wealthy is fiscally irresponsible, costing $700 billion, and doesn't create jobs. Continued at �.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20013941-503544.html?tag=mncol;lst;10

Barclays Judge Questions �Sweetheart Deal� With U.S. August 17, 2010, 2:58 PM EDT� By William McQuillen, BusinessweekAug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A federal judge questioned Barclays Plc�s $298 million settlement with the U.S. government over dealings with banks under U.S. sanctions, calling the accord a �sweetheart deal.� U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington said today the settlement �concerns the court� and he scheduled a hearing for tomorrow to further discuss it. Unlike Barclays, the average American caught robbing a bank doesn�t get deferred prosecution and the option of returning ill-gotten gains, he said.

�Why isn�t the government getting tough with the banks?� Sullivan asked. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-17/barclays-judge-questions-sweetheart-deal-with-u-s-.html

By US Deaths, As of Today, Afghanistan is Obama's War by Robert Naiman, 575: That's how many U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in the Afghanistan war since Barack Obama became President at noon on January 20, 2009, according to the icasualties.org website, which tracks U.S. soldiers' deaths using reports received from the Department of Defense - and which is widely cited in the media as a source of information on U.S. deaths.According to the same website, 575 is also the number of U.S. soldiers who lost their lives in the Afghanistan war during the Presidency of George W. Bush. Therefore, total U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have doubled in Afghanistan under President Obama, and when the next U.S. soldier is reported dead, the majority of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan will have occurred under President Obama. Continued at �. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/16-4

1964 Speech by Former President Ronald Reagan �

The following is a script of his 1964 speech.� http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganatimeforchoosing.htm

You can also view him on Youtube�

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt1fYSAChxs

How Long Will China's Economy Be the Second Largest? Howard Steven Friedman� United Nations statistician, August 16, 2010 Many probably saw the headline today stating that China's economy is now the second largest in the world and may soon eclipse the United States' economy. The growth in China's economy has been tremendous, an engine that began taking off with the loosening of restrictions during the Deng Xiaoping era and has accelerated ever since. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-steven-friedman/how-long-will-chinas-econ_b_683008.html

The following articles can be found in Tax Talk August 19, 2010

� Forget a Double-Dip, We're Still in One Long Big Dipper

� Greenspan should shut up

� New York Can�t Collect Property Tax From UN Missions

� Obama Urgently Launders Taxpayer Money�

� Economist: 'The stimulus substituted for thinking'

� Chamber economist: Obama tax increase would be 'bullet in the head' of recovery��

� The End of American Optimism

� Bell OKs property tax cuts amid state scrutiny

� Calif. says Bell got $3M in illegal property taxes

� The Myth of the Free Market ,

� America's Biggest Jobs Program Is the US Military

� President Obama Says Gulf Beaches Are Safe�But Are They? The Gulf is Dying, Environmentally and Economically.