truenorthnewsandcommentary.com

As President Obama envisions a future with multi-trillions in additional debt for Americans it is vital that taxpayers shouldering the price of federal government check out the latest statistics.

“The Tax Foundation reported last week that more than 143 million individual income tax returns were filed in 2007,

Tax Pain

and 46.6 million of those returns had a zero or negative tax liability, setting a new record for the number of “non-payers.” This group represented almost one out of every three tax returns filed in 2007 (32.6 percent, see chart above), and reflects tax filers whose exemptions, deductions, and credits wiped out any federal income taxes that would have been due. According to the Tax Foundation, every dollar withheld from the paychecks of the “non-payers” during the year was refunded, and in about half of the cases, substantial additional money was refunded to the tax filer. There were an additional 15 million people in 2007 who did not earn enough income to file a tax return, bringing the total number of Americans who paid no federal income taxes to more than 61 million, or 39 percent of the tax-eligible population (158 million including filers plus non-filers).”

Read the ugly details here.   Long…….sigh.

www.blog.american.com/?p=7951

Every now and then I see news stories that remind me of what was once called “Yankee ingenuity.”  Yankees are pretty rare these days outside that baseball stadium in the Bronx, but I do think humankind’s technological capacities are something we’re not thinking enough about.

For example, amid all the discussion about how to reduce our dependency on carbon-based fuels, stories like this one come out and remind me that we really could solve the problem if we made it more of a priority to do so.

Thanks to Instapundit, I saw this graph from Don Suber’s site:

Glenn Reynolds‘ comment:  “Not living up to the promises they made, is it? But don’t worry, health care will be totally different.“

I understand this YouTube video is gaining more and more attention.  I hope millions of American voters see it and let their congressmen and senators know they have seen it:

Slowly but surely, middle class, and upper-middle class Americans are being awakened to the fact that federal taxes are being skirted by at least half of all Americans.  Half.  Governor Mitt Romney, in a recent private meeting in Los Angeles, stated that it is more likely that only 40% of all Americans are carrying the enormous federal tax burden today.  Under the new codes being enforced by the Obama Administration, that figure will probably become 50%.   Is it any wonder that there are “tea parties” emerging around the country featuring fed-up Americans who recognize more and more that the very rich are escaping tax-free, as well as those in the low-income sectors of our economy.   There is no shortage of compassion among American earners, but there is a conviction in Democracy.

Right now, there are too few patriots paying the freight.

The Muslim World?

I am less enamored of President Obama’s Cairo speech than Sonja seems to be.   Mark Steyn notes that the official State Department press release on the speech headlined it, “President Obama Speaks To The Muslim World From Cairo:”

Let’s pause right there: It’s interesting how easily the words “the Muslim world” roll off the tongues of liberal secular progressives who’d choke on any equivalent reference to “the Christian world.” When such hyperalert policemen of the perimeter between church and state endorse the former but not the latter, they’re implicitly acknowledging that Islam is not merely a faith but a political project, too. There is an “Organization of the Islamic Conference,” which is already the largest single voting bloc at the United Nations and is still adding new members. Imagine if someone proposed an “Organization of the Christian Conference” that would hold summits attended by prime ministers and Presidents, and vote as a bloc in transnational bodies. But, of course, there is no “Christian world”: Europe is largely post-Christian and, as President Barack Obama bizarrely asserted to a European interviewer last week, America is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Perhaps we’re eligible for membership in the OIC.

We Couldn’t Resist . . . .

These reams of paper featured on our page today are the actual pages of the General Motors-United Auto Workers labor contract.  In 2007, contract negotiations between the two resulted in an unprecedented $50 billion millstone around the corporate neck of General Motors.  The $50 billion price tag covered GM’s responsibility to retirees only, consisting mainly of health benefits.

Every so often The New York Times does something right, and today the newspaper has a superb question and answer article that is essentially “the General Motors bankruptcy made simple!”

If you own an American-made car, or are planning on buying one from GM, you’ll want to read it.

This late find…On October 27, 2007, The Washington Post reported the following deal between the General Motors and the United Auto Workers.  The devil is in the details:

“At the core of the new deal is the transfer of retiree health-care payments from GM to the UAW. GM will pay an estimated $35 billion into a trust designed to appreciate in value and pay health-care benefits for retired workers for at least the next 80 years, the union estimated. In return, GM is able to unload a $51 billion burden in retiree health-care obligations from its books, enabling the troubled company to borrow money more easily and move more nimbly against competitors. GM’s health-care liability is more than twice the company’s $21 billion market capitalization.”

Somehow General Motors management was more intent on keeping the corporation afloat in the moment, rather than in the future.

Another indicator of GM’s lack of vision?  The automaker’s top-selling vehicle?  The  The Chevy Silverado.  It’s biggest, gas-guzzling, pick-up truck.