In case you missed it, Todd Stroger says he’s not hearing from upset people regarding his latest tax increase proposal. If you’re not happy with his $890 million a year tax grab (or if you are happy with it), let him know. His phone number is 312–603-6400.
More at the Tribune
Read More...The great mathematician, philosopher, atheist and wit Lord Bertrand Russell explained the paradox of tolerance this way:
‘Any person who claims to be tolerant naturally defines himself in opposition to those who are intolerant. But that makes him intolerant of certain people – which invalidates his claim to be tolerant.’
Disagree that Chicago police officers are torture abusing, out of control thugs and you will see how your view is tolerated. Let’s try. Here goes!
$1,930,000 would be considered a tolerable sum of money. In fact, 1,930,000 of anything is a tolerable sum of anything. The Chicago Sun Times Police Abuse search on Yahoo revealed 1,930,000 hits. My Google search produced a somewhat less tolerable sum of 1, 790,000 hits – ouch. Lastly, the more general Chicago Media + Police Abuse produced even less with 1,740,000 hits. That’s still a lot of hits.
The Chicago police ... Read More...
As soon as today, the House of Representatives will vote to override President Bush’s veto of State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-SCHIP) expansion bill. The bill passed earlier this year with help from moderate Republicans – most notably Senator’s Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) in the US Senate.
The concept of the SCHIP was originally to fund health insurance for children in families that earned too much to be Medicaid eligible but were to poor to pay for insurance in the individual market, or they worked in a low-wage position in which employee health benefits were not provided.
The program has been somewhat successful in the expanding health insurance coverage to these groups of people. However, about half of those joining the program were dropping their private coverage in favor of “free government insurance.” In addition, states, Illinois being a chief culprit, were expanding the program ... Read More...
I have come to the conclusion that the three great engines of the modern American economy are corporate executives, hedge funds and new immigrants. The commonality in these three groups is an aggressive aversion to paying taxes. By unloading the tax burden onto the rest of society, each of these groups has experienced greater economic growth than peer groups. Each has its own methods. Corporate executives shift ordinary income over to capital gains, hedge funds operate in offshore tax havens, and many new immigrants are paid in cash.
All of this is good in a strict economic sense. The Government would just use their tax revenues to purchase more shiny trinkets and buy votes, so tax avoidance makes the economy hum, as we can definitely observe. But there is a question of equity in all this tax avoidance.
After a long conversation with a contractor I know who actually pays ... Read More...
Though this is the time to voice his discontent, the contender is content to not heat up the hustings
TIPTON, IOWA—Barack Obama has been campaigning since early this morning, and as he addresses his last audience of the day, he professes some strong emotions about the distance many Americans feel from their government. “It makes me angry when folks feel they have no one working for them,” he declares to some 250 people who have gathered on a Tuesday evening at the Cedar County Fairgrounds.
As he invariably does when outlining his discontent with the status quo, the Illinois senator sounds firm. He sounds sincere. What he doesn’t sound is angry.
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