No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for March 10th, 2007

Who is in charge in Washington D.C.?

by @ 12:19. Filed under Politics - National, War on Terror.

Since I can’t say it nearly as well as Scott Malensek (guest-blogging at Flopping Aces), I’ll simply give you a very brief Cliff’s Notes version and send you over there for the well-researched and lengthy read (do note I’ve disabled comments/pings for this post; if I get requests, I’ll consider opening them up here).

He notes that almost nobody on Capitol Hill has read one report or heard one briefing on Iraq; this despite repeated public requests from the Congresscritters for those reports and briefings. One particularily-embarrassing episode:

This week, after having been unanimously appointed by Congress, America’s commander in Iraq, General Petraeus took a break from his duties to make a public statement for the first time since taking command. Prior to his press conference, the general (who submits reports to the President every single day) offered to take time for a teleconference with the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority leader (both Democrats). They declined. Instead, they chose to meet with leaders from anti-war groups like Moveon.org and others (some of which are actually socialist groups like ANSWER). After meeting with the anti-war lobby instead of the General that Congress appointed to lead operations in Iraq, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid held their own press conference and unveiled their latest attempt at ending the war in Iraq by any means other than success. They did not consult with the commanders in Iraq, the experts.

Then, he outlines how the wealthy use essentially-unlimited PACs (the only limit is that a PAC can donate $5,000 to a Congresscritter candidate, twice as much as an individual, and contributions of under $200 to a PAC doesn’t have to be reported at all) to funnel literally millions of dollars into politics.

If you do nothing else this weekend, go read the whole thing.

Doyle’s raising taxes $1.74 billion $2.1 billion

by @ 9:05. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Taxes.

Well, I guess the honeymoon between the presstitutes in Wisconsin and Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) is over. Today’s Journal Sentinel has as its banner headline the fact that the Crappy budget has, according to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, $1.74 billion in tax and fee increases, broken down thusly:

– $1.37 billion in tax increases:

  • $506 million from jacking up the cigarette tax from $0.77/pack to $2.02/pack.
  • $417 million from jacking up taxes on the sick
  • $272 million that Doyle wants to stick on gasoline sold outside of Wisconsin (that is, if he can get away with not allowing the oil companies to pass along the proposed 2.5%-of-value tax on every gallon of oil used in Wisconsin to Wisconsin consumers)
  • $142 million put upon those of you trying to dump your properties as you flee this tax hell through a doubling of the real estate transfer fee (assuming, of course, you can find suck…er, buyers)

– $376.2 million in fee increases:

  • $167.9 million in a massive across-the-board increase in vehicle registration fees
  • $37.2 million in a near-doubling of the fees for driver’s licenses and photo ID cards

Damn, but it looks like the Pubbies were right when they said last month that it was a $1.7 billion tax increase. Just how big is that? The last sentence of the story starts the thinking, but since the Journtinel couldn’t bring itself to give a percentage, and because public schools tend to de-emphasize math, allow me to run the numbers. It is a 6.78% tax increase over 2 years, or if you prefer it by annum, 3.33%. That is not, repeat, NOT including the “automatic” increases built into the income and sales tax structures that essentially match both inflation and increases in pay. That is in addition to those increases.

But, wait, there’s more. You remember the Craps Anti-Tax Freeze that expired at the end of last year? Doyle wants to bring that back, sans lower jaw (it already lacked teeth). Instead of allowing property tax increases of 2% plus growth and borrowing, he wants 4% plus growth and borrowing. That, folks, is more than what it had gone up prior to the original CATF. Senate Minority “Republican” Leader (dunno whether I should put that last word in quotes yet like I did for the three previous “permanent” holders of that title) Scott Fitzgerald points out that the property taxes that are driving people out of Wisconsin would go up by $350 million this year if CATF Ver. II happens (it would go up about that amount without it as well). Half of that increase would happen under the expired original anti-freeze, but since Fitzgerald only talked about this coming year, you can essentially add that entire amount to the $1.74 billion (actually, a bit more because it’s exponential) to come up with a $2.1 billion tax increase.

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