Page 335 – Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Tax Reform Should Take a Starring Role at the State of the Union

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:January 28, 2014
Post category:Congress Michi Iljazi Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Tonight President Obama will give his fifth State of the Union address to the nation. This will give the President an opportunity to lay out his agenda for the coming year in front of Congress and the American people. Year after year we see a laundry list of policies that spend more taxpayer money and attempts to rally the President’s base behind ideas that go nowhere fast. Even though there are many topics that taxpayers would like to be addressed such as the failed roll out of Obamacare or a debt that has eclipsed $17 trillion and the numerous ways to cut spending, one topic that may receive bi-partisan support is tax reform. The US corporate tax rate is the highest in the world and our entire US tax code grows more complicated as each year sees new rules and regulations burdened upon the taxpayers who are in desperate need of relief from a system that hasn’t had comprehensive reform in nearly three decades. This year is a prime time for tax reform to take shape and there’s no better time to set the tone for meaningful, comprehensive, and bipartisan reform than with the State of the Union. Congress will be in attendance and many of the key players in the tax reform debate will be paying careful to attention to what the President will say.

Congress Watch: State of the Union

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:January 27, 2014
Post category:Congress Obamacare Taxpayers Protection Alliance

(Joe Jansen has a decade and a half of experience working as a staff member on Capitol Hill. He has worked in almost every legislative capacity in both the House and Senate. Joe will be a frequent contributor to TPA’s blog.) The State of the Union speech probably served an important governmental purpose at one time. After all, why would the Constitution require that the President, “from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union” if it didn’t? But, cultural changes and technological advances, among other things, have turned the State of the Union Address into what George Will accurately called in his latest column, “a tiresome exercise in political exhibitionism.” Congress returns from a week-long recess to receive the President for his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday night. There is no doubt that the first year of President Obama’s second term has not been his finest. His approval ratings are in the tank and, with the possible exception of immigration reform, his legislative agenda is unlikely to advance anytime soon. Tuesday’s speech is a way for the President to talk directly to the American people, in a setting designed for the most powerful man in the world, to gain their support of his vision for the United States. It happens to also be a great time to try to set the tone for the mid-term elections that will be held this November. The President and his Democratic friends running for re-election do not want this election to be about Obamacare, the President’s handling of events in Syria, the weak economy, or the number of unemployed Americans. They must run on issues they think are more favorable to their political survival. What are these issues?

DC’s Plastic Bag Tax Exposed

Post author:David Williams
Post published:January 24, 2014
Post category:District of Columbia Taxes Taxpayers Protection Alliance

(This article orignally appeared January 13, 2014, in The Hill) Four years ago, Washington, D.C. imposed a $.05 plastic bag tax. And, D.C. government officials have been quick to claim that its $0.05 tax on plastic bags has resulted in a 60 percent reduction in plastic bag use. The city even spent money to commission a survey to tell them that. But the survey had its faults, according to an examination of revenue by The Washington Post: “One issue with the city’s recent survey is that it relied on poll respondents to estimate the number of bags they used or gave to customers before the tax went into effect, which could cause some to overestimate the actual change in their behavior and create an unreliable baseline for pre-tax bag use," the paper reported last week. The question is how wide of an overestimation it was. Well, the answer is, the whole thing. The Post found that the tax had no impact on consumer choices – except to redistribute money from consumers’ pockets to government coffers.The question is how wide of an overestimation it was. Well, the answer is, the whole thing. The Post found that the tax had no impact on consumer choices – except to redistribute money from consumers’ pockets to government coffers.

Governor O’Malley’s Final Budget Increases Spending and Leaves Fiscal Mess to Successor

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:January 22, 2014
Post category:Budget Deficit Michi Iljazi Spending Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Governor Martin O'Malley (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons) Taxpayers in Maryland have endured the tax and spend policies of Governor Martin O’Malley for seven years and as he prepares to leave office as leader of a state with, as a recent Tax Foundation study put it, one of the “least friendly business climates” in the nation, he has given Maryland residents his final annual budget and there’s really no surprise that it does exactly what a big spender like O’Malley would do: spend more taxpayer money. Last week, in the first major act of his final year in office, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley dropped his final annual budget (complete with a fancy power point presentation) and it was nothing less than more of the same from a chief executive who has presided over tax and fee increases, government spending increases, a disastrous state-based health care exchange, and increased deficits that show no sign of going anywhere soon. This is a blueprint that should concern taxpayers in Maryland who see the need for reforming the state so that small businesses want to invest for the future there and an environment where private sector jobs are on the rise and government spending in on the decline. This budget does the opposite and doubles down on the failed policies of Governor O’Malley that have kept Maryland low on the economic totem pole throughout his tenure. Instead of finding ways to reduce the tax burden on businesses and individuals in the state that have come as a direct result of O’Malley’s actions, he does nothing to help small business and taxpayers while increasing government payrolls and government paychecks.

TPA Sends Letter Urging Government of Ireland to Oppose Plain Packaging

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:January 21, 2014
Post category:Intellectual Property International Michi Iljazi Plain Packaging Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Roodstown Castle, Co. Louth, Ireland (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons) In addition to the work that the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) does in the United States, TPA has been involved in issues that reach across the world including Australia, Europe, and Uganda to make sure that elected officials are spending taxpayer dollars wisely and creating a business friendly climate that is beneficial to taxpayers, consumers, and businesses. One issue in particular that TPA has been following is ‘plain packaging’ of tobacco products (read previous work by TPA here). Specifically, in Australia in 2012, the nation passed a law that “prevents tobacco advertising and promotion of tobacco products and tobacco product packaging by making it an offence to sell, supply, purchase, package or manufacture tobacco products or packaging for retail sale that are not compliant with plain packaging requirements.” The results have been disastrous. Now, Ireland appears to be headed in a similar direction. Today, TPA sent a letter to Taoiseach (Ireland’s equivalent of Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, and the Irish government, to urge them to not adopt plain packaging regulations. Australia has shown us that plain packaging is the wrong policy and that this policy harms businesses and taxpayers. If Ireland adopts plain packaging rules it will hurt taxpayers, consumers, and businesses in both in Ireland and the United States. To read the full letter, click 'read more' below.

Congress Watch: Spending Bill and Unemployment Compensation

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:January 20, 2014
Post category:Congress Debt Omnibus Appropriations

(Joe Jansen has a decade and a half of experience working as a staff member on Capitol Hill. He has worked in almost every legislative capacity in both the House and Senate. Joe will be a frequent contributor to TPA’s blog.) Since I came to Washington, D.C. in 1995 there have been at least six different Senate majority leaders. The vast majority of them have been Republicans, so I might be biased in my assessment. But, I have never seen a Majority Leader seem as out of touch with reality as Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) appeared to be last week. Prior to the weeklong recess leading up to the President’s State of the Union Address, Congress considered a couple of priority bills. To the chagrin of budget hawks, Congress was successful in enacting a $1.012 trillion spending bill to fund the government through the rest of this fiscal year (read TPA’s previous postings about the bill here and here). But, the Senate failed in its attempt to move an extension of expiring unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.

BREAKING NEWS: Watchdog Group Uncovers $7 Billion in Earmarks in Defense Appropriations

Post author:David Williams
Post published:January 16, 2014
Post category:Appropriations Budget Congress Defense Michi Iljazi Omnibus Appropriations Spending Taxpayers Protection Alliance

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) uncovered 186 earmarks worth $7 billion (click here to see the full list) in the Defense Appropriations Bill that was part of H.R. 3547, the 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act, aka the Omnibus appropriations bill. Among the 186 earmarks is $90 million for the Abrams tank, a classic case of Congress spending money the Pentagon doesn’t want or need. According to a Daily Tribune article, “The Pentagon had proposed halting tank production for five years in 2013 as a cost-saving measure.” This omnibus bill was set in motion when Congress passed the Ryan-Murray budget which increased spending and gutted the sequester. In 2010, Congress pledged to give up earmarks, but this latest spending bill shows that earmarks have come back with a vengeance The picture has become clearer with each ‘bipartisan’ agreement we get from Congress: the sequester is on its way out; increased spending and appropriations is on the way back in. What is even more disappointing is to hear the rationales from elected officials who try to make excuses as to why increased spending is either ‘not really an increase’ or why ‘we’re cutting future growth’ so as to mask the present day spending.Members of both parties and chambers are responsible for these earmarks and should be ashamed of themselves. TPA will keep looking through the whole Omnibus for more earmarks and continue to urge the Senate to vote against this pork-filled spending bill and return to regular order.

Taxpayers Protection Alliance Urges Rejection of $1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:January 15, 2014
Post category:Appropriations Congress Defense Michi Iljazi Omnibus Appropriations Spending Taxpayers Protection Alliance

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) urged Congress to reject the $1.1 trillion Omnibus spending bill for fiscal year (2014). On Monday January 13 (unlucky for taxpayers),Congress released a 1,500-page spending bill crafted by House and Senate appropriators. There’s not much to praise when looking at both the substance of the bill and the manner in which it was delivered. In what has been a disappointing string of bipartisan agreement, taxpayers will once again be left on the hook for spending that likely includes programs that are neither needed nor wanted. Another problem with the appropriations bill is that the sequester was “altered” in way that reverses cuts on both domestic and Defense spending. The Omnibus also funds and increase for Head Start and Obamacare. Defense appropriations contains a $5 billion increase for the Overseas Contingent Operations (OCO) account, which is immunized from sequestration. The Ryan-Murray budget deal was just the beginning of the end for the sequester. We have now seen another “tweak” less than a month later that reverses automatic cuts agreed to by Congress and the White House just a few years ago.

STATEMENT: TPA Praises Federal Appeals Court Ruling Striking Down Net Neutrality

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:January 14, 2014
Post category:District of Columbia Internet Michi Iljazi Net Neutrality Taxpayers Protection Alliance Telecommunications

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down net neutrality saying that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) exceeded its authority by banning Internet providers from treating traffic differently based on where the traffic was coming from. According to the Court: “Given that the Commission has chosen to classify broadband providers in a manner that exempts them from treatment as common carriers, the Communications Act expressly prohibits the Commission from nonetheless regulating them as such.”This is a major victory for the free market and those who believe that net neutrality would lead to a government takeover of the Internet. The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) has long since warned against increased regulatory measures on the Internet noting that the Internet has thrived because government has, up until now, kept a light regulatory touch on the Internet. Quick reacting business and free market forces will keep the Internet thriving, not slow unresponsive government bureaucracies. A new regulatory regime for the Internet would stifle innovation and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in a newly created bureaucracy. To read the full release, click 'read more' below'

Failure to Launch! Mississippi Senators Force NASA to Waste Taxpayer Dollars on Rocket Engine Testing Facility

Post author:Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Post published:January 14, 2014
Post category:Appropriations Budget Inspector General Michi Iljazi Spending Taxpayers Protection Alliance

nasa Congress is in the middle of budget debates including the release of a 1,500 page Omnibus spending bill and a debt limit that is set to be reached in February. But, it seems like some members of Congress are clueless to the dire financial straits of the country. For example, last week, Bloomberg News reported that NASA will forge ahead with plans to complete a project early this year that will build a structure to test rocket engines at Stennis Space Center in the state of Mississippi. However, there are two issues: first, the finished program will cost taxpayers $352 million; second, NASA doesn’t need it! There is no reason why $352 million should be used to fund the construction of a facility in Mississippi that the agency responsible for the project has said won’t even be able to be used. Unfortunately, in Washington, D.C. politics trumps common sense. Due to the efforts of both of the state’s Senators, Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Thad Cochran (R-MS), the testing facility was put on a continued track for completion despite the fact that there are no rocket engines that currently exist which warrant such a facility be built for testing purposes.