As we recently noted, longtime Long Island resident Carol Cooke received tax refunds for thousands of dollars, all to people who did not live at her residence. This was obvious fraud but when Cooke contacted the IRS they gave her the runaround. This was not an isolated case. A full 23,994 tax refunds were…
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Federal and state governments always deserve attention but county governments send out the property tax bills. The envelope of mine read: TAX BILL – OPEN IMMEDIATELY No exclamation point necessary. The tone is, “let’s have the wallet, Jack. And let’s have it right now.” Government likes the imperative mood. Inside the taxpayer learns that…
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The United States Postal Service (USPS) lost nearly $16 billion last year, and attempts at reform have proved futile. USPS bosses, who continued to get raises during the recession, want to end Saturday delivery. Trouble is, Congress won’t let them do it, prohibiting a return to a five-day delivery schedule. The USPS expects to…
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Nobody should be surprised that the federal government is doing a poor job shutting itself down. The attempt is providing plenty of drama and long-winded speeches, but some the best lines are coming from comics, not politicians. David Letterman, for example, observed that too many non-essential government workers would seem to be the problem….
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Things are getting tougher for those who believe the federal government can trim spending. Consider the case of the Alaska-based Denali Commission, a 1998 project of Senator Ted Stevens aimed at helping rural Alaskans by building power plants and providing job training and health care. As the Washington Post noted, the Denali Commission, “became…
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The federal Environmental Protection Agency wields enormous power but also displays, “an absence of even basic internal controls,” as an inspector general testified during October 1 hearings in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the EPA’s “secret agent.” When he applied with the EPA in 1989, John Beale claimed he had worked…
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SB 768, by California state senator Kevin de Leon, would raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 87 cents a pack to $2. The increase, which comes on top of federal taxes, would raise the price of a pack of cigarettes to more than $8. Backers of the bill say the tax…
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The federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proclaims that its mission “is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.” All Americans have an interest “in a growing economy that produces jobs, improves our standard of living, and protects the value of our savings.” This means that “all of…
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“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” President Obama said that, but it isn’t true. At this article notes, Obamacare wipes out existing health care plans in 10 states: California, Missouri, Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Georgia. More than 50 percent…
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California governor Jerry Brown has approved legislation that hikes the current minimum wage of $8.00 an hour to $10.00 an hour by 2016. Supporters of the legislation say this “moral imperative” will help workers and their families but it’s more likely to harm them. As Thomas Sowell notes, 90 percent of American economists find…
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