Lucky you! It's time to file your taxes!!!

The holidays are over and now its time to settle the reckoning for 2008. That's right dear taxpayers; it's the most fun time of the year---TAX TIME!! If you have any "fun" stories or gripes regarding filing your taxes, send a note to Tax Girl since she is running a contest for the most nightmare story regarding filing. Now that the whole country has gone insane and has pretty much accepted more bailouts, stimulus packages, government programs to "help" the economy get back on its feet, we can surely expect to spend more time working to pay taxes than ever before. Yippee!!

The 2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition

Yes, siree! Here it is! The car we have been waiting for all these years. Let us praise the noble minds of hack politicians everywhere. You see, if you create the "right" incentives and pump gobs of tax dollars into the a failing industry that employs union workers you will reap great rewards. Hold on tight fellow taxpayers! We are in for a ride! Whoopee!

HT: Carpe Diem

And the rumba line just gets a little longer

Now commercial real estate developers are asking the government for financial assistance. The line for a taxpayer handout just keeps getting longer, folks. As predicted, a bad precedent was set when the Feds decided to bailout Wall Street.

Congress is getting a pay raise? Why?

Yes folks, just when you thought that our current economic situation couldn't get any stranger. The political class will be quietly giving themselves a sweet pay raise in 2009. Oh well, why not? After all, Congress has done a real bang-up job with just about everything under the sun and under their perceived great scope. With an approval rating lower than George W. Bush, you would think that they should get a pay cut at least until the economy and the rest of the sucker-taxpayers like you and me had something to be cheerful about. This is yet another example of how trusting our country to these people is always a bad idea.; the taxpayer seems to not be a priority.

HT: Copious Dissent

Thanks for nothing , Mr. President

Bush approves $17.4 billion in aid to automakers.

No bailout for automakers!!

Don J. Boudreaux on the possible bailout of the big three:

So, far from solving this problem, any "bridge loans" from Uncle Sam to the Big Three will only delay the inevitable need to restructure. Bailout money would force taxpayers to foot the bill for Detroit's irresponsible past promises while it protects these firms from having to do the hard work of correcting this real source of their unprofitability. (Of course, bailout money would also protect overpaid and over-pensioned UAW members from having their pay and pensions scaled back to reasonable levels.)

With the symptoms of this serious ailment socialized for however long the bailout funds last -- that is, with nothing done to cure the ailment -- GM, Ford and Chrysler will be no better able to operate profitably after they run through the bailout funds than they're able to do now.

So if they're bailed out now, they'll inevitably be back in Washington in the near future to beg for another bailout.

My Comment: No one would have imagined a world without Pan Am or Woolworth's. I remember those big companies from my youth. After they were gone, the airline and retail industry continued merrily without them. Why do some people believe that if the big three go under it would be the end of the world? Yes, it would hurt to absorb those unemployed auto workers into our ailing economy but a bailout may simply prolong the inevitable. There is no guarantee that if given a bailout loan, the big three would make a triumphant comeback.

Government intervention in our economy will not work

Cato Institute's Dan Mitchell explains the fallacy of "priming the pump." Politicians just love to spend our money.

We need a "Car Czar" like we need bullets to our heads

Despite polls showing that most Americans have an unfavorable view of bailing out GM, Ford, and Chrysler, Democratic congressional leaders and White House officials "agreed in principle Tuesday on a $15 billion bailout of U.S. automakers that would give the government extraordinary power to restructure the failing industry." Perfect. While our political class is busy spending our tax dollars on bad businesses, maybe we can also have ourselves an "energy czar" to boot

The line just gets longer, folks! Now its Citigroup's turn!

And now Citigroup gets to line up at the trough! Of course, Wall Street loved the crony-capitalism and had a great day. The taxpayer on the other hand gets screwed again.

The line just gets longer, folks!

If you didn't hear the latest news on the bailout fiasco, American Express recently got the green light to become a bank holding company. Of course, this move gives one of the largest credit card companies a juicy opportunity to lobby for government funding. Well, guess what?

AmEx received approval earlier this week from the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company, which is a similar structure to traditional commercial banks. The credit card company now has access to financing from the Fed and the ability to grow a large deposit base.

The company is said to be asking the government for an investment, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal citing unnamed sources. A spokeswoman for AmEx declined to comment, and telephone calls to the Treasury Department, which is running the $700 billion financial bailout program, did not immediately return telephone calls.

The increased funding opportunities through government programs, including the potential $3.5 billion investment, could be a huge boost to American Express as one of its primary sources of funding has nearly disappeared amid the ongoing credit crisis.

American Express relied on packaging pools of credit card debt and selling them to investors in the securitization market. As investors have shied away from purchasing all but the safest forms of debt, the market for credit card-backed securities has dwindled.

American Express is also facing a slowdown in the broader economy, which has led to more customers missing payments and cutting back on spending, hurting the company's profitability.

I can see a congo line way off in the distance of well-dressed executives making their way to Washington, D.C.

Social Security Disability--Your Tax Dollars at Work

You just wait till Democrats start fattening up all of those entitlement programs they are so fond of in order to garner votes.

HT: Liberty Pen

Does anybody still think that the bailouts were a good idea?

As big businesses get in line for a hand out, the prospects for taxpayers that are footing the massive bill looks nasty.

AIG to get even more funds for bailout

It seems that the tax funds that were set aside for propping up AIG are not enough; the original $123 million package is set to be replaced by a $150 billion package. And then there is the bailout for the big three automakers sitting and waiting to be finalized too. When does the madness stop?

Democrats ready to reward unions

Congressional Democrats are already trying to move on some of their crony-capitalist ideals by announcing that they intend to double the aid to U.S. automakers. The aid would be included as part of a second stimulus package; the first stimulus package did very little to prop the ailing economy but maybe if they try it again, it might just work, right? Democrats are beholden to union members (a very small portion--7.5%--of private sector workers and responsible for spending $400 million on the election) for their support during this last election, so it is no surprise that such a tasty little aid plan ($50 billion in taxpayer funds) would be brought to the feet of the United Auto Workers and the fledgling car companies. Ask yourself, would Democrats do the same for other industries that didn't pass their ideological muster? A better question is should government be aiding any failed business at the expense of others? We have already seen what the $700 billion bailout has borne out, should our government be allowed to play favorites again?

We are all Keynesians Now

A second stimulus package is gaining support in Congress even though the first one did little to spur the economy. Expect this same sort of Keynesianism to be at the fore of American economic politics for some time.

Best post I've read today on a national health care plan...

From Cafe Hayek on the idea of having national health care because it will free businesses from an added expense:

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, perhaps channeling Malcolm Gladwell, commits a truly bad economic mistake. Like all such mistakes, it's one that results when someone looks only at the surface, with no analytical penetration beyond what is most easily seen.

Here's Dionne:

"Few investments would help businesses more than offloading a share of their health-care costs to the government. It's social justice with an economic kick."

Rather than explain in detail the flaws that saturate this idea, I content myself now only to ask: If Dionne is correct that the efficiency of American businesses would generally be improved if government paid for all workers' health insurance - that is, if government paid part of firms' costs of employing workers - then is it also true that the efficiency of American businesses would be further improved if government paid firms' full wages bill?

Put differently, if the U.S. economy would get "an economic kick" from government paying part of firms' costs of employing workers, why would the economy not get an even bigger kick if government announces to all employers: 'From now on, government will pay all of the expenses you incur in hiring and maintaining employees. Government will pay not only one type of fringe benefit, as Mr. Dionne proposes, but all of your costs of employing workers.'

So no firm would any longer have to pay as much as a single cent to hire and maintain workers. Wages, salaries, and fringe benefits - all benefits from health-insurance premiums to office holiday parties - would be fully covered by government.

Funny but true...so true

HT: Liberty Pen

Best post I've read today on our economic pickle...

From the Economist's Cookbook on Time magazines torpid reporting:

So TIME spends paragraphs talking about easy money. But they neglect to clearly state that the easy money is the fault of the Federal Reserve! It's asinine to blame all of this on the greed of wall street. Greed is a constant factor of life. It's like blaming gravity when a plane crashes.

Barney gets pounded by O'Reilly

With friends like these...

The difference between Liberals and Libertarians (like myself) is that Liberals really believe that government can be a vehicle for progress in that it can, by the dint of its scope and power, help people achieve economic prosperity, equality, and fairness. Conservatives and libertarians, on the other hand, are suspicious of concentrated power and view government as prologue to abuse of power. The latest escapade regarding the "bailout" bill is a prime example. Our government has written up a bill, now law, that would drive any fiscal conservative batty. There are so many bells and whistles in the "bailout" that temerity itself could not explain the boldness that it took to write it and then vote to pass it. Yet another example of how anything that is dealt by our government amounts to largesse, bureaucracy, and fickle solutions.

From National Review Online:

It is no coincidence that the Senate passed its economic bailout bill in a package containing unrelated legislation and special-interest tax breaks. This is an important lesson about how Washington works that is seldom mentioned in the debate over “earmarks,” if these tax provisions can be called that. For in addition to the common objections to earmarks — the wasteful nature of many of them, and the climate of disrespect for taxpayers that they create — it is also important to remember that earmarks grease the skids for bad or unpopular legislation.

“They’re trying to buy off members,” says conservative Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R., Minn.), who spoke to me on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the House’s expected Friday vote. “I think this sort of thing leads to cynicism on the part of the public. It demonstrates the crassness of Washington, the out-and-out vote-buying that happens when leadership feels a bill has to pass. It’s a bit troubling to think that someone would throw out the concept of free markets for the sake of wooden arrows.”