Sunday, August 22, 2010

Something Every Taxpayer Can't Afford to Miss.

In just six months, on January 1, 2011, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves. On January 1, 2011, here's what happens... (read it to the end, so you see all three waves)...

First Wave:
1 - Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
- In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors,
small business owners, and families.
These will all expire on January 1, 2011.

2 - Personal income tax rates will rise.

- The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also
the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).
- The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between
will also rise.
- Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which
has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates.
- The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

· The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%

· The 25% bracket rises to 28%

· The 28% bracket rises to 31%

· The 33% bracket rises to 36%

· The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%


3- Higher taxes on marriage and family.
- The "marriage penalty" (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will
return from the first dollar of income.
- The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.
- The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples
relative to the single level.
- The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.
- The return of the Death Tax.
(This year only, there is no death tax. It's a quirk! For those dying on
or after January 1, 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on
estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes, a business, a
retirement account, could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved
ones. Think of the farmers who don't make much money, but their land, which
they purchased years ago with after-tax dollars, is now worth a lot of
money. Their children will have to sell the farm, which may be their
livelihood, just to pay the estate tax if they don't have the cash sitting
around to pay the tax. Think about your own family's assets. Maybe your
family owns real estate, or a business that doesn't make much money, but the
building and equipment are worth $1 million. Upon their death, you can
inherit the $1 million business tax free, but if they own a home, stock,
cash worth $500K on top of the $1 million business, then you will owe the
government $275,000 cash! That's 55% of the value of the assets over $1
million! Do you have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to pay the
estate tax?

4 -Higher tax rates on savers and investors.
- The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in
2011.
- The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in
2011.
- These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave:

1- Obamacare
- There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first
go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:

2- The "Medicine Cabinet Tax"
Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings
account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement
(HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter
medicines (except insulin).

3- The "Special Needs Kids Tax"
This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts
(FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is
one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and
onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families
with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs
to pay for special needs education.

Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in
Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed
$14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for
this type of special needs education.

4 - The HSA (Health Savings Account) Withdrawal Tax Hike.
This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical
early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them
relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10
percent.

Third Wave:

1 - The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they'll
be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT won't be held harmless, and many tax
relief provisions will have expired.

The major items include:
- The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last
year.
- According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress' failure to
index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising
from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to
calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The
AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.
- Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.
- Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or
"depreciate") equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the
way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can currently expense half of their
purchases of equipment.

In January of 2011, all of it will have to be "depreciated."

- Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.
There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place.
The biggest is the loss of the "research and experimentation tax credit,"
but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the
loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

- Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.
- The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.
- Tax credits for education will be limited.
- Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.
- Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut.
- Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.
- The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of
thousands of families.
-
Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a
retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly
to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an
annual "required minimum distribution." This ability will no longer be
there.

And worse yet?
- Now, your insurance will be INCOME on your W2's!
- One of the surprises we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a
little "surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the "new and
improved" healthcare legislation . . . the dupes, er, dopes, who backed this
administration will be astonished!
- Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your
employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance
you are given by the company. - - It does not matter if that's a private
concern or governmental body of some sort.
- If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount of
insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have
never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or
$20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next
year.

For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.

This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't
have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET
PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001,
as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the
W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer
sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross
income."

Sunday, July 18, 2010

2010


(2001 space odyssey)

And the notorious spot that is bringing about its downfall.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July!

Today my family and I are in Richmond celebrating the 4th of July with my wife's family. This morning at mass we sang "America the Beautiful." The church had a special treat for the occasion, a brass band that calls itself, James River Brass. They were an absolute delight to listen to and made the familiar patriotic song all the more exciting to sing.

America The Beautiful.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.

America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.

America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

Happy Independence Day Everyone!!!

Friday, June 25, 2010

AT&T HAS CRASHED!

This morning my wife and I woke to a 'no service' signal on our respective iPhones that use the AT&T cellular network. I used our internet phone and called AT&T customer service to find out what is going on, here is what he said. The AT&T network went down at 5:48am in Richmond, Charlottesville, Staunton, Waynesboro, Harrisonburg, Roanoke, and trucks off of Richmond up and down i95.

AT&T has called this a "Priority 1" problem and is being actively DIAGNOSED by AT&T repair teams. That means they don't even know what is causing the problem. The agent stated that the towers were not physically damaged by any storms because they all still have power, however for some reason the towers are just not working. It is curious that the iPhone 4 was released yesterday, and today AT&T, at least in the major parts of Virginia, has crashed. As of 9:40am they have no estimated time when the network will be back up. AT&T strikes again.


Apple Admits Flaw with iPhone 4 Design.

CNet News reports that Apple has released a statement acknowledging antenna problem with iPhone 4. Apparently, customers have complained that when you hold the phone in your hand the cellular signal is lost, like it wasn't already bad enough with the AT&T network. There is a YouTube video up demonstrating the flaw with the new phone. Apple insists that all cell phones lose signal when held, however as the video demonstrates the new iPhone 4 completely loses signal!

The problem appears to be in the newly designed antenna array. The metal band that actually wraps the phone houses the antennas, the idea is that the human hand is grounding out or disrupting the signals. Apple insists that this is easily fixed by purchasing a case for the phone.

Personally, I don't use a permanent case for my iPhone. One of the attractions for me and the iPhone was its style without a case. The case completely ruins the iPhone 4's sleek look, making it more bulky.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

My iPhone 4 experience, a failure for AT&T.

This morning I got up early and set out for the AT&T store to purchase the new iPhone 4. Here is the horror story of my experience.

Rewind in time to June 15th, I arrived at the store that morning to try and Pre-Order an iPhone 4. I was told by the salesman that the Pre-Order system had crashed and it wasn’t possible to order at that time. He took my name and number and said he would Pre-Order it for me as soon as the system came back up.

Fast forward to about June 21st when the salesman called my cell and told me the system was back up, however halfway through the conversation the Pre-Order system crashed again! The salesman told me to come to the store bright and early on June 24th, launch day, and buy one.

So flash forward to this morning, I am waiting outside the AT&T store, the man opens the door, all of those waiting come in to find…The same sales guy who I had been dealing with tell us that the store DIDN’T HAVE ANY iPHONE 4 IN STOCK!!!

“Are you kidding!” We all said. I was upset, because this whole thing has been an AT&T blunder from the beginning. The sales guy could have been good enough to call me the day before and tell me not to waste my time, however it seems that courtesy would have been a waste of his.

Those of us who didn’t leave in frustration went inside to check out the two demo phones on display. They worked great on their own, the speed, function, and display are amazing. Being that there were two phones, we tried to make a Facetime call, but it didn’t work. We asked the sales guy who had given us enough bad news already that day and he said that their WiFi network that AT&T setup doesn’t allow for the Facetime calling…WHAT! This doesn’t bode well for AT&T, one of the best new features about the iPhone 4 can’t even be demonstrated at the STORE THAT SELLS IT?

So, in the end I walked back to my car without an iPhone 4, disappointed that the store didn’t even have the decency to put out an email, notice on its website, or even have someone at the store early to inform those of us who waited so long, then didn’t even have things set up properly to demo the phone. What a waste.

Apple needs to get away from AT&T as its sole provider of the phone, bring on Verizon, I would switch in a heart beat.

Staggered Terms shot down in Augusta.

WHSV TV 3 had a spot about it last night. See it Here. The News Leader and the News Virginian, also have coverage about it in today's paper. Also see SWACgirl for more on how the News Virginian is in favor of the Staggered Terms change.

WHSV TV did a great fact check which found Augusta to be the only local governing body that DOES NOT have Staggered Terms.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Obama hands Gen. McChrystal his hat.



President Obama made his decision today, and that was to show Gen. McChrystal the door. Gen. McChrystal was sent packing in response to an article that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine. The article depicts a very frustrated commander on the ground in Afghanistan. McChrystal and his staff held nothing back as they criticized the Obama Administration, members of Congress, and other civilian officials in hindering their ability to get the job done in Afghanistan.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Newspapers weigh in on Staggered Terms issue in Augusta County.

The Staunton News Leader and the Waynesboro News Virginian both ran stories today about the Augusta County Board of Supervisor's issue of staggering their elections. Both papers believe the issue is dead going into tomorrow's meeting at the Government Center in Verona. However, the board will be holding a public hearing on the issue during the Wednesday meeting.

You can hear from the supervisors themselves by watching their work session discussion,

The supervisors would be held more accountable for their actions if their elections were more frequent. The simple fact that the majority of the board is against the change shows their desire to be less accountable to the citizens of Augusta. Bring your voice to the Government Center tomorrow, Wednesday at 7:00pm for the public input session.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Staggered Terms in Augusta County Moves to Public Input.

The issue of staggered terms was first proposed by Supervisor Tracy Pyles from the Pastures District of Augusta County. Currently, the supervisors serve a 4 year term, this wouldn't change. The only thing that would change is instead of the whole board being elected every four years, only half would be elected every two years. This is a great idea because it would make the supervisors more accountable to the public every 2 years instead of every 4.

Today, during the Augusta County Board of Supervisors Work Session Meeting, the board placed the issue of staggered terms on the Agenda for its public meeting scheduled for Wednesday, June 23 at 7:00pm at the Government Center in Verona. Please plan to come and take part in the public input on this issue.

The general consensus is if the public doesn't come out to support this measure than the issue will die and the whole board will be elected at once every four years, locking out the citizens of Augusta from influencing its board in 4 year intervals. Below is rundown of their remarks or watch the Video Part One, Part Two.

Supervisor Tracy Pyles, Pastures District. Mr. Pyles was the supervisor to bring up this issue and ask that the change be made to the election process for the Board of Supervisors in Augusta County. His reasoning from the start has been to allow the citizens of Augusta a more frequent influence on the board, meaning an election of half the board every 2 years rather than the whole board every 4 years. Mr. Pyles is in favor of the change.

Supervisor Larry Howdyshell, North River District. Mr. Howdyshell stated that at first he was in favor of allowing the citizens a more frequent influence on the board, then changed his mind. His quote was, "If it isn't broke, don't fix it." To that I would ask, just because it isn't broke, doesn't mean that you can't make it better. There are some that would say that the Representation on the Board of Supervisors here in Augusta is broken. Mr. Howdyshell is against the change.

Supervisor Jeremy Shifflett, Beverley Manor District. Mr. Shifflett took a pass on this issue stating that there are good things and bad things about it. He said there should be public input. I was hoping for something more from my representative on the board. This issue has been discussed and considered by the board for more than two months, now he wants public input. I certainly haven't heard of any public meetings in the past couple months to discuss this, I would have gone. Mr. Shifflett took a pass.

Supervisor Nancy Sorrells, Riverheads District. Mrs. Sorrells stated the change would be good because institutional memory of the board would be better maintained. However, she backtracked saying that half the board would be up for election during the Real Estate Assessment Process. I think this is a good thing. She also stated that the board would become more political if the elections were more frequent. Mrs. Sorrells went on to say that she would be in favor if the Real Estate Assessment process was done on a different year and that it not happen in 2011 because redistricting of the county takes place in 2011. I hope she remembered that the whole board is up for election in 2011 anyway, making her statement about the redistricting a mute point. Mrs. Sorrells is against the change, at least right now.

Supervisor David Beyeler, South River District. Mr. Beyeler echoed the sentiments of Mr. Howdyshell. He stated if it isn't broke don't fix it. He stated, in his 22.5 years on the board, nothing is broke. To which I say, its broke. He also went on to say that if a supervisor isn't getting input from their district except for during an election year, than something is wrong. I agree with Mr. Beyeler, but I believe he misses the point. The citizens are giving input, the board members are just not listening, an election solves that problem. Mr. Beyeler is against the change.

Supervisor Wendell Coleman, Wayne District. Mr. Coleman echoed the sentiments of Mr. Howdyshell and Mr. Beyeler. He stated this current process isn't broke so don't fix it. He then went on to slam the Staunton and Waynesboro City Councils for their staggered term processes, basically saying that nothing gets done. He ended his remarks by saying, "just leave it alone." Mr. Coleman is against the change.

Chairman Gerald Garber, Middle River District. Mr. Garber stated he didn't want the issue brought up during the public meeting. However, Mr. Pyles asked it be put on the Wednesday Public Meeting agenda. Though Mr. Garber stated he didn't want it brought up at the Public Meeting he didn't give any clear opinion one way or the other.

It looks like if a vote was taken now there would be 1 in favor, 4 against, 1 who would rather not say, and 1 who has no idea.

Oil Companies push back against Moratorium.

Oil Companies are asking U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman to block the Federal Government from enforcing a six-month moratorium on new deep water drilling projects and the suspension of drilling at 33 existing sites. The companies say the moratorium could cost Louisiana thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost wages, without any proof that the operations pose a threat.

Obama Holds Border Hostage in Private Meeting!

President Obama apparently is holding the border between the United States and Mexico hostage from Congressional Republicans. Watch the Video from RedState for all the details... I am just disgusted by this, we have Americans being killed and drugs being smuggled into our country on this border and Obama wants to use protecting it as a political hostage.

Staggered Terms in Augusta Co, Meeting Today.

The Augusta County Board of Supervisors are set to discuss staggered terms today at their monthly work session meeting in the Verona Government Center. It is open to the public and begins at 1:30pm.

The issue of staggered terms was first proposed by Supervisor Tracy Pyles from the Pastures District of Augusta. Currently, the supervisors serve a 4 year term, this wouldn't change. The only thing that would change is instead of the whole board being elected every four years, half would be elected every two years. This is a great idea because it would make the supervisors accountable to the public every 2 years instead of every 4.

I have heard a number of arguments against the staggered terms from the board members at their last work session meeting. The first argument is cost, the supervisor in question said that it would add cost to the county having more frequent elections. Obviously, the supervisor is unaware that all of the Commonwealth of Virginia, including Augusta County, go to the polls every November for elections. Adding a board of supervisor ballot would not add any significant cost.

The second argument was impact on business, the supervisor who made this comment must not have been aware that Staunton and Waynesboro already have staggered terms in place, along with many of the other counties in Virginia, and businesses haven't made a fuss about it in those counties or cities. Actually, Waynesboro's business is flourishing quite well, look at the Target shopping area.

The third argument was that half the board would have to run during the county assessment process, just for that I fully support staggered terms. The board has to realize they are responsible to the people they represent and what better way to remind them of that than to make them campaign on it. I can't help but think that if we had staggered terms during our last real estate assessment process perhaps things would have gone differently and more scrutiny would have been applied to the process to assure greater accuracy.

The Board of Supervisors have already tabled this issue once making it harder for the people of Augusta to influence their government, and they most likely will try again today. Please, if you are able, make an effort to be at the Government Center at 1:30pm and show the supervisors that you want your representation back.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Robert Gibbs is no Dana Perino or C.J. Cregg.

Robert Gibbs is an embarrassment to the Obama Administration. I was watching the Press Briefing and I just couldn't take it any longer. Where did they find this guy, why does he still have a job, who thought it was a good idea to bring this guy on board? I think my 6 year old could do a better job. Sometimes I wonder if he is even allowed to speak with the President about anything that is of consequence. He must have an interpretor for the Pres. so there isn't time wasted on "um" and "uh." I hope he isn't allowed to speak and operate heavy machinery at the same time.

Taking from his speaking style, uh, Mr. Gibbs, uh, let me just, um, ask a simple question. Do you, uh, have any, um, idea how, um, unintelligent (big word) you, uh, sound?

I mean really, this man is the Press Secretary for the most powerful man on the PLANET. His job is to articulate the message of the White House. Mr. Obama could do worlds for his administration and poll numbers by showing this man the door. Just take a look.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Wild Eyes...

I have been following the Abby Sunderland story for the last few days as contact was lost with her somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Abby Sunderland, 16, was on a quest to solo circumnavigate the world, quite an undertaking. She was spotted yesterday by search and rescue plans that launched from Australia. She was spoken too by rescue workers and reports say she is fine and in no serious danger. A rescue vessel is due at her location within the next 24hours.

There has been a flood of activity and media pointed at her parents and whether or not they should have allowed the teen to make the voyage. The parents held firm that she had the necessary training, supplies, and experience for the voyage and the fact that she is dealing with her situation as well as she is a testament to her abilities. One thing, you have to give her credit for bravery.

One other thought, I have read over and over again about astronauts who see the Earth from space for the first time, they see the Whole World and start to gain a clearer perspective about the planet in which they live. I am sure Abby Sunderland has gained some of that perspective as she has traveled so far around the globe. I expect great things will come from her in life. God Speed Abby.