Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party |
- Almost 1,500 Millionaires Do Not Pay Income Tax
- Group Says It Hacked U.S. Law Enforcement Websites
- GOP Presidential Contenders Pile on Obama for Historic Credit Downgrade
- S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating for first time
- Standard and Poor’s vindicates Tea Party with downgrade of U.S. Debt
| Almost 1,500 Millionaires Do Not Pay Income Tax Posted: 06 Aug 2011 09:40 AM PDT By AMY BINGHAM, ABC News At a time when America is borrowing about 40 cents of every dollar it spends because tax revenues cannot keep up with government spending, hundreds of America’s wealthiest households are paying no income tax at all. According to a recently released IRS report, almost 1,500 of America’s 230,000 millionaires avoided paying any federal income tax in 2009. So how did they do it? Were they scamming the system? Evading the IRS? Stashing their cash in elusive off-shore, untraceable bank accounts? Actually, they were probably donating to charity, investing in local and state government bonds and making most of their money overseas. Most of the millionaires who did not pay income tax to the IRS probably still had to hand over a chunk of their change, just not to the U.S. government, said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. Instead, many of America’s high earners pay income taxes to foreign governments because of profits from overseas investments. “In most cases, they are paying taxes outside the U.S. and the federal government says, ‘We are not going to double tax you. If you pay tax overseas and that’s as much or more than you pay here, we aren’t going to charge you more,’” Williams said. To read more, visit: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/1500-millionaires-pay-income-tax/story?id=14242254 |
| Group Says It Hacked U.S. Law Enforcement Websites Posted: 06 Aug 2011 09:26 AM PDT By Associated Press, FOXNews.com LONDON — The group known as Anonymous says it has hacked some 70 law enforcement websites across the southern and central United States in retaliation for the arrests of its sympathizers in the U.S. and Britain. The hacking group also claims to have stolen 10 gigabytes of data, including emails, credit card details, and other information from local law enforcement bodies. Anonymous’ claims couldn’t all be immediately verified, but a review of the sites it claims to have targeted — mainly sheriffs’ offices in states such as Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Mississippi — showed that most were unavailable or had been wiped clean of content. To read more, visit: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/06/group-says-it-hacked-us-law-enforcement-websites/ |
| GOP Presidential Contenders Pile on Obama for Historic Credit Downgrade Posted: 06 Aug 2011 09:21 AM PDT By Stephen Clark, FOXNews.com Republicans vying to replace President Obama next year wasted little time in pouncing on the news that the nation's Triple-A credit rating was downgraded for the first time in history by Standard & Poor's. While the announcement late Friday wasn't a surprise – the country has faced a possible downgrade since April – and the U.S. still maintains a top rating with the other two major credit rating agencies, the development offers fresh ammunition to the president's opponents who have been relentless in hammering him on his economic record, which is seen as his greatest vulnerability. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., a Tea Party darling, called on Obama to fire Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and quickly submit a plan to balance the budget, not just reduce deficits. To read more, visit: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/06/gop-presidential-contenders-pile-on-obama-for-historic-credit-downgrade/ |
| S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating for first time Posted: 06 Aug 2011 09:18 AM PDT By Zachary A. Goldfarb, The Washington Times Standard & Poor's announced Friday night that it has downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time, dealing a symbolic blow to the world's economic superpower in what was a sharply worded critique of the American political system. Lowering the nation's rating to one notch below AAA, the credit rating company said "political brinkmanship" in the debate over the debt had made the U.S. government's ability to manage its finances "less stable, less effective and less predictable." It said the bipartisan agreement reached this week to find at least $2.1 trillion in budget savings "fell short" of what was necessary to tame the nation's debt over time and predicted that leaders would not be likely to achieve more savings in the future. "It's always possible the rating will come back, but we don't think it's coming back anytime soon," said David Beers, head of S&P's government debt rating unit. The decision came after a day of furious back-and-forth debate between the Obama administration and S&P. Treasury Department officials fought back hard, arguing that the firm's political analysis was flawed and that it had made a numerical error in a draft of its downgrade report that overstated the deficit over 10 years by $2 trillion. Officials had reviewed the draft earlier in the day. "A judgment flawed by a $2 trillion error speaks for itself," a Treasury spokesman said Friday night. The downgrade to AA+ will push the global financial markets into uncharted territory after a volatile week fueled by concerns over a worsening debt crisis in Europe and a faltering economy in the United States. The AAA rating has made the U.S. Treasury bond one of the world's safest investments — and has helped the nation borrow at extraordinarily cheap rates to finance its government operations, including two wars and an expensive social safety net for retirees. Treasury bonds have also been a stalwart of stability amid the economic upheaval of the past few years. The nation has had a AAA rating for 70 years. Analysts say that, over time, the downgrade could push up borrowing costs for the U.S. government, costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year. It could also drive up interest rates for consumers and companies seeking mortgages, credit cards and business loans. A downgrade could also have a cascading series of effects on states and localities, including nearly all of those in the Washington metro area. These governments could lose their AAA credit ratings as well, potentially raising the cost of borrowing for schools, roads and parks. But the exact effects of the downgrade won't be known until at least Sunday night, when Asian markets open, and perhaps not fully grasped for months. Analysts say the initial effect on the markets could be modest because they have been anticipating an S&P downgrade for weeks. Federal officials are also examining the impact of a downgrade in large but esoteric financial markets where U.S. government bonds serve an extremely important function. They were generally confident that markets would hold up but were closely monitoring the situation. Regulators said that the downgrade would not affect how banking rules treat Treasury bonds — as risk-free assets. The ratings action immediately fueled partisan wrangling Friday night. Allies to President Obama said it underscored his call for a "grand bargain" that would trim $4 trillion from the federal budget involving a mix of tax revenue and spending cuts. Republicans criticized Obama's handling of the economy. To read more, visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sandp-considering-first-downgrade-of-us-credit-rating/2011/08/05/gIQAqKeIxI_print.html |
| Standard and Poor’s vindicates Tea Party with downgrade of U.S. Debt Posted: 06 Aug 2011 09:13 AM PDT By John Vax, The Commentator First off, I should start with a caveat. I have no love for the ratings agencies. They have had a pretty miserable track record at performing their primary function, which is to assist investors in assessing the risks of bonds issued by governments and corporations by assigning a rating. They are often way behind the curve when it comes to spotting issuers who are getting into trouble or they get it completely wrong from the start, like they did with ratings on portfolios of mortgages and sophisticated financial instruments known as collateralised debt obligations (CDOs). That being said, late Friday evening, one of the major credit ratings agencies, Standard and Poor's, downgraded the debt of the United States from its "triple A" rating to "double A plus" while maintaining a negative outlook. This downgrade, the first downgrade of US debt below AAA since the foundation of the agencies, increases the chorus of critics of Washington's borrowing and spending practices. These critics of the U.S.'s fiscal insanity are now as diverse as "Tea Party" conservatives, China's communist government , the bureaucratic IMF and even some Clinton democrats such as Alice Rivlin. Over the last few days, we have heard the left wing U.S. press and various Democrat politicians try to label the Tea Party as "terrorists." To read more, visit: http://www.thecommentator.com/article/351/standard_and_poor_s_vindicates_tea_party_with_downgrade_of_u_s_debt_ |
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