Yes, for a number of reasons, income taxes are indeed down this year. Well, of course, that can’t last. It’s a matter of transition. The Bush benefits are still in effect and the Obama favorites got layered on but we all see what’s up with the economy so we know the bill has to be paid sooner or later. I’m guessing “sooner” after taking a quick look at our tax dollars at work.
In NYC, “hundreds of teachers waiting for disciplinary hearings in "rubber rooms"… teacher-reassignment centers” and getting PAID; “the teachers collect their full salaries of $70,000 or more, the city Department of Education estimated last year that the practice was costing the taxpayers $65 million a year”. And this has been going on for how many years??? What an enormous waste of resources in so many ways! Oh, and “teacher-reassignment center”? Am I the only one who harkens back to reassigning workers to Siberia at the sound of that terminology? Just say Gulag please. I guess not since people were actually worked to death in those work camps.
Here in Texas, one government has found a fast way to spend tax dollars! Buy foreclosed houses for the full amount owed on them after someone’s been tossed on the street homeless and then sell for 20% less to a new owner. Now, mind you that taxpayers will have to pay that 20%. Add to that the fact that the sales price is still going to be higher than the market value so the new owner is upside down on the loan immediately, probably maxed out so can’t do maintenance. That will lead to being further upside down financially and, Woo Hoo, there’s the set up to the next foreclosure. Repeat process! Wonder how many times a government can flip a house in a year?
Yep, the economy is coming back fast. Can’t you tell from the fact that “one in every 138 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice” in the first quarter of this year? Apparently that was a record. (Surely, after several years of this, we must be closing in on 20% of homes having actually been foreclosed.) On the up side, Houston will probably have plenty of houses to buy up, discount, resell, flip, flip, flip. Hey, do it 5 times and the City has actually paid for the home without actually acquiring the asset. And I’m actually afraid that they may have thought that through to its logical conclusion and decided it was still somehow a great deal to buy these houses and discount them for resale.
Ain’t it sweet how the banks who give out loans they shouldn’t get paid in full in these deals?
And the health insurance companies are already prepping to maximize profits from reforms! No surprises there. We've already got mandated auto insurance with premiums running wild so it's no surprise that the health insurance companies will get out in front to maximize profits on mandated insurance now that the method is essentially perfected. Y'all do know that the po po (heard that recently and couldn't resist) can tell if you have auto insurance now without even pulling you over, right? I wonder if a light flashes on their dash and gets faster as they close in, like a video game.
Oh, and, of course, more bailouts coming for the auto makers sooner or later because they underfunded their pension plans. No doubt much of that is due to their Wall Street delusions of what they thought was in them that really wasn’t because the market was bloated. No matter, we’ll be bailing out both the auto makers AND keep rewarding those good folks on Wall Street too.
When you look at the way these government agents are spending money, it really is no wonder how many ways they are finding to seize and forfeit property. Spending like that creates a money hungry monster in need of feeding. Having found out it was pretty easy to just snatch up real and personal property through civil seizure/forfeiture; they just keep expanding the process to more and more methods and forms of property. It’s no longer just about feeding the money hungry monster. It’s about power and redistribution of “wealth” but, you know, not really. As throughout history, it isn’t the truly wealthy losing much; it’s the lower 90% being equalized. Of course, it doesn’t actually do that but it makes people feel like they’re getting ahead when they are really losing so everyone jumps on the bandwagon for their little piece instead of objecting to the whole mess.
I can’t approve of embezzling under any circumstances but then I can’t really blame an ex-cop, taught to steal through things like the civil forfeiture process, for stealing from other cops. Does make one wonder how much he stole and from whom while on the force. How about the other 2 indicted? Were they cops too?
There’s a DA who is prosecuting some of the RIP OFF contractors who did work after Hurricane Ike. I so want to praise this DA but I just can’t. It appears to be the first time this law has been used. It’s been on the freaking books in it’s current form since 1994. Jeez, Louise guys, if you’d bothered to use it for those nearly 25 years before Ike, those rip off contractors might never have been! Guess I should mention the Deceptive Business Practices section of the Texas Penal Code has been on the books since 1973! WTF? Were you too busy filing civil forfeiture actions to go after your brethren thieves?
Oh, well, guess the rest of the DA’s are still too busy with “other” things to even do what little this one DA is finally getting around to doing. In addition to forfeitures, our Texas AG is still persecuting, er, um, prosecuting the men of the FLDS. Hey, OK, not a mainstream religion, not one I'd join but here's the thing; they do take care of their own. Not one member of the Texas group was on any form of public assistance UNTIL the grand old state of Texas raiding their ranch, snatched up 400+ of their children, insisted that they be disbursed rather than live at their home and that meant they could no longer support themselves. So, while we have middle aged men all over Texas knocking up girls and walking away and the Texas AG has a PATHETIC record of being able to collect child support for them; the Texas AG is spending MILLIONS of our tax dollars to prosecute men for bigamy with 15-17 year old girls. Forgive me for sounding heartless but could we go after the deadbeat dads and deal with the rampant prostitution of 13 year old girls in Houston instead of spending money to prosecute bigamy of willing participants which will indeed cost us even more tax dollars to support those willing participants now that the family earner is behind bars?
Can’t but wonder how much better things would be if the DA’s (or maybe even the Texas AG) took a look at this list and decided to go after these big companies for their deceptive business practices. Oh, sorry, forgot myself for a moment. They’d have to WORK at those cases and it’s so much easier to go after ordinary folks and snatch up their property for profit and power while we are all forced to reward the biggie thieves out there.
Wait, I hear a voice on a balcony from history… What was that? Did you say to LET US EAT CAKE??? Hm, my kitty cat doesn’t eat cake and he says you’re starting to look TASTY. Where's my pitchfork, real peasants need pitchforks!