Loading ...
Has There Ever Been A Better Time To Raise The Gas Tax
No, there never is a good or better time to raise, start a new one or for that matter to tax at all.
But the above quote was uttered by an economics professor Thomas Cooley on Forbes’ Web site last week.
The idea is gaining traction for a number of reasons, a nexus of interests are forming to advance the idea. Hey where’s MY SEAT AT THIS TABLE?
The greenies like the idea of making life more expensive, since that is the only way non-economic technologies such as green tech can become viable. If green tech was or is viable we’ll adopt it on our own in our own self-enlighten interest.
The government types always like the idea of raising money, hey you didn’t think you weren’t going to have to pay back all the bailout money did you?
And certain conservatives are looking at it from a National Security Point of View. Accepting a tax increase to wean us off of oil.
And the infrastructure boys could always use more money to build bridges etc… But I caution the infrastructure crowd, rarely does money taxed for a reason go to that reason. Just like the Casino’s were going to pay for education in Connecticut.
I’ve maintained for years that energy needs to be looked at as a National Security issue. No doubt about it, but why does it entail making me and the local economy poorer?
I have been enjoying the low gas prices, it means an additional 50$ in my pocket every week and I can use it. And I do use it stimulating the Main Street economy. Take that money out of our pockets and send it to Washington and our local economy loses it. I only have so much money to go around.
There’s a gold rush going on in Washington right now, the Republican Guard was caught daydreaming and the Democrat Armored Cavalry Regiment took the field promising Trillions in new spending.
And 600,000 new federal employees with federal benefits and retirement.
Avast you scurvy dog! Prepare to be boarded!
Frankly I’ve had thoughts of every man for himself lately and joining the god rush, why am I the idiot?
Someone has to hold the line. This will be and is a train wreck, it’s happening and it’s going to happen, what’s good for the country is once again being lost in the gold rush and the gitting while the gitting is good.
No country has EVER worked it’s way out of a recession by raising taxes. Ever. Never. Really.
Our dysfunctional government has not been taking care of business, the business of business and the business of the country.
This crisis is government made and it’s a fool that believes the government can spend it’s way out of it’s mess.
If the Republican’s want a theme for America, this is it. “Taking care of business, the business of business and the business of the country.”
So It Must Be With WTIC
Little joy in seeing Colin go, while my ride home will be less annoying, I did appreciate his relative lack of sports programming.
I can’t find it in my heart to criticize him now that he is gone, having been laid off myself.
Interestingly the last show ran “Bruce and Colin” intros, a tribute and wave to his former on air partner, who was let go with less consideration than Colin. No farewell show for Bruce Stevens. Bruce Stevens did a couple of fill in shows on WDRC and I found him quite enjoyable and less irritating when not having to carry the water for Colin’s circular logic, and perhaps Bruce might even have a bit of a repressed conservative streak, perhaps. But always a populist that Bruce.
Sometimes those institutions that figure so large in our lives are revealed to be somewhat smaller. So it must be with WTIC. For the cost of what? $150,000, $200,000? I have no idea what talk show hosts make. Two of their most familiar voices are let go and that 50,000 watt station that we all grew up seems somewhat smaller in stature now.
I can draw no parallels to the Connecticut malaise and this reduction of staff. This must be occurring in broadcast stations as newspapers all across the country.
Change must be and does frequently when you don’t expect it. It is the measure of us all how we rise to change especially that which is not upward and onward.
But the good news is there is one less cheerleader for the CT Democrats, the downside is we’ve lost our best reminder of the strident left’s logic thought process.
There are probably tears in the Bysiewicz and Curry homes’ tonight, who else paid them such attention? The Bysiewicz will probably have to re-think her strategy for the Governor’s office.
Colin was anomaly in talk radio, a liberal survivor of years. I think his ability to survive was in large part to his clearly evident embeddedness to the Hartford scene. He knew what was up in Hartford and many times who was doing the backstabbing. Though many times I think chose to look the other way.
With the right partner to keep him out of his occasional (read daily) bout of tail chasing logic events, he could go national. Hopefully he does, and unlike President Bush, maybe he’ll acknowledge he’s from Connecticut.
Diane Smith was a great foil for Ray, but that dog Chester was insufferable. My fingers could not fly to the radio buttons fast enough when I could feel Diane winding up an intro for a Chester dog food commercial. That skit went years too long. Diane’s liberalism balanced Ray’s conservatism and kept him on balance and provided a mild counterpoint. It was a rich show. Ray is enough of a professional to carry it on his own and has in the past.
At the end of the day after the pink slips, professionalism and our skill sets are all we have.
I wish them both the best and a prosperous New Year.
Here’s a little know fact: Colin and I could pass for each other.
Cashing In On Green
Aviation is pretty much in the tank and General Aviation always the poor stepchild is for all purposes shutdown till the recession ebbs. General Aviation is the first to feel the effects and last to shake it off, even in it’s good times General Aviation has trouble dealing a profit.
So what are these orphaned Aerospace engineers to do? Well as Willie Sutton sort of said, “Go where the money is.” And the money is going to be in infrastructure and green technologies. Having missed the Internet Bubble, I am not going to miss this bubble, and oh, a Green Bubble it will be, you heard it here first. Damn, guess not. The best bubbles are government bubbles. Just ask Dodd’s Wall Street buddies.
The gold (green) rush of 2010 is starting and if you aren’t in the game now, it’s probably too late.
So we here at CtTaxed have been doing the numbers, looking for the paybacks, the energy savings and the almighty cash flow, because if there isn’t a cash flow, there isn’t a sales pitch and if there isn’t a sales pitch there isn’t a Government Grant. I mean, I’ve got to be in the ballpark, get me close with the numbers and I’ll smoke and mirrors the rest, powerpoint is a dangerous weapon in my hands. Everybody in this room wants this to work right? Our hearts are in the right places, right? Look at ethanol, that never made any sense, but we did it any way.
We’ve been cranking the numbers to point where we are quite frankly out of napkins here at the CtTaxed household. Any techno knows, so I’ll spell out for the less fortunate, all great ideas are first sketched out on a napkin.
The money here in the Northeast is in heating our homes, it is the single biggest energy expense other than car fuel we have. And it’s a must purchase and we can’t put it off or delay the purchase, when we need it, we need it and we’ll pay the market price. At $3.5 / gallon of home heating oil I was in plenty of pain last winter, considerably less so now.
But lets work the numbers a bit. At $2.09 / gallon (cash and carry price), I’ll spend about $3,000 this year heating my home. Electricity to cook and dry clothes with comes in 2nd with about $1,200 a year. Gas for the cars comes in at $3,100 also, but soo many people are working that market, I’ll leave it to them. I’m spending about $8,000 a year on energy, in before tax dollars that’s about $11,500. Sooo tell me again about how sorry you are about the Gross Receipts Tax?
Most businesses look for 5 year paybacks, some large capital projects can be stretched longer, say 10 years. So our ceiling costs for any kind of home “green” energy system must be less than $15,000 to $30,000. That is not including cost of money nor scheduled maintenance that must be performed nor un-scheduled repairs.
And it assumes and it’s a huge assumption that this energy system can supply 100% of the home’s heating needs. Therein lies the problem. They don’t. The size of the system you’d need to run a house 100% by either photo cells or solar hot water collectors would be…a lot more roof than you have now. And we live in New England, it’s rather cold out there right now, and the sun isn’t up all that much, the potential to collect energy from the sun is at it’s low point, right when we need it the most.
It’s reasonable to assume the efficiency or energy returned by a supplemental system would be somewhere around 25% day in and day out, and I think that number is high. But let’s use it.
25% of the yearly cost of oil is: $750/year. Which puts our system costs in the: $3,750 to $7,000, to reach a reasonable payback. Problem is, the Green Energy Home Systems are in the $20,000 and up price ranges, and also since you can’t run your house 100% on the Green Energy system you need to keep and maintain your existing home heat system.
Right now, the typical home heating system is pretty darn efficient and cost effective. As we say in manufacturing, “it’s right sized”.
Green Energy Systems as they stand now are supplemental at best and duplicative of existing systems.
–CtTaxed.com
And regards Fuel Cells, if the cost has not come down in the 40 years I’ve been reading about “Fuel Cells Just Around The Corner”, it is not going to happen. That and my personal flying car.
We think a lot of about energy, it’s forms, storage, uses and origins. Anytime you convert one form of energy to another form, such as heat to electricity or electricity to heat, a considerable amount of energy is lost. Your car engine gives up 1/3 of it’s energy in un-usable heat and 1/3 in friction. Everybody knows heating your house with electricity is awfully expensive.
Our electricity rates in this state are among the highest in the country. But that’s a government induced shortage that keeps the price high. Supply has not been added to in this state in decades and we must buy electricity from out of state, and the greenies are doing their damnedest efforts to shut down our cheap coal plants. Which would raise our rates even higher. Sounds like a plan to me!
So, making the assumption any home based green heating system is supplemental in nature, it becomes an issue of investment costs. How cheap can you make the system and installation?
Green home heating systems live or die on cost. And no amount of wishing is going to change that.
More on this later, I need more napkins.
But chew on this: Be Your Own CL&P
TAX ATTACK
This short video does a great job explaining the Corporate Tax and why it hurts you and me.
I would add, all Corporate Tax gets passed down in higher cost to you and me.
Triple Whammy.
We pay tax on our income, then we pay corporate taxes on the stuff we buy to live and we encourage our corporations to move overseas, and we encourage corporations to buy stuff from overseas and not from our labor here in the USA. Why oh why is our government working against us?
Not much to love about the corporation tax, unless you are politician and you believe your electorate is dumb.
While I’m at here’s another, with Floyd for the soundtrack.
Government Is 30 Percent Of Our GDP And It Is Going To Get Bigger
The Government solution to this Government caused crisis, is of course more Government.
We are going to spend our way out of the mess we got in to by spending too much. And the people responsible are the ones who are going to fix it.
And “Arbeit macht frei”.
It was adopted in 1928 by the Weimar government as a slogan extolling the effects of their desired policy of large-scale public works programmes to end unemployment,
The parallels with the Weimar Republic are well …just plain scary. Hopefully the Weimar Republic is NOT the model for the USA. And no I’m not going to spell it out for you, you’ll just have to read some history. Try http://wikipedia.com
They are going to take our money, and build bridges, schools, and what not. I don’t need a new school I am paying for a brand new one right now, actually I am paying for 3 brand new schools right now. My roads are just fine.
The idea of not taking our money and letting us put our money to good use for us, us as in the singular is gaining traction.
Reasons for not collecting an income tax for the next say year!
1) It’s my money, not yours, not Obama’s, not Dodd’s.
2) I know what I need, actually I need a car. If I didn’t pay 30K$ in taxes I’d go out and buy a new American made car. NOWS THAT’S A THOUGHT! Rather than just giving money to failed business models.
3) I’ll inject the cash on Main street, not Wall Street.
This massive public works spending which is not needed, is going to reward the building trades, read unions for their un-dying, un-waivering support for all these years.
You know every town and city and state is going to flood Washington DC with every public works boondoggle they can dream up. Remember Connecticut we get less of our tax dollar than any other state back from the Federal Government. Why would that change?
If history is any model for the future, it’ll make the Big Dig look positively clean, corruption free, on time and fulfilling it’s intended mission.
They are going spend and borrow our money to buy things we don’t need. Isn’t this how we got in this mess?
The solution is not Washington DC, the solution is on Main St USA.
Our total Government spending is approximately 1/3 of our economy. Under the Obama plan it will go up, of course under largely borrowed money which is really just printed money.
At some point, we are going to have to account for all of this on a financial scale.
We need to clean house, I know we just had an election and we didn’t clean up. But we need to start holding our Governing elite accountable.
Write your Congresspeoples and Senators, except if you live in Connecticut. Connecticut residents need not bother.
Tell them it’s enough, tell them they have to take care of the business of state.
While we are here, let’s review the great business background of Banking Chairman Senator Chris Dodd. After all he’s giving GM, Ford, and Chrysler business advice, oh isn’t that precious!
From wikipedia.com of course.
Dodd attended Georgetown Preparatory School, a Jesuit boys’ school in Bethesda, Maryland. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Providence College in 1966. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small rural town in the Dominican Republic from 1966 to 1968. While there, he became fluent in Spanish.[5] Dodd then joined the United States Army Reserve, serving until 1975.
In 1972, Dodd earned a Juris Doctor at the University of Louisville, where he served as vice magistrate of the law school’s student body. The following year, he was admitted to the Connecticut bar, and began practicing law in New London.
In July 1970, Dodd married Susan Mooney; they divorced in October 1982. Afterwards, he dated at different times Bianca Jagger and Carrie Fisher, among others.[6] In 1999, he married his second wife, Jackie Marie Clegg, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The couple has two daughters, Grace (born September 2001) and Christina Dodd (born May 2005). Dodd is also the godfather of singer/actress Christy Carlson Romano, who once interned in his office.
Dodd lives in East Haddam, Connecticut when Congress is not in session. He also owns a vacation home in Connemara, Ireland.
Dodd was part of the “Watergate class of ‘74″ which CNN pundit David Gergen credited with bringing “a fresh burst of liberal energy to the Capitol.”[7] Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut’s 2nd congressional district and reelected twice, he served from January 4, 1975 to January 3, 1981. During his tenure in the House, he served on the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Notice the Dodd has never had to make anything, never had to ship anything, never had to meet a payroll. Whereas I have. And I can tell you, people who have never done it offer some of the best advice, it is sooooo simple to them, it’s really quite clear to them. Kinda like getting child rearing advice from your brother-in-law who never had kids.
Just what in this English Major’s, Lawyer’s, Peace Corp’s background qualified him to be Banking Chairman? Has he even taken Economics 101? Apparently not.
I am soooo depressed.
.
And Chimps Will Hang Themselves
This piece of propaganda would make any Socialist Dictator proud. Apparently if we don’t commit economic suicide by enacting all the global warming taxes…divert for side rant… isn’t it amazing that it always comes down to taxes? Why so? Maybe we should look to where the proposals come from.
Anyway I digress, apparently if we don’t commit economic suicide the wild animals will. This particularly well done propaganda piece using computer generated animals (no they are not real nor alive) will have to jump in front of trains, hang themselves or jump off really big icebergs.
I can’t think of one thing in this cartoon that they got right. Animals don’t commit suicide they’ll go down fighting till the end. People commit suicide. I love the emotions the “artists” have given the animals.
Hey man, it’s got piano music it’s really serious.
UAW Bailout, Dumb And Dumber
First the Big 3 Automakers are in trouble because:
1) The high gas prices made SUVs harder to sell than ice cream cones on the boardwalk in a blizzard.
2) The credit crunch made it difficult for people to buy cars.
3) People tend not to buy $20,000+ items when the press is screaming “it’s the end of the world”, go figure.
4) Their labor costs fully burdened is 65% higher than their competition based in the South.
I don’t blame Detroit for building and promoting SUVs, it is what they made money on, it would have been business treason not to.
Now here is the dumb part.
They are promising to build green cars if we give them money. That would help with reason #1 except gas is now at 1.74 $/gal and might drop to $1.00 a gal in the near future. Green won’t sell with that cheap of gas. Green will only sell if Congress passes laws mandating we buy them.
Items 2, 3, and 4 are not being addressed.
Detroit has fuel efficient cars to sell, we just don’t want to buy them or we can’t, so why would green sell?
Let’s add two more items, the dumber part.
5) Congress which has run up trillions in dollars in debt is going to tell a company how to make money. Congress makes money the old fashioned way, they print it. The only thing Congress has experience in selling is themselves.
6) Congress is going to tell Detroit what will sell, this from the people who thought ethanol was and is a great idea. Remember we are still paying for ethanol.
This is a smoke screen for the UAW bailout. Nothing more. Just as ethanol was a political power play very short on science and business sense. If the private sector thought ethanol was such a great idea, they would not have been asking for government money.
We are being “sold” on a UAW bailout using the “green” gambit, which has nothing to do with Detroit’s problems. Detroit has fuel efficient cars to sell, they are not selling because of 2, 3, and 4.
This is a shell scam game. With our money.
Whats to be done? A bailout is going to happen. We should try and fix the problem not advance a social politico agenda.
Tell the UAW they must accept the same contract that their brethren get in the Toyota, Honda and Nissan plants get. That includes work rules and benefits. Line for line, clause for clause.
Get the Big 3’s retirees costs off the Big 3’s accounting books, I understand the UAW has agreed to take this on with payments from the Big 3.
Give all American’s a tax credit dollar for dollar if they go out and buy any American made car, including Honda’s, Toyota’s, etc, if they are made in the US. Remember these companies also employ Americans. Why should the Taxpayers of say West Virgina be made to pay for the sins of Michigan?
If you want to play social engineering with our money, then make the credit contingent on only buying cars with over 30 mpg CITY. Let the market place drive the recovery.
They should get the money by the issuance of preferred stock. And with a seat on the board of directors. I want a pain in the ass accountant on the board who questions everything.
National Review Online: “GM’s Magical Thinking” review of the GM “business plan” which is not really a business plan at all, but rather crafted to give political cover. Surely the accomplished business experts in Congress which recognize this? Yeah, Right!
Now, the most obvious response to all of this is to say that I’m the fish at this table, because this is not a real business plan, but simply a political document. It exists to provide political cover to members of Congress. But if that’s the case, it’s an unintentionally beautiful illustration of why industrial policy fails. It’s both economically crucial and very hard to allocate capital well; that’s why people who are good at it make so much money. Businesses struggle to do this well, and they’re really trying. What do you think the odds are that this is a wise use of money, when the people involved are barely pretending to try?
A Simple Methodology To Balance The State Budget
A methodology that is simple to implement and provides cover for the politicians.
Contract with an outside public accounting firm of good repute and with no political ties.
Contract for a comparative analysis of Connecticut expenditures versus other Northeast states and the say the top 1/4 of states in the USA.
Identify where Connecticut is in excess of the median.
Call the department heads in and tell them to develop plans to get Connecticut to the median.
If they explain in great detail why it can’t be done, thank them for their service and explain to them that they are not the right person for department head and refer them to personnel for out processing.
Items to be looked at would include: number of employees per function, benefits, state cars, dollars spent on tourism, dollars spent on outside law firms, accounting firms, etc….
Where there is a huge disconnect, study why there is a disconnect.
Present the new budget as a single package to the House and Senate, a single vote up or down, no amendments, no adjustments, no 2:00 AM additions. Get the House and Senate leaders and the Governor out on the floor and do some good old fashion arm breaking. Ella Grasso would have had them begging for mercy.
This will provide cover to all our elected politicians. “I was forced, I had no choice!” will be their re-election cry.
We can’t expect our House and Senate to make the individual choices, they are good at spending money and raising money not saving money. Some have 2nd jobs in the semi-public/private sector, such as unions.
The House and Senate could not even reduce the budget by 300 million, how could we expect them to make the choices for 6 billion?
We have the time and this Governor loves study commissions.
We were asked to make recommendations on cutting the budget, the budget is overwhelming and the document put up on the state’s website did not drill down to the detail needed to make specific recommendations. Unlike Missouri’s budget website. The Connecticut’s budget website really does not give us the detail we need. Go figure.
Right now our State Government has the deer in the head lights look. They need outside professional help, accounting wise. They can’t do this, nothing in their history has ever given us an indication they are up for the task.
Quite frankly, delaying this report of billions in deficit till after the election did a real disservice to the people of Connecticut. A real discussion could have been opened and politicians would have been forced to say some thing real rather than vague platitudes.
We are paying for better than this.
Myths Of The Election
Myth #1: Obama’s campaign was funded by millions of small donors.
Myth #2: A huge influx of new voters surged Obama to victory.
The “funded by millions of small donors” was first expounded by Obama’s campaign chairman then taken as gospel fact for the rest of the campaign. The critical and examining press was no where to be found on this one.
Gibbs says, gave $100 or less, and the campaign doesn’t accept money from lobbyists. “Campaign finance reform,” Gibbs says, “is taking place in our campaign.”
Everybody knows how President-elect Barack Obama’s amazing campaign money machine was dominated by several million regular folks sending in hard-earned amounts under $200, a real sign of his broadbased grassroots support.
Except, it turns out, that’s not really true.
In fact, Obama’s base of small donors was almost exactly the same percent as George W. Bush’s in 2004 — Obama had 26% and the great Republican satan 25%. Obviously, this is unacceptable to current popular thinking.
But the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute just issued a detailed study of Obama’s donor base and its giving. And that’s what the Institute found, to its own surprise.
“The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama’s finances,” said CFI’s executive director Michael Malbin, admitting that his organization also was fooled. “The reality of Obama’s fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth.”
The real story here is how a willing press allowed themselves to be spoon fed dubious claims by a campaign communications chairman without review. Proceeding to trumpet the myth to all in the electorate through out the whole campaign, only after the election we learn the truth.
This was obvious, any causal observer including this one would wonder how 100’s of Millions could be raised in $2 increments.
Myth #2:
Obama won by 3%, out of 130 million voters that is 3.9 million voters. The popular wisdom we were fed constantly prior to the election was a tidal wave of new voters would carry the progressives into power and the promised land.
Well not really.
While voter turnout was ~6.5% higher than 2004, the much feared youth vote was MIA as usual.
Young voters, particularly those without college degrees, didn’t turn out in the numbers that the Obama campaign projected.
There are only so many Yalies to go around. (thankfully)
Compared with the 2004 Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, Obama increased support by 14 percentage points among Latinos, by 3 points with suburban residents, and by 17 points from voters earning $200,000 a year or more.
17 points from voters earning $200,000 is quite the mystery to me.
A depressed Republican vote probably accounts for a large measure of the smaller-than-forecast turnout numbers.
In 2004, both parties “did a great job” in turning out their voters, Cook said. This time, Democrats mobilized 9 million more voters than in the previous election, while the Republican support dropped by 3 million votes.
Remember that 3% figure I quoted earlier which translated to, 3.9 million voters? If the Republicans had gotten their base out, it would have been a .7% race.
I like McCain, I really do, but clearly he has spent an enormous amount of political capital torquing off republicans and republicans in office. When he called for them to be there for him in his hour of need, the response was lacking.
His “friends” in the media that loved him so dearly when he was tweaking the republicans abandoned him in droves for “the chosen one”.
Memories run deep in politics. Being a maverick is great, everybody loves to watch a maverick tear things up, great fun. Except no one wants to be a maverick’s friend, it’s too much work, too little return and all to often mavericks are not there when you need them.
As usual as it is every election cycle the real story is how much the news media and their experts got it wrong, and how much they preached clearly incorrect trends and movements.
The good news for republicans is:
Given Obama’s across-the-board gains and the depressed Republican vote, many experts say the election probably doesn’t signal a major realignment of voter loyalties. It will take another four years to determine whether Obama can redraw the political map and cement his party’s gains in former Republican states such as Virginia and North Carolina.
The republicans as usual have a youth problem. We need some cool conservatives.
Rumor: Dodd Up For Ambassadorship
An unnamed and unsubstantiated source has floated the rumor that the Obama adminstration “to be” is considering Senator Dodd of Iowa as the next Ambassador of French Guiana, a small “country” in South America.
Quoting the unsubstantiated source, “We feel it would be a great fit, it’s as far from the international banking system you can get. It would play to Senator Dodd’s strengths, we just realized that French Guiana does not have a family leave act in place.”
The unsubstantiated source further added, “While we realize French Guiana has done nothing to us to deserve this, we still think it would be a great fit”.
Here at CtTaxed.com we agree, and being the unsubstantiated source we would like the good and long suffering citizens of Connecticut to weigh in on the topic.
Cast your vote for Ambassador Dodd here now! Vote in the sidebar! Thanks.
Vote in the sidebar!
Next Page »