Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
States May Hold Onto Tax Refunds For Months (USA Today)
Residents eager to get their state tax refunds may have a long wait this year: The recession has tied up cash and caused officials in half a dozen states to consider freezing refunds, in one case for as long as five months.
States from New York to Hawaii that have been hard-hit by the economic downturn [...]
U.S. Sales Tax Rates Hit Record High (Forbes)
While President Obama’s push to raise federal income taxes for the wealthy gets lots of attention, the continuing upward creep in the sales tax rates imposed by state and local governments has gotten less notice.
But Vertex Inc., which calculates sales tax for Internet sellers, reports that the average general sales tax rate nationwide reached 8.629% [...]
Gates And Obama Suggest Early ‘Troop Withdrawal’ From Afghanistan A Possibility (AP/Yahoo)
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility Wednesday that some of the U.S. forces involved in the Afghanistan surge could leave the country before President Barack Obama’s announced July 2011 date to begin withdrawal.
Without giving specifics, Gates said, “It would have to be conditions-based.”
Gates made the remarks during a visit to a dust-blown training [...]
Building a Better Teacher (New York Times)
ON A WINTER DAY five years ago, Doug Lemov realized he had a problem. After a successful career as a teacher, a principal and a charter-school founder, he was working as a consultant, hired by troubled schools eager — desperate, in some cases — for Lemov to tell them what to do to get better. [...]
TERROR UPDATE: Al-Qaida Calls On US Muslims To Attack America (Associated Press)
CAIRO — Al-Qaida’s American-born spokesman on Sunday called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.
In a 25-minute video posted on militant Web sites, Adam Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other [...]
OBAMANOMICS IN ACTION: Home Buyer Tax Credit Likely To Cost Taxpayers $100K Per Home (Huffington Post/Calculated Risk)
Recent indications that demand for housing is lagging, Calculated Risk writes, are “no surprise and suggests that the extension and expansion of the home buyer tax credit will probably cost taxpayers over $100,000 for each additional home sold.
Just about every economist opposed the tax credit as expensive and ineffective. Here are some quotes from a [...]
Obama Begs Dems To Put Aside Qualms Over Health Care (Yahoo! News)
Support from his own party in doubt, President Barack Obama summoned more than a dozen House Democrats to the White House Thursday, pleading with them to put aside their qualms, seize a historic moment and vote for his massive health care overhaul.
It’s the opportunity of a generation, he told them — and a chance to [...]
Obama Calls For A Straight ‘Up-Or-Down’ Vote On Health Care (AP/Yahoo! News)
WASHINGTON – The end game at hand, President Barack Obama took command Wednesday of one final attempt by Democrats to enact bitterly contested health care legislation, calling for an “up or down vote” within weeks under rules denying Republicans the ability to kill the bill with mere talk.
Appearing before a White House audience of invited [...]
Key Moments From Health Care Summit (Yahoo! / Video)
President Obama and Democratic and Republican members of Congress spent most of the day Thursday debating the future of the American health care system: who it will cover, how it will do that, and how much it will cost. The historic bipartisan health care summit lasted almost seven hours. Though substantive and important, even President [...]
POLITICAL ANALYSIS: 5 Things To Watch For At The Summit (The Washington Post)
With the bipartisan health care summit at Blair House blotting out the political sun today, we are dedicating the entire “Morning Fix” to the five things you should watch for at today’s meeting. (Need a sixth thing to watch? How about the Fix and the Post’s Ezra Klein previewing the big event? On [...]
