Tax Hikes in Health Bill

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).


Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.


Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.


Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).
Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified
distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.


Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.


Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.


Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.


Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

Source.

0% interest and reality

I was just reading THIS article and it seemed to be spot on. Reality is not a 0% interest rate, and let's face facts, many assets were being speculated on (that's what helped drive the 29 crash also). The price to earnings ratio was skewed on many companies too, being overvalued. Same with housing prices. The town where I grew up in, a small town in Minnesnowta, the average real estate range for lakeshore property is in the 900,000$ region. Talk about overpriced! Although when I went back there for my 20th class reunion, it had been built up more. Where we once had a nice public beach to go sit and swim at, is now condominiums, and a private beach. It seems to have lost its small-town feeling. But again, to the markets. Here is another chart, showing that we are back to the Carter years for stuff:


I'm expecting hyperinflation, with the treasury printing off more and more money, making the dollar even weaker against other currencies, dairy farmers are killing off their cows because milk prices are so flat; I know of a shrimper who went out of business a year ago because the bottom fell out of the shrimp- they were only paying 85c a pound for the jumbo extra-large shrimp..and lesser prices for the smaller shrimp. This economy is going down the tubes, and in the meantime, the government is growing, and spending more than they could possibly accumulate.

Journey

My husband says the guy is nothing to look at, but dang his voice is so great. here's the vid I like

UIL Area competition

Our band made it through the first two rounds, but got knocked out by Industrial and Kelly HS. VV made it however. So we spent the day in San Antonio, watching them march and twirl flags, then went to the Riverwalk to Schilo's to eat. Our table was under the moose head mount.



This is what I saw when I looked up. Across the room there were more mounts of deer and an elk also.


Here's the kidlet with her flags, marching out to wave and twirl them around. She is the one with the red sash in the front.

I don't believe it!

Someone got ARRESTED for washing out their kids' mouth with soap!! Is this silly or WHAT? First, you can't spank them, you need to "take and reason with them" however kids are not adults, their brain is wired differently, and they just don't get the concepts that you are trying to 'reason' into their brains. The little ones, you're supposed to put in a time-out. Good luck with that. When you've got a kid throwing a full-blown hissy fit, kicking and screaming on the ground, sure, just sit them in a chair and tell them to sit there for a bit. It'll work. And I'm the queen of England. What about swearing? A bit of soap in the mouth works wonders. And despite what Ralphie thinks in A Christmas Story, no one ever went blind from soap in the mouth. Neither will you 'shoot your eye out, kid' from a BB gun. Unless you're the stupidest person in the world, and point it at your eye. But whose mom DIDN'T wash out their kids mouth when they swore? To this day, I cannot stand yellow Dial soap. I smell that, and I get this taste in my mouth. Yellow Dial soap has a mild flavor, and does NOT go well with Mountain Dew or anything else. What is this world coming to? Are the local police insane? I already know CPS is out-of-whack, but to arrest someone for child abuse for putting a bar of soap in the kids' mouth is about the lamest thing. TG: would like your opinion of arresting people for soaping mouths.

Think it's over?

Does anyone (besides Obummer and his cronies) think that this recession is over? They talk about "the great recession" .. according to the graph above, we're following in the tracks of the Great Depression, not something we're likely to get out of soon. There is 1 out of 6 not working, or only working part time because they can't find a full-time job. And the government is only spending MORE tax dollars, yet they are taking in less. They are racking up trillions in debt, yet keep printing money. I say there is not a sane person heading this up. They're all trying to spend the way into extra money. It just doesn't work that way. Spend what you don't have, and you owe more and more. Some journalists are starting to wonder if the US will become a banana republic. Most of the media says nothing bad about Obummer's policies, and spending. Obummer blames it on Bush, however, Bush was not there making him sign these bills spending all this money. It's all on his own darn head. Congress is just as insane, voting on bills that aren't even put down on paper, at least ONE congressman has said what's the use of reading the bills. (That was Rangel, by the way) They've outlived their purpose up there in Washington DC. If they haven't the guts or the clues to do what needs to be done, get someone in there that WILL. Get rid of all of em. INCLUDING the pResident. And his buddy, Joe. Top that off with princess pelosi and reed, and the rest of the jackanapes. To quote Big Daddy, from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof "There ain't nuthin' more powerful than the smell of mendacity!"

10/24/09 Bubbafest 10:00am-5:00pm

Karankawa village in Matagorda is having Bubba fest. Come out where they showcase their Chateau Bubba Wines. Artists are invited to sell their artwork for this festival even though there are several Bubba activities going on. They have their annual Spam Sculpting Contest as well as the Casserole Contest. There will be live entertainment. come down to Matagorda and stop by Karankawa village.

all day event Invest in Wellness Goblin Gallop Race at 1700 7th St. in Bay City. registration is at 6:30am 5k run and 10k run starts at 7:30 am. The Family Stroll starts at 8:00am and Abby McConaha at 7:15am

Palacios Harvest Moon Dinner will be held at the Palacios Recreation Center. The evening will begin with a reception and silent auction at 6:00pm and seated dinner at 7:00. Tickets may be purchased for $35 each. For additional information, please call 361-972-3234

10/30/09 4:00-6:00pm
The American Legion will hold a free Halloween Party. Children up to age 12 must be accompanied by a parent. Free games, prized goodies, movies and more. the location is is at 2106 Cottonwood in Bay City

10/30/09
4:30-6:30pm
JOIN THE HAPPY RADIO CREW AS WE HOST A TAIL GATE PARTY BEFORE THE BAY CITY BLACK CAT EL CAMPO GAME. THE TAIL GATE PARTY WILL BE AT MEMORIAL STADIUM JUST OUTSIDE THE GATE. WE WILL BE GIVING AWAY HALLOWEEN CANDY, AND FOR JUST $3 YOU CAN GET A HOT DOG OR HAMBURGER WITH CHIPS AND A DRINK. ALL THE PROCEEDS WILL GO BACK TO BAY CITY HIGH SCHOOL. THIS EVENT IS SPONSORED BY H.E.B., ALLSTATE INS., SISK HARDWARE, CAMPBELL HUITT INS., NICAS 10 SALON&SPA, DAVIS BROS, EASY STREET CYCLES, THE BURLAP SACK, TRAVEL WORLD, TETTS JEWELERS.
10/30/09
7:00pm
THE OLDEST RIVALS IN TEXAS. BAY CITY BLACK CATS VS EL CAMPO RICEBIRDS AT MEMORIAL STADIUM IN BAY CITY. IT IS ALSO HALL OF FAME NIGHT. LISTEN TO THE GAME ON HAPPY RADIO 92.5 OR STREAM ONLINE AT KKHAFM.COM

Church tonight

This week is a revival at church, Robby Pollard from a north Houston Baptist church is speaking.. Sunday through Wednesday. He showed a video tonight before his sermon.. I don't know how he managed to get through it himself, being one of his children died at birth.. I had to go sit in the ladies room for a while to collect myself and blow my nose alot. The video is titled 99 balloons, all 6 minutes of it.



He was preaching out of Acts.. where do you draw the line? What are you willing to give up.. and this went along with it.

Just some thoughts.

Yum, Pico

I like pico de gallo on my fajitas, on taco salads, etc. I found a quick and easy recipe from a San Antonio restaraunt of the same name -

3 medium tomatoes
1 medium sweet yellow onion
3 jalapenos (more or less, according to how hot you want it)
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped (or less if you don't like as much cilantro as I do!)
salt

Cut up the tomatoes into a 1/2 inch dice, along with the onions. Cut the jalapenos a bit smaller, around 1/4 inch dice. Mix it all together with the cilantro in a bowl, and put it in the fridge to mellow a bit. Add a pinch of salt if desired. I usually put in 2 pinches of salt. Makes a good amount of pico, and it's way cheaper than the grocery store's. Theirs at HEB is 3.99 for a 10 or 12 oz container, and this makes more for less, or around the same price depending on tomato prices.

What!?!

Finland has now declared high-speed internet to be a RIGHT. France has already succumbed to this lunacy, but Finland was the first to mandate it. The UN (naturally) is in favor of this, CNN says the US is the only industrial nation without a national policy to promote high-speed internet. WHAT! Who's business is it, especially the governments, to make this a "right"? Since when does a thing that is not a right, become a right? because liberals say so? GEEZE give me a break. I'm so sick of this stuff that it's giving me trouble sleeping at night because my mind cannot shut off. I was up last night till around 2 am, and just wondering what the hell happened to common sense? A good number of people would be well-served by READING common sense by Thomas Paine, and hearkening to it. I'm so sick of the politicos in Washington, they only serve themselves. Forcing stuff on people that they don't want, need or can even pay for. "Hi, we're the government and we're here to help you" since when is that a GOOD thing? it makes me crazy!

A plant at church

This plant, when I bought it, was around a foot tall. The sign didn't say it would get over 5 feet tall, and as bushy around as it said. I planted it at the church this spring, and now we have to have ropes around it to contain it so it doesn't whack people along the sidewalk. I put my purse and camera case (blue) in front of the plant to give a bit of perspective on how large this thing is. It's a medium sized purse, not a small one. If you are looking for a big, ornate plant that looks pretty nice, attracts butterflies, this is the one for you - it's a Texas native plant and I am not sure what it is called.. but here is a couple of pictures of it. The bottom picture is of it when it was small and under control.

No more fishing?

I was reading my Tweetfeed this morning, and off John Cornyn's facebook page of links was THIS LINK, from Shimano (the fishing reel company).


"IRVINE, Calif. USA – October 5, 2009 – A recently published administration document outlines a structure that could result in closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas across America. The White House created an Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force in June and gave them only 90 days to develop a comprehensive federal policy for all U.S. coastal, ocean and Great Lakes waters. Under the guise of ‘protecting’ these areas, the current second phase of the Task Force direction is to develop zoning which may permanently close vast areas of fishing waters nationwide. This is to be completed by December 9, 2009."

Close fishing? Talk about ridiculous. Fishing is big in our community here, and also where I grew up (land of 10,000 lakes). I grew up fishing, catching sunnies, perch and crappies. One or two bass also, but not very often. They didn't seem to like worms as much. This is another one of our freedoms, looking to be taken away by legislation, and the consequences could be serious - What about the water quality when there are too many fish in the water?

If they take away most of the fishing areas, this will close down businesses further, creating a worse job report. Unemploying more people, affecting even the little kids who go out and grab up worms to sell to the bait shops, or to fishermen at a dock.

Growing up, we had a great fishing spot, and always caught plenty of sunnies and threw away the perch, and lots of crappies, sold some to guys on boats that would come by so we could get candy and soda money, and then take a bunch home to fry up for dinner. Bullheads too, but they were only good in the spring when they were firm and not all nasty.

I remember growing up, we'd take out the boat for a day of fishing, and we'd go through the narrows under bridges, people from Minneapolis would come out for the day and go fishing along the bridges. You always had to go low wake and watch out for lines.

In the winter, there would be semi trucks out on the ice, getting carp to sell back east (why they would want to eat carp, I have no idea!), and like the movie Grumpy Old Men, every winter it was normal to see the stands of fish houses out on the lake, people driving out there to their spot, till it started warming up. The first one to go through the ice, that signaled it was time to get your icehouse off the lake. My dad was a diver that used to go with the police and help get cars and snowmobiles out of the lake.

If they take away fishing, kids will not have something fun to do with dad or mom. It would probably affect crabbing, with some chicken necks and a piece of rope, and a catchnet.

This is a disaster all around as far as I can see.

Evolution

Heh. Reading an article about a Kent state professor, who has been studying that new skeleton found, Ardipithecus ramidus, or "Ardi". Lucy, who was constructed from various pieces from being scattered over a mile around, while Ardi was found more composed than Lucy, in one spot.

from the professor:

“People often think we evolved from apes, but no, apes in many ways evolved from us,” Lovejoy said. “It has been a popular idea to think humans are modified chimpanzees. From studying Ardipithecus ramidus, or ‘Ardi,’ we learn that we cannot understand or model human evolution from chimps and gorillas.”

To watch a video of Lovejoy discussing the research findings of Ardipithecus ramidus, visit www.kent.edu

I find this interesting. Here we've had a theory (not proven) taught as fact in the schools and universities, now suddenly "oops, we were wrong, it's not really true that we descended from apes and monkeys". We also share similarities in DNA with white mice, but that doesn't make us mouse-men. (For a good read, check out Maus)

You know there is not much to say about evolutionists being INCORRECT except "nyah nyah nyah". Take your theory and shove it.

Arguing with idiots

I just *finally* went to the post office and picked up my box from Amazon.com that had this book in it. Started to read it, and the first argument is about how "capitalism has failed".. The argument against it is a good one.. I think I will enjoy this book, and be able to use it against the idiots that I run across. In the meantime, enjoy this video :D

Do you have one?

This is kind of old.. but was just reminded of the Trunk Monkeys!



There are ten commercials, found HERE.

Everyone needs a trunk monkey, and maybe cops need a squad of trunkmonkeys.

Government regulation?

Or rather strangulation.. of blogs. If you get a product from a company, and decide to review it, guess what the government wants to get their meddling little fingers in on! the FTC issued a guidance document yesterday requiring bloggers who write testimonials about products to disclose large gifts or payments, or they will run afoul of the FTC’s regulations on advertising. They want to regulate broadband internet, or any internet (hence Obama's internet czar), and they've put forward a bill to be able to take down the net 'in case of emergency" including private companies. They regulate everything else to the nTH degree, why not your internet and computer. :|

Paul got some shots of these little buggers on his trip to Australia back in 85. He was on Heron Island up on the north part of Australia.


This is taken from Mt. Fuji in Japan.

I have more photos at Flickr

A book you sh ould check out

I'm STILL reading Liberal Fascism, by Jonah Goldberg, when my usual book speed is 2 days per book. This one is taking over 2 weeks, because it is very well-put together history of the progressive movement in the United States. It puts to rest the lie that the conservatives are the "nazis", where liberals have whitewashed and just hid under a rock their roots, which were right in line with what Hitler and Mussolini were doing. American progressives looked up to Mussolini as bright shining example for them to follow, as was Hitler. Chapter 3 is about Woodrow Wilson and the birth of Liberal Fascism, 4 is FDR's fascist new deal, the 60s, and talks about the myth of Kennedy, and then going on from there. This is an important, light-shedding book on the cockroaches scuttling around in the corners. HERE is the link for the book on Amazon.

Cap & Trade Bill

I was reading my facebook page today, and Dan Patrick (a state senator up in Austin) said that

"I joined Governor Perry today as he convened a panel on the Obama Cap & Trade bill. If passed would impact TX & Houston, the hardest. Bill has language that actually says "oil is a clear and present danger." Liberals willing to destroy our economy on theory of global warming Everyone wants a clean environment, but at what cost ? Bill would cost us 300,000 jobs in TX, raise electric bills 30% plus & increase gas 40% per gallon."

and

"Governor convened business leaders from a range of industries to discuss Cap & Trade today in Houston If Obama bill passes it could cost Texas over 300,000 jobs"

My electric bill during the summer is already something scary, and a 30% higher bill would be outrageous.

On another note, the van driving did not go too bad last night. I was surprised. During AWANA was another story, we had 12 children, and only 2 leaders.. not really enough for the smaller kids to get their bible verses learned.