Glitch in Census Numbers Means State-Local Taxes Rank Lower Than Previously ThoughtMADISON-Badger taxpayers have some good news this holiday season , according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance (WISTAX). In analyzing U.S. Census figures just released for 2013 [these data always lag two years], the nonpartisan research organization found state-local taxes here claimed 10.9% of income…
General
Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, the Tea Party, and the GOP
Dec 28, 3:15 a.m. When I was in what then was called “Junior High School (for those unfamiliar with the term, Junior High School consisted of the seventh, eighth and ninth grades),” I was required to memorize the beginning lines of the Declaration of Independence. The portion of the Declaration that I had to memorize…
Frontinus
HR 569: CAIR’s Standard Operating Procedure
Our Washington D.C. correspondent Frontinus sends this report on proposed House Resolution 569, “Condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States”, which is now before the U.S. Congress with 82 co-sponsors (all Democrats)Your American readers who aren’t aware of HR569 probably should be, and your European and Canadian readers may be…
Frank Lasee
The Price of Freedom
The United States is often mentioned as the longest standing democratic republic in the world. While that statement might be a surprise, it should also come with a sense of warning. Nearly every other nation on earth has gone through a major, sometimes catastrophic, sometimes forcible change in government in the past 237 years. Since…
Marita Noon
GOP energy report card: 2015
Last year, when Republicans gained a decisive edge in both houses of Congress, I made predictions as to the six energy-policy changes we could expect–as the two parties have very different views on energy issues. I closed that column with these words: “It is going to be an interesting two years. If the Republican policies…
Marita Noon
The Omnibus Spending Package: good energy policy, bad energy policy
The decades-old legislation that prevented American producers from exporting oil is officially overturned–despite previous presidential threats to veto a bill to lift the oil export ban. That’s good policy. However, to get the support of “reluctant Democrats,” The Economist reports: “an additional five years of tax credits for wind and solar power” was part of…