Outright Theft

Courtesy of commenter crosspatch comes this bit of outright theft by the government of California on its taxpaying citizens. It seems the state will be simply taking an additional 10% withholding on state income taxes – even if the people are already having all the correct amount of dollars withheld.

Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners — holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.

Technically, it’s not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers’ annual tax bills won’t change.

Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You’ll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less.

The government will simply take the money it knows full well it is not entitled to. They will not pay any interest on the “loan” they are forcing people to give them.

That’s theft. Straight-up. Passed by the legislature and signed into law by the Governator.

There is a bit of advice in the article that I strongly urge Californians to follow as soon as humanly possible: Change the number of dependents you are claiming to the state.

Savvy taxpayers can get around the state’s maneuver by increasing the number of personal withholding allowances they claim on their employer tax forms, said Brenda Voet, a spokeswoman for the state’s Franchise Tax Board.

Get expert advice before doing so. You do not want to run afoul of the IRS with anything you do about this.

But seriously, California folks. Isn’t it about time to throw California’s entire body of elected officials out? These people are thieves.There is no other word for this.

One simply detestable quote from the article: an “expert” informing the LA Times that the impact of the theft will not be all that big on people:

But Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, wasn’t so sure.

“It’s having a relatively small impact on people’s income,” Levy said, pointing out that many families will receive only $12 to $40 less each month.

Let’s get this straight. California’s political class have zero right to take that money at all. Sure, they have the power to do so, but that does not imply that they should. They are taking money from people to pretend to patch the failing finances of an out-of-control political power structure.

Time to throw them out.

Fast And Smart

Michael Steele has committed the Republican National Committee to backing Doug Hoffman in NY-23:

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele quickly endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in New York’s 23rd congressional district Saturday, after Republican Dede Scozzafava’s late decision to drop out of the special election.

Steele, who formally endorsed Scozzafava earlier this week, commended her decision to bow out of the race.

Steele has promised both money and GOTV efforts on the ground. Good move.

Windows 7 Update

Yesterday, I got my aging Palm Tungsten E2 all connected up to the new HP laptop using Bluetooth. It took several tries for Windows 7 to find the right settings for the out-of-date Palm Desktop software, but once it did, everything connected with no fuss. It works perfectly now.

Thus far, my one complaint with Windows 7 is not with the operating system itself. Rather it is with Internet Explorer 8 which I am rapidly learning to hate with a passion. It is very slow to load. I mean ridiculously slow. Even when opening a new tab.

Firefox has no trouble and is pretty near instantaneous when started.

Other than that, no problems to report. (I still haven’t worked up the ambition to tackle updating the kid’s computers yet, however. I’ve been kind of busy these past few days.)

Gone

Dede Scozzafava has suspended her campaign in NY-23, clearing the field for Conservative Doug Hoffman to battle the Democratic candidate in a two-way race:

Dede Scozzafava, the Republican and Independence parties candidate, announced Saturday that she is suspending her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District and releasing all her supporters.

The state Assemblywoman has not thrown her support to either Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, or Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate.

I think it would have been a bit more classy if she had endorsed Hoffman, but at least she did not endorse Owens, either (she did say that she remains a Republican, too). That the article makes that point shows just how shaky Scozzafava’s  perceived loyalties are even to the local media.

One sincerely hopes the Republicans (local and national) are going to prove they learned something from this and will step in with some last minute aid for Hoffman. Local party officials can mobilize their troops for Hoffman while the national party can get him some last minute cash.

That’s a hint, party folks. Take it.

The Job Loss Recovery

The Financial Times points out that the Obama administrations imagined or invented claims of 350 quintillion jobs created just today are completely meaningless:

Since jobs and wages dominate most people’s perception of the health of the economy, Mr Obama faces the awkward prospect that most Americans will still feel like they are in recession in the build-up to next year’s mid-term elections. To that extent his difficulties are predictable. Remember George Bush senior, who was defeated by Bill Clinton in 1992 in the “economy, stupid” election even though the US had returned to growth several months before.

However, neither Mr Bush senior, nor any recent US president, has simultaneously had to grapple with a jobless, or job-loss, recovery and an electorate seething with resentment against Washington’s generous treatment of the perceived authors of the recession – Wall Street. Previous downturns were induced by sharp interest rate rises to quell the consequences of overheating. In most people’s view, this recession was caused by the speculative greed of bankers – an entirely different kind of downturn that fits the plot of a morality play.

Unlike most morality plays, however, this one appears to be rewarding the baddies. While the job numbers continue to deteriorate, Wall Street is enjoying good times again and preparing another season of huge bonuses. Goldman Sachs, alone, is on track to pay out $21bn (€14bn, £12.7bn) in bonuses by the end of the year. Since it repaid the direct bailout money it received from Washington – as opposed to the implicit subsidies from which it continues to benefit – it was not subjected to the pay restraints announced last week by Ken Feinberg, Mr Obama’s “pay czar”.

(For what it’s worth, I do not believe the Obama administration has the constitutional authority to regulate pay. I’m also not a big fan of populist rhetoric. But I will point out that I believe Wall Street is being really, really stupid at the moment. Flaunting their new wealth with ridiculous bonus payouts at a time when the economy is still in real trouble is risking a populist backlash of biblical proportions.)

But the main point of the FT article is that the happy face of the Obama administration is meaningless to average Americans. They can still see the downturn happening around them. Layoffs are still continuing, new jobs are not being created. The imagined or invented claims of the administration and the relentless disavowal of any responsibility for the current economic situation are wearing thin in the face of what taxpayers can see with their very own mark one eyeballs.

Fleecing America

David Harsanyi:

The King James version of the Bible runs more than 600 pages and is crammed with celestial regulations. Newton’s Principia Mathematica distilled many of the rules of physics in a mere 974 pages.

Neither have anything on Nancy Pelosi’s new fiendishly entertaining health-care opus, which tops 1,900 pages.

So curl up by a fire with a fifth of whiskey and just dive in.

But drink quickly. In the new world, your insurance choices will be tethered to decisions made by people with Orwellian titles (”1984″ was only 268 pages!) like the “Health Choices Commissioner” or “Inspector General for the Health Choices Administration.”

Harsanyi points out that the word ’shall’ appears more than 3,000 times in the enormous pile of paper. Please read the whole piece, it’s brutal.

The bill is nothing less than the wholesale takeover of virtually every aspect of American’s lives. Laughingly referred to as health care “reform” the bill imposes controls, regulations and taxes in gargantuan amounts. The taxes kick in immediately while “benefits” are years away. The whole monstrous bill was crafted behind closed doors by Pelosi and her minions.

In fact, that would be a more apt title: the Take Over Every Aspect of American’s Lives bill of 2009.

This must be stopped. Start calling, start writing. Get out there and start fighting back before it’s too late.

Put On Your Happy Mask

The recession, we are told, is over! So singeth the chorus line of Obama munchkins. We’re out of the woods, we’re out of the dark!

So why did the FDIC close nine more banks last night?

State and federal bank regulators late Friday closed Bank USA NA of Phoenix and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver.

This latest closure — along with eight other banks owned by parent company FBOP Corp. of Oak Park, Ill. — brings the nation’s total number of bank failures this year to 115.

U.S. Bank NA of Minneapolis, a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has assumed all the deposits and essentially all of the assets of the nine banks, including Bank USA, which had two Valley branches in Scottsdale and Phoenix.

Put on a happy face. One with a tight elastic band and no eye holes. The administration is busily inventing or imagining gobs of jobs “created or saved” by government glad handing of huge sums of money it actually doesn’t have. We’re running the largest deficits in all of recorded history. Federal and state tax revenues are plummeting. Unemployment is increasing.

If we’re out of the woods now, what, exactly are we into?

He’s Much Smaller In Real Life….

Michael Gerson:

But the tonal candidate also had a conventionally liberal policy agenda. And as that agenda has run into resistance — on spending, health care and climate legislation — the president’s tone has utterly changed.

The Obama administration has gone after both Rush Limbaugh and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — showing an inability to distinguish between the burning of heretics and the burning of bridges. It has courted insurance companies, then publicly demonized them for showing independence. Obama has tended to define all opposition, particularly on health care, as resulting from fear, cowardice and selfishness — instead of admitting genuine disagreement. At a recent fundraiser, he mocked Republicans as robots who “do what they’re told.” He has engaged in consistent, classless, self-excusing criticism of his predecessor. Other presidents have been known for a war on totalitarianism or a war on terror. Obama is known for a war on Fox News.

Do read the whole piece. Gerson points out that for all the high-minded words of candidate Obama, president Obama has been nothing but a partisan thug. Demonizing, demeaning, delegitimizing  and denigrating all who oppose him in any way. The only hand he reaches out to his opponents is the back of his hand.

Which is most definitely not what he promised.