It’s Friday!
Quotable
– “Uncertainty is the enemy of capital formation.” – Thomas F. Cooley
– “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” – George Bernard Shaw
Health Care
– Sticker shock: Individual and small business health care premiums could increase more than 20 percent come October. Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1 percent and 9 percent to pay for extra benefits required under the new federal health care law. Many carriers also are seeking additional rate increases that they say they need to cover rising medical costs. While the increases apply mostly to the new policies insurers write after Oct. 1, consumers could be subject to the higher rates if they modify their existing plans and cause them to lose grandfathered status. Source: Wall Street Journal
Taxes and spending
– “It’s a misconception that because gross receipts taxes are not an itemized add-on at the cash register, they are absorbed by businesses,” Robert A. Lawson and E. Frank Stephenson point out in an Issue Analysis published this week by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.”Gross receipts taxes are economically equivalent to traditional sales taxes. In this case, the tax simply comes embedded in the price.” Read more in, “A Primer on Gross Receipts Taxes,” at http://tinyurl.com/22tvdmb.
– “Tax Contradictions: Obama says the economy needs a tax cut – and a tax increase,” is the headline of a Wall Street Journal editorial on the president’s tax proposals this week. “We’ll nonetheless give the President and his economic team points for intellectual progress. Their proposals for corporate tax cuts are a de facto recognition that the 35% U.S. corporate tax rate is too high. The recent report by Paul Volcker’s White House economic advisory group also does a first-rate job of dissecting the high U.S. corporate tax as a barrier to growth. Mr. Obama is essentially proposing to eliminate the corporate tax for one year on new investment. But a better idea would be to slash the U.S. rate to the developed world norm in the mid-20% range, or lower. The lower the rate, the less need for tax credits and other loopholes.”
Upcoming Events
– The eighth annual Defending the American Dream Conference takes place in Orlando Sept. 23-25. Co-sponsored by the Coalition for Property Rights, Heritage Foundation, Americans For Prosperity, Pacific Research Institute, Reason Foundation, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington Policy Center, Georgia Public Policy Foundation and others, this conference brings together business and community leaders, elected officials, policy experts, grassroots and Tea Party activists who are serious about how their communities grow. Please click here to register for the conference: http://tinyurl.com/38dc3xf
Agenda 2011
– For facts, principles, innovative ideas and background on the issues, read our candidate briefing books on Taxes and Transportation.
Transportation
– Road to ruin? On President Obama’s plan to spend $50 billion on transportation, “We are still left wondering about a lot of details, and hoping the White House gets more specific soon,” says Adrian Moore of the Reason Foundation. “For example, where is the $50 billion coming from? The plan does not address that. Is this a proposal to spend current federal fuel taxes in a new way? Or to spend new money? If the latter, then are we talking about more deficit spending?”
– Visit www.gppf.org to read the Foundation’s latest commentary, “Consumer Pain in the Financial Meltdown?” by Harold Brown.
– On Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, suicide attacks on Americans, we pause to remember the nearly 3,000 victims of the terrorism, and the family and friends they left behind: “Although it’s difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.” – Author Unknown
Have a great weekend.
Kelly McCutchen
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