Thomas Paine. The American Crisis, No. 1, 1776: It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf. Four tax hikes you might see next year in Nevada: Anjeanette Damon - The Chamber, long a stalwart in the fight against tax increases, is changing tack. Fresh off its victory in the battle to defeat the margin tax ballot question, the Reno-area chamber of commerce is preparing to help lead the charge for tax reform in the next legislative session. Its a stark about-face for the Chambers government relations director Tray Abney, who was once subjected to scathing tongue-lashing on the state Senate floor for always saying no to tax increases. This isnt the Chamber acting in a vacuum. Gov. Brian Sandoval has said hes serious about tackling tax reform next session-- an effort that became more difficult following the Republican takeover of the Assembly. So what kind of tax increases would the Chamber support? Heres a sneak peek at its agenda: 1. Sales tax on services: This idea has been bounced around the Legislature for a couple of sessions now. The idea is to lower the states 6.8 percent tax rate and apply it to services as well as goods. Proponents have argued Nevadas sales tax is becoming a less efficient revenue generator for the state because the economy has moved away from producing goods to producing services. Under this approach, youd pay maybe 4 percent sales tax on, say, a hair dryer you bought at Target, but youd also pay a 4 percent sales tax on the haircut from your stylist. Downside? Every service provider from doctors to stylists to car mechanics likely will be asking for an exemption from the tax. Democrats also will likely argue the tax is regressive, affecting lower income individuals disproportionately. … RGJ [And so it begins just like we predicted. It is a not accurate to suggest that the Chamber has long been a stalwart against tax increases. They have always been fickle and inconsistent in regards to tax increases. The Chamber is most often the advocate for the crony capitalists. The Chamber does some good things but they are definitely not a conservative organization. Notice the statement equating “tax reform” with tax hikes. It’s looking like 2003 all over again. Let’s hope we have a solid “mean 15” this year in the legislature to control the steamroll for tax increases. They still need 2/3 approval for tax increases.] Obama’s Unprecedented Amnesty: By Mark Krikorian - “The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all, and that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m President of the United States of America.” – Senator Barack Obama, March 31, 2008 … The president’s planned executive action goes far beyond anything Reagan or Bush Sr. did. The latest from apologists for President Obama’s planned decree to unilaterally amnesty perhaps 5 million illegal aliens is that Reagan and Bush Sr. did it, so what’s the problem? It’s interesting that the anti-borders crowd seems to have conceded the point I made in August that most past executive grants of status to illegal aliens were the consequence of foreign crises in the illegals’ home countries and thus not relevant to the current discussion. These were, as Ross Douthat’s trenchant column pointed out Sunday, “modest, clearly defined populations facing some obvious impediment (war, persecution, natural disaster) to returning home.” So the fallback position of those claiming precedent is to grasp at two actions taken by Reagan and the elder Bush that came in the wake of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) amnesty. Nice try. The Reagan administration action that amnesty advocates point to is simply irrelevant to the current case and trumpeted only because Reagan’s name is attached to it. In what was a legitimate exercise of prosecutorial discretion shortly after passage of the 1986 law, INS announced that as a practical matter it would look the other way under certain circumstances with regard to minor children both of whose parents received amnesty but who did not themselves qualify for the amnesty. It granted no work permits, Social Security numbers, or driver’s licenses. In the context of trying to implement the convoluted IRCA amnesty, I might well have done the same thing. … NRO Why Obamas Immigration Order Isnt Like Reagans: Heritage Foundation scholar Hans von Spakovsky notes that some media outlets are pointing to immigration executive orders issued by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to say, 1. Barack Obamas coming order is not a big deal and 2. Conservatives are hypocrites for opposing it. This is flat out wrong, says Spakovsky: [T]his claim plays a bit fast-and-loose with history and fails to explain the significant difference between Obama going against the will of Congress, which considered and rejected the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act on several occasions, including when both houses of Congress were controlled by the presidents party, and Reagan and Bush who made administrative corrections designed to carry out congressional intent. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.... And it is the presidents constitutional duty, under Article II, Section 3, to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.... Specifically, Spakovsky writes, in 1987 Reagan was not defying Congress, but rather carrying out the general intent of Congress which had just passed a blanket amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants. And Bushs action, which affected about 140,000 people, was well within the authority delegated to the executive branch and a legitimate exercise of prosecutorial discretion. This isnt to defend either previous policy, but only to say this is apples and oranges both in scope and intent.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 04:36:38 +0000
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