Liberal think-tank: NJ gets $9 Billion Fed Tax cut in 2019

While Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer has been engaging in histrionics of the most dubious kind, a liberal think-tank has been doing its research and calculations.  What it's come up with undermines the hysterics put out by Nancy Pelosi, Gottheimer, and his status-quo allies in the "problem keepers" caucus.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a liberal advocacy group, recently concluded that New Jersey would save nearly $9 billion in federal taxes in 2019, thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  Please review their findings yourself by clicking here for a spreadsheet with their analysis: https://t.co/GW6n37OXUn

Contrary to what Nancy Pelosi, Gottheimer, and the "problem keepers" have been saying, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concludes that New Jersey will pay less in federal taxes under the new tax reform and job creation legislation passed by Congress.  The study includes these key findings:

- New Jersey residents will save nearly $9 billion in federal taxes in 2019;

- 81% of New Jersey residents will receive a tax cut and a further 8% would see no change in their taxes at all;

- The vast majority of taxpayers in every personal income bracket will see a tax cut, with most receiving a substantial tax cut;

- The average taxpayer in New Jersey will get a tax cut of more than $2,000.

Along with 81% of taxpayers getting a tax cut, small businesses are going to pay much less.  It will be the lowest tax rate since World War II -- drawing in new investment for the expansion of existing enterprises, allowing new start-ups, creating thousands upon thousands of new jobs and opportunities.  With billions less going from New Jersey to Washington, that money will be freed up to spend in our communities.

Even before the new tax reform and job creation legislation was passed, there was a sustained positive reaction from companies with local employees -- like OceanFirst Bank, AT&T, Comcast, Wells Fargo, Boeing, and Bank of America -- providing bonuses and pay-hikes to their employees.  These businesses are already using their anticipated savings to invest in their employees for the future, and it is clear that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is going to put more money in the pockets of hardworking taxpayers in New Jersey.

The doom and gloom coming from Nancy Pelosi, Gottheimer, and the "problem keepers" only works if you distort the figures.  The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy study makes clear that the doom and gloomers make sense only if you allow them to erroneously assume that Congress will allow the tax cuts to expire -- and even then this is only true for tax years beginning in 2027. 

Nancy Pelosi, Gottheimer, and the "problem keepers" are arguing in the face of history, which has taught us consistently that politicians who want to be re-elected -- even liberal Democrats like President Obama -- do not end tax cuts when faced with the option, but rather, extend them.  And with the broad consensus being that middle-class tax cuts must be made permanent (even Bernie Sanders says so) there is little chance that the scenario upon which Pelosi, Gottheimer, and the "problem keepers" base their doom and gloom will, in fact, ever materialize.

Instead of the drunken hysterics and all the mental illness being shopped around by the media about this (when they are not focused on a royal wedding or the latest installment of who touched who) interested citizens should be doing their own research and soberly studying the changes and benefits in the new tax reform and job creation package.  It will be well worth the time spent.

Will "Donald" be another "Teddy"?

Both wealthy New Yorkers who were out of step with the political establishment and the party that they came to dominate.  Like Theodore Roosevelt, Donald Trump is a populist whose "swashbuckling" approach to public life often infuriates old-line politicians.  As with Trump today, Teddy Roosevelt was considered unpredictable and erratic -- a "damned cowboy".  When Roosevelt received the Republican nomination for Vice President at the GOP convention in 1900, one prominent Republican Senator said: "Don't any of you realize there's only one life between that madman and the presidency?"

As president, Theodore Roosevelt championed the working class and broke up the economic monopolies held by the wealthy elites of his day.  He favored labor and labor unions.  Under Roosevelt, the average working person flourished as the standard of living went up.  He supported competition over crony capitalism.  His larger-than-life image served him well, whether it meant bringing management to the table with labor to end a miners' strike or getting the Russians and Japanese to the negotiating table to sign a peace treaty.  Unlike President Obama, Teddy Roosevelt didn't get a Nobel Peace Prize just for showing up -- Roosevelt earned the 1906 Nobel prize for hammering out a peace deal.

Roosevelt's America was an America of big dreams and great expectations.  It was the America that built the Panama Canal and placed 125 million acres of wilderness under conservation.  It built the Great White Fleet to defend the borders from outside aggression -- and passed the Meat Inspection Act and Food & Drug Act to protect Americans closer to home.

Donald Trump promises to "make America great again."  He has certainly turned his party and the political class on its head.  Something long overdue and greatly needed.  And something no candidate outside of Bernie Sanders or Rand Paul could have done.  Chalk that up on the plus side to start.

Godspeed and good fortune Mr. President.

Go to it!

Is Bob Jordan a Journalist or a Marketing Rep?

Writing about Governor Chris Christie's recent veto of two bills -- S816 (mandating distributors to sell so-called smart guns), and A3689 (codifying regulations on the justifiable need to carry) -- Asbury Park Press reporter Bob Jordan blamed the National Rifle Association (NRA).  Jordan wrote:

"The NRA pressured Christie to kill two bills including one that would have mandated distributors to sell so-called smart guns, which proponents say stem accidental shootings and 'child proof' weapons."

Sure, the NRA lobbied the Governor, but does mere lobbying make you responsible for the actions of an adult elected official?  When the LGBTQ movement lobbied President Obama and Hillary Clinton to change their position on same-sex marriage, were they "pressured" into adopting their new beliefs?

As Bob Jordan must know, "pressured" is a very charged word.  When Garden State Equality's Steve Goldstein issued a press release threatening to withhold "gay" money from the New Jersey Democratic State Committee unless Senate President Steve Sweeney and other Democratic Party leaders changed their position on same-sex marriage, were they being "pressured" into executing their eventual flip-flop?

"Pressured" conjures images of extortion and the NRA hasn't been particularly good at "pressuring" Governor Christie, who managed just a "C" rating with the NRA as Governor.  If a journalist is going to use words like "pressured," he or she should cite more than lobbying as evidence of that "pressure."

Reporter Jordan lamely tries with a quote from Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, a Democrat from Bergen County.  Assemblyman Johnson blames Christie's veto on, wait for it... the Governor's  "bid for the Republican presidential nomination and now his support of Donald Trump."  Wow, what a dickhead!  Maybe he hasn't heard that Christie's presidential campaign crashed and burned months ago.  As for Donald Trump, when did his campaign put out a position paper on S816 and A3689?

The Assemblyman goes on:  "The governor’s veto statement is alarmingly replete with right-wing political talking points and grandstanding."  Yes, and the Assemblyman's statement may be said to be "alarmingly replete with left-wing political talking points and grandstanding."  So what?  What do these cookie-cutter insults even mean that you and your brethren in the other party endlessly use? 

Assemblyman Johnson went on to say (and how he kept a straight face, we can't tell you):  “This bill was a start toward making our streets safer, particularly in our urban areas, but sadly, Gov. Christie has once again put his political ambitions above the public safety of New Jersey residents.  That’s shameful.” 

Listen, Assemblyman Dickful, why don't you try to enforce the laws against everything that is currently unlawful -- make those streets "safer" -- "particularly in our urban areas" by making illegal drugs unavailable, for a start.  Do that one thing, accomplish that, before making new laws to create new crimes that will be obeyed only by those who care to obey them, new laws that will force the police (government's men-with-guns) into greater confrontation with individuals in the community.

Assemblyman, unless you are prepared to post a police officer on every street in New Jersey, our citizens (urban, suburban, and rural) are pretty much their own first line of protection.  Leave them alone.  If you want to do something to make them safer, get the heroin that floods every community in this state off the streets.  There have been laws against that for nearly a century and you haven't got it done yet, have you?

As for Bob Jordan, decide whether you are reporting or selling. 

Obama + transgender = Rule by decree

Rule by decree is a style of governance allowing quick, unchallenged creation of law by a single person or group, and is used primarily by dictators and absolute monarchs.  Rule by decree allows the ruler to arbitrarily create law, without approval by a legislative assembly.

When states of emergency such as martial law are in place, rule by decree is common. While rule by decree is easily susceptible to the whims and corruption of the person in power, it is also highly efficient: a law can take weeks or months to pass in a legislature, but can be created with the stroke of a pen by a leader ruling by decree. This is what makes it valuable in emergency situations. Thus, it is allowed by many constitutions, among which is the French Constitution, Argentine Constitution, Indian Constitution, etc. U.S. presidential executive orders share some similarities with rule by decree.  (From Wikipedia)

Ask yourselves this:  Is the need to allow someone who identifies as a woman -- but who has a penis -- into toilets, showers, and changing facilities with women and girls a NATIONAL EMERGENCY ? 

Or is it a whim?

No matter where you stand on the issue, this is not who we are.  This is not the way a democracy sets its rules. 

When Attorney General Loretta Lynch threatens school boards, teachers, parents, and school children with federal lawsuits and the withholding of their tax dollars if they fail to comply with this presidential decree, remember that this is the same Ms. Lynch who refused to meet with whistleblowers when she was the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.  At great risk to their careers and personal well-being, these whistleblowers came forward to report that HSBC Bank was laundering money for drug cartels. 

That's right.  HSBC Bank was laundering money for those nice people who have flooded our communities with heroin -- while they murder and torture victims in the nations from where they operate.  Yes, these are the same people who hang the naked, decapitated bodies of their victims from overpasses in Mexico and South America.  

Did Ms. Lynch go after HSBC Bank when she was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York?  Well, let's hear from the United States Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, to know the kind of public official Ms. Lynch is:

Trump/Sanders and the two Americas

Look at these two graphs.  They illustrate the two Americas.

The first shows the ratio between employee compensation to gross domestic product in the United States.  It is at its lowest point in history.

The second shows corporate profits.  They are at an all time high.

These graphs mark the end of America's social contract, according to economist Steen Jakobsen.  The agreement between the ruled and the rulers is broken and marks the rise of heretofore "fringe" candidates like populist Donald Trump and socialist Bernie Sanders.

This may be why new polling shows little taste for such measures as increasing the charitable deduction on taxes paid by wealthy individuals and corporations.  In a time when clearly the rich keep getting richer, voters have become skeptical of letting those rich direct how their potential tax dollars are spent instead of leaving it up to "democratically" elected legislative bodies.  New research by writers such as Jeremy Beer and others suggests why this is so -- and we will be examining Beer's findings in depth next week -- but for now, just consider this passage:

"Even though it sits on $42 billion in resources, and despite the fact that homelessness is one of its strategic areas of concern, the Gates Foundation will not provide direct assistance to any of the displaced people sleeping outside its $500 million Seattle headquarters... modern philanthropy is more concerned with problem solving than with people, more invested in 'high modernist ideology' than in particular human beings... contemporary philanthropy seems more enamored of generic anthropos than of the flesh-and-blood poor we encounter face-to-face. Indeed, twenty-first century philanthropy seems allergic to charity."

Many have noticed the deeply undemocratic, narcissistic nature of the twenty-first century rich.  They worship at the altar of a high church peculiar to themselves.  Charity becomes a form of self-worship. 

The celebrity Bono, reportedly worth $600 million, is a world-class tax avoidance artist who off-shores his business enterprises to avoid paying taxes while he operates a charity, called the One Campaign, that lobbies governments to use the tax money of working people to do what Bono wants done.  Meanwhile Bono links his for-profit musical tours with One Campaign initiatives and derives free positive publicity that translates into increased sales.  The One Campaign has been criticized for "using only 1.2% of their funds for charitable causes."  in response, the One Campaign admitted that it "does not provide programs on the ground but instead is an advocacy campaign for their funding."

They left out that they also make Washington, DC insiders rich with consulting fees.  One such insider is Sue McCue, the Rutgers University Governor who runs the Democrat Party SuperPAC that is responsible for collecting the heads of GOP Assemblywomen Donna Simons, Caroline Casagrande, and Mary Pat Angelini; and Assemblyman Sam Fiocchi. 

The One Campaign's latest initiative was the Electrify Africa Act, signed into law by President Obama on February 8, 2016.  Money from the One Campaign created an Astroturf  campaign that collected 360,000 names in support of the Act and a twitter-based lobbying effort aimed at Congress.  One Republican opponent of the legislation noted:  "American taxpayers spend more than $40 billion per year on foreign aid... Given America's out-of-control deficits and accumulated debt that threatened our economic future, I cannot justify American taxpayers building power plants and transmission lines in Africa with money we do not have, will have to borrow to get, and cannot afford to pay back."

It was also attacked from the Left, with one prominent critic writing in the Huffington Post that "the Electrify Africa Act has merely demonstrated that Congressmen neither know much about nor have a plan for Africa's energy industries."

Increasingly, average Americans are noticing how rich corporations devalue the democratic process and how their corporate charitable arms are just an extension of their public relations lobbying.  For example, the elected Legislature of the State of Georgia recently passed legislation designed to protect "religious freedom."  In response, some unelected but very rich Hollywood types protested what the elected Legislature had done.  Hollywood was joined by Big Business, in what has become an almost annual ritual (Arizona, Indiana...) to threaten and bully a Governor and convince average Americans that corporate money is more powerful than citizens' votes.  Reporting on the Georgia Governor's veto of a bill he had formerly supported, the Associated Press wrote: 

"Within days of its passage, Coca-Cola and other big-name Georgia companies joined prominent Hollywood figures urging Deal to reject the proposal. The Walt Disney Co., Marvel Studios and Salesforce.com threatened to take their business elsewhere. The NFL said it would be a factor in choosing whether Atlanta hosts the 2019 or 2020 Super Bowl."

Until last year, this same NFL called itself a tax-exempt non-profit organization and used its charity status as an excuse to get taxpayers to build its stadiums.  If anyone wants to know why people give up and quit voting, this sorry episode is it.

But something has happened and it shows itself in more ways than just Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.  People are done putting up with it.  As Mike Griffin of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board said, "We're not going to quit.  We definitely don't want to have Gov. Deal listening to Wall Street and Hollywood over the citizens of the state of Georgia who expect him to support religious liberty."

A conservative Baptist attacking Wall Street?  Looks like the old Republican coalition is starting to break up.  When it does, we can't imagine who is going to support all those business tax breaks.

NJ Democrats: Empowering an Epidemic

Across the western world there is a growing epidemic of identity disorder.  Here is a woman who believes she is a cat. She crawls around on all fours and hisses at dogs. 

She believes that she was "born in the wrong species."  She is just one of many cases of "trans-species-ism".  There are people who suffer from Clinical lycanthropy, a delusion where the affected person believes he or she can transform into a non-human animal (think werewolves).  And in recent years, there has been a growing number of people who have come to believe that they were born vampires and consider themselves members of the "vampiric community." 

A 2014 article in The Gay & Lesbian Review, "Vampires Are Us," noted:

What does the 21st century hold? I can see nothing but a continuation of a parallel trajectory for both gays and vampires. No one is really scared of vampires any more, as witness the continuing popularity of the romantic vampires in the ever popular “Twilight” series and in The Vampire Diaries. Similarly, a majority of Americans now favor same-sex marriage, which was a truly scary prospect only a decade ago. President Obama announced his support for marriage equality and was re-elected handily. Gay people, like vampires, have lost their alien status and no longer frighten people—including voters, whose fears cannot be so easily demagogued by right-wing politicians.

Variants of these disorders are popping up every day and include Body integrity identity disorder or BIID...

BIID, also referred to as amputee identity disorder is a psychological disorder in which an otherwise healthy individual feels that they are meant to be disabled. It is not medically recognized by the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5. BIID is related to xenomelia, "the oppressive feeling that one or more limbs of one's body do not belong to one's self".

BIID is typically accompanied by the desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs. It also includes the desire for other forms of disability, as in the case of a woman who intentionally blinded herself.  BIID can be associated with apotemnophilia, sexual arousal based on the image of one's self as an amputee. The cause of BIID is unknown. One hypothesis states that it results from a neurological failing of the brain's inner body mapping function (located in the right parietal lobe) to incorporate the affected limb in its understanding of the body's physical form.

Another type of identity is Gender dysphoria or GID...

Gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder (GID) is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe people who experience significant dysphoria (distress) with the sex and gender they were born with. Evidence suggests that people who identify with a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth may do so not just due to psychological or behavioral causes, but also biological ones related to their genetics, the makeup of their brains, or prenatal exposure to hormones. GID is classified as a medical disorder by the ICD-10 CM and DSM-5 (called gender dysphoria).

Then there is Erotic target location error (ETLE), a theory advanced by Sexologist Ray Blanchard in 1993.  This involves having a sexual preference or strong sexual interest in features that are somewhere other than on one's sexual partners.Wikipedia explains:

The best known examples of erotic target identity inversions are biological males who experience sexual arousal in response to imagining themselves as women (called autogynephilia), but at least one case of anatomic autoandrophilia has also been reported. Whereas gynephilia refers to the sexual preference for women, autogynephilia refers to a male's sexual interest in being a woman. Autogynephilia can be associated with gender dysphoria and gender identity disorder, discontent with one's biological sex and the desire to undergo surgery for sex reassignment and permanently take on a role and life of the other sex. A male with sexual arousal based on temporarily taking on the appearance or role of a woman is transvestic fetishism.

And there is the case of this 52 year-old Steve Sweeney-look-alike who abandoned his family because he believes he is a six year-old girl:

Enter the New Jersey Legislature with its Democrat-majority in search of more LGBTV(ampires) money.  With same-sex marriage no longer an issue, they want to sell some new legislation in return for campaign cash.  So they have come up with this gem of an idea, called S-283.

If S-283 is passed, a man (with a penis) can become a legal "woman," simply by saying that he is seeing a therapist of some kind and then re-submitting his birth certificate to reflect his "new sex."  No surgery required. 

And it won't be recorded as an "amended" birth certificate.  It will be filed as the original.  The government will pretend that it can go back in time to correct the "perception" of the doctors and nurses who saw a child with a penis and checked "male."  The government will, in fact, lie and pretend that the attending physician checked "female" when, of course, he did not.    

Why is S-283 at the top of the Democrats' agenda when child poverty is at a 50-year high?  Because there are some very rich men -- billionaires, in fact -- who want to normalize their behavior or the behavior of someone close to them.  They have the money to buy what they want and that includes legislation.  In America, bribing legislative bodies is legal.  Don't let anyone try to tell you it isn't.

Tom Moran wants to be New Jersey's Donald Trump

Tom Moran runs the editorial section of the Star-Ledger, a small piece of the multi-billion dollar corporate empire that includes Discovery Communications, the company whose lobbyists ensured that they make money off the implementation of Common Core.  Yes, that's the difference between the rich and the rest of us.  We pay money to the government .  The rich pay lobbyists to harness the government so that it pays money to them.  That's who Tom Moran works for.  And that's why he always supports making us pay more taxes to government.

As the chief spokesperson for two of America's richest men, Tom Moran has watched as his newspaper screwed its unionized workers -- replacing them with cheap, out-sourced labor, and part-timers.  Moran's prescriptions come right from the hip, the better to avoid all that messy reasoning, and with the force of a petulant child.

Moran plays the liberal -- to salve the knowledge that he, in fact, speaks for the richest 1% of the 1 percent.  But try as he will, that self-awareness keeps breaking through, which leaves him a touchy, nasty sort.  Disagree with him and he'll write that you are "insane."  Tell him he's mistaken and he'll come back at you with the accusation that you want to kill people.  It's wild stuff, and a bit hypocritical, when you consider all the lives of workers Moran has watched destroyed, silent, so long as he kept getting his.

For years and years, property held by his rich masters benefited from the subsidy redistributed from the working poor in rural and suburban New Jersey.  Disagree with that subsidy and you would be called a "racist."  That's cute, coming from two old, rich white guys.  Moran wrote, and as he wrote, New Jersey has gotten poorer and poorer.  Is there a worst state in America to grow a business, find a job, keep a roof over your family's head, or see that your children don't go hungry?

His latest prescription is to raise taxes on this already over-taxed state -- without any accompanying tax cuts.  On top of a high income tax, the sales tax, and the highest property taxes in America, Tom Moran wants to see higher taxes on workers who commute and a special tax on those high earners who haven't yet been convinced to move outside the state.  The workers -- many underwater with a mortgage or who need the support of an extended family -- they'll have to just take it, because they're too poor to move.  As for the rich.  Well, money spends well everywhere.  Moran should ask the guys he works for and they'll tell him.  Rich people always find a better deal.

And when enough rich people move you will begin to see shortfalls in income tax collections.  Taxes on spending will suffer too -- and then there goes your safety net.  At a time of high unemployment and growing dependency, New Jersey needs high earners to provide the life support that others depend on. 

There is no loyalty to the state of New Jersey in the way there is to the nation of the United States.  Even top members of the political class who structured the high-tax, low-job creation, corporate crony playground that New Jersey is, bolt to low-tax states when they get the chance -- and their pension checks and spending follows them.  Case in point:  Former Democrat Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Norcross).

According to figures provided by the Internal Revenue Service (that's President Barack Obama's IRS) over the last ten years those leaving New Jersey have taken $19 billion more income away with them than the those moving into New Jersey have brought with them.  This is called net outflow -- and a $19 billion net outflow allowed to grow at the same rate, year by year, will in time kill New Jersey's ability to fund a safety net.  Then who will be left to tax?  People who can't afford it, that's who.

Tom Moran can trot out as many career government bureaucrats or career Wall Street bankers as he wants.  It won't lessen the pain of the screwing they're preparing for the people of New Jersey.