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The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
A Government 'Refund'
by Cal Thomas
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Thursday Top Headlines
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Win for workers: Major corporations celebrate passage of tax reform with holiday bonuses (The Washington Times)
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Don’t worry, lower taxes are coming: U.S. third-quarter growth revised down to 3.2% pace from 3.3% (Bloomberg)
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Congress to investigate liar-Obama scheme to nix investigation into Hezbollah terrorists (The Washington Free Beacon)
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Democrat IT aides ran car dealership with markings of a nefarious money laundering operation (The Daily Caller)
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Socialist paradise Venezuela’s brutal crime crackdown: executions, machetes and 8,292 dead (The Wall Street Journal)
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Judge declares mistrial in Cliven Bundy case, faults federal prosecutors for withholding evidence (The Washington Post)
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Congress sends historic tax bill to Trump
by Joseph Lawler
{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ House Republicans on Wednesday voted for the second time in two days to pass a major tax overhaul... sending the $1.5 trillion tax cut to President Trump, as promised, just before Christmas. "With the new tax system we will deliver today, things will change for the better, and they will change immediately," said the bill's author, Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, on the House floor. The House passed the bill 224-201, after passing it Tuesday 227-203. Twelve Republicans voted "no" in both votes. Wednesday’s vote was a formality, as all the drama already played out Tuesday afternoon when Speaker Paul Ryan first proved he had the votes to pass the bill... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/congress-sends-historic-tax-bill-to-trump-after-second-house-vote/article/2644033?utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20News%20Alert&utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20News%20Alert%20-%2012/20/17&utm_medium=email.
Sen. Murphy: 'Absolutely,' Democrats Would
Overturn Tax Legislation If They Win in 2018
by Susan Jones
{cnsnews.com} ~ bRepublicans "will probably lose the House and the Senate" in 2018 because of the Republican tax reform bill, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said... shortly before the Senate passed it, 51-48. And Murphy said "absolutely," Democrats will try to overturn the tax legislation if they do regain control of Congress in the midterm election. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow asked Murphy Tuesday night: "If your prediction is right and Democrats do take the House and Senate after the midterm elections, do you think that Democrats would try to overturn this bill?"... https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/sen-murphy-absolutely-democrats-would-overturn-tax-legislation-if-they-win?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVRVeU5tTTJZakZtTmpReCIsInQiOiIrUTJmZHlXTENrb0hMRGZZeFZPdFFNb2s2VEpcL29rWFJ0UzJsR3J4bEkzVDd3bEJZZWRmWEFDRDJDT1FwVlJaQUp5VmRuRkJ2QkZYTExKbUFNblEwNDJCM0lBSjRjbmNnMGV2T25BcWRzVWNadWNFaVpDNXJSZ2IxYnBCTmhkb2MifQ%3D%3D.
RINO-McConnell Makes Tax Bill an Election Issue,
Warns Dems Are Committed to Repeal in 2018
by Susan Jones
{cnsnews.com} ~ “I’m a little surprised the Democrats all decided that voting against middle class tax relief and making American businesses more competitive was a smart vote,”... Senate Majority Leader RINO-Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters after the Senate passed the Republican tax reform bill 51-48 early Wednesday morning. “And that’s an argument we’re more than happy to have going into the fall election.” The bill makes the new 21-percent tax rate for corporations permanent, but tax cuts for individuals and small business owners expire in eight years... https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/mcconnell-makes-tax-bill-election-issue-warns-dems-are-committed-repeal?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVRVeU5tTTJZakZtTmpReCIsInQiOiIrUTJmZHlXTENrb0hMRGZZeFZPdFFNb2s2VEpcL29rWFJ0UzJsR3J4bEkzVDd3bEJZZWRmWEFDRDJDT1FwVlJaQUp5VmRuRkJ2QkZYTExKbUFNblEwNDJCM0lBSjRjbmNnMGV2T25BcWRzVWNadWNFaVpDNXJSZ2IxYnBCTmhkb2MifQ%3D%3D.
McCabe Today, Ohr Tomorrow, And Deep State Predictably Runs Out Rooster Head For Chaff and Countermeasures
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A Surprising Statement from CAIR-New Jersey
by Oren Litwin
{islamist-watch.org} ~ On Friday, Dec. 8th, a New Jersey imam gave a hate-filled sermon in which he called for the Jews to be killed "down to the very last one," as we wrote about previously... Today, asked to comment on the episode, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) New Jersey director Jim Sues released a gratifying statement in response. Here is Mr. Sues's statement to Islamist Watch: "CAIR has a long history of challenging anti-Semitism in all its forms. We believe that statements expressed in this sermon are inappropriate and should be condemned." We applaud Mr. Sues for his willingness to confront anti-Semitism—a willingness which is especially noteworthy because other CAIR branches and CAIR's national office have often turned a blind eye to anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred as well... http://www.islamist-watch.org/blog/2017/12/a-surprising-statement-from-cair-new-jersey?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=dc2517056e-litwin_iw_2017_12_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_086cfd423c-dc2517056e-33703665&goal=0_086cfd423c-dc2517056e-33703665
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A Government 'Refund'
{townhall.com} ~ So, a Republican majority Congress has "reformed" the tax code for the first time in 31 years, allowing us to keep a little more of the money we earn. Woohoo!
Back in the day when my withholding exceeded my tax liability, I occasionally received a nice little refund check from the U.S. Treasury. The check had the Statue of Liberty on it, which was ironic given that high taxes are the antithesis of liberty.
During the debate over the tax bill, which is supposed to be passed Tuesday and quickly signed by President Trump, we heard a familiar question: "How will these tax cuts be paid for?" This from a Congress that has dug us a debt hole that now exceeds $20 trillion. "How do we pay that off?" should be the question. The answer: "Not with more of our money, but with less government spending."
Washington is taking in record amounts of money, but it goes out as fast as it comes in. Government doesn't lack revenue; it lacks spending discipline.
I'm all for the tax reform measure, but one thing is certain. When Democrats win back a congressional majority and the White House you can count on tax increases. It's what they do. It won't matter that the stock market is setting records with retirement portfolios expanding, or that the unemployment rate has declined. Offerings to the government must be made because to many liberal politicians, government is God.
Ronald Reagan cut taxes in 1986, but liar-Bill Clinton raised them. If unnecessary and duplicative government programs and agencies were eliminated, if we stopped fighting wars we ought not to be in, if Social Security and Medicare -- the main engines of debt -- were reformed, the need for higher taxes would be reduced. We could then keep, spend and invest even more of our money and possibly motivate more people who are now dependent on Washington to enjoy the fruits of liberty, a job and the dignity that goes with supporting one's self and one's family.
That would be real reform, but it may be easier to kick a drug or smoking habit than to wean some people from government. Too many have bought into the fiction that government can solve everything, when history has shown that it can solve very little. One does not have to look far for evidence of this.
In some U.S. states and in countries where smaller, less intrusive government has been tried, less costly government works. Think Singapore, which has an unemployment rate around 2 percent because the country has no welfare for able-bodied people, and Hungary, which has cut corporate taxes from 19 percent to 9 percent and is experiencing economic growth approaching 4 percent. Think America when the tax cuts advocated by John F. Kennedy and Reagan produced economic booms.
Now that the tax code has been "overhauled," the next step should be to overhaul government. It has far exceeded the boundaries set for it by the Constitution. As a result, people have come to expect more from government than it can, or should, deliver, which has led to lower expectations for what citizens can achieve for themselves.
One of the biggest promoters of self-reliance was America's 30th president, Calvin Coolidge. Among many of his pronouncements about government, taxes and individual persistence was this gem: "A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude."
The Republican tax bill may unlock a few of the chains on those who have been its servants. Now it's time for the servants to put those chains on Washington and reduce its size and out-of-control spending.
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