Politicans And Celebrities Do Not Like To Pay Taxes

From Yahoo News/Christian Science Monitor:

Dublin, Ireland – The band that loves to rail against global corporate malfeasance is being criticized at home over allegations of tax dodging.

U2, whose new album, "No Line on the Horizon," is being released Tuesday in the United States, has lately found itself the focus of protests in Dublin over global tax avoidance.

The controversy stems from 2006, when the band moved its publishing company to the Netherlands to avoid a potential multi-million-euro tax bill after the Irish government capped artists' tax-free earnings at €250,000 ($315,000). By basing its operations in Amsterdam, U2 is only liable for a nominal royalty tax.

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My Comment: Some people love to spend other people's money, but never their own.

UBS Refuses To Give U.S. Names, Replaces Chairman

From Yahoo News/Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Switzerland's largest bank held its ground on Wednesday in a dispute with the U.S. government, refusing to disclose the names of tens of thousands of rich American clients suspected by U.S. authorities of using secret Swiss bank accounts to dodge U.S. taxes.

A senior executive for UBS AG said at a Senate hearing that the bank regrets breaking U.S. tax laws, but it does not intend to hand over the client names being sought in a U.S. Internal Revenue Service lawsuit.

"UBS has now complied ... to the fullest extent possible without subjecting its employees to criminal prosecution in Switzerland," said Mark Branson, chief financial officer of UBS Global Wealth Management and Swiss Bank.

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My Comment: I can just hear a huge sigh of relief among thousands of Americans right now. I can also easily predict that (rhetoric aside) there is no political will to push this to next level.

Senate Defeats Effort to Remove Earmarks

From New York Times:

WASHINGTON — In his latest crusade against the process lawmakers use to finance home-state projects known as earmarks, Senator John S. McCain took to the Senate floor this week with an arsenal of numbers, sharply criticizing the $410 billion omnibus spending bill as 2,967 pages of text, teeming with 9,000 earmarks.

But the only numbers that mattered on Tuesday were 63 to 32: the vote by which the Senate defeated Mr. McCain’s amendment to strip the earmarks from the spending measure, which is needed to finance the federal government through September.

While the bill is likely to be approved, the fight over earmarks will not end anytime soon.

The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats, sensitive to accusations that they were allowing earmarks to continue unchecked, are considering ways to adjust the budgeting system, which President Obama has said should be more open and transparent.

“That’s what the White House is working on,” its press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Tuesday.

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My Comment: While the Democrats represent 60% of earmarks requested .... they are 60% of the Congress.

Sigh .... plague on both parties.

AFL-CIO Union Execs Hold Winter Meeting at Luxury Miami Resort

My Comment: OK .... as thousands of Union workers are losing their jobs everyday .... the union bosses are having a good time. Where are the politicians and their outrage?

Loan Charity's High-Flying Guests Exposed

From CBS News:

CBS Evening News: Educational Nonprofit Under Fire For Transporting Politicians With Money That Could Have Gone To Students

(CBS) Educap is a multibillion-dollar student loan charity run by CEO Catherine Reynolds. As CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported Monday night, Educap is under investigation by the IRS and Congress for alleged abuse of its tax-exempt status because it charges high interest on charitable student loans, and provides lavish perks with millions in compensation for Reynolds and her husband.

CBS News has obtained exclusive details of what may have been the biggest charity perk: use of Educap's $31 million luxury jet, which costs thousands of dollars an hour to operate.

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Geithner Touts Tackling Tax Evaders After Failing to Pay Own Taxes

From FOX News:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday that the Obama administration, which has been riddled with tax problems, is mounting plans to go after tax evaders.

The pot has issued the kettle an ultimatum: tax dodgers beware.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was forced to fork up $34,000 in unpaid back taxes, told the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday that the Obama administration will be going after people who avoid and evade taxes.

In prepared remarks before Congress, he said the president is intent on "tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse our tax laws, including international tax evasion efforts."

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My Comment: His message is very clear. Do what I say .... not what I do.

The Politics Of Personal Destruction Planned In The White House

From Politico:

Top Democrats believe they have struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party, a full-scale effort first hatched by some of the most familiar names in politics and now being guided in part from inside the White House.

The strategy took shape after Democratic strategists Stanley Greenberg and James Carville included Limbaugh’s name in an October poll and learned their longtime tormentor was deeply unpopular with many Americans, especially younger voters. Then the conservative talk-radio host emerged as an unapologetic critic of Barack Obama shortly before his inauguration, when even many Republicans were showering him with praise.

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My Comment: Enemies lists. Using the power of the Federal Government to attack private citizens. These are all ominous developments. The fact that it is occurring in the beginning of this Government's term in office .... not later .... bodes badly for what will be there in the months and years to come.