![Repeal the Estate Tax]()
by Fersboo
The headline on the front page of yesterday's (Monday, January 12, 2009) Wall Street Journal read "Obama Plans to Keep Estate Tax". This is the opening salvo of President-Elect Obama's tax hike and wealth redisribution plan.
In 2009, estates of less than $3.5 million per person and $7 million per couple are exempt from taxation. The value of estates over that are taxed at 45%. Under current tax law, signed by President Bush in 2001, there is no estate tax in 2010. As I joke with my clients, if you're going to die, do it in 2010, because under current law, in 2011 the estate tax reverts to Clinton-era levels--a $1 million exclusion, with the rest taxed at 55%.
Here's why the estate tax, in and of itself is wrong. Congress has the Constitutional right to tax any and all sources of income. Sources of [...]
![Repeal the Estate Tax]()
by Art Smith
We've finally given birth to our first regional site "The Conservative Reader: Iowa". Henceforth, the site you are currently reading will be focused on international and national topics, and stories that are specifically tied to regional topics will appear in an appropriate regional site.
We expect that there may be times when a regional story will warrant national focus, and as such we may promote the story either by reference or by elevating it to the national site. For instance, if a story related to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojavich's improprieties in selecting a Senator to replace Obama were to appear in an Illinois TCR site (we don't have one yet), it would likely get placement on the national site, or at least promotion on the national site if the story were on a strongly localized angle.
TCR's Iowa site will be covering the same types of Iowa focused issues that have appeared on this page in the past. We plan to provide Iowa-based news feeds in the near future, as well as opinion feeds from other Iowa sources. We will [...]
![Repeal the Estate Tax]()
by Linda Morgan
We’ve recently watched as Israel and Hamas have slugged it out. As always, when Israel seeks to defend itself, there have been many saying Israel’s response to Hamas has not been “proportionalâ€.
What is, in fact, a proportional response?. Any other country suffering under the weight of literally thousands of rockets landing indiscriminately on their territory would not only have responded with harsher and more deadly methods, but the world community would have likely agreed with their doing so. Yet Israel has to defend its right to survive in the court of world opinion. That’s a discrepancy I’ve never understood.
Some historical perspective is in order. Let’s take World War II, Japan. The Allied offer at Potsdam was rejected. Pottsdam demanded surrender. Japan refused and kept fighting.. Nothing short of total Japanese defeat was going to end the war, So, the only way out of this fight was to win it.
As a direct result of unrestrained force.. (What, after all, is nuclear warfare but unrestrained force?) resulting in defeat of Japan, the war [...]
![Repeal the Estate Tax]()
by Art Smith
I could not resist... this was the subject line on an email alert I received today from television station KCCI. All I can say is, if I were a member of the Illinois House, I'd be ill too.
Looks like the Illinois Governor's days in office are numbered. I hope for the sake of the citizens of Illinois that the remainder of this process is swift and effective in getting the government back on track. Distractions like this are not good for state government, regardless of how much excitement it may generate for some.
I'm glad politicians aren't in a position to just threaten the public and demand money to avoid destroying our lives... oh, wait. Sorry, I forget they can (and do).
But seriously, why is anyone surprised? I'm amazed at [...]
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by Fersboo
Here we are! 2009! What can we say?
2008 is gone and I think we're all grateful for that. Republicans had their hats handed to them, although Conservatives fared pretty well. And there's the difference. Moderate Republicanism is indistinguishable from the Democrats. If Republicans want to regain their stature in Washington and the state houses across America, they need to do it at the grass roots level and they need to return to Conservative values. Barack Obama is the President-elect not because of his microscopic resume, or because of the political cesspool he climbed out of, or the message of change and hope, because he represents neither. He won the national election because the Republican candidate was a moderate with a poorly-crafted message, and so since the two were indistinguishable, people chose the candidate that was younger, better-looking, and articulate. We can't do that again.
After 18 months of the media (and Obama) telling us [...]
![Repeal the Estate Tax]()
by Art Smith
We have been taking months to schedule a move to our permanent internet domain. We delayed the work to ensure that we didn't create an unnecessary outage during time leading up to the election last year. Now that the excitement is past and the dirty work and belly-aching is behind us, this looks like a good time to make the transition.
So, effective today, we are now located at "https://theconservativereader.com". If you have us bookmarked, you will want to change the bookmark to this new location. We will maintain redirecting capabilities from the old site to the new one so that your links don't break right away, but don't count on that being there forever.
If you are an rss or email subscriber, fear not. You should continue to receive your regular updates without interruption. It's possible you might [...]
