Mining Company Finds Gold In Taxpayers Thanks To 21st Century GOP

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1. The republican mining bill diverts part of tax proceeds (40 percent) away from local governments and taxpayers impacted by the mine and instead sends it to the state's GOP Donor Center, the WEDC.

2. Under Grover Norquist's order, the bill forbids the state from charging a tonnage tax on extracted resources taken from the land. Taxpayers lose twice.

3. The bill's mining tax will not generate much revenue in the first few years of the mine’s operation. That’s because the mine will be required to pay a tax on its net proceeds, and the significant investments in machinery and equipment required at the beginning of the mine’s operations will reduce the mine’s proceeds and therefore the amount of tax owed by the mine. Some other states, such as Minnesota, tax mines based on their output.

4. A new tax credit for manufacturers, agricultural producers, and mines gradually reduces Wisconsin income tax rates for corporations in these industries from 7.9% down to 0.4% in 2016. That means a corporation, such as a mine, with $10 million in taxable Wisconsin income would go from paying $790,000 in 2012 in corporate income tax to paying just $40,000 in tax in 2016. Who will pick up the difference? Taxpayers.

5. The bill would also cut tax revenue for environmental protection and recycling programs by $171 million per year. Currently, mining operations in the state are required to pay a $7.02 fee per ton of material removed from the Earth. The GOP's bill would waive the $7 recycling fee, dropping the cost per ton to less than 3 cents.

Cutting the existing recycling fee is unrelated to the tonnage-tax proposal Sen. Tim Cullen of Janesville offered that Grover Norquist struck down. Wisconsin is still facing a budget shortfall as a result of massive tax shifts and cuts under Gov. Scott Walker. Another $171 million in tax cuts for businesses would make the budget deficit even more daunting for the state's wage earning taxpayers.

Sources:

Wisconsin Budget Project - Tax Issues Fly Under The Radar In Mining Controversy

Bloomberg Business Week - Wis. mine bill would slash money for environment

Rock Netroots - Lord Norquist Forbids Wisconsin To Tax Extracted resources

Sequester Will Put GOP "Cuts Create Prosperity" To The Test

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Will Boehner Have The Guts To Save 750,000 Jobs?

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) told FOX News (who else?) that if House Speaker John Boehner "caves" and agrees to tax revenues to avoid the sequester, he will lose his speakership job.

Source:
"I don't quite honestly believe that Speaker Boehner would be speaker if that happens. I think he would lose his speakership," Johnson said. "That would be my own personal opinion."

You can figure Johnson was channeling Paul Ryan on that one since they are very close buddies. With his amateurish threat, Johnson ends up daring the trapped Boehner, who could turn it back on Johnson and Tea Party House mutants by saying it is more important to work on a deal to save 750,000 American jobs than it is to save his own. But is John Boehner courageous enough?

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Ryan Sequesters Janesville Airport

Here's a pick up from the blog, Because I can. Titled, Ryan Sequesters Janesville Airport, the posting taps a Huffington Post article about how Ryan's drive for government spending cuts may effect the operations of his hometown's Rock County Airport.

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Sequester Will put "Cuts Create prosperity" To The Test

Source:
WASHINGTON -- The bluntness of sequestration was supposed to be what made it so effective. The $1 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years would hit everywhere and everything. Its indiscriminate, draconian nature would compel lawmakers into finding a replacement.

With the Friday deadline for sequestration approaching, however, the prospect of finding said replacement appears slim.

Remember that the sequester cuts take place over a period of ten years. Despite the ominous warnings, come March 1st or the few weeks thereafter, the sky won't fall. Things will appear business as usual. But as time passes and $10 billion worth of cuts settle in, then another $10B in cuts and another and another, in six to eight months we will begin to see a slow but steady economic decline.

But wait..wait! That's not right. That's not the way it's supposed to be according to the Heritage Foundation/Republican pro-growth mime that we've been hearing for more than a decade. What I've heard from Rep. Paul Ryan and others was that government doesn't have a revenue problem, that it has a spending problem and cutting government spending will unleash prosperity and economic security. I've heard that over and over again. But, if the projected devastating effects occur or if a soft decline or little noticeable impact is felt, that entire GOP spending cut formula will be discredited.

Why? Because for the Republicans to be right about government budget cuts feeding job creation, certainty and prosperity, we shouldn't lose 750,000 jobs over the next year or two. We shouldn't even be satisfied with a flat-lining economy. We should gain 750,000 jobs on top of the gains that were projected WITHOUT sequestration!! Crazy as it sounds, that's what we should expect if there is any inkling of integrity to their "cuts create prosperity" mime.

Please, don't count on that happening. At. All.

Politicus USA - Sick House Tea Partiers Celebrate Sequesters Human Carnage

Independent Talk Outlets Serve Area's Hungry Population

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This is just a reminder that Janesville, Rock County and points beyond are fortunate to have several blog/talk radio outlets independent of the area's Bliss Communication's media apparatus. Some of the folks here are operating simply out of passion and a deep concern to bring us unfiltered local news and commentary. They deserve our support.

They are:

Drive Home With Sly 3PM - Big Oldies 93.7 FM

Discover Janesville with Yuri Rashkin Main Page
Feature: Janesville City Council Forum

Civil Discourse Main Page
Latest Feature: State Of The Union

Video: Ryan Was a Big Fan Of Sequestration Until ...

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In government legislation, I've always thought "sequester" or sequestration was a built-in default mechanism that acts as an override in fiscal matters when a more controlled environment fails. Over the years I've heard Rep. Paul Ryan use the term several times but never really gave its potentially disastrous consequences much thought. Until now.

As it turns out, Ryan has been a very big proponent for sequestration over the years. So much in fact, that if "Sequester" was a race horse, Ryan would be considered its owner, trainer and driver. But in this latest sequestration event that republicans have tried to throw back onto President Obama, it is Ryan himself who tries to "urban legend" sequestration like he did his beloved Ayn Rand. Suddenly, the sequester is bad government when it appears that blame instead of credit is its political reward.

Watch it:



To help keep responsibility for the current cuts in proper perspective is the fact that Paul Ryan was not only a huge proponent of sequestration, but also that he was one of only three House Republicans voting for the current sequester AND then later pulling its trigger. Obama signed the sequester mechanism into law as part of the debt deal from 2011, but never pulled the trigger.

What I also don't get from Republicans posting comments in social media is they insist Democrats offer proposals to prevent some of the cuts without raising revenue. They basically want to trade indiscriminate automatic $1.2T in cuts for $1.2T in picking-winners-and-losers cuts. Republicans want to go from Ryan bad to crony-capitalism Ryan worse. Democrats must not accept anything less than dollar-for-dollar in revenue to offset or cancel any cuts.

ADDITIONAL:

Politicus USA - Paul Ryan Championed Sequester Since 2004, Now Calls His Own Idea Not Good Government - w/transcripts

Crooks and Liars - It's Not About Fixing The Debt. It's All About Lowering Taxes.

Gov. Scott Walker Cares Too Much

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The Journal Sentinel Politifact want to make sure what Gov. Scott Walker said is taken in the right context, just in case somebody might understand actually what Republicans mean by...

Left to right - Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, George W. Bush, Grover Norquist, Scott Walker and Reince Priebus. Foreground - Paul Ryan.

Lord Norquist Forbids Wisconsin To Tax Extracted Resources

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Last week, the defacto leader of the Republican party and also its chief scold and whip, Grover Norquist, gave a stern warning to any Wisconsin Republican who dare violate his tax pledge. Norquist's incursion came soon after Sen. Tim Cullen proposed a tonnage tax on mining companies for any extracted mineral resources taken from Wisconsin land.

CapTimes Excerpt:
"For those of you who have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a new tonnage tax is a violation of that pledge."

As expected, Gov. Scott Walker, a Norquist devotee, straightened up to attention and quickly injected that there was no way he would allow the tax.

The tonnage tax — which is already in use with much success in Minnesota and Michigan — would have become a national model if passed in Wisconsin for budget-short states to raise new revenue without taxing its residents. But with Norquist in the picture, the people of Wisconsin have no chance in mining new tax revenue from companies that take from the land.

Despite the loss, Sen. Tim Cullen deserves a hat tip on this one.

Superior Telegram -Norquist, Walker Against Democrats’ Mining Tax Bill

Paul Ryan Still Blaming Obama For The Cuts Ryan Desperately Wants

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This should fall under the "you can't make this stuff up" category.

Once again, Rep. Paul Ryan was on a Sunday morning talk show and was completely dismantled in front of a national audience when ABC News host Jonathan Karl confronted Ryan about praising the sequester option in August of 2011 only to turn around and blame President Obama for the sequester cuts.

In his response to Karl, Ryan weaseled ...

"Remember the Super Committee in addition to those caps was supposed to come up with 1.2 trillion in savings. The Republicans on the super committee offered even higher revenues in exchange for spending cuts as part of that. It was rejected by the president and the Democrats. So no resolution occurred and therefore the sequester is occurring."

Republicans offered "higher revenues" on the super committee? Really?? But it was rejected by Obama and the Democrats??

First off, Obama was not on the super committee and had no vote in the matter. Secondly, Ryan is implying Republicans on the super committee were willing to raise "higher revenues" than whatever was at play in exchange for what we can assume were even deeper spending cuts? However, Ryan refuses to raise any revenue at all right now to offset the cuts the sequester will bring?

Ryan also claims Obama "got his" increased revenue. But he forgets to say that was part of a different deal, just like previous "sequesters" and spending cuts were also part of different deals. The super committee was charged with finding $1.2 trillion in savings, and Ryan implies Republicans wanted even more, did not get them, so he voted against the committee thereby triggering the sequester cuts.

Republicans also think they got something on Obama since Bob Woodward claimed the sequester idea came first from the White House. I won't argue with where the idea first came from, but the sequester cuts became operative law ONLY when the Simpson/Bowles Debt Commission failed. That’s when Ryan voted for the sequester “idea” a second time. Again, Obama was not a member of the commission.

Both parties also acknowledge that everyone's fingerprints are all over the sequester option as part of the debt deal. But only the 18 members of the Simpson/Bowles debt Commission had their fingers on the trigger. Once again, Paul Ryan was one of only three House Republicans who pulled that trigger. Not Obama. It is Ryan who desperately wants those cuts to happen. He has repeatedly said so.

The Hill Excerpt:
Ryan added that the cuts needed to happen because Republicans can’t risk losing the only leverage they have when it comes to cutting spending. “I think the sequester is going to happen, because that $1.2 trillion in spending cuts, we can’t lose those spending cuts, that was to pay for the last debt-ceiling increase, let alone any future increase.”

So now we arrive at the point where we know Paul Ryan willingly opposed the compromise necessary to prevent the automatic cuts of the sequester option when he voted against the Simpson/Bowles Commission AND now will not accept any increased revenues to help pay for the costs to cancel the sequester. We also know Ryan is using the threat of the automatic cuts as "leverage" to advance his party's agenda - not the country's.

Speaking of the damage the sequester cuts might bring, according to George Mason University the state of Wisconsin will lose 36,555 jobs. Again, Ryan and Republicans know how devastating the cuts are and they don't care. In fact, they demand that the cuts happen. They pulled the trigger on the sequester - not Obama. They own it. lock, stock and barrel.

Watch the Jonathan Karl / Paul Ryan exchange below...



ADDITIONAL:

Raw Story - ABC Host Confronts Paul Ryan On Sequester

Think Progress - ABC News Calls Out Paul Ryan For Hypocrisy Over Looming Budget Cuts

Gov. Scott Walker. Is He Evil Or What?

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I’m convinced. Scott Walker is one evil scary dude.

If I told you that I thought a food product was deadly poisonous (whether true or not) and issued a public warning stating so, only to later construct a campaign designed to coerce you into eating the product that I consider tainted ...would you say I’m a nice guy? Well, that’s what Gov. Scott Walker has done in his recent switcheroo on Obamacare and Medicaid.

Let me explain. Unless you’re the President, a governor or a member of Congress, it really doesn't matter what your perception of Obamacare is since you would have little power to enact change beyond the ballot box. That's just the way it is for you and I. What really matters is how a governor of a state perceives Obamacare since the program requires some collaboration between the state and federal government. So when a sitting governor insists that Obamacare is an unhealthy prescription and then proceeds to do everything in his power to delay its implementation and injure its potential, only to later claim that forcing people into it ...into something he worked to destabilize and considers unhealthy is because, he cares too much and "wants to empower the people of Wisconsin to control their own destiny" - I think we have a completely delusional mentality if not a downright evil person on our hands.

With Walker, this is nothing new and I posted the "evil" at the risk of sounding over-the-top or as a scaremonger, but those are his words linked above and his actions deliver that perception.

People of Wisconsin ...this isn't mere political gamesmanship or that Walker "got over" on Obama or vice-versa. There are lives hanging in the balance with billions of dollars at stake for the state of Wisconsin. Regardless of your politics ...we've got a serious, serious problem here. This is wrong in the worst ways.

ADDITIONAL:

YouTube Video: Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin explains what's wrong with the Walker/Medicaid situation. Highly Recommended.