January 19, 2010

Election Day in Massachusetts

Who would have guess that today's election in Massachusetts would be huge:

Latest polls suggest State Senator Scott Brown could defeat state Attorney General Martha Coakley, which would be a huge upset in this traditionally liberal New England state, take away the Democrats' supermajority in congress and thereby reshape President Barack Obama's agenda after just one year in office.

I don't know who will win, but everyone that I have talked to seem to favor Scott Brown. The polls close at 8pm tonight and it will be interesting to see when they call the race.

This election is the first time that voters can change the outcome of a major piece of election in Congress.

January 11, 2010

Local sales Tax

Starting January 1, 2010, city and towns in Massachusetts can collect local taxes. This was a rule that allowed City and Towns to collect local sales tax which put in place from the Massachusetts State Legislator.

Framingham and Lexington now charge .75% for sales tax. This means that the consumer now pays 7% sales tax in Framingham and Lexington. Many merchants have posted signs to let consumers know of the change.

Currently there is no list of which city and towns have issued sales tax. This would be something that the Boston Globe or the Boston Herald should do.

October 20, 2009

First Time Homebuyer Credit

Looks like that the First Time Homebuyer credit may get extended. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) is pushing this through the Senate at a hearing today.

You can follow the results of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing. After the hearing is over you can download the transcript of all the participants.

Read Senator Johnny Isakson floor statement on exapanding the Homebuyer Tax Credit until May of 2010. Here's a quote:

People will say: Well, it costs too much. Let's look at what we have done in 2 1/2 or 1 1/2 years in terms of cost to try to save an ailing economy. We have put $85 billion in 1 night in AIG. That is a lot more money than $16 billion. The Federal Reserve has at one place or another invested over $5 trillion. That is a lot more than $16 billion. The stimulus, which is a 2-year stimulus, which is just in its infancy of trying to make some difference, was $787 billion. The Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, which was passed in October of last year, was $700 billion. Yet we have a proposal that has generated 350,000 sales, costs $16 billion, that is about to die, where all of those other programs and trillions of dollars have only saved a collapse but not regenerated an economy.

February 20, 2009

Thomas Jefferson's Prophecy

There's been some talk on radio talk shows how there might be some truth to Thomas Jefferson's prophecy of 1802:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Thomas Jefferson, 1802.

February 18, 2009

Obama Speech

Last part of the Obama's Inauguration Address:

In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.