Since 1970, the public school workforce has roughly doubled—to 6.4 million from 3.3 million—and two-thirds of those new hires are teachers or teachers’ aides. Over the same period, enrollment rose by a tepid 8.5%. Employment has thus grown 11 times faster than enrollment. If we returned to the student-to-staff ratio of 1970, American taxpayers would save about $210 billion annually in personnel costs.
Hot Air makes the point that this crazy class warfare does have consequences. Lower revenue!
In light of President Obama’s exhortation to hike taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year earlier today, here’s a well-timed piece of evidence demonstrating what happens when you decide you’d rather engage in populist persecution and punish the wealthy for their economic contributions rather than make tough budget-cutting decisions. A new report indicates that the state of Maryland is bleeding residents and tax revenue — an emigration likely due to the wildly blue state’s recent tax hikes.
The study, by the anti-tax group Change Maryland, says that a net 31,000 residents left the state between 2007 and 2010, the tenure of a “millionaire’s tax” pushed through by Gov. Martin O’Malley. The tax, which expired in 2010, in imposed a rate of 6.25 percent on incomes of more than $1 million a year.
The Change Maryland study found that the tax cost Maryland $1.7 billion in lost tax revenues. A county-by-county analysis by Change Maryland also found that the state’s wealthiest counties also had some of the largest population outflows.
In total, Maryland has added 24 new taxes or fees in recent years, Change Maryland says. Florida, which has no income-tax, has been a large recipient of Maryland’s exiled wealthy.
“Maryland has reached the point of diminishing returns. We’re taxing people too much and people are voting with their feet,” said Change Maryland Chairman Larry Hogan. “Until we change our focus from tax increases to increasing the tax base, more people are simply going to leave, leading to a downward spiral of raising revenues on fewer citizens.”
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In 2011 alone, a record 1,800 individuals renounced their United States citizenship — and if that doesn’t provide a red flag about our tax code, I don’t know what does.
Here’s just one case in point that broke earlier today:
Denise Rich, the wealthy socialite and former wife of pardoned billionaire trader Marc Rich, has given up her U.S. citizenship – and, with it, much of her U.S. tax bill.
Rich, 68, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and glossy figure in Democratic and European royalty circles, renounced her American passport in November, according to her lawyer. …
By dumping her U.S. passport, Rich likely will save tens of millions of dollars or more in U.S. taxes over the long haul, tax lawyers say.
(CBS News) When Facebook begins selling its stock, several people who own part of the company will become billionaires.
One of them is getting a lot of flack, because he’s giving up his U.S. citizenship right before Facebook goes public. That will save Eduardo Saverin a fortune in taxes.
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Saverin is being hailed in some quarters for drawing attention to high taxes. He plans to continue living the high life, in Singapore, where there are no capital gains taxes.
US Border Agent Brian Terry was shooting beanbags at cartel members before they shot him dead with assault rifles. (Truth about Guns)
For the first time the Obama Administration today admitted that Brian Terry and fellow border agents were firing beanbags and not bullets during their shootout with armed cartel members.
For the first time, federal officials revealed Monday that murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and an elite squad of federal agents first fired bean bags — not bullets — at a heavily armed drug cartel crew in the mountains south of Tucson in December 2011.
The announcement came as the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging five individuals allegedly involved in Terry’s death. A sixth suspect has also been charged in a related incident.
The U.S. is also offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the arrest of four outstanding suspects believed to hiding out in Mexico. The names of the four suspects were revealed, and their pictures released, to the public. Police in the US and in Mexico are cooperating and under intense pressure to find them.
According to popular myth, if you hold conservative political views, you’re a rigid ideologue, unwilling to compromise. But if you hold liberal political views, you’re practical and open minded. Best selling author, Jonah Goldberg, explains how this myth got started and why it’s wrong in this Prager University course.
There are all kinds of ways to make yourself unhappy. The easiest is to compare an image of yourself to reality. Best selling author, Dennis Prager explains how this works with near mathematical precision.
On July 4th (2012), scientists at CERN anounced their discovery of a boson. This isn’t any boson though. It’s a “Higgs Boson” (sometimes refered with the hyperbolic term “God Particle”) like particle (they’re still determining if it’s actually THE Higgs Boson particle). This is a part of the particle zoo that matches the Standard Model. This finding obviously justifies and substantiates the second premise of the Kalam Cosmological Argument that the universe began to exist. Scientist and astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink (PhD) explains this finding and the importance of the Higgs Boson particle.
The liberal media continues to make a connection between “Operation Fast and Furious” under the Obama and “Operation Wide Receiver” under Bush, and major news outlets have made no effort to explain the difference.
MRCTV sat down with NRA president David Keene, who explains the fundamental difference between these two operations.
