Archive for July 6th, 2011

More re: corp jets … Are they really slipping through a“loophole” ?

July 6, 2011

In an earlier post, we pointed out the irony regarding Pres. Obama’s poli-rants against “corporate jet owners”:

  • HR 4853– the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 – was initiated in the lame duck Pelosi-controlled Democratic House, passed by the Reid-controlled Democratic lame duck Senate, and signed by President Obama – ostensibly to create J-O-B-S.

A HomaFiles reader replied to the post with a relevant clarification:

“A tax break is not a loophole.

HR4853 purposely included this incentive to produce an outcome.

Only unintended tax outcomes that reduce taxes are loopholes.

It is amazing to see the amount of misinformation provided by the press and believed by democrats …”

Good point.

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Posted in Taxes | 1 Comment »

Football, band, honors classes and hot lunches … here we go again.

July 6, 2011

When I was a kid, the local school board would biennially warn that football, the band, the honors program and hot lunches would be cut unless a levy was passed to boost real estate taxes.

I remember that – even as a kid – it sounded like a bunch of bull.

Sometimes the levies passed. Sometimes they didn’t.

Regardless of the vote, the stadium lights still glowed bright on Friday nights, the smart kids still got their honors courses, and the cafeteria kept serving up hot slop.

Today’s equivalent of football, band, honors and lunches was articulated at Pres. Obama’s press conference last week: college scholarships, food safety, medical research, etc.

Nothing else can possibly be cut.

Nope, it’s gotta be football, band, honors and hot lunches.

But, wait a minute.

What about  the $100 to $200 billion in wasteful spending that the GAO reported last last March:

WSJ, Billions in Bloat Uncovered in Beltway, March 1, 2011

A GAO report uncovered billions of dollars in wasteful spending by the U.S. government due to duplicate work done by dozens of overlapping agencies on redundant and ineffective federal programs

For example, the U.S. government has 15 different agencies overseeing food-safety laws, more than 20 separate programs to help the homeless and 80 programs for economic development.

The agency found 82 federal programs to improve teacher quality; 80 to help disadvantaged people with transportation; 47 for job training and employment; and 56 to help people understand finances.

The report took particular aim at government funding for surface transportation, including the building of roads and other projects, which the administration has made a major part of its push to update the country’s infrastructure. The report said five divisions within the Department of Transportation account for 100 different programs that fund things like highways, rail projects and safety programs.

The report chided the government over encouraging federal agencies to purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles while having policies that agencies reduce electricity consumption. It said government agencies have purchased numerous vehicles that run on alternative fuels only to find many gas stations don’t sell alternative fuels. This has led government agencies to turn around and request waivers so they didn’t have to use alternative fuels.

The GAO identified between $100 billion and $200 billion in duplicative spending.

GAO’s prior recommendations have generally been ignored or postponed by federal agencies and lawmakers, particularly when they could require difficult political votes.

Hmmm.

Just not hearing a lot about that report these days …

Nope, it’s gotta be football, band, honors and hot lunches.

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Click to see the full report …

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Posted in Debt - Deficit | Leave a Comment »

U.S. teachers work longest hours in the world … oh, really?

July 6, 2011

According to the WSJ and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development:

    • U.S. primary-school teachers spend only 36 weeks a year in the classroom — among the lowest among the countries tracked
    • But, U.S. primary-school teachers spend 1,097 hours a year teaching – the highest among the countries tracked – and well above the OECD average of 786 hours.

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And, according to the OECD, that’s just the time teachers spend on instruction. Including hours teachers spend on work at home and outside the classroom, American primary-school educators spend 1,913 working in a year.

According to data from the comparable year in a Labor Department survey, an average full-time employee works 1,932 hours a year spread out over 48 weeks (excluding two weeks vacation and federal holidays).

Despite the amount of time that teachers spend working, student achievement in the U.S. remains average in reading and science and slightly below average in math when compared to other nations in a separate OECD report.

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Hmmm.

Teachers work an average of almost 11 hours per day when school is in session,

And, teachers put in about as many hours in 36 weeks as “average full-time employees” do in 48 weeks,

Color me skeptical …

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Posted in Education - Academics | 2 Comments »