Monday and Tuesday brought two decisive blows to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and his Democratic allies who support financial regulatory reform by instituting permanent Wall Street bailouts.

Two attempts to open debate on the Democrats’ bill were defeated, with all Republicans voting against the measure, along with Democratic Senator Bill Nelson from Nebraska.

Senator Reid is determined to keep the pressure on, thinking that one or two Republicans will eventually cave. We may see another vote on Wednesday, then Thursday, and so on until he gets his way.

Despite the spin Washington Democrats are trying to put on it, here’s the bottom line: Republicans oppose this bill because it institutionalizes a “too big to fail” mentality and makes bailouts permanent while conveniently ignoring the principal cause of the mortgage market meltdown that led to the financial market collapse -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Republicans have offered comprehensive financial regulatory reform legislation – the Consumer Protection and Regulatory Enhancement Act (H.R. 3310) – designed to (1) stop the Democrats’ permanent bailouts for their Wall Street allies; (2) protect taxpayers and create jobs; (3) address Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac reform, the root causes of the housing meltdown & financial crisis; and (4) rein in the out of control Federal Reserve & end “too big to fail.”

For more information on the House Republican plan, click HERE.

Many people have questioned (including myself) whether the President's health care bill would actually lower health care costs in the long term as the President promised. Today, their doubts were confirmed. According to research done by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Democrats' health care bill now signed into law will raise our nation's health care costs, not lower them.

The House Republican Conference has compiled some highlights of the CMS findings:

    * National health care expenditures will increase by $311 billion.
    * Health care increases to 21% of GDP by 2019.
    * ObamaCare spends more than $828 billion for health care coverage.  (CMS
       didn’t analyze all the tax increases, such as HSAs, FSAs, increasing the AGI
       threshold, etc.)
    * The government will spend $410 billion to expand Medicaid.
    * Medicaid enrollment increases by 20 million new beneficiaries.
    * 18 million people will be uninsured (excluding 5 million illegal immigrants).
    * Uninsured and those employers who don’t offer coverage will pay $120 billion in
       taxes.
    * 50% of seniors will lose their Medicare Advantage plans.
    * Some of the Medicare cost-control mechanisms may not be sustainable.
    * Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) will run a deficit
       in 15 years.
    * The $5 billion for High Risk Pools is not enough.
    * Doctors may drop out of Medicare because of the changes in Medicare
       reimbursement rates.
    * Medicare “savings” may be difficult to achieve.

Now more than ever Congress needs to repeal this 2,000 page monstrosity of a bill filled with legalese, loopholes and massive liabilities. We need to start over and put forth common sense reforms that won't break the bank.

As workers throughout the country sent off their hard-earned money to Uncle Sam on Tax Day yesterday, word is spreading about a new, devastating tax that will do nothing but further cripple our already fragile economy. The Value Added Tax, or VAT, is a consumption tax imposed on all levels of production. While Americans are asking to be taxed less, the government may be taking more.

The Wall Street Journal explains the Value Added Tax this way:

"A VAT is essentially a national sales tax that is assessed at each stage of production, with the bill passed along to consumers at the cash register. In Europe the average rate is a little under 20%. In the U.S., a federal VAT would presumably be levied on top of state and local sales taxes that range as high as 10%. Some nations also exempt food, medicine and certain other goods from the tax.

VATs were sold in Europe as a way to tax consumption, which in principle does less economic harm than taxing income, savings or investment. This sounds good, but in practice the VAT has rarely replaced the income tax, or even resulted in a lower income-tax rate. The top individual income tax rate remains very high in Europe despite the VAT, with an average on the continent of about 46%."

With the passage of the multi-billion dollar health care bill, in addition to already high spending levels, Democrats are drowning our nation in debt. The VAT tax lures Democrat support because with a 10% VAT, a potential for one trillion in revenues could be raised. What Democrats fail to realize is that our already struggling economy will be crippled. Small business owners cannot grow if every product they need has been taxed every step of the way.

One of Obama’s closest economic advisors, Paul Volcker, who was also the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, said last week, a “VAT should be on the table.” He also said a VAT was “not a toxic idea.”

Volcker isn’t the only notable source floating the idea. According to USA Today, Congressional Budget Office director, Doug Elmendorf, said a VAT is being studied

The American people are taxed plenty enough as is. Our economy can only recover with fewer taxes, not more.

Don’t let the title confuse you, the 2010 Congressional Pig Book is a must read for American taxpayers.  Highlighting the worst of government spending, the taxpayer can finally get an up-close look at where their hard earned tax monies are being spent.  From $500,000 spent to control and ban Brown Tree Snakes in Guam to over two million on potato research that was “approved” by five Senators and five Representatives, it’s the best laugh since President Obama promised not to raise taxes on families making less that $250,000.  

If only it weren’t so serious of a problem. According to Citizens Against Government Waste:

"The 2010 Pig Book identified 9,129 projects at a cost of $16.5 billion in the 12 Appropriations Acts for fiscal 2009.  A 'pork' project is a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures.  To qualify as pork, a project must meet one of seven criteria that were developed in 1991 by CAGW and the Congressional Porkbusters Coalition."

My thanks to Citizens Against Government Waste for reminding us all how broken and abused the earmarking system is.

It's finally here. April 9, 2010 marks Tax Freedom Day, or the day on which Americans have earned enough money to pay all federal, state, and local taxes for the year.

According to the Tax Foundation, who calculates this figure each year:

"Americans will work well over three months of the year—from January 1 to April 9—before they have earned enough money to pay the nation's tax bill for the year."

"This date is one day later than last year's Tax Freedom Day but more than two weeks earlier than 2007's date. However, the earlier date is not necessarily cause for celebration. That's because Tax Freedom Day does not count the deficit even though deficits must eventually be financed. Since 1948, when Tax Freedom Day was first calculated, the difference between what governments are spending and what they're collecting has never been as great as during 2009 and 2010. 

"If Americans were required to pay for all government spending this year, including the $1.3 trillion federal budget deficit, they would be working until May 17 before they had earned enough to pay their taxes—an additional 38 days of work."

At the end of the day, this is the price we're paying for our government. The question is, are we getting our money's worth?