A SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST; My long-time friend, Alex, is planning to share the gospel with his Mom this Christmas. PRAY that her heart would be open and that she might respond to the invitation to trust in Christ.
NOTE: TODAY marks 28 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. I am in the midst of a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the almost 60 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the 10s of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust.
PLEASE PRAY: 1. For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies. 2, For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed. 3. The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars. 4. That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia. 5. For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions.
NOTE: The following article looks at a real-life example of what we can look forward to if Presdent Obama and other progressives have their way in putting a greater tax-burden on the wealthiest among us. It is followed by a second article that looks more closely at the devastating impact such policies will have on our economy.
“Non” to Taxes, Gives D.C. a Lesson," Mike Gonzalez, December 21, 2012 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/12/21/departing-depardieu-french-icon-says-non-to-taxes-gives-d-c-a-lesson/
By playing the lead role in this real life Atlas Shrugged, Depardieu is showing would-be taxers all over what happens when you inflict too much pain on the people. Washington, which is at the moment agonizing over just how much more to tax already over-taxed Americans, should take notice of the consequences.
Rather than raise taxes because of a fiscal cliff Members of Congress themselves created, our most enlightened politicians should, in fact, be offering Depardieu a green card, so that he can bring and invest his millions here—putting people to work. It would be another example of life imitating art, as Depardieu was the star of the 1990 hit Green Card about a Frenchman who overstayed his visa in the U.S.
In an angry letter, Depardieu addressed the Socialist government of President Francois Hollande, which wants to raise taxes to 75 percent for French people who make above $1.31 million annually.
“I was born in 1948, I began working at the age of 14 as a printer, as a store handler, then as a dramatic artist. I’ve always paid my taxes, whatever the level and under all serving governments. “At no moment have I avoided my duty,” Depardieu went on. “I am leaving because you consider that success, creation, talent, in fact, being different, must be punished.… I am a free being, Sir.”Depardieu has turned in his passport and is moving to Belgium, which has no wealth tax.
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"Higher Taxes Mean Slower Economic Growth," December 17, 2012 , http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=22681&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD
President Obama believes his reelection gave him a mandate to raise taxes on high earners. However, top earners already pay high taxes and a further increase could depress overall economic growth and production, say Edward C. Prescott, co-winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics and director of the Center for the Advanced Study in Economic Efficiency at Arizona State University, and Lee E. Ohanian, the associate director of the center and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
- U.S. growth is currently weak, with an overall output of 13.5 percent lower than what it would be had we continued on the pre-2008 trend.
- The average marginal effective tax rate is around 40 percent when all taxes on earnings and consumer spending, federal, state and local income taxes, and Social Security and payroll taxes are taken into account.
- The effect of tax increases would slightly increase revenues but reduce overall economic activity.
- This is because high tax rates on labor income and consumption reduce the incentive to work by making consumption more expensive relative to leisure.
Other economies around the world provide an example of the negative effects that a higher tax rate would have on the U.S. economy.
- When tax rates were low in the 1950s, many Western Europeans worked more hours per capita.
- However, as tax rates increased over the decades, there has been a 30 percent decline in work hours.
- Furthermore, entrepreneurship is much lower in Europe because people are discouraged from business creation.
Instead, the government should make the economy more productive by lowering marginal tax rates and removing burdensome regulations. Furthermore, immigration policies need to be altered to attract the best and brightest from other countries to reinvigorate the entrepreneurial spirit that has kept the United States competitive for decades.
Source: Edward C. Prescott and Lee E. Ohanian, "Taxes Are Much Higher Than You Think," Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2012
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