Public Service

Video: MPs face ban on employing relatives' - ITN NEWS

Being in public service is a privilege, but it does not mean one is to behave as though one is privileged. Squandering, misusing or misappropriating tax dollars is a betrayal of public trust.

Scandals have erupted in just about every world government, regarding missing, wasted or misappropriated funds. For example, in America, there was the FBI computer system scandal, where many millions went missing and to this day is still unaccounted for, presumed to be stolen, as it has been filed under the label "miscellaneous" with no product or service to show for it.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller blew several hundred million in taxpayer money

In the United Kingdom, the ongoing MP (Member of Parliament) scandal saw off over a dozen government officials that incensed the public via claiming inflated personal expenses generally not allowed under the law.

In Jamaica, a government official used taxpayer money to renovate a home designated for people in his capacity that was already in good condition, as it was previously updated, angering the Jamaican public, as the money could have been used to build a school or repair roads.

Jacqui Smith was caught up in the MP spending scandal in Britain

Government employees all over the world should endeavor to give the public the greatest value for their tax dollars. If one is not willing to sacrifice and accept reasonable remuneration for one's services as a public servant, one should seek employment in the private sector.

4-Year-Old Claims $8,000 Housing Credit

U.S. President Obama and some people (joking)

President Obama's $8,000 tax credit for first time homebuyers, is being abused according to published reports. Thus far, the IRS has uncovered 19,000 cases of fraud, including a 4-year-old claiming the $8,000 tax credit, after allegedly purchasing his own home.

People should desist abusing the tax credit, as there are people in America that have legitimately benefited from the program, aiding them in purchasing their first home.

If there is too much abuse, the program maybe scrapped altogether. Therefore, think of others who genuinely need it, before you misuse the program.

Homebuyer's tax credit: A hotbed of fraud?

Posted Oct 22nd 2009 2:30PM - Lately, the residential real estate market has been perking up. A key driver has been a juicy tax break: the first-time home buyer's tax credit, which comes to $8,000. No doubt, this can make a big difference when making the decision to purchase a home.

In fact, about 1.4 million taxpayers have filed returns to take advantage of the benefit.

This should be a good thing, right? Well, whenever there is a significant tax break, expect a good amount of cheats to get a piece of the action (especially during hard economic times).

According to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, it looks like 19,000 people filed tax returns -- claiming the credit -- even though they did not purchase a home. Some of the cases are actually comical, such as a four-year old who purchased his first home.

Interestingly enough, there is evidence that 74,000 other returns could be shams...

http://www.bloggingstocks.com

U.S. Dollar Out As World Reserve Currency

The Decimation Of The Dollar

The U.S. dollar deteriorated again this week, as banks worldwide reportedly opted to make the Euro and the Yen their reserve currency. The Judiciary Report has been warning for the better part of the year, about the dangers of the U.S. Treasury printing up excessive sums of money and the inflationary and budgetary risks it poses.

U.S. President Barack Obama

This was a time for the government to save, not spend. A tax increase of a few percent on the rich, would have brought in more government income, to balance things out. The government is piling up too much debt with too little income to compensate for the drastic spending.

Dollar loses reserve status to yen & euro

Last Updated: 3:16 AM, October 13, 2009 - Ben Bernanke's dollar crisis went into a wider mode yesterday as the greenback was shockingly upstaged by the euro and yen, both of which can lay claim to the world title as the currency favored by central banks as their reserve currency.

Over the last three months, banks put 63 percent of their new cash into euros and yen -- not the greenbacks -- a nearly complete reversal of the dollar's onetime dominance for reserves, according to Barclays Capital. The dollar's share of new cash in the central banks was down to 37 percent -- compared with two-thirds a decade ago.

Currently, dollars account for about 62 percent of the currency reserve at central banks -- the lowest on record, said the International Monetary Fund. Bernanke could go down in economic history as the man who killed the greenback on the operating table.

After printing up trillions of new dollars and new bonds to stimulate the US economy, the Federal Reserve chief is now boxed into a corner battling two separate monsters that could devour the economy -- ravenous inflation on one hand, and a perilous recession on the other.

"He's in a crisis worse than the meltdown ever was," said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital. "I fear that he could be the Fed chairman who brought down the whole thing."...

Ben Bernanke's dollar crisis went into a wider mode yesterday as the greenback was shockingly upstaged by the euro and yen, both of which can lay claim to the world title as the currency favored by central banks as their reserve currency...

http://www.nypost.com

British Political Parties Agree To TV Debate

Video: Brown agrees to TV election debate - ITN NEWS

Labour leader and Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, has agreed to television and radio debates with rival, Conservative counterpart, David Cameron. This should prove very interesting. May the best man win.

The climate has grown quite tense in the British political world, due to Britons displeasure with U.S. led wars in the Middle East and the economic downturn that began in America, hitting investors in the United Kingdom, that bear ties to Corporate America, much like during the Great Depression.

U.S. President Barack Obama (left) and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (right)

This in turn created a massive decline in employment and a spate of foreclosures, shadowing the decline that transpired in America. Due to heavy taxation of 40% on personal income and 40-61% on business income, Britain had more reserves to tie them over during the crisis.

However, the U.S. government has been printing more money as the solution, which places the nation in firm danger of inflation. A tax increase on the rich in America would have been the more appropriate, prudent choice.

David Cameron and wife Samantha

There have been improvements in the financial state of Britain since the 2008 global financial crisis began, which Gordon Brown will no doubt tout, but conversely, David Cameron will state, the incumbent Prime Minister and his predecessor, Tony Blair, created the problem in the first place. Ah politics.

Obama's Television Blitz

U.S. President Barack Obama did five television interviews last week, in support of his national health care plans. On the television program, Face The Nation, the interviewer asked the same question the Judiciary Report pondered months ago, is the President taking on too much too fast.

Certain problems within the U.S. government should rank high on his agenda. Quite a few can easily be fixed. However, the health care issue is a mammoth problem that requires complete thought and thorough planning.

It would have been more appropriate to introduce a small tax increase on America's richest citizens, leaving the middle class and poor out of the extra taxation and eased it into a fund for a program to provide low cost health insurance for the members of American society, most in need of coverage, but are the least able to afford it.

One could cut costs in government across the board and wait until the nation's financial outlook improved, before attempting drastic financial decisions, such as health care for everyone, with the government footing the bill.

The only way this can be done quickly, without bankrupting the nation, is creating a health care tax everyone has to pay, following the international model and one would have to be careful introducing something of that scope overnight in a nation of 305,000,000 people.

U.S. Tax Revenues Fall To 80 Year Low

If you've been paying attention to the news any at all, you would have read headlines about the IRS clamping down on famous tax dodgers, who owe the government billions in uncollected taxes. There is a reason for that. Tax revenue in America is at a 80 year low.

U.S. economic numbers have not been this bad since, once again, the Great Depression. It's very telling that so many aspects of the current financial crisis, which is the sole result of the crookedness George W. Bush utilized in public office, are comparable to the Great Depression, with the housing arm of the current recession-turned-depression, surpassing that of the great financial collapse several decades ago.

Had the George W. Bush administration maintain simple financial common sense, during its deceitful 8-year-term, rather than resorting to thievery, gouging and ponzi schemes as the illusion-based way to prosperity, the funds coming into the treasury would have increased, not deceased, as businesses and citizens would be thriving, not diving toward financial calamity.

Let's be clear. The only way to true financial prosperity is hardwork and diligence. There are no shortcuts, as those lead to dead ends. When a government allows lawbreaking criminals to run loose in the corporate sector, robbing, defrauding and gouging citizens, in essence devaluing wealth, expect financial disaster for the entire nation, regardless of where it is located in the world.

Federal tax revenues plummeting

WASHINGTON – The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.

Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession's impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.

The last time the government's revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression.

"Our tax system is already inadequate to support the promises our government has made," said Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury Department official in the Reagan administration who is now vice president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

"This just adds to the problem." While much of Washington is focused on how to pay for new programs such as overhauling health care — at a cost of $1 trillion over the next decade — existing programs are feeling the pinch, too.

Social Security is in danger of running out of money earlier than the government projected just a few month ago. Highway, mass transit and airport projects are at risk because fuel and industry taxes are declining.

The national debt already exceeds $11 trillion. And bills just completed by the House would boost domestic agencies' spending by 11 percent in 2010 and military spending by 4 percent...

http://news.yahoo.com

Obama: No New Taxes On The Middle Class