Unfortunately, the actual reality is that having taxes taken out ahead of time creates more of an “out of sight, out of mind” situation. By the time next April 15 rolls around, this guy will have completely forgotten how much he has paid in for taxes and will consider it some kind of victory when he receives some of his own money back as a refund. The best reality check for increasing awareness of the tax burden would be for everyone to have to write a check to IRS; ideally about a week before Election Day.

Thanks to FoxNews.com for selecting this blog to be featured on their site again this week. It’s an honor. I’m not a big fan of traveling; but I would be willing to drive up to the Springfield, Missouri Fox affiliate to go on air and discuss any of the tax or financial topics covered here.

Waste Not, Deficit Not. A key congressman wants the government to stop throwing money away. – One out of 535 isn’t going to make a big dent in the out of control spending; to say nothing of a president who is an even worse spendaholic.

Senate GOP Makes Move on Higher Welfare Payments To Non-Taxpayers

Wall Street Settlements For Dummies – More of the growing victimology in this country. Nothing we do is our fault. Just claim you were too stupid to know that you could lose money in the stock market, and you may be entitled to a settlement.

Russert Rails Against Deficit, Then Demands More Spending – In typical DemonRat economics, all government spending is good and all tax cuts are evil.

Money doesn’t mean happy parenting

Careful, Your Bank Is Watching (link to article expired) – People normally associate Big Brother with the government; but many businesses have more intrusive capabilities than any government agency.

Hotel Guests Are Asked to Pay Higher Charges for Amenities (link to article expired) – Travelers are desirable targets for exploitation by companies, as well as by local governments with their growing tourist taxes. The double whammy of having higher hotel bills will be the extra taxes that are based on the higher underlying charges.

Wall Street Plays Numbers Game With Earnings, Despite Reforms (link to article expired) – There are still a lot of creative approaches being used by corporate accountants.

Independence of Directors Is Elusive Goal of Reform (link to article expired)

Critics Say Sarbanes-Oxley Law Hobbles Stocks, Chills Risk Taking, but Upshot Is Less Dramatic (link to article expired)

Before white collar crime as we know it today. It’s a different take on “the pen is mightier than the sword.”

Arkansas Rulers Can’t Escape The Sales Tax – This quote says it all: “A constitutional quirk, as Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, called it, makes it relatively easy to raise the sales tax and nearly impossible to raise other taxes.”

Those tax cuts beginning to work (Stephen Moore)

UC eyes surcharge for rich students – I can already see where this is heading; more impoverishment planning for parents to make them appear on paper to be below the “evil rich” threshold. It’s one more reason to use a C corp instead of an S.

Ugly Money – An interesting look at what some people like to do with their cash.

The best Congress money can buy

Bush’s Bigger, Fatter Welfare State. Administration spending plans are out of control.

A Tip on TIPS. You need to understand the real interest rate.

Anti-tax groups vow to fight easing voting rules for budget – It’s good to see there are still some folks in the PRC with the anti-tax fever.

The Pension Time Bomb

New Kids on the Block. Under-25 Crowd Buys Homes In Ever-Growing Numbers. (link to article expired) – This is great for their future, building equity in real estate rather than wasting it on rent.

Bush becomes ‘big government conservative’ – Just like his father, Bush 43 is alienating his conservative base by trying too hard to buy DemonRat votes with taxpayer money.

Deficit politics

Panel looks at ways to reform Arkansas state tax code – A laundry list of tax hikes.

Who’s Rich? Part II – Different perspective from Thomas Sowell on the “hate the rich” stories regarding the recently released IRS stats on the 400 tax returns with the highest incomes. An interesting fact is that between 1992 and 2000, there were 2000 different people in that top 400. It’s not as cut and dried as the stock complaint of the lefties that the same rich get richer and the same poor get poorer. There is more up and down mobility between the wealth levels in this country than anywhere in the world.

Running on Tax Hikes: Presidential Candidate Releasing Fiscal Plan – Not exactly a novel idea for a DemonRat.