No conservative can be happy about giving at least $400 billion in additional taxpayer funding to an entitlement program. – No kidding. As with the original predictions for the cost of Medicare, the numbers being used as expected costs of the new drug benefits are understated to the max.

Bill Gates tops list of charitable givers – As it should be. The persons who have the most can donate the most.

Spending Bill in Congress Might Draw Bush Veto – If Bush were to be in any way consistent in controlling unconstitutional spending, he would also veto the pork heavy energy bill and the perpetual deficit generating Medicare drug plan.

Couric Gushes Over Rubin’s Record, Blames Tax Cuts for Deficit – Expecting anything resembling honesty from Clinton worshippers like Couric is futile.

Rx for bankruptcy – Adding more benefits to the system will push an already fiscally teetering Medicare system over the edge. As is inevitable for Social Security, the only way to keep Medicare from collapsing entirely will be to deny benefits to the evil rich, regardless of how much they have paid into the system. A reminder once again that our rulers currently define “evil rich” as any person earning more than $25,000 per year or married couple earning more than $32,000 per year for purposes of taxing Social Security benefits. Similarly low thresholds for Medicare will keep the impoverishment planning consultants and creative tax accountants quite busy.

You can always find plenty of amusing things at Strange Cosmos.

I particularly like this week’s inclusion of a new version of the classic “two-cow” economics lesson, updated for the recent recall circus in the PRC.

The definitions for these new words are also entertaining, especially:

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

When Credit Counselors Prey on Consumers – Gail Buckner also has some good advice on how to deduct losses on stock in bankrupt companies. Just the fact that it’s bankrupt doesn’t justify a capital loss. You have to dispose of the shares.

Bad Political Medicine. Will the Medicare bill help the GOP next year? Don’t count on it. – It’s a very big mistake on Bush’s part to try to expand the size and cost of government in order to buy votes in the traditional DemonRat style. This will end up being a lose-lose-lose situation for everyone who cares about Constitutional government.

Real estate agents avoid retirement disaster. ‘Exit strategies’ include investing in rental properties, REITs – This is what I have always tried to explain to our many Realtor clients. They are in the best position to find good investment opportunities and should be able to accumulate a much larger retirement portfolio by acquiring properties than by putting cash away in “conventional” retirement accounts.

As I’ve described on several occasions, one of the main reasons that I have somewhat specialized in real estate tax issues is that, growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I had seen that as the more reliable path to wealth. It has always amazed me how many Realtors don’t personally invest in real estate, including some who don’t even own their own homes.

On a couple of occasions during my life in the PRC, I even got my own real estate license just so that I could be more in the loop for good investment opportunities. Unfortunately, my CPA work kept me much too busy to utilize the real estate licenses as often as I had hoped to.

However, I have not lost my faith in real estate as a less risky path to wealth accumulation than the stock market.

Tax Hike May Doom Mike – As it should be for tax loving Nurse Bloomberg. He has been a terrible replacement for Giuliani.

Governor: Pass bond or raise taxes. Schwarzenegger rejects reductions in social programs – Not a good follow-up to his reduction of the car tax. Everyone knows that the fiscal problems in the PRC are not due to a lack of revenue; but to too much reckless DC-style spending.

Battling over Buffett – The recall election may be over, but the stench of Arnold’s number one economic advisor calling for huge property tax increases is still lingering in the PRC.

Many people may not be aware of the fact that the trend of companies farming out many of their back office services to India isn’t just with telemarketers and technical support lines. It seems that some large tax preparation offices are doing the same thing.

Several months ago, out of curiosity, I checked out the similar service offered by Sure Prep. I was planning to write an article on it back then, but got side-tracked.

I was very unimpressed with the entire concept of this approach to dealing with tax prep work. With all of the time needed to scan all documents to send to the Indian preparer, this concept doesn’t make much sense to me. Their rates, as I recall, weren’t much better than just hiring local CPAs for the tax season load, which is what I used to do back in the PRC.

I have no idea how many of these services exist in India; but their numbers will grow if the demand does. One other one I just learned of, courtesy of Ohio CPA Dana Stahl, is this so called Tax Portal from a company in India called eSoftCircle.

I have no current info on the quality of their work. What I think is important is that clients be informed of exactly who is working on their tax returns. Back when I had a large staff of preparers in my offices in the Bay Area, clients knew who was doing the bulk of their prep work, and that all returns were reviewed closely and signed by me before being sent out. If tax prep firms just use Indian preparers in impersonal assembly line style to pump out returns, I can’t see that as being good for clients.

Internet Access Tax Battle Heats Up in Senate

Entitlements Are Forever. Republicans make a bad deal on Medicare.

Big Government Republicans Rule?

House Passes Mutual Fund Reform Bill

Morning Shows Express Hope Arnold Can Get Around Tax Cut Pledge

Networks Rue How Schwarzenegger’s Car Tax Cut Will Swell Deficit – It wasn’t just my imagination that newscasts were focused on an imaginary revenue loss and completely ignored the additional sales tax revenue that will be generated from new vehicle sales.

States that cashed in on a landmark $246 billion settlement with tobacco companies five years ago are spending little on programs to curb smoking – Standard operating procedure for our rulers. Claim a new tax or fee is for a special project or cause and then spend the money on whatever else they want to.