Government Tax Cartoon

Housing, jobs in high-tax Connecticut could take hit in wake of GE move

The downfall of America, greedy Government?

General Electric’s big move to Boston this summer could mean much more than leaving an empty corporate campus behind.
Residents and small business owners in the tony town of Fairfield, Conn. – home to GE’s global headquarters for more than four decades – are bracing themselves for the collateral damage after the company announced last month it would be moving to Massachusetts and taking 800 jobs, millions in grants and opportunities for expansion with them.
But that’s not even the half of it.
The trickle-down devastation triggered by GE’s move is predicted to spare no sector. The real estate market is expected to suffer as residents pick up and leave for better job prospects. Small businesses and infrastructure projects also could start to see setbacks in the near future, as the high taxes blamed in part for GE's move remain.
“Probably half of the higher-end homes that used to house the GE executives will sit either unsold or foreclosed because no one else living in the area can afford them at their current price,” Christopher Mills, president of C. Mills & Associates, which manages real estate portfolios nationwide, told FoxNews.com.
While there is a slight possibility a large company could swoop in and save the city, the odds aren’t in Fairfield’s favor.
“[It’s] not likely to happen because the same tax and legislative hindrances that chased GE out will keep other companies away,” he said. “Those hindrances are what have to be removed to prevent a localized depression.”
GE, which has a market value of nearly $290 billion, made good on threats to leave Connecticut following two of the largest corporate tax hikes in the state’s history in 2011 and 2015.
Massachusetts – often referred to as “Taxachusetts” -- ranks 25^th in a 2016 Tax Foundation survey of positive tax climates in the U.S. Connecticut, though, comes in a distant 44^th. Connecticut’s corporate income tax rate stands at 7.5 percent but bigger companies have to pay more in corporate tax liability.
GE likely paid 9 percent due to surcharges on growth income. They’ll pay 8 percent in Massachusetts, Jared Walczak, a policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, told Reuters.
Connecticut also has several corporate tax structures that are less favorable than other states, including rules that could put more of GE’s global sales within the state’s tax grasp. “Given the cost of corporate relocation, I suspect that GE anticipates substantial tax savings from the move,” Walczak said.
Republican state lawmakers slammed Gov. Dannel Malloy and the Democratic-led legislature for driving away one of the state’s largest employers.
“This is proof positive that the Democrat majority’s fiscal plans are failures,” Connecticut Senate Minority Leader Leonard Fasano said in a statement, blaming the state’s tax policies and warning “many more businesses” could follow in GE’s footsteps.
The hikes and bipartisan bickering about the state’s long-term economic goals could hurt the state permanently. “Nothing is so hostile to business as uncertainty,” Fred Carstensen, an economics professor at the University of Connecticut, wrote in the Hartford Business Journal. “Connecticut, it seems, has become the state of uncertainty.”
Malloy tried to downplay the impact of a GE move on the state but admitted, “Taken as a whole, there is no denying that Connecticut has had more good days than days like today.”
GE, which has a global workforce of more than 350,000 and ranks eighth on the Fortune 500, will be the largest publicly traded company based in Massachusetts.
David Lewis, president of Operations Inc., a human resources consulting company based in Connecticut, said “a move like this is a seismic event” for Fairfield. The move casts doubt and sends a message about whether the county is a viable place to do business, he told FoxNews.com.
GE’s move, coupled with a threat by banking heavyweight UBS to leave nearby Stamford, Conn., raised real concern with residents who are worried what a mass corporate exodus could mean for the state. Connecticut – specifically Stamford -- has had the bad luck of housing the U.S. headquarters of two European banks that have been slammed following a series of debt crises. Prior to the financial crisis, RBS and UBS each set up large offices with huge trading floors in Stamford. UBS, whose arrival in Stamford helped spur redevelopment in the area, has since relocated staff to Manhattan, while RBS has slashed its staff.
“The state has had a problem with the way it has treated business overall for the last 10 years,” Lewis said. “A lot of anti-business policies have raised the question whether the state is pro-business or not.”
In a separate interview with WNPR, he said Fairfield would have a difficult time staying relevant following GE’s move.
"Why would anyone pick Fairfield County to move their business?" Lewis said. "We have a high cost of living. We have a traffic issue that makes commuting into the county a challenge. ... Then there is the state government, who has a track record of passing mountains of anti-government legislation."
Chris Raveis, president of residential sales at William Raveis, Massachusetts LLC, told FoxNews.com that GE’s decision to leave Connecticut delivered a powerful psychological blow to the entire area that will be felt for years.
“I think everybody wants to be optimistic, but at this point, they are very discouraged,” he said, adding that reversing the damage could take some time.
Peter Gioia, an economist for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, told the Hartford Courant, the “absolute, intense psychological impact” of GE’s move should not be minimalized.
He added that the company’s exit is “a glaring black eye for economic development.”

Obama rips 'doom and despair' Republicans on economy, defends oil tax

Obama is desperate to bring down America before he leaves office.

Hours after the Democratic presidential candidates went toe-to-toe on the debate stage in New Hampshire, President Obama used the bully pulpit Friday to take a shot at Republicans for spreading “doom and despair” on the economy – touting new jobs data while defending a proposed oil tax critics say will undermine any economic progress.
The new data, while reflecting a slowdown in job growth, nevertheless showed the unemployment rate dipping to 4.9 percent.
In remarks at the White House Friday, Obama said the U.S. now has the "strongest, most durable economy in the world." He also took a swipe at Republicans.
“I know that’s still inconvenient for Republican stump speeches," he said, before accusing them of embarking on a “doom and despair” tour in New Hampshire.
“Evidence, facts are on our side,” Obama said.
Obama’s remarks come a day before Republican 2016 candidates line up in New Hampshire for another debate, during which the economy is likely to be discussed at length.
Obama, meanwhile, defended his controversial proposal for a $10-per-barrel tax on oil companies in order to fund clean transport technology.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has called the forthcoming budget proposal part of an "out of touch" agenda and warned the proposed tax would raise energy prices, "hurting poor Americans the most."
Obama countered that with gas prices so low, the impact would be minimal.
“It’s right to do it now when gas prices are really low," he said.
Critics claim the levy would be passed on to consumers, something White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest effectively conceded on Friday. He said he“would not be surprised if they did pass that along” to consumers.
The 4.9 percent unemployment in January is the lowest it’s been under President Obama and came after the Labor Department announced employers added 151,000 jobs last month.

Hillary misleading about email probe during debate, former FBI agents say

This is how she really feels about the FBI probe.

Hillary Clinton used misleading language in Thursday night’s Democratic debate to describe the ongoing FBI investigation into her use of a private email server to conduct official government business while she was secretary of state, according to former senior FBI agents.
In the New Hampshire debate with Senator Bernie Sanders, which aired on MSNBC, Clinton told moderator Chuck Todd that nothing would come of the FBI probe, “I am 100 percent confident. This is a security review that was requested.  It is being carried out.”
Not true says Steve Pomerantz, who spent 28 years at the FBI, and rose from field investigative special agent to the rank of assistant director, the third highest position in the Bureau.
“They (the FBI) do not do security reviews,” Pomerantz said. “What they primarily do and what they are clearly doing in this instance is a criminal investigation.”
Pomerantz emphasized to Fox News, “There is no mechanism for her to be briefed and to have information about the conduct, the substance, the direction or the result of any FBI investigation.”
Separately, an intelligence source familiar with the two prongs of the ongoing FBI probe, stressed to Fox that the criminal and national security elements remain “inseparable.”  The source, not authorized to speak on the record,  characterized Clinton’s statement “as a typical Clinton diversion… and what is she going to say, “I’m 95 percent sure that I am going to get away with it?”
Fox recently learned that one of the FBI's senior agents responsible for counterintelligence matters, Charles H. Kable IV, is working the Clinton case, another indicator the intelligence source said that the FBI probe is “extremely serious, and the A-team is handling.”
Kable, known as "Sandy," was appointed special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division at the Washington field office by Director James Comey in December.
He had recently served as the chief of the counterespionage section at FBI headquarters.  In that capacity, a bureau press releases says the 15-year, well-respected FBI veteran, "provided leadership and oversight to the field offices engaged in espionage, economic espionage, and insider threat investigations."
While his responsibilities are not publicly known, Kable was described to Fox as "tough and no-nonsense FBI." The intelligence source said analysts and agents are exploring whether the mishandling of classified information was "intentional" and who may have benefited.
A spokeswoman for the FBI took Fox's questions, but said they would not be providing comment on Kable’s role or the FBI case.
In 2009, Kable led investigations against known and suspected Chinese intelligence officers in the U.S.  In January, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, told the Hugh Hewitt radio show that "the odds are pretty high" that then-Secretary of State Clinton's personal email server was hacked by Iran, China and Russia.
A separate source told Fox, "it is no less of a violation of espionage statutes if any material was classified secret or top secret....All the statute requires is national defense information or NDI,” adding "this is way past accidental spillage…(it) is being investigated as intentional mishandling…in this kind of high profile investigation, the most damaging information takes primacy.”
Investigations into the compromise of classified information include damage assessments.  In the recent case of former CIA Director David Petraeus, the damage was deemed to be limited, discreet, and knowable because the highly classified information was shared with his biographer, who also had a security clearance.
In Hillary Clinton's case, if the private server was compromised by a third party, the extent of the damage maybe unknowable.
The hacker "Guccifer" compromised Clinton’s adviser Sydney Blumenthal's aol account, and he copied the email exchanges sent to Clinton.  The Romanian hacker, whose real name is Marcel Lehel Lazar, has an extradition hearing February 17, and in an interview, indicated he would welcome extradition to the U.S.
The amount of classified information, now including 22 top secret emails the State Department withheld from public release last week, stands at more than 15-hundred.
At the State Department briefing Thursday, spokesman John Kirby was asked by Fox News chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge whether Clinton, as well as aides Huma Abedin, and Cheryl Mills, completed the required classified training that includes the proper storage, handling, and identification of classified information.
"Everybody here is trained in how to handle sensitive information. Sometimes that takes place in in-person briefings and I can't comment any further,"  Kirby said.  Asked it was documented, Kirby said he had nothing more to offer, but did confirm Clinton, Abedin, Mills were not exempt from the strict rules that apply to State Department personnel.
Fox: “So they would not be an exception?”
Kirby: “Everybody that works at the State Department gets trained in how to handle sensitive information.  Sometimes that's done in- person briefings.”
This is important because, on its face, this seems to undercut Clinton's claim she had no way to know it was classified because the emails were not marked.  Personnel are briefed on what constitutes classified  information and its proper handling.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, Judicial Watch sought the records documenting the classification training, but in a letter dated January 22, 2016, exactly seven years after Clinton signed her Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to serve as Secretary of State, the government watchdog was told "no responsive records" could be found.

Republicans push for Fiorina to be included in ABC debate

In Iowa, Cruz placed first. Fiorina came in seventh place.

Is Fiorina not being included in the ABC debate because being a female she's better then the other men that are also not being asked to the debate?

Republicans are calling on ABC News to change its criteria for Saturday’s GOP debate in New Hampshire, complaining that rules announced before the Iowa caucuses are set to block Carly Fiorina from the stage. 
ABC announced Thursday that the former HP CEO, as well as former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, did not make the cut for the upcoming debate. But the decision was based on criteria unveiled before three GOP candidates dropped out of the race following the Iowa contest.
The ABC rules were meant in part to narrow the debate stage crowd, for the first time eliminating the undercard event. But with the other undercard debaters now out of the picture, some of Fiorina's fellow candidates are joining her in pressuring ABC and the party to change the rules and make room for her.
“With 9 Republicans left, I call on the RNC to get rid of arbitrary requirements for debates. Americans deserve to hear from every candidate,” retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson tweeted Thursday.
Saturday night’s lineup includes: Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Carson and Cruz, as well as former presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have all called for a criteria change to get Fiorina on the stage.
Romney and Gingrich argued that Fiorina outperformed Christie and Kasich on Monday and should be allowed to debate.
“Don’t exclude only woman,” Romney tweeted.
So far, the network isn’t budging. And Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer, while saying the decision rests with the networks, said the criteria "is what it is."
Spicer called Fiorina a "great candidate," but suggested it would be unfair to retroactively change debate criteria.
Fiorina and her campaign have pushed back aggressively against being kept off the debate stage.
“The people who should be frustrated, actually more than frustrated are the people of Iowa and New Hampshire,” Fiorina said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on Friday.
The network, in criteria set before the caucuses, said there were three different ways candidates could make it onto the stage for the debate. First, a candidate could place among the top three in the Iowa caucuses. A candidate could also qualify by ranking among the top six in an average of New Hampshire GOP presidential polls. Third, a candidate could qualify by ranking among the top six in an average of national GOP presidential polls recognized by ABC.
Three Republican candidates called it quits this week after poor showings in the Iowa caucuses. They include: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
In Iowa, Cruz placed first. Fiorina came in seventh place.
Calls to ABC News for comment were not immediately returned.