Preserving The American Political Philosophy

TWEET THIS USING THIS SHORT LINK  http://goo.gl/i1bNrZ I created this statutory timeline- which includes targeted research of the 2013 Maine Legislative session to try to develop cash flow from my unpaid research efforts on this blog, as far as that intention goes, the statutory Time Line is a resounding failure. The Upside is that I am now more informed that I would have been if I had not created the timeline- it's very useful in political debates because I know exactly where to go to get the facts in support of my own argument- which is this timeline- which you can receive by sending a contribution ( suggested $10.00 but whatever you can afford- more or less) to mackenzie@andersenstudio.com via PayPal. That said when I saw this article in the Portland Press Herald- I just took it to be nothing more that partisan politics because I know that both sides put the interests of business above the interests of the environment and the general public: (The Partisan Political G...

TWEET THIS USING THIS SHORT LINK http://goo.gl/u2fKk0 New Hampshire features a state by state comparison on its website. This is the comparison to Maine . Interesting to note that despite New Hampshire NOT taxing personal income, NOT having a sales tax, and NOT having an estate tax, it's top corporate income tax is still lower than Maine's . Top Corporate Income Tax New Hampshire 8.5% Maine 8.93% An explanation for this may be Maine's two-tier income tax whereby Maine offers corporations providing jobs of an income level above the median household income, tax exemptions and cash payouts - but taxes businesses offering jobs that pay the medium household income or below under general laws. I would argue that such a practice is unconstitutional by Article IV Part Third Section 14 of the Maine Constitution which stipulates that "All corporations, however formed, are subject to general laws" I suspect that all of the state by state comparisons tha...

TWEET THIS ARTiCLE USING THIS SHORT LINK  http://goo.gl/u2fKk0 My father often told me that in the 1950's , the distribution of wealth in the United States took the form of a bell curve with the greatest amount of wealth distributed amoungst the greatest number of people. I grew up with the bell curve image embedded into my mind . It is the image of an algorithm, a form of economic visualization which seems to have all but disappeared from the methods of reporting income distribution- replaced by graphs showing two lines- one for the top and the other for the bottom. The median household income displays statistics in two separate parts- Those making above the median and those making below the median and does not address the distribution of wealth within the two halves.The mean gives us the averaged income of a specific group- but none of that tells us how the wealth is distributed- is there a gradual curve of distribution? a series of steps? or a huge gulf betwe...

TWEET THIS USING THIS SHORT LINK http://goo.gl/DmO7uk I asked members of the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance where NH gets its revenue. I knew that property taxes are high in NH but property tax is a municipal tax and does not explain how the state gets revenue to operate. Someone said the state owned liquor business but others felt that the revenue from that operation was not that much. Others said that NH has a corporation tax. I went to check out the NH web site and found this innovative tax reform idea coming out of New Hampshire. Maine cannot use such an approach because Maine uses special interest economics in which the state corporation works for the interests of it's targeted sector- defined as Jobs providing above average incomes ( the top half of the median household income-which divides the economy into two parts) Not only that but it is the policy of Maine's centrally managed economy to tax the workers but to tax-exempt the owners of production. New Hamps...

SHARE THIS! TWEET THIS USING THIS SHORT LINK; http://goo.gl/VXLcX8 Continuing where I left off in my last post - addressing the Lepage Campaign talking points as presented by Representative Heather Sirocki in this Portland Press Herald article titled  Maine reaping rewards of governor’s commitment to fiscal responsibility The article says: Let’s start with the state’s improved credit standing. In June, rating agencies issued their outlooks for Maine’s creditworthiness. Standard & Poor’s Rating Services assigned its AA rating to our long-term bonds, while Moody’s Investor Services affirmed its Aa2 rating and upgraded its forecast of Maine’s debt from negative to stable. The agencies cited several major factors that influenced the strong ratings, including repayment of $748 million in MaineCare’s hospital debt; substantial public pension reform; and measures to control costs in the MaineCare program, which provides “free” taxpayer-subsidized health care to more th...