The Independent

Today, it was reported that the median price of a single-family home dropped 2.3% in August. The stock market sold off on the news. For some perspective into the all-important US real estate market, today's chart illustrates the US median price of a single-family home over the past 39 years. Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate from 1991 to 2005, the rate at which housing prices increased – increased. That brings us to today's chart which illustrates how housing prices are currently 30% off their 2005 peak. In fact, a home buyer who bought the median priced single-family home at the 1979 peak has seen that home appreciate by a mere 4%. Not an impressive performance considering that three decades have passed. Over the past two months, single-family home prices have resumed their decline and remain (until proven otherwise) in an accelerated downtrend.

Although President Obama repeatedly claims that requiring Americans to buy government-approved health care does not constitute a tax increase, the text of the 1,018-page House bill proves otherwise.  Specifically, on page 167 of H.R. 3200, the title of section 401 reads: “TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE”.  For those who fail to purchase a government-accepted health care plan, this provision imposes a 2.5 percent tax on the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income.  Furthermore, the House bill attempts to plug part of the $1.5 billion fiscal hole it creates with a $544 million new surtax on high-earning individuals and small businesses.  Specifically, on pages 197-198 taxes would be increased by 1 percent for gross income exceeding $350,000; 1.5 percent for gross income over $500,000; and 5.4 percent for gross income over $1 million.  In the end, according to the nonpartisan Joint Taxation Committee and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 3200

By Jon Coupal If insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then the California Legislature is indeed an "institution" in more than one sense of the word. Any notion that, because of the recession and related budget crisis, the Legislature would finally "get it" and become fiscally prudent and transparent, is dashed on the rocks of political reality. For example, a fair amount of legislative effort this year was expended on bills that have been vetoed in previous years. Unless there has been a change in the Governor's office (or in his predisposition), taxpayers can rightfully wonder why many of these bills are being advanced yet again. Of the numerous veto requests from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to Governor Schwarzenegger, at least six have been vetoed in previous years. Repetitive bills and meaningless bills -- think Blueberry Commission -- are bad enough. But add to that the blatant di

By Bill O'Reilly for BillOReilly.com Thursday, September 24, 2009 It may be time to start channeling Noah and start building an ark. The world is a huge mess and it's getting worse everyday. Iran is on track to develop nuclear weapons, but global warming may incinerate us first. The Israeli-Palestinian hatefest rolls on, and Afghanistan is falling apart. Mexico is overrun by drug criminals and third-world poverty is as horrific as ever. I think things are okay in Finland. This week President Obama implored the United Nations to do something, anything to combat terrorism and warming. The president was blunt: "Consider the course that we are on if we fail to confront the status quo. Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world... protracted conflicts that grind on and on... genocide and mass atrocities... more and more nations with nuclear weapons... melting ice caps and ravaged populations... persistent poverty and pandemic disease. I say this not to sow fear, but