Your Taxes

A cactus in bloom -- fascinating or dangerous?

MID 2008 — Semantics is the last refuge of a scoundrel as you will see from what I uncovered.

Today I reached an epiphany as I was doing my endless research on the unknown presidential presumptive nominee.
 
I had made an abrupt u-turn from my seemingly endless drudgery through legislative bills that he has had his hands on. I haven’t been impressed.
 
Instead, I chose to go back to Chicago. It was like a V-8 moment – you know – when you realize you’ve been looking for that missing piece of the puzzle and realize it was right there in front of you the whole time but you couldn’t see it because it was being dragging around under your sleeve?
 
The reason I chose to go back to Chicago was because I wanted to see how Illinois is faring these days after he touched their lives politically. After you read what I’ve found you might have an epiphany also.
 
…to be continued.

Part 2, Part 3, Conclusion

Excerpt from the conclusion:

He’s telling us that he is going to lower our INCOME taxes. That may be true. Technically. In legal speak. But from what I’m seeing in Chicago it appears that that town/state has gone EXCISE tax crazy. And that’s the area where I went back to snoop around to see what’s going on in the state that he says he has helped so much.

I’m beginning to wonder if Obama is promising to lower the income tax on most citizens and in the back of his mind he intends on issuing new “types” of taxes to impose on goods and services on the federal level that will hit everyone – the same way Illinois is raising revenue. I mean, TECHNICALLY he won’t be raising income taxes, right?

Unemployment as of May 2008  was at 6.4% in his state of Illinois.

I’ve compiled a partial list, although there are more excise taxes I’ve run across — which I haven’t further researched — because, frankly, I’ve seen enough to reach a conclusion. Excise taxes that have either been imposed or proposed in Chicago include:

Gas tax — Illinois’ gasoline tax stands at 39.5 cents per gallon, which ranks 4th highest nationally. Additionally, the state’s general sales tax is applied to gasoline purchases. Add to that a county tax of a 6 cents per gallon.

State general tax — Illinois  levies a 6.25% general state sales or “use” state tax on consumers.

County general tax – Cook county (Chicago area) imposes a 1.75% sales tax

City general tax – (Chicago) imposes a 1.25% sales tax

RTA (Regional Transit Authority) tax = 1%

Total Chicago general sales tax = 10.25%. Chicago currently has the highest tax in any major US city

Liquor tax – depends on the type of liquor.  Late 10-07, Chicago City Hall proposed an added taxes on wine, beer and spirits that would amount to more than an 85 percent tax increase on alcohol in the past three years. The concoction of seven different taxes already means more than 40 percent of the price of beer, wine and spirits is attributable to taxes.

Cigarette tax – Chicago’s combined tax total of $4.05 per pack is the highest in the nation

Bottled water tax – 5 cents per bottle (not to be confused with a deposit)

Property tax – at the state AND local levels

Ambulance tax – was up for referendum

Amusement tax — City amusement tax of 7% and a county amusement tax of 3%. Apparently there was a lawsuit Illinois has filed against eBay, Inc., alleging that the company is liable for Chicago amusement tax

Robin Hood Tax – (april 2008) Currently voters will be asked to decide if people making more than $250,000 a year should have their Illinois income tax doubled

The city of Chicago, State of Illinois and County of Cook continue to run with deficits and are searching for more ways to gain revenues

My question to every American…

Do you believe the government has enough of your tax money to accomplish what they need to do?

UPDATE: Career voting records: Currently, Senator Obama has voted 94 times to raise taxes. Senator McCain has NEVER voted to raise taxes. (Evaluate those votes in contrast to the length of each candidates career)

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