Plan to turn farms into forest worries official

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has ordered his staff to revise a computerized forecasting model that showed that climate legislation supported by President Obama would make planting trees more lucrative than producing food.

The latest Agriculture Department economic-impact study of the climate bill, which passed the House this summer, found that the legislation would profit farmers in the long term. But those profits would come mostly from higher crop prices as a result of the legislation’s incentives to plant more forests and thus reduce the amount of land devoted to food-producing agriculture. [Higher crop prices = higher food prices]

According to the economic model used by the department and the Environmental Protection Agency, the legislation would give landowners incentives to convert up to 59 million acres of farmland into forests over the next 40 years. The reason: Trees clean the air of heat-trapping gases better than farming does.

via Plan to turn farms into forest worries official – Washington Times.

It’s Not the Economy, Stupid! It’s National Survival!

Obama didn’t undertake his radical agenda to turn America into a full-blown socialist state because of “the size of the problems (he) inherited.” That was just a convenient excuse.

[snip]

The fainthearted among us can blanch at the suggestion that Obama is a Marxist — and accuse me of name-calling or incivility — but my intention is not to inflame. It is to communicate the truth in accurate terms to help people understand the magnitude of the threat we face by this assault on our liberties.

Obama didn’t impose his Draconian stimulus bill or omnibus spending bills to jump-start the economy. He did it to transfer wealth and establish slush funds for re-election. He didn’t push cap and trade to reduce “global warming,” but to bring America down to size with the “underdeveloped” nations of the world. He didn’t obsessively promote Obamacare to improve the economy, “bend the cost curve” (what a joke!), achieve universal coverage or improve the quality of health care. He did it to amplify the federal government’s power over all aspects of our lives.

via David Limbaugh : It’s Not the Economy, Stupid! It’s National Survival! – Townhall.com.

Ten New Reasons Why Obamacare Can Still Be Killed

New reasons emerge almost daily as to why Obamacare can and must be defeated.

via Phyllis Schlafly : Ten New Reasons Why Obamacare Can Still Be Killed – Townhall.com.

Republicans deserve blame for Democratic excesses

But now the dominant theme across the electoral map is dissatisfaction with both Barack Obama and the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. The most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, taken in mid-December, showed that 55 percent of Americans believed the country was headed in the wrong direction. Just 47 percent approved of the job Obama was doing as president. Twenty-two percent approved of the job Congress was doing. And a whopping 35 percent have positive feelings toward the Democratic Party.

And yet the public seems to like Republicans even less. Just 28 percent have positive feelings toward the GOP — a rating lower than poll results just before the party’s defeats in ‘06 and ‘08. You can’t make as many mistakes as Republicans did and expect to be forgiven quickly.

That could lead to a dilemma for voters next November. Many will be fully ready to vote Democrats out of office but will not be fully ready to vote Republicans in. Faced with an either/or choice, they will weigh whether they want to get rid of Democrats more than they want to stay away from Republicans.

via Republicans deserve blame for Democratic excesses | Washington Examiner.

Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers Are Being Issued Without Sufficient Supporting Documentation

This report presents the results of our review to determine whether Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) were being issued without sufficient supporting documentation. The overall objective of this review was to determine whether Applications for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (Form W-7) were efficiently and effectively processed and ITINs were appropriately issued. This audit was part of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s Fiscal Year 2008 Annual Audit Plan under the major management challenge of Providing Quality Taxpayer Service Operations.

Impact on the Taxpayer

The purpose of the ITIN is to provide alien individuals, whether or not they reside in the United States, an identifying number for use in connection with United States tax return filing requirements. The volume of ITINs is growing. When Forms W-7 are not effectively processed and ITINs are inappropriately issued, the risk increases that ITINs are being used to file fraudulent tax returns. Inadequate processing of ITIN application packages increases the risk to both the taxpaying public and the Federal Government for potential losses associated with ITIN applicants.

Synopsis

The ITIN was created to provide individuals who are not eligible to obtain a Social Security Number with an identification number for tax purposes. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issues ITINs to help individuals comply with Federal tax laws and provide a means to efficiently process and account for tax returns. Only individuals who have a valid filing requirement or are filing a tax return to claim a refund of over-withheld taxes are eligible to receive an ITIN. Individuals submit Forms W-7 through Acceptance Agents1 or by submitting them directly to the IRS.

ITINs were issued without sufficient supporting documentation. A statistical sample of 658 Forms W-7 selected from 1.5 million application packages (cases) submitted from January 1 through November 21, 2008, showed that 510 cases (78 percent) contained errors. The highest error rate (87 percent) was in applications submitted through Certified Acceptance Agents. This includes instances in which the Agents did not provide the documents required to support the Forms W-7 submitted by them to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. However, there was also a significant error rate (35 percent) in application packages submitted directly to the IRS.

A Certified Acceptance Agent is authorized under an agreement with the IRS to submit a Form W-7 to the IRS on behalf of an ITIN applicant without furnishing supporting documentary evidence. Instead, in the certificates of accuracy, Agents certify to the IRS that they have reviewed the appropriate documentation evidencing the ITIN applicant’s identity and alien status, and that they are maintaining a record of such documentation.

IRS employees process, but do not review, the applications submitted by Certified Acceptance Agents. They input the information from the Forms W-7 into the ITIN management information system called the Real-Time System. If all requirements are met, the ITIN is assigned systemically by the ITIN Real-Time System. Eighty-seven percent (467 of 535) of the sample of application packages submitted by Certified Acceptance Agents contained errors. For example, 1) cases did not contain the documents required to issue an ITIN, 2) Forms W-7 provided to us by the Certified Acceptance Agents did not agree with the original Forms W-7 that were sent to the IRS, 3) cases did not contain the required certificates of accuracy or the certificates were missing required information and/or signatures, or 4) the Certified Acceptance Agents did not comply with our request for copies of the application packages.

IRS employees review and process applications submitted directly to the IRS. Thirty-five percent (43 of 123) of the application packages sampled that were submitted directly to the IRS by mail or through Taxpayer Assistance Centers3 contained errors. The errors ranged from missing and illegible documents to inconsistencies between the Forms W-7 and the supporting documents.

[snip]

There are also no controls to prevent an ITIN from being used by more than one taxpayer on multiple tax returns. More than 60,000 ITINs were assigned and used on multiple tax returns processed in Calendar Year 2008. As with Social Security Numbers, ITINs are specific to individuals and should be issued to and used only by that individual.

[snip]

In addition, more than 55,000 ITINs were used multiple times on approximately 102,000 tax returns with refunds totaling more than $202 million. [Read that again.]

The Real-Time System contains inaccurate data and is insufficient to oversee the Program. The IRS states that the System provides a one-stop service for processing Forms W-7 and issuing ITINs. The System processes Forms W-7 in real-time and assigns the ITIN or creates reject or suspense Forms W-7 automatically. Nevertheless, the information does not accurately reflect what type of Agent submitted the Forms W-7 and does not accurately reflect the information captured on the Forms W-7.

Research on the Real-Time System for 547 cases in our statistical sample found that 270 records (49 percent) contained inaccurate information relating to what type of Agent submitted the application. The IRS does not know the volume of Forms W-7 that are submitted by Certified Acceptance Agents and, if not corrected, approximately 200 Certified Acceptance Agents may not be included in any compliance activity.

In addition, information reflected on 110 (20 percent) of the 547 Forms W-7 was not transcribed correctly to the Real-Time System. Transcription errors included incorrect identification documents, birth dates, codes/reasons for submitting the Forms W-7, names, and/or addresses.

via Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers Are Being Issued Without Sufficient Supporting Documentation

The system is set up to make it easy. The easier the system, the higher the probability of fraud. Think health care, which affects everyone, not just illegals.

Climate Facts

It is crucial that scientists are factually accurate when they do speak out, that they ignore media hype and maintain a clinical detachment from social or other agendas. There are facts and data that are ignored in the maelstrom of social and economic agendas swirling about Copenhagen.

Greenhouse gases and their effects are well-known. Here are some of things we know:

• The most effective greenhouse gas is water vapor, comprising approximately 95 percent of the total greenhouse effect.

• Global temperature peaked in 1998 on the current 60-80 year cycle, and has been episodically declining ever since. This cooling absolutely falsifies claims that human carbon dioxide emissions are a controlling factor in Earth temperature.

• Voluminous historic records demonstrate the Medieval Climate Optimum (MCO) was real and that the “hockey stick” graphic that attempted to deny that fact was at best bad science. The MCO was considerably warmer than the end of the 20th century.

• During the last 100 years, temperature has both risen and fallen, including the present cooling. All the changes in temperature of the last 100 years are in normal historic ranges, both in absolute value and, most importantly, rate of change.

Contrary to many public statements:

• Effects of temperature change are absolutely independent of the cause of the temperature change.

• Global hurricane, cyclonic and major storm activity is near 30-year lows. Any increase in cost of damages by storms is a product of increasing population density in vulnerable areas such as along the shores and property value inflation, not due to any increase in frequency or severity of storms.

• Polar bears have survived and thrived over periods of extreme cold and extreme warmth over hundreds of thousands of years – extremes far in excess of modern temperature changes.

• The 2009 minimum Arctic ice extent was significantly larger than the previous two years. The 2009 Antarctic maximum ice extent was significantly above the 30-year average. There are only 30 years of records.

• Rate and magnitude of sea level changes observed during the last 100 years are within normal historical ranges. Current sea level rise is tiny and, at most, justifies a prediction of perhaps ten centimeters rise in this century.

The present climate debate is a classic conflict between data and computer programs. The computer programs are the source of concern over climate change and global warming, not the data. Data are measurements. Computer programs are artificial constructs.

[snip]

I have been a reviewer of the last two IPCC reports, one of the several thousand scientists who purportedly are supporters of the IPCC view that humans control global temperature. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many of us try to bring better and more current science to the IPCC, but we usually fail. Recently we found out why. The whistleblower release of e-mails and files from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University has demonstrated scientific malfeasance and a sickening violation of scientific ethics.

via ICECAP.

It’s not about the climate.

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Watch The Decline: The Media Lowlights Of 2009

Watch The Decline: The Media Lowlights Of 2009.

Merry Christmas

ObamaCare WILL NOT reduce the deficit

CBO has been asked for additional information about the projected effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), incorporating the manager’s amendment, on the federal budget and on the balance in the Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund, from which Medicare Part A benefits are paid. Specifically, CBO has been asked whether the reductions in projected Part A outlays and increases in projected HI revenues under the legislation can provide additional resources to pay future Medicare benefits while simultaneously providing resources to pay for new programs outside of Medicare.

[snip]

The key point is that the savings to the HI trust fund under the PPACA would be received by the government only once, so they cannot be set aside to pay for future Medicare spending and, at the same time, pay for current spending on other parts of the legislation or on other programs. Trust fund accounting shows the magnitude of the savings within the trust fund, and those savings indeed improve the solvency of that fund; however, that accounting ignores the burden that would be faced by the rest of the government later in redeeming the bonds held by the trust fund. Unified budget accounting shows that the majority of the HI trust fund savings would be used to pay for other spending under the PPACA and would not enhance the ability of the government to redeem the bonds credited to the trust fund to pay for future Medicare benefits. To describe the full amount of HI trust fund savings as both improving the government’s ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare would essentially double-count a large share of those savings and thus overstate the improvement in the government’s fiscal position.

via – CBO Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on the Federal Budget and the Balance in the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund

Is everything in Washington based on LIES?

CNN finds 61 percent oppose Obamacare

A new CNN survey finds that 61 percent of the respondents oppose the Senate version of Obamacare.

via CNN finds 61 percent oppose Obamacare | Washington Examiner.

CNN!