Reason 241,531 we need the FairTax

Apparently Congress is really, really stupid.

So there are energy tax credits if you replace your air conditioner with certain models. These tax credits were put in place in 2006 and part of the "Bush energy bill". They were also in place in 2007, 2009, and 2010.

That's right. The tax credits expired in 2008 and the moronic democratic leadership wanted to put them back in place, but they couldn't be bothered to renew them for 2008. However, they could be bothered to reinstate them in 2009 and 2010.

Guess who bought a qualified air conditioner in 2008?

This is the problem with using the tax code for social engineering. I'm paying full price on my a/c and paying other people to put in theirs. Nevada needs to find a Republican to run against Harry Reid so he can go away like Daschle.

tax rant of the day/week/whatever

(I'm hoping to make this a regular feature during tax season. Feel free to join me...)

Non-monetary prizes:

When I was a kid I remember watching "Wheel of Fortune". In those days the game was pretty cool... after each round the winner would get to choose prizes on which to spend their money. If you won and reached the bonus round you'd get to choose which prize you wanted to play for. I remember at some point the prizes were ridiculous... a Lamborghini was one of the choices. But the contestant would always pick the $25,000 cash. I expressed disbelief about this to my dad, who responded by telling me how the winner has to pay taxes on the prizes they win.


So even if you won a $100,000 (?) car, you'd have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes before you could get it, and then you'd be faced with trying to sell it to make a profit.

Nowadays we have the stories of winners of fantastic prizes who find out that it's just not worth it to win:

• Will this man's dream of space travel become a reality?
• Free round-trip tickets?
• A dream home?
  

Leave it to the government to take the fun out of winning stuff.