Last week I reported H&R Block website had a new feel good name for one Obamacare tax. This week new analysis comes from Americans for Tax Reform about more taxes within the law:
The majority (52 percent) of Obamacare enrollees receiving an advance premium tax credit to purchase Obamacare insurance is facing the prospect of paying back $530 of that tax credit to the IRS, according to a new study from H&R Block. This clawback is reducing the refunds for these taxpayers by 17 percent this filing season.
Families of four earning less than $97,000 are eligible for a credit. So is a single mother with two children earning less than $80,000 and an unmarried/childless taxpayer earning less than about $12,000. By definition, these are the lowest income recipients of Obamacare health insurance outside the Medicaid-eligible population. Higher income taxpayers received no tax subsidy and aren’t facing this tax season surprise.
According to the study, a majority of credit recipients–52 percent–have had to pay back the IRS an average of $530, reducing their refunds by an average of 17 percent.
Read the rest here
Indiana teacher unions have gained some members since their big drop off in 2011. EAGnews.org first reported numbers in 2012:
According to internal sources at the Indiana State Teachers Association, membership has dropped by more than 20 percent – from 50,032 in 2010-11 to 39,922 in 2011-12.
The ISTA (Indiana State Teachers Association) now boasts membership at 45,000 which means membership has gone up.
Some districts are still losing union membership. Tippecanoe School District, gave a glimpse in how much the drop off is. Reporting via jconline.com:
The Lafayette Education Association saw a 17 percent drop in the past four school years; membership decreased from 400 members, or 67 percent of Lafayette School Corp. teachers, in September 2011 to 332 members, or 56 percent of teachers, in September 2014.
The Tippecanoe Education Association saw a 26 percent drop during that same time period — dropping from 420 members, or 67 percent of Tippecanoe School Corp. teachers, to 310 members, or 46 percent.
Nationally union membership has dropped double digits the last 30 years.
In 2014, about 49 percent of teachers — or about 2.5 million — were union members. That’s down from 53 percent just a decade ago, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1984, teachers union coverage was at 64 percent.
Via Washington Times –
The federal government is looking for doctors to help monitor suspected smugglers’ bowel movements at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, in a solicitation that sounds like it could be something out of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” program.
Doctors must be available round-the-clock in case CBP officers suspect they have a “swallower,” which is what internal drug smugglers are known as. The doctors are charged with X-raying or otherwise examining suspects’ body cavities, and if drugs are found, the work order says “the detainee may be held for a monitored bowel movement (MBM) to wait the passage of the contraband material.”
“CBP regularly intercepts individuals who ingest wrapped packets of illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, ecstasy, marijuana or hashish to transport them,” the agency said. “CBP officers apply their keen knowledge, expertise and intelligence to detect and intercept suspected body cavity concealers at our nation’s ports of entry.”
CBP identified 176 “body cavity concealment incidents” in 2014, which was down from 187 the previous year.
You can read the rest here.
Former Florida Congressman Lt. Colonel Allen West recently posted a scathing piece denouncing stereotypes military recruits face in segments of American society. Within the piece he outlined some interesting stastitics the Army faces in recruiting future soldiers.
Here is the breakdown:
The recruiting pool for the U.S. Army is individuals between 17 and 24 years old. 71 percent would not qualify to join the Army.
What are the major disqualifiers? First, some 31 percent cannot join because of multiple felonies and other moral issues such as drug use or other law violations. The other major category that disqualifies 17 to 24-year-olds is lack of fitness/obesity and other medical issues.
Only two percent can’t qualify for the Army now due to aptitude/academic issues, so the major disqualifying points have to do with moral and physical standards.
Here are the numbers broken down of the qualified applicants:
Now understand, of the 29 percent who could qualify, here is the breakdown that LTC Patton and his staff shared with me. Only 15 percent of individuals age 17 to 24 have any interest in joining the military.
Newly released data from Baker Hughes Inc. shows another 48 oil/natural gas rigs taken out of production. The count now stands at 1,310 still active. Down 461 rigs from this time last year.
The unfortunate part of government spending is taxpayers don’t get to know what is being spent until it gets spent. CBS News uncovered some “dysfunctional” spending from the pentagon in a recent report:
According to the Military Times, data from the Defense Health Agency indicate the U.S. Department of Defense spent $41.6 million on Viagra and $84.24 million total on drugs for erectile dysfunction in 2014.
Since 2011, the bill for covering drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra for active and retired military personnel and eligible family members totalled $294 million — nearly as much as four U.S. Air Force F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, says the Military Times.
The DoD first began covering the cost of Viagra prescriptions in 2012, and currently another seven types of erectile dysfunction medications are paid for under the federal agency’s health plan. Of the 1.18 million prescriptions filled in 2014, 905,083 were for Viagra, at a cost of $41.6 million. Cialis was the second most commonly prescribed ED drug, with 185,841 prescriptions totaling $22.82 million. Revatio, the priciest ED drug, was prescribed the least with 1,699 prescriptions in 2014 for a total cost of $2.24 million.
You can read the rest of the article here.
I filed my taxes this past weekend online through H&R Block and stumbled upon the Obamacare tax. The sly government gurus have gave it a warm fuzzy college theory name of “Shared Responsibility Payment”.
Remember, under collectivism, shared responsibility also involves shared misery.
One area of economic data I follow is where corn is being sold to. Recent data has pointed to farmers raising cattle which means an expanding beef market. I did some research and found this forecast at FarmandDairy.com:
U.S. Department of Agriculture semiannual report that cattle numbers have increased by slightly more than 1 percent following seven years of decline.
The most significant expansion has been in beef cows, which were up 2 percent from the previous year, the USDA said.
There were 610,000 new beef cows added nationally. Hurt said the expansion is likely to continue through most of this decade.
One reason for the expansion is prices farmers are getting for beef:
“These were led by record-high cattle prices in 2014 with finished cattle averaging near $155 per live hundredweight and Oklahoma 500-550 pound steer calves averaging $250,” Hurt said.
Oil rig production continues its plunge and gas prices are starting to show that. Here is the latest data on oil rigs:
The number of active U.S. land rigs plunged by 98 this week in one of the biggest declines in the past three decades as fallen oil prices continued to pummel the industry’s drilling ambitions.
Baker Hughes’ 71-year-old U.S. rig count, one of the industry’s go-to indicators of future oil production and demand for rigs, was down by 406 drilling units compared to Feb. 13, 2014. The last time the rig count fell by 98 was in January, 2009 – the two declines are tied for the biggest drops since 1987.
H/T Fuel Fix
Hoosier Econ 