A time-honored truth of politics and economics is that if you want less of something, tax it.
So apparently Barack Obama wants us to save less for retirement, according to Investors Business Daily:
Obama’s budget proposes lowering the amount Americans can put away in retirement accounts without a tax penalty. Retirement contributions are made in pre-tax dollars, which lowers your taxable income. Capping the contributions increases taxable income, raising the tax burden. It also cuts into the dollars available for retirement.
The president’s proposal limits accounts to $3 million in accumulated savings, enough to fund an annual retirement annuity of $205,000 a year.
Under current law, workers under 50 can place $5,500 in their IRAs each year in pre-tax dollars. Those 50 and over can contribute $6,500 in 2013. Contributions to 401(k) plans are capped at $17,500. The money is taxed when it’s taken out during retirement.
Obama’s plan won’t raise much revenue — just $9 billion over 10 years. It’s simply more of the Obama fairness campaign. The White House made this clear when it said last week that under current law “some wealthy individuals” can amass “substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving.”
Think about that statement for a moment, for it reveals a corrupt mind-set. The administration is saying that America has a government that believes it has the moral authority to decide just what a “reasonable” level of retirement savings is. That’s an alarming statement. …
But the political left is never honest about the policies it sells to the public. Small tax hikes become hefty ones. A bit of regulation grows into a grinding regulatory regime. Limited help for the poor produces a welfare state. Environmental laws, supposedly to clean up our air and water, actually wrest control of the economy from the private sector. Background checks and registration are the precursors for firearm confiscation. ObamaCare is the forerunner of a single-payer system.
Democrats are always poking a camel’s nose under the tent with the full intention of pushing the beast all the way in as soon as possible.
Given that, don’t be surprised if Obama’s retirement account idea leads to even more revenue than the $9 billion it’s supposed to raise. If it becomes law, Democrats will take the next step, putting a stranglehold on the trillions Americans now hold in their retirement accounts.
Already Obama’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray said the agency wants to “help” Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they’ve put away for their retirements, and is “exploring … in terms of whether and what authority we have.” …
And then there’s the Annual Report of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class released in February 2010 that, according to Connie Hair of Human Events, posed the idea of seizing “private 401(k) plans for government disbursement.”
Remember when Bill Clinton said you can’t love your country and hate your government? He was, as usual, wrong. Hating the government that wants to take away your hard-earned retirement savings is not only in your economic self-interest, it’s the patriotic thing to do.
A clear majority of Americans have an unfavorable view of the federal income tax system, according to new Washington Post-ABC News polling. But, in a somewhat remarkable finding, a majority of Democrats view the tax system in a positive light while Republicans and Independents carry the exact opposite view. …
What explains that massive disparity between Democrats and Republicans/Independents when it comes to the tax system?
Part of the answer may well be that Democrats are broadly supportive of the idea that government can and should collect taxes in order to provide services for the American public while Republicans and independents are more skeptical about giving money to the federal government to spend.
Another part may be that the tax question winds up being read by partisans as a broader test of their feelings about the federal government. Democrats, with President Obama in the White House, are more likely to feel favorably (or at least express a favorable opinion) about the government. Republicans are not.
And yet Democrats, Republicans and independents have the same attitude about their own taxes:
More than eight in ten Americans believe that you should do everything you can to pay the lowest tax rate possible according to new Washington Post-ABC News polling, a finding that suggests that people likely hold politicians to a standard of conduct they themselves don’t adhere to.
Eighty-five percent of Americans — and 86 percent of registered voters — say that they approve of people “doing everything within the law to lower their taxes.” Nearly six in ten say they “strongly” approve of doing all you can to pay as little as possible. Those numbers are remarkably consistent across party lines with 90 percent of self identified Republicans expressing that view as well as 83 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of independents. …
Remember Mitt Romney? The two-time presidential candidate, whose considerable wealth made the release of his tax returns a focal point of the 2012 campaign, insisted that he paid what was required but no more.
Eighty-five percent of the American public should have agreed with Romney. But, of course, they didn’t. Romney was cast as trying to game the system for the benefit of he and his wealthy friends. In a February 2012 Washington Post-ABC News poll, two in three Americans said Romney did not pay his fair share of taxes (the public was split over the question in the fall). And a majority of voters in the 2012 exit poll said that Romney’s policies would generally favor the rich and he lost that portion of the vote overwhelmingly.
Whatever the reason, the disconnect between the massive majority of the public who believe paying as a little as possible in taxes makes sense and the disdain with which they hold their politicians trying to do the same suggests that elected officials in future campaigns will continue to view the release of their tax returns as news to be buried not touted.
ABC radio reported this morning that the average federal tax refund was $2,800. That’s one way to put it. Another is that taxpayers on average give their government a $2,800 interest-free loan (about $54 per week) every year.
A former boss of mine was a huge fan of the Rolling Stones. His wife was a huge fan of the Beatles. The two bands crossed paths today in 1963 at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, England.
The number one British single today in 1966:
Today in 1971, the Illinois Crime Commission released its list of “drug-oriented records” …
You’d think given the culture of corruption in Illinois that the commission would have better and more local priorities. On the other hand, the commission probably was made up of third and fourth cousins twice removed of Richard Daley and other Flatland politicians, so, whatever, man.
Today is the 89th anniversary of the first day of WLS radio in Chicago.
WLS today is a news–talk station. For three decades, though, beginning May 2, 1960, WLS was one of the United States’ premier pop and rock music stations.
One reason was WLS’ 50,000-watt signal, which at night could be heard in, according to WLS, 48 states and 23 countries.
That signal brought to towns big and small WLS’ disc jockeys, including John Records Landecker:
If you listen to the clips (including the cool echo effect, which makes the DJ sound even bigger), you’ll notice that the music is, well, good and bad. The music had less to do with WLS listenership than the personality of the station, including Landecker, who may have had the station’s largest audience given the fact he worked nights for most of his time there.
Landecker had several regular bits, including “Press My Conference” (here assisted by WLS’ Larry Lujack) …
… “Americana Panorama” …
… “Can I Get a Witness News” (featuring weird news stories in the pre-Internet days), and, of course, the nightly live, no-seven-second-delay Boogie Check:
Landecker also wrote a couple of parody songs, “Cabrini Green (Rent’s Dirt Cheap)” to the tune of AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” and “Jane (Beat the Machine Dame),” to the tune of Jefferson Starship’s “Jane.” Both songs were about Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne.
Landecker has written a book, Records Truly Is My Middle Name (because it is — his mother’s maiden name), and he’s been pushing his book on every media outlet he can find. And most of them probably are happy to put him on because Landecker inspired a lot of people in radio …
… and because most media people are really good interviews.
Landecker: That’s a very good question. That’s a question I ask myself many times. I didn’t have a job for a while there. I had attempted to segue into talk radio. That didn’t seem to be panning out. Other attempts at employment didn’t work out. I thought about this a lot. For somebody like me, who has spent his entire life going into a radio station and doing a show every day, and that being somewhat of a creative process, where you put yourself out there, if you stop doing that, you don’t feel right. I think the book is actually one big show. It’s a radio show, only it’s on paper. Before, if I wrote something down, it became part of the radio show. It has elements in it that I think if I were in a certain type of format today, I would include as part of my show. I think other people who are in certain types of format include it in their shows … where they came from, who they are, their family, their foibles, sex, drugs, rock and roll. You know, that kind of thing.
RI: Why do you think people are going to want to read it?
Landecker: Because the stories are entertaining. That’s it. It has nothing to do with the fact that I was on the radio or that my middle name is Records, which is all in there, of course. It’s entertaining. I will just give you a small idea of what I’m talking about. My first wife and I were getting divorced. I had two small girls. I decided, as a responsible father, I should take them on a vacation to someplace secluded, where we could have quality time. I contacted a travel agent who booked the three of us on a small island in the Bahamas. They only had one dining room in the whole place. There weren’t many other tourists there. However, there was a group from Playboy Enterprises shooting centerfolds for their Italian edition. I’ll let you read the book and find out what happens after that.
We had a very special guest in the studio that day; Stevie Wonder. Stevie was a big star at the time for Motown Records in Detroit, but he also supported a local school for the blind in Lansing, so he came to town semi-regularly. The music director at WILS (Craig Dudley) knew Stevie, and knew that he loved playing disc jockey, so he invited him to come to our station, sit at the control board, play records, and talk on the air.
I was there that day, and was lucky enough to watch him in action. It was just an amazing sight. He cued up the records, turned the knobs, turned the microphones on and off; you name it. Even though he couldn’t see a thing, he knew exactly what he was doing. There were a few Motown Records employees with him, but he was doing it all by himself. I was standing in the back of the studio watching the whole thing, in awe of his abilities.
That’s when the news came across the wire that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot.
At first it wasn’t clear if King was dead or not, but we all suspected he was. An instant tension filled the room. The Motown executives didn’t say a thing. None of the radio station employees (including me) responded, and neither did Stevie. But we all knew we were experiencing a significant moment.
Even though this clearly affected him, Stevie was a total pro. He finished the show.
The Wisconsin State Journal’s Doug Moe must have been listening about the same time I was:
I heard about the book from my friend John Roach, the Madison Magazine columnist and television producer. Like me, and many other southern Wisconsin baby boomers, Roach grew up listening to WLS-AM/890, a Chicago Top 40 hits station with a powerful signal and colorful DJs like Larry Lujack, Fred Winston, Bob Sirott — and John Records Landecker.
Madison had its own smaller market version: WISM-AM/1480. The DJs had names like Clyde Coffee, Charlie “Rock and Roll” Simon and Jonathan Little.
Little is still around town, and I’ve kept in touch with Simon, whose real name is Larry Goodman. He moved to San Diego and has a successful career in radio sales. Larry took a piece of Otis Redding’s doomed plane with him and traded it to the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas for a Paul McCartney autographed guitar.
WISM was cool, but WLS was the big time. There was no Internet, streaming or satellite radio. Big city stations with strong signals ruled. The other day Roach recalled sitting in his room in Madison listening to the WLS DJs talk about bands like the Rolling Stones coming to Chicago. “It seemed exotic,” John said.
Later, when Roach got a job out of college at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Ill., he met the WLS DJs who did live shows from the park.
John Records Landecker — who handled the 6-10 p.m. shift for WLS through much of the 1970s — came to Great America to open a ride called the Tidal Wave. In those days both Roach and Landecker would take a second drink, which they did, after the promotion. It turned out each had been a high school sprinter, and you can guess what happened next.
“We raced through the darkened streets of Great America,” Roach said. “I won. I’ve never let him forget it.”
Last week Roach put me in touch with Landecker, who spoke about his life and new book with good cheer, though his life has had downs as well as ups, and the book reflects it.
(I grew up also listening to the aforementioned Little and Simon on WISM, and in Little’s case later on WZEE, Z104, when Little left WISM and turned Z104 into what WISM used to be. Little only has one of the greatest radio voices of all time, and Simon’s wasn’t far behind.)
Landecker was on WLS-TV’s “Windy City Live” when he got his own Boogie Check. (Click on the link.)
The Chicago Tribune’s Rick Kogan interviewed Landecker for print …
Kaempfer spent many, many hours interviewing Landecker, coaxing stories and anecdotes out of him. He also conducted interviews with 30-some people who had known, worked with or admired Landecker. This group is a who’s who of local radio — Kevin Matthews, producer John Gehron, program director Mary June Rose — offering telling memories and assessments.
Former radio personality Don Wade says: “(Landecker) really works at his craft. He may come off like he’s goofing off, but trust me, he really works at it. He takes it very seriously.” …
Landecker now hosts evenings on WLS-FM 94.7. It is the same station, the same shift that he had when he arrived here in 1972 and became a star. This was the big time, Top 40 tunes blasted across the country to millions of listeners, introduced and interrupted by the voices of such folks as Bob Sirott, Larry Lujack and Landecker, who now writes, “I didn’t realize how big we were in the 1970s while it was happening.” How big? As one of the station’s former general managers, Marty Greenberg, puts it, “We were the New York Yankees and we didn’t even know it.” …
The book is filled with many such honest reflections, terrific photos, some of Landecker’s funniest parody songs and snippets of favorite interviews. It’s peppered too by a self-effacing tone: “Maybe I’m just a guy writing a book about the times we all lived through.”
His WLS show might not dominate the ratings like it once did, but in so many important ways it doesn’t really matter.
… and video:
I have not read the book other than online excerpts. However, I have not read a single review of the book that doesn’t practically gush. That’s probably because, in addition to his being apparently a great storyteller, Landecker hearkens back to the days when rock and roll was more real, and DJs were live and local. (And, for me, when I wanted to do what Landecker was doing. I didn’t.)
Landecker is still on WLS. The FM version, that is, whose signal does not go out to 48 states and 23 countries, but it does go over the World Wide Web. WLS-FM also has Brant Miller, who was on The Humongous 89 at the same time as Landecker, and WLS’ first nationally known DJ, Dick Biondi. (After doing mornings on WLS-FM, Miller is the meteorologist on the 4:30, 6 and 10 p.m. news on WMAQ-TV in Chicago. Apparently Miller doesn’t sleep.)
Back in 2010, when Chicago played at the EAA in Oshkosh, I sent Landecker an email at his previous station (a talk station in Indiana) mentioning I’d been listening to him since the 1970s. He replied by thanking me for listening “all these years.” Which I imagine made us both feel old.
Proving that there is more than one side even on the right, Right Wisconsin has two points of view about the Milwaukee Bucks (you know, the NBA team — you have heard of them, right?) and whether they should get a new arena to replace the aging (by pro sports standards) Bradley Center.
Whether you like it or not, by the economic standards of professional sports the oldest arena in the National Basketball Association is an economic airball for the Bucks. When the Bradley Center opened, the four most famous NBA arenas were the Boston Garden, the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., the Spectrum in Philadelphia, and Madison Square Garden in New York. The Celtics, Lakers and 76ers are all in new arenas (the Garden and Spectrum aren’t there anymore), and Madison Square Garden was gutted so that Knicks games are more fan-friendly and more lucrative to the Knicks’ owners.
Not only does the Bradley Center have too few revenue generators compared with the Packers’ Lambeau Field, the Brewers’ Miller Park, and the Badgers’ Camp Randall Stadium and Kohl Center, it wasn’t designed well in the 1980s. Having attended games there, I can personally attest there are two sections of seats that have good views — the lower level seats inside the basketball court end lines. The lower-level end zone and corner seats are awful, and the upper-level seats are in Racine, Johnson Creek, West Bend and the middle of Lake Michigan.
Milwaukee is one of only 28 cities in the world who have an NBA franchise. You would think that would be a matter of pride, and something that the leadership of a city would jealously protect. Indeed, this week we’ve seen stories of the lengths to which the city of Sacramento and it’s Mayor, Kevin Johnson, are going to defeat the full court pressure to steal their team being put on by Seattle.
Mayor Johnson – a former NBA all-star – has led the effort to keep the Kings in Sacramento, personally pushing through measures that will have the City of Sacramento contributing $258 million to the construction of the new arena, and even taking city ownership of the new facility. …
Contrast this with the City of Milwaukee, where our own Milwaukee Bucks face an uncertain future due to an aging arena. Mayor Tom Barrett has largely been invisible on the issue.
The one notable time he did poke his head out of his hole on the matter it was to state that he would draw a line in the sand and oppose plan that didn’t require that someone else solve the problem. Quoth the Mayor: “I cannot support a City of Milwaukee or Milwaukee County only financing plan [for a new arena].”
Now, I get it that the Mayor would prefer to have someone else pay for the new arena. But the simple fact is, at the end of the day this is a Milwaukee problem and it’s going to require a Milwaukee solution. In terms of regional or statewide fan appeal, the Bucks are not the Packers.
They are not even the Brewers. Losing the Bucks would be a sad thing for the whole state, but it would be a real and devastating economic loss for the City of Milwaukee, for the city’s image, and for the vitality of its downtown entertainment and hospitality businesses. For the suburbs and outstate communities, the Bucks are a “nice to have.” For Milwaukee they are a “need to have.” Whether he likes it or not, this one is going to fall on Mayor Barrett. His city is the one at risk. His leadership is on trial. And his effort is going to have a lot to do with whether the Bucks are a part of Milwaukee’s future or just part of a proud and ever more distant past.
There is no way around it, the presentation given by Martin Greenberg at the forum on a new arena sounded like an opening argument in a case to win full public financing for the complex.
“Herb Kohl will not participate in this debate,” Greenberg said. “But there are three statements he agrees with. First, the time is now to finance and replace the Bradley Center; two, he (Kohl) will make a significant contribution to the construction and three; Milwaukee’s chances to keep an NBA is not robust without a new arena.”
Then Greenberg added the kicker – “Why should Kohl’s money lead the way when other cities have fully publicly funded their arenas?”
Places like San Francisco or Foxboro or Houston.
Owners expect their home cities to provide a competitive place for their teams to play,” Greenberg said. “A quid pro quo for obtaining and maintaining a professional franchise. The public must do the same and Kohl shouldn’t be required to do so. No public investment, no arena, no Bucks.”
A little blackmail there, Mr. Greenberg? …
What about the other pressing matters Milwaukee and the region are facing? A failing school system, a dysfunctional behaviorial health system, lack of intergovernmental cooperation that would be needed for any type of public financing plan to even come to fruition.
But we should be grateful to Herb Kohl that he has deemed us worthy to be the home of his multi-million dollar sports franchise? Especially since he won’t even deign to tell us how much he is willing to pony up for his portion of a new arena.
I say there is a lot more talking to do and common ground to be found before we forge ahead with this gift.
And shouldn’t the owner of the team participate in the debate? Or are the Bucks going to follow Mayor Barrett’s lead and just passively watch how this unfolds?
A couple points about Wenzel’s piece: The “other pressing matters” are not really about money, at least in the first and last cases. Milwaukee Public Schools is the worst school system in the state and one of the worst in the country. No amount of money will repair MPS. The issue of intergovernmental cooperation is more about political will than about finances.
Kohl’s presence in this little drama illustrates, perhaps to your surprise, the state’s historically bad business climate. According to Forbes magazine (as reported by Small Business Times), the richest Wisconsinites, and their positions on the Forbes 400 billionaires list, are:
56: John Menard, of Menards (pronounced “Menar!”), net worth $6 billion.
142: Diane Hendricks, of ABC Supply, $2.9 billion.
151: H. Fisk Johnson, Imogene Powers Johnson, S. Curtis Johnson and Helen Johnson-Leopold, all of S.C. Johnson, $2.7 billion each.
170: Herbert Kohler and Kohler family members, $2.6 billion.
190: James Cargill II, one of the owners of Cargill, $2.4 billion.
285: Judy Faulkner, founder of Epic Systems in Verona (not Madison), $1.7 billion.
That’s it. Herb Kohl is not on that list. Mark Attanasio, who purchased the Brewers from the Selig family, isn’t on that list either, and he’s not a Wisconsinite anyway. (Not a single Wisconsin name came up to purchase the Brewers from the Seligs when the Seligs finally sold the team.) The fact there aren’t more Wisconsinites on the Forbes 400 proves that you can’t make big money in Wisconsin. because of our high taxes (fifth highest state and local taxes in the country, and eighth highest business taxes in the country) and, as Menard can attest, our pervasively anti-business attitude in government and in our culture. (Too many Wisconsinites believe rich people became rich by stealing, and not enough Wisconsinites start or own businesses.)
Two people on that list have sports connections. Menard owns a racing team. Kohler owns the two golf courses, Whistling Straits (home of the 2010 PGA tournament, and a fine experience a day there was) and Blackwolf Run. Kohl, meanwhile, already gave $25 million to build the University of Wisconsin’s Kohl Center, a much better place to watch basketball. Jane Bradley Pettit, who donated the money for the Bradley Center, is dead. Name another Wisconsinite with the financial wherewithal and the sports interest to purchase the Bucks and contribute significantly to a new arena.
There is no white knight to rescue the Bucks when Kohl decides to unload the franchise. Neither Barrett nor, apparently, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele will lift a finger for the Bucks. The suburban Milwaukee counties were none too pleased at paying the 0.1-percent sales tax to build Miller Park, and Miller Park is used twice as often as the Bradley Center for Bucks games, with more than twice the nightly attendance. (A sales tax referendum, which the Packers used to get the 0.5-percent Brown County sales tax to fund the early-2000s Lambeau Field improvements, would not pass in any county near Milwaukee, and not in Milwaukee County either.) I don’t see Gov. Scott Walker spending any political capital to keep the Bucks in Wisconsin.
When an out-of-state market hungry for pro basketball is ready to deal, the Bucks will leave Wisconsin, and most Wisconsinites won’t care.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R–Kentucky) went to Howard University, reports London’s Guardian:
Founded in 1867, Howard University was one of the few schools where blacks could receive degrees after the Civil War ended. The school also played an integral part of the Civil Rights movement, and its student population remains predominately black today. …
Few young minorities know the history of the Republican Party “chock full of emancipation and black history”. He talked about his passion for ending mandatory minimum federal sentencing for non-violent possession of drugs because they ruin the lives of kids who just make bad decisions. It was one of the most heavily tweeted and applauded lines of his speech.
Paul tackled some 30 minutes of tough questioning ranging from Malcolm X to the Environmental Protection Agency. When asked by a former Obama intern how he felt about voter ID laws, Paul said he didn’t think it was a burden for people to show a driver’s license to maintain the integrity of the polls, but didn’t approve of 100-page literacy tests Democrats forced blacks to take during reconstruction to suppress their vote. …
Most striking was Paul’s response to a question from a young man who said he “wanted a government that helps him and pays for his school”. Paul used this opportunity to emphasize his belief of the hazard of government over-reach. Paul warned the student that when government spends money it doesn’t have and sells our debt to China, this limits school loans and creates an economy where people can’t get jobs when they become college graduates.
Going backwards in time, Paul reminded the crowd the GOP has always been the party of civil rights and voting rights, but also the party of limited government. “When some people hear that, they tune us out and say: he’s just using code words for the state’s right to discriminate, for the state’s right to segregate and abuse. But that’s simply not true.” Paul used the 14th amendment guaranteeing all Americans citizenship and equal rights regardless of race as an example of such egregious injustice that requires federal involvement. …
He said after the Great Depression and Civil Rights Act, blacks wanted “economic emancipation” and began voting Democrat because Democrats promised “unlimited federal assistance”. He added: Republicans offered something that seemed less tangible-the promise of equalizing opportunity through free markets. After nearly 50 years of Democrat policies, Paul argued the evidence shows that big government is not a friend to African Americans. He pointed to persistent high unemployment among blacks, presently 13.3%, nearly twice the national average, blacks trapped in failing schools and their declining wealth.
Before the speech, I asked a young man, who was a sophomore, why he was there. He said to listen but he didn’t feel Paul “was in his best interests”. He never articulated what those interests were, but when I asked him when was the last time President Obama had spoken on campus since he became a student, he replied: never. Obama hasn’t spoken to Howard students since 2007, when he was campaigning for the Democrat nomination and Hillary was leading in the polls among black Americans. Howard students should ask themselves who’s showing up and asking for their vote, and who’s assuming they have it.”
Maybe it’s about time we all reassess blind allegiance to ideas that are failing our children,” said Paul. While the senator was referencing America’s education system and the benefits of school choice, I think that was the theme of his speech. “As Toni Morrison said, ‘write your own story. Challenge mainstream thought,’” concluded Paul.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 