TAX POLITIX
The Politics of Taxes
The EPA and the Gold King Mine Investigation
Earlier in December, the EPA published a document referencing the Gold King Mine disaster, saying that they intended to “clarify any misunderstandings about the incident.” The EPA had "recently interviewed two material witnesses to the EPA’s activities at Gold King Mine" and subsequently published its own narrative of the event. The problem arises because the Office of Inspector General is conducting an ongoing investigation into how the EPA handled the toxic spill in Colorado, at the hand of...
Obamacare Numbers Still Way Off Projected Mark
With the insurance enrollment period ending in mid-December, Healthcare.gov announced that 8.2 million Americans selected plans for 2016 in 38 states. The Administration is touting the 8.2 figure as a "success" by comparing it to the 6 million plan selections by the same time last year. There was no mention, however, of how the 8.2 million number falls exceedingly short of the 21 million projected to be Obamacare users. One amusing point is how the Administration parsed its words. "Plan...
Cafe Hayek and the Minimum Wage
On a recent post over at Cafe Hayek, my friend Don Boudreaux discusses the merits of minimum wage policy. A gentleman, Mr. Hutcheson, wrote in to chide the writers, saying that Boudreaux and others “who argue that the minimum wage destroys some jobs miss the point.” Mr. Hutchinson insisted that the real point is “the amount of harm to low income workers compared to the benefits of going to other low-income workers.” Boudreaux correctly responded that minimum wage legislation is unethical...
The EPA Used “Covert Propaganda” To Push Clean Water Rule
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) concluded that the EPA violated federal law and participated in "covert propaganda" through social media in order to encourage passage of Obama's new and controversial "Clean Water Rule." From the report: "The use of appropriated funds associated with implementing EPA’s Thunderclap campaign and establishing hyperlinks to the NRDC and to the Surfrider Foundation webpages violated prohibitions against publicity or propaganda and grassroots lobbying...
CBO Predicts 2 Million Fewer Workers By 2025 Due to ACA Impact
As part of the "Working Paper Series" published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the CBO just released their latest work entitled, "How CBO Estimates the Effects of the Affordable Care Act on the Labor Market." Essentially, the CBO projects that the labor force will be about 2 million full-time-equivalent workers smaller ten years from now, in 2025, than it would have been without the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). "The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will make the labor...
The Intersection of Obamacare and Immigration
The Wall Street Journal put together an excellent editorial yesterday on the intersection of Obamacare and immigration. First, starting in 2016, employers with 50 or more full time employees are required to offer health insurance for each of their workers, or else pay a penalty of $3,000 per each person who fails to receive proper Obamacare coverage. So what happens with the undocumented immigrants allowed to stay under President Obama's Executive Action? The numbers are estimated to be...
November 2015 Sees Record Debt Bounce
As has been earlier reported here, the debt ceiling jumped dramatically the day after the debt ceiling was lifted on November 2nd ($339 billion) and continued to soar all month. By the end of the month, the debt had doubled, adding another $335 billion. All in all, $674 billion in US debt had accumulated, making the total US debt a staggering $18.827 trillion. Also noted by Zerohedge, the debt was $10.6 trillion on January 21, 2009, on the day President Obama took office. The total debt is now...
Head of UnitedHealth Remorseful About Obamacare
Republicans Overseas Action, Inc. Takes on FATCA & FBAR
On Friday, Republicans Overseas Action, Inc. filed a 78-page Plaintiffs’ Motion for Leave to Amended Complaint against the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), the intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), and the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, on behalf of Senator Rand Paul and nine other co-plaintiffs. The then plaintiffs include "U.S. citizens, former U.S. citizens, Republicans, and/or non-Republicans" who...
United Healthcare May Withdraw From Obamacare Next Year
A few days ago, UnitedHealthcare announced that the possibility of withdrawing from the Obamacare health insurance exchanges. This is a significant announcement, as UnitedHealthcare is one of the biggest insurers in the country. The impact of withdrawl would affect hundreds of thousands of people with regard to their healthplans; the timing -- right before 2016 elections -- would be critical. HHS is predicting 10 million enrollees in 2016, which is half of what was originally projected when...
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