TAX POLITIX
The Politics of Taxes
Obama and the Problem of Tax Transition Rules
The extensive, substantive, and expensive Obamacare changes being made now on a regular basis by President Obama certainly appear to be an unconstitutional, if for no other reason than law changes of that magnitude seem clearly to be Congress's domain. But the administration argues that these are just minor tweaks needed to ease the implementation of a vast new law. Let’s look at reality. Government periodically changes tax rules through new legislation. Often, the new laws require...
Obamacare and an Anecdote
The recent revelation that the White House, congressional Democrats, and the CBO all now consider work to be a lifestyle choice reminds me of a scenario some years back with one of my clients. There was a person who was getting a divorce, and the couple had 2 children. One of the discussions involved who was going to pay for the children’s college. The husband offered to pay 90% of the cost since he made substantially more money, leaving 10% as the wife’s portion to pay. This seemed to be a...
Chuck Rocha Gets It Wrong on Bulls & Bears
When Chuck Rocha, from the Center for National Policy, was a guest on Bulls and Bears last past weekend, he continued to spew out statistics that touted the economic benefits of Obamacare. His assertions were based on a Price Waterhouse report that indicated health care cost had come down 4%. Of course, health care costs have not come down. If Mr. Rocha was referring to the fact that the rate of growth of health care spending has slowed (by a not really significant 4%), this trend started long...
Rick Ungar’s Obamacare Fib
Rick Ungar, the “Token Lefty”, usually comes very well prepared for his appearances on Forbes on Fox. But it is disappointing to watch when he regurgitates the same absolutely misleading statistics, despite the fact that he's been corrected so many times before. Mr. Ungar argues that the changes which President Obama continues to make to Obamacare are not a significantly harmful to the economy, since “the Obamacare mandate excludes 96% of businesses”. One might ask: if Obamacare only affected...
“Economists” and the Minimum Wage
Democrat politicians and “economists" have found a wonderful populist issue for the the current election cycle - raising the minimum wage. The economists (including Krugman, Goolsbee, etc) make the argument that the most obvious, serious problem -- loss of entry level jobs and non-hiring at new entry level positions -- is not a significant factor, and they have even been able to marshal some studies to support this. They then argue that the higher minimum wage puts more money into needy...
The NYC Comptroller Doesn’t Understand How Basic Economics Work
The newest calls to raise the minimum wage in NYC to $11/hour are a frustrating reminder that the city’s own Comptroller, Scott Stringer, has a total lack of understanding about how economics work. Scott Stringer makes the argument that raising the minimum wage to $11/hour would provide an additional $2 billion in annual income to working families. While that might sound good to taxpayers -- to get more money in their pockets -- he completely fails to explain the other side of the equation:...
What is Wall Street, Anyway?
What is Wall Street, anyway? I would be willing to bet that 90% of the protesters from Occupy Wall Street and of self-styled liberals have absolutely no idea what Wall Street is, what it does, and how important it is. If not for Wall Street, there wouldn’t be any Main Street, certainly not as we know it today. In order for any business to be successful, it must run on capital. Capital can be funded by an owner’s personal investment or through funds from outside investors. The ability to grow...
Ben Bernanke Was a Lackey
It is really obvious to see that Ben Bernanke was not an independent Fed Chair, but just a lackey for President Obama. Though his responsibility was monetary policy, he was often asked why - despite the most stimulative monetary policy possible - the economy has shown the worst recovery, by far, since the Great Depression more than 80 years ago. As a student of the Great Depression, Mr. Bernanke was fully aware of the disastrous policies of FDR that impeded the recovery - large tax increases,...
De Blasio and the Universal Preschool Fallacy
The new pre-school plan presented by Mayor de Blasio reveals just how politically disingenuous he really is. In his effort to push the progressive agenda he put forth during his campaign, de Blasio has vowed to have universal pre-school in New York State to be paid for only by the wealthiest New Yorkers. Here’s the logical inconsistancy: If universal pre-school is the all-important and necessary step for all children in their educational development (the merits of which is fodder for another...
Quickly Noted: The Two Best Minimum Wage Cartoons
AEI posted two fantastic cartoons by Henry Payne, which demonstrates well how illogical minimum wage law really is. Click on the link to see the cartoons (reprinted at AEI with the author's permission)
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