TAX POLITIX
The Politics of Taxes
If You’re Rich, You Should’ve Died in 2010
That was the year the death tax was completely eliminated for one year. The families of philanthropist John Kluge, Texas oilman Dan Duncan, and Yankee's mogul George Steinbrenner made out like bandits in 2010. Unfortunately, 2013 will see a crushing increase in the death tax. In 2013, the death tax will revert to its antiquated, pre-2001 form. The applicable exclusion amount will plummet to $1,000,000, and the top marginal rate will leap twenty points to 55%. A 5% surtax will also return, to...
Paying More For Medicare
What Was Promised and Who Promised It
Pension reform needs to begin in the public sector. it is clear that a wide gulf between funding and compensation exists. When pointing out the fact that the majority of federal and state public employees are overcompensated, the response is typically that “these amounts were promised”. But with most budgets now currently running severely in the red, addressing the compensation question is the key to solving major deficit dilemmas across the country. We need to analyze how we got here from two...
Feds: We Want to Give You (Other People’s) Money
The Feds are complaining that those experiencing economic difficulties don't ask for a lot of help from....the government. The government assistance website, USA.gov, helpfully and cheerfully reminds us that “Given that only 15 percent of you turn to government assistance in tough times, we want to make sure you know about benefits that could help you,” USA.gov announced today. The ”government made easy’ website has created a “help for difficult financial times” page for people to learn more...
UN “Global Internet Tax” in the Future?
I have to give Congress at least a little credit here. The U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Terry Kramer, announced this week that there is growing momentum worldwide for a "internet tax" of sorts which would affect companies such as Google who do business internationally. Thankfully, the Hill reports Democrats and Republicans in the United States are united against proposals to increase international control of the Internet. Congress passed a non-binding resolution earlier this year urging the...
Romney Paid More Than His Fair Share of Taxes…In 2010. MSM Blinked.
So, Mitt Romney released his 2011 taxes. And on cue, Think Progress rolls out this inane hit piece entitled "By Romney’s Own Standard, His Tax Returns Would Disqualify Him From The Presidency". The summary of their argument accuses Romney of paying more than his fair share of taxes this year. This implies that he is somehow gaming the system or dishonest. However, this outrage -- besides being just plain stupid -- is entirely disingenuous. Why? Because in 2010, Romney actually DID pay more...
Romney’s 2011 Taxes
Romney released his 2011 tax return today. I haven't had time to review these yet, but the Romney campaign has put out the following notes: Regarding the newly-filed 2011 Tax Return: In 2011, the Romneys paid $1,935,708 in taxes on $13,696,951 in mostly investment income. The Romneys’ effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1%. The Romneys donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30% of their income. The Romneys claimed a deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable...
Quantitative Easing: Hypocritical and Destructive
Breaking: US Credit Downgraded Again
US Credit Downgraded again on QE3 move: From MarketWatch "SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Egan-Jones Ratings Co. said Friday it downgraded its U.S. sovereign rating to AA- from AA on concerns that the Fed's new round of quantitative easing, or QE3, will hurt the U.S. economy. The ratings agency said the Fed's plan of buying $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities a month and keeping interest rates near zero does little to raise GDP, reduces the value of the dollar, and raises the price of...
It’s Deficit Day!
Over at Red State, Dan Spencer calls attention to the fact that today is a notable day: “Deficit Day” is the date by which federal tax revenues run dry and the federal government begins adding even more debt on top of our exploding $16 Trillion national debt. This year Deficit Day falls on September 10th. Two economists, James R. Harrigan & Antony Davies, stress the importance of this observance in their great article: If lawmakers produced a balanced budget, Deficit Day would occur on...
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