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TAX POLITIX

The Politics of Taxes

Entitlement Accounting, Not Demographics

Catching up on the WSJ, I came across an opinion piece by Ben Wattenberg, who surmised that the current entitlement crisis is one of demographics; that is, our fertility rates are not able to sustain payment obligations. Though generally the WSJ and the American Enterprise Institute -- of which Mr. Wattenberg is a senior fellow -- are good in their analyses, this argument is patently untrue. A few days later, the WSJ ran a

Executive Activism

HYPOCRISY, OBAMA, POLITICS, TAXES

Shortly after the oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court this past spring– which didn't seem to go very well at the time -- Obama warned against a version of constitutional "activism": “And I’d just remind conservative commentators that, for years, what we have heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism, or a lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law.” At the time, the thought of our...

Our Taxes Built That

ARTICLES, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, GOVERNMENT, OBAMA, POLITICS

Our taxes built that. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off...

If You’ve Got a Speech, You Didn’t Write It. Someone Else Made That Happen

OBAMA, TAXES

Yesterday, President Obama demonstrated his ability to essentially plagiarize borrow part of a speech given originally by US Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren, back in September, 2011. Her speech went viral among the Left shortly after. First, Elizabeth Warren's: “I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever,’” she said. “No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. “You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you...

Sowell’s Invincible Truth

ARTICLES, HYPOCRISY, POLITICS, TAXES

From Thomas Sowell comes a great column: Anyone who wants to study the tricks of propaganda rhetoric has a rich source of examples in the statements of President Barack Obama. On Monday, July 9th, for example, he said that Republicans "believe that prosperity comes from the top down, so that if we spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, that that will somehow unleash jobs and economic growth." and this gem: People over 65 years of age have far more wealth than people in...

More Disability Workers Added than Jobs Created in June

ARTICLES, ECONOMY, GOVERNMENT, HYPOCRISY, TAXES

From Investor's Business Daily: The economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. But that same month, 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration. and more: In addition, while job growth has been very weak during the recovery, the total number of people who've dropped out of the labor force entirely has exploded, climbing 7.3 million since...

Presidential Parrot

ARTICLES, ECONOMY, HYPOCRISY, OBAMA, POLITICS, TAXES

Alan Krueger, Chairman Of the Council of Economic Advisors, soothed Americans on his White House blog post regarding the unemployment numbers released today. As the Administration stresses every month, the monthly employment and unemployment figures can be volatile, and employment estimates can be subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are...