Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s website proudly proclaims “as the mother of two young children, Senator Gillibrand knows that working families are struggling in this difficult economy.” But Sen. Gillibrand’s positions regarding the economy don’t support such a statement. When Gillibrand appeared on Meet The Press on April 21, she stated that she refuses to support even the trivial chain “CPI” adjustment of Social Security benefits “because | Read More »
Arthur Laffer wrote a decent article recently in the WSJ regarding the merits of the internet sales tax being considered this week in Congress. He is correct when he asserts that “the principle of levying the lowest possible tax rate on the broadest possible tax base is the way to improve the incentives to work, save and produce—which are necessary to reinvigorate the American economy | Read More »
In a twist of irony, “Big Government” Bloomberg has admitted that NYC is at the edge of a fiscal precipice. “There is no practical ways to pay our workforce given the current environment, current tax structure, current other obligations we have more than what we have been doing, with the possible exception of dramatically raising taxes”. Bloomberg points to public service unions as being among | Read More »
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a gathering of higher-income earners. The bulk of the discussion was a comparison of what this bracket of folks just paid in 2012 vs what they will pay in higher taxes in 2013. Some of those taxes had to do with the implementation of Obamacare and the new taxes associated with it. However, many do not realize | Read More »
April 29, 2013 marks four years without a true operating budget for our country. 1461 days and running. In the realm of budget history, April 29 is an historic day. First, an interesting juxtaposition exists between April 29, 1909 and April 29, 2009. On April 29, 1909, the world’s biggest Superpower — Great Britain — introduced the “People’s Budget”, which is famously noted for being | Read More »
John Steele Gordon’s recent Op-Ed in the WSJ opened with following observation: “The question of how to fairly and equitably tax capital gains has been a political problem since the modern personal-income tax was adopted in 1913”. Being a business/financial historian, he gives an adequate overview of the history of capital gains and how it has reached its present state. But because he is not | Read More »
Peter Ferrara pens a fantastic Op-Ed in Forbes this morning. He documents the myriad inaccuracies claimed by the Obama Administration regarding his new budget, the staggering amount of spending contained therein, and the additional taxes to be levied. He also does some cost comparison to Ryan’s budget and dispels the myth of the tax cut vs tax credit, (a point I have made many, many times as | Read More »
Paul Revere’s Ride Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, “If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch | Read More »
Obama asked for a gun vote during his State of the Union Address. He got it. Not much more to say about that. The “Manchin-Toomey” amendment failed in the Senate today on a 54-46 vote. It aimed expand background checks gun shows and to Internet sales. Republicans who voted “yes” (alphabetically): Maine Sen. Susan Collins Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk Arizona Sen. John McCain Pennsylvania Sen. | Read More »
In preparation for a talk to a group of financial people, I had to put together some numbers regarding President Obama’s “little bit more” that he has asked “the wealthiest among us” to pay. So I calculated the additional federal income taxes a high earner will pay in 2013 vs what one would have paid on the same income for 2012, The increases are caused | Read More »
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