Obmanomics Explained
So THIS is what a government controlled economy looks like.
Read More »taxes
Phil Mickelson hints tax changes may spur career change.
Let me use short words, here*: if you want less of something, tax it. Because if you tax it, you will get less of it: On the day President Obama was sworn in for his second term, [top professional golfer Phil] Mickelson sent shock waves through the Humana Challenge when he said the political landscape in the United States was causing him to seriously contemplate | Read More »
Liberals Don’t Need Revenue to Grow Government Anymore
Once upon a time, liberals were somewhat principled in their pursuit of a utopian dirigisme. Sure, they always liked to play a bit of class warfare, but they fundamentally believed in taxing everyone. After all, if you want a cradle-to-grave government-run society, it’s got to be purveyed by the broad populace. There simply aren’t enough rich people to raise the requisite funds for a rapacious | Read More »
Staring Down the Schoolyard Bully
What a difference a year makes when it comes to the attitude of Republicans regarding the debt ceiling. In 2011, Republican leaders spent the incipient months of the debt ceiling fight publicly stating that they would ultimately raise the debt ceiling. They cloddishly communicated to the Democrats the reality that they would never engage in brinkmanship by declining to raise the debt ceiling after Tim | Read More »
Tags: debt ceiling, taxes
With New Year Comes New Obamacare Taxes
On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech discuss the new Obamacare taxes which begin in 2013, how they impact the average American family and why the definition of “affordable” may mean unaffordable insurance coverage for families.
Read More »Thank Bipartisan Committee Work for Corporate Welfare in Tax Bill
Throughout the tax debate, we heard righteous indignation from both parties regarding the need to close up special interest loopholes in the tax code. Yet the special interest loopholes were the only items preserved in the cliff tax bill. The entire package of over $40 billion in corporate subsidies and green social engineering was taken from a Senate Finance Committee Bill, which unfortunately, was supported | Read More »
Is There Really a Difference Anymore?
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No questions, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. [Animal Farm, last paragraph] Republicans were ushered into power in 2010, buoyed by | Read More »
The House Must Act Now
Well, we really stuck it to the rich at 1:39 in the morning. Whew, now we can breathe a sigh of relief. The 40 Republicans who voted for Obama’s stimulus bill had to swallow hard voting for over $100 billion in new spending just in 2013, but at least those of us who are not super rich won’t see our taxes increase this year. Oh | Read More »
Tags: Budget, deficit, fiscal cliff, House, John Boehner, obamacare, Senate, Spending, taxes, unemployment
Fiscal Deal: Tax Hikes, Green Pork, Stimulus, Oh My
Surprise surprise, they have a deal to avoid the politicians’ cliff. Who didn’t see that coming? Here’s an enigmatic riddle for you: what happens when Republicans publicly obsess about the degree of tax increases they are willing to accept without a commensurate demand for spending cuts? You get tax hikes and no spending cuts! In fact, we will spend even more as a result of | Read More »
Happy Debt Ceiling Day
It feels like yesterday when John Boehner was bragging how he got 98% of what he desired from the deal negotiated to raise the debt ceiling in August 2011. Yet just 17 months after Obama was granted a $2.1 trillion debt limit increase to preserve his reelection, we have breached the new ceiling. In just 519 days, we’ve burned through $2.1 trillion in debt, for | Read More »
It’s all About Trust
If you listen to many in the Republican intelligentsia, you will hear this accusation that conservative rebels destroyed the Republican Party. The reality is that nothing changed after the defeat of Boehner’s plan B other than Republicans not buying into the premise of raising revenue for the federal leviathan. Before last night’s vote, we faced two possible outcomes; either we go over the cliff (which | Read More »
A Time for Choosing
Obama has spent four years asserting that his plan to let the Bush tax cuts expire on the top two brackets is not a tax increase, rather just a continuation of the current law (pursuant to the sunset provision) for the wealthy, and a tax cut for 98% of taxpayers. Republicans spent the past 4 years sans the last month arguing that this would constitute | Read More »
Tags: John Boehner, taxes
Are We Living in the Twilight Zone?
At least Esau got a bowl of lentil soup for selling out his birthright. What will Republicans get? It’s amazing how events in politics seem to repeat themselves more often than Charlie Brown and the football. It seems like it was yesterday that we were advocating against Boehner’s trial balloon vote to raise the debt ceiling at the end of July. Back in 2011, it | Read More »
Boehner’s Tax Increase to Nowhere
So Boehner plans to introduce a bill on the House floor that increases the top marginal tax rate on those earning more than $1 million per year. Most likely, Boehner and Obama will ultimately agree on a deal that splits the difference between $400,000 and $500,000. Many Republicans will shrug their shoulders: “Who cares about a few rich liberals?” However, this rationale represents a shortsighted | Read More »
The Democrats’ Tax Mendacity
One of the biggest ironies lost in the tax debate is that the very same Democrats who worked assiduously to block the Bush tax cuts have now embraced 98% of the cuts. In fact, they are running around the country propping up working class Americans as examples of the calamity that is set to befall the middle class if the tax cuts expire. Amazingly, if | Read More »
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