A fresh Op-Ed this morning by IRS head Steven Miller reveals the lengths to which the IRS and the White House are going to spin the on-going scandal. “The agency was simply trying to manage the explosive growth in applications for 501(c)(4) status that started pouring in to the IRS in 2010. The Internal Revenue Service recognizes that we should have done a better job of handling | Read More »
With all the reports coming in fast and furiously from different news agencies, here’s a pieced-together timeline of events. The information below is a timeline of events taken from numerous media outlets with their links provided. Early 2010: WSJ: The report [Inspector General’s report due out this week] indicates that in 2010 and 2011, some IRS workers weren’t just singling out groups because their names | Read More »
It is an outrage that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is spending up to $140 million of taxpayer money and funds received for disaster relief, to publicize the advantages of conducting business in New York. New York is indisputably one of the most unfriendly business states, with a Legislature that piles huge administrative burdens onto businesses and a Department of Taxation that is among the most aggressive | Read More »
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 »
As if we aren’t bitter enough doing our taxes today, here’s something to ponder: The 1913 tax form was FOUR pages in its entirety, including instructions. In 1913, the 16th Amendment was ratified which granted Congress the ability to levy a personal income tax. The income tax for that year was a 1% tax on net income greater than $3,000. It also included a 6% | Read More »
There was a lot of discussion this past weekend on the Sunday talk show circuit regarding the March Jobs Report released last Friday. Only 88,000 jobs were added in March. Compared to February, which added 268,000 jobs, this is a 180,000 drop. Actually, more like a plummet: economists had figured more than twice that number would be added. However, this number was the lowest jobs | Read More »
In another class-warfare move, The Hill reports on the latest Obama gimmick: his yet-to-be-released budget will include a cap on IRAs and other retirement accounts. Currently, there are no limitations on how much money can be in an IRA. The White House has a problem with that. The senior administration official said that wealthy taxpayers can currently “accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, | Read More »
As we’ve just passed the 3rd anniversary of the passage of Obamacare, it’s worth it to reflect on merits of the bill. Obamacare was sold to the public as universal health insurance. Insurance, in and of itself, is an exchange of a premium payment in return for a guarantee against specific loss criteria — such as damage or death. Prime examples of this are home | Read More »
This is out-and-out manipulation of public opinion and playing on the emotions of Americans for political gain. The Washington Times reported that the White House announced in an email, “ Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule | Read More »
This entire week has seen a whole gambit of sequestration blame and doomsday scenarios (no more bacon!) from the White House administration. However, over the last few days, we’ve also seen the White House changing its tune on sequestration. As they struggle to rearrange the narrative, it got me to thinking about rearranging the letters in the word “Sequestration”. First, here are some of my | Read More »
Obama’s been acting like a petulant child since his sequestration plan showed signs of backfiring. It was intended to force the Republicans to cave to his demands for yet another “balanced approach” to deficit reduction because he took the gamble that the Republicans would never, ever allow sequestration/defense cuts to happen. He tried everything from inciting fear to media collaboration to foist new taxes upon | Read More »
Picture the all-too-familiar scenario: it’s nearing a fiscal decision deadline. Congress is deadlocked over action — in this case, it’s Sequestration (large budget cuts). It’s possible that there will there will be no decision on Sequestration by March 1, because deadlines mean nothing in Congress – as we just witnessed with the Fiscal Cliff debates running over the edge. Or are we being set up | Read More »
This Wednesday, February 27, marks some watershed moments of liberty in United States History: In 1922, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19th amendment and a woman’s right to vote In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, limiting a U.S. President to two terms. In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced live on television that “Kuwait is liberated”. On February | Read More »
Yesterday, I wrote about Obama’s 180 degree turn from proposing the sequestration cuts and vowing to veto to keep them, to blaming Congress during the Presidential debates, to currently blaming Republicans for sequestration. I backed up Obama’s shifting narrative to commentary from both the Washington Post and Politifact less 2- 3 weeks before Election Day, who affirmed that sequestration originated from Obama. These points were | Read More »
Is anyone else getting a little bit tired of the President of the United States continuing to blame Republicans for sequestration? Time for some flashback — On November 21, Obama gave a speech explaining the failed Super Committee. He discussed the automatic cuts to the defense budget (sequestration) and the need for a balanced approach (cuts and taxes for the wealthy) to deficit reduction. Standing | Read More »
During the State of the Union last week, Obama issued a call to raise the minimum wage once again. He cried forth, “Tonight, let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour”. What he fails to comprehend or deliberately ignores is that the impact | Read More »
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