Ben Casselman penned a thoughtful piece last week in the WSJ which documented the decline of risk-taking in business ventures. Hard data show that both the number of new companies and the use of venture capital is waning. And this downward trend is a major contributor to the fact that the recovery from the recent recession is so painfully slow and anemic. Casselman goes on | Read More »
Senator Barack Obama at the Woodrow Wilson Center on Terrorism, 8/1/07: “This Administration puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide…I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our Freedom”. “That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens, no | Read More »
Faithful devotees on the Left continue to peddle the notion that Social Security is not in crisis, that it doesn’t contribute to the deficit, and there is no need for reform. However, reading through this year’s just-released Social Security Trustees report, the annual “State of the SSA”, we find that the Trustees tell a different narrative — one that is grim indeed. The following primer | Read More »
One of the key components of Tea Party ideology is the championing for smaller government. As the IRS scandal targeting the Tea Party, Conservatives, and pro-Israel Jews continues to fester, a cursory glance at the various figures involved in the wrongdoing have resorted to finger pointing and the blame game. According to the key players themselves, “Not Me” did it. First, from the IG Report | Read More »
As each day passes, the various facets of Obamacare are getting implemented in order to be fully operational by 2014. And we are beginning to hear about difficulties in the implementation caused by 1) people or companies trying to avoid the “penalties” or 2) people wanting to pay the penalties in order to avoid having to pay for intentionally overpriced health “insurance”. In order to | Read More »
There is an erroneous sentiment perpetuated by the media that our government gives corporate tax breaks for moving jobs overseas, implying that our tax laws favor countries like China and India over the United States. This is simply untrue. Expenses that companies and businesses incur while doing business are rightly deductible (“a tax break”) but no specific tax benefits exist in our tax code for | Read More »
Governor Cuomo is on the list of presidential potentials for 2016. His positions on state and federal taxes need to be elucidated in case he becomes a major candidate in the next couple of years. For instance, Governor Cuomo lashed out against the recent federal proposal to eliminate the Federal tax deductions for state and local taxes. He calls this “double taxation” because it forces | Read More »
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 »
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