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Taxes
The Daily Chart: Who Pays Taxes?
Democrats always claim that they will raise taxes on the rich because the rich aren’t paying their “fair share,” but don’t expect anyone in the mainstream media to ever ask a Democrat to give a precise definition of exactly what proportion of someone else’s income it is “fair” to take. The real answer is always “more,” but occasionally Krugman or some other nitwit will openly call for something like a »
Kamala’s Tax Plan
Yesterday’s New York Times email was headlined, “Why Kamala Harris’ Centrism Is Working.” By “centrism,” I think the Times means keeping as quiet as possible about her actual policy preferences. But a few people, like Stephen Moore’s Committee to Unleash Prosperity, are keeping track. They have done the math on Harris’s tax proposals: The Harris tax plan would: * Raise the corporate tax from 21% to 28% * Quadruple the »
IRS to Ken Griffin: I apologize
In 2021 ProPublica initiated the publication of a series it called The Secret IRS Files. Running to some 50 stories, ProPublica’s series served “a crusade for higher taxes, especially a wealth tax,” as the Wall Street Journal puts it in an editorial today. ProPublica based its series on information stolen by IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn. Littlejohn’s theft was criminal and the IRS was responsible for it. ProPublica proclaimed ignorance of »
The State That No Longer Works
Having more or less given up on California, New York and Illinois, liberals now tout Minnesota as the golden left-wing state–the state that shows liberal policies can succeed, after all. This effort to valorize–to borrow a liberal cliche–Minnesota is nothing new. Way back in 1973, Time magazine touted Minnesota as “the state that works.” Minnesota’s “working” at that time consisted partly of the fact that it had recently raised taxes. »
Tax Day Reminder
Some taxpayers are aware that any refund on their return is their own money. On the other hand, many may be unware that the government got their money before they did. This takes place through the practice of withholding money from workers’ paychecks, a development dating to World War II. “Wars have always been the most important occasions for the introduction of new forms of taxation,” writes Robert Higgs (Crisis »
Who Pays the Taxes?
Every well-informed person knows that upper-income taxpayers shoulder a disproportionate share of the nation’s fiscal burden. The problem is that most people aren’t well-informed. The Wall Street Journal reports: President Biden and Democratic tax raisers always say the rich don’t pay their “fair share.” Maybe one reason this line works politically is that most voters have no idea who really pays how much in taxes. “To the best of your »
The mystery of your “fair share”
President Biden revived one of the Democrat/left’s greatest hits in his shoutfest that passed for a State of the Union address last month: And now it’s my goal to cut the federal deficit $3 trillion more by making big corporations and the very wealthy finally pay their fair share. Look, I’m a capitalist. If you want to make a million bucks – great! Just pay your fair share in taxes. »
Biden’s DOA Budget
Joe Biden unveiled his 2025 budget proposal earlier today. In general, presidents’ budgets are hardly worth discussing. They project revenue and spending over the next ten years, and if you go back and look at them a few years later, they usually bear no relation to reality. And, in this instance, there is zero chance that Congress will pass anything resembling Biden’s budget, which can best be seen as a »
Brown Droppings
California’s Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act requires voter approval for all new taxes passed by the legislature and two-thirds voter approval for all new special tax increases. The Act also demands clear definitions of what is a tax or a fee, along with truthful descriptions of new tax proposals. Before any tax or fee is enacted, politicians must clearly outline how the revenues would be spent, and so on. »
Hunter Biden indicted on tax charges
A Central District of California federal grand jury has handed up a nine-count indictment of Hunter Biden on tax charges. Three of the charged crimes are felonies. The rest are misdemeanors. The detailed 56-page indictment is posted online here and embedded in Victor Nava’s New York Post story here. The gist of the case is set forth in paragraph 4 of the indictment: “The Defendant engaged in a four-year scheme »
Realize this
This morning the Supreme Court hears oral argument in Moore v. United States. It could be one of the most important cases to be heard by the Supreme Court this year. In it the Court has certified this question for review (references to “App.” are to the appendix to the petition for review filed with the Court by counsel for Mr. and Mrs. Moore): The Sixteenth Amendment authorizes Congress to »
Mississippi, Beacon of Progress
Why did one of Britain’s leading advocates for Brexit leave the U.K. to head up a policy organization in Mississippi? Douglas Carswell explains in the Telegraph: You might be surprised to learn that Mississippi, the poorest state in the US, is now wealthier than Britain. Mississippi’s GDP per capita last year was $47,190, slightly above the UK’s approximately $45,000, though still well below the overall American average of $70,000. While »
Horatio Alger Lives
I suppose America’s work ethic peaked in the late 19th century and has declined somewhat since then. Still, compared with Europeans, Americans are considered hard-working. Thus the Telegraph headlines: “How hard-working US is getting rich while the UK struggles on benefits.” The world’s biggest economy has pulled ahead of the UK and the rest of Europe on an array of economic measures since the financial crisis of 2008. What began »
Americans: Right About Some Things, Wrong About Others
Two sets of current poll data are of interest. First, Americans hate the news media. Nothing new here, but if anything the feeling has intensified. Good. Rasmussen reports: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 30% of Likely U.S. voters say they trust the political news they’re getting – down from 37% in July 2021 – while 52% say they don’t trust political news, and »
Chicago, RIP
Electing Lori Lightfoot as Mayor of Chicago was the beginning of the end for that city. Replacing her with someone even more far left is accelerating Chicago’s terminal decline. Tom Bevan notes that the death throes are under way: Progressive allies of Mayor Brandon Johnson have released a financial blueprint titled – and I'm not joking – "First We Get the Money" calling for $12 billion in new taxes, including: »
Swedish Tax Cuts In the Works
Not so long ago, American leftists held up the Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden, as exemplars of left-wing success. But times have changed. First, Sweden took a right turn away from its former, almost-socialist policies. (Although, to be fair, Swedish officials always bristled at the suggestion that their country was socialist, or anything like it.) Next, Sweden opted for freedom during the covid epidemic. As always, freedom was anathema to American »
Geraldine Tyler’s day in court
The Supreme Court heard the case of Geraldine Tyler v. Hennepin County yesterday. C-SPAN has posted audio of oral argument in the Supreme Court here. The Eighth Circuit decision in the case — the one that the Supreme Court accepted for review — is posted online here. Hennepin County consists mostly of the sinkhole of Minneapolis. It is the sinkhole in our back yard, and yet we haven’t gotten around »