As published in the Winter Park/Maitland Observer, Thursday Jan. 3, 2012 Edition Offers... Read More »
American Taxpayers’ Taxes Exceed their Living Expenses
Kevin Duncan of The Tax Foundation writes in Americans Paying More in Taxes than for Food, Clothing, and Shelter: In 2012, Americans will pay approximately $4.041 trillion in taxes, which is $152 billion, or 3.9%, more than they will spend on housing, food, and clothing. … Between 1929 and the early 1980s, aggregate tax collections…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, Tax PolicyChuck Woolery’s Message to Guilty Rich Folks who Want to Pay More Taxes
This is hilarious: (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin)
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax HumorLow Tax Red State Schools Outperform High Tax Blue State Schools
Walter Russell Mead writing for American Interest says that red state schools regularly outperform blue state schools. This is classiker than a Ford Model T: When it come to excellence in education, red states rule — at least according to a panel of experts assembled by Tina Brown’s Newsweek. Using a set of indicators ranging…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Legislative Watch, News, State TaxesTax Survey
Richard Morrison of the Tax Policy Blog has a New Podcast on Public Opinion Polls and Taxes. Here’s a synopsis of it: Earlier this week I talked with American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow and polling analyst Karlyn Bowman on the Tax Policy Podcast about her recent study on the history of public opinion on tax issues.…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, OpinionTaxless Texas Leads Country in New Jobs Since Recession
The Wall Street Journal reports that 37% of all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas and explains why (emphasis added): What explains this Lone Star success? Texas is a big state, but its population of 24.7 million isn’t that much bigger than the Empire State, about 19.5 million. California…
Read Full Article Categorized in: State Taxes, The EconomyProfessor Maule Says Conservatives Who Want to Cut IRS Funding are Trying to Take Down Government
“You will find in politics that you are much exposed to the attribution of false motive. Never complain and never explain.” - Stanley Baldwin – Listen to Professor James Maule’s screed about the efforts of evil Republican Congressmen to cut the IRS’s budget: On the heels of the spending cuts, affecting chiefly the impoverished and the…
Read Full Article Categorized in: IRS Procedure, Legislative Watch, Tax CollectionsLow-Tax Texas Creates More than Half of New 2010 U.S. Jobs
Aaron Worthing of Patterico’s Pontifications has a “jaw dropping” statistic: More than half of the jobs created in the last year… were created in Texas alone. Yes, really. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 214,000 net new jobs were created in the United States from August 2009 to August 2010. Texas created 119,000 jobs during the same…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax Policy, The EconomyReaganomics v. Obamanomics
Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute favors Reaganomics over Obamanomics and has been catching hell for it. He responds in his post When Keynesians Attack, Part II: In my original post (the one he was attacking), I commented on the “burden of government” rather than the “burden of government spending.” I’m a fiscal policy economist, so…
Read Full Article Categorized in: The EconomyBig Government Makes 7 Year Old Lemonade Entrepreneur Cry
Ah, the joys of big government. This one’s from the New York Times: Julie Murphy, a 7-year-old Oregonian, set up a lemonade stand on July 29 at an art fair in northeast Portland. County health inspectors shut her down, however, telling Julie and her mother, Maria Fife, that they needed a temporary restaurant license, which costs…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, Tax HumorAn Air Tax?
The Orange Country Register reports of yet another creative attempt by a cash-strapped state to raise revenues extra-legislatively: “How do you put a value on air?” Huntington Harbour homeowner Frank Singer asks that question after receiving a bill from the state charging him a fee for having a cantilevered deck extension hanging over the waterway behind his…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, State TaxesPro Tax, Big Government Types, Please Read This
I’m beginning to think that no matter how many examples we provide of ridiculously incompetent and inefficient government bureacracy, the pro-tax crowd will continue to insist that government is the answer to our problems. For what it’s worth, here’s yet another example. The Associated Press reports that four Idaho tax workers have taken leaves of absence in…
Read Full Article Categorized in: NewsWho is Miseducating Whom on Taxes?
Tax law Professor James Maule of Mauled Again recently lashed out at small government, tax-cut conservatives for miseducating the public about taxes. I responded to Mr. Maule here, here, here and here by pointing out that pro-taxers are equally guilty of using propaganda to gain converts to their views and that anti-taxers have put forth several legitimate and logical arguments against big…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Tax Policy, The EconomyPaying for Obamacare: Tax Hikes & Medicare Cuts
The Tax Foundation issued the following News Release this weekend breaking down how the nearly $1 trillion healthcare bill will be financed: The $938 billion health care reform legislation finalized by Congress yesterday is financed primarily through net cuts to Medicare and an increased Medicare tax on high-income taxpayers, according to the Tax Foundation. The…
Read Full Article Categorized in: healthcare reform, NewsObama Stimulus Plan Status Report: GAO Says States not Spending Funds as Required
USA Today reports that states are not using fed stimulus monies to fund long-term, infrastructure projects: As required by the $787 billion stimulus law, the [Government Accountability Office (GAO)] is monitoring stimulus spending in 16 states and the District of Columbia that will receive two-thirds of the federal funds. It reports to Congress every two…
Read Full Article Categorized in: The EconomyTax Preparer Regulation: My Response to Joe Kristan’s Response to My Response of His Response
We simply must bring this debate to a conclusion for I can no longer bear the encomiums. When a miraculously talented blogger like Joe Kristan opens a rebuttal to one of your blog posts by telling the world how “fine” and “excellent” you are, you’d better learn to pucker. Of course I did call Joe a…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Regulation of Tax Preparers