TAX POLITIX
The Politics of Taxes
The Economic Tragedy of COVID Relief
What is happening, as demonstrated by the Census, is that the government largess is taking some people out of poverty, but it is having an even greater and more dangerously perverse effect. It's making people overall worse economically and preventing them from moving up to the middle class while expanding the lower levels and destroying a generation of minorities. Biden is the poster child for the very people he's supposed to be helping and he's made it worse for them. This article in the WSJ,...
WSJ: Income Equality, Not Inequality, Is the Problem
Phill Gramm and John Early do a nice job laying out the misnomer that income inequality is the problem. This concept of inequality really became a selling point during the Obama administration when the Democrats consistently implored that "millionaires and billionaires" should "pay their fair share." But the simple fact remains that income inequality isn't the actual problem with the economy. The problem lies in the fact that, due to the massive amount of government transfer payments, the...
The Average Joe and the IRS
The Internal Revenue Service is inept to such a degree that it could rightly be called criminal. The problems go beyond the numerous cited issues, such as only answering 10% of taxpayer calls or a backlog of 21 million unprocessed tax returns. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (Tigta) 2017 report stated that the IRS took to seizing property from its targets before even conducting interviews. Tigta also reports that even when interviews were conducted, the IRS failed to...
WSJ: Fauci and Walensky Double Down on Failed Covid Response
When the CDC admitted failure this week for its COVID response, one might have felt a bit vindicated regarding the lockdowns and disruptions -- but only for a moment. Because it turns out that the CDC actually means is that they didn't go far enough in their response measures and that next time it should be even more restrictive. This flies in the face of copious amounts of data that show the deleterious effects COVID response had on basically every facet of society -- economic, mental,...
WSJ: This is Your IRS at Work
You have the Editorial Board at the WSJ taking the IRS to task. The following article outlines numerous problems listed in multiple agency audits, and yet Congress is still eager to give the IRS an extra $80 billion. I've reprinted it below. The new Inflation Reduction Act has many damaging provisions, but for sheer government gall the $80 billion reward to the Internal Revenue Service stands out. The money will go to hire 87,000 new employees, doubling its current payroll. This is also...
Biden’s Most Recent Scam
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a scam, and the very name insults the American populace. Our President, Joe Biden, was quoted saying, "Yesterday, I spoke with both Senator Schumer and Manchin and offered my support for a historic agreement to fight inflation and lower costs for American families. It's called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022." Inflation is quickly approaching 10% the last time we've seen it this high was over 40 years ago, in the 1980s. The bitter irony is that the...
The Climate Crime
Let's concede the claim that man-made climate change is real and poses significant harm to humanity as a whole. That statement is then used as a rallying cry to inflict irrevocable damage on today's generation, both the rich and the poor. So often in American society, we see a problem, and the immediate reaction of our politicians is to invoke a top-down approach to "fix it," which often does more harm than good. Frederich Hayek said it best, "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to...
China and Business Regulations
It appears that many people now believe that a place like China, which dictates the economy from the top down, provides better economic results than the free market in the United States, and that the Chinese are somehow doing better than us. This is absolutely not true. The top-down decisions arising a non-free market economy show China making egregious mistakes. But the reason why China -- given the detriment of a non-free market economy -- appears that they are doing better to some people...
A Very Good Pro-Trade Op-Ed From Two Democrats
In the economic nightmare we are in, it was refreshing to open up the pages of the Wall Street Journal and find an Op-Ed that championed free trade over tariffs as a means to fight inflation. What's more, the piece was written by two Democrat members of Congress: Jake Auchincloss and Stephanie Murphy. Tariffs clearly and consistently hurt the consumer and taxpayer by driving costs up to everybody in amounts far in excess than any benefits given to beneficiary companies. In fact,...
They Had One Job
The Committee to Unleash Prosperity recently reminded folks that the prospect of inflation was raised and rejected by a plethora of Nobel prize winning economists as early as last September. As Congress was debating Biden’s $5 Trillion Build Back Better plan, 17 economists signed an open letter urging passage of this atrocious spending bill (coming on top of an extra $3 trillion in spending, mind you). The letter opened and closed with these two absurd statements: “The American economy...
TAX
Tips
IRS Tax Tip 2106-43: Military Members Get Free Tax Help
Military Members: Get Free Tax Help The IRS offers free tax help to members of the military and their families through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. VITA is available both on and off base including sites for military members...
IRS Tax Tip 2016-41: Interest Rates
Interest Rates Remain the Same for the Second Quarter of 2016 WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service today announced that interest rates will remain the same for the calendar quarter beginning April 1, 2016. The rates will be: three (3) percent...
Record Tax Revenue, Again
CNSNews remains a go-to source for analyzing information on the U.S. Treasury, tax revenue, and such. Here they are again, scrutinizing tax receipts for FY2016 through the end of February. In a nutshell, the U.S. government continues to run a...
45% of Households Pay No Federal Taxes
Every year, the various tax agencies calculate how many Americans do not pay a federal income tax. The 2015 tax year number estimates that 77.5 million households, which is 45.3%, according to the research Tax Policy Center. This number is only for...