by | BLOG, COVID, ECONOMY, FREEDOM
One of the most important takeaways from this COVID affair is the clear evidence of how critically important free markets are. While the free market is developing workarounds for providing necessities and developing relevant new products, the government can’t get out of its own way in terms of what it is trying to do and is finding that an overabundance of regulations has hampered its responsiveness.
There have finally been some recent changes, such as allowing telemedicine across state lines, modifications of certificates of need, and loosening of licensing requirements; perhaps the CDC, FDA, and other agencies will realize they don’t need as much regulation in the first place and such barriers actually inhibit health and economic well-being. Temporary, but more importantly, permanent reductions in regulations would be a step in the right direction. Because what is missing right now is the robustness of the private sector – but we can see its potential.
We are witnessing the incredible ingenuity of the American people as they are finding new ways to respond to this crisis. People are out there trying to figure out how to meet toilet paper demands, create new testing mechanisms, make and provide medical equipment, ventilators, masks, and vaccines. Nearly all of this is being done without the government. It’s the 325 million people out there trying to figure out what they can do to make things better and providing for a new and different need. Services are being changed to provide a product without prolonged human interaction. Door-to-door deliveries are being established. Companies are learning how to find their own ways to adapt.
All of this, it must be noted, has virtually nothing to do with the government. Whether it’s Amazon, pharmacies, FedEx, or restaurants, people know their own industries. They’re changing for their customers and for their company. This is, quite simply, real people knowing best what they need to do instead of some faceless government bureaucrat or rule telling them what to do because someone thinks he knows better about industry operations than the movers and shakers do.
The COVID crisis is a great opportunity for growth and deregulation. This will be the strength of our economic recovery. This is the free market at its best.
by | BLOG, FREEDOM
An Open Letter to Tea Party Patriots:
Years ago, I joined the Tea Party in New York, because I sincerely believed in its simple, yet extremely powerful and direct message. The Party stood for low taxes, limited constitutional government, individual liberty, and rule of law — and nothing else. The Tea Party was not meant to be a political “Party” with positions on everything. It would only be involved in efforts that protected their core beliefs so as not to dilute their message.
Therefore, it is extremely disappointing that the Tea Party has lost its mind over issues that go against their core principles. For instance, what is this nonsense espousing substantial anti-immigration rhetoric? A large reason for such a high number of “illegal” immigrants is because the government has created arbitrary, low quotas which limit the amount of foreign-born workers allowed. How can someone espousing limited government, individual liberty, and rule of law be FOR crony capital government-imposed restrictions on businesses hiring who they want?
The current Tea Party was galvanized by the original (Boston) Tea Party and share the same disdain over high and unjust taxation. But the original “tea partiers” would be turning over in their graves by being associated with the current Tea Party’s anti immigration stance! Here we have people who work and are motivated enough to uproot and better themselves by living in another country. That is the best kind of ethic we need to continue to nourish and aspire to America, the way we always have.
For the Tea Party to be close-minded and protectionist on the issue of immigration flies in the face of the original Tea Partiers who inspired them. The Tea Party would do well to return to focusing on its core ideals if it wants to be any bit effective in the public square
by | BLOG, FREEDOM, TRUMP
I came across this article describing how the FDA is holding up a vaccine that’s being used in other countries. This the best concise explanation I have seen to describe the truth that the FDA drug oversight is a net negative to American’s health. From the article:
“In March, when the coronavirus arrived in the US in earnest, governments around the country locked down economies to prevent the spread of a virus that to date has claimed the lives of nearly 400,000 Americans. While these actions were being taken, a vaccine had already been developed. The mRNA-1273, a lipid nanoparticle–encapsulated mRNA-based vaccine, was made in a single weekend in January, two days after Chinese researchers published the coronavirus’ genetic code.
Developing the vaccine was the easy part, it turns out. Testing the vaccine and navigating it through the federal bureaucracy was the real challenge. Not until March 16, more than two months after the vaccine was developed, were the first trial participants vaccinated. And these trials were followed by more later-stage clinicals.
There was another option that would have made the vaccine available much sooner: challenge trials, a process that would have involved deliberately infecting healthy volunteers with SARS-CoV-2 to accelerate vaccine development. Reports show at least 25,000 people volunteered to do just that.
The FDA rejected this course.“
It’s definitely worth reading the analysis in its entirety. You can read the article here.
by | BLOG, ELECTIONS, FREEDOM, HYPOCRISY, TRUMP
Democrat Kamala Harris is the latest Presidential candidate to peddle the myth about “pay gaps” for female workers, going so far as to make this an essential part of her platform. Harris has a plan to require larger companies with 100 or more employees to obtain an “equal pay certification” every two years in order to ensure that men and women are paid equally.
There are many reasons a pay gap to exist — but it isn’t because of one’s gender. It has been shown time and again that many women have alternative career paths by choice: different jobs, amounts of time worked, lifestyle flexibility, and risks in occupation to name a few; therefore, any difference in the pay is a result of those choices and not discrimination.
Taking these items into consideration, the pay gap myth shrinks almost entirely, likely no more than a 2% variance. This empirical analysis should not be surprising — in fact, it should be what any normal person, certainly any business person, would expect. Because the simple economic reality is that if women actually did make 23% less than men in wage costs for the same work, businesses would almost entirely hire women as a means to minimize labor costs and maximize profits. Since this does not actually happen, it is obvious that the 23% wage disparity merely a distortion perpetuated by the Left to score easy talking points.
It is also a false conclusion that a gender pay gap is damaging to women because women will likely have substantially less money saved and earned over her lifetime. Those such as Harris that push such nonsense don’t even consider that, for many women, working full time may be “damaging” to women who have alternative life goals — such as raising a family — and that amassing retirement funds might not be the ultimate end focus. Voters should reject Harris “equal pay certification” proposal as economic nonsense.
by | BLOG, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is leading the charge to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, essentially giving the government broad powers to regulate tech industry giants. This legislation undermines free speech and would be an egregious overreach of federal powers under the guise of “fairness.”
As Section 230 was construed, it’s aim “was to protect the openness of online culture while also protecting kids from online smut, and protecting the web at large from being overrun by defamatory, hateful, violent, or otherwise unwanted content.” The legal framework that was developed ensured that digital platforms are different entities from their users and are therefore not legally responsible for user content — good, bad, or otherwise. It was a way to protect First Amendment rights in an online world.
Hawley’s amendment would weaken the protections granted to social media companies by requiring them to first show regulators how they make decisions about content and then prove to those regulators that their moderation systems are neutral. Essentially, Hawley’s attempt to push back at various instances (real or imagined) of right-leaning users being treated unfairly or blocked by tech giants means that we have a Republican willing to not only institute severe regulatory behavior but also create anti-free speech monitors. Furthermore, facing possible legal repercussions from user content, companies would likely just ban or remove content others have flagged for any and all reason of being offended.
The antidote to bad speech is not good speech; it is free speech. Removing such free speech protections is an outrageous proposal, and putting the government in charge of deciding speech neutrality is even worse. Shame on Senator Hawley for attempting to regulate “fairness” and launching an assault on our First Amendment rights.
by | ARTICLES, ECONOMY, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, LAW, POLITICS, TAXES, TRUMP
The Tax Cuts and Job Act made some positive changes to the tax code. The reduction in marginal rates, especially on the corporate side, is noteworthy. However, there were several changes on the individual side which were absolutely ludicrous. These are noted below:
Without any discussion, Congress eliminated the miscellaneous itemized deductions. As I have written about before, in actuality, this one is truly the only legitimate deduction and is absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of the tax code. With the new change now removing the miscellaneous itemized deduction, this person now has to pay taxes on the full amount earned without being able to deduct expenses accumulated while earning the income they are taxed on.
Another deduction Congress removed summarily is the moving deduction. Similar to the miscellaneous itemized deduction, this is a real expense that is incurred when moving to get a new job (in order to earn the income that will be taxed.) Now with the elimination of the deduction, taxpayers are no longer allowed to write off this cost.
The casualty loss deduction was also eliminated. This enabled you to deduct a loss that was due to a sudden unexpected event — such as a fire, hurricane, or robbery. Now if your house burns down, you can no longer write it off. The exception to this change is if your loss is in a federally-declared disaster area. So if your house burns down due to faulty wiring, you get no deduction. But if it burns down in a large wildfire that was later declared a disaster, you can claim the deduction. This is very egregious because the effect on the individual — the loss of a house due to a fire — is absolutely the same. This deduction elimination is unacceptable.
Furthermore, the alimony deduction was thrown out. The alimony deduction is a mechanism that prevented an inequitable tax burden to be created when a married family unit is split into two. Now, one can no longer deduct alimony payments, a move that is mean-spirited and creates a targeted tax burden on people who suffered a family breakup.
Additionally, there were two business-related deductions that were unnecessarily changed. The first one now caps the limit on the amount of business losses one can deduct at $250K ($500K if married), whereas the prior tax law did not. Furthermore, carryover losses are now limited. It used to be that you could carryover losses from one year to the next; for instance, if you had a $1 million loss on year but a $1 million gain the next, you could use that gain to offset the prior year loss. With the tax law changes, you can now only offset up to 80%.
While eliminating these important and equitable donations, Congress left in place a number of purely political/social engineering deductions and credits. Congress left in a substantial part of the mortgage deduction, which is really nothing more than a government subsidy to the real estate industry. They left in energy credits, rehabilitation and low income housing credits, and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). It’s disappointing to see Congress talk about simplicity, efficiency, and equitability, while simultaneously removing good provisions from the tax code and leaving in parts that are merely political appeasements to various groups and industries. It would be wise for Congress to reinstate these various deductions as a means to truly maintain fairness within the IRC.
by | ARTICLES, BUSINESS, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, LAW, POLITICS
In 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Job Act, which has been beneficial on the corporate side of tax reform. On the individual side, Congress allowed politics to get in the way of real reform, and that is inexcusable. The most egregious example of this was the elimination the miscellaneous itemized deduction.
The miscellaneous itemized deduction was truly the only legitimate deduction in the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Its inclusion was absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of the tax code. This deduction allowed taxpayers the ability to write off expenses that were incurred as part of the process to earn the income they are taxed on! For instance, under prior tax law, a person who earned $100K on an investment but had to pay $30K in legal fees, investment management fees, accounting fees, or other expenses to get it, would pay taxes on only the $70K net that was actually made during the process. With the new change now removing the miscellaneous itemized deduction, this person will have to pay taxes on the full $100K!
Let’s take a look at how this changes affects the little guy, the middle guy, and the wealthy guy in a fictitious New York setting:
The Little Guy: Here’s a fellow who is renting an apartment for his family and he has to deal with landlord security interest. For people who rent and have tenant security, their landlords pay them interest on it and the landlords are allowed to keep 1% per year, essentially as a fee for keeping track of the tenants. When interest rates are low (as they have been for the past few years), it’s not uncommon to have a rate of 1.25%, of which the landlord keeps 1%; this leaves the .25% to the tenant. For example, if the tenant had a $5K security deposit, his interest is $62.50. The landlord would keep $50, leaving $12.50 for the tenant. But the tenant will have to now pay tax on the full $62.50. Even at a modest tax rate of 25%, the tax would be $15.75; therefore the tenant earns $12.50, pays $15.75 in taxes, with a net loss of $3.25.
The Middle Guy: This person has filed a lawsuit to recover lost wages. In most lawsuits (except physical injury), the legal settlement is taxable. It is not uncommon that, between the lawyer and his fees, they keep 35% and the person keeps 65%. That means, if he wins $100K in his lawsuit, the lawyer gets $35K and he gets $65K. But now, under this change in the provision, his $100K win is taxed on the full amount even though he only actually received 65%. Not only is this unequitable, but it is likely to push him into a new tax bracket. That means he now pays $40K to the IRS (~ 40% tax bracket including federal and state taxes), plus the $35K to the lawyer, netting him only $25K out of the original $100K.
The Wealthy Guy: We have a hedge fund investor. When you have hedge fund investments, rather than reporting and paying taxes on profit, the IRS requires you to break it up into component parts. (Those component parts include interest, qualified and non-qualified dividends, short term gains, and long term gains.) These are all things that contribute to the positive side of calculation. On the negative side, you have operating expenses. The investor then profits from the net of the income, less the expenses. Prior to the change in the tax law, all of the other expenses that reduce profit – which, with hedge funds, include virtually all operating expenses to earn income, including fees to the managers – were required to be recorded as miscellaneous itemized deductions. Now, with the removal of the deduction, the hedge fund guy has to pay taxes on all of it. For instance say he earned a net profit of $2 million. It was reported to him as income of $3.5 million and operating expenses of $1.5 million, thus netting him the $2 million. Now, even though he earned $2 million, he now pays taxes on the full $3.5 million. The average tax rate for such a taxpayer may be approximately 40% (32% for federal + 8% NY taxes). This means he pays about $1.4 million in taxes. Therefore, hedge fund guy makes $2 million net, pays an actual effective tax rate of 70% (because he is taxed on the full $3.5 million) and gets to keep only $600,000. It should also be noted that if the hedge fund lost money, he would get little-to-no tax benefit as a result of that loss.
The loss of the miscellaneous itemized deductions affects all levels of taxpayers. Simply put, if you can’t deduct miscellaneous itemized expenses, you wind up paying taxes on income that you actually didn’t earn. That is simply outrageous — and unfortunately, it is now the case as a result of last year’s tax reform. Allowing such deductions is truly the construct for fair tax law; everything else is merely subsidies, politics, picking winners and losers. Congress must act to restore this equitable provision and restore confidence to the taxpayers.
by | ARTICLES, BUSINESS, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, TRUMP
In 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Job Act, which has been beneficial on the corporate side of tax reform. On the individual side, Congress allowed politics to get in the way of real reform, and that is inexcusable. The most egregious example of this was the elimination the miscellaneous itemized deduction.
The miscellaneous itemized deduction was truly the only legitimate deduction in the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Its inclusion was absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of the tax code. This deduction allowed taxpayers the ability to write off expenses that were incurred as part of the process to earn the income they are taxed on! For instance, under prior tax law, a person who earned $100K in a business but had to pay $30K in legal fees to get it, would pay taxes on only the $70K net that was actually made during the process. With the new change now removing the miscellaneous itemized deduction, this person will have to pay taxes on the full $100K!
Simply put, if you can’t deduct miscellaneous itemized expenses, you wind up paying taxes on income that you actually didn’t earn. That is simply outrageous — and unfortunately, it is now the case as a result of last year’s tax reform. Allowing such deductions is truly the construct for fair tax law; everything else is merely subsidies, politics, picking winners and losers. Congress must act to restore this equitable provision and restore confidence to the taxpayers.
by | ARTICLES, BUSINESS, ECONOMY, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT
The Trump Administration is on the path to rack up a trillion dollar deficit for fiscal year 2018-2019, due to a combination of declining total tax revenues and administrative overspending.
The federal government collected a record $1,521,589,000,000 in individual income taxes through the first eleven months of fiscal 2018 while corporation income tax collections and total federal tax collections were in decline.
Trump needs to work on cutting spending in order to reduce the massive deficit he has accumulated this past year. It wasn’t good when Obama did it and it’s not good that Trump is doing it.
by | ARTICLES, BLOG, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT, TAXES
When is a tax not a tax? When it’s a user fee — at least in New Jersey. That’s what one lawmaker is attempting in the legislature. A bill that would tax water based on use, in order to “ is fix a crumbling water delivery infrastructure in the state.”
The problem is that a tax already exists for that purpose. It was enacted in 1984, and is charged as a public utility franchise tax on water system operators of $0.01 per 1,000 gallons of water delivered to a consumer in order to “ensure clean drinking water in New Jersey.” This new tax/fee would be instituted on tap water, adding 10 cents for every 1,000 gallons of water a home uses.
Considering that the governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, just raised taxes roughly $2 billion, this new “user fee” is utterly ridiculous. New Jersey must be trying to catch up to New York, which already taxes water (albeit bottled, not tap.) New Jersey should kill this bill.
