TAX POLITIX
The Politics of Taxes
The Most Brilliant Piece of Writing I’ve Seen in a Long Time
The Wall Street Journal published their "Notable & Quotable: "Thomas vs. Jackson" on July 1, 2023. Clarence Thomas takes apart fellow Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, observing that her "contrary, myopic world view based on individuals’ skin color to the total exclusion of their personal choices is nothing short of racial determinism." It's brilliant. You can read it in full below:"From Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, decided June 29...
Maritime Unions Stifle American Economic Growth
Maritime unions have a long history of lobbying for rules and regulations, stifling innovation, and sabotaging operations, all in the name of benefiting their members. The most recent example of this is the tension between employers and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) at the West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which serve as the busiest gateways for imported consumer goods in the United States. The ILWU's impact is particularly strong because it controls...
Reason: Air Traffic Control as a Public Utility
Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Policy over at the Reason Foundation, does as decent job laying out "the case for changing the way air traffic control is provided in the United States." He points out that many major countries have changed the way air traffic control systems are funded in recent years, and the United States should consider adopting some form of their models. This is a thoughtful piece and well worth the read. I have included it below as well as his full pdf report....
The Clueless IRS Commissioner Should Be Fired
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel published a letter yesterday in which he suggested that there may be racial bias in the selection of tax returns for audit. In fact, he stressed that, “while there is a need for further research, our initial findings support the conclusion that Black taxpayers may be audited at higher rates than would be expected given their share of the population.” This is far and away the most ridiculous nonsense to come out of the IRS in a while and Commissioner Werfel is...
Biden Insists on a 23% Cut In Social Security Benefits
President Biden is cutting Social Security by 23% for every single recipient across the board. This is the inevitable effect of his continued demand that there will be no entitlement reform. This should terrify absolutely everyone. Within the next 8-10 years, when the Social Security trust fund is depleted, Social Security recipients will look at their bank account and see that their benefits have been slashed. This is a mathematical fact. President Biden is lying to each and every last one of...
The Dems False Social Security Narrative
Social Security was supposed to be a program where people paid in, and growth of their funds over time resulted in a reasonable pension. Instead, by giving people more than entitled, it stole money from new people contributing to the system. By continuing this overpaying, it forces the younger people to get a smaller and smaller return on their contributions, even now negative, and even that will be reduced more when the system goes bankrupt in a few years. By not fixing the system now, it...
Revelation: Wind and Solar Energy Are Just Unnecessary
The news coming out of the science world regarding the breakthrough in fusion is exciting. The ability to have a sustaining clean energy source has been a part of science research for at least the last 60 years. But missed in the discussion is its true importance - that the movements towards wind and solar energy (“wse”) are just a waste. The drawbacks and costs of using wse to produce low carbon energy are well known. They are expensive, unreliable, and environmentally damaging (using...
Less Government, More Free Trade
A recent article in the WSJ, “Is the U.S. Moving On From Free Trade? Industrial Policy Comes Full Circle” should have ultimately been an Op-Ed because it was a baseless attack on the concept of free-trade. It starts out okay, pointing out that free markets, free trade and globalization have been the bedrock of a healthy US economy, especially since WWII. But then the author ignorantly blathers on and ultimately concludes that globalization based on neoclassical free-trade doctrine is wrong. ...
Based in Law, not a President
In a now-deleted Tweet written a week before midterms, President Biden tried to take credit for the Social Security increases that recipients will receive in 2023. The White House twitter account gleefully announced that “Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.” The problem is that Social Security increases are based on a formula known as COLA, or cost-of-living adjustment, which measures inflation and the...
Biden Continues His War on Energy
Biden told one of the biggest whoppers of his presidency during a speech today when he went after oil and gas companies and accused them of “war profiteering” after companies posted record profits. But what he purposefully left out was the fact that his own war on energy has directly contributed to the situation. Don’t forget that Biden once vowed to “end fossil fuels”. It is laughable that Biden chastised Exxon, Shell, and other companies, saying “They have a responsibility to act in the...
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...