Tax Lawyer's Blog

Well, folks, it’s happened. It looks like Comedian Al Franken will be the new Senator from Minnesota.

This is from an article appearing in Bloomberg.com:

Democrat Al Franken won a recount over Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, a result Coleman’s campaign plans to challenge in court.

The tally, announced [Monday] by a state canvassing board in St. Paul, would raise the number of Senate seats controlled by Democrats to 59, one shy of the number required to bring legislation to a vote over the minority party’s objections. Franken led the recount by 225 votes out of about 2.4 million cast for the two men.

Experts say it is unlikely that Coleman, the incumbent, will prevail in Court. Senate rules do not permit Franken to be sworn in until all challenges are resolved.

So, what are Senator-Elect Franken’s tax policy proposals?

Kitchen Table Tax Relief

So named, presumably, because families sit around the kitchen table and discuss the things they will have to sacrifice in order to make ends meet.

Catchy, huh?

According to the Al Franken for Senate website, here is Al’s tax plan:

• Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to cover 35% of child care expenses for families earning up to $100,000 – and make the credit fully-refundable up to $500.
• Create a $2,000 Caregiver Credit for any individual with substantial long-term care needs or to his or her caregivers – that covers more than a third of the average costs to caregivers. The credit will not require families to engage in any complicated accounting of their out-of-pocket costs. It will be phased out for families earning more than $150,000.
• Create a Family Flexibility Credit for the many Minnesota businesses who want to help their employees make ends meet. This credit would reward companies that provide family-friendly benefits, such as child care assistance or the opportunity to telecommute. Al would provide up to $1,200 per employee to cover expenses associated with making these benefits available.

Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act

Franken also wants to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which currently covers employers with more than 50 employees, by making it applicable to employers with more than 25 employees. According to his website, this change would cover an additional 13 million workers.

This is a joke, right, Al?

Making FMLA apply to small businesses with 25 employees or more would be devastating for the economy. In a time when business owners are downsizing and laying off employees in record numbers Al Franken wants to increase their costs of labor.

Giminy Cricket!

Cost and Funding of Franken’s Proposals

The cost of all of this new Franken government expansion is estimated to be $8 billion, but you need not fear, Al assures us he will pay for it “without increasing the deficit,”

 . . . by dedicating money from implementing the GAO’s recommendations for reducing improper federal payments; by enacting anti-tax-shelter reforms; and by closing the tax loophole that allows investment managers to use offshore tax havens to defer paying taxes on the money they earn.

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