I winced this morning when former Pennsylvania Governor, Democrat Ed Rendell, said that he hoped the Supreme Court majority that had decided the Citizens United case was paying close attention to the corrosive influence of super-pacs in the Republican primary.¹ Mr. Rendell apparently believes that the Citizen United Justices should have based their decision not on what the law was, but on what [...]
Tags: Politics · Supreme Court
My favorite IRS employee has started a blog. Paul Caron reports: National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson has started a blog: Welcome to the National Taxpayer Advocate’s blog about taxpayer rights and taxpayer burden. For starters, let me explain that I use the term “taxpayer rights” here to mean not only statutory rights but also the [...]
Tags: News · Tax Blogging · Taxpayer Advocate
You can put this post in the thick file labeled “why I favor small government and oppose high taxation.” F.A. Hayek tells us why socialism (i.e. central planning) inevitably leads to totalitarianism (emphasis is mine): Planning leads to dictatorship because dictatorship is the most effective instrument of coercion and, as such, essential if central planning on a large [...]
Tags: Philosophy
By way of Paul Caron, the WSJ reports that the Buffett Rule, if enacted, won’t apply to its namesake: Wall Street Journal, Will Buffett Avoid the Buffett Rule? The Sage of Omaha Is Already Positioned to Shield Most of His Rising Wealth From Such a Tax, by James Freeman: Billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes
Please bear with me on this one. If Warren Buffett really does pay taxes at a lower rate than his secretary does, it is a fairer result than if he paid taxes at a higher rate.¹ Here’s why: Warren Buffett employs his secretary. Debbie Bosanek employs no one Warren Buffett, directly and indirectly, employs hundreds of thousands of workers. Debbie [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
One of the first rules of debate is that you should endeavor to understand your opponent’s argument – both the strong and weak points – better than he does. The pro-tax left is, apparently, unaware of this rule. Count left-leaning economist Robert H. Frank among those who simply do not understand why many conservative Americans, the [...]
Tags: Philosophy · Politics · Politics of Taxes
Paul Caron reports that nearly 280,000 current and former federal workers are delinquent in their tax obligations: Over 279,000 federal workers and retirees owed more than $3.4 billion in back income taxes in 2010 (up from $3.3 billion in 2009, $3.0 billion in 2008, and $2.7 billion in 2007). The cabinet departments with the largest percentages of [...]
Tags: News · Tax Collections
