Read this. You’re smarter than I am: The authors here estimated (very roughly) that a 2% wealth tax limited to top 0.1% (net worth over ~$43 million) would raise $2.6 trillion over ten years, assuming a 15% avoidance rate and no other behavioral responses…. or… … a 2% wealth tax limited to top 1% (net worth over ~$10 million) would … Read More
Deficit Doves
Remember when Republicans cared about the deficit? No longer: The federal deficit hit $895 billion in the first 11 months of fiscal 2018, an increase of $222 billion, or 32 percent, over the same period the previous year, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The nonpartisan CBO reported that the central drivers of the increasing deficit were the Republican tax law … Read More
The Horrible Things The Trump Administration Is Doing That Are Unrelated To Scandals
Sometimes, you forget that these people are just plain evil: The Trump administration is moving to reverse Obama-era rules barring hunters on some public lands in Alaska from baiting brown bears with bacon and doughnuts and using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens. The National Park Service issued a notice Monday of its intent … Read More
Mulvaney, The Head Of The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Is The Wolf Guarding The Henhouse
The man is very Trumpian in his dealings: Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told banking industry executives on Tuesday that they should press lawmakers hard to pursue their agenda, and revealed that, as a congressman, he would meet only with lobbyists if they had contributed to his campaign. “We had a hierarchy in my office … Read More
Trump’s Tariff Follies
Trump said yesterday he plans to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum. However, he didn’t elaborate on the details, saying the formal announcement will come next week. In a tweet on Friday morning, the president said “trade wars are good and easy to win.” When a country (USA) is losing many billions of … Read More
CFPB Is All But Committing Malpractice
Equifax (EFX.N) said in September that hackers stole personal data it had collected on some 143 million Americans. Richard Cordray, then the CFPB director, authorized an investigation that month, said former officials familiar with the probe. But Cordray resigned in November and was replaced by Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s budget chief, who was once quite vocal about eliminating the agency. … Read More
The Horrible Tax Bill Is GOP Gift To Themselves [UPDATE: Senate Votes Yes]
Literally: Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, inserted language into the final tax bill that would enrich three different constituencies: fossil fuel firms, Republicans’ major campaign donors and a handful of Cornyn’s GOP congressional colleagues including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and two other Texas lawmakers in the House. Cornyn originally added the language in an amendment to the Senate bill at the … Read More
Income Inequality
A graph and a big document:
Repeal Trump Tax Cuts
Chait: Probably nothing has done more to erode Trump’s public standing than the consistently plutocratic cast of his domestic policy. The tax cut is the second-most-unpopular major piece of legislation in recorded history, behind only Trump’s other major domestic initiative, the health-care-repeal bill: Democrats have nothing to fear from making repeal of the Trump tax cuts for the rich a defining … Read More
This Is Not Just A Bad Tax Bill; This Is A Bill That Will Make America Worse In Many Ways
NY Times: The tax plan has been marketed by President Trump and Republican leaders as a straightforward if enormous rebate for the masses, a $1.5 trillion package of cuts to spur hiring and economic growth. But as the bill has been rushed through Congress with scant debate, its far broader ramifications have come into focus, revealing a catchall legislative creation that could reshape major … Read More
The GOP Tax Plan Hits Middle Class
Having failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, almost everything is riding, politically speaking, on the new GOP tax bill. And it looks like a tough road to passage. A Washington Post poll provides a good starting point for measuring public opinion at the outset of the tax debate. Only one-third of Americans support the plan, against half opposing it. Sixty percent of the public … Read More
Trump’s Tax Plan Is A Gift For The Wealthy
Overhauling the tax code is a task Republicans in Congress have been attempting to accomplish for 30 years. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump unveiled his administration’s tax plan, called the “Unified Framework For Fixing Our Broken Tax Code.” The plan is reported to cost an upwards of $5 trillion dollars and has been described by his officials as “completely designed with the middle class … Read More
This. Yes.
From the New York Times:
Breaking: The Senate Health Care Bill Gets Scored
The House Bill said 23 million would lose insurance under the House GOP plan to replace Obamacare. Now the Senate version has been scored and it is…. just as bad. The Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026, a figure that is only slightly lower than the 23 … Read More
Tales Of The One Percenters
Honestly. What is it going to take for the people and/or the government to throw these rich bastards in jail? No, not for being rich, but for, you know, breaking laws and regulations that effect the lives of actual people…. when?!? Case Study Number One: Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned Wednesday as a growing scandal over falsified emissions tests … Read More