taxes
kkrisberg | March 10, 2017Another day, another study that shows soda taxes work to reduce the consumption of beverages associated with costly chronic diseases in children and adults.
This time it’s a study on Mexico’s sugar-sweetened beverage tax, which went into effect at the start of 2014 and tacked on 1 peso per liter of sugary drink. Published this month in the journal Health Affairs, the study found that purchases of sugary drinks subject to the new tax went down more than 5 percent in 2014 and nearly 10 percent in 2015. At the same time, purchases of untaxed drinks went up by slightly more than 2 percent. The…
illconsidered | March 8, 2013Headline of the week from NPR. It is worth noting that even if the Republican representative has now apologized for his remarks and admitted they were stupid either because he realizes it or because he has to, he has not changed his position on a special tax on bicycles.
(h/t willard)
mikethemadbiologist | August 20, 2011I've discussed the harrowing plight of the family that barely scrapes by on $250,000 per year. Jon Stewart brings the snark:
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Part deux:
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Oh the inanity.
mikethemadbiologist | August 17, 2011Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, in an attempt to win the craziness sweepstakes, has been proclaiming hither and yon that half of all Americans pay no income tax. Call me confused, but I thought Republicans wanted to lower income taxes? Maybe it has something to do with who those non-payers are?
Well, who are they? Let's see:
The number one reason should come as no surprise. It's because they have low incomes. As my colleague Bob Williams notes:
A couple with two children earning less than $26,400 will pay no federal income tax this year because their $11,600 standard…
mikethemadbiologist | July 9, 2011So GOP Senator Orrin Hatch has decided to embrace his inner douchebag:
"I hear how they're so caring for the poor and so forth," Hatch said in remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, in reference to Democrats. "The poor need jobs! And they also need to share some of the responsibility."
...But it was Hatch whose remarks Wednesday raised the idea that the wealthy are already doing too much, even as the nation's effective tax rates are at modern lows since the Bush administration slashed rates in 2001 and 2003. In his view, it seems, the middle class and poor should be picking up the slack.
"…
mikethemadbiologist | May 14, 2011Last week, a story about a burning North Carolina wildlife refuge that forced the evacuation of an entire town (said town was spared thankfully) came over the transom. What struck me was this little bit:
Meanwhile, single-engine tanker aircraft and helicopters dropped water on the fire. Federal incident management teams and volunteer firefighters from across the region were providing manpower.
The absence of the state-owned CL 215 "Super Scooper" amphibious aircraft has hampered efforts to contain the blaze, Crews said.
So why is there no SOOPAH SCOOPAH? Guess:
The firefighting craft has…
mikethemadbiologist | May 10, 2011...you know things are getting weird. David Warsh writes:
I belong to a luncheon club whose smartest member is a longtime investment manager whom I have observed for many years, He walked out of the room after a global tour d'horizon talk the other day and said on the sidewalk in front of the building, "The only things that can possibly address inequality of a magnitude that will soon be judged to be unacceptable in this country are much higher levels of taxation on the well-to-do and a negative income tax for the poor." I hadn't heard it put so simply or succinctly before, but in the…
mikethemadbiologist | May 2, 2011Dan Froomkin has a great article about the role that financial speculation plays in driving up gasoline prices*. Keep in mind that even Goldman Sachs, the largest oil trader, admits that speculation drives up oil prices. But what really disgusting is how this speculation-based rise in prices serves as a wealth transfer from, well, just about everybody to oil company executives (italics mine):
By and large, the oil companies' profits are not finding their way back into the communities from which they came; are not being used to create more jobs; and are not being invested in new equipment…
mikethemadbiologist | May 1, 2011Boston, like many cities that serve as a regional cultural hub, has a lot of property owned by non-profits. And all of that property is untaxed. How much? The Back Bay Sun notes:
The exemptions began with church properties, spread to hospitals and learning institutions, then to museums.
The combined value of Boston's nonprofit properties is $13.6 billion, according to the Boston Assessing Department.
If those properties were not exempt their tax bill would be $404 million.
In lieu of tax payments have been rising as the nonprofits reluctantly come to understand that for all the advantages…
mikethemadbiologist | March 19, 2011Even movie villians aren't this twisted. And, no, I'm not making this up (italics mine):
Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?
In testimony to a House taxation…
mikethemadbiologist | March 16, 2011What I've never understood about the idea of tax cuts for the rich to stimulate the economy is that, as one wealthy person told me, "I spend what I'm going to spend, and the rest goes in the bank." Tax cuts don't stimulate growth, unmet demand stimulates growth. Sure, there are some rich people with insatiable appetites who will spend all of the additional money. But most will just stick their money in the bank (or invest and drive up asset prices simply because they have to invest in something). In an environment where banks aren't lending, that is the worst way to create jobs--the money…
mikethemadbiologist | March 15, 2011The Sacramento Bee has a good interactive feature of how to balance California's budget*. It puts all of the realistic proposals on the table (i.e., idiots who want California to stop giving out so much foreign aid, or some other hooey need not apply). What you'll notice two things very quickly:
1) Most of the cuts are vicious and cruel.
2) The only way to get to a balanced budget is by increasing taxes.
Reality is a bitch.
*While I routinely argue that we shouldn't worry about federal budget deficits, especially with underutilized human and industrial capacity, states do have to worry…
mikethemadbiologist | March 3, 2011One of the things that has gone unnoticed during the Wisconsin troubles is this piece of legislation that passed:
Madison - Today, Governor Scott Walker signed Special Session Assembly Bill 5 which requires a 2/3s vote to pass tax rate increases on the income, sales or franchise taxes.
"I went to work today, met with my cabinet, and signed legislation that will help government operate within its means," Governor Scott Walker said. "Wisconsinites can't turn to raising taxes to balance their own family budgets when times get tough. This bill will ensure that we don't kick the can down the road…
mikethemadbiologist | December 27, 2010The Fiscal Times, a propaganda arm for Pete Peterson (although how one could tell the difference between The Fiscal Times and the ostensibly non-partisan Washington Post), has an article that purports to describe how difficult it is for the 'average' family that makes $250,000 per year.
If we spot The Fiscal Times most of the expenses (I'll return to that in a bit), the article really shows the effect of hidden assumptions. Two big expenses are saving for college ($8,000) and retirement ($33,000), as well as healthcare (~$13,0000--in a nation where the median household income in $50,000.…
mikethemadbiologist | December 23, 2010It's safe to say that Thomas Watson Sr., the first chairman of IBM (International Business Machines), truly revolutionized computing. While I'm sure Sam Palmisano, the current chairman of IBM, is a smart guy and has done some good things, I haven't heard anyone claim he's a technological revolutionary. So I found this post about Watson's and Palmisano's compensation and taxes very interesting (italics mine):
The newly released 1943 data make for absolutely stunning reading. We have simply never had clearer evidence of just how much America used to expect out of individual wealthy Americans…
mikethemadbiologist | December 22, 2010Democrats need a better class of pundits, ones who aren't so enamored of their own cleverness, while at the same time, utterly ignorant of political history. It would help, for instance, when trying to defend the estate tax. Matthew Yglesias, in a fit of contrarianism worthy of William Saletan, asks the following scintillating question:
I think if I read another snatch of writing where a progressive puzzles over why the estate tax is unpopular, I'm going to shoot myself. More informative, I think, would be self-examination. Why are liberals eager to tax estates. My own effort to think this…
mikethemadbiologist | December 19, 2010While there's been some discussion of the massive cut, albeit temporary, in the estate tax (arguably the tax cut least likely to produce jobs), the new gift tax rules are even more obscene:
Families would be able to make tax- free gifts to their children or others of as much as $10 million, an increase from the current limit of $2 million, under the tax-cut bill Congress is debating this week.
Beginning in 2011, an individual U.S. taxpayer's lifetime gift-tax exclusion will jump to $5 million, up from $1 million currently, according to the legislation. Gifts from living parents allow…
mikethemadbiologist | December 11, 2010Merry Christmas! Guess who would see their taxes increase as a result of the Obama-McConnell plan? Well:
The wealthiest Americans will also reap tax savings from the proposal's plan to keep the cap on dividend and capital gains taxes at 15 percent, well below the highest rates on ordinary income.....
In fact, the only groups likely to face a tax increase are those near the bottom of the income scale -- individuals who make less than $20,000 and families with earnings below $40,000.
Contrast this with who gets new tax cuts--this is not keeping the Bush cuts, but adding a whole new set of…
mikethemadbiologist | December 8, 2010Obama's recent tax/unemployment deal with Republicans is a lot less demoralizing once one recognizes that Obama is a Republican, albeit not a completely batshit lunatic one. So I wasn't really going to comment on the most recent Obama capitulation. But several readers asked me for my thoughts on the subject, so here they are:
1) The anger by low- and moderate-information likely Democratic voters is astonishing. Today, completely unsolicited, I had five different people who, while they are likely Democratic voters, really don't pay attention to the details, rant about how weak Obama is and…