taxes
mikethemadbiologist | January 27, 2010Because I simply can't handle any more Democratic clusterfucks or depressing thoughts about science funding, I want to vent my spleen on bad political reporting. Take this story about two tax-related ballot items in Oregon. One might think that a story about two proposed tax-related measures in a national paper (i.e., one that doesn't follow Oregon politics) would actually explain what those two items were.
You would be wrong.
In fact, if you read the whole article (I don't really recommend it), these are the only descriptions of the ballot measures:
On Tuesday, voters here and across…
mikethemadbiologist | December 30, 2009Ever since I was a wee Mad Biologist, I've been told by Very Senior People that 'in five years, there's going to be a massive wave a retirement of older faculty.' This, in my mind, ranks up there with the Friedman Unit (in the next six months, we'll know if we have to leave Iraq, and six months later, we need another six months to know this), and the Samuelson Unit (the length of time to the ULTIMATE DOOOMMM!!! of Social Security is always 30-38 years from the time of prediction). Consequently, we will have a 'science gap' since not enough U.S. students know TEH SCIENTISMZ!!, even though…
mikethemadbiologist | December 1, 2009Over at Underbelly, Buce, in commenting on Bruce Bartlett's new book, makes a point about what he calls "supply side lite" that I'm inclined to agree with:
First, supply side lite. How much extra income will we garner if we tax all incomes over $200,000 at 100 percent? The answer is none: no one will work for nothing. Taxes are incentives, and incentives change behavior. As Bartlett correctly argues, this is really nothing new. Taxes on heroin, shotguns, human trafficking, are designed not for revenue: they are designed to discourage disfavored behavior.
But the devil is in the details.…
mikethemadbiologist | November 30, 2009File this under "Democrats are the stupidest political party in recorded history." A recent poll asked, "In the 2010 Congressional elections will you definitely vote, probably vote, not likely vote, or definitely will not vote?" The answer:
This isn't just the 'liberal' base: the entire party has been demobilized. Only 56 percent of Democrats are likely to vote, versus 81 percent of Republicans. And now, some Democrats are talking about cutting Social Security benefits, even though there is no crisis. That's not going to rally the Democratic rank-and-file.
Democrats, and Democratic-…
mikethemadbiologist | October 21, 2009...if by stimulate, you mean wind up in banks that aren't lending any money. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
In May 2008, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) started mailing Economic Stimulus Payments (also called tax rebates) to an estimated 130 million income tax filers. In order to examine the impact of these payments, special questions were included in the Interview component of the Consumer Expenditure Survey from June 2008 through March 2009 to collect information on the amount of payment received, form in which it was received (electronic funds transfer or check), and how it was…
mikethemadbiologist | September 16, 2009Warren Buffet, the world's second richest man, met with some senators and told them that the wealthy need to pay more in taxes:
"He said rich people are not paying enough taxes," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). "It was interesting to see someone who is such an aggressive capitalist, who believes so much in our capitalist system, saying we've got the scales way too heavily toward people who are very, very wealthy."
Buffett told lawmakers that because of the cuts to the capital gains tax passed under former President George W. Bush, he pays taxes at a lower rate than some of his company's…
mikethemadbiologist | September 13, 2009Economist Brad DeLong criticizes an economics reporter from ProPublica who claims "his job is looking for 'gotcha' stories about stimulus money going for 'lion cages at the National Zoo.'" In DeLong's comments, I asked:
What's wrong with lion cages at the National Zoo? I like the National Zoo, and someone would be employed by this. Seriously, I don't get it.
(That's not the snark, but it really does make you realize how stupid that reporter is. If you don't believe that a stimulus was necessary, well, you're an idiot, but, regardless, once you do have a stimulus, what's wrong with using it…
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2009He was in 1952, anyway. By way of Oliver Willis, from Glenn Hauman:
(click to embiggen)
It goes without saying that Superman is an illegal immigrant, which, no doubt, is why he's spewing all this liberal crap.
mikethemadbiologist | July 27, 2009It never ceases to amaze me just how little some people actually understand about taxes, given how het up we get about taxes. We saw this before, when Obama unveiled his tax plan. Now, Mitch Albom gets into the act, incorrectly calling the increase in taxes on the wealthiest Americans a 5.4% increase:
Someone making $1,000,000 per year wouldn't pay $54,000 more in taxes under this bill. They'd pay $9,000.
That's because the 5.4% surcharge would only apply to someone's income over $1,000,000. Your tax bill wouldn't suddenly go up by $54,000 if one year you made $1,000,000 instead of $999,999…
mikethemadbiologist | April 23, 2009In light of the April 15 protests, I think this chart by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities which describes the federal budget is appropriate:
You'll notice that the largest component of the budget is defense spending (it narrowly edges out Social Security), and unlike Social Security, there is no designated revenue stream (which incidentally has a surplus). Any discussion of budget balancing that does not consider defense spending is simply not serious. The other thing to note is that this does not include tax expenditures, the largest being the employer healthcare tax deduction…
mikethemadbiologist | April 18, 2009
(from here)
...they would support statehood for the District of Columbia, right? From Jameson Foser:
Every major news organization in the country covered Wednesday's tea parties. And, in doing so, they all ignored the fact that residents of Washington, D.C., are subject to the very conditions that led to the Boston Tea Party.
It's not like this is some big secret. On their way to work on Wednesday, reporters who are based in Washington would have passed countless cars bearing license plates that offer the reminder "Taxation Without Representation." Many of them probably have such a license…
bioephemera | April 15, 2009
This chart shows where your federal tax dollars go, based on Feb 2008 budget numbers (note: this shows discretionary budget, or appropriations, only - go here for more details, or look at the inset in the lower right corner to see where the other two-thirds of the budget are).
Visit wallstats.com for a giant version.
grrlscientist | April 15, 2009tags: taxes, pet taxes, humor, satire
Image: Orphaned. Please contact me for proper attribution [larger view].
This form should be familiar to those of you who live in the USA, but if you click on the "larger view" link, you'll realize this is yet another change that President Obama has made to our existing tax code.
Once again, I ended up owing a huge amount of taxes (considering my laughable income). This year, I owe $500, but since I managed to qualify for the $300 "economic stimulus package," I only have to come up with another $200 instead of having to survive the trauma of scraping…
grrlscientist | April 15, 2009tags: taxes, online tax filing, humor, satire, streaming video
This amusing video tells us how to rely on a "green" solution to powering our laptops while figuring and filing our taxes [1:29]
palmd | April 8, 2009I'm not real interested in blogging about politics. It's just not my thing. But the recent increase in absurd and frankly scary rhetoric from the right is giving me the shpilkes. It's not just the tea-baggers (heh heh...I said "tea bagger"), but I might as well say something about their lame-ass tea parties. These tea parties differ, but many of them involve sending tea bags to a representative or to the IRS to protest taxes. These "parties" don't actually protest higher taxes, just the idea of taxes. After all, taxes have always sucked, and no one was having tea parties under Reagan,…
mikethemadbiologist | March 30, 2009The GOP has officially entered a self-parody feedback loop. Case in point, House Minority leader Rep. Boehner's spokescritter on Obama's tax reform commission (italics mine):
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) offered tepid support for the concept of tax reform but was leery of what he sees as a chance for more tax increases.
"Obviously, the tax code needs reform, but I hope that when the administration talks about generating more revenue that isn't code for raising taxes," Boehner spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier said.
The people who collect all of the taxes? They're called the…
grrlscientist | March 30, 2009tags: politics, good citizenship, humor, America, streaming video
This streaming video provides essential educational advice to Americans on how to be good citizens -- I was especially impressed with Mary's frugal meals, but seriously, she'd spend le$$ if she stopped eating meat altogether! [10:39]
Hattip: Travelgirl.
mikethemadbiologist | March 20, 2009I have to disagree with ScienceBlogling Mike Dunford about the proposed plan to tax 90 percent of bonuses paid out since Jan. 1 by any company that had accepted more than $5 billion in government bailout funds. I think it's a perfectly acceptable thing to do.
So far, no one, conservative or liberal, has been able to find any constitutional grounds on which to oppose the bill. This leaves this argument:
We can't afford to use the tax code as a political weapon. It's wrong, and it sets a hideous precedent.
Say this to anyone familiar with the history of taxation in the U.S., and they'll burst…
mikethemadbiologist | March 5, 2009In the midst of the hysteria by the top two percent over Obama's tax plan (TEH SOCIALISMZ!! AAIIIEEE!!!), this article by ABC News about people who make more than $250,000 per year and are trying to lower their annual incomes below $250,000 makes one realize that professionally successful and wealthy people can be fucking morons:
President Barack Obama's tax proposal - which promises to increase taxes for those families with incomes of $250,000 or more -- has some Americans brainstorming ways to decrease their pay, even if it's just by a dollar.
A 63-year-old attorney based in Lafayette, La…
mikethemadbiologist | March 5, 2009Who knew Warren Buffett had his own special tax bracket? With reporting like this, who needs Republicans? From a NY Times story about limiting the tax break for charitable donations by the rich (italics mine):
"If you're a teacher making $50,000 a year and decide to donate $1,000 to the Red Cross or United Way, you enjoy a tax break of $150," Mr. Orszag wrote. "If you are Warren Buffett or Bill Gates and you make that same donation, you get a $350 deduction, more than twice the teacher."
(Actually, Mr. Buffett's overall tax rate was somewhere around 17 percent, according to his testimony…