taxes
mikethemadbiologist | March 4, 2009The nitwits at CPAC are running around, claiming that Obama's, well, everything is sending us down the dark path of socialism (although Henry Paulson and George Bush did pretty well on that score. Got TARP?). But these claims are ridiculous--and to some conservatives' credit, they understand this. Consider what a household that earns $500,000 per year (roughly ten times the median household income) would pay in taxes under the Obama plan:
If Obama's tax plan is approved, a family making $500,000 a year would see its annual tax bill rise to nearly $132,000 from about $120,000, a 10 percent…
mikethemadbiologist | March 1, 2009One good thing about the election is that I don't instinctively flinch every time the White House releases new policy initiatives. Case in point: tax expenditures. What's a tax expenditure?
Tax expenditures are "preferences and concessions in the income tax that [have] the nature of expenditure programs." In other words, when you can deduct an expense (or receive a refund for the whole cost), that is a tax expenditure. The mortgage interest deduction is also a tax expenditure: if we wanted, we could have the Treasury write you a check equal to the amount of the deduction.
I use that…
mikethemadbiologist | February 21, 2009We should make gas taxes part of a car's purchase price. It would certainly beat Transportation Secretary LaHood's proposal of a vehicle mileage tax (and is there any stupid idea that Republicans won't embrace?):
Some surprising news out of the Department of Transportation today as Ray LaHood suggests that the Obama administration is considering taxing people based on how many miles they drive. A vehicle miles traveled tax, as the proposal is often called, has been under consideration in states like Rhode Island and Idaho and has, not surprisingly, proven pretty unpopular. First, it's a tax…
grrlscientist | January 28, 2009tags: taxes, pet taxes, humor, satire
Image: Orphaned. Please contact me for proper attribution [larger view].
This form should look 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 has been made to our existing tax code.
I am not sure about you guys, but I am already preparing my income taxes. Since I don't earn enough to qualify for the "economic stimulus package," I need to know how much I have to cough up this year so I have enough time to somehow come up with this sum so the IRS doesn't send…
mikethemadbiologist | January 10, 2009Did I mention how idiotic it is for Democrats to be negotiating against themselves regarding the porntax stimulus? Josh Marshall thinks so too (italics mine):
It would be far better on many counts to bring in substantial Republican support for this bill. And I don't just mean that in the BS sense in which President Bush usually meant it, which was to say essentially, 'Of course we'd like you to vote for exactly what we want. More the merrier. But if you don't want to vote for our ideal bill, tough luck.' No, I think there's a real logic in not going the 51 votes model President Bush followed…
mikethemadbiologist | January 5, 2009Democrats won the election handily. Why are we rolling ourselves? I thought Obama would be smarter than the usual Democrat and not negotiate against his own position on behalf of the Republicans. Apparently, I was wrong, since that seems to be the impetus behind making 40% of the 'stimulus' tax cuts:
Obama strategists say he wants to get 80 or more votes in the 100-member Senate, and the emphasis on tax cuts is a way to defuse conservative criticism and enlist Republican support.
Why 80? He needs 60 votes to get cloture in the Senate. As Krugman noted, this is nothing more than a sign of…
mikethemadbiologist | January 5, 2009Nothing could be a greater waste of taxpayer dollars than the proposal floated by the Obama administration to give every household another tax rebate (supposedly $500). In fact, it's probably one of the few things that conservative economist Bruce Bartlett and I would agree on. Last March I wrote:
I agree: most won't spend, unless they have to (and any whose income is that bad needs long-term financial help--$600 isn't going to cut it). While I disagree with Bartlett's suggestion to help Fannie Mae buy up some of the bad loans, he is right that it won't do much in the way of stimulus. What…
mikethemadbiologist | December 22, 2008Every so often, conservatives bring up the flat tax, wherein everyone pays the same amount of income tax, regardless of how much they make. Most of these plans, unless you want to eliminate the entire Pentagon, will raise the tax burden on the lower middle and middle class, and lower them on the wealthy, further increasing income inequality. But the whole argument presumes that the wealthy actually pay considerably more of their income in tax than the non-wealthy.
By way of Kevin Drum, comes this figure indicating otherwise--in fact, the wealthiest 400 Americans pay less than middle class…
mikethemadbiologist | October 31, 2008...the Mad Biologist needs more expensive prime rib. One of the initiatives on the Massachusetts ballot is Proposition 1, which calls for the abolition of the MA income tax. You might be surprised to read that the Mad Biologist is urging you to vote for Proposition 1.
In MA, the income tax accounts for roughly forty percent of all revenue while the property tax collects roughly the same amount. So what would happen if we removed the income tax? Well, in light of the massive budget shortfalls MA is already facing, local property taxes would have to rise to make up the shortfall--if Florida…
mikethemadbiologist | October 16, 2008Last night, "Joe the Plumber" (who's kinda like Conan the Barbarian, except that he's not) was featured front and center in the debates. So what did the actual Joe the Plumber think? By way of Jesse Taylor, from Politico:
"McCain was solid in his performance," he says. "I still don't know where he stands," he says of Obama. "I'm middle class. I can't have my taxes raised any more."
He also says he actually isn't in the bracket where Obama would raise his taxes -- but he's worried that Obama will shift the bracket down.
He also said that, in his encounter with Obama, the Illinois Senator […
mikethemadbiologist | July 18, 2008...at least in Houston, Texas. With non-automobile transportation options in the news, on of the interesting things is that the actual entire cost of automobile transportation infrastructure--that is, roads, is rarely discussed, while it is almost always raised with mass transit. But, by way of Ryan Avent, lookee what happens when the lifetime cost of highways is accounted for (italics mine):
The decision to build a road is a permanent commitment to the traveling public. Not only will a road be built, but it must also be routinely maintained and reconstructed when necessary, meaning no…
mikethemadbiologist | June 13, 2008So we know Ben Stein lies about evolution. Now, Stein is lying about economics (italics mine):
During the June 11 edition of Fox News' Fox Friends, conservative commentator and actor Ben Stein misrepresented Sen. Barack Obama's tax plan to raise the capital gains tax rate on the wealthiest earners. Stein stated, "I'm very worried about increasing the capital gains tax, unless you want to just increase it on people that are terribly wealthy," whom he defined as "people that have an income of $5 million a year or more." He added, "But people that have incomes in the hundreds and the low…
mikethemadbiologist | June 4, 2008A month ago, I told you the rebate was the wrong kind of stimulus plan, that the best thing to would to be to give the money to state and local governments. Why? Because the states and municipalities will have to cut spending as property and sales tax revenues plumet. And now, when it's too late (cuz we already gave out lotsa money), Wall Street wants to adopt the Mad Biologist's stimulus plan:
That share is gigantic. At $1.8 trillion annually in a $14 trillion economy, the states and municipalities spend almost twice as much as the federal government, including the cost of the Iraq war.…
mikethemadbiologist | May 23, 2008So in my blog inbox I received a long piece of propaganda decrying the Universal Service Fund. I like the USF, although I'm sure some improvements could be made. But look at the list of people who sent the letter (italics mine):
National Taxpayers Union is the nation's largest and oldest taxpayer group, with 362,000 members nationwide. NTU is a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizen organization founded in 1969 to work for lower taxes, smaller government, and economic freedom at all levels. Note: For further information about NTU, visit www.ntu.org.
Americans for Tax Reform (http://www.atr.org/) is…
esiegel | April 26, 2008Stop wastin' my time.
You know what I want.
You know what I need,
or maybe you don't.
Do I have to come right flat out and tell you everything?
Gimme some money!
My fellow Americans, are you impatient about getting your "stimulus package" from the government? First off, a lot of people are going to be getting $300 instead of $600; and I gotta now right now! So go here to have the IRS calculate how much money you're getting first.
Then, you'll probably want to know when you're going to get your money! This is important stuff, people; we rarely get benefits just for being working Americans,…
mikethemadbiologist | April 13, 2008I've never understood why so many liberals and progressives think the Democratic field is strong. Yes, the candidates aren't insane, but neither of them are particularly good on economic issues. There is nothing in either Clinton's or Obama's records or speeches that suggests that they will do anything significant to reduce income inequality, other than perhaps letting the Bush tax cuts expire (and Obama has even been waffling on that).
And keep in mind, that income inequality isn't just a matter of economically integrating more people into society. That's not some gushy, "it's not fair"…
mikethemadbiologist | March 28, 2008In the NY Times, economist Bruce Bartlett opposes the refund stimulus plan:
WITH unusual speed and cooperation last month, George W. Bush and Democrats in Congress agreed to a tax rebate set to be paid out beginning in May. Families will get checks for $300 to $1200 or more, and it is assumed that they will all rush out to spend this money immediately, giving retailers a boost that will raise economic growth.
Despite the bipartisan support for the rebate, few economists have supported the idea. They note that we have tried rebates in the past -- most recently in 2001 -- and there is no…
mikethemadbiologist | March 4, 2008I've written before about how the Collapse of the Jenga of Shit (aka the 'subprime' loan crisis) has raised the price of borrowing money--which is paid for with higher state and local taxes--due to the collapse of bond insurers and a liquidity crisis in municipal bonds. Now your property and sales taxes can take another hike courtesy of ratings agency like Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings. From the New York Times (italics mine):
If they are right, billions of taxpayers' dollars -- money that could be used to build schools, pave roads and repair bridges --…
mikethemadbiologist | February 22, 2008I think Republicans want to be cast as cartoon villains. In California, Republicans have twice prevented a Democratic measure (supported by Republican governor Schwarzenegger) that would fix a loophole that allows yacht owners to avoid paying their sales tax.
Really. Keep in mind this isn't an additional tax (a luxury tax), but simply applying the same sales tax that most people who can't afford yachts pay on other goods. Dday writes:
You have the Republican Party prioritizing the interests of yacht owners. Is there any better expression of the conservative movement in our new Gilded Age?…
mikethemadbiologist | February 17, 2008A couple of weeks ago, I described how the collapse of bond insurers meant that it will be harder and more expensive for state and local governments to float bonds, which means you'll get fewer government services and have to pay higher taxes, mostly property taxes, for them. Well, Bit Shitpile just keeps rollin' on (italics mine):
The credit crisis paining Wall Street is reaching out across the nation, afflicting municipalities, hospitals and cultural touchstones like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In recent days another large but obscure corner of the financial world has come under acute…