Archive for income tax
Elephant Trap
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“What even minimally rational government enacts payroll-tax relief for just two months?” Krauthammer’s glad you asked.
Looting the Lockbox
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Republicans are said to have run up a blind alley since Boehner rejected the Senate version of the payroll tax cut. McConnell is still pushing hard for a 2 month extension of the cuts. After that, they can fight it out again – if Social Security isn’t broke yet. Where’s that lockbox?
Update: House Republicans cave.
Lockbox sighting?
Math Class
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USA Today, The Washington Post. and the Wall Street Journal rained on Obama’s Buffett Rule by showing that millionaires and billionaires actually do pay more taxes than most teachers and secretaries. Nearly half pay no federal income tax.
Tax Man
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For one thing, they have a lot more money.
My wife, Deb The English Teacher, liked the cartoon above because of the F. Scott Fitzgerald reference. But I kind of liked this one. Maybe later:
It’s a Joke, Get it?
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The president reminded us he was making a little Jeopardy joke the other day as he introduced Joe the Plumber Spy, Richard Cordray, as top consumer bureaucrat.
Another joke is the way Obama likes to remind us he’s one of the elite and we’re not – unless, of course, we really are keeping hundreds of thousands of dollars we don’t need. He recently did this by targeting bestselling authors, ahem, like himself, for higher taxes. (Here’s a rude bestseller who doesn’t want to join the club). Other times he likes to try a little upwardly mobile bonding with moneybags like Mark Zuckerberg .
Gregg Easterbrook says if Obama wants to pay more taxes, he should just do it.
Rule of Law
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The president has ruled the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional and ordered the Justice Department not to defend it.
What is the DOMA you ask? Well, according to the WSJ…
it was passed in 1996 by large majorities in both houses of Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton.
The law says the federal government will only recognize marriages that are between a man and a woman. States can still allow same-sex marriages—and five states plus the District of Columbia have done so. But people married under those state laws aren’t accepted as married under federal law.
Same sex couples get unfavorable death tax treatment under the law…
For example, a woman inheriting money from her deceased same-sex partner doesn’t get the tax benefits that federal tax law allows for a person inheriting from a spouse.
A Washington Post editorial, however, points out the two edged swordiness of the president’s approach by asking if a future Republican president might refuse to defend Obamacare from constitutional challenges.
Tan Tax
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Taxes are set to go up on January 1. Republicans and some Dems want to prevent that by extending the Bush tax cuts. In an effort to keep that from happening, Obama has weirdly been the lead attack dog on House Minority Leader John Boehner. On Sunday a tanned and fit Boehner said if he could only extend cuts for families making less than $200,000 he would still vote for that. Taxes have already increased on medical devices and tanning booths to pay for Obamacare. Speaking of health care, Obama and Boehner both smoke.
Rangel Rant
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Nancy Pelosi called Congress back from vacation to vote for the teacher bail-out bill. Famed vacationer, Charlie Rangel, took the opportunity to dare his colleagues to throw him out. Jon Stewart wonders how he morphed into an old Jewish guy.
Death and Taxes
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Some guys have all the luck. Last year the estate tax was 45%. Next year it will be 55%. This year? Nil. Zero. The empty set. Businesses say this sort of thing makes it tough to plan for the future. One business isn’t complaining. Since he died in 2010, George Steinbrenner’s heirs won’t have to sell the Yankees to pay the taxes.