Millionaire's Surcharge Although Obama's jobs bill was killed in Congress some components may resurface in future proposed legislation. Initial proposals included a series of tax increases on individuals making more than $200,000 and families making more than $250,000. Among them was a 28% cap on the tax exemption for muni bond purchases. Senate Democrats replaced these [...]
In an interview yesterday with ABC's George Stephanopoulos President Obama admitted Americans are "not better off" today than we were four years ago. He added, "I think that what we've seen is that we've been able to make steady progress to stabilize the economy but the unemployment rate is still way too high." When asked if he's [...]
In a move that should surprise no one President Obama once again put his political career ahead of the best interest of Americans. In a populist move designed to win favor from voters (but raise little in the way of revenue) the President on Monday will propose a tax on people earning more than $1 [...]
"You can't bullshit a bullshitter." A little low brow? Maybe. Wisdom in those words? Absolutely. This sage advice was given to us a long time ago from someone who created brilliance from simplicity - gold from straw if you will. Nope, it's not a Yogi-ism. Close, though, and we like it. It's simple and effective. The [...]
Prior to adjourning for its August recess Congress approved a bill raising the debt ceiling and potentially eliminating $1,000,000,000+ from the budget over the next 10 years. That's the good news. The bad news is a measure was proposed shortly thereafter to curtail the so-called ‘super committee' entrusted to tackle deficit-reduction from considering cuts to Medicare and [...]
Tom Friedman has teamed with Michael Mandelbaum on a provocative new book. They argue America is failing at what it's always done best: educating its citizens to or above the current level of technology attracting (and retaining) the best and brightest immigrants investing in top notch infrastructure maintaining an atmosphere encouraging capital formation and investment They hypothesize that the [...]
Next week President Obama is set to unveil his latest economic package in a speech before Congress. Originally it was scheduled for Wednesday but was pushed to Thursday so as not to interfere with a previously scheduled Republican debate. It's a conciliatory gesture towards Republicans but a move sure to anger ordinary folks as Thursday [...]
The Wall Street Journal is to thank for this wonderful write-up of the intellectual dishonesty underpinning Warren Buffett's suggestion that the government stop "coddling the rich." A better tax plan comes courtesy of The Onion.
"Mother's gone too far. She's put cardboard over her half of the television. We rented The Man Without a Face - I didn't even know he had a problem!" More important than the humor we find in Principal Skinner's life sharing a house with his domineering mother on The Simpsons is the lesson to be learned - don't live with your mother! OK, [...]
Late Friday Standard & Poor's cut the credit rating of the United States from AAA to AA+. Subsequent events have been as pointless as predictable. We imagine the thinking has gone something like this: WHITE HOUSE: A favorite from our playbook is to demonize through the media. Americans like to blame the messenger. Let's combine [...]