by Kenneth Thomas A look at tax havens by the Fortune 500 According to a new report today from Citizens for Tax Justice, the 285 members of the Fortune 500 that have parked money overseas would owe an estimated $433 billion in taxes if and when it is repatriated. No wonder these companies are working […]
by Kenneth Thomas New Model Legislation Would be Great First Step Toward Subsidy Reform Yesterday, Good Jobs First released new model legislation to increase the transparency, accountability, and effectiveness of state and local subsidies, which I estimate to total $70 billion per year. If states were to adopt these laws, subsidy administration would improve dramatically, […]
by Kenneth Thomas Romney Tax Plan as Budget Busting as Ever Seriously, I could just re-post my February 27th post word for word tonight and it would be just as true as it was then. The Romney tax plan blows a $5 trillion hole in the budget via tax reductions and he still hasn’t told […]
by Kenneth Thomas Conservative roots of Obamacare The pile-on continues. As I discussed in February, Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation wrote a breath-taking op-ed in USA Today (via Don Taylor) denying that he fathered the individual mandate. In fact, his revised 140-page research paper was published January 2, 1989, before President George HW Bush […]
by Kenneth Thomas Mitt Romney’s Unintentionally Hilarious Tax Return FAQ Unless you’ve been in a coma, you have certainly heard about Mitt Romney’s release of his 2011 tax returns last Friday. You no doubt know that he and his wife did not claim all the charitable tax deductions they were due, so their tax rate […]
by Kenneth Thomas Every State’s State/Local Tax System Taxes the Poor More than the Wealthy–And All Exceed Federal Taxes A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that in every state in the country, the bottom 20% of households pay more of their income in state and local taxes than […]
by Kenneth Thomas More New Books Highlight Plight of Middle Class The situation of the middle class is a hot topic these days, and rightly so. In addition to James Carville and Stan Greenberg’s recent book, It’s the Middle Class, Stupid, new books are out by Donald Barlett & James Steele, Jeff Faux, and Mike […]
by Kenneth Thomas US wages trail 10 OECD countries, but with higher unemployment than 9 of them Contra Eric Cantor, Labor Day celebrates the importance of labor and the labor movement in American history. But the bluster of Cantor, where he celebrates the so-called job creators, does illustrate that organized labor has been in decline […]
by Kenneth Thomas Hilarious twist on “You didn’t build that!” UPDATED The Atlantic Wire (via @NoBigGovDuh) has a great story on the dishonesty of Mitt Romney’s “You didn’t build that” ads. It turns out that at the Republican convention on Tuesday night, they plan to ramp it up again with a speech by a small […]
by Kenneth Thomas Is the Growth of Manufacturing Production a Mirage? A lot of people lament the decline in manufacturing employment, which has fallen by about 1/3 since 2000. As Upjohn Institute economist Susan Houseman points out in the linked article, we’re talking about 5.5 million lost manufacturing jobs in that time frame. Here’s what […]