by Linda Beale One in 189 of those with $200,000 or more in AGI paid no federal taxes in 2009 [edited 5/30 to correct “one in four” goof] The IRS recently released another “statistics of income” report. This one has news that should make most ordinary Americans think twice about the GOP agenda of reducing […]
Andrew Rosenthal points us to one of the most eye-poppingly specious arguments I’ve ever seen against high-earner taxes, from Scott Hodge at the Tax Foundation (my bold). …612,520 people renounced their New York State citizenship and moved to Florida between 2000 and 2010. They took with them nearly $20 billion in adjusted gross income, after […]
We’re catching up on some DVR viewing. Tonight’s episode was Lewis Black’s In God We Rust, which was released on St. Patrick’s Day but taped back when people could still believe Michelle Bachmann was a contender for the 2012 Republican nomination. It was filmed not earlier—and probably not later—than 7 May 2011. Why do I […]
Here’s how:From Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers at Reuters, hat tip to Matt Yglesias.Cross-posted at Asymptosis.
by Linda Beale Another US District Court finds no rational basis for DOMA treatment of same sex couples In a case that will add weight to the likelihood that the Supreme Court will finally take a case to decide the constitutionality of the so-called “defense of marriage act” (DOMA), the U.S. district court for Northern […]
by Kenneth Thomas Romney to Replace Obamacare with…Essentially Nothing Tommy Christopher (via @rcooley123) at Mediaite has a good catch on Mitt Romney’s health care proposals, from an interview Romney gave to Mark Halperin of Time magazine. Asked what would happen to people with pre-existing conditions after he were to repeal Obamacare, Romney said: If people […]
A while back I put together a rough calc estimating what our country’s “home-work” is worth as a share of GDP, based on the idea that such work is production, and that it has every bit as much value to our lives as work that we get paid for. By that estimate (based on the […]
by Linda Beale Calculating the Cost of Bailouts A recent New York Times includes a piece on the Treasury’s study of the various bailouts or “rescues” of distressed financial and other institutions. Gretchen Morgenson, Seeing Bailouts Through Rose-Colored Glasses, New York Times (May 19, 2012). The Treasury study, The Financial Crisis Response–in charts (April 13, […]
I’m not usually one to defend Facebook. Yes, I “use” it—it has more of my high school classmates as members than Classmates does—but it’s getting increasingly difficult to block Games from feeds, the adverts are cluttered, and the view doesn’t seem to optimise based on the screen I use. In short, it’s not trying too […]