Spam and Taxing Emails Every so often I get a chain email that alleges that Congress is about to levy a tax on email. Then I think to myself, “this email is proof of why that tax might not be such a bad idea”. Not only would an emal tax cut down on chain letters, […]

Slow Day No topic for a new post leaps to mind, but I do try to put something up every day. So instead of insightful commentary and analysis, I’ll just link to this, which I think is funny. (I linked to this back in the first days of the blog, but since I had no […]

No More Deficits The IRS has come up with a clever plan to offset the deficit-creating effects of the Bush tax cuts: More scrutiny of the poor! The Internal Revenue Service is planning to ask more than four million of the working poor who now claim a special tax credit to provide the most exhaustive […]

Brokaw and the Man BROKAW: Why not fold in some of the U.N. inspectors to this effort, not turn it over to them, but make them a part of it? Would that help with the credibility, do you think? THE PRESIDENT: I think there’s going to be skepticism until people find out there was, in […]

Dammit, Moralistic right wingers can really piss me off (In this case, I’m not talking about Sen. Santorum, though I should be). But that just makes it more fun to watch them fall, Jimmy Swaggart style. From Joe Conason, an update on the status of Richard Delgaudio (full story in the Washington Post). Delgaudio was […]

Bush in Ohio Explaining the Dire Need for Tax Relief In Mr. Voinovich’s home state yesterday, Bush said “Some in Congress say the plan is too big. Well, it seems like to me they might have some explaining to do. If they agree that tax relief creates jobs, they why are they for a little-bitty […]

California Consumption Tax Gambit? As a few loyal readers may recall, this blog was started largely in response to serious discussion in the 2002 Economic Report of the President of phasing out income taxes in favor of consumption taxes (see the “Consumption Taxes, parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5” in the sidebar). I’ve since wandered […]

Next Target of Club for Growth Ads? As you’ve probably heard, the Club for Growth, a fairly extreme supply-side organization, launched ads against Olympia Snowe of Maine and George Voinovich of Ohio. The ads are in response to the two senators saying they would not back, and would in fact actively oppose, a tax cut […]

Has Anyone Read this Book? In 1998, Chief Justice Rehnquist published a book, All the Laws But One, on the subject of civil liberties and the writ of habeas corpus. I hadn’t heard of this book until I came across this: Chief Justice Rehnquist talked about his latest book on U.S. Supreme Court history, All […]

Thinking About 2004? Bush’s advisors are. Here are some highlights: “…Bush’s advisers have drafted a re-election strategy built around staging the latest nominating convention in the party’s history, allowing Mr. Bush to begin his formal campaign near the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks” [remember the use of photos of Bush from Air Force […]