Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

It’s Almost April so Tax Tips Are Flowering

by Linda Beale It’s Almost April so Tax Tips Are Flowering You can tell when it is getting close to the April filing deadline for individual calendar-year taxpayers. All of the major tax firms release their “handy tax tips” to entice new clients for this tax season.The American Institute of CPA’s handy tips (released Mar.1, […]

Comparisons of charitable giving among presidential candidates

by Linda Beale Comparisons of charitable giving among presidential candidates[Hat Tip to Tax Prof] Len Burman, now a professor at Syracuse but still affiliated with the Tax Policy Center, wrote a blurb for Forbes on Stingy Rich People, Santorum-Gingrich Edition, Forbes (Feb. 20, 2012), which was a followup to Caron’s comparison of presidential contender giving […]

The Supreme Court’s corporate monsters–if money buys them "free speech" rights, can it help them avoid giving others human rights?

by Linda Beale The Supreme Court’s corporate monsters–if money buys them “free speech” rights, can it help them avoid giving others human rights? The Supreme Court decided in Citizens United that corporations could intevene to influence elections–giving money and aide to their selected candidates. This was an inordinate broadening of corporate “personhood”, claimed to be […]

Rick Santorum’s tax policies and more–imposing his moralizing choices on all

by Linda Beale Rick Santorum’s tax policies and more–imposing his moralizing choices on all Rick Santorum is a man who seems to hold sincerely held religious beliefs. The problem is that he thinks everybody that matters holds (or should hold) the same beliefs that he does, or at least should be forced to live in […]

American Enterprise Institute’s Arthur Brooks on budgets and taxes

by Linda Beale American Enterprise Institute’s Arthur Brooks on budgets and taxes Arthur Brooks of the American Heritage Institute had an op-ed in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, “Obama’s Budget Flunks the Marshmallow Test” (Feb. 24, 2012), at A13, in which he claimed that “unfunded entitlements to the middle class, runaway deficits to be repaid in […]

Obama proposes to exempt some IRS spending on enforcement from budget cap

by Linda Beale Obama proposes to exempt some IRS spending on enforcement from budget cap The 2011 debt ceiling compromise, known as the Budget Control Act, establishes automatic cuts in spending for various categories if no further deal is reached to overturn them. In many ways, it might be ideal to allow the Budget Control […]

GOP candidates’ policies would raise federal debt by whopping trillions

by Linda Beale GOP candidates’ policies would raise federal debt by whopping trillions The GOP likes to pretend to take the high road, proclaiming itself to be against increasing the federal debt, running big deficits, or otherwise not running our government like a person runs their household. Pundits on the right tend to look at […]

Romney’s association with corporate tax shelter schemes

By Linda Beale Romney’s association with corporate tax shelter schemes Bloomberg’s Jesse Drucker has been doing some research into presidential candidate Mitt Romney and come up with some interesting information–at least for those of us who find corporate involvement in aggressive tax shelter phantom loss generating schemes a worrisome problem. See Drucker, Romney as Audit […]

Politicians’ wealth and the tax policies they support

by Linda Beale Politicians’ wealth and the tax policies they support A story in the Boston Globe by Britt Peterson on Feb. 19, 2012 explored “Why it matters that our politicians are rich” (available here on Boston.com). A key point–the four remaining GOP presidential candidates all are millionaires, with most making more than a million […]

Links worth noting

by Linda Beale Links worth noting Lynn Parrymore (Alternet, Naked Capitalism) on the difficulties in putting a stop to congressional insider trading: Can Rep. Bacchus and his money-crazed congressional colleagues be stopped from insider trading? OMB Watch BudgetBlog, Small Biz Owners: Big Businesses, Millionaires Not Paying Fair Share (showing that small businesses are more aware […]