Competition.

In a Senate hearing earlier today, Rand Paul rightly went on the rhetorical rampage in defense of Apple and their completely rational and legal attempts to minimize the amount of money that they pay in taxes (if you haven’t listened to his epic free-market rant yet, I definitely recommend it). Why, for instance, is it [...]

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Busted Rhyme

And here you thought we were broke. I know we’ve annoyed you with all sorts of scandal ridden, Sunday talk show posts today, so there’s a bit of a lighter, government incompetence story to share as we close out the weekend and prepare for QoTD. This one comes to us from long time Green Room [...]

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...but the matter is currently under review.

No need to be quite so modest here, White House — as to the most ‘recent media reports,’ we already learned this weekend that high-up agency leaders knew this tea-party targeting had been going on was going on for at least a couple of years now and certainly didn’t bother to stop it, and the [...]

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'Murika.

There was a time in our history when the American-made beer selection was nothing to get excited about, and indeed, at which the long-established foreign brewers of the old world would disdainfully turn up their noses. Thanks to a cut in the federal excise tax on beer produced by smaller brewers in 1976, however, those [...]

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Off the rails.

Old and busted: ObamaCare is no “train wreck,” no matter what one of its authors says now. New hotness: Give us more money to head off this train wreck! Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he shares colleagues’ concerns that the Affordable Care Act could become a “train wreck” if it’s not implemented properly. Reid [...]

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Not new

The Marketplace Fairness Act (which we’ve been talking about here since 2011) has passed another hurdle in Congress, but the debate continues. As we’ve covered at length, the idea involves the “T-word” so people immediately get up on their hind legs about it on the conservative side of the aisle. But does it violate the [...]

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The new 1%ers.

Actually, Barack Obama’s promise that his tax hikes wouldn’t apply to 95% of Americans expired a long time ago, but his new budget drives a stake right through its heart.  Earlier, I pointed out that Obama had underreported his tax hikes in his new budget proposal by at least half.  Today, the Washington Post looks [...]

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And there was much rejoicing.

Curious to see where it is your tax dollars are going on this fine spring day? The Heritage Foundation has a handy infographic with the breakdown: Or, if you prefer, you can check out the White House’s version of your tax receipt, which gets a tiny bit more specific — but conspicuously not that specific, [...]

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"Does 'limousine liberal' apply in this case?"

On the same day that Politico’s John Harris heralds the rise of Barack Obama, Class Warrior, Joe Scarborough blasts the President for being Barack Obama, Class Hypocrite.  After a nasty presidential campaign that made Mitt Romney into a villain for abiding by tax law to keep his effective income tax rate low, Obama’s recent tax [...]

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Sweet.

The ongoing Slowest Recovery Ever has had our economy growing at only meager rates, and yet the federal government is about to collect record revenues — but President Obama’s budget is chock full of new ideas for still more taxes and still more government spending. The Office of Management and Budget reports that, under the [...]

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Come on, guys!

This was my first thought when I read about Socialist French President Hollande’s revised approach for taxing the heck out of the wealthy. The top French court recently rejected his attempted follow-through on his campaign promise to tax individuals making more than a million euros a year at the punishing rate of 75 percent — [...]

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Too much, too soon?

Earlier this year, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal promised to undertake the major task of simplifying the state’s tax code in the interests of promoting economic competition, business friendliness, and job growth; and last month, he unveiled his plan to get rid of income and corporate taxes in favor of a sales tax increase from 4 [...]

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Haircut, take two

We’ve already had some chatter about President Obama’s new “blow your mind” budget proposal. As Erika pointed out, there’s still plenty of taxy goodness in it, but more details are beginning to emerge. The Hill has latched on to one of the really insulting ones which, unlike in Obamacare, we may actually read and find [...]

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Nugatory.

Chicago’s new tax on gun purchases — ostensibly meant to provide a revenue stream to help the locality pay for the associative enforcement and health care costs of gun violence — went into effect on Monday, and surprise: A handful of House Democrats are wondering why we shouldn’t do something kind of similar at the [...]

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Desperation.

Socialist French President Francois Hollande is only ten months into his first term, and things are just not going according to plan for the guy. His anti-austerity campaign promises to jumpstart the French economy are not seeing any fruition; he’s reneging on his eurozone pledge to bring France’s deficit under three percent of GDP; unemployment [...]

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Yeah, why not?

California already has one of the highest tax burdens and worst business tax climates in the country, but hey, why not think up a few more convoluted ways the state can take still more money out of the private sector and put it toward the government’s disposal instead? Because that is always the perfect recipe [...]

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Astucieux!

As one of his many supposedly social-justice oriented campaign pledges, French President Francois Hollande proposed a 75 percent income tax on people making more than a million euros, but he’s been struggling to make it happen ever since he entered office — but reports of a growing exodus of the wealthy, an inopportune business climate, [...]

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Gee, thanks.

Part and parcel of ObamaCare is one particularly insidious little provision that adds a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices. The Affordable Care Act’s got to pay for itself somehow, you know, even if it does mean hiking up costs, discouraging innovation, and killing jobs in an industry that provides such necessary and life-saving [...]

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Woof.

In his State of the State address in January, Gov. Jerry Brown proudly proclaimed that, “Two years ago, they were writing our obituary. Well it didn’t happen. California is back, its budget is balanced, and we are on the move.” …Which is interesting, because the January unemployment numbers just came in, and California is apparently [...]

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Uncertainty.

Unclear. I might have spoken too soon last night — Cyprus rejected the insidious ‘deposit haircut’ idea because of the wild public outcry — but a modified version along with other options are still on the table, ranging from full default to Russian takeover. They’re not out of the woods yet, from the WSJ: What [...]

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Obviously.

President Obama and the Democrats’ calls for more revenue are almost never complete without some kind of shoutout to how we need to end loopholes for those treacherous, evil oil companies, but just a friendly reminder: Oil companies provide for some of the most handsome portions of federal revenue already. To identify the companies that [...]

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Bold.

President Obama and the Democrats have been talking a big game about closing loopholes on “the wealthy,” “big oil companies,” “corporate jet owners” and all manner of greedy societal bottom-feeders (or something) as an ostensible method of (ever-so-slightly) reducing our budget deficit, and it isn’t that Republicans are so very opposed to the idea of [...]

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...Huzzah.

A handy-dandy preview from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of what we’re in for with the Senate Democrats’ long-awaited — and let me just repeat that, long-awaited — budget; in a nutshell, more class-warmongering and still higher taxes, more government spending and “stimulus” to spur the economy, and a whole lotta’ “balance” that doesn’t actually [...]

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Sacre bleu!

He’s been in office for less than a year, but the honeymoon phase is already over and Socialist French President Francois Hollande’s approval rating is on the strugglebus. Miraculously, his redistributive financial methods of governance have not managed to revive France’s stagnating economy, despite his campaign pledge to halt the jobs crisis and fight against [...]

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How unexpected.

So, apparently, we had to “pass it to find out what’s in it,” but finding out what’s in it first requires hiring an “army of counselors” to help everyone figure it all out. Awesome. The Associated Press reports that, as the state exchanges through which all Americans will soon need to purchase insurance (if they [...]

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