NewsTrust - Taxes - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Rep. David Obey Warns President Obama of Afghanistan War Surtax

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ABC News - By Jonathan Karl - Nov. 23 (Interview) - The powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan -- sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild the economy."

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How to boost fuel efficiency? Raise taxes, executives say

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Reuters - By Scott Malone - Nov. 06 (Opinion) - While politically unpalatable, gasoline that costs at least $4 a gallon would have a far greater effect on American fuel usage than Washington's $25 billion loan program meant to spark investment in new technologies

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With tax break, a big carbon footprint

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Globe - By Edward L. Glaeser - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - ENVIRONMENTALISTS who are worried about global warming should pay attention to the congressional debate about extending the home buyers tax credit. Federal tax policies toward housing have long encouraged Americans to emit more carbon. President Obama could do the country, and the planet, a service by either refusing to sign the extension of the $8,000 credit or by insisting that it be accompanied by offsetting reductions in the home mortgage interest deduction.

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The Insurance Industry's Deceptive Report

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ezra Klein - Oct. 12 (Opinion) - In the hallowed tradition of the tobacco and energy industries, the health insurance industry has commissioned a report (pdf) projecting doom and despair for those who seek to reform its business practices. The report was farmed out to the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has something of a history with this sort of thing: In the early-'90s, the tobacco industry commissioned PWC to estimate the economic devastation that would result from a tax on tobacco. The report was later analyzed by the Arthur Andersen Economic Consulting group, which concluded that "the cumulative effect of PW’s methods … is to produce patently unreliable results." It's perhaps no surprise that the patently unreliable results were all in the tobacco industry's favor. He who pays the piper names the tune, and all that.

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How GOP can manage Tea Party

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By John Freehery - Sep. 16 (Opinion) - While the Tea Party movement presents a threat to the Obama administration, it also presents a challenge to congressional Republicans. After all, many of the protesters have as low a regard for the GOP as they do for the Democrats, and they hold the previous administration in as much as contempt as they do the Obama White House.

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Charlie Rangel Hides Income and Assets

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Aug. 28 (Opinion) - Charlie Rangel wins the personal lotteryWhen normal people happen to "find" their own money, it might mean a twenty left in a winter coat, or discovering change beneath the sofa cushions. But if you're Charlie Rangel, it means doubling your net worth.

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Health Care Reform and the Unpopular T-Word

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Leonhardt - Jul. 29 (Opinion) - The many-headed Hydra, with breath poisonous enough to kill, is one of the more gruesome beasts in Greek mythology. In Hercules’s great clash with it, he would cut off one of its heads, only to have two more appear. No matter what he did, he couldn’t keep up. You can think of Congress’s efforts to pay for health reform as being a little bit like a battle to slay a many-headed Hydra.

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Raise the Gas Tax

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - Jul. 27 (Editorial) - It's taken a whopping budget deficit to prod D.C. officials into considering a step they should have taken years ago: increasing the gas tax. The proposal, still in a fledging stage, should be vigorously pursued. Not only would the District get a desperately needed windfall of as much as $4 million, but, more important, higher gasoline prices would encourage energy conservation.

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How Should Government Spur Small Business Innovation?

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Robb Mandelbaum - Jul. 23 (Opinion) - With health care reform and economic recovery sucking up so much of what little oxygen circulates in Washington, you’ll have to forgive The Agenda for only now turning to the Small Business Innovation Research program, which is set to expire on July 31st unless Congress acts to reauthorize it.

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America's health-care plan: Soak the rich

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Jul. 16 (Editorial) - After weeks of wrangling among the three different House committees with partial jurisdiction over the matter, the House has pipped the Senate to the post. On Tuesday July 14th Nancy Pelosi, the speaker, unveiled a grand strategy for health reform that is so far to the left of American political discourse that even moderate Democrats in the Senate (never mind the incensed and irrelevant House Republicans) held their noses.

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Replace state property tax with carbon tax for climate action

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Bruce Flory, Todd Myers - Jun. 30 (Opinion) - One sign of progress comes from right next door. Voters in British Columbia recently re-elected Premier Gordon Campbell, the driving force behind BC's carbon tax. By 2012, the tax will reach about $30 per ton of carbon dioxide, or about 30 cents per gallon of gasoline. Money from the tax is used to reduce other taxes in a "revenue-neutral tax shift," and voters showed their support by backing Campbell and his right-of-center party for a rare third consecutive term.

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No gain but we avoid a lot of pain

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Michael Hiltzik - Jun. 02 (Opinion) - Whether the government's novel venture into industrial ownership will save the economy, or whether it's even a necessary component of an economic recovery, are questions certain to be widely debated in the coming months while GM hares its way through an expedited bankruptcy reorganization.

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Panama wrong choice for Obama's first trade deal

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By David Batker, Stephanie Celt - May. 27 (Opinion) - Panama's "comparative advantage" is tax evasion. The more money multinational companies shift to hokey Panamanian subsidiaries, the fewer taxes they owe in the U.S. And secrecy in the Panamanian banking sector secures foreign investment of another sort. The U.S. State Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency have identified Panama's financial sector as a primary repository and conduit for Colombian and Mexican narco-trafficking cartels.

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Obama bites rich hands that fed him

Wed, 06 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Jeanne Cummings - May. 06 (Opinion) - Beyond the obviously wealthy voters, people who in many places are no more than upper middle class find themselves targeted to pay for a wide range of Obama policies aimed at leveling the economic playing field.

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The Republicans' Paranoid Style

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Week - By Robert Shrum - Apr. 21 (Opinion) - What were the protests supposedly about? Taxes and government spending. But in fact, the President's economic program has already cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans—and state and local tax increases would be far steeper without the protestors' other target, the Obama stimulus package, which provides recession-fighting funds to state and local governments.

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Cable Wars Are Killing Objectivity

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Carr - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - Apparently there is an ingredient in tea that causes hysteria when given to cable news anchors. How else to explain the coverage of the tax day tea parties on Wednesday, which was the day when we procrastinators finally mailed the check to the feds?

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Tax Fantasies of the Right and Left

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Steven Pearlstein - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - Unless we're prepared to make major cuts in spending on defense and entitlements -- and there is no evidence of a political will to do so -- there's no way to balance the budget and do everything the president wants without a modest increase in the share of national income that goes to taxes.

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Tax Me, Tax Me!

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Dick Meyer - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - You want to hear some deeply wise and thoroughly counterintuitive wisdom from the crowd? How about this: Americans are perfectly happy with how much they are taxed.

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Want to Pay Less in Taxes Next Year? Secession Could Lower Your Tax Bill.

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Opinion Journal (WSJ) - By Brett Arends - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - Most people like a tax break. So three cheers for Texas governor Rick Perry, who on Tax Day highlighted a radical way to cut your federal tax bill. Secession.

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Tax Tea Party Time, Part Two

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Forbes - By Bruce Bartlett - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - many protesters implicitly assume that that the deficit has increased solely as a result of Barack Obama's policies. But in fact, the Congressional Budget Office was projecting a deficit of more than $1 trillion this year back in January, before any of Obama's policies had been enacted, and a cumulative deficit of $4.3 trillion through 2019. (CBO made no assumptions about what his policies might be in making its projection.)

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Anyone Can Be a Tax Cheat!

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Conor Clarke - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - I suppose it was inevitable that someone would write this story today: Americans are upset that they have to pay their taxes today when Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner, who is the putative head of the IRS, did not. Or at least he didn't pay them when he was supposed to pay them.

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No estate taxes at all in 2010? Don't bet on it.

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Boston Globe - By Cheryl Costa - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - As many of you know, the estate tax is supposed to be eliminated beginning January 1, 2010. This elimination is in effect for only one year, however, and in 2011, the estate tax is scheduled to return -- and return in a big way. In 2011, estates greater than $1M could be subject to taxation. (As a point of reference, in 2009, estates greater than $3.5M are potentially subject to taxation.)

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Should We Pity Rich People As Much As They Do?

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Derek Thompson - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - A bizarre piece in the WSJ today gives us a chance to review a couple key questions about taxes and the wealthy, including: Are $250K-earners middle class? Did rich people think Obama was kidding about raising their taxes? And should we pity those burdened with the indignity of renting their beach house?

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Tax Day Becomes Protest Day

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Glenn Harlan Reynolds - Apr. 15 (Opinion) - Today American taxpayers in more than 300 locations in all 50 states will hold rallies -- dubbed "tea parties" -- to protest higher taxes and out-of-control government spending. There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org.

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It’s Tax Day, Did You File for EITC?

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Root - By Stacey Tisdale - Apr. 15 (Opinion) - The Earned Income Tax Credit is a tax credit for low- to moderate-income individuals and families. Congress originally passed EITC legislation in 1975 to, in part, offset the burden of Social Security taxes.

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