Where tax policy meets politics — legislation, elections, and the debates in Washington that decide how (and how much) you’re taxed.
Senate Republicans blocked a proposal today that would tax the windfall profits of the country’s largest oil companies. The GOP put together 43 votes, which left the Democrats 9 votes short of what they needed to break a filibuster and bring the proposal to a vote. Democrats had urged Congress to pass the bill, with…
After months of speculation, the field is finally set. The US presidential race is down to Republican candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barrack Obama. Both will spend the next five months talking about the issues important to the American people. Tops on their list? The economy. The tax plans for McCain and Obama could…
Quick: Who is most responsible for the Reagan tax cuts? Donald Regan, Secretary of the Treasury during Reagan’s administration? Nah, the real force behind the Economic Recovery Act of 1981 was Jodie Foster, according to Robert Mundell, Columbia University’s Nobel laureate economist. The Financial Times reports that Mundell cites the Oscar winning actress as most…
As his popularity continues to decline, President Bush has re-introduced legislation to extend his 2001 and 2003 or risk what he is calling “the largest tax increase in history.” Realistically, some of the cuts will likely be extended or made permanent – but not all. Bush claims, for example, that allowing the tax cuts to…
Scott McClellan has tongues wagging with the release of his book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception. It has already hit the number 1 spot on Amazon.com’s best seller list. The book suggests that Bush lied to the American people to promote his agenda for a war in Iraq….
Among pressure to prove that there was nothing to hide, Senator John McCain and his wife, Cindy, announced last week that, despite earlier comments that they would not release Ms. McCain’s tax info, they would do so. The information was made public and is available on McCain’s web site. Senator McCain had previously released his…
The Internal Revenue Service has concluded that Senator Barack Obama’s church, the United Church of Christ, did not violate nonprofit tax laws when Senator Obama addressed the denomination’s 50th anniversary General Synod in June 2007. You may recall that the IRS was investigating the denomination claiming that it had “reasonable belief” that the circumstances surrounding…
Oh politics. It’s all about being right, isn’t it? You know, rather than doing the right thing? President Bush vetoed the farm bill (the 190th veto of his presidency) claiming, rightfully so, that it was too expensive and would send too much in the way of subsidy to rich farmers. The House voted 316-108 to…
Colorado senator Ken Salazar, who bested Coors beer Pete Coors for his Senate seat in 2004, has been mocked for his ignorance of the US Tax Code. Salazar, a fifth-generation Colorado rancher, touted himself as a man of the people, claiming that he understood the struggles of the working class and would create jobs and…
On May 5, the idea of bargain shopping on eBay took a new twist. Item 100237099149 went up for sale for the sum of $75 but the item was actually quite priceless. You see, what appeared to be just another auction item was actually a CD containing the “income-tax returns for 2005 of the entire…