President Barack Obama is not targeting the country’s 99 percent against the wealthiest 1 percent. In a news conference, yesterday, he instead singled out the top 2 percent. Even though they account for 46 percent of all income taxes collected, Obama says members of this group don’t pay their “fair…
In one way, President Obama has had it hard: He inherited a mess. In another, he has had it easy: His predecessor blew it big time. As James Bovard put it in his 2004 book, The Bush Betrayal, “George W. Bush came to the presidency promising prosperity, peace, and humility.…
Blasé about sweeping government surveillance? Think you have “nothing to hide”? I bet you do. Ever draw curtains? You have “something to hide.” If you balk when a con man says, “I need your birthday and Social Security Number,” you have “something to hide.” When you feel comfortable giving certain…
President Obama is blasting what he calls “the furious efforts of industry lobbyists” to fend off tighter regulation of the financial industry. Pretending that Fed credit expansion and governmental incentives to take on temporarily cheap mortgages had no part in the current crisis, officials carefully direct our attention elsewhere. Widespread…
Do not look at the liability behind that curtain! Or: Do not mention that we don’t know what the liabilities are. Some things are too painful to report. Apparently. The folks who audit the Social Security Administration are late on a set of reports. The reports in question account for…
Spending sprees are fun. The responsible cut-backs after such sprees? Not so much fun. Seems the recent gubernatorial election made a difference in New Jersey. There’s change there. Also hope. Last November, running on a platform of fiscal sanity, Republican challenger Chris Christie defeated the Democratic Governor Jon Corzine. And…
Government is out of control. This statement sadly seems to require no additional explanation or defense. Whether one is conservative or liberal, progressive or libertarian, Americans increasingly regard this proclamation as a self-evident truth. But perhaps some Rip Van, catatonic through previous decades, just now awakening, might seek further details…
The important group Democrats Against Democratic Obstruction of Justice (DADOOJ) has yet to be formed to denounce ongoing cover-ups by the Obama administration. If a DADOOJ did exist, though, its two or three members would surely cite a recent Hill column by Rick Manning, “More lost emails—When will Democrats have…
Ronald Bailey, online at Reason.com, quotes a press release from a group of renewable energy outfits whining and moaning to keep their huge tax breaks. It’s all for the good of the country, they say. But Bailey notes that when such tax credits go to businesses not favored by environmental…
Retail sales taxation became vogue among the states of the union during the Great Depression. When other revenue sources dried up, many states decided to nab potential taxpayers at each transaction. We’re in a depression again, and numerous legislatures are looking to expand their retail sales tax base by targeting…