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You've got to hand it to Team Hillary Clinton. Its message discipline is awesome -- at least in terms of taxes. It reminds me of the orderly march of the Chinese Red Army on the way to battle. Here's the latest message: The George W. Bush tax cuts were responsible for the financial meltdown and recession of 2008-09. That's a new low for Hillarynomics. In this week's debate, Clinton said: "Trickle-down it did not work. It got us into the mess we were in in 2008 and 2009. Slashing taxes on the wealthy hasn't worked." OK. So in 2003, President...

"Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands."

In our Declaration of Independence, the Founders declared that everyone is endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including and especially life. Science has revealed and affirmed the notion that an unborn child is human life with unique DNA. For more and more Americans, this fact of life is becoming more clear with each new scientific discovery.I understand the issue of abortion is still controversial in America. But the issue of whether taxpayers should pay for it, even if they’re opposed to it, is not controversial.Today marks the 40th anniversary of an important policy that prohibits taxpayer funding of...

Listen up now. You paying attention here? During Obama’s tenure in the White House the federal government collected $20 trillion in taxes. Oughta be enough to pay for all our stuff, you say! Unh Unh! Not so fast pilgrim! Over the same period the government spent $29 trillion. Where did it find the extra $9 trillion? We weren’t taxed to fund that additional expenditure because the proletariat would have stormed the barricades surrounding the White House if taxes went up that much, roughly 44%. How would you behave if every regular purchase . . . milk, bread, etc. . ....

According to MIRS News, Sen. Mike Kowall, R-White Lake, is pushing for driverless vehicle legislation, hoping to land a research center in Willow Run. The intent of the legislation, MIRS said, “is to propel Michigan to the head of the line in the highly competitive autonomous sweepstakes, which involves such states as California, Nevada, Texas and Florida.” According to the news site, Kowall issued a warning: “If we do nothing, that would be irresponsible. We'd lose jobs. We'd lose people moving away wholesale and the universities promoting these studies, everybody would move out of state.” There are often “competitions” between...

Greed A selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. ‎ A continual lust for more. Envy A feeling of resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions or qualities or wealth. Someone might want to tell Hillary Clinton that greed and envy are two of the seven deadly sins. She's guilty of both. Her revised tax plan‎ would raise the estate tax to as high as 65% -- up from 40% today. She would also apply the hated death tax to as many as twice the number of estates. It's one of her dumbest ideas...

More than half of America's single parents and one-fifth of its families with children could see their federal income taxes go up under Republican Donald Trump's revamped tax plan, according to a new analysis of the plan by a New York University professor who previously served as a tax specialist for the Obama administration and the Senate Finance Committee. The Trump campaign called the findings "pure fiction," contending the analysis neglects a crucial benefit for low-income taxpayers — and insisting that Trump would instruct the congressional committees drafting his plan into law that taxes would not be allowed to rise for any...

Three brackets, all higher than the current 45 percent We’ve discussed the death tax a fair amount around here, and for better or for worse it usually breaks down to two arguments. Defenders of the tax say there’s no reason the children of rich people should feel entitled to get all their parents’ money, since they themselves did nothing to earn it. Critics of the tax respond by saying that if the parent earned the money, then it should be the parents’ decision who gets it, and at any rate there’s no particular reason the government should have a claim...

The choice for voters is clear: a tax cut from Donald Trump or a pay cut courtesy of Hillary Clinton. Trump is promising to slash income taxes to zero for millions of people currently paying them, and to reduce the tax bite on everyone else except the mega-rich. Clinton, by contrast, isn’t cutting income tax rates for anyone. Instead, she’s campaigning to raise business taxes, despite warnings it will cause wages to plummet and the economy to tank. No wonder Trump is moving up in the polls. Most Americans are still making less than they did in 2007. The mainstream...

Subtitle: He promises tax reductions, child care, repeal of Affordable Care Act Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, during his stump speech today at the Stranahan Theater in South Toledo, boasted he would replace the "failed and corrupt establishment" of the nation and that he would terminate all "job-killing" orders from the Obama Administration.

Middle and higher-income earners still pay more tax than they did seven years ago despite moves to unwind the various austerity measures imposed during the crash, according to the Irish Tax Institute (ITI). In a pre-budget report, the institute said that while the personal tax burden had come down in recent budgets, many Irish workers were paying effective rates that were significantly higher than their equivalents in other countries. Its principal criticism of the current code is that workers here begin paying higher rates of tax too early and that the burden increases too sharply as income levels rise, effectively...

FULL TITLE: Hillary chooses Obama’s road to fiscal ruin - Vows of more taxing and spending promise continued economic decline ANALYSIS/OPINION: Hillary Clinton stands at a fork in the federal fiscal policy road. In one direction runs Bill Clinton’s performance; in the other, Barack Obama’s. Despite claiming both legacies, all indications are that Hillary is choosing President Obama’s direction. There could not be a greater divide between the last two Democratic administrations than in fiscal policy. While Mr. Clinton’s course was thrust upon him by a Republican Congress, it proved his greatest legacy. In contrast, Mr. Obama has followed his...

Gov. Scott Walker is drawing sharp criticism for his plan to delay highway projects, including the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee. In the past, the governor has hailed the interchange as key to state businesses that transport products throughout the region. Walker mentioned MillerCoors in his 2013 State of the State address. "MillerCoors is in a hyper-competitive industry. They're looking to find a competitive advantage: who can get a cold beer on a bar in Madison or Green Bay or even Chicago, the fastest. Beer trucks are tied up in the Zoo Interchange? The MillerCoors brewery here in Wisconsin is at...

Hillary Clinton got back on the campaign trail on Thursday after taking three days off for pneumonia, and the Democratic presidential candidate faced a more challenging political landscape, with Republican rival Donald Trump rising in opinion polls. Her illness coincided with a mini-surge by Trump, who has drawn even or taken a slight lead in national polls. Polls in battleground states where the race is likely to be decided showed Trump now leading in Iowa, Ohio, Florida and Nevada, and tied in North Carolina. Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, said the candidate and her aides expected the contest to be...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump put new details on a much scaled-back tax plan on Thursday, one that is projected to cost the federal government less money but also to deliver fewer benefits to taxpayers than Trump's original proposal. Trump's economic team estimated that the complete tax plan, combined with rollbacks to some federal regulations and new initiatives to open up more public and private lands for oil and gas drilling, would deliver 3.5 percent growth per year for the next decade and produce 25 million new jobs. The changes also appear to be an attempt to reduce what analysts...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans are willing to pay a little more each month to fight global warming — but only a tiny bit, according to a new poll. Still, environmental policy experts hail that as a hopeful sign. Seventy-one percent want the federal government to do something about global warming, including 6 percent who think the government should act even though they are not sure that climate change is happening,..

With the additional $231,327,000,000 in taxes that the U.S. Treasury collected in August, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today, President Barack Obama has now presided over more than $20,000,000,000,000 in federal tax collections during the 91 full months he has served in the Oval Office. From February 2009 through August 2016, the Treasury collected approximately $20,197,437,000,000 in tax revenues (in non-inflation-adjusted dollars), according to the Monthly Treasury Statements. During those same 91 months, the federal debt rose from $10,632,005,246,736.97 to $19,510,296,242,765.66—an increase of $8,878,290,996,028.69. …

Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Multinational companies should refrain from tax-avoidance practices and pay their fair share, the head of euro zone finance ministers said on Saturday in a new endorsement of the European Union's fight against tax-dodging. In the wake of the 'Panama Papers' revelations of widespread tax-avoidance practices, Brussels has toughened up its drive for fairness by tightening controls and adopting stricter rules. The recent shock multi-billion euro tax demand on Apple was part of that trend as the EU also drafts plans for a common corporate tax base and a single...

Public agencies with toll-setting authority should take note of a recent federal court decision relating to the uses of user fees and toll revenue, as well as the stated goals of the plaintiff in that case.The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently clarified the constitutional uses of toll revenue in American Trucking Associations v. New York State Thruway Authority, 13 Civ. 8123 (CM) (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 10, 2016). In this case, commercial trucking companies and the American Trucking Associations (ATA) claimed that the New York State Thruway Authority violated the Constitution by charging inflated toll rates...

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) issued a study that outlines a roadmap for the United Kingdom's (UK) exit from the European Union (EU), entitled “Cutting the Gordian Knot: A Roadmap for British Exit from the European Union.” Authors Iain Murray and Rory Broomfield provide a step-by-step guide on how the UK can leave the EU. The foreword was written by the former private secretary of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Sir Mark Worthington, who noted that "the British people have chosen for themselves" a future where "they are firmly in control." He hoped that with 'Brexit,' the United Kingdom...