Free Republic

President Trump's administration says his tax cut will pay for itself. It turns out it's really hard to find an economist who agrees. The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business regularly polls economists on controversial questions. In a survey the school published last week on Trump's tax plans, only two out of the 37 economists that responded said that the cuts would stimulate the economy enough to cancel out the effect on total tax revenue. Those two economists now both say they made a mistake, and that they misunderstood the question. “I screwed up on that one,” said one...

If there were ever a time to increase the gas tax it would be NOW! A tax bill is in the works. The Democrats want it "paid for." Oil price is way down and not likelihood of an increase soon. High tech improvements to oil discovery and production have drastically reduced oil prices. I am happy to pay more for a gas tax that would improve road and bridge infrastructure. PA increased the gas tax and nobody fussed much. A federal gas tax hike is long overdue and Democrats would vote for it!

President Trump has his eye on a corporate tax rate of 15 percent, even if that means adding to the national deficit, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Trump reportedly told his aides to draft a proposal that could be presented to the American people this week. But such a plan would be an extremely tough sell to Republican lawmakers who’ve spent the last decade making debts and deficits a central issue, Politico’s Playbook notes. Plus, it could put future, permanent, tax cuts at risk.

The City Council in Sacramento, Calif. voted unanimously late Thursday to spend taxpayer money on services to help illegal immigrants fight deportation. . . . Guerra, who led a task force that proposed allocating the city's funds, justified the decision by pointing out that illegal immigrants often pay taxes and contribute to the economy.

Liberals are salivating at the idea of taxing cars by the distance they travel, to better rake in money for their nefarious purposes. In California, they are taking the idea one step farther, planning to tax space rockets by the mile as well.

Liberals are salivating at the idea of taxing cars by the distance they travel, to better rake in money for their nefarious purposes. In California, they are taking the idea one step farther, planning to tax space rockets by the mile as well. According to the proposal, California will collect tax from space transportation companies based on a formula factoring in how often a company launches spacecrafts out of the state, and, most importantly, how far a commercial spacecraft travels from California soil. Between May and mid-October, there were eight launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in Santa Barbara County...

Oregon’s Democratic lawmakers came up with the most detailed plan yet on Thursday for fixing the state’s wobbly budget by tapping business coffers. House Speaker Tina Kotek would place a 0.95 percent tax on annual business sales in excess of $5 million. About 5,000 businesses would pay the new tax. The Democrats’ gross receipts tax proposal would replace the existing corporate income tax, which produces about $1 billion in revenues a year. The new tax would take effect Jan. 1, 2018. Businesses with sales under the $5 million threshold would pay a flat $250 annual filing fee. Businesses with less...

Thousands of Flint, Mich., residents have been warned that they could lose their homes if they don’t pay outstanding water bills — even as the city has just begun replacing lead-tainted pipes after a contamination crisis linked to a dozen deaths. Warning letters were mailed to 8,002 residents in April, according to the city, a few weeks after state officials ended a program that was paying the majority of their water bills. But many Flint residents still don’t trust their taps — lining up for free bottled water or installing city-recommended filters after revelations in 2014 and 2015 that dangerous...

<p>Austria’s ruling Social Democratic Party seeks to impose a “digital barter” tax on online services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google.</p>

The American Health Care Act (HR 1628) passed by the House today reduces taxes on the American people by over $1 trillion. The bill abolishes the following taxes imposed by Obama and the Democrat party in 2010 as part of Obamacare: -Abolishes the Obamacare Individual Mandate Tax which hits 8 million Americans each year. -Abolishes the Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax. Together with repeal of the Individual Mandate Tax repeal this is a $270 billion tax cut. -Abolishes Obamacare’s Medicine Cabinet Tax which hits 20 million Americans with Health Savings Accounts and 30 million Americans with Flexible Spending Accounts. This is...

As I write this, the GOP-controlled Congress is taking a second stab at repealing Obamacare. The effort is likely to fail, because the party is so divided. However, if they succeed, 21 million newly covered Americans may lose their health coverage. As we all know by now, this means that patients with pre-existing conditions, Medicare recipients and young people could be screwed. And that threat has lit a fire under California, which is racing to send Congress a message: Health care is a basic human right. Enter Senate Bill 562, the Healthy California Act, which promises to create universal health...

A U.S. district judge last week ordered California state prison officials to provide free chest-flattening underwear, also known as compression tops, to transgender inmates at women's prisons and feminine accessories to transgender inmates at men's prisons. Requiring inmates to buy compression tops "effectively" denies those items to individuals who cannot afford them, according to U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar, who issued the order on Friday. Taxpayers, therefore, must foot the bill.

The earthly convention of paying taxes may soon extend into outer space, if California regulators have anything to say about it. The state’s Franchise Tax Board is seeking public comment on its proposal for computing taxes on commercial space transportation companies. The rules are designed to apply to any company operating in California that generates at least half the money it takes in from “space transportation” — defined as the movement of people or property 62 miles above the surface of the Earth. That’s the internationally recognized line that separates our planet from the rest of space. It would apply...

Citing state budgeting uncertainties, Oklahoma transportation officials announced Monday that they have suspended construction on about a dozen highway projects, including the next phase of the I-240/I-35 interchange project in south Oklahoma City. "That's going to give us a black eye," Oklahoma Transportation Commission Chairman J. David Burrage said, describing the situation as "bad." Burrage made his remark after another commissioner noted that many contractors already have bought materials for projects that are being suspended. Companies that suffer financial losses because of work suspensions likely will file claims with the agency, officials said. The dozen or so suspended contracts may...

The coming fight over tax reform highlights distinct and seemingly irreconcilable views of government. We might want to reflect on them, as the major players ready the armament: brass knuckles, baseball bats, Fox News and New York Times commentaries. The two warring views: 1. Government knows more than you do. 2. On many topics, you know more than government does. There might be, between these viewpoints, certain points of mutual engagement, such as the point that government is entitled to enforce a uniform standard of justice, and the point that federal regulation of hamburger thicknesses would create problems without number....

One of the painful realities of our times is how long a political lie can survive, even after having been disproved years ago, or even generations ago. A classic example is the phrase "tax cuts for the rich," which is loudly proclaimed by opponents, whenever there is a proposal to reduce tax rates. The current proposal to reduce federal tax rates has revived this phrase, which was disproved by facts, as far back as the 1920s -- and by now should be called "tax lies for the gullible." How is the claim of "tax cuts for the rich" false?...

State transportation officials may be forced to suspend construction on some partially completed highway projects if the Legislature follows through with a proposal to cut its off-the-top funding from income tax revenues to $320 million, says Mike Patterson, executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. The transportation department was scheduled to receive $571 million in off-the-top funding from income tax revenues next fiscal year, but a joint legislative committee passed a revenue measure Thursday evening that calls for reducing that amount to $320 million. Patterson said such a drastic cut would force his department to suspend several construction projects...

Vermont Senator and former Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders started the month of May by campaigning against economic inequality. In his 30-minute speech, Sanders proposed a $15 minimum wage, three months of guaranteed paid family leave, free college, and a single payer healthcare system. Sanders asserted that a “progressive agenda” would meet the needs of working families and receive funding by imposing a tax increase on wealthy Americans. It is astounding that the Vermont Senator is incapable of realizing his severe contradictions. Raising the minimum wage is one of the worst policies for working families. For starters, increasing the minimum wage...

President Donald Trump said on Monday he would consider raising the federal tax on gasoline to fund infrastructure development "earmarked toward the highways," Bloomberg News reported. "It's something that I would certainly consider,” Trump told the news agency.

The Internal Revenue Service is demanding a whopping $7 billion or more in back taxes from the world’s most profitable hedge fund, whose boss’s wealth and cyber savvy helped Donald Trump pole-vault into the White House. Suddenly, the government’s seven-year pursuit of Renaissance Technologies LLC is blanketed in political intrigue, now that the hedge fund’s reclusive, anti-establishment co-chief executive, Robert Mercer, has morphed into a political force who might be owed a big presidential favor.