Free Republic

Leading Democrats are putting together fallback proposals if Washington fails to reach a deal on the “fiscal cliff” that would allow the party to cast itself as seeking to cut taxes. “Of course, I’ve got a backup plan in the event that we don’t succeed here,” Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Friday. “I’m sure the White House has one too.” Tax rates are set to expire on most households in January if Congress does not act to extend some of the rates, something some Democrats have long seen as giving their party an advantage....

In most plans to reduce the deficit “tax expenditures” is a phrase that comes up often. We have to “reduce tax expenditures” or “get rid of spending in the tax code”. This is a popular way politicians try to sell their plans to eliminate credits and deductions that families or businesses count on when filing tax returns. The idea of reducing tax expenditures is central to the plans proposed by President Obama, the Senate Gang of Six, and the Simpson-Bowles debt commission. The popularity of this phrase and idea is nothing short of astounding, considering the fact that, in the...

Dumb ideas never die in Washington, DC. They just get stuck in committee. Proving that once again is outgoing Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), attempting to revive an idea for a new tax that was so intrusive and unwieldy that even Barack Obama had to disavow it two years ago when his Transportation Secretary starting pushing the notion. Conrad points to a new CBO study saying that taxing Americans on their car mileage will provide a windfall for the federal government: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released a report that said taxing people based on how many miles they...