Free Republic

Victor Davis Hanson explains how the middle class in California is struggling due to high taxes and heavy regulations that fall heavily on small business owners. As a result, many are leaving the state, causing the middle class to shrink and leaving California with the highest number of homeless people and welfare recipients in the US

“This new policy by the Biden administration is a slap in the face to every consumer in the nation who worked hard to develop a good credit score. Forcing them to subsidize lower scored buyers adds insult to the injury of the higher fees they are now required to pay. This is the latest in a disturbing pattern of Biden’s big government intervention into the lives of hard-working Americans in order to push his progressive social agenda..."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently announced a 2024 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, suggested on Saturday that the American middle class was “systematically” wiped out as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns. “The strength of a nation comes from a strong economy and a vibrant middle class, and we have wiped out the middle class in the country systematically,” Kennedy Jr. told Fox News‘ Neil Cavuto.

American middle-class families, who are most likely to serve in the military and pay an overwhelming percentage of their income in federal taxes, are not benefiting from the policies of the Biden administration, a recent Monmouth University poll revealed. Only 10 percent of Americans believe the middle class has benefited a lot, while 51 percent say the middle class has not benefited at all. The numbers have only deteriorated under President Joe Biden’s leadership. “In the first months of his term, more said the middle class benefited a lot (19% in June 2021) and fewer said not at all (36%),”...

I struggle to find liberal policies that achieve what they claim to aim at.Which of course brings up the question: are they actually aimed at achieving what is claimed?Often, no. Usually no. Occasionally the liberals are merely stupid, not evil. But Occam’s Razor suggests that with a record of being always wrong, the Left isn’t actually trying to achieve what they say. With all those high-powered degrees at hand, at least a few of the policymakers must actually be intelligent.A great example is “affordable housing” programs. Have you noticed housing getting any more affordable? I sure haven’t. And that is...

The new Republican-controlled House of Representatives got off to a bumpy start by attempting to repeal last year’s addition of of $71.5 billion to the IRS budget. It’s a political stunt with no chance of passing the U.S. Senate. Hamstringing the taxman doesn’t make taxes go away, but it does make it harder for taxpayers to pay them, the government to collect them and public agencies to function. Defunding the IRS would aggravate an already egregious problem: Billions of dollars of uncollected taxes, mostly from corporations and the wealthy. From 2014 to 2016, the IRS estimated $500 billion per year...

Illinois finished poorly on Kiplinger list due to the impact on the middle class state's flat income tax rate, average combined state and local sales tax and high property tax burden.A new report lists the Land of Lincoln as the least tax-friendly state in the nation for middle-class families.The report was done by Kiplinger and ranked the 10 worst states for middle-class families when looking at the state's overall tax burden."Sorry, Illinois, but you're the least tax-friendly state in the country for middle-class families," the report said.Illinois finished poorly on the list due to the impact on the middle class...

Important to understand is that there is not one single new original idea in Klaus Schwab's so-called Great Reset agenda for the world. Nor is his Fourth Industrial Revolution agenda his or his claim to having invented the notion of Stakeholder Capitalism a product of Schwab. Klaus Schwab is little more than a slick PR agent for a global technocratic agenda, a corporatist unity of corporate power with government, including the UN, an agenda whose origins go back to the beginning of the 1970s, and even earlier. The Davos Great Reset is merely an updated blueprint for a global dystopian...

The great westward drive that began with Lewis and Clark has been steadily rolling backward. Southern California is filled with moving trucks headed to Arizona, Texas and Nevada. Those who can afford it, fly to Florida. The Russians were here once and then the Spanish. The American presence in California was more comprehensive and lasted longer, but may one day leave sagging Wells Fargo banks and decrepit mini malls filled with sushi places and nail salons the way the Spanish left their missions. It's a beautiful country, but so is Afghanistan and any number of otherwise unlivable places. Every other...

During the Overtime segment of Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that some of the increased funding for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act will be used to audit middle-class taxpayers. While discussing Washington Post columnist, CNN Contributor, and “PBS NewsHour” Special Correspondent Catherine Rampell’s recent tour of an IRS facility and the problems the agency has with processing tax returns due to outdated technology, Maher said, “This bill that Biden signed this week has $80 billion…that’s what it’s for, right? It’s $80 billion to the IRS. Now, of course, the Republicans are saying, you’re going...

Republicans are coming under fire for their rhetoric over $80 billion in funding for the IRS included a massive climate, tax and health care bill that Democrats in Congress are sending to the White House. The funding, over 10 years, is intended to help the IRS enforce various provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, which would raise more than $700 billion in new revenue by instituting a 15-percent corporate minimum tax, taxing stock buy backs and extending a cap on deductions for business losses, in addition to helping the IRS enforce existing tax law. Of the $80 billion, more than...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen penned a letter this week directing the Internal Revenue Service to ensure the $80 billion in additional funding it is set to receive over the next decade doesn’t result in more middle-class tax audits. Yellen sought to assuage concerns despite sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers and independent analyses which indicated the IRS spending spree included in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will increase tax scrutiny for more than just wealthy Americans. “Specifically, I direct that any additional resources—including any new personnel or auditors that are hired—shall not be used to increase the share of small business...

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 appears to have a good shot at being signed into law. If Senate Democrats can get Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to join Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), the bill will have the necessary 50 votes to pass through the reconciliation process. Let's hope that never happens. The plan would hurt working-class taxpayers and small-business owners across America. The act will introduce a "corporate alternative minimum tax," which will compel a 15% tax on corporate income. It will increase the taxes imposed on certain high-income earners. Finally, it will step up enforcement mechanisms within the IRS....

The reality of inflation and the specter of a recession appear to be weighing heavily on middle-class households. Among those whose income falls in the $30,000-to-$100,000 range, 75% say their earnings are falling behind the cost of living, and 77% think the U.S. will be in a recession by the end of 2022, according to a recent survey from Primerica. There’s also been a general uptick in financial worries in the last six months, with 39% of those surveyed expecting to be worse off financially in a year, up from 32% in March and 28% in December 2021. In December...

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Went from receiving over $4K in tax refunds to paying over $4k in one year. I knew I was going to take a hit, but didn't expect quite the doozy! What has been your experience this tax season?

Most of the time, the vast majority of Americans simply do not care about economics. And it pains me to say that, because I have been running a website about economics for more than a decade. But it is true. Under normal circumstances, most hard working Americans don’t have the time or the energy to debate the finer points of economic policy. But now things have changed. Here in 2022, our leaders have messed things up so badly that suddenly just about everyone is feeling the pain. Most people just want economic conditions to “return to normal”, but that isn’t...

The bottom never had much to lose but they managed to lose a bit anyway. The top keep padding their wealth but remain the most impacted by recessions. The middle class is shrinking. The poor who spend every penny and them some on food and shelter get hammered by inflation.

The snowball effect of cumulative inflation is going to be on display tomorrow when the BLS inflation data from December is released. We have previously discussed the unavoidable price increases as noted within the November data Here, and within the producer price data Here. While the data being released tomorrow is backward looking, we are in the eye of the inflation storm right now. The consumer prices at end of January and through February are all reflecting new purchase order prices and contract prices to wholesalers, buyers and retailers. As a result, the December reports will be the precursor to...

President Biden and congressional Democrats' Build Back Better (BBB) Act is now in the hands of the Senate. That legislative body's 50-50 partisan split will undoubtedly make the bill's passage difficult. In order for BBB to become law, Democratic Senate leadership will need to convince moderates such as Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that the legislation's $2.4 trillion price tag can be offset by expanding the IRS and its enforcement efforts while imposing substantial tax reform measures. Congressional Democrats have argued that one of the best ways to pay for the legislation is to raise taxes on...