Free Republic

House Speaker Paul Ryan's ambitious tax overhaul relies on an import tax concept originally developed by a Berkeley economist who once advised Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Alan J. Auerbach is the director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as an economic counselor to Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign. He also happens to be known as the godfather of "border adjustability," the linchpin of the tax reform plan that Ryan, a conservative Wisconsin Republican, is attempting to sell to the White House and push through...

VP candidate Ryan paid tax rate of 15.9 percent in 2010, returns showBy Daniel Strauss - 08/17/12 06:33 PM ET Paul Ryan and his wife paid a tax rate of 15.9 percent in 2010 and 20 percent in 2011, according to tax returns Mitt Romney's campaign released Friday. In 2011, the Ryans had an adjusted gross income of $323,416 and paid $64,764 in federal taxes. In 2010, Ryan and his wife had an income of $215,417 and paid $34,233 in federal taxes. Roughly more than half of that income came from Ryan's salary as a member of Congress. The rest...