Taxation

Surplus Balderdash

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 1999

The projected budget surpluses are useful in revealing the political philosophies of Democrats and Republicans. The Democrats hold that lowering taxes in light of the surpluses constitutes a form of government spending and should be judged against other ways government could spend the money. That approach implies that government ...

Scamming the Poor

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 1, 1999

One of the biggest scams in American politics is the bromide that government officials use to justify America's paternalistic welfare state and the federal income tax: "We love the poor, the needy, and the disadvantaged." The primary victims of the scam are the poor themselves. Let's look at a few examples. The minimum-wage ...

Tax-Cut Deceptions

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 1999

The Republican collapse on taxes is about as surprising as an elephant's fleeing a mouse, which, come to think of it, may be exactly what happened. It looked as though the congressional Republicans were going to make a 10 percent across-the-board unconditional tax-rate cut the centerpiece of their agenda. It was supposed to contrast with the Clinton administration's insistence that ...

Putting the Taxpayers at Risk, Part 3

by Doug Bandow March 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 What is driving support for the multilateral development banks (MDBs) is businesses' constant quest for government handouts. Groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers spare no expense in lobbying Congress to toss money abroad in the hopes that some of it will be used to purchase ...

Tax-Cut Fallacies

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 1999

The Republican collapse on taxes is as about as surprising as an elephant's fleeing a mouse, which, come to think of it, may be exactly what's happened. It looked as though the congressional Republicans were going to make a 10 percent across-the-board unconditional tax-rate cut the centerpiece of their agenda. ...

A 10 Percent Tax Cut? Repeal the 16th Amendment Instead

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 1999

In 1913, the 16th Amendment - the income tax amendment - was added to the U.S. Constitution. It was a watershed event in American history, for it fundamentally transformed the relationship between the American people and the federal government. For approximately 125 years, the American people had lived without a federal income ...

Putting the Taxpayers at Risk, Part 2

by Doug Bandow February 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 The World Bank has also long promoted development at any cost. Bank loans underwrote Julius Nyerere's coercive "ujamaa" program and Indonesia's forced transmigration project. Millions of farmers have been forced off their land without compensation by Bank-backed dams. Bank lending long subsidized the destruction of Brazil's rain forest. To blunt such criticisms, ...

Putting the Taxpayers at Risk, Part 1

by Doug Bandow January 1, 1999

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 President Clinton has not let a little scandal stand in the way of his ongoing attempt to scam the American people. As talk of impeachment enveloped him in Washington, he flew to New York City to give what his staff termed an "important" speech. Which meant a proposal for yet more taxpayer ...

Waging Tax War Against Ourselves

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 1998

It's easy to see that it's election time in America. Vice President Gore recently made a campaign swing around California where he handed out $185.4 million in federal grants while, at the same time, raising millions of dollars for Democratic candidates. A Gore political aid described it ...

Tax Cutting, Washington-Style

by Sheldon Richman October 1, 1998

The House Republicans' proposed tax cut, which looks doomed in the Senate, is an outrage. It's so small it would barely show up on the budget radar screen. This makes absolutely no sense. If President Clinton is determined to veto a tax cut, as he says he is, at least make ...

Home Runs and the Capricious Tax Man

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 1998

Everyone was appalled when a spokesman at the Internal Revenue Service said that a big tax bill lay in store for the fan who retrieved Mark McGwire's record-breaking 62nd home-run baseball and returned it to the slugger. Then everyone breathed a sigh of relief when IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti said, in ...

Eliminate, Don’t Reform, the IRS

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 1998

Yet again a taxpayer "bill of rights" has been enacted into law. And so, after all the recent revelations of Internal Revenue Service abuse, we can all now be confident the tax collector will respect the rights and dignity of every American. Right. And pigs have started flying. We've been here before. ...