Mitt Romney thinks he pays enough in taxes, and Newt Gingrich thinks it’s too much. What does President Obama think?
Robert McIntyre
Robert S. McIntyre is director of Citizens for Tax Justice and a contributing editor for The American Prospect.
.
Posted inArticle
Transparently Dishonest
A fellow from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the big accounting, lobbying, and corporate public relations firm, called me the other day to talk about a PwC project called the “Total Tax Contribution framework,” which he described as “an effort to enhance transparency in corporate tax reporting.” He buttered me up by citing my long history in exposing corporate […]
Posted inArticle
Report Retort
For decades, most Republican politicians have treated as an article of faith that tax cuts, especially tax cuts for the rich, will “pay for themselves” through improved economic growth and resulting higher revenues. Critics deride this implausible belief as “voodoo economics” or “the free-lunch theory.” Its adherents prefer to call it “supply-side economics.” Oddly, the […]
Posted inColumns
This Is Simplification?
There are many things to criticize about the recent report from President Bush’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. Personally, I’m appalled at the report’s call for adding $7 trillion more to the deficit over the next two decades — a catastrophe the panel weirdly styles as “revenue neutral.” If that’s not bad enough, the […]
Posted inColumns
Setting the Squawkers Straight
“We here at Squawk Box have been campaigning for politicians to ‘give back their pork’ to help pay for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Our next guest offers up another possibility. He says we should consider following the path of President Lyndon Johnson. In 1968, LBJ enacted a one-year, 10-percent income-tax surcharge to help pay for […]
Posted inColumns
Tax Follies At TNR
You have to wonder. Half to three-quarters of the American public doesn’t believe in evolution (depending on how you define it). One out of three Americans thinks the budget deficit can be eliminated (a) by hoping (or praying) that it goes away (8 percent) or (b) by cutting taxes even more (25 percent). Anti-scientific, un-arithmetic […]
Posted inColumns
How Times Have Changed
Back in the late 1970s, when gasoline prices zoomed and oil companies were making money hand over fist, our government enacted a windfall profit tax to return some of those unjustified gains to the public that was paying for them. Today, as gasoline prices have again skyrocketed, the federal government’s reaction is exactly the opposite: […]
Posted inColumns
Down Is Up (or So Some Say)
New projections from the congressional Budget Office suggest that this year’s deficit will be $75 billion or so less than last year’s record level. Similar figures will be reported by the Bush administration just after this column goes to press. The right is already claiming victory. “Our policies continue to boost the economy and tax […]
Posted inSpecial Report
Bush’s Tax-Deform Panel
The president’s advisory panel on Federal Tax Reform is mouthing some surprisingly attractive lines about improving our tax system. A panel appointed by Mr. Big Deficits points out that “we have lost sight of the fact that the fundamental purpose of our tax system is to raise revenues to fund government.” Mr. Loophole’s appointees argue […]
Posted inColumns
The Taxonomist: Wild Pitch
Late in the evening of St. Patrick’s Day, while much of America was out carousing, our hardworking U.S. senators stayed in session. It was time for the Senate to take its first stab at addressing Social Security’s long-term financial health since President Bush began his push to restructure the program. The result wasn’t pretty. Did […]
