As this image illustrates, the internal revenue code is a nightmare of complexity. And this chart shows how Obamacare is turning the health care system into a Byzantine nightmare. So what happens when you mix bad tax policy and bad health care policy? Well, you get…
I’m periodically asked about proposals to impose “small” taxes on transactions. There are a couple of versions of this idea. In some cases, such proposals are designed to tax every economic transaction and supposedly generate enough money to replace all other taxes….
I didn’t have the fun of dealing with the OccupyWashington protestors at the Americans for Prosperity conference, but I did speak to the audience about America’s looming fiscal nightmare. The video quality isn’t perfect, though it came out better than the recording of…
I’m not a fan of international bureaucracies. I’ve criticized the United Nations for wanting global taxes. I’ve condemned the International Monetary Fund for promoting bigger government. I’ve even excoriated the largely unknown Basel Committee on Banking Supervision…
I’m baffled by stupid Republicans (sorry to be redundant). Some GOPers have agreed to put taxes on the table. Not surprisingly, Democrats are praising them for this preemptive surrender, patting these Republicans on the head for being good little lapdogs. (The…
I’ve dinged Mitt Romney for his less-than-stellar record on healthcare, his weakness on Social Security reform, and his reprehensible support for ethanol subsidies, but I haven’t bothered to address his budget plan – in part because it seemed rather underwhelming….
Yesterday evening, Heritage spotted a conspicuous entry in the day’s publication of the Federal Register, defining a new tax on Christmas trees, which would fund a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The story quickly blew up and went viral, and now the…
As CF&P has consistently warned, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act passed last year is driving foreign investment out of the US, which means less capital investment for the economy and thus fewer jobs for Americans. A group of Taiwanese banks fed up with the…
I recently commented on some astounding numbers showing that each regulatory bureaucrat destroys 100 jobs in the productive sector of the economy. That’s obviously terrible news. Heck, it would be awful if each bureaucrat caused the destruction of 2 private-sector…
I’ve always been proud of my Irish heritage, but now I’m having to reconsider. As is so often the case when something goes awry, the blame belongs to a politician (this Craig Ferguson joke is right on the mark). Michael Higgins, the President-Elect of Ireland, has…