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  • Another Special Interest Gets Sweetheart Deal in Health Care Bill

    After a long-week of negotiations, unions have won an exemption from the excise tax on high-cost “Cadillac” health insurance plans. The excise tax would fall on health insurance plans that cost more than $8,500 for individuals and $23,00 for families (the union deal reportedly slightly increases these thresholds) starting in … More

    Applying Payroll Tax to Investments Will Slow Recovery and Hurt Seniors

    The House and Senate are working to reconcile their differing health care reform bills into one final bill. Tax increases remain a stubborn sticking point. The House prefers a surtax on high-earners and the Senate an excise tax on so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans that cost over $8,500 for individuals … More

    Stock Transaction Tax: Yet another Tax Increase

    Congress is discussing yet another tax increase. This one would be a tax on stock transactions and could fund a new jobs bill since it has become apparent to everyone that the stimulus failed to create any jobs on net. This was underscored again when the Labor Department reported Friday … More

    Congress Considers Steep Death Tax Increase

    Leaders in the House of Representatives recently discussed the possibility of extending the death tax at its current rate and exemption levels for one year through 2010. If this proposal becomes law it would be a massive tax hike. Under current law, the death tax has a top rate of … More

    Repealing the Death Tax Would Create 1.5 Million Jobs

    Congress will take up debate on the dreaded Death Tax once again in the coming weeks. It will do so because the Death Tax expires for one year starting January 1, 2010. But like the villain in a horror movie, it will rise from the dead with its full power … More

    New Study Shows Tax Cuts Most Effective Stimulus

    The failure of the stimulus package to create jobs and generate economic growth becomes more apparent each day – despite preposterous claims from the White House about all the jobs they say it has created and saved. Counter intuitively (at least in the sane world outside of Washington), the stimulus’ … More

    Raising Top Marginal Tax Rates Punishes Small Businesses

    A widely propagated myth contends that raising top tax rates doesn’t hurt small businesses because only a small percentage of them pay rates at that level. But the number of businesses that pay top rates is economically meaningless. By this more accurate measure it is obvious that raising top income … More

    Mad High Tax Rates

    On this week’s season premiere of the popular AMC show “Mad Men” viewers were reminded about the punitive high tax rates in the 1960s: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx8bQ-hqIUY[/youtube] This episode of Mad Men takes place in 1963, when the top income tax rate was 91 percent on incomes over $200,000 ($400,000 for married … More

    Sales Tax Holidays: Popular Policy “Clunker”

    Virginians will celebrate their annual “sales tax holiday” this weekend—August 7 through August 9. On these three days, the state’s 5 percent sales tax will be exempted from school supplies, clothing, and footwear. Each eligible school supply item must be priced at $20 or less, and each eligible article of … More

    How Much More Can We Redistribute: IRS Releases New Data

    The IRS released data today on the distribution of income taxes. It shows that the highest-earning taxpayers shoulder a considerable burden of the federal income tax. According to the IRS, the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid over 40 percent of all federal income taxes in 2007. That is a … More