Washington politicians talk a good game when it comes to job creation. But when it comes to actually doing something, they’ve been unable to provide long-term stability on tax policy and reassure business leaders they’re serious about deficit reduction. The result is a cloudy economic climate that has left businesses sitting on cash rather than spending it. Bankrupting America compiled the views of four CEOs from American companies: Starbucks, Honeywell, EA Sports and Coca-Cola. They’re ready for Congress to take bold action.
Today The Washington Post reported that President Obama’s budget proposal to “tax the rich” to pay for health care, including reduced deductions for charitable donations, is “facing deep skepticism on Capitol Hill”. According to the Post, as an alternative, top lawmakers are pondering a change to the federal tax treatment of health insurance—a relic of the WWII era—as an alternative way to financing health reform. If there is one item where there is a powerful consensus among serious health policy analysts, conservative and liberal alike, it is the need to …
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) is a lawyer. He is not only a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, but he is the chairman. The Ways and Means Committee is responsible for all federal tax policy. One might hope that the man in charge of writing the nation’s tax policy does his own taxes. He doesn’t. After it was exposed that Mr. Rangel failed to pay thousands of dollars in taxes on over $75,000 in income from a beach house in the Dominican Republic, Mr. Rangel’s lawyer told reporters …
