Policy in an age of post-truth politics. Obama still doesn’t get it.Photo: White HouseAs Joe Romm noted the other day, Ezra Klein has an interesting column in WaPo making the case that, in terms of policy, Obama “is a moderate Republican of the early 1990s.” Putting aside the emergency measures responding to the economic crisis, Obama’s signature initiatives have been a health-care bill modeled on Mitt Romney’s and a cap-and-trade bill modeled on George Bush Sr.’s.
Both of those original policies were successful, but when Obama took them up, Republicans fled en masse. Says Klein, “as Democrats moved to the right to pick up Republican votes, Republicans moved to the right to oppose Democratic proposals.” I agree with Kevin Drum that those policies were never truly Republican: They were compromises Republicans felt forced to accept to avoid worse (i.e., more liberal) policies. In short, Republicans have mastered post-truth politics. So it’s not that they “moved right” on some policy spectrum when Obama took office. No. The Top 10 Tax Breaks -- And How They Help The Wealthy The Most. This is the time of year when we are most aware of our tax burdens. But what we may be less aware of are all the huge tax breaks built into our system. Most Americans benefit from one or more -- but it's the wealthy who benefit the most.
The government spends money through appropriations and writing checks, but it also showers individuals and companies with a astonishing array of special exemptions, credits and deductions that amount to a $1.1 trillion giveaway each year. (For comparison: the big budget fight that concluded last week cut spending by about $38 billion.) About half of the money lost to "tax expenditures" comes from the 10 breaks listed below. Few of the biggest breaks directly benefit corporate America. But in stark contrast to, say, social programs, tax breaks vastly favor the rich over the middle class and the poor. Some of these terms may require a little explanation: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. The bugger, bugged. When I broke down in my midlife crisis car in remotest Kent just before Christmas, a battered white van pulled up on the far carriageway.
To help, I thought. But when the driver got out he started taking pictures with a long-lens camera. He came closer to get better shots and I swore at him. Then he offered me a lift the last few miles to my destination. I suspected his motives and swore at him some more. (I'm not entirely sympathetic towards paparazzi.) Then I realised I couldn't get a taxi and was late. He turned out to be an ex-News of the World investigative journalist and paparazzo, now running a pub in Dover. More than that, he was Paul McMullan, one of two ex-NoW hacks who had blown the whistle (in the Guardian and on Channel 4's Dispatches) on the full extent of phone-hacking at the paper, particularly under its former editor Andy Coulson.
I agreed and the picture duly appeared in the Mail on Sunday that weekend with his creative version of the encounter. 2012 Election Central.
Homeland Security News Wire. The Day -- Moby and MoveOn Protest Budget Cuts on the Poor. Hit & Run : Reason Magazine. PwCWith tax season upon us, if you were a foreign business owner regarding all of this scurrying around to file forms and pay the United States government its take, would you consider the activity as relatively attractive compared to the alternatives? Or would you consider it a turnoff? To judge by rankings released last year by the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (you can call it PwC), businesses may venture into the Land of the Free for market opportunities, but that may well be despite a pretty uncompetitive tax regime. The U.S. ranks 64 out of 189 for ease of paying taxes, has a total tax rate that's above average and, importantly, barely seems to be trying to compete with other countries that Americans once mocked as overtaxed and overgoverned.
According to PwC, "Paying Taxes 2014 looks not only at corporate income tax, but at all of the taxes and mandatory contributions that a domestic medium-size case study company must pay. PwC Err... Well...