Tag: Bill

Joe Selvaggi discusses the cost and consequences of the $1.5 trillion decade-long subsidies in the farm bill with Chris Edwards, Chair of Fiscal Studies at the Cato Institute. These subsidies have the potential to negatively impact incentives for consumers, producers, and those concerned about the environment.

If Math Is White Supremacy, Civilization Is Finished

 

Two plus two equals four. No controversy there, right? Because in this universe, which happens to be governed by immutable laws of physics, which are expressed through unalterable mathematics, two plus two must always equal four, there’s only one right answer. And no one could possibly quibble with that, right?

Wrong! Reality-denying leftists insist that two plus two is deviously misleading and adds up to a whole lot more than four, if it even adds up to that. It’s all part of the larger equation of – and you know what’s coming – the dastardly, ubiquitous, never-ending, all-encompassing . . . drum roll, please . . . white supremacy!

Rob Long of National Review Online and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for sending Jussie Smollett a bill for more than $130,000 to cover the costs of the police to investigate his hate crime hoax.  They also shake their heads as the supposedly moderate “Economist” magazine labels Ben Shapiro a “sage of the alt-right” but then changes it to call him a “radical conservative.”  And they have a lot of fun with the news that Illinois State’s Attorney Kim Foxx didn’t really recuse herself from the Smollett case in the legal sense, just in the “colloquial” sense.

A Summary of the GOP Tax Reform Bill

 

On Friday, Republicans released the final version of their tax bill. It combines parts of both the House and Senate versions. Here are the details.

On the individual side:

  • We’re back up to seven tax brackets again, but the rates on each change slightly. They are 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. (The current ones are 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, and 39.6%, respectively.)
  • It eliminates the individual health insurance mandate which, as we all know, is actually a tax.
  • The much-discussed state and local tax deduction remains, but the deduction is capped at $10,000.
  • The cap on the mortgage interest deduction is lowered from $1 million to $750,000.
  • The AMT remains, but the income exemption is raised to $70,300 for singles and $109,400 for married couples.
  • The estate tax remains, but the exception is raised so only 0.2 percent of estates will get it.
  • The standard deduction is almost doubled. From $6,350 to $12,000 for single filers and from $12,700 to $24,000 for joint filers. This probably means fewer people will itemize their deductions.
  • The personal exemption is eliminated. You can currently claim a $4,050 personal exemption for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. That is gone now.
  • The child tax credit is double to $2,000 and is now available to higher earners, up to $200,000 for single parents and $400,000 for married couples.
  • There is a temporary tax credit for non-child dependents. People can take a $500 credit for non-dependent children, ailing elderly adults, or adult children with disabilities.
  • There are other smaller tax breaks that were gone in earlier versions of the bill but are restored for the final version. For example, allowing teachers to deduct supplies they buy with their own money.
  • There is a change to the inflation adjustment to the tax code. The new measure is slower than the current measure, so the net effect of deductions and credits will be worth slightly less.

On the corporate side:

Question for Hillary

 

hillary_orange1“Mrs. Clinton, you have been a feminist, and a champion of women’s rights and issues for as long as any of us can remember.

“Given that you have intimate, painful, personal experience of the effect on a man’s reputation and career of a woman’s false report of sexual assault, do you think it’s time for feminists to admit that ‘crying rape’ is a real phenomenon? Shouldn’t we tighten the rules of evidence for a woman’s claims of sexual assault, and punish those who abuse the criminal justice system by falsely accusing men — especially prominent or wealthy men who depend for their livelihood on their good reputation — of these terrible crimes?”

That’s one of the questions I’d like to ask Hillary. What other questions do you have for the current crop of candidates?

Member Post

 

People, people, people.  Over on the Member Feed, there’s a fairly mild swipe at Trump via the Washington Post that slyly hints Trump may be playing footsie with the Clinton camp. I’m only a basement dwelling pyjama blogger but even I have enough sense to check the dates on the phone calls and then through […]

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