dropping in

Fiscal therapy

End Legal Tax Cheating
The marginal tax rate for cops and teachers is more than 40 percent—25 percent for income taxes and another 15 percent for Social Security and Medicare taxes. The marginal rate for some hedge fund managers, five of whom earned more than $1 billion in 2007, has been zero. That's because many of these speculators have been able to avoid taxes by operating through offshore partnerships under rules that let them defer income taxes. Executives, entertainers, and athletes also have been able to amass vast untaxed fortunes: For example, Roberto C. Goizueta, the ceo of Coca-Cola in the '80s and '90s, built a nest egg of more than $1 billion, but was able to defer taxes on most of it until he died.

Tax deferrals are one of the major tools for redistributing wealth upward. While most of us must pay each time we get a paycheck, executives and corporations can defer their taxes for years, even decades. When the treasury finally gets the money, inflation has eroded its value; in the meantime, government must borrow more, pay more interest, and collect more from everyone else.

A provision in the Wall Street bailout bill addressed the hedge fund part of the problem, but a more comprehensive fix would involve stopping all deferrals beyond the modest amounts allowed for retirement savings (up to $16,500 a year for young workers, a little more for those over 50). Executives could still defer taking some of their compensation—a way of loaning money to their companies—but only after they pay taxes. Everyone would play by the same rules, and the federal government could gain $100 billion or more each year—enough to fund Obama's health care plan twice over.

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Did you know that the sales taxes you pay at most Wal-Marts go not to your state or local government, but instead pay back the cost of building the store? Sales-tax givebacks, as well as exemptions from property taxes, can amount to an extra 9 percent profit for retailers that extract concessions from local governments. That means not only a huge advantage for new arrivals over established, often locally owned, businesses, but also a direct hit to resources for local police, schools, and parks. The chain stores claim they are creating jobs. But basic economic logic says retail can add net jobs only when a population grows or incomes rise, and when those things are happening, market forces should be enough to spur new stores.

In a similar vein, the big four commercial sports make operating profits of $1.6 billion, Forbes has calculated—but their taxpayer subsidies exceed $2 billion a year (and that's before the estimated $864 million Mayor Bloomberg and Uncle Sam just handed to the New York Yankees), according to Neil deMause, coauthor of a book on sports subsidies. In other words, taxpayers literally provide all the profits of mlb, the nfl, nba, and nhl combined.

So it is that developer Theodore Lerner and his partners purchased the Washington Nationals baseball team in 2006 for $450 million, but stand to collect more than $1 billion in subsidies over the next two decades. In effect, the public bought them the team and gave them a $600 million tip. Using the tax code to eliminate any value in stadium subsidies would take care of this problem quickly and efficiently.MORE

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Incentives to fuckup the law

If you build it, they will use it

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In which Tenessee Dems steal teh tennessee Repubs milkshake. (And I DIE laughing Now with video!

Supreme Court flushes the 4th Amendment down the toilet

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Except when the Supreme Court says nuh-oh In short, this gives the police even more fucking power over citizens that they don't need. And they say LIBERALS are activist judges.

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