So we’ve electioneered. And some things have happened. Unsolicited thoughts below the jump.
Category: Politics
Flat ain’t simple
Long time no blog, eh? There’s been a lot of politicking going on lately, what with the presidential campaigns and debates and all, and lots of talk about tax plans. A favorite talking point about a tax plan is the argument that a flat tax will make taxes simpler. A flat tax is many things,… Continue reading Flat ain’t simple
Minnesota Tax Incidence 2015
The 2015 Minnesota Tax Incidence study is out. Since I last posted about this two years ago, not much has changed. Details below:
We know better than you
Let’s review the tortured verbiage that passes for logic in today’s majority opinion in the “Hobby Lobby” case, shall we?
Tax Brackets
I’m with Atrios here (warning: profanity). The easiest part of computing your taxes is the calculation of tax from Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) facilitated by the tax tables. You could have one bracket, ten brackets, a hundred brackets, or an elliptic curve; the lookup tables make that computation simple, and the fact that most people… Continue reading Tax Brackets
Healthcare Agonistes Redux
It’s been a few months since the launch of the health care exchange, one of the biggest remaining pieces of Obamacare. It’s been rocky, but the numbers are not too far off from projections. As the exchanges and the other pieces of the law become status quo, however, that has not stopped the doom and… Continue reading Healthcare Agonistes Redux
MVP
How good would you feel about an IRS website that promised you 90% of your income tax refund if you used it? Or a DMV website that allowed you to have a pretty good shot of renewing your license tabs, but if your birthday was in December you’d find that your purchase couldn’t be completed?… Continue reading MVP
Rollout
So it’s been a month since the rollout of the health insurance exchanges created by the ACA, and it hasn’t exactly been a fantastic rollout. It also isn’t that unexpected, nor is it the worst rollout of all time. It certainly doesn’t mean that Obamacare is doomed to failure. But there are a lot of… Continue reading Rollout
How to manufacture a controversy
There’s a whole lot of stupid involved with the government shutdown, but the story that just blows me away is the Vitter Amendment and the so-called “special treatment” that Congress is supposedly getting with regards to health insurance. If you want to hear a small part of why we are in the situation we are… Continue reading How to manufacture a controversy
Bravely tilting at windmills
There’s hardly much more to be said about the all-too-likely government shutdown, or the possibility of an even more terrifying default on our debt obligations. But even so, I firmly believe it’s a good idea to repeat this as often as possible so everybody understands it: Republicans in Congress are drawing their line in the… Continue reading Bravely tilting at windmills