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Jul 31, 2010
Sacramento County missing $17 million in payroll taxes (The Sacramento Bee)
The county's human resources department continued to process payroll deductions for regular county workers. Under the contract, the county wired money weekly to Ingentra's bank account. The IRS appears to have received only $54 million. The company took money intended for tax payments and put it...
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Jul 31, 2010
EDITORIAL (Los Angeles Times)
Such locks, which are common on DVDs, video games and subscription entertainment services, are designed to let people play the content they acquire but not make playable copies of it. The new rules don't prevent Apple from disabling unauthorized applications by updating the iPhone's operating...
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Jul 30, 2010
CBO's deficit forecast shows need for early action (Washington Post)
The scary part, as outlined in the CBO's new issue brief, "Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis," is the Matterhorn-like incline of what happens next. The more realistic scenario -- that the tax cuts are extended, the alternative minimum tax is indexed, Medicare payments to physicians are...
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Jul 30, 2010
Five myths about the Bush tax cuts (Washington Post)
Should the tax cuts expire, as some Democrats have said? As the CBO notes, most Bush tax cut dollars go to higher-income households, and these top earners don't spend as much of their income as lower earners. In 2007, well after the tax cuts took effect, the budget deficit stood at 1.2 percent of...
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Jul 30, 2010
Debating an extension of the Bush tax cuts (Washington Post)
Below are responses from Alan S. Blinder, Mark Zandi, Diane Lim Rogers, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Leonard S. Burman and Robert Greenstein. Besides, the economy performed admirably during the 1990s when upper-income households paid these same higher tax rates. Everyone knows that our income tax code is...
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Jul 30, 2010
The confounding conservative (Washington Post)
Cuccinelli's mother dabbled in Democratic precinct politics. Cuccinelli's letter caused an uproar and prompted Gov. The governor simultaneously endorsed Cuccinelli's legal reasoning.Cuccinelli sounds contrite.
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Jul 30, 2010
Wonkbook: GOP blocks small business aid; Dems cut food stamps Goldman dodging FinReg (Washington Post)
Welcome to Wonkbook.Top StoriesSt. In the real world, businesses exist to create profits for shareholders, not jobs for workers. Margaret Sheehan, a lawyer with the group, says that even if new biomass plants meet all Environmental Protection Agency regulations on air emissions, generation could...
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Jul 30, 2010
Health insurance rates (Los Angeles Times)
Another would require insurers to justify decisions to deny coverage or charge higher-than-standard rates. Schwarzenegger says the requirement will dramatically curb the insurance industry's ability to raise rates. Still, advocates of strict rate regulation believe that California needs...
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Jul 30, 2010
Va. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli: The rise of the confounding conservative (Washington Post)
Cuccinelli's mother dabbled in Democratic precinct politics. Cuccinelli's letter caused an uproar and prompted Gov. The governor simultaneously endorsed Cuccinelli's legal reasoning.Cuccinelli sounds contrite.
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Jul 29, 2010
Research desk explains: What is the CLASS Act? (Washington Post)
The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act is a provision of health care reform that sets up an insurance system for long-term care for the disabled and elderly. This can include home care, nursing home payments and so forth. The act is intended to be self-financing, with an...
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Jul 29, 2010
Bush tax cuts: Keep some, allow others to expire (Los Angeles Times)
The economy may grow faster after a tax cut, but not enough to make up the lost revenue. A place to start would be the tax rate on capital gains and dividend interest, which the Bush cuts capped at 15 percent for all Americans. If Congress takes no action, the top capital gains tax rate will rise...
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Jul 29, 2010
Wonkbook: Arizona bill blocked; Fannie/Freddie reform coming; feds lose track of majority of Gulf oil (Washington Post)
Raising taxes on the over-$250,000 crowd isn't going to cure it. Bush's middle-class tax cuts and stopping the alternative minimum tax from reaching down into the middle class is $2.5 trillion over 10 years, the Joint Tax Committee says. Orszag has promoted and carried out an effort by the White...
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Jul 29, 2010
Los Angeles Times George Skelton column (Los Angeles Times)
Six pension rollback agreements already have been reached and more are being negotiated. Budget reform? Democrats could accept it. Tax reform? Wrap a bow around Steinberg's idea and call it reform. It would broaden the tax base by slightly flattening the income tax.
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Jul 29, 2010
KKR leaders get a tax deal most of us can only dream of (Washington Post)
Does KKR distribute those savings to its owners equally? The payments to Kravis beget further deductions for KKR, begetting further payments to Kravis, and so on. You end up with about $206,000 in payments to Kravis.
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Jul 28, 2010
Republicans draw circles around Obama health plan (USA Today)
No sooner did President Obama star in a government video about the fledgling health care system changes than Republicans came out with their own explanation. Brownback says: This updated chart illustrates the overwhelming expansion of government control over health choices and the bewildering...
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Jul 28, 2010
Pearlstein: On tax fight, Obama can't afford to lose (Washington Post)
Steven Pearlstein: There is nothing wrong with a modestly progressive rate structure with three or four rates. Steven Pearlstein: if the farm is losing money, yes, you'd need to sell it to pay the taxes. Steven Pearlstein: It is possible stalemate will result in all the Bush tax cuts expiring.
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Jul 28, 2010
2,412 Hollywood emblems call for lots of polish:: (Los Angeles Times)
A passer-by asks who Sidney was, and Peterson has a quick answer."To me, he's just another guy with a dirty star. In fact, Sidney was a producer and a director, whose projects included the "Our Gang" comedies, "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Viva Las Vegas."Peterson's own background is television. Peterson...
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Jul 28, 2010
Plugging a Web tax loophole:: (Los Angeles Times)
William Delahunt, D-Mass., would make it significantly harder for people to evade sales taxes online, requiring Web-based retailers to collect sales taxes from more out-of-state purchasers. It's not fair to collect such taxes on goods bought from some retailers but not others. That agreement has...
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Jul 28, 2010
Air leaks from WikiLeaks balloon (Washington Post)
WikiLeaks only allegiance seems to be to the source of its leaks. Raising taxes on the middle class is unpopular. They can pass an extension of the middle-class Bush tax cuts through the House.
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Jul 28, 2010
Plummeting cigarette sales cut California tax revenues (The Sacramento Bee)
In 2007, the state collected $2.2 million in tax revenue from Internet sales.
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