TaxBytes

Last week Senator Reid scrapped a “bipartisan jobs bill,” estimated to cost about $85 billion over 10 years, for a dramatically scaled-down $15 billion bill.

Our thanks for FedEx Chairman Fred Smith for dredging up a 2001 IPI study and resurrecting its recommendations in a Wall Street Journal op/ed this past Saturday.

President Obama introduced his budget this week amid lots of calls for Republicans to support the president’s laundry list of new and expanded spending programs, along with a minimal spending freeze and some tax cuts.

Would the REAL Obama agenda please stand up! On Monday morning the White House released a plan for: · Doubling the Child and Dependant Care Tax Credit for families making under $85,000; · Limiting student federal loan payments; · Expanding tax credits to match retirement savings; and · Expanding assistance to families caring for elderly relatives.

Something remarkable is going on in America.

Presidential elections are expensive—something liberals never tire of reminding us every four years when they push for some way to nationalize the cost of presidential elections.

President Obama keeps claiming he’s willing to “make the hard choices.

President Obama’s claim that health care costs are growing so fast that “doing nothing is not an option” would be a little more believable if he could point to a country that has been able to “bend the curve” on health care spending.

Some Republicans and Democrats, including Sen.

There’s maybe 15 new taxes in Senator Harry Reid’s health care plan, including new taxes on: “Cadillac plans” (that is expensive, not necessarily rich-benefit plans); Medical devices and cosmetic surgery (oops, there went the Hollywood vote); Drug companies, health insurers and insurance executives; New limits on contributions to flexible spending accounts and increased penalties on non-qualified health savings account expenses; Individuals who don’t buy and employers who don’t provide health insurance; And, of course, high-income earners, and much more.