Couldn’t Help But Notice (121107)
Whoopi Goldberg gets it (link requires subscription) on the death tax:
During a discussion of Republican Presidential candidates on ABC’s “The View,” which the comedian co-hosts, Ms. Goldberg said, “I’d like somebody to get rid of the death tax. That’s what I want. I don’t want to get taxed just because I died.” The studio audience started applauding, but she wasn’t done. “I just don’t think it’s right,” she continued. “If I give something to my kid, I already paid the tax. Why should I have to pay it again because I died?”
….. When another co-host, Joy Behar, responded to Ms. Goldberg’s remarks by asserting, “Only people with a lot of money say that,” Ms. Goldberg shot back, “No, I don’t think so . . . It doesn’t matter if you have or don’t have money. Once you paid your taxes, it should be a done deal. You shouldn’t have to pay twice.”
As the Journal says, “Death as a taxable event and double taxation offend the average American’s sense of fairness.”
Larry Kudlow is so impressed he has invited her onto his CNBC show.
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I’ve noted how de-industrialization is a myth. Unfortunately, according to this subscription-only Wall Street Journal editorial, what I would call “de-financialization” isn’t:
In the past year, that problem has only grown worse.
….. First, the delisting of foreign companies from U.S. markets leapt this year — to 56 so far, up from 30 in 2006 and 12 a decade ago. Those 56 represented 12.4% of all listed foreign companies. In part, the jump is the result of an SEC rule change that lowered the bar for delisting. But don’t take comfort in that. “Pent-up demand” to delist is still demand. Companies that maintain their listings only because they can’t escape the SEC hardly signal confidence in U.S. markets.
A second trend is the increasing number of U.S. companies going public outside the U.S. Between 1996 and 2001, a mere three American companies went public by listing only on a foreign exchange. In the first three quarters of this year, 15 firms made the same choice. That’s 9.2% of all U.S. initial public offerings in that period. Given the natural affinities to listing in one’s home market, this exodus is remarkable.
It’s also alarming to the extent it reflects more serious underlying problems. And as the report notes, regulatory burdens — especially post-Sarbanes-Oxley — and litigation costs are driving companies out of our publicly traded markets.
….. since 2002 four out of five foreign companies that chose to raise capital in the U.S. through an IPO did so outside publicly traded exchanges. Instead they used what’s known as the far more restricted Rule 144a offering. Ten years ago, more than half of these “Global IPOs” that came to the U.S. for part of their offering listed on a public exchange. But companies that go the Rule 144a route can only sell their shares to “qualified” investors, and thus those companies are not subject to Sarbox, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or to strict liability in shareholder suits.
To put it another way, 80% of the foreign companies that do raise capital in the U.S. do so outside of the reach of most of the laws that are supposed to protect investors.
….. This isn’t a partisan issue, or at least it shouldn’t be.
But it will be, as long as the party of the current congressional majority and its presidential candidates think that flogging Enron will get them votes. Truth be told, Enron was at least a much of a Democrat-aided debacle as it was a Republican one.
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The “big confidence game” known as Paygo is hopefully Paygone, with 2008 campaign implications:
Last week Congressional Democrats formally renounced their ballyhooed budget pledge to offset any new tax cuts with other tax increases or spending cuts. We’re delighted to see this false promise go, but there’s a larger lesson in this failure for the tax and spending battles of 2008.
Senate Democrats gave up on “paygo,” as it’s called, when they realized they lacked the votes to offset the $50.6 billion cost of protecting more than 20 million middle-class taxpayers from getting whacked by the Alternative Minimum Tax this year. They’ve spent the year floating all kinds of tax increases to make up the difference. But in the end they passed an AMT relief bill without a penny to pay for it. Paygo is now pay gone.
….. The larger relevance of this episode concerns the 2008 campaign. Hillary Clinton in particular has made paygo a major campaign theme because it makes her sound like a fiscal conservative while helping to justify tax increases. But, lo, guess who was missing on Thursday when the Senate voted 88-5 to ignore paygo on the AMT? None other than the candidate herself, along with Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and Barack Obama. To quote another Saturday Night Live character, “How convenient.”
Among other things, Paygo is/was an attempt to repudiate the reality that when taxes are lowered, revenues to the Treasury at a minimum don’t go down by as much as expected, and often, as has been the case during the past four years, go up because of increase economic activity. It can’t be Paygone soon enough.
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I-what? What is that? –
….. the (TV) networks’ zeal for reporting on Iraq has declined as the violence and casualties have declined in the war-torn country in recent months.
“We had a 178 network stories in September, which fell to 68 in November — which simply means, yes, things are doing well,” says (Media Research Center’s Tim) Graham. He says at ABC, NBC, and CBS, apparently “good news is no news.”
“The news media sort of had a relish for the bad news,” he continues. “It really enjoyed reporting bad stories and sort of trying to destroy the whole idea that the war in Iraq was ever a good thing — and when it starts to look like maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea, then it suddenly just drops out.”
I expect near-invisibility in not too long.
Whut? They actually passed the AMT index fix???? I’m shocked. Is it official yet or not, when will W sign it into law? I find this hard to believe that the Dems passed on a chance to raise taxes without lifting a finger, what’s the catch???? How much did they really index it for???
Comment by dscott — December 11, 2007 @ 11:39 am
I hear that the Dems are trying to pass a budget Omibus bill to coverup their incompetence of not passing 11 of the 12 budget appropriation bills. What’s the record on not passing appropriation bills on lateness?? I think this is grist for a good article. The Dems can’t even do the most basic of governance, passing a budget, this is the height of incompetence. I wonder if they will get up the nerve to criticize the Iraqi government again to distract from their own incompetence. Yes, I used the word “incompetence” repeatedly, it should be the title of the article. It reminds me of a career path truism, “people rise to their highest level of incompetence” in order to stretch themselves to grow. The idea being if you stick with what is safe and comfortable, you’ll never reach your greatest potential. I think the Dems have reached that goal.
Comment by dscott — December 11, 2007 @ 11:50 am
#1, sorry. It’s the Senate only. The editorial later notes that the House is rejecting doing away with Paygo, making the AMT fix not a done deal yet.
House Democrats realize how humiliating this all is, so they’re still vowing to make paygo work. Especially embarrassed are the so-called Blue Dog Democrats for whom “fiscal discipline†is a coat of political protection. John Tanner of Tennessee is so upset he says the Senate paygo abdication “is bordering on criminal,†and about 30 Blue Dogs are threatening to vote against AMT repeal without offsetting tax increases. They’d have more credibility if they also opposed the various fiscal gimmicks in the Schip and farm bills, not to mention the 2008 Congressional budget outline that exceeded President Bush’s budget request by $22 billion.
#2, If this isn’t a record, it’s darn close. There was the late 1995 or early 1996 government shutdown that dragged on longer, I think.
Comment by TBlumer — December 11, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
You had me scared there for a moment, Dems not screwing over the public when they have a chance is just not in character. Now if this weren’t such a critical primary election year, they would have simply laid low and let the taxes (AMT) increase on their own. I believe the demographics of those subject to the AMT falls more to the Dems than Repubs at least according to the TNR when they initially wrote about it. That article was pulled btw by TNR, I guess it tipped Rangel’s hand. Since the Bush tax cuts didn’t materialize for them due to the AMT, they were especially bitter. That’s why so many Dems have a hard time believing the Bush tax cuts went to the middle class. I’m firmly of the middle class and the Cuts saved me about $2k a year, they on the other hand with greater than $120k income had the AMT instead of the tax cut. So in all likelihood, the House may cave on the issue since without a Dem in the Whitehouse to give them cover by collectively taking credit for it, they don’t have the guts to face the electorate alone. I can see the Dem gears spinning now on calculating how and if they can get away with it. The Dems need to blame W for the economy going into recession, not fixing the AMT will suck billions out of the economy from the very group of people who spend the most. The Dem’s problem is they are vulnerable to being blamed for putting the final nail in the coffin and they don’t want that, so it comes down to how hot the BDS fever is burning in their heads. Do they want W bad enough to risk hurting themselves???
Comment by dscott — December 11, 2007 @ 3:10 pm
This link has a list of government shutdowns due to the failure of Congress to pass budgets, the worst was in 1995 under Clinton.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa102499p2.htm
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa102499p2.htm “The Costs of a Shutdown
Following the six-day shutdown that lasted from November 14 - 20, 1995, the Clinton Administration released documentation of what it cost:”
So at this point I think we have a record, all of Reagan’s and Bush’s shutdowns due to Congress’s failure were in early November. Clinton’s only lasted into mid November. So what I’m deducing here is that W not wanting to be the bad guy in all this is playing it coy by vetoing every bill individually, forcing the Congress to pass continuing resolutions to keep government running at the funding levels of the old budget. So in essence, W has zeroed out or delayed any spending increases Congress wishes to do. A sound strategy in my estimate, this makes Congressional leadership look totally incompetent as they can’t get their act together to pass a veto proof bill. W and the Repubs come out the winners, the Dems demonstrate they can’t even get a compromise through unless accede to the demands of spending restraint which they are loathe to do. W has learned the lesson of his dad and not allow himself to get cornered with the Dems forcing a tax increase down his throat and get blamed for it to boot. It was afterall a Dem lead Congress that increased taxes during Bush Sr. admin.
Comment by dscott — December 11, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
Oh, it seems December 14th is the witching hour! http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=2443&issue_id=18
How delicious: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FY_2008_U.S._federal_budget
“Earmarks, other spending stripped
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) signaled on December 10 his desire to push a budget package that toed the line on President Bush’s spending recommendations, by stripping lawmakers’ earmarks and funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.[11] The announcement came on the heels of a Bush veto threat to an earlier omnibus spending package offered by Democrats.
Originally slated to contain $520 billion in funds for the federal government, the scrapped plan would have included $70 billion in funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan war and $11 billion for domestic programs. Obey cited a White House resistance to compromise as one reason for withdrawing the package:
“Absent a Republican willingness to sit down and work out a reasonable compromise, I think we ought to end the game and go to the president’s numbers,” Obey said. “I was willing to listen to the argument that we ought to at least add more for Afghanistan, but when the White House refuses to compromise, when the White House continues to stick it in our eye, I say to hell with it.”[11]
According to The Washington Post, Obey’s proposal “would ax about 9,500 home-district and home-state projects worth a total of $9.5 billion.” Some presidential priorities might also be scrapped to keep the bill on-target for Bush’s spending level recommendations, including abstinence education, and “nuclear weapons research and development in the Energy Department, NASA programs and high-technology border security efforts” that critics called “wasteful and ineffective.”[11] “
Comment by dscott — December 11, 2007 @ 3:48 pm
#5 and #6, thanks for the info. I had thought the 1995 shutdown occurred later. This is a record by many weeks.
Let the drama begin.
Comment by TBlumer — December 11, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
This is amazing only my local TV station (Fox 13 Tampa) is reporting on the upcoming government shutdown on the 14th! Why is the MSM so mum? Are they fearful the Dems are going to get blamed for it, in years past this was always big news.
Comment by dscott — December 12, 2007 @ 7:05 am
#8, That will get a follow-up.
Comment by TBlumer — December 12, 2007 @ 9:43 am
#8, I fished around Fox 13 Tampa for a few mins. and found nothing. Got a link?
Comment by TBlumer — December 12, 2007 @ 9:49 am
No link yet on their website, it’s only on air at this time, I sent them an email asking to put the info on their website. Here’s there contact link: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/ContactUs?pageId=5.11
Comment by dscott — December 12, 2007 @ 11:16 am
The MSM is still completely silent on tomorrow’s government shutdown. They are playing coy in order to lessen the blame on the Dem leadership. It will all be a surprise and crisis of course!
Comment by dscott — December 13, 2007 @ 11:25 am