Category: burdensome taxes

More Businesses are Dying than Starting in America

According to Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup, “for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.” See here. Small business startups are being choked off by mountains of taxes and regulations. “Believe it or not, when measured in per-capita terms, socialist countries such as Denmark, Finland, New Zealand …

Continue reading

New Study: For Every New Dollar a College Receives in Student Loans, a College Raises its Tuition by 65 Cents

We all know that the Federal Student Loan Program has driven up college tuition costs because the Program subsidizes artificial demand. Now a New York Fed study has found that: for every new dollar a college receives in Direct Subsidized Loans, a school raises its price by 65 cents. For every dollar in Pell Grants, …

Continue reading

Poll: Americans are largely ignorant of the country’s tax structure

For years, politicians have won elections by claiming a desire to tax “the rich” at higher rates. This incessant messaging has even percolated into the debate over campaign finance, where activists routinely claim that “the rich” are controlling American politics by their political spending. But the actual tax distribution of the United States shows that …

Continue reading

Democrats push for higher taxes while Republicans do not appear to be pushing for lower taxes

The two major American “political parties” are largely two sides of the same coin: they both trust and support expansive and intrusive government. Polling has consistently shown that American voters–often by supermajorities–view their own taxes as too high. See here. The average American, when asked, states that the U.S. government wastes 51 cents of every …

Continue reading

Obamacare Penalty for “Cadillac” Insurance Policies will Kick in by 2018; Taxes will Increase Substantially while Benefits will Decline

Socialism is a curse that should be wished only on a hated enemy. Any society that embraces it will inevitably become sick and weak. The “Affordable Care Act” a.k.a. “Obamacare,” was some 2,000 pages in length when passed. Additional tens of thousands of pages of regs will ultimately accompany it. Among the Act’s vast provisions …

Continue reading

Puerto Rico outvoted government-cutting governor and enthroned an advocate of expansive government; Now Puerto Rico is Defaulting.

Today, August 3, 2015, Puerto Rico failed to make a $58 million dollar payment on its debt. See here. The defaulting commonwealth is some $70 BILLION in debt. But just a few years ago, Puerto Rico was on a path to economic growth and dynamism. Puerto Rican voters elected Luiz Fortuno as their governor in …

Continue reading

U.S. Corporate Taxes are The Highest on Earth

Former director of the Congressional Budget Office Douglas Holtz-Eakin recently spoke before an audience in Washington, D.C.. The event was covered by the Washington Examiner. See here. The U.S. has the world’s highest corporate tax rate: 39.1 percent at the top margin. This is almost 14 percentage points higher than a global average. America’s high …

Continue reading

The U.S. is now among the highest-taxing nations.

The United States, once the world’s flagship of capitalism, low regulation and free markets, has entered the category of a high-taxing society. Here is a website that generally provides the average tax rates of the world’s countries. Notice that the U.S. is now taxing its citizens at rates above the North American average, the Western …

Continue reading