Who are you so convinced is out committing blatant, illegal tax fraud? Billionaires take advantage of legal (corrupt and shitty, but legal) loopholes that were designed FOR them, BY them, and passed into law by scum politicians on both sides. Did you plan on the IRS fixing these loopholes with their new army? Lol, good luck with that. Those foot soldiers will absolutely, 100% be weaponized against the working class. Did you forget where the elites siphon all their money from? The DoD get their funding through taxes also, obviously, before it is laundered through contractors and ends up back in politicians pockets. Your new superhero IRS agents are simply an extra checkpoint in ensuring the plebs keep forking over their tributes to make the elites richer. No, they aren’t going after the elites. It’s pretty hard to hinge an entire argument on “my government is doing the right thing, let me explain how”. It’s legitimately laughable.
Yes I do believe the IRS under a Democratic president would in fact go after said elites. In fact they’ve specifically stated that, multiple times. If you bother to investigate their request for the funding, they go into great detail about why they need said funding in order to go after (in Bernie voice) millionaires and billionaires. The extreme irony in your argument is that the less funding the IRS has, the more likely they are going to audit said plebs. If you want the IRS to leave you alone, don’t commit tax fraud and hire an accountant. The big bad gov’t isn’t going to come knocking on your door if you don’t commit fraud. It’s irrational to not want the IRS to do their job, and enforce the tax law. Back in the day paying taxes, especially as a rich person, was considered patriotic. Now folks listen to Trump and Reagan and think, boy the government is bad, and only idiots pay their taxes like a good citizen. Follow the money, super rich people who hate taxes donate heavily to the Republican Party. Go back to the 80s and you’ll see there has been a well orchestrated, and very focused effort to destroy and defund the IRS. You’ll also notice that with said defunding, the IRS now audits more people below the poverty line than people making over a million dollars. That’s by design. Why do you think the only significant piece of legislation that got passed during the Trump admin was a tax cut? It’s all these guys care about, nothing else. Be a patriot, pay your taxes, and holding those that can more afford to pay their fair share accountable to pay their share.
High tax rates on high income and preventing stock buybacks encourages corporations to invest in their employees and the company's long term best interest.
Let me answer your first question - billionaires and millionaires. There’s lots of evidence of it. They do use legal mechanisms as well, but they often use illegal accounting tricks to reduce their said taxable income. Case in point, there’s a pretty famous loud mouth from Manhattan that is on trial for tax fraud right now for using a way reduced appraisal of his properties to reduce his taxes. With a beefed up IRS they should be able to identify that kind of chicanery.
Ref: IRS Not sure what the best option is? Some studies suggest, no matter the tax rate or methods used to collect them, the IRS collects the same amount. Too many loop holes to enforce. Not sure if this tax collecting tactic is still being used? In the past, IRS auditors had quotas to reach. Much like corrupt cities had quotas for their LEOs to write tickets for various traffic violations. Don't ask how I know this. When it comes to large amounts of tax revenues. There is no end to the various corrupt methods used to keep them, or collect them. My best advice, stay the fuck out of the IRSs way. And also stay out of way of the WA state revenue dept. WA goes after businesses based only on their location. Businesses that operate near the OR border get hit with bills for est tax owed. These bills are being justified on the assumption that all businesses purchase supplies in OR to save on sales tax. Either pay the bill, or get invited in for a full audit to prove you don't owe the tax. Don't ask how I know this.
Your propensity to boil this down to partisan politics and the good guy/bad guy, dem/repub paradigm makes having an actual discussion essentially impossible for me because I dont live in that reality. We are seeing the world through seperate overton windows. Arguing physics on different planets. It just wont go anywhere so its not really worth trying. I do appreciate your thoughful and respectful responses though.
He isn’t on trial for tax fraud, so this example doesn’t land the way you are intending it to. Tax fraud would be a federal criminal case. This is a civil case being pressed by by a local prosecutor. There isnt even a living, breathing plantiff lol. I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the case, which is understandable if you consume mainstream media. Most people making these arguments against Trump seem to mix up these same details, which ironically happen to be the most important ones and the crux of their entire argument.
Weaker of the House said this isn't time for immigration deal. Some Republicans have said it out loud, they want border to be a campaign issue so won't pass a bill that could help Biden. Trump said absolutely no deal so Republicans obey. During Bush I administration a bipartisan immigration deal had voted to pass and Bush ready to sign it. Marco Rubio, one of the Senators who negotiated the deal, ended up voting against it, along with other Republicans, after Rush Limbaugh denounced it.
Half of recent US inflation due to high corporate profits, report finds Thinktank Groundwork Collaborative found prices for consumers rose by 3.4% over the past year, but input costs for producers increased by just 1%. Illustration: Guardian Design
"The oppression of the poor establishes the monopoly of the rich", and that profit is "always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin". Adam Smith, "The Father Of Capitalism" - The Wealth of Nations, 9 March 1776
Yup there’s a misconception that the only thing that can cause inflation is printing money. That’s patently not true, thanks for the article.
Congress need's to change the way the write and pass bills. You can't have it, all or nothing, with the polarization there is. The President needs to have line item veto power to whittle down the bills full of bs and waist. No fucking way a company can run like that, here let's approve this with all this other bs attached. Crazy
Agreed. Not anywhere near being impartial. The 'research' was done by a politically activism group. Not a single economist amongst the group.
Solid point... Economic Policy Institute: Corporate profits have contributed disproportionately to inflation. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City: calculated that in 2021, when inflation reached an annualized rate of 5.8%, corporate markups grew by 3.4%. The upshot: Markups “could account for more than half of 2021 inflation.”
Just googled the first one... "Affiliated with the labor movement, the EPI is usually described as presenting a left-leaning and pro-union viewpoint on public policy issues. Since 2021, EPI has been led by economist Heidi Shierholz, the former chief economist of the Department of Labor."
