Archive for July 21st, 2011

What’s the biggest tax break?

July 21, 2011

From the Tax Policy Center, reported in the WSJ:

Excluding employer-provided health insurance from workers’ incomes is the single biggest benefit in the tax code … one that reduced federal revenue by $160 billion last year.

By letting Americans subtract mortgage interest from their incomes, the government gave up nearly $79.2 billion in tax revenue last year.

Letting taxpayers deduct local property taxes on their federal income-tax return reduced federal revenue by $15.1 billion last year.

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Ken’s Take  Believe it or not – even though I benefit from all of those tax-savers – I’m a fan of eliminating them – and the deductions for charitable contributions —  as long as the tax rates are reduced.

My logic: Why should an employee with company funded health insurance get a break over a  self-employed person who has to pay for their health insurance (in after tax dollars)?  Why should a home owner get benefits that a renter doesn’t ? Why shouldn’t a person donate to a charity because it’s a good thing to do, not because they get a tax deduction?

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Posted in Taxes | 3 Comments »

Wynn Follow-up: Why private sector jobs won’t be coming back any time soon

July 21, 2011

Gotta use Steve Wynn’s “Obama the wet blanket” remarks to flashback.

For the record, Homa Files has been all  over this cause & effect for over 2years.

Here’s a reprise of the post: “Why private sector jobs won’t be coming back any time soon”

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The dismal jobs picture isn’t really very mysterious: CEOs are dismayed by Team Obama’s economic, regulatory and pro-union policies and won’t do any serious hiring while Obama  is in power.

For the record, the Homa Files pitched this case almost 2 years ago in a post titled: “Why private sector jobs won’t be coming back any time soon … Hint: it’s called passive aggressive resistance” … the punch lines:

Given the Administration’s anti-corporate rhetoric, actions, and proposed game-changing rules, I doubt that many CEOs will be taking on added costs and risks to boost the administration.

More likely, they will let unemployment continue to creep along, and will slow roll the process of rehiring. 

Corporate chieftains will sit back and watch the President squirm and spin his “4 million jobs – saved or created”.  As Rev. Wright would say “the chickens will have come home to roost”.  Passively aggressive  resistance at its very best.

Unfortunately, that means we’ll be seeing high unemployment for some time – at least through the 2012 Presidential elections.

The full original post is worth another read !

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Ken’s current take:

Certainly there won’t be any meaningful hiring until the 2012. elections are in the book.

CEO heels are dug in.  I’ve heard cocktail party chatter like “Each job added is a vote for Obama … Fool me once, shame on you … fool me twice, shame on me”

CEOs started to relent a bit when the Congress tilted GOP and Obama extended the Bush tax cuts.  (Whatever happened to Immelt’s job creation task force?)

But, recent moves – e.g. stopping Boeing’s move to South Carolina, stumping again for higher taxes, especially on off-shore profits – have more than offset any momentum.

We’ll be stuck with unemployment in the 9s until 2012 … or until there’s a substantial policy roll-back – e.g. repealing ObamaCare.

And, the latter just ain’t gonna happen …

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Posted in Employment - Jobs | 1 Comment »