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42 year old Jason Smith of Missouri will head the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in the US Congress. He is an ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and one of the youngest  persons in this position. He will help form new trade, tax and health policies for Republicans.

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Eduardo Porter compares Italy's propensity to collect and invest tax dollars in healthcare and public services to a much greater degree than the U.S. In 2007 he points out Italy spent 25% of its output on social programs such as health, food and housing, compared to 16% in the U.S. He reflects on the possible reasons for this based on research. Italians see the tax dollars at work in a health care system that works for them and their children, as in this example of Eduardo and his child at a health clinic in Liguria, Italy. In the U.S. there is less evidence of this and the sense that government is likely to waste tax dollars, that the individual is better able to make choices. The less homogenous society in the U.S. also means there is less support for public services that might benefit other lingusitic and cultural groups.There is also the feeling that in American society there is greater oportunity for the less well off to join the upper class given the open capitalist framework, as compared to Italy where connections and traditional advantages matter. Some experts attribute this to smaller taxes leading to economic growth, but Porter says the examples of Sweden, Norway, and Japan showed growth was higher or similiar to that in the U.S. ...

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The discussion on whether it is feasible to achieve any significant cost savings as long as middle class consumers are not cost conscious about their employer provided health insurance. This would be so as long as their health insurance benefits are not taxed as income. America suffers from a particularly strong case of not minding the price increases imposed by the health care industry as long as its not out of pocket cost. But Obama seems stuck on his insistence that the middle class not take on any burden, that there be no middle class tax in the form of this tax on health care benefits. Critics say even FDR did this by having the middle class pay with payroll contributions for Medicare and Social Security. And even if the 5% of Americans who make more than $280,000 are taxed it will not generate by itself the money to pay for the $1 trillion cost of the plan, as the prospects of cost reduction are uncertain- especially when the basic nature of America's health care system are not changed, like the lack of cost consciousness of consumers of health care when its perceived to be free and employer provided....

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In this insightful essay Peggy Noonan, former spokesperson for president Reagan, says that Republicans like Speaker Ryan with the Republican Health Care bill are making the same error made by president Obama.. Noonan says she had suggested a different way for president Obama to show compassion for the uninsured- first wait till the 2008 financial crisis was tackled, tackled waste and fraud in Medicare first, then look at the option of expanding Medicare to help the uninsured, and not the approach taken of swiftly focussing on the Affordable Care Act early in the first term disregarding Republican objections. She says Republicans are making the same mistake now by ignoring the impact the bill would have on Trump's base of working class Americans who may be affected by the bill's provisions not taking into account incomes in offering incentives or subsidies. Noonan says Trump did get one thing right in calling it a "carnage" for the worsening opioid epidemic in America which has hit rural areas and parts of the midwest hard. Noonan says Eberstadt has correctly documented the collapse in working class Americans wages and standard of living, and Caldwell the opioid epidemic at another level to their health. She also supports journalist Carlson who questioned Speaker Paul Ryan's judgement about eliminating the tax on wealthy investors in new legislation in a Fox News interview, as she says responding to the sense of America at the moment means listening to the sense of being left out of ordinary Americans, who have done not as well as the wealthy who have benefitted from a surging stock market.  ...

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Senators approved the U.S. Republican tax bill 51 to 49 votes on December 1, 2017. The 500 page bill was approved with arewritten version containing more changes made at the last minute to get it passed in the early morning hours. It was passed along party lines with all Democrats opposing. The last minute changes were made to get Collins of Maine and Johnson of Wisconsin on board. A concession was made on DACA young undocumented immigrants for Flake of Arizona. In this way its passage was ensured after failure to repeal Obama health legislation. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation report says the bill would increase the deficit by $1 trillion over a decade. Corker of Tennessee opposed the bill for this reason, but failed to convince other senators who believe the bill will generate robust growth and the deficit report is too pessimistic. The tax cut bill helps 70% of middle class families and may not help others because of removal of deductions such as the one for state and local income taxes. Business gets a permanent tax rate of 20 percent instead of 35 percent which is made permanent. Owners of small business not set up as corporations also get a tax break for small business. To offset the cost of the changes the Alternative Minimum Tax for corporations is retained and a tax on corporations with assets held overseas was increased. ...

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Tom Steyer, founder of NextGen America points out the dangers of the Republican tax plan. He calls it a sham, in the WSJ. As evidence he cites a meeting of the WSJ CEO Council, where few hands went up when asked it they would increase investment if the tax bill passed. By saddling future generations with more debt the bill would hurt investment in infrastructure, health and education that are badly needed. This is not the time for another Reaganomics plan, says Steyer, as the middle class and working class have shrivelled under both presidents Bush and Obama, with the export of jobs overseas and the deep recession years. As proof that it does little for the middle and working class, he cites the Tax Policy Center's review of the bill showing 62% of the Senate's version of the tax bill benefits go to the top 1% of the earners. And that nearly half of American families will see their taxes rise under the bill eventually. This means nothing less than taking money from the middle and working class to fund the cuts, and gutting investments in health, education and infrastructure.  ...

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The Republican House Health Care pLan in 2017 relies on tax credits of between $2000 and $4000 based on age. Under the Affordable Health Care Act the elderly poor in high cost insurance areas received additional help. These people would lose over $2000 per person and may forgo full coverage or coverage entirely under the Republican House Health Care Plan. A report by Standard & Poor's estimates about 2 to 4 million people who are in 50's and 60's not yet qualifying for Medicare might lose their coverage they now have under ACA. The Republican plan also gives incentives through tax credits higher for older people, $4000 for a 60 year ol and $2000 for a 25 year old. Under the ACA the insurers are not allowed to charge more than three times what is charged for younger people, under the Republican plan this goes up to five times. 

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This report in the WSJ confirms other commentary and reporting in different media sources that the Republican Tax Law lacks popular support. It cites the latest WSJ/NBC poll showing deep skepticism about the law on whether as Republicans claim the middle class benefits from this tax cut. More than two thirds in the survey, including 68% of independents, see the law as giving tax cuts mostly to the wealthy and corporations. This is higher than other polls taken before the bill was passed. As little as 17% say their family would get a tax cut. A previous poll showed this at 25%, showing that as Americans look at it more closely it is raising more questions about fairness. This makes Republicans face a steep climb as they try to convince people to the contrary.

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CEO's of more than 80 large U.S. companies have come together behind a plan that would reduce the U.S. federal deficit with tax revenue increases and reduced spending. The CEO statement was organized by the Fix the Debt campaign, a bipartisan effort inspired by Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles of the 2010 Simpson-Bowles Deficit Commission. The CEO statement calls for an overhaul of the U.S. tax code to eliminate or reduce deductions, credits and loopholes (reduction of tax expenditures also referred to as "broadening the base"). The CEO statement says any fiscal plan to succeed has to control increases in health care spending, make Social Security solvent, and include "comprehensive and pro-growth tax reform, which broadens the base, lowers rates, raises revenues and reduces the deficit." This is the first time a large group of business leaders have supported raising taxes as part of an overall solution. This puts together elements of the Bowles-Simpson plan, reduces deductions and loopholes, lowers rates as part of overall tax reform and cutting spending. The CEO statement says the Simpson Bowles recommendations for $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases was an "effective framework" for tackling a problem that affects the economic well being and security of the U.S....

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Harris told an audience in Pittsburgh-

"I remember being there for my mother when she was diagnosed with cancer. Cooking meals for her, taking her to her appointments. I know caregiving is about dignity.”

Harris will propose help for seniors for homecare, living at home, funding it with Medicare cost improvements in cost of pharmaceuticals it pays out. The benefit will cover cost of home health care services including home health aides.

About 105 million Americans or 40% of Americans currently provide unpaid childcare. Harris proposed $6000 child tax credit for parents of newborns. And 25% of Americans are also caring for aging parents as well and bearing this cost as well when they have children.

 

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The $3.5 trillion bill of president Biden to help America get back on its feet after the pandemic and after years of neglect of infrastructure, manufacturing technologies, child care, health and education, is that much only if offsetting tax increases and spending cuts are not included. When this is taken into account the US is spending about $871 billion to rebuild its economy and for a better life for Americans. That is the estimate provided in the report September 13 by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Experts say that if president Trump's bill- Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was calculated without offsetting cuts and tax increases the same bill would be $5.5 trillion package.

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NY Times analysis shows upper and middle income groups support 33 year old Zohran Mamdani,  black and Hispanic residents support Cuomo for NYC Mayor. Mamdani has a good ground presence with 50,000 volunteers knocking on 1.6 million doors in an unprecedented effort in one American city as it became less and less affordable (WSJ). Paradoxically large numbers of higher income resident and middle income residents favored Mamdani over Cuomo, and Cuomo did better in black and minority neighborhoods. Mamdani promised better housing, freezing stabilized housing rents and going after landlords who do not fix rental properties, free buses, and city run lower cost grocery stores, free child care. For the funding Mamdani says $5 billion by making corporate tax 11.5% similar to New Jersey, and by a wealth tax of 2% on incomes over $1 million (which at $20,000 would not affect their standard of living), as the property owners supported Mamdani. Mamdani is a immigrant who came to America from Kampala, Uganda at the age of 7 with Indian parents. His father taught at Columbia University, Mamdani attended Bowdoin College in Maine. ...

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Greek tax evasion is estimated by three economists who studied data from Greek banks at about $11 billion based on a 40% tax rate, a third of the country's annual deficit for 2009. Unreported income is estimated at $28 billion. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, architects, engineers are the biggest groups underreporting income. Greece's parliament took up a bill in 2010 but the bill failed because of oposition from these groups. It remains to be seen if the Samaras government with support of the IMF-EC can take action similiar to that taken by the Monti government in Italy to go after tax evaders. By cutting the minimum wage and incomes of lower income groups disproportionately compared to cracking down on tax evasion and protecting incomes of higher income groups the economic plan for Greece proposed by the IMF-EC and the Greek government becomes unworkable and threatens the social fabric. By not raising this issue Germany's media and government have appeared callous in their pursuit of austerity measures as working class Greeks protested in Athens in 2011-2012, even though some of the issues raised by the Germans are legitimate. France and Italy are imposing a wealth tax to cut the deficit but this is not taking place in Greece. Global financial media has also not reported adequately on these aspects of the problem in Greece and Italy....

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Now that finance ministries around the world are trying to save their economies with trillions of dollars in aid packages their finances are stretched to the limit. The so called digital tax is not really a digital tax. And efforts to recover lost tax revenues in Europe are being opposed by the U.S. because tax levies by France go only to France, not the U.S. The U.S. Treasury or U.S. government or the American people would not turn down tax revenues that it normally gets when its finances are stretched to the limit with trillions of dollars for cornavirus leaving little for crumbling infrastructure and essential public health services, other services that determine quality of life in America.  This Washington Post report shows that there is greater awareness that the right approach is to pay taxes based on where revenues are located and by the number of users in each country. But the problem goes deeper than that. The coronavirus changes the entire perspective and take this back to roots. Companies pay taxes because it is the right thing to do. In Japan Panasonic's founder Matsushita felt that it was a national duty to pay its share of taxes as it too was sharing in the benefits provided by society- in the health, sanitation, education and transportation, parks, and hundreds of services provided by government. Once this is seen as dispensable or somebody else's problem, then these very services and infrastructure can be starved of capital. Coronavirus changes this perspective. People crave for outdoor spaces- who is going to maintain them and set up new spaces. People crave for not moving around on crumbling bridges, roads, subway systems. Who is going to provide them? People crave for good schools, community colleges. Who is going to provide them? People crave for good sanitation systems? Who is going to provide them? People crave for good public health systems. Who is going to provide them? Its just good common sense. Is it possible for common sense to be missing? It is- just ask people today, and it is good common sense to have good critical infrastructure such as sanitation, medicine, public health, and local manufacturing of medicine, yet economic experts and economic theories thought it made sense not to do this.  ...

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The NYT gives a graphic visual that shows what is in the biggest climate bill in history. The bill reduces health care cost, changes taxation of corporations paying little or no tax, and invests in renewable energy. It also reduces the deficit by $300 billion. Common sense approaches such as Medicare negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for medicines it buys for the public are also put into law - an egregious fault of the way politics was distorting fairness in America is corrected, saving taxpayers about $100 billion that is then invested in tackling climate change and assisting clean manufacturing of renewable energy.

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Krauthammer says there is reason for optimism that the super committee of the August 2 Debt Ceiling and Deficit bill can achieve major results. The reason he says is that much of the work in key areas has already been worked out by the Simpson-Bowles Commission. This has also received extensive public scrutiny and discussion. Its now upto the committe to make some choices for tax reform. For the sake of efficiency and fairness this needs to be done. Efficiency is gained by closing the loopholes and the tax exemptions for mortgage interest deductions, health-care exclusion, and subsidies such as the one for ethanol. And in its place moving to lower tax rates, the 23% envisaged by Simpson-Bowles, or the 28% from the Reagan days, down from the 35% today. Fairness is gained by removing tax breaks for special interest groups that do much of the lobbying. The mortgage interest deduction can be phased out starting at $500,000 in the inital phase or using the plan for tax expenditures proposed by Martin Feldstein. Feldstein's proposal outlined in the New York Times on May 4, 2011, (see group for Feldstein) was to limit the reduction in taxes from deductions and exclusions to 2% of the person's AGI or adjusted gross income. The other part of the Committee's focus would be the structural changes to Social Security and Medicare- raising the Social Security and Medicare ages and changing the inflation formula, and means testing Social Security. Obama has already considered the raising of the age for Social Security and changing the cost of living formula....

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Wealth and people migration in the US in 2020 is shown in this WSJ report. Latest IRS data released for 2020 shows migration of taxpayers and adjusted gross income from states in the midwest, on the eastern and western seaboard to states in the southern US and to mountain states in the west. Some of this is a result of the pandemic lockdowns and the shift to remote work which means that the trend for migration will continue for 2021 and 2022. The shift in income was as follows-Florida  23.7 billion, Texas $6.3 billion, Arizona $4.8 billion, North Carolina $3.8 billion, South Carolina $3.6 billion, Tennessee $2.6 billion, Nevada $2.6 billion, Colorado $2.3 billion, Idaho $2.1 billion, Utah $1.3 billion.  The biggest losses came from New York -$19.5 billion, California -$17.8 billion, Illinois -$8.5 billion, Masachusetts -$2.6 billion, New Jersey -$2.3 billion, Maryland -$1.9 billion, Ohio -$1.4 billion, Minnesota -$1.2 billion, Pennsylvania -$1.2 billion, Virginia -$1.1 billion. WSJ says the tax burdens in the southern and mountain states in the west are low. In four states there is no state tax- Florida, Texas, Tennessee and Nevada. By comparison says WSJ states losing wealth and population have high state taxes for property and income. Schools, quality of life and cost of living are also major considerations, with remote work opening up the opportunities to seek a better life in other states which offer more space for working at home.   ...

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The present state of affairs only puts all countries in a race to the bottom as companies seek the lowest tax rate to base their headquarters, leading to tax systems that are unstable and tax revenues that cannot support essential public goods and services such as healthcare, and essential infrastructure. US central bank head Janet Yellen called for a globally coordinated tax rate which would apply regardless of where a global company is located. In her speech to the Chicago Council of World Affairs she redefined what competitiveness should mean today- "Competitiveness is about more than how US headquartered companies fare against other companies in global merger and acquisition bids...It is about making sure that nations have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises, and that all citizens fairly share the burden of financing the government." For too long the burden of  investing in essential public goods such as healthcare, education, environment, and infrastructure has not been fairly shared by all citizens in advanced nations of Europe and in the US and essential investment has been neglected in the process. The pandemic today has only exposed the major cracks in the system that prevails today. President Biden's infrastructure plan of $2 trillion to fund renovation rebuilding of roads, bridges, water systems, electricity systems, and the entire network of infrastructure including for health and education, is only possible in an environment that encourages essential investment and provides sufficient revenues to do this. Europe is in the same situation, and so is much of Asia, Africa and Latin America. ...

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The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Republican House health Care bill shows 24 million Americans would lose health insurance over 10 years. In terms of budget savings the bill saves $337 billion over 10 years. The increase in uninsured comes from the roll back of expansion of Medicaid under the House plan, the reduction of tax credits, plus the removing of income based credits replacing it with tax credits based on age. President Trump is promoting the bill saying it will reduce the premiums that have gone up since Affordable Care Act was passed and increase competition. House Speaker Ryan in promoting his plan says he is not in "some coverage beauty contest." The House Plan says Ryan, does not mandate that all be covered, but simply says coverage is in a free market giving people the option to buy insurance that they want, so that the numbers of insured would not be as many as under a mandate.

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US president Biden's 2024 Budget places great emphasis on aid to workers and families in the US and shores up the Medicare hospital-insurance trust fund. He will do this by raising taxes on the wages, investment gains and self-employment income of people making more than $400,000 a year. Additional savings come from increasing the drugs on which Medicare can negotiate prices from 20 to 50 drugs.  Childcare- families making less than $200,000 a year will get subsidized child health care, the lowest income families paying nothing. Housing- Building and preserving 2 million housing units. Series of tax credits to make buying homes more affordable. College education- Reducing the cost of going to education with $12 billion allocated for this. Offering tution free community college. Family and Medical Leave- Federal paid family and medical leave program. Retirees- a $2000 cap on out of pocket cost of prescription drugs for retirees. Reduced taxes for under $400,000 income households- This would be done without increasing the deficits to extend the tax reduction from the 2017 tax cuts to households making less than $400,000 a year.     ...

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The BBC Fact check for crime, cost of living, immigration, world affairs is shown next to this transcript of the former president's speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, July 2024. The biggest issue is cost of living, for housing, food and groceries, gas and automobiles new and repairs. "I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy . We will drill, baby, drill. Prices will start to come down." Fact: Gas prices may come down a bit, but it will do little or nothing for the other major components of cost of living - for housing and mortgage rates of 6-7%, for automobile prices and auto repairs, for food and groceries.The problem of job creation will come to the fore because of an inherent contradiction of trying to commit to Republican old platform of tax cuts for the wealthy and efforts to take cost of living action for the now larger lower and middle classes. Without this money that goes to tax cuts for wealthy there is not much to invest in Make at Home, in manufacturing in US the way Biden is doing and plans for next 4 years creating hundreds of thousands of jobs every month and still keeping inflation low at 3% through an investment driven economy. ...

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ECB study put out in April 2013 shows household wealth and income in eurozone countries based on 2009-2010 data for 60,000 households throughout the eurozone. The household wealth in southern European countries is higher than that in Germany. The study shows why ordinary Germans oppose bailouts for banks, Greece, and eurozone countries that experienced a boom in the 2000-2010 period, a period in which German workers took small pay raises to improve German competitiveness. Germans also see Portugal and Ireland in a different light compared to Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Spain where real estate speculation, lax accounting, tax evasion and favored treatment of certain groups, has created or aggravated the debt problems. Wealth is defined as total assets, including real estate, vehicles, bank deposits, investments and pensions, minus liabilities for mortgages, credit card debt and loans. By this measure German households had an average of 200,000 euros in wealth, and lower than this in Finland and Netherlands. At the median or midpoint German households had 50,000 euros, the lowest in the eurozone, for Greece the median was 102,000 euros. The impact of home ownership is significant in the report, as home ownership is lower in Germany than in Southern European countries, and mortgage interest is not considered favorably in German tax laws. The decline in value of homes after 2010 is also not reflected. Another indicator for comparitive wellbeing is income, and this is shown in figures released in March 2013 from the European Statistics Agency for GDP per capita. For Germany per capita GDP was 29,000 euros in 2010. The average GDP per capita for the eurozone is about 24,000 euros. By this measure Greece is at 21,000 euros, 24,000 euros for Italy and for Spain. Germany being 18-19% above Spain and Italy. If Germans, Dutch, Finns and Austrians are less well off then the argument favors having the banks, creditors, and including depositors, in a burdensharing arrangement for bailout of troubled eurozone economies. ...