Tag: budget

Trump’s Budget Covers Mueller’s Ongoing Investigation

Buck Banks

$10 million

“President Trump’s new budget projects that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office will still be in business in fiscal year 2019 — even though White House officials have repeatedly said they expect the probe to wrap up soon,” Politico reports. “The budget projects that Mueller’s team will keep spending at its current rate of about $10 million per year in the next fiscal year, which starts in October.”

You Actually Could Solve the Deficit Problem with Tax Increases

Trish

Maybe you heard this recent assertion, which swept through rightwing media outlets: Raising taxes on high income earners can’t solve the federal deficit problem because the deficit is higher than the entire taxable income of Americans who earn more than $100,000. But you likely didn’t hear that it’s not true.

Here’s what the Wall St. Journal said in an editorial, which got the ball rolling.

According to Internal Revenue Service data, the entire taxable income of everyone earning over $100,000 in 2008 was about $1.582 trillion. Even if all these Americans – most of whom are far from wealthy – were taxed at 100%, it wouldn’t cover Mr. Obama’s deficit for this year.

And here’s what the WSJ said when it was pointed out by FactCheck.org that they were wrong.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the total taxable income of Americans earning over $100,000 in 2008 was $1.582 trillion. The correct figure is $3.4 trillion.

The projected deficit is $1.645 trillion. You do the math.

But Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok.), apparently can’t, because he repeated the false claim on a recent FOX News Sunday segment, with an added twist about the futility of including those who net between $100,00 and $250,000 after deductions. The point was to show that the deficit problem can only be solved by cutting spending, not by also increasing revenues. People who are not mathematically — or ideologically — challenged see that it will take both.

Pres. Obama is proposing $2 trillion in spending cuts and $1 trillion in additional tax revenue over 12 years. Seems reasonable to us.

Really Republicans, That’s All You’ve Got?

Trish

The Ryan budget is a dramatic picture of where the government would go under Republicans…but it doesn’t begin to address real problems. The only problem it addresses is the debt. It creates ten problems for every problem it solves…The fact that for Republicans, taxes are an absolute no-go issue — it’s as if Democrats were to say, “Spending is a no-go issue, we will not cut spending anywhere.” What would be the impression of the robustness and vitality of Democratic party thinking if that was the position of the party? But that is the position of the Republican party.

George Packer, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent Decade

Don’t Tell Floridians in Support of Public Workers That the Numbers Aren’t With Them

Trish

While the news media in Florida featured heavy coverage of tea party members at “Awake the State” budget protest rallies, YouTube video and eyewitness accounts tell a different story. Here is just one gathering in Jacksonville, where a mayoral primary was being held. Other events were staged around the city, and repeated throughout the state.