Free Republic

Laffer Curve strikes again: lower tax rates produced more revenue The results of last year's Trump tax cut are starting to roll in, and they should not be surprising to students of the Laffer Curve or readers of this blog. As I noted last October, not cutting taxes rates is boosting the deficit: Since early last year (February 2016, to be exact), when talk of tax cuts began to spread and politicians on both sides of the aisle began to agree that our corporate tax rate—the highest in the developing world—should be cut, revenues from corporate and individual income taxes...

The federal government collected far more taxes this April than it did a year ago, despite the "budget busting" Trump tax cuts. So, we'll ask again: Are the tax cuts paying for themselves? According to the latest monthly report from the Congressional Budget Office, revenues in April totaled $515 billion — a 13% increase over last April and an all-time high for the month. For the current 2018 fiscal year, which started last October, revenues are $83 billion higher than they were the year before — an increase of 4.3%. That's a faster rate of growth than occurred during President...

The Congressional Budget Office is reporting that the federal government took in $515 billion in April. With outlays only $218 billion, the $190 billion surprlus represents the largest in history. What's more, the CBO said that the surplus was $40 billion more than expected. Washington Times: Analysts said they’ll have a better idea of what’s behind the surge as more information rolls in, but for now said it looks like individual taxpayers are paying more because they have higher incomes. “Those payments were mostly related to economic activity in 2017 and may reflect stronger-than-expected income growth in that year,” the...

When the Congressional Budget Office released its updated budget forecast, everyone focused on the deficit number. But buried in the report was the CBO's tacit admission that it vastly overestimated the cost of the Trump tax cuts, because it didn't account for the strong economic growth they would generate. Among the many details in the report, the one reporters focused on was the CBO's forecast that the federal deficit would top $1 trillion in 2020, two years earlier than the CBO had previously said. And, naturally, most news accounts blamed the tax cuts. "U.S. budget deficit to balloon on Republican...

RUSH: “Feds Collect Record Taxes in First Month Under Tax Cuts.” When I saw this, I wondered how many people are gonna say, “Rush was right.” I wonder how many people are gonna say, “Rush told us this was gonna happen.” I wonder how many people are gonna remember for the last 30 years, “Yep. This is exactly what works every time it’s tried. Rush told us.” Quote: “The federal government this January ran a surplus while collecting record total tax revenues for that month of the year, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released [Monday]. January was the first...

Take Interstate 65 south across the Ohio River and you might not notice you've just spent $4. No toll booth stands between the Indiana border and Louisville. Motorists who frequently travel the route likely have a transponder device, with the cost charged automatically to their account. For those without a transponder, a camera captures a license plate photo and the tolling system operator, with access to motor vehicle records, sends a bill to the vehicle's registered owner. As technological advances make highway and bridge tolling easier and more efficient, technology also is delivering more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. The gasoline-tax...

Is that toll collector in the booth an endangered species? Not quite with 387 collectors working for the Illinois tollway in 2018, but the numbers are dwindling as the agency moves toward an automated system. Through attrition, toll collector jobs will drop by 32 next year, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of the 55 eliminated positions agencywide, according to the proposed budget recently released. Other budget highlights include an estimated $60 million spike in revenues and a $269.7 million increase in capital spending from 2017. Overall the operations and maintenance budget, which includes salaries and equipment, will rise by...

The last two major income tax rate reductions were in the 1960s and 1980s. Here are the results of those cuts and their effect on revenue collection. Federal revenue in 1960 = $92.5 Federal revenue in 1968 = $153.0 Over a 50% increase in revenue! Federal revenue in 1980 = $517.5 Federal revenue in 1989 = $909.0 Over a 70% increase in revenue! So the FACTS show that cutting taxes in the 60's and 80's increased federal tax revenue. Now you know the truth.

A Look Into the Opaque Crystal Ball for Infrastructure Initiatives in the First 100 Days of the Trump Administration President Donald J. Trump's "America's Infrastructure First" plan is one of the Trump Administration's priorities during his first 100 days in office. Throughout the campaign, President Trump heralded his plan to build and restore highways, tunnels, airports, bridges, and water systems across America and promised a $1 trillion investment in the infrastructure sector over a 10-year period. Leaders from both parties acknowledge the nation's deteriorating infrastructure, and there have been expressions of support from both sides of the aisle for some...

Most other developed nations already have a VAT -- a system in which taxes are paid by each business in the different stages of production of a good or service, and, ultimately, directly or indirectly, by the consumer. VAT is considered a consumption tax, since it taxes what people consume, rather than how much they earn or their profits from investment. That's also a reason why some consider it unfair for lower-income households. And critics say it could let government take a bigger slice of the overall economic pie, enabling higher spending. Its supporters, meanwhile, say VAT is better for...

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. is out with his new book, On the Brink, where he details his version of events that occurred on Wall Street and Washington D.C.during the financial crisis while he was Treasury Secretary. All that you really need to know about this fairy tale can be found in the front of the book in what is labeled as "Author's Notes". In this preface, Paulson tells us that he doesn't take notes and doesn't use email and his staff was frustrated because he didn't send out memos, but fortunately, he tells us, he has a very...

The latest auction in California's cap-and-trade market for greenhouse gases fell sharply below expectations, as buyers purchased just 2% of the carbon credits whose sale funds a variety of state programs -- notably, the proposed high-speed rail project. The quarterly auction, conducted May 18 and announced Wednesday, will provide just $10 million for state programs, including $2.5 million for the bullet train. The rail authority had been expecting about $150 million. Whatever prompted the lack of buyers, the auction is a stark example of the uncertainty and risk of relying on actively-traded carbon credits to build the bullet train. The...

...our model shows more growth from the Rubio and Cruz plans than the Trump plan, even though Trump proposed a larger cut: While Donald Trump largely opted for big rate reductions across the board, Rubio and Cruz made improvements to the structure of taxes, while cutting taxes by less overall. Senators Rubio and Cruz both put thought into the nature of the taxes that businesses pay. They noticed that the current way businesses are asked to calculate taxes creates a bias in the code. When a business builds something new, like, say, a new industrial lathe, that decision actually has...

If McDonald's suddenly cuts the price of its French fries in half, would its store profits fall or rise? If the price cut caused more people to come to its stores and spend more on other items, such as Big Macs, revenues and profits might rise, provided that competitors do not cut their prices in response. Airlines have learned to adjust their prices for each flight and almost each seat on what seems to be an hourly basis, depending on supply and demand, all in the interest of maximizing profit. Any business person who does not understand the laws of...

The amount of vehicle registration (license plate) tax the state collects from Michigan motorists each year is up 24 percent since 1990, even after factoring in inflation. Revenue from the Motor Vehicle Registration tax rose from $420.2 million in 1990 to $943.5 million in 2014, according to the Senate Fiscal Agency. If expressed in 2014 dollars, the $420.2 million collected in 1990 would be equivalent to $761.1 million today. The amount actually collected last year represents a 24 percent increase in that figure. This revenue stream will grow another 20 percent starting Jan. 1, 2017, thanks to a tax increase...

The largest swindle big business ever played on the American people — forcing us to pay huge cable bills for dozens of channels we never watch — is slowly coming apart. Even with an ever-increasing population, the pay TV industry (cable and satellite) lost a net 566,000 subscribers last quarter. When you add in Q1, that’s a total of 887,000 lost customers in just six short months. There is just no question that customers are getting tech savvy and budget savvy. The result is a growing wave of cord-cutters (last quarter was the second biggest drop in pay TV customers...

In a free market, there’s a pretty simple process for dealing with the situation that arises when one person covets another’s belongings: The coveter makes an offer to purchase them. If the offer is rebuffed, the coveter can make a new proposal, but he cannot simply take what he wants. It’s an effective way of recognizing the impracticality of the Tenth Commandment while enforcing the Eighth. Donald Trump’s covetous nature is not in dispute, but what many may forget is that he’s no great respecter of the admonition not to steal, either: The man has a track record of using...

If you live in Virginia and owe back property taxes, you should probably leave your car parked in the garage. That's because a few local police departments and towns are now using license plate readers provided by the Department of Homeland Security to spot people who owe back taxes and then impound their vehicles. Multiple agencies across the state were able to purchase automatic license plate readers thanks to grant money they received from Homeland Security's terrorism prevention program. But, rather than use them for security purposes, some seem to be using them to fill local coffers by collecting taxes.

Ferguson has allowed its focus on revenue generation to fundamentally compromise the role of Ferguson’s municipal court. The municipal court does not act as a neutral arbiter of the law or a check on unlawful police conduct. … Our investigation has found overwhelming evidence of minor municipal code violations resulting in multiple arrests, jail time, and payments that exceed the cost of the original ticket many times over. One woman, discussed above, received two parking tickets for a single violation in 2007 that then totaled $151 plus fees. Over seven years later, she still owed Ferguson $541—after already paying $550...

The nation’s new postmaster general says the Postal Service is looking beyond its regular mail and package delivery for new sources of revenue. That means building on what Megan J. Brennan calls its “core competency”—the delivery of goods. So what is the agency doing? “We’re testing grocery delivery in San Francisco,” Brennan said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’re also delivering water, cases of water in Manhattan and the boroughs” of New York City. …