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"President Obama is considering whether to push early next year for an overhaul of the income tax code to lower rates and raise revenues in what would be his first major effort to begin addressing the long-term growth of the national debt." "Rather than increase individual and corporate tax rates to raise more revenues, a majority of the panel proposed eliminating or reducing many of the popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals that cost $1 trillion annually and using the additional revenues to lower rates and reduce deficits. The majority included five Republicans, among them two of the Senate’s...

President Obama is showing signs that he, along with most of the rest of the country, is losing faith in liberal economic theory. Now I'm not suggesting he's going to go all Milton Friedman on us, but I think it is appropriate to reflect on a comment he made at his September 10 press conference and take a moment to rejoice in small victories. The following question was asked to the president: "On the economy, could you discuss your efforts at reviewing history as it relates to the poverty agenda, meaning LBJ and Dr. King?" The President's reply about...

By Deroy Murdock/Syndicated columnist Sunday, February 18, 2007 - Updated: 12:40 AM EST By Deroy Murdock The Republican primary's most accomplished supply-sider is the all-but-announced Rudolph W. Giuliani. Having sliced taxes and slashed Gotham's government, New York's former mayor is the leading fiscal conservative among 2008's GOP presidential contenders. Before Giuliani's Jan. 1, 1994, inauguration, New York's economy was on a stretcher. Amid soaring unemployment, 235 jobs vanished daily within the city. Financier Felix Rohatyn complained: "Virtually all human activities are taxed to the hilt." Punitive taxes helped fuel a $2.3 billion deficit. Mayor-elect Giuliani sounded Reaganesque when he announced...

"The only Grover they know in Indiana is the fuzzy creature on Sesame Street," cracked Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels after anti-tax activist Grover Norquist attacked his proposed tax increase. That reminded Norquist of the 2003 remark by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft: "The only Grover I know is on Sesame Street." Norquist retorted: "Not only do these tax-hikers have the same tax policy, they also have the same gag writers." Until Jan. 18, nobody dreamed of comparing Bob Taft to Mitch Daniels. The Ohioan with the famous Republican name is despised in his own party as a tax increaser. In contrast,...

<p>Now that he's escaped the fever swamps of the Democratic primaries, John Kerry seems to be taking economics more seriously. His new plan at least admits that U.S. corporate taxation is a problem, even if in the end he'd make things worse.</p>