Tag Archives: taxes

Vote and Revote

19 Tuesday Dec 2017

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In an astounding act of accomplishment today the House voted, 227-203, to cut taxes. The Senate is expected to act shortly, likely with similar effect. However, based on what, exactly, the Senate votes for, the House may have to revisit the Bill tomorrow. It seems someone in the Senate objects – and I do not make this up – to the name of the legislation. Someone actually has a problem with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Were the GOP just a tad smarter (ha!), then they would have named HR 1 the Civil Rights Act of 2017. Only Robert Byrd could have objected to that and he’s dead.

I understand this measure will result in slightly lower taxes, with mild simplifications, for the majority of people who actually pay incomes taxes to the Empire. That’s good. Note: I haven’t read the whole thing; I’m into eating glass right now. The danger is what else might be lurking within or closely associated with the cuts.

The last time we had such a sweeping tax overhaul, 1986 with Ronnie, we also saw a few tax increases, a little gun control, and amnesty for our enemies. The old saying, “nothing is safe while the legislature is in session,” was coined for a reason. But, as the old had once said, “we’ve got to pass it to see what’s in it.” Cold comfort.

Anyhow, we could have reform tomorrow, or maybe Thursday. Here’s the vote on HR 1, from today, Roll Call No. 692:

227, for; 203, against; 2 likely passed out drunk or molesting someone/thing.

How every single politi-critter voted:

(It just occurred to me that my pasting killed the cursory differentiation between Dems and GOPers, not that it really matters. If you think it does, just click the link for the original).

—- YEAS 227 —

Abraham
Aderholt
Allen
Amash
Amodei
Arrington
Babin
Bacon
Banks (IN)
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Bergman
Biggs
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Bost
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Budd
Burgess
Byrne
Calvert
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chabot
Cheney
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Cook
Costello (PA)
Cramer
Crawford
Culberson
Curbelo (FL)
Curtis
Davidson
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Dunn
Emmer
Estes (KS)
Farenthold
Ferguson
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Flores
Fortenberry
Foxx
Gaetz
Gallagher
Garrett
Gianforte
Gibbs
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Graves (MO)
Griffith
Grothman
Guthrie
Handel
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Higgins (LA)
Hill
Holding
Hollingsworth
Hudson
Huizenga
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (LA)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce (OH)
Katko
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
Kinzinger
Knight
Kustoff (TN)
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Latta
Lewis (MN)
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
MacArthur
Marchant
Marino
Marshall
Massie
Mast
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mitchell
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Mullin
Newhouse
Noem
Norman
Nunes
Olson
Palazzo
Palmer
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Pittenger
Poe (TX)
Poliquin
Posey
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Rice (SC)
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rokita
Rooney, Francis
Rooney, Thomas J.
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Royce (CA)
Russell
Rutherford
Ryan (WI)
Sanford
Scalise
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (TX)
Smucker
Stewart
Stivers
Taylor
Tenney
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Trott
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)

—- NAYS 203 —

Adams
Aguilar
Barragán
Bass
Beatty
Bera
Beyer
Bishop (GA)
Blumenauer
Blunt Rochester
Bonamici
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brown (MD)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capuano
Carbajal
Cárdenas
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Cooper
Correa
Costa
Courtney
Crist
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Demings
DeSaulnier
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Donovan
Doyle, Michael F.
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Espaillat
Esty (CT)
Evans
Faso
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Gomez
Gonzalez (TX)
Gottheimer
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutiérrez
Hanabusa
Hastings
Heck
Higgins (NY)
Himes
Hoyer
Huffman
Issa
Jackson Lee
Jayapal
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones
Kaptur
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Khanna
Kihuen
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
King (NY)
Krishnamoorthi
Kuster (NH)
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lawrence
Lawson (FL)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham, M.
Luján, Ben Ray
Lynch
Maloney, Carolyn B.
Maloney, Sean
Matsui
McCollum
McEachin
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Moore
Moulton
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Nolan
Norcross
O’Halleran
O’Rourke
Pallone
Panetta
Pascrell
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Raskin
Rice (NY)
Richmond
Rohrabacher
Rosen
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sánchez
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Schrader
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (NJ)
Smith (WA)
Soto
Speier
Stefanik
Suozzi
Swalwell (CA)
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Titus
Tonko
Torres
Tsongas
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velázquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth
Zeldin

—- NOT VOTING 2 —

Kennedy
Pocan

Look through those names. One may belong to you. Consider that 203 of them want you to keep a little less of your money. Heck, I’d imagine many would take more if they could. Remember that.

Developing…

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Paradise Papers Demonstrate how the Elite Hide their Assets

06 Monday Nov 2017

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This must be just like bankin’ in paradise
And I don’t send the taxes home.

-My apologies to David Lee Roth…

The second largest data leak in history, the Paradise Papers, shows how the truly wealthy avoid paying taxes.

The world’s biggest businesses, heads of state and global figures in politics, entertainment and sport who have sheltered their wealth in secretive tax havens are being revealed this week in a major new investigation into Britain’s offshore empires.

The details come from a leak of 13.4m files that expose the global environments in which tax abuses can thrive – and the complex and seemingly artificial ways the wealthiest corporations can legally protect their wealth.

The material, which has come from two offshore service providers and the company registries of 19 tax havens, was obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with partners including the Guardian, the BBC and the New York Times.

The project has been called the Paradise Papers. It reveals:

Millions of pounds from the Queen’s private estate has been invested in a Cayman Islands fund – and some of her money went to a retailer accused of exploiting poor families and vulnerable people.

Extensive offshore dealings by Donald Trump’s cabinet members, advisers and donors, including substantial payments from a firm co-owned by Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law to the shipping group of the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross.

How Twitter and Facebook received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments that can be traced back to Russian state financial institutions.

The tax-avoiding Cayman Islands trust managed by the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s chief moneyman.

A previously unknown $450m offshore trust that has sheltered the wealth of Lord Ashcroft.

It’s how Apple hides $252 Billion!!!! from the tax man.

They reveal how Apple sidestepped a 2013 crackdown on its controversial Irish tax practices by actively shopping around for a tax haven.

It then moved the firm holding most of its untaxed offshore cash, now $252bn, to the Channel Island of Jersey.

Apple said the new structure had not lowered its taxes.

It said it remained the world’s largest taxpayer, paying about $35bn (£26bn) in corporation tax over the past three years, that it had followed the law and its changes “did not reduce our tax payments in any country”.

One assumes that these elites and giant organizations earned the money, most of it. It’s theirs. Wanting to keep as much as possible is understandable: 1) it’s theirs, and 2) they can use the money to grow the economy. Otherwise, if taxed, the money gets spent on subsidies to ag. companies, bombing brown people, and compensating bankers for the most important kind of nothing.

The hypocrisy (and shock) comes in when one realizes these are usually the same types that rig the system for their own benefit, leaving the rest of us to pay the bills. And our paying isn’t enough. They lecture us. Regulate us. Rule us.

Carlin, Carlin, Carlin, Carlin: “It’s a Big Club. And You ain’t in it! You and I are not in the Big Club.”

I foresee this changing little, if anything. Heck, forget I brought it up. And God help whoever brought this to light. The last such intrepid reporter was car-bombed.

_98633995_d088087d-9daa-449d-87c5-5d8c7a567088

A less Christie-fied Jersey. BBC/Getty.

The Return of Everyone’s Favorite Political Game – Whack-a-Bill!

30 Monday Oct 2017

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Where’s the Bill? Who got the Bill? Anyone seen it? There it is! Nope. Too late. You gotta be quick with the mallet.

This time it’s the GOP’s super secret tax legislation.

Rank-and-file House Republicans are increasingly alarmed by the secrecy shrouding the massive tax bill their party leaders plan to ram through Congress next month.

Just days ahead of the legislation’s release, GOP members of the House Ways and Means Committee are still in the dark on numerous details being ironed out by the powerful tax-writing committee’s chairman, Kevin Brady (R-Texas), and his staff. And they’re blaming the panel’s top-down approach for the uncertainty.

“There are a lot of open issues,” said Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio), echoing comments made by several of his colleagues on the committee.

Heading into the weekend, question marks remained on at least two high-profile proposals to offset the cost of slashing individual and business tax rates: curbing federal deductions for state and local taxes and business interest as well as potential changes to taxing retirement savings.

The uneasy feeling among members extends to their tax aides, who’ve been excluded from a recent series of hours-long member meetings with Brady and his tax counsels.

Alarm? Exclusion? Ha!

An unnamed source tells me the Bill is currently held up in a vault in the Congressional basement, next to the Shrine to Baphomet.

Really, who needs details. These arch-conservative geniuses played Whack-a-Bill with the ObamaCare thing earlier in the year and that worked out just as planned. Nothing to worry about.

Whack-a-Bill™ is like the old Whack-a-Mole game at the county fair – except it’s legislation, your money and rights, instead of a fake plastic rodent.

140309-tomasky-whack-a-mole-tease_xawuvk

Older version seen here. The Daily Beast.

Whack-a-Bill™ reminds you that your vote counts…

Taxing Details?

26 Tuesday Sep 2017

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Here’s the current rumor about the great tax reforms:

Top White House and GOP leaders have agreed to raise the lowest individual tax rate from 10 to 12 percent, paired with doubling the standard deduction, 5 senior Republicans tell us.

Why this matters: Trump intends to sell the proposal tomorrow as a populist “tax cut.” But as recently as yesterday top Republicans on Capitol Hill were nervous as they got word that Trump wasn’t entirely thrilled with the product that had been hashed out in immense secrecy for weeks (with two members of his administration, Gary Cohn and Steven Mnuchin, working with GOP leaders.)

Late last night Republicans close to the process felt more confident that Trump had come around to supporting the framework — despite his misgivings about the corporate rate not being low enough and about the political risks of raising the lowest rate (even though many more people will now pay no tax because of the increased deduction, meaning they can accurately call it a tax cut for the middle class as well as for the wealthy.)

Big picture details: Republicans plan to collapse the number of brackets from seven to three. The standard deduction would almost double to $12,000 for a single filer and $24,000 for married couples, meaning Trump can accurately argue that many more low income earners would pay no tax under his plan. As we previously reported, the top tax bracket would fall from 39.6% to 35%.

Yes, but: Trump won’t go into great detail when he talks about the tax plan tomorrow in Indiana, leaving plenty of negotiating room for the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate. As of yesterday morning Trump hadn’t signed off on the final product, and as with all policy announcements involving Trump, Republican Hill leaders will be holding their breaths to some extent until the president actually utters the words. Speaking with conservative groups at the White House yesterday Trump, reassured them of his commitment when he gushed about the “tax cut” he was planning to unveil.

Technically, rate-wise, this is an increase for the poor and a cut for the wealthy. In reality, if any of this is true, it will mean less of an actual burden for all. That might make sense – more sense than the GOP Obama-Trump-Ryan-GrahamCare repeal replace amendment meddling whatever, which has once again failed.

We’ll know more tomorrow or next year or, certainly, by the mid-terms. Then, suddenly, all the failure will be touted as smashing success. This is why many other countries have more than two parties.

Just Repeal the Sixteenth Amendment

13 Wednesday Sep 2017

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Barring a return to the majority of our history, income tax-free, a tax cut (any tax cut) still sounds good.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday the Trump administration is considering backdating tax reform to the start of this year to boost the economy.

Backdating “is still something we are considering and it would be a big boon for the economy,” he said at the Delivering Alpha conference presented by CNBC and Institutional Investor.

Republicans aim to overhaul the American tax code but have faced various hurdles in their goal of passing a tax reform bill this year. Congress and the White House have not yet released a plan but are working this month to prepare legislation. Mnuchin heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss tax policy with GOP congressional leaders, the latest in a series of meetings.

Earlier Tuesday, Mnuchin insisted that a tax overhaul would happen this year.

“We’re going to get this done by the end of the year,” Mnuchin told CNBC, adding that the administration is “super focused” on the goal following the three-month debt limit and government funding extension passed last week.

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday on individual tax reform. Sen. Orrin Hatch, the committee’s chairman and one of the six primary tax negotiators, said he expects to share the plan with other lawmakers after that and other hearings.

President Donald Trump urged lawmakers last week to push forward with tax legislation “ASAP,” telling them not to wait until the end of September. Tax reform is one of the key planks of the agenda he pitched as a candidate, and he has made two recent speeches touting the benefits of changes to the tax system without offering new details.

Great. I think the biggest of those various GOP hurdles this year has been the hurdle of the GOP itself. Maybe Trump should enlist the Dems’ help. Whatever works.

I like my idea the best – big government proponents should too. By killing the 16A, the entire tax code, and the IRS, no money will be lost at all. In fact, we may be approaching the magical point of unlimited (free) government budgets! This is because Congress will soon remove any pretense of a debt “ceiling.” The whole bunch (D’s and R’s and the President) call for essentially endless and limitless debt.

And why not? Why not fund the government completely with IOUs? They’re never going to be repaid anyway. It makes perverse sense. Everyone, every single big government lover of any stripe, could get his pet project funded to the moon. And everyone else would keep their cash!

No … that game would not last forever. None does.

Okay, okay. Cut this year. Repeal next year. Forever never comes.

Happy Tax Slave Day, 2017

18 Tuesday Apr 2017

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Just a reminder that your 1040 is due today. Normally the joyous day of imperial compliance falls of the 15th of April. This year, as some, that date fell on the weekend. Thus, the magnanimous government gave you a few extra days to file. And, if you owe more than you’ve already paid, remember to pay that balance too.

Some don’t pay at all:

In tax year 2014, according to a report published by the Internal Revenue Service, the federal government hauled in a then-record $1,377,797,136,000 in individual income taxes.

Nonetheless, of the 148,606,578 individual income tax return filers that year, 52,062,499 filed what the IRS calls “nontaxable returns,” which means they paid no net individual income taxes.

Among these 52,062,499 filers who did not pay income taxes in 2014, according to Table 3.3 in the report, were 31,129,405 filers who also received $90,276,007,000 in payments from the federal government for “refundable” tax credits.

“In total, taxpayers claimed $105.6 billion in refundable tax credits,” said the IRS report. “Of this, $5.5 billion was applied against income taxes and $9.8 billion against all other taxes. The remaining $90.3 billion in refundable tax credits was refunded to taxpayers.”

“Tax credits are use to offset taxes,” the report explains. “Certain tax credits are also refundable in that if the credit exceeds the total tax owed, the excess can be refunded to the taxpayer.”

One example of a refundable tax credit is the “Earned Income Tax Credit.” “The Earned Income Tax Credit for 2014,” the IRS explains, “was a maximum of $496 for taxpayers with no qualifying children, $3,305 for one qualifying child, $5,460 for two qualifying children, and $6,143 for taxpayers with three or more qualifying children.”

For a married couple filing jointly to be eligible for the EIC in 2014, said the IRS, “earned income and adjusted gross income had to be less than $43,941 for one child, $49,186 for two children and $52,427 for three children or more.”

A married couple with two children earning $50,000 or more would not qualify for this refundable credit.

Thirty-five percent of workers pay no taxes at all. Add in those who could work, but don’t, and we have something approaching half the population paying nothing, no skin in the game. They still vote, however. Their votes cancel out those of the people who actually pay for the government.

All of this was envisioned back in 1913, when the income tax was federally instituted, and earlier when the communists plotted the downfall of the West. The plans are working seamlessly.

Oddly, the country somehow managed to exist and to grow, wildly, without any income taxes. In reality, as in history, it should be 100% paying no taxes.

01-US-CITIZENS-NOW-ONE-STEP-CLOSER-TO-BECOMING-PERMANENT-TAX-SLAVES

If you can believe it, there was a time when only one was guaranteed. Sovereign Man.

But, here we are. Pay up!

So Complex It’s Simple

15 Saturday Apr 2017

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Only the U.S. government could rake in mind-boggling, record tax revenues and still run a deficit.

Despite collecting record amounts of individual income taxes and payroll taxes, the Treasury still ran a deficit of $526,855,000,000 in the first six months of fiscal 2017.

Also, even with record revenues from individual income taxes and payroll taxes in the first six months of fiscal 2017, overall federal tax collections were slightly down.

In the first six months of fiscal 2016, the federal government collected $1,513,124,070,000 (in constant 2017 dollars) in total taxes. In the first six months of this fiscal year, total federal tax collections have dropped to $1,473,137,000,000—a decline of about $39,987,070,000 from total tax collections in the first six months of fiscal 2016.

So much money and it’s still not enough. Thus, the debt grows apace.

The solution is simple: stop spending so much. Then again, as this cartoon, today, illustrates, the simple doesn’t always go over so well addressing the needlessly complex:

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Dustin / Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker.

State by State Guide to Tax Theft Rates

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

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Too often I focus on the criminal insanity emanating from Washington, D.C. The Empire also has 50 accomplices in the constant looting of your wallet. Martin Armstrong ran the numbers and came up with some informative maps.

Now filter in the State Income Taxes and what emerges is human nature. For all the people who complain about multinational companies moving offshore and then deny that it is tax related and try to characterize that as simply labor is cheaper, need to look more closely. The multinational companies I restructured we looked at the whole picture. Wages were a small part and only one component. What was the amount of social taxation on top of the wages, property taxes in a region, and then the corporate tax. Gee – it looks like the individual is making the same analysis.

The net migration of people within the United States mirrors the same thing taking place corporately on a global scale. They are leaving the highest taxed states and moving to the lower taxed states. Taxes are more than just what you pay, they push up the cost of living because everyone is paying a higher tax rate and raises all consumer goods. I took a friend out with his family down from NJ and they bought ice cream cones here in Florida. The bill was about half that of what they pay at the Jersey shore. I said see: high taxes ripple through everything within the economy raising the price of everything you buy. The net bottom line – taxes rob much more of your disposable income than anyone actually attributes to the government directly.

State-Income-Taxes-768x570

Armstrong Economics / Attom Data.

This report focuses on the combined effects of property and income taxes. There’s an overlay map of the two: red for higher taxes, green for lower. Go for the green, if you want to keep your own.

Note: In some few of the states with positive income tax rates, said taxes do not kick in before a certain income level is reached, or they apply to certain types of income. For example: NH has no tax on “wages” but they tax investment incomes (while taxing the fire out of property).

Is This 1986? Let’s Hope Not

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

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I love the 80’s. I live in the past. Duran Duran, the A-team, etc. There are, however, some things I would prefer to leave in the past. Political “compromise” for instance.

Here’s a doubtful article about the relationship between Trump’s tax cuts, today, versus Reagan’s in 1986.

The fundamentals of tax overhaul were strong some 30 years ago.

A popular president, Republican Ronald Reagan, pushed the landmark 1986 measure. Powerful and experienced congressional leaders shepherded the legislation with bipartisan support. Key players had established, trusting relationships.

The situation facing President Donald Trump features none of those advantages. His party is divided and his congressional leadership is weakened after the health care debacle. Key players are inexperienced. Trump has record low approval ratings. Republicans who control all of Washington are planning on going it alone, without help from Democrats.

Now, there isn’t even basic agreement on what revising the tax code is. Trump is promising “massive tax relief for the middle class.” Congressional leaders are pushing an overhaul that would keep gross tax revenues roughly the same – “revenue neutral” in Washington-speak – while clearing away many tax breaks and using the resulting savings to lower rates, with the top brackets getting most of the benefit.

So much is different; so much the same. 50% or 40% – any tax rate above 0% is too high for my tastes. I may be alone in that thought.

Reagan had been in office five years, a veteran at that point. Congress was run by, whatever else they were, professionals. Other than that, things were pretty much the same: in 1986:

Conservatives claimed and agenda they either didn’t believe in or didn’t understand.

Liberals wanted more government in your life and knew how to get it there.

Millions of illegals wanted to stay for a variety of reasons, most the ancient English would not understand.

Terrorists were just starting to think of America as a target. (Back then OBL was a CIA contract employee….).

Ordinary people loved guns; liberals hated and feared them.

Aside from loving guns (and Duran Duran and Alf) the people were largely asleep.

Nothing much has changed. Therein lies the danger of a repeat of history. We could end up with; a little tax reform (some cuts and some increases); amnesty (never to happen again – just like in 1986), and some more gun control.

Ronald Reagan

1986: Reagan: cuts taxes, raises taxes, bans guns, and legalizes illegals. Yay. AP.

Or, given this generation of the GOP, we could see nothing. And, sadly, nothing would be preferable to the awful, historical alternatives.

Okay, back to sleep…

The Taxing of Donald Trump

15 Wednesday Mar 2017

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I recall more than a few making a mountain out of Trump’s mountainous taxes. He wouldn’t release his returns. He used the law to defer losses. So what? What were they looking for?

We just found out, inadvertently, for the year of 2005. PMSBC and some reporter committed a felony by releasing part of Trump’s taxes for that year.

Surprise, surprise. The man paid 25% of his net income, or $36.5 Million to the IRS. If you don’t pay a similar annual amount, or a lifetime total, maybe now would be a good time to shut up.

For the “equality” crowd, wouldn’t it be nice if everyone paid the same amount? You know, to keep things equal, fair. Everyone is equal, right? It’s fair. I might suggest 0, both as a percentage and as a total number.