Word: taxed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...biggest factors in making paychecks seem smaller in recent years has been the sharp increase in energy prices. There's very little a President can do to change this in the short term; the summer gas-tax holiday proposed by McCain and Clinton would put just a few dollars in the pockets of all but the biggest gas hogs. Where Presidents (and Congress) can have a big impact is in the long-term trajectory of energy prices and their effect on the economy. Elected officials can do this by steering Americans away from oil and toward other energy sources...
...make no mistake, somebody is going to have to pay those bills someday. The message many Republicans took from Reagan's successes of the early 1980s, and still preach today, is that tax cuts pay for themselves. That's nonsense - Reagan's rate cuts for the rich may have paid for themselves, but the 1981 tax package as a whole (which included cuts for the poor, the middle class and corporations) clearly did not. The real lesson of the 1980s was that the U.S. can get away with running far bigger deficits than anyone thought possible while still enjoying strong...
...reductions in tax rates on income, capital gains and corporate dividends that President Bush pushed through in 2001 and 2003 are due to expire in 2010. That could prove a tough blow for a still wobbly economy to weather, but it would help shrink the deficit over time...
...McCain wants to stay the course in Iraq. And despite his admirable record of fiscal probity in the Senate, his campaign statements about the deficit have been less than convincing. He wants to extend the Bush tax cuts that he once opposed - and add a few more of his own, saying he'll make up the difference by cutting "wasteful spending." But even eliminating the pork-barrel congressional earmarks that McCain has long criticized would make only a dent in the deficit...
...rule, presidential candidates not named Ross Perot don't propose fuel-tax hikes. Interestingly, though, to fight global warming, Clinton, McCain and Obama are all in favor of a carbon-cap-and-trade regimen, which would raise the price of fossil fuels just as surely as a direct tax would. Almost in spite of ourselves, we may end up with a semi-rational long-term energy policy. It won't make gas cheaper anytime soon - or perhaps ever - but in the long run, it could strengthen the country's economic prospects...