Middleboro Review et al

Unfunded (Low) Priority Lists Weekly Wastebasket | March 2, 2018 Just a few weeks after Pentagon spending received a big boost in the President’s budget, services are crying poor and whining to Congress about billions of dollars worth of items that were left out. Let’s look at the facts. The Pentagon got  $686 billion in the budget request . That’s tens of billions more than in they are getting for fiscal year 2018 which was tens of billions more than in FY2017. Yet, the Navy and now the Air Force are running to Congress to get even more stuff. You can be sure Army and the Marines won’t be too far behind. While completely outrageous, the lists are not altogether surprising or new. Except during the tenure of Defense Secretary Gates – who banned these type of requests – the so called “ Unfunded Priorities List ” have been around decades. We’re not buying it, but one could argue the need for this type of list when spending limits were slowing th...

Bipartisan Budget Debacle Weekly Wastebasket | Feb. 9, 2018 WEEKLY WASTEBASKET Bipartisan Budget Debacle Congress has usually at least come up with sham offsets to counter the costs. This time they didn’t even bother with that nicety. Budget & Tax ,  Featured    |  Quick Take Feb 9, 2018    | 5 min read | Print Article It should have been easy, but Congress didn’t like the budget caps they set for themselves in the Budget Control Act of 2011. They’ve done this before. In fact, since fiscal year 2012 they have never lived under the caps, amending them in the American Taxpayers Relief Act of 2012, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. But this time was different. In the past, Congress had the budgetary shame (dignity?) to come up with at least sham offsets to counter the costs. This time they didn’t even bother with that nicety. Instead they loaded the package with other taxpayer giveaways...

International Tax Gimmicks  Weekly Wastebasket | Dec. 15, 2017 Most of the discussion about “Tax Reform” has centered on individual and business rates. Far less attention has been given to international tax changes, even though they contribute more than $250 billion in revenue (over 10 years) to hold down the cost current proposal. A little background: The U.S. is one of the few countries that  imposes “worldwide” taxation. That is, U.S. taxpayers (both corporate and individual) pay tax on both their U.S. and foreign income (profits). Taxpayers can also deduct taxes paid to other countries, so taxpayers only pay U.S. taxes on foreign income if they exceed the foreign taxes. But, corporations get a special benefit. Corporations only pay U.S. tax on their foreign earnings when those profits are brought back (“repatriated”) to the U.S. Any profits left outside the US are not subject to current tax. Both the House and Senate...