(Photo Credit: Tulin, CC 2.0) Last week, the President of the United States stood in the White House Rose Garden and said, “I'm the most transparent President probably in the history of this country.” While every day seems to bring a new, staggeringly dishonest rhetorical strategy from the Trump Administration, this statement qualified as … [Read more...]
IRS Could Make Trump Release His Taxes
President Donald Trump’s bet that it’ll take years to resolve a coming court fight over his tax returns could be wrong. Federal courts are already ruling quickly against Trump in his other attempts to block Congress. The Supreme Court could also be a dead end if the case doesn’t present new legal issues or divide appellate courts. That … [Read more...]
Maryanne Trump Barry Resigns in Face of Ethics Investigation
Maryanne Trump Barry, former Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Pubic Domain) Few people realize that President Trump has an older sister, but you will likely be hearing her name quite a bit over the coming weeks. Maryanne Trump Barry was a federal appellate judge, but she resigned … [Read more...]
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s Former Lawyer and Fixer, to Testify Before Senate
Michael Cohen, the former “fixer” for U.S. President Donald Trump, plans to testify on Wednesday that Trump knew ahead of time about a leak of emails that would hurt his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Cohen will also say that Trump directed negotiations for a real estate project in Moscow even as he … [Read more...]
Severe Budget Cuts, Demonization Dramatically Weaken IRS
In 2001, the conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist said, “I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it to the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” It wasn't an idle boast. Conservative Republicans – and these days, there are very few Republicans who aren't conservative – have spent … [Read more...]
Four States Voting on Marijuana Amendments in Fall 2018
The New York Times reports four more states will vote on recreational or medical marijuana use this upcoming voting day. If the amendments are passed, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, and Utah will join 30 other states that have legalized the drug in some form. These four states are all proposing separate legislation that will affect marijuana … [Read more...]
Manafort Convictions: No Reasonable Doubt on 8 Charges
Unless you’ve been away on a vacation somewhere with no access to the outside world, you’re probably aware that President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was just recently found guilty on eight of the 18 fraud charges. Manafort was found guilty of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of hiding … [Read more...]
Big Companies Have Money for Stock Buybacks, CEO Salaries, Not Increased Worker Pay
How's the economy doing? Your answer to that question will depend on who you are. If you're the CEO or high-ranking executive of a major corporation, things are going very well indeed. Executive compensation is at an all-time high, and their companies are benefiting enormously from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in December of 2017. In the … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Weighs-In on State Taxes and Online Retailers
On April 17th, the highest court considered a case involving some hairy questions around states’ sales tax and whether certain online retailers should collect it. The case before the court, South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., involves over 40 states, who argue that the Supreme Court should overturn a 1992 ruling that prohibits the collection of sales … [Read more...]
Shareholders Receive Major Benefits Thanks to New Tax Law
The new tax law has been the subject of an ongoing debate ever since it was passed at the end of last year. Those on the right have argued that the positive effects can already be seen in the rise of employee bonuses. Democrats, who opposed the tax reform measure, have criticized the bill based on a different short-term metric: stock buybacks, … [Read more...]
