taxes

Diane Hendricks, who became known this week as the $500,000 donor with whom Scott Walker shared his "divide and conquer" plan, is worth $2.8-billion. 

Her Rock County company, ABC Supply , paid exactly $0.00 in state corporate income tax in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, the latest years available, according to the state Dept. of Revenue. 

The Chief, an Oshkosh blogger who deserves a wider readership, asks:

If Paul Ryan takes Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Plan Seriously, should we keep taking Paul Ryan Seriously?

It's entirely possibly that there has never been a more ridiculed and completely dismissed domestic policy proposal than Herman Cain's 9-9-9 Tax Plan. Democrats hate it. Conservatives hate it. Even Grover Norquist hates it. Bruce Bartlett says of the plan:
 

Risky, but goodI'm back a third time to talk about the currently fashionable Republican notion (at least, fashionable among Republicans) that reducing business uncertainty is the only real way to fix America's economic woes. Sorry if I seem tiresome and pedantic on this issue, but I really do think it's important and instructive in many ways. This time, I present yet another reason why Scott Walker is certainly wrong about uncertainty

This idea of uncertainty holding back job creatjion is, as I've noted, one that has been adopted wholesale by Walker, as when he commented on the state Department of Revenue's decision to slam small "roll your own" cigaret shops:

"What we hear from employers all the time … is they want the certainty of knowing what the law is, what the rules are, that they're applied universally and across the board."

Jennifer Bendery on Huffington Post:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has for months argued for closing tax loopholes as a way to pay for his proposed tax cuts. But it turns out he has a penchant for creating those same loopholes when it comes to helping out his biggest donors. Since unveiling the House GOP budget in the spring, Ryan has been touting provisions aimed at ending tax loopholes and deductions in exchange for lowering tax rates in general...

His history is just the opposite, seeking to expand loopholes for his donors. For example, S.C. Johnson & Son donated $41,092 to Ryan between 1998 and 2012. Ryan introduced two bills in May 2005 that would have granted the company special exemptions from tariffs.

Neither bill went anywhere.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) assured Sean Hannity of Fox News that the debt deal that passed the House will not increase taxes and WILL NOT eliminate the Bush tax cuts, which under current law will expire in 2013. That 2013 expiration remains unchanged. Rep. Ryan appears to be engaged in some semantic trickery -- but don't be surprised if the GOP finds a way by 2013 to keep the tax cuts in place, even if the new debt ceiling deal doesn't do it.

Paul Ryan: Paul Ryan with "road map" signRemember that little kid who announced he was going to hold his breath until he got his way? And how his mom said no deal, then watched him slowly struggle to hold it in until junior finally gasped in defeat?

Welcome to your modern Republican Party -- little kids who collectively hold their breath and then blame the grown-ups when their ill-considered blackmail scheme fails.

Republican House budget chair Paul Ryan didn't pull any punches today after a Democrat running hard against his plan to essentially end Medicare won a heavily Republican New York congressional district. Ryan blamed the upset victory of Democrat Kathy Hochul over Republican Jane Corwin on Democratic "scare tactics" aimed at his draconian Medicare proposal. Democrats have already laughed off Ryan's charge, calling it Mediscare.

Walker-based educationWhat with all his non-factual, rhetorical flourishes like "tools" and "dynamic" and "bold" and "we're broke," it's sometimes hard to keep a sensible perspective about Gov. Scott Walker's agenda. But let's try to do the math, even though Walker himself likely would prefer we not.

And the math boils down to this: Walker's proposals statewide average out to cuts of $1449 per public school pupil.

Here's how I arrived at that figure, which I have not seen reported in any popular media:

First, in the name of balancing the state budget, Walker would strip $835 million from state aid to pubilc schools. There are 879,825 public school students in the state. Divide the cuts by the number of pupils and this one step will represent a loss of $949, on average, for each public school student in Wisconsin.

From the Daily Grill feature at ThinkProgress.org:

"Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker...has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. The Pledge is a commitment to constituents to 'oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.'"
- Americans for Tax Reform press release, 03/15/10

VERSUS

"Low and middle income people would lose tax credits worth about $49.9 million over two years."
-- Wisconsin State Journal, explaining that Walker's budget would raise taxes on the poor, 04/16/11