I don't like "hot takes." They're easy. Especially when you're already outside of the mainstream zeitgeist, it's a waste of time to actually have to go looking for ways to undercut a circulating grand narrative.
I almost didn't post this here because of it. There is a lot of blame for Republicans at this blog. Understandably so, because they are the source of so much that is wrong with our society.
However, "evil" - or perhaps more specifically the forces of self-interest over community - they will always be with us. They are a known quantity. It's a given.
But meanwhile, Democrats let the states fall one by one to Republican gerrymandering for decades by ignoring it. Now state legislatures are far redder than their constituents.
Democrats let the Republicans run roughshod over senate rules while unilaterally disarming in the face of it, allowing Republicans to pack the courts with lunatics from the Federalist Society.
Democrats let the Republicans control the senate as a minority power because their leadership still thinks this is Queensbury Rules instead of war. Mitch McConnell is sending Sinema and Manchin fruit baskets. Prove me wrong.
When fascism sweeps away our vote in any meaningful sense by 2026, you can blame the "good men" who stood by and let it happen.
I'm out.
These unpaid taxes — often called the “tax gap” — are predominantly owed by wealthy individuals. The richest 1 percent alone duck an estimated $163 billion in income taxes each year.There are some types of income, however, for which little or no third-party reporting exists. These income categories — including partnership, proprietorship and rental income — accrue disproportionately to high earners. The government has much less ability to tell when these filers are misreporting; as a result, they can more easily get away with cheating.When it comes to ordinary wage and salary income, taxpayers are remarkably forthcoming, with noncompliance averaging only 1 percent; for those more “opaque” income sources, noncompliance is an estimated 55 percent.A more effective response would involve more of that third-party reporting so the IRS has greater visibility into who’s likely fudging their numbers. Then the agency could better target its audit decisions.
More reporting would also deter would-be tax cheats from fudging in the first place, because they’d know they’re more likely to get caught.
This solution is exactly what Democrats have proposed as part of their big budget bill.The reporting proposal is estimated to bring in $200 billion to $250 billion in revenue over the next decade, according to Treasury.
This is revenue that would be collected without having to raise a single tax rate, which you’d think Republicans would applaud. Instead, the GOP, backed by the bank lobby, has fought every version of the reporting policy tooth and nail.
A prominent Washington lobbyist close to Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, is warning Republican political consultants that they must choose between working for Representative Liz Cheney or Mr. McCarthy, an ultimatum that marks the full rupture between the two House Republicans.
Jeff Miller, the lobbyist and a confidant of Mr. McCarthy’s dating to their youthful days in California politics, has conveyed this us-or-her message to Republican strategists in recent weeks, prompting one fund-raising firm to disassociate itself from Ms. Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming.
In response, The Morning Group, a fund-raising firm she hired to help prepare for a primary next year against a challenger endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, informed her last month they could no longer work on her campaign, according to Republicans familiar with the matter.
After she joined the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, organized by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mr. McCarthy called Ms. Cheney and another dissident on the panel “Pelosi Republicans.”
“She’s not just undermining Kevin but the whole G.O.P. conference,” Mr. Miller said of Ms. Cheney. “You’re either with Kevin, and the conference, or the person undermining them. You can’t serve two masters.”