Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Political News
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More McCain, Obama Tax News
ABC News: Obama Outmanuevers McCain on Taxes American Thinker: Senator Obama's Four tax Increases for People Earning Under $250k, by Ned Barnett The Atlantic: McCain on Taxes, by Clive Crook Bloomberg: McCain Economic Plan a Winner, Even If He Loses, by Amity Shlaes Citizens for Tax Justice: The Effects of the Candidates' Tax Plans on…
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Mankiw: True Marginal Rate Is 93% Under Obama (83% Under McCain)
Greg Mankiw (Harvard University, Department of Economics), My Personal Work Incentives: Here is a question that you may have been thinking about: How do the different candidates' tax plans affect Greg Mankiw's incentive to work? … Let me try to put each tax plan into a single number. Let's suppose Greg Mankiw takes on an incremental…
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IRS Issues New Publication on Per Diem Rates
The IRS has issued a new edition of Publication 1542, Per Diem Rates (for Travel Within the Continental United States) (rev. Oct. 2008). For Law Profs going to the AALS annual meeting in San Diego, the per diem rate is $211 in January: $147 for lodging, and $64 for meals and incidental expenses ($12 breakfast,…
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WSJ: The Obama & McCain Dueling Tax Plans
Weekend Wall Street Journal: The Election Choice: Taxes; The Difference Between Candidates Is the Widest It's Been in Over Two Decades, by Brian R. Carney: When it comes to taxes, the difference between Barack Obama and John McCain is arguably as wide as it's been in a presidential race since Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale battled…
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SNL: Obama, Biden, Murtha
Check out these great bits from last night's Saturday Night Live: Biden and Murtha Campaign in Johnstown, PA Obama's Upcoming 30-Minute TV Spot
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Catholic Bishop Asks Congregation to Not Vote for Obama
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has written a letter to the IRS requesting an investigation of Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, NJ, who wrote a letter asking his congregation not to vote for Barack Obama, whom the Bishop compared to King Herod: The day her daughter Salome delighted Herod with her…
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Progressive Taxation and Socialism
ataxingmatter: Progressive Taxation–Socialism? or Just Standard USA Tax Policy?, by Linda Beale The Brandies Hoot: Book of Matthew: Defending a Progressive Tax Plan, by Bret Matthew Fox News: Special Report Panel Discuses Whether Obama's Tax Plan Is Socialism in Disguise Mauled Again, by Jim Maule: Taxes, Bailouts and Socialism Progressive Income Taxation and Socialism Start…
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WSJ: Will Obama’s IRS Micromanage the Charitable Contribution Deduction?
Wall Street Journal: Nobody Does It Better, by Howard Husock: [The essence of] an expected congressional re-examination of the charitable tax deduction, which in 2009 is expected to total about $32 billion … : Should the charitable tax deduction be reserved only for those organizations that can show they are directly serving, in the phrase…
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State-by-State Impact of the Obama Tax Plan
Citizens for Tax Justice has released Only 2.5% of Taxpayers Would Lose Some of the Bush Tax Cuts in 2009 Under Obama’s Tax Plan: State-by-State Figures (10/23/08): While presidential candidate John McCain has promised to make permanent the Bush income tax cuts for all Americans, his opponent, Barack Obama, promises to make them permanent for…
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ATR Releases 2008 Election 401(k) Tax Calculator
Americans for Tax Relief has released version 2.0 of its 2008 Election 401(k) Tax Calculator, which could allows you to input the value of your 401(k) or other returement plan and calculate the effect of the McCain and Obama tax plans on the value of the account.
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U.S. News: Would Obama Kill 401(k)s?
U.S. News & World Report: Would Obama, Dems Kill 401(k) Plans?, by James Pethokoukis: I hate to use the "S" word, but the American government would never do something as, well, socialist as seize private pension funds, right? This is exactly what cash-strapped Argentina just did in the name of protecting workers’ retirement accounts. Now,…
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Cain: CA Churches Will Not Lose Tax Exemptions for Performing Same-Sex Marriages If Prop 8 Fails
Patricia Cain (Santa Clara) has published Churches Will Not Lose Tax Exemptions for Performing Same Sex Marriages: The proponents of Proposition 8 have unleashed an ad in which a law professor proclaims that unless marriage rights are denied to same-sex couples, churches risk losing their tax exemptions. The claim is pure nonsense and any lawyer…
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Tax Consequences of Sarah Palin’s $150,000 Makeover
A tax kerfuffle has broken out over the proper treatment of the $150,000 wardrobe provided to Sarah Palin and her family by the Republican National Committee. Politico initially reported the story: The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise…
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Obama and the Tax Tipping Point
Obama and the Tax Tipping Point: How Long Before Taxpayers Are Pushed Too Far?, by Adam Lerrick: What happens when the voter in the exact middle of the earnings spectrum receives more in benefits from Washington than he pays in taxes? Economists Allan Meltzer and Scott Richard posed this question 27 years ago. We may…
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What the McCain and Obama Tax Plans Mean for the Capital Stock, Economic Growth, and Effective Marginal Rates
The American: What Would the McCain and Obama Tax Plans Mean for the Capital Stock, Economic Growth, and Effective Marginal Rates?, by Duncan Currie: On capital gains taxes, effective marginal tax rates, and corporate taxes, the McCain campaign has a good case to make. But the Arizona senator has not made that case successfully. Indeed,…
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FactCheck.org Criticizes McCain’s New “Joe the Plumber” Tax Ad
The nonpartisan FactCheck.org criticizes John McCain’s new tax ad, Joe the Plumber: Here is the summary of the criticism: The McCain campaign has taken to denigrating some of Obama’s tax proposals as "welfare" rather than tax cuts. And it continues to mislead about who would see a tax increase. A new McCain-Palin Web ad characterizes…
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Lindgren: Why Is the Media Focusing on Joe the Plumber’s Tax Problems, But Not Barack Obama’s?
Jim Lindgren (Northwestern) asks why the media is focusing on Joe the Plumber’s tax problems while ignoring the clear violation of law shown on the face of Barack Obama’s tax returns. The Illinois Governmental Ethics Act (5 ILCS § 420/2-110) prohibits state legislators from accepting any "Honorarium," defined as any payment "for an appearance or…
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Cindy McCain Releases Two Pages of Her 2007 Tax Return
Following the tradition of a late Friday afternoon news dump: the McCain campaign just released the first two pages of Cindy McCain’s 2007 tax return (The campaign had previously released the first two pages of her 2006 return.) There is precedent for such a partial disclosure: the Kerry campaign also released just the first two…
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McCain and Obama at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner
If you have not seen them yet, check out the hilarious speeches by John McCain and Barack Obama at last night’s Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner:
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Joe the Plumber: Should Tax Policy Be Used To “Spread the Wealth Around”?
Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber from Holland, Ohio, is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame. Last week at a campaign swing outside Toledo, he told Barack Obama that he was planning on acquiring the plumbing business he worked for and asked whether he would pay higher taxes under Obama’s tax plan since the business would earn…
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Tax Fact Checking the Final Presidential Debate
Tax Foundation: Fact Checking Tax Policy Discussion in the Final Presidential Debate, by Gerald Prante Finally, it’s over. It was painful and I would have rather been watching baseball, but honestly, it was not quite as bad as the previous two debates between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama in terms of abuse of the…
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McCain and Obama Release New Tax Plans on Eve of Final Debate
McCain: Suspend mandatory distribution rules for IRA and 401(k) Reduce tax rate on withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s to 10% Reduce capital gain tax rate to 7.5% (from 15%) in 2009 and 2010 Increase amount of capital losses deductible against ordinary income (from $3,000 to $15,000) in 2008 and 2009 Increase the personal exemption for…
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Economists Rate the McCain and Obama Tax Plans
The Economist surveyed 142 academic economists (46% Democrats, 10% Republicans, and 44% Independents) on the tax plans of the presidential candidates (The Economist’s Poll of Economists: Examining the Candidates). 66.9% of the economists rated the McCain tax plan as bad or very bad; 14.3% rated it good or very good. 22.2% of the economists rated…
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The Estate Tax Under President McCain or Obama
Wall Street Journal: On Death and Taxes … and the Candidates, by Tom Herman: Although taxes have become a major political battleground in the presidential campaign, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain agree on a couple of estate-tax issues that could benefit many people and their heirs. … Here is an update on the current…