If you, the reader, are uncertain whether to support Trump or whoever the Democratic candidate turns out to be, I urge you to consider the devastating reduction in protections for clean air, clean water, and clean land (thus also clean air/water and food) under the Trump administration's 'hate anything Obama' approach that has put industry blowhards in charge of the Environmental Protection Administration, an agency created on December 2, 1970 to ensure federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement of environmental protection.  (Image of Trump at West Virginia campaign rally ..read more

Not surprisingly for those of you who are members of the ABA Tax Section, there is a meeting of that group next week in Florida when a thousand tax lawyers (give or take a few) will be talking about everything from basis to wealth taxes; GILTI, BEAT, Dual BEIT, to EITC.  Yours truly will be on a panel of the Tax Policy and Simplification Committee, meeting Friday morning, to discuss how the tax system should respond to the wealth gap.  Joining me on the dais will be Roger Royse (moderator and panelist), Rich Prisinzano from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, and Dan Shaviro, Wayne Perry Professor ..read more

Dana Chasin at 2020 Vision does a good job of encapsulating key issues that surface in the Democratic debates.  Let's get this out first:  most listeners will admit that the debates seem both too long and too short, as mentioned on Stephen Henderson's Detroit Today program this Wednesday 1/15 morning.  They are too short, because candidates are interrupted at the 30-second time limit and not allowed to develop nuanced, considered answers to questions.  They are too long, because they go on for 2 hours.  I'd add that they are problematic, because the media pundits have their own views of what c ..read more

A week ago (Jan 8, 2020), the New York Times described Michael Bloomberg's plan1 for addressing the income and wealth inequality in the United States that has been a constant topic of discussion by Democratic candidates.  Briefly, as with the robber barons of Teddy Roosevelt's age, the wealth of the global commerce titans and particularly the private equity fund buyers and sellers of companies (and layers off of employees) has exploded over the last four decades in the US, beginning in earnest with Ronald Reagan's presidency.  Most of the benefits of productivity gains have gone to a very few ..read more

For those of you who may not have the opportunity to tune into Stephen Henderson's radio program Detroit Today on NPR, it might be useful to have a short summary of the January 9 discussion of the "wealth gap" from that program. Background Tax lawyers have traditionally talked of the "tax gap"1  and frequently mentioned the growing "income gap" between the top 1% of the income distribution and the remaining 99%, but the "wealth gap"2 discussion among tax lawyers, tax policy thinkers, economic analysts and indeed progressive legislators about the relative net assets of different segments of t ..read more