The State of New Mexico gave a needy Brit named Sir Richard Branson $250 million to set up Spaceport America, a facility where rich people can launch into space pleasure jaunts. You know, your typical Public-Private Partnership.
Posts Tagged ‘the one percent’
Spaceport America!
February 13, 2020The IRS only audits working people, because it’s cheaper
October 7, 2019
Leona Helmsley said “Only the little people pay taxes.” That’s who the IRS audits, any way.
“On the one hand, the IRS said, auditing poor taxpayers is a lot easier: The agency uses relatively low-level employees to audit returns for low-income taxpayers who claim the earned income tax credit. The audits — of which there were about 380,000 last year, accounting for 39% of the total the IRS conducted — are done by mail and don’t take too much staff time, either.”
“On the other hand, auditing the rich is hard. It takes senior auditors hours upon hours to complete an exam. What’s more … ‘the rate of attrition is significantly higher among these more experienced examiners.’ As a result, the budget cuts have hit this part of the IRS particularly hard.”
“For now, the IRS says, while it agrees auditing more wealthy taxpayers would be a good idea, without adequate funding there’s nothing it can do.”
“Since 2011, Republicans in Congress have driven cuts to the IRS enforcement budget; it’s more than a quarter lower than its 2010 level, adjusting for inflation.”
— “IRS: Sorry, but It’s Just Easier and Cheaper to Audit the Poor,” Paul Kiel, ProPublica
Related:
“The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You,” David Leonhardt, New York Times
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Taxing the Super-Rich
August 14, 2019
What is a wealth tax, anyway? Alvin Chang explains. A Vox video.
There’s a related fact sheet here
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Trump, In New Hissy Fit, Wants to Fire Wilbur Ross
July 15, 2019
Commerce Secretary Wilber Ross, official portrait.
President Trump, apparently thinking he is still on his NBC reality TV show, wants to fire Commerce Secretary and noted grifter Wilbur Ross for not successfully defending his indefensible politicization of the 2020 Census. Previously, the president had unsuccessfully sought to fire his Justice Department lawyers for the same reason.
Per ZeroHedge:
“Ross would be the 10th Senate-confirmed member of the Cabinet to leave the administration, in addition to dozens of senior officials, including five communications directors, two chiefs of staff, two national security advisers, two press secretaries, the Federal Bureau of Investigations director, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the National Economic Council director, the Small Business Administrator and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.”
More:
“Trump weighs ousting Commerce chief Wilbur Ross after census defeat,” Hans Nichols, Kayla Tausche, CNBC and Hallie Jackson, NBC News
“Trump Musing Again That 81-Year-Old Commerce Secretary Who Sleeps In Meetings And Mumbles On TV Might Not Be At Top Of His Game,” Thornton McEnery, Dealbreaker
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Image (“Wilbur Ross Official Portrait”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Wilbur Ross Explains It All To You
January 25, 2019
Commerce Secretary and grifter Wilbur Ross (net worth: $440 million — or maybe $2.9 billion) expressed puzzlement over why unpaid federal workers need to go to food banks during the Trump government shutdown when they could get loans. Perhaps they can use their art collections as collateral. It’s true that the Commerce Department Credit Union offers loans to unpaid federal employees — at nearly 9 percent interest. What GS-4 wouldn’t jump at that?
DC Shut Down? The GOP Does Davos.
January 15, 2019
The president has shut down the U.S. government by refusing to authorize federal spending, but presidential aides and cabinet officials are spending $3-4 million and change to go to the World Economic Forum at Davos, kind of a Coachella for billionaires and financial heavies at a resort in the Swiss Alps. Administration figures scheduled to attend include: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
U.S. officials at Davos will have a significant weight lifted from their shoulders at this year’s WEF. Unlike last year, President Donald Trump will not attend. Swiss protesters must be crestfallen.
More:
“Trump’s team is still running up bills for Davos during the government shutdown,” Justin Rohrlich and Heather Timmons, Quartz
“Davos, other Swiss ski resorts warned of high avalanche danger,” Xinhua
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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Steve Mnuchin Inadvertently Tells the Truth
April 9, 2018
Steve Mnuchin and wife view the tax refunds of average Americans.
“… government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites,” admits U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Mr. Mnuchin was referring to the Russian government, but we fail to see any distinction from the way he and other Trump Administration billionaires operate in the USA. “Oligarchy” is not just a Russian word.
And the world’s oligarchs are globalized:
“U.S. sanctions ensnare Russians with ties to Trump world,” John Hudson and Paul Sonne, Washington Post
“Mueller’s team questioning Russian oligarchs,” Kara Scannell and Shimon Prokupecz, CNN
“NRA’s ‘Man in Moscow’ Hit by New U.S. Sanctions,” Daily Beast
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Trump to Meet Real Billionaires at Davos
January 12, 2018
Serial bankrupt and reality-TV star Donald Trump will meet some real billionaires when he joins the global titans of business, finance, and economic policy in two weeks at the 48th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. Mr. Trump, an ethnocentric isolationist who publishes his economic policy on baseball hats, will converse with Nobel laureate economists, world leaders, and international financiers on the theme “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World,” which “will make a case for renewed commitment to international collaboration as a way of solving critical global challenges.” Since this is the kind of elite crowd and Globalist agenda Mr. Trump campaigned against, his presence at the Forum is baffling, especially since the Davos golf season ended in October.
The 2018 Forum is co-chaired by 7 powerful women: Sharan Burrow (General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation), Fabiola Gianotti (Director-General, European Organization for Nuclear Research – CERN), Isabelle Kocher (CEO of French multinational electric utility company ENGIE), Christine Lagarde (Managing Director, International Monetary Fund — IMF), Ginni Rometty (Chairman, President and CEO, IBM Corporation), Chetna Sinha (Founder and President, Mann Deshi Mahila Bank and Mann Deshi Foundation), and Erna Solberg (Prime Minister of Norway). Mr. Trump’s last meeting with women of so many nations involved a swimsuit competition, and didn’t have a code of conduct.
Gloves, Because Poor People Touch These Things
November 21, 2017
Hedge fund manager and foreclosure king Steve Mnuchin, the current Secretary of the Treasury, recently visited the U.S. Mint to see newly-printed currency with his name on it. Mr. Mnuchin was clad in a plain dark suit, accessorized with a red tie and his newly-minted wife, the minor film star Louise Linton. Ms. Linton once represented a Scottish leather goods company, and was disappointed that her name could not be printed on the bills next to her husband’s as the Treasury’s “Brand Ambassador.”
Louise Linton was clad in about $10,000-worth of black leather Michael Kors garb she ordered straight from the catalog. The gloves alone cost $625; it would take more than a dozen of those uncut $1 bill sheets she’s holding to buy them.
Mr. and Mrs. Mnuchin previously raised the public eyebrow when they took a government plane to view the total eclipse from the roof of Fort Knox, the U.S. Government gold depository. “Glad gold is safe!” tweeted the Secretary later, probably because his wife wasn’t carrying a bullion-sized purse. Ms. Linton wore Hermes, Tom Ford, and Valentino for that occasion.
More:
“‘Like Bond villains’: What happened when Steven Mnuchin and his wife posed with a sheet of money,” Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post
“Louise Linton Clearly Wants America to Hate Her as Much as Possible,” Lizzie Crocker, Daily Beast
“Louise Linton Gets Mocked for ‘Disney Villain’ Style After Previous Tone-Deaf Outfit Controversy,” Jillian Ruffo, People
“With Long Leather Gloves, a Sheet of Money, and a Smize, Louise Linton Strikes Yet Another Pose in DC,” Kaitlin Menza, Vogue
“The Treasury Secretary’s Wife,” Kevin D. Wiliamson, National Review
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You Paid $41 Million So Trump Can Golf In New Jersey
July 28, 2017
“Rep. Leonard Lance, a New Jersey Republican, announced Wednesday that the small town of Bedminster — population 9,000 — has been designated a priority for the Secret Service.
The township is home to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, one of Trump’s favorite retreats. His daughter Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were married there, and Trump summoned advisers there for post-election transition planning.
With the official designation as a presidential residence, Congress appropriated up to $41 million to cover security costs incurred between the Jan. 20 inauguration and Oct. 1, which starts a new fiscal year. Trump’s residences in Florida and New York already get such funding.
The costs are incurred by state, county and township law enforcement officers when Trump comes to town, as he did this month for the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament.”
— “Trump’s Third Home Away From Home To Cost Taxpayers Millions,” Peter Overby, NPR News
More:
“15 Surprising Facts About Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey,” Ashley Hoffman, TIME Magazine
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Top image. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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