Why it's a big deal that the White House Counsel knew about the IRS audit findings

2013's best new carnival ride, the Obama White House Scandalpalooza, continues to spit out new shocking headlines on a daily basis, and I wanted to put a spotlight on one detail regarding the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS. 

The administration admitted yesterday that the Office of the White House Counsel was informed about the findings of the IRS audit weeks ago - including specifically informing Kathryn Ruemmler, the Senior White House Counsel and the head of the office. 

President Obama somehow knew nothing about the whole mess until he saw it in the press with the rest of us little people. 

Why is this a big deal? 

Because attorneys have a ethical duty to keep their clients informed. 

The Taxman Cometh...Even to the Olympics

"I owe how much?"

Athletes across the country grow up dreaming of one day bringing home  an Olympic medal. Unfortunately for those who do, Olympic glory comes with a price: a bill from Uncle Sam. 

Any of our athletes who win a medal will also  receive a cash prize from the U.S. Olympic Organizing Committee, and some sports have additional prizes, and the IRS expects to get their cut. Even the medals themselves could incur a tax bill.

Americans for Tax Reform calculated what the taxes would be for Olympic medal winners:

Oh, Canada!

Canada: Home of moose, hockey,
and well-capitalized banks

Looks like our neighbors to the north are doing something right.

Correction: they are doing a lot of things right.

Canada is succeeding by doing things "right," literally. They have implemented many of the same economic policies championed by fiscally conservative Republicans here in the United States, and swiftly began seeing positive effects.

Jon Lovitz, Tax Expert? [VIDEO]

In an appearance on Piers Morgan's CNN show last night, comedian Jon Lovitz managed to expose the fallacy of the Democrats' economic policies in less than ten minutes.

In a series of rapid-fire comments, he went through his frustrations with President Obama's class warfare rhetoric, explained why capital gains are taxed at a different rate, smacked down the idea that raising taxes on the rich would solve all our problems, refused to give in to Morgan's repeated attempts to blame Wall Street for the economy, and blew apart the idea of the "1%" versus the "99%" that the Occupy movement promotes.

Morning Coffee Reading for April 23, 2012

Here's your morning coffee reading for today:

• Love this write-up about BlogConCLT from the Republican Security Committee, which called Sean Bielat a "conservative dynamo" and "the most popular candidate at BlogCon." 

• • Hard-hitting column from Michelle Malkin: No More "Mr. Obama is a Nice Guy."

• Wow: Utah Senator Orrin Hatch was unable to fend off a primary challenge from Dan Liljenquist, despite spending a bazillion dollars. (OK, $5.7 million. But still, that's a heckuva lot of money for an incumbent to be forced to spend.) John Fund at the National Review thinks Hatch is vulnerable, and FreedomWorks for America is happy. Really happy.

Morning Coffee Reading for April 17, 2012 (Yep, I'm Still Here)

OK, I have been a ridiculous slacker in posting here for the past two weeks. No, the blog isn't going away (as much as a few chuckleheads out there might wish that it might), I've just needed a little time to take care that whole "pack up my entire house, spend three and a half days driving to Massachusetts, and hit the ground running with a new campaign" thing.

No CGI Bunnies Were Harmed in the Making of this Video...

...but we can't say the same for small businesses in the current economy.

The latest video from Cain Connections:

More brainy people showing love for 999

I have to say, I find it pretty amusing to hear the political pundits stamp their collective feet and declare that Herman Cain's "999 Plan" can't possibly work...

...and in the meantime, more economists, policy wonks, and other brainy people come forward and say they like what they see...

Here's Reagan economist Art Laffer, who is famous for the "Laffer Curve", who calls 999 a "wonderful plan" and addresses the criticisms both from the left that it's a regressive tax and from the right that it's a risk to institute a new tax:

Here's some brainy economists discussing Cain's "999 Plan"

One of the centerpieces of Herman Cain's campaign platform is his "999 Plan," which would eliminate many taxes (the income tax, payroll tax, death tax, capital gains tax, etc.) and replace them with a 9% personal income tax, a 9% corporate income tax, and a 9% sales tax. You can read the plan for yourself here.

So, can it work? In my opinion, our current tax system is so complicated as to be abusive, wasting needless money and time as Americans struggle to comply with it. Cain deserves credit for proposing a bold solution like the 999 Plan and emboldening people to demand not just tweaks to our tax code, but actual substantive reforms. 

To be fair, I'm not an economic expert. I double majored in Political Science and German and then headed to law school. I've always filed my own taxes and done my best to be well-read on current events and economic issues, but I'm not the next Milton Friedman. So, that being said, I've gathered up several articles and videos here from people who actually are economics experts, and you can see what they have to say about Cain's plan:

Human Events Op-Ed by Adam Hasner

Florida Senate candidate Adam Hasner has written an excellent op-ed for Human Events that was published this morning:

Human Events | Adam Hasner | Tax Problems Not Too Complex For Simple Answers

It’s no secret that Sen. Bill Nelson and I disagree on most of the issues facing America.  One of those issues is tax reform, which I believe is fundamental to growing America’s economy...

Here's where your money is going

[Cross-posted at The Minority Report]

Today is Tax Day, as you are undoubtedly aware. Just in case you were curious about where all your hard-earned money is going, our government has spent some of that money on a fancy little website, called the "Federal Taxpayer Receipt."

Read it and weep.

The website asks you to enter how much you paid in taxes and and then it tells you how much you contributed to our defense budget, Medicaid, and of course, the interest on our ever-skyrocketing national debt.

Of course, they haven't released how much this nifty (and completely unnecessary) website cost. Hmmm, reminds me of another useless project paid for by our government:

Maybe their next project can be a calculator to show how many jobs they could have "saved or created" instead of buying those silly highway signs.

[Hat tip to Mark Matthews at the Orlando Sentinel, who labeled this website as "You don't want to know"]