Tag: taxes

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Trump Moves to Florida, Where Taxes are Low and the Governor’s Approval is Sky-High

Today’s Campaign Update
(Because The Campaign Never Ends)

This is what happens when you have a city run by Marxists. – The President of the United States of America just thumbed his nose at his life-long home state, announcing on Twitter yesterday that he and his family are officially changing their residence to Palm Beach, Florida:

As if to prove the President’s point about having been “treated very badly by the political leaders of both the city and state,” New York’s thug Governor Andrew “Sonny” Cuomo responded by saying, “Good riddance. It’s not like Mr. Trump paid taxes here anyway. He’s all yours, Florida.”

All of which is, of course, abject, smelly horse manure. Trump and his family have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to New York City and State over the decades under their confiscatory income tax laws, and the economic activity created by his business ventures there have generated billions for the city and state coffers. But, whatever – Cuomo’s a Democrat and, as we saw on the floor of the House yesterday and every other day all over the news media, Democrat politicians lie as surely and as frequently as they draw breath.

In any event, the President’s change of residency is emblematic of the general flight of the wealthy away from New York and its increasingly confiscatory tax regimes that feature top rates of 9% for the state income tax and 4% for the City income tax, along with high rates of property and sales taxes. Contrast that to Florida, where residents pay zero income tax and lower rates of both sales and property taxes. If you have wondered why vast swaths of Florida feature retirement communities occupied mainly by ex-New Yorkers, here’s a clue: It isn’t just about the difference weather.

The Trump address change announcement comes at a very interesting moment from a political standpoint, since we also found out yesterday that GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, a strong supporter of President Trump, is amazingly popular with the people:

Remember: DeSantis prevailed in his 2018 election bid by just 33,000 votes, according to the official count. Of course, we must remember that the Democrat election officials in highly-populated Broward and Palm Beach counties were in full voter fraud mode in that one, so a legal vote count would no doubt have shown a significantly larger victory for DeSantis.

But a 72% public approval rate, with only 17% disapproving? Not even the Florida Democrat vote-stealing machine can steal that many votes. An approval rating like that means that DeSantis is doing a hell of a job in his office, and that is very, very bad news for the Democrat chances to take the presidency away from Trump in 2020.

The Democrat Party has already basically lost the big state of Ohio for the foreseeable future, thanks in large part to its opposition to oil and gas production – which has become a huge part of that state’s economy in the past decade – and the Trump-led renaissance of manufacturing activity there. With Ohio out of the picture, there is no viable scenario under which the 2020 Democrat nominee – regardless of which buffoon or Marxist the Party nominates – can hope to get to 270 electoral votes without winning Florida.

There is no more important asset to a presidential campaign in a key state than having the help of a popular governor, and there is no more popular governor in America right now than Ron DeSantis. It probably wasn’t a major motivating factor behind the Trump decision to change official residency, but that move, combined with DeSantis’s popularity may make Florida too steep a hill for even the Democrat vote fraud machine to climb in 2020.

Cool.

That is all.

 

Today’s news moves at a faster pace than ever. Whatfinger.com is my go-to source for keeping up with all the latest events in real time

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Trump’s Tax Returns Show the Mark of a Great Businessman

Today’s Campaign Update
(Because The Campaign Never Ends)

Hey, y’all, Donald Trump lost a lot of money in the 1980s! – That’s the big “bomb” the news-fakers at the New York Times dropped on President Donald Trump Tuesday night, as the paper somehow got hold of a decade of Trump’s tax returns. In all, the returns show that Trump’s real estate and casino businesses lost over a billion dollars during the 10-year period.

Well, for tax purposes, that is. Anyone familiar with how the tax code works, i.e., nobody who works for the NYTimes, would know that tax losses do not necessarily reflect actual business losses.  The President himself addressed this idiotic move by the Times on his Twitter account this morning:

As a businessman, Donald Trump has stated repeatedly and unfailingly anytime this stupid subject has been raised by our craven fake media that he took full advantage of the U.S. tax code in the conduct of his business ventures. The demented nutjobs at the NYTimes – whose own business, by the way, also takes full advantage of the U.S. tax code – wants you to think that this means Trump is somehow a really bad guy who was stealing from you personally.

But you know what this really makes Trump? A smart businessman.

Here’s why: Tax “write-offs” exist in the code for a reason. They exist because at some point in time the U.S. congress felt it would be advantageous to the U.S. economy to incentivize certain behaviors in the business world.

Anyone with any understanding of the history of the 1980s – which again would obviously exclude anyone working for the despicable NYTimes – would know that Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 in the midst of a major recession created by Jimmy Carter and convinced congress to pass a major tax reform designed to boost economic growth.

The new tax code (which I understand because I was an accountant doing tax work in the 1980s) that came out of that reform effort included various incentives, like the old ACRS system of accelerated depreciation, designed to increase investment of new capital in the building and manufacturing of hard assets. You know, stuff like high rise office buildings and fancy high-rise condo developments in oh, say, Manhattan.

Like me, many of my readers live in Texas. Those of us over the age of, say, 50 will remember that the skylines of Houston and Dallas were completely transformed during the 1980s, with new high-rise buildings like the ones Donald Trump was building and buying and selling in Manhattan also being built in those Texas cities by major developers like Trammel Crow.

See, building big buildings like that and manufacturing all manner of hard goods benefits the economy by creating … wait for it, Democrats because I know you don’t know the answer here … JOBS. Oh, and that other thing all Democrats hate with a passion, ECONOMIC GROWTH.

How did that new tax code work out for America? Well – listen closely all you economic ignoramuses in the Democrat Party and the fake news media – it created the LONGEST AND BIGGEST ECONOMIC EXPANSION IN MODERN HISTORY.

Oh, hey, guess which individual’s business empire was in a better position than anyone else in America in 1981 to take full advantage of the incentives offered by this handy new tax code?

That would be a guy named Donald John Trump.

And that’s really all there is to know about this particular stupid non-story.

That is all.

Follow me on Twitter at @GDBlackmon

Today’s news moves at a faster pace than ever. Whatfinger.com is my go-to source for keeping up with all the latest events in real time.

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Comey’s Convoluted Con Continues, and Sessions Starts Clearing the Decks

Today’s Campaign Update

(Because The Campaign Never Ends)

Why is NBC News such a cesspit of sexual harrassment? – Tom Brokaw got his #Metoo moment on the same day Bill Cosby was convicted of being a serial rapist.  The long-time NBC Nightly News and Today Show host was accused by former NBC and Fox News reporter Linda Vester of creating a very, very hostile work environment, quite similar to the environment that former Today Show host Matt Lauer created while he was at NBC.

NBC News is certainly not alone in having employed a series of skirt-chasing anchormen with egos as out-sized as the fictional Ron Burgundy, but it sure does seem to have been sex abuse central for the mainstream fake news media over the past 30 years.  And let’s never, ever forget that NBC aired the wildly popular Cosby Show, starring a serial rapist who drugged his victims, during the same years Brokaw was the star of its news division.

And these people wonder why journalists are held in the same level of esteem as used car salesmen.

Please, just don’t come to Texas. – Economists Art Laffer and Stephen Moore have an op/ed in the Wall Street Journal in which they predict that as many as 800,000 mainly wealthy people will flee the extreme high-tax states of California and New York in the next few years, as the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act kick in.  Laffer and Moore predict that the limitations on deductions for state income, sales and property taxes will simply make it too expensive for these people to remain in their current home states.

The other 48 states in the union should look on at this story in horror, because the problem with New Yorkers and Californians fleeing to other states to get away from high taxes and high costs of living is this:  They go to other states and just keep voting for the same kind of idiot Democrats whose policy decisions caused them to flee in the first place.

Migrating Californians have already basically destroyed the state of Colorado; they’re responsible for sending the execrable John Tester to represent the state of Montana in the U.S. Senate; and they’re at least partly responsible for turning the once-quaint college town of Austin into a liberal nirvana of wildly-expensive, riderless light rail and bike lanes that make it pretty much impossible to get anywhere in the center city in less than half an hour.

Laffer and Moore say the migration won’t be limited to California and New York, stating “The losers will be most of the Northeast, along with California. The winners are likely to be states like Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.”

Well, that all depends on how you define the word “winners.”  Those states should be very, very careful what they ask for, because politically, these people are barely distinguishable from a plague of locusts.

Comey’s Convoluted Con Continues. – I was going to talk about the fact that the Korean War is about to come to a formal end thanks to the aggressive foreign policies pursued by President Donald Trump, but as I was putting together this morning’s Campaign Update, the President just issued this tweet:

The teen drama queen ex-FBI Director who Mr. Trump had the “pleasure” of firing made the mistake of subjecting himself to a real interview with a real journalist – Fox News’s Bret Baier – last night, and the results were indeed rather stunning.

Here are just a few of the obvious, blatant lies Comey blurted out during the very tough questioning from Mr. Baier:

  • He claims that he still, to this day, does not know that the fake Trump Dossier was funded by the DNC and the Pantsuit Princess Campaign;
  • Even better, he repeated the claim that the work on the fake dossier was initially funded by Republicans, a bald-faced lie that was debunked months ago;
  • He continued to insist that his memos of conversations with Trump were not an FBI work product, saying that “I always thought of it as mine, like a diary.”  A diary?  Really???  Do you see now why I call him a teen drama queen?   The director of the FBI knows better than to make this hilariously false claim;
  • He laughably claims to this day to see no bias evident in the texts between Peter Strzok and his mistress, Lisa Page:  “When I saw the texts, I was deeply disappointed in them, but I never saw any bias.”  Holy crap;
  • And of course, he continues to claim that the four memos he leaked to his pal, Columbia Law Professor Andrew Richman, who then leaked them to the New York Times, do not constitute leaking;

Upon hearing that final claim, South Carolina Cong. Trey Gowdy, who is himself a former prosecutor, said that “what he defines as a ‘leak’ is what everybody else calls a ‘felony’.”

At this point, watching Comey give an interview is eerily reminiscent of that scene in The Godfather II, when Michael Corleone is called to testify before a congressional committee.  That’s not a good look on a guy who has been leaking classified information, lying to congress and probably obstructing justice to be putting on each’s night’s 5 o’clock news.

Mr. Mueller, tear up that big bag of nothing! – Finally, while all of that other stuff was going on, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, during his own testimony to congress yesterday, publicly advised Special Counsel Robert Mueller to take his giant bag of nothing against President Trump and wrap it up.  The fake news media of course did its best to bury this huge development – here’s a link to a typical example, a story on the matter from CNBC, which buries the lede in the very last sentence of a 500-word piece.

Because that’s what our fake news media does.  But no matter – you can bet Mueller heard Mr. Sessions’ message loud and clear.  Sessions didn’t just say that in testimony before congress for the sake of hearing himself talk.

Oh, and by the way, in case you missed it, Rod Rosenstein is “taking a pause” from his duties managing Mr. Mueller, ostensibly because he’s just the only guy in the whole Department of Justice who can argue a particular case before the Supreme Court.  Ok, sure.  The duties of managing Mueller have been assumed by Trump appointee, Solicitor General Noel Francisco.  Good timing there.  I’m sure it’s all just a coincidence.

Or maybe it’s this:  The decks are being cleared for the issuance of the Inspector General’s report in May, and Sessions was advising Mueller that it is time to shut the Witch Hunt down and let real justice take its course.  And Rosenstein’s “pause” was a great way for him to recuse without using the word “recuse.”  The word “pause” looks so much better in fake news media headlines.

Just another day in the conspiracy to end the Trump presidency is falling apart America.

That is all.

Follow me on Twitter at @GDBlackmon

Today’s news moves at a faster pace than ever. Whatfinger.com is my go-to source for keeping up with all the latest events in real time.

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The GOPe’s Next Act: Pretending To Want Tax Reform

Today’s Campaign Update

(Because The Campaign Never Ends)

  • Well, you know it’s a slow news day in Donald Trump’s America when the biggest story is the introduction by Republicans congress of their long-awaited tax reform bill.  The bill has been ready for at least six months, but true to their goal of not getting a damn thing done during this calendar year, the GOP congressional leadership waited until the end of September to introduce it.
  • This late introduction date – for which there really is no justification at all – naturally produced grumbling among some members of the conservative Freedom Caucus about the “aggressive time frame” left in the year to get such a massive reform of the IRS tax code done.  So, the stage is already set for the December press conference of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell telling everyone that they just ran out of time this year, but don’t worry, they’ll promise to come back in 2018 and really, truly get the thing done.  Yeah, sure, just like Obamacare, right?
  • Through a contraction of the various tax rates and a doubling of the standard deduction, everyone gets a bit of a tax break in this plan, except for those making more than $400,000 per year, who get stuck with an actual tax surcharge.  Naturally, Democrats rushed to the microphones and Twitter and Facebook to squeal that the plan is…wait for it…wait for it…A TAX CUT FOR THE WEALTHY!  I swear I don’t make this stuff up.
  • Of course, in Democrat “logic”, such as it exists, this is true, since the Democrats consider anyone who makes more than about $100,000 per year to be “wealthy”.  Given that the goal of the plan is to get more money into the hands of those in the lower and middle class, people making between $100,000 and $400,00 do get a tax cut under the plan.  Thus, the whole “tax cut for the wealthy” rhetoric from the party of demagoguery.
  • The plan would also lower the tax rate for – gasp! – evil corporations in the hope of stimulating the economy.   Man, the Democrats haven’t even gotten started demonizing that aspect of the proposal.  Nevermind that the U.S. has by far the highest corporate tax rate of any developed country, costing our country millions of potential jobs that now simply go overseas, lowering tax rates for evil corporations presents Fauxcahontas and Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders with prime demagoguery opportunities, and that is not something they will meekly pass up.
  • So, it’s going to be a long fall and winter filled with hyper-partisan rancor.  There is nothing progressives hate more than a healthy, growing economy.  I’m not kidding.  If you think otherwise, you don’t understand progressives.
  • There can be no doubt the GOP proposal would indeed stimulate economic growth in a very big way.  The key stimulus-producing provision is one that would allow businesses of all kinds to deduct most capital costs during the tax year in which they are incurred.  Currently, such costs must be recovered by depreciating them over 5 to 30 years, depending on the asset that is being depreciated.
  • President Trump has often talked about wanting to pass his own economic stimulus package. Well, there is really no need for a separate stimulus bill if congress were to pass this one.  The ability to deduct capital costs would be a stimulus plan in and of itself, and unlike the Obama stimulus, which was basically wasted on expanding government employment and wasteful programs, it would stimulate real infrastructure expansion, and create millions of real, private sector jobs.
  • So of course the Democrats hate it.  They hate anything that would grow the private sector, especially at a time when the government sector is being systematically reduced by a Republican administration.
  • But the dirty little secret is that the establishment Republicans really don’t want to pass this bill, either, which is why they’ve waited so late to introduce it.  The positive side is that the President does want it, and he won’t be shy about publicly pounding on Democrats and Republicans who work to kill it.
  • Just as we have seen President Trump reveal the Democrats and their progressive voters to be perfectly fine with NFL players disrespecting the national anthem and American flag this week, in the coming weeks we will see him speak very frankly about the real reasons why the Democrats and recalcitrant Republican swamp creatures don’t want to pass a meaningful tax bill.
  • It will be a target-rich environment for verbal kill shots, and we all know how the President loves that.

Just another day in Donald Trump’s America.

That is all.

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