The grab-bag of special tax favors under the guise of the recent fiscal-cliff deal is only the latest example.
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Sadly, our broad embrace of tax favors means that whatever the party in power, our economy will always perform in sub-optimal ways.
On the other hand, after Carney crashed the crony carouse, look for some of the worst tax favors to be excised in coming years.
The unseen part is what the economy loses when capital flows are distorted through tax favors, not to mention the great minds we lose to the tax-avoidance industry.
If the Supreme Court votes to outlaw tax favors, Congress probably would revive them with a statute granting permission to the states to go back to their old habits.
" He says the whole system is so complicated that even the corporate lobbyists who form long lines outside his office seeking tax favors "are now telling me, 'Please fix the code.
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As with Katrina, there is a back story for government's dysfunction: It's a long saga involving the fervent renunciation of the idea of financial regulation, bought-and-paid-for tax favors, confusion about how globalization affects money markets, a general ignorance about the modern financial world and a stunning lack of common sense.
So the president needs to understand that the current health insurance tax exclusion favors the rich.
He also said that the tax code favors the wealthy and should be reformed.
Our complicated income tax system favors special interests and cronies and causes our economic resources to be diverted to activities with low rates of return.
While Herman Cain wants to replace the entire federal tax code with his 9-9-9 consumption tax and Rick Perry favors a massive tax cut, Romney would do little more than tinker around the edges of the current law.
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The simple truth is that the tax code now favors those who move often.
For taxable accounts, he favors tax-free municipal bonds, which aren't subject to the new tax.
Obama's campaign quickly fired off a statement looking to define the contrasts in the campaign: The Republican ticket favors tax cuts for the wealthy while putting a greater burden on the middle class, it would gut Medicare and shift costs to the elderly, and it would make deep cuts in education.
He favors using tax breaks to coax corporate spending rather than imposing new rules that require it.
In a recent paper for the American Enterprise Institute, Andrew Biggs calculates that this and other tax increases Mr. Obama favors would bring the top marginal rate to somewhere between 57% and 68% when factoring in state taxes.
He favors abolishing the income tax in favor of a national sales tax.
But it would also eliminate the system that allows the tax committees in Congress to dispense favors and collect campaign money.
Tax and accounting laws are written as favors to one group or another and are manipulated with impunity in practice.
Formed in April, the group favors an increase in fuel tax instead, because the administrative costs of implementing user fees are too high.
People generally don't build up assets to leave them to the IRS. Certainly Warren Buffett doesn't, though he favors a punitive death-tax rate.
In return for said contributions, those politicians regale their crony capitalist supporters with special favors, including subsidies, tax loopholes, and regulations designed to cripple their competitors.
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Plus, the tax code is a wonderful place to hide favors for special interests.
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Some tax-policy specialists contend the provision artificially favors income in insurance policies over things like interest on bank certificates of deposit.
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Rick Santorum, who may have won the Iowa caucuses after all, favors a huge broad-based tax cut that would massively increase the budget deficit.
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Mr. Obama favors the second option, though he pretends he can merely tax the rich to do it.
Let the sequester happen and expose the party that claims to be fiscally conservative but borrows billions to fight wars that have no upside or gives special favors to corporations and wealthy Americans, whether those corporations or wealthy citizens be massive tax cheaters or medical products suppliers getting special deals that cost Medicare billions.
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