The fox designs the hen house.
By on Mar 10th, 2007 at 9:52 am
The fox designs the hen house.
“The Internal Revenue Service is asking tax lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes to take the lead in writing some of its new tax rules. … [Critics] worry that having private lawyers and accountants draft tax rules could allow them to subtly skew them in favor of their clients. ‘It’s not the fox guarding the hen house; it’s the fox designing the hen house,’ said Paul C. Light, a professor of political science at New York University.” Kevin Drum has much more.
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March 10th, 2007 at 10:04 amLike my husband said, “You might as well have felons write the laws, too”. You can take that more ways than one, actually.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:08 amAgreed Marie.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:08 amgee, i wonder if the IRS is choosing those tax lawyers and accountants
March 10th, 2007 at 10:13 amfrom any particular side of the voting register…
ya think?
The republicans like to outsource all the writing of laws to their campaign contributers, so why not the rules of one of the largest bureaucratic behemoths in our government?. Heaven forbid they actually do their job and write laws and rules to benefit and protect the majority of the citizens in this country, rather than the wealthy few and the corporate monsters.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:14 am“Too busy watching Survivor to care.”
—Average American
March 10th, 2007 at 10:18 amand on a related note:
Numbers Don’t Lie, Liars Use Numbers
March 10th, 2007 at 10:27 amBy: Nicole Belle @ 6:33 AM – PST
Ian at The Agonist looks at the numbers used in a report at US News to convince us that the rich are really “suffering” and comes to the only possible conclusion: Numbers don’t lie; liars use numbers.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/10/numbers-dont-lie-liars-use-numbers/
This is in keeping with what we heard before the November election about how Bush would get around a Democratic-controlled Congress.
Notice that the tax lawyers and accountants are helping the IRS write tax rules, not laws. Rules don’t have to get approved by Congress! And if Congress doesn’t like the rules, it will have to pass legislation to overturn them. Any such legislation can be blocked by the Republicans in the Senate who have already shone they are quite willing to filibuster anything.
By re-writing the rules, the super wealthy can increase the ways they transfer wealth to their control, and, ultimately, out of the country in safe shelters and perpetual trusts.
We’re closer to that America than anyone cares to think. And Bush still want’s to privatize Social Security which would allow the final transfer of wealth to the uber-rich. I wonder if he’s planning to implement the privatization merely by changing the tax rules…..
March 10th, 2007 at 10:40 amkaty, good article. What most people don’t realize is that the top income earners are not the uber-rich. The extremely wealthy get the bulk of their wealth from unearned income, which is not taxed the same, if at all, as earned income.
March 10th, 2007 at 10:49 amDo you want amateurs to write these complex provisions? Isn’t it better to have professionals do the work?
40% of US citizens pay no federal income tax. Last year more than $30 billion of taxes collected from others were redistributed by the earned income tax (EITC).
To the extent unearned income is from capital gains, the tax rates are capped generally at 15% (held more than 6 months); unearned income from interest and dividends is taxed the same as earned income.
March 10th, 2007 at 11:20 amInterest income from bonds issued by municipalities,school districts, etc. are not taxed by the federal government. There are obviously lots more categories of income than “earned” or “unearned”.
TJM,
You’re swinging too far in the other direction.
Do you really want tax lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes writing tax rules for all of us?
I don’t.
March 10th, 2007 at 11:32 amFox guarding the henhouse vs. fox designing the henhouse? That’s something of a quibble, really — six of one and half a dozen of the other. The end result will be the same…you can say goodbye to your chickens.
March 10th, 2007 at 11:44 amHAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLUEDAHLIA!!
March 10th, 2007 at 12:15 pmComment by TJM — March 10, 2007 @ 11:20 am
Nearly 15% of all Americans are below the federal poverty line, and nearly half of those are in severe poverty. Yet they still pay taxes: Sales taxes, taxes on gasoline, excise taxes, social security taxes on their meager earnings.
Now compare their lifestyle with that of a child of the wealthy elite, living on unearned income from a perpetual off-shore trust fund, also paying no federal income tax.
That is the disparity between the haves and the have-nots. And, if you recall, Bush is for the haves, and the have-mores. So now the have-mores get to have their say in rewriting the tax rules.
This bypasses Congress, and will receive only limited public scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Congress is so busy investigating this and investigating that, it is missing the only investigation that really matters; whether Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, Rice, et al, have committed high crimes and misdemeanors.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:19 pmHAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLUEDAHLIA!!
I echo the sentiment.
Where would we be without Mistress Z keeping track of our birthdays, etc. Thanks Zooey.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:21 pmMy gaelic commenter, if you think that income disparity didn’t exist under any other president,you are too naive to talk to.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:25 pmOT:
BOSTON’s Brad Delp, 55, Rest In Peace.
March 10th, 2007 at 12:43 pmThat’s the best news I’ve heard all day. Let all the “mythical little people” buy me a new Lincoln Navigator and redecorate my home in Kennebunkport. Serves them right for being so mean to my glorious family. Na, na, na, na, na na…
March 10th, 2007 at 1:28 pmNearly 15% of all Americans are below the federal poverty line, and nearly half of those are in severe poverty. Yet they still pay taxes: Sales taxes, taxes on gasoline, excise taxes, social security taxes on their meager earnings.
Comment by Briseadh na Faire — March 10, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Trust me, TJM doesn’t want to hear about or talk about these kinds of taxes. Republicans only care about the income, estate, and investment taxes, i.e. the taxes that affect them the most.
TJM, as for you comment about income disparity under other Presidents, disparity has grown dramatically worse in recent years, due largely to Republican fiscal policies. Virtually all economic growth of the past 25 years has gone to the top 1%. The bottom 99% has gained nothing.
March 10th, 2007 at 1:45 pmHappy Birthday Bluedahlia…..
Thank’s for the info Lady Zooey….Blessings
March 10th, 2007 at 2:24 pmThese here FOXes are very FOXy–you know! They are CRAZY like a FOX, do the FOX trot, watch FOX(tm)network and THINK that “faux paux” IS PRONOUNCED “FOX PASS,” WHICH OF COURSE IT IS NOT, EXCEPT IN THEIR DELUDED MINDS–TIME TO SKIN THEM ALIVE AND MAKE FOX FURS OUT OF THEM!!!!!
March 10th, 2007 at 6:19 pmThanks guys!!! Sorry, had an appointment to get new glasses for one of my sons. And then the day snowballed. Heh. Know what’s truely funny? I get to share Osama Bin Laden’s birthday. What a downer.
Truely, thank you guys. You brighten my days. :)
March 11th, 2007 at 9:10 am“The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.” —explaining why high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy, Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004
eh?
March 11th, 2007 at 11:15 amwith logic like that, who needs a brain, eh?
March 11th, 2007 at 11:16 am