Thomas Hunt

Taxation is a complicated issue. Americans seeking to understand it are not helped by false statements and graphics like this one (dating back to at least July). I checked around, and I see no record in the Wall Street Journal of these tax increases being attributed to President Obama's tax proposal. That's because the Wall Street Journal did not make these statements and would not make these statements, because they are entirely baseless and false. I've run through the statements contained in the graphic below to trace their origin and provide more accurate information. Some of the numbers in the image come from a projection of what MAY happen to the very top income brackets if CONGRESS allows all the Bush Era tax cuts to expire at the end of the year. Some of the numbers frankly come out of thin air and have no basis in fact. I looked closely at the Wall Street Journal and provide data from a couple of news articles ("More uncertainty for 2013" Feb. 18; ...

As we're tightening our government-budget belts, it might be a good time to consider the money that would flow into municipal, state and federal coffers by removing the various tax exemptions from churches and similar organizations. These businesses pay no taxes on income or property, providing they do not engage themselves in political activity. Obviously, many DO engage in political activity. One church's whole reason for being seems to be to protest against the national agenda by picketing the funerals of fallen American service men and women. Another large church has for many years opposed political candidates based upon their views on the legality of abortion. That same venerable institution recently took a stand against the New York State Legislature's approval of same-sex marriage. So, the idea that churches have only other-worldly concerns is entirely a myth. On this grounds alone, the tax exemptions should be canceled, but no one in the government appears to be tak...