Archive
Want to See Where Your Taxes Go?
Millions of Americans file their federal income tax returns by April 15 each year with no idea what the government actually does with all that money. This is surprising, considering that individuals are our nation’s primary bill payers. Income taxes paid by...
This Week in OtherWords: April 9, 2014
This week, we're running our annual OtherWords Tax Day special edition. Chuck Collins and Bob Lord explain how billionaires are bypassing the estate tax and what's wrong with that. Jim Hightower and cartoonist Khalil Bendib skewer Caterpillar Inc. for an offshore tax...
A Better Path to Prosperity
Washington politicos aren't quite right when they say that federal budget proposals are "dead on arrival." Even if they don't become law, budgets stand as living, breathing testimonies of the values and priorities of the people who write them. And it may surprise you...
WhatsApp with the Estate Tax?
What does Facebook's recent purchase of WhatsApp have to do with the estate tax? Actually, a good bit, if you're concerned about America's concentration of wealth. Why? Because an economy needs effective checks and balances. A tax on inherited fortunes essentially...
A Taxing Solution to the Greatest Challenge of Our Time
Ben Franklin said it best — nothing is certain, "except death and taxes." Like most Americans, we submit our 1040s to maintain the health of our nation. However, we'd personally rather decrease our income tax and instead pay a fee that reduces carbon pollution and...
Close the Paris Hilton Loophole
If our leaders want to balance the budget, here's a suggestion: Congress can scrap a new "Paris Hilton" giveaway that's draining billions of federal tax dollars. This giveaway takes the form of a complex tax loophole designed to circumvent the federal estate tax, one...
Behind the GOP’s Unhealthy Attack
To borrow a cute term William Safire penned for Spiro Agnew, the "nattering nabobs of negativism" carrying on about the evils of the Affordable Care Act aren't going to roll back the health insurance overhaul they like to deride as "Obamacare." Reality sure isn't on...
Let Them Eat Rice
A recent Scientific American blog post blamed environmentalists for costing poor, malnourished people an estimated 1,424,000 life years in India alone. Why? Because they presumably kept Golden Rice off the market for over a decade when it could have been helping the...
Hiding Profits in Slimy Offshore Wormholes
The dictionary defines the caterpillar as a "wormlike larva" and a "crawler." Also, that "pillar" part of the word is derived from a French verb that means to "pillage, abuse, mistreat." Good to know. Now, meet Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of...
Tax-Cheating Butterfly
