Porkulus in the news

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Senile usurper Biden's handlers are sending him on a victory lap after he signed their $1.9 trillion ‘COVID’ porkulus package. “Help is here,” his handlers wrote in a tweet promoting his plan.

But Americans who were initially glad to hear that more ‘COVID’ relief is supposedly on its way may be surprised when they learn that the latest legislation funnels billions in taxpayer money to fill the coffers of blue states and DEMOCRAT-dominated local governments.

  • California: $42.3 billion
  • New York: $23.5 billion
  • Illinois: $13.5 billion
  • Pennsylvania: $13.5 billion
  • Michigan: $10.1 billion
  • New Jersey: $10 billion
  • Massachusetts: $7.96 billion
  • Washington: $6.94 billion
  • Virginia: $6.68 billion
  • Maryland: $6.21 billion
At first glance, it’s hard to decipher a clear pattern on this list. So, how did they divvy up the pork?

Curiously, the Biden regime and DEMOCRATS in Congress factored in the number of unemployed citizens. This had the direct effect of skewing the bailout benefits toward blue states that enacted harsher lockdowns and punishing red states who sensibly prioritized preserving economic activity.

One could argue that perhaps focusing on the unemployment rate is meant to ensure the aid goes to the states shortest on revenue.

But why not use actual revenue shortfalls, then? Indeed, Calipornia tops the list for bailout money, yet the Beholden State is actually running a budget surplus!

The only conclusion left to draw, however disappointing, is that DEMOCRATS crafted this bloated bailout to favor states run by DEMOCRATS.



https://fee.org/articles/here-s-the-list-of-the-top-20-states-getting-covid-bailout-money-and-why-it-raises-a-giant-red-flag/
 
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Critics of the Trump tax cuts said they would blow a hole in the deficit. Yet individual income taxes climbed 6% in fiscal year 2018, as the economy grew faster and created more jobs than expected.

The Treasury Department reported that individual income tax collections for FY 2018 totaled $1.7 trillion.

That was up $14 billion from fiscal 2017, and an all-time high.

And that's despite the fact that individual income tax rates got a significant cut that year as part of President Donald Trump's tax reform plan.

Other major sources of revenue climbed as well, as the overall economy revived.

FICA tax collections rose by more than 3%.

Excise taxes jumped 13%.

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/trump-tax-cuts-federal-revenues-deficits/
 
But Americans who were initially glad to hear that more ‘COVID’ relief is supposedly on its way may be surprised when they learn that the latest legislation funnels billions in taxpayer money to fill the coffers of blue states and DEMOCRAT-dominated local governments.

Problem?
 
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DEMOCRATS WANT TO PUT THE BURDEN OF THEIR HIGH LOCAL & STATE TAXES BACK ON THE REST OF US




In the latest episode of the long-running soap opera over the state and local tax deduction, the Blue Jersey delegation to the House framed removing the current deduction limit of $10,000 as COVID relief in a letter to Nasty Nancy Pelosi and Cryin' Chuck.

The letter recited most of the usual arguments supporting repeal of the SALT deduction limit, so let’s take a look at the points it makes and consider whether they’re worth their . . . salt.

In Blue Jersey, only 4.3% of tax returns filed by state residents claimed the SALT deduction in 2018.

That’s a smaller percentage of claimants than in free state Florida, where 5.1% of returns claim the deduction, even though free state Florida has no state income tax.

But Blue Jersey’s share of the total amount of SALT deduction claimed nationwide is 5% compared with free Florida’s 4.2%.

Blue York’s congressional representatives also frequently lambaste the SALT deduction cap, but only 6.9% of their state’s residents claim it. However, Blue York’s share of the total SALT deduction amount claimed is 9.1%.

The Blue Jersey delegation repeated a favorite point of SALT deduction proponents that “Blue Jersey ranks among the lowest states for balance of payments in federal dollars — that is, money sent to the Treasury General Fund versus money received.”

most devastatingly for this argument, it is a highly imprecise interpretation of the economic concept of balance of payments, which is applied on an international scale and is a measure of all the transactions among the people, companies, and governments in one nation compared with the transactions of those of another nation or nations.

Looking narrowly, as New Jersey’s delegates want to, at only the amount of taxes that Blue Jerseyans pay to the federal government and the dollars New Jersey receives in direct federal spending is capturing one small part of the actual balance of payments.

If the congressional delegation wants to grasp the total picture of how Blue Jersey benefits from its relationship with the entire country, it should cast a much wider net and include all the other transactions between Blue Jersey and the rest of the United States.

Even if the goal is to look at the relationship solely between Blue Jersey and the federal government, the federal-tax-dollars-in to federal-funds-out number isn’t even a rough approximation of that relationship, because it excludes the value of other functions the federal government performs, like the protection Blue Jersey enjoys from the armed forces, the stable currency insured by the Treasury, the tax system administered by the IRS, the treaty network established and maintained by the State Department, the markets overseen by the SEC, the safe food and pharmaceutical supply monitored by the Food and Drug Administration, etc.

Blue Jerseyans probably consider those functions important, but they’re not captured in the taxes-to-spending analysis.



https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxnotes/2021/02/10/state-and-local-tax-deduction-limit-repeal-as-covid-relief/?sh=3d7fcb3921ce
 
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