Orszag attributes two-thirds of the bump in corporate taxes to an increase in corporate profits. The rest he pins to tax policy. For instance, when provisions allowing partial expensing of investment in equipment expired, tax revenue increased. In other words, revenue declined when the provisions were enacted and bumped up again when they expired.

Orszag says there was growth in capital gains realizations in individual tax receipts, but measures such as lower rates on dividends and an increase in the child tax credit, as well as a drop in job wages, caused a reduction in revenues. The CBO analysis shows that(tax cut)legislation (not counting an impact on capital gains) had a total negative effect on revenue growth.”

Do. Or do not. There is no try.

I’m risk adverse, so I like more.

Saturdaymorningsuccess-financial freedom at home,best financial advice for kids education,financial security,Dream career

Man am I in the wrong market for houses, heh.

3000/mo * 8 mo = bleh (aka 24000) for me….unfortunately we’ve only managed to hit around 6500 so far…slow process building that up!

But…she’s had six years in office to deal with it and NOTHING has worked or even put a dent in the problem. Her solutions have amounted to a laundry list of “feel good” projects and true voodoo economics — creating “cool cities,” tax increases on small businesses, a $2 billion state-controlled “investment” fund to give selective tax breaks to attract new businesses, paying movie companies to make films in MI, etc. She even once said that when you see an orange barrel along the road that you should think about it as representing a “good paying job” rather than as a traffic nuissance. What an idiot — her idea is that we can create prosperity by filling potholes!

The point is this — Michigan is not friendly toward business in any respect. Our tax burden, regulatory red-tape, and labor-unfriendly environment cause companies to leave. The proof is in the pudding. You don’t have to bend over backwards to offer incentives to attract new businesses unless your barriers to doing business are onerous to begin with. So while the state gains a few jobs here and there with all sorts of gimmicks, we regularly see large and small employers close up shop and move to another STATE — not Mexico or China. Can you believe we just had a mutual fund company (Utopia) close up operations on its funds because the tax structure in MI puts them at a disadvantage versus funds run in 46 of 50 states? Unbelievable!

So, the governor didn’t create this mess but she has done nothing to implement any real long-term solutions that are based in reality. Everything is smoke and mirrors. And this is the advice Obama is getting from Granholm. MI will be lucky to see her go to a plum job in Washington so she won’t finish her current term in office, but I weep for the nation.

On another note, your comment to JLP about tax cuts causing our deficit problems is way off base. The facts are that tax receipts to the federal government have INCREASED since the Bush tax cuts were implemented. The problem has been spending. This is economics 101 — tax increases reduce tax receipts while tax cuts increase tax receipts. You may have noticed in the news lately that even Obama has said he may not implement his tax increases on the “rich” right away because the economy is in such bad shape. What he’s really admitting is that raising taxes (even just on the so-called “rich”) will reduce revenue to the government and dampen any hope of economic recovery — 2 things he can ill afford. You can’t tax your way to prosperity — as we are still painfully learning here in Michigan.