I am more interested in reports that business records, connected to Manafort’s taxes and foreign bank transactions, were the object of the raid ordered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That seems peculiar if the rationale for ordering a home search, rather than simply issuing a subpoena, was fear that Manafort would destroy evidence.
It makes perfect sense, though, if the prosecutor is playing hardball.
.. We should further note that the president had the authority to fire the acting FBI director at any time. There was no need for Trump to wait on AG Sessions, nor did anything prevent him from ordering Sessions to fire McCabe if that’s what he wanted done.
.. So, essentially, Trump’s tweet was a rant — nothing new there. Was it a rant triggered by the Manafort search? If so, it was Trump at his paper-tiger worst: He wanted McCabe gone but, knowing that many of his troubles stem from botching Comey’s firing, he could not risk firing McCabe — so in a fit of pique he lashed out at Sessions. And he’d love to fire Mueller, but he knows that would be a political earthquake his presidency might not survive — so in a fit of pique he lashed out at McCabe.
.. Manafort labored many years, at apparently lush compensation, for the Kremlin-backed cabal responsible for Ukraine’s ongoing tumult. That happened well prior to the 2016 campaign, but it has always been very disturbing. If Trump is telling the truth about having no meaningful ties to Putin, he should be encouraging the investigation of Manafort, not acting like he’s incensed by it.
.. the New York Times reported that the warrant sought tax documents and foreign banking records.
.. Search warrants are reserved for situations in which the prosecutor and agents reasonably fear that the subjects of the probe will destroy evidence if they know investigators are sniffing around. And search warrants executed in predawn hours are generally reserved for situations in which agents are dealing with hardened or desperate criminals — subjects who might not merely destroy evidence but endanger the agents who knock on the door; subjects who might alert other conspirators to flee if searches commence when everyone is awake and alert.
.. When a subject is cooperating with investigators, search warrants are wholly unnecessary and excessively intrusive.
.. Mueller’s team could easily have gotten the same disclosure without resorting to a search warrant. They need only have asked Manafort’s lawyers, who’d have had no reason to decline, especially after giving the same information to Congress.
.. That was not good enough for Mueller. This could mean either or both of two things: (1) Mueller believed Manafort was hoarding relevant evidence and might destroy it if it were not taken forcibly from him; and/or (2) Mueller has a message for Manafort: The special counsel is not limiting his inquiry to the Russia investigation that Congress has been pursuing; rather, Mueller intends to scorch the earth as necessary to make a case — any case — on Manafort, for purposes of squeezing him to become a cooperating witness against others, potentially including the president.
.. I believe Manafort is being squeezed. I’ve squeezed bad guys before. It’s not illegal, it’s effective, and if you’re a prosecutor dealing with a real bad guy, it’s righteous. Is Manafort that kind of bad guy? We don’t know what Mueller knows. But we can reasonably surmise that Mueller’s investigation is not confined to Russian meddling in the 2016 election — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s protestations notwithstanding.
The Senate’s Tax Panic
ObamaCare created a 3.8-percentage-point surtax on capital gains, dividends, interest and other forms of so-called “unearned income.” This tax increase on capital was sold as hitting the rich, but note that it brought the top rate to 23.8% for singles earning as little as $200,000 and couples $250,000. That’s a middle-class couple.
.. The conceit seems to be that Democrats and the media will give Republicans credit for surrendering, the controversy will melt away, and everyone will repair to the ideological conformity of the Aspen Ideas Festival.
.. Best of luck with that one. Democrats will pocket the concession and continue demagoguing tax cuts for the wealthy as the tax debate begins—only more emboldened for having tasted blood.
.. the goal of this left-right assault isn’t simply to defeat the health-care bill but to sink pro-growth tax reform too.
.. Republicans won’t be in a stronger position after they’ve shown they can’t win the class-warfare argument.
.. The larger progressive ambition is to make it too much trouble to ever again cut marginal tax rates for individuals or businesses to grow the economy
.. A coterie of Beltway conservatives wants Republicans to repudiate their post-Reagan economic principles and return to their former status as tax collectors for the entitlement state while embracing right-wing income redistribution with child tax credits and family-leave subsidies.
.. The reason is to increase the stock of capital and improve the incentives for capital formation, which in turn increases labor productivity, wages and job creation.
.. Cutting the rate on capital income to 20%—it was 15% as recently as 2012—is a major increase in the return on investment and 3.8 points is close to half of the eight-point cut in the Bill Clinton-Newt Gingrich budget deal of 1997. That reform helped propel the 1990s boom
.. repealing the surtax would increase employment over the decade by 133,000 jobs and increase the size of the economy by 0.7%. After-tax earnings across the bottom 60% of the income distribution would be about 0.65% higher than they would otherwise be. Combined with a successful tax reform, workers could see a big pay raise for the first time in years
A congressman said making a man get maternity insurance was ‘crazy.’ A woman’s reply went viral.
Congressman Rod Blum in a Dubuque town hall (Monday) night asked, “Why should a 62-year-old man have to pay for maternity care?”
I ask, why should I pay for a bridge I don’t cross, a sidewalk I don’t walk on, a library book I don’t read?Why should I pay for a flower I won’t smell, a park I don’t visit, or art I can’t appreciate? Why should I pay the salaries of politicians I didn’t vote for, a tax cut that doesn’t affect me, or a loophole I can’t take advantage of?It’s called democracy, a civil society, the greater good. That’s what we pay for.
‘Middle-Class Tax Relief’ Is a Hoax
The top 20 percent already pony up 84 percent of income taxes.
The mantra of both parties has been that tax relief should be directed at the middle class while the rich need to pay “their fair share.” But, in terms of the personal income tax, that mantra already has been realized. The middle class pays hardly any tax at all, while the preponderance of the burden falls to the rich.
.. Another question is: what do middle-income Americans, or even low-income Americans, owe their government and their society in the form of at least modest taxes designed to sustain the governance that all citizens count on? Leave aside income redistribution. What about the military defense of the nation? What about federal infrastructure? What about law enforcement? What about immigration enforcement? These are things that all Americans need. Shouldn’t all Americans make at least some contribution, even if it is nominal, to supporting them?
.. Some note, inevitably, that those who don’t pay income tax still pay Social Security payroll taxes. True. But those are taxes collected specifically for their own later Social Security payments