Money

Told only like John Irons at ArgMax can tell it.

T minus 9 days
Nine days until default….

The Senate is currently considering a $1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, which now stands at $6.4 trillion. Just last year Congress and the President boosted the debt limit by $450 billion.

If Congress does not pass the debt-limit increase by May 28th, the government will not be able to meet its obligations to, among other things, pay social security recipients, make tax refunds, etc.

And Congress is about to pass, and the President is about to sign, the third largest tax cut in history - in the form of a dividend tax cut - that will have very little effect on the economy in the short run…

Dividend Voodoo

By Warren Buffett
Tuesday, May 20, 2003; Page A19

The annual Forbes 400 lists prove that — with occasional blips — the rich do indeed get richer. Nonetheless, the Senate voted last week to supply major aid to the rich in their pursuit of even greater wealth.

The Senate decided that the dividends an individual receives should be 50 percent free of tax in 2003, 100 percent tax-free in 2004 through 2006 and then again fully taxable in 2007. The mental flexibility the Senate demonstrated in crafting these zigzags is breathtaking. What it has put in motion, though, is clear: If enacted, these changes would further tilt the tax scales toward the rich.

In a day or two, I will be posting my comments on Mike Brewster’s article, which follows below, about what the Public Accounting Oversight Board should do.

Tax ’services’ must be challenged

Commentary: Accounting board should confront Big Four

By Mike Brewster
Last Update: 12:06 AM ET May 6, 2003

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mike Brewster is author of the recently released “Unaccountable: How the Accounting Profession Forfeited A Public Trust.”

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) — For the first time in 70 years, auditors won’t be writing the rules that govern public company audits.

Late last month the SEC officially recognized the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the new accounting watchdog formed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Why has it taken the Democrats nearly a week to question the costs affiliated with President Bush’s trip to the USS Lincoln? I posted about it last week at Presidential Finances! It is now estimated that President Bush’s trip to the USS Lincoln (a ship that was 30 miles offshore and docked the next day in San Diego) cost the taxpayers nearly $1 million dollars to pay for “an extra day of air patrols, keeping the crew at sea, presidential security and flying Bush to the ship.”

How does the Bush administration know that Saddam was producing WMD, but seems incapable of finding any? Yet, they did not forsee Saddam stealing One BILLION Dollars ($900M in US currency and $100M in Euros) from an Iraqi bank and why don’t they know where it is? Is it that hard to find three tractor trailers full of cash?

Even Warren Buffet is against the Bush tax cuts!

The second richest man in the world, Mr Buffett, known as the “Sage of Omaha”, criticised plans for tax cuts that he said were designed to fleece the poor and reward the rich.

“I am not for the Bush plan. It screams of injustice. The main beneficiaries will be people like me and Charlie,” he said, referring to the Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman Charlie Munger. Mr Buffett said the tax plan was equivalent to “us giving a lesser percentage of our incomes to Washington than the people working in our shoe factories”.

How much did President Bush’s photo-op on the USS Lincoln cost the US taxpayers? Incidentally, the USS Lincoln arrived in port in San Diego less than 24 hours after his nationally televised speech. Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to have his speech today?