Category: News and Politics
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Health care reform in a nutshell
It doesn’t matter whether we call it the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, or Trumpcare, or the Republican Plan – the difficult issues and available solutions are the same. We can’t afford the solutions we want and we don’t have the political will to implement the solutions that we can afford. I’ve reported on the practical issues…
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The 100 day plan
Trump’s ‘First 100 Days’ agenda includes repealing environmental protections, cutting consumer and small business finance regulations built into the Dodd-Frank Act, giving the rich and big corporations a huge tax cut, and putting in place a cabinet that doesn’t believe in the Voting Rights Act or public schools or Medicare or the Fair Housing Act.…
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My prayer for America
I’ve been a huge supporter of ongoing lifetime education. I take, on average, the equivalent of ten continuing education courses in a year along with time set aside for associated readings. I’m not just talking about continuing education for my profession. I’m not talking about the education available in our high schools, unfortunately, or even…
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What does “repeal Obamacare” really mean?
Republicans have shouted about repealing Obamacare for the past six years. The war chants grew even louder since the November election. Now that the Republican Congressional leadership actually has the ability to defund and repeal the health care law they despise, almost all of the discussion in the news this month is about the features of…
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Scoreboard: Radical Republicans – 0, Concerned Citizens – 1
Anyone who doesn’t believe that outspoken citizens can make a difference remember today, the first day of the new 2017 Congressional session. I’ve been clear for the past month that my leadership plan this year is to draw attention to feeble policies and unacceptable individual actions for the purpose of emboldening leadership to oppose the stated…
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My most popular tax planning blog posts in December 2016
I had four tax planning blog posts draw more than 200 unique viewers in the month of December 2016. The average number of viewers is about 50 for the total pool of 38 blog posts I made last month so the 200 viewer figure is statistically significant as an indicator that something is working better than…
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Update on Electoral College reform
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan plans to lead actions aimed at reform of the Electoral College rules in the new 2017 Congress. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact calls for Electoral College delegates to pledge all of their electoral votes to the popular winner no matter who won in their states. So far the change…
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2017 real estate shakeup
Real estate ownership has long been one of the three primary wealth builders and tax reducing tools for businesses and individuals. I covered this topic in my blog yesterday. That may change radically in 2017 under tax reform proposals pushed by the new Republican leadership. The Congressional leadership in both houses and our new president…
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Trends in home ownership
The rate of individual home ownership is stuck at the lowest point in our lifetime. The trend will be further aggravated in 2017 as interest rates rise, real estate tax incentives diminish, and disposable income falls for the lower half of American households. Yet it remains unclear whether the homeownership issue indicates a serious underlying economic problem or a…
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Five things we know about tax reform in 2017
At this point, of course, there are more unknowns than knowns. But a few points seem clear enough that we can begin using some ideas for our planning purposes. Republican leaders are planning for federal tax reform plan in early 2017 that requires no Democratic support. That means than no compromises will be necessary to pass…