StrangeSox

We'll still have to see if the House has enough votes to just pass the Senate bill as-is (whatever that final form is) or if it'll go to conference and then has to re-pass both chambers. My guess is the House passes as-is in a close vote on Monday. Merry Christmas, millions of Americans who'll lose health insurance.

Flake is a YES, 100% this is passing today.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 10:48 AM) We should start seeing a ton of breaking news alerts on Fox regarding Hillary's emails.

Trump's former national security adviser is being referred to as a "former Obama administration official" by Trump's team, and the WH bizarrely seems to think this is the one possible charge against Flynn and doesn't reach anyone within the White House. Okay.

Reuters: Prosecutors say Flynn was told by the senior member of Trump transition team to reach out to other countries to influence the U.N. vote to delay or defeat the resolution.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 10:26 AM) I would agree that it can't be the only tax. It isn't in the EU either. But if it was a major portion of it, I think it would be helpful. The wealthy will still pay more as they spend more. I don't think it should be based on what % of their income they spend. They will still provide the vast majority of the government tax revenue. But we already kinda see that with state and local sales taxes, it ends up regressive with the lower end of the income scale paying a lot more of their income on a percentage basis than those higher up the scale. The wealthy spend more in total dollar figures but much less as a percentage of their income. It would be a massive windfall for them to switch to more of a "flat" tax system like that without having a whole lot of other taxes like EU countries do.

Directed him to make contact with Russians while a candidate LMAO

It is. Has Schumer even said anything? I'd be "okay" with saying that they will follow the recommendations of the ethics investigation.

~*December To Remember*~

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 10:15 AM) Did the tax package just die? The Dow went from green to down 225 in like 5 minutes. Hooray for volatility! Michael Flynn pled guilty and will testify against Trump, his family, and his campaign including that Trump ordered him to make contact with Russians. Could be related to that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 09:51 AM) They won't even claim a "lapse in judgment", they'll say the charges are bogus and maybe even attempt the pardon fight. Which is why state AG's have been working with the investigation, or at least the NY one. Trump can't pardon state-level charges, only federal charges.

Canada has a VAT too, IIRC. You've still got to have a bit of a complicated code because the richer you are, the less money you need to spend on essentials. If you just had a flat VAT with no other assistance, stipends, etc., you'd have a massively regressive tax code. Someone making $30k a year spends nearly 100% of their income on things subject to a VAT, someone making $30M spends a tiny fraction.

QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 09:41 AM) I hope this is a joke. you know it isn't (video at link) https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/936352215551406080

Sanders does a good job of exposing the GOP's plan to use the deficit they're creating to cut Social Security (which doesn't actually contribute to the deficit) https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/936381809243377664

January 24 - Flynn lies to the FBI. January 26 - Yates warns the WH about Flynn. January 27 - Papadopolous lies to the FBI. Trump responds not by firing Flynn, but asking Comey for a loyalty pledge. January 30 - Yates fired.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 08:29 AM) I've thought about it but just never really saw the need. I'm like SS2K5 in that I just don't have that much to enter. It takes me maybe 20 minutes to finish my taxes. It would take me less time if I didn't have to re-enter my W2 information every year but I use the free version. The paid version pulls in your info from the previous year. They could actually be a lot easier for everyone: There was a bill in California that came very close to passing that would have sent everyone pre-filled state tax returns that you'd just verify and send back. They already get all of the same information you do, so there's no reason it couldn't be heavily automated and streamlined for the majority of people with basic W-2's and standard deductions. A few European countries have this, and it seems to work well. But the tax prep and tax software lobby killed it. They make decent money off of preparing 1040EZ's and then loaning the tax return money out at high interest rates, so they'd be harmed if people felt more comfortable doing it on their own. QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 08:42 AM) I have all of those things minus the consultant work. I've still been using TurboTax and have seemed to manage well with it. Like Badger said, a lot depends on who truly aggressive you are willing to be on deductions. It's all gravy until the IRS comes a calling. My dad works for the IRS and still uses TurboTax. I'm sure I could get a slightly larger return if I went to a more aggressive accountant, but I feel pretty audit-proof in what deductions he recommends for me.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 08:39 AM) So...a "Former national security advisor" being charged would seem to be pretty high on the list of guys to put in jail if a prosecutor thought they had evidence of impropriety. You only offer them a plea deal for someone who is substantially more important. Yeah, that's absolutely what this is. Just based on public information, Flynn's guilty of more than this slap-on-the-wrist charge, and we know he's been eager to make a deal with someone since early this year. I don't know if this ever reaches Trump himself, but I wouldn't be shocked by an eventual Kushner or Jr. indictment since they seemed more involved in the actual day-to-day stuff. My guess is that for campaign and transition related stuff, Trump was mostly hands off, and if anyone ever does touch him directly, it will be obstruction once he was in office. LOCK HIM UP! LOCK HIM UP! edit: one pretty interesting thing in all of this is how tight of a ship Mueller has been running. The WH reportedly learned about this indictment via press reports, and there weren't even rumors swirling about an indictment coming down today.

Flynn to plead GUILTY to the charge, so it seems pretty obvious this is a minor charge as part of a bigger plea deal.

yeesh, these poll responses

McCain and Johnson are both a yes (Johnson was bought off with an increase in the tax cut for pass-through businesses, which just so happens to directly benefit his wealthy family), so that only really leaves Flake and Corker which doesn't matter because they can afford to lose two. The still-to-be-finalized bill will pass the Senate today, and my guess is the House passes it on Monday to avoid having to go to conference. I wonder how much Trump's voters will hold him accountable for breaking essentially every one of his campaign promises on what his tax plan would do.

First charges against Flynn: making false statements to investigators. https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/936599516769374208

QUOTE (KagakuOtoko @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 08:20 AM) They absolutely cannot pass this bill. [Arrested Development narrator voice]: They will

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 1, 2017 -> 07:47 AM) Yes, it's to avoid being "double taxed", you don't pay the corporate income tax on top of individual taxes, you only pay an individual tax. I'll have to double check the exact details on this bill, there are so many different versions being pushed around. Obviously, plenty of wealthy people exploit this with entities that would be hardly considered real corporations. There's that, and there are also gigantic corporations that you'd guess would be C-corps but are actually S-corps. Bechtel is a huge, privately held engineering firm with billions in revenue every year, but it's an S-corp. Yeah, every provision of the tax code has a special interest that's lobbied for it, and that's part of what makes tax reform hard politically. Businesses getting different rates from individuals, deductions for energy improvements, child tax credits, health deductions, 401k deductions, mortgage etc. etc. etc. and oops you've got a big, complicated tax code again! Something that always frustrates me is how often people 1) confuse how tax brackets work and 2) how they get portrayed in talking points as what makes taxes complicated 1) Lots of people, even well-off, educated people, don't understand the "marginal" part of marginal tax brackets. You see people who honestly think that if they make say $1000 more and bump into the next tax bracket, that they're going to be paying so much more in taxes overall that it'd actually be a pay decrease. 2) Once you know your taxable income, figuring out what you know is a two-step basic arithmetic calculation. It's figuring out what your taxable income is that's difficult.