Daily Clips: March 11th, 2016
Louisiana will tax its poor to fill budget hole caused by tax cuts for the rich: But I thought tax cuts for the rich would lead to an economic boom?! In order to fill the budget gap, the state is raising the sales tax by 25 percent. Unfortunately, such a policy maneuver puts an uneven burden on lower income households.
Because the sales tax applies to consumption rather than income, the hike Louisiana lawmakers agreed to will be regressive: While people in the top 20 percent of the income distribution will pay 41 percent of the total cost of the tax hike according to the Louisiana Budget Project, the sales tax mechanism takes a bigger bite out of a poor family’s income than a rich one’s. Politicians are making poor people shoulder a load caused primarily by ex-Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) tax breaks for the rich.
Trade and tribulation: Paul Krugman opens up his latest column by asking “Why did Bernie Sanders win a narrow victory in Michigan, when polls showed Hillary Clinton with a huge lead?”
Study sees positive impact of raising New York’s minimum wage to $15 an hour
The false promise of last year’s wage gains: A new report from Economic Policy Institute “suggest that an apparent boost in buying power was really just the product of a dip in inflation.” A seniro economist at EPI and the paper’s author, Elise Gould, argued “that while shifts such as lower oil prices certainly helped middle-and lower-income households stretch their paychecks further, locking in the benefits of such boosts would require that inflation rates remain near zero for a prolonged period—which is quite unlikely in the long run.”
Kenneth Copeland says Ted Cruz has been “called and anointed” by God to be the next POTUS: This video is beyond creepy. Side point: Why do pastors always take such long pauses?
