Taxes

Skynotfall

Here are a few points on the sequester I haven’t seen elsewhere or I think deserve special emphasis.

Sequester replacement was mostly for show

As best I can tell there were no negotiations across the partisan aisle on how to replace the sequester. The…

The deficit does not measure the size of government

In his State of the Union Address President Obama said:

Let me repeat — nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It is not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government…

Responding to Mr. Carney

I’d like to thank White House Press Secretary Jay Carney for giving me so much material to work with in his press briefing today.

MR. CARNEY: Well, there’s a lot in your question, so let me go first to the broader fact, which is that we have seen consistent…

More on tax reform: Schumer v. Baucus

Based on some further development and feedback I’m going to update last week’s post on how Senate Democratic plans for the budget resolution interact with the prospects for enacting significant tax reform. My core projection is still quite pessimistic, but I think…

Tax reform in the Senate

Senator Schumer recently said the Senate Democratic majority will pass a budget resolution, in part so it can create a reconciliation instruction to pass tax reform with a simple Senate majority. This is important.

The venue shifts

A few days ago Speaker Boehner redirected his focus from negotiating an ad hoc Obama-Boehner deal to a more traditional legislative path. Since the Speaker announced plan B at the beginning of the week, the venue for substantive negotiations has shifted from Obama/Boehner to a standard House/Senate…

What kind of negotiator is President Obama?

President Obama’s behavior over the past month is consistent with three different models, and I cannot figure out which one applies.

In model 1 the President is a risk-taker. He is a competent and effective negotiator who is…