"Reality," Stephen Colbert famously explained to President George W. Bush, "has a well-known liberal bias." And for Republicans, reality bites most when it comes to tax cuts. After all, for over 30 years, tax cuts have been the GOP's one and only prescription for both economic booms and busts, recessionary slowdowns and budget surpluses, and […]

The merger of Miami-based Burger King and Tim Horton's of Canada is adding fuel to the raging debate about the so-called "tax inversion." While Jordan Weissman questions Burger King's denial that the decision to base the new fast food giant in Canada was motivated by a desire to lower its corporate tax bill, Megan McArdle […]

These things happened in the United States this year. An unarmed man was killed by police, supposedly for stealing some cigars. Those who took to the streets simply seeking truth, among them some looters, were denounced by some conservatives and an entire news network as "thugs" and "lynch mobs." Just months earlier, a Nevada tax […]

After months of their much-hyped but still unproven charges of partisan skullduggery at the Internal Revenue Service, House Republicans this week took an axe to the IRS budget. The cost of the GOP vendetta is massive. Cutting the agency's funding for the fifth consecutive year, the House in a 228-to-195 vote slashed the overall IRS […]

For Republicans, it is the love that dare not speak its name. Tax cuts don't pay for themselves by generating economic growth so explosive that government revenues exceed the levels they would have otherwise reached. Ever since the Laffer Curve was first sketched on a napkin for the likes of Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan, […]

Back in April, right-wing politicians, pundits and press denounced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) when he labelled the well-armed mob at Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch as "domestic terrorists." With three people--including two police officers--murdered in Las Vegas by white supremacist Bundy followers, an apology to Reid from the conservative commentariat is due. Make that […]

Walmart has had a very bad week. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that at least eight senior executives have left the company since an investigation was launched to probe allegations of massive bribery in Mexico and other foreign markets. Already shaken by previous revelations that low wage workers at the nation's largest employer […]

And now for today's quiz: When is $10 billion greater than $310 billion? When Republicans control the House of Representatives. Yes, the American people got another lesson in GOP math this week when House Republicans refused to budge on a $10 billion, five-month extension of unemployment benefits for 1.3 million long-term jobless workers while the […]

For over 30 years, it has been the Republican Party's uber lie. Ever since Jude Wanniski first sketched Arthur Laffer's curve on the back of a napkin, conservatives have claimed that "tax cuts pay for themselves" because the extra economic activity they incentivize will produce tax revenues at least as great as they otherwise would […]

Last year, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) sponsored a bill prohibiting the Internal Revenue Service from implementing or enforcing any part of the Affordable Care Act. "The IRS," Grimm charged, "has proven to be a scandal-ridden organization that has abused its authority by targeting individuals and organizations." Two years earlier, he called for the repeal (though […]