This is not a typical blog. My posts will be edited and maintained.

Please note that these posts concern all levels of government, not just federal.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

No Laws Concerning Special Interests - Either For or Against

Concerns of special-interest groups and individuals should not be enacted into law or tax code, whether the laws or taxes be for or against the interest.

Any taxes on named groups are already illegal, but Congress effectively skirts the letter of the law while violating the spirit by specifying details that limit the scope of a law to only such a group.

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Examples:

Taxes on executive bonuses over some arbitrary maximum and without regard to the individual's total compensation. This was the approach against AIG executives; Congress intended to tax away all of the executive bonuses, even though the bonus was the individual's ONLY income in lieu of any salary, and such was contracted specifically with Congressional approval at the time.

An exception so that members of unions don't have to pay taxes on high-value health insurance plans that everyone else has to pay.

An exception so that Congressional members do not have to use health care plans mandated on everyone else.

A provision that requires the Federal government pay large amounts of the state portions of Medicare and Medicaid that only applies to Louisiana.

A provision that requires the Federal government pay all state portions of Medicare and Medicaid that only applies to Nebraska.

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Many other such laws and codes exist that target specific groups for either favor or punishment. These should be illegal, as was the original intent of the law.

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