From the Wichita Pachyderm Club: Congressman Mike Pompeo delivered an update on the issues of the day and answered questions. Over 100 Pachyderm Club members and guests attended. This audio presentation was recorded on October 21, 2016.
James S. Rosebush worked in the White House as assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He’s written a book about Reagan titled True Reagan: What Made Ronald Reagan Great and Why It Matters. During his visit to Wichita, he stopped by the WichitaLiberty.TV studios. View our discussion below, or click here to view at YouTube. Episode 123, broadcast June 26, 2016.
Shownotes
From Michael Smith, Chair of Department of Social Sciences at Emporia State University: “Video is now available for the debated hosted by Murad Gündüz Jalilov on behalf of Up to Us and the Public Administration Club: Should the U.S. implement austerity measures due to the size of the national debt? Featuring Dr. Max Skidmore of UMKC and Mr. Bob Weeks of wichitaliberty.org.”
View below, or click here to view at YouTube. The video was recorded in a challenging acoustical environment. An audio recording that I captured and processed for clarity is available at Debate: The National Debt.
David Bobb, President of The Bill of Rights Institute, explains freedom of speech and its importance. View below, or click here to view at YouTube. Wichita, Kansas, February 18, 2016.
Notes
In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: David Bobb, President of The Bill of Rights Institute, talks about civic education and the importance of humility. View below, or click here to view at YouTube. Episode 110, broadcast February 21, 2016.
Shownotes
Partners in Up To Us include:
Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase public awareness of the nature and urgency of key fiscal challenges threatening America’s future and to accelerate action on them.
Clinton Global Initiative University. Building on the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges, the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) was launched to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world.
Net Impact. Net Impact is the leading nonprofit that inspires a new generation to work within and beyond business for a sustainable future. Net Impact empowers student and professional leaders to act locally through a vibrant chapter network and connect globally online and through Net Impact’s flagship conference.
In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: Journalist, novelist, and blogger Bud Norman joins host Bob Weeks to discuss presidential election politics. View below, or click here to view at YouTube. Episode 108, broadcast February 7, 2016.
Shownotes
A company that has a taxpayer-guaranteed loan may be entering bankruptcy. Will taxpayers have to pay?
(Updated November 30) Spanish energy giant Abengoa has taken preliminary steps that could lead to bankruptcy filing.
Of relevance to Kansas — and the country at large — is the Abengoa cellulosic ethanol plant near Hugoton. That plant received a $132.4 million loan guarantee from the United States government under the same program that benefited Solyndra. That company cost taxpayers over $500 million when it defaulted on its taxpayer-guaranteed loan.
Does a bankruptcy filing by Abengoa place U.S. taxpayers on the hook for the company’s guaranteed loan? If so, are taxpayers liable for the entire $132.4 million or some smaller portion?
The answer is this: We don’t know. I’ve asked for, and have received the loan guarantee agreement. It’s unclear to me what would happen if Abengoa entered bankruptcy.
Following, reporting from the Wall Street Journal. It mentions “debt-fueled expansion,” some of which is a liability of the U.S. taxpayer.
Spain’s Abengoa Files for Creditor Protection
The company’s debt-fueled expansion in the boom years is handicapping growth today
MADRID — Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm Abengoa SA said on Wednesday that it is filing for preliminary creditor protection, an initial step that could lead to the largest bankruptcy case in the country’s history.
The potential demise of Abengoa is an extreme example of a Spanish company whose debt-fueled expansion during the country’s boom years has handicapped its ambitions for growth today.
The company is one of the world’s top builders of power lines transporting energy across Latin America and a top engineering and construction business, making massive renewable-energy power plants in places from Kansas to the U.K.
Continue reading at Wall Street Journal.
In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: Congressman Mike Pompeo talks about the Middle East, politics in Washington, and domestic issues. View below, or click here to view in high definition at YouTube. Episode 101, broadcast November 29, 2015.
Shownotes
John Sullivan, who is Supervisory Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Wichita, spoke to members and guests of the Wichita Pachyderm Club on the topic “Counterterrorism.” This is an audio presentation recorded on October 23, 2015.
In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: Do our governmental agencies really want to share data and documents with us? Community Improvement Districts and homeowners compared. And, the last episode of “Love Gov” from the Independent Institute. View below, or click here to view in high definition at YouTube. Episode 95, broadcast September 20, 2015.
In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: Debate and communications coach and expert Rodney Wren explains the recent presidential debate. What should viewers look for as they watch? View below, or click here to view at YouTube. Episode 93, broadcast August 23, 2015.
In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute talks about his new book “Going for Broke: Deficits, Debt, and the Entitlement Crisis.” View below, or click here to view at YouTube. Episode 90, broadcast August 2, 2015.
Tanner’s page at Cato is here. Video of a book forum on “Going for Broke: Deficits, Debt, and the Entitlement Crisis” is here. Video of Tanner at the Wichita Pachyderm Club is here. A good discussion of the book on C-SPAN is here.
A series of short videos from the Independent Institute entertains and teaches lessons at the same time.
The Independent Institute has produced a series of humorous and satirical videos to present lessons about the nature of government. The Institute describes the series here:
Love Gov depicts an overbearing boyfriend — Scott “Gov” Govinsky — who foists his good intentions on a hapless, idealistic college student, Alexis. Each episode follows Alexis’s relationship with Gov as his intrusions wreak (comic) havoc on her life, professionally, financially, and socially. Alexis’s loyal friend Libby tries to help her see Gov for what he really is — a menace. But will Alexis come to her senses in time?
There are five episode (plus a trailer). Each episode is around five minutes long and presents a lesson on a topic like jobs, healthcare, and privacy. The episodes are satirical and funny. They’d be really funny if the topic wasn’t so serious. I recommend you spend a half-hour or so to view the series.
The link to view the video series is here.
Over the past two decades most large industrial countries have reduced their corporate income tax rates. Two countries, however, stand out from this trend: France and The United States.
In Abolish the Corporate Income Tax economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff writes “I, like many economists, suspect that our corporate income tax is economically self-defeating — hurting workers, not capitalists, and collecting precious little revenue to boot.”
High taxes in America cause companies to invest overseas in order to escape these high American taxes. For example, Apple takes steps to minimize the income tax it pays, as do most companies. In Calculating Apple’s True U.S. Tax Rate law professor Victor Fleischer explains and estimates what rate Apple pays:
The whole point of the Senate hearing was to show how Apple shifts substantial amounts of its economic profits from the United States to Ireland, where they are taxed at a rate close to zero. Those profits are then sheltered in Ireland and untaxed unless Apple decides to bring the cash back to the United States.
These overseas profits create deferred tax liabilities that will not be taxed until the cash is repatriated. But Apple is reluctant to repatriate its overseas cash; it would rather lobby for another tax holiday and bring the cash back tax-free. An added benefit of a tax holiday for Apple is that it would provide a quick jump in reported earnings when the accounting entry for the deferred tax liability is reversed. …
Thus, Apple’s “true U.S. tax rate,” according to my own calculation, was 8.2 percent.
The corporate income tax rate in the United States is 35 percent. So how does Apple pay such a lower rate to the U.S? It locates operations overseas. It earns profits overseas, and pays taxes there.
Using data gathered by Tax Policy Center at Brookings Institution, I’ve prepared an interactive visualization of corporate income tax rate trends over time. Click here to open the visualization in a new window.
In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: Congressman Mike Pompeo talks about risks to America from overseas, Benghazi, congressional scorecards, the Grant Return for Deficit Reduction Act, and labeling food with genetically engineered ingredients. View below, or click here to view at YouTube. Episode 78, broadcast March 15, 2015.
Cato Institute scholars Alex Nowrasteh, Aaron Ross Powell, Neal McCluskey, Mark Calabria, Bill Watson, Chris Edwards, Gene Healy, Chris Preble, Julian Sanchez, Pat Michaels and Trevor Burrus respond to President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Address. View below, or click here to view in high definition at YouTube.
Video produced by Caleb O. Brown, Austin Bragg and Tess Terrible.
Over the past two decades most large industrial countries have reduced their corporate income tax rates. Two countries, however, stand out from this trend: France and The United States.
In Abolish the Corporate Income Tax economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff writes “I, like many economists, suspect that our corporate income tax is economically self-defeating — hurting workers, not capitalists, and collecting precious little revenue to boot.”
High taxes in America cause companies to invest overseas in order to escape these high American taxes. For example, Apple takes steps to minimize the income tax it pays, as do most companies. In Calculating Apple’s True U.S. Tax Rate law professor Victor Fleischer explains and estimates what rate Apple pays:
The whole point of the Senate hearing was to show how Apple shifts substantial amounts of its economic profits from the United States to Ireland, where they are taxed at a rate close to zero. Those profits are then sheltered in Ireland and untaxed unless Apple decides to bring the cash back to the United States.
These overseas profits create deferred tax liabilities that will not be taxed until the cash is repatriated. But Apple is reluctant to repatriate its overseas cash; it would rather lobby for another tax holiday and bring the cash back tax-free. An added benefit of a tax holiday for Apple is that it would provide a quick jump in reported earnings when the accounting entry for the deferred tax liability is reversed. …
Thus, Apple’s “true U.S. tax rate,” according to my own calculation, was 8.2 percent.
The corporate income tax rate in the United States is 35 percent. So how does Apple pay such a lower rate to the U.S? It locates operations overseas. It earns profits overseas, and pays taxes there.
Using data gathered by Tax Policy Center at Brookings Institution, I’ve prepared an interactive visualization of corporate income tax rate trends over time. Click here to open the visualization in a new window.
The practice of federal earmark spending was not kind to Kansas, as data shows Kansas was an earmark donor state.
Data for 2009, one of the last years for earmarking, along with Arnold’s calculations of a earmark ratio, shows that the value of this ratio varies from 25 percent to 1,104 percent. This ratio is calculated by first determining the proportion of total federal income taxes paid by a state. Use that to calculate the state’s proportional share of earmark dollars. Then, compare to earmarks actually received.
For 2009, the earmark ratio for Kansas was 81.9 percent. Based on the state contributing 0.9 percent of total federal taxes paid, Kansas should have received $173 million in earmarks. It actually received $142 million.
Arnold’s article contains other interesting find, such as comparing a state’s earmark ratio with it having members on appropriations committees.
I’ve presented Arnold’s data in an interactive spreadsheet. View the data below, or click here to open it in a new window, which may work best in most cases. This is a spreadsheet in Google Docs format. You may manipulate and save the data as your own copy.
Kansas Senator Pat Roberts promotes his fiscal conservatism, but failed to vote in favor of earmark reform in a recent close vote.
In 2012 an amendment to a Senate bill was offered that would have dramatically reformed the earmark process.
The purpose of the amendment, according to Congress.gov, is “to prohibit earmarks.” Although offered in 2012, the short title of the amendment was “Earmark Elimination Act of 2011”
The amendment was rejected by a vote of 59 to 40. Among Democratic Party members, the vote was 44 to 7 against the amendment. For Republican Party members, the vote was 33 to 13 in favor of the amendment.
One of the 13 Republicans who voted against this reform-minded amendment was Pat Roberts of Kansas.
