Tag: United States government

  • FBI and counterterrorism

    FBI and counterterrorism

    Voice for Liberty radio logo square 02 155x116John 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.

  • WichitaLiberty.TV: Lack of information sharing by government, community improvement districts, and the last episode of “Love Gov”

    WichitaLiberty.TV: Lack of information sharing by government, community improvement districts, and the last episode of “Love Gov”

    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.

  • WichitaLiberty.TV: Debate expert Rodney Wren and the presidential debates

    WichitaLiberty.TV: Debate expert Rodney Wren and the presidential debates

    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.

  • WichitaLiberty.TV: Michael Tanner of Cato Institute on deficits, debt, and entitlements

    WichitaLiberty.TV: Michael Tanner of Cato Institute on deficits, debt, and entitlements

    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.

  • ‘Love Gov’ humorous and revealing of government’s nature

    ‘Love Gov’ humorous and revealing of government’s nature

    A series of short videos from the Independent Institute entertains and teaches lessons at the same time.

    Lov Gov trailer exampleThe 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.

  • Corporate income tax rates in U.S. and other countries

    Corporate income tax rates in U.S. and other countries

    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.”

    Top Marginal Corporate Income Tax Rate in G7 CountriesHigh 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 the visualization.
    Using the visualization.
    If corporate tax rates were lowered, we’d see more economic activity here rather than overseas. That would help workers in America, as they can’t easily move their capital and investments overseas to take advantage of lower tax rates. But the wealthy — like Apple’s shareholders — can do that, and they have.

    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.

  • WichitaLiberty.TV: United States Congressman Mike Pompeo

    WichitaLiberty.TV: United States Congressman Mike Pompeo

    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 respond to the 2015 state of the union address

    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.

  • Corporate income tax rates in U.S. do not help our economy

    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.”

    Top Marginal Corporate Income Tax Rate in G7 CountriesHigh 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 the visualization.
    Using the visualization.
    If corporate tax rates were lowered, we’d see more economic activity here rather than overseas. That would help workers in America, as they can’t easily move their capital and investments overseas to take advantage of lower tax rates. But the wealthy — like Apple’s shareholders — can do that, and they have.

    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.