Tax Cuts

The grim May employment report, only 69,000 nonfarm jobs, is the third consecutive subpar tally, replete with downward revisions for the two prior months. It's a devastating number for the American economy. The Obama "Keynesian" government-spending model has proved to be a complete failure. President Barack Obama doesn't seem to understand businesses create jobs. And firms have to be profitable in order to hire. Yet the president's rhetoric is degrading the importance of profits.

Manchester, N.H. -- Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley  said Friday that he took no personal offense at the attack lobbed at him by neighboring Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, and has not watched the video posted on the Republican Governors Association website that says Marylanders are "singing the blues" because of O'Malley's tax hikes.  The Maryland governor brushed off the Republican barbs as "not uncommon" though he did note that the GOP typically puts...

It's bad enough when economists contradict each other, but it's even more frustrating when they contradict themselves. Or, as George Bernard Shaw once observed, if all economists were laid end to end, they still wouldn't reach a conclusion. That thought came to mind last week when the Congressional Budget Office reported that "Taxmageddon," the combination of expiring tax cuts and spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January, could push the nation back into recession. That's a worrisome prospect that appears to have gotten the attention of Congress.

In his column, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.neglects to identify the real causes of the nation's debt ("Debt without end?" May 27). It is due to financing two wars off the budget and by providing welfare - the Bush tax cuts - to the 1-percenters that are the real causes. In his ignorance, he praises Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal which the CBO has analyzed and found financially irresponsible. Additionally, he is ready and willing to throw granny over the cliff because she will not be able to purchase a cost-effective medical insurance policy using a voucher.

Your recent editorial on European elections states that "the real lesson to be drawn from the rise ofFrance's Francois Hollande and others is that many in Europe are fed up with austerity measures" ("Rejecting austerity," May 9). Contrary to that assertion, the real lesson to be drawn from the European debt crisis is that a country cannot afford to be so deeply in debt that its prospective creditors are in a position to demand onerous loan covenants that are politically untenable.

Starting in July, Baltimore homeowners can expect to see their tax bills get a little lighter. That's when Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's property tax reduction plan goes into effect, resulting in a 2-cent cut per $100 of assessed value next fiscal year. Under the measure, approved Monday by the City Council, taxes on an owner-occupied home valued at $200,000 will drop by $40 next year. The reduction is scheduled to grow to $400 by 2020, though the continued cuts are contingent on approval each year by the city's Board of Estimates.

The City Council on Monday approved Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's property tax reduction plan, which relies on projected revenue from gambling. “I want to thank Council President Bernard 'Jack' Young and members of the City Council for giving relief to city homeowners,” Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. Banking on income from a future slots location, the plan would reduce Baltimore's property tax rate by 20 cents by 2020 for Baltimore homeowners. According to the mayor's office, the plan would give an owner-occupied home, valued at $200,000, an annual tax reduction of $40 next year.

Critics of the so-called "Buffett Rule," President Barack Obama's proposal to impose a minimum income tax on the wealthy, would like to have their gilded cake and eat it, too. On the one hand, they contend that the proposal would have a minimal impact on closing the deficit, and on the other, they claim that it would greatly discourage investment. Clearly, it can't be so small as to have a negligible effect on tax revenue while simultaneously so big as to have a ruinous impact on the economy.

If Republicans are getting ready to turn an election-year corner, settle on a presidential nominee and begin broadening their political message beyond the reality-challenged segments of the GOP base, Rep. Paul Ryan clearly didn't get the message. The $3.5 trillion spending plan the House budget chairman released Tuesday morning is a great deal like what Mr. Ryan and his tea-party-endorsed colleagues in the House offered last year - with a bit less detail in areas that got him and his party in so much trouble last year, like cuts in Medicare benefits for senior citizens.