The Senate won’t reverse Treasury on SALT. The Senate yesterday rejected a resolution aimed at making it easier for states to protect residents from the Tax Cuts and Job Act’s cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. The measure, defeated on a mostly party-line vote, would have nullified Treasury efforts aimed at blocking state anti-cap initiatives. The Senate defeated the Democratic measure 53-42 with only one Democrat—Colorado’s Michael Bennet—voting no and one Republican, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, voting yes. House Democrats, meanwhile, are looking to either raise or repeal the SALT cap.
Ways and Means OKs a vaping tax. The panel approved a bipartisan bill to impose an excise tax on e-cigarettes equal to the $1.01 federal tax on tobacco cigarettes. The Senate Finance Committee may soon consider a similar measure.
Trump lawyers: The President is immune from any criminal investigation. Yes, even for shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. In his effort to block a New York subpoena of President Trump’s financial and tax records, his attorney, William Consovoy, told a federal appeals court panel that a president enjoys temporary but blanket immunity from being investigated or prosecuted by any jurisdiction for any crime while he holds office. Pressed by Judge Denny Chin, Consovoy argued that Trump would be fully protected even if he were to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The court appeared skeptical of the attorney’s argument.
“Everything you thought you knew about tax policy is wrong.” TPC’s Bill Gale describes some of the most provocative new conclusions of economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman. Their sweeping critique of conventional wisdom challenges fundamental elements of current tax policy analysis. Gale concludes that “it always is valuable—and refreshing—for respected economists to question the conventional wisdom.” Now that Saez and Zucman have done so in “a well-argued and dramatic fashion,” economists need to see which of their claims withstand scrutiny and which do not.
A regional cap and trade plan for motor fuel? The Transportation and Climate Initiative, including a dozen mid-Atlantic and northeastern states and the District of Columbia, are developing a plan to cap carbon emissions from gasoline and diesel and charge for emissions that exceed the limits. Drivers would pay more at the pump, and revenue would support mass transit, electric-vehicle charging, and other infrastructure. Opponents of have another name for the effort: a gas tax.
A carbon border tax in Europe? Ursula von der Leyen was elected European Commission president in part by promising a “European Green Deal” that may include a carbon border tax. The Washington Post describes the levy as a fee on imports from a country without a carbon pricing plan. Supporters say the adjustment could work well in the European Union, where some members have carbon pricing but others do not. A carbon border tax would equalize the price of the imported goods with those produced domestically.
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