Washington Journal

The other morning while I could not sleep, I stumbled upon the Washington Journal that airs at 5 am to 8 am, my time.  I watched three interviews one of which was about opioids.  I actually found all three interviews to be interesting so thought I would give a brief report on things that stuck out to me.  Understand I am in no way an expert and am only reporting on what was said during the interview.  I encourage you all to fact check, but please lets not go into alternative facts.

How the Govt. spends your tax dollars. 

The Govt. spends approximately 1/5 the budget on defense, 1/5 for social security, and 1/5 for some sort of healthcare, i.e. Medicare, Medicaid, etc.

Did any of you know that under the Congressional Budget there is a fund to pay claimants who accuse members of congress of sexual harassment?  Paid for with our tax money...Hmmm I wonder how many other types of funding that is happening under the taxpayers radar?  As far as I am concerned the offending congress person can pay their own fine or settlement.

Payroll taxes are 6.2% fica paid by both employee and employer, Medicare is 1.54 paid by both employee and employer, and unemployment tax being paid by employer.  I think the employer should pay for unemployment since I could not get unemployment if I quit my job, even if the boss is a jackass.  I have to be fired or laid off to qualify for unemployment.

Corporate taxes are about 9% of the Federal Income.

SALT

The loss of this deduction has the potential to be very problematic for State and Local governments.  When tax increases are put onto the ballot, if these deductions are taken away, it may be difficult for local govts. to raise taxes for state and local improvements.  Impacted by lack of funds could be education, infrastructure, water and wastewater facilities, elderly care...home health, meals, Senior Centers, Health Depts., City and County Workers wages and pensions.  Those are just a few off the top of my head.

Now to the Tax Bills being debated in Congress.

This tax bill is nothing more than the trickle down economics that Reagan gave us in the 80's and was given to him by the Heritage Foundation and it has failed every time it has been tried.  The 1.5 trillion that it will add to the deficit has actually been shown that it will add more to the deficit, but if the Republicans say that, the bill will trashed because of procedural processes that state that a bill cannot raise the deficit more than 1.5 trillion dollars.  Some would have you believe that the increase in jobs will off set the deficit.  Now I ask you, can you run your finances based upon the idea that things might get better...I might get a raise...no we the people have to deal in realities of what our financial ability is, not what we hope for.

The CFPB or Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

This was envisioned by Elizabeth Warren in 2007.  Passed in a much bigger form in Dodd- Frank and given absolute power with little or no oversight.  No one can fire the head of the agency.  So this is the history and I have heard the rules and regulations in Dodd - Frank described as a fence on the prairie.  Every where you see a fence post, that is a regulation and in between are the ways around the regulation.  That was Elizabeth Warren's take on it several years ago. 

The reason I found this so fascinating was Wells Fargo.  The big flap was employees opening and closing accounts for clients, without their knowledge for bonuses.  Now the CFPB examined Wells Fargo records and found nothing amiss.  The LA Times broke the story and the LA City Attorney's office is the entity that investigated Wells Fargo for 2 years and ultimately found and prosecuted violations.  At the time of the news conference the CFPB was present and acted like it was involved in the investigation but it was not.

We do need an agency like this to monitor financial institutes and their practices but we do need it to function properly.