Harris and Trump's Terrible Tax Ideas
Plus: How will the editors vote in the presidential election?

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman parse the presidential candidates' latest batch of confounding ideas on tax policy before lamenting their various cringe media appearances over the past week.
05:21—Tax policy proposals
31:44—Weekly listener question
43:38—Candidate cringe media hits
54:18—This week's cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"Trump Panders to Auto Industry, Proposes Making Car Loan Interest Tax Deductible" by Joe Lancaster
"Instead of Vote-Buying Tax Promises, Let's Have Real Plans for Tax Relief" by J.D. Tuccille
"How Much Will the Major Presidential Candidates Steal From You?" by J.D. Tuccille
"Carving Out a Tax Cut Just for Tips Doesn't Make More Sense When Kamala Harris Does It" by Eric Boehm
"Kamala Harris' Plan To Hike Corporate Income Taxes Would Fall on All Americans" by Eric Boehm
"Harris: "Not a thing" she'd have done differently than Biden" by Erin Doherty
"The U.S. Can't Afford To Cut Taxes on Social Security Benefits" by Veronique de Rugy
"Biden and Harris' Record on Spending and Debt Is a Tragedy of Epic Proportion" by Veronique de Rugy
"Where They Stand: The Presidential Candidates on Issues That Matter to Older Americans" by AARP
"Sources of Federal Revenue" by Fiscal Data/Treasury Department
"Vivek Ramaswamy Is Wrong about National Debt: We Can't Grow Our Way Out of Its Ruinous Economic Impact" by Nick Gillespie
"Budget Deficit Hit $1.8 Trillion After Huge Increase in Borrowing Costs" by Eric Boehm
"Trump's Proposals Would Add $5.8 Trillion to the Deficit" by Eric Boehm
"Free the Art! Sell the Art!" by Crispin Sartwell
"How Will Reason Staffers Vote in 2020?"
"Show Us Your Vote!" by Matt Welch
"Neal Stephenson's Past, Present, and Future" by Mike Godwin
"Neal Stephenson Wants To Tell Big Stories" by Tyler Cowen
"Tyler Cowen's Stubborn Attachments To Freedom and Prosperity" by Nick Gillespie
"My biggest concern remains the carburetor-eating" by IowaHawkBlog
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Audio production by Ian Keyser
Assistant production by Hunt Beaty
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve
- Video Editor: Ian Keyser
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hmmm... taxing unrealized capital gains vs. exempting income tax on tips.
I dont know man, this seems really hard. Can anyone help me evaluate the pros and cons here?
Tax cuts are as bad as increased taxes apparently.
Yeah that whole all taxes are theft is an MC thing.
How about eliminating the income tax and replacing it with something sane like a national sales tax?
Oh, wait.
That makes sense, so the DC elitist vermin would never do that.
What was I thinking?
national sales tax is just a VAT and that has its own problems.
The biggest problem with income tax, and sales tax, is the wholesale greenlight to the gov for privacy intrusion.
I favor a system where the government doesn’t need to know how much I earn or what is in my bank account.
Agree.
Well in terms of privacy, sales tax is definitely better than income tax. Not perfect, but better.
Are you fucking retarded? Wait, of course you are.
Both are bad but an income tax only cares about earnings while a sales tax/VAT cares about every last monetary transaction or non-monetary possible transaction given the post Wickard world we live in.
No a sales tax and a VAT are completely different beasts.
A VAT is insidious, hidden, multiplicative, and a huge pain in the ass for anyone who has to deal with it.
A sales tax (transaction tax) is open, transparent, and easy to administer.
It's weird that people are discussing taxes and other issues at all this election season. The issues are completely irrelevant because Donald Trump tried to steal the last election. That makes him unfit for office, period. Your choices are Harris or a third party candidate.
Bad parody?
Perhaps.
The nym does not look familiar to me.
He’s a bog standard leftist.
So what if he did?
We all know the other side tried to steal the 2016 election.
https://mtracey.medium.com/the-most-predictable-election-fraud-backlash-ever-4187ba31d430
John Podesta, the Hillary Clinton campaign chairman whose Gmail account was reputed to have been successfully “phished” by fearsome Russian “hackers,” issued a statement demanding that electors be granted an unheard-of “intelligence briefing” — with the implication for what should be done with that “briefing” information too obvious to need stating outright.
It was payback, and it was justified.
Ghatanathoah.
Is.
Full.
Of.
Shit.
FOAD, asshole.
Not even your Democrat paymasters actually believe that.
You can tell because they haven’t charged him for treason in the ensuing 4 years.
Edit: To whit, there is no “trying” to steal an election. You either do it and get away with it, or you don’t and get tried, convicted, and executed for it post haste.
They’re roughly equivalent.
Boaf Sidez!
Trick question: Presidents don't have any control over tax policy.
Also, pass around whatever you are smoking if you think BOTH of the following two things are simultaneously true:
1) The democratic party is the preferred party of the moneyed elite.
2) The democratic party would actually allow unrealized capital gains to be taxed.
How will the editors vote in the presidential election?
It is the height of arrogance to think anyone cares.
We need to know who the interns will vote for. They are the future.
Randy Watson believes the children are the future:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOk_1ZeSBe0
Almost brought me to tears.
JD Vance is wrong about Sexual Chocolate
I think we were all wrong about Sexual Chocolate. Otis Day and the Knights on the other hand...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZPlJpXSPmg
Never saw Animal House. Was JD Vance wrong about it?
JD Vance was even wrong about Caddyshack!
dumb
Pluggo and Jeffy both agree.
For them it could be quite touching.
Penetrating really.
Their last article about their vote provided years of reminders to them.
Apparently it was just a tease. They’re still getting results back from staffers. I’m betting the number of Trump votes is zero.
Seeing a boaf sidez to start, not interested in wading through the podcast to hear who is voting for whom - anyone have the CliffNotes summary?
Please and thanks.
Not it *finger on nose*
>>CliffNotes summary?
strategic. reluctant.
“Harris” praise for Harris.
“and” BOAF SIDEZ which is always praise for Democrats.
“Trump’s” attack on Trump.
“Terrible” attack on Trump.
“Tax” praise for Democrats.
“Ideas” attack on Trump.
There you go. You can get it all from the title. It’s all praise for Harris and attacks on Trump.
Poor retarded sarc.
Yup
Yes! Pour! Retarded Sarc.
Sad!
Seriously though, you wouldn't be interested. They talk about policies and principles without histrionics and emotional attacks against anyone who criticizes Trump. Nothing you'd be interested in.
Did you know Trump was hitler? J6 was a coup? People don’t vote for Chase cause he’s gay? If you’re against chase it’s because you’re a homophobe?
You have no principles retard. You support every bad act of government against your enemies. You’re in favor of taxation because Trump wants to cut them. Your jeffs little pet.
Mkay. Did they mention JD Vance?
Not yet.
Tell me how I would think about that too.
Or instead of asking you could listen for yourself.
Thank you sarc, can always count on you to provide nothing. And you delivered.
Had I provided something I would have been attacked for it. So I think this is best. Saves me the effort and headache, and deprives you of satisfaction.
What could have saved even more effort was not posting, but this is more fun.
You provided nothing because you have nothing. As usual.
Cite of you providing something?
He sort of did with the post before that. It was pspectacular.
Truly Sarctastic.
They need to be explain how he’s wrong about (insert topic).
“They talk about policies and principles without histrionics and emotional attacks…”
I highly doubt that, considering the last 8 years.
Same. I’m not listening to an hour of this bullshit.
Well once again apparently that chick that actually listens to the podcast has asked a question but readers are left to speculate what it may be. All right I'll play along.
"Clearly JD Vance is wrong about pretty much everything. But is he more wrong than racist Ron Paul libertarians?"
Harris is your atypical leftist who is stupid enough to believe you can tax and spend your way into prosperity.
Voting for her would be like voting for the village idiot.
She is the village idiot.
She's the idiot San Francisco is missing.
They still have Newsome.
To be fair, SF is a village abounding with idiots.
The answer for who to vote for is: Anyone but Trump.
Donald Trump lost an election, refused to leave office, and made unconstitutional attempts to stay in power. Anyone who does that is unfit for any office, period. It doesn't matter what his stance on the issues are. Anyone who votes for him is derelict in their duty as a citizen.
refused to leave office…
When your second sentence contains such axiomatic falsehoods, you need to hit the showers and get packed for the minors. We’ll send a scout down in a year to see if your game has improved.
Guessing sarc sock so sarc doesn't appear as the dumbest one here.
No question. Same idiot style.
Cool story bro.
Democrat fan fiction at it’s most mediocre.
weak. b- at best on your troll attempt
What was unconstitiutional about his attempts to stay in power?
What about those unconstitutional attempts to remove him from power?
The Sarc sock won’t answer.
"Donald Trump lost an election, refused to leave office, and made unconstitutional attempts to stay in power..."
Do ignoramuses like this get TDS or is it TDS which causes such imbecility. And the shit assumes we'll believe such obvious lies? FOAD, asshole
Remind me how many people voted for Kamala to be the Democrat nominee.
> How will the editors vote in the presidential election
Oh tell me tell me tell me. Life is incomplete and a vale of tears until I know how lubbertarian talking heads will vote.
Well well well.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-followers-left-stranded-desert-after-coachella-rally-1968439
It looks like, Trump paid for buses to transport supporters to his rally in Coachella, but he didn't pay for the buses to return them.
Well, in fairness, some guy showed up there armed for bear.
And they were in a trunk? Asking for a TDS-addled lying pile of lefty shit who needs to FOAD.
So, a guy didn't show up there armed for bear? Should I start posting links?
Thought you were riffing on jeffy's famous 'bear in the trunk!' covid fantasy.
Yeah, from reports, he did have firepower, but seemingly (again, from reports) he was not a danger to Trump, and was caught at a 'check-point', how far from Trump's rally, IDK:
"Armed Man Arrested Near Trump Rally Over Concerns About ‘Third Assassination Attempt’—Here’s What We Know About Him"
[...]
"A man carrying loaded firearms and fake passports was arrested outside the security checkpoint near former president Donald Trump’s weekend rally in Coachella, California, which law enforcement described as a likely “third assassination attempt” against the former president, a claim the suspect, who identifies as a Trump supporter, said was false..."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/armed-man-arrested-near-trump-rally-over-concerns-about-third-assassination-attempt-here-s-what-we-know-about-him/ar-AA1seFnv?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Looks like he is currently charged with violating Cali firearm laws (carrying w/o a permit since I believe CA does not have constitutional carry for out-of-staters and possession of a “high capacity” magazine). Maybe more will be tacked on.
Both poor choices for taking a long shot at a target.
Donald Trump’s weekend rally in Coachella, California, which law enforcement described as a likely “third assassination attempt” against the former president, a
Wait, when were the other two? Something tells me assassination attempts against Donald Trump are as rare as illegal immigrants voting!
FOAD, lying pile of TDS-addled lefty shit. Make your family proud and your dog happy.
Seems like maybe all the bus drivers were busy ferrying paid professional audience members to Harris's Univision "town hall for undecided voters"
So in summary….
Harris’s tax-plan is to implement a Nordic [Na]tional So[zi]al[ism].
Trump’s tax-plan is to “Starve the Socialist Beast” and hope growth allows recovery.
So who’s tax-plan?
Comes down to what it always comes down too...
Who wants to keep a USA and who wants a [Na]tional So[zi]alist Empire.
How much is government stealing from you, followed by several article son why tax cuts are bad.
VP Harris, the haranguing empty vessel, has no coherent economic plan. She stated her policies don't differ from POTUS Biden, whose economic policies are a miserable fail.
She cannot even speak; she puts out a meaningless verbal word salad, and she cannot explain her plan.
She cannot even speak; she puts out a meaningless verbal word salad
Double standards much?
Lie much?
Taxing unrealised capital gains is like taxing your income before you've received it. It's absurd - and I suspect has no chance of being implemented even if the Democrats sweep (which they won't).
It also makes for a more, and unnecessarily, complex tax system.
Taxing income period makes a more, unnecessarily complex tax system.
And yes, your bitcoin you received... is taxable.