Banana Republic of Texas

In the Houston Chronicle story on the new yacht tax cap moving through the legislature, I saw this gem:

"With those boat sales went fuel sales, retail sales, mooring fees, service fees, restaurant sales, and every other money-generating sale associated with a large boat purchase."

Anybody see the assumption here? Anybody? If not, then describe for me the relationship between where a yacht is purchased and where it moors. Yachts bought in Florida never visit non-Floridian ports? Who knew?

Here's another fun quote from the article:

Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, said the measure is "crazy" given the state's two year budget shortfall of $15 billion to $27 billion.
"We're helping yacht owners while we are cutting our public schools by 21 percent and nursing homes by 33 percent," Villarreal said. "We're helping yacht owners … while we're eliminating all scholarships for college freshmen in 2012-13."
The bill is ill-timed, Villarreal said, because no data have been collected to show how yacht sales in Florida have been affected by the bill passed last year.

Tax cuts for the rich as an economic growth driver has been discredited at the state & national level (see unemployment rate figures and Texas public school budgets). Once again, ideology trumps evidence for "conservatives".

Corporate Taxes

This is worth reading. I think I'd hit this point in a press conference, not just on the White House blog if I were president:

Jason Furman: Kyle, you are correct that the United States has the second highest statutory tax rate in the world, the official rate published in the tax code. But the United States also has more loopholes and special tax preferences than many other countries. As a result, the United States has a much lower effective tax rate. If you look at corporate taxes as a share of GDP they are below those of most major economies.