By Robert Presser on February 21, 2016
I write this as I am watching Bernie Sanders’ acceptance speech after winning the New Hampshire Democratic primary. All his typical themes are there; universal health care, pay equity and a living wage for all, rebuilding America’s infrastructure, the rich and the large corporations paying their fair share – the list goes on and on. The common thread through all of his initiatives is money – more of it, either going out as spending or coming in as revenues. Spending is not really the problem, governments are good at that. But collecting money and raising taxes? Avoidance and tax planning can deflate revenues from any new tax measure, just ask the Trudeau Liberals who discovered that their new upper income tax bracket’s revenue projections are a few billion dollars short of plan. If Bernie wins, he has a problem.
