Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The willow is too close to the house.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

When we show up, we win.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You are here: Home / In Soviet Illinois, company tax you

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    At least their is an incentive to hire more and pay more. Most states just give them cash up front.
    We live in strange times.

  2. 2.

    General Stuck

    Pretty soon the Chinese will be bitching about sending all their jobs to the US, and college graduates can look forward to rewarding careers at the local sandal factory.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    A friend of mine has a boss who is an utter idiot. The guy apparently makes enough money to pay American Express’ interest rate on unpaid card balances (which is something truly outrageous like more than 20%) but whines, constantly, about taxes. It’s OK to pay a tax on your stupidity to a private outfit, but not OK to pay taxes for government services without which you cannot run a business.

    The stupid. It burns.

  6. 6.

    m. Carey

    This is galloping feudalism.

    The Lords take over the duties and revenues of the state.
    This also happened during the later Roman Empire.

  7. 7.

    Sloegin

    Taxation without representation bitchez!

    Time to drive some of the company trucks participating in this scheme into Lake Michigan, Tea Party style.

  9. 9.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    WTF?

    It’s getting to the point where I don’t know how to reply to this anymore…

    Has anyone here put this latest move on the part of the GOP-controlled House up?

    The House wants to use those savings to pay for the repeal of a law that pressures government contactors to fully pay their taxes.

    To pay… for LOST REVENUES on taxes government CONTRACTORS owe…

    The Invisible Hand of the Marketplace… on the job, once again…

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    So let me get this straight.

    When we raise taxes on the richest 0.5% by 3% to pay for programs to help the needy, that’s soshulist redistribution.

    When we take taxes from worker’s paychecks, and give them directly to the employer, that is not redistribution — that’s protecting jobs.

    Orwell called to apologize: he never realized people would use Politics and the English Language and 1984 as implementation guides.

    .

  12. 12.

    JenJen

    Hold up now… in January, weren’t the wingnuts saying that corporations were going to flee Illinois because the new governor raised the corporate tax rate? Whatever happened to that?

  13. 13.

    scav

    In Soviet Illinois, we build their restaurants as well to keep teams here. No rent, no share in profit. White Sox restaurant, Bacardi at the Park, is paid for with millions of public funding without return on investment

    tidbit.

    The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority agreed with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf that the agency should not share in any restaurant profits.
    __
    “We said to Jerry, ‘Jerry can we have part of the profits?’ and he said no,” former Gov. Jim Thompson, who was the agency’s board chairman when the deal was made, said in an interview. “We said, OK.’

    But seriously, read the whole thing. Having the restaurant inside the stadium actually depresses the opportunities for businesses immediately outside. And there’s a store with a similar deal [ETA in certain details].

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    @JenJen:

    Hold up now… in January, weren’t the wingnuts saying that corporations were going to flee Illinois because the new governor raised the corporate tax rate? Whatever happened to that?

    Kentucky or Alabama or some other southern state probably offered to not only let employers keep the employee income taxes, but offered to raise the sales tax to 10% and redistribute it use it to protect jobs with monetary incentives to local corporations.

    .

  15. 15.

    Blogreeder

    So who’s the bad guy here? The companies for taking a hand out or the state for devising this? I’m thinking Illinois but I’m probably in the minority.

  16. 16.

    scav

    @Blogreeder: oh you sweet child of simplistic binary thought. they’re more or less the same people working together to produce the system they feed off.

  20. 20.

    burnspbesq

    Fuck David Cay Johnston. He’s a Taibbi wannabe, but without the rhetorical skills. I’ve read both of his books, and they should be in the fiction section of your local public library.

    There is actually a completely rational argument in favor of this process. Once you take the insane step of giving an employer a tax incentive equal to the income tax withheld on its employees’ wages, why collect the money and immediately rebate it? The cost of doing that is a dead-weight loss.

    As long as the employees get to claim a credit for the withheld taxes when they file their returns, they should be indifferent as to where the money goes.

  22. 22.

    Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy)

    @burnspbesq:

    As long as the employees get to claim a credit for the withheld taxes when they file their returns, they should be indifferent as to where the money goes.

    I’ve pretty well enjoyed and liked your posts up until now, even when I’ve disagreed with you, but after this one I think you may have lost me for good. (And I’m sure you’ll weep and gnash your teeth over that loss.)

    Take off your “Esq” hat and work through this like a normal person and perhaps you’ll feel differently.

    This shit is fucked up. And if it’s not fucked up, explain how it’s not. If you believe this particular redistribution of wealth upward is equitable, briefly lay out a more efficient (and less unseemly-looking) method for doing so in a way that’s remotely just.

  23. 23.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @JenJen:

    It sounds like they found a solution; have the employees pay for it.

    So now Illinois state government are enforcers for their Mafia leaders (aka business), extracting payments from workers and handing them over to the employers.

    I would call this a cut in wages. Outright theft comes to mind too.

    @Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy):

    Mr. Esq is the defender of the indefensible.

  24. 24.

    burnspbesq

    @Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy):

    Apparently you were in such a hurry to slag me that you missed the word “insane” in my original post. Let me try again.

    There is no conceivable policy justification for giving an employer an incentive equal to the income tax withheld on its employees’ wages.

    My point (my ONLY point) had to do with administrative efficiency. Nothing else. Anything else that you took away from my comment was a Fig Newton of your imagination.

    Yes, I get that the optics are horrible. Explain to me why bad optics are the only thing that matters.

    Reading comprehension seems to be in short supply on this blog.

    @ Odie:

    You too, asshole.

  25. 25.

    burnspbesq

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    I would call this a cut in wages.

    I would call your comment the dumbest thing I’ve read all day. Do I really need to explain the concept of tax withholding to you?

  26. 26.

    Sloegin

    Take a man’s taxes to the state and hand them over to an employer, you pretty much take away his reason to be a citizen.

    He’s no longer a participant with skin in the game. The whole representative democracy game withers away, he’s got no reason to vote and express his opinion about how his taxes are spent, what services the state should or shouldn’t provide. Why should he bother? His taxes go straight to his employer.

  28. 28.

    scav

    @Blogreeder: well, if by “you guys” you mean people living in Illinois and unable to find politicians to willingly vote for, yup. You cover object permanence yet in your education? Figure out that changing hats doesn’t mean they’re different people? Why do I waste my time. . .

  29. 29.

    DavidCayJohnston

    @burnspbesq, who cowers behind a nom d’Internet instead of taking responsibility for his words, if you find any errors in my award-winning and best-selling books — which are widely used as college texts — please point it out to me for future print runs. You will find my email address at my eponymous webpage.

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