After shutdown, government moves back to business - SFGate
Barriers came down at federal memorials and National Park Service sites and thousands of furloughed federal workers — relieved but wary — returned to work across the country Thursday after 16 days off the job due to the partial government shutdown.
For Republicans, It Is Still All About Medicare - The Huffington Post
The shutdown and threat of default had been planned well in advance. "I don't care what the price is," the Republican Speaker had declared two months before government offices closed all over the country. "I don't care if we have no executive offices and no bonds for 30 days." Six months before that, he had also telegraphed the House Republican Majority's coming brinkmanship strategy. "The President will veto a number of things and we'll then put them all on the debt ceiling and then he'll decide how big a crisis he wants." The year was 1995. The Speaker, Newt Gingrich.
Washington State’s Pot Industry Gets High Taxes With Newly Approved Rules - Consumerist
After almost a year of researching marijuana and how to go about selling it legally, Washington state adopted rules yesterday for the recreational sale of pot, and everyone is watching. Well, everyone who’s interested in how to go about doing something similar in their home state or country.
Budget deal opens door to tax, entitlement changes- NBC News
The deal struck Wednesday in Washington could make it easier for lawmakers to make big changes to tax policy, spending and entitlement programs.
A Tale of Tax Returns and Tax Scams- Scientific American
When I was in college, my friend and I attended a tax seminar in which we were told that paying taxes was unnecessary because the Sixteenth Amendment—empowering Congress to levy an income tax—was never legally ratified. After a long and detailed history of the irs, we were advised not to file a tax return and given instructions on what to do and say when the feds come a-knockin'. The slick presentation seemed internally coherent and logically plausible in the room, but later, after some reflection, I figured it couldn't possibly be true because no one would pay taxes if it were. In contrast, my friend went for it and got away tax-free for years, until the irs caught up with him and he got his comeuppance.