That’s the title of an article that I have co-authored with the Cato Institute’s Trevor Burrus, in a symposium issue of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. The symposium is “Law in an Age of Austerity,” and includes contributions from Charles Cooper (Treasury Dept.’s authority to index capital gains for inflation), John Eastman (state […]
Archive | Proposed Legislation
Congress
By William Baude, guest-blogging on December 16, 2011 11:19 pm in Beyond DOMA, DOMA, Federalism, Proposed Legislation, Same-Sex Marriage
Amidst all of my many posts about what federal courts should do if DOMA is struck down, I thought I should say a little bit about Congress. First — and this may be obvious to some readers but perhaps not to all — Congress could of course fix the choice of law problem by providing […]
Don’t Bank on Legal Challenge to Bank Tax
By Jonathan H. Adler on January 19, 2010 12:56 am in Economic LIberties, Proposed Legislation, Taxes
Monday’s NYT reported the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is investigating potential constitutional challenges to the President’s proposed $90-billion bank tax. It’s apparently not enough to argue that the President’s various economic and regulatory initiatives are bad policy — as this proposal is — it must also be unconstitutional. Based on the article, SIFMA […]
The Tanning Salon Excise Tax
In case you didn’t get a chance to read the Manager’s Amendment to the Senate bill yourself, all the way to the end, the way that your senators surely will, here’s one item of possible interest: (b) EXCISE TAX ON INDOOR TANNING SERVICES.— Subtitle D of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by this […]
Market Discipline? What Market Discipline?
By Kenneth Anderson on October 26, 2009 3:57 pm in Economy, Finance, Financial Crisis, Proposed Legislation, Regulation
The New York Times reports that Congress and the administration might soon reach some kind of view on legislation for addressing “too big to fail” institutions. Off the table is Paul Volker’s proposal to re-establish some line between commercial banking and proprietary trading – some updated Glass-Steagall demarcation. On the table is the Treasury’s proposal […]
Scoring a Bill that Does Not Exist
The papers are filled with stories (like this one) about the Congressional Budget Office’s conclusion that the Baucus health care reform bill will cost some $829 billion but not increase the federal deficit over the next ten years due to a combination of taxes, fees, and medicare cuts. Only there’s a catch. As the CBO […]
“Cyberbullying Bill Gets Chilly Reception”
Some folks say that Congress will do anything that resonates with the public, and that Congress doesn’t care about the Constitution — especially if the Constitution gets in the way of “protecting the children.” If you think that, you should read this report about Wednesday’s House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the proposed Megan Meier Cyberbullying […]