I'd have to argue that point .... If you know how to use a calculator to do basic math you can do your own taxes. Its simple addition / subtraction and following the prompts. Your employer gives you a 1099 so you know what you made and what was withheld. All three of my kids do their own .... one of them with normal income & securities trades (stocks) , the other two just their basic income, both still in highshool. Our taxes (my wife & I) are more complicated than most and we do them ourselves. Regular income from jobs , rental properties and securities investments. The biggest complication is securities and that's even simplified when your trade platform gives you a 1099 to attach to your tax documents. There are situations where a tax attorney is needed but that's far from the norm. Especially not for people who are working a 9-5. Self employed or something like an LLC sure .... you might need tax help.
Question in regards to polling: How many people have you talked to that have said “yes I voted for Biden, but man… because those gas prices and Afghanistan I think voting for Trump this next time is a good idea.” I guess there are a few but overall I don’t see at the ground level a voter base shift at all from 2018 and 2020. Of course the ground shifting very slightly makes a difference but I don’t think Biden is just suddenly a clear loser in 2024. You Trump back on the ballot and I don’t see how the end result will be much different at all. Biden might even do better given Jan 6 and the fact that even Federal Judges are finding and saying publicly that the dude is a criminal.
Yes certainly if you can file a 1040-EZ that isn't that complicated. If you're a small business owner with a lot of expenses you can't do that. Speaking as a small business owner I have no problem with paying taxes but there is a lot to comply with when dealing with things like determining what percentage of your assets are used for personal and what for business, like my car. Also even while you can fill out your taxes I'm guessing you still spend more time than you wish on that including getting all your documentation together, seeing if you are better off with the standard deduction or itemizing or etc. Much of that time, effort and money on tax attorneys could be saved if we had a far simpler and flatter tax code. It would both be a benefit to individual tax payers and likely lead to better and greater tax collection by the government.
I'm guessing that among other things Biden is paying attention to his polling numbers Biden announces massive strategic oil reserve release to curb gas prices The unprecedented release of 1 million barrels a day over the next six months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve aims to make up for the loss of Russian oil from global markets amid the Ukraine conflict https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...31/strategic-petroleum-reserve-release-biden/
Well sure. But using the strategic oil reserve now also seems pretty sensible apart from politics. Aren't situations like these precisely why we keep a strategic oil reserve?
if only you'd crawl out of ur cave, u'll notice that inflation is the highest in 40 years, w gasoline prices above $6 a gasoline in Calif, an all-time high by more than 40%
I put very little stock in polling for 2024 right now. Besides the vagaries of the methodology of the polls it's still a long time politically before 2024. Even on that while the Midterms are only a few months away a lot can change in those months.
WSJ today: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-stra...iden-gas-prices-11648762807?mod=hp_opin_pos_4 A Strategic Political Petroleum Release Biden tries everything to cut gas prices, except what would work. By The Editorial Board March 31, 2022 6:37 pm ET President Biden knows inflation and gasoline prices are killing Democrats in the polls, and he’s scrambling to show he’s doing something about it. Except he still won’t do what would really make a difference: Take his foot off the neck of the U.S. oil and gas industry. His latest gambit on Thursday was to say he’ll release 180 million barrels from the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the next six months. This would be the biggest release in history and reduce the reserve to its lowest level since 1984. But the oil will need to be replaced, which will push up future demand. This is one reason markets responded with a yawn. Crude prices fell a mere 4.9%. Markets don’t respond only to short-term demand and supply fluctuations. They also take into account long-term expectations and policy signals. And the Administration continues to signal that its goal is to bankrupt oil and gas producers. But before shooting them, Mr. Biden wants their political help. The White House underscored Thursday that it wants to “immediately increase supply” while accelerating the “clean energy” transition. The President also said he wants to make companies pay fees on wells from leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public land that “they are hoarding without producing.” But the law already requires companies to produce oil or gas on leases or return their leases to the government. Producers aren’t hoarding land. Many are waiting for government permits for pipelines and rights of way. Some can’t find equipment and workers. Yet the Administration vilifies U.S. producers as enemies of the state for making “extraordinary profits and without making additional investment to help with supply”—even as financial regulators tell banks not to lend for fossil fuels. Meantime, the Administration is seeking to ease sanctions on America’s enemies in Venezuela and Iran, though neither oil producer can compensate for reduced Russian oil exports in the short term. Easing sanctions would merely give their regimes more money to create problems for the U.S. and its allies. Mr. Biden’s rapprochement with Iran’s mullahs is further alienating the Saudis and United Arab Emirates, which are already upset by the Administration’s lack of support against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. White House press secretary Jen Psaki last month said the President stood by his view during the 2020 campaign that Saudi Arabia should be treated like a “pariah” state. Is it any surprise the Saudi Crown Prince won’t take Mr. Biden’s calls? If it’s any consolation to our Mideast allies, he treats U.S. oil and gas producers like pariahs too. If the President really wanted to reduce oil prices, he would give a speech announcing a complete halt to his Administration’s war on the U.S. industry. Prices might drop $20 per barrel. He could also strike a deal in Congress to remove regulatory obstacles to U.S. oil and gas production in return for more green-energy spending, as Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) has suggested. The 2015 deal between Paul Ryan and Barack Obama to lift the 40-year ban on oil exports in return for extending renewable-energy tax credits provides a template. But markets are reacting as if they simply don’t take Mr. Biden’s pleadings seriously. That’s a dominant theme across his Presidency, and Americans are paying the price. Appeared in the April 1, 2022, print edition.
A one day 4.9% drop in price in a commodity as large as oil is a significant drop in price. Also the Op-Ed itself notes that domestic oil producers are having a hard time getting labor and parts.
here's a highly critical view that says the strategic reserve move is a bad idea from a strategic perspective: https://www.cfact.org/2022/03/31/biden-irresponsibly-taps-strategic-petroleum-reserve/ excerpt: Biden irresponsibly taps Strategic Petroleum Reserve By Craig Rucker |March 31st, 2022|Energy|12 Comments President Biden announced that he will tap into America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and will consume one third of it in an attempt to control rising gas prices. This is as irresponsible as it is dangerous. Following the Arab oil embargo of the 1970’s, the SPR was built in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana. It can hold over 700 million barrels of oil. When the oil is needed, water is pumped into the reserve, pushing the oil up and out, and then distributed. The SPR is America’s insurance policy in case of emergencies such as war, disaster or famine. Occasionally presidents have authorized small releases of oil from the reserve to try and influence markets, but nothing like the million barrels a day Biden intends. With a shooting war in Europe, and China arming itself against Taiwan, we should not deplete the fuel our planes, ships and vehicles would need should war come. more at the link
According to my back of the napkin calculation, if you trade in trade in your 75k Ford F350 and get a 20k Nissan Leaf, the payback period would be instant.
The WSJ editorial board.... As someone with many ties to the O&G, the producers are the ones mostly holding themselves back. The infrastructure that caused record production didn't get up and walk away..... They have plenty of leases to drill and explore on. They have gone from ~9000 drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) at the start of the oil bust in 2019 to ~4000 in 2022. Supplies and equipment are in short supply, frac sand has nearly tripled and steel is still expensive. More than 100,000 workers were laid off in 2020 and many have went to new industries. Lastly, $300 billion in bankruptcies from "drill baby drill" have made investors (public and private equity) skittish and impose new capital controls. The recent US Shale boom nearly banrupted the industry and it's still clawing its way back. Biden certainly isn't a 'friend" of the industry but he's been more pragmatic than you and others seem to give him credit for. The recent EU natural gas deal will require more drilling and new pipelines which the administration has shown they are willingly to shift positions on. Biden is trying to get as much oil on the "transparent market" in the short term to replace Russia's massive contribution. It was easy to sanction Venezuela and Iran when there was a supply glut and it's not like we can't reverse course on sanctions in a year. China and India have been buying "black market oil" since we imposed sanctions.
Energy is very cyclical. Sucks for those folks who bought gas guzzlers, but personal responsibility.... .
