The San Diego Union Tribune

The Speech | The San Diego Union Tribune

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:07:00 -0500

“I can't remember more anticipation of a speech in my lifetime than this one,” said historian Ted Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown ...

Governor's Legacy Still Open Question | San Diego Union Tribune

Communications — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:08:00 -0500

Joe Mathews, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation who wrote a book about Schwarzenegger's 2003 campaign, envisions the governor becoming “climate ...

Committee on a Responsible Federal Budget in the San Diego Union Tribune | 'Candidates' Economic Plans Front and Center'

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:02:00 -0400

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that Obama's spending plans would entail a four-year cost of $990 billion, to be offset by a like amount of spending cuts. While traveling the campaign trail, the Illinois senator's promises include increased annual outlays of $18 billion on education, $15 billion to develop cleaner energy sources and $6 billion to replace or rebuild bridges and dams. LINK

Parag Khanna in The San Diego Union Tribune | 'Foreign Oil Producers Have U.S. Over Barrel '

Communications — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:36:00 -0400

“The oil centers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain have been investing in economic growth in places without much oil, such as Egypt, Morocco and Jordan,” said Parag Khanna, director of the Global Governance Initiative at the New America Foundation. LINK

California's Tax Loopholes That Aren't

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:25:00 -0400

The package of six tax increases that passed in the Budget Conference Committee this week includes two described as loophole closers. Who can argue against closing a loophole? Unfortunately, the two provisions proposed to be changed aren't loopholes.

A loophole is the ability to use a rule in an unintended way. It may be due to poor wording or an incomplete definition in the law. For example, assume a state has a lower property tax rate for agricultural land to help farmers. However, the definition of agricultural land is so broad that the owner of a residence on 10 acres just needs to plant 20 fruit trees to qualify for the tax break. That's a loophole because a flaw in the law enables the rule to be used in unintended ways.

The two “loopholes” proposed to be corrected in the Budget Committee proposal are the net operating loss carryover for corporations and the $294 dependent credit for individuals. Neither are loopholes because each is being correctly used as intended.

A business has a net operating loss (usually called “NOL”) in any tax year in which its deductible expenses are greater than its revenue. A business may have a NOL due to a bad year, a business cycle that is longer than a tax year, or it could be a sign that the business is failing. It is not unusual for an income tax law to provide some relief by allowing the business owner to use the NOL against positive taxable income in prior or future years.

Does an income tax law have to allow for a NOL to be used to reduce income in a good year? No. Typically the rule is provided for equitable reasons because tax laws require annual tax returns. If tax returns were instead filed every two years, some businesses would not have a NOL.

The NOL carryover rules in California are being used as intended. Thus, changing the rule to suspend the use of NOLs for three years is not closing a loophole.

The other “loophole” closer is to reduce the $294 dependent credit for individuals with adjusted gross income above $150,000. The dependent credit is greater than the personal credit of $94. It was raised a few years back to provide a greater benefit to families. The Budget Committee hasn't stated that high-income individuals have found a way to claim the credit without actually having a dependent. Thus, it is not closing a loophole, it is just cutting back on this tax break.

So, why might the loophole language have been used?

Arguably, if you're going to get rid of a tax break, calling it a loophole should make it easier. But this approach distracts from the real changes that are needed to our tax system. There are many special deductions, credits and exclusions in our income tax law. Some of these serve an important purpose such as measuring ability to pay or encouraging charitable contributions. But some have outlived their usefulness, are overly generous or are poorly targeted such that they benefit taxpayers who don't need assistance.

Periodic review of these tax provisions would be useful in improving our tax system and state budget. Such a review would uncover tax breaks that could appropriately be cut back. It might even uncover some true loopholes.

Automatic Americans

Ron Tang — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:42:00 -0400

Ending birthright citizenship is a placebo, not a solution to illegal immigration.

The debate over immigration is fundamentally about who we are as a nation,who we are not, and who we want to be.

It is thus no surprise that those most afraid of who we are becoming have moved to redraw the rules of inclusion by proposing to do away with birthright citizenship. Such a move is not only legally dubious, it is a threat to American prosperity.

Immigrants and What's Good for Society

adminn — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:10:00 -0500

There's a rule that politicians are reminded of: “do no harm.” In recent months, politicians have implicitly amended the rule to say “do no harm -- unless immigration is involved.” The rancor sparked by a failed New York plan to permit illegal immigrants access to driver's licenses and the fallen federal and state versions of the DREAM Act highlight a dangerous obsession with keeping illegal immigrants from accessing the supposed privileges of citizenship at any cost.

In today's debates, considerations of public goods are too easily cast aside in an effort to draw bright lines around citizenship. A better way of thinking about what immigrants ought to be allowed to access is to sever presumed connections of certain rights and privileges to citizenship, and instead regard them as something beneficial to the common good.

The obsession with protecting these rights and privileges is in some way understandable. Immigration, and illegal immigration in particular, challenges our understanding of which rights belong uniquely to citizens and which can be shared by all, even illegal immigrants. But as these protectors tighten their grip, what oozes between their fingers poisons the potential good that arises when access to certain privileges is broadened.

Take the driver's licenses issue. Ask any driver's education instructor, and they'll tell you that the most important principle of driving is that it is a privilege that should be exercised with respect. This respect has nothing to do with the rights of citizens, and everything to do with public safety.

This lesson should be taken to heart when it comes to deciding whether illegal immigrants ought to be allowed to have a driver's license. Allowing them this “privilege” would require them to enroll in courses that emphasize the responsibilities of being a good driver, and to take written and field exams that would certify them as qualified to operate a car. Furthermore, licensed drivers must carry insurance, which limits financial losses for everyone when people forget the all-important lessons of road safety.

A swarm of opposition short-circuited New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's proposal to allow illegal immigrants in his state to have a driver's license, a fate that befell a similar bill in California. As a result, thousands of untrained, unlicensed and uninsured illegal immigrants will continue to drive to work, take their kids to school and head to the shopping center. This can only make roads less safe, drive up insurance premiums and diminish America's standing as a world leader in traffic safety. When the average American spends 87 minutes of each day in a car, this is no small matter -- all this in the name of preserving legal residency as the prerequisite to the right to hold a driver's license.

The poisonous obsession with cutting off illegal immigrants from accessing any perceived benefits of citizenship has gone beyond the driver's license issue. Consider the demise of federal and state versions of the DREAM Act. The federal bill would have provided a chance at legal residency, conditional upon high school graduation or military service, for more than a million illegal immigrants whose presence in the United States was a result of decisions made by their parents.

A California version, vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, proposed giving undocumented college students access to state financial aide. Heart-rending stories about some of the best and brightest students cut off from fulfilling their potential in a nation they have adopted as their home couldn't overcome a staunch opposition that leaned on the seemingly iron-clad principle of the rule of law: Lawbreakers shouldn't be rewarded with an amnesty or taxpayer-funded financial aid.

But this reasoning fails to see the forest of common good for the trees of protecting citizens' privilege. As things stand, the would-be beneficiaries of the DREAM Act face limited opportunities to contribute to an economy that could desperately use their help. According to the 2007 Current Population Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average college graduate can expect to earn $66,828 annually, while high school graduates pull in $27,384. The governor's veto in California drives more undocumented students into the latter category instead of the former since the high cost of college is a major obstacle to obtaining higher education for undocumented students.

These figures, of course, assume that these people can be legally hired. They can't be. They are forced to take jobs that pay them off the books, to do volunteer work or not to work at all, making it difficult for them to contribute tax dollars to revenue-starved public coffers. With dim chances to fully participate in the formal economy, the estimated 65,000 undocumented students who graduate from American high schools each year grow up in a nation in which their economic maturity is stunted and their ability to contribute to the common good is lost.

The driver's licenses issue and the DREAM Act offer an important lesson on how to think about the potential effect of policy measures that address immigration. It is certainly reasonable for the members of a nation to decide which rights and responsibilities belong solely to its citizens, and which can be shared by anyone within its borders. But it is dangerous when the zeal to lay exclusive claim to rights and privileges blinds Americans to what is good for the whole.

Doing so sacrifices the common good of the nation at the altar of individual citizens' benefits. Going forward, we would be well to remember that what may seem like a victory for the preservation of a distinctly American way of life may ultimately be doing harm to it.

San Diego Union Tribune Quotes Stephen Burd on Preferred Lender List

Communications — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 14:54:00 -0400

Get rich with no risk. The classic business pitch is usually too good to be true – unless you're talking about the student loan business. Student loans, which banks and other lenders avoided in decades past, have become a creditor's dream...This month, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo disclosed that the financial aid directors of three universities had held stock in Student Loan Xpress. Earlier, five other universities agreed to pay a $3.2 million settlement after an investigation by Cuomo's office revealed that the institutions were receiving payments from lenders... And, as Cuomo's investigation revealed, some companies can gain an unfair advantage by cultivating relationships with financial aid officers at colleges and universities. When students seek the advice of a financial aid office, they are often led to a list of “preferred lenders” that financial aid offices have presumably determined to be the best deals in terms of cost and service... At many colleges, 99 percent of loans go to the first company on the preferred list, according to Stephan Burd, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based New America Foundation who has reported on the industry for 15 years...

For the… more

San Diego Union Tribune Cites New America Health Report

Communications — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:17:00 -0500

Gov. Schwarzenegger has successfully called attention to California's ongoing health care crisis by proposing a comprehensive plan that calls for shared responsibility in finding a solution to our state's broken health care system.And make no mistake, it is a broken system. Hospitals and physicians have been living with the effects of this crisis for some time now demonstrated by hospital closures and relocation of providers. For example, in the past decade, more than 65 emergency rooms and more than 70 acute-care hospitals have closed statewide. San Diego County has lost seven hospitals since 1996.The hidden tax the governor refers to as a result of cost-shifting is real as are the effects of consistent and growing unfunded mandates. As the governor accurately indicates in his plan, care for the uninsured and underinsured comes at a price to all of us. When medical bills go unpaid, hospitals must shift the costs onto those who can -- those with health insurance. This hidden tax -- in the form of higher-priced premiums, deductibles and co-pays -- costs each insured Californian $455 a year, according to a study released in December by the New America Foundation...

For the complete article, please visit… more

Phillip Longman on Implications of Mexico's Birth Rate in San Diego Union Tribune

Communications — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:19:00 -0500

MEXICO CITY – Mexicans living abroad sent home a record $23 billion last year, raising new questions about whether the government of President Felipe Calderón can afford to slow migration.

In just one year, the amount of money migrants wired their families jumped 15 percent, according to Mexico's central bank, overtaking tourism to become the nation's second-biggest source of foreign income after oil. “This is a river of gold that flows into Latin America and Mexico. Daily. Weekly. Monthly. It never stops,” said Sergio Bendixen, president of Bendixen & Associates, a public opinion research firm in Coral Gables, Fla., that surveyed Mexicans on both sides of the border for the Inter-American Development Bank. Bendixen's study highlights a basic fact about immigration: Mexicans who migrate to the United States are key to the economies of both countries... As Mexican government and business leaders contemplate ways to deal with migrants' increasing economic power, the United States may face an entirely different immigration challenge in the next few decades: a decreasing supply of unskilled labor from Mexico. “The rate of growth in Mexico's population is headed downward” at an unprecedented rate, said Phillip… more