ECONOMY

The gross national debt has surpassed $22 trillion for the first time in the U.S. history, according to Treasury data released on Tuesday. “This milestone is another sad reminder of the inexcusable tab our nation’s leaders continue to run up and will leave for the next generation,” said Judd Gregg and Edward Rendell, Co-Chairs of the debt watchdog group Campaign to Fix the Debt. Deficits have soared under President Trump, spurned on by the GOP tax law, bipartisan spending increases, and the forward momentum of mandatory spending programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Tuesday’s estimate put the total outstanding public debt at $22.013 trillion, The Congressional Budget Office projected that annual deficits would surpass $1 trillion a year starting in 2020 assuming current s...

In addition to getting more money from their recent price hike, Netflix is also reaping a windfall thanks to President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found that Netflix got away with paying $0 in federal and state taxes in 2018 despite posting $845 million in profits. In fact, the online TV and movie streaming service got a $22 million federal tax rebate thanks to the multiple legal loopholes in the U.S. tax code that benefit multinational corporations. Netflix argued that it paid $131 million in 2018 taxes, though ITEP clarified that those taxes were paid abroad, not in the U.S., where the company is headquartered. While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law at the end of 2017, the law didn’t go into effec...

Boy, money in politics sure is bad. Our latest example comes from Sheldon Adelson, extremely rich human, virulent pro-Israel activist, and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (read: casino mogul). At last check, Forbes had him as the 19th-richest man in the world. Because he loves tax breaks and Israel, Adelson is a natural fit for the Republican party, and he spends and spends and spends. Like many true believers, he’s also terrified of a Democratic takeover in the midterm elections. Because of that, he just cut a $30 million check to Paul Ryan and the House GOP in a last-ditch attempt to stem the momentum of the blue wave. Ryan even paid him an in-person visit to kiss the ring and beg his case: The long-sought donation was sealed last week when, according to two senior Republicans...