The Political Page, T+54 -- March 15, 2017

Trump's taxes:

• Rachel  owned!
• Trump's rate: 25%; pays $38 million on $150 million income
• MSNBC Comcast: 24%
• Obama's rate: 19%
• Bernie's rate: 13% -- he should be embarrassed; but absolutely no shame; sad, sad, sad
• Hillary, biggest grifter of all: Trump didn't pay federal taxes
• nine MSNBC talking heads had liens placed against them for failing to pay taxes

The tax filing released was from 2005.

If one assumes the filing was leaked, one might be able to assume the one who leaked the filing also had access to Trump's filings from other years.

This tax filing was from 12 years ago.  If above assumptions are correct, one can also assume this was the worst example the "leaker" could find regarding Trump's tax filings.

Wow.

I wonder what Rachel pays as a percent of her income?

What about Warren Buffett?

Buffett said he pays about 16 percent in income taxes, while any employee making between $100,000 and $200,000 typically pays about 20 percent in taxes. We rate this claim True. Says Warren Buffett has publicly said his secretary "should not be paying a higher tax rate" than him (sic). -- Oct 18, 2016

The CBS take? Multi-billionaire Donald Trump pays a rate lower than ordinary Americans. And yet, Donald Trump pays a higher rate than Warren Buffett. And, Donald Trump pays a rate almost twice what Bernie Sanders pays.

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On The Road Again

And not a fund-raising trip to California. How refreshing. To Detroit and to Tennessee.

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The President Is Getting His Mojo Back

After a week of of healthcare obsession when it seemed that nothing else got done, it appears President Trump is finally getting his mojo back.

Earlier this week he said he would drop "climate change" from environmental reviews. Today it's being reported he will pull back EPA's fuel efficiency determination, "opening the door for reduced standards."

This is the lede:

A senior White House official confirmed Tuesday that President Trump will reexamine fuel efficiency standards set in place during the Obama administration, opening the door for the regulations to potentially be reduced in the coming years.

If I read that correctly, not only does the incredibly incredible, ridiculous standards Obama tried to impose on the auto industry days before he left office, it appears that -- again, if I'm reading that correctly -- things could be "pulled back" even more significantly. I'm probably misreading that. That's fine.

By the way, this puts the CAFE review back on the original schedule. Obama tried to unilaterally fast-track it through an executive order. Trump will put it back through the bureaucratic committee process, guaranteeing that new standards will be slowed down, if not gutted completely.

The Environmental Protection Agency ignored “a voluminous record of data” when it determined earlier this year that the regulations were appropriate, and the agency plans to formally rescind that decision on Wednesday, the official said. The EPA will then restart a review of the fuel efficiency rules that is expected to be complete in 2018.

On top of all this, Trump has directed that EPA lose a significant amount of funding going forward. 

By the way, everyone knew Obama's new standard was a joke. The new standard was not 50 mpg or 60 mpg or 45 mpg but 54.5 mpg. The "point-five" was clearly an inside joke.