Brandon Novick

1 week ago | cepr.net | Data Bytes |Dean Baker |Eileen Appelbaum |Brandon Novick

Elon Musk and his “super-high IQ” DOGE team have apparently put the IRS’s Direct File program in their gunsights. Direct File is a free and simplified program that would allow the vast majority of taxpayers to quickly do their taxes without paying fees to a tax preparation service. The program saves taxpayers time and money, as well as much anxiety.

1 month ago | cepr.net | Data Bytes |Dean Baker |Brandon Novick |Matt Sedlar

That seems like a good question to pose about the person who is leading up the “Department” of Government Efficiency (DOGE). After all, it would be reasonable to expect that a government agency committed to increasing efficiency in government would go about its work in an efficient manner. It would be pretty hard to make that case about DOGE.

1 month ago | cepr.net | Data Bytes |Dean Baker |Jordan Billings |Brandon Novick

Donald Trump seems pretty clear that he will go through with his huge tax hikes (tariffs) on April 2. We don’t know for sure what his cute tax package will be, but if it’s anything like what he’s promised: 25 percent taxes on imports from Mexico and Canada, 20 percent taxes on imports from China, and 25 percent taxes on imported aluminum, steel, and copper, and possibly perhaps some surprise taxes on imports from the European Union and Japan, we are talking $200 billion to $400 billion a year.

1 month ago | cepr.net | Data Bytes |Dean Baker |Brandon Novick |Emma Curchin

Elon Musk has been having a good time the last month and a half going cracking down on funding for life-saving drugs for people suffering from AIDS and blocking shipments of food to starving kids in Africa. He also thinks he’s really tough because he can fire park rangers getting $40,000 a year. But for some reason, Elon’s chainsaw doesn’t seem to work very well when it might affect the money going to rich people.