If a nutty tax-protestor tries to tell you that the tax codes are not enforceable by the federal courts, just point them to the sorry tale of Wesley Snipes. What a moron.

Barack Obama talks about the economy and taxes with Maria Bartiromo. His proposals make sense. Some taxes will go back to the rates during the Clinton years, while many middle class Americans will get a tax cut. When asked about some of the tax increases, Obama has a great response:

Why raise taxes in a slowdown? Isn’t that going to put a further strain on people?

There’s no doubt that anything I do is going to be premised on what the economic situation is when I take office next January. The thing you can be assured of is that I’m not going to make these decisions based on ideology. I’m not a dogmatist. My opponents to the right would like to paint me as this wild-eyed liberal, but I believe in the market. I believe in entrepreneurship. I believe in capitalism, and I want to do what works. One of the problems with the Bush Administration has been its rigidness when it comes to economic policy. It doesn’t matter what the problem is, they’ll say tax cuts. Trade deficit? Tax cuts. Slowdown in manufacturing? Tax cuts. At a certain point, if you’ve only got one arrow in the quiver, you’re going to have problems.

With his surge in the polls, Mike Huckabee is scaring the hell out of economic conservatives and foreign policy conservatives. James Taranto isn’t impressed with Huckabee’s Fair Tax proposal.

The Democrats will be working on serious reforms of the tax code, including a sensible compromise on the Estate Tax.

The GOP has tried for years to repeal the Estate Tax, and Democrats have naturally resisted. Finally, the GOP leadership has decided to move forward with a very fair compromise.

Under the House’s compromise, which probably will come to a vote tomorrow, estates worth as much as $5 million — $10 million for couples — would be exempt from taxation indefinitely.

The tax rate on estates worth more than the exemption level up to $25 million would be set at the same tax rates that apply to capital gains — now 15 percent but scheduled to rise to 20 percent in 2011. The rate for estates worth more than $25 million would be twice the capital gains rate. The bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the estate tax cut would cost the government $279 billion over 10 years.

Democrats should support this compromise. The current Estate Tax rates are too high, thus forcing many business owners to spend way too much time and moneytrying to avoid the tax. The new rates are fair, so let’s get it done.