Taking the Plunge

After months of procrastination, it's time to enter the tax blogosphere.

Does the web need another blog discussing taxes, politics and economics?

Maybe not. Most of us are suffering from information overload. Many of us have to make a conscious effort to unplug, relax, and avoid the Three Ps (pundits, politicians, and partisan rhetoric). All of us have better things to do, when push comes to shove.

For me, however, now is the time to take the plunge and launch Tax Didactic. If you have stumbled across my blog, I hope you learn something new or take a look at something old from a new perspective.

What gave Tax Didactic a jump start?

I've long been frustrated by bloggers, regurgitators and pundits ("BLURPs") who manipulate facts to drive an underlying political agenda. Each of us brings a subjective viewpoint to a given set of facts. No analysis is completely unbiased.

However, many of the BLURPs cross the line. I encounter far too much "analysis" that contains a "splash" of facts and a heavy "pour" of political opinion. The brazenly political BLURPs seem to become intoxicated by their own published detritus. On the right and the left, political BLURPs consult the same playbook. They mistake correlation for causation. They mutate facts to suit their political agendas. They pull quotes out of context. They have been enlightened with an economic Theory of Everything.

(On the left, the TOE begins in the 1980s. A lefty BLURP can trace all problems in America back to Reagan. Check out an interview with Richard Trumka, or an article by David Cay Johnston. On the right, the TOE dates back to the New Deal. That's vague and unsatisfying, but Obama needs a few years to ripen.)

Enough is enough. I'm jumping into the fray as a politically independent tax professional. I don't have all the answers, but I can discuss evolving issues without the bias of a political BLURP.

(Plus, my wife can only handle so many of my vents about tax policy.)