Bob Lord

Bob has mostly wound down his 39-year career as a tax and business lawyer (with a 1-year interruption to run for Congress in 2008 (CD3), when he tried to unseat John Shadegg. Bob now serves as the senior advisor on tax policy for the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who believe the light taxation of America's rich is destabilizing our democracy, and as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Bob has been writing for Blog For Arizona since late 2011, concentrating mostly on federal issues, with an occasional foray into Arizona state politics.

A Prefatory Open Letter To Chad Campbell

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Posted by Bob Lord Chad, I don't know you as well as Tom does, but please listen anyhow. In deciding whether or not to run, look first to the goals you are passionate about. If you can't identify those goals readily, you don't have the passion to run, so forget it. But if you can, … Read more

Joe Scarborough is an Idiot

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Posted by Bob Lord

And an intellectually dishonest one at that. 

Every time I hear Joe Scarborough speak about taxes, it amazes how a guy who served in Congress could be so fundamentally ill informed, so willfully ignorant of how the laws he repeatedly voted on actually work. 

Today, Joe fumed about Obama's tax return, which revealed that Obama's effective tax rate was 18% on income of about $609,000. That was "mind-boggling hypocrisy" according to Morning Joe. 

"This President plays class warfare for a year and a half on the campaign trail. Let's keep this graphic up. He attacks Mitt Romney for paying a lower tax rate than school teachers, repeatedly. Democrats repeatedly attacked Mitt Romney for paying a lower tax rate than teachers, than Warren Buffet's (secretary) — poor Warren Buffet's secretary, God help her, God bless her. And yet this President, after demagoguing this issue for a year and a half, pays an 18 percent tax rate, which, by the way, is half of the tax rate that I pay."

My New (Second) Home

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Posted by Bob Lord A bit of self-promotion. I'll be changing my blogging pattern a bit, but only slightly. I'll still be ranting here at about the same frequency, but it looks like I'll also be posting some of my tax and inequality related pieces at inequality.org, for which I really feel honored. It's the … Read more

A Sure Indicator of Dem Gutlessness

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Posted by Bob Lord

Want to spot a Dem who won't stand up for progressive principles when it counts? This may sound counterintuitive, but watch for strong, loud, attention-grabbing progressive declarations on marriage equality and abortion rights. They're dead giveaways.