David Cay Johnston Impressed with Obama’s Wily Plan, Will Stand Up to Those Bullying Social Security

DCJ is putting the rubes (read: Republicans) on notice that A) Obama is one crafty SOB and B) if Rick Perry wants to throw around “Ponzi scheme” then two can play at that game.

Obama has also set a clever trap for anti-tax Republicans. Obama’s American Jobs Act would lower Social Security taxes for all workers and for all businesses in 2012. Republicans who vote against the bill would be voting against a tax cut. They would also be voting against a huge business tax break, letting business immediately write off all capital investments made in 2012. […] The latest assault on Social Security comes from Governor Rick Perry of Texas, a Republican presidential hopeful who insists that social insurance for widows, orphans, the disabled and the old is a Ponzi scheme. If Social Security is a Ponzi scheme then so are public education, businesses and the state government that has for decades employed Rick Perry.

Father Christmas seems a little surprised that the GOP would find a tax cut they didn’t like but as we know, many don’t find the Social Security tax cut to be their cup of tea because of its lack of eternal life.

More for the rich [DCJ/Reuters via TaxProf]

Investors in Allen Stanford’s (Alleged) Ponzi Scheme Sue BDO

Nearly two years after Texas financier Allen Stanford was indicted in an alleged massive Ponzi scheme, investors have just filed a $10 billion proposed class action suit against his auditor—the giant accounting firm BDO.

The suit—filed Thursday in federal court in Dallas—says BDO did not only aid and abet the $7 billion dollar fraud…it was a “co-conspirator.” “BDO’s cozy relationship with the Stanford Financial Group was steeped in conflicts of interest and required ongoing deceptive and duplicitous manipulation of the facts to allow the Ponzi scheme’s exponential growth for over a decade,” the complaint says. “The result of this deception is the loss of thousands of investors’ life savings.” [CNBC]