As usual, I’m watching August wind down with a certain amount of relief. It always makes my job easier when Congress is in Washington doing things for me to write about. There’s a pretty good chance that my newsletters will go on break next week for the Labor Day holiday; there’s an equally good chance that I will have a podcast special for you next week, an interview with somebody interesting.

Naturally, I’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, we have the federal budget version of three-card Monty going on with funding for the brand spanking new Rural Microenterprise Development program, part of Title VI of the Farm Bill. Mandatory funding be damned, says the White House. So what if I signed the bill, says President Bush.

Yeah, whatever.

We also have another case of Congress chasing microbusinesses (nonemployers, to be exact) for money to close the tax gap, while completely ignoring a different set of tax evaders who (per evidence reported by the GAO) are much more willful and chronic about it. Plus our final August Microbusiness Profile and, as always, this week’s Policy Matters column.

For more information:

White House Office of Management and Budget
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Report: Payroll Taxes: Billions in Delinquent Taxes and Penalties Due But Unlikely to be Collected (PDF)