Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Sunday Reading

Victor Davis Hanson How Could We Be So Stupid? Let Us Count the Ways:
Why, when we owe $12 trillion, would the Obama administration set out budgets that will ensure our collective debt climbs to $20 trillion? Why are we borrowing more money, when Medicare, Social Security, the Postal Service, Amtrak, etc. are all insolvent as it is?

What is the logic behind something so clearly unhinged?

I present seven alternative reasons — some overlapping — why the present government is hell-bent on doubling the national debt in eight years. Either one, or all, or some, or none, of the below explain Obama’s peculiar frenzied spending.
I add that when you elect to office people who do not understand economics, you get programs that reflect their level of understanding. And, that when their operating premise is that everything you earn and own really belongs to the state, they are being kind to let you "keep" any of it while they redistribute the remainder to make up for alleged unfairness in the the system which you and your family exploited to the detriment of others. At least in the future we will all be poor together, fed, housed and cared for by the loving state.

A salute to the government pen at The Skeptical Bureaucrat.

George Will on the VAT and abandoning the income tax here. He needs to take a look at the "Fair Tax" which takes his point and still provides for those with less income - fairly - see here:
The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.

The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.

The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.

The FairTax:

* Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
* Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
* Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
* Allows American products to compete fairly
* Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
* Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
* Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
* Abolishes the IRS
Oh, yes, it also reduces government control over doling out perks to meet social agendas (see the first item above by Hanson).

UPDATE: Global warming may cause more volcanic action (see here) which may cause a slow down in global warming (see here).

Whatever.

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