What A Tax Payer Wants

Rasmussen recently released the results of a recent poll regarding tax policy.  While I might quibble a bit with the question as to whether or not a simpler, yet still progressive tax structure is a good idea, I am willing to consider it.

Most folks I know do want a simpler tax code.  They don't want lots of deductions.  They want to pay their taxes and know what they will owe at the end of the year.

I know that I find the inability to accurately predict my tax debt to be terribly frustrating.  I don't necessarily want to get a huge refund at the end of each year.  Nor do I want to write Uncle Sam a big check.

A simpler, less intrusive system would be an improvement over the current system.

Do You Know Why I Pulled You Over, Son?

I love our Constitution.  I love our Constitutionally limited republic.  It is right and just that the government should be limited to a few defined roles and that government authority should not impinge on individual liberty.

Mickey Kaus has an entry about the legally specious arguments being made in favor of the so-called "individual mandate" portion of Obamacare.

Can the government compel you to buy broccoli?  Can it ban all means of disposal other than consumption in order to force you to consume broccoli?

Well, OK then! As long as we can just leave it rotting in the fridge.** … But it’s a little suspicious–and surely not a selling point–that under Elhauge’s argument the only limits on government would be the rights — like “bodily integrity” and privacy — that liberal  lawyers have dreamed up but not the limit — i.e. whether or not something is “interstate commerce” – the Founders dreamed up.

Just what are the Constitutional limits that modern leftists would obey?

One suspects that the answer is "none", as long as they agree with the law in the first place.  Such is the seed from which the vine which will choke liberty is grown.

As Seen On Instapundit

Who saw it first on Facebook:

“The social contract exists so that everyone doesn’t have to squat in the dust holding a spear to protect his woman and his meat all day every day. It does not exist so that the government can take your spear, your meat, and your woman because it knows better what to do with them.”

Indeed.

Turning The Economic Engine On

Finally, some light in the tunnel that doesn't come from a train.

The president's decision marks the first bright economic move he has made to boost the nation's ailing economy. Dropping tariffs, opening markets and equalizing investment terms are a proven way to boost economic growth.

...

The legislative process will begin next week, and both the White House and congressional leaders say the votes are there to pass it. But they always have been - the big change is the end of the president's hesitancy to submit them and Big Labor's campaign to block it.

Now if we could just get his administration to stop demonizing "the rich" and threatening to raise taxes while minimizing cuts to the federal budget.

Why Economic Freedom Matters

And yes...I did see who sponsored the video.  That does nothing to undermine the argument being made.

Presidential Positions On Government Interference

“The proposition that the government is always right is manifested either in corruption or benefits to ‘preferred’ companies,” he said.  “My choice is different. The… economy ought to be dominated by private businesses and private investors. The government must protect the choice and property of those who willingly risk their money and reputation.”
…
[He] said that the country must begin to attack the problem immediately to avoid “the point of no return from the (economic) models that are moving the country backwards.”
“Corruption, hostility to investment, excessive government role in the economy and the excessive centralization of power are the taxes on the future that we must and will scrap,” he said.

The only way this news could be better is if it were Mr. Obama speaking...instead of it being the President of Russia.

Government Is Force

Kevin Williamson has a nifty little essay on government as force.  It is sort of a redux of a P.J. O'Rourke idea about deciding which government programs get funded by putting a gun to grandma's head and asking "do we give away day care or do we kill Grandma?"  That is not a direct quote, but the intent is there.

The resort to violence is what makes the question of what kind of things it is legitimate for states to do an important moral concern. It seems to me perfectly reasonable to shove a gun in somebody’s face to stop him murdering, raping, or robbing. It seems to me entirely unreasonable to shove a gun in somebody’s face to extort from him money to fund a project to get monkeys high on cocaine. Those seem to me fairly reasonable distinctions. It is illegitimate for government to use force or the threat of force for projects that are not inherently public in character.

The question of how much illegitimacy a state may perpetrate before becoming generally illegitimate itself is of real interest and has been, of late, the subject of some spirited discussion between some of my colleagues here and me. (You probably can guess on which side of the fault line I stand.)

But I would like to make it clear that I am not indulging in a figure of speech: I think it’s a pretty useful heuristic: If you’re not willing to have somebody hauled off at gunpoint over the project, then it’s probably not a legitimate concern of the state.

Government is force.  At some point there will be government agents with guns knocking on doors with the intent of putting people in prison for "non-compliance".  As Mr. Williamson suggests, using force to stop bad people from abusing other people is a reasonable use of force.  The same cannot be said for other government functions.

Pity I Don't Vote There - Democratic Edition

I checked in on my good buddy, Vin Suprynowicz, and discovered that he....like me....occasionally finds a Democrat worth voting for.  Experienced.  Competent. Scandal-free.

Pity I can't quote any of the juicier parts for you without incurring legal risks beyond measure.

My Kind Of Class Warfare

One that focuses on reducing government programs and spending that distort the market in favor of the well connected at the expense of the rest of us that just work for a living.

Still, watching the Giudices sashay through their onyx-encrusted mansion, and knowing that thousands of similarly profligate homeowners are simply walking away from their debts, it’s easy to succumb to a little class-warrior fantasizing. (Pitchforks, tar, feathers ... that sort of thing.)

The trick is to channel those impulses in a constructive direction. The left-wing instinct, when faced with high-rolling irresponsibility, is usually to call for tax increases on the rich. But the problem, here and elsewhere, isn’t exactly that we tax high rollers’ incomes too lightly. It’s that we subsidize their irresponsibility too heavily — underwriting their bad bets and bailing out their follies. The class warfare we need is a conservative class warfare, which would force the million-dollar defaulters to pay their own way from here on out.

Deception

I check Matt Drudge's site on a regular basis.  I find it to be one of many useful sites for knowing the major stories of the day.  Unfortunately, he...or his staff...decided to be a bit deceptive today.

The link to this Politico story suggests that Vice President Joe Biden had verbally "slapped" former President George W. Bush.  Yet the text of the actual story suggests that Mr. Biden had actually offered credit where credit is due.

“I think America wins,” Biden told POLITICO in an end-of-trip interview at the ambassador’s residence in the sprawling U.S. Embassy complex. “I sound corny, but I think America gets credit here in the region. And I think everybody gets credit, from George Bush to [President Obama].

It is a sad bit of deception.

I agree that credit is due to many people; including George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.  It is a pity that Messrs Obama and Biden couldn't have gotten on board with the campaign in Iraq before they won the 2008 Presidential election.  Victory has many fathers......

A Liberal Appeal

From Daily Kos......regarding the Second Amendment?  Pigs are flying somewhere.

How Might North Koreans Live....

...if their government had gone with their last option as their first option?

Um....instead of leaving it for last.

“The North Korean government has tried all possible ways [for a planned economy] and failed, and it now has to resort to the last option,” said Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “There’s been lots of back and forth in what the government has been willing to tolerate, and I cannot rule out the possibility of them trying to bring back restrictions on the markets. But it is hard for the government to reverse it now.”

Freedom works best where government governs least.  Or some such mangled idiot.

A New Political Face

There is a growing level of attention being paid to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit links to videos of the Governor on a regular basis.

I like him.  I like where he comes from with respect to how elected office holders should behave.  I like that he challenges the media when they label him as being obstructive but give NJ state Democrats a pass for refusing to hold votes.  He is open.  He appears honest.  And you know exactly where he stands on the issues.

His best qualities are a sharp reminder of the things that made Sarah Palin such a popular and good Governor for Alaska.  He doesn't sound or act like he comes from the good ol' boy club.

I think we need someone like Chris Christie in our national politics.  I don't know if he is considering a run for the Presidency in 2012, but I think he would offer the nation a sharp and distinct set of choices about our future.  We can stay the course into a national debt laden hell.  Or we can change and hope to correct our national fiscal policies so that government is more correctly sized for the needs of our nation; fiscally as well as the number of federal employees.

It is a little early for any serious speculation, but I do think that Governor Christie bears watching.

Thomas Jefferson On Good Government

An interesting read.

Of course, my favorite remains:

"With all [our] blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens--a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801.