The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a DC group, had this to say about Ted Cruz’s campaign proposals: “Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has, by our count, put forward seven sets of policy proposals on his campaign website covering areas such as immigration, military spending, and tax reform. By our very rough […]
Archives
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Taxes Versus Spending
02 Mar 2016
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Frederic Bastiat as Prophet
28 Feb 2016
I have been reading quite a few articles lately in which the individuals (politicians, bureaucrats and just ordinary citizens) are asked about various issues related to the presidential campaigns. One answer I have heard quite a bit is simply that “the government” should do something. Sometimes the issues are even cast in terms of a […]
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There was a time, way back in the eighteenth century, and as recently as the nineteenth century in the United States, that a person who owned land possessed legal title (in so-called “fee simple,” the normal way people own land unless they lease it) to it from the “center of the earth to the zenith […]
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“The Immense and Tutelary Power”
22 Feb 2016
I think I quoted this passage from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, last year, but have enlarged the context. Is this a description of the centralized command and control bureaucratic government that we [sic] have been creating over the past 100 years or so? And is Tocqueville on to something? Feel free to comment. […]
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Taxation and Ethics: Further Reflection
16 Feb 2016
I have continued to read the comments on Jeff Haymond’s blog about progressive taxation, and my own complementary blog, and have decided I should make another foray into this subject to address in more depth the ethical theory of policies such as taxes (but, indirectly, others as well). The question to begin is: Is progressive […]
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At the Democratic candidate debate last week, Bernie Sanders was asked how big government should be. His response was illuminating, as was Hillary Clinton’s response to Sanders’ answer. Here is part of what he said: WOODRUFF: “And, welcome back to this PBS Newshour debate, Democratic debate, here in Milwaukee. Let’s get right to the questions. Senator […]
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To Scrutinize or Not to Scrutinize
12 Feb 2016
OK, today I am going to get into a “wonky” mode and address an issue that always has bothered me when my mind is jogged. Today the issue is strict scrutiny. What, you may ask, is that? Strict Scrutiny (SS) is a principle applied by Federal courts that first distinguishes between the importance attached to […]
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It’s time for another book review. I am reading several books but just finished one by Larry Siedentop, entitled Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism (Penguin, 2014, 434 pages). The author has a fascinating and somewhat counterintuitive thesis that what we call “Liberalism” ( I will capitalize the word) was really “created” by […]
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The Mosque and the President
04 Feb 2016
OK, President Obama spoke at an Islamic mosque yesterday. I say “so what.” But hear me out. I have no issue with him speaking to any religious group in his capacity as president of the United States. Even what he said, at least as reported, was not particularly problematic. He said for example, that Islam […]
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What an interesting post and discussion in the comment section on progressive taxation. I hope Jeff Haymond doesn’t mind. Let me just add a little on the philosophical and ethical side, since the theological/Biblical has been pretty well covered and the economic problems have also been addressed. One word raised several times in the “Comment” […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach