As we close in this year’s mid-term elections, we hear a lot of claims that are fairly outrageous on both sides, but at least the Democrats are being honest: they want to increase taxes. If elected, they would like to raise capital gains taxes, corporate taxes, small business taxes, and more. Yet being honest on […]
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One of the central debates on the Republican tax reform proposals is how much their plan will “cost” the government. This begs the question as to why not taking as much of people’s money as you previously intended to take is considered a cost, but we’ll leave that aside. Republicans argue that any tax proposal […]
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Deconstructing the “De-growth” Movement
20 Aug 2017
Tom Rogan in the Washington Examiner wrote a very interesting piece on the new expression of an old idea–”degrowth.” (see http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-far-left-has-an-idiotic-new-craze-reduce-economic-growth/article/2631274). He leads with these words: “Even the Soviets sought to maximize economic output. But today’s contemporary far-left are far bolder: they believe that economics itself is wrong.” He writes further, “From their perspective, government […]
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I have refrained from writing about health care recently until I could get a better handle on what would happen. It seems I now have a better handle–for now at least. The Senate bill or its iterations was likely doomed to failure for this reason: There were and are at least three factions at cross-purposes: […]
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The “Better Deal” is Another Raw Deal
28 Jul 2017
The Democratic Party, recognizing that it has lost touch with many of its former constituents, rolled out its “Better Deal” this week in Virginia. We have now had Teddy Roosevelt’s “Square Deal,” Franklin Roosevelt’s more famous (or infamous) “New Deal,” Harry Truman’s “Fair Deal,” and now the latest “deal” for the American people. All of […]
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Please, let me pay more taxes!
18 Jul 2017
And it must be compulsory, through taxation, as government is “what we do together.” So this past week we saw Seattle pass an income tax (which may be unconstitutional), amid the cry of its citizens to be allowed to pay their fair share. …backers of the measure rallied supporters, including software developer Carissa Knipe, who […]
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I just returned from a visit with my mother in my (and her) home city, Huntington, West Virginia. We drove by way of Portsmouth, Ohio. Both cities are in “flyover country” and both have suffered from the heavy (and likely irreversible) loss of manufacturing jobs. To give you an idea of the losses, Huntington has […]
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A reader asked me to post something on President Trump’s proposed budget to Congress. Opinions have varied as to whether this budget is the apocalypse on one end or the second coming on the other, and pretty much every nuance in between. As with most budgets–though you may not remember the last one, since it […]
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Trumpian Tax Triumph?
29 Apr 2017
Mr. Trump unveiled his tax plan earlier this week, and there was something for almost every conservative to like. Our current obscene corporate tax rate of 39% is the highest among industrial nations (only exceeded by Chad and the UAE), but doesn’t yield all that much revenue, so Mr. Trump proposes drastically reducing it to […]
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What Will Congress Do About Obamacare?
29 Jan 2017
What is going on with Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act? Spirits were high about quick action in the House and even the Senate. Ideas have not been lacking—there are several plans out there to replace the present law. The obstacle seems to be the usual collective suspect—politicians and their obsessive worry about […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach