Poilitical Quotes as Fun and Food for Thought

Some random quotes I decided to share:

Thinking of the bailouts on this one, "Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel." - John Quinton


“The Democrats are the party of government activism, the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller, and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then get elected and prove it.” - P. J. O'Rourke, Reptile Republican


"Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks." - Doug Larson

Carroll Quigley said: "The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies."


Sean Shepard said, "If even the most paranoid, tin-foil-hat people among us trust Representative Ron Paul, then maybe the rest of us can too?"

"Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. " - Richard Armour


"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right." - H.L. Mencken, 1956


"How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?" - Author Unknown

"Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed." - Mao Zedong (Star Wars fans will recognize this as "aggressive negotiations".


"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & repose in the absolute power of an Individual: and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty."
— George Washington, September 19, 1796

Q &A: What Were Tax Rates Back In The Day?

This is an expanded answer to a question that was asked on Facebook:

Federal government revenues were largely generated via tariffs and use fees prior to 1914. There was an income tax from 1862 to 1872 to pay for the so-called American Civil War. (note: a "civil war" is technically a war fought over the same seat of power for control of a country. In our case, the South had decided they didn't want to be part of the United States anymore and wanted their own seat of power, not to fight over the existing one) In 1895 the Supreme Court held (Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust) that a direct tax that was not apportioned amongst the states was unconstitutional. In 1913 the 16th Amendment was passed so that Congress could then reach directly into our pockets.

As originally passed, the income tax was 1% on incomes above $3,000 (at least $61,400 in today's dollars after inflation) and an additional 6% on income above $500,000 ($10,233,000).

Today everybody pays over 15% for FICA and MediC (your employer pays half, if self-employed you pay it all). PLUS income tax rates of 10% (AGI up to $8,025), 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35% (over $357,700) [single filer].

So, somebody in Indiana can literally pay (35% + 15% + 3.4% + 1.65% = ) 55% on each additional dollar they earn BEFORE property, sales, excise and inflation taxes.

Note: inflation is the result of growth in the money supply without a commensurate growth in the underlying assets that support its value. Like, when the Federal Reserve introduces hundreds of billions of dollars to the economy to, oh, say bail out big Wall Street firms and buy up bad mortgage notes. Inflation is a decline in the real value of money and is not necessarily a natural occurrence at the macro level.

A bit of additional history to color the discussion, from The FairTax Book by Neal Boortz and John Linder:

"Those who favored the idea of an income tax met with considerable success, capturing the public sentiment with promises that the tax would 'soak the rich' and leave the vast majority of Americans alone. Economic class warfare was as alive and well in the early 1900s as it is in the early 2000s"

And regarding it's passage:

"The historical time line now brings us to Texas Senator Joseph Bailey, a conservative Democrat. Deciding to play the game of partisan politics, Bailey cooked up a scheme to humiliate congressional Republicans. Though he was opposed to the idea, Bailey...

Note: Charlie Rangel (D - NY 15th) introduced legislation to bring back the draft a few years ago despite clearly being against it. This was all a political stunt.

...introduced a bill calling for an income tax. He mistakenly thought that the Republicans would rush in to kill this legislation, thus furthering the image Democrats were trying to cultivate of Republicans as hostile to the poor and concerned only about protecting the wealthy. Wouldn't you know, things didn't turn out as Bailey had planned. Liberal Republicans, backed by Teddy Roosevelt, actually came out in support of the bill. Passage seemed all but certain."

In my opinion, Teddy Roosevelt was one of the top 10 worst Presidents in American history. He in no way deserves to be on Rushmore. We also have his ego and arrogance to blame for Wilson becoming President in 1912, who, of course signed the Income Tax and Federal Reserve into law. The word "idiots" comes to mind.

"Conservative Republicans were panicked. They needed a way to defeat the Bailey bill and the growing threat of an income tax. In one of the worst examples of legislative play-calling in our history, Republicans came up with the brilliant idea of announcing that they would support the idea of an income tax on one condition: if any only if it came about as the result of an amendment to our Constitution. Even though this group of conservative Republicans felt that there was some slight chance the proposed amendment might actually make it through the House and Senate, there was just no way in the world that the legislatures of three-fourths of the states could vote for ratification. Yeah ... right.

Big oops."

It's worth noting that within three years, the top tax rate was already ratcheted up to over seventy percent as we unnecessarily and, in hindsight, tragically entered World War I. Some scholars argue that without America's entry into World War I, it would have basically ended in a stalemate and a negotiated settlement that was not as punitive against Germany. The harsh treatment of Germany after World War I, it is argued, led to the ability for Hitler to parlay his nationalistic message into power and thus leading to the horrors we associate with him and ultimately World War II.

Recommended Reading List

A friend of mine (hi Lydia!) inquired as to whether, given the current economic crisis, I had any books I would suggest people read and sure enough, I do. This is not an exhaustive list but some good places to start, fairly mainstream and nothing too dry (I hope!).

(1) Economics In One Lesson - Henry Hazlitt
(2) The Road to Serfdom - Frederich Hayak
(3) The FairTax Book - Neal Boortz & John Linder
(4) The Revolution - Dr. Ron Paul
(5) Liberal Fascism - Jonah Goldberg
(6) Dependent On D.C. - Charlotte A. Twight
(7) The Law - Bastiat
(8) Wealth and Poverty - George Gilder

If you have not read any of the following since High School (they were required reading when I was in school) then I strongly suggest re-reading them and, now that you're old enough to be paying attention, think about our current government and economic structures:

(1) Animal Farm - Orwell
(2) 1984 - Orwell
(3) Brave New World - Huxley

I'm sure I'll think of some more but there is a quick list.

Distorted Truth: Reagan Ditched Solar Panels at White House?

I have a strong interest in alternative energy and adamantly believe we need to, shuddering to utter this overused phrase, "end our dependence on foreign oil." I watch a lot of documentaries and last evening was watching "Escape from Suburbia" which talks about the energy crisis and the possible need for us to drastically change our lifestyles as energy gets more and more scarce and expensive. Fair enough.

What a great many people don't realize is that wind turbines, solar panels and even hydroelectric generators are still very, very expensive. In a recent issue of "Home Power" it indicated that because of the still relatively low efficiency and low cost per KwH of energy in Indiana, it could take up to eighty years to recoup the cost of installing a PV (Photovoltaic) system. The economics will get better as technology advances and economies of scale are introduced with increased demand and, theoretically, lower per unit cost of production.

I would also like to take a moment to remind everyone that turning our food into fuel is a really bad idea for lots of reasons, putting a big mast and sail on top of the car won't get you any farther than the first overpass and even there slowly and solar just isn't efficient enough to replace gasoline in our vehicles. The good news, things are getting better and there is lots of research being done. The auto manufacturers are figuring it out and more and more options will be available as time goes on.

The thing that prompted me to write this though, was that twenty-five minutes into this documentary which is high on fear factor and light on actual discussion about technology, they mention that President Jimmy Carter (D 1977 - 1980) installed solar panels on top of the White House. Indeed he did! President Carter had a rather large solar water-heating panel assembly placed on top of the White House. The documentary then has someone talking about President Ronald Reagan (R 1981 - 1988) and then goes into a giant-size animated Reagan cartoon stomping around and roaring like Godzilla and dismantling the panels.

As usual, I was wary of bias in what I was watching and sure enough the New York Times published an AP article on August 24, 1986 saying "The panels of the system had been dismantled to fix the roof underneath. Dale A. Petroskey, a White House spokesman, said Friday, 'Putting them back up would be very unwise, based on cost.'"

So there we have it. It didn't make economic sense at the time to put them back up and it is always a good idea to get past our preconceived notions or beliefs about individuals or groups and to do our own homework.

Laughed off of Bulls and Bears in 2006, proven exactly right today! Peter Schiff.

I'm a fan of Peter Schiff, who often gets labeled a "Chicken Little" analyst for his predictions over the past few years about the bursting of the real estate bubble and the dangers of FED market manipulation. Peter was the economic adviser to Dr. Ron Paul's (R - TX) campaign for President.

In this video clip, Peter is nearly laughed off the show by these other investment advisers and yet he has been proven 100% correct in everything he stated.

HR 2755 was introduced to Congress last year and if passed would phase out the Federal Reserve and it's market manipulations over 12 to 18 months. The full text of the bill is here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-2755


HT: Travis Cross for digging this up
crossposted: www.circlecitypundit.com

Do you remember where you were?

As I was growing up, the generations prior to mine knew that amongst them everybody knew exactly where they were when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. Our version of that today is probably the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

There are those moments we never forget:

My mother-in-law called our house to tell us planes were crashing into buildings and to turn on the TV. As the TV came on I had to stare for a few moments before realizing that I was looking at only one of the Twin Towers and that the other was not shrouded in smoke, it was gone. GONE. Having been there numerous times, including up on the walkway that went around the perimeter or Tower 2 and walking across the floor of one of the exchanges that was housed there, I was stunned in disbelief.

I was walking into Mrs. Gulley’s Earth Space Science class at Pike High School and plopped down in my chair. We were supposed to watch a video that day but the TV was on to the news. Generally the first one to class, for the first few moments I sat alone watching the endless replay of the Challenger exploding. Mrs. Gulley was one of the early recipients of a teaching award named after Christa McAuliffe.

I was home with my then 6-month old daughter laying in front of the TV waiting to watch the shuttle Columbia land. It never did. As soon as it got to be a minute or so late showing up I knew what had happened. Elizabeth was too young to hear me tell her "we lost another one."

Bomb Iran ??? Think Twice.

While unwinding the disastrous foreign policy decisions of the past 50 years is not possible, there is always the choice to start anew with one that doesn't involve intervening in every world affair, meddling in every country's business and causing a tremendous amount of animosity and distrust towards the United States.

I know there are a great many people who feel that Iran is a threat to the United States, especially if they were to become a nuclear power. Of course, we always fail to put ourselves in their shoes, look at U.S. troops across the border and wonder if the only way to keep the U.S. out of our country is to have nuclear weapons as a deterrent. I'm not saying there isn't anything to be concerned about there, heck we should know, our own CIA helped establish and radicalize some of madrases in the Middle East to forge greater resistance to the Soviets in Afghanistan. And our problems with Iran go back to the 70s (although the source is the 50s).

We really need to sit back and ask, is it worth endless war and bankrupting our country to meddle with all these little Middle Eastern countries? I've written previously and in more detail on this subject here http://shepard2008.com/issues/iraq-and-foreign-policy/
And although the military spending overseas isn't the biggest budget disaster we face (can you say "entitlements"?) it is one more aspect where a lot of it is unnecessary.

Regardless, for those who think that if Iran wants nuclear weapons so bad we should give them one... Scott Ritter made a chilling case not to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XQan1qo8T4

Documentary on coming fiscal crisis: I.O.U.S.A.

It looks like this documentary will prominently feature former Comptroller General of the GAO David Walker. Mr. Walker, a Clinton appointee, spent years trying to get Congress, the President and anyone else to listen regarding the national debt and the coming financial crisis to fund our entitlements.

I made this topic, including the facts and information Mr. Walker has been begging people to listen to and understand, a central part of my campaign during the Special Election in 2008.

Most Libertarians and even a few Republicans/Conservatives (Glenn Beck, Ron Paul, Peter Schiff) have been BEGGING the fine people of our country to pay attention, understand and quit voting for the nimrods that are taking us down this road.

Here is the Link to the documentary trailer at http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=47703

Gas Prices? Government IS the Problem - Again.

Between government restrictions on supply and refinement, massive devaluation of the U.S. currency and exploding demand in countries that previously didn't have a lot of cars (but are now getting them) our pain at the pump is great indeed. This is a big win for Democrats who (1) will blame the President not [a currently Democratically controlled] Congress and (2) WANT high gas prices because we will buy less and save the planet from Al Gore's promise of us becoming a burning ball of flame in space.

For the Republicans. It's mostly just evidence at how ineffective they were when in power. So we've gone from a spineless and impotent U.S. Congress to an economically incompetent one.

My good friend Mac Johnson, who has been on Bill O'Reilly and several radio programs in the past few years (and also spent time residing in Indy before career choices led him to Boston) posted about the "windfall profits" tax on his great site. He writes with a flair for humor I wish I had.

His article at MacJohnson.com can be found at : http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26955

GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE WAY

Hillary Clinton is quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Here we are, the greatest nation in the world, the greatest problem solvers, but we’re not solving our problems,” as she lamented the "paralysis" of government.

What, as usual, is not pointed out here is that the "free market" is the greatest solver of problems, government is the greatest creator of them. When the free market is allowed to function, without interference from government all kinds of problems can be solved and with competition and profit motive the solutions often get better and cheaper over time.

The best example of better and cheaper that I know of is the telecommunications business. AT&T once held a government sponsored monopoly on everything from putting the lines in the ground to owning the telephone set in your house (seriously, prior to 1984 you could not own your own telephone, by law you had to rent it. Today, a nice handset is $9.95 at Circuit City or Best Buy). At that time you might pay 50 cents per minute to call Chicago (I recall paying around 40 cents per to call my girlfriend in Chicago around 1988 or 1989).

Then competition opened up and companies like Sprint and MCI (now merged in with Verizon) put fiber optic cables in the ground. Rates for calls plummeted, new services and features (like caller ID) came on the scene, and then we got the Internet and DSL services, and now you can even call China for a few pennies a minute or even free using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology.

Of course, there are always lots of factors but think about this. In 1988 it costs over 40 cents per minute to call Chicago from Indianapolis. Today I can do it for a penny or three and that is AFTER inflation.

There are numerous examples, but looking to the government for solutions generally just means more government, more bureaucracy, more potential for administrative bloat and generally ever higher taxes to pay for it all. This is not hyperbole or partisan rhetoric, but facts that almost everybody agrees to. So many of our problems today are largely because government got involved or restricted others from doing so.

So many things we keep asking government to "fix" or "give us" are things they have already screwed up with taxes, regulation, restrictions, subsidies or other interference. This includes healthcare, the price of gas, inflation, the terrorist threat, jobs and corporate activity moving overseas all the way down to having to flush your toilet two or three times because the water limit is set too low.

Think about that. The Federal Government is big enough to have worried itself about how much water should be allowed in the bowl of your toilet. What else does it take to convince someone that government has gotten too big, with too much time and money on its hands and will continue to find more ways to be intrusive in our lives. Once government takes over healthcare they will probably decide we're all too fat and ban Twinkees and Soda Pop (which, thanks to government intervention in sugar markets has never been the same since bottlers started using corn syrup).

So when people say, "only law breakers ever need fear the government" just remember that something as silly has making toilet or shower head that uses just a tad too much water is a crime. And here are some other great examples of silly "governmentness" in an article at Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow: http://www.cfact.org/site/print.asp?idarticle=202

So, please, let's just open things up so that the free-market, entrepreneurs and regular people can solve the problems and not rely on politicians to figure everything out for us. They aren't good at it.

REPUBLICAN BRAND NAME - DAMAGED GOODS?

This (http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html) is a great article from Peggy Noonan that discusses how Bush may have made the Republican party radioactive to voters. Some great excerpts:

Regarding the recent 8 point drubbing the Rs took what used to be a "safe" district - "My first thought was: You have to be stupid to be stunned by that. Second thought: Most party leaders in Washington are stupid"

And this one will ring true with many, "'We can't let them pretend to be conservatives,' he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day."

Are there ANY Republicans out there that are happy with the progress their party made, especially when controlling the Presidency, Senate AND the House?? Not a lot got done. Of course, Republican apologists will tell you you're "wasting your vote" with Libertarians, Constitution Party or whatever else. So, if you voted in Republicans in 2000 and 2004 wanting major tax simplification and overhaul, social security reform, reductions in the size of government, less government spending, humble foreign policy and no nation building like under Clinton ... well, YOU wasted your vote.

Ron Paul *OUR EMPIRE IS COMING DOWN!*

Rep. Carolyn Mahoney (D - NY) and Rep. Ron Paul (R - TX) speak before Congress about important fiscal issues facing our country. Unfortunately, a couple of days before Andre got sworn in as I think he needed to hear this.