Poli-Talk / Low Taxes
So the next "poli-talk" post I was going to do regarding conservative politics was going to be on taxes. Forgive me if that's been a hard one to get fired up to write about ;) The premise is simple enough -- Taxes are for generating revenue to cover expenses. The general feeling on low taxes is two fold.
First, lowering corporate taxes spurs job growth and economic activity leading to higher revenue (I'm sure this maps out to a curve of course. 0% taxes means no revenue. 100% taxes means no business and thus, no revenue. Gotta find that constantly moving sweet spot). The thing you always hear out of the left, especially during campaign season, are allegations of being in bed with such and such industry, and as was the case this past go around, how could you lower taxes for the rich with such a high deficit -- as if lowering taxes meant lowering revenue (tax revenue went up 11% from the bush tax cuts).
The second aspect of the lower tax mantra is the notion that government doesn't have a revenue problem to begin with. We have a spending problem. Lower the taxes, or better yet, lock revenue gathering to a fixed rate based on inflation/population growth like Colorado (I believe it's Colorado) has done, and government officials can no longer squabble over pet projects and earmarks -- there simply isn't enough room in the budget. Lower revenue means prioritizing things properly.
That's the premise as I see it (at this point in my life, at least). I was going to back all this up with cool quotes, facts/figures and walk through the flow of money (specifically the differences between the number of times a dollar changes hands in the private vs public sectors, higher = better, and I'd suspect you can guess which accomplishes it best).
But.. Alas. Things have been busy and I just don't care to deal with the haters right now. Maybe later ;)
Hamas / Israel -- This time it's different?
Yeah yeah, they've been fighting for years, right?
This time certainly feels a bit different though, which is a scary scary thing. I've been pretty disappointed with the media coverage of all this. So much worry over wall street that I think we've forgotten a real threat that doesn't concern our ipods and new cars -- the explosion of horrific conflict that might be on the horizon in that part of the world. Remember, Iraq is a battle, not the war.
Just saying.
Bailouts
Pandora's frigging box. Everyone's so afraid of not getting the proverbial trophy that we're going to go to great lengths to make sure everyone gets one. What will basically happen is congress will fight and fight, and the executive branch will keep coming up with tiny little trophey's to appease everyone. Problem is, it's all or nothing. Either give them enough to accomplish the intention, or don't bother. Just making a messy situation far worse. Obviously I think I'd prefer letting the market put these industries back in line with reality. Painful as hell in the short run but we'll be a better, stronger country for it.
College Football
If you don't think we need a playoff system after this post-season, put the model airplane glue away. Utah, and even USC, both have legitimate arguments for being in national championship contention. If Utah doesn't share the title after what they did to Alabama, a crime has been committed. BCS auto-bid conferences have got to be in some sort of violation of anti-trust laws. It's simply incredible.
Christmas / New Years
Had a great one up in Toledo, Ohio with my wife's family. I walked on a lake wearing snow shoes. I've been sick since new years though, and I'm pretty sure it's the fault of the children (and by no means my indulgences at howl at the moon that night.)
Resolutions
- First is to start making better diet decisions. I'm getting to old to be eating the way that I do. I'll start after lunch though, because my brother is bringing over burger king.
- The next is to read the bible straight through. It occurs to me that probably a small fraction of folks actually have, so I'd like to be one of them. Word for word, line by line, start to finish. I'm in the middle of Leviticus right now.
- Lastly, start rock climbing again, or at least using my finger board on a set schedule. Since I moved out to the beach, I haven't had the peeps to go with. Going climbing by yourself isn't nearly as much fun.
So the next "poli-talk" post I was going to do regarding conservative politics was going to be on taxes. Forgive me if that's been a hard one to get fired up to write about ;) The premise is simple enough -- Taxes are for generating revenue to cover expenses. The general feeling on low taxes is two fold.
First, lowering corporate taxes spurs job growth and economic activity leading to higher revenue (I'm sure this maps out to a curve of course. 0% taxes means no revenue. 100% taxes means no business and thus, no revenue. Gotta find that constantly moving sweet spot). The thing you always hear out of the left, especially during campaign season, are allegations of being in bed with such and such industry, and as was the case this past go around, how could you lower taxes for the rich with such a high deficit -- as if lowering taxes meant lowering revenue (tax revenue went up 11% from the bush tax cuts).
The second aspect of the lower tax mantra is the notion that government doesn't have a revenue problem to begin with. We have a spending problem. Lower the taxes, or better yet, lock revenue gathering to a fixed rate based on inflation/population growth like Colorado (I believe it's Colorado) has done, and government officials can no longer squabble over pet projects and earmarks -- there simply isn't enough room in the budget. Lower revenue means prioritizing things properly.
That's the premise as I see it (at this point in my life, at least). I was going to back all this up with cool quotes, facts/figures and walk through the flow of money (specifically the differences between the number of times a dollar changes hands in the private vs public sectors, higher = better, and I'd suspect you can guess which accomplishes it best).
But.. Alas. Things have been busy and I just don't care to deal with the haters right now. Maybe later ;)
Hamas / Israel -- This time it's different?
Yeah yeah, they've been fighting for years, right?
This time certainly feels a bit different though, which is a scary scary thing. I've been pretty disappointed with the media coverage of all this. So much worry over wall street that I think we've forgotten a real threat that doesn't concern our ipods and new cars -- the explosion of horrific conflict that might be on the horizon in that part of the world. Remember, Iraq is a battle, not the war.
Just saying.
Bailouts
Pandora's frigging box. Everyone's so afraid of not getting the proverbial trophy that we're going to go to great lengths to make sure everyone gets one. What will basically happen is congress will fight and fight, and the executive branch will keep coming up with tiny little trophey's to appease everyone. Problem is, it's all or nothing. Either give them enough to accomplish the intention, or don't bother. Just making a messy situation far worse. Obviously I think I'd prefer letting the market put these industries back in line with reality. Painful as hell in the short run but we'll be a better, stronger country for it.
College Football
If you don't think we need a playoff system after this post-season, put the model airplane glue away. Utah, and even USC, both have legitimate arguments for being in national championship contention. If Utah doesn't share the title after what they did to Alabama, a crime has been committed. BCS auto-bid conferences have got to be in some sort of violation of anti-trust laws. It's simply incredible.
Christmas / New Years
Had a great one up in Toledo, Ohio with my wife's family. I walked on a lake wearing snow shoes. I've been sick since new years though, and I'm pretty sure it's the fault of the children (and by no means my indulgences at howl at the moon that night.)
Resolutions
- First is to start making better diet decisions. I'm getting to old to be eating the way that I do. I'll start after lunch though, because my brother is bringing over burger king.
- The next is to read the bible straight through. It occurs to me that probably a small fraction of folks actually have, so I'd like to be one of them. Word for word, line by line, start to finish. I'm in the middle of Leviticus right now.
- Lastly, start rock climbing again, or at least using my finger board on a set schedule. Since I moved out to the beach, I haven't had the peeps to go with. Going climbing by yourself isn't nearly as much fun.
