I am a principled individual and I gravitate to the WSJ for news because I believe it to be principled as well. On the other hand, the New York Times consistently leads the way in agenda based news and they have a propensity to “leak” classified information that would, in fact, aid and abet terrorist organization. Not only does the New York Time lack principle, they lack courage.
The Wall Street Journal continues:
We suspect that the Times has tried to use the Journal as its political heatshield precisely because it knows our editors have more credibility on these matters.
As Alexander Bickel wrote, the relationship between government and the press in the free society is an inevitable and essential contest. The government needs a certain amount of secrecy to function, especially on national security, and the press in its watchdog role tries to discover what it can. The government can’t expect total secrecy, Bickel writes, “but the game similarly calls on the press to consider the responsibilities that its position implies. Not everything is fit to print.” The obligation of the press is to take the government seriously when it makes a request not to publish. Is the motive mainly political? How important are the national security concerns? And how do those concerns balance against the public’s right to know?
So, for example, it promulgates a double standard on “leaks,” deploring them in the case of Valerie Plame and demanding a special counsel when the leaker was presumably someone in the White House and the journalist a conservative columnist. But then it hails as heroic and public-spirited the leak to the Times itself that revealed the National Security Agency’s al Qaeda wiretaps.
Perhaps Mr. Keller has been listening to his boss, Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who in a recent commencement address apologized to the graduates because his generation “had seen the horrors and futility of war and smelled the stench of corruption in government.
“Our children, we vowed, would never know that. So, well, sorry. It wasn’t supposed to be this way,” the publisher continued. “You weren’t supposed to be graduating into an America fighting a misbegotten war in a foreign land. You weren’t supposed to be graduating into a world where we are still fighting for fundamental human rights,” and so on. Forgive us if we conclude that a newspaper led by someone who speaks this way to college seniors has as a major goal not winning the war on terror but obstructing it.
The forecasting faux pas is actually larger because those estimates excluded the impact of at least three major tax cuts (in 1997, 2001 and 2003) that subsequently passed Congress. These tax cuts were estimated by the wizards at Joint Tax to deplete federal tax collections by an additional $1.24 trillion through 2006, according to the Shareholders Association study.
So if you add those together, CBO and JTC have managed to underestimate revenues by $2.04 trillion over the past decade. Here’s one way to appreciate how large this error is: It would be as if CBO forgot to count all the federal income tax payments made by every resident of Florida for an entire decade. Tied to their outdated forecasting models, these agencies refuse to acknowledge that there is any Laffer Curve effect from changes in tax rates that help the economy grow and revenues increase. Thus CBO also managed to project a decade ago that the U.S. economy would be $1.3 trillion smaller today than it actually is.
Sen. Allen is a supporter of fiscal conservativism and introduced legislations to require a balanced budget. He also supported a law that would dock congressmen’s paychecks if they failed to produce a budget by October 1st. The idea that legislators should be penalized for failure to do the few things they must do is one that should be whole-heartedly supported.
While Senator Allen does support accountability for school systems and supporting programs that succeed, support for school choice is notably lacking. There is no better accountability than allowing people to leave failing schools, taking tax dollars with them.
Illegal immigration is an issue many legislators are running away from while Senator Allen has the courage to take a stand. He understands what should be common-sense, immigrating legally is a good thing, immigrating illegally is a bad thing. It is obvious that decades of not enforcing immigration law hasn’t worked and perhaps it’s time we give law and order a chance. We don’t need to demean the people who came here while the government basically said it wouldn’t enforce the law, but that doesn’t mean blanket amnesty… or for that matter, lavishing rewards on illegal immigrants.
Lastly, while it has become chic for members of Congress to suggest it’s time to surrender to America’s enemies and to proclaim that America is the cause of every world problem, Senator Allen understands that no victory came through surrender. The war on terror and Iraq are difficult problems that lesser men run away from by planting their heads in the sand. Winning the War in Iraq takes time and with plans for troop reductions under way, it’s clear that “stay the course” is not only a strategy, but a strategy that’s working.
Please considering donating to Sen. Allen’s reelection campaign or volunteering your time.
by TD of The Right TrackWith any proposal, sooner or later the naysayers start their doom-and-gloom predictions. The FairTax proposal is no exception. There are those out there whining and crying about how “it won’t really work that way”, despite the fact that the current income tax system isn’t working the way it’s supposed to work. I suppose their fear is exchanging the devil they know for the devil they don’t know. In this article, I’ll highlight some of their worries and attempt to dispel them.A national sales tax will create a huge black market.
Among all the arguments to be made against the FairTax, perhaps this one holds the least water. Arguments are made that this “black market” will spring up, with people “illegally trading DVDs, cigarettes, canned foods” yada yada yada. OK, illegally trading? What’s illegal today about trading those items? Nothing! So what’s the problem?
“They’ll be avoiding the tax!”
And that’s bad, why? My wife buys romance novels at a used book store now. She’d be avoiding the tax, too. She’s also reading books that everyone else read weeks or months ago. I say, “Come on, black market!” Only the market won’t be black. It can be right in a store front, advertising used books, consignment shops for clothes, furniture, camping equipment, you name it! A whole new type of business will emerge! That will be great for the economy, right? Right!
The national sales tax will give government another reason to make cash purchases illegal.
Those making this argument claim that paying with cash will make it easier to avoid paying the tax. This is simply ridiculous. Number one, most businesses are run by honest, dependable people. It’s not the business owner that’s being taxed, remember, it’s the purchaser of goods and services. With penalties for those who attempt to cheat the system, the onus is on the business to be open and above-board in collecting and paying the tax. The businesses will keep a small percentage of what they collect in order to offset their expenses in collecting and reporting the tax! While the consumer might hope for a break from the tax, it would be the rare businessman who would collude with the consumer in his scheme to avoid the tax!
The tax will be used to track your entire financial life.
Coming so closely after the previous argument, you have to laugh. First folks are going to pay with cash to avoid the tax, then the tax will be used to track your entire financial life. Unbelievable. How so? You’re not filing a return, are you? To do this, the government would have to:
1. Obtain records of your purchases from retail or service center outlets
2. Obtain records of your purchases from your financial institution
3. Collate the records in order to see what went where
4. Have a really good reason to waste their time doing thisBut remember, the tax applies to new goods and services only. Don’t want the government to know you bought that new Humvee? Get last year’s model from a used car dealer. Want a couple of evening gowns? Hit the new consignment shop that just opened up a few blocks from your work. But do you know why the government won’t track your entire financial life? Simply put, you’re not that big a deal. Sorry to deflate your ego, but why would the government care to delve into your personal finances? They don’t care what you spend money on, as long as they get their cut!
Simply put, any tax scheme can run rampant over the American people without diligent and unceasing attention on the part of the American taxpayer. It is up to you and I to keep our government on a short leash. We must realize that there are no free rides. When the government gives you something, they have to take something away from you first in order to do so.
As author Edward Abbey said, “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government.”
TD
The FairTax Blogburst is jointly produced by Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. If you would like to host the weekly postings on your blog, please e-mail Terry. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll.
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