Common Sense with Paul Jacob

Money Means Nothing to Her

Post author By CS Admin
Post date April 18, 2016
2 Comments on Money Means Nothing to Her

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, campaign finance reform, big money, illustration, angel, Saint Hillary

Campaign finance reform is surely dead . . . if Hillary Clinton is elected president.

Which would be good.

Not Clinton being elected, mind you. What would be good is the death of so-called campaign finance reform — the kind supported by Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. They insist on a constitutional amendment to partially repeal the First Amendment’s freedom of speech protection and give Congress awesome new powers to regulate their own and their opponents’ campaigns.

But wait — if Mrs. Clinton supports campaign finance reform, why would her election kill this seriously bad proposal?

Well, Hillary Clinton made it abundantly clear at last week’s Democratic presidential debate, as I explained this weekend at Townhall: large campaign contributions do not influence her in any way. Even a fat $15 million from Wall Street interests to her super PAC — or $225,000 a pop speeches paid by Goldman Sachs and their ilk — registers no corrupting effect whatsoever.

And those millions deposited in Clinton Foundation accounts from foreign governments?

They couldn’t possibly sway the steady former Secretary of State. Not even the smallest smidgen.

Just like there has never been corruption at the IRS.

Don’t believe Hillary? Then trust President Obama, who also gobbled up major Wall Street funding when he ran in 2008 and 2012. But again, according to her, “President Obama was not at all influenced when he made the decision to pass and sign Dodd-Frank, the toughest regulations on Wall Street in many a year.”

Not. At. All.

So the solution to government corruption is simply to elect trustworthy, incorruptible candidates . . . like Hillary Clinton.

Well, call her half right.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Tags 2016 Presidential race, Bernie Sanders, campaign finance reform, Hillary Clinton, Presidential campaign 2016

Today

Tax Day

On April 18, 1689, Bostonians rebelled against the government of Sir Edmund Andros.

On this day in April, in 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States, split 5-4, upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

April 18 marks the 1772 birthday of David Ricardo, English political economist and one of the most influential thinkers in economic theory. An advocate for free trade and the abolition of slavery, Ricardo’s most famous work is his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817).

Common Sense takes the occasion of the word “taxation” to mention that today is Tax Day for most of the nation, except for taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts who have a still extra day to file (but who nevertheless are required to file quarterly payments on April 18). It was postponed three days from April 15, as was explained on Friday in these pages.

Thought

H. L. Mencken

The intelligent man, when he pays taxes, certainly does not believe that he is making a prudent and productive investment of his money; on the contrary, he feels that he is being mulcted in an excessive amount for services that, in the main, are useless to him, and that, in substantial part, are downright inimical to him.

H. L. Mencken, in A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949).

links

Townhall: Hillary’s Defense — Obama Did It

Post author By Redactor
Post date April 17, 2016
No Comments on Townhall: Hillary’s Defense — Obama Did It

The presidential race gets more and more interesting on the Democratic side, as the nation’s most famously corrupt insider beats off the mostly savvy charges of a demagogic socialist. Click on over to Townhall.com for this weekend’s Common Sense update. Then come back here for more reading:

CNN: Transcript of Democratic Presidential Debate in New York (4/14/16)
CNN: Video of Democratic Presidential Debate in New York (4/14/16)
Politico: What Clinton said in her paid speeches
Common Sense: Banking on Clinton
Common Sense: 9 Dangers of ‘Democratic Socialism’
Real Clear Politics: Pres. Obama Job Approval Among Democrats
Gallup: Obama Weekly Job Approval by Demographic Groups
Washington Post: How the ‘Obama effect’ helps Hillary Clinton, and hurts Bernie Sanders, with black voters

Today

Ronald Hamowy

April 17 marks the 1937 birth of Ronald Hamowy, Canadian historian, who first came to international prominence for his writings in the short-lived New Individualist Review. Hamowy died in 2012.

video

Video: Against Socialism

A spirited British debate, starring Daniel Hannan, MEP:

Thought

H. L. Mencken

Under Socialism the efficient man would have a price upon his head.

H. L. Mencken, in Robert Rives La Monte and Mencken, Men versus The Man (1910).

Today

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Post author By Redactor
Post date April 16, 2016
No Comments on Letter from Birmingham Jail

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., penned his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting segregation, on April 16, 1963.

folly general freedom national politics & policies tax policy too much government

Procrastinators’ Weekend

Usually, April 15 is the deadline date, in these United States, to file taxes or apply for an extension. This year it is April 18.

Why? Many of us think of the Fifteenth of April as Tax Day. It seems strange and arbitrary when it is jiggered with. And kind of annoying.

But a postponement of taxes could be a postponement we might all appreciate as a tiny (ever so slight) reprieve.

So, again, why this year’s three-day extra leeway?

First off, it is regularly postponed when the day falls on a Saturday or Sunday.

Could it be that the “Nothing Gets Done on Friday” Rule has been acknowledged by the fine folks at the Internal Revenue Service?

No.

People in Maine and Massachusetts celebrate Patriots Day on April 18, so their tax day is set another day later, April 19.

Which begs the question. Why the 18th in the first place?

Well, because of Emancipation Day, usually celebrated in Washington, DC, on April 16.

Because the 16th settles on a Saturday this year, and because the day is a traditional day off for federal workers, the holiday shifts a day in advance, to this Friday, the 15th. So, Emancipation Day — commemorating the signing of the Emancipation Act by President Abraham Lincoln — trumps Tax Filing Day.

Apt, since it might seem cruel to Americans to have Tax Day, marking the subservience of a whole population to its government, fall on something called Emancipation Day.

After all, consider: holding them on the same day? Hmmm. Might get people thinking.

Bigwigs in DC don’t want that.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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