“The state can put its taxes to either a good or a bad use. It puts them to a good use when it performs services for the public equivalent to the value it receives from the public. It puts them to a bad use when it squanders its revenues without giving the public anything in return.”
Frédéric Bastiat, from Economic Sophisms (included in the Laissez Faire Books ebook edition, What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen, 2014)
Hillary Clinton announced, yesterday, that she wants to be the next president of these United States. She made it official via an Internet video, which starts off with all kinds of normal, regular folks expressing their hopes and plans for 2015.
The small boy singing about “little tiny fishes” steals the show.
After a minute and a half of innocence-by-association, Hillary Clinton comes on to say that she, too, has big plans: “I’m running for president.”
Mrs. Clinton continues: “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.”
She should know, what with her family’s struggles after leaving the White House in 2000 — multiple mortgages on multiple multi-million-dollar domiciles. I’m sure we all relate to that.
“Everyday Americans need a champion and I want to be that champion,” she states, “so you can do more than just get by, you can get ahead and stay ahead.”
Apparently, without Hillary at the helm of our Leviathan federal government, all we can do is “just get by.” Barely. Never “get ahead” and “stay ahead.”
“Because when families are strong,” intones Clinton, “America is strong.”
Yes, the woman who wrote It Takes a Village now extols family strength.
“So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote,” she pledges. “Because it’s your time.”
Or so says this Everywoman, a former first lady, U. S. Senator, presidential candidate, Secretary of State, and savvy cattle futures trader.
Hillary Clinton has had a long career in government. It will be interesting to see what she runs on — what she identifies as accomplishments — as opposed to what she runs away from.
Or deletes.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
On April 13, 1743, Thomas Jefferson was born. Author of “Notes on the State of Virginia” and the first draft of the United States’ Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was also a scientist, philosopher, inventor, diplomat, and American politician who served as third President of the United States.
To maintain that human labor will ever come to want employment, would be to maintain that the human race will cease to encounter obstacles. In that case labor would not only be impossible; it would be superfluous.
Frédéric Bastiat, first essay, Economic Sophisms (included in the Laissez Faire Books ebook edition, What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen, 2014)
How best to describe a whopping campaign fundraising effort? How about not assume that big is bad, or that it is the voters who are being shortchanged? We know who really loses when candidates collect surprisingly huge donations.
This weekend, I point fingers at the real losers. Click on over to Townhall, then back here, for an eye-popping amount of further reading:
On April 12, 1914, American economist Armen Alchian was born. His contributions to economic theory and teaching were many, but is perhaps best known for his work on property rights.
Alchian died in 2014, in late February, at age 99.
A ceremonial bust of Ed Snowden was erected in Brooklyn, New York, by dissident artists. The reason? To honor the whistleblower who revealed an expansive, expensive data accumulation system carried on by the NSA against the American people — one that seemed not allowed by law, and previously denied by the government.
The sculpture, described in the press as illegal (mirroring how the artists have been designated as “guerrilla”) was expertly made as a mock-bronze bust. It was taken down later in the day by city workers. Hours later, a hologram of Snowden appeared on the same war memorial.
Click here to get two 11″x17″ high-resolution printable Edward Snowden posters.
On April 11, 1945, the American Third Army liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, a camp that would later be judged second only to Auschwitz in the horrors it imposed on its prisoners. Among those in the camp saved by the American soldiers was Elie Wiesel, who would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
Shown in photograph: German citizens ushered to the camp by American soldiers, post-conquest.
The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.
George Orwell, letter to Malcolm Muggeridge, December 4, 1948.
No?
“It’s abysmal,” admits IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, discussing his agency’s help for Americans trying to decipher a byzantine, ever-changing tax code.
It seems only four of ten citizens ever succeed in getting through to the IRS on the phone, even after waiting multiple hours. Over days. There have been over 5 million “courtesy disconnects” — that’s IRS lingo for its phone system hanging up on you.
To boot, once you get to a real person, that employee can’t tell you much.
The problem? According to the Washington Post, the poor agency lacks the necessary funds because “Republicans on Capitol Hill have slashed the IRS budget.”
Actually, the IRS budget has gone up every year . . . in nominal dollars. When adjusted for inflation? Well, there has been some decline.
Bemoaning this supposed “era of shrinking government,” the Post assails conservatives in Congress, citing the “cuts” as “punishment for a string of missteps: an extravagant conference for employees in Anaheim, Calif., the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exemptions, $1 million in bonuses given to agency employees who didn’t pay their federal taxes.”
Punishment seems in order.
But another story puts in perspective this crocodile cry for more money. The Daily Caller recently reported: “The Obama administration has quietly killed an IRS tax preparation program designed to help low-income and disadvantaged citizens, choosing instead to give millions of dollars to liberal groups for the same purpose.”
Look on the bright side, a review of these help-groups found their advice to have a mere 49 percent error rate.
This is Common sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
