Taxes and Spending

Back in 1969, Henry Hazlitt’s Man Versus the Welfare State appeared.

I attended a “Tax Day rally” today (Tuesday the 17th) here in Pensacola, Florida, sponsored by the local FairTax people.

From Portfolio.com:

It is only because we have a monstrous welfare/warfare state that the government "needs" to collect an income tax. The beginning of Clinton's presidency was not that long ago. The income tax can be abolished. It can be done quickly; it can be done painlessly — and it can be done for the benefit of the American taxpayer instead of the federal leviathan. Now that is real tax reform.

The 'ability-to-pay' principle resembles more the highwayman's principle of taking where the taking is good.

"To force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury. But that is exactly what the State is doing."

The hurricane sirens went off this evening in Auburn, which they seem to do every time there is any wind or rain within 60 miles.

From 1950 to 1980, Americans were indeed Losing Ground. Charles Murray’s book on social policy debunks welfare programs. The programs are the problem. It is not possible to design a wealth transfer program that will not produce net harm.

Our fiscal problems can be explained by an Internal Revenue Service that isn’t aggressive enough.

The Marshall Plan didn’t help get Europe back on its feet: free markets did. The Plan was another failed giveaway program. The Plan’s disastrous legacy was the wrongheaded approach it inspired in foreign aid programs for the rest of the century.