Libertarian Leanings

Rick Perry's 20-12.5 Plan

He calls it "Cut, Balance and Grow" and its center piece is a flat rate 20% income tax with a $12,500 standard deduction for individuals and dependents.  For those inclined to whine about taxing the poor, Rick Perry includes an option to pay at your existing rate rather than the 20%. 

The plan starts with giving Americans a choice between a new, flat tax rate of 20% or their current income tax rate. The new flat tax preserves mortgage interest, charitable and state and local tax exemptions for families earning less than $500,000 annually, and it increases the standard deduction to $12,500 for individuals and dependents.

This simple 20% flat tax will allow Americans to file their taxes on a postcard, saving up to $483 billion in compliance costs. By eliminating the dozens of carve-outs that make the current code so incomprehensible, we will renew incentives for entrepreneurial risk-taking and investment that creates jobs, inspires Americans to work hard and forms the foundation of a strong economy. My plan also abolishes the death tax once and for all, providing needed certainty to American family farms and small businesses.

I'll support him on the basis of this plan alone.  He thinks along the same lines as I do. 

Indulgences

It's the perfect analogy: Indulgences.

The indulgence is among the less noticed and less disputed traditions to be restored. But with a thousand-year history and volumes of church law devoted to its intricacies, it is one of the most complicated to explain.

According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages in special years, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament.

There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one.

Michael Barone draws a parallel to the new faith.

All the trappings of religion are there. Original sin: Mankind is responsible for these prophesied disasters, especially those slobs who live on suburban cul-de-sacs and drive their SUVs to strip malls and tacky chain restaurants.

The need for atonement and repentance: We must impose a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system, which will increase the cost of everything and stunt economic growth.

Ritual, from the annual Earth Day to weekly recycling.

Indulgences, like those Martin Luther railed against: private jet-fliers like Al Gore and sitcom heiress Laurie David can buy carbon offsets to compensate for their carbon-emitting sins.

Corporate elitists, like General Electric's Jeff Immelt, profess to share this faith, just as cynical Venetian merchants and prim Victorian bankers gave lip service to the religious enthusiasms of their days. Bad for business not to. And if you're clever, you can figure out how to make money off it.

In fact clever people have figured out how to make a lot of money.

Al Gore could become world's first carbon billionaire

Al Gore, the former US vice president, could become the world's first carbon billionaire after investing heavily in green energy companies.

7:00AM GMT 03 Nov 2009

Last year Mr Gore's venture capital firm loaned a small California firm $75m to develop energy-saving technology.

The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient.

The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants, the New York Times reports. Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts.

The move means that venture capital company Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr Gore, could recoup their investment many times over in coming years.

Now there's a familiar name — Kleiner Perkins.  Where have we heard that name before?  Oh, right.  That's one of the outfits that backed Fisker, the company that got a half a billion dollar federal loan guarantee from the Obama administration to build electric cars — in Finland. 

How 'bout Those Green Jobs

In big news on Drudge today we find out what happened after a start-up electric car company called Fisker got a $529 million federal government loan guarantee.

Standing in a shuttered General Motors plant in Wilmington, Del., Vice President Biden proclaimed that a half-billion-dollar Department of Energy loan would transform the idled site into a production line for electric cars.

"Folks, we're making a bet," Biden said on Oct. 27, 2009. "We're making a bet on the future, we're making a bet on the American people, we're making a bet on the market, we're making a bet on innovation."

That was back in 2009.  Fast forward to today and we find that the story didn't turn out quite the way Joe Biden said it would.

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

So much for a green U.S. manufacturing revival.  But that's not to say the loan guarantee is a total loss.  It afforded the Obama administration an opportunity for another "thank you."

One of Fisker's biggest financial supporters, records show, is the California venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The firm financially supports numerous green-tech firms, records show.

Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, a California billionaire who made a fortune investing in Google, hosted President Obama at a February dinner for high-tech executives at his secluded estate south of San Francisco. Doerr and Kleiner Perkins executives have contributed more than $1 million to federal political causes and campaigns over the last two decades, primarily supporting Democrats. Doerr serves on Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Doerr has not replied to interview requests since March.

Former Vice President Al Gore is another Kleiner Perkins senior partner. Gore could not be reached for comment.

This is what "stimulus" is all about.  It's what the American Jobs Act is all about.  It's purely political.

As for jobs? Obama suddenly remembered them when his poll numbers plunged so alarmingly that the one job that seems to compel his attention, his own, was at stake. For weeks he advertised a major speech that would put America on the road back to work. When he finally delivered it, it turned out to be an extension of previous payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits, tax incentives for businesses to hire workers, and a revival of his earlier call to invest $50 billion in infrastructure repair. The latter, not even a Band-Aid on America’s $2-trillion maintenance backlog, was to be paid for by taxes, which as the President well knew, stood no chance of passing in the now Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

President Obama is most worried about his own job, and he's putting federal money where he thinks it will do him the most good.  That would be where it will come back in the form of campaign contributions.

Gaddafi Captured

Hunted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has been captured near his hometown of Sirte, as NATO warplanes hit his fleeing convoy.  During the attack Gaddafi was wounded in both legs the head of armed forces Abu Bakr Younus Jab was killed.

"He's captured. He's wounded in both legs ... He's been taken away by ambulance," the senior NTC military official told Reuters by telephone.

Gaddafi was trying to flee in a convoy which NATO warplanes attacked, Majid said. The head of Gaddafi's armed forces Abu Bakr Younus Jabr had been killed during the capture of the Libyan ex-leader, he added.

Majid said NATO warplanes struck the convoy and hit four cars as it headed west. Ahmed Ibrahim, a cousin and adviser of Gaddafi, was also captured.

This ends a two-month siege and marks the last of any significant resistance by forces loyal to Gaddafi.

Update:  Rebel leaders say Gaddafi is dead.  Libyan fighters say that Gadhafi died from wounds sustained during the capture of Sirte.

The Misrata Military Council, which has been commanding the fighters leading the two-month siege of Sirte, reported around noon Thursday that Col. Gadhafi had been caught while their troops were conducting mopping-up operations around the coastal city. It updated its report with the news of his death roughly 90 minutes later.

The military council didn't provide further evidence for their claims but officers in Misrata said that they would be holding a press conference shortly.

"Misrata Military council confirmed news of the tyrant been died after been captured by Misurata Thwarr [the revolutionary fighters.] "God is great and thank God," read an email sent by the military command.

So far, the U.S. State Department has not confirmed Gadhafi's death.

Clarity On 9-9-9

Arthur Laffer approves of Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan and he says why in today's Wall Street Journal. 

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's now famous "9-9-9" plan is his explicit proposal to right the wrongs of our federal tax code. He proposes a 9% flat-rate personal income tax with no deductions except for donations to charity; a 9% flat-rate tax on net business profits; and a new 9% national tax on retail sales.

Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 plan was designed to be what economists call "static revenue neutral," which means that if people didn't change what they do under his plan, total tax revenues would be the same as they are under our current tax code. I believe his plan would indeed be static revenue neutral, and with the boost it would give to economic growth it would bring in even more revenue than expected.

In the recent past, federal tax revenues from the personal and business income taxes, all payroll taxes, and the capital gains, gift and estate taxes have averaged $2.3 trillion, while gross domestic product has averaged about $14.5 trillion. The total revenue from these taxes as a share of gross domestic product averages around 16%. Sometimes it's a good deal higher, as in the boom of the late 1990s, and sometimes its lower, as in today's "Great Recession." But a number in the 16%-19% range is as good as you'll get under our current tax code.

By contrast, the three tax bases for Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 plan add up to about $33 trillion. But the plan exempts from any tax people below the poverty line.

Some of those points haven't come through very well in the Republican Presidential debates.

The whole purpose of a flat tax, à la 9-9-9, is to lower marginal tax rates and simplify the tax code. With lower marginal tax rates (and boy will marginal tax rates be lower with the 9-9-9 plan), both the demand for and the supply of labor and capital will increase. Output will soar, as will jobs. Tax revenues will also increase enormously—not because tax rates have increased, but because marginal tax rates have decreased.

Let the recovery begin.

It's All About Perspective

Occupy Wall Street protesters are real big on spreading the wealth... until it's their wealth.

“I had umbrellas stolen, a fold-up bed I brought because my back is bad -- they took that, too!”

Security volunteer Harry Wyman, 22, of Brooklyn was furious about the thievery -- and vowed to get tough with the predatory perps.

“I’m not getting paid, but I’m not gonna stand for it. Why people got to come here and do stupid stuff? All it does is make people not wanna come here anymore,” Wyman fumed.

At one point yesterday, Wyman and other volunteers briefly scuffled with a man who was standing near a park entrance with a pail calling out: “Donations! Donations!” -- and pocketing the cash people tossed in the bucket.

Imagine that.  OWS disapproves when people take what belongs to someone else.  I guess they were never very clear about the point of their protest.  And doesn't it get more confusing by the day.

A Brilliant Strategy

For some time now Democrats have wanted their own version of the Tea Party, and now they think they have it with Occupy Wall Street.  Good luck with that.  As Karl Rove observes, there are differences between the two.

The tea party is a middle-class movement of people who want limited government, less spending, less debt, low taxes, and the repeal of ObamaCare. Occupy Wall Street isn't a movement. It's a series of events populated by a weird cast of disaffected characters, ranging from anarchists and anti-Semites to socialists and LaRouchies. What they have in common is an amorphous anger aimed at banks, investors, rich people and bourgeois values.

The tea party reveres the Constitution and wants to change laws to restore the country to prosperity. Occupy Wall Street started by occupying a New York City park and then blocked the Brooklyn Bridge, sparking the arrest of hundreds.

The tea party files for permits for its rallies and picks up its trash afterwards. Occupy Wall Street tolerates protesters who defecate on police cars, allows the open sale of drugs at protests, and features women walking around rallies topless.

Somehow differences like that haven't registered with progressives like Nancy Pelosi. 

"God bless them," Pelosi said, "for their spontaneity. It's independent ... it's young, it's spontaneous, and it's focused. And it's going to be effective."

Effective?  Yes, if the plan is to destroy any chance for Democrats to hold the White House and the Senate in 2012.  Their embrace of the Occupy Wall Street movement will prove toxic to Democrats, especially in light of Barack Obama raking in near record setting amounts of Wall Street campaign money.  Which raises one notable similarity between the Tea Party and OWS.  Both will effectively drive Democrats from office in 2012.  Go team, go!

The Dartmouth Debate

I liked this comment from Ira Stoll on the Washington Post-Bloomberg Republican Presidential Debate.

...the program at times felt not like a debate among the Republican presidential candidates, but like a debate between the group of Republican politicians, on one side, and the group of journalists, on the other. It's not that the journalists were hard left, just that they were kind of conventionally left-moderate in a predictably, plodding fashion.

If I had to guess, I'd say Romney is going to win the nomination.  He clearly got the most face time of all the candidates who were on hand.

6:53PM For my own self, I’d like to thank Bloomberg TV for hosting — and Charlie Rose for moderating — tonight’s heartwarming episode of the Mitt Romney Show. I hope everyone enjoyed it, especially the inevitability. And the specificity.

It was hard not to notice.

8:41 p.m. Tumulty going the full liberal again, is anyone not named Romney going to get a chance to talk?

At roughly 9:00pm the debate was over for those of us living in southern New Hampshire.  The Binny TV signal was lost and never returned, but it was fun while it lasted and all of the candidates did pretty well.

So Let Me Get This Straight

Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago that President Obama demanded that Congress pass his jobs bill — the American Jobs Act — without any negotiation?  At least that's what David Axelrod said on Good Morning America.

“The President has a package, and the package works together,” said top Obama strategist David Axelrod ABC’s Good Morning America, insisting, as the White House adamantly has, that congress pass the America Jobs Act quickly and in whole. “We want them to act now on this package,” he said. “We are not in negotiation to break up the package. And it’s not an a la carte menu. It’s a strategy to get this country moving.”

"We are not in negotiations," said Axelrod.  It certainly sounds like my-way-or-the-highway talk coming out of the White House, and I can't say I'm surprised that Congressional Republicans would reject an all-or-nothing approach.  Especially since we have ideas of our own about how jobs are created. 

But then Monday President Obama complained that Republicans are unwilling to compromise.

And in an interview with ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos on Monday, Mr. Obama blasted GOP officials as unwilling to compromise.

“I’ve tried every step of the way to get the Republican Party to work with me,” Mr. Obama said. “Each time, all we’ve gotten from them is ‘no.’”

And Obama thinks he comes across as reasonable?

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, Republican Mitch McConnell tried to get a vote on the bill but failed.  Blocked by none other than Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid.

In Dallas today, the president blasted Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) for the House Majority Leader’s rejection of an all-or-nothing approach to the American Jobs Act, repeatedly calling on Cantor to “come down” to Dallas to explain why he opposes the bill and urging the House to “at least put this jobs bill up for a vote.”

Perhaps he should have saved his censure for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). The Senate Majority Leader today refused to allow Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring the president’s jobs bill up for a vote.

...

“‘Right away’ is a relative term,” Reid said, to explain why he’s untroubled by the president’s repeated calls for immediate action.

Oh those dastardly intransigient Republicans.

Another Gift That Keeps On Giving?

Abe Greenwald contends that "Occupy Wall Street" could be a disaster for Democrats.

If you’re having problems grasping the nuances of the Occupy Wall Street movement, you haven’t been paying attention to the present-day left. And good for you.

The self-demonizing millionaires and state-worshipping police haters barely scratch the surface of the ideological dyslexia at work. Occupy Wall Street’s “list of demands” calls first for nativist “trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market,” and then for one-worldist “open borders migration,” so that “anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.” The document, like the group that composed it, is a hodgepodge of paranoia, entitlement, self-pity, self-righteousness, class warfare, and economic illiteracy.  If this spotty protest moment becomes broad-based and loud the thorough airing of modern-day leftism will prove to be a conservative’s election-year dream come true.

On Monday, with Occupy Wall Street spawning copycat demonstrations in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere, the Washington Post​’s E.J. Dionne asked hopefully, “Can the left stage a Tea Party?” I don’t know if it can but if I were a GOP strategist I’d be praying that it does.