It is no profït to have learned well,
if you neglect to do well.
Publilius Syrus
Economics Quote of the Day
Well, governmental agencies and governmental laws follow their own laws
just as the physical laws say that cats don't bark.
These laws of social science say that when you start and set up a regulatory agency
with power, those powers are going to be used.
Milton Friedman
(Hats off to Don Boudreaux)
Among my corollaries to "cats don't bark":
- a Democrat will find a way to balance the budget--when it's in surplus.
- (Newton's First Law of Politics): a bureaucrat remains at rest (until you change the rules of his compensation)
- (Newton's Second Law of Politics): the larger the federal budget, the greater the political will needed to reform it
- (Newton's Third Law of Politics): any act of public fiscal responsibility has an equal and opposite reaction from demagogues and interest groups
I've been somewhat exasperated by the red meat conservative activists going around trying to rerun the 2008 electoral campaign: the birthers and Obama's alleged birth in Kenya; Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I'm sure somebody somewhere must be dusting off his Bill Ayers material... This kind of nonsense plays right into Democrats' hands; it completely ignores the utter incompetence we have seen from this administration over the past 4 years; Obama and the Democrats will take any argument which ignores what has--and hasn't--happened over the past 4 years. If the best you can do after 4 years is to blow the dust off old points that didn't score back then among the moderates and independents whom put the Pied Piper of Failed Liberalism in office, you're not going to win this time either.
The birther stuff is particularly annoying because at its core it's a protectionist argument: if foreign-born individuals are able to run a more efficient, effective government, their arbitrary exclusion from candidacy lowers the pressure on domestic political leaders to meet a globally competitive standard of service. (I'm not arguing for striking the constitutional restriction, and I realize there are limits of applying free market principles in the context of government monopolies.)
I have written a number of commentaries on how I would approach the upcoming election. I have no connection to the Romney campaign. But here's a basic summary:
- Avoid personal attacks. Obama is still likable, a personal attack undermines a credible case against Obama's reelection; by taking the high road, Romney appears more Presidential.
- Put Obama on the defensive and bait him into a negative campaign. If and when the Obama campaign overreacts, shake it off like water on a duck's back. A negative campaign will boomerang on Obama's negatives--lethal for a struggling incumbent heading into an election.
- Provide a contrasting vision to the Bush/Obama record of massive budget deficits, federal intervention in the economy, nation building, higher regulation, and low economic growth policies.
- Use Obama's words and unfulfilled promises against him to undermine the credibility of his new campaign promises.
- Link Obama to Europe's low growth, high unemployment, unsustainable social programs, deficits and national debts.
- Express a positive vision of the future, comparing Obama to Carter. Nostalgia for Reagan's vision of America as a shining city on a hill; work in Obama's "apology tour" and ambivalent view of American exceptionalism. Focus on traditional American values.
- Simplify the message to pithy soundbites: "cut spending year-over-year", "stop government duplication", "fix entitlements now", "government must live within its means", "everything is on the table for cutting spending", "simplify taxes and make business rates competitive", etc.
- Use humor. This has to be done carefully, but the Obama Campaign's invention of Julia and how Big Nanny Knows Best is a satire waiting to happen. Let me give an example of how this approach would work. Any faithful reader of this blog knows I love to use the example of kids operating a lemonade stand. You could have Joan operating a lemonade stand: Timmy comes up with his wagon to dump off 2000 page bills on rules for operating a lemonade stand. Someone wants to put an ingredient label on her glasses. Someone from EPA comes saying they heard lizards lived near the lemonade stand. A kid comes around to collect taxes and takes all the money except a couple of quarters. Or you could have Luis, a new owner of an upscale Mexican restaurant whom says Dems come around to drive him to the polls every 2 years and promise "for sure" immigration reform will pass the next year...
Take the Money and Run
Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing the Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy Act (Ex-PATRIOT Act): Thumbs DOWN!
Is there anyone who doesn't know about the Facebook IPO yesterday? Everyone knows by now how multiple Facebook executives 28-year-old Marc Zuckerberg ($19.1B), his Harvard roommate and Facebook's first technology officer Dustin Moskovitz ($5.1B), Eduardo Saverin ($2.7B), and operating executive Sheryl Sandberg became billionaires overnight.
Naturalized citizen (Brazilian-born) Eduardo Saverin has been living in Singapore since 2009 and recently announced his decision to give up his US citizenship. Keep in mind that the US ALREADY assesses a tax based on the value of their assets. And US law already bars reentry for those whom left for reasons of tax avoidance.
There's a relevant LA Times excerpt worthy of reprint here (my edit):
The U.S. is one of the few countries that makes citizens living abroad pay taxes. Those taxes are a factor in people renouncing U.S. citizenship, but usually not the main reason, David Hryck, the U.S. head of international tax at London-based SNR Denton law firm, said. Often people simply decide they want to live the rest of their lives elsewhere.Now the fact is Saverin has helped create a $100B company (at close of business yesterday)--a company, given a viable business model, should generate ongoing streams of tax dollars in the future for taxoholics/spendoholics like demagogue US Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey to fritter away on the likes of Solyndra. But Schumer and Casey are unhappy because Saverin may be able to pay capital gains based on today's rate than the 30% they want to charge over Obama's millionaire tax scheme.
These buffoons think they deserve the right to spend other people's money and try to squeeze blood from a stone. The way you get people to invest in America is focusing on free market and free trade principles, a competitive tax rate and regulatory reform, not by attacking successful entrepreneurs.
Here's the latest absurd example of feckless spending by the public sector. Remember how Obama was preaching the virtue of the information superhighway, including schools, libraries and such? A West Virginia library got its new router, courtesy of the superhighway funding:
Nobody told Hurricane librarian Rebecca Elliot that the $22,600 Internet router in the branch library's storage closet was powerful enough to serve an entire college campus. Workers just showed up and installed the device. They left behind no instructions, no user manual. The high-end router serves four public computer terminals at the small library in Putnam County.Don't read too much into the choice of song, just the chorus and these verses:
Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain't gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin' off of the people's taxes
My substitute lyrics:
Chuck Schumer is a senator of the masses
Bob Casey knows just where the money is
They won't let Saverin escape social justice
They make their livin' off other people's taxes.
Let us reflect on Sting's antidote to "Every Breath You Take":
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Rolling Stones, "Beast of Burden"
