'Wiping out the surplus'

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 09 Jan 2002 14:07:54 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JAN. 9, 2002
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
'Wiping out the surplus'
Desperate Dems take blackjacks and tire irons to the tiny Bush tax cuts

Poor Tom Daschle.

The Democrats control the U.S. Senate but otherwise now find themselves in the national minority, a position to which they are unaccustomed and which they clearly still believe must be some kind of mistake. (George W. Bush won how many rural counties? Did anyone know there were that many rural counties?)

So imagine their chagrin when the president's approval ratings soared above 90 percent in response to his calm but forceful military response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

I ask you, is it fair that this Republican newcomer should get credit just because his actions have actually stopped the terrorists in their tracks, while his Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, gets no credit at all for responding to the multitude of escalating terror attacks on his watch by refusing to give our boys in Somalia the armor they needed, while encouraging bin Laden's cronies to believe we were weak and decadent by limiting his response to a few cruise missiles lobbed at a pharmaceutical factory and an empty Afghan sheep camp?

But then, as though their foreign policy triumphs weren't enough, the GOP House threatened to seize the initiative on the domestic front as well, responding to the incipient recession with an "economic stimulus" package full of across-the-board tax cuts which might actually - now you'll begin to sense the seriousness of the problem - work.

So Sen. Daschle and his Democrats squealed that the stimulus package would pass over their dead bodies with all those tax cuts in there, since tax cuts are "giveaways to the rich" (those being the people who pay the most taxes.)

What did the sneaky Republicans do then? Why, they removed the tax cuts as requested.

So Sen. Daschle and his Democrats next squealed that an economic stimulus package would pass over their dead bodies unless the GOP agreed to lard it up with a whole new Santa Claus list of boondoggle spending. When Republicans obligingly granted even that Christmas wish, Sen. Daschle and his colleagues were finally reduced to crossing their arms, jutting their jaws, and announcing the stimulus package would never be allowed to come to a vote no matter what, lest it garner enough Democratic votes to ... you know, pass.

And what has happened to poor Sen. Daschle now? Apparently stung by criticism that his performance on the stimulus package revealed him to be an "obstructionist," he's run to the Democratic focus groups to come up with a counterattack, and has been advised to blame the tiny tax cuts won by President Bush last spring for "wiping out the surplus."

The tax cuts have "probably made the recession worse" by driving up interest rates, Sen. Daschle said in a speech Friday, Jan. 4.

Those being the same interest rates that are now at historic lows? Please ignore the little man behind the curtain.

Republicans - who dropped most of the tax cuts from their economic stimulus package at his request - "have one unchanging, unyielding solution they offer for every problem: tax cuts that go disproportionately to the most affluent," says Sen. Daschle ... beating the Democrats' unchanging "hate the rich" jungle drum. Why, he even managed Friday to claim that GOP tax cut policy might require him to "raid the Social Security surplus and borrow money to pay for ... critical needs," like putting non-citizen airport security checkers on the unionized federal payroll.

At the same time he criticized GOP tax cuts, however, Sen. Daschle somewhat contradictorily offered his own convoluted "tax credit" proposal for companies that create new jobs ... though without quite explaining how that scheme would avoid aiding "the most affluent" business owners.

"Senator Daschle once again takes the side of tax collectors rather than taxpayers," notes Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute. " 'Low interest rates,' Daschle claims, 'are the best possible tax cut.' But interest rates do not rise and fall with the U.S. budget. That is simply a hoax. Japan has the world's lowest interest rates and the world's biggest budget deficit. Besides, if taxes were less onerous, American families and firms would not have to borrow so much."

Anyway, it was President Bush who worked to hold the growth of federal spending to a still-hefty 4 percent last year (needless to say, any real conservative would feel obliged to trim federal spending at least in half); it was squealing Democrats who wanted spending to grow by something closer to 10 percent.

Real tax collections have never been higher. Even if we bought the claims of "surplus" in the first place (they kept right on selling Treasury bills -- who would continue to borrow if they had a surplus?) it's Democrat-driven spending that threatens to put the federal government back into the red.

Perhaps what the Democrats need is a Senate Majority Leader less fearful of setting forth their true agenda. One nominee comes quickly to mind. Freshman U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton went on New York television last month and called not just for a repeal of the Bush tax cuts, but for actual federal tax rate hikes.

Now there's a Democrat.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $96 to Privacy Alert, 561 Keystone Ave., Suite 684, Reno, NV 89503 -- or dialing 775-348-8591.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair