Tax/Pork Bill Passes

Ryan makes a great point: It's not their damn money!
The government needs to cut spending and let us keep our own money. An "unintended side effect" of recognizing our fundamental right to our own property is that this action will also "grow the economy"--but the primary point is still: it's not their damn money!

The idea of letting taxes go up even for a few weeks is nauseating, but in spite of Ryan's good arguments, it probably would have been better to wait until January when a cleaner (e.g. more principled) bill could be written. But, it's too late for that now.

The tax bill "compromise" passed yesterday. Not all Republicans were in favor of this bill--and for very good reasons. This particular bill has LOTS of problems (extends benefits for the unproductive, chock full o' pork, reduces taxes on employees but not employers which may very well cause MORE unemployment, etc.,etc.)

Here's what Jim DeMint had to say in an email before the vote:

For starters, it includes approximately $200 billion in new deficit spending and stimulus gimmicks. That's a lot of money that will have to be borrowed from China and repaid by our children and grandchildren. If we're going to increase spending on new programs, we must reduce other spending to pay for it.

The bill also only extends rates for two years. We don't have a temporary economy so we shouldn't have temporary tax rates. Individuals and businesses make decisions looking at the long-term and we're not going to create jobs without giving people certainty as to what their taxes will be in future.

The bill also fails to extend all of the tax rates. It actually increases the death tax from its current rate of zero percent all the way up to 35 percent. One economic study shows that this tax increase alone will kill over 800,000 jobs over the next ten years.

Finally, the bill now includes dozens of earmarks for special interests, including ethanol subsidies, tax breaks for film and television producers, give aways for Puerto Rican rum manufacturers, favors for auto racing track owners, and a hand out for businesses in American Samoa

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Let's hope in January congress has the votes (and the cojones) to reverse some of these provisions--and then get serious about spending cuts.