Michael

Homegrown talent

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of our local Delmarva Shorebirds minor league baseball team. On their most recent homestand their PlayBall magazine has a photospread of the four Maryland natives who have most recently been on the Shorebirds’ roster: outfielders Glynn Davis and Austin Knight, and infielders Tommy Winegardner and Joe Velleggia.

Due to various roster moves, though, only Davis has spent the entire 2012 campaign with the Shorebirds and as it turns out there’s only been a period of a few days where all were on the roster simultaneously – and that was only because Knight is currently on the disabled list. As I write this, Davis is the only active Shorebird of the four, with Knight still on the DL. Winegardner was sent down to Aberdeen today; ironically it appears he’s replacing Velleggia on the IronBirds roster as Joe decided to voluntarily retire from pro baseball today. Hopefully this is not a PlayBall cover jinx at work.

But this tidbit got me curious about how many Maryland natives had actually played for the Shorebirds over the years. After about an hour on the baseball-reference.com website it appears the answer is 20:

Derek Brown (1997-98)
Joey Hammond (1998-99)
Corey Hoch (1998-99)
Billy Whitecotton (2000)
Mark Gibbs (2002)
Ryan Childs (2004)
Brandon Erbe (2006)
Chorye Spoone (2006)
Paul Winterling (2006-07)
Andy Schindling (2008-09)
Brian Valichka (2008)
Brian Conley (2009-11)
Patrick Kantakevich (2009-10)
Steve Bumbry (2010-11)
Jason Stifler (2010)
David Walters (2010-11)
Glynn Davis (2012)
Austin Knight (2012)
Joe Velleggia (2012)
Tommy Winegardner (2012)

Yet while the four this year have not been on the roster at exactly the same time, there was about a ten-day period in July, 2010 where all five Marylanders who played for the Shorebirds that season were all on the roster simultaneously.

It’s interesting to note that the Orioles seem to be placing more of an emphasis on giving homegrown talent the opportunity to play in the organization. The last season no Maryland native played here was 2005, and over the last four we have had no less than three take the field with the team at some point. By and large these players haven’t been high draft picks (exceptions were Erbe and Spoone, who were drafted in the 3rd and 8th rounds, respectively) – in fact, several over the last few seasons have been non-drafted free agents signed off the street by the O’s, including Davis, Winegardner, and David Walters and Jason Stifler from 2011.

While the odds of them making the Orioles’ roster someday are relatively long, and, as the story states, the last Maryland-born player to play for the Orioles was Cal Ripken, Jr. – that is, until Steve Johnson makes his delayed major league debut – it’s neat to see these guys make their bid for getting to the Show with their hometown team. It really doesn’t happen that often to begin with, and Maryland isn’t known as a baseball hotbed like Florida, Texas, and California are. There, it’s less of a big deal to see a hometown or regional guy make the team but in Baltimore that would be special.

O’Malley keeps shooting his foot

Since the beginning of July, Governor Martin O’Malley has made nationwide news in a number of ways, but not necessarily with the headlines he may have preferred.

First we had the Change Maryland tax exodus report that I’ve talked about at some length – and so have a number of others. (Yes, there are eight different links in that sentence.) That begat other statements like this one from GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino, who also made a swipe at opponent Ben Cardin – who is not my friend, by the way:

Sensing the futility of having to defend our worsening national and local economy, Senator Cardin, absent a few well-scripted photo ops, has been missing in action as a public face for the current administration. Happily filling in is our Governor, who prefers television appearances to actual governing. Never more than a breath away from a mimed sound bite, fed to him by the current administration, he continues to intentionally mislead the American people and Marylanders regarding the perilous state of the U.S. and Maryland economies, perpetually stating that both are “moving forward”.

Governor O’Malley, take off your blinders and put aside your Presidential aspirations. The U.S. economy is in the midst of the worst recovery in modern times and our great state has become an economic joke. We currently rank 42nd out of 50 in a recent report on state’s business environments, followed by another report showing a mass exodus of successful Marylanders avoiding our punishing tax load. (Emphasis in original.)

Even better was this from radio talker Mark Levin, who’s not known for mincing words (h/t to Jackie Wellfonder):

And the guy who started this whole news cycle, Change Maryland head Larry Hogan, himself on Wednesday dismissed O’Malley’s response as “a childish lashing out” on WBAL radio.

So what did O’Malley do yesterday? Double down on stupid. (Again, thanks to Jackie for this one.) This is from his Facebook page:

A new report conducted by the Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland, finds that implementation of the Affordable Care Act will benefit the state’s budget by more than $600 million through 2020, generate more than $3 billion in annual economic activity, and create more than 26,000 jobs. This is more great news for Maryland’s families.

Naturally I had to respond:

If the group being cited has as part of its stated mission “Developing, implementing, and evaluating new delivery and financing models for publicly funded health care systems, including preventive health, behavioral health, oral health, and long-term services and supports” do you honestly think they would have some other conclusion?

The Left loves to jump on research when its funded by a particular industry and seems to conform with their word view, so how is this different?

But the most humorous thing I find about the study is that they project there will STILL be uninsured Marylanders. I thought the idea was to insure everyone? (Never mind the rose-colored glasses on economic impact, unemployment, etc. the report assumes, nor should we mention the $300 million a year state employers will have to pony up.)

(snip)

And why should O’Malley care? The impact will mainly fall on his successor; meanwhile he’ll be warming a U.S. Senate seat in preparation for his sure to be ill-fated Presidential run.

By the way, a summary of the report projections can be found at the Hilltop Institute site. I sort of suspect they know which side of the slice their bread is buttered on.

And here’s the rub: Does the governor honestly think that taking all these millions out of the private sector and redistributing it to the mobs who will be expecting their “free health care” for every sniffle, toothache, or paper cut will make money for the state? It didn’t work in Tennessee or Hawaii, and the jury is still out on Massachusetts.

Out here in the real world, we know the score. And while Martin O’Malley is trying his best to become a leading contender for the 2016 Democratic nomination by pandering to the causes liberals hold dearest, such as green energy and gay marriage, he’s forgetting that he’s also building a record of budget-busting failure to be used against him by the GOP. Quite honestly, stupid statements and “childish lashing out” are unbecoming of any governor, let alone who who fancies himself a prime-time candidate for the Oval Office.

Troopathon falls a little short of goal (update: they made it!)

I just finished watching the Troopathon, and while it fell somewhat short of its $250,000 goal during the broadcast they still raised $221,415. That’s nothing to sneeze at and should enable many thousands of troops to get a surprise package in their mail.

Because I was away from much of the evening I didn’t see many of their big-name guests, but I was somewhat disappointed the register at the bottom of the telecast only showed just over 4,000 people watched the program co-hosted by CNN’s Dana Loesch, radio talk hosts J.D. Hayworth (a former Congressman) and Melanie Morgan, and Gold Star Mother Debbie Lee. Surely it didn’t help to no longer have Andrew Breitbart’s star power to draw more viewers.

Of course, just because the show is over that doesn’t mean the charity goes black, as Move America Forward collects donations all year. And while their goals have progressively become more modest over the years, the need will still be there for the foreseeable future.

I also don’t know how the blogger competition came out, but whether the Hot Air Steamers team I participated with did well or not every little bit helped. I know two of my “teammates,” The Lonely Conservative and Maggie’s Notebook, were carrying the Troopathon live on their site – for some reason those sort of windows don’t seem to work as well here. (It may be because I have to adjust the window to fit to my format – Ustream is finicky sometimes. I also have to use the old embed code for YouTube videos, so that may be a clue.) Regardless, the event can be reviewed at those two locations or at the Troopathon site.

Perhaps over the next few days a few late donations will put them over the top.

Update, 7-13, 10 p.m. – according to a Move America Forward e-mail I received, they indeed got some serious late donations:

Thanks to a very generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous, we are able to raise our goal to get care packages to more of our troops in Afghanistan. We set a modest goal of $250,000 because contributions had been dropping as our economy stalls.

We’re now in a position to get care packages to most of the troops that are in harm’s way. To get that many care packages, we raised our goal to $400,000 and are now only $28,539 short of hitting that mark. Can you help push us over the top so our military men and women will know they are not forgotten?

Combined with all the other money that has come in overnight, we’re now at a total of $371,461 raised for the Troopathon. That means we’ve achieved our initial goal, thanks to the generosity of many awesome patriots like yourself!

I knew Americans had it in them, so my faith in country is bolstered once again.

Over the line

The latest figures are in, and the redistricting petition has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

It didn’t appear they received a whole lot of help from the Eastern Shore, however. Here’s the totals for the nine counties so far, although they probably won’t change much as the final couple thousand signers are validated:

Cecil – 500
Queen Anne’s – 430
Worcester – 255
Talbot – 251
Kent – 215
Wicomico – 143
Dorchester – 128
Caroline – 125
Somerset – 20

By my quick addition that’s 2,067 signatures delivered from an area which is about 1/10 of the state’s population. So we weren’t exactly proportional here.

I think part of the reason we trailed behind the rest of the state is the fact the Eastern Shore will almost certainly stay as the most significant geographic part of the First District. But had one proposed map been adopted, a rendition which actually split the lower end of the Eastern Shore south of Salisbury off and placed it into the Fifth Congressional District with southern Maryland, I believe we would have contributed thousands more signatures. Counties most affected (Anne Arundel and Baltimore) combined for about 2/5 of the total signatures, with another third coming from counties which were (or still are) in the Sixth Congressional District. With the radical changes caused by gerrymandering, that’s understandable.

Of course, we can count on the Maryland Democrat Party to try and thwart the will of the people. Upon the announcement that enough signatures were turned in to give the referendum a chance to make it to the ballot, they sniveled that the petition drive was only a “desperate partisan power grab.” Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Anyway, here’s their money quote from ten days ago:

Pending the State Board of Elections’ determination that the validated petition signatures satisfy constitutional requirements, the Maryland Democratic Party will weigh all options to protect the integrity of the referendum process and ensure that every petition was completed and collected in line with Maryland laws and regulations.

This from the party who wanted to have all circulator signatures notarized in an effort to disenfranchise petition signers, yet wails that any attempt at sensible photo voter identification requirements at the polls represents “voter suppression.” Yeah, they’re hypocrites. But most thinking people knew that, and they know their message is “see you in court.”

So today was a good day as perhaps yet another reason for good, conservative Marylanders to cast their ballot this November took shape. Resounding votes against in-state tuition for illegal aliens, gay marriage, and overly partisan gerrymandering which paid no attention to preserving the integrity of political subdivisions might convince the party in power that, hey, we need to listen to the voice of reason once in awhile. (Victories for Dan Bongino and 5 or 6 Congressional nominees might also pound home a message too. Listening to Democrats and the state’s primary media outlets – but I repeat myself – spin that one would be a riot.)

But just remember we have to win these fights to set ourselves up for more success in 2014.

Redistricting petition: the end is in sight

I don’t like to stack posts on top of each other, so I’ll keep this short: as of this Tuesday evening, the Board of Elections has certified that 53,566 of the 60,266 signatures counted so far by the BOE on the referendum petition for Congressional districts are valid, leaving 5,456 to be counted. Of those, 2,170 or more need to be acceptable for the referendum to qualify. While the rejection rate has been higher on this petition than on the other two MDPetitions.com has sponsored over the last two years, it still should come out in the range of 58,000 valid signatures and that would be enough to place the referendum on the ballot.

Of course, it’s likely the validity of many signatures will be challenged by those same Democrats who came up with one of the most gerrymandered schemes in the country, one designed to shortchange both Republicans and minorities while protecting their incumbents. If the petition is beaten back, it will be up to the GOP to make the point to affected communities that the Maryland Democratic Party is the sole reason that they are being hosed.

Updates will follow.

Obama’s cynical election-year tax ploy

Knowing that the election is less than four months away and he’ll have little to show on the economic front, President Obama today revived the battle over the Bush tax cuts which were extended for two years after their originally planned 2010 expiration. However, Obama’s new proposal would extend them for just next year and target them to families making less than $250,000 a year – those more wealthy would revert to the Clinton-era tax rate of nearly 40 percent. That represents a rate increase of 13 percent over the current tax rate of 35 cents per dollar.

This election-year maneuver will make for some strange bedfellows. For Democrats, the choice of supporting their President also comes at the risk of hypocrisy, as many have blamed the Bush-era cuts for the rampant deficits piled up over the last decade. Instead, Democratic legislative party leaders like Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Charles Schumer have pressed for a higher income threshold for tax hikes, calling for a true millionaire’s tax by raising the rates only on families which make seven figures.

(continued at Examiner.com…)

The contribution process

Today promises to be the last of the brutally hot days our region has endured, as temperatures are predicted to retreat into the eighties for the next few days. (If anything, we could use the rain this cold front may bring us.) But for several thousand men and women, 100-degree days are common during the summer because they’re serving in the arid lands of the Middle East.

Now I understand the argument that many make: well, they’re the ones who volunteered to serve so they probably had an idea of what they were getting into. Moreover, when they return they’re going to be the recipient of a host of government goodies, such as a lifetime of medical benefits, assistance in paying for a college education, and preferences in various areas of housing and employment. No doubt many have seen this as an attractive way of life, well worth the risk to life and limb – particularly as the benefits of military service are continually promoted in venues attractive to the younger generation.

Yet when they arrive at the front against Islamic terrorism they find that William Tecumseh Sherman was right: war is hell. Soldiers can do all the training and wargaming that’s demanded of them, but when the objective by the enemy is to inflict real, honest-to-God death and destruction onto people they have no compunction whatsoever about killing (nor about dying for their own cause) by any means possible – including tactics far outside the Geneva Convention – it’s a wonder more don’t crack under all that stress. Seeing good friends blown to bits by an IED doesn’t do wonders for one’s psyche. And yes, I again acknowledge the argument that these sons and daughters of ours volunteered for the gig.

So when they receive something tangible which expresses our support I’m sure it makes their day; an island of hope and comfort among the drudgery and despair.

The cynic in all of us also says that those companies and entities which supply the items placed in the care package are in it for the publicity or the tax writeoff, and that could be true. To be honest, I’m not clear just how Move America Forward (the organization which sponsors the Troopathon and these care packages) acquires the items for the packages they send overseas – my guess is that many of them are donated by suppliers while others are purchased at a nominal to wholesale price. And obviously there’s the cost of postage involved in getting these overseas. I can tell you the price has increased over the years since I think the initial 2008 package (which may not have had the same number of items, so I could be doing an apples-to-oranges comparison) was around $15 apiece. It’s gone up a couple dollars each year since.

Still, I figure it’s the least I can do to thank those who put their lives on the line for us. While many question our purpose in fighting overseas, the fact is that we will be there until our Commander-in-Chief says we come back.

As for the Troopathon itself, it will be broadcast over the internet, presumably at the Troopathon site, starting at 4 p.m. this coming Thursday, July 12. (At this time they have a rebroadcast of last year’s program there.) Over previous years a veritable who’s who of conservative and pro-troop personalities have stopped by, and this year will be no exception.

The difference is, as I detailed a little last week, that I have a fair amount of bragging rights at stake because I am part of a larger blogger team. No question I want to do my part as I have the third-most-read website on the team (behind Hot Air, of course, and The Lonely Conservative) according to Alexa ranking so I should be a key contributor to the cause. I figure if fifty readers can help out that would be an appropriate kickstart. Now I know I have way more than fifty readers on any given day so this is quite doable, I think.

If you support the troops, here’s a way to do so. I did, and I’m just a struggling middle-aged blogger. Just click on the large banner on the right sidebar and enlist yourself in my army of troop supporters!

A Shore method of hearing from the Left

You’ll probably recall, as part of my coverage of the recent Delmarva Chicken Festival, that I brought up a new group called Let’s Be Shore. It’s a project of the Maryland Humanities Council, explained the nice lady manning (or would that be womanning?) the tent, and they’re looking to create a dialogue about our way of life.

Well, the other day I received an e-mail from Michelle Baylin, who’s the Communications Manager of the Maryland Humanities Council. It read in part:

I was writing to ask if you would consider additional posts and wanted to let you in on an update: we are planning our first panel discussion, during the Chesapeake Folk Life Festival on July 28th at 3pm, with some of our video portrait subjects participating. We’ll also have a Sharing Station tent at the festival as well.

Let’s Be Shore seeks, through the use of the humanities, to bring people with divergent perspectives together for respectful dialogue, offering a platform for residents to express views on the issues of land use, agriculture, the economy, and water quality along Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Conservative views are an important component to presenting a balance of opinion! (Emphasis in original.)

Well, let’s add up the score: you got at least one additional post and I definitely have conservative views. But I knew nothing about the Chesapeake Folk Life Festival until I looked it up – it’s held in the quaint but picturesque town of St. Michaels. There’s nothing farther down the Shore just yet, so this partial effort at a response will have to suffice for now.

As always, I’m a little suspicious of these attempts at “dialogue” and togetherness because my experience has been that those who gain control of the group tend to also want to control a lot of other activities – case in point, the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress, which eventually devolved into an agenda-based group that seemed to screech most loudly against developing new neighborhoods (which, ironically enough, would be potential new members.) They eagerly climbed aboard the “growth is bad” bandwagon personified by this guy.

On the other hand, the tendency of conservatives to just want to be left alone by big government also means they’re not going to speak out as forcefully and we all know the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

But insofar as the quality of Chesapeake Bay is concerned, of course I’d like it to be clean as well. Yet I’m quite aware that to get it as pristine as it was when the only things which moved around here were a few Indians and plenty of wild game is not very realistic. To think otherwise is a pipe dream only a non-profit or government agency which would like to assure itself a perpetual slice of the taxpayer revenue pie would think up.

More importantly, if we ever got it back to that state the Chesapeake Bay Foundation would have no more reason to exist, so do you think they’ll ever give the Bay an “A” for cleanliness? I doubt it, because they’ll continually move the goalposts and we’ll be lucky if they get it above a “C”. In fact, the stated goal of the CBF is to restore the Bay to its state when first discovered, but there are several million people who would have to be forcibly relocated for that to occur. Not that the CBF seems to mind.

Instead, they advocate policies which will make growth more difficult and expensive in the entire Bay watershed, with a little bit of indoctrination thrown in:

Education will serve as a means to citizen engagement and behavior change…Drawing on the beneficial results of CBF educational efforts, we will engage adults and young people in a campaign to see that good laws and regulations are developed, introduced, passed, and enforced.

So that’s what we on the pro-growth side are up against, and it wouldn’t surprise me to eventually find the CBF’s hand (or money) in this effort at “dialogue.”

Speaking of money, as of last year the Maryland Humanities Council derived the bulk of its income from the National Endowment for the Humanities, with a smaller portion coming from various state departments. It’s worthy to note as well that the National Endowment of the Humanities requested over $154 million of your tax dollars for FY2013. Thus, you and I are paying for this.

The question is whether they’ll actually listen to conservative voices of reason who would like nothing better than securing a cleaner Bay without sacrificing the vast potential this area still has.

P3k

Just for the record:

It took me 924 days to get to post number 1,000.
From there, it took 736 days for me to reach the 2,000 milestone.
But I’ve slowed down just a bit to reach 3,000, because it took me 749 days to write the last thousand posts.

Still, I have made it and I have you, my faithful readers, to thank.

Normally I write about what I’ve done over the previous period of time, but today I’m going to write about my future. This seems the opportune moment to reveal a secret of sorts.

For the last couple years I have been on-again, off-again working on a book manuscript and it’s nearly done. I’m calling it So We May Breathe Free: Solutions From A Common Man (as a working title, although I may change it slightly.)

There was a period of time I actively sought an agent and traditional publisher, but after reading into the subject of actually writing books I found out the timeline for getting this to market would likely be long after the desired timeframe. Simply put I should have started on that road about 18-24 months ago. Obviously I didn’t.

So my idea is now to put this out as an e-book, whether through Kindle, Pubit, Smashwords, or someone similar. That way it’s released at the time I want it to be out in the public hands. Ideally, this would be around the end of July or early August. Aside from going over the final draft and doing about 3-4 pages of additional writing, the text is written.

Of course, I realize the odds of success are as long as the unemployment lines – somewhere I read that the average book sells fewer than 100 copies. I would hope all my readers buy the book so I can at least beat those odds. But I won’t sneeze at selling a million, either!

Yet there are a number of other factors which could lead to the success of the project. I’m not going so far as to do a Kickstarter campaign like my blogging friend Bob McCarty did – although a rattle of the tip jar would help – but I am looking for ideas and suggestions. Probably my biggest need is cover art, since I know the concept I want but don’t think I have the software to do it. If you have e-publishing experience, well, I have some questions for you too!

The other piece of the puzzle I think is necessary is for me to get the word out and market the book. Once I get the book released, I’ll be looking to spread the word through any means possible. If you need a radio guest, I’m your guy. Have some questions you need answered for a blog post? Fire away. I figure every new person I reach is another potential customer and I need a national base for this endeavor.

I’m hoping to have a number of new milestones in place by the time I get to post number 4,000. But one thing which will never change is my appreciation for the support I’ve received from my readers, and hopefully I’ll have a far larger family of them the next time I hit a thousandth post.

Shorebird of the Week – June 28, 2012

This young Dominican dominated two levels, one in his homeland and one stateside. But Miguel Chalas hadn’t gone through the rigors of a full season, and it was determined this spring that Delmarva would be that test.

Chalas, who turned 20 yesterday, has managed to survive a rough patch in the early season and is now rounding into a starter Ryan Minor can count on for quality starts. Over his last three Miguel has pitched to an ERA of exactly 2, giving up 18 hits in as many innings and allowing seven runs (six earned) during that stretch. It’s a run that has placed his overall ERA on the right side of 5 runs per nine innings after a tough April which saw him pick up three of his team-leading six wins but pitch to a 7.63 ERA – included in that was a horrific outing at Greensboro where he allowed 11 runs (7 earned) in just 2 1/3 innings.

As I noted above, Miguel had been dominant in his first two pro seasons, going 5-1, 1.78 for the Orioles team in the Dominican Summer League and 5-3, 2.93 for the GCL Orioles last season. He ended up making one start for Aberdeen last year, allowing three earned runs and seven hits in four innings (but striking out six.)

This year has been tougher but with a 6-3 record and 4.95 ERA, things are heading back in the right direction. Since that fateful April start, Miguel has gone just 3-2 but pitched to a more respectable 3.95 ERA with 23 strikeouts and 14 walks in 41 innings. His innings were limited early on as he shadowed Dylan Bundy in Dylan’s first couple starts, coming on after Bundy threw his three innings. It was a cheap way to get a decision but Miguel received a couple wins that way despite not pitching all that well in those instances.

Chalas looks to be someone Ryan Minor can count on in the second half, since he’s on a pace to perhaps throw 60 more innings in 10 or 11 more starts. If he can keep on course there’s no reason Miguel can’t make another jump next season and continue moving up the Oriole ladder.

It’s time for a change

One of the reasons I was a Herman Cain backer early on in the 2012 campaign was his wisdom on tax policy. On Monday he wrote a piece reminding us that a number of patchwork, temporary “fixes” to our income tax rates expire at the end of 2012, and could doom what little recovery we might be enjoying if nothing is done.

Of course, there is no foolproof solution, even with Cain’s 9-9-9 plan – soon enough it could be 12-12-12 or even 15-7-21. Pick three divergent numbers and you might be a winner in this Russian roulette-style lottery involving both personal and federal finances. But the same is true for a flat tax as well, and it’s still based on income rather than consumption.

But even when a consumption tax is enacted, the other key is spending the money wisely. Back in 2008 the state of Maryland raised its sales tax from 5% to 6%, ensuring the state another $500 million or so in revenue. The problem was that the money was spent even before it was collected, as a governor who’s never met a government program he didn’t like (or wish he’d dreamed of himself) blew every dime of that (and then some) on new programs.

Given our experience with sales taxes from around the country, I don’t see how the argument that we can’t predict revenue from a consumption tax can be posed. And even so, it’s not like we don’t make adjustments to a budget (that is, when we actually have one) based on the events which occur between the time of passage and the moment that last dime is spent at the stroke of midnight on September 30.

It’s relatively simple to figure out how to get out of these messes we find ourselves in. On a state level, each year the GOP works out a budget that addresses the structural deficit without raising taxes; meanwhile, it’s worthy of note that if we retreated our federal spending to the level of the last Bush budget (FY2009, excluding the stimulus added by President Obama) of $3.1 trillion, a large part of our deficit would be addressed. Yes a deficit $500 billion or so is still absurdly high but it’s better than the $1.4 trillion we’ll likely run in the hole when the fiscal year ends September 30.

Beyond the numbers, though, is the concept of why a consumption-based tax scares those in government: it returns control to the people. The amount of money sent to Washington isn’t necessarily as important as the behavior influence our current labyrinthine tax code provides these faceless, unelected bureaucrats. Examples of carrots include buying a home or certain types of consumer goods deemed better for the environment, while sticks are things like holding stocks for too short of a time or making income outside normal channels (to trigger the alternative minimum tax.) There’s no doubt that H&R Block and others in the tax preparation field are deathly afraid of what a consumption-based tax would do to their business as well.

Moreover, the government isn’t paid first with a consumption-based tax because backup withholding is eliminated. Backup withholding was supposed to be a temporary program, enacted in a time of national crisis. But just like any other “temporary” tax, we’ve been saddled with this enforced deduction ever since, even in peacetime. It’s a little more fair for the self-employed who pay in quarterly installments; still, these numbers are based on a previous tax year and not present income. Some have been led to pay far more than they owe because of income fluctuations, but under a consumption-based tax they can adjust accordingly.

Over my lifetime they have made a sport out of tinkering with the tax code – rates go up, rates come down, and cherished deductions are created and then rescinded. For example, credit card interest could once be deducted, but that was changed. Dare to tinker with the home mortgage interest deduction, though, and you’ll have a lobby full of realtors calling for your head. It’s hard to buck the system that too many have become cozy with inside the Beltway.

And it’s because of that system that we may face taxmageddon in 2013. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like much will change in the next four years, barring the unlikely event of FairTax proponent Gary Johnson becoming president. Any change will have to be led by Congress and demanded by a tireless, irate minority who are willing to give up some of those deductions they annually take advantage of to restore broader control to themselves. Only then can we begin to take the yoke off our necks and begin to enjoy more economic freedom.

Interview: U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino

Before I share what turned out to be an entertaining conversation of about 23 1/2 minutes with you, allow me a few observations.

First of all, let me set the stage: I spoke with Dan Friday morning before he would make a campaign trip out to Frostburg to speak about energy issues in a part of Maryland which could use the economic shot in the arm. As it turns out, I caught him in the couple hours of free time Dan semi-jokingly told me he was allowed during the day. So what was he doing? Putting together a crib for his infant daughter. It’s something a “regular guy” does, and I just can’t see Ben Cardin doing that even though he tries to make it look like he belongs on a waterman’s boat or is at home reading to kids.

I would have been happy with ten or fifteen minutes, but as I noted we ran about 23. So the background noises you will probably hear in this interview come from several sources: him building the crib, me shifting in my chair as I was recording this from the speaker of my cel phone, and my phone beeping from the fool who called me in the middle (no one I wanted to talk to.) My original thought was to transcribe the call, so there’s a little bit of small talk at the start and I hit record a couple seconds in. But after thinking about it, I decided the call was fine as an audio file. I didn’t figure it would hurt to keep the conversation as it was, warts and all. If I don’t edit or attempt to transcribe the conversation then you can’t accuse me of leaving anything out, right?

I’ve often argued I have a voice for print, and the reason I don’t do podcasts or my own radio show may be evident. So it was a relief to let him do most of the talking since you’re not listening to the interview to learn anything about me. All I wanted to do was touch on a few subjects, which I managed to do for the most part.

The interview is here, and depending on your browser and media player it will probably open in a new window. I wanted to thank Dan for taking the time to do this on fairly short notice and not needing to go through his media person.

I can also tell you that you have a chance to meet Dan in person this Saturday morning since he is scheduled to stop by the Delmarva Chicken Festival, which is being held behind the Centre of Salisbury in the grassy field along Naylor Mill Road. I look forward to seeing him again, and you should too.

Update: After you listen to the interview you may find this from Jim Jamitis worthwhile reading, too.