1 vs. 100

Well, okay, it’s not quite on the scale of the game show but one has to snicker at the thought of covering a protest in front of Andy Harris’s office that draws 20 people. Shoot, the TEA Party got more than that to go to former Congressman Frank Kratovil’s office, brought a noose, and still couldn’t get any local media attention besides local bloggers like me. Never mind that we’d get 300 or 400 for a nice local gathering, whether in the bright sunshine or pouring rain.

The local blogger in this instance is Ron Pagano, who lists his occupation as a writer. But quite frankly I’d never heard of his blog until yesterday and I thought I kept up on these things fairly well. But God love him for trying.

Still, the bromides repeated yesterday are the same old tired left wing garbage spewing from the people who are occupying Wall Street and other cities unfortunate enough to have protesters escape their parents’ basements.

For example, our corporations pay among the highest tax rates in the world – so what incentive is there for a large corporation to be here when they can get a tax break by moving overseas? Instead, he wants to pass yet another stimulus-style act which is supposedly “paid for” by taxing the rich. Ron, did you notice how well that worked in Maryland?

And I love the chant: “One, two, three, four … pay your taxes like the poor … five, six, seven, eight … budget cuts are what we hate.” Seems to me that a 35% tax rate on the wealthier taxpayers is a little higher than the 10% on the poorest, who also get an earned income credit so they pay little or no tax. So why do the top 1 percent of income earners make 22% of the income yet pay 40 percent of the taxes? Isn’t that steeply progressive enough?

And as far as budget cuts, I suppose these lefties like a national debt that continues to climb beyond our annual gross domestic product – remember, we already borrow 43 cents of every dollar we spend. I guess they would just like to make that a nice round 50 cents or even 60 to 70, because you can’t tax the wealthy at confiscatory rates and expect them to take it in the shorts. Ask Warren Buffett about Berkshire Hathaway’s willingness to pay its “fair share.”

(I will give them credit for one thing, though, since at least the chant rhymes.)

This dose of reality is for you, Ron. The best way to make taxation fair for everyone is a consumption-based tax – otherwise, we’ll always see those Wall Street fat cats (who, by the way, supported YOUR choice for President to the tune of $22 million and climbing these last two election cycles) keep lobbying for loopholes and other methods to shift their tax burden to everyone else. If they want to buy shiny, new things then let them pay the FairTax.

Reality number two: we need to cut the federal budget, because every federal dollar spent is one the private sector (you know, the people who create jobs by doing useful things and making useful stuff, not pushing pencils and writing worthless regulations) cannot use. And maybe we can get some lobbyists to acquire an honest living instead of shilling for various special interests.

I think it’s very realistic that we can eliminate at least $1 trillion from the federal budget immediately, and eventually bring it down to a manageable level over the next several decades by sunsetting entitlement programs. Yep, let’s put an end to the Ponzi scheme of Social Security and let Medicare wither on the vine.

(I’ll pause for a minute to allow you to pick up the pieces of your head, because I know it just exploded at that thought.)

We have tried it your way for over EIGHTY years, and not only did it prolong a depression, your way practically destroyed a whole race of people, created a huge dependent class, and defined deviancy down. Methinks it’s time for a reversal, so let our side have a few decades to clean up the absolute mess you made; one which makes Zucotti Park look like a church picnic.

Leave Andy Harris alone. If anything, he’s softened his approach a little bit more than it was back in the days he served in the Maryland Senate (and was the monoblogue Accountability Project’s 2007 Legislator of the Year.) Still, having another couple hundred like him in the House and maybe thirty in the Senate would place this nation in far better shape than the sorry excuses for representatives most of the rest of the people in Maryland have to put up with, particularly in the U.S. Senate. Shoot, Frank Kratovil would rather be a judge than try and run against Andy this time – maybe Frank’s wiser than what I gave him credit for, or it proves that serving just one term in Congress doesn’t work like hitting the lottery.

In the meantime, maybe we TEA Partiers will have to show you what a real protest looks like, for old times’ sake.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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