Richardcyoung.com Editor in Chief, E.J. Smith appeared on the Helen Glover Show on Talk Radio 920 WHJJ. E.J. discussed his latest article titled, Top 10 Reasons to Keep the Pressure On. Listen to the interview on demand at Talk Radio 920 WHJJ online. Don’t miss it!
No VAT Until All Costs are Cut – Dick Young
At National Review online today, Kevin D. Williamson broaches the nasty subject of whether or not taxes will need to be raised in order to balance the budget. Indiana governor Mitch Daniels recently mentioned that a VAT could help balance the budget. Even though Daniels was speaking in theoretical terms, Grover Norquist, with good reason, came out hard against the notion of raising taxes coming from a leader of the conservative movement.
I have maintained that a VAT, in conjunction with the current income tax system would be a brutal one-two punch on Americans. But as a replacement to the income tax a VAT may make more sense. Taxes based on consumption are inherently more fair to savers than taxes based on income. The VAT is similar in ways to a sales tax (like the Fair Tax), but the downside is that it is shared between many people along the supply chain, making its complete impact unknown to the final purchaser. That is the insidious part about a VAT, and the reason progressives are so eager to implement one. It is very easy to jack up a VAT tax without a major backlash from consumers. Inevitably when you read about a VAT, it is said that it would start at some low, single digit rate. That rate, once implemented, is easy to jack up.
If Daniels is going to play in the Federal sandbox, he needs to focus on ways to cut spending. That should be the focus of all conservatives today. With deficits ballooning and federal debt growth simply out of control, conservatives must focus on shrinking government, not finding new ways to finance it.
The Fed Still Stealing Your Money – Timothy Jones
As David Malpass writes in today’s Wall Street Journal, the president and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke “tried print-and-spend in trillion-dollar increments in 2009 and 2010, with no discernible improvement in unemployment.” What has all the money printing gotten America? A dollar with a vastly reduced value. All the weakening of the dollar hasn’t spurred job growth here in the U.S. The Chinese are hell bent on not allowing their currency to appreciate quickly compared to the dollar, and the other major competitors of U.S. manufacturers in Europe and Japan are not willing to see the dollar debased to steal all of their jobs either. This has led the world’s largest economies into what appears to be a currency debasement war, with the U.S. leading the way.
The problem for savers and those on a fixed income here in the U.S. is that currency debasement will leave them without a leg to stand on. Their purchasing power will be vastly diminished when the necessary bout of inflation follows the rapid expansion in money supply. As I wrote last week in my piece The Fed Steals Your Money, and in Mr. Malpass’ words “Near-zero interest rates are hammering savers, while transferring hundreds of billions of dollars annually to bond issuers—mostly governments, banks and bigger corporations.”
Voters must decide in November to eradicate from the halls of government those who are willing to destroy the value of Americans’ money and savings in order to pay for the vast projects they dream up for the ‘good’ of the people.
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