Quote of the week
"I'd rather have a tax-and-spend Democrat than a print-and-spend Republican." - my colleague Kris. Not sure I necessarily agree, but I still like it.
Also, a brief response to David Ignatius: No. Next question.
Song lyric of the day:
"Skeletons ain’t got nowhere to stick their money
Nobody makes britches that size"
- Drive-By Truckers, A Ghost to Most
Also, a brief response to David Ignatius: No. Next question.
Song lyric of the day:
"Skeletons ain’t got nowhere to stick their money
Nobody makes britches that size"
- Drive-By Truckers, A Ghost to Most
7 Comments:
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I'm a little more optimistic than Andy. I think the right candidate could tell the truth and get elected; their biggest challenge would be handling the media. None of these are that candidate.
Also, I'd much rather a Democrat taxing us into the ground. Much.
Finally, how is it possible that you always have such amazing song quotes? It's eerily how almost every time you manage to quote whatever it is I've been listening to lately. Well done sir. Well done.
I dunno, I guess I'm just that awesome. Or possibly I'm stalking you. Which would be quite a feat since I'm not even sure what you look like.
I really don't like taxes, especially when they are spent foolishly, but I think ultimately we as a country are better off spending money we have than money we don't.
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Simple Answer - laws enforced (on my end that would be minimum wage, overtime, anti-discrimination laws, workplace safety, etc.), soldiers paid and armed, environment protected, civil rights protected, treaties negotiated, general foreign relations maintained, highways maintained (actually, I can't remember whether federal gov't or states do that), homeland security, so on and so forth.
In other words, government serving its functions.
I could do without the government doing some of what it does (like, say, the War on Drugs doesn't actually keep anybody who wants drugs from getting them), and I'm sure Andy and Mike could think of many more government programs that, in their analysis, are unnecessary. (It all goes to what you think the function of government is.).......but to dismiss every bit of the government doing its job as undifferentiated "red tape" is meaningless and does nothing to further that analysis.
On the highways maintained, I believe interstates are federal and everything else is state/local.
But yeah, for the most part you're right, particularly on the military expenditures (I scoff at those who decry the size of our defense budget - we still can't/don't pay some of our soldiers a living wage).
However, I will agree with Andy that the government has expanded the reasons for taxation beyond what I would call acceptable limits. And there is a lot of bureaucracy that can be whittled down.
In other words, like with most things, the key is moderation.
Great summary Ben.
I know the federal government gives some money for roads, because that's how they enforced 21 as the nationwide drinking age; if a state wanted it lower, then they couldn't get federal funds for their roads.
As for the excessive bureaucracy issue, I agree that there's too much red tape and things aren't done as effeciently as they should be. But I hold out faith that they could be done more effeciently by the government. There's a floating perception that private enterprise is necessarily more effecient than government, but I don't accept that proposition.
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