SPLOST Tax and Sebastian Bach with the Cowboy Junkies?

Way back when, in December we were cutting our teeth on how to blog. We blogged about SPLOST Taxes, if you remember SPLOST are special purpose local-option sales tax where the population gets to vote on whether or not to pay a tax for something. We thought it might be time for us to think about what things we would like to vote on whether or not to pay taxes for.

1. The U.S. Government gave some people with a lot of letters behind their names at Columbia University $606,000 to do a study on the effects of online dating. We would like a chance to do a study on the trend moving to dating over the iPhone and whether or not someone who uses an Android is compatible with an iPhone user. For $600K we could even do a follow up on whether or not modern Blackberry users will end up as spinsters with a dozen cats. However, if we are not to be awarded this chunk of change, then we would like to vote no on this spending.

2. The U.S. Government gave $55,660 to Kriemhild Dairy Farms to pay for packaging for their butter. This definitely should have gotten the people's approval. It would have been acceptable for Country Crock, but anything else is Government waste.

3. Ottawa paid $83,000 to promote a Bluegrass festival in New Richmond. Considering that Bluegrass is a southern Appalachian phenomena, Quebec possessing a small bit of the mountain range is no reason to drop that kind of cheddar by the government. The only feasible reason for Ottawa to shell out $83,000 to promote a music festival would be if it featured Sebastian Bach fronting for the Cowboy Junkies. Then it would be justifiable.

An Obligatory post on the State of the Union

At one point in his speech President Obama said, “Most Americans are thinking the same thing right now: Nothing will get done this year.” One thing that certainly shall not come to pass this year is President Obama's sweeping tax reforms.

President Obama kept harping on fairness and greater income equality. This was largely rebuffed by Republicans as wealth redistribution. Regardless of the merits of the arguments or counter arguments it points to the fact that the American government is still deeply divided over taxes. Considering that America was largely founded because of not wanting to pay taxes this should hardly be surprising.

Let's face the facts. Nobody likes to pay taxes. When tax season comes around it is generally a depressing time. More so for those who make the most money because they have to pay the most. We aren't talking about percentages here. 10% of of $25,000 is $2500 and a burden to those who make so little. But 10% of $2,500,000 amounts to people having to write a check for $250,000 dollars and regardless of how much you make that hurts to write. We know. We've seen pictures on Flickr.

Given this revelation that we've just dropped on you, we figure we ought to look at what $250,000 dollars could buy if it weren't wasted in paying taxes to a government that will argue over how to spend it to the point that the money will inevitably end up as salary for some bureaucrat somewhere, probably in China. I learned that from Glenn Beck's monumental work entitled Scare Tactics 101.

$250,000 can buy you the steering wheel and gearshift of a Bugatti Veyron.

$250,000 could buy you an experience in which you give out hundred pound notes to the homeless in Manchester with Mario Balotelli. In other Italian news it could buy you twenty minutes at one of Silvio Berlusconi's parties.

$250,000 could buy you 25 or more houses in Detroit, though the property taxes would be prohibitive.

$250,000 could buy you one thousand shares (give or take) of National Bank of Greece. If Europe can satisfactorily avoid a Greek default this investment could make you a millionaire many times over. If not, you could use the shares as wallpaper for your 25 Detroit houses.

$250,000 could be spent in record time by Terrell Owens. It would make your head spin to see him rifle through the cash.

If you and 19 of your friends got together you could bet against Birdman's $5,000,000 bet on the Patriots to win the Superbowl. My gosh that is a gambling problem....

Or, if you are like me, you could purchase 125,000 copies of the Kindle version of the Monadology by your philosopher of note.

It seems as though we must wear the hair shirt tonight....

Throw the full weight behind it Mr President!

In a speech recently President Obama has called for American businesses to bring home jobs from overseas to aid the American public. He has called, not for an end of outsourcing, but rather an end to the tax breaks that companies get for outsourcing jobs. This is a type of protectionism that should not be done. Make the tax code simpler. But, targeting multinationals for being multinational will hurt American business in general and by proxy, the American workers that President Obama is looking to help. However, the Obama administration has pushed through some good ideas on the revitalization of the American job market that the government should continue forward with, regardless of who is at the helm come January 2013.

For years many countries around the world have had national agendas to bring jobs to their countries. It has worked tremendously. For all the talk about ideas whose time has come that the 99% and Occupy movements keep chanting about the idea of Globalization has come and is entrenched now to the point that there is no real utility in arguing against it. But, as other countries have created effective national plans to draw companies to them, the US government has deferred this power to the State level. Monster economies like California, Texas and New York probably have the firepower to compete with emerging markets like Brazil, India and some of the African growth nations. But how does Delaware fare in a battle against Russia for an information software company? If the Russian government can offer its whole commitment to a company, the company would be foolish to take the scant resources that Delaware might be able to offer it. By no means however is this to be skewed as some sort of besmirchment of The Small Wonder, only a realization that the playing field is not level. But, when a federal American government is able to push forth a bid against Russia (and the bids are not judged by Sepp Blatter and his cronies) the fight is fairer.

One thing I would say about this modus operandi. The American federal government must actively pursue the interests of the American people as a whole. Pushing for one state is not the best way forward. The American government should pursue the multinational corporations in a way that makes the most sense. If a company were to need a large place with access to fresh water the American government should not be offering major tax incentives to the company to open a plant in the Mojave Desert. It should work with states to get them the best fit of companies. Then people can move to where the jobs that best suits their talents exist. One of the things that has made America the great nation that it is, is the mobility of its people. Today people look to live in areas where they get the most amenities or entertainment that suits them, rather than searching for the jobs that best suit their talents. Of course this mobility has been made more difficult by the astronomical cost of owning a home, but that is an entirely different topic.

Junk Food Tax

The Peruvian Deputy Health Minister Enrique Jacoby has claimed that unhealthy eating has cost Peru $8 Billion dollars per year. Considering the GDP of Peru is $153.84 Billion that's a big chunk at just over 5%. Jacoby claims that if anything can hamper the growth of this South American nation it is the loss of human capital due to diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. So, the government is now considering on imposing a tax on junk food.

This has some people up in arms including a Peruvian chef by the name of Gaston Acurio. Gaston, when he was a lad ate four dozen eggs every morning to help him grow large. Now that he's grown he eats five dozen eggs so he's roughly the size of a barge. He claims that the tax will be applied arbitrarily and confusingly. He opines that fried chicken in a restaurant will get taxed but the fried chicken sold in the market won't. Regardless though anyone who has ever tasted a Butifarra in the barrios of Huacho will be more than willing to pony up the extra cash to continue to enjoy this delicious sandwich. Ah my mouth is watering just thinking about it...

The Tea Party Caucus - Rand Paul

Last time on our journey through the Tea Party Express we had a look at Jim DeMint. For this time, as the Iowa Caucuses comes to a full head tomorrow, we'll look at Rand Paul who has joined his father and presidential hopeful, Ron Paul. This seems a fitting time to continue our general overview of the Tea Party Caucus with a couple of thoughts on the younger Paul.

Rand Paul, the senator from Kentucky, styles himself as a constitutional conservative. Like his father, he is a trained doctor turned politician. The younger Paul cut his political teeth on an issue that has become near and dear to the Tea Party movement, taxes. Mr. Paul was the founder of Kentucky Taxpayers United that has kept tabs on legislators' records on taxing and spending. I'm sure that the KTU was conscience in their choice of the word "united" over "union". If they had gone by the name Kentucky Taxpayers Union the group would have been disavowed as being some sort of liberal, secular bastion of tax and spenders, even if they had observed their current conservative opinions. Such is the nonsensical emphasis on rhetorical devices of this age.

But, both Pauls are on a whistlestop tour of Iowa at the moment trying to churn up as much support for the elder Paul as possible. So our focus today will be on this and what the younger Paul is hoping to achieve in Iowa. Ron Paul is currently second in the Iowa polls, trailing Mitt Romney. Mr. Romney faces no challenge from Ron in moderate circles and this probably does not bother Rand too much as he sees moderates as being big government types whom conservatives ought to be wary of. So, Rand's focus is not on Mitt whose supporters are unlikely to cozy up to the libertarian candidate anyway. Rand is instead looking to stop the recently surging Rick Santorum. Rand has criticized Santorum's support of the expansion of Medicare, the No Child Left Behind Act and for the Department of Education.

Victor Hugo once said something to the effect of, "nothing can stop an idea whose time has come". The reform of the healthcare system in America is such an idea. It's time has come and reform must take place, one way or the other. However, instead of focusing on the insurmountably large topic of Medicare on a short blog post, we'll focus rather on Rand's criticism of Santorum's education stances.

Rand has decried Mr. Santorum's support of the No Child Left Behind Act, which is common political fodder from both sides of the aisle. However, Rand goes further with his devolution of power in his criticism for Santorum's support for the Department of Education. In criticizing this, Rand claims that he is against the Department of Education because there is no "function on the federal level" for it. This is a bold claim and one worth great amounts of time to deliberate on. Therefore, I offer this next paragraph to form a well-guided opinion.

On the positive side of things, decentralizing education power would give more autonomy to the states and local municipalities that actually educate. Any time the bureaucracy is cut to become more efficient the results should be a positive one. In some sense allowing local governments to provide local services like education makes perfect sense. However, education sometimes must be considered in a costs based way as well. Teachers today work for piddling salaries in comparison with the work that they do. The Department of Education at the federal level commands a much greater revenue (eek taxes) than any local municipality could garner. This economy of scale type thing makes it necessary to handle at the bigger, and hence, federal level.

Today's assessment of Rand Paul and his ideas has both positives and negatives, as should all honest assessments of politicians from both sides of the aisle. The ideal to make a more nimbler, efficient and local government is laudable. The current trend of throwing more and more money at the Department of Education has proved to be ineffective and unsustainable. Paul's decentralized solution to it (as is his wont on most issues) though would cause too great of a financial strain on education. It would create the best of times and the worst of times dependent upon the affluence of a municipality. This would only further increase a sense of have and have-nots. But, decentralizing should not be thrown out either, it just shouldn't be applied to education

Georgian SPLOST vs. Even better, Optional Taxes

I recently read in the December 10th issue of The Economist about this thing called a "special purpose local-option sales tax" or SPLOST for short. Basically what is happening is the local Georgian government is setting a ballot initiative to allow voters to decide whether or not they want to take on a tax to pay for badly needed infrastructure. I thought that the idea was rather brilliant, but didn't go quite far enough. More on this in a second. However, the Tea-Party Republicans have come out strongly against the list for a number of reasons.

Firstly, they are against it because the list of projects that were announced for the ballot lacked oversight. Secondly, it is poorly planned. These are absolutely valid objections that ought to be heard. Third, it violates county sovereignty. This reason might have been valid recently, but I think that the communication ability between constituents and their representatives is so great nowadays that this objection carries less and less weight. In bygone days when constituents would only see their state leaders during election times it was important to maintain county sovereignty. But today there are such little barriers between someone in Fayette County (whom the Economist cited) and Atlantan politicians that a strong county government is no longer necessary. It is a 45 minute drive from Fayetteville to Atlanta. Likewise, the days when politicians can simply say, "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" are long gone. A strong local government simply isn't as necessary today. But, I'll reluctantly grant that some local county sovereignty issues are raised for locally-minded individuals.

Their final reason for opposing the procedure is one that cannot be valid in a vibrant democracy. The Tea Party Republicans' final point of contention is that creation of a rail network invites terrorist activities. Even if this is an absolute truth, the moment that Americans begin to withhold progress out of fear of terrorism, then terrorism has a de facto victory and forced genuflection of the American people.

Moving on from the serious to the flippant, as I said earlier however, the dosage of direct democracy in this Georgian measure is not enough. Georgia ought to take a look at how well direct democracy has played out in California. Offer the public a chance to pay for the infrastructure. If they choose to pay the 1 cent sales tax, send them a thank you card with a toll deferring sticker for their cars or a discount card for the aforementioned railway. If they opt out of the tax send them a card that exempts them from the 1 cent tax, but not a discount card. Obviously both of these, the opt out card or the discount card would have to be a state issued picture ID. Thus, solving another contentious issue for Tea Party fellows, the extreme danger of voter fraud.

Tax chicken, not chicken tax

Recently we have talked about the cold war era Chicken Tax and the payroll tax extension, specifically how it was not a good idea to try and force a stalemate on this issue. The house Republicans however did not heed my thoughts and decided to play a game of chicken with the Senate and President Obama. The House Republicans blinked first. The payroll tax extension went through today in spite of Tea Party grumbling. This was the right call. It is a shame that the House Republicans tried to politicize this and their gamble did not pay off very well. But, as I optimistically wrote, the payroll tax extension went through.

The Guardian has a colorful, if not brutish description of Tea party bran muffins and the effect it had on John Boehner's digestive track to describe the situation that I appreciated very much. Check it out here. Colorful rhetoric aside, a little humility from the House Republicans might spur on some more cooperation in Washington.

Constant defense and Payroll tax

Hanover Line I-II

With all this talk of chicken tax and irony and more tax it got me thinking about governance and politics. Specifically, American governance and politics. Incredibly, a two-party system designed to check and balance each other is working by checking each other. The bicameralism is even working really well right now with House Republicans blocking the Senate. Fair play to the defensive maneuvering! Cheers.

However, while I'd like to be optimistic about the incredible defense we have seen in the past year by both sides of the aisle I have to admit that it has all been rather dull and unimaginative. Democrats propose one thing, Republicans block it, Democrats get angry and complain loudly. Republicans propose another thing, Democrats scoff and block it, Republicans cry foul. There's little agreement on any topic these days in Washington, which is fine. We should have these debates. Single party domination has never worked. Just ask the continually growing China. Their united front has not worked one bit.

Poor tasting jokes aside though, the recent blocking of the payroll tax extension by John Boehner and company in the House after the Senate passed it 89-10 is incredible for all the wrong reasons. The argument that the two month deal simply pushes the problem down the road to be dealt with later is 100% true. By only passing the two month deal the American government will have to deal with it again, in two months. However, if anyone truly believes that is why they are going this course they are not doing their due diligence as concerned American citizens. The move is completely political, meant to bend the left side of the government to their whims.

The political and economic environment of the times demands short-term fixes. Of course, a one-year deal is better suited to the American public because it provides stability. However, a two-month deal is infinitely preferable to no deal at all. When constant posturing and political maneuvering replaces actual governance the legislative branch must accept temporary deals. Unfortunately, many of the Tea Party Republicans are showing a lack of wisdom. Compromise in methodology is not a compromise in ideology. Everyone agrees on this one, left, right and center - the payroll tax needs to be extended to help Americans. In this climate, temporary fixes might be all that is achievable. That's pragmatism. Anyone remember it?

All this blame however should not be shouldered by House Republicans. The disagreements go too far now and politics has become increasingly nasty. I wonder though if politics has always been this nasty but because of the internet more people have a forum. 295 years ago I, a famous and well-versed philosopher would have the ear of all of Europe, but would the mere blogist (I understand that the term is blogger, but I think blogist has a better ring to it)? Everyone can comment on everything now and spew unthoughtful responses at the speed of their typing fingers. But, this digression distracts me from the task at hand, heaping coals upon the heads of the legislative branch of the United States. Where was I?

Oh yes, the House Republicans are not the only one to blame in this. While this obstructionism is coming from them this time the response of many Democrats has not been helpful. Why are the Democrats and Republicans unable to get along and work out legislation these days? Because they are too busy with populist demagoguery. This is a populist move to drum up anger in the Tea Party wing of the Republican base. Unfortunately though the loss will be for people of all bases...

However, all this negativity is nonsense. Eventually, the tactic will work or fail. Because of the importance of this tax break the extension will happen. Then both sides will take credit for pushing the deal through and we'll throw a parade. Undoubtedly, somebody will protest the parade. In a strange and ironic twist though, the protesters will then be occupied by other protesters. In all of this active protesting there will be a lot iPod, iPad and Android app creation dealing with the measuring of angst and depression. Somebody will pick up on this and get funded to do research on the connection between legislative gridlock and seasonal depression. Researchers will pay people to participate in the study, pumping money into the economy. Drug companies will design the correct drug for the condition, creating jobs, thus pumping money into the economy. Lawyers will sue the drug company for creating a drug with a unreported side-effect, creating wealth and most importantly distracting the American public from the continuing political stalemate in Washington. A win for everybody!

Hannover 96 and Chicken Tax

Hanover Line I-I

I have discovered that Hannover 96 are a much better squad than VfB Leipzig. Hannover 96 currently sit 7th in the Bundesliga and are already through the qualifying stages of the Europa League! They play Club Brugge of the Jupiler League on February 16, 2012. Let's go Die Roten! But again, I did not come to talk Football. I have come to begin my Hanover line of thinking.

Since the Saxony line began with art, I feel I must steer clear of that topic in the Hanover line. While the lines can think on the same thing, it would be improper to start both at the same thinking point. Why? I haven't the slightest of clues, but it seem silly to me to have two lines of thinking on the same topic. Do you disagree?

Traipsing in Leipzig seemed to be a wash so I didn't do the same in Hanover. Nor did I get over to the pub in time to hear such wonderful intellectual stimuli. So, I did what every pseudointellectual does these days, wikipedia and google. Google news is truly and archivist's dream. When I clicked on the news for Hannover, Germany I found articles reading "Yanks moving on Hannover" (April 10, 1945), "Scarlett O'Hara flies from New Orleans to Hannover, West Germany (April 23, 1962) and "Hannover Re expects big loss from oil rig mishap in Gulf" (April 28, 2010) in random order. However, I must conclude that the news happens a lot in April in Hannover and not much the other eleven months based on my two minute scientific inquiry.

I then realized that the Transporter T5 was produced by the Volkswagen factory in Hannover. That seems a perfect place to start the Hanover line of thinking. (I'm sorry but I will interchange Hannover and Hanover throughout my thought processes for no particular reason). The T5 is a neat little auto, and the Volkswagen California Beach (a type of T5) is really cool looking. It could be a spaceship if a rocket were added to it. But, alas, when I went to buy one for my time in the States I found I could not on account of the chicken tax.

The chicken tax was a cold-war era tax stemming from the little known, but very dangerous cold war phenomena known as the "Chicken War". The tax still exists on vehicles classified as light trucks. The Volkswagen California is a light truck and thus would incur a 25% tax immediately upon entry to the states. In layman's terms this means no Volkswagen California for reincarnated Leibniz.

But, as I studied this tax I found that it could be circumvented (as all taxes can be these days). Ford, ostensibly a company the US government designed the tax to protect, actually builds the Ford Transit Connect in Turkey and then imports it to the United States, where it then cuts pieces off of the light truck in Baltimore to get around the dreaded chicken tax. Ironic. Unfortunately, I found that there were no such plans for chopping the California in some seedy Baltimore back alley, reiterating the fact that their will be no Leibnizian California Dreamin' anytime soon.

Join me next time when we move from Chicken Tax to some other form of Tax, Tax loopholes, or Irony in the Hannover line of thinking. Whatever the topic will be, it will be optimistic as we eliminate pessimism from among us.