AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

Okir, I do not understand why you think taxing each individual"s gross income is "taxing production"! Employers will not have to pay the tax on individual gross income. Only each individual will pay the tax on their gross annual income. Production is in no way taxed by a flat tax on individual gross income. Produced goods, commodities, and services that come to market are in no way taxed by a tax on goss individual incomes.

By my definitions, an individual business owner's or share holder's gross income is the income s/he receives from their business or shares after paying all the business's operating expenses. An individual employee's gross income is the salary/commission/fee s/heI receives from their employer or employers.

Taxing an employee's compensation requires an employer pay a higher compensation to that employee to allow for that employee to be able to make a living wage.
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By simply applying this to a business of mine, if I did not have to pay income tax, I could charge considerably less for the products and services sold, thus resulting in less earned income, but which would result in the same or more than I currently have left after paying the income tax.

In Paul candidacy, a referendum on Tea Party ideas
(By Perry Bacon Jr., The Washington Post, May 18, 2010)

BOWLING GREEN, Ky -- Liberals have criticized the Tea Party movement as an amorphous, incoherent, possibly racist group of opponents of President Obama who are not offering an alternative agenda of their own.

But Rand Paul, the U.S. Senate candidate favored to win the Republican primary here, is offering a series of conservative positions that is one of the most detailed articulations yet of how Tea Party principles would translate into governing.

If Paul wins the primary, he would both defeat a Republican opponent who has cast these views as out of the mainstream and turn the election here this fall into a debate over the Tea Party's vision for the country.

Paul is full of ideas that neither of the two major political parties fully embrace, although many of his positions are in the Tea Party activists' policy document, which they have dubbed the "Contract from America."

If Rand Paul had his way, the federal government would no longer hand out subsidies to support farmers. The retirement age would be raised to make Social Security solvent. Senators could only serve 12 years in office. Congress would have to delay voting one day for every 20 pages of text in a bill so the public would have time to read and understand it. A section of every law passed would have to include an explanation of what part of the Constitution empowers Congress to act on the issue.

Members of Congress could not pick out parks or roads in their districts to fund, according to Paul's platform. Congress would have to balance its budget every year, a move that could result in billions of dollars in cuts to politically popular programs. Lawmakers would simply send money to states for education, instead of imposing a variety of rules on schools through the U.S. Department of Education, which Paul wants to eliminate. Companies that receive federal contracts for more than $1 million would be barred from lobbying or giving money to political action committees.

And on the campaign trail Monday, Paul hinted he might be the kind of senator who would block unemployment aid to people out of work if Congress didn't find other programs to cut to fund the benefits. He praised the man he is running to replace, retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), for taking up that cause earlier this year.

"There is a Tea Party platform and some people say, 'when you win the primary, you'll have to run away from the Tea Party," Paul told a crowd here. "I think the Tea Party represents a very mainstream message. If you poll Republicans, 70 to 80 percent are for term limits, but if you poll Democrats, 70 to 80 percent are for term limits."

Paul's opponent in the primary, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, said these positions would be a political problem in the general election if Paul were the GOP nominee.

"Democrats are salivating to run against a guy who can be portrayed as anti-farmer, anti-teacher and anti-Kentucky," Grayson said Monday.

If Paul came to Washington, he might have an even harder time with these ideas than on the campaign trail. Term limits and eliminating the Department of Education failed when Republicans pushed them after winning control of Congress in 1994, and party leaders have not put them back into the GOP platform since.

Raising the retirement age is controversial among older voters, making most politicians in both parties wary of the issue. Even Republicans in Congress refused to back Bunning's effort to force Congress to fund extending unemployment benefits.

But Paul dismisses the criticism that his ideas, or those of the broader movement of which he is part, are somehow impractical. Pressed by reporters here on Monday, he said that if Congress did not start the process for a constitutional amendment for term limits, he would call on the state legislature in Kentucky and other states to push the issue. (A constitutional amendment requires the backing of two-thirds of the members of both houses of Congress and three-fourths of the country's state legislatures).

Asked if he was "overpromising" to his supporters on the campaign trail, he said: "I am promising them exactly what I will do,"

"Nobody can guarantee victory," Paul said, arguing that his potential colleagues in Congress (if Paul is elected) could block his proposals. But, referring to his balanced budget proposal, he said, "I will introduce it and I will make it a national issue. I can't promise victory, but I promise I will make it part of the national discussion."

Okie, I cannot find any evidence that any taxes on personal incomes drive up the wage scales of anyone.

Therefore, I can find zero evidence that "personal income tax does most definitely equal the equivalent of taxing productivity, as it ends up being a cost of wages or labor." The cost of raxes on personal incomes is a cost on personal incomes. It is not a cost on productivity.

If all federal taxes were replaced by a uniform sales tax, the same would be true: the cost of the tax on personal expenditures would not be a cost on productivity.

If a tax on personal incomes were to be logically proven to be a tax on productivity, then it would have to logically follow that a tax on personal expenditures would have to also be a tax on productivity.

Employers pay salaries to their employees based on what the employee does for the employer and on competition for competent employees. Employers have not increased salaries because of increased taxes on salaries. Likewise, they have not decreased salaries because of decreased taxes on salaries.

Democrats relish Paul's GOP win in Ky. Senate race
(By BRUCE SCHREINER and ROGER ALFORD, Associated Press, May 19, 2010)

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. " Democratic leaders were relishing the Republican primary victory of tea party candidate Rand Paul, suggesting he will be an easy target for them in November for Kentucky's U.S. Senate seat.

In a closely watched race across the country as a test of the tea party movement's strength, Paul easily defeated GOP establishment favorite Trey Grayson Tuesday night, garnering about 59 percent of the vote.

Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Sen. Robert Menendez, said he believes Paul is better for Democrats to face in the general election. He said there is a stark contrast between Rand and his opponent, state Attorney General Jack Conway.

"Rand Paul would abolish the Department of Education, would disband the Federal Reserve, and would end farm subsidies for Kentucky's farmers," Menendez said in a statement. "Rand Paul may love the national media spotlight but he has shown no interest in growing Kentucky's economy or creating new jobs."

Paul insisted Republicans will unite in the November election in a state where he said President Barack Obama was less popular than ever. He told the CBS "Early Show" he's already been talking with Republican party officials about working together and expects to draw support from independent voters, too.

"The tea party message is popular well outside the Republican Party," Paul said on CBS early Wednesday.

Conway won a hard-fought primary with 44 percent of the vote to Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo's 43 percent. Mongiardo barely lost six years ago to retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning. Conway pointed out to supporters about his chances in the fall that he drew nearly 221,000 votes to Paul's 192,000 across the state.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine called Paul an "extreme candidate" who used a small part of the electorate to win over Grayson, but not in the fall.

"Rand Paul's positions fail to resonate beyond the far-right Republican segment of the electorate that supported him tonight," said Kaine.

For his part, Paul sounded unwavering in his conservative views heading into the race against Conway.

"People are already saying now you need to weave and dodge, now you need to switch," Paul said in his victory speech. "Now you need to give up your conservative message. You need to become a moderate. You need to give up the tea party. ... The tea party message is not a radical message. It's not an extreme message. What is extreme is a $2 trillion deficit."

Paul, the son of Texas congressman and former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, struck a chord with conservative Republican voters frustrated with soaring budget deficits. Paul promised to vote only for a balanced budget, to eliminate congressional earmarks and to institute term limits. Grayson said it isn't practical to vote only for a balanced budget, objected to the elimination of earmarks and opposed term limits.

Paul's win gives a tea party activist a key win in a statewide election that could embolden the fledgling political movement in other states. The Kentucky election was being watched around the country, especially after tea party activists helped to defeat three-term Sen. Bob Bennett in Utah and forced Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to abandon the GOP to make an independent run for the Senate.

GOP Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, sees Paul as a strong candidate in contrast to Conway who, Cornyn said, "has made clear that he will serve as another rubber stamp for President Obama."

"If he makes it to Washington, voters can expect Conway to simply perpetuate the Democrats' failed record of higher taxes, skyrocketing job loss, and bloated government bureaucracy."

Paul began the race as a long shot against Grayson, the perceived front-runner in the race to replace Bunning, a 78-year-old former major league pitcher who opted not to seek a third term under pressure from Republican leaders who considered him politically vulnerable. Bunning ended up bucking them by endorsing Paul.

Bunning clearly relished Paul's victory, calling him a "strong conservative who will be his own man in Washington and work to end the bailouts, stop wasteful spending."

In his victory speech, Paul embraced the tea party movement while continuing to bash the way Washington does business.

"The tea party movement is huge," Paul told cheering supporters gathered at the Bowling Green country club. "The mandate of our victory tonight is huge. I think America's greatness hinges on us doing something to save the country. The tea party movement is about saving the country from a mountain of debt that is devouring our country and I think could lead to chaos."

Conway, 40, used his victory speech to try to portray Paul as outside the mainstream.

"We have a fundamental decision to make in this most important of Senate races," Conway said. "Are we going to use that passion to heat the building? Or are we going to use that passion to burn it down?"

The libertarian-leaning Ron Paul, who celebrated with his son, said the outcome signaled that "the country is shifting in our direction." Asked what message his son's victory sent to Republicans, the elder Paul said, "They ought to pay close attention to the grass roots."

Paul, a Bowling Green eye surgeon, tapped into his father's national political base to keep pace with Grayson in fundraising.

Paul had the backing of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Paul's victory is a "wake up call for the country."

"This is a real time of awakening for America," she said. "We have an opportunity to not embrace the status quo but to shake things up."

The state's GOP establishment immediately rallied around Paul, with Grayson and McConnell both pledging to rally behind him.

"We'll be standing side by side on Saturday at the unity rally," Grayson said, referring to an upcoming Republican rally in Frankfort.

Tea party activist Bobby Alexander of Elizabethtown, who attended Paul's victory party, said he liked Paul's focus on lower government spending.

"We're looking for a conservative candidate that will bring the government back to the people, and I think Rand is the one ... that will do that," Alexander said.

By my definitions, an individual business owner's or share holder's gross income is the income s/he receives from their business or shares after paying all the business's operating expenses.

Big wins for the tea party movement!
Fellow Patriots,

The tea party movement took some hits tonight, but also came out strong in other areas.

Here’s the briefing on this evening’s elections.

Kentucky
Rand Paul came away with a stunning win in his primary race against establishment backed Grayson. Polls showed an almost dead tie in the race, yet Paul is currently out front by almost 25%!

This was a huge blow to the NRSC and the national Republican establishment, and a huge win for tea party activists across Kentucky.

Arkansas
Tim Griffin pulled off a big win in Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District Primary, and will likely get out endorsement next week (pending our advisory board’s approval).

Pennsylvania
We’ve supported Pat Toomey for Senate since late 2009, and we were happy to see him perform strong in his primary tonight. Pat Toomey will go on to face Joe Sestak in the general election in November.

Tim Burns, the underdog Republican in the race for the late Murtha’s seat, lost his bid for the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th district. Burns did, however, win his primary race and will advance on the the general election in November.

The night was in no way perfect by any means, but there was plenty of success to point at and be proud of movement performance.

No matter where in the system the tax is extracted, it will ultimately affect the entire economic system, but I still tend to think taxing consumption makes more sense than taxing productivity, labor, wages, or earnings. My primary reason for this is the fact that what you tax more, you get less of, thats just a basic principle, and so I although I dislike all taxes, if we have to do it, I would prefer taxing consumption than I would taxing productivity, because I think it would be a healthier and more fair system for society.