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Thu 8 Sep, 2005 09:31 am
I nominate Grover Norquist as one of the most evil and destructive men in America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist
In a recent column, Tom Friedman said of Norquist,
"An administration (Bush) whose tax policy has been dominated by the toweringly selfish Grover Norquist - who has been quoted as saying: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub" - doesn't have the instincts for this moment. Mr. Norquist is the only person about whom I would say this: I hope he owns property around the New Orleans levee that was never properly finished because of a lack of tax dollars. I hope his basement got flooded. And I hope that he was busy drowning government in his bathtub when the levee broke and that he had to wait for a U.S. Army helicopter to get out of town."
BBB
What is evil about wanting small government? Does that make me evil too?
Neal Boortz
I first became aware of Neal Boortz when he was interviewed on C-SPAN Washington Journal call-in program. One particular thing really irked me. When a caller opined that his tax elimination proposals would heart of people. Boortz, who obviously as a bias in favor of the rich, snarled back that the called shouldn't play the class warfare card. This bit of hypocrisy from the premier class warfare advocate for the rich was disgusting. Every time someone speaking for other than the rich raises the resulting inequity, the Boortz of the world cried "Class warfare!"
---BBB
Neal Boortz, the arrogant snooty version of Rush Limbaugh, is right up there with Grover Norquist on my list of the most evil men in America.
Neal Boortz is an attorney and the host of radio's The Neal Boortz Show, syndicated in nearly two hundred markets from coast to coast. Also the author of The Terrible Truth About Liberals, Neal has twice been nominated for the National Association of Broadcasters' Marconi Award as the nation's number one radio talk-show host. He divides his time between Atlanta, Georgia, and Naples, Florida.
Editorial Reviews of Boortz's latest book:
Book Description
Wouldn't you love to abolish the IRS ...
Keep all the money in your paycheck ...
Pay taxes on what you spend, not what you earn ...
And eliminate all the fraud, hassle, and waste of our current system?
Then the FairTax is for you. In the face of the outlandish American tax burden, talk-radio firebrand Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder are leading the charge to phase out our current, unfair system and enact the FairTax Plan, replacing the federal income tax and withholding system with a simple 23 percent retail sales tax on new goods and services. This dramatic revision of the current system, which would eliminate the reviled IRS, has already caught fire in the American heartland, with more than six hundred thousand taxpayers signing on in support of the plan.
As Boortz and Linder reveal in this first book on the FairTax, this radical but eminently sensible plan would end the annual national nightmare of filing income tax returns, while at the same time enlarging the federal tax base by collecting sales tax from every retail consumer in the country. The FairTax, they argue, would transform the fearsome bureaucracy of the IRS into a more transparent, accountable, and equitable tax collection system. Among other benefits, it will:
Make America's tax code truly voluntary, without reducing revenue
Replace today's indecipherable tax code with one simple sales tax
Protect lower-income Americans by covering the tax on basic necessities
Eliminate billions of dollars in embedded taxes we don't even know we're paying.
Bring offshore corporate dollars back into the U.S. economy
Endorsed by scores of leading economists and supported by a huge and growing grassroots movement, the FairTax Plan could revolutionize the way America pays for itself. In this straight-talking book, Neal Boortz and John Linder show you how it would work -- and how you can help make it happen.
JP
jpinMilwaukee wrote:What is evil about wanting small government? Does that make me evil too?
JP, if the shoe fits.....
I bet you are glad you don't live along the Gulf Coast. I wonder what you would get when you call for help from your "small government"?
BBB
First of all... my name isn't joe.
Second of all, one of my favorite things about living in the midwest is not having to worry about hurricanes, earthquakes (earthquakes are a possibility but much less of one then other places), tidal waves, tsunamis, deteriorating coastlines or any other of mother natures finest that wreak havoc on coastlines.
But if I did happen to live in one of those areas, if I waited for any government to solve my problems, large or small, I can be guaranteed to be waiting for a long long time. No thanks, I'll take my chances on my own.
JP
Sorry for mis-naming you JP. I guess that means I can't nickname you "No man is an island" JP? :wink:
What about whose religious folks who pray to god to help them, or to thank god when they make it out alive? They always seem to thank god for their good fortune rather than the people here on earth who rescued them, or provided medical treatment that saved them, etc.
I doubt that any of us, including you, really are on our own in today's world. It's just that some of us, mainly the poor, are more alone and on their own than others.
BBB
In other words, jp, I've got mine.
What I find interesting is the notion that if I can take care of myself, then everyone else should, too. Do you drive a car? Use roads? Why should a pacifist pay taxes to support the military? Should I pay school taxes if I have no kids in school?
D'artagnan
D'artagnan wrote:In other words, jp, I've got mine.
What I find interesting is the notion that if I can take care of myself, then everyone else should, too. Do you drive a car? Use roads? Why should a pacifist pay taxes to support the military? Should I pay school taxes if I have no kids in school?
Sheeesh! D'artagnan, I wish you would learn to cut to the chase a little faster. :wink:
You are right. It is a gigantic case of I've got mine, the hell with you. Or climb up the ladder and pull it up behind you.
BTW, I always vote for money to support the public schools even though it's been decades since I had children in school. Someone without children in the previous generation paid for the schools in which I was educated. It is, or it was, the American way.
BBB
Re: JP
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:What about whose religious folks who pray to god to help them, or to thank god when they make it out alive? They always seem to thank god for their good fortune rather than the people here on earth who rescued them, or provided medical treatment that saved them, etc.
I doubt that any of us, including you, really are on our own in today's world. It's just that some of us, mainly the poor, are more alone and on their own than others.
BBB
I'm not sure what religion has to do with it. We are talking about governmet not religion.
I never said I am in my own world. I just don't want to have to rely on government to take care of me. I have family. I have freinds. I am a resourceful person. I am very confident that I would be able to survive such a disaster. Sure not everybody has a safety net. Not everybody is capable of surviving on their own but that doesn't mean the government should be in charge of everybody. There are tons of private organizations and people with good hearts that are there to help these people.
JP
JP, What you are describing is survival of the fittest. Economic Darwinism?
BBB
D'artagnan wrote:In other words, jp, I've got mine.
What I find interesting is the notion that if I can take care of myself, then everyone else should, too. Do you drive a car? Use roads? Why should a pacifist pay taxes to support the military? Should I pay school taxes if I have no kids in school?
i never said get rid of government completely. What I said was I am in favor of small government. There is no reason building roads could not be organized on a state and local level (who knows better than some stiff sitting behind a desk in Washington anyway) and completed in the private sector. Sure we need to pay taxes to support our local government, public saftey, schools etc., but government has expanded so far beyond that scope that it is now inn business in order to stay in business. What else do you want to control/regulate/govern over?
Re: JP
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:JP, What you are describing is survival of the fittest. Economic Darwinism?
BBB
What world are you living in?
There are people in this world who have advantages and resources above and beyond what other people have. It is a fact that will never go away. Some people will be able to handle situations better than others. Survival of the fittest? I guess, but it is like that with or without government.
The problem comes when we begin to rely on government to tell us what to do. the hurricane is a perfect example. Everything gets bogged down in red tape and it all goes to hell. I'm not sure how that is any better.
Re: JP
jpinMilwaukee wrote:BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:JP, What you are describing is survival of the fittest. Economic Darwinism?
BBB
What world are you living in?
There are people in this world who have advantages and resources above and beyond what other people have. It is a fact that will never go away. Some people will be able to handle situations better than others. Survival of the fittest? I guess, but it is like that with or without government.
The problem comes when we begin to rely on government to tell us what to do. the hurricane is a perfect example. Everything gets bogged down in red tape and it all goes to hell. I'm not sure how that is any better.
JP, I'm living in the real world, not some protective advantage bubble.
BBB
Re: JP
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:
JP, I'm living in the real world,
Then how don't you understand that there are people with advantages over others? The fittest will always survive better than those that aren't.
BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:not some protective advantage bubble.
BBB
Ha...Protective bubble... that's a good one.
I think, jp, that what you want is a government small enough that it can do what it's supposed to do and do it well.
That's actually what I support as well. We are a pretty big country, though, and it's impossible to know what we have that was truly independently earned. Would my cheese cost more if the feds weren't subsidizing farmers? I don't know, but I'm glad there are farmers. So I can accept that the feds get into things that I don't really think it should, because in the long run that's what makes us a first world country -- the fact that we try not to let our citizens descend to the status of animal.
Re: JP
jpinMilwaukee wrote:BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:
JP, I'm living in the real world,
Then how don't you understand that there are people with advantages over others? The fittest will always survive better than those that aren't.
JP, Of course I understand that people with advantages have the advantage. That doesn't mean I have to like it or support it to the detriment of those without equal advantages.
I'm not greedy nor am I selfish.
BBB
I don't know of anyone who would say, "I favor big government." On that we can agree.
The problem is that emergency planning looks wasteful until there's an actual emergency. Then, what looks like a big, unnecessary government program becomes really valued.
I also think we can agree that some of us have advantages that others don't. How we related to those who have less is a key to our moral compass as a nation...
D'artagnan wrote:I don't know of anyone who would say, "I favor big government." On that we can agree.
The problem is that emergency planning looks wasteful until there's an actual emergency. Then, what looks like a big, unnecessary government program becomes really valued.
I also think we can agree that some of us have advantages that others don't. How we related to those who have less is a key to our moral compass as a nation...
Well if what we saw over the last week was money well spent on emergency planning then I would indeed say it is wasteful. There are reports coming out now that the Red Cross was ready to go in and help people in the superdome but it got caught up in the "Emergency Resopnse Plan" (I'll look for the link) and were kept from entering. Just another example of private organizations doing it better than government.
Now if your arguement is going to be "Well the Emergency Funding was underfunded and would have worked if it weren't for that damned president of ours" then I would not only argue that you are indeed in favor of larger government but also ask you to provide evidence that more funding and larger response plans would have actually worked better in comparison to say the Red Cross' actions.
Quote:There is no reason building roads could not be organized on a state and local level (who knows better than some stiff sitting behind a desk in Washington anyway) and completed in the private sector.
Of course there is!
Roads and Highways are an integral part of our national Shipping system, as well as Defense. Our interstate highway system is the backbone of shipping and transport in America, and there is no way that local and decenteralized control can operate the system efficiently.
Do some research as to the military advantages of having contiguous highways before you decide that they are not neccessary...
Cycloptichorn
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