I'm a little surprised that the VP candidates have not already been named. Time is the most precious resource any campaign has. The presidential candidates have endless demands on their limited time. There are always forums to speak at, fundraisers to attend, interviews to give, and battleground states to visit. As long as the VP has been well vetted and won't pull a Dan Quayle, there seems to be very little to gain by waiting. The VP is the candidate's most important surrogate. They can attend the lesser fundraisers and events that the candidate is unable to attend.
The Oracle of Walker, Part 2: VP Picks
I expect that one if not both of the vice presidential candidates will be named in the next week. The Olympics start on August 8th, so either the presidential candidates name their respective VP picks this week, or they have to wait until September.
John McCain: Welfare Queen of the Year
John McCain has described the way social security is financed as "a disgrace." He said, "Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today, and that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed."
McCain thinks this system is so disgraceful that he has diligently cashed his social security check every month for the past seven years. I guess John and Cindy McCain are having trouble making ends meet on his meager senate salary of $169,000 a year and her tiny $6 million yearly income. With a net worth of only $100 million they must be living on a very fixed income. High oil prices means that John's social security checks no longer even cover the cost of the fuel for their private jet.
John McCain is right. It is a disgrace when millionaire senators stump about social security going bankrupt while they bleed the fund dry. For deciding that he just can't make ends meet without this "disgraceful" social security checks, I've nominated John McCain for "Welfare Queen of the Year."
Income Tax Bad; Pollution Tax Good
Conservatives, Libertarians, and supporters of the fair and flat tax are right about income taxes. Income tax is one of the worst possible ways for the government to raise funds. Taxing each individual forces the government to spend billions on IRS agents to enforce the tax laws. The income tax is meant to be progressive, but rich people can afford to hire accountants to exploit the hundreds of tax loopholes. Even so, the bloated income tax code and the failure of enforcement are not the worst aspects of an income tax.
The income tax punishes people for being productive and successful. We tax people for working. This is idiotic. We want people to work; we want them to be productive. The government shouldn't tax people for doing what we want them to do. We should tax people for doing things which are bad for the country. We need to replace the income tax (both personal and corporate) with a pollution tax.
Pollution destroys the wilderness, ruins our air, befouls our water, and makes us all sicker. We want people to stop polluting, so we should tax them when they do. A recycling company earning $10 million a year shouldn't have to pay the same amount of taxes as a carpet company that makes $10 million while releasing tons of CO2, SO2, and carcinogens into our atmosphere.
Replacing an income tax with a pollution tax will produce many winners but some losers. Coal and oil companies would have to pay more. Gasoline and disposable plastic items would be more costly. But everyone who pays income taxes or wants to breathe clean air would be a winner. It is time for Americans to change our tax code to reflect our values. We should stop taxing hard work and start taxing the destruction of our health and environment.
While Al Gore promotes the idea of replacing the payroll taxes with a pollution tax, so far the idea has gained very little press. Hopefully this election will draw attention to the idea. A proposal which eliminates the income tax while reducing pollution at the same time should be a political winner. People on both the right and the left should be able to come together on this issue.
The income tax punishes people for being productive and successful. We tax people for working. This is idiotic. We want people to work; we want them to be productive. The government shouldn't tax people for doing what we want them to do. We should tax people for doing things which are bad for the country. We need to replace the income tax (both personal and corporate) with a pollution tax.
Pollution destroys the wilderness, ruins our air, befouls our water, and makes us all sicker. We want people to stop polluting, so we should tax them when they do. A recycling company earning $10 million a year shouldn't have to pay the same amount of taxes as a carpet company that makes $10 million while releasing tons of CO2, SO2, and carcinogens into our atmosphere.
Replacing an income tax with a pollution tax will produce many winners but some losers. Coal and oil companies would have to pay more. Gasoline and disposable plastic items would be more costly. But everyone who pays income taxes or wants to breathe clean air would be a winner. It is time for Americans to change our tax code to reflect our values. We should stop taxing hard work and start taxing the destruction of our health and environment.
While Al Gore promotes the idea of replacing the payroll taxes with a pollution tax, so far the idea has gained very little press. Hopefully this election will draw attention to the idea. A proposal which eliminates the income tax while reducing pollution at the same time should be a political winner. People on both the right and the left should be able to come together on this issue.
Obama's Unsurprising Support for Faith Based Initiatives
For almost a year now, many of Obama's progressive supporters have been trying to convince people that Obama is a Christian and not a Muslim . Yet now that Obama has announced his support of faith based initiatives, many of those same progressive supporters seem shocked that Obama really is a devout Christian.
Barack Obama's faith is not political window dressing but, in fact, deeply held convictions. He is not an Easter/Christmas-only parishioner. If you've read his autobiography, Dreams of My Father, you would know that most of his "community organizing" involved church outreach. He clearly believes that churches are the largest and best organized institutions in low-income neighborhoods. Given his history of working with churches to support progressive change, no one on the left should be shocked by his support for expanding faith based initiatives.
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