Never Chalk Up To Malice What Can Be Explained By Expediency
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Now Investors Business Daily is claiming that while the IRS was holding up Conservative groups to make sure they didn’t actively campaign to get-out-the-Conservative-vote and thereby run afoul of tax laws, the IRS was also actively teaching Black groups how they could actively campaign to get-out-the-Black-vote without running afoul of the tax laws.
This isn’t the first time in history that the entrenched bureaucracy has chosen the new leader, but it’s not the Change I’d been Hoping for.
And where is the shock and outrage in the press? Uncaring? Or complicit?
hat tip: instapundit
J Doakes
I keep forgetting; does “just following orders” count as complicity?
September 9th, 2013 at 6:52 am
Is there ANY justification for not switching ALL of our taxation to a consumption tax or a simple flat tax?
Is there ANY justification for the government providing anything besides strictly defined public goods?
If we survive, the good thing is, the Left is making a stark example of how messed up everything is right now.
September 9th, 2013 at 8:17 am
I seem to remember in 2004 when Presidential Candidate John Kerry speaking from the pulpit of a black church and four years later when Hillary! did her “I ain’t no ways tarred” act in front of a black religious group raised no concerns in our Democrat Dominated Media Culture (DDMC) of crossing lines in a voiding non-profit status due to this outright political activity.
W attending a prayer breakfast? The DDMC starts throwing out claims of a growing theocracy and asking how this blatant political activity doesn’t cost the religious attending their tax exempt status.
It’s as if the Caucasion Liberal/Progressives hold black people to a different and much lower standard. Soft bigotry of low expectations?
September 9th, 2013 at 9:24 pm
All this talk of regressive taxation gets back to a very American problem. The American tax and benefit model is to rely heavily on graduated income taxes, which are referred to as ‘progressive’, and to offer the major government benefits universally, i.e. irrespective of need. The European model uses far more flat taxes, such as a VAT or a flat tax on earnings, but offers benefits only to those who most need it (universal health care being a partial exception). This is why Europe sees its system as being more ‘fair’ despite taxes that American liberals label ‘regressive’. Economically, the European system is much more efficient. ‘Progressive’ taxes discourage work and encourage evasion. Taxing to pay for benefits for wealthy people is clearly inefficient, and serves a purely political purpose.
September 10th, 2013 at 4:11 am
The issue is, the IRS is being used politically as a weapon. Even if they stopped doing that it’s inefficient. Abolish it.
There are ways to make a consumption tax progressive.
A pure libertarian world is way better than what we have now.
September 10th, 2013 at 6:44 am
It’s hard to believe that Washington can significantly simplify and broaden income tax. Much better to replace it with a VAT (consumption tax) as the main source of revenue, and retain income tax simply as a tax for the wealthy, ideally in the form of the already existing AMT.
You don’t solve the problem of inequality with tax rates, unless you tax so punitively that you cut down all of the high earners, and remove all incentive to work hard and innovate. The point is not to disincentivize entrepreneurs. Not even died in the wool socialist will claim that. The point is to stop rent-seeking high remuneration for people who take few, if any, risks, and who bring good but not exceptional skills to the table.
High taxes penalize those who work hard, get a good education, and take risks with their time and money. Finance takes far too large a fraction of the total profits in our economy. Profits should follow real innovation, not dubious financial trickery.