"I have never seen more Senators express discontent with their jobs ... we have been accomplices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful country... we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected". -John Danforth, Republican Senator from Missouri, in an interview in The Arizona Republic on April 22, 1992 Josh
What's your problem? Have you got anything relevent to say? I pointed out that we are far beyond 1969 technologically--good for the IRS, bad for tax avoiders and evaders.
"The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is... legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay ....... If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system". -Frederic Bastiat, French author of "The Law" (1848) Josh
"Give me control over a man's economic actions, and hence over his means of survival, and except for a few occasional heroes, I'll promise to deliver to you men who think and write and behave as I want them to." Benjamine A. Rooge Josh
"The IRS is an extraordinary example of the end justifying the means. The means of this agency is growth. It is interesting that the revenue officers within the IRS refer to taxpayers as 'inventory'. The IRS embodies the political realities of the selfish human desire to dominate others. Thus the end of this gigantic pretense of officialdom is power, pure and simple. The meek may inherit the earth, but they will never receive a promotion in an agency where efficiency is measured by the number of seizures of taxpayers' property and by the number of citizens and businesses driven into bankruptcy". - George Hansen, Congressman and author of "To Harass Our People" Josh
for me, the twins needing extraordinary surgery falls into the category of humanitarian aid. few folks could afford that on their own. what is really wierd is that years ago i played golf with a guy. he told me his wife gave birth to their child in a corridor in a north san diego county hospital. he was pissed. he said all of the birthing rooms were filled with welfare folks (poor latinas) and he said he felt like he was the only guy there that was actually paying (directly) for the birth of his child.
I disagree. I think the opposite will occur so I'm much more optimistic. Technological innovations come from the private sector, and they will always be one step ahead of the government. The demand for ways to erase the paper trail will create new encryption techniques and possibly a new currency "outside" the current one, among other things. The free market will always win in the end, especially now that technology allows the free and instant exchange of ideas, IMHO. I'm not saying all this will/can happen without some major changes.
i used to worry about the outlaw of paper money. To be sure, if the feds ever outlaw paper money entirely, it will confirm that there are too many control freaks and enemies of democracy at work in the federal government. However, there is always a solution, which is hard currency. America had hard currency, at least in theory, until Nixon killed the gold standard. It is interesting that privately run and anonymous gold backed electronic currencies are starting to pop up. I even read that many arab countries want to create a gold backed currency used by the entire middle east, and they have started hoarding gold for that purpose. This is one of the reasons that Gold is making a comeback and has probably ended its 20+ year bear market. Also, guess what spiked up in price after sept 11th and what plunged? Gold and the U.S. dollar. Exactly why the terrorists attacked the trade center. They have struck a body blow at a vulnerable time, and I think it was all part of a larger plan.