The Humble Libertarian original

By Stephen Moore The Cato Institute

Paul argues that trying to craft a revenue neutral tax reform means that some Americans will get tax cuts, but other Americans will see their taxes go up to pay for it, and that those with the least influence in the political process will be the ones who see their taxes go up... Read all about Senator Rand Paul's tax reform plan called "The Flat and Fair Tax," in my most recent article at The Independent Voter Network.

By: Wes Messamore Our hats are off to the Bartholomew Brothers! Talk about rebels. Last year, these gentleman hung a giant banner up on the side of a highway proclaiming in large, bold letters: “TAXES = THEFT.” Not only that, they did it wearing V for Vendetta-style Guy Fawkes masks ( which we are still giving away if anyone is interested )! Then the cops showed up... Read the rest of my article at The Silver Underground . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

By: Wes Messamore The traditional partisan debate over whether to raise or cut taxes– especially for high-income earners– ignores an independent solution that should at least be tolerable to both sides: make the high-income earners– especially corporations– pay their taxes in the first place... Read the rest of my article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

By: Wes Messamore Is that politician or pundit making valid economic arguments, or just distracting you with flashy, partisan talking points to gain ground for their candidacy or “team?” Here are a few things that every Independent voter and thinker should look out for: Read the rest of my article at the Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Our hats are off to documentary filmmakers Jim and Ellen Hubbard for their upcoming documentary scheduled for a 2012 release: “ Museum of Government Waste ,” which brilliantly and humorously exposes not only the appalling amount of taxpayer dollars wasted by our government, but the underlying culture of corruption and favors that plagues the U.S. Congress and drives so much of the waste. Not only are they actually building the Museum of Government Waste , but their upcoming documentary chronicles their actual and serious attempt to get an earmark from Congress for the museum, a commentary more cutting and eloquent than the museum itself –the kind of caper that Michael Moore has become famous for, but without all the deceptive editing and naive state worship (we’ll leave that to the guy in the baseball cap)… Read the rest of my article at The Silver Underground. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Amid the heated rhetoric of a presidential election year, President Barack Obama’s latest federal budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2013 is already eliciting strong reactions from both sides of the partisan divide and foreshadowing a big, politically-charged fight over taxes and spending... Read the rest of my article at The Independent Voter Network . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Oops. California's government is coming up $3.3 billion short by March. Some lawmakers are acting like it's a minor hiccup. Some analysts say Facebook's IPO will save the Golden State's finances. Wesley Messamore says this is no minor hiccup and there's no way the NASDAQ is going to fix CA's problems: Read it all at IVN.us . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Fans of Journey will be either delighted or annoyed by the sample in this rap (as a Journey fan myself, I was positively delighted). Fans of liberty, fiscal responsibility, and monetary sanity will be 100% delighted by the lyrics. The video might be nsfw due to some f-bombs and the (spoiler alert:) "banana hammock" (very skimpy male swimsuit) at the end of the music video. Music sampled from Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) : Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

I wish Grover Norquist would spend all this energy focused on anti- spending increases and anti- spending pledges. He'd be unstoppable. We've got to move the conversation away from taxes and focus it on government spending. Spending is the problem. Taxes are just one symptom of that problem. Hat tip: Memeorandum Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Why does the Republican Party have such a self-destructive, self-defeating, spineless, squishy mindset? Why does it seem pathologically bent on finding the very worst representatives it can from its ranks to represent, lead, and speak for it? Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, whom we've never had anything nice to say about , was chosen to deliver the Republican Party's response to the President's State of the Union Address , but what were they thinking : Why the Republicans chose Mitch Daniels—the Indiana governor who once thrilled right-wing pundits as a 2012 hopeful—to deliver a rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union address is puzzling. His uninspiring remarks surely killed the Daniels fad, revived lately as Republicans fret over the unappetizing choices available in their primaries. By shining the spotlight on Daniels, the Republicans risked losing much more than a political rescue fantasy. He isn’t merely a politician who looks like an accountant; ...

How’s that for fiscal conservatism? At a press conference in Louisville Thursday, the freshman Senator from Kentucky– one of the most visible of 2010′s “Tea Party candidates” on the national stage– announced that he would be returning a whopping $500,000 of his U.S. Senate office’s operating budget to the U.S. Treasury. The announcement comes as the nation struggles with massive fiscal crises on a local, state, and federal level, with federal spending and even federal deficits not only measuring in the trillions, but growing by the trillions with no end in sight. Make no mistake, every other “major” issue or controversy in politics today is ancillary to the problem of unsustainable (to the point of collective insanity) borrowing and spending by governments, companies, and individuals the world over. Read the rest of my article at The Silver Underground . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

By: Carl Wicklander After the Republican-led House of Representatives buckled and extended the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefit extension some hope the GOP is losing its “extremism.” Some, like the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson believe that after the House agreed to the Senate’s bipartisan agreement: “Republicans let us glimpse the rift between establishment pragmatists and Tea Party ideologues. There may be hope for the republic after all.” The vote, of course, settles nothing, it is merely a two-month extension. A tax cut and a welfare check. The best for both of Washington’s parties. We’ll be back shortly for another round of Washington kabuki theatre where the two parties will pretend to find a solution for the economy and the looming entitlement crisis. For Robinson, the issue is appearing “sensible” and getting things done. Likewise, another Post columnist, Jennifer Rubin, was also ruminating on the radicalism that is overtaking the Republican Party.....

In a partisan face off over how long to extend a payroll tax cut that expires soon and amounts to an extra $40 per biweekly pay period for the average American worker, the White House stirred up some discussion on Twitter by tweeting out: What does #40Dollars mean to you? But the latest fiscal policy battle over a forty dollar tax cut every two weeks and whether to extend it for two months or two years (and whether to attach this or that condition to the tax cut, and whether people with Ds next to their name are more awesome than people with Rs) is just another distraction from the biggest, baddest, most insidious tax that American workers have to pay every year– the inflation tax. Congress would much rather use up your attention span on fighting over $80 a month so that you don’t notice just how much inflation tax you pay every time you buy gas, pay your electric bill, or pick up groceries. Because if you did notice and started speaking up, then Congress might have ...

By: Grant Davies As Ron Paul moves into the lead in the Iowa polls just days before the caucuses there, his son Rand Paul, US senator from Kentucky, rises on the floor to make a short speech about the balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Speaking common sense (as he always does), he makes the case for fiscal sanity and the possibility of saving the country from committing monetary suicide. Absent dementia, even people who love big government programs (both on the right and the left) understand that you cannot go on borrowing money to pay for them indefinitely. If Rand were running for President, he would be my first choice, but it isn't his time yet. So I keep hoping his father will gain the nomination and choose him as his VP candidate. It's a hope that seems far-fetched. But so did his father's chances just a few months ago. Some would call me crazy, but I think they would win the election against Obama handily. Rand Paul connects with people on a perso...

On this anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, which took place on December 16, 1773 in Boston Harbor, let us ask ourselves the question: Do Americans today face taxation without representation? This was one of the major grievances that motivated the Sons of Liberty to disguise themselves as Native Americans, board a ship bearing tea from the recently bailed out East India Company, and throw all of the tea overboard in defiance of a distant, disinterested, and corrupt government. Sound anything like what we're going through today? The 2009 Tea Party movement that has rallied grassroots organizers in cities across America to protest the abuses of our very own distant, disinterested, and corrupt government in Washington, has been criticized by its detractors who say American taxpayers do have representation, so our situation is not the same as the colonists' in 1773. Nothing could be further from the truth. One of the steepest taxes (and certainly most regressive- meaning tha...

HuffPo reports : WASHINGTON — Bipartisan agreement is near on a massive $1 trillion-plus year-end spending package and should be reached in time avert a possible government shutdown this weekend, lawmakers said Thursday. House Republicans were displaying renewed flexibility on a provision restricting travel to Cuba, but Democrats conceded defeat on a GOP demand to ban the District of Columbia's government from funding abortions. The optimism came hours after Republicans said they planned to push the 1,200-plus-page legislation through the House with only GOP votes, which seemed like a bluff considering tea party opposition to the measure. Overnight, Republicans unveiled details of the bill, which curbs agency budgets but drops most policy provisions sought by GOP conservatives. ... The underlying bill has bipartisan backing but could encounter turbulence with conservative tea party lawmakers seeking far more significant cuts to government agencies. Much of the GOP is all...

As the so-called super committee announced its inability to come up with a plan for deficit reduction by its Nov 23rd deadline, the sheer magnitude of dysfunction on Capitol Hill was perhaps best summarized by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said: “Both sides of the aisle, both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue – they cannot even come up with something that would not have even solved the problem.” That’s a key point to remember, that the 12-member super committee was simply tasked with finding $1.2 trillion to cut out of the federal budget over the next ten years. $1.2 trillion in cuts might not even balance the budget next year alone. With that in mind, Mayor Bloomberg’s criticism– which so aptly and pithily captures the absurdity of the deficit debacle that it could just as easily have been a Jon Stewart line– rings absolutely true. Congress cannot even come up with something that would not have even solved the problem. Can there be any wonder that its approval ratings remain...

I'm not sure what was more embarrassing about the Rick Perry gaffe at this week's CNBC Republican Presidential debate, not being able to remember the third department that he said should be cut from the federal government, or actually turning to Ron Paul for help (knowing that Ron Paul would be the guy to talk to about the nuts and bolts of cutting federal spending, and probably nice enough to help him). Ron quipped that that there should be five agencies cut from the federal government, a key part of Ron Paul's plan to reduce the federal budget by $1 trillion in his first year as president and balance the budget by year three of a Paul Administration. Watch: At RonPaul2012 , Jack Hunter jests that Rick Perry tried to hire Ron Paul as his budget adviser: "There has been much said this election about how the Republican presidential candidates are all talking like Ron Paul. Well, last night, in the midst of yet another Ron Paul impression, Rick Perry couldn’t e...

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. We have plenty of reasons to doubt Herman Cain's accusers (who now number five), and we have plenty of reasons to doubt Herman Cain. I don't know if we'll ever be able to sort it out for certain. Good thing we don't need to. There are far more relevant and wide-ranging issues that make Herman Cain a poor candidate for the Republican nomination in 2012, including Herman Cain's economic amnesia . Read the whole article. Herman Cain's almost as big a flip flopper as Mitt Romney! Tweet Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page