The Humble Libertarian original

Or don't call yourself a libertarian. Here's how you can be 100% certain that a tax bill is a scam: Is it a tax bill? It is? Okay, it's a scam. You came here for specific evidence that this particular tax bill is a scam? How about the fact that Republican leaders lied about it and then admitted they lied? First the outline for the tax plan is released and Rand Paul goes: Hold up, you call this a Republican tax bill? It's gonna raise taxes on a bunch of ppl! This is a GOP tax plan? Possibly 30% of middle class gets a tax hike? I hope the final details are better than this. https://t.co/lcjkI4YRz8 — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 2, 2017 Then Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell say no it won't. The TPC got their analysis wrong. Okay. Then a month later they admit they lied ( of course they say "misspoke"). Mitch McConnell says: "I misspoke on that. You can’t guarantee that absolutely no one sees a tax increase." ...

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.

Want to see a piece of paper that gives me the RIGHT to rob you? You don't believe there is such a thing? Are you SURE you don't believe it?

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

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

This is what's wrong with public education: Hell no, he won’t go. In a defiant raspberry to the city Department of Education — and taxpayers — disgraced teacher Alan Rosenfeld, 66, won’t retire. Deemed a danger to kids, the typing teacher with a $10 million real estate portfolio hasn’t been allowed in a classroom for more than a decade, but still collects $100,049 a year in city salary — plus health benefits, a growing pension nest egg, vacation and sick pay. Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo can call for better teacher evaluations until they’re blue-faced, but Rosenfeld and six peers with similar gigs costing about $650,000 a year in total salaries are untouchable. Under a system shackled by protections for tenured teachers, they can’t be fired, the DOE says. “It’s an F-U,” a friend of Rosenfeld said of his refusal to quit. “He’s happy about it, and very proud that he beat the system. This is a great show-up-but-don’t-do-anything job.” Accused in 2001 of making lewd co...

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

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 ...

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...

Brian Domitrovic writes at Forbes.com : There is one major inflection point in U.S. economic history. Before this point, growth was high, at about 4% per year for a century. Also in this period, there was remarkable price stability and so little unemployment that the nation had to import tens of millions of workers from abroad. After this point, growth was moderate, at about 3% per year for the long term, with variations in the form of major depressions and recessions and a 23-fold inflation which had no like in the previous epoch. This inflection point was 1913 – the very year which the reforms TR plumped for in his last campaign, the income tax and the Federal Reserve, came into being. 1913 marks the one secular shift in American economic history toward lower growth and more economic unpleasantness in the form of unemployment, inflation, and serial recession. Had this nation grown at the 4%-rate achieved in the pre-1913 period, we would be twice as well-off today. Wes Me...

Grover Norquist is just too badass for words. Watch the interview below and note how commanding his physical and verbal presence is, how confident he is as he looks right into the interviewer's eyes (soul?), and how well he speaks. Absolutely no "uhs," "uhms," "likes," or "ya knows." His words are extremely concise and totally on message. He doesn't give in to the interviewer's loaded questions, but he isn't shaken by them either. Pay super close attention to the exchange that happens around 4:15. THIS is how a libertarian answers loaded questions about the welfare state. This is how a libertarian speaks truth to power, doesn't back down from his beliefs, and doesn't lend any credence to the welfare statists' claim to moral ascendancy. Interviewer: "Do you feel the government has any obligation to the poor, the elderly, or the unemployed?" Grover Norquist: [Without blinking, without shifting in his cha...

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...

Sometimes all you need is the headline. " Christmas Tree Tax ." Yeah. Here's the story : ' Obama Administration to Delay New 15-Cent Christmas Tree Tax The U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to delay implementation and revisit a proposed new 15 cent fee on fresh-cut Christmas trees, sources tell ABC News. The fee, requested by the National Christmas Tree Association in 2009, was first announced in the Federal Registry yesterday and has generated criticism of President Obama from conservative media outlets. The well-trafficked Drudge Report is leading with the story, linking to a blog by David Addington, a former top aide to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, at the conservative Heritage Foundation assailing the president thus: “The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs. Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best President Obama can do? And, by the way, the American Christmas tree has a great image that doesn’t need any ...

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

The Associated Press reports : 'WASHINGTON (AP) -- News flash: Congressional Republicans want to raise your taxes. Impossible, right? GOP lawmakers are so virulently anti-tax, surely they will fight to prevent a payroll tax increase on virtually every wage-earner starting Jan. 1, right? Apparently not. Many of the same Republicans who fought hammer-and-tong to keep the George W. Bush-era income tax cuts from expiring on schedule are now saying a different "temporary" tax cut should end as planned. By their own definition, that amounts to a tax increase. The tax break extension they oppose is sought by President Barack Obama. Unlike proposed changes in the income tax, this policy helps the 46 percent of all Americans who owe no federal income taxes but who pay a "payroll tax" on practically every dime they earn.' How are tax increases "conservative?" How are tax increases on hard working Americans-- who are already being squeezed by infl...

Are Republicans really feeling Taxed Enough Already? If so, they might want to take a closer look at purported Tea Party candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. Never ever forget that Michele Bachmann is a former IRS tax attorney. She mentions it on the campaign trail, but doesn't usually take pains to make it especially clear that she was a lawyer who litigated FOR the IRS and against hardworking American taxpayers. Recently a closer look at her career as a tax lawyer has created an emerging picture of Michele Bachmann playing it safe and not staking out any kind of position on controversial litigation, indicating that she may have had major political ambitions for a long time now. Contrast that record with the record of Congressman Ron Paul, who has never backed down from a controversial position that he thought was right... and who certainly never litigated for the IRS against taxpayers. Now that Texas Governor Rick Perry's in the race, voters should take a clo...

Proponents of raising the debt ceiling hysterically accused the GOP of "hostage-taking" and "terrorism" for wanting to tie spending cuts to any bill that lets the government borrow even more than the $14 trillion it already has taxpayers on the hook for. They absurdly equated not raising the debt ceiling with default, though nobody has yet explained to me how being unable to pay off loans is solved by taking out more loans. Isn't that just more debt that the government is unable to pay? Finally, Democrats said that if we didn't raise the debt limit, the entire economy would collapse, stocks would plunge, and according to Pelosi-- "life on this planet as we know it" would come to an end. Seriously. Well they raised the debt ceiling and guess what happened? Mere days-- you could even reasonably measure it in hours-- after the debt ceiling was raised, world markets took a jarring plunge : "Stocks plunged sharply Thursday, with the Dow do...