The Pope Endorses Tax Choice

Xerographica · Jan 23, 2013

Turns out that the pope endorsed tax choice 4 years ago...

One possible approach to development aid would be to apply effectively what is known as fiscal subsidiarity, allowing citizens to decide how to allocate a portion of the taxes they pay to the State. Provided it does not degenerate into the promotion of special interests, this can help to stimulate forms of welfare solidarity from below, with obvious benefits in the area of solidarity for development as well. - Pope Benedict XVI, Charity in Truth
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As far as I can tell...it's by far the most notable endorsement of the idea of giving taxpayers more control over how their taxes are spent.

So, are any of you now "sold" on the tax choice concept because the pope endorses it? Do any of you like the tax choice concept even less because the pope endorses it?

Whose endorsement would you give the most weight to? If President Obama supported the tax choice concept would that motivate you to like tax choice on facebook? What about Ron Paul or Paul Krugman? Would any of you be swayed by the endorsements of any actors, musicians or athletes? If so, which ones?

I guess what I'm asking is...when it comes to new political/economic ideas...if you had to pick one person...whose opinion would you trust the most?

Personally, my vote is for Vermin Supreme. I love that guy. Both Vermin Supreme and the pope wear a funny hat.

Should the president wear a funny hat? Speaking of which, let's get crazy with the cheese whiz and consider James M. Buchanan's argument that the state has replaced god (Afraid to be free: Dependency as desideratum)...

But what if Nietzsche is right? What if God is dead? What happens to the person who is forced to recognize that the ordering presence of God is no longer real? What if God cannot be depended on to clean up the mess, even in some last resort sense? Who and/or what can fulﬁll the surrogate parent role? Who and what is there beyond the individual that can meet the yearning for family-like protectiveness? Who and what will pick us up when and if we fall? Who and what can provide the predictability that God and his agency structures seemed to offer?

...In short, persons are afraid to be free. As subsequent discussion will suggest, socialism, as a coherent ideology, has lost most of its appeal. But in a broader and more comprehensive historical perspective, during the course of two centuries, the state has replaced God as the father-mother of last resort, and persons will demand that this protectorate role be satisﬁed and ampliﬁed.
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We transitioned from putting our lives in god's hands to putting our lives in the state's hands...

Something wonderful happened in the United States during the middle third of the twentieth century. After decades of policies that smacked of Social Darwinism, our country created a strong, if incomplete, social-insurance safety net. - Henry J. Aaron, Progressives and the Safety Net
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Highly risk-averse people do not start businesses; instead, they tend to go to work for well-established businesses or, in many cases, for the government, particularly in education. That risk-averse population is the natural political home of socialism in the developed world, and particularly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. - Kevin D. Williamson, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism
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The state has replaced god, so by endorsing tax choice, the pope is actually endorsing freedom of religion. The question is...of all the really "notable" people, why is the pope the first and only one who endorses freedom of modern religion? How did that happen? It kind of weirds me out. Anybody else think that it's strange?

waltky · Feb 14, 2013

The whole world got their eyes on us...

Panetta: World is watching U.S. on budget
February 13th, 2013 - In his final press briefing as defense secretary, Leon Panetta expressed concern over how the world will view the United States if it fails to avert steep budget cuts due to take effect in two weeks.

"What they (other countries) worry about is what I worry about, which is whether or not we can govern and whether or not we can face the tough decisions that have to be made and resolve those," Panetta said on Wednesday about the budget uncertainty. Mandatory budget cuts impacting much of the government, also known as sequester, would kick in on March 1 if no deal is struck between the White House and Congress to avoid, defer or otherwise soften them. For the Pentagon, sequester would mean almost $500 billion in cuts over 10 years. For 2013 alone, some $46 billion in reduced spending would result in "a serious disruption in defense programs and a sharp decline in our military readiness," Panetta said last week.

As he prepared to leave Washington for his home in California should his planned successor, former Sen. Chuck Hagel, be confirmed by the Senate later this week, Panetta said other countries are watching to see if the U.S. government can come together and solve the problem. "There is a nervousness out there about whether, in fact, ultimately, we can rise to the challenge of governing ourselves and finding answers to the tough issues we are confronting," Panetta said. "That's why I've said when we talk about national security, I think the greatest concern I have for our national security is that budget uncertainty and that inability to govern and find solutions," Panetta said.

Panetta said he was pleased President Barack Obama sought to explain in Tuesday's State of the Union address that budget cuts would have negative consequences on military readiness. "There are jobs that are being lost, there's readiness that has been impacted," Panetta, a former congressman and White House budget director, said. "The uncertainty is hurting people, and it's hurting our country, and members of Congress need to understand that they were elected to protect the public, not to hurt the public. And I hope they'll remember that as they hopefully work towards a resolution of this issue," he added.

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/13/panetta-world-is-watching-u-s-on-budget/
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See also:

Obama Seeks 29 New Programs: Nothing Im Proposing Should Increase Deficit by Single Dime
February 13, 2013 - President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday night that nothing he was proposing in the speech would increase our deficit by a single dime. He then proposed at least 29 new government programs.

Tonight, Ill lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago, said Obama. Let me repeat: Nothing Im proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime.

In fiscal year 2008, the year before Obama took office, federal spending was $2.98 trillion, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget. In fiscal 2013, the current year, OMB estimates federal spending will be $3.80 trillion--an increase of 27.5 percent.

Since Obama was first inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, the federal government's debt has increased by $5.86 trillion.

Source
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Related:

Common Sense Not Bipartisanship - Missing in Washington
February 13, 2013 Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that common sense is what is missing from Washington not bipartisanship.

Bipartisanship is not what is missing in Washington. Common sense is, he said, giving the Tea Party response to President Barack Obamas State of the Union speech. It is often said that there is not enough bipartisanship up here. That is not true. In fact, there is plenty. Both parties have been guilty of spending too much, of protecting their sacred cows, of backroom deals in which everyone up here wins, but every taxpayer loses, he said. Paul called for a new bipartisan consensus where Democrats admit that not every dollar spent on domestic programs is sacred and Republicans realize that military spending is not immune to waste and fraud.

Paul called on Congress to pass the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, which would include strict tax and spending limitations. He endorsed the Penny Plan, which calls for one penny of every dollar that the government currently spends to be cut, which Paul said would balance the budget in six or seven years. The Penny Plan has been crafted into a bill that millions of conservatives across the country support, he said. The Penny Plan, originally called the One Percent Spending Reduction Act of 2011, was proposed by Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) in 2011 and was designed to cut mandatory and discretionary spending by one percent each year for six consecutive fiscal years.

Paul called for spending cuts that could begin with an end to all foreign aid to countries that are burning our flag and chanting death to America. The president could begin by stopping the F-16s and Abrams tanks being given to the radical Islamic government of Egypt, Paul said. Not only should the sequester stand, many pundits say the sequester really needs to be at least $4 trillion to avoid another downgrade of Americas credit rating, he said. "Everyone is hurt by trillion-dollar deficits, Paul said. Printing more money to feed the never-ending appetite for spending hurts us all. We pay higher prices every time we go to the supermarket or the gas pump. The value of the dollar shrinks with each new day.

Contrary to what the president claims, big government and debt are not a friend to the poor and the elderly. Big-government debt keeps the poor poor and saps the savings of the elderly. This massive expansion of the debt destroys savings and steals the value of your wages, Paul added. Big government makes it more expensive to put food on the table. Big government is not your friend. The president offers you free stuff but his policies keep you poor, he said. The only proven stimulus, Paul said, is leaving more money in the hands of those who earned it. For those who are struggling, we want to you to have something infinitely more valuable than a free phone, we want you to have a job and pathway to success, Paul added.

Source
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waltky · Feb 19, 2013

President Obama said Republicans would rather impose cuts than close a "single tax loophole"...

Obama warns budget cuts will cause job losses
19 February 2013 - US President Barack Obama has warned Congress "people will lose their jobs" if deep budget cuts are allowed to take effect next week.

Mr Obama said $85bn (£55bn) in cuts was a harmful, "meat-cleaver approach" to deficit reduction, as he stood with emergency workers at the White House. He also offered targeted spending cuts, supporting a proposal similar to that outlined by Senate Democrats last week. Mr Obama has just returned from a three-day golf trip in Florida. Fresh from his weekend round of golf with Tiger Woods, the president said: "These cuts are not smart, they are not fair, they will hurt the economy. This is not an abstraction. People will lose their jobs."

'Blocking tax reform'

The president added that the effect of the so-called sequester was already being felt in some government departments, noting the Navy had delayed the deployment of a carrier to the Gulf. "Changes like this, not well thought through, not phased in properly, changes like this affect our ability to respond to threats in unstable parts of the world," Mr Obama said. He also said that while he was open to cutting back on unsuccessful or unnecessary government programmes, he accused Republicans of "ideological rigidity" for opposing tax increases. He proposed closing some tax loopholes to increase revenue, and backed a budget plan put together by Senate Democrats last week.

Mr Obama said the deep, across-the-board spending cuts had originally been designed to be so unattractive that they would spur politicians to work together. Congressional Republicans have given a frosty reception to the Senate Democrats' proposal. They point out that Mr Obama already won a revenue increase in the new year, when Congress allowed taxes to rise on families making more than $450,000 annually.

In response to the president's remarks, House Speaker John Boehner said: "The American people understand that the revenue debate is now closed. "Tax reform is a once-in-a generation opportunity to boost job creation in America. It should not be squandered to enable more Washington spending. Spending is the problem, spending must be the focus," a statement said. Congress is in recess this week, leaving even less time to negotiate a budget solution ahead of the 1 March deadline.

Senate plan
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OECD economies in 0.2% quarterly decline
19 February 2013 - The eurozone crisis was the biggest factor in the OECD contraction

The economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) contracted by 0.2% in the last three months of 2012. It was the first such decline for this group of mainly rich countries since the beginning of 2009. The eurozone was the biggest factor, with a 0.6% contraction. Japan and the UK shrank too and the US saw no growth.

The OECD's figures highlight the continuing weakness that has afflicted the developed world. At no stage since the financial crisis have developed economies grown very strongly. It has never been a convincing recovery. But the figures for the final quarter of last year actually show a decline for the first time in nearly four years for the OECD as a whole - which is nearly all the rich countries and a few of the more developed emerging economies.

The data refer to the final three months of last year. There have been some more positive developments since then. In Europe, some business surveys have suggested improving confidence. Individual country figures have already been published - and are, it should be said, subject to revision. What the OECD's compilation shows is the persistence and extent of the post-crisis malaise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21506563
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The Pope Endorses Tax Choice

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