Sunday, August 12, 2007

Huckabee Wins, Paul Loses.

In absolute terms, absolutely so. Mike Huckabee should be rightly proud of his campaign's achievement in Ames, Iowa. Ron Paul came in fifth with 1,305 out of a total of 14,302 votes (9.1%) in the Ames Straw Poll.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has a fantastic statement about why the people should support the Second Amendment limitation on the government. If only he didn't support the horrid Fair Tax (and the continued indefinite occupation of Iraq by the US Armed Forces) he might be worth considering.

Luckily there is a candidate who supports the right of the people to defend themselves against crime and oppressive government, Republican Ron Paul from Texas.

Ron Paul's position of freedom is uncompromising and in a environment where many claim that compromise is key I find that to be quite inspiring. 9.1% in the straw poll means that there is still plenty of work to be done to advance the Ron Paul for President campaign to the winner's circle. I'm not afraid of a little hard work and one less than glamorous turnout in one poll isn't going to dampen my enthusiasm one bit.

This is the source of the picture.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello!

I am new to the "Fair Tax" idea. I am very interested in hearing opposing views and discussing it, because I am not sure how I will stand on it yet.

On one hand, I am delighted at the idea of abolishing the IRS and all of those invasive tax systems. However, I am concerned about the risks of federal government controlling buying and selling through a sales tax!

I prefer Ron Paul's approach of eliminating the IRS and replacing it with nothing.

But, if that cannot be done, is the "Fair Tax" a good alternative?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on that! (and anyone elses!)

ThirstyJon
freedomthirst.com

Thane Eichenauer said...

I have listened to the Fair Tax advocates in person, researched the topic on the web and engaged in debates about the FairTax across the internet. In the end I came to the conclusion that I was not going to lift a finger or donate one nickel to help the Fair Tax campaign for the following reasons.

One: Because we already have too much government spending and the Fair Tax, being revenue neutral isn't going to reduce spending by the federal government one whit if enacted.

Two: Because any tax (such as the Fair Tax AKA national retail sales tax with prebates) that will collect as much as the current income, payroll (FICA), corporate, gift and estate taxes will produce just as many perverse incentives to avoid it. Calling something a "Fair Tax" isn't going to cause everybody to not care a whit for paying it, a tax is a tax is a tax.

You can read my digg.com comments on the Fair Tax.

I think the Fair Tax would be a fine thing to consider if an income tax was being considered (and even then it wouldn't be a good idea) but when you are talking about replacing 92% of the sources of federal tax revenue with another system from scratch I think that adopting the Fair Tax would be an immense regulatory cost added to the economy and maybe-just maybe it would be worth it - but I don't trust the McCain's, the Kyl's, the Clinton's, the Obama's and the Dodd's of the US Congress and the US government to be able to manage the sea change it would require. I do have faith in the individuals that currently reside in the United States could manage with a minimized government and no income tax.

The real question is what is the better choice: reduce government spending and eliminate the income tax (the Ron Paul solution) OR don't reduce government spending and replace one tax with another tax. I know which choice I would pick, pretty obvious isn't it?

ThirstyJon said...

Fascinating thoughts!

Do you have any concern that a national sales tax could at some point be manipulated to control buying and selling, just as the income tax is used to control how people manage their incomes?

This is one of my greatest concerns. If people who have an attitude that they need to make decisions for everyone else are controlling a national sales tax system, I wonder why they wouldn't do exactly the same kind of control that they do with income taxes.

I'm still thinking about it! Your thoughts are appreciated.

:-)

ThirstyJon
freedomthirst.com

P.S. with your permission, I might post your comments on my site.

Thane Eichenauer said...

Sounds fine with me.
Thane Eichenauer
auto80110@myprivacy.ca