Tax and Spend

Hans-Hermann Hoppe has made the case that democracy is an especially bad form of government because it enables the looters to loot significantly more wealth from the people. Mark Steyn illustrates this point by comparing how much money Obama's lifestyle costs Americans to the British royals.

"In his recent book Presidential Perks Gone Royal, Robert Keith Gray, a former Eisenhower staffer, revealed that last year the U.S. presidency cost American taxpayers $1.4 billion. Over the same period, the entire royal family cost British taxpayers about $57 million. There’s nothing “royal” about the current level of “presidential perks”: The Obama family costs taxpayers more than every European royal house put together." 

Much like our military. We are the brokest nation in history.

Another reason to announce the fiscal cliff deal on New Years Eve is markets are closed until Wednesday.

My iGoogle homepage news aggregator shows 19,708 stories about the fiscal cliff deal. By comparison there are only 342 stories on Pakistani militants killing seven aid workers. This shows how the government, by creating crises, real and fake, makes money for the news media. What a joke.

Obama pats himself on the back for "convincing" Republicans to raise taxes.

"It’s hard to find anyone in Washington happy about the outcome of the “fiscal cliff” brinksmanship.
But inside the Obama White House, senior officials are elated by what they call a significant presidential achievement:  breaking longstanding Republican intransigence on taxes.
The deal passed by the Senate early this morning, with the endorsement of all but seven of the 47 Republicans, would raise $620 billion in new revenue, hiking tax rates on households earning more than $450,000 a year.
The income tax hike would be the first in two decades.
“Keep in mind that just last month Republicans in Congress said they would never agree to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans,” President Obama said Monday. “Obviously, the agreement that’s currently being discussed would raise those rates and raise them permanently.”
The spin from the White House – casting the new revenue as a major victory – is at least partly aimed at grumbling liberals who have accused Obama of capitulating on a key campaign pledge: hiking tax rates on households making $250,000 or more."

Hooray for stealing more of our money. Obama thinks he won because he broke the Republican pledge not to raise taxes. I think this is a win for libertarians because now fewer conservatives will be fooled by Republicans. The 2014 primary is likely to be a well deserved Republican incumbent bloodbath. They love to talk about taxes because it distracts from the real problem of spending. They also don't want to talk about raising payroll taxes on everybody. Slate claims that rich people win with this deal because their taxes aren't raised on the first $450,000 in income. That only makes sense if you believe all wealth belongs to the government, not the producer. Rich people's taxes went up. That's hardly a win for them. Slate gets this right, but seems to miss the point:

"But ultimately Democrats cared more about avoiding spending cuts than securing tax revenues, and Republicans cared more about low taxes than cutting spending."

Neither side ever wants to cut spending because politicians get rich off spending. Raising or lowering taxes means nothing to the politicians. Nobody kicks back part of the taxes they pay or don't pay. They kick back the spending the government gives them.

I'm happy to see Republicans holding out for spending cuts, but this is just for show. The deal will pass with at most minor changes. The House needs only a few Republicans to support the bill, so most probably won't in hopes of appeasing their voters. Mike Turner doesn't like the new plan because it doesn't protect defense spending. He doesn't want to lose parasitic jobs a Wright-Pat. He's fine with the tax hikes. 

The House passed it, and many Republicans refused to vote for it. This manufactured crisis is over. The debt ceiling crisis is scheduled to be the next manufactured domestic fiscal crisis on the horizon.