Posted on 10/31/2007 3:24:26 PM PDT by Loud Mime
“Excessive taxation will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election.”
Thomas Jefferson
Strangely, we have some people who want more tax because it's a big redistribution scam.
“On the other hand, the duty imposed upon him to take care, that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution." The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose; and without it, be the form of government whatever it may, it will be utterly worthless for offence, or defence; for the redress of grievances, or the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people.”
Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)
"History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views."
Thomas Jefferson (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781)
Others:
FEMA employees staged their own press conference where their own people were asked softball questions by their other own people, It was reminded me of the times when Democrats were interviewed by the mainstream media. There is virtually no difference between these events. LM
A few from François-Marie Arouet, a.k.a. Voltaire:
“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” —Voltaire
“An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.”
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
PING
Daniel Webster
"A capitation is more natural to slavery; a duty on merchandise is more natural to liberty, by reason it has not so direct a relation to the person."
Thomas Jefferson: copied into his Commonplace Book
“It is fairer to tax people on what they extract from the economy, as roughly measured by their consumption, than to tax them on what they produce for the economy, as roughly measured by their income.”
Thomas Hobbes
“The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person, so that the tax payer is not put in the power of the tax gatherer.”
Adam Smith
“Personal property is too precarious and invisible an asset to tax in any way than by the imperceptible agency of taxes on consumption.”
Fed Paper #12 Sec 6
Why is this?
1) Government is found to wasteful, full of fraud, and rife with abuse.
2) A blue ribbon committee composed mostly of practical business folks is created to identify the problems and craft a program to build some market discipline into government processes, e.g. Grace Commission
3) If any of the suggestions of the blue ribbon committee are followed then government may in the short run become a little better run.
4) However, in the long run, the government is now no longer perceived as a separate kind of entity ... one that can enforce its will at the point of a gun and the threat of an IRS audit. Instead it is viewed as just another source of products and services that might otherwise be provided by private businesses.
5) Finally the people buy into this and we no longer have a healthy niggardly attitude towards transferring powers over to government. Instead we have a quasi-pragmatical case-by-case discussion of what things government can do conceivably better or more fairly than business.
Thus do we travel down the road to serfdom.
Can’t disagree with Voltaire either, though today he’d be called a standout in the tinfoil hat brigade.
“There's only one way to kill capitalism--by taxes, taxes, and more taxes.”
Karl Marx
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
Long time no see!
How the h*ll are ya?
Why do I inceasingly suspect that our government has been taken over by a foreign body already?
1) Government is found to wasteful, full of fraud, and rife with abuse.
Well, first of all b/c this - and/or any -- government is managed and maintained by human beings, not angels comes down from heaven. Human being subject to all the follies and foibles that...well, that human being are error to. An excuse? No. An explanation? Yes.
Secondly, "found to wasteful, full of fraud, and rife with abuse" according to whom? Those on the outside looking in (those out of power) or those on the inside themselves (those in power)? Of course there are times when it's easy for anyone to see the whole thing is a rotten, stinking mess from top to bottom; but I suspect more times then not the charges of waste, fraud and abuse comes from envy, greed, and ambition.
2) A blue ribbon committee composed mostly of practical business folks is created to identify the problems and craft a program to build some market discipline into government processes, e.g. Grace Commission
The problem here is that government --any government -- was formed for, and is in the business of, administration. It is trying to put feathers on a fish. Unlike business(es) it has no competition, it doesn't have to woo its "customers", it can print its own money, it can (theoretically) answer to no one. Sort of like the continual comparison between socialism and capitalism, a case of apples and oranges if there ever was one: Socialism is an administrative concept. Capitalism is an economic concept.
3) If any of the suggestions of the blue ribbon committee are followed then government may in the short run become a little better run.
Granted, but bare in mind that blue ribbon committees come and blue ribbon committees go, but government bureaucracy, like the kudzu vine, goes on forever.
4) However, in the long run, the government is now no longer perceived as a separate kind of entity ... one that can enforce its will at the point of a gun and the threat of an IRS audit. Instead it is viewed as just another source of products and services that might otherwise be provided by private businesses.
I question this. Where this truly the case, our blood would not run cold upon receipt of a thick letter from the IRS.
5) Finally the people buy into this and we no longer have a healthy niggardly attitude towards transferring powers over to government.
And here is that famous fork in the road: By "we" do you mean "we, the people" or "we, the people of the state(s)"?
Instead we have a quasi-pragmatical case-by-case discussion of what things government can do conceivably better or more fairly than business.
Which, IMHO, is as it should be for most cases. While for civilized interaction the Law generally requires broad, sweeping brush strokes, i.e. red means stop, etc. those who enforce the Law are enjoined to handle many -- most?-- things on a "quasi-pragmatical case-by-case" bases.
I watch the banker's influence in politics first, then the attorneys, then the insurance companies. The bankers profit from our national debt, the attorneys from our politics and litigation, and the insurance companies from our fear and force of law applied to the citizens. All are now international. All depend on the growth of government.
We're sending too much of our money out of the country and letting too many legal and illegal foreigners inside. If we're being taken over, it's not by a country, but a conglomerate.
Can’t disagree with Voltaire either, though today he’d be called a standout in the tinfoil hat brigade.
I think his quote above is on the mark.
That quote is very well written, and draws quite a picture if you let it sink in.....
I have purchased and handed out almost a thousand parchment Declarations of Independence....to schools, businesses and some at drag races (I’m a big fan). Each time I ask the person to stop and READ the document. My favorite sentence is the part which starts “Prudence indeed, will dictate....
Thanks for posting.
Perhaps it was planned this way.
It’s no coincidence. It was moved as far as possible from election day...6 months. Time for a change, I hope.
“History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.”
Thomas Jefferson (Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781)
and this from...
http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G1415
“See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.”
“Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.”
Thanks to FReeper raygun for the link.
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