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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Friday, January 11, 2008

Huckabee And The Grand Plan To Destroy American Industry 

...I'm not an economist; I can't imagine what sort of powerful drug stupor it would take to even make me consider such a grim choice of profession. I am, however, a consumer and I am a taxpayer. I know how much money I spend to put food on my family, how much it costs to propel its members through the wilds of Central Oregon to school and to work, what I pay to keep my family members clothed, housed, and entertained. I also know how much I and Mrs. Jack K pay in federal income taxes. Mike Huckabee proposes to eliminate that federal income tax and the Internal Revenue Service - in the process creating an uptick in the number of unemployed Americans, although he somehow fails to mention that particular factoid - and replace all that with a national sales tax of 23%...

My initial reaction to this little bit of hucksterism (funny how that word works here) was that he picked an odd state to bring up this bit of fiscal reform. People involved in the Michigan auto industry - from employees at parts manufacturing firms to Big Three corporate bigwigs - can't helped but be thrilled at the thought of having the effective selling price of their prime product increased by almost one quarter. The purchase cost of a medium-content Ford Fusion, for example (and this is the entry-level family sedan), would increase by up to $5,000. That's above and beyond whatever state sales tax and licensing fees might be applied (your mileage may differ)...

Beyond that, Huckabee's modest proposal of taxing purchases of 'all' goods seems to have some rather gaping loopholes that have yet to be readily explainable to curious voters. He claims that we will be receiving monthly rebates for "purchases up to the poverty line" without explaining either just exactly which purchases qualify for that rebate or how - in the absence of some federal entity that will determine the whys and wherefores of those rebates - such a rebate plan will actually function. This particular claim also raises the interesting question of whether I can apply the purchase price of my new Fusion to that "poverty line" breakpoint and then feed the family mac and cheese with hot dogs for the year to make up for it...

His "Fair Tax" proposal also must be stirring all sorts of emotions across the shrinking spectrum of the manufacturing sector, since it specifically proposes not taxing the purchase of 'used' items. Buy a used car or refrigerator or stereo or TV or computer or apparel and you don't have to pay the "Fair Tax". It's a hot deal, unless you happen to be involved in the manufacture or sale of new versions of these items, in which case you might just begin to wonder just exactly who is going to buy your new stuff. On that by-now-world-famous "other hand", the folks at Goodwill and Salvation Army and uncountable thousands of second-hand stores and pawn shops across this great land of ours are smiling the smile of the lottery winner at the prospect of a Huckster...er...Huckabee presidency...

Most folks spend over 50% of their income buying things. They buy food, they buy clothing, they buy energy products; if they are lucky ducks, they buy things that provide entertainment for themselves and their families. In a consumer-driven society that for the past seven years has had a president who's solution to all the nation's economic ills has been the simple bromide "go buy things", the idea that long-established touchstones like deductions for mortgages or child care are going to be supplanted with a 23% sales tax and some vague promise of monthly rebates would seem to be a hard sell. Huckabee's tax proposal is probably a way better indication of his lack of qualification for president than all the chitchat about his Southern Baptist ordained pastor beliefs or his hapless misunderstanding of foreign affairs issues; it's a cheap bit of faux populist clap-trap, woefully short on specifics and heavily burdened with a host of troubling issues and questionable qualifications...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:14 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

My Mayor's Hotter Than Your Mayor 

...ok, so that's not true. I don't even have a mayor, but I would if I lived in Arlington, Oregon, an exceedingly small community on the southern bank of the Columbia River in the northeastern part of the state. And then I would be able to say with little fear of rebuttal that my mayor is hotter than your mayor. The citizens of her fair little community, having just found out that she had up until very recently had photos posted on her MySpace account showing her posing in black undies on a city fire truck, can say the same thing, too. Unfortunately, not all of them are just quite ready to say that right now...

While the physical evidence, if you will, is no longer readily available for viewing, Mayor Kontur-Gronquist's photo's have struck more than one note, if the comments at the website of KATU TV in Portland are any measure...

More power to her, I say. On a day when we are wrapping up the New Hampshire primary, where for the second time in a week a notably unrepresentative state plays a remarkably oversized roll in the selection of the 2008 presidential candidates, it's a good thing to see politics reduced to its nearly bare essentials. Aside from my surprise that Arlington, which I have been through a hundred times (they have a nice little park), even has a mayor, the fact that folks have something more tangible to discuss than who can use the word "change" more frequently in a speech is a refreshing diversion...

The good people of Arlington could have it worse, after all. At least they don't have a cross-dressing Rudy Guiliani as their mayor. That would be obscene....
Posted by: Jack K. / 5:36 PM 0 comments

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