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federal taxes
Profiles in Liberty: Tom Smith, Conservative Senate Candidate in Pennsylvania
Thu, 08/16/2012 - 10:15am | posted by Matt Naugle
Senate candidate Tom Smith, a former Democrat, is an accomplished businessman and a Tea Party conservative. Tom still lives on the farm in Armstrong County where he grew up. After high school, he postponed college to help his father tend that farm and supplemented his income by driving a school bus. After a few years, Tom married his high school sweetheart, Saundy, started a family, and went to work in a local surface coal mine.
In 1989, Tom entered the coal business himself. He succeeded, building a series of companies in a highly regulated industry. When he sold the companies in 2010, they were mining more than a million tons of coal each year.
Now, Tom wants to re-claim for Republicans the seat Sen. Bob Casey took from Rick Santorum in 2006. Follow him on Twitter @TomSmithforPA.
Matt Naugle: You were a registered Democrat from age 18 until August 2011. As a Democrat, you were elected official Plumcreek Township and were a member of the United Mine Workers. Now, you’re a major donor to Republican candidates and a Tea Party leader. How did you become a conservative?
Tom Smith: I’ve always been a conservative and supported pro-growth and pro-freedom candidates and causes. My father and mother were registered Democrats, so when I was 18 I registered the same out of respect for them. It was over the years, while building a family and starting a business I became more and more vocal with my conservative views.
MN: You went from working on your father’s farm and driving a bus to running a 100,000 tons/month coal mining operation. Do you agree with President Obama that you did not build the company?
About the Buffett Rule…
Thu, 09/22/2011 - 2:08pm | posted by Jason Pye
While the so-called “Buffett Rule” is the talk of the week, Megan McArdle notes that the White House isn’t pushing a policy that would impose more taxes on Warren Buffett, a guy that could send a gift to the government if he feels he isn’t paying enough: (emphasis mine):
[I]n the White House document that I read, I saw no proposal to set some sort of AMT on millionaires. Instead, it claims to do this, while rehashing a bunch of things that the administration has long proposed: allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for those making more than $250,000; changing the treatment of carried interest income accrued from capital gains; and altering the treatment of deductions for very high earners. If all of these things were passed, guess who would still pay a lower effective tax rate than his secretary? Hint: his initials are WB, and he lives in Omaha, Nebraska.
If a “Buffett Rule” is such a great idea, how come the administration doesn’t actually propose enacting one?
Presumably for some of the following reasons: it would add complexity to the tax code; it might not be possible to do in a way that would stand up even in our very IRS-friendly tax courts; it would have upsetting effects on the market for various forms of capital, particularly municipal bonds; it might well involve taking away deductions that less well-heeled voters currently enjoy, and they’d freak out. Note that I do not include “Republican obstructionism” on this list, because the existing proposals won’t pass the house; there’s no reason not to include a real hard “Buffett Rule” if they think such a thing is even vaguely workable. From the fact that they didn’t, I infer that they thought the idea maybe had some problems.
Liberty Links: Morning Reads for Wednesday, February 23rd
Wed, 02/23/2011 - 9:03am | posted by United Liberty Staff
Below is a collection of several links that we didn’t get around to writing about, but still wanted to post for readers to examine. The stories typically range from news about prominent figures in the liberty movement, national politics, the nanny state, foreign policy and free markets.
Ex-aide’s book paints harsh Palin portrait (Politico)
High Court Passes Up Ten Commandments Return (Fox News)
14 Trillion Reasons Military Spending Should not Be Sacrosanct (Bastiat Institute)
Harry Reid: “The time has come for us to outlaw prostitution” (Las Vegas Sun)
When It Comes To Dealing With Our Fiscal Problems, The Public Is Stupid (Outside the Beltway)
Can Obama “Pull a Clinton”? (The American Spectator)
The Neocons Couldn’t Wait to Bring Democracy to Iraq (Campaign For Liberty)
