Jimmy Carter

Cutting Taxes = Increasing Revenue

Tue, 03/03/2009 - 7:22am | posted by Matt Chancey

Around 150 BC, Emperor Ching Ti came to power in China and immediately faced a major problem: his treasury was empty.

Taxes were very high, but no real revenue was coming in. That’s because the system of taxes at that time was an early form of income tax that centered on the government taking a large percentage of a farmer’s crops.

So Ching Ti did something bold and innovative: he cut taxes.

Overnight, taxes went from over 50% down to about 3%. Farmers, who had fled to the hills to escape draconian tax rates, now came home and began farming again. To make a long story short, Ching Ti’s greatest problem while governing was trying to keep all the grain in his barns from spoiling.

It seems that ancient Chinese history is good for more than just cutesy script on a fortune cookie.

Shades of Red

Fri, 01/02/2009 - 7:14am | posted by Rick Fisk

I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer, just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals… The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom, and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. -President Ronald Reagan

The past two general election cycles have been bleak for the Republican Party. Looking back on its celebrated rise from near irrelevancy in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, it becomes clear that 1994 was a peak rather than a new beginning. When Newt Gingrich, Jim Babka and PNAC took control of the GOP from what was left of the Goldwater/Reagan conservatives, it marked the beginning of the end.

Why This Ron Paul Supporter is Going to Swallow Hard and Vote for McCain

Tue, 11/04/2008 - 1:00pm | posted by Dr. John Killian

No liberty-minded conservative can get excited about this election. Neither major candidate espouses the basic Constitutional principles of limited government. For that reason, I have not lifted one finger in favor of either candidate, nor have I endorsed any candidate for President on my website.

Is Obama Anti-war?

Tue, 09/23/2008 - 2:03am | posted by Michael Orion Powell

Somehow the Democratic Party is conceived by many as the anti-war party.

Despite a history of foreign interventions occurring during all of the last four Democratic administrations (in which even the Nobel Peace Prize winning President Jimmy Carter armed the Mujahideen in Afghanistan), the overt hawkishness of the Bush Administration has resulted in a perception of the Democrats as doves. This is aided by remarks such as those by Speaker Nancy Pelosi referring to Iraqis as “all God’s children” and the fact that both the current Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, and the chair of the DNC, Howard Dean, opposed the Iraq war from the beginning.