Well ... 100% of Americans with a phone just got a tax increase, so what will our president, the Being of Light, claim next? That counterfeiting money is the road to national prosperity? Wait a minute ...
On Friday, June 12 (a Friday the 13th would have been more appropriate!), the FCC announced that the tax on all interstate and international phone calls has been increased to 12.9%. While the possibility of implementing new regulations to enforce payment of income taxes for personal calls made from business-provided cell phones has been much in the news in the past few days, not much attention has been paid to the large increase in the "phone tax" levied to support universal service subsidy programs. Attention should be paid.
Just since the beginning of the year, the tax has jumped from under 10% to 13%. (I understand the FCC requires the phone companies to call the tax a "fee" and not a "tax." Tell that one to an economist with a straight face. My habit is to call a skunk a skunk when I encounter one.)To put the matter bluntly, the time has long since past when the FCC (or Congress) should have radically overhauled the universal service regime. It has been irresponsible not to do so. With respect to the universal service regime, the preferred course seems to be to follow the Detroit model a la GM and Chrysler or what may soon be the California model -- just wait for a financial implosion of monumental proportions before finally cleaning up the mess.
John Stossel now has his own blog, John Stossel's Take. I've always like Stossel, and he's just about the only member of the mainstream media you can trust is actually reporting the news.
Drug Control Begets Gun Control
Jacob Sullum has a nice column in this month’s Reason magazine debunking the idea that guns purchased in the US fuel the drug violence in Mexico.
“Making it harder for Americans to buy guns is not likely to stop Mexican gangsters from arming themselves. The persistence of the drug traffickers’ main business, which consists of transporting and selling products that are entirely illegal on both sides of the border, should give pause to those who think they can block the flow of guns to the cartels.”He also argues, as I have, that conservatives who oppose gun control should also oppose the drug war. A war on drugs inevitably becomes a war on guns.
H/T Club for Growth!
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[...] Counterfeiting money is the road to national prosperity. Michael Todd [...]
Next comes the value added tax on everything.
Each step in the production, distribution and sale of a product, beginning with raw materials, is taxed. Prices increase dramatically but consumers tend to blame manufacturers and retailers because the tax is hidden.
It’s a socialist’s dream. Power without accountability.
[...] about Mexico Violence as of June 19, 2009 Friday, June 19, 2009 “95% of Americans will get a tax cut” – the-classic-liberal.com 06/19/2009 Well … 100% of Americans with a phone just got a [...]