Monthly Archives: November 2005
Kill the Death Tax and do it soon
DownsizeDC.org has joined the Death Tax Repeal Working Group signing on to a letter calling upon Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) to bring the Death Tax Repeal bill up for a vote by February 27. We’re not fond of the first paragraph of the letter, however, we support the goal. The letter is attached to this post in .pdf. We recommend Adobe Acrobat to open it. ::::::
A very witty person once said, “There are only three things in life that are certain: You’ll be taxed, you’ll die, and then, you’ll be taxed again.” Well, if the Death Tax Repeal bill passes, that means only two of those are certain. ::::::
Karl Marx, who believed in a very strong State (civil government), believed it was so important to take away inheritances, that he included it as one of his ten planks. At DownsizeDC.org, we see this as regressive, immoral, and counter-productive. :::
Favorable mention of RTBA
Jason Kuznicki, and his colleagues Tim Sandefur, Jonathan Rowe, and Ed Brayton, run a highly informative blog at www.PostiveLiberty.com. We’ll be linking to it often and we encourage you to check it out. ::::::We’d like to thank Jason for his recent favorable mention of Downsize DC and the Read the Bills Act (RTBA).::::::Jason refers to RTBA as an “impossible project.” Is it? Almost certainly, if we only take into account what the politicians would be willing to do voluntarily, if left to their own devices. But the aim is to not leave them to their own devices. The aim is to overwhelm them with faxes, emails, phone calls, personal visits, advertisements, and media questions, all of which urge them to sponsor and pass RTBA. Is this impossible?::::::It seems reasonable to assume that a large number of Americans would support something like RTBA, and perhaps even our highly enforceable version of the idea. It also seems reasonable to assume that it would be possible to overwhelm Congress using the methods described above. After all, there are millions of Americans, and only 535 people in Congress. What remains to be seen is how many people can be recruited to do this overwhelming, how many people it will take to exert the required pressure, how much pressure will actually be needed, and how long it will take to recruit and apply the necessary forces. But nothing in this set of tasks seems inherently impossible. ::::::One thing is certain, favorable mentions like Jason Kuznicki’s speed-the-day when we can have answers to all of these questions. The more people who know about RTBA, the more likely it is that we can compel Congress to pass it. Thank you Jason!:::
A big endorsment for Downsize DC and RTBA on LewRockwell.com
Please check out the column by Jim Cox on the highly popular LewRockwell.com. The main thrust of Cox’s column is to criticize the Fair Tax, but he ends with some exciting comments about us (read on to see them). :::
DC Downsizer uses his blog to say, “support Downsize DC”
When you open a blog and see your company’s banner, you get excited. And when you read a glowing recommendation of your company, it makes you warm and fuzzy. So imagine how good I felt when I read Keith Brumley’s blog the other day. Keith is a Milwaukee area minister and a DC Downsizer. Please visit his blog and read what he wrote about us here. ::::::
And then, please consider using your blog (if you have one!) to tell others about Downsize DC and RTBA. Let us know about it by sending a message to comments@downsizedc.org, and we’ll mention it here. It will be hard for you to top Keith, though. Not only did he give us a ringing endorsement, he also told people how to contribute! ::::::
Thanks Keith!
Monday’s Downsizer-Dispatch Message
Monday’s Downsizer-Dispatch Message
Would the FDA approve aspirin?
Would the FDA approve aspirin?
Building better immune systems
We at Downsize DC want to live longer, healthier lives. The key to this is more-and-better private research, unahampered by the political considerations that tend to bias, distort, and misdirect government research. We want to Downsize DC so less money will be wasted and so more resources will be available for private efforts that actually work. ::::::Here is another example of the kind of research we want to see flourish. Scientists are learning more and more about how our immune systems work, and about how to manipulate them and potentially improve them. ::::::When you watch the nightly news, with its obssesive concern about all things political and governmental, it’s easy to conclude that things are getting worse-and-worse. That’s an accurate picture so far as politics and government are concerned, but that isn’t where the action is. Private, voluntary efforts are making things better-and-better. That’s where the action is. And to get more of this kind of action, we need to Downsize DC.
More-with-less Innovation: Faster, cheaper DNA testing
We are unique individuals, every human being having a unique genetic code . . .
Is imitation the most sincere form of flattery?
Recently, the CATO Institute, one of the major think tanks in Washington, released a new book titled “Downsizing the Federal Government.”