Author Archives: "Archives"

Should truth be required at tax time?

I spoke last weekend to the San Diego Libertarian Party. Sue was with me. We made new friends. We put faces to names of friends I’ve only corresponded with. We connected with old friends: Several DC Downsizers were there. ::::::I thought my speech went quite well. The questions were awesome. And I’m pleased to see this letter to the editor. ::::::This letter to the editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune is concise and on the mark!::::::February 3, 2006::::::Make legislators read their legislation::: :::Recent editorials have identified some of the many problems with Congress. While these editorials are long on rhetoric about special interests, earmarking, K Street lobbyists, etc., they all lack any workable solutions. ::: :::An innovative approach proposed by DownSizeDC.org is the “Read the Bills Act.” Under RTBA, every senator and representative would be required to attend sessions where bills would be read to them in their entirety. If RTBA were to come to a vote, it would be political suicide to vote against it because any member of Congress doing so would be taking the position that they don’t want to know what they are voting on. ::: :::Imagine how concise bills would then become. Huge omnibus bills would likely become a thing of the past (who would want to listen while 1,000-plus pages are read to them?). And if bills containing earmarks and special-interest concessions were exposed to the light of day, it’s less likely that they would be passed as well. Perhaps then we would truly no longer have “legislation without representation.” ::: :::MEL PINNEY :::San Diego::::::THANKS MEL!::::::OK DC Downsizers, now it’s your turn!

Top Ten Highlights from the President’s State of the Union Speech…

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch ::::::This is the special and important message I “warned” you about yesterday. This is the message I said would unveil something that could be 1,000 times more effective than anything we’ve done before. ::::::To explain this plan I’m going to do something a little different. Below you will find the text of a letter we currently have in the mail. It explains the plan better than anything else I could write, and since I want to make sure everyone sees it I am distributing it through every channel available. ::::::There’s some progress report stuff at the start of the letter, and then comes the big plan. I hope it excites you as much as it excites me. :::

Frankly, I’m tired of State of the Union speeches. Just because we’ve always done something for years doesn’t mean we should keep on doing it. There were presidents who submitted their reports in writing. ::::::Ever since FDR, we’ve been getting a dog and pony show. Every State of the Union speech now showcases a basket-full of goodies designed to buy an increase in the President’s poll numbers (which by the way, rarely lasts more than a week). ::::::And the coverage of the event, with the possible exception of C-SPAN, stinks. ::::::ABC did, however, make one note worth mentioning. So interesting was this point that it was, in my opinion, more important than any of the rhetoric coming out of the president’s mouth. :::

Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .::::::I’m back. I had a great trip promoting Downsize DC on the West Coast, but now I’m ready to get moving with things here at the home office. First . . .::::::I want to give you ADVANCE WARNING that tomorrow’s message will be very important. It will lay out an exciting but achievable project for lifting the campaign for the “Read the Bills Act” to the next level in 2006. ::::::This is something above and beyond the media interviews I am now starting to do. This new project could be at least 1,000 times as effective as anything we’ve done before. Please take the time to read it. I think you’ll like what you see. Second . . .::::::The long holidays and the post-holiday hangover have passed, Congress is going back to work making mischief, and we need to go back to work too. It’s time for another RTBA Blitz Day! Please send a message to your Representative and your Senators reminding them that you want them to sponsor the “Read the Bills Act” right now. Let them know this issue isn’t going away. To send your message click here. ::::::Sending this message is the first small step in a new aggressive posture with regard to passing RTBA. We’re going to hammer Congress. I’m going to do media interviews until my tongue bleeds. And . . .::::::There’s that exciting new project you can learn about tomorrow. So please send your RTBA message to Congress right now, and then stay tuned for tomorrow’s Dispatch. Thank you for being a DC Downsizer!::::::Jim Babka:::President:::DownsizeDC.org, Inc. :::

Last week I learned of the death of Sir John Cowperthwaite, 90. You may ask, “Who?” I certainly did. But I soon found out that this British colonial administrator was one of the unsung heroes of the 20th century. According to the Telegraph, Cowperthwaite was Financial Secretary of Hong Kong throughout the 1960’s, creating “conditions for very rapid growth” and “laying the foundations of the colony’s prosperity as an international business centre:”::::::

Cowperthwaite himself called his approach “positive non-intervention”. Personal taxes were kept at a maximum of 15 per cent; government borrowing was wholly unacceptable; there were no tariffs or subsidies. Red tape was so reduced that a new company could be registered with a one-page form.::::::Cowperthwaite believed that government should concern itself with only minimal intervention on behalf of the most needy, and should not interfere in business. In his first budget speech he said: “In the long run, the aggregate of decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is less likely to do harm than the centralised decisions of a government, and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster.”

::::::(Let’s remind ourselves that the people of Hong Kong didn’t pay federal, state, and local taxes; the maximum 15% tax rate mentioned above were not just for one layer of government, it was all that they had to pay.)::::::What happened during Cowperthwaite’s ten years as Financial Secretary of Hong Kong? Despite minimal government spending on health and education,“statistics for mortality and disease showed steady improvement,” with:::

a 50 per cent rise in real wages, and a two-thirds fall in the number of households in acute poverty. Exports rose by 14 per cent a year, as Hong Kong evolved from a trading post to a major regional hub and manufacturing base.

In this issue . . .::::::

George Bush held a news conference Thursday morning. He fielded some tough questions. The TV press, pretending this event was no more than a sporting event, gave him high grades for his performance. ::::::I realized, while I was “living in hotels,” that I really don’t miss the 24 hour news networks. We don’t have cable TV in our home. MSNBC, CNN, and Fox are really redundant and unimpressive. In the view of these networks (especially CNN) Oprah, giving whats-his-name some heck for writing a novel when everyone else thought he was writing a biography, was far more interesting than George Bush. ::::::But what Bush had to say should’ve brought down the house (and the senate too). When asked about unwarranted wiretapping of Americans, Bush basically said that we’re at war. When Congress authorized war (please, someone, tell me when they made an official declaration of war?), they were implicity authorizing him to do whatever it takes to insure American security. ::::::Paraphrasing Flip Wilson, the president was saying, “The War made me do it.” ::::::I’ve shared this quote so many times, it feels trite to me. But I keep repeating it because it’s true – “War is the health of the State.” War is the ultimate Big Government program. ::::::Here is George W. Bush illustrating this principle for us.

Leave a comment here to tell us about your phone calls to Congress. Did you get a busy signal?