American-Manifesto.com In Defense of American Exceptionalism

A depression is just a recession that the government tried to fix.
Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform

Spend it in vegas or die paying taxes…[The estate tax gives us] a 0% tax on carousing, but 55% on thrift.
That’s Arthur Laffer in today’s Wall Street Journal.  Well put.

The National Bureau of Economic Research, which is not a government agency but does have a relationship with the federal government, has analyzed three possible governmental responses to a recession:

deficit spending
deficit financed tax cuts
increased spending financed with increased taxes

The results? 
We find that deficit-financed tax cuts work best among these three scenarios to improve GDP
Translation: Obama’s [...]

In the 12 trading days since Obama was elected the Dow has lost over 21%, the NASDAQ has lost 26% and the S&P 500 has lost 25%.  This is what happens when you elect someone who in a very bad economy pledges to:

raise business taxes
raise capital gains taxes
raise taxes on the wealthy
raise protectionist barriers
implement card [...]

Remember how Obama was promising tax cuts for 95% of us?  Well, don’t look now but the story is changing.  Initially he said anyone making under $200,000 would see a tax cut.  The Joe Biden quietly lowered the figure to $150,000.  Well now Obama surrogate Bill Richardson has brought the figure down to $120,000.
The only [...]

There’s plenty of rich people that we can tax.
Unfortunately, you’re rich.

The left has taken great offense with the idea that Obama’s tax plan is socialism.  Well, let’s review.  Obama recently said he wanted to “spread the wealth around”.  Does that not sound a lot like “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”?
Whether or not the left wants to hear it, [...]

Arthur Laffer (of Laffer Curve fame) and Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal had an excellent piece recently on taxes and income.  There were several key items that are worth highlighting.
*Between 1983 and 2005 “households in the lowest income quintile saw a roughly 25% increase in their living standards…This fact alone refutes the notion [...]

The left is providing us with further evidence that they have become completely divorced from reality.  The great thinkers in California want to tax some people when they move out of the state.  If it happens, I have two predictions.  First, it will bring in less extortion money tax revenue than anticipated.  Second, the threshold [...]

From Marginal Revolution, an excellent economics blog:

"many of the same people who ridicule the idea that private-sector output is meaningfully reduced by higher taxes are convinced that private-sector output is meaningfully raised by higher subsidies."

Sen. Obama says "every single proposal that I have made in this campaign is paid for - because I believe in pay-as-you-go".
Given that he has proposed about $1.5 trillion in spending over the next 5 years, it's more like tax-as-you-go, I'd say.