Proposition 8 ruled unconstitutional

We just heard over the news that Caliornia's supreme court has ruled that the popular vote to pass California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. This brings up an interesting question. We are NOT a democracy. We are a representative government. A democracy requires rules by popular vote. However, we are also bound by the constitution.

If, the people vote on something like Gay marriage, then the courts over-rule it...which is considered more valid. The courts or the people's views?

Families and Government

I caught the last part of the State of the Union address last night. Then I listened to the Republican rebuttal. I found it interesting that the Governor of Indianapolis thought to praise Obama for his dedication to family and spending time with them.

Michelle Obama is working on healthy diets for kids as her project while in the White House.  There are some guidelines created by the federal government about the quality of school lunches, etc.  Have the school lunches changed in the past 40 years?  Has the menu at home changed in the last 40 years?  What is the role of government in helping families to eat better?

media bias

We are now talking about bias in the media. Does it exist? Does it lean left or right?? or, are we all biased and see bias whenever someone doesn't agree with our own perspective.

My Aunt sent me a clip from "TOWNHALL.COM" (a VERY conservative) website. IT was a very interesting discussion about media bias to me.

I can't figure out how to link you to the site, so I decided to let you read the email itself.  I'd love to hear what you think about this!

January 20, 2012

ABC News Produces Empty and Biased Story on Mitt Romney and Tax Havens

By Daniel J. Mitchell

1/20/2012

Exactly 10 days ago, I predicted that the press would attack Mitt Romney for using tax havens. In that post, I wrote that, “…based on the questions, it appears that the establishment media wants to hit Romney for utilizing tax havens… As far as I can tell, none of these reporters have come out with a story. …But I think it’s just a matter of time.”

Sure enough, like the swallows returning to Capistrano, it’s happened. Two hacks at ABC News, Brian Ross and Megan Chuchmach, revealed (brace yourself for a real scoop) that Mitt Romney is a rich guy and some of his investments are based in funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands (gasp!).

Wow, what a revelation! This must be Pulitzer Prize material. Pray tell, what wrongdoing did the story uncover? Well, let’s excerpt the key passages from the article.

Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven. A spokesperson for the Romney campaign says Romney follows all tax laws and he would pay the same in taxes regardless of where the funds are based.  …Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.  …Romney campaign officials and those at Bain Capital tell ABC News that the purpose of setting up those accounts in the Cayman Islands is to help attract money from foreign investors, and that the accounts provide no tax advantage to American investors like Romney. Romney, the campaign said, has paid all U.S. taxes on income derived from those investments. …Bain officials called the decision to locate some funds offshore routine, and a benefit only to foreign investors who do not want to be subjected to U.S. taxes.

You’re probably thinking you missed something, because there’s nothing to the story. But that’s because the reporters don’t have anything. And if you think I excerpted unfairly, feel free to read the whole article.

The only thing you’ll discover is that Ross and Chuchmach are biased hacks. Because not only did they write a story about nothing, they also quoted two left-wingers, Jack Blum and Rebecca Wilson, and failed to give the other side even an inch of column space.

Blum is a former John Kerry staffer who is most famous for making unsubstantiated claims (which he later admitted were fabricated) that tax havens resulted in $100 billion of lost revenue to the Treasury each year.

And Rebecca Wilson works for Citizens for Tax Justice, a union-funded group so radical that even congressional Democrats usually are reluctant to work with them.

But what about the other side of the story?

1. Did the article quote me, since I’ve been working on these issues for more than a decade? No.
2. Did the article quote anybody from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, the organization most active in the fight to defend low-tax jurisdictions? No.
3. Did the article quote Richard Rahn, the Cato Institute Fellow who was a Board Member of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority? No.
4. Did the article quote any of the academic scholars who have written about so-called tax havens, such as Jim Hines of the University of Michigan or Andrew Morriss of the University of Alabama? No.
5. Did the article quote Bob Bauman, the former Congressman and offshore expert who serves as Legal Counsel of the Sovereign Society? No.

Fair and competent journalists would have done those things, but not the dynamic duo from ABC News.

Instead, they quote two hard-core lefts. And in a gross display of editorializing, they also referred to the Cayman Islands as a “notorious tax haven.”

Yet what is “notorious” about being a prosperous multiracial society with living standards considerably above American levels?

Moreover, Cayman has a tax treaty with the United States and an overwhelming share of the investment in the jurisdiction is completely legal institutional money – just like the Romney investment funds.

But I guess a place like the Cayman Islands must be bad, at least to biased people from the press. After all, a place with no income taxes, no capital gains taxes, no payroll taxes, and no death taxes must be condemned.

I’m not a Romney fan, as you can see by reading this post, but I believe in honest and intelligent debate. Too bad ABC doesn’t.

Daniel J. Mitchell

Daniel J. Mitchell is a top expert on tax reform and supply-side tax policy at the Cato Institute.

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Conservative vs. Liberal?

I was listening to NPR today and they had several people, including the president of the Ayn Rand association talking with each other about the definition of "Conservative." It caused me to think that we should define these assumptions for class. Rather than me providing the definition, I am curious about what you think? What is a "liberal" in US? What is a "conservative" in the US?  Have any of you lived in another country where the definition of Liberal or Conservative is the same or different?

I would like to see if we can come to a consensus on this. Is it possible?

Abortion and flip-flop political views

I am really curious about the topic of "flip-flopping." There seems to be a great deal of animosity for those who supposedly flip flop on the topics related to family policy. For example, one of the current candidates is being accused of flip-flopping about their beliefs on abortion. If a candidate says that he or she does not believe in abortion at one point but decided to change perspectives on the topic, is that a weakness or a strength?

I am one who was absolutely PRO LIFE; however, after doing much thinking about the topic, I am still anti-abortion, but am not for creating public policy to limit abortions.

Do you agree with me? Why or why not?

Upcoming election

I had a lovely conversation with my Mother last night. We were talking about the primaries and potential presidential election. Which candidate is the best? Who should we vote for?  As I have been watching leadership and who I respect or who I want to represent me, I have been seriously wondering about the candidates themselves.  For example, one of my colleagues was serving in the State government as a representative. He invited me to sit with him while they make their votes.  He highlighted to me a vote that was about to come up related to higher education. He said that in his role in higher education he should vote this way, but his own personal feeling was to vote another.

How does he accurately vote to represent his constituents? Do they vote for him because of who he is? Or, do they vote for him to support him in his role in Higher Education? Or, do they vote for him because he represents their interests?

This causes me to think about the arguments around Bill Clinton and his indiscretions with women. He admitted he lied about having intimate relations with Monica Lewinsky. Republicans were mortified!  He had lied under oath! Later Democrats claimed that Bush lied about the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.  You may have heard: "Bush lied, people died." What is the role of moral character in the voting process?  Do they have to believe the same way you do on every issue? Are you more interested in their intelligence, or are you more interested in their values?

So, my last question to you is...is it OK for our candidates to be less than honest depending on what they lie about? Are we voting for their stand on the policies? Or, are we voting for the person? When it comes to family policy, what are we voting on?

I look forward to your discussion...

The role of education in government and families

One of the biggest questions we have to ask ourselves when thinking of families and social policy is who should have the responsibility to educate our children?  We can see the need for the public school system. The parents who may be undereducated can have a resource in the teachers to help them, but somewhere in the 60's or 70's, parents began to think of the school as the primary educator rather than the family.

What are your thoughts about educating our children? What about public colleges and universities? If students don't graduate from high school with the necessary skills to be successful in college, do the colleges have a responsibility to do that for them?

Lots of questions and we are just getting started!
Have a great Christmas!