Man of the Week

DrWho is Mighty Brain's Man of the Week.

DrWho demonstrated the technique of "deflection," aka a "red herring."

A comment was made about the previous administration running a budget surplus while the current administration is setting record deficits. DrWho turned the entire discussion to an arcane examination of whether the way the CBO computes deficits and surpluses is really proper. While perhaps an interesting discussion, it represented a change of topic. The discussion was deflected from government spending to accounting methods.

An analogy: A football team wins a game 35-7. The discussion is about how dominating the winning team was. Suddenly, a person starts saying that the PAT should could two points and not one. This has no bearing on the outcome of the game, and is irrelevant. The winner outscored its opponent 5 TDs to 1.

Mighty Brain congratulates DrWho for being our Man of the Week.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I was asked by an ICC member to discuss a new tax system. Today I will do so.

Do I think a new tax system such as a consumption tax or flat tax will be implemented in my lifetime? No.

Moving to a consumption tax and away from the income tax would be unfair to those like me who paid an income tax their entire life only to reach retirement age and have sales taxes skyrocket. Making little income, we would see little benefit from doing away with income tax.

Schemes such as the flat tax are no worse than the current method, in theory. Politically, they can have problems, because any true simplification lessens the opportunities for special tax breaks, the bread and butter of corrupt politicians (i.e., all politicians).

Probably the most important thing to remember when considering new tax systems is this: All tax changes are merely a matter of changing who pays.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. I'm known as Kyon at ICC.

I'd like to make one quick point today. The point is this: Criticizing George W. Bush does not make one a "liberal Democrat socialist." I find -- being a moderate myself -- that I am constantly called a "liberal" by those who are Republican party loyalists. To them, saying anything at all negative about a Republican can mean only one thing -- you are the enemy.

They fail to realize that most Americans don't see the world in terms of the Democrats vs. the Republicans. Most Americans don't think that election results trump all else. Most Americans want what is best for their nation, political parties be damned.