Comments on: Krugman on Progressive Indexing

By: walygator

walygator — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 16:14:00 +0000

Super portal when you can find a lot infromation about insurance, loans, games, videos, vitamins and others. http://video-games.supersearchportal.com http://mp3-players.supersearchportal.com http://cd-players.supersearchportal.com

By: idiot

idiot — Sun, 15 May 2005 14:16:00 +0000

i am an idiot and i am lead by richard simmons

By: Wild Pegasus

Wild Pegasus — Wed, 11 May 2005 22:14:00 +0000

I don’t think any libertarian has argued that Bush’s domestic policies are libertarian. I certainly haven’t and neither has Cato or Will.

That $2t, of course, will have to be borrowed no matter what.

- Josh

By: monkyboy

monkyboy — Thu, 05 May 2005 05:30:00 +0000

Josh,

Under the Bush administration the federal budget has gone from $1.8 trillion to $2.6 trillion.

The Cato SS plan will force the federal government to borrow $2 trillion dollars and create a huge new government bureaucracy.

Forgive me if I have failed to award the appropriate libertarian kudos to these two champions of smaller government…

By: Wild Pegasus

Wild Pegasus — Thu, 05 May 2005 04:27:00 +0000

Libertarians do oppose pork-barrel spending, and many of us have said many things about it over the years. In fact, mb’s bête noire Cato has kept track of stupid government expenditures for years and years. It opposed the biggest boondoggle of them all, the Iraq War, and has repeatedly attacked government waste and fraud, especially in the byzantine mess of the Pentagon. I learned about the Pentagon being unable to audit its books or to account for a trillion dollars over the preceding decade through Cato’s daily reports.

Right now, though, the chattering class is talking about social security reform. It would be crazy for Cato and its people not to put forth their proposal when the POTUS is talking the same line that they are. If you’ve been pushing for a policy for the last 25 years, and the president starts agreeing with you, it makes sense to talk about the policy.

I don’t happen to support the partial privatisation for the same reason I don’t support school vouchers (he who pays the piper calls the tune), but mb’s attacks on Cato are unfounded. And I don’t see why Will puts up with his repeated insults.

- Josh

By: monkyboy

monkyboy — Wed, 04 May 2005 22:27:00 +0000

Are you volunteering to pay for everybody’s account, Bostonian? Or will we still need to borrow $3 trillion to pay for this boondoggle?

By: Bostonian

Bostonian — Wed, 04 May 2005 18:35:00 +0000

If you don’t like private accounts, then don’t have one.

What’s so hard about that?

By: T

Wed, 04 May 2005 11:58:00 +0000

You read all 2700 bills? Wow. You must read really fast.

Do you think that maybe the idea is to go after the bigger line items before going after the smaller ones? $10 billion out of a total budget of $2.3 trillion is not that big a deal. $540 billion out of that same $2.3 trillion is another matter.

By: sheesh

sheesh — Wed, 04 May 2005 07:15:00 +0000

“We forked over $10 billion for 7 missiles that even their designers admit will never work.”

when did they say this?

By: monkyboy

monkyboy — Wed, 04 May 2005 02:20:00 +0000

Christopher, you have hit on the nugget I was struggling to get across: How does a particular piece of government business get on the “Nation’s Agenda?”

The 109th congress has been in action about 3 months now and they have already intoduced about 2700 bills. How many of these get national scrutiny? I have read through every one, and there is some bad business in there! Billions and billion of dollars being wasted and nobody says anything about it…

If you want a good example of a Rube Goldberg program, look at the most expensive *thing* the government purchased this year…the “missile defense” system. We forked over $10 billion for 7 missiles that even their designers admit will never work.

If you want to lead a libertarian protest of these boondoggles, I’ll be happy to join you. We could join hands around one of the silos and chant, “Hell no, wasteful government spending has got to go!”

By: Christopher Monnier

Christopher Monnier — Wed, 04 May 2005 01:21:00 +0000

“In comparison, Social Security is crystal clear…”

Well, in comparison. I agree with you that all those government programs you listed are quite Rube Goldbergian…especially income tax laws. If I were president, social security wouldn’t have been my first target, but since that’s on the nation’s agenda we might as well go with that.

By: sheesh

sheesh — Wed, 04 May 2005 00:55:00 +0000

“I suspect you, or at least many people you know, like, and respect subscribe to the second argument, so what’s wrong with the first?”

show me where the first one even attempts to mention “enabling personal freedom” or “reducing dependence on the government”

By: monkyboy

monkyboy — Tue, 03 May 2005 22:55:00 +0000

Christopher – We can forgive Will for churning out lumpen and intellectually dishonest analogies so Fox TV’s founder will continue sending Cato checks, but come on!

You want to talk about Rube Goldberg contraptions talk about the Federal Corporate tax laws, the income tax laws, no-bid combat support contracts to Haliburton, Tom DeLay selling influence to the highest bidder or Medicaid.

In comparison, Social Security is crystal clear. The government takes a percentage of your income while you’re working then sends you a check every month when you retire. The SSA publishes its numbers monthly and anyone with a high school level of maths can easily see what’s going on with it.

Social Security is many things, but it ain’t complicated…

By: Christopher Monnier

Christopher Monnier — Tue, 03 May 2005 22:06:00 +0000

Monkyboy, Social Security is Rube Goldberg because its inputs are hidden (how many Americans know their employers have to match the amount each employee gets taxed?), the money moves all throughout the government from program to program after its been taken in (there is no such “lockbox”), and dozens of years later it comes out having barely increased in value. It’s Rube Goldberg because it’s inefficient, particularly when compared to private accounts and/or investments into financial markets–even conservative ones!

By: monkyboy

monkyboy — Tue, 03 May 2005 19:06:00 +0000

Anton – I would support Libertarians if they were as rabid in rooting out the day-to-day pork in the government spending as they are in supporting the latest Republican plans to reward their supporters.

Cato seems to have turned into a training facility for right-wing bureaucrats.