Friday, November 23, 2012

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watcher's Council Results

 

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.

I and my Council comrades hope all of you had a simply wonderful Thanksgiving. But beware of the Turkey's revenge!!

 


Democrats and the Left like to call themselves 'pro-choice', something that's always fascinated me. Being statists and fairly totalitarian in outlook, the only thing they really are pro-choice about is abortion on demand. They're rabidly anti-choice about pretty much everything else..whom you may hire to work for you, what constitutes a marriage, whether you may own firearms, what you may eat,drink or smoke,where you may send your children to school..in fact, pretty much everything else but terminating a pregnancy.

 

They are especially anti-choice when it comes to money you've earned and where it gets spent, as this week's winner, The Razor shows us in this week's winner, Freedom of Choice: Why Liberals Should Exercise Their Freedom to Pay Higher Taxes. 

Here's a slice:


To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil. – Charles Krauthammer

It’s interesting to be hated. I’m a white male, married to the same woman for over two decades. We love rescuing animals in the US and working on conservation and health projects in Africa. Together we don’t make enough to qualify for the top 2% of wage earners, but we are uncomfortably close. She works 50+ hours a week in health care, has had her life threatened twice for failing to prescribe narcotics, and daily faces patients who act like their ordering off the ala cart menu at a Chinese Restaurant, “I’ll have the MRI with antibiotics I don’t really need, oh and a side of Vicodin.” I work at a job that I enjoy for similar hours but as a contractor don’t know where I’ll be working from one month to the next. The only job security I have comes from the combination of my skills, wits and luck.

Aside from being white and conservative (libertarian actually) we are hated because we obviously don’t our fair share. Now granted, technically we’re excused from this requirement because we are not part of the minority being mugged, currently set at the top 2% of taxpayers, but I don’t trust technicalities to protect my family. For example the targets of liberal ire initially were the billionaires and millionaires; then it was 1% for awhile before some of the brighter liberals realized that you can’t soak the top 1% and get all the free healthcare and cell phones you need, so it became 2%. How long before it’s 5%? 10%? Anyone with more than anyone else except those who are more equal than me?

Nobel Prize winning Paul Krugman argues that we should bring back the 91% tax rate. Krugman’s argument in essence is that the American economy grew in the 1950s under the tax rate, workers were safely empowered by unions and as a result of both company executives enjoyed modest remuneration. Of course Krugman doesn’t mention other aspects of the 1950s that may have had something to do with prosperity, such as Republican control of Congress and the White House, and its darker side segregation although the treatment of Col. Allen West by the liberal establishment serves as a reminder of that last item. He does mention that the 91% number is a sham though, writing, “The best estimates suggest that circa 1960 the top 0.01 percent of Americans paid an effective federal tax rate of more than 70 percent, twice what they pay today.”

Wait, top .01%? Didn’t he mean 1% or 2%? No, but today we are talking about a minority 200x larger? And no one paid 91% even though it was on the books. Why? For the same reason we’re in a mess today: the tax code is riddled with loopholes and taxbreaks that the average 2%er isn’t privy to or can’t use.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Walter Russel  Mead at Via Meadia with America, Israel, Gaza, the World submitted by Joshuapundit.In it, Mead has an interesting take on why most Americans differ so much from the average  European when it comes to their views on Israel.


 OK, here are this week’s full results. Gay Patriot, The Right Planet and Simply Jews were unable to vote this week, but none was affected by the 2/3 vote penalty.:

Council Winners



Non-Council Winners



See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

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