Notes from around the Human Experience…
USA! USA! Even before Donald Trump earned the White House we said he would be as embarrassing a president as he was as a candidate. We were right.
The only hope, we added, was that Trump – a Republican businessman – would recognize this country needed a low tax, low regulation environment if we are ever again going to have a flourishing economy.
It took long enough – he really should have had a plan before he declared his candidacy – but President Trump revealed his tax plan this week.
Uh-Oh: It’s not very good, honestly. Your average working American would see a modest cut. The very wealthy and some corporations would see a nice cut. It’s inconclusive for others and our tax code will continue to be incomprehensible even to the IRS, which issues incorrect information a quarter of the time.
Gaylon For Congress…Vote Early, Vote Often: We said this every hour on the hour on the campaign trail for the United States Senate (2014) and House of Representatives (2016): Low taxes and free markets are the only way to a flourishing American economy. We favored a flat tax of not more than ten percent on American incomes and profits.
Flip-Flopper: Then we modified this position. We were speaking before a group of business owners and one asked me why I favor a tax on businesses at all. I told him it wasn’t an unreasonable price to pay for the opportunity make a fortune in this country, not a completely unreasonable answer. He said all taxes – and whatever the cost of compliance was – were merely expenses to be passed along to his customers.
I thought about it and we discussed it some more and I was sold. The corporate tax rate should be zero. The personal income tax should be five percent for everyone. It’s our money, we should be able to keep it.
Fly In The Ointment: Low taxes are not popular right now, though. Over 40 percent of our citizens receive some sort of government aid to make a go of it and instead of decrying that number America has accepted it. Calls for the rich, individuals and businesses alike, to pay more in taxes are commonplace.
They are also misplaced. America will never have a flourishing economy until taxes are low and regulations minimal. Lower, or no, taxes will give consumers more money to spend and businesses more money to meet their growing needs. Profitable businesses expand and hire more people and lots of profitable businesses compete for labor, meaning wages and salaries go up.
This is not an easy sell. We have been taxed that it’s all we know. Also, we are so divided into the haves and have-nots that everyone wants to take more from the rich. A low tax economy is not something any of us can relate to.
But it’s what we need and what we deserve. Not only would we have more of our own money to spend, but the cost of complying with our tax code would drop to nothing because our taxes could be done on a postcard.
ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE!: Radoje Ljutovac, then a private in the Serbian army, becomes the first person to shoot down an enemy aircraft with ground-to-air artillery fire on this date in 1915. Ljutovac used a modified Turkish cannon to shoot down a German fighter plane. Later, Ljutovac rode his horse into town, where he saluted the fallen plane and its pilot.
Going…Going…Gone: Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees becomes the first major league player to hit 60 home runs in a season on this date in 1927. Ruth’s two-run home run in the eighth inning gave the Yankees a 4-2 win over the Washington Senators.
The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: The Yankees hardly needed the win having clinched the American League pennant on September 13. The game, on the next-to-last-day of the regular season, also marked the final major league appearance of Walter Johnson. Johnson, who was batting .348 that year, flew out in the ninth inning, hitting for starting pitcher Tom Zachary. His last pitching appearance had been on September 22, when he went 3 ⅓ innings in a start against the St Louis Browns.
Somebody Get Me The Qualified Sock: The world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is commissioned in Groton, Connecticut on this date in 1954. It had been launched the previous January and would get underway for the first time the following January.
It’s first commanding officer was Commander Eugene Wilkinson and in 1958 Nautilus would conduct the first submerged transit of the North Pole. It was decommissioned in 1980 and still serves as a museum at Naval Submarine New London, Connecticut.
Quotebook: Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more. – Georges Clemenceau, prime minister of France (1906-09; 1917-20)
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: From the first Continental Congress through today the United States has had nine capital cities: Philadelphia, Lancaster and York, Pennsylvania; Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland; Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey; New York City and Washington, DC.
Today’s Stumper: When was the last diesel-powered submarine decommissioned by the United States Navy? – Answer next time!
