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Friday Facts: January 8, 2010
- “After it was announced that Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry may go to Iran, the mullahs denied him an entry visa. See, that’s how international travel works. If your name is Senator John Kerry and you're a former candidate for President of the United States, your travel is limited. If your name is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, you stow a bomb in your underpants, you pay cash for a one-way ticket after your father called the embassy and said, ‘My kid is an idiot,’ ooh, you can go anywhere you want.” – Jay Leno
- The Georgia General Assembly begins the 2010 legislative session on Monday. A timely reminder from Ronald Reagan: “Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.”
- Tunnel vision, retrovision: Atlanta leaders, enamored with trains, streetcars and trolleys reminiscent of days long gone, are applying the brakes when it comes to considering construction of a tunnel under Atlanta – proposed several years ago by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and Reason Foundation’s Robert Poole, to relieve congestion. While Atlanta fiddles and commuters’ tempers smolder, the French are completing a toll tunnel under western Paris to preserve the neighborhoods of the historic Versailles district. Madrid, Spain, completed its congestion-relieving M30 tunnel project.
- Upcoming events:
Register now for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s first Policy Briefing Luncheon of 2010 is “A Toolkit for the Budget-Conscious Government,” at noon on Tuesday, January 26, at Atlanta’s Commerce Club. The keynote speaker is Reason Foundation’s director of Government Reform, Leonard Gilroy, who will discuss practical approaches to effective and efficient government around the nation. The registration deadline is Friday, January 22.
Click on the links for more information about the events. The registration fee for Policy Briefing Luncheons is $35 for members; $45 for non-members. Register online at www.gppf.org or by calling 404-256-4050.
- Georgia flames out on anti-smoking programs: Georgia ranks 50th in the nation in funding programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, according to a new national report released in December. The state spends $3.2 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, 2.7 percent of the $116.5 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and just 0.8 percent of the $377 million collected last year from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes. The states this year will collect $25.1 billion from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 2.3 percent of it – $567.5 million – on prevention programs. Source: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
- Sin taxes: Last July the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a federal three-cent-per-12-ounce soft drink tax would generate $24 billion over the next four years. Proponents argue that it reduce obesity rates in America and use the revenue on child nutrition and obesity prevention programs. That way, the thinking goes, even if people still drink soda the tax will help the fight against fat. “But governments don’t always spend sin tax money the way they promise,” Veronique de Rugy points out in Reason magazine. (See Friday Fact above.) “Americans may be fat, but the federal budget is morbidly obese; our hunger for chips and soda is nothing compared to the feds’ hunger for our money. If I had to choose between putting the average citizen or the government on a diet, I know which would be better for our fiscal health.” Source: Reason.com
- Just say no to VATs: Following the 1960s’ enactment of value-added taxes (VATs), also known as goods and services taxes, “Europe has suffered big increases in overall tax burdens, up from 27.7 percent of GDP in 1965 to 38.9 percent of economic output according to the latest data,” a coalition of taxpayer groups notes in cautioning the Obama administration against implementing a VAT. “Government spending levels also have risen, from 30.1 percent of GDP in 1965 to 47.1 percent. Even taxes on income and profits have become more burdensome, climbing from 8.8 percent of GDP in 1965 to 13.8 percent.”
- “Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of 10 people couldn't start a conversation.” – Kin Hubbard
- Visit www.gppf.org to read the Foundation’s latest commentary, “Transportation Planning: A Long Road Ahead,” by Benita M. Dodd.
Have a great weekend.
Kelly McCutchen
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