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July 16, 2010
It's Friday!
Quotable
- "Where do the trillion-plus dollars come from that Congress and Obama are spending in an effort to stimulate the economy? How about Santa Claus, or maybe the Tooth Fairy? If you said, 'Come on, Williams, you're being silly! The only way government can spend a dollar is to tax or borrow it,' go to the head of the class. In the case of a tax, one should ask what would that taxpayer have done with the dollar had it not been taxed away. He would have spent it on something that would have created a job for someone. If the government hadn't borrowed the dollar, it might have been invested in some project that would have created a job. When government taxes, borrows and spends, it shifts unemployment from one sector to another. Of course, the sector that benefits tends to be a political favorite of the shifter." -Walter Williams
Education
- A matter of choice: Georgia high school students who would like to pursue full-time online education options may have seen their hopes diminished this week, the Foundation's Mike Klein reported this week in, "Ga. Students Left with Virtually No Online School Opportunities." Two companies that were approved to open online high schools in August will cancel because they believe the financial model offered by the state does not work. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/3y3ywm4.
Economy
- If Americans wanted green jobs and industries, they would pay for them, writes John Hayward in an op-ed in the Washington Times. "The government created the green economy through propaganda, regulations and subsidies. ... Most of us would dearly love to have cold-fusion cars or cheap solar electricity. However, we are not willing to compromise our standard of living to have them right now, when they're not adequate substitutes for fossil fuels. The more extreme manifestations of environmentalist fanaticism, beginning with the devastating 'cap-and-trade' bill, will begin pushing us back into a pre-industrial economy."
Health
- Enough to make you sick: The Cato Institute's Michael Tanner analysed the impact of the new federal health care law. His white paper finds that while it will increase the number of Americans with insurance coverage, it falls significantly short of universal coverage. By 2019, roughly 21 million Americans will still be uninsured. At the same time, the legislation will cost far more than advertised, more than $2.7 trillion over 10 years of full implementation, and will add $352 billion to the national debt over that period. Read more at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11961. Source: Cato Institute
Taxes
- Wrong policy, wrong time: The Value-Added Tax (VAT) is a consumption tax levied on a product at each stage of production based on the value added to the product at that stage. While hailed by economists for its lack of distortionary economic effects, the VAT still imposes greater costs on society than simply the revenue that it collects, according to Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center. "In the case of the United States, these costs would be even greater than those associated with the VAT in the EU or the costs associated with current income and sales taxes. These increased costs arise from the nature of the tax: computing tax owed under the VAT is more complex than under sales or income taxes and the proposed VAT will supplement the existing tax system, and is not likely to accompany an overhaul in existing taxes." Source: Mercatus Center
- Visit www.gppf.org to read the Foundation's latest commentary, "New Mexico Provides Model for Georgia Tax Reform," by Mark King.
Have a great weekend.
Kelly McCutchen
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