Internet shopping has also cost some states much needed revenue. On “cyber monday”, if everyone would have paid taxes on their purchases, Ohio would have brought in an extra $6M in tax revenue.
My city had an issue on the ballot in November about raising the sales tax by 0.25% for a set amount of time in order to fund more police officers for the city(income)/county(sales). The county failed by 112 votes and the city passed by 1282 votes
bscar you need more police officers? Any way ,an implementing of the fair tax would reach everyone
( think drug pushers ,illegal immigrants,etc:) While not a panecea,it at least needs consideration,as a disciple of Ron Paul,I tend to agree with a lot of his views.Its funny how the best candidates dont make it through the primarys(I give the 2000 election as an example,look how things turned out) but one problem with a bunch of new parties would be the possibilty of Potus being appointed with only a small portion of the population being represented-Kevin
@kmccune…additional police officers in general have shown to be a deterent of criminal activity. This is especially helpful in areas you want to promote sales and commerce. Mayors and governors were re elected and given credit for great governance when the Clinton era budget increase for law inforcement was enacted. A win-win for everyone, including returning vets looking for jobs !
Right now the city and county are pretty much running a skeleton crew of officers. I think the city alone laid off a dozen or so officers
Bully for the Vets, so you say there was less reported criminal activity when the police are prowling? Just goes to prove what I’ve said for a long time" part of the polices job is deterrence ,rather then writing tickets for BS-Kevin
Kevin… If you don’t normally engage in criminal activity, you have no reason to worry about prowling policemen. Where police monitor, which is a less obstreperous term, is usually done at the request of local businesses and residents or areas of higher criminal activity. Crime goes down, economic activity goes up. I kind of thought that most people who be in favor of that. So if unsavory elements are frequenting a district, the locals can just ask them to move on ? In times of economic stress, federal funding is reduced and fewer local cops are hired. That’s one reason crimal activity increases in many areas.
http://www.civitas.org.uk/crime/europolice.htm
A good artical showing that it isn’t just numbers but strategy as well.
http://what-when-how.com/police-science/crime-control-strategies-more-police-police/
Yes presence ,equals deterrence.What gets my goat is the state troopers giving tickets out of boredom,because of some silly ass law.
I guess its the libertarian in me that rejects the police state"with great power ,comes great responsibility"“the universe will end,not with a bang,but a whimper” wake up and smell the coffee folks,she’s a burnin’-Kevin
Kevin…
Don’t libertarians believe that the sole power of govt. should only be in the defense of it’s citizenry ?
Just ask’n.
No, actually thier core belief is -if it doesnt harm anyone else it should be allowed and government shouldnt meddle in the affairs of people,History shows us time and time again what happens when a central govt becomes too powerful.God warned the Isrealites what would happen when they got a King(and man they had some doozies)-Kevin(I dont think libertarians are staunch anarchists)
@kmccune, I believe that the deal was: If Virginia raises the speed limit as so many demand, the state will start enforcing the speeding laws. And giving out hefty fines. Hefty might not be a strong enough word, though. My cousin got caught speeding in SW VA and got a $2300 ticket.
@kmccune…one man’s meddling(picking up speeders) could be another man’s protection. I don’t know what it means that government shouldn’t meddle in the affairs of people. So people should “take up arms” them selves when a speeder threatens them or poluter destroys their well ? The problem with a good friend who is also a libertarian is, his judgement as to what actually does harm other people. What he doesn’t get is that it’s not the police who arbitrarily decide what activities they will engage in, but the people’s representatives. That is the difference between us and that overused totally absurd phrase “police state”. And, equating the activities of a King in the eyes of God, has little to do with a representative democracy.
If a libertarian doesn’t like that an undercover cop is monitoring activities in and around the school grounds to catch a drug dealer let him complain to his representatives on the town council. If he happens to stop an ask a libertarian his ID, he gets a complaint. If he stops me, he gets a thank you, keep up the good work. His elected officials help make that decision indirectly. I get a chance to vote one way, you get a chance to vote another…the police will just enforce the laws WE make up in ways that WE approve.
The problems are caused by every party be they Republican, Democrat, or Independent. As I’ve stated before, I got involved in local politics about 20 years ago and the amount of utter stupidity, waste, and downright fraud is staggering. I spent my entire, and short-lived, political career beating my head on the wall.
The inability to sleep, sky high blood pressure, and flirting with a stroke daily became enough that I got out.
Granted, this was on a local level but the same thing carries all the way through every level of government clean on up to and through the White House.
I don’t care where anyone lives (be it small town, large city, or a collection of thatched huts) but I have no problem in saying that if you get involved with politics and spend a little time educating yourself about how things should be done both financially and legally you will find that waste and fraud are rampant in your own neighborhood.
Not too long ago the entire volunteer fire department in a small town south of me was canned down to the last man for as yet unknown, financial malfeasance of various sorts. Very recently it was announced that both the fire chief and his wife are now charged with looting the bank so to speak.
A school district in CA “borrowed” basically a 100 million dollars in bonds and consumated this deal like one of those payday loan outfits. It’s going to cost the school district taxpayers around 1 billion, not million, dollars to retire those bonds and it’s stated that the future kids of the current students will be paying that debt off for all or most of their lives; assuming more is not piled on.
Yes, I get very disgusted when I hear that taxes need to be raised “because we need the revenue” while money is being burnt by the bale. That same tired cliche’ was one I heard here all of the time. The money was there; it was simply being dumped hand over fist without question.
no Guys ,I’ve heard of speeding tickets handed out for less then 5mph above the speed limit,we the people didnt write these stupid laws.Speed limits are good in work zones,school zones and resedential areas.BTW, our representative democracy functions mainly for the benefit of the rjch constituency,most working people neither have the time or money to get elected.The richer you are the more friends you have,the founders of this great nation never invisioned a huge monster this thing called Capitol Hill became,waging wars for petroleum and for “the greater good”.beware “Clover” is out there.-Kevin
Maybe these tickets were written out for less then 5 mph over…maybe. But unless there is proof it happened to an innocent, It is just another add on usually given to repeat offenders or those involved in serious infractions. We will always find serious malfeasance in every large group of people’s, but to claim it is serial and typical is going over board. Without exception, complainers call the police in need and are thankful they have a public, non profit institution, provided for by the constitution that is obliged to help all.
Btw, our so called framers were not immune from being rich and taking advantage of the govt. They used it to endorse slavery and deny right to vote to all women, minorities, non property owners and the poor. If we want to live in a world without a central gov., move to Uganda. The Libertareans ideal govt. synopsis is tribal law from what I can gather. If one is a registed Republican and a Libertarean, he does more to support activities he distains then belonging to any other group. In that respect, Ron Paul is a hypocrite. Otherwise he is a very good entertainer and welcome break from listening to Limbaughisms.
And yes, we the people did write all these laws and can partition to have them changed. We write your laws at the ballot box. If we want to deny the right to assemble, which includes organized labor, we vote for one party in particular.
Huh, like I said before, I’m not saying there isn’t any waste or fraud, but its highly exagerated. You’d find the same kinds of things and worse at any large organization. I was on the Governor’s Waste and Mismanagement Committee some years ago, and you know what, we didn’t find much except policies that needed to be changed. Like I told one of the ultra conservative legislators last year who continued to talk about squeezing the waste out of Minnesota: “We’ve had 20 years of republican leadership and they should have gotten the waste out by now.” He just continued to rail on about wages and unions and that’s about it.
Locally we’ve got a few ultras that rail on about all of the abuse in the schools and city and just offer a lot of talk but no ideas. What it comes down to they are mad that teachers got a raise and they didn’t. These are people that have masters and PhDs with years of experience and hadn’t had much more that a 1% for the past 5 years. One of the worst is a fanatic home schooler. Sorry but this country needs good public schools if we are to succeed, and we need to pay for them.
California is a bad example for anything because the people refuse to pay for the services they demand, similar to Greece. “Boomerang” talks about this. We talk about the fiscal cliff and cutting spending, but then everyone talks about the defense jobs that will be lost in their states. Yep, cutting spending whether government or IBM will cost jobs-Econ 101.
OK, just to show that I’m not unsympathetic to those that think government has grown out of control, these are some areas that if I could have I would have quashed as big money wasters. One persons waste though is another’s necessity so it really is more of a policy decision than waste or fraud.
Homeland Security: Holy cow. This financed millions in stockpiled iodine and drugs, body bags, bought new radios for emergency people nation-wide and so on. It also required everyone to get with the federal incident management system whether it works, or is necessary or not. But South Dakota and Nebraska are now ready for that inevitable nuclear attack.
AIDs: Millions and millions was spent to fight AIDS on advertising, fresh needles, and other supplies that cause you to blush if you buy them. Many will argue but it was confined to a particular group and practices and there are just a couple things to not do to avoid it. Not including of course the necessary work to insure a safe blood supply. Now guess who benefits by everyone being tested?
War on Poverty: Didn’t work, won’t ever work. Long term poverty is a cultural problem, not a money problem. Section 8 housing, and many other programs encourage activities that cause poverty such as renting, having lots of kids and being single. If you don’t want to live in poverty, you save your money, buy a car, get advanced training, and get married before kids.
No Child Left Behind: Millions has been spent with no success while education has been refocused on test taking and passing tests rather than learning.
War on Drugs: Man if we want to free up law enforcement, reduce prison populations, and reduce petty and not so petty crime, just eliminate the stupid drug laws. If I want to smoke a joint in my back yard, why is that a felony?
I want everyone to have a home, be fed well, cared for, have a good job, and a shot at their dreams and am willing to pay for it, but this stuff just wastes our resources.
@Bing…
Good reading. Let me add one thought. When satisfaction in one’s job and life in general is measured, however that is, nations with single payer healthcare tend to do better. When asked, the reasons are obvious. People can do what they want and what they are best suited for and are not be tied to employer based systems. When you can take your healthcare with you, both the individual and small businesses flourish.
Knowing that your parents will be well cared for in their later years is such a huge burden for most of us, aliviating it aliviates the disruption to our own family contentment. Housing and healthcare for the poor and elderly in a respectful way is a sign of a nations empathy and true wealth.
When just a few % of the worlds population have 95% of it’s wealth, that leaves it to the rest of us to do this important work. It’s too bad, Bing, that we the middle class have to shoulder so much of this burden with so little of our resources.
If you could take health insurance out of the equation and make the individual through a single payer, not for profit entity responsible, small businesses would espond with a surge of hiring. I will bet money on it…well, someone else’s. The rich have been stealing mine for years.
@Bing I would have to agree with most of his post! Poverty is impossible to eliminate completely. Charity to help those in distress is desirable, and I belong to a network of volunteers who help out those in distress. The Salvation Army spends money wisely; out of every dollar you donate 3-4 times as much gets to the needy than any federal dollars.
US military spending is higher than the NEXT 13 COUNTRIES COMBINED!!! That includes “militaristic” Russia, China, Germany, and others. Most of us forget that a large part of military spending is outside the US and that money has no mutiplier effect, except in Pakistan, Egypt, and elsewhere. Most countries love US military bases for the local benefits they provide.The US does not really need 2200+ new F35 stealth fighters. A 30% cut in the defence budget by eliminating excess foreign involvement and other unnecessary domestic spending will still leave the country well protected.
The comment on cops prowling does not please me as much as it pleases others. Times have changed, due to the judges allowing cops to violate the Constitution. Twice on long trips, I have been stopped without probable cause.
I did not serve in the military to feel unsafe within the US.
Before everyone bleats I had it coming, I am 70 and have never had a moving violation in over 50 years of driving. And, when they stopped me, I also was not violating the traffic laws, and all lights were working. At the speed limit on cruise control.
The first time south of Hattiesburg, the cop tried to rip open my back hatch, and I am convinced if he had got it open, he would have tossed in illegal drugs, then taken my car. There was no legal reason for him to try to rip that hatch open.
The next time, the fat KY trooper stopped me, obviously for Texas plates, then told me I had been doing 70 in a 55 construction zone. Again, on cruise control at the speed limit until after I passed the 70 sign again. I wrote a letter to the KY commissioner and told him that fat trooper was a liar and this will be fixed.
I am not saying all cops are violating the Constitution. I am saying very few departments don’t do the same thing. They are confiscating legal amounts of cash, under the $10,000 Federal limit, and the stupid judges make them go through a $30,000 legal fee lawsuit rather than telling them to give the money back. What does the Constitution explicitly say? Nothing of value shall be taken from anyone without due process. Supreme Court to the contrary, a confiscation form filled out by a cop is not due process. Nor is a smirk, and the statement, “So sue us!”
If you want to know the worst, Google Tenaha.
But, it is happening all over the country.
Dag how do we write all the laws the general assembly passes every year,I dont see them on a referendum(liked thet cut about Uganda(neighbors brain anyone?).I’m referring to civilized people,not poor uneducated savages,but technically you are right and have been commendibaly long suffering and patient about the whole discussion(still think we need a little less gov’t,not more)-Kevin