9/03/2008
Another Thought On Disaster Prep
I'll admit to not being the most prepared person out there, but I've got all the basics covered - water, canned and dry food, stove, lights, defense weapons and ammo, sleeping bags.
Now, with Hurricane Hanna heading toward North Carolina, a key piece of the distaster preparedness kit for my family will be missing. Me.
Tomorrow I head out for a previously planned recon to the CENTCOM AOR. So my wife will have to manage without me. Luckily, the track no longer takes Hanna straight over the top of Fort Bragg, and it doesn't look like she'll be nearly as strong as once feared.
Mental note: make sure disaster plan can be executed with just one adult.
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9/01/2008
The PRK - A Continuing Bastion of Stupid
The People's Republic of Kalifornia occupies a special, melancholy place for me. I grew up there, went to college there, my favorite sports teams are there, and most of my family lives there. So it greatly saddens me that to see it saddled with liberal shithead politicians intent on turning it into a warmer version of the USSR.
It seems those politicians have been unable to pass a budget for the state. They've got a $17 billion gap in the state budget, and they can't figure out how to close it.
This is because politicians do not live in the real fiscal world.
When real people don't have enough money (and they've maxed out their credit cards), they cut back on expenses.
With a state budget, there are 2 ways to do this:
1) Across the board cuts. Figure out how much, percentage wise, you need to cut to balance the budget, and apply this to everything the government does, including salaries for elected officials.
2) Prioritize. Make a prioritized list of everything the state government does, and then work down the list from the top until you run out of money. Anything below the line gets cut.
Politicians,as a group, are almost all genetically incapable of doing this. Cutting spending means .gov employees lose their jobs, and generally less pork for the barrel. Government programs are the only thing on Earth that are harder to kill than the undead.
But never fear, there's a fearless 'liberal activist' (with absolutely no knowledge of basic economics) with a solution! Via Tax Prof Blog, we find this proposed initiative, which would, basically, destroy the economy, and thus the tax base, of the state of Kalifornia.
The proposal:
* Impose a new 35% income surtax (in addition to federal taxes and the existing 10.3% top state rate) -- 17.5% (on all of the taxpayer's income) when income exceeds $150,000 (single)/$250,000 (joint), and an additional 17.5% (again, on all of the taxpayer's income) when income exceeds $350,000 (single)/$500,000 (joint).
* Impose a one-time 55% wealth tax on assets exceeding $20 million held by a California resident or held in California by nonresident.
* Impose an exit tax of between 36.5% to 54.3% on both income and unrealized appreciation in asset values over $5 million when a resident dies or leaves California.
The truly hilarious part is the included fiscal impact estimates.
One-time increase in state revenues potentially in the low hundreds of billions of dollars from imposition of a wealth tax,
No mention of the utter devastation of the state real estate market as owners of high end real estate sell it off and flee the state to avoid the tax.
ongoing increase in state revenues potentially in the billions of dollars from imposition of the tax on certain people dying or leaving the state.
I'm sure the exit tax bit was put there to try to stop the Evil Rich from leaving the state to avoid the other taxes, but it's obviously unconstitutional, and would only actually cost the state money to fight a losing battle to defend it in the federal court system. As for the Death Tax part, well, rich people I'm sure would only die in the state by accident, and while visiting from Las Vegas, Reno, or Phoenix.
Potential annual net increase in personal income tax revenues in the tens of billions of dollars annually.
Actual net loss in personal income tax revenues would be in the tens of billions as the high income folks whose taxes already make up a disproportionate chunk of the state's revenue flee the state, and take their jobs with them. You think Hollywood is going to stick around if they're losing at least 17.5% of their paychecks to the state? Especially when Nevada doesn't have an income tax?
I love the negative estimate:
Unknown state and local revenue reductions – potentially in the tens of billions of dollars annually – due to changes in taxpayer behavior.
Gee, ya think?
So, for at best a one time payoff, this tard monkey would be willing to flush the whole state economy down the toilet. Makes me wonder if he's being paid by the governments of Nevada, Arizona, and Oregon.
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