What is the role of the federal government?
January 11, 2013 at 6:51 pm in News by Dustin Siggins 17 Comments
It’s a pretty slow week in Washington – the debt ceiling won’t be breached for several weeks, which of course means debate on policy surrounding it won’t happen for almost that long – so let’s take a swing by New Hampshire, where the fiscal cliff’s special interest tax policies have caused a bit of controversy:
The owner of New Hampshire Motor Speedway will get a tax break on future capital investments at the Loudon track as part of what has been dubbed a $70 million extension of the “NASCAR tax break,” which is included in the deal Congress forged around New Year’s to avoid going off the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
The tax break has been blasted by critics, who include it with other fiscal cliff tax breaks that help Puerto Rican rum makers, Hollywood movie producers and Wall Street bankers.
According to the Executive Vice President of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, critics are mistaken:
But this tax incentive makes sense, said Jerry Gappens, executive vice president of NHMS. It results in more jobs, an increase in local business and more property taxes for Loudon and the state, he said.
“This is an economic stimulus to put more money back in our facilities,” Gappens said. “This is not some obscene tax break. It’s working the way it is designed to, providing an incentive to invest in the local economy.”
The speedway break — first passed by Congress during the George W. Bush administration — includes a seven-year depreciation provision for new motorsports construction, as opposed to taking it over the life of the facility, which can range from 15 to 39 years.
As Tea Party Patriots, we know it is not the place of the federal government to provide stimulus. The government is to merely provide a tax code that is economically fair and efficient, a system of justice and law that provides equitable treatment to all, provide defense from international threats, and not much else.
Unfortunately, too many in America view the federal government – an entity that should help them, regardless of the effectiveness or equitability of a policy. Whether this assistance is through subsidies, transfer payments, or tax credits, we are long past the tipping point, with almost 50% of Americans receiving some sort of assistance from the federal government. Unless this process is quickly reversed through spending and tax reforms, this nation will fall apart as our already-complex and expensive policies continue to fragment the American people, leaving the politicians laughing as they are re-elected not upon what’s best for the country, but what’s best for me and mine.
and all of you are suprised about this? obama does not care for the US, he probably thinks everything wil be “shacking” it out by itself. and if it does not work out he makes a president order, to keep the middle class on a need to know basis. we need answers right now. but we will not get a straight answers from him. oh all of you that voted for obama suprise he did not do anything he was going to do, thanks for all your help, you should have read the fine print. thanks again obama people. all this crap is all of obama doing, stop blaming busch he did not do this to OUR country.
If you listen to what they are saying, they intend to end the existence of the constitutional republic. They are openly stating Obama will be writing his own whim as law. They are, as we speak, establishing a dictatorship.
It is urgent we remove Boehner and get new leadership to stand against this.
This should be the number one topic of the TEA Party. The existence of the constitutional republic is facing a direct and immediate threat.
We are witnessing the establishment of a fascist dictatorship no different than when Hitler was allowed to come to power in Germany. The president is openly claiming to have the authority to write his own whim into law, a direct violation of the Constitution.
The Nazis were consumed with hatred and motivated to seek revenge. The Democrats are consumed with hatred and motivated to seek revenge. Both clothe their quest for infinite power and authority in the moral argument of taking care of the population. There is no difference between the two.
Where is the defender of the people, the Speaker of the House?
He is assisting the establishment of Obama as the dictator of the next country the United States will be.
It is urgent we have new leadership.
This should be the number one topic of the TEA Party. The existence of the constitutional republic is facing a direct and immediate threat.
We are witnessing the establishment of a fascist dictatorship no different than when Hitler was allowed to come to power in Germany. The president is openly claiming to have the authority to write his own whim into law, a direct violation of the Constitution.
The Nazis were consumed with hatred and motivated to seek revenge. The Democrats are consumed with hatred and motivated to seek revenge. Both clothe their quest for infinite power and authority in the moral argument of taking care of the population. There is no difference between the two.
Boehner is assisting the establishment of Obama as the dictator of the next country the United States will be. Thus, we have not heard a peep out of him.
It is urgent we have new leadership.
Where is the defender of the people, the Speaker of the House?
It is urgent we have new leadership.
it is only a matter of time,there is no turning this around at this point, the billions of dollars at work to continue the formation of the new world order wii not be stemmed, you can walk into it and let them take you down and they will or you can silence your efforts and operate covertly as the gov. has all these yrs. Do not announce your game plan to the enemy, Hide and sneak and gather as our forefathers before us.
All the screams will fall on deaf ears and you will be labeled a radical as our forefathers before us. But we must out smart them and think of the tojan horse to do what needs to be done, the under grownd railroad, and the likes. Do not scream out your intentions instead scream out your false intentions to fool them and under that guise carry out what is deemed necessary to survive.
This seems a bit paranoid. We still have our court system, our Constitution, and the House of Representatives. Any attempts by Obama to subvert the Constitution can be legally challenged. To get rid of the Imposter’s supporters in Congress in 2014, we need to expand the (fiscally) conservative base, and dump people line Akin and other rednecks who can’t get their minds off of women’s private parts, abortion, and gay sex.
Teapot – I would say over 50% of the Tea Party are the Religious Fundamentalist you wish to dump.
Money is a means of exchange of goods and services. One monetizes a service by attaching it to the price of a good, then selling the good. If I take a piece of wood and make a birdhouse, the price of the birdhouse is the wood plus my labor.
In the case of government, the taxes are assessed against all of the goods within that entire trade structure, and to offshore the labor is the easiest way to avoid taxing the employer out of existence, unfortunately, when you offshore the labor, the laborer in his own country goes into want because his services are not needed there.
The single largest contributor to our debt is our improperly applied taxes.
The best way to insure that companies invest in plant and equipment in the US is not tax breaks, which result in government support of private industry, and distortions in the free market. The best way would be substantial tariffs on imported goods, which would give domestic manufacturers a chance to compete. If we would have slapped serious tariffs on steel, cars, consumer durables amd electronics a few decades ago, we would still have a thriving manufacturing base. It is time for some short term consumer pain for some long term national gain.
Teapot – slapping huge tariffs is not free markets. Also, low skill manufacturing is gone forever because Americans will not work for $2 an hour with no benefits. You cannot blame the job creators for manufacturing products abroad resulting in higher profits.
Hurray for one response to the article and its intended topic- what is the role of the federal government? I would hope this site and the ‘tea party’ are more intelligent than what I’ve read on responses to articles on Yahoo! news (if you call it that but it is entertaining to some extent but I digress…).
What does this tax break for the speedway development that was first approved during the Bush Administration have to do with the destruction of the Constitutional Republic or Hitler references? Cracks me up. Sure, those are concerns that need to be addressed but I’d think not in reference to an article trying to figure out if taxation were equally distributed.
I was hoping to see more on the tax breaks to movie producers which is almost like loaning someone money to get in on the poker game so they could win and take your money in the game to pay you back. Sort of what happens when you let them produce garbage to help with the desensitizing our society to violence, sanctity of marriage and respect for human life.
But that would be too difficult and you would really need to be talented to create a good movie without sex and violence so we’ll keep giving tax breaks to the movie producers that continue to pump garbage out of Hollywood. Sure, I bet there are some that are for a worthy cause and a particular movie or two that falls under this description; but the majority does not. I’m just saying. There should have been more in the article on the tax breaks for the movie producers as well.
Hellfire – Other countries protect their own markets from foreign countries dumping cheap products in their countries! Why can’t the USA protect itself from businesses abroad that are “dumping” on us.
Why do we allow GE, and Jeffery Imelt, move to China and take their jobs with them.. GE lowers its costs drastically, then sends its outrageously price products to sell in the USA.. While GE makes huge profits off sales in this country, Imelt and GE pay no tax on the profits. That is not my idea of a “free market.”
Ziggy – It’s very simple. High tariffs will result in a trade war. Forcing companies to keep jobs in the US is equal to gov’t intervention. Last time I checked the conservative movement was against such policies. Business will not be able to compete if low skill manufacturing jobs are forced to stay in the United States. How much more would an Ipod or Iphone cost if manufactured in here?
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I don’t know if anyone goes back and reads these comments so long after the original article was published, but the proper role of government is *the central question* that needs to be addressed. The original article came close to identifying what that proper role is, but didn’t quite state the issue clearly enough. It’s not just about taxes and what they should fund or not fund, but what should the government be doing if we are going to continue having a Constitutional Republic?
The Founders were rather clear in their writings both before and after signing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States that the proper role of government is to protect the rights of all individuals, with rights being defined as actions one could take to live one’s own life to one’s own benefit (the pursuit of happiness) so long as the equal rights of others was respected and defended. This means that the government is only there to protect said rights, and not to provide some woozy idea of “government services” or “government handouts.” In order to further secure the idea of what rights are, they made the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and it is very clear that what they meant was that an individual man could live his life the way he chose to live it so long as he didn’t infringe on other people’s similar rights.
But the best articulation of what rights are and the government’s role in defending them comes from Ayn Rand and her article on “Man’s Rights” which further lays down the intellectual foundation of rights onto the factual nature of man and the requirements of him living his own life qua individual.
I have written a short essay explaining this idea further with a link to her article that you might be interested in reading:
http://www.appliedphilosophyonline.com/the_argument_for_freedom.htm