Morning Coffee (142)

There are days, like today, that I feel terrible about the prospects for my country. Unless I'm using it to make a point, I try to avoid the dramatic in the Morning Coffee, as it does little save elevate the blood pressure and cause ulcers. But it is sometimes exceedingly difficult. I'm going to write about a few things, and will make every effort to avoid losing my mind (Marine speak for becoming exceptionally angry) while doing it.

Behavioral Modification Through Taxation:
First, we should discuss the recent slew of new taxes presented to you by Governor David Patterson of New York. Due to our governments' (collective) complete and total inability to spend what they earn, we face tax increases. In New York, Governor Patterson has decided to tax or increase fees on all sorts of things such as beer, non-diet sugary drinks (18% tax on anything with less than 70% juice), tobacco (specifically a 50 cent increase on cigars), cab fares, movie and sporting events, digital music downloads, and vehicle licensing and registrations in order to make up a budget shortfall of $15.4 billion. Not million, BILLION. This is done under the additional guise of "slashing spending." I say guise because the budget has actually increased

What I find almost more offensive than outright lying is the fact that many of Patterson's goals revolve around modifying your behavior. How? By his so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda and his increase in taxes on tobacco products. See, you're too stupid to regulate your own consumption of nasty foods and products, so Patterson wants to increase the cost to you in order to dissuade you from purchasing those products. Most of these behavioral modification taxes are enacted with the rational that these increases will stuff the coffers and help offset the medical costs that obesity and lung cancer incur. Or in some cases, these new taxes will fund education or some other such item which apparently cannot be funded through normal means. Oddly, no one seems to take into consideration that if these taxes were to have the desired effect, then the money derived from these taxes would be minimal.

Regardless, you have allowed yourself to become the government's ward. You can still choose to buy and consume things that are bad for you, of course, since they're not illegal. But you'll pay more for them. And that's really what people do. Proponents of these taxes claim that the rate of smoking is now below 20% nationwide largely because purchasing tobacco products is cost prohibitive. Not true, my friends. I don't know of anyone who's stopped smoking because the cost of cigarettes has gone up too high. Everyone I know who's stopped smoking has done so because it's bad for them. The low rate of smoking is the result of a decades long effort to educate people. The same should be done with unhealthy foods. Legislation and taxation are poor ways to modify behavior (Prohibition).

This whole thing is just strange to me. Very inconsistent. New taxes on soda with the primary aim of decreasing consumption, but the authors of these taxes do not pose that they wish for a decrease in consumption of iTunes downloads, though it seems by their logic it would have the same effect. But I thought the new taxes were supposed to rectify budget shortfalls. I'm confused. Equally perplexing is a new 4% tax increase on "personal services," which would include gym memberships. Wait, you don't want us to be fat, so you increase taxes on junk food in order to decrease our consumption of such things, but also increase the taxes on healthy activities and services that would combat obesity?

I hate to be crass, but in this case it's the blind (literal) leading the blind (figurative).

You can read some more about the taxes and fees here. I think my favorite is the mandate for all drivers to have new "reflectorized" license plates, at a cool $25 a piece.

Increasing Taxes on Tobacco is State-Sponsored Terrorism:
Governor Patterson might not know it, but he's a terrorist supporter. Cigarette smuggling is a major problem in states with high tobacco taxes, where smugglers can make $2 million on a single truckload of smokes. Many of these smugglers have ties to terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and our favorite, al-Qaida. See, higher taxes don't mean less smokers, only education and a desire to be healthy can do that. Instead, increasing taxation on tobacco drives more smokers to purchase cigarettes from "independent dealers" who buy their stock in tobacco friendly states like Virginia and North Carolina. Would you rather pay $75 for a carton or $60 for a carton?

Consider, also, that the State of New York loses over a half a billion dollars in tax revenue due to smuggling. I think that a lower tax rate might actually offset the loss in revenue. Instead, New York will increase spending to combat smuggling, while raising the taxes on all sorts of things in order to afford it. They miss the point.

Engineer a Financial Crisis, Get a 2.8% Raise:
Imagine if your inability to effectively do your job actually got you a pay raise. That wouldn't be a bad gig at all, especially if you got to name your successor when you left for whatever reason. This is what our Congress has turned into. They reward themselves for complete and total ineptitude. I've written about this in the past, when I was a young blogger, so I'd rather not delve into it again. Suffice it to say, the raise is automatic to cover "cost of living" increases. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is at 6.7% and likely rising, families all across the country are struggling, and Governor Schwarzenegger has mandated that all state workers take two unpaid days of leave a month. The American Worker is not doing so well. But Congress needs that $4,700 more a year. We don't even get a token gesture from our elected leaders. I shouldn't call them leaders, honestly. But they all sympathize...so much so that they demand that CEOs freeze their own out of control pay.

Don't think that my short missive on this in any way means I care less about it than I do about inane taxation. This makes me positively livid. The disingenuous bullshit from our employees (elected officials) should make us all sick. But it doesn't really. Besides, the news has come out now, and in two years when these idiots are up for reelection, we'll have forgotten all about their insulting behavior of allowing themselves a raise in what many are calling, right or wrong, the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Chronic Cronyism from a Conscientious Congress:
Hey, let's turn our Legislative body into one based not on ability (is it now even?) and the will of the electorate, but into one based on heredity. What do you say? Read a little bit about it here.

If I could enact one thing (okay, two: term limits), it would be that our elected officials must step down from their positions if they choose to seek another office, and that in doing so, an election, special or otherwise, is mandated so that another individual can be ELECTED to this freshly vacated office. This way, we wouldn't have Blagojevich wanting to sell a Senate seat or Patterson, who's decision making skills have been illustrated a few paragraphs ago, possibly selecting Andrew Cuomo (son of Mario Cuomo - longtime NY Governor) or Caroline Kennedy as New York's Senate representative. Or in Delaware, where Joe Biden's crony Ted Kaufman has been selected by Governor Ruth Minner to take Biden's spot. Kaufman will ostensibly hold the seat until 2010, when Beau Biden, Joe's son, can run in a "special election" in 2010, after he returns from Iraq. At least in the case of Delaware, the appearance of the electoral process took place, though Joe's opposition wasn't given much of a chance since he didn't bother to actually campaign for the seat he's held since 1972.

*****

We are the stewards of our nation. We are the ones who elect these people to lead. We have forgotten our responsibilities, and we are now paying, and will continue to pay, the price for our transgressions. As the Declaration of Independence states, governments are instituted among men, and derive their powers through the consent of the governed. We have given our consent to be governed like fools and sheep. When will we realize that it's time to revoke that consent? Revolution, as was necessary in 1776, I am not suggesting. But your will, our will, can be heard through other means. We can demand that our employees are accountable. Will we? I doubt it, for I have nearly lost faith in you.

Word of the Day: Jaded (adjective): Worn out; tired; weary.

On This Day in History: Vespasian, a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor (69 CE). Richard the Lion-Heart is captured by Leopold V of Austria on his way home from signing a treaty with Saladin (1522). The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first English settlement in the Americas (1606). The Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, is founded (1917).

"They don't even go through the front door. They have it set up so that it's wired so that you actually have to undo the pay raise rather than vote for a pay raise." - Steve Ellis, VP of Taxpayers for Common Sense. by $1.3 billion, part of which is illustrated by the increase in Medicaid spending by $500 million.