1406 Paying Party

It’s funny the convolutions we go through to come up with revenue. People hate ads, yet they like free stuff. They hate taxes, yet they like free services. But someone always pays.
So it goes. And so it was interesting the other day when I read this guy talking about taxes versus tax incentives. Say a Senator from one state wants to provide a “subsidy” for every ear of corn grown. Another righteous Senator says spending in Washington is out of control, so no way. But, clever politician that he is, he doesn’t want to anger the cornfolk lobby so he says they should get a “tax credit” for every ear of corn.
It amounts to the same thing. Cornfolk get their money either way, and the federal budget loses it. Subsidies, credits, incentives, they all contribute to the deficit because they are all not revenue. The commentator pointed out the obvious. Every time a politician promises a targeted tax cut he’s really advocating spending in disguise.
It was also interesting when I read the following statistic. It was about earmarks. Earmarks are pure pork barrel. Money the lawmakers send home to their districts. Kind of like Christmas bonuses. But the truth is they amount to less than 2% of federal spending.
Still, it’s interesting that the 52 current members of the Tea Party Caucus in congress, avowed and loud enemies of the practice, requested 764 earmarks valued at a total of $1 billion over the next fiscal year. Gonna be a hell of a party.
Finally in the flap over “free” smartphone apps harvesting and sending your private and personal data to get revenue, I read this great quote from Andrew Lewis:
“If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer, you’re the product.”
America, ya gotta love it.