American Republic Online

John Edwards is revealing is intentions, and confirms what ARO wondered a couple months ago:

 ”I’m mandating healthcare for every man woman and child in America and that’s the only way to have real universal healthcare.”

…When asked by a reporter if an individual decided they didn’t want healthcare Edwards quickly responded, “You don’t get that choice.” 

Of course, he’s right.  How can something be “universal” if people aren’t in it?  So, in order to make it “universal” everyone has to be in it, even if they don’t want to be (as Edwards points out above).

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Hope comes from across the Atlantic:

President Sarkozy of France is on the verge of a breakthrough in his ambitious plan to wean his country off the restrictive working practices he believes stand in the way of national prosperity.

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This looks promising:

A U.S. Treasury report on ways to cut corporate taxes will include discussion of a national sales tax, a senior Treasury official told CNBC.

The U.S. currently has no national sales tax, also known as a value added tax, or VAT, though many states do. The tax would be one option to help offset revenue lost from lowering corporate taxes. The report is due in the coming weeks.

Of course, a sales tax is not the same thing as a VAT tax, but it’s encouraging that the government is recognizing that we can’t keep taxing business as much as we do and expect them to stick around (or even incorporate here). Note this, it’s important (emphasis added):

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John Coleman is the guy that put weather on the map. Or at least on 24/7 cable TV. He’s a Meteorologist’s Meteorologist and he’s speaking out against global warming. Do you think he has enough credibility to overcome all the celebrities that have proved global warming over a soy latte?

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM.

Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data back in the late 1990’s to create an allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental wacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.

Environmental extremist, notable politicians among them then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda.

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I’m not sure if it handing out your questions “from the audience” to hand-selected constituents points more to unprepared incompetence, or a determined strategy to hide your thoughts and positions (at least until they’ve been through the PC machine a few times).

A senior Clinton staffer asked if she’d like to ask the senator a question… “I sort of thought about it, and I said ‘Yeah, can I ask how her energy plan compares to the other candidates’ energy plans?’” Gallo-Chasanoff said Monday night.

“‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the staffer said… He then opened a binder to a page that, according to Gallo-Chasanoff, had about eight questions on it.

“The top one was planned specifically for a college student,” she added. ” It said ‘college student’ in brackets and then the question.”

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The New York Times didn’t give this story a great headline or much play since it ended up on page 19. But the Times supports the troops and wants victory…. right?

American forces have routed Al Qaeda… from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the “surge” to depart as planned… “Murder victims are down 80 percent from where they were at the peak,” and attacks involving improvised bombs are down 70 percent, [Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil Jr., commander of US forces in Baghdad] said. “The Iraqi people have just decided that they’ve had it up to here with violence,” [General Fil] said,

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Hillary has stepped in it again. First she couldn’t come up with a good answer on illegals getting drivers licenses in her home state. Now, while she remembered to add her waitress’ sad story into her next speech, she forgot to leave her a tip. Waitress Esterday, has three jobs and works 12 hour shifts - and it was her first day. (abcnews.com) And if she’s elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better… (NPR) But apparently not until then. Since the Senator neglected to leave a tip amid her “Middle Class Express” political tour.

Sen. Clinton used Esterday’s life story to push her compassionate candidacy, but was caught off guard when the waitress pointed out the -uhm- irony, to the local press. Since this gaff, the Clinton Campaign has tried numerous angles to make the story go away. First it was that the meal was “on the house” (15% of 0 is 0). Next it was that the Senator doesn’t carry money (no need when you have an entourage to do it for you - it’s good to know she’ll be able to connect with us middle class folk). Then it was that they did leave a tip that was “improperly dispersed” (cash on the table - its a difficult process I guess). Most recently its that $129 was paid for the “on the house” meal PLUS $100 tip apparently dispersed to faceless stranger, since no one at the diner has confirmed the campaign’s claim.

Warren Buffett has issued a challenge to his fellow billionaires:

“I’ll bet a million dollars against any member of the Forbes 400 who challenges me that the average (federal tax rate including income and payroll taxes) for the Forbes 400 will be less than the average of their receptionists.”  

I don’t think I’d take that bet.  As Phillip Ruffin points out, “He is forgetting about the 55% estate tax at death that goes along with making the money…”  and with that it is probably more than the receptionists’ combined lifetime earnings.  However, Buffett makes a very good point: the very rich don’t really pay taxes.  It comes down to a pesky little thing that politicians don’t really bring up.  The whole “raise taxes on the rich” really means “raise taxes on the high income earners.” You see, our system of taxation is based on income, not wealth.  Once you reach a certain amount of wealth, you tend to not bring in as much income, and as a result tend not to pay much income taxes.  It is a fine line, but a big difference.  So when politicians promise to raise taxes on the rich, they are really raising taxes on those in higher income brackets.  It really has little to do with the really really rich.  When they point to people like Paris Hilton and Bill Gates and say we need to raise taxes on the rich, they do so with a wink.

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Mark Steyn reinforces our notion that the global warming alarmists have been overrun by people who only want to control others’ behavior:

It’s fascinating to observe how almost any old totalitarian racket becomes respectable once it’s cloaked in enviro-hooey. For example, restrictions on freedom of movement were previously the mark of the Soviet Union et al. But in Britain, they’re proposing limits on your right to take airline flights to other countries - and, as it’s in the name of environmental responsibility, everyone thinks it’s a grand idea.