Your Tax Dollars at Work
AP reports that the GAO has found that a huge amount of the federal tax money spent for victims of last year's hurricanes was misspent, or as we normal people say, stolen:
June 14, 2006
April 14, 2006
Charles Murray, Live From Chicago!
The Heartland Institute is excited to announce that Charles Murray, author of In Our Hands: A Plan to replace the Welfare State, will be coming to Chicago to sign copies of his book. Heartland will host the book signing on May 4th, 2006 from 5:30pm - 8:00pm in room 700 of the Union League Club which is located at 65 W. Jackson in downtown Chicago, Illinois (view map).
Charles Murray has been a topic of debate lately due to his bold proposal, expained in this WSJ op-ed, to replace all government welfare services with an annual $10,000 check to every citizen in the country; the key being that this method of delivering social welfare would encourage personal responsibility, something the existing welfare state subverts at every turn.
The event is FREE. So if you want to register, all you have to do is drop me an email at vanwinkle -at- heartland.org
March 08, 2006
Welcome Development: Property Tax Revolts
The Christian Science Monitor reports today that homeowners around the nation are increasingly angry about property tax increases. It is true that property taxes in many areas have been rising much more quickly than either the overall inflation rate or increasing values of homes, and not just for the wealthy but for everyone. These windfalls, moreover, are not being collected because the communities desperately need additional swimming pools in the local schools. (You should see the astonishing luxuries in most schools in decent neighborhoods.) No, the local governments are collecting these high taxes simply because they can: people living in highly preferred communities are at the mercy of their local taxing bodies, and the latter are increasingly taking advantage of local residents.
Citizens around the nation are utterly fed up with this legalized extortion and have begun to take action, the Monitor reports:
This year, legislative proposals, citizen initiatives, and lawsuits are on the agenda in at least 20 states. These new efforts reflect both residents' distrust of how their property tax dollars are being spent and concerns that rising assessments are driving working-class people out of popular towns and cities. . . .
Continue reading "Welcome Development: Property Tax Revolts" »
February 23, 2006
Katrina and Big Government
It's just a coincidence, I'm sure, but every major event that happens in the United States seems to be read as showing that we need more intervention from the federal government.
The Katrina disaster is an excellent case in point. As soon as it happened and people in the region had to put up with the consequences of having chosen to live in an area long known to be vulnerable to just such a catastrophe, the complaints rang through the press regarding the alleged slowness of the federal government in responding. Relatively little attention was paid to the disgracefully slow and inept response by the governments of New Orleans and Louisiana, and likewise to the fact that the federal government stepped in as soon as was legally permitted.