Today's Nuze: April 12, 2006 

THE TAX DEBATE

How did it go? You'll be able to judge for yourself. First, Michael Graetz was very courteous and pleasant. There was no rancor in the debate whatsoever. He has his tax reform plan, and problems with the FairTax. I like the FairTax and have problems with his plan (a combination of income tax on the rich and a VAT tax for everyone - see here and here [pdf]). One commonality is that we both want the present system scrapped, and we're both concerned that money from special interests is driving the situation in Washington and that it will be more than difficult to get anything done. I'll say this: If you want to debate tax policy, you're going to have your hands full when you debate someone who teaches and studies tax law at Yale, who helped George Bush 41 craft the 1990 tax compromise in those now famous/infamous meetings at Andrews Air Force Base, and who used to be a Deputy Treasury Secretary for tax policy. Let's just say that I was, as I once heard someone say, busier than a one-legged monkey trying to kick the seeds out of a dill pickle. The audience was courteous, Don and Paula Smith, the hosts, were gracious ... and it was a good time for all. You'll be able to watch the whole thing on C-SPAN. It will probably be scheduled several times over the weekend and you may even be able to watch it online. With Congress gone they're somewhat hungry for material. Watch it and let me know what you think. Be brutal.

Broadcasting the show from New York today

THE AFTER-DEBATE DINNER

After we were through we walked around the corner to one of Manhattan's 17,000 restaurants for a nice dinner. There were, I guess, about 20 people around the table, including some debate attendees that I was thrilled to meet. John Stossel from ABC's 20-20 sat next to me. Now you have to know how much I enjoyed conversation with Stossel, a libertarian with actual clout! I was also pleased -- thrilled, in fact -- to meet James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal. Taranto writes the daily "Best of the Web Today" column for the OpinionJournal online. I say it's a daily column .. that means weekdays .. and that means the 40 weeks a year he's not on vacation. Here's a link to Monday's Best of the Web. The column is a daily read for me .. should be for you.

There was much conversation at dinner that involved the entire table. At one time Professor Graetz asked the table what could be done to remove the influence of money from politics. Well --- probably nothing. It's always going to take money to run for office, so as long as we're electing officials money is going to play a role. I thought about the question for a few moments and then surprised myself by coming up with an answer. There are two things that we could do --- and neither are new ideas -- that would restrict the role of money in politics:

1. Repeal the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. Our founders designed the federal government so that the House of Representatives would represent the interests of the people and the Senate would represent the States. Now, thanks to the 17th Amendment, we have both houses elected by the people. The check and balance of a Senate that is not subject to the whims of the electorate, but instead responsible to the state legislatures, is lost.

2. Enforce the 10th Amendment. You don't know what the 10th Amendment says? Well .. here it is: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Cut the federal government back to the size envisioned by our founders, return most governing to the state level, and the role of money in politics, at least at the federal level, is severely decreased.

Again .. thanks to all involved. I'm going to hit the shower ... get spruced up ... and head to the studios for today's show. Then we fly back to Atlanta. At this point I'll turn the notes and reading assignments over to Bryan and the rest of the Boortz staff:

ILLEGALS NOT FELONS?

Proving that they have further lost the pulse of the American people, Republican leaders in Congress are still screwing up legislation to deal with the problem of illegal immigration.  First, let's start with what the American people want.  Poll after poll tells us the following:

1. The American people, by a wide margin, believe that illegal immigration is a problem.  They want the borders to be secure.  What does that mean?  Build a wall, hire more border patrol agents...whatever has to be done.



2. People would like to see the current crop of 12 million illegals or so sent home. Perhaps not all of them could be deported, but some would be a start.



3. By any measure, Americans oppose amnesty of any sort, including the guest worker programs being pushed by the administration.

The desires of the general public are pretty clear.  They're tired of illegal aliens breaking our laws.  They're tired of the Mexican invasion from our southern border.  So what would you call someone who breaks our laws and sneaks into the United States?  Well, don't call them felons...because Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert don't want you to.

The House passed a bill last year that makes illegals subject to felony prosecution.  That's because it's against the law to come into this country unlawfully.  But you see, such a measure isn't good for any Hispanic votes.  So along comes Bill Frist and the Speaker to tweak things a bit...and do a little Hispandering.

This once again proves that neither party in Congress ever intends to do anything about illegal immigration.  It's all just lip service.

IRAN ENRICHES URANIUM

Well, if you wondered just how far along Iran was in developing a nuclear weapon, we heard it straight from the horse's mouth yesterday. Yesterday, Islamic psychopath and President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had enriched uranium for the first time.  He says his country does not intend to develop nuclear weapons.  Right...and Al-Qaeda is a peaceful organization.

"I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries," said Ahmadinejad.  Now....just what is the world going to do here?  The United States has said it will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.  The United Nations has demanded Iran stop all uranium enrichment...by April 28th.  So what are we going to do when Iran overshoots that deadline?

Will there be consequences?  Is the world going to stand idly by while these terrorists develop a nuclear weapon?  Probably so. What a shame.  Iran with a nuclear weapon makes the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq look like nothing.

STILL REHASHING THE PAST

Today the Washington Post is running an article claiming that the mobile biological laboratories captured by the Coalition in 2003 in Iraq had nothing to do with making weapons of mass destruction.  That claim had been made by the administration, but the Post says it's not true.  They say a secret mission revealed 2 days before the president's claim that the mobile labs had nothing to do with WMD.

So guess what...Bush lied and people died!  When are these people going to give up?  The Saddam Hussein fan club in Washington is apparently never going to give up trying to convince us all that the Butcher of Baghdad had no WMD.  But you see, not only did he have them, but he used them.  But facts like that do not serve their political agenda.  And that political agenda is that the war in Iraq was wrong and George W. Bush is a madman that provoked a peace-loving country.

What about the other WMD that have been found?  Where did those come from?  Oh wait...those don't count.  Time and again, the left has done everything they can to revise history and sweep Saddam Hussein's biological and nuclear weapons of mass destruction under the rug.  The U.S. Military could uncover a hundred nuclear warheads in Iraq tomorrow and the mainstream media in this country would swear George W. Bush and Dick Cheney planted them there.  These people have no shame.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Hmmm...I wonder why it's flying at half staff? More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

Experiment: can you replace ordinary eggs with Cadbury Cream Eggs in a cake recipe?

The Heritage Foundation's Index of Ecomonic Freedom for 2006. Guess what...the U.S. isn't in the top 5.

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