Alan Keyes keynote at Pittsburgh TEA party

1. paulie April 24, 2009

   Keyes and Alex Jones are now openly calling for Obama’s assassination.

   Nothing in Steve’s article from your link says that they are. Got more?
2. me April 24, 2009

   Keyes and Alex Jones are now openly calling for Obama’s assassination.

   http://www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/04/22/alan-keyes-teams-up-with-prison-planet-to-start-new-conspiracy-theory/
3. Libertarian Joseph April 20, 2009

   ew. Alan Keyes? I’d never invite that guy to anything. Even a speech on taxes from him would devolve into religious irrationality.
4. paulie April 20, 2009

   http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/fairtax.htm
5. paulie April 20, 2009

   Aaron Zelman of JPFO points out that the purchase-tracking likely enforcement mechanism will cause government to have a list of who buys bullets, and how many. This is of course also true of controversial reading and viewing material, etc.

   It’s also a disincentive to starting businesses if small business owners have to file taxes, but if they remain employees of others they don’t have to file. Keeping more people as employees rather than independent business owners is big government working in tandem with big corporations.
6. Rocky Eades April 20, 2009

   @ #15 et al – The GAO or the OMB has determined that to be revenue neutral – as of a couple years ago, before the fed gov went totally insane – the so-called “Fair Tax” rate would have to be as high as 56%, not the 30% that the fairtaxers were claiming.

   And Paulie is correct, there will be a consumption tax and an income tax. Hell, even the “probable” candidate for US senate here in Georgia said this weekend that the fairtaxers and the flattaxers (another fraudulent tax reform scheme) in the LP need to come up with some kind of “realistic” compromise tax plan to replace the current one. (implying that there are only two tax reform plans being discussed within the LP – both of which involve massive amounts of taxation.)
7. paulie April 20, 2009

   True…but it would increase big government in other ways. It is likely that all purchases will have to be tracked to prevent tax resistance, and this may be the excuse to do away with paper money.

   Also, the “rebate check” puts the whole country (except for those who do not use SS numbers or fill out the rebate forms) on a giant welfare program. When most people in the country get used to getting a government check every month, that can’t be goo d for the prospects of keeping government growth down.

   Finally, retired people who paid income taxes all their lives and saved get to be taxed on whatever is left over yet again.
8. Trent Hill April 20, 2009

   Paulie,

   Im not argueing the feasibility of the plan–but the plan itself. If it succeeded as suggested–it would not lower taxes one penny.
9. paulie April 20, 2009

   True, except that the revenue neutrality depends on getting rid of the income tax – in reality, it’s a lot harder to get rid of tax than pass a new one, so the most likely outcome is both sales and income taxes. Some people don’t realize this, while others do:

   Delaware Libertarian reports

   Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University–one of the world’s brightest economists and an Obama supporter/consultant–admits in the latest issue of Scientific American (the link is to the gated version; sorry, I went out and bought the dead tree edition) admits that what Barack Obama wants to do cannot be done without massive tax increases.

   Here are the revelant segments:

   Obama’s budget plan properly focuses on areas that public economics identifies as priorities: health, education, public infrastructure, and research and development, especially sustainable energy–all areas where the US lags discernably behind many parts of Europe. The president’s vision of an expanded federal role is on target and transformative, but the financing will be tricky. This year’s deficit will reach an astounding $175 trillion, or 12 percent of GDP. In the plan, the government debt held by the public will balloon from 40.8 percent of GDP in 2008 to 65.8 percent in 2013, a level that will weight heavily on the budget for years.

   Obama’s budget plan aims to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of GDP by 2013 and then to level it off until 2019. This deficit is relatively large, but even that target will be very difficult to achieve and sustain. With significant increases in entitlements spending and higher interest payments on the rising public debt, the plan is to cut the deficit mainly through higher taxes on the rich, reduced military outlays for Iraq and Afghanistan, new revenues from auctioning carbon emissions permits, and finally a squeeze on nondefense discretionary spending as a share of GDP (which is set to decline from 4.7 percent in 2010 to 3.3 percent in 2019). Such a squeeze on nondefense spending seems unlikely–and indeed undesirable–at a time when government is launching several much needed programs in education, health, energy and infrastructure.

   The truth is that the US, like Europe, will probably have to raise new revenues by a few percent of GDP if the government is to carry out its expanded role. Within a few years we will probably see the need for new broad-based taxes: perhaps a national sales or value-added tax such as those common in other high-income countries. If we conitued to assume that we can have the expanded government that we need without the tax revenues to pay for it, the build-up of public debt will threaten the well-being of our children and our children’s children. No parent, or citizen, should find such an approach acceptable.
10. Trent Hill April 20, 2009

    The “FairTax” doesnt decrease taxes at all–it’s revenue neutral–while Ron Paul wants to eliminate the income tax and replace it with nothing.

    And no, Ron Paul doesnt want to continue the disastrous war in Afghanistan. It’s the graveyard of empires.
11. paulie April 20, 2009

    The war in the graveyard of empires isn’t smaller government; neither is the fraudulent “fair” tax.
12. Luke April 20, 2009

    Know Mike Huckabee supports the fairtax which is smaller government. While Ron Paul doesn’t even want to continue the war in Afganastan.
13. Trent Hill April 19, 2009

    GE’s question is a good one, Luke, why do you support Mike Huckabee, who wants higher taxes and more government, over Ron Paul–who is more pro-life and more small-government?
14. G.E. April 19, 2009

    Luke: Why not the principled pro-life candidate; Dr. Ron Paul?
15. paulie April 19, 2009

    From the frying pan into the fire..
16. Luke April 19, 2009

    No instead I started supporting Mike Huckabee. I still am prolife.
17. John C April 19, 2009

    I think part of his problem with his daughter is that he has done well repressing his tendencies and expects her to have the “self control” to do the same.
18. Peter Gemma April 19, 2009

    Keyes has long been a practicing ass. Who on earth invited him to speak? How many people were there … I suppose it’s hard to estimate how many people didn’t come out because the rally took on a kook city image.
19. marcylee April 18, 2009

    Sorry about the spelling. I meant “abandoned”
20. marcylee April 18, 2009

    Hey Luke! How has he made prolifers a laughingstock?

    And why are you no longer a Keyes supporter? Have you abonded your pro-life view because it may not be pretty or agreeable in the eyes of your friends?
21. Luke April 18, 2009

    as the person who emailed these videos in and as aa former Keyes supporter I have to say it was pretty stupid tog ive him the keynote speech. He made the abortion issue a majorr issue in the gop. Which I extremely liked but since then he has made us prolifers the laughing stocks of everyone else involved in politics
22. Rocky Eades April 18, 2009

    Il Duce poses are all the rage now, apparently. Obama does it a lot. Limbaugh at CPAC did it a lot too.
23. paulie April 18, 2009

    

    
24. G.E. April 18, 2009

    Look at that gangsta-ass El Duche pose Keyes is sporting in the second vid from the bottom. This turd truly has to be the most shameless individual to ever inhabit Earth.
25. paulie April 18, 2009

    LOL.

    But, just in case anyone reading actually hasn’t:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Keyes
26. G.E. April 18, 2009

    WHO???

    Never hoid of em.

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