The Picket Line — 15 March 2005

15 March 2005

Not only has Dubya managed to get through one term plus of gluttonous Congressional Spending without managing to find his veto, but he’s also managed to avoid using his power of recission, which even Clinton (facing a split Congress) managed to slice away with over a hundred times at overfunded government programs. Congressman Jim Cooper explains.

At the Liberty & Power Group Blog, Kenneth R. Gregg remembers the firebombing of Tokyo 60 years ago. Those of you who have been following the saga of Ward “Little Eichmanns” Churchill will be delighted to read the words of Colonel Harry F. Cunningham, spokesman for the Fifth Air Force: “We military men do not pull punches or put on Sunday School picnics. We are making War and making it in the all-out fashion which saves American lives, shortens the agony which War is and seeks to bring about an enduring Peace. We intend to seek out and destroy the enemy wherever he or she is, in the greatest possible numbers, in the shortest possible time. For us, there are no civilians in Japan.”

Tax wonkery ahead:

Overview of the Federal Tax System from the Congressional Research Service
Description of Revenue Provisions Contained in the President’s Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Proposal
Individual Income Tax Returns Filed During Filing Season 2005 (Tax Year 2004)
Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2002

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For more information on the topic or topics below (organized as “topic → subtopic → sub-subtopic”), click on any of the ♦ symbols to see other pages on this site that cover the topic. Or browse the site’s topic index at the “Outline” page.

How you can resist funding the government → about the IRS and U.S. tax law/policy → how is tax law/policy/administration changing? → “recission”
Have things really gotten that bad? → U.S. government is cruel, despotic, a threat to people → robbing the public and spending irresponsibly: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; For the typical American, there have been 74 days this year where every cent earned went directly to Congress. Compare this to the 30 days it takes to earn enough to buy food for the year. Also: A reform-minded Mexican mayor abolishes traffic and parking fines to fight police corruption.; Today’s budgetary restraint news — the borrow-and-spend crowd in Washington has increased the size of government by over 25% in the last two years, and the Pentagon is looking at even more money to spend next year.; As the April 15th income tax deadline approaches, the news media are full of stories about how the government takes and spends our money.; How would you balance the government’s budget? We’ve got the numbers for you and the web’s got an interactive application — give it a shot and see if you can succeed where Congress fails. Also: the first of this tax-season’s war tax resistance articles start to hit the press.; If you’re still interested in reading about Abu Ghraib, I can point you in the direction of a good set of words on the subject.; The C.I.A. denies that it plans to issue a report speculating on an alternate history in which Saddam was allowed to build up weapons of mass destruction for the next four years. Also: the Democrats rehabilitate the Vietnam War; there is no peace candidate in this election and that’s a good thing (says Kerry’s military affairs advisor); don’t torture or kill prisoners of war if you’re a U.S. soldier or you might get a terrible slap right on the wrist; where is all that money going in Iraq?; and has a second superpower grown up to challenge the imperial United States right under its nose?; So the party of war and big government finishes up their political convention… woah… deja vu. Also: Another wrist-slap meted out by military court martial.; Simon Heywood of Peace Tax Seven responds to my critique of the “peace tax” campaign. Also: You remember the U.S., right: the Starbucks of world arms merchants? Now it’s going through bullets so fast in Iraq that it has to go shopping in Canada to keep up with the demand. And: what would happen if capital goods depreciation were reduced to one year: A tax resister paradise or just a privatized Keynesian boondoggle?; From Israel to Vietnam to Iraq to Git’mo: the news in brief.; How even well-meaning people can become paralyzed by plausible deniability and helplessness. Also: here’s a cost-benefit analysis for you — for a third of what Bush wants to spend on his war this year, we could prevent a number of AIDS cases larger than the entire population of Iraq. And: Congress tries to come up with ways to take more money from us without actually “raising taxes.”; Warning — rampant government spending miscellany ahead! Everything you wanted to know about the budget and more.; Members of Colorado’s Bijou community live under the tax line so as not to pay for war. The Fellowship of Reconciliation signs on to A Call to Resist. War tax resister Susan van Haitsma looks at the military recruiter in each of us. And conservative anti-pork reports are full of good reasons to resent taxation.; Will the last libertarian who thinks the Democratic Party at least stands for peace and the defense of civil liberties please buy a beer for the last libertarian who thinks the Republican Party at least stands for smaller government?; Wouldn’t it be an eye opener if each American taxpayer’s dollars got matched up one-for-one with line-items in the U.S. budget, and each taxpayer got an annual report of exactly where those dollars got spent? Congratulations Mr. Doe, you spent all those extra hours on the job last year so that you could help Senator Stevens bring a $1.5 million bus stop to his state.; A Picket Line grab-bag with plenty of news of government waste and advice on how you can save your skin by ignoring the reasonable voice of authority.; Have you heard the one about the anti-bureaucracy agency? Also: is the Iraq war a fiasco or a moral failure? And: If the U.S. has captured or killed 50,000 insurgents recently, how big is this insurgency anyway? And: putting a price tag on your moral autonomy (sounds crass, but it beats giving it away for free). Also: legalizing alcohol reduces drunk driving (I wonder if this logic might apply elsewhere).; Can you stand even more about Dubya’s tax panel proposals? Also: that sound you hear is the heads of small-government conservatives exploding.; More on the I.R.S.’s new W-4 strategy, debates about the size of the tax gap (and some ideas on how to increase it), and the I.R.S. loses in court yet again while trying to close the flat-rate long distance loophole.; If Dubya gets his wish for more tax incentives for Health Savings Accounts, it will be a great day for tax resisters like me. Also: how much money does the government “spend” by giving tax breaks? And: updates on the “tax gap” and the future of tax reform. Also: Irwin Schiff’s lawyers plead insanity on his behalf. And: Dead-Eye Dick Cheney brags that the government is bringing in more tax money than ever.; Robin Brookes paid his taxes and made his point at the same time. Also: The Ripple Project goes live — is this the alternative currency we’ve been waiting for? And: Scott Ritter’s tough-love message for the anti-war movement.; Dave Ridley recounts his protest at the I.R.S. office in Nashua, New Hampshire. Also: the 2007 “Death and Taxes” chart, which graphically shows where your taxes go, has just been released. And: the Eleventh International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns is coming up in Woltersdorf, Germany.; By privatizing government agencies, Congress can fund the very companies that turn around and donate to their campaigns. Pretty slick. Also: just how desperate is the military for recruits? Radar magazine finds out (and posts the phone transcripts).; Creative people-powered solutions that use cooperation and free market incentives rather than coercion and big government to help solve environmental problems and encourage more efficient use of resources — that’s the Carrotmob. Also: checking in on this year’s three big war tax resistance campaigns. And: the I.R.S. wastes our money but wins a lawsuit. Also: take a page from Dubya’s playbook and add a “signing statement” to your tax return.; The federal government will spend $1 of every $4 that is spent in the United States next year. Any free market institutions remaining here are like those earliest shrew-like mammals: tiny things, scurrying around trying not to get stepped on by some ginormous reptile.; Strikes and highway blockades spring up as drought-stricken Argentine farmers protest high export taxes. Also: Matt Taibbi lays down some high dudgeon about the brazen robbery that is U.S. economic policy.; California, under a federal court order to bring prisoner healthcare up to the barest minimum of constitutional standards, cuts 40% from its prison health care budget. Meanwhile, state liquor license regulators raid San Francisco bars looking for bootleg herb-, fruit-, or pepper- infused vodka.; The Marine Corps sells servility by calling it pride; tough economic times everywhere but D.C.; budget cuts at the I.R.S. are good news for us; and the million Americans who might be alive today if we’d spent the money on our wars-of-choice differently.; You can help keep an eye on the government revolving door. The opportunity costs of the warfare state. A Coherent Philosophy in verse. How the 1% got there. Developing derring-do. Greeks hang their unpaid tax bills on a Christmas tree. An Argentine Congresswoman leads a toll strike. A Catholic Worker in London refuses to pay his civil disobedience fine. And Carl Watner introduces the voluntaryist case against taxation.; The Department of Justice loses 30% of its tax prosecutors. The federal government is bigger than you might think. Ed Agro on war tax resistance. And: a Mother Jones article from April 1989 on war tax resisters.; Graphs that show how U.S. taxpayer noncompliance and I.R.S. enforcement efforts are changing over time. Also: Darian Worden on the political philosophy of Thoreau, David Hartsough on war tax resistance, and a look at the I.R.S.-produced Star Trek parody video.
Have things really gotten that bad? → U.S. citizens aren’t rising to the challenge → public acquiescence / approval / collaboration → even Hiroshima not seen as an atrocity: ▶; ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦; A review of Edmund Wilson’s 1963 book “The Cold War and the Income Tax: A Protest.” Also: I.R.S. employees at tax help centers gave correct answers only 57% of the time when investigators posing as taxpayers called.; “My life’s principle, which I was taught very early on, was to desire and to strive to achieve ethical values. From a particular moment on, however, I was prevented by the State from living according to this principle.” — Adolf Eichmann; The I.R.S. confirms the personal and standard deduction amounts for next year, The Picket Line gets a plug from Wendy McElroy, and press reports about the Enola Gay exhibit may have been exaggerated. Also: a British tax protest takes one step forward, then one step back.; Paul Tibbets on using nukes in the War on Terror: “You’re gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we’ve never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn’t kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: ‘You’ve killed so many civilians.’ That’s their tough luck for being there.” Happy Hiroshima Day.; Mennonites, atom bombs, Borgen values, unconventional thinking, and gasoline taxes (oh my!); Sixty years after the bombing of Hiroshima, the nuclear giants are more numerous and more fearsome, but the ethical infants have yet to grow up. Many people are behaving as though the cold war’s sword of Damocles has been transformed into solar panels and parakeet swings, but even those of us who acknowledge the danger are left with the unanswered question of what we are to do.; Ten years ago, when Americans got hit good and hard with the sort of death and destruction they so enjoy being on the other end of, the United States became as noisy and menacing as a country-sized dropped beehive. Meanwhile, here’s what was going through my mind… and that of my imaginary friend Ishmael Gradsdovic.

Free Bradley Manning: Wikileaks whistleblower

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