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Back to Quack Off
Quack Off
by
Free Market
Duck
2008
Legislative Report Card for Idaho: F-minus
(Apr 22,
2008)
Boise, ID –
OK, girl friends, sit down, shut up, and pour yourself another hot cup of
Rocket Java. Time to issue a Report Card for the 2008 Idaho Legies. Hint:
They sucked… badly.
Summary:
From a free market and individual rights point of view, the 2008 Idaho
Legislative session was a crash and burn disaster. While much of the
standard Welfare State proposals went nowhere (thank God) and simply bounced
back and forth like a rubber ball between Governor Butch Otter (who pretends
to be a Libertarian) and the Demopublican Legislators (who pretend to
protect individual rights and free market capitalism), the main piece of
legislation that dragged this year’s Legislative Report Card into the
F-minus range was their passage of the Areva U-235 Enrichment Bill: namely,
The Perfect Storm of building a U-235 enrichment plant on top of Idaho’s
Snake Plain Aquifer adjacent to the Yellowstone volcanic system.
Areva Bill –
Passed, signed off by the Gov: F-minus, criminal negligence
The Areva
Bill is comprised of two tax cutting measures to encourage French Nuclear
Energy Company, Areva Inc., to build a $2 billion U-235 enrichment plant on
top of Idaho’s Snake Plain Aquifer – the size of Lake Erie – which sits
adjacent to one of the largest volcanic systems in the world: Yellowstone
Park. This action alone by Governor Butch Otter and those legislators who
voted “yes” for these bills borders on criminal negligence in that they have
all been warned and cautioned by both FM Duck and others of the potential
catastrophic results that could occur if a terrorist group decided to use
ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) or EM (Electromagnetic) Pulsing devices to
stimulate an earthquake within the Yellowstone caldera, flood the equivalent
of Lake Erie into Yellowstone’s volcanic system (which is a “hot-spot”
connecting molten lava all the way to the center of the Earth) and thus
cause a radioactive super volcanic
eruption that would take out not only Idaho, but the entire southeast
section of the North American continent, and spread radiation around the
globe via jet winds in our upper atmosphere, thus affecting all of Planet
Earth’s flora and fauna. Could Planet Earth survive such a catastrophe?
The real question is: Why should we take the chance to find out? What’s
the ROI (Return on Investment): let’s see now, Door # 1, Idaho gets to tax
250 new jobs vs. Door # 2, the possible annihilation of Planet Earth. Hey,
yeah, that sounds like a good business investment, right? You stupid shits.
This is
not some daydream or far-out improbability but rather a very real
possibility. Witness the ease with which the Twin Towers in New York City,
the Pentagon, and almost the White House were blown up by 19 terrorists who
hijacked 4 airliners on Sep 11, 2001. Various nations – including the U.S.
-- and terrorist organizations already possess, or have access to, advanced
EM and ELF Pulsing warfare devices and are busy manipulating the weather and
earthquakes. Using EM Interferometers, they are testing their devices in a
cat and mouse game that few Americans know or seem to care about, although
the U.S. Congress has been briefed on this information by many sources.
Once
again, those Idaho legislators and Gov Butch Otter who naively signed off on
the U-235 Enrichment Bill, AND French Company Areva, must bear the
responsibility IF the U-235 enrichment plant is built at its intended
location near Idaho Falls – all on the premise of creating a blockbuster,
whoop-tee-doo, 250 taxpaying jobs for Idaho – and IF some wild-ass group of
terrorists exercise their EM warfare option and decide to go for the 72
virgins, taking out Planet Earth in their lust for horny martyrdom. Idaho
voted yes and now the choice is up to Areva. Will they build their U-235
enrichment plant in Idaho or one of the other four states they’re
contemplating?
Report
Card Grade: F-minus, plus mandatory enrollment in Bonehead Physics 1A for
those Legies and Gov Otter who voted for this stupidity.
Grocery Tax
Rebate Bill – Passed, signed off by the Gov: D-minus
FM Duck
did extensive analysis and sent two report(s) on this obnoxious piece of
legislation to all 105 legislators plus Gov Butch Otter. The reason we
issued two reports is because one legislator thought Idaho’s standard family
consisted of 8 people, instead of 4. OK, we’ll bite. We know how to double
the calculations for food consumption, grocery costs, taxation, and tax
rebates. You can read both reports here:
03-03-2008 Idaho
Grocery Tax Rebate to equal 3/10 of 1% of your grocery bill?... Ooooh,
Whoop-tee-doo, Governor
More...
03-13-2008
Revised Idaho Grocery
Tax Rebate to equal 9/10 of 1% of your grocery bill?... Ooooh, Whoop-tee-doo,
Governor
More...
Here’s the
upshot:
Instead of
simply cutting the 6% sales tax on food at the cash register and saving
everybody a lot of bureaucratic paperwork, the Idaho Legies passed a Food
Tax Rebate for a whopping $35 to $50 per person in 2008, and then an
additional $10 rebate per person each year thereafter until the total rebate
equals $100 in year 2015.
As the FM
Duck analysis showed, this is equivalent to a rebate of 9/10 of 1% of your
total grocery bill, which, at the current rate of food inflation (10% per
year and climbing) will escalate from $15,600 per year for a family of four
in 2008 to $30,400 in year 2015. This doubling of compounded annual food
price inflation (reaching an increase over $3,000 per year in 2015) is a
direct result of the continual hyperinflation of the U.S. Dollar by the Fed
Reserve for their banking buddies on Wall Street, and far, far outstrips
Idaho’s annual $10 Food Tax Rebate.
Once
again, the Idaho Legislators continue to make two huge economic mistakes:
(1) the Legies think the people’s tax money automatically belongs to them
and, once allocated, becomes their FIXED State income forever, and (2) the
Legies think only in terms of the TOTAL loss or gain in THEIR state revenue
for THEM to spend on THEIR favorite Welfare State projects, not in terms of
what the INDIVIDUAL tax or tax rebate means per taxpayer. In reality, the
STATE does not lose $122 million when they give back $10 per individual in
food tax rebates because the STATE is THE PEOPLE and the $122 million is
still in THE PEOPLE’s, i.e., the STATE’s, pockets. The correct
interpretation is that a tax rebate means that the STATE doesn’t have $122
million
to blow on its OTHER favorite Welfare State projects. Instead, THE PEOPLE,
as individuals, get to spend their $122 million freely on whatever they
voluntarily choose. It’s called free market capitalism and it works great
as long as the STATE keeps its fly-paper-fingers out of the Public Till.
As I sit
here writing this Report Card, food riots are now occurring throughout
various nations in the world from Haiti, to Senegal, to Darfur, to Dubai, to
India, AND yesterday Costco is now rationing quantities of rice, oil, and
wheat that its purchasers can buy in various store locations. The Idaho
Legies and Gov Butch Otter just don’t get it. We are in a Recession and the
Welfare State needs to stop spending and start rebating taxes back to the
people. A $10 annual food tax rebate isn’t even enough to buy a movie
ticket and one bag of popcorn these days. What an insult.
Report
Card Grade: D-minus
Corporate
Personal Property Tax Bill – Passed, signed off by Gov: D-minus
This
piece of crap legislation is exactly that: smoke and mirrors.
Idaho is
one of the few states that still impose a stupid inventory, or personal
property, tax on corporations. The reason it is stupid is because everybody
who has ever run a business knows that companies do not pay corporate
taxes. Consumers pay corporate taxes in the form of higher product prices.
Corporate taxes are simply passed along to the consumer as one of the many
business expenses incurred by companies. Democratic Legies always lie about
the tax and, in fact, juxtapose business taxes vs. residential property
taxes. The Demos claim that if the company doesn’t pay a tax, then it must
be shifted onto home owners. That’s not true. What the Demos really mean
is that they refuse to cut spending and, therefore, if a tax gets cut in one
area, they want to raise taxes in other areas. But no matter how you slice
and dice it, the CONSUMER always pays ALL taxes.
To make
matters worse, the dummies in the Idaho Legislature proposed to cut
corporate personal property taxes ONLY if the previous year’s tax revenues
increased by 5%. Two problems: (1) since tax revenues are already falling
in our current Recession, the corporate tax cut is highly unlikely, and (2)
if the Legies didn’t index future tax revenues to price inflation, then it’s
anybody’s guess whether the Fed Reserve’s continual monetary inflation of
the unit Dollar will push tax revenues higher than 5%, or will commodity
prices crash like the housing market, which means Idaho’s tax revenues will
NEVER increase by 5% each year? Who knows, but, once again, you can be sure
it will be the CONSUMER of goods, not corporations, who will pay the
corporate personal property taxes.
Report
Card Grade: D-Minus
Forensics
Bill – Rejected by the Legies
The only
function of government is to prohibit infringements against inherent
individual rights of the people. Individual rights do not mean “rights to
receive the fruits of everybody else’s labor” – as the Demos continually
propose for their giant Welfare State -- but rather individual rights
consist of rights to give or exchange freely in a free market.
Mutually-agreed upon exchanges, both social and economics, is the watchword.
Now along
comes the only Idaho Bill to help implement the sole function of government
– protection of individual rights – and the Idaho Legislature, specifically
the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee (JFAC), rejects Gov Butch Otter’s
proposal to hire two more forensics specialists to staff Idaho’s crime labs
in the Treasure Valley. How much money are we talking about here?
$637,000. Are you kidding me? CSI, Crime Scene Investigation, is
necessary for law and order and $637,000 is peanuts. The dummies in
the State Legislature dumped $3 million into Idaho’s 2009 Special Olympics,
which has nothing to do with protecting individual rights and which we need
like we need another hole in our heads -- especially during the current
recession.
When it’s
time for the government to perform its only legitimate function, it fails.
When it’s time for the government to waste public money, it excels.
Report
Card Grade: D-Minus
Summary Grade
Since most of the rest of the Bills proffered by the 2008 Idaho Legislature
had nothing to do with the government’s legitimate function of prohibiting
infringements against individual rights as espoused by both the U.S. and
Idaho Constitutions, there is nothing else to report that would not simply
be redundant. Overall, the 2008 Idaho Legies put in a very poor performance
this year because they have moved way way past their legitimate function
as protectors of individual rights. Instead, most of today’s legislators
are simply economic fascists trying to manage what's left of the free market – both
socially and economics-wise – and redistribute the fruits of everybody’s
labors.
Overall
Report Card Grade: F-Minus
FM Duck
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