Attacks on Pompeo energy policies fall short
An op-ed written in favor of the wind production tax credit shows just how difficult it is to replace cronyism with economic freedom.
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Attacks on Pompeo energy policies fall short
We often see criticism of politicians for sensing “which way the wind blows,” that is, shifting their policies to pander to the prevailing interests of important special interest groups. The associated negative connotation is that politicians do this without regard to whether these policies are wise and beneficial for everyone. So when a Member of Congress takes a position that is literally going against the | Read More »
Brownback, Moran wrong on wind tax credits
In the following commentary, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and U.S. Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas make the case for extending the production tax credit (PTC) for the production of electrical power by wind. The PTC pays generators of wind power 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour produced. To place that in context, a typical Westar customer in Kansas that uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours in the summer pays $95.22 | Read More »
Pompeo to introduce ‘Energy Freedom and Economic Prosperity Act’
This week U. S. Representative Mike Pompeo of Wichita plans to introduce the “Energy Freedom and Economic Prosperity Act,” a bill that would eliminate all tax credits related to energy. Tax credits, sometimes called tax expenditures, are spending accomplished through the tax code rather than by legislative appropriations. Two prominent tax credits related to energy production are the tax credit for producing and blending ethanol | Read More »
NAT GAS Act: Markets are better able to decide
The real lesson to be learned from Solyndra is that government is not equipped to act as entrepreneur. We need to apply that lesson to natural gas powered vehicles before it is too late. This lesson is important to learn at the present, as legislation called the NAT GAS Act, formally known as H.R. 1380: New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2011, | Read More »
Contrary to Buffet, government spending is not good
Recently wealthy investor Warren Buffet has been in the news for his advocacy of higher taxes. But is government — politics, in other words — the best way to allocate resources? In a statement on the KochFacts website, Charles Koch disagrees with Buffet: As part of the public discourse on government overspending and fiscal irresponsibility, Charles Koch offered the following public response to media queries | Read More »
We need a balanced budget amendment
Despite claims made in a Wichita Eagle op-ed by its former editor Davis Merritt, we desperately need a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution. (Balanced-budget amendment is unworkable, August 2, 2001) Merritt calls the promise of a balanced budget amendment a “cruel deception” that “limits imagination and progress.” He gives three reasons as to why we should not adopt such an amendment: First: | Read More »
U.S. receipts and expenditures
A recent op-ed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Wall Street Journal (Why Americans Are So Angry: Republicans want the entire burden of deficit reduction to be carried by the elderly, the sick, children and working families), besides holding faulty reasoning in every paragraph, hold a few factual errors that deserve discussion. Raise tax rates to raise revenue For example, Sanders writes regarding | Read More »
Do federal grants cause higher local taxes?
“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” — Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman Is this true? Do federal grants cause state and/or local tax increases in the future after the government grant ends? Economists Russell S. Sobel and George R. Crowley have examined the evidence, and they find the answer is yes. Their research paper is titled Do Intergovernmental Grants Create Ratchets in State | Read More »
Social Security Trust Fund: Why no truth?
This column is cross-posted from Voice for Liberty in Wichita. Regardless of one’s attitude towards the Social Security system, the refusal by liberals to admit the fraud of the system’s trust fund remains an obstacle to honest discussion of the system’s future. Here’s an example from a prominent defender of the myth of the Social Security Trust Fund, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In an | Read More »
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