Paul Ryan on the Tax Code

On Dead Parrots and Trump Tax Returns

Democrats have been fulminating for months about Donald Trump's refusal to release his tax returns, as most modern Presidential candidates have done. When these calls for transparency fell up Donald's deliberately deaf ears, Democrats have threatened consequences in governing.

 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) taunted President Trump to release those tax documents or else he should expect efforts to reform the tax code to go down to defeat. This threat seems disingenuous, as Schumer vowed not to cooperate with the Trump Administration unless it acceded to every Democrat demand.

As Tax Day loomed, Between the Beltway pundits pondered if Mr. Trump would reveal his personal IRS papers.  Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer pulled no punches with his prognostication.



Krauthammer pithily predicted that the issue was "a dead parrot", a reference which harkened back to Monty Python's Flying Circus.  It gladdens the heart that when "The Hammer" goes down, he can be mirthful in making his pessimistic political prediction. 



I wonder if he would say "Ni".  I doubt it (sic).

Chuck Schumer's Taxing Taunt for President Trump

Stephen King Audits Trump's Character

Barry Goldwater on Income Taxes

Laurie Anderson on Hobbies

Steve Forbes on Taxes

Steve Scalise on Taxes

Ben Carson on Regulation and Taxes

The IRS and the Known Unknown

Yesterday, as millions of Americans rushed to file their taxes to with the IRS before the April 15th deadline, longtime public servant submitted his materials with a sardonic smile.  Along with Rumsfeld's forms, he included a letter which registers his uncertainty about the complexity of conforming with Internal Revenue Service rules.

Rumfeld's bureaucratic broadside includes a nod to the phrase "the known unknowns" which he made famous in executing the War on Terror at the Pentagon. 

Rummy's  bon mot was not only risable but he's right. Who in the world can have surety about a tax code which is ten time the size of the bible and with none of the Good News?

Paul Ryan on Taxes

"The US Tax Code Is Ten Times Longer Than the Bible With None of the Good News"

                                                                                   ~ Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) 

The US Tax Code Is Ten Times Longer Than the Bible With None of the Good News

House Budget Committee Chairman Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) was one of the initial speakers at CPAC 2014.  Ryan's restrained rhetorical style along with his general remarks did not fire up the crowd as Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) with their early morning speeches.  However, Rep. Ryan did have one well wrought out zinger which illustrated his overall point

The House Budget Chairman quipped that:  "Right now, the U.S. tax code is ten times longer than the Bible with none of the Good News."  It was a great line to try to soft pitch House Ways and Means Chairman Representative Dave Camp's (R-MI 10th) controversial tax reform over-hall plan.  Regardless of how one feels about the particulars on the policies, it is aimed at cutting away bureaucratic red tape and allowing taxpayers to keep more of their own money.

But instead of debating how a Big Brother bureaucracy is burdening Americans and forcing a Statist will upon individuals, much of the media nit-picked as the chain of knowledge for the source on his "brown bag lunch story." The Left's tizzy tactics illustrates Ryan's point that the left is out of ideas and would rather demonize their opponents instead of engaging in debate.

By virtue of his position as House Chairman, Representative Ryan is part of GOP House Leadership.  But his bold budget plans do not show a Cocktail Party complacency which plagues many GOP elites.  Based on the tepid applause at CPAC 2014 as well as his eighth place finish (with 3%) in the CPAC Straw Poll, Ryan can not count on the conservative base for support in a prospective Presidential run this cycle. 

That being said, Rep. Ryan is a respected representative who can bolster the notion that Conservatives are the ones with ideas, and perhaps actuate that with Republican majorities in Congress. 

Thomas Sowell on Taxes

Milton Friedman on Inflation

Paula Poundstone on Sin

Albert Einstein on Taxes

Tax Temptation

It may be sold as the Tree of Life, but that bitter fruit of taxes is actually the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Blaming the tempter won't work either as the public will be made to remember the vow breaker not the insidious instigators.

 Gorging on the fruit without having a disciplined diet (like spending cuts and a Senate approved budget) should get both banished from the garden but that is unlikely in the District of Calamity.

 h/t: Michael Ramirez

Taxing Public Perception

How easily the public's perception is taxed.  So enough about the boring stuff like the fiscal cliff or covering up the Obama Administration's Benghazi bungle, so how about more fluff about the big Lotto winners? 

h/t: Nate Beeler

Will Smith on Realism

Perhaps the American actor did not find his change of view taxing once he found out the true cost of French Socialist President Hollande's top tax rate.

Ronald Reagan on Politics