Tax Cuts for All...Oh except you Meta

I'm not sure what my view is on what the tax burden of expats should be. Should they pay no taxes because they don't live in the US? Or are they not paying enough taxes? I don't think they should pay zero taxes and I think it's ridiculous to claim they are "subsidizing" the rest of us.

Americans Living Abroad Get a Nasty Tax Surprise - New York Times: "In an effort to raise revenues, tax writers in Congress added a last-minute provision that retroactively increased taxes for Americans living abroad."

Most countries exempt their citizens overseas from income taxes, so the law will give companies an incentive to hire Australians, Britons, Canadians and other nationalities for whom they do not have to pay additional taxes.

In a furious letter to Senator Grassley, widely circulated among expatriates, Ms. Kraabel contended that overseas Americans subsidize their countrymen in the United States by helping to pay for services they never use.

"You will be hard pressed to find us on federal roads, state roads, county roads, or even to find us on the ruins of Decorah's old green bridge," she wrote. "We are your subsidy. We are your constituents, whose interests you condemn and refuse to represent."

In addition, analysts said the law did nothing about the hundreds of thousands of Americans living overseas who have illegally stopped paying income taxes.

America the Fearful - New York Times

America the Fearful - New York Times: "Well, I give you fair warning. This is a road map to totalitarianism. Hallmarks of totalitarian regimes have always included an excessive reliance on secrecy, the deliberate stoking of fear in the general population, a preference for military rather than diplomatic solutions in foreign policy, the promotion of blind patriotism, the denial of human rights, the curtailment of the rule of law, hostility to a free press and the systematic invasion of the privacy of ordinary people."

Also from the Chinese Chapter of Lib Mals

A good article, with an even better article linked internally. Both pretty well demolish the Demapolgist approach we sometimes see creeping onto the posts at Lib Mals.

(please note: yes, that statement was a bit over the top and inflamatory, but what else is new? And further, Meta will be very disappointed if he gets back in two years to find this site just floating aimlessly, commentless in cyberspace. So, anyone going to defend Nancy Pelosi after reading the article?)

Bush, GOP Congress Losing Core Supporters

Bush, GOP Congress Losing Core Supporters: "Disaffection over spending and immigration have caused conservatives to take flight from President Bush and the Republican Congress at a rapid pace in recent weeks, sending Bush's approval ratings to record lows and presenting a new threat to the GOP's 12-year reign on Capitol Hill, according to White House officials, lawmakers and new polling data."

Message from Meta

This was vaulted over the chinese firewall by Meta. I've been very busy as of late and haven't had much time for malcontentism.
VL

Is this stuff getting any play on Lib Mals? Is anyone posting? Hello?

WASHINGTON | May 9, 2006
Optimistic, Democrats Debate the Party's Vision
By ROBIN TONER
Intellectuals in the center and on the left are debating how to present a clear alternative to conservatism.