Posted on 07/18/2004 12:55:58 AM PDT by Remember_Salamis
The major point here is when you combine private property ownership and stewardship. No one treats the land better than those who must earn their living from that land - FARMERS, RANCHERS, FORESTERS, AND MINERS. Yes, miners.
Those four groups of people are the base of our nation, and they are the ones that are under siege from the left to the greatest extent.
As a farmer, I'd like to see one of the greenies tell me that my land should be allowed to go back to its' natural state, and that it was in better condition when it was that way. Then once the dumb@ss got back up, I'd take him for a tractor tour of the property to show him the difference. (But first I've got to figure out how to put a three point hitch on one of those smelly losers.)
What type of Farming do you do? Anyway, I've got something for you to read, something I want your opinion on. It's called the FairTax. If you could read the posted article below and if you want to learn more go to this link: http://www.fairtax.org/pdfs/agricultureandranching.pdf
That'd be awesome.
Farm Bureau says FairTax Bill a Priority
HONOLULU--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2004--At its national convention, the American Farm Bureau Federation moved to make replacing the income and payroll tax systems a priority, FairTax announced today. On the last day of the convention the AFBF board named the FairTax legislation (HR 25/S 1493), a national retail sales tax, as a priority issue for education and dissemination to its five million members.
The Americans For Fair Taxation (www.fairtax.org) legislation replaces, rather than "reforms," the current complex income tax/payroll deduction structure with a revenue-neutral retail consumption tax called the FairTax. During the American Farm Bureau Federation annual convention, FairTax Executive Director Tom Wright and National Farm Bureau Liaison John Collet campaigned for farmer and rancher support of this tax change, which is already gaining support on Capitol Hill. The FairTax group has spent the last year working with more than 30 state farm bureau organizations in a coordinated, nationwide effort to raise farm bureau leadership awareness of the bill's details, laying the groundwork for this vote.
"Internationally, income and payroll taxes and the cost of compliance burden our farm exports, making them less competitive on the world market," Wright told farmers in a speech sponsored by The Heartland Institute's Budget & Tax News. "Domestically, the current system targets our working poor for abuse, while burdening them with regressive Social Security taxes. The FairTax improves export competitiveness across the board -- not just for agriculture -- while relieving the burden on our working poor and creating much needed jobs."
According to Mr. Wright, the FairTax proposal is designed to be "revenue neutral," raising the same amount of revenue as do personal and corporate income taxes, payroll and Social Security taxes, and gift and estate taxes, while replacing all these with a system some 90 percent smaller, less intrusive, and less expensive. A dedicated income stream from this broad-based sales tax would replace the narrow, regressive payroll tax currently used to fund Social Security and Medicare.
"The FairTax has been in our policy book for years," stated AFBF President Bob Stallman. "It does address many of our policy issues on federal tax reform, including estate taxes, capital gains, alternative minimum, and more. With this vote of the board, we'll be taking a good look at how the FairTax proposal compares to our current tax system and our desire for needed reforms."
These national retail sales tax measures already have been unveiled in the House and Senate this session, one by Rep. John Linder (R-GA) and Rep. Colin Peterson (D-MN) and the other by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Senator Zell Miller (D-GA). House Majority leader Tom DeLay is a co-sponsor. The sweeping measure would take farm and ranch producers "out of the tax system entirely," as long as their operations are not involved in retail sales, said Tom Wright.
"With the FairTax, farmers are out of the tax business entirely," continued Wright. "No record keeping, no filing, no complex planning, no audits, no alternative minimum tax, no self-employment taxes, nothing. The only place the tax is charged is 'under the bright lights of the retail counter' to the person who's going to wear the gloves or drive the car. There are no hidden taxes cascading through the system. Producers will make business decisions based solely on what is best for their farm and family, not tax consequences."
What is the FairTax?
The FairTax is a non-partisan proposal (HR 25/S 1493) that will abolish all federal income taxes, including payroll, self-employment, alternative minimum, income, capital gains, corporate and death taxes, and replaces them all with one simple, visible, federal sales tax. It will dramatically change the basis for taxation by eliminating the root of the problem: taxing income. The FairTax will tax us only on what we choose to spend, not on what we earn. It will not raise any more or less revenue; it is designed to be revenue neutral. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system, which particularly burdens our poor and fixed-income retirees. The FairTax proposal includes specific protections for these Americans, including ending the narrow, regressive Social Security tax, ending income taxes, and beginning a rebate to zero all federal taxes for all Americans (with a legal Social Security number) up to the poverty level.
What is FairTax.org?
FairTax.org is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to replacing the current tax. The organization has hundreds of thousands of members and volunteers nationwide. Its plan supports sound economic research, education of citizens and community leaders, and grassroots mobilization efforts. For more information visit the Web page: www.fairtax.org
Envromentalism? Hey, can we please please please start clearing the deadwood off the forest floor before everything (including the trees) in California burns to the ground?
Then again...
If anyone has conceived of an alternative to the hackneyed, "Greenpeace" way of doing things, it is Lumberg.
He needs to be listened to, and his views need to be adopted by the Republican Party.
who's Bjorn Lumberg?
He's been blacklisted by his fellow academics, called every possible epithet in the book, yet he still perseveres in his mission to alleviate suffering in the Third World, a mission that is being severely neglected by the same people who profess such empathy-at least in theory-for the downtrodden of the Earth.
I posted a very interesting thread on this subject about two months ago.
Bjorn Lomborg wrote the incredibly powerful "The Skeptical Environmentalist", which should be the Bible (required reading, at least!) for conservative environmentalists. It clearly defines which issues are driven by science, junk science, and myth. And the benefit is, if you give it to a leftie (since one of the strongest recommendations is by a founder and former member of Greenpeace), it shuts them up for a long, long time. It's one of the most fascinating non-politically oriented political books I've ever read!
Thanks for posting this article! For a conservative environmentalist like me, it distills all the important, big ideas into a handy list. The only one with which I mildly disagree is #3: It is too easy to assign "non-worth" to various species simply because we are not omniscient. We don't YET know the full value of certain of God's creatures here on earth (Mosquitos, what WAS He thinking?), but we cannot arrogantly dismiss their importance just because we haven't yet found out what beneficial purpose they serve.
Another excellent, conservative book is "Dominion" by Matthew Scully, by one of President GWB's former speechwriters.
Issues like New Urbanism and antisprawl measures are part of conservative environmentalism.
The only sentence in this entire epistle I had any real trouble with. One of our very own FReepers has the very best overall concept in print I've ever read right here!!!
Ten Points of Environmental Conservatism -- good and useful read.
FYI
All of that it here, published over two years ago with a patent still under consideration.
Here's a good example: Portland, Oregon. In Portland, they have an urban growth boundary that has forced developers to stay closer to the city center. This caused property values to rise enough that many dilapidated neighborhoods got rehabbed.
If living in the city means living in grimy, overpopulated districts with high crime, then I'm not in favor of "anti-sprawl" or "New Urbanism" either. But if it means living in clean, attractive areas with lots to do, where you can walk to shopping or restaurants or nice parks, fine! Portland is like that. (I myself do live in the suburbs, but only 1.5 miles from work; I would actually prefer living closer to the city center but that would lengthen my commute. I live near Louisville, Kentucky, which is making progress in its efforts to clean up its downtown.)
--Boris
I think he's talking more about urban renewal than new urbanism. After all, it's not very conservative to hollow out the city then move on to somewhere else.
To claim that 'no one treats the land better than miners' is a joke. Have you ever visited abandoned mining sites?
You might make the argument that in some cases economic benefits outweigh damage to the landscape, but don't try to argue that the average mining operation 'cares about the land'. There's over 150 years of evidence that they don't.
Portland is fine if you want to see the theft of private property (no growth zones) and rulership by an unelected, unaccountable bureaucratic dictatorship called a regional planning commission (soviet socialism). Critics of the People's Republic of Portland rightly call this disaster "strip mall socialism."
Not my cup of tea.
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