Posted on 09/07/2007 7:55:28 AM PDT by Loud Mime
Founder's Quote Ping - Please let me know if you'd like on this list... ...and have a great weekend!
We need to pass a Constitutional Amendment that no bill can be greater then one page of 8 x 11 sheet of paper, single sided. All sponsors must sign the back side.
Please don’t forget to specify typeface & font size!
“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.”
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (Federalist No. 62, 1788)
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I thought of this quote today when I learned that Florida had passed legislation, at the prompting of the insurance lobby, to end “no fault” car insurance in Florida. I didn’t even have a clue they were talking about something that would affect me so directly.
Los Angeles County Fair Commercial
The rodeo link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=820_1189021821
Yes, or just a pre-amble to it that says if a law cannot be inserted into a shredder in a single pass, it shall be un-Constitutional?
I like this. It is commonly said that "ignorance of the law is no defense". I understand the necessity of that, but it occurs to me more and more often that our system of laws is becoming so absolutely complex that it really is becoming more valid to argue the point.
For people like most of us, who purposefully endeavor to be law-abiding, it seems clear that first we must know what the law is. That's getting harder and harder.
And how many hundreds of pages is today’s Federal Register? For those not familiar with this official document, it is the publication of record of the US Government. Agencies issuing regulations to implement law publish them here, where they have the weight of law.
This is the web site of today’s edition:
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html
Let me give Rob's site a bump here. He has an occasional feature called "Federal Register Watch", where they list the freedoms you have lost this week. I don't see it listed right now....
It's a libertarian site; a little different.
“Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.”
Thomas Jefferson (letter to James Madison, 1784)
I’d have to disagree with Thomas on this one
I can see it now - a line in the budget as big as NASA, in an attempt to build a shredder the size of Denver...
NO! It’s good! Look at it again. If that were the case, there would be a national sales tax, and that would be ALL.
I had to think about it for a minute, but what I can spare is what I spend! If I save it - no tax!
But who defines what you can ‘spare’???
When you consider the multitude of laws, their variations, their complexities and their many applications I submit that ignorance of the law is a damn good excuse for violating it.
Size 20 font
Just try to go fishing anymore. At any given moment it’s all but impossible in the state of Washington to figure out whether you’re on the good side of the law for sure.
Like I said - YOU do. If you spend it, you pay tax. I’m not saying that his quote needs to be the law, and I’m most certainly not saying that the government should decide what you can “spare”.
All I’m saying is that a sales tax fits the definition, and it’s a LOT better, IMO, than an income tax. If sales tax goes up too much, you can decide you can’t “spare” that $200 for a new BBQ grill right now... So, you don’t spend it.
This also will promote savings, which the economists occasionally set off alarms about.
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