Douglas C. Lyons – Senior Editorial Writer The Sun-Sentinel

April 9, 2011

Douglas C. Lyons – Senior Editorial Writer
The Sun-Sentinel
200 E. Las Olas Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

RE: Choices – Some comments on today’s column about how Florida, a state guaranteed to have a “Republican” form of government, functions.

Mr. Lyons,

A gaffe occurs in Washington when a politician accidentally speaks the truth. Who would have known that Senator Harry Reid was a closeted fan of an almost forgotten art form, “cowboy poetry”? Good for him. It gets mighty lonely in Searchlight, NV.

I read where, despite the spectacle of two bald men fighting over a comb, the government will not shut down. The sight of the Chinese bringing a bunch of flat bed trucks to repo the Washington Monument would not have been a pretty thing. Further, at the admonition of a local gal with a new title, Congresschick Debbie-Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the cherry blossoms will bloom by Sunday noon. Lysenko has nothing on her!

It is always good to note that today marks the anniversary of the repeal of the Dred Scott decision. The papers were signed at Appomattox, VA.

But I digress.

In the ink stained world of modern American Liberalism a gaffe occurs when a portion of the hidden agenda, the wish list held in camera, the “I can catch the horizon” silent mantras are revealed.

Thus, in a display of epistemological priaprism, you mention that if Florida were to “sharpen the edge of husbandry” it would collect 81.7 billion in revenue. To be precise that’s $81,700,000,000. Lord knows how many “shovel ready” projects are out there waiting to be funded, not counting Libya. That’s a lot of dough.





On the subject of “uncollected revenue” you inadvertently pull back one of the curtains that shield modern American Liberalism like night shields a vampire. “Uncollected revenue” is money that has escaped the clutches of the state. Before it can be spent on “midnight basketball” it must first be gotten.

For years the Sun-Sentinel used brave matadors, entrepreneurs who dodged oncoming traffic like modern day Manoletes, to sell its papers. Where have those brave lads gone? And since equality is a watchword of modern American Liberalism could you tell me how much sales tax was sent to Tallahassee? That would be the amount raised by your contractors. As a public company, albeit one in bankruptcy, that amount would have been highlighted in your 10K. Also, how much was raised from your sales in the kiosks. Perhaps you permitted your contactors to waive the tax. That would not relieve you of the obligation. Get back to me with that number, please.

You write that “Florida seems reluctant to even go after any uncollected revenue that’s owed the state, like the sales tax on Internet purchases…”

You may wish to become more aware of Gibbons v Ogden. The Supreme Court ruled that no state may tax a transaction of any other state. Besides settling revenue issues it a history of political corruption that even Broward County would be proud of. It is the law of the land. Until you change it you must obey it

If we were to tax transactions beginning in Kafiristan or Western North Dakota, one of those 7 or 8 extra states that President Obama told us about, would it not be fair for every state from here to Maine to tax every orange on every truck of same heading to Wiscasset or Darmiscotta?

Should Florida, forgive me, win the PowerBall, you would negate your “Hudson’s Choice” and fund both the developmentally disabled center and the cancer research center. You reveal the modern American Liberal solution: Spend more money.

“How sad of all the things that men endure
how few laws or kings can cause or cure.”

Are we undertaxed or do we overspend?

It appears that the voters think the latter.

The markets have already decided.

The evidence of your own eyes will tell you that with gold approaching $1500 an ounce, with the price of a gallon of gasoline having doubled since January 21, 2009 despite Darth Cheney having been locked up in an undisclosed location, something is rotten. It won’t take but 10 minutes in the produce and meat sections of Publix to confirm that we are on the verge of a late ‘70s burst of inflation followed by an upward run in interest rates. There is no lash on the backs of the poor, the old, the lame and the halt, that is more cruel than that of inflation. They cannot protect themselves.

The political expediency of “I won’t tax you if you don’t tax me, let’s tax that fellow behind the tree” can no longer apply.

Hudson’s Choice is an interesting word play on Hobson’s Choice. The country that gave us Hobson also gave us “3 squares” and “ripoff”.

If increased taxes were the answer the problem of solving the problems of the Post Office would be simple.

History tells us that the most successful anti-poverty program is a job. History also tells us that 7 years into the New Deal unemployment was higher than it was on March 4, 1933. The best way, the only way, to get companies to hire people is to tell them that they will not be penalized for adding an employee either by increased taxes or mind numbing regulation.

OOOPS!

I forgot.

The same country that gave us those marvelous words also gave us the following:

“Any public policy that involves robbing Peter
to pay Paul will always have Paul’s support.

What happens if a cancer research center uncovers the tendency of developmentally disable persons to have multiple myelomas? Would ObamaCare cover that or would the Death Panels handle it?




Kevin Smith