Taxation
Because progressives have driven conversations about taxes for much of the last century, our thinking is all askew. Characteristic of their approach is to focus on who is giving and receiving the money. This isn’t surprising, because like Karl Marx in their personal life, they’re obsessed with other people giving them money, but it generates the…
Consider two general principles of political theory while reading this: 1) Government starts by telling the people how much money it needs and then proceeds to collect it, not the other way around. 2) The less competitive political races are, the more incentive those who are predictably elected have to spend money on corruption and…
The Rhode Island Office of Revenue Analysis releases regular reports summarizing the state’s tax credit programs, and sometimes progressive politicians and journalists get a news story out of them. What’s disappointing is the paucity of the opposing voices. According to Katherine Gregg’s Providence Journal article the Rhode Island Business Coalition is fine with ending the program…
With Lawrence, MA, as my inspiration, I described what I’ve since come to call the “company state” or “government plantation.” Just as big companies used to set up “company towns” which existed mainly to serve the companies, now governments are becoming the central industry and animating force of the regions under their control. Their model…
John DePetro and Justin Katz check in on the insider operations of the RI State House, bureaucracy, and media.
Clips from the John Loughlin show that carried Rhode Islanders through the holiday season and into the new year.
John DePetro and Justin Katz go over the characters and controversies of state government in Rhode Island.
Although the bit has probably been recycled many times, the easiest version to find is a scene from L.A. Story, with Steve Martin. A street ATM has two lines: On the right are people waiting to take out cash; on the left are people waiting for their turn to mug them. As Martin walks away with his…
John DePetro and Justin Katz talk the Rhode Island politics of the day.
Two stories in the news recently have been nagging at me in combination over the past week. The first is the Republican response to Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s State of the State address, as delivered by Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz. Here’s the part that resonates particularly oddly: Where McKee called for cutting…
