Rice County Republicans

The Scottish historian Alexander Tyler framed the end of democracies in the starkest of terms …

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy.“

- Alexander Tyler, 1787
(disputed reference)

The Republican party understands this at the deepest levels.  It is part of our creed.  It is sometimes expressed simplistically as “no new taxes” but it is operationalized by our Senators and Congressmen who stand firm between the mob and the treasury.

Last week we watched as the guardians stood firm briefly, and we hoped we were watching the Battle of the Bulge, which initially looked very bad for the Allies but eventually was turned into a defeat for the forces of Nationalist Socialism (Nazis).  Unfortunately, we instead saw the Battle of Thermopylae, as the forces stood briefly Monday, but by Friday had been betrayed and routed.

Monday we stood firm on principles of the free market, but in what has become standard behavior in these sorts of emergencies, we attached enough earmarks to hide the wolf underneath, and the bill was passed.

Some of the earmarks masqueraded as reduced taxes, but in a byzantine twist of logic, these are not seen as earmarks. Basically this confuses “earmarks” with giveaways.  It is not the giveaway that makes earmarks insidious.  It is the granting of special dispensations to one group at the expense of the rest.  It could be argued that tax relief is really more of a “not taking away”.  This is a subtle point, but since the real crime is the use of tax codes to reward selected sectors by not taxing them the re-labeling is a semantic argument that only a lawyer could love.  There is no free market in that strategy.

I would argue that socialism is nothing more than the intermediate transition between freedom and serfdom. In 2000 we had a mere 1.46% of taxation stood between us and the tipping point predicted by Dr. Tyler (admittedly an ad hoc measure, but instructive none the less). I fear that in the short time between Monday and Friday we may have actually seen the beginning of the final end to our economic freedoms and, by study of history, of our prosperity. Mark the tape, we should at least know when we have crossed this Rubicon. Alae iacta est.

Expanding on the question of “what is an earmark” let’s think about that 30,000 page tax code and fairness.  If we put an excise tax on an industry (A,B,C,D), but only on A, B, C, and not on D, then we have “earmarked” D for special favor.  This is not a reduction in taxes, though D might think so.  Then we go in and give relief to B and C. This is another earmark … sure it reduces taxes for B and C, but at the expense of A.

The real battle is with the bloated tumor of government that sits on the body economic.  One of the cancer treatment strategies we study in my work is the use of anti-angiogenesis drugs. These drugs keep the tumor from growing a blood supply. We gifure that if we can starve the tumor we can keep it from killing the patient.  In economic struggles this is the strategy of tax reducing earmarks, snipping one little feeder blood vessel at a time.  But if we then let the tumor borrow sustenance elsewhere (by allowing huge deficits) then we are fooling ourselves if we think we are winning.