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The Ron Paul flier I just rec'd....
"Amendment XIV Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."
A Ru Paul, um, I mean, Ron Paul supporter left a flier in my door today, and I was reading through it, and some things stuck in my head as worth of a little commentary.
The flier presents each bullet point, and I will leave my commentary below:
RP: Will let Americans keep more of their own money.
ME: That's sounds dandy, but Congress writes the tax laws, and the executive branch enforces them via the IRS. Will RP risk impeachment by willfully not enforcing the law? Your guess is as good as mine.
RP: Will end the IRS.
ME: Again, this sounds good on the surface, but Congress is the only body that can 'end' the IRS.
RP: Will stop the central bankers "inflation tax."
ME: What's an inflation tax? Taxes take money out of circulation, and thereby exert a deflationary pressure on prices. Also, the Treasury and Federal Reserve do not set tax rates. They do set certain interest rates, though.
RP: Will stop unconstitutional spending leading us to bankruptcy.
ME: Really? Last time I read the constitution, that Mr. Paul claims to know so well, Congress has the power to tax and spend - not the President. So, how will he stop spending, unless he has a veto-proof number of allies in Congress (which seems pretty unlikely)?
RP: Will stop the financial dependency on China, Saudi Arabia, and other foreign goverments.
ME: Sounds great! But, in reality, we are looking at a mixed bag of countries here. China is arguably more dependent on us than we are on them. If the US put an embargo on Chinese goods, whose economy would be damaged more - I am betting it is China's. Saudi Arabia is a similar story - we buy A LOT of oil from them, but in the end, most of our imported oil comes from Canada, not Saudi Arabia. If we really wanted to end dependence on Saudi Arabia, we could raise fuel economy standards, or mandate that oil can only be imported from some countries and not others.
RP: Will end 'birthright' citizenship.
ME: (sound of needle skidding off record in head) This is the reason RP gets white-supremacist votes. Aside from the near insurmountable task of altering the constitution, exactly what would be the definition of citizenship? That's what the 'no birthright' crowd never seems to talk about. What criterion will citizenship be based on - ancestral country of origin? skin color? being a left-handed red-head? what exactly? Also, will the millions of Americans descended from slaves have their citizenship revoked? After all, the slaves were imported as property, and were not even considered legal immigrants by the standards of their time, not to mention the standards of today.
Just an FYI: I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER (did I mention NEVER?) support an end to birthright citizenship.
A Ru Paul, um, I mean, Ron Paul supporter left a flier in my door today, and I was reading through it, and some things stuck in my head as worth of a little commentary.
The flier presents each bullet point, and I will leave my commentary below:
RP: Will let Americans keep more of their own money.
ME: That's sounds dandy, but Congress writes the tax laws, and the executive branch enforces them via the IRS. Will RP risk impeachment by willfully not enforcing the law? Your guess is as good as mine.
RP: Will end the IRS.
ME: Again, this sounds good on the surface, but Congress is the only body that can 'end' the IRS.
RP: Will stop the central bankers "inflation tax."
ME: What's an inflation tax? Taxes take money out of circulation, and thereby exert a deflationary pressure on prices. Also, the Treasury and Federal Reserve do not set tax rates. They do set certain interest rates, though.
RP: Will stop unconstitutional spending leading us to bankruptcy.
ME: Really? Last time I read the constitution, that Mr. Paul claims to know so well, Congress has the power to tax and spend - not the President. So, how will he stop spending, unless he has a veto-proof number of allies in Congress (which seems pretty unlikely)?
RP: Will stop the financial dependency on China, Saudi Arabia, and other foreign goverments.
ME: Sounds great! But, in reality, we are looking at a mixed bag of countries here. China is arguably more dependent on us than we are on them. If the US put an embargo on Chinese goods, whose economy would be damaged more - I am betting it is China's. Saudi Arabia is a similar story - we buy A LOT of oil from them, but in the end, most of our imported oil comes from Canada, not Saudi Arabia. If we really wanted to end dependence on Saudi Arabia, we could raise fuel economy standards, or mandate that oil can only be imported from some countries and not others.
RP: Will end 'birthright' citizenship.
ME: (sound of needle skidding off record in head) This is the reason RP gets white-supremacist votes. Aside from the near insurmountable task of altering the constitution, exactly what would be the definition of citizenship? That's what the 'no birthright' crowd never seems to talk about. What criterion will citizenship be based on - ancestral country of origin? skin color? being a left-handed red-head? what exactly? Also, will the millions of Americans descended from slaves have their citizenship revoked? After all, the slaves were imported as property, and were not even considered legal immigrants by the standards of their time, not to mention the standards of today.
Just an FYI: I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER (did I mention NEVER?) support an end to birthright citizenship.
