i was trying to do things this morning to really get back on schedule, perhaps get the thinking working.
And, voila — two things to write about.
- Tariffs — Reflexively I’m opposed because they are a tax. But, with that understanding, they’re a middle class tax increase, something that’s been needed since the Clinton Administration. This plays, in a way, with what Boortz and Linder were proposing with the “Fair Tax,” which implemented a big value-added tax (VAT) on everything; a national sales tax. Some quick SingTFWeb shows that a big percentage of filers pay zero income taxes. I’m going to need to dig more into that to get better information on what those numbers actually look like. Gemini has some good output on it, but I need to run it to ground more
- The Reason Roundtable from yesterday talked about OrangeManBad’s EO basically invalidating state-level laws (and regulations) over AI. Again, instinctively, I’m opposed to the EO, and the states’ regulations. But I understand the arguments about the need for uniformity. The discussion unearthed a painful memory about the UCC. I’m also thinking about all of the states that ended up adopting California Air Resources Board (CARB) emissions standards. Whether the California standards make any sense is a matter of debate, and I understand why the climate catastrophist Democrats want those implemented nationwide, so just have everybody adopt the California crazy standards. Pitch it as a benefit to the automakers and unions for making it so only one type of car is needed for sale nationwide. Again, it’s a way to backdoor things that Congress isn’t doing.
So…things to consider as I look to write this week.