2016 April 9^th

Senator Marco Rubio has joined the administration’s call for 1.9 billion in increased money to fight the new scourge, the Zika virus.  With summer coming (eventually), Florida, the Senator’s home state will be in the crosshairs of this deadly mosquito borne virus. Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, claims that the government has all the money it needs. There is money, so far unspent, that has been allocated to the Ebola virus and Speaker Ryan believes diverting some of that to fighting Zika would handle the problem.

Senator Rubio, no longer a Republican candidate for the Presidency, is back to representing the people of Florida instead of being bound to the Republican Party’s “never spend money” talking point. Speaker Ryan, true to form, continues his 2013 financial attitude when he was Chairman of the House Budget committee and he and his buddies, Senator Cruz and other Tea Party types shut down the government rather than commit to financing the Affordable Care Act. This year, having learned his lesson, and, in spite of Tea Party protests, there was no shutdown.

We were told, over-and-over, that the Republicans had a deep field of Presidential candidates this year; a wide field it maybe but hardly a deep field. Exactly a year ago today Senator Rand Paul announced his candidacy and became grist for some detritus; it makes this entry a trifle long but here it is:

April 9^th

I watched Rand Paul announce his Presidential bid a day or so ago. He certainly had something for everyone. He railed at considerable length about the enormous debt the country has, which happens when you have unfunded wars, but then he came to his tax plan, or rather his no tax plan. He is pushing an income tax plan, which he calls the EZ Tax. This is a flat tax of 17 percent on all wages. There would be exemptions and deductions so far unspecified; but then you’ll pay 17 percent on the balance. That’ll be 17 percent whether your salary is 50 thousand dollars or 50 million dollars. The Senator clearly believes that everyone should be treated the same.

On second thought, not entirely the same because there will be no federal income tax whatever on dividends, capital gains or estates. This means that if you have a five million dollar nest egg and you invest that at just five percent the 250 thousand dollar yearly income will be entirely free of federal tax and when you’re dead your kids can continue the tax free income. This will encourage more stock market “investment” because the profits from it will be untaxed, indeed profits probably will not even need to be reported. I’ll bet many rich folks will know a good thing when they see it and start shoving money into Rand’s campaign.

Most tax gurus claim that Paul’s EZ Tax plan will cost the treasury about 700 billion dollars a year compared with the current tax system. Not to worry though because Paul plans to cut spending. What spending does he plan to cut? He hasn’t said but his mantra is small government. When he starts cutting defense spending and crosses those Senators and Representatives with big defense plants in their districts he’ll hit a buzz saw! Still, it’s nice to contemplate such low taxes even if it’s just another politician offering pie in the sky.

Pushing his agenda on the tube has caused Paul some trouble. On CNBC, the business channel, he told Kelly Evans who was interviewing him to “calm down.” Later on he managed to contest the stage with Savannah Guthrie of NBC, telling her, “No, no, no…” eight times so as to get his very subtle points across; points he was sure she failed to understand. I wonder if he would try that arrogance on Joe Scarborough if he is interviewed on “Morning Joe?” The Senator does have an understandable problem with arrogance: He is the son of a Congressman; he got early admission to an elite medical school; he was elected to the Senate as his first elective office; he is a candidate for President and he is also a bit short. All of these can be avenues to arrogance. Maybe his arrogance will disappear if he faces a strong male interviewer. When that happens it should be fun to watch!

Is it any wonder that Senator Paul is no longer a candidate?