Despite being one of the more  unpopular policies in America, the death tax is set to be resurrected on January 1st. How high it will ultimately rise remains to be seen. If the tax deal passes, it will return at a 35% rate and a $5 million exemption. While not good, that’s certainly better than the 55% rate and $1 million exemption we’ll see if the deal fails. Still, both rates would mean disaster for family businesses and farms.

The hard left has inexplicably decided that not pushing hard enough for excessive taxation without respiration is where they draw the line in the sand. Nancy Pelosi referred to any deal that would lesson the fleecing of Americans upon death as “a bridge too far.” Others have referred to its inclusion in the tax deal as “gratuitous.” That’s funny, given how apt the word describes the tax itself.

What are we to make of this inexplicable drive for such an unpopular policy? One explanation is that the left simply holds a profoundly distorted view of social fairness. Rather than seek equality before the law, they look to government to enforce equality of outcomes. But other forces might be at work as well.

Another possible explanation comes courtesy of a new issue brief by the American Family Business Foundation, which highlights the cozy relationship between the life insurance industry and big government. Because life insurance benefits are untaxed, even an overpriced plan can result in more money being passed on to heirs than a simple bequeathal. The life insurance industry benefits heavily from this arrangement, with an estimated $12.5 billion in revenue coming due to estate planning. Without a death tax, much of this revenue would be lost, making the $50 million per year spent on lobbying by the industry seem like a bargain.

(more…)

This past week I gave a speech to a group of investors. The organizer of the event e-mailed me the night before, asking that I please try to be optimistic. Well, that’s my usual habitat. But optimism has been hard for me this year. Our muddle-through economy and lackluster stock market, challenged by so many taxing, spending, and regulating problems coming out of Washington, are the reasons why.

In fact, until recently, I’ve been advising people to take profits in the stock market, rather than buy-and-hold. You should keep your money before the Obama IRS takes it from you.

But following the tea-party primary victories in Delaware, New York, and New Hampshire this week, I’m once again getting energized.

Free-market capitalism is on the comeback trail. That’s one of the key tea-party messages. And make no mistake about it: The free-market power of the tea-party political revolt is totally bullish for stocks and the economy.

In short, this is a revolution.

(more…)

The great Pat Caddell and Kendra Stewart survey the recent South Carolina elections over at Real Clear Politics:

Soon-to-be Congressman Tim Scott

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the historic change brought on in these June elections than the nomination – and all but certain election – of Tim Scott. In the first Congressional District – the very cradle of the Confederacy (a.k.a. the “Fort Sumter” district) – the over 90% white GOP primary runoff voters, elected the black conservative Scott in a 68-32% landslide over the son of South Carolina legend Strom Thurmond who was endorsed by all of the unsuccessful white candidates from the primary including the son of former governor Carroll Campbell. For South Carolina it was truly a “when hell freezes over” moment.

Clearly change and reform are in the saddle – and boy does this state need it. For a state seemingly inured to its multitude of problems of terrible schools, an under supported higher education system, the nation’s 7th highest unemployment rate, and undisputedly dysfunctional state politics this moment has not come too soon. Despite its many attributes and resources, South Carolina has stagnated for three decades while its coastal neighbors, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia have achieved startling progress.

For decades, first as a one-party Democratic state and now as a one-party Republican state, South Carolina has been ruled by a self-serving good-ole boys power structure which has blindly catered to the demands of special interests and insider deals. Nothing better illustrates its contempt for reform than the continued resistance of the legislative barons to the radical notion of recorded votes. From the era of segregation to the latest day, the good-ole boy system has protected its power by winning elections with the twin weapons of fear and smear. Enter Nikki Haley.

(more…)

It is apparently a mystery to a lot political insiders why the Tea Parties have become so popular with so many Americans in state after state across the nation.

Many have simply tried to dismiss the phenomena as the ranting of a relatively small number of angry right-wing zealots. They are dead wrong but one gets the feeling the political class finds this easy dismissal far more comforting than the unsettling truths driving angry and vocal dissatisfaction by people from across the political spectrum.

“Real people” like me resonate in politics right now because of the growing chasm between what the political elites of both parties see as the best course for the nation—and for themselves– and the hopes and fears of the average American man and woman. In China that difference might mean very little to government as we saw in Tiananmen Square but, according to the Founding Fathers, such a division should not even exist here in the United States.

Those who are passionately protesting at Tea Parties and making themselves felt at the polls have rightly detected more than a hint of contempt for the average citizen. If everything were going well such elitist arrogance might be accepted, as it has been in the past. But things are not going well for our nation and more and more people are challenging the performance, ideas and motivations of those who hold themselves out as smarter and better than the rest of us.

(more…)

TEA Parties nation-wide have found that calling, writing, and showing up in person in D.C. has the same impact as a hiccup in a hurricane. After turning out thousands of citizens at rallies, overwhelming the Senate phone lines and crashing Congress’ e-mail system, our elected representatives are poised to enact the greatest expansion of government in history. The TEA Parties followed the direction of national organizations and associations. They answered the call, but were sent over the trench-line without an actual plan or support. (See, for example, Somme, Battle of) It is time for the TEA Party movement to turn inward. In the words of the age-old adage, “ All politics is local “.

Stories like the ACORN tapes have massive national legs, yet they do not destroy the local farm team of tax-and-spend big government.  Fighting for Liberty and the ability to live the American dream requires getting your hands dirty far closer to home.

For the TEA party and 9-12 groups to become effective, they must evolve again, and this time the Gadsden Flag will be a marker laid down to far more personal targets. People find the mundane of daily life and local news forgettable, yet this is how the TEA party can enact meaningful change.

(more…)

To the People of the State of New York:

THE last paper having concluded the observations which were meant to introduce a candid survey of the plan of government reported by the convention, we now proceed to the execution of that part of our undertaking. The first question that offers itself is, whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly republican. It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the Revolution; or with that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government. If the plan of the convention, therefore, be found to depart from the republican character, its advocates must abandon it as no longer defensible.

What, then, are the distinctive characters of the republican form? Were an answer to this question to be sought, not by recurring to principles, but in the application of the term by political writers, to the constitution of different States, no satisfactory one would ever be found. Holland, in which no particle of the supreme authority is derived from the people, has passed almost universally under the denomination of a republic. The same title has been bestowed on Venice, where absolute power over the great body of the people is exercised, in the most absolute manner, by a small body of hereditary nobles. Poland, which is a mixture of aristocracy and of monarchy in their worst forms, has been dignified with the same appellation. The government of England, which has one republican branch only, combined with an hereditary aristocracy and monarchy, has, with equal impropriety, been frequently placed on the list of republics. These examples, which are nearly as dissimilar to each other as to a genuine republic, show the extreme inaccuracy with which the term has been used in political disquisitions.

(more…)

Sarah Palin’s book blitz continues. Anyone who can cause leftists and political elites to further slip the surly bonds of sanity is alright in our book!

And watching them react to her selling freight-car quantities of books is what we call…lagniappe. Laissez les bons temps rouler!