House GOP is now getting it right
It’s no secret. Watching Republicans under the Gold Dome try to be more creative and clever than Democrats were in planting little tax bomblets throughout government has been frustrating.
It’s been frustrating because each came with a cock-and-bull story about how the imposition of a “fee” or “add-on fine” would achieve a social good. A $200 fine on “superspeeders,” for example, would subsidize a proposed statewide trauma network. The connection is that speed leads to wrecks and wrecks lead to injuries and injuries require trauma centers, so therefore …
Truth is, however, that ladders, guns, knives and broken pavement can fill emergency rooms, too. A $10 “fee” on auto tags, a hidden “fee” on hospitals and health-insurance plans, and a $1 “fee” on telephones — all proposed as a funding source for the estimated $75 million trauma network advocates wanted, are specialty taxes.
The state has 15 trauma-care hospitals. A million Georgians live 50 miles or more from one. If the general good is served by funding a trauma center quickly accessible to all, a straightforward, general purpose tax is the honest and transparent way to go. No games. No deceit.
This session, for the first time since they came to power, Republicans are getting it right.
Though they’ve temporarily abandoned a timetable for ending the corporate income tax, the public declaration by House leaders that elimination is a goal is cause for cheer. Declare a goal consistent with a conservative agenda. Then, by a thousand little steps if necessary, move there.
Learn from the left. Eventually, we’re likely to have taxpayer-provided universal health care. How? A step at a time, drawing the circle of those who are covered by private-sector medical insurance smaller and smaller until, politically, it’s possible to sweep them onto the government rolls.
Score one, then, for Republicans doing something that constructively changes the status quo.
Another reason to cheer is the legislation that passed the Georgia House on Thursday to eliminate the so-called birthday tax on cars and trucks.
An impassioned Larry O’Neal (R-Warner Robins), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, took the floor last week to praise the proposal to eliminate the sales tax and the annual property-tax levy on vehicles and replace it with a one-time registration fee of 7 percent.
“When we take the ad valorem tax off of our automobiles,” said O’Neal, “I can actually own my own car without the government having the first lien on it.”
Here again is an instance where eminently desirable conservative outcomes are advanced.
As O’Neal noted, the yearly risk that government can come and “take” your car for nonpayment of taxes is eliminated. It backs a potentially threatening government out of our lives. Plus, it doesn’t add on a new tax while employing semantics to deceive.
A third benefit, temporarily useful, is that when it takes effect next January, it will stimulate new-car sales. After paying the 7 percent, up to a maximum of $2,000, the purchaser never again pays the “birthday tax” levied when tags are purchased. The tag fee remains, but not the tax. Georgians will continue paying the ad valorem tax until they register another new or used vehicle.
The change is expected to bring in an additional $496 million in the next fiscal year, to be split between state and local governments. It will also produce at least $150 million in new revenue that can be used for other purposes, including funding a trauma network.
The new money comes not from new taxes, but from bringing the shade-tree used-car sales into the system.
A sales tax on those transactions, rarely paid, will be replaced with a registration fee. Failing to register a car within 30 days brings a $2,500 fine for dealers and a percentage-of-price penalty for individuals.
It’s not a new tax. It’s a more appealing substitute for the law-abiding and is a penalty for evaders. It brings integrity to the tax code. With HB 480, the House gets it right — and moves the tax code in a direction that should be appealing to conservatives.
No games, no gimmicks. No deceit. No clever marketing by those in training to be tax collectors for the welfare state.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
97 comments Add your comment
Churchill's MOM
March 17th, 2009
8:18 am
Rep Vitter’s appointment with his Lady Friend ran over,
“Senator David Vitter Louisiana Republican arrived Thursday evening at his United Airlines gate 20 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, only to find the gate had already been closed. Undeterred, Vitter opened the door, setting off a security alarm and prompting an airline worker to warn him that entering the gate was forbidden.
Vitter, our spy said, gave the airline worker an earful, employing the timeworn “do-you-know-who-I-am” tirade that apparently grew quite heated.
That led to some back and forth, and the worker announced to the irritable Vitter that he was going to summon security.
Vitter, according to the witness, remained defiant, yelling that the employee could call the police if he wanted to and their supervisors, who, presumably, might be more impressed with his Senator’s pin.
But after talking a huffy big game, Vitter apparently thought better of pushing the confrontation any further. When the gate attendant left to find a security guard, Vitter turned tail and simply fled the scene.”
Churchill's MOM
March 17th, 2009
8:20 am
Sorry , it should have been Senator
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
8:22 am
Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of our Irish friends, of whatever nationality or ethnicity. I respectfully disagree with our host on the virtues of the new trauma care funding.
My first point of disagreement is with the need for trauma care funding. I find nothing meritorious in dedicating taxpayer funds to the impoverished health care industry. A smarter course would be for the state to assume all tort liability for mal- or mis- or non-performance by any trauma care center, and to define all values as in workers compensation claims.
There are at least deceits in the sales pitch for the legislation:
(1) The deception that a tax is abolished. No tax is abolished for any payer. The birthday tax remains forever for those who keep their present cars.
(2) A one-time $2,000 tax on a vehicle does not stimulate automobile sales, except to the extent that new tax is less than presently charged, i.e., not at all. Any tax is a disincentive on sales. There is not a soul who declined to purchase a vehicle over the past 20 years due to the birthday tax.
Admittedly there are surely many who declined to title their vehicles in Georgia due to personal property taxes. I’m not certain why a new 7% title tax will eliminate that economic reality.
I respectfully dissent from the wisdom of the Gold Dome on this issue, in every element.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
8:24 am
Having properly addressed the topic, I offer my diversions. Dr. Sowell has an unusually partisan essay this morning, although brilliant as always, urge all to review. As the return of John Galt approaches, we review the latest government outrage, on AIG.
The AIG bailout yesterday revealed the first suggestion of the normal government incompetence arising from the massive recent government spending spree. A dust up arose from “bonuses.” It is an issue that divides conservatives – Stephen Moore, one of my new favorite economists, reflecting the more common populist “disgust” at the judgment to honor contractual obligations, contrasting with Rush Limbaugh and other traditionalists who affirm that “a deal is a deal.” And The Wall Street Journal offers a third well-researched and brilliantly-argued perspective, which intellectual property I will not abuse here. My argument is simpler – Obama inexperience/incompetence.
Much of the AIG agreement is online. I do not pretend to have done a lot of research, mostly relying on summaries. I found this news item from November 10:
“(CEP News) – The U.S. Treasury has revised its loan agreement with U.S. insurance company AIG, adjusting the terms of the loan to function under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. ‘These new measures establish a more durable capital structure, resolve liquidity issues, facilitate AIG’s execution of its plan to sell certain of its businesses in an orderly manner, promote market stability, and protect the interests of the U.S. government and taxpayers,’ said a press release from the Fed.
“According to the new terms, the Fed is loaning the firm $60 billion rather than the original $85 billion and the Treasury Department will purchase $40 billion in the firm’s shares under the TARP program.”
The controversial bonuses were mostly in sellable units, albeit those with the greatest problems to be “unwound.” A service company has only two elements of value: (1) whatever great and unique idea it sells, and (2) the talent of the people delivering the product. The bonuses are primarily necessary to minimize further losses (to unwind the complicated derivatives,) and secondarily keep the sellable units intact, and thus sellable.
If a company repudiates its contracts with employees, the employees are well-advised to seek employment elsewhere. When a company repudiates employment contracts, normally the best and brightest are the first to obtain new positions. If government wishes to minimize its losses and to sell AIG components in an orderly manner, AIG was obliged to honor its agreements with its employees.
A quick analysis of the summary suggests the “hurry-up” deal was improperly structured. “Structure” would be the responsibility of the most financially-sophisticated proponent of the deal on the government side. While many of our leftist friends would affirm that President Bush was the most sophisticated financial thinker in the government of last November, I would assign that title to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Paulson.
A proper structure of the deal – assuming bankruptcy courts were not competent to the task, for which judgment I lack capacity – would have broken up the firm immediately. Spin off to shareholders those portions of AIG that were to be on-going, and that portion that was “too big to fail,” for whatever reason, would be taken over by government immediately. I’m a helluva Monday morning quarterback.
My broader conclusion is that The Empty Suit mishandled yet another economic issue here, again due to his lack of managerial experience. He would claim benefit of the services of those induced to stay under their contracts, and then abrogate the agreement. Not that it would be unusual for the Obama government to engage in such a fraud. Our leftist friends would affirm that it is ok to beat the slaves so long as only the government does the beating.
Churchill's MOM
March 17th, 2009
8:44 am
Face it the taxpayer is being shafted by the legislature, but we have important news from the AP:
“Republicans are still pushing Sarah Palin’s star power.
Palin will deliver the keynote address at the annual Senate-House GOP dinner to be held on June 8 at the Washington Convention Center, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) and National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) announced today.
“Gov. Palin has quickly emerged as one of the most popular and recognizable faces in the Republican Party, and we are honored to have her deliver the keynote address at the Senate-House dinner,” Cornyn said.
The dinner is one of the marquee events for the campaign committees each year, and Republicans are hoping that Palin’s presence will be a huge draw.
“Gov. Palin’s conservative values, commendable achievements in Alaska and the sheer energy she personifies make her one of the most compelling visionaries of our party,” Sessions said.”
MacArthur O. Means
March 17th, 2009
8:50 am
I agree with Ragnar. Sounds like they rearranged the oranges in the produce section to me.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
8:50 am
While we are on the subject of Obama’s total incompetence, let us explore the implications of the Obama proposal to charge war veterans for treatment for service-related injuries.
Observing that treatment of war-related injuries is often costly, the VA proposes to charge veterans and/or their private health insurers for those treatments. VA has always charged for non-service-related treatments, and the proposed change is an extension of that long-standing policy.
The government view is understandable. As soldiers are nothing more than mere cannon fodder, it is unreasonable for them to expect their government to stand behind them when injured in service to their country. If Mad Max is stupid enough to get blown up by a hand grenade, why should the government pay to put him back together?
And think how much we could save by letting them die instead of putting them back together. If a brave soldier is gravely wounded taking a critical hill, we could simply let him die and save all of that medical expense.
Truly this is the genius of the democrats at work. How fortunate we are to have such a brilliant and patriotic leader.
Curious Observer
March 17th, 2009
9:08 am
The GOP-dominated state legislature is working hard to shaft Georgia property owners. What’s not mentioned in Wooten’s discussion is that the elimination of the birthday tax will largely hit counties, not the state. The ad valorem tax on automobiles makes up a substantial portion of county budgets. I’ve seen no discussion in this debate about how counties are supposed to make up the difference. Falling real estate values already threaten to squeeze counties hard by reducing the basis upon which property taxes are levied. The elimination of the ad valorem tax on vehicles would draw even more blood. The only recourse for counties will be an increase in ad valorem–real estate–tax rates, since they have no real control of the school budget, which eats up most of the county tax revenue. Thus, property owners will be hit hard so that Redneck can drive his new Ford F-450 without a worry about paying further taxes on it.
What happened to the Republican insistence on protecting property owners from tax increases? First, we have a governor who wanted to eliminate the state property tax subsidy for counties, with the implied assurance of county tax increases. Now we get a bill that will virtually guarantee a tax increase for anybody who owns real estate in the state. It’s all very easy for the Republicans to cite “local control” as a way for taxpayers to minimize county taxes. But the simple fact is that counties can cut their budgets only so much before tax increases are necessary.
I suggest that we not celebrate the elimination of the “birthday tax” too much. The bill is coming later–from your county and schools. That’s OK with our legislators: they’re not the ones who will have to increase tax rates.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:20 am
A group including the billionaire financier Carl C. Icahn says it plans
to bid for the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City, N.J., in a
bankruptcy court auction.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:21 am
Kurtzman Carson Consultants, a bankruptcy claims noticing agent, has
agreed to sell itself to Australia’s Computershare Limited for at least
$97 million, in a deal that signals how attractive the restructuring
field is to outsiders.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:23 am
Goldman Sachs, which accepted billions of taxpayer dollars last fall,
is offering to lend money to more than 1,000 employees who have been
squeezed by the financial crisis.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:24 am
JPMorgan Chase must allow shareholders to vote on measures that would
tie executive bonuses to the bank’s long-term stock performance,
federal regulators have ruled.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:25 am
Anticipating restrictions on bonuses, officials at Citigroup and Morgan
Stanley are exploring ways to sidestep tough new federal caps on
compensation,
Jackie
March 17th, 2009
9:25 am
As usual, the Repubs are always “forced” to act upon those needs that will help the people. The movement toward universal health care in the state is something that is required if we are to survive economically.
Our health care system is based upon PROFIT, no more, no less. How does one explain if an individual without health insurance goes to an emergency room and pays cash for the services rendered, they are usually charged TRIPLE for what the insurance company pays for the same service?
The question is, when will the so-called conservatives begin to call what is required for the well-being of all of us “socialized medicine?”
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:25 am
Wells Fargo’s chairman, Richard M. Kovacevich, assailed the government
for imposing new restrictions on financial institutions that receive
federal bailout money and called a federal plan to subject big banks to
stress tests “asinine.”
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:26 am
Citi disclosed that it gave its chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, a
compensation package valued at more than $38.2 million in 2008.
Adjusted for Citi’s recent stock price, though, the package is worth an
estimated $2.9 million.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:27 am
Robert L. Nardelli, Chrysler’s chairman, told The New York Times that
the struggling car maker is in “survival mode,” but had high hopes for
its recent tie-up with Fiat.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:28 am
Goldman Sachs is asking investors in its $15 billion private equity
fund for approval to shift much of its remaining uninvested money into
distressed debt, as traditional buyout deals remain tough to get off
the ground,
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:29 am
Mr. Ackman also said he may join the board of General Growth Properties
and foresees a bankruptcy filing for the struggling mall owner.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:31 am
Alcoa, the aluminum producer, said Monday that it planned to cut its
quarterly dividend by 82 percent and sell $1.1 billion worth of shares
to build up a cash cushion.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:31 am
With backing from three entrepreneurs, staffers of the recently
shuttered Rocky Mountain News plan to start an online news publication
if they can get 50,000 paying subscribers by April 23 — what would
have been the News’ 150th anniversary,
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:32 am
Federal prosecutors filed a notice in federal court Sunday evening
seeking the forfeiture of a wide swath of property owned by Bernard L.
Madoff and his wife, Ruth.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:33 am
Advisers to bondholders of General Motors said on Monday they have
presented a framework plan to President Barack Obama’s autos task force
and the ailing automaker that provides the company’s best chance for an
out-of-court restructuring.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:33 am
A federal judge is allowing the government to go after at least $226.6
million in back taxes, penalties and interest that it says are owed by
Robert Allen Stanford, the Texas financier who has been accused of
conducting an $8 billion Ponzi scheme through an offshore bank.
Big Bucks GOP
March 17th, 2009
9:35 am
Six Flags, the operator of theme parks, said on Monday that one major
bondholder would not meet with the company, hindering its efforts to
negotiate with its lenders in order to stave off a bankruptcy.
Peter
March 17th, 2009
9:36 am
Has Jim ever thought that the two parties should really work together ? Or is he going to take his Us verse them to his Retirement home ?
Republican’s…….. basically Anti American at best !
Ga Values
March 17th, 2009
9:44 am
I am with Raghead and Curious Observer this is certainly not good for the average taxpayer. To me this looks like a big tax increase. As soon as the taxpayer finds ot that he has to pay $2,500 to give his child the old family car, there will be hell to pay.
My wife wants to know why there is a cram down on GM but it is just business as usual for AIG. I can’t give her an answere other than the banks paid a lot of money for TARP and we are paying for it now. I am NOT angry with the current President of AIG he is doing this as a public service and is being paid $1.00 per year.
Gregg
March 17th, 2009
10:01 am
Ragnar Danneskjöld wouldn’t is be a little shocking that you found that on November 10 (before Obama took office). I bet you don’t know that this deal was actually brokered by the Bush Administration and not the Obama admin. So all of the things you are saying my friend should be attributed to the Bushonomics.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
10:01 am
Look, folks, we are not trying to establish another Wikipedia here, just your ideas on Wooten’s subject.
Ragnar, we appreciate your expertise but could you make it a little less in its longevity?
Churchill’s Mom and super snooper, we do not need to know every personal family item, speech engagement and toothpaste brand from Governor Palin. Please do your lib lollygagging at your Bridge Club.
Big Bucks GOP, could you limit your bucks to one little deer of info and not the whole herd of bucks. Most of us are capable of reading news items on our own.
As to Jim’s subject, I doubt that I will be able to notice much difference after decisions are under the Gold Dome. Jim says it is “Right”. Ragnar signifies “Wrong”. I will be alert about which to complain. Right now I can only say “No more taxes!!” (Rpublican battle cry!)
Horrible Idea
March 17th, 2009
10:08 am
The vehicle tax is a horrible idea. Assume a car worth 25K- 7 percent would be 1,750. What if someone wanted to sell the car before 5 or 6 years were up? They would then end up paying MORE money to the state than if they paid ad valorem each year on the car.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
10:08 am
Dear Dusty @ 10:01, I acknowledge the validity of your complaint, but verbosity burns strongly within my being. Per your closing line, would you describe “The change is expected to bring in an additional $496 million in the next fiscal year, to be split between state and local governments” as a “tax increase” or as “not a new tax?”
Gregg
March 17th, 2009
10:09 am
It seem crazy how the our rightist friends are tearing up this administration that is in it’s first couple of months. First of it was the Republicans that wanted to bail out the private industry while the Obama Administration is focusing more on local and state governments. Everyone of the companies were bailed out during the Bush administration yet you lay the blame at new adminstration’s door step. I don’t think Ragnar has heard about the level of care that was given to our service men and women during the administration that SENT them to war. It was so horrible that not one but two generals were forced to resign because of the scandal, Please be sure to see for youself before you let other TELL you what to believe.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
10:11 am
Dear Gregg @ 10:01, it would be false and foolish for me to affirm that there are not idiots within the bureaucracy in every administration. However, competent management reins in the idiots. I think the management change on January 20 was from competent to incompetent.
Rush Limbaugh for President
March 17th, 2009
10:12 am
Jim Wooten logic; a fee on an auto tag or your telephone bill is a “hidden tax”, a regisration fee (created by a private sale)for the transfer of title is a registation fee not a hidden tax. This is ths problem with numnuts like Wooten. He is so partisan he can’t see that they are all the same thing done for the same reason, to raise revenue. Jim, you are small minded.
As for my uber-conservative friend Rag, I agree with his first post completely and disagree with his second post completely for the following reasons; he is advocating paying bonuses (to the best and the brightest) for reporting the largest loss in U.S. corporate history in the 4th quarter of last year (Money for nothing and your chicks for free); Then he somehow makes the same stupid leap of logic he makes every day to tie the problem to President Obama.
On the other hand I agree with him (although he again twists the facts and seasons his comments with hyperbole for maximum partisan effect)on whose insurance should cover the injuries of war veterans. That proposal will be DOA.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
10:12 am
Dear Gregg @ 10:09, while Hank Paulson – just what is his party affiliation? – undoubtedly pushed for the wasteful TARP, a larger percentage of republicans voted against it than did democrats. Please re-examine your premise.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
10:13 am
Dear Rush @ 10:12, perhaps you feel yourself being spun by me?
Gregg
March 17th, 2009
10:21 am
Ragnar how can you possibly call Bush competent when the majority of his own party seeked to distance themselves from him. He was possibly the most ineffective president we have ever had. You call Obama unqualified yet everyone (Bush, Palin and McCain) are all more challenegd than he. Why is he so unqualified because he went to Harvard Law instead of Yale? Because he was the editor of the Law review rather than crashing planes and graduating 232 out of 235 students. Tell me what makes him so unqualified?
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
10:25 am
Dear Gregg @ various times, I now realize the core of what I am seeing in Obama. He has that same maddening capacity as President Carter, there is no circumstance so bad that he cannot make it worse. Note the difference between Obama and Clinton – when Clinton ran into political objections to the leftist agenda, he pulled back, governed as a conservative over a fundamentally pro-liberty government, and emerged generally successful (ignoring the minor matter of impeachment over perjury.) Obama, in contrast to Clinton, follows the Carter course of ratcheting up the agenda despite the wavering support in the public. I think The Empty Suit maybe rode the short-surf board to school.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
10:32 am
Dear Gregg @ 10:21, fair questions, much of which I anticipated in my 10:25 post. Bush waged a competent war in Afghanistan and in Iraq – two potential quagmires, and victory is certainly within reach in each, and at much less human cost than any comparable wars in history. Conservatives do not distance themselves from Bush the Warrior.
Conservatives validly objected to Bush the Spendocrat from the beginning – the Kennedy education bill, the Daschle agricultural bill, the steel quotas, even (to some extent) the hugely expensive and misdirected albeit successful-in-its-mission Homeland Security.
I will not consciously disparage Harvard Law, due to my respect for sometime correspondent Southern Democrat, but neither will I suggest that an affirmative action graduate of same is “competent.”
I don’t recall using the term “unqualified” for The Empty Suit, but that is a good choice of terms. He is a PoliSci major in a world crying out for Economics competence. He is a law major in a world crying out for an MBA. Unqualified is good, I’ll use that.
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
10:33 am
Ragnar,
While I appreciate your two astute points of analysis @ 8:22, I also appreciate the greater transparency and honesty that Jim describes. Perhaps when voters feel the “sticker” shock more honestly, they’ll then militate for reduced car taxes. At present it’s death by a thousand cuts.
Rush Limbaugh for President
March 17th, 2009
10:35 am
No, not really. You are more than capable of being able to look at both sides of an issue and take a well reason position but you seem to prefer to come off half baked by making everything so blindly partisan. You are so obsessed with Obama I think you need some professional help.
Gregg
March 17th, 2009
10:35 am
Ragnar would you not admit it is far too early in this administration to claim it a failure? If a car is in a skid you are taught to turn into the skid until you can correct it. By that I mean, we are going to have to understand it is going to get worse before it gets better. While I am an Obama supporter I do not agree with everything he is doing however I feel as though somethings must be done. What baffles me that most is how you only pick out the things you disagree with him on to take your stand. We have guys who lost their jobs and getting unemployement but knock the fact that he approved a measure to give them an extra couple of bucks and extend their benefits. They say he is not doing enough for them. Do they even consider what hey were getting before they argue what they are now getting?
Many of the Rightist listen to Rush to get their opinions and that is how misinformation spreads.
Gregg
March 17th, 2009
10:40 am
Ragnar I have to go and run my business now so I can pay some more (un-Republican) taxes to help out. While I do not agree with you, I think I would love to have a conversation with you because you don’t take it personal. Good Luck to you kind sir.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
10:42 am
Dear Gregg @ 10:35, will I admit “it is far too early in this administration to claim it a failure?” No. Among my many unused talents is my private pilot’s license. It is never too early to pull out of a suicide dive. The risk arises from pulling out too late. I will admit that Obama has not yet crashed and burned, but I affirm that his trajectory, unchanged, will produce that result.
As to Rush, I have long suspected that he reads my morning notes to fill potentially dead air for his afternoon show.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
10:47 am
Dear Gregg @ 10:40, I hope you earn enough to suffer Obama’s most severe taxation. Have a great day.
Eric
March 17th, 2009
10:48 am
NO WAY WILL I PAY UP TO $2,000 PURCHASE FEE! Automobiles are already too expensive, and who can afford to finance this amount on top of the cost? A hardship to be sure! I’LL GLADLY PAY THE CURRENT AD VALOREM/BIRTHDAY TAX AS IT IS TODAY. PLEASE RE-THINK THIS GA GOV.!
Ga Values
March 17th, 2009
10:54 am
Ragnar Danneskjöld 10:32 am
Bush vetoes Saxby’s farm bill 4 times but Saxby, Pelosi, & Reid over rode the veto. Daschle was out of office when the last farm bill was written by your boy Saxby.
Jackie
March 17th, 2009
11:00 am
@Ragnar,
What evidence do you have the President Obama is an “affirmative action graduate” of Harvard Law School.
It appears to me that you and your degree could be deemed the same as surely your current intellectual disposition does not lend one to believe that you were the “sharpest knife in the drawer!”
I would hope that you are not one that ascribes to the legal opinions of John Yoo. If so, it would affirm the believe that your law degree is practically useless.
Jackie
March 17th, 2009
11:02 am
@Ragnar,
“I would hope that you are not one that ascribes to the legal opinions of John Yoo. If so, it would affirm the believe that your law degree is practically useless.”
Should have read “I would hope that you are not one that ascribes to the legal opinions of John Yoo. If so, it would affirm the belief that your law degree is practically useless.”
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
11:06 am
In the Fifth Century Pope Celestine I charged two of his priests, Augustine and Patricius, to defend Christianity and Western Civilization against pagans in distant outposts of the old Empire: Augustine, in Algeria; Patricius, in Ireland. The difference in the methods of these two men is rather interesting.
Besieged by Vandals, Bishop Augustine at first philosophized, and finally, as he prepared to die, he ordered his library buried.
Hemmed in by initially hostile Hibernians, Patricius sang and poetized, preached the Gospel and taught the art of bookmaking (arguably still a strong suit for the Irish).
Which man was the more civilized?
Rush Limbaugh for President
March 17th, 2009
11:16 am
Rag, this is true…your rants are perfect dead air fillers for the brain dead who listen to my show.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
11:31 am
Dear Ragnar,
Unless someone is kindly donating 496 million dollars a year to be split among agencies, I would call that money a new tax. Jim sees it differently for some reason or other. He must be seeing something we don’t see. and speaking of doesn’t see…
Would you tell friend Glenn that if the Vandals attacked me I might burn up something. I don’t believe I would be reciting poetry and singing songs. So who was the most civilized? Probably the poetry repeater. Who lived the longest? Probably the book burner.
So much for choice. I know, Glenn. It is a matter of convictions, etc., etc…
PS Ragnar: I agree with you about the ever revolving absolving Obama. I’ve seen firmer action in a bowl of jello.
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
11:50 am
Dusty,
Both men were neo-Platonists, and both were teachers. Like his hero Socrates, Augustine was a fatalist, whereas Patricius was an optimist.
Augustine thought strategically; Patrick, tactically. There is evidence that Augustine’s library ultimately was recovered by Persian scholars who, with it, greatly informed the Western intellectual life of my beloved 12th Century.
Augustine died young, while Patrick, born in Wales, lived a happy, long life that came to embody the lilt and endurance of the Irish. Augustine, incidentally, taught rhetoric — what today we would call Communications — and Canon Law from what he called his “chair of lies”. (Mr. Wooten: take note!) For his part, Patrick established libraries and a network of scholarship stretching in time across the British Isles. He was, incidentally, a poet himself and a composer.
Better a Paddy than an Augie, I say!
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
12:02 pm
Dear Jackie @ 11:02, ““I would hope that you are not one that ascribes to the legal opinions of John Yoo. If so, it would affirm the believe that your law degree is practically useless.”
Should have read “I would hope that you are not one that ascribes to the legal opinions of John Yoo. If so, it would affirm the belief that your law degree is practically useless.””
Yes, I see the difference. Only you could make that argument, dear Jackie.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
12:05 pm
Dear Dusty @ 11:31, I suspect that if Vandals were so foolish as to take you on, they might not survive to regret it. Reining you in would be like attempting to constrain a hurricane.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
12:13 pm
Dear Glenn,
I know it is St. Pat’s Day but you have led us astray about St. Augustine. My references say that St. Augustine WANTED TO PRESERVE his bibrary and made that a special request before he died. The Vandals did come later and burn the city but NOT Augustine’s library.
Augustine was a great theologian and speaker, without a teleprompter either. St. Pat may have had more fun time but Augustine surely did “live it up” before he “found” Christianity. Wow!
Anyway, happy St. Patrick’s Day or Irish Day. Maybe we will have Algerian Day at another time.
Jackie
March 17th, 2009
12:15 pm
@Ragnar,
Oh, I see, only you can make that rebuttal.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
12:15 pm
sorry..library has only one “B” at a time.
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
12:25 pm
Still, Dusty, Augie’s a good way to know Paddy better: same assignment at the same time; different approaches.
Patrick is my favorite saint. We still venerate him in the Anglican Communion.
Tonight I’ll make lamb stew. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Just Nasty & Mean
March 17th, 2009
12:32 pm
“G’mornin Jim, et al
Jim says: …it will stimulate new-car sales. After paying the 7 percent, up to a maximum of $2,000, the purchaser never again pays the “birthday tax” levied when tags are purchased.
Now wait just a minute, Jim. Tell me how paying another $2,000 UP FRONT for a new car is going to be an incentive and “stimulate new-car sales”. Pay $2,000 so I don’t have to pay ad valorem tax?
Sorry. I have had my quota of BS for the Month. That just doesn’t “wash”. You’re going to have to shove that on some other government educated dolt.
“The change is expected to bring in an additional $496 million in the next fiscal year,…. will also produce at least $150 million in new revenue that can be used for other purposes, including funding a trauma network.”bringing the shade-tree used-car sales into the system.”
Jim, these are NEW taxes you brush off like it doesn’t exist. Did you write this article over a drink with some lobbyist? cause you got snookered!
I have a better idea! Let’s act like all the surrounding states and cut this tax out all-together and cut the size of state government1 Huh?
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
12:42 pm
Good afternoon Glenn, and Happy St. Patrick’s to you. I think I owe you a lunch, at your convenience, and if I don’t I would respectfully so-bribe you for the entertaining conversation. Perhaps you can review your schedule for the next week or so and send me an email?
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
12:46 pm
Of course, Ragnar! That would be nice.
Disgusted
March 17th, 2009
12:46 pm
So Buyer A purchases a new BMW for $50,000 and pays the $2,000 up front. Three years later he sells the BMW to Buyer B for $30,000, and Buyer B pays the $2,000 up front. Two years later, Buyer B sells the BMW to Buyer C for $21,000, and Buyer C pays $1,470 up front.
It’s a nice scam for the state and a really raw deal for the counties and the purchasers.
But at least it gets the state legislature out of having to make the tough decision about how to fund trauma centers. And like Scarlett O’Hara, they’ll worry about what happens after the one-time bulge in revenue occurs tomorrow. You let the counties figure out how they’re going to survive without the ad valorem tax revenue.
@@
March 17th, 2009
12:55 pm
Jim, I can almost…..almost, mind you, understand what you’re saying (I think). It’s a game of strategies. I’ve always found conservatives to be more patient but when we’re up against the liberal “bull-dozerzzzzzz”, we can, all to quickly, be lulled into not thinking.
AnyHONK (if I’m doing my part to aid in a liberal’s demise) I have to ask for clarification based on what Ragnar has posted:
There are at least deceits in the sales pitch for the legislation:
(1) The deception that a tax is abolished. No tax is abolished for any payer. The birthday tax remains forever for those who keep their present cars.
If ^^^ that’s true I’m screwed for possibly seven more years but then wait…my next vehicle will also be used so, I’m still not gonna take the 7% hit on the purchase of a new car — have I got that right?
By the same token, liberals, valuing their green weenies as a status symbol, will ultimately be paying for what they project as worthwhile endeavors. The trauma will be theirs but something from which I, too, can benefit due to their need to impress.
(2) A one-time $2,000 tax on a vehicle does not stimulate automobile sales, except to the extent that new tax is less than presently charged, i.e., not at all. Any tax is a disincentive on sales. There is not a soul who declined to purchase a vehicle over the past 20 years due to the birthday tax
I have no idea how it breaks down but my decision on what car to purchase is always determined by how much I’ll be paying in taxes so, in other words, it does serve as an incentive to buy used rather than new.
So! Am I gonna continue paying the birthday tax on my used (always) cars or not?
Barry
March 17th, 2009
12:59 pm
Hey Eric @ 10:48 (and surprised I am no has called him out before this): So you’re willing to pay the state sales tax (6% + in most counties) AND the annual ad valorem instead of the ONE-TIME 7% registration fee? You sir must be rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Or just a dope.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
1:05 pm
Dear @@ @ 12:55, good afternoon and Happy St. Patrick’s to you. As I understand the plan, you pay the 7% “title” tax on every used car transfer. But I yield to any who have actually read the bill.
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
1:27 pm
I see no reason why a user of the highways should not be taxed to pay for their use, their construction and maintenance, and their impacts. I wish that more Georgians could live proximate to trauma centers. Presumably more centers are needed. Still, 7 percent seems a mite steep.
Were car taxes collected up-front, one-time only, presumably less tax revenues would be eaten up by administrative overhead, in the collection and allocation process, than are presently wasted in annual collections and allocation.
One problem with splitting the proceeds between the state and local governments, however, is that the split incentivizes the local jurisdiction to pirate each other’s auto strips or auto malls, which have been called “the Royal Flush of land use” because they are cash cows for local government. So we face the prospect of Fulton, say, offering zoning and tax incentives to auto dealers to relocate from neighboring counties so that the dealers will lay their golden eggs in Fulton. The state thereby sets up an internecine, zero-sum game that perverts local zoning and land-use decisions, effectively blighting the landscape in the process.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
1:28 pm
Dear Glenn,
Not to get the chefs going here but lamb stew is out at my house. One whiff and the family goes “erp, what is that smell?” The Navajos made one I could enjoy.
We Lutherans commemorate a lot of saints. This month it is Patrick, Joseph, guardian of Jesus, Thomas Cranmer and Jonathan Edwards.
Did you do your dissertation on Paddy and Augie?
@@
March 17th, 2009
1:37 pm
Thank you, Ragnar!
After posting, I saw where others were saying the same thing — that the tax would apply to every transfer whether used or new. There seems to be no way to erode these government levies. I’m drowning!!!!
A happy day it will be when the snakes are driven out of our land due to the Ire of its citizens.
Ekim Eroom
March 17th, 2009
1:49 pm
The bill moves almost 99% of car purchasers to the dealer. Auto dealerships are the real winners in this bill. Since you pay tax, tag, and title at the dealership it can be rolled into the loan. When purchased from a private seller you will have to pay at the tag office and most banks will not loan enough to cover the car and an additional $2000 for the tax.
DawgBite
March 17th, 2009
2:00 pm
How can anyone object to “super speeders” paying super fines?
Ekim Eroom
March 17th, 2009
2:00 pm
Follow up. The tax will drive down the revenue gained by a private seller as well, in order to offset the out of pocket, up front tax, sellers will be forced to reduce the price.
DawgBite
March 17th, 2009
2:04 pm
Ragnar, I commend you on being able to do nothing at all with your life other than blog 24/7. Congratulations Ragnar for such productive use of your time.
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
2:17 pm
Dusty, I did respond but it seems that the dog ate my term paper…
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
2:28 pm
Very good points all, Ekim Eroom.
The plot thickens…
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
2:28 pm
Dear Dawg @ 2:04, there are many lost souls in this world, and I do my part to help.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
3:11 pm
Ha, Glenn, a likely story. Just what I expected.
And…no matter what,Glennie, Ekie and Raggie, I’m not selling my Cavalier.
JSR
March 17th, 2009
3:12 pm
With all due respect, Mr Wooten has “drank the kool-aid” and conveniently left out many consequences of the birthday tax repeal bill. The “shade tree used car sales folks” he talks about are you and me, regular Georgians, who are going to see a tax increase so that buyers of Mercedes and Lexuses can have their tax capped. As usual, FOLLOW THE MONEY and you will find the source. This bill was brought to you by the GA Auto Dealers Association and their sponsored legislators. It isn’t about the average Georgians. Wooten knows this but, for whatever reason, he is carrying the water for the Republican legislature on this one. Remember, in politics, always follow the $$$$!
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
3:22 pm
Ekim Eroom,
It seems to follow from your comments that private sellers would opt instead for dealership trade-ins, to avail themselves of financing to pay the sales tax. The bill thus sets up a kind of loss leader that gets fresh customers into the dealership door. Only it’s the taxpayer’s loss, and the dealer comes out the winner.
Dusty,
My dissertation topic, believe it or not, was “Mass Schooling As a Ritual Expression of Civil Religion”. I studied the History of Education, and that branch of cultural history (Anthropology) which concerns child rearing practices and cultural transmission thereby. With a minor in Religious Studies I also studied Thomism for a couple of years. As you know, the Summa of Aquinas is largely an explication of Augustine’s take on the Socratics. In my field, Edwards and especially Luther also loom large, as does Patrick.
I never had the pleasure of tasting Navajo lamb stew. I wonder whether the Arizona Navajo still steal their lamb from the Hopi. I bet the New Mexican Navajo recipe is great with their fry bread, their delicious sopapilla.
The famed newspaperman and gourmand Lucius Beebe actually favored mutton, strangely enough. Especially as prepared in London. From time to time he would grab his partner and book transatlantic passage expressly to dine on English mutton.
Anybody whose ever whiffed rank lamb fat and is forever put off lamb as a result would undergo a living hell if forced to eat mutton. In Northern California they raise lamb that is even less gamey than the Kiwi variety. Don’t know how they do it. I suppose it’s more lean.
@@
March 17th, 2009
3:55 pm
Jim! It all sounded good on its face but I’m having serious reservations about this H.B. 480, is it?
I’m barefoot down Savannah way and I run into this guy who says the bill could use some tweaking — not fully opposed but not fully in favor either.
AnyHONK if this guy’s right!!!!!
State Senate should amend car title fee bill to include luxury cars.
THE STATE Senate should pass a new House measure that would change the way Georgia collects revenues on car purchases, but with one amendment: Broaden the revenue collection net so that it equally applies to luxury car buyers.
It’s a way to collect revenues that, legally, individual car sellers should have been remitting to the state.
JIM???? That individual seller has been my husband and I since we began our journey on a tandem. My bony little knees got scabs when I read this fella’s analysis.
What say you, Jim?
@@
March 17th, 2009
4:06 pm
…and believe you me, Jim! I, in no-way feel guilty for having withheld. The damned government didn’t help me buy the car….they didn’t help me put gas in the car….they didn’t help with costs of maintaining the car. Why the heck do they deserve a damn thing.
There HAS GOT TO BE a deserted island somewhere that I could take up residence and live happily ever after without the “benefit” of politicians.
Curious Observer
March 17th, 2009
4:11 pm
Please note the Republican-friendly limit on the proposed title fee. One guy buys a $60,000 car and pays a maximum fee of $2,000. Some other poor slob stretches his budget to buy a $28,571 car and he pays a $2,000 fee. Dealers in Mercedes, BMWs, Acuras, Maseratis, etc., ought to love the bill.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
4:17 pm
Dear Glenn,
I should have known. Every day I think of “Mass Schooling as a Ritual Expression of Civil Religion”. Yes,indeed, and thomism! It’s enough to make me suck my Thom.
Nevertheless, I am sorely impressed with that of which I know nothing. My mass schooling was very civil due to veteran ol’maid school teachers. My mass schooling was attended by me regularly but my religion came from parents and church. That’s my thesis and I stick with it.
The best lamb stew I ever had was at the Indian Fair at Gallup, New Mexico. Ahhh…and fried bread! I was working in northern Arizona at the time. Hopis were not REAL fond of Navajos as I noticed at Keames Canyon Hospital, Hopi Reervation. The White Mountain Apaches introduced me to Acorn Stew which was also very good. I believe that had squirrel in it but I didn’t ask. Too busy figuring out how they made acorns taste good.
As to British cooking, Beebe must have been very hungry. I’ll never forget one big hotel special plate they served me in London; white potatoes, white turnips, white sliced pork garnished with a big hunk of white fat laid on top. I do not mean to discriminate but that was too much WHITE! I could feel my cholesterol rising even as I looked at it.
I’ve not eaten in or been to northern California. I thought they only had fruit and nuts. Little lean lambs sounds kinda mean…Mary had a little fat lamb I’m sure.
JSR
March 17th, 2009
4:18 pm
Sounds like the “folks” have done figured this one out for what it is! Now the question is whether or not the folks will contact their legislators, write the letters to the editor and expose this little bit of deceit. I am disappointed in that Republicans would be allowed to get themselves in this situation, i.e. obvious sellout to GADA and wealthy constitutents at the expense of the regular folks. No matter how much lipstick Wooten puts on this, it’s still a pig…..
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 17th, 2009
4:45 pm
Dear Jim Wooten, I would respectfully suggest this idea is not well-received by either conservative friends or leftist friends. You could perform a service by so-advising our guys under the Dome, so they don’t killed in the next election.
Chris Broe
March 17th, 2009
4:46 pm
Twitter, “If death is the price of freedom, then the flag is the price of justice.”
Steve
March 17th, 2009
4:55 pm
What’s up with Wooten’s scary haircut?
Chris Broe
March 17th, 2009
6:02 pm
and look at his shirt!
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
6:04 pm
Well Dusty, I realize that it all sounds very fancy and deep, but actually it’s just a spin on the greatest, most fun study of all, American Cultural Studies.
Augie, by the way, is pretty salient. Whenever one plumbs the meaning of “civil religion” (essentially, secularized wine in old wineskins), Augustine tends to breathe down one’s neck for his crucial distinction between the two Cities — his take on the debts to Caesar and to God, respectively. So it’s not all that ancient.
Barak Obama says he wants more of our children, more of the time, and that he wants to pluck them at a younger age. That way, the government can spend more time and money continuing to fail.
Now, you’re a mother; I ask you: what exactly do we owe to Caesar?
Just Nasty & Mean
March 17th, 2009
6:14 pm
Dear Jim Wooten: Ragnar is right. The consensus is the tax is a scam, not beneficial to small car dealers, not beneficial to personal sales of autos, not beneficial if you keep your car less than 5-6 years, not beneficial to zoning–as governments will want to zone for cash-cow auto dealerships, and it raises more taxes for government consumption.
This thing is a PIG.
Sent the message back to your good buddy scam artist under the dome.
And, stay away from the green beer today. I think you’re running low on brain cells today.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
7:34 pm
Dear Glenn,
I guess I will go with the scriptures on that question. Right now I am not a revolutionary so I say “Give unto Caesar that which is his and unto God, that which is his”. I don’t think my wording is quite correct but you know it anyway. If taxes go up and up I may change my mind about Caesar. The poor lady who gave her last penny to God was a fine example but I would hope to do better than that moneywise. With Obama, I am afraid we might have only pennies and service left for our Maker.
Glenn
March 17th, 2009
9:41 pm
I’m a very poor student of Koine Greek, frankly (in part because my newlywed teacher was approximately the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen), but I think you nailed it, Dusty. That is the question. But aside from the question, there’s the problem. The question is, as Karl Marx basically put it, “Who Whom?” But for Christians the problem beyond the question is, “How much, to whom?”
Our Lord never really specified the proportions of the recipe, so it’s left up to us, ever after. Ain’t that a bitch?
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
11:12 pm
Dear Glenn,
Yes, you are correct. Our Lord never specified the proportions. But he did give us an inner spirit which can calm us or correct us. That, for me, is the sure measure of satisfaction, positive or negative.
Some churches want a tithe. If you like that, fine. I prefer giving, not just at church, but to organizations that offer specific help in certain areas. There are plenty of good ones around and they are hard hit these days. Lutheran World Relief and Docs without Borders are my favorites for international help. Salvation Army and many other locals do good work. But, as I said, give what seems best to you.
Don’t get me wrong, Glenn. I am saying what suits me, not that you need any “instruction”. Now that would be something. YOU are the good teacher here.
Good night..
interested observer
March 18th, 2009
8:01 am
It’s interesting that the seven-percent “title fee” caps at $2,000. That means that the rich who can afford $40,000 super SUVs and more expensive vehicles will pay less, percentagewise, than the working class people who can’t afford those cars. Why should someone who can afford a $100,000 vehicle pay a two-percent fee while those who can only afford to pay $8,000 pay seven percent? Because the GOP always takes care of its own.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 18th, 2009
8:07 am
Good morning, interested @ 8:01. The breakeven on the tax is $28,600 or so. I think you buy into the virtues of tax too easily. Suggest you embrace a conservative perspective, rejecting both the tax and the prospective spending.
Glenn
March 18th, 2009
8:28 am
Dusty that’s quite lovely. You sure as hell are Lutheran. Fierce. Brave. Rational. Ever faithful.
For what it’s worth, and since I did the intellectual striptease (!) at your behest yesterday and don’t even have the folded Jackson in the G-String to show for it, I’ve wanted to tell you — just because you would appreciate it — that for decades I’ve thanked God that I had the privilege of studying Luther solo with the late Lewis Spitz,.
Algonquin J. Calhoun
March 19th, 2009
6:44 pm
Sonny Perdon’t was elected by the Republinazi crowd to bring back the confederate battle flag as the official flag of Georgia. By a thousand little steps he set it up so the people could vote on the flag but the cornfederate rag wasn’t one of the ones put up for selecting. typical lying Republinazi behavior, only this time he fooled his fellow nazis.