Let’s have a tax on political power.
P. J. O’Rourke
The Weekly Standard
Vol. 16, No. 32
5/9/2011
…President Obama has contempt for real money. And why not, since his government has the power to print all the fiat money he wants? Power is the politician’s paycheck. Power gets politicians all the good things money can buy and plenty of other things as well. Businessmen work for money because money gives them mastery over their own lives. Politicians work for power because power gives them mastery over the lives of others.
Obama, in pursuit of power, has been as greedy and irresponsible as any Wall Street tycoon in pursuit of money. After short-selling Hillary Clinton, he used the insufficient capital of one term in the U.S. Senate to engineer a highly leveraged buyout of the Democratic presidential nomination followed by a hostile takeover of the Oval Office. His political thinking is full of shady derivatives. His economic policy is a risky collateralized debt obligation. His campaign promises are junk bonds.
The wildly ambitious career of President Obama shows that power is more valuable than money. Taxes, by their nature, are levied on things of value. If we want to close the budget gap, we should let the millionaires and billionaires have their tax breaks. Their private property fortunes are comparatively worthless. It’s that treasure beyond the dreams of avarice, public political power, which needs an excise.
It’s easy to do. Like everything, power has a price…
Read the entire article at The Weekly Standard.
