Archive

Archive for September, 2017
September 27th, 2017 at 12:02 pm
Net Neutrality “Day of Advocacy” – A Reality Check

Today, activist organizations, including Free Press, Public Knowledge and Fight for the Future, plan to descend upon Capitol Hill offices to underscore their disapproval of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposed plan to repeal the Obama Administration’s 2015 “Open Internet Order” classifying Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as public utilities under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act.

In anticipation of their effort, the Center for Individual Freedom teamed up with the Taxpayers Protection Alliance to provide Congress with a “Reality Check” of key messaging and themes to expect from those groups as they visit with lawmakers.

Read the document here.

September 26th, 2017 at 1:12 pm
A Sanctuary State
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

September 25th, 2017 at 2:46 pm
This Week’s “Your Turn” Radio Lineup
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Join CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino today from 4:00 p.m. CDT to 6:00 p.m. CDT (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT) on Northwest Florida’s 1330 AM WEBY, as she hosts her radio show, “Your Turn: Meeting Nonsense with Commonsense.” Today’s guest lineup includes:

4:00 CDT/5:00 pm EDT:  Craig Shirley, Bestselling Author and Presidential Historian – “Citizen Newt: The Making of a Reagan Conservative”;

4:30 CDT/5:30 pm EDT:  Glenn Spencer, Vice President, Workforce Freedom Initiative, a campaign of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform 2017 Lawsuit Climate Survey – Ranking the States;

4:45 CDT/5:45 pm EDT:  Bob Dorigo-Jones, Senior Fellow for the Center for America – How U.S. Labor Rules Negatively Impact Jobs;

5:00 CDT/6:00 pm EDT:  Phil Kerpen, President of American Commitment: —Why the new Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Senate Health Care bill should be passed by Congress immediately;

5:15 CDT/6:15 pm EDT:  Steve Bucci, Visiting Fellow, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy at The Heritage Foundation – Nuclear Problems with Iran and North Korea; and

5:30 CDT/6:30 pm EDT:  Timothy Lee, CFIF’s Senior Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs – Donor Privacy, Ending IRS Abuse, College Faculties, Air Traffic Control, and Internet Sales Tax.

Listen live on the Internet here. Call in to share your comments or ask questions of today’s guests at (850) 623-1330.

September 22nd, 2017 at 1:55 pm
Air Traffic Control Proposal: Making Airlines Tax Collectors?
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Beware policy proposals waving the “privatization” banner that don’t constitute true privatization at all, and threaten to actually worsen the situation.

The latest example:  Efforts to restructure the U.S. air traffic control system, which would likely repeat the mistakes of such federal boondoggles as Amtrak and the U.S. Post Office.

Alongside numerous other conservative and libertarian organizations, CFIF has maintained serious concerns over H.R. 2997, the “21st Century AIRR Act.”  Those concerns include, among other flaws:

  • Greater empowerment of air traffic controller unions, by maintaining centralized monopoly power over air traffic control while expanding their authority over such matters as personnel changes, salary caps and mandatory retirement age (currently at age 56, compared to 65 for pilots), which explains why the unions favor the proposal;
  • It would increase the U.S. budget deficit by $20 billion between 2017 and 2026, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) itself;
  • The U.S. Department of Defense recently weighed in to say, “The establishment of a new entity separate from the FAA raises serious concerns regarding the disposition of certain unique National Defense procedures, programs and policy,” adding that, “it is significant to note that the DoD relies on FAA ‘command and control’ capabilities in the execution of the national defense mission”;
  • The proposed replacement air traffic control entity would possess authority to impose new taxes and user fees without Congressional oversight, meaning higher costs for American consumers, which is far from the sort of market competition that true “privatization” would offer.

On that latter point, Andrew Langer of the Institute for Liberty raises an ominous concern in his recent commentary in The Washington Times:

[W]e’ve been told that the new entity will be self-funded, in this case by a user fee.  As always, I’m skeptical taxpayers won’t ultimately have to bail out a GSE, but with the ATC proposal, it’s really about control.  Proponents have made clear that their real motivation is to shift the tax burden to other segments of the industry.  Ian Adams, a proponent of separating ATC, recently argued that it would reallocate the tax burden among the ‘fees its users pay,’ including general aviation.

The only privatization will be that the authorization and taxing authority of Congress will be supplanted by authority of one segment of an industry to tax another with no oversight.  If the airlines were granted more monopoly power and gained taxing authority from Congress, they have shown time and again that they would abuse that power.  They have increased their fees on passengers by over $7 billion.  Now they want to phase out their fuel and excise tax for a flat user-fee tax that would get levied disproportionately at economy class passengers.  I’m always in favor of getting rid of taxes, but this is a tax by another name, without the political accountability to keep it from rising in perpetuity.

And, since there would be no accountability from anyone to stop it or make sure this entity is being managed properly, it’s a safe bet that ultimately all taxpayers will pay more in the form of a bailout.”

That is among the reasons the American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) last week announced its opposition to the proposed restructuring, saying that it, “would gladly stand in support of true policy efforts to privatize our air traffic control system that better reflect the ideals of privatization – those that align with a more robust free market and exhibit a true transfer of power from public to private hands.”

Well said.  At this point, the proposal simply doesn’t amount to the type of true privatization that merits support from conservatives and libertarians across America.

September 20th, 2017 at 10:12 am
Ramirez Cartoon: National Anthem Protests
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

September 18th, 2017 at 12:19 pm
Great News: Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Internet Sales Tax 66% to 21%
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For a long list of reasons that we’ve consistently highlighted, an internet sales tax allowing state authorities to tax people and businesses far beyond their borders is a destructive, indefensible idea.

On that front, there’s great news to report.  According to a fresh Rasmussen survey, this is one of those encouraging areas where fairness, policy wisdom and public opinion are in accord:

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A majority of Americans do at least some shopping online, and they are not fans of taxing those purchases.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 66% of American adults oppose a sales tax in their state on items purchased online, even if the store they buy from is not in their state.  Just 21% favor an internet sales tax, while 13% are not sure.”

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As much-needed comprehensive tax reform negotiations begin in Washington, some are advocating allowing an internet sales tax under the false banner “Marketplace Fairness Act” as part of the deal.  It’s encouraging to see that American voters aren’t buying it, no pun intended.

September 11th, 2017 at 2:52 pm
Free Market Groups Urge Support for “Free File Permanency Act”
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The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) last week joined with nearly 20 free-market organizations to urge support for H.R. 3641, the Free File Permanency Act.

The letter, which was organized by Americans for Tax Reform, was addressed to House Ways and Means Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam (R-IL).

Read the letter here.

September 11th, 2017 at 1:56 pm
This Week’s “Your Turn” Radio Show Lineup
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Join CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino today from 4:00 p.m. CDT to 6:00 p.m. CDT (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT) on Northwest Florida’s 1330 AM WEBY, as she hosts her radio show, “Your Turn: Meeting Nonsense with Commonsense.” Today’s guest lineup includes:

4:00 CDT/5:00 pm EDT: Ted Frank, Senior Attorney, Director of the Center for Class Action Fairness at the Competitive Enterprise Institute: Subway and Do Americans Need More lawsuits?;

4:15 CDT/5:15 pm EDT: Thomas Callender, Senior Research Fellow for Defense Programs at The Heritage Foundation: Can the U.S. Navy Do More with Less?;

4:30 CDT/5:30 pm EDT: Charles Murray, W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Author: Free Speech on College Campuses;

4:45 CDT/5:45 pm EDT: Michael Steel, Managing Director at Hamilton Place Strategies: The Need for Transformative Tax Reform;

5:00 CDT/6:00 pm EDT: Robert Alt, President and Chief Executive Officer at the Buckeye Institute: Worker Voting Rights and Keeping Donors Off Government Lists;

5:15 CDT/6:15 pm EDT: Dr. John Eastman, Professor, Henry Salvatori Professor of Law and Community Service at Chapman University: DACA; and

5:30 CDT/6:30 pm EDT: Rowena Itchon, Senior Vice President at the Pacific Research Institute: Interns, Non-profits and Minimum Wage.

Listen live on the Internet here. Call in to share your comments or ask questions of today’s guests at (850) 623-1330.
September 8th, 2017 at 1:32 pm
Image of the Day: U.S. Investor Confidence Reaches Highest Point Since 2000
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From Gallup, confidence among American investors reaches its highest point since 2000.

Sidenote:  What explains that dramatic upward jolt from 40 in November of last year to 134 today?  We’ll probably never know.

American Investor Confidence Jumps

American Investor Confidence Jumps

September 7th, 2017 at 10:37 am
CFIF Joins Coalition of Conservative Orgs Urging Congress to Pass Pro-Growth Tax Reform
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The Center for Individual Freedom (“CFIF”) yesterday joined with more than 20 leading conservative organizations on a letter urging Congress to pass historic, pro-growth tax reform.

The letter, which was organized by American Action Network’s Middle-Class Growth Initiative, reads in part:

“The outdated U.S. tax code, last overhauled more than three decades ago, has rendered American job creators less competitive in the global marketplace, slowed the growth of wages, and discouraged investment in local communities across our country. We write to urge you to support meaningful, transformative tax reform that will strengthen economic growth and enable greater prosperity for America’s job creators and middle-class families.”

Read the full letter here.

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September 5th, 2017 at 3:42 pm
Image of the Day: Drill, Baby, Drill
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Remember when leftists lectured Americans that we couldn’t drill our way to energy independence?

On May 27, 2010, Barack Obama preened, “You never heard me say, ‘Drill, baby, drill.  Because we can’t drill our way out of the problem.”

Well…

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U.S. Becomes Net Exporter

U.S. Becomes Net Exporter

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September 1st, 2017 at 2:54 pm
Ramirez Cartoon: United
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.