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4-13-98 Dennis Prager gave his annual diatribe against taxes, which he hates more as he grows older and richer. He mentioned a Republican friend back East whose child gets special education. DP's friend felt grateful for the thousands of dollars of education he gets at no cost to him. Then Prager reminded him that he paid 20x as much in taxes as he received in services. Prager says that high taxes encourage cheating on taxes. He remembers his times in high tax countries where even good people cheated on taxes. 2. It discourages people from working. 3. Money corrupts. The more money the government has, the more corrupt it becomes. 4. There is less communal responsibility. Why should I take care of my neighbor if the government will do it for me? And I do not have much money left over anyway. Prager reminded us that the most liberal states gave the least charity while those states that largely vote Republican, tend to be the most generous. DP used to consider anti-tax people as eccentrics. Then he grew up. He began to think and read about American history. P wants to give more to charity rather than to the federal government in taxes. P supports sales taxes. Dennis referred to this article in today's New York Times by William Safire.
The Syntax of Sin Tax
WASHINGTON -- Even more addictive than nicotine is money. The anti-smoking lobby has found a way to hook the Federal Government on tobacco money.
If its latest scheme to snatch a half-trillion dollars in new cigarette taxes becomes law, Uncle Sam -- raking in a huge national sales tax -- will have a vested interest in the continuation of smoking.
Look ahead. One day there will be a recession and the budget will plunge into deficit. Popular handouts like free milk for children in prison will be dependent on the tax revenue from tobacco sales, just as education will depend on tax receipts from gambling casinos.
Result: further political dependency on "sin taxes," the government's cut of profit on booze, crapshooting and smoking. What politician is now likely to cut out programs supported by tobacco billions, or raise taxes the painful way to balance a budget? No; if you depend on sin, you are inclined to protect it.
A sin tax is a tax that falls heaviest on the poor. The cause is not that the poor do more wrong than the rich, but that there are many more poor to do wrong. Under the McCain-Clinton plan, a cigar-puffing plutocrat will pay a pittance more for the pleasure of smoking while the worker earning $20,000 a year will have to pay the Government nearly one tenth of his total wages.
But it's for his own good, think liberals who have just delightedly discovered the disincentive of taxation. Because smoking is filthy and unhealthy, we are helping the poor person who dares to indulge his lust to smoke by making him pay a whopping fine. He'll stop smoking or go broke.
The tobacco-bashers don't even whisper that because 50 million bumper stickers would soon appear saying "I smoke and I vote." Instead, the campaign against everybody smoking is pegged on saving the children. Luke: Prager says that he has never met as kind and good a person as Bruce Herschonsen.
In his second hour, Prager quoted this 4-11-98 Washington Post column by Nat Hentoff. Prager said it exemplified how groups (in this case, journalists) are loath to criticize their own. One Man's Battle to Clear His Name By Nat Hentoff
Saturday, April 11, 1998; Page A15 In 1989, the Globe, a supermarket tabloid, published a story -- based on a book, "The Senator Must Die," by a former contract CIA agent, Robert Morrow. It claimed that the true assassin of Robert Kennedy was Khalid Khawar. Born in India, Khawar had been working, the magazine's report continued, for the Iranian secret police together with the Mafia. Khawar was indeed present in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when Kennedy was killed, but all he was doing was taking photographs for a Pakistani news magazine. On learning that he had been accused of this horrifying crime, Khawar sued the Globe for libel. Because of the article, he had received death threats from all over the world, he says, and his three sons had also been threatened with death. During the lawsuit, it became clear that none of the people at the Globe involved with the story had tried to check its accuracy. As Mike Wallace added in his account of the libel suit on CBS's "60 Minutes," "The Globe had not even tried to contact Khawar." The jury awarded Khawar $1.175 million because, it said, the magazine had engaged in reckless disregard of whether the story was true or not. The Globe appealed, and the California Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict in favor of Khawar. As one of the appellate judges said to the lawyer for the Globe during oral arguments, "What you're saying, counsel, is that the newspaper has no business to take a look at what is printed in this outlandish book and determine whether there is a scintilla of truth in it." The Globe has appealed to the Supreme Court of California and has been joined by an array of the nation's leading newspapers and broadcast organizations. Among them: the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Hearst Corporation, the Associated Press, CBS, NBC, ABC, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (of which I am a dissident member in this case). Luke:
Prager says this exemplifies how the media refuses to take any moral responsibility. P says the media believes that it can do anything it wants. We, the media, have no moral obligations to the public. We are not responsible for fact checking. A caller says that Prager bases his show on the same technique that the Globe does. He bases his show on newspaper articles without any independent investigation. Prager asked: "When have I maligned innocent people?" The caller could not come up with an example, but I, Luke Ford, remember how Prager castigated those men in Nevada who were arrested for biological weapons. P wanted them in prison for life. It turned out that the so-called biological weapons were harmless and Prager had maligned innocent men based on an AP report. Check my report on the 2/19/98 Prager show on KABC. A caller commented on Bob Mulholland, a Democratic Party investigator who digs up dirt on political opponents. Bob reported that Repulican candidate for the US Senate Bruce Herschonsen attended strip shows. Prager said that Bob Mulholland was a great reason for people to not belong to the California Democratic Party. P: "If you cannot criticize your own, you have no moral credibility." Prager tried to get a representative from the LA TIMES to talk on the issue. Why doesn't Prager try to line up appropriate guests instead of deciding at the last minute, when he has already begun his commentary on the subject? He does this all the time. P starts commenting on an issue, then tells his screener, "Why don't we try to get X, or Z on the line?" At 1:50PM, DP mentioned an article in the NY TIMES about a woman who had part of her nose cut off after going through an Express Checkout with too many items. P says business needs to enforce its own rules. He mentioned how airlines often allow folks who do not meet the requirements for early boarding to board early. Dennis and his friends and followers take great exception when one of their publicly criticizes Dennis. From: SingleMom@Secular.net Date: Sun, Apr 12, 1998 23:16 EDT Message-id: <35318381.43CDBD56@Secular.net> Listen to "I Love the Truth" Prager whine, carp and kvetch, kvetch, kvetch over his belief that attornies and litigation are bringing down our beloved America then watch as Prager unleashes his Century City law firm land sharks when he objects to the posting of a truth on mensch Luzdedos/Luke Ford's webpage.
On the Prager List, Rhonda replies to Luke Ford: "What is the matter with you. Are you crazy or something. You don't have the brains God gave a moose. You have no morals and no heart. You are the biggest liar I've ever seen. You brought this on yourself and I hope they take you to the cleaners. I will probably not be staying on this list much longer. I am so sick of the petty shots you are always taking at Dennis. You make me sick to my stomach. You are the most disgusting person I have ever not met. Why the list owner allows you to stay on this list is something I will never understand." Monday, April 13, 1998 Dennis began this hour telling his listeners that the older he gets the more he believes that "income tax" is immoral. He says that it causes usually honest people to become liars and cheats, that it takes responsibility away from individuals to give to charities, and that it gives too much money to the government and thereby makes it easier for the government to become corrupt. Dennis said that he would like to see a national sales tax. The more you purchase the more you are taxed. The more you save, the less you are taxed. This would encourage people to work harder. Dennis said there are certain tax brackets where a person can actually work harder and see no increase in his/her income. It is regressive, bad for the economy and bad for the citizens' moral.
For the remainder of the broadcast, Dennis focused on the responsibility the media has in reporting accurate information. There is a case pending in the California Supreme Court, in which the tabloid publication, The Globe, is appealing a lower court's decision in favor of a plaintiff who claimed that the Globe caused him harm when they inaccurately reported that he was the true assassin of Senator Robert Kennedy. Dennis said that this case is significant because The Globe's appeal is joined by "the nation's leading newspapers and broadcast organizations. Among them: the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Hearst Corporation, the Associated Press, CBS, NBC, ABC, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press." Dennis said that it is terrible that these media services have joined The Globe in their appeal. The Globe did not print accurate information about this man. They accused him of murdering a loved American. They did not get their information from credible sources and they did not follow through with fact checking. Dennis thought it made the other media news services look bad that they would back the defendant in this case. |
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