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Don’t Reform the IRS. Abolish It Instead.

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A commentary in the New York Times today demonstrates how different libertarians are from conservatives. The article, entitled “How Not to Reform the IRS,” is written by Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union. Founded in 1977 by James Dale Davidson, the NTU is a longtime conservative organization devoted to tax reform. In his article, Sepp states, “More resources for customer service, taxpayer rights safeguards, a functioning Oversight Board, actionable and regularly-updated research on the tax gap, and innovative approaches such as the recently proposed enforcement fellowship pilot program are all solutions that should unite Washington — just as concern over taxpayer rights has for over 30 years.” Additional resources for IRS enforcement and proposals for income-tax reform might unite the politicians and bureaucrats in the nation’s capital, but they are a far cry from a genuinely free society, which is what unites us libertarians. As ...

Congress Doesn’t Need to Bail Out Social Security

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The Social Security Board of Trustees has released its annual report on the long-term financial status of the Social Security Trust Funds, and it is not looking good. There are actually two parts to Social Security (OASDI). The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program provides monthly benefits to retired workers, families of retired workers, and survivors of deceased workers. The Disability Insurance (DI) program provides monthly benefits to disabled workers and families of disabled workers. The Social Security program is funded by a 12.4 percent (10.03 percent OASI and 2.37 percent DI) payroll tax (split equally between employers and employees) on the first $142,800 of an employee’s income. Self-employed individuals pay the full 12.4 percent but also receive both a reduction in their net earnings from self-employment and a tax deduction equal to 50 percent of the amount of the Social Security tax they paid. The Trustees Report says that Social Security paid about 65 million beneficiaries benefits totaling $1.096 trillion ...

Cuba and the Destruction of Conscience

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Last summer, protests erupted in Cuba against the communist regime over poor economic and health conditions within the country. No doubt operating under pressure from the Pentagon and the CIA, President Biden used the Cuban government’s suppression of the protests as an excuse to strengthen the decades-old U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. Biden proclaimed that he was supporting the Cuban people in their quest for freedom, but his proclamation rings hollow. The entire purpose of the U.S. embargo on Cuba has long been to bring death and suffering to the Cuban people, with the aim of encouraging them to violently revolt against Cuba’s communist regime and reinstall a regime similar to that of Fulgencio Batista, the brutal and corrupt pro-U.S. dictator who was ousted from power by Cuban revolutionaries in 1959. Biden was also undoubtedly responding to pressure from Cuban-Americans, many of whom love the embargo even while downplaying its horrific economic effects on the Cuban people. They say that it ...