Phil Kerpen

Disguised as health care reform for children
Phil Kerpen
Friday, January 2, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama swept large Democratic majorities into both houses of Congress in large part by promising that he would not raise taxes on any Americans making less than $200,000 per year, and would provide most Americans with tax cuts. This stand allowed Democrats to capture the traditionally Republican tax issue. It told voters that, this time, Democratic control wouldn't mean steeply higher taxes. Yet there are rumblings that one of the first orders of business for the expanded Democratic majorities in Congress will be to raise taxes on millions of Americans nowhere near being rich, including many below the poverty line. It's a cigarette tax hike, included in a bill to dramatically expand government-run health care. Passing it would signal that Democrats are still the party of higher taxes -- and not just for the rich.

The Free Parking Economy
Phil Kerpen
www.philkerpen.com
December 15, 2008

I’m always amazed at how many people don’t know the official rules of Monopoly, or prefer to play by their own Folk Rules. I’m amazed because most of the Folk Rules make the game virtually unplayable—cash for landing on Go, cash for rolling snake eyes or boxcars, and most notoriously cash for landing on Free Parking. They inject so much extra cash in the game that nobody ever goes bankrupt. The weak players hang on for hours, and it never gets down to the exciting part of the game, where only the strong players are left and they battle it out according to their respective skill and, of course, the roll of the dice.

Welcome to the Free Parking economy.

AFP director of policy Phil Kerpen discusses the major tax hikes coming to pay for the current and impending explosion of government spending with Neil Cavuto on Fox News, November 25, 2008.