The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/970623
B-10 Opinion Wednesday, April 18, 2018 The Press-Dispatch how his clothes look in the drawer, he just wants them in a drawer. If I didn't fold, our clothes wouldn't get folded at all. So when his sock drawer empties, he gets frustrated by the sock basket sitting unas- suming next to his dress- er. For reasons I will nev- er understand, he would prefer to just have a pile of unmatched socks in his drawer. Doesn't mat- ter if they're all his. I find Flannery's socks in there. I find the mini socks I wear with flats in there, all sorts of socks he can't even wear, if I don't make sure that drawer always has socks in it. It's infuri- ating to me, and makes ab- solutely no sense. This all came to a head last week. Alden, in a fit of sockless rage, emptied my carefully cultivated sock basket into not only his sock drawer, but also my pajamas drawer. So, again, that left him with an eclec- tic mix of funky patterned Christmas socks, Flan- nery's socks, my Bob's Burgers socks, and may- be a few socks he could ac- tually wear to work. Who knows if any of them actu- ally matched? I had to ask, how was this in any way better than fishing match- es out of the sock basket? He said he didn't know, he was just tired of seeing the sock basket. I sighed wearily from deep within my soul. For I think the third time, I ex- plained the process of the sock basket. It was a hold- ing stage until I saw fit to actually match the socks. If he would just tell me when he was out of socks, I would match more socks and refill his drawer, sim- ple as that. "Oh...well that makes a lot more sense," he said. I rolled my eyes from the lowest depths of the Earth to the farthest reaches of the universe. I made a point to match socks in front of him and Flannery later that night. As you can imagine, socks ended up all over the house as Flannery prac- ticed putting them on, run- ning away, then practiced taking them off. I think Al- den has a better apprecia- tion for how hard it is to fold clothes with a toddler, and for the sock basket. I, in the meantime, contin- ue in my belief that as the wife I am always right, ex- cept when giving direc- tions from memory while on the east side of Evans- ville. Continued from page 8 SOCKS Continued from page 8 WEBSTER Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Focus on debt crisis rather than trade Donald Trump achieved the presi- dency telling the American people he would "Make America Great Again." Given that during eight years of Barack Obama's presidency there was not a single year in which national sat- isfaction, as measured by Gallup, av- eraged above 30 percent, tapping in- to Americans' general dissatisfaction with the state of the nation was good campaign strategy. This February, national satisfaction reached the highest its been under Trump, 36 percent. However, in March it plunged back down to 28 percent. And this big drop was fueled by a big drop among Republicans. National sat- isfaction among Republicans dropped from 67 percent in February to 52 per- cent in March. Maybe there's reason to believe that Trump's own Republican constituency is not buying that tariff saber-rattling and trade protectionism is what is go- ing to make America "great again." The stock market surged some 30 percent from Trump's election until the beginning of 2018. However, since the beginning of this year, with all the trade war rhetoric, it's now down 8 per- cent. Estimated overall value of the U.S. stock market early 2018 was around $ 30 trillion. So 8 percent deterioration means a loss of wealth of $2.4 trillion. A price tag of $2.4 trillion in lost wealth to allegedly combat a $ 376 bil- lion trade deficit with China with tar- iffs suggests that this might not be the best course of action. The trade deficit is the supposed boogeyman. In 2017, we sold $130 bil- lion in product to China and bought $506 billion from them — a $ 376 bil- lion trade deficit. Sup- pose China just decid- ed to stop selling to us and just bought from us? We'd have a $130 bil- lion surplus with them. Would that be good? Americans are buy- ing $506 billion in raw materials and consum- er goods from China be- cause we want this stuff. It makes us better off. We like the low- priced products from China we find in our department stores. And the raw materials we buy from them result in cheaper finished products that we manufacture here in the U.S. According to economics blogger Mark Perry, "38 Americans work in industries using steel and aluminum for every worker making steel or alu- minum." Veronique de Rugy of George Ma- son University's Mercatus Center re- ports that when George W. Bush im- posed tariffs on steel in 2002, 200,000 workers in industries using steel lost their jobs the following year — more than the total number of jobs in the steel industry that year. What was the 30 percent stock mar- ket gain from Trump's election until early 2018 telling us? I believe these gains reflected the deregulation over this period, capped off with passage of the tax bill in December 2017. These are the kind of measures that "Make America Great Again." Measures that advance our econom- ic freedom and move control of politi- cians and government out of our lives. We lose when politicians start picking winners and losers, whether domesti- cally or internationally. Let the marketplace pick win- ners and losers. Where should we be di- recting our priorities now? A group of Hoover Insti- tution economists, includ- ing former Secretary of State George Shultz, just published an op-ed in The Washing- ton Post about the dire implications of the looming debt crisis in our country. They write that soon the national debt will reach $20 trillion — equal to the size of our entire GDP. This pos- es a serious threat to our economic well-being. New projections from the Congres- sional Budget Office forecast unprec- edented trillion dollar federal budget deficits as far as the eye can see. Unrestrained spending produces these huge deficits, which we finance with debt. The main culprit, according to the Hoover experts, is entitlement programs — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. I think the president should focus attention and energy on this debt cri- sis, rather than on the dubious bene- fits of a trade war. Getting America's fiscal house in order will make Amer- ica great again. Star Parker is an author and presi- dent of CURE, Center for Urban Renew- al and Education. Contact her atwww. urbancure.org. But it is true that the fed- eral income tax served as a steroid for big government. It led to the Imperial Presi- dency, and to the lawless "ad- ministrative state." It shift- ed the balance of power from the states to the national gov- ernment. It was no longer vi- able to restrict the national government to enumerated Constitutional powers, or to enforce its boundaries with state powers. We wouldn't tolerate it. When another Constitu- tional amendment from that period removed the election of U.S. Senators from the state legislatures, an impor- tant restraint was removed from the use of the federal income tax. Direct election of U.S. Senators shifted pow- er to Washington DC and big money, away from state capi- tols and away from local "re- tail" politics. Nobody really believes he can restrain the federal gov- ernment's spending any- more. Social conservatives are finding that, even after electing a Republican presi- dent and Republican major- ities in both houses of Con- gress, they can't defund a cartel that crushes infants' skulls, dismembers them and only preserves their vi- tal organs because they can sell them. Tax enforcement is treat- ed with such deference by the courts that other Con- stitutional rights have been trimmed. There is no pre- sumption of innocence when the Internal Revenue Ser- vice auditor imputes income to a defendant. The Supreme Court has struck down "pri- or restraint" of publishing by the government in every circumstance, including the Pentagon Papers. But anti- tax publisher Irwin Schiff was prohibited to publish his claims that the federal in- come tax is illegitimate and unenforceable. Eventually federal prosecutors locked the old man up, and he died in federal prison. "An unlimited power to tax," wrote Daniel Webster, "involves, necessarily, the power to destroy." And the Obama IRS set out to do just that. In the centennial year of the federal income tax, Congress learned that the IRS had flagged TEA Party applications for tax-exempt status, then demanded that the conservatives list their donors, and inquired about other internal operations. IRS official Lois Lern- er first tried to blame it on low-level "front-line people" in the Cincinnati office. But when Congress subpoenaed her to say it under oath, she refused to do so, and "took the Fifth" to avoid self-in- crimination. When Congress subpoe- naed her emails, the IRS re- ported that they went away during a hard drive crash. When it was revealed that there were back-up tapes from which the emails could be retrieved, the IRS agreed to provide these to Con- gress. But when Congres- sional staff appeared at the agreed time to get the cop- ies, the IRS staff said they had no instructions from their superiors to provide them. The routine was not very different from inspect- ing Saddam Hussein's WMD facilities. A month after the IRS announced the hard drive crash, it announced that 424 back-up tapes were acciden- tally erased, but that there was no reason to believe they were erased to destroy evidence or conceal informa- tion from Congress. The Justice Department and FBI absolved Lerner and the IRS of any criminal wrongdoing. Lerner, a reg- istered Democrat, is a past president of the Council on Government Ethics Laws. She is married to a tax law- yer. She is considered a re- spectable person. But she has conducted herself as an enemy of decent patriots. She has demonstrated her contempt for our system of accountability, and for Con- gressional oversight of the executive branch. As it turns out, unre- strained taxing authority doesn't just empower the government to destroy un- sympathetic figures like Kent Hovind or Al Capone, it enables and nourishes Deep State tyranny against all of us, against self-government itself. No program of reform is going to tame the admin- istrative state until we retool the 16th Amendment. Is it TIME for your next eye exam? 8–7 . Mon. 8–noon . Tues. 10–7 . Wed. 8–5 . Thur. 8–5 . Fri. Locally Owned and Operated Dr. Clint Shoultz 715 S. 9th Street, Petersburg (812) 354-9400 Thank You! Pike County CASA would like to thank our Children's Safety Festival sponsors: Petersburg CVS Jay C Food Store Amber Manor Care Center Subway Carolyn Listner Golden Living Center ª5($'<ª6(7ª 6&5((1 $'PDPPRJUDPFDQJLYH\RXDKHDGVWDUW «DQGLWFRXOGEHDOLIHVDYLQJPRYH:LWK*RRG6DPDULWDQ%UHDVW&DUH&HQWHU\RXFDQFRXQWRQFRPSDVVLRQDWH H[SHUWVWRHQVXUH\RXUFRPIRUWDQGWKHPRVWDGYDQFHGWHFKQRORJ\WRRIIHUHDUOLHUPRUHDFFXUDWHGHWHFWLRQRI EUHDVWFDQFHU 2XU'WRPRV\QWKHVLVPDPPRJUDSK\WDNHVPXOWLSOHLPDJHVLQVHFRQGVDQGGLVSOD\VWLVVXHOD\HUVWKDWVKRZ ¿QHUGHWDLOVIRUD LQFUHDVHLQWKHGHWHFWLRQRILQYDVLYHEUHDVWFDQFHUV GHFUHDVHLQZRPHQUHFDOOHGIRUDGGLWLRQDOLPDJLQJ :HHQFRXUDJHZRPHQDJHDQGROGHUWRKDYHDPDPPRJUDPHYHU\\HDUIRUDVORQJDVWKH\DUHLQJRRGKHDOWK 6723FDQFHU*2IRU\RXU'PDPPRJUDP 6FKHGXOHWRGD\DW ZZZJVKYLQRUJ (YHQLQJDSSRLQWPHQWVDYDLODEOHRQ7KXUVGD\V ³,DPYHU\DGDPDQWDERXW\HDUO\PDPPRJUDPV $PDPPRJUDPDEVROXWHO\VDYHGP\OLIH´ 0LOOLH+EUHDVWFDQFHUVXUYLYRU WKDQNVWRDPDPPRJUDP