Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
It's a feisty edition of the podcast this week as we're joined by Red Eye's Greg Gutfeld and author/columnist David Limbaugh. We cover what the winners will do after election day, a great discussion about the Tea Party and why it is the most significant political movement in a generation, the Frum effect, the pros and cons of a VAT tax, a fashionably late arrival, and yes, some speculation about Peter Robinson's sleeping attire.
Duck! Here come the bullets:
- It's funny because it's true: a recent headline from The Onion.
- Protestors at the '08 Republican Convention plead guilty to charges of gross misdemeanors. They seemed surprised to learn that trying to read Dr. Suess's The Lorax to the judge was also a bad idea.
- Former The Velvet Underground drummer Mo Tucker was interviewed at a Tea Party rally last spring (at the 2:45 mark) and seemed to be a supporter. But now she appears to be backing away from those comments.
- David Frum has his own website and often mixes it up with his fellow conservatives on Twitter.
- In Bedtime for Bonzo, Ronald Reagan plays a college professor who tries to teach human morals to a chimpanzee. Fred de Cordova, who later went on to produce The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, directed the movie.
- The Value Added Tax (VAT) always inspires a passionate debate when ever it is brought up. Here's a recent discussion hosted by our friends at Volokh Conspiracy.
- Our closing music is a cover of The Chordettes' Mr. Sandman by Pomplamoose, a duo from Northern California that has built a substantial audience by posting their videos on Youtube. See them perform Mr. Sandman here.
The direct link to this week's episode is here, but we'd really love it if you'd subscribe. We know iTunes isn't for everyone, so visit our Feedburner page for a number of other subscription options.
The Ricochet Podcast is sponsored by Encounter Books and their Broadside Series. This week's featured title is How the Obama Administration Threatens Our National Security by Victor Davis Hanson. Available for $5.99 at EncounterBooks.com.
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Comments :
Oct '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
iTunes isn't for everyone?
May '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
I played last week's podcast for my brother as we were driving in the Big Bend country of Texas. You've got a new fan.
Edited on Oct 20, 2010 at 5:15pmRe: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
While the vast majority of our downloads come through iTunes, many of our members are not fans of Apple products. The Feedburner link provides a number of alternative ways to subscribe to the podcast, including via email or even text notification.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
Closing with Pomplamoosemusic's version of Mr. Sandman? Outstanding!
Oct '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
What happened to the Arcade Fire intro music?
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
It was time to retire The Fire. Suggestions welcome for a new intro.
Edited on Oct 20, 2010 at 7:07pmJun '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
You can say what you will about the VAT, but its one advantage and the probable reason that economists love it so much is that it is simple and highly visible; which is, if I am not mistaken, the reason why a flat income tax is so strongly favoured by conservatives. Combining the two by enacting both a flat tax and a VAT would likely dull the VAT's primary advantages in the eyes of the taxpayer as both taxes would now present as simple and highly visible, because real after-tax income would no longer be shielded by the behemoth that is the tax code.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
Blue Yeti
It was time to retire The Fire. Suggestions welcome for a new intro. · Oct 20 at 7:06pm
Edited on Oct 20 at 07:07 pm
Nooooooooooooooo! It was Yer signature. I enjoyed it. Well then, could it be time to retire Rob Long? Mr. Robinson?
Does Mr. Limbaugh sound like Tom Arnold? Or is it just Me?
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
Blue Yeti
It was time to retire The Fire. Suggestions welcome for a new intro. · Oct 20 at 7:06pm
Edited on Oct 20 at 07:07 pm
How about this? It ties into passions of both Rob and Claire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49jKeGyUCJE
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
Wish I had you on the podcast, Cas!
I don't know yet how I feel about it -- a lot of other things need to be in place before I'd support it -- but I like that it would apply to everyone, all consumers, across the board. Right now, a huge percentage of the population doesn't pay any federal tax at all.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
I'm confused by your characterization of the VAT as "highly visible". It has long been my understanding that VAT is much beloved of the European statists precisely because it is obscure: the consumer ultimately pays the tax as a hidden component of retail price, but he has no idea how big that component is.
Perhaps you're thinking of a national sales tax?
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
Kenneth, you can call it a national sales tax as they do in Canada, but it functions as a VAT. The way it is calculated in Canada the vendor collects tax but deducts from his remittences to Revenue Canada the amount he paid in sales taxes to others on goods and services he has purchased in the same quarter. The formula is tax collected minus taxes paid rendering the national sales tax for all intents and purposes a VAT given that the net is theoretically the value added by the taxpayer. I grant that my experience may have presented a confused picture in my previous post, but there is no getting around the fact that the tax is highly visible and acts as a tax on the value added in the production of the good or service on offer.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
Sounds like an administrative nightmare. Why not go with a simple national sales tax instead?
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
If the VAT was so transparent, it wouldn't be a freakin' acronym.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
You just gotta love James Lileks.
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
Kenneth, I'm working from memory here so pardon me if my response might seem vague. Initially the federal government in Canada wanted to replace a tax on manufactured goods that had grown unwieldy and unfair due to things like a conflicting desire on the part of government to protect certain industries. In short this tax became a nightmare to administer due to the the sometimes illogical exemptions that some industries enjoyed. In addition, the tax on manufactured goods became a real job killer, no surprise there. This tax was replaced by the Goods and Services Tax (GST), because certain provinces, some with sales taxes some without, objected to the imposition of a national sales tax over top of a provincial sales tax. There may also have been jurisdictional problems, but of this I am uncertain. There certainly were strong political objections. This year both provincial sales taxes and the GST have been "harmonized" in that they are now collected as one tax, which is more clearly a VAT. As for being an administrative nightmare, businesses must file and remit quarterly and it doesn't seem to be a much or a problem given computerized bookkeeping.
Jul '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
So when you make a retail purchase, is the VAT tax clearly stated?
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
James, what is it about tax collected minus tax paid that is opaque? What is particularly good about a VAT is that anytime a government wants to raise revenue it must increase the VAT, which gets the country folk reaching for their pitch forks awful quick. That is precisely why even with a VAT governments still prefer to raise income taxes. They work on the assumption that it will take you one or to paycheques to get used to your new diminished worth as a wage earner. The VAT, however, remindes the taxpayer how much he hates his government every time he dips into his wallet, which translates to political suicide.
Jun '10
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
Kenneth
So when you make a retail purchase, is the VAT tax clearly stated? · Oct 20 at 10:07pm
Yes! In British Columbia it is 12% and you see it on every retail sales slip or production invoice. The manufacturers' tax was hidden, which made it pernicious in its effect. With a VAT it is also in the producers' interest to play the game honestly, because what he pays out in tax is deducted from what he collects. Look, I'm not arguing in favour of taxes, but if you're going to have them they should be highly visible, as fair as possible, paid by as many as possible, and a prod to the electorate.
Re: Ricochet Podcast #40: The Wake Up Call
So: if the increase in the VAT makes taxpayers reach for their pitchforks, that means the BC VAT was always 12%, right? Because if it was 11.9%, and was bumped to 12%, they would have done something about it.