CSE Mailbag Sept. 10, 2002

Restoring America

“Dear Folks:
I have supported your efforts for some time now. I am a conservative person and vote the same. I like and support our current President, George W., I liked his father as well. I am a retired Electronics teacher of 30 plus years, and a veteran of the vietnam.

I want my country back!
A soverigan nation, answerable only to its citizens and to God. A nation that has the courage to get out of the U.N. A military second to none so we do not need any help in order to defeat any enemy. A country with the courage to do away with all forms of political correctness. Acountry with the courage to do away with all forms of Liberalism and the empty promisses they foster. Courage to end the flood of people and their relatives that come into our country and spoil the landscape and distroy our way of life, our neighborhoods, schools, our future. Courage to simplify the tax code, and a genuine effort to reduce all types of taxes. In closing I would like to see the restoration of a dress code to all schools and and if needed a dress code for teachers, if they do not willingly dress the part.

Crime- I suggest a plan that all prisioners must support themselves by working off their debts to society and in turn sentences be shortened. they should not be released unless they have a viable skill or similar education.

Thanks –
Richard B.”

Telecom Collapse

“The largest theft in history

What the telecom bankruptcies have make glaringly evident is that the playing field is not level. Buying stocks is far more risky than projected to investors, who have been scammed and left holding the bag.

Bankers and bondholders have rigged the game. They have access to all the facts to make investment decisions but have shifted the entire risk to investors who assumed the SEC was monitoring.

The industry would police itself if bankers and bondholders were on the hook for three-quarters of the loses. Corporate books would be squeaky clean and corporate officers could not be pirates.

We don’t need more regulation we just need logic. Accountability to the sophisticated risk taker is the best control.

The SEC stood lookout while corporate officers robbed the Investors and stockbrokers drove the getaway car in the largest heist in history.

Blue-collar bandits would be in jail and most of their loot recovered. The scope of this scam/theft will be revealed but only scapegoats will go to cushy prisons for a short period. Most of the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars stolen is being hidden off shore and will never be recovered.

In 2001 thousands of Americans were mass murdered by foreign terrorists. In 2002 Millions of Americans were mass robbed of their dreams and security by American Pirates.

Understanding and anger is growing. Confidence in our free enterprise system is waning across the globe and at home. Congress should take notice. This is not a partisan issue.”
— Troy C.

CSE’s Mission

“Mr. Beckner,

I was initially very excited when I saw your website–I strongly support the idea of a smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation. I like much of what I have seen so far in your articles. However, your American Agenda 2002 Survey makes your organization look like a Republican mouthpiece. If that is the case, fine. However, the goals you espouse are not, strictly speaking, Republican. And the perpetrators of the policies which you rightly disparage are likely to be found on both sides of the political aisle. Certainly, there are Republicans who have brought millions of dollars of “pork barrel” funds to their states or districts. And in the guise of a war on terror, the current administration is proposing a massive new cabinet level agency–a big government “solution” if ever there was one. CSE’s apparent advocacy of this (in “A Tough Row to Hoe”) undercuts the stated goals of your organization. In real world terms, the gap between Republicans and Democrats is small when considered against the range of positions available to take on any given issue. It is like being forced to name your favorite color but then told that the only options are orange and yellow.

Any multiple choice survey will, of necessity, leave out options. However, yours seems designed to support current Republican positions while making the other options seem ridiculous. Sometimes they are. Sometimes the Republican position is too. But I wish there was room for a wider range of responses (for example, some nod to conservation in the energy section).

On another note, I would like to know if CSE advocated filling the empty federal judiciary appointments during the Clinton presidency. The pressure on the judiciary was similarly high at that time, when Republicans were foot-dragging on confirmation as the Democrats are doing now. The key issue is to get the positions filled (ideally with independent thinkers and, tangentially, freeing them from legilatively mandated sentencing) so that the justice process can be kept from stagnating.

Various articles on your site, for example Mr. Thomas’ piece “Limited Government on the Anniversary of September 11th” are critical of some of the current administration’s policies. It would be sensible to rethink your survey to reflect a wider range of choices and, perhaps, entice citizens such as myself to support your organization.

Sincerely,
Davison P.”

CSE Response

Thanks for your thoughtful e-mail.

Let me address some of the issues you brought up.

We are a non-partisan organization dedicated to just what you support: smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation. We’ll work with any policymaker advocating ideas consistent with those goals. Precious few elected officials work toward those goals, and even fewer do it on a consistent basis. More often than not, those elected officials that do tend to be Republicans. We do not support everything that Republicans do. Far from it, we have been highly critical of Republican lawmakers for spending too much money, for raising protectionist barriers, and for running away from Social Security privatization, to name a few issues where we have disagreements. You are fundamentally right: for the most part Republicans and Democrats are closer to each other than Republicans are to principled advocates of limited government.

On Homeland Security: CSE focuses on economic issues and stays away from foreign policy, defense and “social” issues because we are trying to build a coalition of where limited government advocates generally have common ground. We have not taken an official position on the Department of Homeland Security, although many of us have a number of misgivings about government intrusion into our lives as a result of the reaction to 9/11. The discussion of it on the web site was meant to be more informative than advocating a position.

CSE feels very strongly that we won’t win back our freedoms until citizens take them back. We who believe in limited government must organize and take action, pressuring lawmakers of all stripes to do the right thing. That is where we differ from think tanks: we organize and mobilize grassroots citizens for change. If we don’t take to the streets to demand change, we will continue to see our freedoms erode.

Thanks for your interest in CSE.

Paul Beckner

Corporate Flat Tax

This is in response to the letter about using flat tax to cure our problem with corporate corruption. It’s an interesting idea, but it would in no way create a “sound economy”. As a matter of fact, millions of people that are employed in the tax and law field would lose a job, causing more economic turmoil than soundness.

I’m sure you know you are not the first to introduce this idea. Last time it was introduced, the tax and law intustry pulled all their resourses together to make sure it didn’t happen. The same thing will happen this time.

No, I do not work in the law or tax field, I am a union electrician from San Diego who actually agrees with the “idea” of a flat tax. But blaming our tax code for the corruption in corporate america is like you blaming your pen for running out of ink. The tax code is just a tool for corruption, its not the source of it. All corruption is stemmed from greed. Greed is an epademic sweeping our great nation. My grandfather likes to call it “me-eyetiss”. Whatever you want to call it, its wrong.

In america, an executive or a whole board of directors can get away with giving themselves million dollar bonuses, selling all their stock in the company THEY run, and then filling for bankruptcy. Thereby destroying the lives of the thousands of workers whom they previously convinced to trade in their pension for a stock option plan. That is greed! That is the source, not the tax code.

What I would like to see change more-so than our tax code, is greedy people… be they corporate exucutives or politicians or anyone for that matter who hurts other people financially for their own personal financial gain…being punished severely. Let’s get to the root of the problem. Let’s try to separate the honest from the greedy cuniving. Maybe if come tax time, the IRS gave people and business the option of paying a flat tax or using the tax code, it would slowly bring us over to a more sensible and honest way of taxation.

Your idea of just scrapping the tax code will be laughed out of congress. A slow conversion will at least be looked at. Think about it.

–D.G.