Tea at Trianon: The Big Republican Tax Reform

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, December 29, 2017

The Big Republican Tax Reform

Pros and cons. From Ben Shapiro at the Daily Wire:

1. Virtually Everyone Will Get A Tax Cut. Despite the media’s insistence that this is a “tax cut for the rich,” virtually everyone who pays taxes gets a tax cut. The only people who see tax increases are high income-earners living in high-tax states (like yours truly). This isn’t the biggest tax cut in history, as Republicans have been pitching, but it’s not insignificant either — according to the Tax Policy Center, the average household will receive a tax cut of $1,610 in 2018; an average household earning $1 million or more would see a tax decrease of approximately $69,660, as compared with $870 for households making $50,000 to $75,000. The reason for that: high income earners pay the vast bulk of the taxes in the country. The idiotic idea that Americans will pay more taxes after the bill — an idea believed by 50% of the population — is simply wrong. (Read more.)