420 Day

Time for the annual review of the marijuana freedom movement.

California lost, this year, as voters by a narrow margin turned down a proposition that would have legalized even casual use. The marijuana growing industry is a major, if untaxed, player, and pressure from the northern counties that depend on illicit marijuana sales for income appears to have squelched total marijuana freedom in that state for now.

Today we learn that Canada may be totally legalizing marijuana on July 10th.

Is total legalization a new meme? Aspirin is more toxic - you can kill yourself by downing a bottle or two. Not so with weed. You can't find your lighter after smoking a joint or two. No one has died, and other than sore throats from smoking too much, there appears to be no significant damage caused by the drug. It is not a gateway drug. It is not addictive.

Imagine - a drug without side effects. So, absent the negatives, absent the hysteria, universal marijuana availability could be a boon to the tax base.

Total legalization. The new goal. Yay!

And, it helps cure cancers. It may also prevent them.

Riders In The Storm

Thanks to a commenter on the Rachel Maddow blog, here is a list of the riders that the Republicans have attached to the continuing resolution budget bill:

"Prohibits funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program.

Prohibits funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program.

Prohibits funding for the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act.

Prohibits funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program or the State Energy Program.

Prohibits funding for various environmental projects in California.

Prohibits funding for a climate change czar in the White House.

Prohibits funding for EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gases.

Prohibits funding for the EPA to change a rule regulating water.

Prohibits funds for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Prohibits funds for the EPA to implement regulations to designate coal ash residue as hazardous waste.

Prohibits funding for the IRS to implement health care reform.

Prohibits funds for a White House Director of Health Care reform.

Prohibits the District of Columbia from using its own, non-federal funds to pay for abortions beyond the very limited circumstances in which federal funds are currently available (in circumstances of rape or incest and to save the life of a pregnant woman).

Prohibits funding for needle-exchange programs.

Prohibits funding for sections of the Public Health Service Act.

Prohibits funds to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., or any of its affiliates.

Prohibits funds to pay any employee, officer or contractor to implement the provisions of the health care reform law.

Strips funding for any provision of the health care reform law.

Prohibits funding for the US Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation, UN Population Fund, or for foreign NGOs that use their own non-U.S. funds to provide abortion services."

Tax Cuts Raise Dividends - Sales Make Jobs

Cuts in corporate taxes pump up dividends. The benefits fall through to the bottom line first. Then profits go up, dividends go up, and stock prices rise. Tax cuts don't make jobs.

Jobs are made when orders come it. Sales makes jobs. And for sales to happen, the customers need to be 'open to buy'. Money must be present in the economy.

If I sell ten thousand swivets, I take the order to the bank, get a loan, hire, fill the order, and then lay off my people until the next order comes in. Tax cuts don't sell swivets, except in the very general sense that money coming from the government feeds the economy. Salesmen sell swivets. Sales create the need for employees. Sales create jobs.

Worse, the act of boosting stock prices by giving tax cuts cannot be a way of life. There can't be tax cuts year after year. Not unless we want to see government subsidizing all of capitalism. Right now, General Electric pays no federal taxes and in fact gets a large tax rebate. The IRS pays GE money at tax time.

Your taxes are paying GE to be a Successful American Company. This makes it a hobby business. Your hobby business.

Tax cuts can help a business retire debt. Help a business rent a larger space. Help a business do research and development. Help a business raise its dividend. But it is sales that bring in orders for product.

Orders for product create jobs.