Thomas L. Knapp | The Libertarian Institute

Torturing the Truth: The Tax Cut Debate vs. the English Language

by Thomas L. Knapp | Apr 28, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles

On April 26, the Trump administration released a one-page summary of its tax reform proposals. The following morning, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss those proposals. Co-anchor Norah O’Donnell didn’t waste any time ham-handedly injecting the mainstream media’s dishonest narrative-shaping language into the conversation. “As you mentioned this would be historic tax cuts [sic],” her first question began. “Estimated to cost the American taxpayer $7 trillion over a decade. So when will you tell us how you will pay for it?” Unfortunately Mnuchin played...

NYC Gun Permit Scandal: Graft is Inevitable in a Corrupt System

by Thomas L. Knapp | Apr 26, 2017 | Featured Articles, Politics

“Two corrupt cops from the NYPD licensing division were plied with strippers, wined, dined and taken on lavish vacations to Mexico and the Bahamas,” reports the New York Daily News. Why? Because in return for nice things, they were allegedly willing to “expedite” the process of applying for and receiving gun permits. Left unmentioned in the story is the other why. Why would someone be willing to blow that kind of money on gun permits? Simple: Because New York City’s government requires such permits, then makes the process for getting them long (3-6 months), tedious (in addition to the...

Tax Reform: Two Places to Start

by Thomas L. Knapp | Apr 24, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles

An anonymous announcement of a forthcoming public announcement: On April 26, an anonymous White House source says, the Trump administration “will outline our broad principles and priorities …. We are moving forward on comprehensive tax reform that cuts tax rates for individuals, simplifies our overly-complicated system and creates jobs by making American businesses competitive.” That sounds very nice. But given the administration’s previously revealed “principles and priorities,” it’s reasonable to expect a heaping helping of economically dumb protectionist tinkering floating atop a...

Pompeo vs. WikiLeaks: It’s No Contest

by Thomas L. Knapp | Apr 21, 2017 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Last July, while stumping for then-candidate, now-president Donald Trump, US Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) gleefully referenced nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee emails released by the transparency/disclosure journalists at Wikileaks. “Need further proof that the fix was in from Pres. Obama on down?” Pompeo tweeted. The emails showed that DNC officials had worked overtime to rig their party’s primaries for eventual nominee Hillary Clinton and against challenger Bernie Sanders. What a difference nine months makes! On April 13, Pompeo — now in charge at the Central Intelligence...

Trump’s Security Tab: A Good Case for Separation of Church and State

by Thomas L. Knapp | Apr 11, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles

Palm Beach County, Florida Commissioner Dave Kerner wants to tax a resort. Nothing unusual about that — politicians love to mug tourists in the name of “economic development” — except that the resort in question is Mar-a-Lago, US president Donald Trump’s private club and preferred getaway spot when he tires of the White House. Kerner complains that Trump’s visits cost the county government $60,000 a day in police overtime and other expenses and wants to turn the resort into a “special taxing district” to claw back that money. Business owners at the local airport have complaints as well. The...

Income Tax: No Honor Among Thieves

by Thomas L. Knapp | Apr 10, 2017 | Economics, Featured Articles

Former US congressman (and presidential candidate) Ron Paul kept a placard on his desk reading “don’t steal — the government hates competition.” Unfortunately for taxpayers, that competition is getting more frequent and more bold. According to US News and World Report, nearly a quarter of a million taxpayers filed affidavits claiming identity theft in 2016, while the IRS stopped nearly 800,000 more fraudulent tax returns. On April 6, Internal Revenue Service commissioner Josh Koskinen informed the US Senate that fraud-enabling information on as many as 100,000 taxpayers may have been...

Want Privacy? Washington Isn’t Where You’ll Find It.

by Thomas L. Knapp | Apr 6, 2017 | Featured Articles, Justice

On April 4, US president Donald Trump signed a bill repealing some of the previous administration’s rules on Internet Service Providers’ handling of user information. Privacy advocates raised Cain over the legislation, but let’s put it in perspective: The rules in question were only created last October and hadn’t even really been implemented. Internet privacy is going back in time a whopping six months, if that. The sky is not falling. That said, if you’re worried about Internet privacy, there are steps you can take to protect yours. You probably won’t, but you can. Why do I say you...

SCOTUS: The Nuclear Option is Not Enough

by Thomas L. Knapp | Apr 3, 2017 | Featured Articles, Justice

On January 31, president Donald Trump nominated federal appellate judge Neil Gorsuch to fill a vacancy on the US Supreme Court created nearly a year before by Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. More than two months later — nearly 14 months since Scalia’s passing and after 13 months of Republican stalling and refusal to even consider former president Barack Obama’s nomination of appellate judge Merrick Garland — the US Senate is finally set to vote on Gorsuch’s nomination once it clears a final procedural hurdle (more on that below). Unlike most politically engaged Americans, I have...

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