Campaign Blog
Gary Nolan's
Campaign Blog
Al Qaeda and drugs
Rowan Scarborough of the the Washington Times reported that, "Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network has become deeply involved in international drug trafficking, using the money to buy arms and, possibly, radioactive material for use in a so-called 'dirty' nuclear bomb, senior U.S. officials say."
If the government would get out of the "prohibition of drugs" business, respectable pharmaceutical companies would market drugs to adults and al Qaeda would have fewer resources for attacking innocent people all around the world. But that would make too much sense.
Mad cow disease
Based on the "Under Writers Laboratory" model, "mad cow disease" would likely not be an issue in the United States. A private organization monitoring our food supplies would find a more effective method of monitoring beef. If they couldn't, they would be out of business. Of course, this slip up on the part of the USDA will not result in any loss of income at the government level because if the USDA fails, we can't simply change government "watchdog" organizations. There is NO incentive to do a better job and any changes in methodology are likely to be cosmetic.
National sales tax
I have been asked to endorse the idea of a "national sales tax" as an alternative to our current tax system. While I do think it would be better than the income tax, and as President would sign legislation replacing the income tax with a sales tax, I cannot endorse it. That would be to support the lesser of evils. We admonish voters not to do that in elections, and it would be hypocritical for me to do that now.
A truly limited government could run on the excise tax and tariffs alone. If Congress and the President insist on spending more, there is an alternative already available in the Constitution to make up the difference -- apportionment to the states. Instead of giving the federal government a new way to tax us, make Congress turn to the states raise the revenue needed to make up any shortfall. Imagine 50 state legislatures and Governors lobbying Congress to cut federal spending instead of perpetually looking for handouts. That would be real tax reform.
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