Leave it to every other media outlet in the world to be focused on George today – I
would like to draw your attention to Jeb.
But first . . .
RENMINBI
Surya: “You suggested everbank CDs. Which foreign currency is a safe CD?”
F I don’t know, but I see they
offer a Chinese renminbi account. I don’t think there is a person on earth
(although if there is, he will somehow find this column and write in to tell me
I am wrong) who thinks the renminbi is overvalued and could fall relative to the dollar. Please do your own research on both Everbank and whatever currency you select. But I think I’m going to go get me some renminbi.
STICKY
SPACE BAR
Chip
Ellis: “Did you
know that the keyboards on most laptops pop out and that the replacement
keyboards are pretty cheap? I didn't
know it until my spacebar stopped working and an IT person came and replaced it
in a couple of minutes.”
F Yes, it took me less than half
an hour on-line to find out that I need either IBM part number 08K4699 or part
number 08K4670 (impossible to know which) and that both have been discontinued. Except that, of course, I’m not sure any of
that is right. For now, I am pressing
hard on the Space Bar – especially the left side of it. And I find that after I get going for a while,
it begins to workbetter.
HALF OF
YOU WILL LAUGH
Mark Willcox: “Funniest headline ever:
Poll: Nation Split On Bush As Uniter Or Divider.”
#
And now . . .
JEB
As reported here in years past, when Jeb first became governor of Florida he faced a
challenge. How do you cut taxes for the rich in a state with no income tax? Cutting the sales tax wouldn’t work – that would
help everybody. Cutting the property tax
wouldn’t work – that would help almost everybody.
What to do? What
to do? (What would Jesus do?)
Jeb hit
on cutting the Intangible Property Tax that most Floridians have never even
heard of (because it applies only to folks with considerable portfolios of
stocks and bonds). He cut this tax in
half.
Specifically, he cut it from a very
modest two-tenths of one-percent (applicable to only some assets – not to retirement
accounts, for example) to just one-tenth of one percent. Great for the wealthy; but when was the last
time you saw a middle-class tax
halved?
And sure enough, less than a year later Jeb was also eliminating 51 of the state’s 55 prison drug
treatment programs (to take just one example) because, well, there wasn’t
enough money to pay for them.
Adding insult to injury, in his bid for reelection,
he claimed to have increased drug
treatment funds by 60%. (You can read how
he did it here.)
Anyway, that’s ancient history.
Two days ago, the Miami Herald ran this headline:
Governor: Cut taxes,
medical help
The Guv has proposed “substantial tax cuts while
eliminating programs intended to help working Floridians with massive medical
bills stay out of poverty,” according to the Herald.
Specifically, he would cut the Intangible Property Tax in
half – again.
(He would also eliminate a tax on beer and wine sold at bars
and restaurants, presumably to make it easier for people to drink more before
setting off for the drive back home.)
“The tax
cuts,” reports the Herald, “balanced
with tuition hikes and elimination of safety-net programs, drew
sharp criticism from Democratic legislators.”
It is a grand time to be rich and powerful in
America – all the more so in sunny Florida.
Have you Bush supporters no shame?