On to Palmer and Vignuelle

[Draft; to be completed]

Having done the DeMarco, Brooke and Mathis questions in the AL.com candidate essay and online discussion event, I need to wrap up with the Palmer and Vignuelle questions.

Palmer

The question to Gary Palmer is to explain why government needs grassroots reform from the bottom up, and how he'd work to achieve it.

"That government functions best when it is closest to the people."

Guess where that quotation comes from? 

It comes from the Alabama State Democratic Party Executive Committee Principles, Article I. (Link is here.)

OK, Candidate Palmer, Candidate Shattuck, and the Dems are in agreement on that.

I think Washington DC, with its powers over taxation, spending and pervasive regulation and intrustion into the economy, has a stranglehold over the rest of the country.

The government in Washington works hard at tightening its grip over us out in the hinterlands.

Witness the coercion practiced by Congress in the expansion of Medicaid.  If you, a State, go along with the Medicaid expansion, we, in Washington, will cover almost all your increased costs.  Don't go along with what we in Washington want, and you, a State, will get nothing.

Or how about the health care exchanges? Congress wanted to force its vision of health care exchanges on the States by writing the law to say the tax subsidies would be available only for health insurance obtained through a state created exchange, and would not be available if a State did not create a health care exchange and residents got their health insurance through the Federal exchange.

Ooops.  Congress miscalculated there about its coercive power over us in the hinterlands.  Numerous uppity States did not create health care exchanges, and now there is a big problem to work out that the law does not provide for tax subsidies for residents of a State that did not create a health care exchange.  This mess is augmented by implications for whether there are penalties or not under the mandate for individuals and employees. (For more info, see this Forbes article.)

My campaign says that the political class in Washington enjoys the personal power and wealth which it derives from the legal and political power of the Federal government over the rest of us, and is inclined to not let the Federal government let go of that legal and political power. 

I will leave it to Gary to explain what strategy and tactics he is going to use, which he thinks will be successful, in wresting what he wants away from the Federal government.

I will also leave it to Gary to indicate the scope of his ideas and how far they will go in affecting the really big problems of the national debt and health care, etc.

Maybe Gary will even comment on his ideas about how to get grassroots reform from the bottom up, compared to my plan for an uprising of voters across the country to regain in Washington DC, government of the people, by the people and for the people, and a Congress that works for the American people.

Vignuelle

Tom Vignuelle's question is to explain why he favors getting rid of the income tax and replacing it with a consumption tax.

I have the obvious comment that I do not think there is a functioning Congress that is capable of making such a change, and the matter is academic for the time being.

If I get more energy before tomorrow, I may say more here.

[Update 5/11: I believe it is the case that Palmer and Vignuelle never submitted their essays.]