Pence Wants To Cut Income Taxes And Repeal Inheritance Tax

Perhaps U.S. Rep. Mike Pence should have stuck to his game plan of not making any policy statements until after next year's May primary election for his gubernatorial race. Pence tells the AP that he is working on a plan to reduce Indiana's income and corporate income tax rates, as well as the elimination of the inheritance tax:

Republican Mike Pence is looking at ways to cut Indiana income tax rates across the board if elected governor next year.

The congressman told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he wants the state's individual and corporate tax rates reduced to 3 percent. The state's individual tax rate is now 3.4 percent and the corporate rate is 8.5 percent.

Pence also said he would like to repeal Indiana's estate tax.

But the state's surplus would need to grow more before tax cuts would become viable, Pence said. He didn't give a specific level the state would have to reach first.

“Any surplus net of adequate reserves should be used for pro-growth tax reform, not more government spending,” Pence said.

While Pence was busy in Congress pretending to fight for balanced budgets, the Indiana General Assembly this year approved a new law reducing Indiana's corporate income tax rate gradually from its current rate of 8.5% to 6.0%. Pence relies on the current occupant of the office's claim that Indiana currently is running a $1.2 billion surplus, which is simply not the case. I hate to disappoint my fellow Republicans, but Indiana is indebted to the federal government for over $2 billion for paying benefits to our unemployed after our state unemployment insurance fund went broke very early on in the current recession because Indiana lawmakers cut tax rates paid by businesses while increasing benefits paid to unemployed workers. That debt is only growing. The state also has billions of dollars in unfunded pension obligations. At the rate we're going, our state employees retirement fund will be broke within 8 years.

I'm all for lower taxes, but the state has to figure out how to address its unfunded obligations before giving up a surplus that exists on paper only through creative accounting methods. Pence had the luxury of voting this week to allow the federal government to borrow another $2.4 trillion so the federal government could continue to run up the largest budget deficits in our nation's history without making any specific tax or spending decisions or a concern in the world as to how our nation's current debt, let alone this mountain of new debt, could possibly ever be repaid. Even worse, he supported a plan that gives unconstitutional authority to a "Super Congress", a select few members chosen by the leadership of both houses, which will get to make future tax, spending and borrowing decisions over the wishes of the majority of members elected to the Senate and House. That single vote wiped out any credibility he had as a true fiscal conservative. This is 2011, Mike, not 1787 when states still had the ability to print their own money with calamitous results. Sorry, Mike. Actions speak louder than words.

Judge Andrew Napolitano sounds off in the video below on why he believes the Budget Control Act passed by Pence and his fellow colleagues is unconstitutional.

Our Unfair Criminal Justice System

Today, 18-year-old Shamus Patton, who pleaded guilty to shooting nine teen-agers during last year's Black Expo Summer Celebration, received a sentence of just 8 years for his crime. Patton's attorney had argued for an even lighter sentence, but Marion Co. Superior Court Judge Carol Orbison wasn't buying the argument. "I think the circumstances of this crime are absolutely horrendous," Orbison said before reading his sentence. With time credited for good behavior, Patton should be back out on the streets within three years for his "absolutely horrendous crime." Patton gets to serve the final two years of his sentence in community corrections, whereupon he will be required to serve just two years of probation.

Contrast Patton's sentence with that of 39-year-old Augustus Mendenhall, who was convicted of attempting to murder State Rep. Ed DeLaney, even though he never fired a single shot at DeLaney and only caused minor injuries to DeLaney during a scuffle between the two men. Hamilton Superior Court Judge William Hughes sentenced Mendenhall to 40 years in prison after a jury found him guilty but mentally ill. Judge Hughes seemed to choose a harsher penalty against Mendenhall because he was an attorney and his victim was chosen out of revenge for the actions of DeLaney, a prominent attorney, who arguably abused the legal processes for his powerful client to destroy the business of Mendenhall's father. Hughes, who was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving after being arrested and charged with drunk driving earlier this year, described Mendenhall as "sick and entwined since childhood with his father's hatred and need for revenge", but found his statement read in court "chilling, threatening, and unbelievable" and evidencing no remorse.

Like I've said before, there are two forms of justice in this country: one for the privileged elite and one for the rest of us. Patton will serve but a very short sentence for shooting nine black youths because our criminal justice system places a lesser value on the lives of those nine black youths than it does the single highly privileged life of Ed DeLaney. I wonder if DeLaney has any remorse for the years of suffering to which he subjected Mendenhall's father and family? I doubt it. And I'm sure he won't lose any sleep knowing Mendenhall is spending far more time in prison for his crime than justice should have required of him to serve.

More On Life In Straubville

Recently, I mentioned how budget woes for the Department of Public Safety under the leadership of Director Frank Straub meant no toilet paper, hand sanitizers and other basic supplies for IMPD's district offices. Today, there is a report that Indianapolis Power & Light workers showed up at IMPD's East district office on North Shadeland to disconnect the power because someone at DPS failed to pay the electric bill. This comes on the heels of news that IMPD lost out on a half million dollar federal grant for human trafficking because someone at DPS failed to file an application to renew the grant, and that it belatedly filed 2010 crime statistics for Indianapolis with the FBI many months late, raising questions about whether crime statistics were being manipulated to make things appear more rosy than they are to benefit Mayor Greg Ballard's re-election campaign.

Gregg: "I'm Not A Career Politician"

As John Gregg finally makes official he's now a candidate for governor and not just exploring a run for governor, he wants to clear up one point. "I'm not a career politician," Gregg tells the Star's Mary Beth Schneider in spite of his 16 years as a State House lawaker, including six years as Speaker of the House. Schneider adds, "He pointed instead to his resume as an attorney who has held jobs with two Indiana coal companies, Peabody and AMAX." "It's odd that the Democrat is the one that's worked for two Fortune 500 companies," he said. Gregg omits the fact that he worked as a lobbyist/attorney for the coal companies and has been a registered lobbyist for a big law firm since leaving the State House. And let's not forget that his crowning achievement near the end of his tenure as a legislator was to sneak into law lifetime health insurance benefits for retired lawmakers, including himself and his family.

State GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb gets in some knocks against Gregg. "John Gregg would light up Leno or Letterman," Holcomb said. "But his record as a former speaker of the House is no laughing matter. The stakes are too high to return to the days when Mr. Gregg blew through our state reserves, passed unbalanced budgets and refused to live within our means."

Landfill Finally Being Searched For Missing IU Student

Two months after the disappearance of IU student Lauren Spierer, a Vigo County landfill where Bloomington trash is hauled will finally be searched. The Star is reporting tonight that the owner of the Sycamore Ridge landfill south of Terre Haute has confirmed it is cooperating with the FBI in a planned search of the landfill.

There has been growing dissatisfaction with the Bloomington Police Department's handling of the case, particularly after it was recently learned that the department's earlier claim that area landfills had been searched was untrue. WTHR reported that BPD had obtained a search warrant for the landfill on June 16, two weeks after Spierer was first reported missing. The Star reports that the FBI has been discussing a search of the landfill with the owner for the past two to three weeks.

The landfill's owner, Republic Services, confirms its use of a GPS tracking system that allows it to pinpoint each load of trash dumped at the landfill, but a spokesperson for the company cautions that the search is still very difficult. "It's not CSI," Peg Mulloy told the Star. “We can identify a general area, but it all depends when you’re contacted and where you look.” Waiting two months to search the landfill no doubt makes that task of searching for a missing body all the more difficult.

Calling James Madison

Following up on my dismay at the inability of our leaders in Washington to restore fiscal sanity to our federal government, I found a prescient blog post by American Thinker's Ed Kaitz in reaction to Joe Biden and others on the Left relegating tea party activists' role in the national debate to those of terrorists. Kaitz reminds those on the Left of the three evils of government the father of our U.S. Constitution, James Madison, warned against in establishing our constitutional republic:

[Madison] argued at the end of his brilliant Federalist #10 that there were three "wicked projects" that -- in the hands an unscrupulous political faction -- could potentially inflame our Republic with a most devastating plague: "a rage for paper money, [an] abolition of debts, [and] an equal division of property."

In other words, deficit spending, bailouts, and welfare state socialism -- the three pillars of the modern Democratic Party -- were, to Madison, the likeliest and most "wicked" threats to America's self-preservation.

Kaitz lays the failure to avoid the evils Madison, whose views borrowed heavily from philosopher John Locke, at the doorstep of the Democratic Party. I disagree with him because the problem of deficit spending, bailouts and welfare state socialism has been a bipartisan effort in Washington. Yes, Republicans are more likely to rail about those three evils in their stump speeches while campaigning for office, but once elected, their actions speak louder than their words. They have a Faustian bargain with the Democrats. Allow us to expand our military industrial complex and you can have your permanent welfare state; we'll haggle with you over the level of taxation, but we will always agree to borrow whatever is necessary to let both of us have our cake and eat it too.

Vice President Biden Says Tea Party Activists Are Terrorists And Other Musings From The Left

Vice President Joe Biden continues to make the case for not entrusting a pathological liar and gaffe-prone person with high office in this country. Politico is reporting that Democratic sources quoted Biden as saying during a meeting with congressional Democrats that tea party activists "have acted like terrorists" in response to a complaint by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) that Congress had been compelled to "negotiate with terrorists" in the national debate over raising the national debt limit another $2.4 trillion. Biden also told Senate Democrats that Republican leaders "have guns to their heads" in trying to negotiate deals in Congress.

Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson suggested on a talking heads show over the weekend that tea party folks "want to burn the place down . . . they've strapped explosives to the Capitol . . . they want this crisis . . . they like the drama." Charles Krauthammer quickly scolded her for referring to our political opponents as terrorists. Carlson corrected him and claimed she was only calling them "nihilists," which is someone who rejects all theories of morality or religious belief." Thanks for the clarification, Margaret. "Strapping a bomb is a terrorist," Krauthammer told Carlson.

Locally, a government and constitutional law professor at IUPUI, Sheila Kennedy, decided to join Biden and Carlson in taking the debate to the gutter. Kennedy refers to tea party activists on her blog site as "troglodytes," a fancy name elitists use to describe people they believe are intellectually inferior to them, and white supremacists. "I have a lot of trouble understanding the emergence of the Tea Party," she writes. "Not their existence; we’ve always had strains of malcontents–anti-social or anti-intellectual or white supremacist or other odd movements–but their ability to make resentment of taxes a rallying cry and a focus for so many people’s anger. And not anger at a particular tax or tax policy, but at the very idea of taxes. They have somehow convinced otherwise reasonable citizens that taxes levied for the general welfare are somehow illegitimate." According to Kennedy, tea party activists are troglodytes because they "think [public] services are supported by magic."

It is striking that such a person who professes to be a constitutional law expert exhibits so little appreciation of the circumstances that led to the adoption of our current U.S. Constitution and its relationship to our current state of affairs. Have you ever heard of Shay's Rebellion, Professor Kennedy? After sacrificing so much to win the American Revolution against the tyrannical rule of the British government, many patriotic rebels were subjected to unfair debt collection practices by state courts to pay debts incurred while they were conscripted into military service without pay-- due in no small part to crippling taxes imposed by the states. Thousands of brave soldiers lost their farms and homes and were jailed for their debts, particularly when the paper money issued by the states without financial backing became virtually worthless. Even two of the original signatories to the Declaration of Independence were jailed for their debts.

The states couldn't tax enough to pay off their insurmountable debts owed to foreign creditors that were incurred during the war against Great Britain. As the value of the states' currency eroded from inflation, many foreign creditors insisted on payment in the form of gold or silver, neither of which the states had much of, as opposed to legal tender. Foreign debtors had to rely on unsympathetic state courts to get relief for repayment of their debts. The states were only able to retire the massive war debt after the federal government assumed the debt after the states scrapped the Articles of Confederation and adopted the U.S. Constitution. The federal government was not able to levy taxes to retire the debt; rather, the country expanded westward and paid off the debt by selling off the vast new lands it acquired in pursuit of our Manifest Destiny.

Today, we find ourselves drowning in national debt we cannot possibly repay as a nation. Our federal government is now borrowing 40 cents for every dollar it expends. What will the federal government have to sell off to repay the trillions of dollars it now owes its creditors? Or how much will the government have to confiscate from the people to deal with the debt problem? Tea party activists don't oppose the payment of taxes to fund the constitutional obligations and duties of government; they oppose an expansion of government through the printing of money with no financial backing, thereby squeezing out the private sector by devaluing our currency and requiring the majority of the money we earn to be paid to support government. At the point we've reached today, you can confiscate 100% of the money Americans earn and you would not have enough to balance the budget. Are tea party activists crazy as Professor Kennedy suggests for opposing such reckless fiscal policies? Is the expectation of sanity in our fiscal policies now the equivalent of being a terrorist?

Apparently, Professor Kennedy, our President, Vice President, congressional leaders, and the majority of the members of Congress believe our nation's perilous debt problems will magically go away simply by authorizing the borrowing of more money by raising the national debt ceiling for the umpteenth time and printing more dollars. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Please tell me what I'm not getting here, Professor Kennedy? Please share your infinite wisdom with the ignorant masses.

UPDATE: Here's how Indiana's congressional delegation voted on the debt ceiling increase legislation tonight:

Yes: Buschon (R), Donnelly (D), Pence (R) and Young (R)
No:  Burton (R), Carson (D), Rokita (R), Stutzman (R) and Visclosky (D)

Don't mistake a "no" vote for fiscal sanity. U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, who has no concept of how wealth is created, thinks his constituents will be harmed if federal spending is allowed to increase only 8% this year and another 8% next year after authorizing another $2.4 trillion in borrowing. Carson doesn't think we're borrowing, spending or taxing the American people enough.

More On It's All About The Super Bowl

You can't pick up the newspaper or turn on the local TV news without reading or hearing a story about what our esteemed city leaders are doing to prepare for the Super Bowl next February. Today's latest offering in the Star tells us how IMPD is cracking down on prostitution in preparation for the Super Bowl:

As Super Bowl XLVI draws huge crowds and international attention to Indianapolis, city officials and police will keep their eyes on a seedier side of the game that could bring hundreds of prostitutes to town.

Some will come in from other cities and advertise themselves on websites as "escorts" offering massages and other services. Police are issuing a warning: That next client you visit in Indianapolis just might be a cop.

Last week, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Department of Code Enforcement used the crowds visiting for the Brickyard 400 to set up a sting of unlicensed escorts as practice for more enforcement efforts leading up to the Super Bowl.

"There will be more prostitutes here than this city can handle," said Lt. Richard Kivett, commander of IMPD's vice unit. "They will flood in here." . . .

Arrest a hooker, and she will face a night in jail and, in some cases, a small fine. But write her a ticket, and she'll face a fine of up to $2,500 and a court order to find a new line of work.

City Prosecutor Helen Marchal said the fines are up to $7,500 for repeat offenders. The typical fine is about $500.

"With the civil case, you really hurt them by dipping into their pocketbooks," Marchal said. "If the arrest doesn't act as a deterrent, maybe the fine will."

A city ordinance requires escorts to get a license. An escort license is $103 for a person. Licensed escorts also must work for a city-approved escort agency, which needs a separate license that costs $319.

Because the city has no licensed escorts, Code Enforcement administrator Adam Collins said, any working in Indianapolis are violating the ordinance.

"The Super Bowl is a huge event that has a large impact on Downtown," Collins said. "Doing these stings in conjunction with IMPD is something that neighborhoods benefit from on a daily basis."

Although homicides and other violent crimes make headlines, Collins said, prostitution is one of the biggest complaints from many neighborhood groups . . .

Are these people serious? C'mon, the prostitutes that operate during the Super Bowl are brought into town by the wealthy men who come into town to attend the Super Bowl. They fly first class and get a limo drive to their hotel courtesy of their patrons. They don't advertise on Craigslist or walk the streets like this transsexual shown above being busted [Updated: See photo of arrestee Austria Andrews with Mayor Greg Ballard below]. You will probably find a lot of them at a big private party thrown by one of our esteemed civic leaders like the big birthday party bash Tim Durham threw for himself a few short years ago at his Geist mansion with the protection of off-duty cops, which was attended by nearly 1,000 of your city's most prominent civic leaders and assorted pseudo celebrities before the federal government closed down his Ponzi scheme. The only purpose behind these busts is to make sure there isn't any local competition around by the time the Super Bowl takes place.

UPDATED: The additional photos from the Star photo gallery that accompanied the online story are quite entertaining, including this one:

UPDATE II: Oh, my, here's a picture of Austria Andrews, the transsexual arrested during IMPD's prostitution sweep, with good friend Mayor Greg Ballard. What will Winnie think?

Mayor Greg Ballard With Austria Andrews

Only In Washington

President Barack Obama and leaders of both parties in Congress are hailing the latest deal to set the wheels in motion for borrowing at least another $2.4 trillion through next year's election. The basic talking point is that the deal cuts spending more than it raises the national debt, but that statement could only be true if you live and operate under the rules of Washington, D.C.

The deal will allow the federal government to borrow another $900 billion through February, 2012, while cutting federal spending $917 billion. No. that's not a reduction in the current years' spending of $917 billion; it's a reduction in spending that will occur over the next decade. Actual federal spending will increase at least 8% this year and another 8% next year. There is no real reduction in federal spending; they'are only talking about the size of the increased spending. A second installment of borrowing will take place in the amount of $1.5 trillion if Congress is able to cut spending by more than the amount it is raising the national debt limit. Again, those are cuts promised to be made in the future, not in the current federal budget. That's what I call illusory cuts because that's really what they are.

Let's face it folks, the party is over. There is absolutely no way the U.S. government can repay the debt already on the books, let alone the planned additional borrowing of $2.4 trillion over the next 18 months. Short of confiscating the private wealth of all Americans, there aren't sufficient funds available to even make a significant down payment on repayment of the debt. To put it bluntly, there is no future for America. Your elected leaders have sealed the nation's fate through decades of reckless, out-of-control spending. Your future is to become a slave for the New World Order, which has been their plan all along. Unless there is divine intervention, our country's fate is irreversible. Nobody in Washington can save you from this undeniable outcome.