Libertario Delenda Est

Usually just a quadrennial problem, the big-L, "why bother choosing a side?" argument is tiresome in most all of its forms.

Obama and Boehner, Both Reckless Spenders By Nick Gillespie & Veronique de Rugy

In negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff, U.S. President Barack Obama is calling for $1.4 trillion in new tax revenue over the next decade.

The Republican opposition, led by House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, has signaled that the Republicans could stomach generating as much as $800 billion in new revenue over the next decade, or half of Obama's number.

Such a large difference obscures a more fundamental agreement: Neither side is interested in addressing the central role federal spending plays in creating persistent deficits and, more important, damping economic growth.

Thanks -- in some substantive part to Nick Gillespie & Veronique de Rugy -- we LOST the previous election, and are not in a position to dictate terms. Speaker Boehner is trying to pull one last little chocolate covered peanut out of the manure pile that will be next year's budget guidelines.

This puts me in mind of a great quote I omitted from last Sunday's Review Corner:

Isaac Asimov, in a wonderful essay, used the Earth's curvature to help explain this: [W] hen people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

Arbesman, Samuel (2012-09-27). The Half-life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date (Kindle Locations 604-607). Current Hardcover. Kindle Edition.

If you think Speaker Boehner is a champion of limited government, you are wrong. But if you think that there is no reason to take his side against the President's on taxing and spending -- you are wronger than all of them put together.

Libertario Delenda Est Posted by John Kranz at December 18, 2012 3:13 PM