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Welcome to
REASON Express, the weekly e-newsletter from REASON magazine. REASON
Express is written by Washington-based journalist Jeff A. Taylor and
draws on the ideas and resources of the REASON editorial staff. For more
information on REASON, visit our Web site at www.reason.com.
Send your
comments about REASON Express to Jeff A. Taylor (jtaylor@reason.com)
and REASON Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie (gillespie@reason.com).
REASON Express
May 30, 2001
Vol. 4 No. 22
1) The Code Giveth and the Code Taketh Away
2) Congress to Save World from Spam
3) U.S. Cocaine Prices Steady
4) Quick Hits
- - The Once and Future Tax Cut - -
It is a truism that any tax cut is better than no tax cut. But the package
that will soon be the law of the land comes close to disproving that.
It does cut marginal tax rates--at least in theory. Except the 15 percent
bracket immediately drops to 10 percent, so only time will tell if the
other brackets ever complete their nine-year migration downward.
Other real changes are similarly backloaded. Contribution limits for IRAs
will rise from $2,000 to $5,000, but not until 2008. For 401(k) plans,
contribution limits rise from $10,500 to $15,000, but only after 2006.
And the plan isn't just slow to move. It's temporary.
To make the square plan fit the budgetary round hole, Congress adopted the
neat trick of "sunsetting" all the cuts in 2011. That means
unless Congress acts, tax rates will zoom back up to their current levels.
Forget stability
and predictability, we've got elections to win--or lose.
Even more cynical is the treatment of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT
was created back when marginal rates were even higher, but loopholes were
even
more plentiful.
The AMT was meant to apply tax to wealthy taxpayers who had somehow
accumulated enough deductions to avoid all tax. But now the AMT can range
into
middle-income areas. The plan moves to fix that, but it all goes away in
2005, just when many taxpayers will need it the most.
Meanwhile, the package makes the already dubious child tax credit
refundable, putting even more Americans in a negative tax bracket. In
effect, it's a spending program hidden in a tax bill. If and when a future
Congress ever has to choose from cutting a spending program--let alone one
that directly cuts checks for constituents--or raising taxes on "the
rich" without a vote, you get three guesses which way they'll go.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A818
28-2001May26.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A82
219-2001May26.html
*******************************************
- - Can the Spam - -
From the cure-worse-than-the-disease file comes word that Congress is
intent on ridding the world--or at least our inboxes--of spam.
Reps. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) and Gene Green (D-Texas) think it would be
great to give consumers the right to sue spammers. No need to use a filter
when a
court, a judge, a jury, and a gaggle of lawyers will do.
Further, all spam would have to be labeled as spam and include a sender's
valid e-mail and physical address. This immediately raises the issue of
one man's spam being someone else's business lead. But it is also hard to
tell
just how much good those physical addresses will do. Just how much postage
do you need for a cease-and-desist letter bound for Taipei anyway?
Betters still, the bill would designate state attorneys general as the
point-people for going after spam violators. Ignore the history of
dubious, yet headline-grabbing, politically motivated prosecutions
emanating from those
offices, please.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/166033.html
Sam MacDonald drops in on Congress' debate on a national identifier to
replace Social Security numbers at
http://www.reason.com/hod/sm052501.html
*******************************************
- - Cheaper By the Kilo - -
More headaches for drug warriors, or at least the ones who still pay any
attention to reality. First, a Jamaican national commission on marijuana
has thus far found that an overwhelming majority of those who have
testified
before it have favored some form of decriminalization.
An interim report to Prime Minister P.J. Patterson is still a long way
from actual decriminalization. But totally ignoring a final recommendation
to change the drug laws wouldn't be a politically astute move either.
At the same time comes news that cocaine prices in the United States are
not rising. If all the blood and money being spent in Colombia and points
in between were having an effect, coke prices should be going up. But they
are staying around $36,000 per kilo.
More astonishing still is the possibility that there is actually something
of a coke glut right now. And this isn't idle speculation. It comes from
the Drug Enforcement Agency itself.
"There are many that think the cocaine market is saturated now in the
United States," DEA chief Donnie Marshall said recently.
No wonder, if reports on Colombian cocaine capacity are correct. Five
years ago the DEA pegged the coke crop at 300 tons, tops. Now the United
Nations says up to 800 tons can be cranked out.
Further evidence of a U.S. glut comes from expanded Colombian coke markets
in Europe and Russia, Marshall added. European integration has also made
things
easier as more borders and checkpoints have disappeared.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/05/23/col
ombia.usa.drugs.reut/index.htm
l
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/americas/05/23/ja
maica.marijuana.reut/index.html
*******************************************
QUICK HITS
- - Quote of the Week - -
"It is not about getting things. It's about trying to find a way to
deal with the pain," Jeffrey Steinback, lawyer for Elizabeth Roach,
47, who avoided a prison sentence when a U.S. District judge in Chicago
agreed that compulsive shopping made Roach steal $241,061 from her
employer, Andersen Consulting. The case is believed to be the first in
which a federal judge reduced a defendant's sentence because of an
addiction to shopping.
http://www.charlotte.com/topnews/pub/shop.htm
- - Good Deed, Punished - -
A New York man who pulled his car over to the side of the road so he could
use his cellular phone was struck and killed by a newspaper delivery
truck. William Vasquez, 33, normally drove an SUV but that morning was
driving a much smaller Mercury Mystique rental.
http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/news/wedn
esday/nd3578.htm
- - Wood Memorial - -
Arson at a University of Washington research laboratory in Seattle and a
tree nursery in northwest Oregon have the FBI investigating the incidents
as possible terrorism. Both locations have conducted research on the
genetic modification of trees, work condemned by anti-technology greens.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6689
9-2001May23.html
- - As the Worm Turns - -
Researchers from Nottingham University think that eradicating intestinal
worms may have an unexpected side effect of increases cases of asthma.
Various worms
seem to suppress the allergy response that can cause asthma attacks.
http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=
ns9999773
- - Black Label - -
The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the National Council on
Alcoholism and Drug Dependence have petitioned the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco
and Firearms to impose much larger health warnings on alcohol containers.
The groups want the labels on the front with a big exclamation point and a
bold "government warning." Public comment is being accepted
through Aug. 20.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A678
00-2001May23.html
Info on where to send comments can be found here
http://www.atf.treas.gov/press/industry/fy01/052201
govwarning.htm
- - Red Means Greenbacks - -
A study by House Majority Leader Richard Armey's (R-Tex.) office suggests
that jurisdictions that put up red-light enforcement cameras at
intersections are
tempted to reduce the yellow-light span in order to generate more revenue
from red-light runners.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A677
18-2001May23.html
###########################################
REASON NEWS
The Scene! Check out Reason Editor-at-Large Virginia Postrel's frequently
updated observations on current events and ideas. Visit The Scene at
http://www.dynamist.com/scene.html
For the latest on media appearances by Reason writers, visit http://www.reason.com/press.html.
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