Yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden stated publicly again that he wants violent video games to be taxed and sees “no legal reason” why we should not move forward with a new tax. The story was telling in two respects. First, there is no evidence that such games produce the type of attacks seen at the Boston bombing and school shootings. Yet, this was the first thing that various politicians grabbed to show a response to the killings — besides of course reducing our civil liberties further. Second, Biden again seems intent on fulfilling the stereotype of a liberal politician where the answer to every problem is a tax. There is no discussion of how such a tax would accomplish any economic or public policy objective beyond moving money from people Biden disfavors to people he favors.
Experts are divided on the impact of violent video games with some finding no real longterm impacts and others finding a contributing factor in violence or delinquency. Putting aside this debate, there is no discussion of why a tax would serve any purpose beyond driving up costs and of course producing more revenue for the government.
As many on this blog know, I am fairly hostile to the tax-first approach to public policy and the use of high taxes to address worsening economic situations in countries like France. This is an example of how reflexive the call for taxes is from politicians like Biden. Biden announced that he would like to tax the game and give the money “help victims and their families.” It is an all-too-common approach to tax politics. Find an unpopular industry, tax it, and then give the money to a more popular group. It appears the later group this term is a generally defined group of “victims” — not of video games but crime. It is not clear how such money will be awarded to victims or whether it would go to government offices that support victims.
When he was later asked if he could point to any study showing the effect of violent games on behavior or the effect of the tax on game playing, Biden simply said that the government would study the problem.
While I disagree equally with the no tax mentality of people on the other side of the political debate, I am constantly amazed by how taxes seem the first reaction of politicians like Biden. In this case, the tax seems to come first and the rationale will be supplied later. We simply tax them all and let God sort them out.
Source: Forbes
I’m voting for “buffoon.”
“When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.” –Joe Biden, interview with Katie Couric, Sept. 22, 2008
“I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. … When one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway.” –Joe Biden, providing handy tips to protect against the swine flu and freaking us out, “Today Show” interview, April 30, 2009
“Look, John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.” –Joe Biden, Athens, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2008
“Stand up, Chuck, let ’em see ya.” –-Joe Biden, to Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri, Sept. 12, 2008
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” –Joe Biden, referring to Barack Obama at the beginning of the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Jan. 31, 2007
“You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent…. I’m not joking.” –Joe Biden, in a private remark to an Indian-American man caught on C-SPAN, June, 2006
“I am pretty sure these violent games have an impact on our culture and on those who play them. Those experts who say they don’t are often the same people who said that tobacco advertisements did not sell cigarettes.”
So, you’re “pretty sure” about the “impact” these games have. Is it positive? Negative? Neutral?
Who said tobacco advertisements didn’t sell cigarettes? Isn’t that what advertisements are for?
There is as much evidence that video games negatively affect society as there was that comic books, rock and roll, and “R” rated movies did the same.
Gene,
The acorn we know as Prince Rand didn’t fall far from his Sire’s tree.
SwM,
“The bar is the last week in July, raff.” Are there any kind of superstitious rites we can practice that will aid her in the exam … I’m thinking “virgin sacrifice” or maybe the tar and feathering of a republican or two … maybe the symbolic scream I remember from “The Paper Chase”?
Thanks, Gene. .
G. Mason. Biden’s net worth is about $500,000. It doesn’t appear that he has profiited from his years of government service.
Good luck to your daughter on the bar, Smom.
Yeah, gotta go with Blouise on this one. Ron Paul and his son are both non-starters on policy issues when you consider the totality of their various stands.
From the article:”When they talk about government tyranny, they’re not just talking about statutes and regulations: they’re talking about supreme court case law, too. Paul, for example, believes that Roe v Wade is illegitimate, and that states should be able to criminalize abortion, regardless of what the supreme court has to say.
Paul’s new director of curriculum development is Gary North, the son-in-law of Christian Reconstructionism founder RJ Rushdoony. Reconstructionism is a movement based on the claim that God granted only limited “jurisdiction” to government, and that biblical law should supplant civil law in all but a handful of circumstances.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/12/christian-fundamentalism-ron-paul-homeschooling Blouise, Providing christian fundamentalist home schooling is Ron Paul’s latest business endeavor. Thanks, raff, lotta, Blouise. The bar is the last week in July, raff.
“Speaking as a Liberal I would rather have Ron Paul than Biden or Clinton as President.” (George Mason)
Speaking as a woman, I wouldn’t. I simply refuse to ignore his description of women’s rights with respect to the abortion debate to be a “secondary consideration.” Paul is quoted on his website: “There has to be a criminal penalty for the person that’s committing that crime. And I think that is the abortionist.”
He voted against affirmative action, opposed the renewal of the Voting Rights Act, and distributed racist newsletters. In 2004, when the House of Representatives took up a resolution “recognizing and honoring the 40th anniversary of congressional passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Paul was the only member who voted “no.”
I’m also fully aware that Ron Paul supported new tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, new tax cuts for corporations, ending Medicare as we know it, cutting Social Security, repealing Dodd-Frank, opposing the Buffett rule, opposed ending tax breaks for Big Oil, and opposed ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas,
And, let us not forget he also introduced a bill, HR 3076, which would have allowed President Bush to issue letters of marque and reprisal — to hire private bounty hunters tasked with apprehending members of al Qaeda “alive or dead.”
One doesn’t need an ideological purity test to get the picture.
I will give Biden some credit as far as this however.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/27/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4390659.shtml
LA Times: Biden Son, Brother Invested With Firm That Lobbied Him
The L.A. Times is just popped a big story the Obama-Biden folks don’t want to be reading the night the Delaware senator introduces himself to the nation: a potential conflict of interest involving Biden and one of the nation’s biggest asbestos litigation law firms — which also happens to be his top contributor.
The report seems to provide fuel to Obama supporters enraged Illinois senator picked a running mate with such deep ties to the D.C. cash-politics-lobbying world.
Investigative reporters Chuck Neubauer and Tom Hamburger:
“When Joe Biden’s brother and son wanted to buy a hedge fund company two years ago, they turned for financing to a law firm that had lobbied the Delaware senator’s office on an important piece of business in Congress — and in fact had just benefited from his vote.
The firm promised James and Hunter Biden that it would invest $2 million, and it quickly delivered half of that sum.
That deal eventually fell through and the money was returned. But it highlighted the close ties that Joe Biden and his family have developed with SimmonsCooper, an Illinois law firm that specializes in asbestos litigation — a multimillion-dollar line of business that was under threat in Congress.
In addition to providing financing for the hedge fund deal, SimmonsCooper picked the law firm of another of Biden’s sons, Beau, to work with it on dozens of asbestos cases in Delaware. “It was only natural that we worked with my friend Beau Biden and his firm,” said Jeffrey Cooper, longtime former managing partner of SimmonsCooper.
And SimmonsCooper employees have donated about $200,000 to Biden’s campaign efforts since 2001, making the firm his No. 1 donor. All told, SimmonsCooper employees provided much more money to Biden than to any other senator during that period.”
The Politico
Speaking as a Liberal I would rather have Ron Paul than Biden or Clinton as President.
Some of you on here make absolutely no sense.
You spend your time attacking (rightfully I might add) the advances of government tyranny and the destruction of Civil Liberties but then you refuse to point fingers because you might not like where your fingers are pointing in the end.
Biden is as corrupt as Obama, Clinton, Bush, etc etc
http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2012/10/breaking-joe-biden-corruption-bidens-brother-gets-100-million-government-contract-the-ties-that-biden-2464542.html
The Ties That Biden
By Charlie Gasparino / Published October 22, 2012 / FOXBusiness
David Richter, the president of Hill International (HIL), a mid-sized outfit that manages construction projects, was speaking last year at a private meeting with investors when he was asked about the recent success of his newest subsidiary, HillStone International.
How was it that HillStone, a newcomer in the business of home building, landed a massive and potentially lucrative contract to build 100,000 homes in war-torn Iraq?
Richter didn’t mince words. It really helps, he said, to have “the brother of the vice president as a partner,” according to a person who was present.
“I am pretty sure these violent games have an impact on our culture and on those who play them. Those experts who say they don’t are often the same people who said that tobacco advertisements did not sell cigarettes.” (Justice Holmes)
I agree with you on that … so much so that I banned all of those games in my house.
lotta,
It’s a good show that slowly grows on you and … if you’ve ever done politics in a smallish town/city, you’ll appreciate the humor and the truth that underlies it all.
“I thought we decided 223 years ago to do away with the nobility.” (Darren Smith)
Biden and Hillary both came from middle class backgrounds with Biden’s parents being much less well off than Hillary’s. Warren’s father was a janitor and her mother worked for Sears in the catalogue department. Not quite sure where you got the nobility noise as Bill Clinton and Obama certainly don’t qualify either.
I guess you must be thinking of the Bushes and Ron Paul’s heir, Rand.
SWM, congratulations to your daughter, have a great time at the graduation.
Blouise, Thanks for the clip, very funny. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the show before but I liked Amy Poehler on SNL when she did their news desk segment.
Blouise,
I saw that Parks and Recreation show. Biden was great and having him in and around the White House really lightens things up! He is hysterical.
Swarthmore,
Congrats again! When is the Bar Exam?