Daily Clips: July 8th, 2015
Tim Burgess proposes tax on gun sales in Seattle: The Seattle Times reported today that City Council President, Tim Burgess, will propose legislation that would tax ammunition and gun sales and oblige gun owners to contact police about lost or stolen guns.
“Gun violence is very expensive,” Burgess said, noting that the direct medical costs of treating 253 gunshot victims at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center last year surpassed $17 million, with taxpayers covering more than $12 million of that. “It’s time for the gun industry to help defray those costs and this is a very reasonable way to do it.”
Like tobacco, alcohol and marijuana, gun sales should also be taxed. If the product you are selling has clear costs associated with its use, then it makes utter sense to offset the burden on society via taxation. (And just for the record, taxation is not equivalent to slavery, as Paul Constant noted yesterday.)
Where will the GOP land on immigration? In her interview yesterday with CNN, Hillary Clinton said that the Republican presidential candidates’ stances on immigration are on a “spectrum of hostility.” While she’s not wrong, there is a rather sizable gap between, say, Donald Trump’s perspectives on immigration and Jeb Bush’s, for example.
John Dickerson at Slate wondered “where on this new immigration spectrum the GOP’s reputation falls.” If polling is any indication, than it appears immigration will not be seen as an “act of love” by the Republican base. According to Pew Research Center, 63 percent of Republican voters today view immigrants as a “burden” who compete with Americans for job, health care etc…
Compare that 63 percent number with 62 percent of Democratic voters who agreed with the statement that immigrants “strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents.” Moreover, 57 percent of independents also think immigrants strengthen our nation. In the Republican world view, immigration is very much a zero-sum affair, while the rest of America views the issue in a much more optimistic light.
These are not promising numbers for Republican strategists who want create a campaign which unites, not divides America. When you have a large majority of your voting base wanting the exact opposite of what the rest of the country wants, you’re undoubtedly going to dig yourself into some holes during the primary season. Time will tell how deep the GOP’s immigration hole becomes.
Washington State has brought in $70 million in marijuana revenue: And what’s more? The world isn’t ending. Kids aren’t smoking reefer on the sidewalk and general anarchy hasn’t ensued. With positive revenue results occurring now in both Washington and Colorado, the arguments of the anti-marijuana crowd are quickly fading. With seven states on the verge of passing recreational marijuana in the next few years, this important issue is now finally being given the attention it deserves. Legalize it!
CVS leaves US Chamber of Commerce over tobacco lobbying: CVS made a bold move on Tuesday, announcing that it would sever ties with the Chamber over its lobbying efforts to roll back anti-smoking laws. Of course, because the Chamber is run by deluded individuals they responded by saying there has been an egregious “misinformation campaign” run against them. That’s pretty rich coming from the same people who in 1975 said that raising the minimum wage to $3 would result in millions of job losses. Talk about misinformation…
