In the late 1980s, the United States and the USSR negotiated a maritime treaty adjusting the borders between Alaska and our Cold War rival. The treaty moved the border to the east, which gave the Soviets more land. It also included islands north of Siberia. The premise of this deal was to thaw relations and even though the treaty was not ratified, our two nations have been honoring the proposed boundary changes ever since. Upon the conclusion of the Cold War, the treaty was still not ratified but no effort has been made by four subsequent presidents to restore what is still the official border. Joe Miller was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2010. He tells us what kind of energy is beneath the islands in question, how Alaska has been given no voice in this debate and why getting the State Department to scrap the treaty sooner rather than later is very important.
Archives for February 22, 2012
Tax Cut Or Tax Increase?
President Obama is hoping to win over more moderate voters by pushing a reduction of the federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent. However, Americans for Tax Reform says the complete Obama plan is light on reductions and heavy with additional tax burdens. Ryan Ellis is ATR’s director of tax policy. He says the proposed cut is too small when comparing our corporate tax rate with those of our economic rivals and when factoring in state taxes on corporate revenues. Ellis also says the plan blatantly raises taxes on small businesses and compounds the pain by doing away with critical tax deductions. Ellis also offers what he considers a more effective tax reform plan.
Three Martini Lunch 2/22/12
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review see a good lesson in Great Britain raising taxes on the rich and taking in far less in revenues. They also discuss the political fallout of Rick Santorum’s 2008 speech at a Catholic university in which he said Satan was targeting America for destruction. And we prepare for the first GOP debate in more than three weeks.