John T. Reed’s news blog

I say progressive income tax is nothing but a Fabian socialist euphemism for the Marxist principle “from each according to their ability.” It is not my opinion. It is logic and the fact that words have definitions..I also say that the progressive income tax is theft under color of law. The correct tax was in the original Constitution before the 16th Amendment (which allowed the income tax that the Supreme Court previously said was unconstitutional). You divide federal spending by the adult population and each person pays an equal share. .To the extent that the government takes more than that...

I said releasing tax returns of a billionaire is probably a bad idea because the public can’t understand them and you opponent will spin them against you.It’s worse than I thought. I said if he did not pay taxes for one or more year, it’s probably because of loss carry-forwards. It now seems that is the case.But we are now talking about him “exploiting,” “taking advantage of,” and “fixing” that “loophole.”What!?If you lose more money than you took in in one tax year, you are allowed to deduct the excess loss the following year. Actually, I believe the law says something...

This “we must vote for Trump because of the Supreme Court” argument needs to be thought through more. While writing my novel The Unelected President, I had to research and think about such things very thoroughly and hard. The president nominates justices. They do not become justices until the Supreme Court confirms them. The Republicans now have a majority in the Senate. In the event of a tie, the VP casts the deciding vote. Any senator including from the minority party can filibuster the Senate to stop a Supreme Court nomination from coming to a vote. It takes 60 votes...

My new novel The Unelected President is about a libertarian author, “Mike Medlock,” who suddenly and unexpectedly becomes President of the United States. Does saying he is libertarian means he is a clone of Libertarian Presidential nominee Gary Johnson? No. Deficit spending Johnson is in favor of a balanced budget amendment. “Mike Medlock” favors a Constitutional amendment to abolish new federal borrowing that increases the national debt and to require that all refinancing of existing federal debt be in the form of 30-year, fixed-rate, self-amortizing bonds. The problem with a balanced budget is that it includes revenue projections. Politicians will deliberately overestimate revenue...

This ABC TV series starts with the President-to-be being told he is about to be fired as HUD Secretary. His wife seems to want him to try to save his job to avoid disrupting her life or that of their kids. In Designated Survivor, they are not sure initially that the original President is dead. That is not the situation in my Unelected President. I am not sure how they confirm the President is dead so quickly with such a massive explosion as they depict. My book has another such explosion in a different country and it takes weeks for people to conclude that the head...