Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
Because of Trump and DOGE’s cuts to USAID, 14 million more people will die by 2030.
It would take years to restore these lifesaving programs.
America was a great country saving millions of lives. Not anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZmQJ9rKC6s
The first Trump administration killed North Korean civilians in a botched secret operation on North Korean soil. Trump did not inform Congress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwn371XO31s
“It’s true that taxes distort behavior, and that America’s income-based taxes—especially the corporate tax—are among the most damaging varieties. Economists prefer consumption taxes, which leave income alone until it’s spent, sparing savings and investment from double (or triple) taxation.
Leaving aside their protectionist nature, if tariffs did that, it might make sense to think about substituting them for other, worse forms of taxation. But they don’t.
Take an actual consumption tax—the value-added-tax—which is applied uniformly to domestic and imported goods, rebated at the border for exports, and structured to avoid double-taxing investment. Tariffs, on the other hand, single out imports, which account for only about 15 percent of U.S. consumption. Different goods from different countries also face different rates. Thus, they are neither broad-based, nor neutral or transparent. They’re just an additional tax that tries to push buyers toward less-preferred products.
Worse, tariffs fall heavily on capital inputs like machines and other equipment. More than half of U.S. imports are raw materials, intermediate goods, or capital equipment—things we need to build other things. As the American Enterprise Institute’s Kyle Pomerleau notes, this makes tariffs more, not less, distortive than our current capital income taxes.
The latter allow firms to deduct investments in machinery and equipment, lowering the effective tax rate from what’s on paper. Tariffs provide no such deduction. That makes investing in U.S. capabilities—precisely what spurs productivity and wages—more expensive. Far from being a relatively tolerable consumption tax, tariffs are an inefficient, arbitrary surcharge on growth.
Tariffs fail another principle of good taxation: stability. A serious tax system is predictable, allowing businesses and households to plan ahead. Tariffs are imposed unilaterally under statutes like Section 301 or even emergency powers. As recent experience shows, they can be, and often are, reversed overnight without any assurance they won’t soon reappear. That’s not a reliable revenue source or incentive for businesses to proceed with confidence.
Finally, tariffs invite carveouts and favoritism. Politically connected firms routinely secure exemptions, exclusions, or special treatment, drastically narrowing the tax base. Since April’s “Liberation Day,” exclusions have sheltered goods worth more than $1 trillion while other goods got hammered. A tax code riddled with loopholes secured through Congress is bad enough; a tariff regime where lobbyists compete for carveouts so quickly and effectively is worse.
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In the most recent fiscal year, the federal government collected about $2.4 trillion from the individual income tax. That’s 49 percent of federal tax revenue. The Tax Foundation’s calculation for 2021 shows that collections from those earning less than $200,000 amount to $737.5 billion annually. There’s also $430 billion brought in from the corporate income tax in fiscal year 2024.
Extrapolating from the Treasury Department’s duty collection for July, Trump’s sweeping new tariffs might bring in as much as $360 billion this year—significantly higher that the pre-Trump era collection of $80 billion. Grandiose plans to do away with most people’s income taxes would mean raising tariff rates far higher than even Trump wants, and without all the carveouts. Then, we’d need to hope for the impossible—namely, that the tariffs don’t kill off a ton of economic activity.
Tariffs are not a realistic tax base. They’re among the worst taxes imaginable—narrow, arbitrary, unstable, and regressive. They tax investment more than consumption. They reward lobbying over efficiency. And the revenue they raise is but a fraction of annual government spending.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/21/no-tariffs-cant-replace-income-taxes/
“Aside from his norm-breaking appeal, Milei’s approach is far different than Trump’s. Milei vowed free-market reforms to overturn decades of populist Perónism—a statist ideology that infected Argentina’s politics since Juan Domingo Perón won the presidency in 1946. His authoritarian approach has dominated the country’s politics for 80 years, with Milei beating Perónist opponents.
By contrast, Trump is overturning America’s historical embrace of free markets and free trade. He sets himself up as an all-powerful charismatic leader, inserts the feds deeply into the economy, and expands the reach of police and military forces. Like Perón, he’s doing it in the name of the “working class.” The U.S. Department of State once described Perónism as a “vague concept of social justice in some ways more akin to a religion than a political movement,” which sounds eerily like MAGA.
Perónism is more avowedly leftist than Trumpism, but MAGA’s “right-wing” policies sometimes seem indistinguishable from left-wing ones. Argentina’s populist movement has been successful at one thing: turning one of the world’s wealthiest countries into an impoverished basket case. Americans think of Argentina as a benighted third-world nation. But as economist Dan Mitchell explains, it was the 10th wealthiest nation in the world when Perón took over. It was often viewed as a European nation that happened to be in Latin America.
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On an unrelated note, Milei isn’t smitten by overseas authoritarians, unlike our president. Overall, Milei is using his power to loosen the government’s grip, whereas Trump—although he occasionally reduces regulations—is centralizing government power. The two men have bad hair and unpredictable temperaments, but beyond that the similarities dissipate quickly.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/trump-is-embracing-the-same-economic-populism-that-destroyed-argentina/
“In the sixth century, Christian monks built St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The monastery is believed to be located at the very place where God appeared to Moses via a burning bush. Valuable Christian relics are stored at St. Catherine’s, among them parts of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.
Since its inception, the monastery has never been destroyed, but recent efforts by the Egyptian government could effectively end St. Catherine’s independence and inhibit the religious freedom of its monks.
In May, a legal ruling by an Egyptian appeals court “affirmed government ownership of land beneath the centuries-old Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai,” although the government stressed that it would not interfere with the monastery’s long-standing autonomy, reports Egyptian Streets. Despite these assurances, the monks of St. Catherine’s protested against the ruling and closed the site to all visitors on June 6.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/egypts-land-grab-threatens-the-worlds-oldest-christian-monastery/
“Flush with cash from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has spent millions of dollars on flashy custom SUVs and trucks the agency says are essential for public safety and recruitment efforts to meet President Donald Trump’s mass deportation goals.
Government contracts made public and reviewed by The Washington Post reveal that ICE has contracted more than $2.4 million for Chevrolet Tahoes, Ford Expeditions, and other vehicles, as well as custom graphic wraps. The gold-detailed wraps will include the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND,” according to a social media post by the contractor, Maryland’s AP Tinting & Graphics, along with the words “INTEGRITY,” “COURAGE,” and “ENDURANCE.”
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The cost of the new ICE vehicles is in addition to the over $700,000 the agency spent on a pair of trucks designed to mimic Trump’s private jet and used in a Department of Homeland Security social media post on August 14. The wrapped GMC Yukon SUV and Ford Raptor pickup truck were pictured stationed in front of national monuments and government buildings around D.C., with the caption “We will have our country back.” The trucks were also showcased in a recruitment ad posted on social media featuring music by the rapper DaBaby, with the lyrics “My heart so cold I think I’m done with ice (Uh, brr)” and “Better not pull up with no knife (Okay)/’Cause I bring guns to fights.”
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The insistence that ICE must spend millions in taxpayer dollars on gaudy vehicles is ironic, considering the agency’s M.O. of using masked, plain-clothed agents in unmarked vehicles to target and arrest undocumented immigrants and violate Americans’ rights. But just as ICE’s immigration crackdown hasn’t really gotten dangerous people off the streets, neither will its marketing ploy protect public safety.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/ices-tricked-out-trucks-might-boost-recruitment-but-they-wont-make-america-any-safer/
“Americans who enjoy German lagers, Belgian saisons, and Czech pilsners will get no relief from the higher tariffs that President Donald Trump has poured on their favorite brews.
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The deal locks in the 15 percent tariffs that Trump has imposed on most European goods imported into the U.S., but it also serves as a promise from the Trump administration not to target European goods with product-specific tariffs that could be announced in the coming weeks or months—including potentially huge new tariffs on pharmaceuticals, something the White House has been teasing for months. The deal also creates a pathway for the United States to reduce its tariffs on European cars to the 15 percent threshold, once the E.U. reduces some of its own tariffs on American industrial goods.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/trumps-new-trade-deal-with-the-e-u-leaves-out-beer-wine-booze/
“The takeover has allowed Trump to flex his muscles, but it’s coming at a steep cost to American taxpayers. The Intercept reports that the use of military forces in Washington, D.C., could cost $1 million per day. With more National Guard members flooding into the capital, the campaign could end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars, according to The Intercept.
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“Trump hosted a “big, beautiful” military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army. The event, which happened to coincide with the president’s 79th birthday, included a barrage of tanks, jet flyovers, and soldiers walking through the nation’s capital, and ended up costing American taxpayers $25 million to $45 million. That’s “$277,778–$500,000 per minute,” Reason’s Billy Binion reported.
Trump has also displayed America’s military power at his Independence Day celebrations, including the 2019 “Salute to America,” which ran up a tab of more than $13 million, and the 2020 events in D.C. and Mount Rushmore that cost close to $15 million. Next year’s Independence Day, which will be America’s 250th birthday, is expected to be even bigger. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) appropriated $150 million to the Interior Department for “events, celebrations, and activities surrounding the observance and commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.”
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The OBBBA also allocated nearly $30 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for detention facility maintenance, transportation costs, and recruitment efforts at the agency. ICE appears to be sparing no expense.
In addition to offering starting salaries of nearly $90,000 and signing bonuses up to $50,000, ICE has also wasted taxpayer money on marketing gimmicks and vehicle upgrades. Recently, the agency spent “$2.4 million for Chevrolet Tahoes, Ford Expeditions, and other vehicles, as well as custom graphic wraps,” writes Reason’s Autumn Billings. These gold-detailed wraps include the words DEFEND THE HOMELAND, INTEGRITY, COURAGE, and ENDURANCE.
This vehicle spending is on top of the $700,000 that ICE spent on two gold-wrapped trucks, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used in a (cringe) recruitment campaign on X.
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On Tuesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the entire U.S.-Mexico border wall will be painted black. “That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb,” said Noem.
During his first stint in the White House, Trump proposed an identical plan. The Washington Post reviewed a copy of federal painting estimates at the time, which showed “costs ranging from $500 million for two coats of acrylic paint to more than $3 billion for a premium ‘powder coating’ on the structure’s 30-foot steel bollards.”
More than five years later, the cost to paint the border wall is sure to be higher.
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In 2018, Trump signed a $3.9 billion agreement with Boeing that would see the airplane manufacturer deliver two new jets to the Air Force One fleet by 2022. The planes are now expected to be delivered by 2027, years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
Under the terms of the contract, the cost overruns will be paid for by Boeing. Despite these delays, Trump may soon be flying in a luxury jetliner that was gifted to him by the Qatari government. While the president has called this new Air Force One “free,” renovating the plane will cost Americans millions of dollars. As The New York Times reports, the Pentagon recently transferred $934 million from a nuclear missile project account to a classified project, which “congressional budget sleuths have come to think…almost certainly” includes the renovation of this new jet.
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In January, Trump revived an executive order that he signed in his first administration to establish a National Garden of American Heroes. The garden, which is expected to open next year on America’s 250th birthday, will include 250 life-sized statues of American heroes.
But the $34 million project has run into a basic, but serious, issue: America doesn’t have enough quality sculptors to complete the garden by next July or a designated location to put it. Daniel Kunitz, editor of Sculpture magazine, told Politico that the idea “seems completely unworkable.””
https://reason.com/2025/08/22/500-million-to-paint-the-border-wall-5-of-trumps-strangest-most-expensive-vanity-projects/
The U.S. debt issue is a political problem. In order to get elected, politicians promise to not cut taxes and/or to not cut benefits, when a combination of these is needed to fix the debt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV_JLSAat94
The Glories of Mexican Dentistry
https://reason.com/2025/08/23/algodones-mexico/