The Daily Signal!

The Redistributive State: How Government Shifts Economic Resources From High- to Low-Income Households - This week, the U.S. Census Bureau will release its annual report on income and income inequality. Historically, the official Census figures on inequality are misleading because they fail to account for most government fiscal redistribution. The high taxes paid by affluent households are ignored, and most of the government benefits and services received by lower-income households are not counted. But government fiscal redistribution in the U.S. is extensive: the transfer of resources from higher- to lower-income groups is a major governmental activity……. The average household in the bottom-income quintile received $6.87 in government benefits and services for every $1 in taxes paid. On average, these households received $24,700 more per year in government benefits and services than they paid in taxes.

By contrast, the average household in the top quintile received 31 cents in benefits and services for every $1 in taxes paid. On average, these households paid $48,000 per year more in taxes than they received in benefits and services. The surplus taxes paid by these households represented around one-sixth of their overall pre-tax income…..Read the full report here.

 

My Take - We need to stop worrying about where the money is distributed and ask why those are the bottom are there.  In reality - if we took all the world's riches and distributed it equally in five years the rich would be rich again and the poor would be poor again.  Get over it!

Does Allowing Noncitizens to Be Counted in Redistricting Violate One Person, One Vote Standard? - When states, counties, and towns redraw political districts, is it constitutional for them to include individuals who are ineligible to vote, such as noncitizens

Refugee Crisis Has European Union Grappling With Its Destiny - As Europe has struggled to articulate a collective response to a flood of refugees from the Middle East and Africa, Germany has positioned itself as the continent’s good cop, coming to the rescue with a vow to take in 800,000 migrants.  With that pledge, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hoped to inspire the European Union’s 27 other member nations to come together and accept more migrants, allocating refugees among themselves.  “From Merkel’s point of view, this is a chance to make amends for Germany’s past,” said Nile Gardiner, a leading authority on transatlantic relations at The Heritage Foundation. “Merkel views Germany as the leader of Europe, and as the dominant power, she feels that Germany must lead on this issue.”

 

My Take - Well - Germany's doomed along with the EU anyway, but this will speed it up dramatically, and at the hands of a blithering idiot - Angela Merkel.

'Safest School in America' Has $400K Security System. Should Other Schools Catch Up? - Monday's incident at Delta State University marks the ninth time that one or more persons have died during a school shooting event in 2015.

What Miss Tennessee Got Wrong About Planned Parenthood and Women's Health - Miss Georgia may have won the Miss America pageant, but it’s Miss Tennessee who probably won Planned Parenthood employees’ hearts Sunday night.

That’s because Miss Tennessee, 21-year-old Hannah Robison, helped perpetuate the myth that ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood could hurt women’s access to health care.  Asked if Planned Parenthood should continue to receive federal funding, Robison gave this answer:

I don’t think Planned Parenthood funding should be cut off. The $500 million that gets given to Planned Parenthood every single year goes to female care. It goes for scanning for cancer, it goes for mammograms.
And if we don’t give that funding to Planned Parenthood, those women will be out of health care for reproductive causes.

First, as the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters noted, Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer mammograms. “Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Liz Clark confirmed … [that] the organization does not provide mammograms at any of its health centers,” reported PolitiFact Georgia in August......
 

My Take - Why are questions such as this being asked? And who cares what these nincompoop schlemiels have to say anyway? If they really wanted to know about their depth of political understanding why didn't they ask them who's the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Secretary of State, and what is the line of succession if the President dies in office. Also, why didn't they ask Miss Alabama ask what she thought of Hillary Clinton’s criminal activities instead of Donald Trump's personality? It's clear they're nothing more than puppets on a string, and just like puppets they're all dressed and perform according to their martinet’s control.  It's also clear why no one watches that stupid show anyway. This is one area where the feminists and I are in harmony – the Miss American beauty pageant is nothing more than a stupid meat wagon – high on stupid!

What's Missing From the Washington Debate on Criminal Justice Reform -

There has been a lot of talk lately on Capitol Hill about criminal justice reform, and it is expected that both the House and the Senate will take up the issue now that Congress is back in session.  Rumor has it that behind-the-scenes discussions are taking place to try to forge bipartisan, bicameral compromise on the issue.  A more accurate description of what is being discussed, however, is criminal sentencing reform.  While this is a generally positive development, in some ways the discussion has been woefully incomplete, which is both disappointing and surprising.  What’s been missing from the discussion so far? Mens rea reform.........Similarly, during a hearing about the scope of regulatory crimes, Congressman John Conyers, D-Mich., stated:

First, when good people find themselves confronted with accusations of violating regulations that are vague, address seemingly innocent behavior and lack adequate mens rea, fundamental Constitutional principles of fairness and due process are undermined. … Second, mens rea, the concept of a “guilty mind”, is the very foundation of our criminal justice system.

My Take - When you have such an out of control bureaucracy armed with approximately 80,000 new regulations each year at the federal level what should amaze us is that more innocent people aren't charged with "crimes".