QUOTE OF THE DAY

AEI: The uncanny X tax

What is the single biggest problem with the tax code? It’s not the complexity, bad as that is. The biggest problem is that it rewards consumption and punishes savings and investment.

WSJ: The Crisis of American Self-Government

'We have now an American political party and a European one. Not all Americans who vote for the European party want to become Europeans. But it doesn't matter because that's what they're voting for. They're voting for dependency, for lack of ambition, and for insolvency."

CNBC: The Perfect Income for Happiness? It's $161,000

More than one study has tried to determine the financial price of happiness. Some look at wealth. Others look at income.

One well-publicized study last year put the optimal income for happiness at around $75,000. Rising income, it turns out, produces greater happiness until you get to around $75,000. After that, there are diminishing returns, with more income leading to little or no gain in real happiness.

Reason: Fun Facts About the Fiscal Cliff!

Please read this if you think deficits don't matter and that spending doesn't drive deficits.

When Bill Clinton so famously "balanced the budget" with the Internet boom and all the taxes from those stock sales, the GOP and Newt Gingrich passed a budget (yes, Congress used to do that) of $1.7 trillion in expenditures. Adjusted for inflation, our federal government would be spending $2.3 trillion today and collecting $2.5 trillion in "revenues," resulting in a $200 billion surplus. But instead of increasing government spending in line with normal inflation, under Bush and Obama we are spending $3.8 trillion today. Democrats, who believe we have a "revenue" problem instead of a "spending" problem, must also think they have a bartender problem, not a drinking problem.

Points and Figures: Why We Should All Be Conservative Now

It’s very ironic to me that two of the cultures I run around in vote Democratic when they run to the polling box.  Wall Street is loaded with Democrats and I don’t know if it’s because they feel so much guilt from ripping off their customers or if they think they can extract money out of government through making it larger.

Silicon Valley and the environs that seek to replicate it are similar.  Ironically, the entrepreneurial culture is one that is agnostic when it comes to gender, race, sexual orientation and all the other things the Democratic party seeks to divide us by. Entrepreneurs are merit based.  Build a great product, you’ll get some money to fund it, and customers don’t care how many tattoos you have if it works.

Yahoo! News: Why Obama is pushing for stimulus in 'fiscal cliff' deal

President Obama's opening offer in 'fiscal cliff' talks includes $255 billion in stimulus spending – tax cuts, incentives, and more. It could be a bargaining ploy or a bid to offset rising taxes on the rich.

CNBC: Just how big is $1 Trillion?

Rick Santelli looks at the U.S. debt under President Obama and asks: Just how big is $1 trillion?

Politico: The plot against the Internet

Bureaucrats from around the world will gather behind closed doors in Dubai next week to plot an end to the Internet as we know it — or so Washington would have you believe.

Hill lawmakers warn that the 120-plus U.S. delegation needs to fend off efforts by China, Russia and developing nations to use a United Nations branch organization to censor or tax the Net. Google is orchestrating an online petition drive, and even Grover Norquist is involved.