President Obama has just presented his new budget, which again ignores reality. It contains another trillion-dollar deficit, which assumes a large increase in revenue resulting from a tax-rate increase on ‘the wealthy' and corporations. He knows, and so does everyone else, that Congress is not going to pass the tax increase. Corporate taxes are paid by consumers in higher prices and by workers in lower wages - so much for the promise not to increase taxes on those making less than $250,000. Every good tax economist knows this, but the president chooses to ignore reality and demagogue the issue. Even more disturbing is the lack of discussion about a contingency plan if his projected economic scenario does not work out - and the probabilities are that it will not work out. The reality is that the United States and most other governments, particularly the Europeans, have reached or are close to reaching the limits of their ability to tax and borrow. This situation means there is going to have to be either massive cutbacks in government spending or very high inflation.

Here are the top two speeches at CPAC.  Daniel Hannan represents Britain in the EU Parliament.  He exemplifies the extraordinary skill and eloquence of the classic British orator - combined with a passion for the principles of freedom that few American politicians can match, much less European. One American who does is the Magnificent Sarah.  She is here at the top of her form, receiving over a dozen standing ovations.  We should all be praying for a brokered convention that would finally select her as the GOP nominee.  Palin-Perry 2012!  {youtube}6U6v0pZ9f6k{/youtube} {youtube}tXsrajvFGk8{/youtube}

Thanks to Herculean efforts by Miko and Joel Wade, we have finally reached closure on RXII - the Plan B Rendezvous. First is when.  Memorial Day weekend turned out to be booked up everywhere and impossibly expensive to boot.  After much scrambling, the dates that work are for the following weekend, Friday June 1st to Sunday June 3rd.  Second is where.  It's really hard to come up with a fabulous place in a fabulous location at an affordable price - but after endless hardball negotiating, Miko & Joel did it.  So here we go.  RXII will be at the Seascape Beach Resort on Monterrey Bay in Santa Cruz, California.  All the info and details will be up early next week.  For now, plan to join us for the 12th TTP Rendezvous - RXII - the Plan B Rendezvous, Friday June 1st to Sunday June 3rd at the Seascape Report in Santa Cruz.  Maybe we should call this the Beach Party Rendezvous! ************ The big CPAC convention is going now in DC, and yesterday there was a extraordinary speech - it was exhilarating and depressing, uplifting and infuriating, so galvanizing you stood up and cheered, so immensely sad you sat down and cried.

Government corruption can take many forms. Last week, most of those forms could be seen in the actions of the Obama administration: Everything from government officials taking simple bribes, to covering up wrongdoing, to using taxpayer money to pay off political supporters, to using government prosecutors to punish enemies, to failing to fulfill its fiduciary duty to citizens by not performing cost-benefit analyses before taking actions. Promulgating policies that knowingly hurt millions of people is far more serious than a government official requesting a cash bribe - as despicable as that may be. Pushing for tax increases without first getting rid of counterproductive or useless programs and cleaning up mismanagement is an example of policy corruption. The results of the extensive moral, intellectual and policy corruption in the United States in recent years can be seen readily in the accompanying chart, which includes data from both right- and left-leaning organizations.

Barack Hussein Obama's new chief of staff is a multimillionaire, as were his first two chiefs of staff. Like the recently departed William Daley and Rahm Emanuel, Jacob Lew ‘made his millions while passing through the revolving doors that lie between the Democratic Party and Wall Street,' said Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro. The fund Mr. Lew managed for Citigroup lost billions.  The bank was bailed out by the Troubled Asset Relief Program. New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgensen described in ‘Reckless Endangerment' how the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) ‘and the government housing policies it supported, pursued and exploited brought the financial system to a halt in 2008.' Mr. Daley served on Fannie Mae's board.  Mr. Emanuel was on Freddie Mac's board.  Journalists rarely report these facts, because they clash with the narrative. For Democrats, politics is all about narratives, of which the most important is: Republicans are the party of the rich.  That's the biggest lie in politics today.