Bob Lord

Bob has mostly wound down his 39-year career as a tax and business lawyer (with a 1-year interruption to run for Congress in 2008 (CD3), when he tried to unseat John Shadegg. Bob now serves as the senior advisor on tax policy for the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who believe the light taxation of America's rich is destabilizing our democracy, and as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Bob has been writing for Blog For Arizona since late 2011, concentrating mostly on federal issues, with an occasional foray into Arizona state politics.

One Courageous Kid

by

Posted by Bob Lord

There's a post over at Salon about a 15 year-old Boy Scout who is ready to quit if the Scouts don't change their anti-gay policies. Although the post does not say so expressly, by all appearances this kid is not gay himself. He's a devout Mormon. He joined the Scouts through his LDS Church.

And he's inches away from becoming an Eagle Scout.

The Company Doug MacEachern Keeps

by

Posted by Bob Lord

The Arizona Republic's Doug MacEachern is out with his nuanced view of the minimum wage, which he's reduced to 78 words: 

The minimum wage is to the Left a sort of private-sector welfare: By the state’s edict, other people’s money is spent on counterproductive feel-goodism. See? Same as welfare. Over 37 percent of Black teens and 20 percent of White teens lack jobs for a reason. When entry-level jobs are more costly, there are fewer of them. The president’s proposal to hike the minimum wage will steal jobs; steal training; steal futures. Is that really worth making libs feel good inside?

Pretty deep thinking there, dude. Hope you didn't strain any brain cells. 

Doug's in some very impressive company with this view. The folks who have railed against the minimum wage include:

  • Michele Bachman;
  • Herman Cain;
  • Rick Perry;
  • Joe Miller (remember him?);
  • Ron Paul and Rand Paul; and
  • Peter Schiff

Quite a group.

My New Favorite Website

by

Posted by Bob Lord

Well, not entirely. I'm still enthralled with TomDispatch. But I just bumped into Paulcraigroberts.org, and really like some of his posts. Roberts was an assistant Treasury Secretary under Reagan, but apparently has changed his views since then.

Potentially Potent: The Libertarian-Green Combo

by

Posted by Bob Lord

The Libertarian and Green Parties have a few things in common. Most noticeably, they've both been wandering in the desert for decades and, in terms of the struggle to gain popularity, they're both as lost today as they've ever been.

I wonder, though, if they seized on their other commonalities — especially their intense distaste for U.S. foreign and military policy — and put everything else aside, whether they might bring an end to their wandering.

The Great Experiment in Human Misery Continues

by

Posted by Bob Lord New data is in on our great experiment: How much wealth and how much income can we jam into the top 1% before the bottom 90% explodes? Apparently, quite a bit. As the New York Times reports,  Incomes rose more than 11 percent for the top 1 percent of earners during … Read more