I read a report today that Massachusetts Representative Bill Delahunt and Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi seek to use the federal government to force our local businesses to comply with 49 other states’ draconian tax laws.

There are 7,000 different tax agencies in the United States. Who do you think can better afford to comply with these myriad regulations: A large, multinational company like Wal-Mart or someone starting up in his West Seattle basement or Queen Anne apartment?

It is hard enough for local, Seattle businesses to get by in this troubled economy. The last thing we need are distant governments making it too expensive for our new businesses to grow and provide new jobs to Seattle residents. Is not unemployment high enough already?

If Enzi and Delahunt believe their local constituents pay too little taxes, fine. They can go to their constituents and collect any necessary taxes. But they have no right to place this burden of collection and compliance on our local businessmen, thousands of miles from their localities.

Seattle needs to concentrate on what we are best at: providing great products and service for the best value. Learning how to comply with Wyoming tax law prevents this.

Please contact your representatives and let them know you feel the same.

The Seattle Tea party rally at Westlake Center was massive! I’ll add some audio clips soon. Meanwhile, check out the pictures of the protest:

More pictures after my comments.

Here are my observations:

Lots of anger at the unconstitutional Federal Reserve System.

• People passed around fliers supporting Ron Paul’s efforts to Audit the Fed.
• Lots of people talking about the evils of fiat currency.
• People talking about gold. Have they been reading Mises?

The movement has many very dedicated, well organized members:

• The MC encouraged everyone to send a text message to help count size of group; doing so also registers people for the “Tax Revolt Coalition”.
• Organizers repeatedly displayed phone numbers for Jim McDermott and Patty Murray — and then everyone left Patty Murray a group voicemail (McDermott has no voicemail).
• When overly partisan speakers left the stage — some prospective Senator who only talked about cutting taxes — the MC reminded everyone that we are tired of people forgetting the need to cut spending; the group has not forgotten the results from the last time the GOP rode the wave of a small-government rebellion and became fraudulent conservatives.
• Some counter-protestors brought some obscene signs. The MC was careful to add distance from the obscenities while respecting their right to free speech.

The Seattle event felt a little more partisan to me. People calling for an end to the trillions we spend murdering

I talked with friends at the Libertarian party, Campaign for Liberty and Committees of Safety. I believe this is a great time to be a libertarian. In fact, one of the C4L members looked like he had a body guard. Of course, the body guard was at the last C4L meeting promoting a marksmanship class. I wanted to say hello but he had that serious, “on duty” attitude.

I saw many Objectivist signs: Ayn Rand was right; Who is John Galt? etc. Bill Herman, one of the leading Objectivists in the area was passing out fliers. I think this is an exciting time to be an Objectivist.

More pictures:

[caption id="attachment_1350" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Probably my favorite non-Fed related billboard of the evening."][/caption][caption id="attachment_1352" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="How old was this guy? He clearly explained to me why we must abolish the tyrannical Federal Reserve System. Brilliant! Awesome!!"][/caption]

More pictures here.

I just returned from the Bellevue, WA tea party rally.

I observed the following:

• Very loud, powerful rejection of the idea of a state income tax and taxation in general: property taxes, excise taxes, etc.
• Lots of love on the liberty and constitution.
• Most people were libertarian/non-partisan, but partisan sentiment did exist:
  • Repeated attempts to assert the non-partisan nature that went over well.
  • Partisan attacks usually began with an apology, “I know this is not a partisan event but…”
  • Partisan flavor was almost all Republican/Conservative.
  • Far less excitement over partisan attempts to criticize Obama (ie, he’s weak on foreign policy type comments) than on criticism of debt, spending and taxation.

I plan to attend the rally in Seattle this afternoon. I hope to see some of you there!

More pictures: