Is Russia now freer than the US of A?

I’m an old Cold Warrior. I even signed up for a 4-year hitch in the U.S. Army and became a Russian linguist to do my part in thwarting the Soviet Union.

So it dismays me when Russia, formerly Commie Central, becomes freer in many ways that my own country. I’m happy for the Russkies, but lament my own lack of freedom.

Our clueless Secretary of State, Condi Rice, supposedly an expert on Russia, says:

In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” Rice told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists. “I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Dum.

True, the Russians have concentrated too much power in the Kremlin — but nowhere near as much as Americans have concentrated in the office of our own Kremlin, the White House. The Bush regime calls it the “unitary executive,” meaning he runs everything, Congress and the courts nothing.

Former Reagan administration top official Paul Craig Roberts writes:

The unitary executive theory is a way to turn the US president into Big Brother. Already Bush is replacing Congress as the arbiter of law and the judiciary as the arbiter of rights. The media enable his usurpation, and the people, distracted by war and “terrorism,” have their various forms of soma.

In Russia, at least, taxes are much lower than here. Putin has cut Russia’s top income tax rate to just 13%, producing a booming economy. By contrast, in Condi’s “free” America, the top federal tax rate is 35%. And if your are unfortunate enough to live in Taxifornia, like me, the top state rate tacks on an additional 10.3%, for a total of 45.3%. That’s more than 3 times the Russki rate.

Put another way, on income taxes, Russians are three times freer than Kalifornians.

And let’s not forget what top commie theorist Karl Marx wrote in “The Communist Manifesto.” In his 10 Planks of Communism, he insisted on:

A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

So, who’s more commie now, Russia with a flat, 13% income tax? Or Taxifornia, with “A heavy progressive or graduated income tax” of 45.3%?

Condi Rice is a Californian. If she truly cares about freedom, she’ll resign her current post and lead a fight right here to Recall Arnold, abolish Kalifornia’s income tax entirely, and cut the top U.S. income tax rate to 13% or less.

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