mr president the greatest constraint on a government is external competition
a state can raise its taxes only up to a certain level before the money begins to go abroad and the revenues dwindle
as milton friedman put it competition between governments in their delivery of services and their levels of taxation is every bit as productive as competition between companies and individuals
this is why it is so distressing to see the european union going down the road towards tax harmonisation and the export of high costs from one country to another
if there was one theme which came out of these recent commission nomination hearings it was the desire for a dedicated revenue stream for the european union and for a measure of tax harmonisation
that explains why the european union's share of world gdp is dwindling why we have fallen from thirty-six twenty years ago to twenty-five today and we are scheduled to fall to fifteen in ten years time
the good news is that the electorate does not like it
like the people of massachusetts the people of europe do not want taxation without representation and i am sure they will vote accordingly
