The biggest news in sports Thursday night was that basketball star LeBron James chose to come play in Florida for the Miami Heat rather than stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He may have had many reasons – sunny weather, the nightlife of South Beach, etc. – to come to Miami, but there is another reason that makes moving to Florida a rational decision not just for a basketball superstar, but for anyone who works hard and wants to keep the fruits of his labors.
Florida has no state or local income tax. Ohio, on the other hand has both state and local taxes on income. Other celebrities like Tiger Woods and Rush Limbaugh have chosen to move to Florida. Limbaugh, a Florida resident since the late 1990s, makes no secret of the fact that New York’s excessive tax burden was an important factor for his move.
States with high tax burdens like New York, New Jersey and California are facing fiscal crisis because of their disproportional dependence on high income earners for tax revenue and the ability of their wealthiest residents to flee from these states to low-tax states like Florida and Texas.
Cleveland should not put its hopes for an economic revival on the presence of a basketball star. It would be better off focusing on slashing its excessive government burden and creating a more welcoming economic climate for attracting capital and getting wealthy individuals to stay.
We welcome LeBron James to Florida and hope that the people of Ohio will learn from their loss and work to change their state and local governments and their excessive appetite for taxing the creators of wealth.
Rush Limbaugh looks healthy and a lot slimmer than the pictures his opponents like to use. He will return to his radio show next Wednesday. Rush commented today on his treatment after experiencing chest pains on Wednesday:
Hawaiian TV station KHON2 reports that the founder of conservative talk radio Rush Limbaugh has been rushed to the hospital with chest pains.
Florida Pundit hopes that Rush will fully recover soon and continue his leadership in defending American values.
Conservatives on Twitter are upset about the hate that is being spewed on various liberal blogs and news sites.
One of Rush’s remarkable character traits has been that he has stayed positive and optimistic despite the venomous attacks he has had to deal with in his almost 20 years as the leading national radio talk show host. Don’t dignify the hatemongers with reading their poisonous tirades. They are not worth your time.
While we are praying for Rush’s recovery, listen to Rush’s recent interview with William Shatner. It is a very personal interview in which you get to know a little more about the person who has been on the radio for three hours weekdays for twenty years.
In a Wall Street Journal Editorial Rush Limbaugh responds to the media frenzy surrounding his attempt to buy an NFL team.
… Next came writers in the sports world, like the Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon. He wrote this gem earlier this week: “I’m not going to try and give specific examples of things Limbaugh has said over the years because I screwed up already doing that, repeating a quote attributed to Limbaugh (about slavery) which he has told me he simply did not say and does not reflect his feelings. I take him at his word. . . . ”
Mr. Wilbon wasn’t alone. Numerous sportswriters, CNN, MSNBC, among others, falsely attributed to me statements I had never made. Their sources, as best I can tell, were Wikipedia and each other. But the Wikipedia post was based on a fabrication printed in a book that also lacked any citation to an actual source.
The sports media elicited comments from a handful of players, none of whom I can recall ever meeting. Among other things, at least one said he would never play for a team I was involved in given my racial views. My racial views? You mean, my belief in a colorblind society where every individual is treated as a precious human being without regard to his race? Where football players should earn as much as they can and keep as much as they can, regardless of race? Those controversial racial views?
Rush having been prevented from being a minority owner in an NFL team has implications far beyond this incident. The left is now preventing Americans from pursuing opportunities solely because they do not support the left’s agenda. Party membership is required or you will be ostracized even if the media has to make up lies about you.
There is a contempt in the news business, including the sportswriter community, for conservatives that reflects the blind hatred espoused by Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson. “Racism” is too often their sledgehammer. And it is being used to try to keep citizens who don’t share the left’s agenda from participating in the full array of opportunities this nation otherwise affords each of us. It was on display many years ago in an effort to smear Clarence Thomas with racist stereotypes and keep him off the Supreme Court. More recently, it was employed against patriotic citizens who attended town-hall meetings and tea-party protests.
These intimidation tactics are working and spreading, and they are a cancer on our society.
The biggest news in sports Thursday night was that basketball star LeBron James chose to come play in Florida for the Miami Heat rather than stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He may have had many reasons – sunny weather, the nightlife of South Beach, etc. – to come to Miami, but there is another reason that makes moving to Florida a rational decision not just for a basketball superstar, but for anyone who works hard and wants to keep the fruits of his labors.
