Internet Sales Tax

So why does a resident of Idaho making an online purchase that will be shipped to another state, Louisiana as an example,  have to pay that states sales tax on their purchase?  Does that Idaho resident still have to claim that purchase on their Idaho income tax return?

Idaho Mandatory Auto Insurance

Became aware of this from Dad and Norma’s recent experience.  Here is the background – Norma was driving their brand new vehicle home from Pocatello.  As I recall they took deliver of the car a few days earlier and it had 100 or so miles on it.  Cruising down the interstate Norma came upon a pickup with a clothes dryer dancing around in the pickup bed since it was not secured.  Oh,  the tailgate wasn’t in the up position either.  Long story short the pickup contacts Dad and Norma’s nice shiny blemish free vehicle causing significant damage.  The pickup driver is at fault and has no insurance.  Idaho law requires insurance to register a vehicle.  The police come and do their duty after which the pickup driver hops in the pickup and drives off!!  Common sense would seem to dictate that the pickup driver be given a ride to the local jail and the pickup impounded until proof of insurance is presented.  Apparently, that is not how the law works.  Question – what if this pickup driver got involved in another accident after this and a fatality was involved?  Couldn’t the state of Idaho be a party to that since they let the driver go?

Electoral College

For those grumbling about the recent election and why a candidate with a majority of the popular vote can still lose please take some time to study U.S history and why the electoral college was designed the way it is by the founding fathers.  A recent article (sorry can’t find the link) had the best yet example of how the Electoral College functioned as planned.  In a nutshell the article pointed out that if California was removed from the overall results Trump would have easily had a majority of the popular vote.  Clinton did win California and its’ 55 Electoral College votes.  But as we know that was not enough to crown her POTUS.   If the president was chosen by simple majority California alone would have determined the winner.  And this is fundamentally what the Founding Fathers did not want to happen.

My personal belief is that the people up in arms over the Electoral College process is evidence that our schools are not covering the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as they should be.  If you would like to do a study please checkout the online course from  Hillsdale College.