Jacques Chirac: Now would be a good time to shut-up.

You know I really think that its time that somebody should liberate the world from the likes of Jacques Chirac and all like minded ones. Not content with taxing his fellow citizens he keeps coming up with proposals for new international taxation schemes. At the beginning of January he was busy hyping an international tax to develop a fund to help poor countries manage disaster relief efforts. This week he is proposing an international tax for AIDS. Yahoo News is reporting:

French President Jacques Chirac called for an "experimental" international tax to help fund the war against AIDS, suggesting it could be raised via a levy on airline tickets, some fuels or financial transactions.

In a speech via video link to political and business leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos, he said at least 10 billion dollars (7.7 billion euros) a year was needed -- up from six billion annually now -- to stem the spread of the disease.

Chirac, prevented from flying to the World Economic Forum here through poor weather, said that despite huge efforts so far, "we are failing in the face of this terrible pandemic."

He suggested options including: a "contribution" on international financial transactions, a tax on aviation and maritime fuel, a tax on capital movements in or out of countries which practised banking secrecy, or a "small levy" such as a dollar on the three billion airline tickets sold every year.

"What is striking about these examples," Chirac said, "is the disproportion between the modest efforts required and the benefits everyone would reap from them." The president said developed countries should also create tax incentives to stimulate private donations to charity.

I don’t know how they do it in France, but here in the New World governments already give income tax credits for charitable donations. Someone ought to tell Chirac that the Americans went to war for the right not to be taxed without representation. Trust me, they’d do it again, and I, for one, would not hesitate to bring the ammo. And for the record Chirac, McGirlieman beat you to my paycheque at the office.