Defending the American Dream Summit - Day 2

Well, I just got home from the second day of the Defending the American Dream Summit (see previous post).

Yesterday's session wrapped up with up with a speech from Barry Goldwater, Jr. and a keynote address from Robert "The Prince of Darkness" Novak. Novak was hilarious. He had a few clear messages for disillusioned Republicans and Ron Paul holdouts:

First, to those worried about the 2008 election or resigned to an Obama win - don't be so sure - and you should really be worried about 2010 anyway. That's when Democrats will get a big chance to change the rules of the game through redistricting. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

To those still holding out for a dark horse candidate to come in at the convention to replace McCain: forget it. The convention is just an "informercial" and holding on to your McCain hate is just helping the left.

And for the Ron Paul fans in attendence, "Now don't applause -- I really like Ron Paul..." (prompting wild applause of course from a few tables) "...where he is." Heh.

Day 2 of the conference featured a general session with speakers including former Maryland Lt. Governor and GOPAC Chairman Michael Steele, author and economist Grover Norquist, John Fund and Steve Moore of The Wall Street Journal, Congressman John Carter, RedState's Erick Erickson, Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams (who was awesome by the way -- look for this guy running for congress or senate some day), author/blogger Michelle Malkin of HotAir.com and others.

The breakout sessions turned the focus of the conference to specific issues and actions attendees can take online to make a difference. Panel sessions included topics such taxes and government funding, government spending, education reform, global warming hysteria, taxpayer rights, new media vs. old media and more.

I had to duck out a little early, but I was able to attend a panel session with Steve Moore, Galveston Tax-Assessor Collector Cheryl Johnson, David Hartman of the Lone Star Foundation and Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation on taxes, government funding and monetary policy. The session was only an hour long, but information dense. Some of the highlights:

• Texas is now the #1 state for corporate headquarters in the nation. This is due to our favorable business taxation and regulation climate (although we still have work to do - i.e. the business margins tax).
• Switching to an acquisition-value based property tax appraisal system as advocated by Cheryl Johnson could save millions and keep property taxes low at the same time.
• Countries all over the world are lowering their corporate taxes to be more competitive while politicians in the US call for raisign them (Barack Obama being one prominent).
• The US has the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world amng industrialized nations just behind Japana - which, along with most others, is considering lowering theirs.
• All 50 US states impose higher corporate taxes than France.
• Ireland's economic success (the "Celtic Tiger") is directly tied to lowering their corporate tax rate.

I took about three pages of notes in this session alone. By the time it was over, I think I was getting a little information overload, but overall I learned a lot at the conference, met quite a few great people and fellow center/right bloggers, but most important, I got inspired to take action. Significant developments are already in progress that I'm really excited to be a part of.

The next Defending the Dream summit will be held in Washington, DC on October 10-11. Daphne and I had such a great time last night and today, we're considering a trip to DC.

Update: Travis at Voice in the Wilderness has been liveblogging the whole conference with pretty detailed notes from the sessions.