Archive for the ‘Progressives Movement to Destroy America’ Category
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This article from The American Thinker is a good overview of the IRS scandal in case you need to get the facts straight or understand just what it all means to you. The Internal Revenue Service is the most powerful department in the government. No one, but NO ONE dares to go up against the IRS. This being the case it is a powerful weapon for any congressman or President to use to get back at anyone they don’t like. This is what has happened with the conservatives in our country who dared to oppose the Democrats and Obama: The IRS was notified to “look into the activities” of any groups who applied for tax exempt status with certain words in their names. Words like “Tea Party, ”Conservative”, ”Constitution”. The Treasury Department Inspector General (Treasury oversees the IRS) sat right beside the IRS Director in the Congressional hearing Friday and refuted every lie the IRS Director told! The Inspector General stated without a doubt that certain groups were “targeted” by the IRS deliberately. The Inspector General also stated that he told members of the Obama White House of his findings last summer well before the elections and yet Obama is playing deaf and dumb!
Inspectors General are people who have no political affiliation and whose job it is to police the departments in the government. These people are the public’s watch dogs and are chosen for their high standards and integrity. Many of them have been denigrated by this administration in the past four years when they have dared to speak up so I expect this one (Mr. George) to be vilified also in the next week or so.
Anyhow, the following article may be useful to you when trying to argue the points while some bone head or other damned fool. 
BB
May 18, 2013
The IRS Scandal — a Basic Primer
Confusion about the IRS scandal is distracting from its importance, so that thinking conservatives should be prepared to debate the issue. Some basics matter. Conservatives may need to share a summary such as this article to help convince moderate friends.Callers to C-SPAN badly misunderstood these details when Jenny Beth Martin, Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, appeared on C-SPAN television last week. I interviewed Keli Carender of Tea Party Patriots on the radio on May15, who helped clarify some of the pushback and distractions from liberals.
First, don’t let people forget: the IRS scandal is not about conservative accusations. The Inspector General of the U.S. Treasury issued a report finding that the Internal Revenue Service sharply discriminated against conservative organizations. This is confirmed by Treasury’s Inspector General.
Second, a group’s political beliefs and positions ought to be totally irrelevant. Tax exemption must be based on what an organization does, not what it believes or what positions it supports. Whether a group teaches the Constitution or teaches union tactics doesn’t matter, it is educating either way. Therefore, the IRS should not have been looking at the name of the organization, whether liberal or conservative, but on the substance of the organization.
Third, many people don’t realize that nearly all liberal political organizations are tax exempt. There has been a lot of distraction and diversion focused on whether or not the IRS should have scrutinized tea party groups. However, MoveOn.org, NARAL Pro-Choice America, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood (which has been active in partisan election campaigns), Media Matters, etc., are all tax exempt. Organizations on the Left similar to tea party groups have had tax exempt status forever.
Fourth, don’t allow people to wander away from the central point that the scandal is about a double standard — not whether people believe political organizations should be tax exempt. Conservatives seeking tax exempt status were treated very differently from similarly-situated liberal organizations. Sure, some liberal groups were scrutinized. But conservatives were treated differently.
IRS official Lois Lerner fast-walked the tax-exempt application of Barack Obama’s half-brother, the best man at President Obama’s wedding. Abon’go “Roy’ Malik Obama got tax-exempt status in a bureaucratic breakneck speed, in only 30 days, in May 2011, even though it is unclear what if anything the Barack H. Obama Foundation actually does or has done since being approved.
When a conservative organization Media Trackers couldn’t get approved after 8 months, it changed its project to the liberal-sounding name “Greenhouse Solutions.” With the new name, the exact same project was approved within 3 weeks.
Liberal groups — even with very political activities — were systematically approved, and quickly, with relatively little burden or scrutiny, as reported by USA Today.
Groups supporting Israel were discriminated against. In August 2010, a pro-Israel group “Z Street” filed a Federal lawsuit when an IRS staff member admitted that all Israel-related groups were singled out by the IRS for extra scrutiny. There will be a hearing this July 2013, after the case was transferred to the Federal district in Washington, D.C.
The IRS demanded that a Pro-Life group promote abortion in order to get tax-exempt status. No liberal group has such a requirement. NARAL and Planned Parenthood are not required to promote abstinence, adoption, or Pro-Life Crisis Pregnancy Centers.
It is the law that the IRS must answer within 270 days for 501(c)(3) organizations, yet the IRS delayed conservative organizations for more than 540 days.
Fifth, there are many different types of tea party organizations. Some tea party organizations are Political Action Committees (PAC’s) which are directly involved in election campaigns. Others focus purely on training tea party organizers and members on how to be effective in organizing events and lobbying on legislation. Some purely educate about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Federalist Papers, etc. Others lobby on pending legislation.
So when the public hears about tea party organizations applying for tax exempt status, they often imagine only campaigning for or against a candidate. That is not tax exempt. Some tea party groups qualify. Some don’t.
Sixth, many have questioned whether the IRS wasn’t doing the job it should have done by asking questions of tea party groups seeking tax exempt status. No one objects to the IRS obtaining basic information and asking reasonable questions. The problem is that the IRS bombarded tea party and conservative groups with multiple waves of a huge number of very intrusive questions. And the wave after wave of questions seemed aimed at never getting around to finishing the process or persuading groups to simply give up and abandon their application.
Seventh, many don’t recognize what ‘tax exempt’ means. It means that if someone donates to a tea party group, the donations are not taxed as income. Otherwise, any political organization would have to pay income taxes on donations.
A tax-exempt organization may still have to pay taxes on other income, such as sales of products or services. Some C-SPAN callers imagined that people in such groups don’t pay income taxes. Of course, people running or working in tax-exempt groups pay income taxes on their salary the same as everyone else.
There are four important categories:
1. A 501(c)(4) organization is tax-exempt (they don’t pay income taxes on donations). A 501(c)(4) organization is allowed to lobby for or against legislation, but is not allowed to advocate for or against a candidate. A 501(c)(4) also can do anything a 501(c)(3) can do.
2. A 501(c)(3) organization is both tax-exempt and tax-deductible. That is, contributors can deduct their donations from their income taxes. It is much more difficult to qualify for 501(c)(3) status. A 501(c)(3) cannot lobby for or against legislation (except to an insignificant extent) and may not engage in any partisan’ (campaign) activity. A 501(c)(3) can educate the public on policy, issues, the advantages and disadvantages of various political policies and topics like the Constitution, concepts of our Founding Fathers, etc. or train citizens.
3. A Political Action Committee (PAC or Super-PAC) intervenes directly in partisan campaigns and does not qualify as tax exempt.
4. A 527 organization is a recent development, which also intervenes directly in partisan campaigns and does not qualify as tax exempt.
Eighth, many are not aware of the difference between ‘political’ and ‘partisan.’ Tax exempt organizations are allowed to engage in public discussion and lobbying of ‘political’ issues affecting society. That is very different from ‘partisan’ activity. ‘Partisan’ means influencing a campaign — that is, advocating for or against a candidate in an election (not necessarily just discussing policy or issues).
An example is the liberal Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, tax deductible foundation. Its head Melanie Sloan earns $230,000 per year. CREW does nothing but slander conservative Republicans and a few Democrats who get out of line with mostly false accusations.
Christine O’Donnell won the Republican primary for United States Senate from Delaware. This was learned at 8:00 PM on September 14, 2010. By about 11:00 AM on September 15, 2010, CREW started attacking Christine O’Donnell and publicly declaring that Christine belongs in jail not in the Senate.
Advocating for or against a candidate is the test of ‘partisan’ (campaign) activity that is prohibited for a tax-exempt organization. CREW ignored Christine until she won the GOP Primary. But within hours CREW started attacking her. CREW explicitly referenced her status as a candidate, and specifically that she does not belong in the Senate. Melanie Sloan explicitly said that the voters should know all this when they go to vote in November 2010.
I noticed this pattern and conceived, developed, planned, and drafted the complaint against CREW to the IRS, which ChristinePAC later filed with the IRS in July 2011. Yet two years later, the IRS has done nothing. Melanie Sloan’s parents are big donors to former Delaware Senator Joe Biden and CREW attacks conservatives. Don’t expect the IRS to hold liberals responsible for anything.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/the_irs_scandal__a_basic_primer.html#ixzz2TgoNNdjy
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Just a bit and brush up on history
Posted on: May 13, 2013
Here is an interesting article from American Thinker I would like to pass on to my Readers. I lived thru all of the events the author writes about. It is a short article and names only a very few of the “causes” I can tell you that his assessments are correct and would be correct for all those he doesn’t name. All of the “causes” were originally proposed and fought for with the best of intentions; then they all somehow went wrong. They went wrong because they were taken over by those who would destroy us. And while those who were the most fervent believers in their particular “cause” were lied to and play with and conned into believing the destroyers were with soul-mates the majority of us were sleeping thru it all and going our own silly, passive, pampered ways. Fiddling while Rome burned so to speak.
Obama is the last link in the chain that will enslave us to the rule of a soulless group of subhuman thugs, otherwise known as sociopaths. I am suggesting this article to you simply as a history lesson for those of you too young to know, or remember, some of the beginnings that have brought us to this point. BB
May 13, 2013
Barack Obama and the End of an Era
By Steve McCann
The re-election of Barack Obama is the high water mark and the end of an era. The period 1960 to 2014 will go down in American history as the era of never-ending crusades leading to the decline and potential downfall of the United States. During this time frame America has been inundated with one cause after another. The essential civil rights movement and the tragically successful Viet Nam protests spawned numerous causes, among them: feminism, environmentalism, global warming, and gay rights.
For each generation born after 1940 it has been a rite of passage to take up the mantle of protest concurrent with mindless dedication to oftentimes absurd and erroneous beliefs, which have, in nearly all cases, resulted in disastrous societal and economic consequences.
With the backdrop of unimaginable prosperity and lack of any national adversity since the end of the Great Depression, far too many have sought so-called meaning in their lives and for a cause to wholeheartedly and fervently embrace. To countless Americans these movements became their religion and reason for being. This mindset is unique among western democracies and it has been easily e
xploited by the American left — a major factor in their rise to power and domination of the culture and government.
As the left stealthily hijacked these causes, they were able to convince the True Believers in all these various movements that they stood with them; but more important was their ability to ingrain the conviction that anyone who opposed any of these evolving crusades was the incarnation of evil and must be defeated at all costs. Political Correctness and its companion, unrestrained demonization of political opposition, was born.
The Civil Rights movement begun with best of intentions, and long overdue, achieved many of its original goals in breaking down the barriers to equality; however it soon degenerated into a battering ram as the liberals, in order to create a vast national dependency class, demanded, in the name of civil rights, innumerable and ever-expanding welfare programs as well as unending affirmative action for ever-evolving “minorities” (including women, a numerical majority). The nation now faces a tsunami of unsustainable welfare and entitlement spending emanating from programs begun in the 1960′s.
The Viet Nam war protests, while perhaps justified in light of the ham-handed manner in which the war was prosecuted, unleashed far more than just a demand for an end to the war. Those that blamed America for all manner of alleged sins in the past and determined to transform the United States into a socialist nirvana were able to step out from behind the shadows and enter the mainstream of national legitimacy. This swarm of locusts soon enveloped the higher levels of academia spawning countless clones to further infiltrate all levels of society — most notably the mainstream media and entertainment complex as well as primary and secondary education. These vital segments of the culture are now instruments of indoctrination and propaganda.
The feminist movement originally initiated to ensure workplace equality was quickly taken over by the self-described “Progressives” and transformed into a vehicle to alter American society primarily through the legitimization of abortion on demand under the rubric of “women’s rights.” Since 1973 the nation has witnessed the killing of over 54.5 million children, which has eventuated in a grotesque disregard for human life, as exemplified by Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia. This catastrophic erosion in respect for the uniqueness of each individual has resulted in American society inexorably losing its moral compass. Thus the people have become more susceptible to accepting deviancy and abandoning all pretexts of honor and integrity in themselves and in particular their national leaders.
As with other causes, the environmental movement began with the best of intentions: to clean up the air and water polluted through years of neglect. However, it quickly evolved into an anti-capitalist crusade with the
avowed intent of promoting socialist big government as the savior of the planet and the only means of curbing the evil and greedy capitalists. Man-made global warming, perhaps the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind, became the penultimate dogma to those dedicated to things “bigger than themselves” and who turned out to be ideal useful idiots for the left. Today the free market is shackled by a Niagara Falls of regulations, mandates, taxes and oversight thus devastating the ability of the economy to create wealth and jobs.
While the nation slumbered, content in its prosperity, the American left, during the past fifty plus years of never-ending crusades, has succeeded in creating:
A) a vast army of voters made up of: 1) those dependent on government largess, 2) low-information voters — the natural outgrowth of the current education system, and 3) the easily manipulated and myopic single issue zealots. The election of Barack Obama is a testament to the success of this strategy.
B) national leadership devoid of character and integrity who, in their determination to seize and hold power, are guided by only one principle: the end justifies the means.
C) an entrenched and unrestrained de facto oligarchy in Washington D.C.
D) economic circumstances wherein, for the first time in American history, a succeeding generation will be far worse off than the one preceding it. Meanwhile the ruling class is insistent on adding untold millions to the labor force by legitimizing, for political purposes, those in the country illegally.
E) a deliberately ill-educated and fractured society destined for internal strife and chaos.
The prosperity that allowed this stealth war on United States to occur is no more. This nation is subsisting on the residue of its past glory with no hope of regaining its former lofty status as long as it is governed by the most dangerous and radical regime in its history. The American people, as their day to day lives continue to deteriorate, are becoming increasingly aware of the nation’s precarious situation.
Beginning in 2014, as Benghazi and a myriad of other scandals combined with a rapidly declining standard of living for a vast majority of Americans marginalizes the Obama cabal, the focus of the nation will no longer be on bumper sticker platitudes and movements. Instead it will, by necessity, be on individual survival as well as desperately finding a way, before the nation descends into chaos, to recreate what made the United States the most successful nation in the history of mankind. (The author holds out hope in this last paragraph that We the People tho hurt badly and demoralized will at last wake up and see where we have been lead and somehow drag ourselves back from the brink. I personally wonder if it is possible. Obama has so many entrenched allies and blind fools who are all willing to throw themselves on the sword point in order to save him. Will Benghazi take him and Hillary down? Will the Clinton’s throw Obama “under the bus” as is their nature when they are threatened? And if Obama goes does the damage he has done go with him starting with Obamacare? I don’t know. BB)
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/the_re-election_of_barack_obama.html#ixzz2TC7NJFvn
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Americans were told in the early 1960′s by a funny looking short chubby Russian leader named Khrushchev that America would be defeated by Communism and not a shot would be fired. If you care to go to my right side column you will find a series of videos made in the 1980′s by a former KGB (Russia’s top spy agency) agent explaining exactly how the Communist planned to overthrow America (Subverting America by Uri Bezmenov). I am 72 years old and I watched it happen exactly as Bezmenov said it would happen and exactly as Khrushchev claimed as he banged his shoe on the podium. Many laughed and said it would never happen but here we are fifty years later and it is happening. the last brick in the wall of our American prison is being put in place with the federal CORE Curriculum that the government is forcing on states. The text books of the CORE Curriculum have completely rewritten history! Beware!
Do read carefully this article from the Cato Instutute. Then check carefuylllly and keep an eye on your own schools and what is being fed to your children. BB
May 4, 2013
The Great Education Power-Grab
Did you know that reformers intent on implementing the Core Curriculum (National Standards) have invaded public education? They do not care about kids or about individuals. Armed with statistics and vast software systems, their intent is to establish one-size-fits-all curricula and success parameters in public education nationwide. The scope of their ambitions leads this educator to the conclusion that their underlying impulse is totalitarian.
These reformers are driving toward the six- or seven-class-a-day high school teaching load, the 9-5 schedule for the schools (or longer), school provided free and compulsory for ages 2 to 22 (or 26), the six- or seven-day school week, and the 12-month school year (with two- or three-week vacation breaks scattered throughout the school year), all controlled by a vast bureaucracy nationwide and justified by the implementation of “national standards.” A database of answers to 400 questions by all U.S. students K-20 will be compiled and maintained at a tremendous cost to the public. Forty-six states are already on board. This 20-plus years of control and indoctrination will, if implemented, become a cornerstone of statist control.mic
Who’s doing it? These reforms are led by Bill Ayers, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, and Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York City. They are also led by educational publishers such as Cengage, Pearson, McGraw Hill, and McDougal Littel. They have a host of supporters including, but not limited to, the Coalition of Essential Schools, New Visions, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and other NGOs that want to bring equality and progress [sic] to institutions supposedly failing to their very core. These “reformers” are being abetted by their so-called adversaries, the education unions: UFT, AFT, NEA, and NYSUT. Claiming to object to some of the teacher hostility expressed by the “reformers,” these unions actually are 100% in tune with the political and social agenda of those reformers. Why? Because the movement toward “national standards” by these reformers means increased membership and dues for the unions, consolidation of power, and national promotion of their left-wing agenda. The education unions become junior partners in one of the greatest power plays in the history of this country.
The key to their vision, if one can call this Brave New World and 1984 nightmare a “vision,” is to bring in a whole new class of school administrators. These administrators do not have teaching experience. Teaching experience tends to breed respect for the individual. Instead, the drive of national standards is to collectivize, to standardize, and to establish one-size-fits-all educational benchmarks, goals, and curricula. The new mandarins of education are people in their twenties or early thirties who are to come in and uproot the supposed garbage of the past. Likewise, pressures are being brought to bear on older teachers and experienced administrators to get out of the way of the “agenda of change.”
A few years ago, this writer attended a meeting to recruit teachers into the New York City Department of Education Leadership Academy for prospective principals, and the sophisticated and attractive hostess of the program was asked, “When reviewing applications to the program, do you take into account whether the applicant has written and published any articles of books?” Without hesitation, the woman answered firmly that she does not. Connection with the world of books is not part of leadership in education. On another occasion, this writer even heard one principal in the New York City Department of Education say that he is not interested in having libraries where books just gather a lot of dust; rather, he wants to replace all books with much cheaper and less space-consuming CDs. He added that students do not need literature in high school; they need only skill-sets for proper English usage. Under the Common Core, literature is being de-emphasized in favor of nonfiction, and excerpts will replace the reading of entire texts.
The thrust during Bloomberg’s years as mayor of New York City has been to recruit people with little or no experience in education to teach and to run the schools. This supposedly is to refresh a profession that has been too insulated from accountability and new ideas for too long. We saw this in Chicago, when Arne Duncan was the head of the schools. He had only had a little tutoring experience, but his goal was to renovate and revamp the failing system. As far as anyone knows, the system there is still failing.
What, then, do we find? From top to bottom, the NYC Dept. of Education is replete with administrators with little teaching experience. Often selected because they are inexperienced and willing to be as insensitive as a cactus in order to please their superiors, they come to impose themselves as “leaders” on those who are already making great sacrifices as teachers.
Then there are teaching fellows and other “career change” types who have decided they want to begin a new career path in education. They soon learn the realities of life in the schools, and many leave. Many teaching fellows are also brilliant and idealistic, and they come into education to make a difference in the lives of individuals and society as a whole. However, they find that they not only have to deal with incredibly complex and difficult classroom and building situations, but many times are being badgered by clueless administrators who are the “new breed” as described above. This author recently heard a highly regarded principal of a New York City high school say that he considered “classroom management” overestimated in importance. Right. Who needs an attentive, orderly classroom? Let students have a watered down curriculum, let them talk during class, and then give them inflated grades to support their self-esteem. This is to be the new formula for national “progress.”
We find people coming into education from facilities management, the petroleum industry, pharmaceutical sales, and lobster wholesaling and delivery backgrounds. This writer has met these people, and the likelihood that they read even one book a year is remote. Are non-readers and non-teachers suited to be educational leaders?
Many, be it for money, security, ideals, or some combination of the above seek administrative positions that they are not ready for. Why aren’t they ready? They are not ready because they have not been mentored and inculcated with core educational values that include, but are not limited to, focus on service and on educational values such as curricular innovation, creativity, knowledge, teacher morale, school tone, the family of man, student character-building, and caring/love of all for all (said list can be summed up as “the pursuit of happiness”).
The above changes are gradually (and sometimes not so gradually) being implemented in various school districts throughout the country, but national standards (Core Curriculum) are the connecting mechanism whereby the philosophy of education outlined above can be managed at the federal level. The rationale for this is that students in China, Japan, and Singapore regularly do better than U.S. students on international tests of math and science. Therefore, a more comprehensive approach (standards) needs to be taken if we are to remain competitive in the world economy.
Even accepting the highly dubious assumption that we are falling behind those countries, should our schools become as authoritarian as those schools? Are not the Judeo-Christian ideals of love and compassion still valid? Do we want the drones we find in these other cultures?
About 46 states have already signed onto “national standards.” There is movement in that direction. There are not many articles in the conservative media and blogs challenging this direction. Nevertheless, the danger to culture, to rationality (substituting what to think for how to think), to individuality, and to the tried and true is palpable.
My question to the reader: Do you want American public education to become even more of an ideological monolith than it is at present?
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/the_great_education_power_grab.html#ixzz2SME2uDEr
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Every American needs to know this!
Posted on: April 26, 2013
- In: Barack Obama | Big Labor Unions | Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill | Economy/Money | Federal Reserve | Government Failure Series from Cato Institute | Health Care | Health Care Reform Summary | Know the enemies of America | national deficit, taxes, national budget | Obama admistration | Obama Against America | Obama and ethics | Obama Executive Decress | Obamanation | Obamcare repeal and replace | Progressives Movement to Destroy America | Thye Tea Party Patriots Movement | Unfunded liabilities
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I have been getting wind of this for some time but never in detail so just sat on it waiting for a more official notice. Heritage Foundation doesn’t report on rumors so here it is Dear Readers just what we tax payers have grown to expect from our government. At this time I can only refer you to a statement by Thomas Jefferson. (And for you purest I also included the source of Jefferson’s quote since the last time I used a quote I got all kinds of comments refuting the source I had given).
AUTHOR: Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) QUOTATION: The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure. ATTRIBUTION: THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787.—The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, vol. 12, p. 356 (1955). A related idea was later expressed by Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac in a speech to the French national assembly, January 16, 1793: “L’arbre de la liberté… croît lorsqu’il est arrosé du sang de toute espèce de tyrans (The tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants),” Archives Parliamentaires de 1787 à 1860, vol. 57, p. 368 (1900).
And much earlier Tertullian had said: “Plures efficimur quotiens metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis Christianorum (We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed),” Apology, trans. T. R. Glover, pp. 226–27 (1931).
NOW READ WHAT CONGRESS IS UP TO! Sincerely, BB
Now Congress Wants to Exempt Itself from Obamacare
Newscom
No argument for Obamacare’s repeal can top the simple fact that Members of Congress do not want it to apply to them.
Today’s Politico reports that the House and Senate congressional leadership—both Democrats and Republicans working in cahoots with Obama Administration officials—have been secretly negotiating for months trying to find a way to exempt Members of Congress and their staffs from being forced into Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges.
Beginning on January 1, 2014, these exchanges, to be run by the federal government or the states (under federal rules) will offer federally “qualified” insurance coverage for millions of Americans. Ordinary Americans must either sign up or face a tax penalty. Senator Max Baucus (D–MT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has now famously described the Obama’s Administration’s implementation of this process as an oncoming “train wreck,” and Henry Chao, an Administration official involved with the implementation of the law, just hopes that Americans can avoid a “third-world experience.”
According to the Politico story, there are two major reasons why Members of Congress want to exempt themselves and their staffs from the terms and conditions of the law:
- They fear higher health care costs. Congressional leaders fear that being forced into the Obamacare exchanges will result in higher health care costs for themselves and their families and their aides. “The problem stems from whether members and aides set to enter the exchanges would have their health insurance premiums subsidized by their employer—in this case the federal government.” This is also true for millions of ordinary Americans. They could also lose their employer-based coverage, and they could also face higher costs. Also contrary to the President’s promises, independent analystsexpect health insurance premiums to rise sharply, particularly for younger workers and their families.
- They fear the impact on Capitol Hill employment. “There is concern in some quarters that the provision requiring lawmakers and staffers to join the exchanges, if it isn’t revised, could lead to a ‘brain drain’ on Capitol Hill, as several sources close to the talks put it.” Given the insane spending and record deficits, it’s hard to imagine how a Capitol Hill “brain drain” could produce even worse government. But ordinary Americans who run businesses are also faced with anxieties, particularly whether they will be able to hire or retain valued employees or reduce full-time workers to part-time employees in order to avoid Obamacare’s mandatory costs.
For veteran Capitol Hill watchers, shenanigans behind closed doors to enable Congress and its staffers to escape Obamacare come as no surprise. After all, the national health care law was fashioned through repulsive backroom dealing (the “Cornhusker Kickback,” the “Louisiana Purchase,” etc.) that set a record for arrogance and contempt of popular opinion. Favored businesses and unions got special exemptions (more than 1,200 waivers) from Obamacare’s insurance rules. So consider today’s Politico revelation just marquee for a rerun of a tiresome old movie: one set of rules for Congress and another set of rules for the rest of us.
If Congress quietly wants to exempt itself from Obamacare, that’s great—so long as it includes the rest of us in that midnight amendment.
(Remember Dear Reader that Obama has already exempted the labor unions and other cronies so why not themselves?!!~ these people are beyond repulsive IMO. The Tea Party is revving up for the 2014 election with the theme to throw them all out and get decent people in Congress. Unfortunately we stuck with Obama regardless of how many laws he breaks or how many impeachable offenses he commits because there is no way the first American Black President will be impeached. But we can damned well change Congress! and put more sane conservative people in who will uphold our constitutional rights and govern as our country should be governed. This means first repealing Obamacare, then Dodd-Frank and that is just a start of what needs done in Washington. Things a decent and sincere Copngressman or woman will do. Sincerely, BB)
Entitlement Spending Is America’s Biggest Fiscal Challenge, but Discretionary Spending Is Still Far too High
Posted on: April 16, 2013
- In: Communism in America | Economy/Money | Health Care | Ineffective Government Programs | national deficit, taxes, national budget | Obama admistration | Obama and ethics | Obamanation | Obamcare repeal and replace | Progressives Movement to Destroy America | Redistributing wealth | Regaining our moral standards | Social Security | Social Security, Medicare, taxes | Taxes | Unfunded liabilities | Unfunded liabilities | Unfunded liabilities | United States taxes
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Yesterday I* posted on just where each of your tax dollars go. The largest outlays were for our Senior Citizens in the form of Medicare and Social Security. And yes dear reader I went into my usual rant about the reason for Social Security and is oldsters living much longer than we should and therefore getting years and years more than we put into the Social Security program thru our payroll deductions while we were working. In fact, we each get back every cent we put into our account within two and one half years after retirement!! After that People we are on WELFARE and living off the backs of the young!! Social security needs to be means tested and should go only to those who need it to live a decent life. That does not mean paying for Grandma and Grandpa to spend lovely warm winters in Florida in their fancy RV’s. And yes, I spent eleven years as a full time RVer so I know well what I am talking about. I also lived for 19 years in Florida before retirement and know how populations in some towns in Florida go from 7000 in the summer to 70,000 in the winter. People who can afford to own RVs do not need Social Security. They should not be living on the backs of the young or getting money that is becoming a national debt that their great grandchildren will have to pay back.
Of course next on the Greedy Geezer list are those who are well able to buy their own health insurance but who take Medicare. At the grand old age of 24 in 1965 i was so much against this Medicare scam that President Johnson and the Congress (both Democrats and Republicans) were in on with the insurance companies. At that time only an estimated 40% of seniors needed some help paying for their health insurance. And instead of putting these people on Medicaid or some type of stipend to help them purchase their own health insurance the ENTIRE elderly population 65 and over no matter their income was put on Medicare. It was a disaster in the making just as Obamacare is going to be the devastation of our country as we know it. ALL the estimates of costs of the Medicare program in 1965 were 2000% (that is two THOUSAND percent) under the actual costs of Medicare in 2010. Again we Seniors are being kept healthy and alive on the backs of our current working young and by putting our great grandchildren in debt for life. Our great grandchildren in effect will have no life because they will be slaves to paying for the lives we are living now.
How can Americans bear to live with what we are allowing to happen? I grieve for my country and for my great grandchildren yet to be born.
Anyhow, no more ranting from me. The following article from Cato Institute explains better than I can why we must stop the madness of our entitlement programs and put them on a course that will help those who truly need help but take those who can do for themselves off the programs. It really grates me when wealthy Americans are using Medicare.
Be sure to go to the referred sites for additional information. Sincerely, Brenda Bowers (BB)
APRIL 16, 2013 8:40AM
Entitlement Spending Is America’s Biggest Fiscal Challenge, but Discretionary Spending Is Still Far too High
If America descends into Greek-style fiscal chaos, there’s no doubt that entitlement programs will be the main factor. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Disability are all fiscal train wrecks today, and the long-run outlook for these programs is frightful.
Just look at these numbers from the Bank for International Settlements and OECD to see how our fiscal future is bleaker than many of Europe’s welfare states.
Simply stated, if we don’t implement the right kind of entitlement reform, our children and grandchildren at some point will curse our memory.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry about other parts of the budget, including the so-called discretionary programs that also have been getting bigger and bigger budgets over time.
That’s why I want to add some additional analysis to Veronique de Rugy’s recent piece inNational Review Online, which might lead some to mistakenly conclude that these programs are “shrinking” and being subject to a “Big Squeeze.”
…there is another number to look at in that budget. It’s the shrinking share of the budget consumed by discretionary spending (spending on things like defense and infrastructure) to make space for mandatory spending and interest. This is the Big Squeeze. …in FY 2014 mandatory spending plus interest will eat up 67 percent of the budget, leaving discretionary spending with 33 percent of the budget (down from 36 percent in FY 2012). Now by FY 2023, mandatory and interest spending will consume 77 percent of the total budget. Discretionary spending will be left with 23 percent of the budget.
She’s right that discretionary spending is becoming a smaller share of the budget, but it’s important to realize that this is solely because entitlement outlays are growing faster than discretionary spending.
Here’s some data from the Historical Tables of the Budget, showing what is happening to spending for both defense discretionary and domestic discretionary. And these are inflation-adjusted numbers, so the we’re looking at genuine increases in spending.
As you can see, defense outlays have climbed by about $100 billion over the past 50 years, while outlays for domestic discretionary programs have more than tripled.
If that’s a “Big Squeeze,” I’m hoping that my household budget experiences a similar degree of “shrinking”!
Veronique obviously understands these numbers, of course, and is simply making the point that politicians presumably should have an incentive to restrain entitlement programs so they have more leeway to also buy votes with discretionary spending.
But I’d hate to think that an uninformed reader would jump to the wrong conclusion and decide we need more discretionary spending.
Particularly since the federal government shouldn’t be spending even one penny for many of the programs and department that are part of the domestic discretionary category. Should there be a federal Department of Transportation? A federal Department of Housing and Urban Development? A federal Department of Agriculture?
No, NO, and Hell NO. I could continue, but you get the idea.
The burden of federal government spending in the United States is far too high and it should be reduced. That includes discretionary spending and entitlement spending.
P.S. For those who don’t have the misfortune of following the federal budget, “entitlements” are programs that are “permanently appropriated,” which simply means that spending automatically changes in response to factors such as eligibility rules, demographic shifts, inflation, and program expansions. Sometimes these programs (such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc) are referred to as “mandatory spending.”
The other big part of the budget is “discretionary spending” or “appropriations.” These are programs funded by annual spending bills from the Appropriations Committees, often divided into the two big categories of “defense discretionary” and “nondefense discretionary.”
Where Did Your Tax Dollar Go?
Posted on: April 15, 2013
- In: Economy/Money | Health Care | Ineffective Government Programs | Ineffective Government Programs | national deficit, taxes, national budget | Obama admistration | Obama Against America | Obama and ethics | Obama Executive Decress | Obamanation | Obamcare repeal and replace | Politics 2012 | Progressives Movement to Destroy America | Redistributing wealth | Social Security | Social Security, Medicare, taxes | Taxes | Unfunded liabilities | Unfunded liabilities
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You are required by law to pay taxes on your income today. This income tax became law when the states ratified the 16th. Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in 1913. Our forefathers when writing the Constitution specifically denied the government from taxing the people or what was called a “direct tax”. The states however were to be taxed to support the costs of the federal government in direct proportion to the number of people living in the state. Our forefathers saw the power an individual income tax would give governments over the people and the power to hand out favors and manipulate the system to favor those who could bribe the Congress to write the laws in their favor. This is why and how our own President paid only 18.5% taxes on his income. How much did you pay?
Anyhow, just for your information this is what your tax dollars are paying for. You will notice I sincerely hope that the largest part of your tax dollar is being paid out to senior citizens thru Medicare and Social Security! Time and again I have explained on this site how we Seniors are getting from Social Security and Medicare so much more than we ever paid into these programs. It is beyond me that we as a people insist on paying for millionaires medical expenses and paying them a pension simply because they got old. In fact, even the fact that we are paying these government handouts to anyone whose income is such that they can afford their own health insurance is beyond me. It is long past time that Social Security and Medicare be means tested an only for the poor. And with Medicare and Medicaid taking up 19% of your tax dollar now you can bet that Obamacare will triple that amount. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Obamacare would cost 1.9 trillion dollars over ten years but have since readjusted this estimate to 5.4 trillion dollars over the next ten years. You might also remember that the government has always vastly underestimated the costs of its programs. But have been on this soap box before Dear Reader so will jump off now and get back to the point of the expenses paid by your tax dollar.
Defense takes a large portion also. BUT, defense of our country was the one duty given to the federal government. We have the finest military in the world and have been fortunate enough to have been free of a war on our shores by an invasion of a foreign power since 1812. Somehow during the 20th. century the United States became the police force of the entire world which was not envisioned by our founders and certainly should not be our role now in my opinion.
Another large portion of your tax dollar is the 6% that is going for interest payments. THAT IS THE PAYMENT OF INTEREST ON OUR NATIONAL DEBT! A national debt that took two hundred years to amount to 9 trillion dollars but on 4 more years to amount to 16 trillion dollars!! So at this rate in just 5 years the percentage of your tax dollar that goes to just the interest on the national debt will be more than any other expense! Keep that in mind when you go to the polls and elect a person who believes the federal government should put more and more people on medicaid or on food stamps or on disability. All of these give away programs have doubled under our current president in just 4 years!
So read this article carefully and understand. An plesase do go to the sites referred in the article . BB
Where Did Your Tax Dollar Go?
Americans are waking up today to the worst “case of the Mondays” they’ll have all year: It’s Tax Day.
Most Americans dread Tax Day, and for good reasons. Beyond the huge tab Americans pay to the government, the tax code is so complex that it’s difficult to figure out what we owe to the IRS. This is a pain for taxpayers and a huge drain on the economy.
According to the federal Taxpayer Advocate in its 2012 report, Americans’ cost of complying with today’s complex tax code totaled $168 billion in 2010. That’s almost as large as the impact of the Obama tax hikes in fiscal year 2013, and twice the size of sequestration this year [see chart].
It takes taxpayers 6.1 billion hours—or 51 hours per household—to complete all the required filings. That’s more than six full eight-hour working days per household!
The compliance burden comes on top of the direct financial cost of $3.5 trillion in federal spending. In 2012, Washington collected $20,000 in taxes for every household in America. But Washington spent nearly $30,000 per household.
Americans pay high taxes as it is, and with the 13 tax increases that hit this year, tax revenue is growing beyond its historical average as a share of the economy. But Washington’s deficits continue, because spending keeps going up.
Future Tax Days promise to be even worse because of the tax increases from the fiscal cliff deal and from Obamacare. Taxpayers will start seeing these costs when they do their tax returns next April and in future years.
Too much taxing and spending is bad for the nation. Americans are right to be concerned about how the President and Congress allocate their hard-earned money. As the above infographic shows, 45 percent or almost half of all spending went toward paying for Social Security and health care entitlements. Without reforming these massive and growing programs, Washington will have to borrow increasing amounts of money, piling debt onto younger generations and putting the nation on a dangerous economic course.
Growing government spending threatens current and future taxpayers with higher taxes. Congress should reduce spending and prevent any more tax increases. Congress also needs toreform the tax code so it is less of a burden on the American people.
Tax day is a real drag, but it doesn’t have to be this bad. Learn more at savingthedream.org.
Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day atHeritage Libertad.
Obama’s latest Budget Farce
Posted on: April 11, 2013
- In: Barack Obama | Communism in America | Economy/Money | laws and regulations--stupidities | national deficit, taxes, national budget | Obama admistration | Obama Against America | Obama and ethics | Obamanation | Progressives Movement to Destroy America | Social Security, Medicare, taxes | Taxes | Unfunded liabilities | United States taxes
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It’s only 65 days late and President Obama is out pushing the “stuff” about how obliging and cooperative he is being with the Republicans but those nasty Republicans just won’t give him a chance to help the poor and middle class, ans so on and so on. Bottom line is that no one has ever voted for an Obama budget, neither a Republican or a Democrat, so this is just one more. But just for the Hell of it I will pass on the Heritage Foundations comments because they seem to say it best in a nut shell. BB By the way in case you missed the story about my dear little rabbit Cinnabun and what he has in common with the President of the United States: Cinnabun likes to play and one of his best games is to push his little litter box up and down his cage. Watching him one day it dawned on me that he was very much like President Obama in that they both seem to enjoy pushing crap around. :) BB Now for Obama’s latest load of crap:
5 Things to Know About the Obama Budget President Obama finally released his budget yesterday—more than two months late. Heritage experts immediately went to work analyzing the mounds of new spending on education, manufacturing, “clean energy,” infrastructure, and small business. But the President didn’t stop at more of the same failed stimulus and Solyndra-type policies. He also piled on the tax increases—including on seniors, the poor, and the middle class. Five key things to know about President Obama’s budget: 1. It hikes taxes by $1.1 trillion. Heritage’s Curtis Dubay says: “There was little doubt that President Obama would propose a huge tax hike in his budget. It is a bit surprising, however, that the total tax increase he proposes is almost double what he claims it to be.” Dubay explains where all the tax increases come from—including the “Buffett Rule,” capping tax deductions, and hiking the cigarette tax and the death tax.
Tweet this >>> See and share an extended version of this infographic 2. It underfunds defense. Heritage’s Patrick Louis Knudsen explains that “While boosting domestic spending, the President remains indifferent to national security needs. His proposed defense spending, though somewhat higher than sequestration levels, remains inadequate.” Baker Spring says, “The result is going to be a defense posture that is too small in terms of both personnel and force structure, does not include modern weapons and equipment, and does not provide adequate levels of training and maintenance.” 3. It doubles down on Obamacare. The Obama budget actually expands parts of Obamacare and even includes new changes to Medicare that create two sneakynew “taxes” on seniors. Obamacare’s “malignant new entitlements—its health insurance subsidies and Medicaid expansions—start in this 2014 budget,” Knudsen reminds us.
With their implementation, the misnamed Affordable Care Act will add a distinctlyunaffordable $1.8 trillion in federal spendingthrough 2023. Equally important, Obamacare commandeers the health care sector with a massive program that further distorts the market, intrudes on the doctor-patient relationship, and dismisses personal and religious liberty.
4. It doesn’t balance and never will. As Knudsen says, “Because the budget never balances—it doesn’t even try—debt remains at dangerously elevated levels.” See how Obama’s non-balancing budget compares to the plans in the House and Senate, as well as Heritage’s Saving the American Dream plan. 5. It’s irrelevant. The President’s budget is more than two months late. The House and Senate have already passed their own budgets, and the next step is for the two chambers to come together to see if they can hash out a budget that both chambers can pass. At this point, why is the President bothering? LEARN MORE: The Obama Budget in One Infographic Damaging Policies Add Up to $1 Trillion Tax Increase in Obama Budget Heritage Experts’ Analysis of the Obama Budget
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