Thirty-three members of Congress and their immediate family members collected a total of nearly $16 million in federal farm subsidies between 1995 and 2020, according to updated data from EWG’s Farm Subsidy Database.
The total includes $1.3 million that went to 11 members from the Trump administration’s Market Facilitation Program, or MFP, launched in 2019 to help farmers hurt by the administration’s trade war with China.
(click on the link at the bottom to go to the full article and view this entire list)
No lawmakers received funds from the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, created to help farmers through the Covid-19 pandemic. For the complete list of subsidy and MFP recipients, click here.
The data are drawn from Department of Agriculture subsidy records, MFP records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and additional information from the members’ public financial disclosures, and are through June 30, 2020. Some members’ disclosures say how much of their family’s farm operation they control, but in other cases that information was not available.
The biggest windfall from taxpayers’ pocketbooks went to the family of Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), who received nearly $5.5 million in commodity subsidies for rice and wheat. LaMalfa holds a third of the family’s farm partnership, making his share almost $1.8 million.
Rep. LaMalfa is one of 13 congressional recipients who sit on the House or Senate Agriculture Committee, which determine the amount and distribution of farm subsidies. The LaMalfa farm partnership also received more than $54,000 in MFP payments.
The second-largest congressional recipient was the family of Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Her father, mother, brother and sister-in-law received more than $3.4 million in subsidies for corn, soybeans, wheat and oats, and her brother and sister-in-law received a total of $750,000 in MFP payments.
According to her publicly disclosed financial records, Sen. Loeffler has financial interests in her family’s farm operation, and she has received thousands of dollars in income in land rental from the farm. The records do not say what share of the farm she holds.
A dark cloud is covering the the country of America. How has this happened? There are careful choices that one must make in this day and age when it comes to a peaceful co-existence. In order to attain this, a person must desire to make a better world with good intentions that show an unselfish love that goes beyond traditional norms and government regulations. We are not talking about the “greater good or the greater whole” which is a carefully designed phrase that governments use for their own benefit, in order to group all people under one controllable umbrella which, in the end, lacks freedom and instills a form of control and tyranny. There are examples today in many governments, including America where this is done.
An analysis of the present facts show that civil unrest which is meant to change or destroy either a government, innocent people, or cities by fire, is no different that a corrupt government that has an overreach that is beyond reason and aims to use its own power in illegal and devious ways by using fines, FEMA camps, high taxes, bribes, kickbacks and many other avenues to enrich certain individuals within government circles for their own benefit. Call it the deep state if you wish and its been happening for decades. It is all documented in books that have been written which publishers were afraid to publish for they feared for themselves and their families. Wikileaks published troves of criminal behavior in high places and yes, the information may still be out there.
So where do we go from here? There is a great divide. For America, anarchy or revolution is not the solution because when the dust finally settles in a revolt, America and its people will experience a vast wasteland with no EBT cards, no monthly government checks, no food or gas, no electricity, and no tomorrow. It will be as if another fire went through Paradise but will the next one be all of the major cities? Let it be known, our two party system will not save America and the people for the nation is now too divided.
Friends, I cannot express enough that there are millions of precious families and other Americans who are now on the razors edge and the choices that need to be made today need to be totally unselfish and aligned with love for one another to where all the people will come and reason together.
In his own and perfect way, Martin Luther King did just that. Yes, we do have some parts of a great blueprint to follow; whether it be the late Martin Luther King or other great statesmen and military heroes who died for an idea that is unique to America. It is called freedom with one nation under God, and liberty and justice for all. Will the masses once again embrace these heart felt tenets which have been commonly held by the people, black or white, while many of them made great sacrifices for their brothers and sisters through the centuries. Let that not be in vain.
But for those of you who have been standing on the sidelines and watching the action, there is a great call for you as well to return and embrace
the very essence of what made America once a country that was like no other. And what was it? Light of the world, shine on me, love is the
answer.
I cannot believe, after successive presidency’s reflecting both supposed political ideologies and party’s, that anyone is still buying into the right vs. left, Republican vs. Democrat, liberal vs. conservative, BS. And it is BS.
Playing on, at times, extreme religious beliefs, or manufactured propaganda meant to frighten you in to accepting another war of aggression, or professed moral righteousness, we are encouraged to vote for one party or the other. Along with the tossing about of the words socialism and communism and the chronic hysteria that accompanies those words, many of us are convinced that our votes really matter or that things will actually change as a result. Actually, they do change…they always get worse. Makes no difference which wing of the this one party system you vote for.
Combining church and state?
We have a 1st amendment prohibiting that and for good reason.
Let me say that the lunacy emanating from churches in today’s world is enough to make a rational, reasonable man’s head explode. When I see blanket statements such as “Democrats hate Conservatives and Christians”…Really?? Really America? How many of you actually believe that? Or how about, “conservatives hate Democrats and they are satanists?” Are you really that easily manipulated and stupid? But if you need one, the barrage of idiotic religious drivel from either side of this combination of church and state, or, the lack thereof, is really obnoxious.
That’s Socialism! That’s Socialism!
First, let’s clear one thing up right off the bat! America is in no danger of becoming a socialist or communist nation. We are heading full steam ahead More
A woman dies at age 65 before collecting one benefit check. She and her employer paid into the system for almost 50 years and she collected NOTHING. Keep in mind all the working people that die every year who were paying into the system and got nothing.
And these governmental morons mismanaged the money and stole from the system, so that it’s now going broke.
BEAUTIFUL! And they have the audacity to call today’s seniors “vultures” in an attempt to cover their ineptitude. DISGRACEFUL!
The real reason for renaming our Social Security payments is so the government can claim that all those social security recipients are receiving entitlements thus putting them in the same category as welfare, and food stamp recipients.
THIS IS WORTH THE FEW MINUTES IT TAKES TO READ AND DIGEST!
F.Y.I. By changing the name of SS contributions, it gives them a means to refute this program in the future. It’s free money for the government to spend under this guise.
The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a Federal Benefit Payment ?
I’ll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you.
Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.
The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a “Federal Benefit Payment.”
This is NOT a benefit. It is OUR money , paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too ! It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.(This should be enough for you to forward this message, If not read on.)
If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that’s close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.
If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employers contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you’d have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved.
This is your personal investment. Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you’d receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.
That’s almost three times more than today’s average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it’s a fact). And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you’re 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.
Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madoff ever did (or Lyndon Johnson).
They took our money and used it elsewhere. They “forgot”(oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn’t have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them … and they didn’t pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they’ve told us that the money won’t support us for very much longer. (Isn’t it funny that they NEVER say this about welfare payments?)
But is it our fault they misused our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they’re calling it a benefit, as if we never worked to earn every penny of it. This is stealing!
Just because they borrowed the money, doesn’t mean that our investments were for charity!
Let’s take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government.
Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of the 92% of our population who need it.
“On January 31, 2018, at 12:09 P.M. (PST), I received a 47 second message on my land line from a private number advising that a close family member they named was referred to their office for “legal action” including the “filing of a lawsuit or a “complaint” with “the court”. The articulate male caller said that “you” need to “immediately contact the legal department at (844) 744-7375 and reference file number 00-268”xxx. The caller concluded “this is a time sensitive matter” and “my calls are logged in, submitted as proof”.
“The court.” “The legal department.”… How stupid could they possible be?”
Phone scams are getting more sophisticated with bogus debt collectors, fraudulent IRS calls, charity fraudsters, and bogus computer technicians claiming “your Windows program is infected”. Having experienced these calls prompted me to share my thoughts on what I learned from them, my response and how I will contact both the FTC and the California Attorney General’s Office with the most recent event.
I am also contacting Congressman Ted Lieu, along with Senators Dianne Feinstein and Senator Kamala Harris and see if I get a response with any action they plan to take.
Cancer Charity Fraud
Google “cancer fraud telemarketers” and a disturbing series of pages appear that chronicle untold millions of dollars scammed from innocent victims:
My experience with a telemarketer claiming to raise money for cancer several years ago led me to contact the California Attorney General’s office with a detailed complaint after I obtained very specific information from the low level fraudster who told me too much about who was behind the fund he was working for, including who was running the scam and the address where they really lived and where they were calling from. I Googled the name of the cancer fund they represented and a host of fraud reports appeared that prompted me to follow through with my complaint.
Many weeks later, I did receive correspondence from the California Attorney General’s Office regarding this fraudulent organization and what action was taken.
Bogus IRS Treasury Tax Scam and a link to report IRS scam callsMore
So where are the protests? Is it just “politically correct” and “tolerable” for all of the lower 1/3 to pay more excessive taxes to Jerry Brown who is now the self appointed, deputy/controller and King of the great late State of California and will he later be
running for President of California if it becomes a new nation? This kind of idea has a very distasteful flavor and has a ring to it which is likened to our beloved KGB director/dictator, Valdimir Putin of Russia, doesn’t it?
Yes it is true. Jerry Brown likes taxing everyone down to the bone for his poverty stricken Utopian, welfare state, while living up to his Alma Mater standard. After graduating from St. Ignatius High School in 1955, he then entered Sacred Heart Novitiate, a Jesuit seminary. He later attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1961 before earning a J.D. at Yale Law School in 1964. Karl Marx would have been be proud. But let’s not forget, it’s not just the lower 1/3 who is footing a tax bill to cover a 179.5 billion dollar budget which is also meant to also cover 2.4 million government employees on “glorified welfare.” More
It’s that time of the year again!!! THIS IS AMAZING THAT THE IRS WOULD QUESTION THIS SENIOR. Such a simple matter.
I just received an audit on my tax return for 2012 from the IRS. It puzzles me!!!
They are questioning how many dependents I claimed.
I guess it was because of my response to the question: “List all dependents?”
I replied: 12 million illegal immigrants; 3 million crack heads;
42 million unemployed people on food stamps,
2 million people in over 243 prisons;
Half of Mexico ; and 535 persons in the U.S. House and Senate.”
1 useless President.
Evidently, this was NOT an acceptable answer.
I KEEP ASKING MYSELF, WHO The Hell DID I MISS?
“It may be years before a new beneficiary develops a serious illness and finds out that his policy is worthless. • Come April, Americans will be having to tell the IRS about their insurance status, and pay an additional “tax” if it doesn’t meet requirements. Employers face onerous new reporting requirements come New Year’s Day, and the delayed employer mandate kicks in.”
_______________________________________
Now that Republicans have control of Congress, they could possibly keep their promise to repeal ObamaCare—except for two immediate obstacles. One of course is the threat of the Presidential veto. Another is the already apparent willingness of craven politicians to surrender pre-emptively.
Once a government benefit is given, it becomes politically suicidal to take it back—at least in a way that people can see. There are likely a million or more Americans who are reveling in “having healthcare for the first time in their lives.” Or so the Administration’s messaging would have us believe. People are not yet onto the difference between having an insurance card and getting prompt medical attention. More
• The outlook for the survival of representative government in this country is so dismal that lifelong Democrat and veteran talk show host Bob Just has called on Democrats to boycott the election. It’s the only way to wrest control of his party from radicals with a Marxist worldview, he believes.
Although the Administration’s unilateral changes in the law have postponed many painful features of ObamaCare until after the election, it is already very unpopular. The White House public relations/media juggernaut is in high gear to suppress the bad news and trumpet any benefits. Millions more privately insured Americans will soon see their policies canceled; the individual mandate penalty/tax will kick in; the crushing burdens of new taxes on businesses, medical devices, and insurance premiums will reverberate through the already stalled economy; and more and more independent physicians will have to close their practices owing to new requirements.
My favorite bumper sticker for this campaign season is “Keep your doctor, change your senator.”
Monica Wehby, M.D., pediatric neurosurgeon, is trying to unseat a one-term Democrat in Oregon. Dr. Wehby has been very active in the American Medical Association, trying to change its pro-ObamaCare stance. More
Without further Congressional action, states and localities will begin taxing Internet access as soon as December 11th. A permanent moratorium, the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, has passed the House with a simple voice vote, demonstrating bipartisan agreement about the importance of a tax-free Internet.
Unfortunately, Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid has refused to introduce the bill to the Senate, preferring to hold out for a remote sales tax increase through the so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act” (MFA), a highly controversial issue. Polling shows Americans overwhelmingly oppose Reid’s scheme to tax online sales, but a large majority of Americans can get behind a permanent continuance of a tax-free Internet.
Nonetheless, in a classic show of divisive politics, Harry Reid has held hostage the freedom of the Internet to pass a tax increase on Americans that buy products online or over the phone.
No American wants to pay more taxes, but taxes on access to the Internet is bad economic growth policy, not just tax policy. Here are the top four reasons why a permanent Internet tax moratorium is necessary to stop this.
1. Keeping the Internet tax free encourages online innovation and digital entrepreneurship. Online investment and tech startups would be disincentivized to the point of obscuring the open and inventive Internet we all know and love. The United States is a global tech leader due to our private development and deregulation of online ventures. A tax moratorium also promotes innovation in cost-defective expansion of broadband access. An Internet access tax would be another cost paid by customers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that would ultimately turn companies away from creating new developments in the tech space. Taxing Internet access would serve to hamper this industry in much the same way other great American industries (auto,manufacturing) have been hamstrung by government interference.
2. Taxing the Internet would have a harsh impact on lower income families. This is the demographic that a tax-free Internet serves to help and assist in seeking employment. Raising the cost of the Internet through a usage tax would diminish the overall number of users. A recent study predicted that a 10% increase in price can be expected to illicit a 15% reduction in adoption. This negative growth is the antithesis of a free Internet.
3. An Internet access tax would raise the costs of all Internet-related business. Whether it be the price of ISPs the cost of running and maintaining a website, or transaction fees of e-commerce including online shopping, a usage tax would hurt all Internet users in much the same way that rising gasoline prices are felt throughout the economy, raising the cost of using the Internet would be seen by all online participants.
4. Access taxes would be yet another permanent part of the government shakedown. If the moratorium expires, state and local governments will be able to tax access to the Internet. If the ban is allowed to expire and governments start taxing access (which they certainly would), these funds would be built into state budgets with vested interests devoted to keeping these taxes in place. As every previous tax has proven, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Permanently extending the Internet Tax Freedom Act is a crucial step in safeguarding long-term American Internet prosperity and continued online growth. Americans for Tax Reform, Digital Liberty, and supporters of Internet freedom throughout the country endorse a permanent moratorium on Internet access taxes.
“Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.”Edmund Burke
Like political power, a massive black hole is an insatiable beast. It will literally absorb (eat) anything that gets too close. It eats surrounding gases, whole stars, star systems and planets. And as it eats, it grows and the more it eats the larger and more powerful it gets. Its power reaches out deeper and deeper into the heavens and warps the very fabric of space and time. A black hole is a whirlpool in the universe and its immense gravity powers entire galaxies while it clears the space around it like a giant vacuum cleaner, inside its event horizon. At its center is a point of infinite density where the laws of physics no longer apply. It is, in its growing sphere of influence, the epitome of absolute power. Not even light can escape it.
Since the dawn of human civilization, the masses have been and still are, in a constant struggle against the ever- increasing power of centralized government. Whether it be kings, despots, dictators, or even democracies, centralized power grows and grows, like a black hole, until it envelops and consumes all those who would attempt to break it up, or destroy it. Even though the Founding Fathers went to great pains to inhibit the rise of the federal government by limiting its powers in the U. S. Constitution, every succeeding executive, legislative and judicial branch of government since George Washington, has wriggled and finagled around its constitutional restraints into ever-increasing political power. The jaws of absolute power are open wide and lie there in our not too distant future, if the people don’t take it upon themselves to break up that centralized power and restore it to the states and to the people, as it was intended by those who gave birth to freedom over two centuries ago at great sacrifice.
Throughout history, when centralized power is broken up or destroyed, it usually comes from the people violently rising up, en masse and restoring political power in the people and dividing all such power into smaller jurisdictions, which was part of the core foundation of the U. S. Constitution. It was the states that created the federal government, not the other way around. It is the states and the people that are supposed to have the supreme power under our Constitutional Republic, not the federal government.
Fractionalized power, split up between many small centers of political power, (i.e. states, counties and cities) is freedom’s only salvation. Centralized, concentrated authority in a single center of power, in the end, will be freedom’s demise. More
People who’ve paid attention to financial events of late are seeing the financial curtain rising on the final act of the greatest theft the world has ever known. It began when:
(1)America’s treasury vaults were emptied by Wall Street’s thieves and their politically-appointed government confederates, and
(2) the subsequent start-up of the fed’s money presses to the tune of—What? $20, $25 trillion now that has gone onto the American taxpayer’s tab?
All this to pay for the deliberate financial devastation the bankers caused worldwide by insuring and selling worthless Wall-Street-stamped, genuine Triple AAA-rated derivatives/CDSs/mortgage bundles to the rest of the world; knowing the banks and funds that bought them would be stuck with these ‘moral hazard’ assets; thus placing themselves in vulnerable financial positions; ripe pickings for later takeovers, consolidation, closures.
Did I mention the companies that insured the bundles would also take a bath?
All of this might have been avoided if our elected puppets had not given up America’s Constitutional right to print our own money to English-backed bankers in 1913. Our founders, knowing about the Rothschild banking operations in London—it’s estimated they now control an estimated two-thirds of the world’s money—had deliberately written into our Constitution that congress was the only body authorized to coin [read: print] and issue America’s money. More
Below is a video documenting page after page, section after section including line numbers, the intent of Obamacare. It comes as no surprise that not only will we be paying for the health insurance for illegal immigrants, these people are exempt from individual taxes once Obamacare comes into full force.
Those of us approaching our senior years will be forced to make end of life plans that we may not want or agree with, and will see our healthcare rationed and treatments decided by non-medical personnel who will decide what treatments will be available to us.
Health care for everyone will be maximum 5,000 per individual and 10,000 per family per year.
Your financial and personal information will be available in real time to various agencies and individuals. The government will now have direct access to your bank account and may electively remove funds from your account with no notice to you. No explanation will be provided. This is why direct deposit was mandated recently on all government checks. Direct deposit is actually a record of where you bank and your account numbers. More
It appears that some of our so-called grassroots advocates have jumped ship and now routinely parrot government talking points, helping to drive public opinion away from actual facts and towards what the government is desperate to have the public believe. This is quite evident in the recent article put out J.D. Heyes of Natural News regarding the condition of Social Security and Social Security Disability. Big government gone wild: Social Security on the verge of insolvency
Its hard to know where to start in highlighting the evident misrepresentation of the condition of Social Security (& disability) that occurs in this article. More
Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved
_______________________________________________
This is what the District of Criminals is trying to eliminate, the calling in of all the monies stolen from Social Security, due and payable to the investors in Social Security; the working class. Should the fund actually ever incur a shortage, the Social Security Administration could lawfully force the federal government to borrow money to cover the theft and to restore the 2.7 trillion stolen so far from the fund.
_____________________________________________
According to Obama, he could not guarantee that Social Security checks would go out on time if an agreement was not reached on raising the debt ceiling. Really? And just what does Social Security have to do with the unfettered and mindless spending that goes on in the District of Criminals, sanctioned by one president after another? From the CBO graph above, you can see that 40% of all receipts in the federal government come from our FICA investments. They have re-designated our investments as “receipts”, as revenue for their use.
What will never be admitted by the District of Criminals is that if the federal government stopped seizing the surplus today, the fund would remain solvent. The projections thrown out continually of just when the fund will run short are all premised on the continued theft of the surplus from invested workers.
The fact is that Social Security has nothing whatsoever to do with raising the debt ceiling unless of course you take into account the fact that 19.5% of the money owed by the federal government, is owed to Social Security as a result of decades of theft from that fund. This is an intra-governmental debt; a nice way of saying we continue to steal money from the investments in Social Security to pay for lots of other crap that benefit, us and our friends. The intra-governmental debt is accrued when money is stolen from one designated fund and used for anything and everything else. It is not money borrowed externally from countries like China and it is not money borrowed from the Federal Reserve. It is money collected as an investment for retirement that was seized and redistributed by the government to other government entities, agencies and programs to cover the loss of revenues generated and accrued after successive tax cuts for the upper 3% and corporations.
Retiree’s were held for ransom and dangled in front of the public as bait, but not one of those haggling over this confessed to the fact that Social Security continues to produce an annual surplus which is immediately seized by the federal treasury (IMF) and used for other purposes.
As noted here: Since the Greenspan Commission in the early 1980s, Social Security has cumulatively collected far more in payroll taxes dedicated to the program than it has paid out to recipients—nearly $2.4 trillion by 2008. This annual surplus is credited to Social Security trust funds that hold special non-marketable Treasury securities, and this surplus amount is commonly referred to as the “Social Security Trust Fund“. The proceeds are paid into the U.S. Treasury where they may be used for other government purposes.” More
“As an aside here: I want to know why inflated taxation is not considered a penalty when applied to the middle and working classes, but is a penalty if applied equally and fairly to the wealthy? Someone? Anyone? “
______________________________________________
Jackass Alert!
While the regular folks in the US labor under a failing economy, massive job losses and uncontrolled illegal immigration, it seems those fine jackasses in the District of Criminals never run out of ideas on how to make life more miserable for those of us not considered “worthy”.
Food prices have risen almost 90% in the last year, 60% of that rise occurring immediately after the passage of the fake food safety bill which was actually a forced export bill with 80% of our agricultural production now pushed into the global market for commodity speculation and pricing.
Home foreclosures are still at historic highs. Of course the Jackasses would never think of clamping down on corrupt mortgage lenders and seizing their ill gotten gains or putting any one of them in jail for their corruption. That would be just too much to ask.
As gas prices at the pumps continue to rise without explanation it appears that the Jackass in Chief has decided it might be a good idea to attach surveillance equipment to each and every vehicle in the US and to tax us per mile that we drive. This traveling surveillance tax would be applied every time you bought a gallon of gas.
Lynn Swearingen (c) copyright 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Illinois Legislature Votes To Increase Income Tax By 66% : SB 2505
Instead of the proposed 75% Income Tax increase and $1 on a pack of smokes – Illinois Lawmakers have graciously assented to a 66% Tax Increase while allowing the residents of Illinois to keep their “cheap” habit.
“Quinn’s office said the higher taxes will generate about $6.8 billion a year – a major increase by any measure. In percentage terms, 66 percent might be the biggest increase any state has adopted while grappling with recent economic woes.
It will be coupled with strict 2 percent limits on spending growth. If officials spend above those limits, the tax increase will automatically be canceled. The plan’s supporters warned that rising pension and health care costs probably will eat up all the spending allowed by the caps, forcing cuts in other areas of government.” More
According to “The Great American Tax Dodge”, the IRS is far more apt to go after middle-income non-filers and does not fully investigate affluent non-filers. The IRS uses the lame excuse that the rich may under-state the taxes owed and that the IRS would prefer nothing over under-stated taxes. It is more likely that the IRS avoids investigating the rich because they have resources to oppose the IRS. The IRS is more apt to harass middle income earners who pay fines easily without a fight. More
The most egregious of their useless proposals revolve around the current the tax debate — whether to include the top 2 percent in reversing the Bush tax cuts. The sanctimonious claim is “this would hurt small business” — and this suggestion is incredibly wrong and even detrimental.
What small business really wants (it’s not what all those senators claim)
By Myles Spicer | Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010
Recently on TV there was a rerun of a popular movie produced in 2000: “What Women Want,” starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. Very briefly, Gibson has “shocking” experience (literally) and is able to get into the “heads” of women and read their thoughts. Not a great move, but high grossing and of interest to me because it involved an advertising agency — my core profession for over 40 years.
It also coincided with the continuing claims by many members of Congress about what needs to be done to assist small business, who will be the drivers of our economy to get us out of this funk. Frankly their comments are inane, fictional, silly and inept. Why? Because virtually none of them really knows the dynamics of small-business challenges, and consequently do not or cannot get “into the heads” of true small-business people. Frankly, their statements are politically based, and have little to do with reality or an intelligent analytical basis of small business needs. More
This site will forever end the conflict between the various “tax honesty movement” groups and the enforcement of the internal revenue laws. First of all, when dealing with the federal government of the United States, one must learn the definitions of the government’s legal “terms”. So let’s start with the definition of the term “taxpayer”.
You have been told that Social Security is an insurance program run by the federal government. You were led to believe that your income would be taxed at a certain rate for the cost of the program. Then in times of medical emergency or upon retirement you would be eligible for Social Security benefits. On the surface, this would seem to be an equitable arrangement.
But the federal government failed to fully inform you as to all of the other ramifications of applying for a Social Security number. For instance, did you know that you became a federal employee? Well, you did – specifically you became a member of the Merchant Marine. You also became an employee of a corporation that is involved with importing to and from the U.S. possessions. Another consideration is that if FICA is based upon a percentage of your earnings, then the government has somehow been granted the right to know the amount of your income and the sources of your income – this is not a hallmark of freedom. These statements and more will be evidenced by the actual federal statutes and regulations further on this page.
Like all great magicians, the federal government has you looking at the obvious while hiding the basis of the trick that the magician is performing right in front of your eyes.
Lots of Americans have questioned the legitimacy of the personal income tax, but it seems that everyone just loves the Social Security program. Social Security is the sacred cow that no one is ever supposed to criticize. Oh, sure, some claimants of Social Security find fault with what claims are denied or only partially funded. And lots of people are now pointing out that Social Security is not going to be solvent in the near future. But up till now no one has questioned the legitimacy of the Social Security program. Well, that time has come. More
You might not have seen it reported, but the Senate will vote this morning on whether to repeal part of ObamaCare that it passed only months ago. The White House is opposed, but this fight is likely to be the first of many as Americans discover—as Nancy Pelosi once famously predicted—what’s in the bill….
Forget that GLOBAL WARMING ISN’T EVEN REAL and that the purveyors of this junk science were involved in a United Nations inspired scheme to defraud the industrialized world out of trillions of dollars via “Green” taxes and fees, the Obama administration has decided that you are going to pay anyway._________________________________ Liberty News: Forget about organizing to fight a proposed “Cap and Trade” bill that will continue to destroy America’s manufacturing base.
Forget that Global Warming was such a fraud that its Green Movement proponents had to change the name to Climate Change.
Forget about the fact that the Green Movement can better be described as the Watermellon Movement because although the Green Movement appears to be Green on the outside, it is also Red (communist) on the inside.
Forget about the truth. It doesn’t matter anymore because the Obama administration has secretely implemented draconian Cap and Trade rules anyway, totally disregarding the will of the American people and without giving them a chance to vote “NO” on the issue.
The Federal government has transferred a staggering $65 billion dollars from the private sector (via new taxes) to fund the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI.) RGGI is government created entity, much like the corrupt Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac entities that destroyed the American real estate market, that is now choking companies in the northeast with huge tax increases in the name of saving the environment.
As the letter below indicates, we believe a large part of the reason for this is that federal regulations are constantly changing. Business owners don’t know what their unelected regulatory overlords will do next. This creates uncertainty about the future costs and benefits of hiring a new employee. We think this is why . . .
* Businesses aren’t hiring
* Congress should pass DownsizeDC.org’s Write the Laws Act (WTLA).
The Write the Laws Act would require Congressional approval for all regulations. This is a needed reform, because the unelected bureaucrats who today write and implement regulations are causing high unemployment by creating uncertainty.
You can begin to see how this is happening by comparing this recession with the one in 2000-2001. As James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation notes, the 2008-2009 recession led to a peak unemployment rate of 10.1%, whereas the 2000-2001 recession led to an unemployment high of just 6.3%.
But here’s the most startling fact: Even though total unemployment was lower in the earlier recession, jobs losses were actually 2.6 million HIGHER than in the current downturn! The reason for this is very instructive . . .
The earlier recession had both more job losses and a lower unemployment rate, because more businesses back then were doing new hiring at the same time that they were cutting other jobs. By comparison, during this recession, businesses have stopped hiring, so all we have are the job losses, resulting in a “jobless recovery.”
This is happening because business owners don’t know what the government will do next. The exact same thing happened during the Great Depression. Back then GDP rose, but unemployment remained high because the New Deal’s laws and regulations were constantly changing. This made hiring risky. The economist Robert Higgs calls this problem “regime uncertainty.” More
If you want to know the real purpose behind Glenn Beck’s expensive, heavily publicized ‘feel good’ extravaganza, you need only watch the first ten minutes of the speech he delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. More
Living in a State where there is no need for any taxes, and every capable man is employed and able to raise a family that is educated by the parents in their home?
Can you imagine all of the evil that would be eliminated in the above home?
Can you imagine a State whose governing body is competent, honest, and moral?
Can you imagine a judiciary that strikes fear in the heart of rapist, pedophiles, homosexuals, murderers, thieves, and con-men?
Can you imagine leaving your doors unlocked, knowing full well your neighbors would risk their lives to protect you and yours? More
J. Speer-Williams (c) copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved
____________________________________________
Are Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Joe Lieberman all as insane as they look and sound?
In case you have not yet been alerted, the above gang of pretended public servants are either truly insane, or they are working for some source other than that from which they draw their constitutional power.
But then again, the lawmakers in congress who heed Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence – that our government should rule “with the consent of the governed” – are so few as to nullify the good and wise intentions of our founding fathers. May God help us
It is the democratic leadership (of Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Lieberman, Frank, and many others) that remains steadfast in its support of the draconian healthcare deformity, known as Obamacare, while recent polls show only 34 percent of those polled still supported the Healthcare “Reform” Act.
Requiring Americans and small businessmen to bear the cost of buying into the expensive, corporate health “care” plans of the Monetary Cartel’s mega-insurance giants, and into the ever-sliding quality of American medicine, all under the pain of huge fines and prison time, does not sit well with most informed Americans and could be the death knell for the American small business sector, and our middle class as well. More
Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved
_____________________
I remember back during the Reagan Administration when “trickle down” economics was first introduced. The idea was marketed as “ we give huge tax cuts to the wealthy and they will in turn re-invest in America and create jobs”; this was a win/win for the country. After all, if you tax the people creating jobs, supposedly they won’t be able to create jobs.
This plan, was marketed to the public as an economic theory and plan that just couldn’t lose. If America’s workforce would just bear the brunt of heavy taxation with no special loopholes, hedges, deductions or other tax escape mechanisms provided to the wealthy, the wealthy would create vast and wonderful high paying jobs. The benefits of relieving the wealthy and corporations from paying taxes on 100% of their income or profits would magically “trickle down” to the working class.
It worked! They did create jobs; in India, Pakistan, China, Taiwan, Mexico and any other nation where returns on investments could be predicated upon slave labor wages and government protection. Oh…and they then got to ship their crappy products back into the US tax free and we got Austin (a.k.a. Abdul) answering the phones for many major corporations.
The wealthy invested alright; in everything and every place but America. The economic bleeding from the US to foreign markets accelerated to such a rate that businesses literally disappeared overnight and took with them the jobs needed to keep America working. Off shore accounts were set up to provide fictional business addresses for the stashing of funds, assets and anything else of value in order to avoid US taxes.
The only thing that trickled down to the working and middle class was diminishing wages, a lower standard of living and increased costs of living. Oh, yeah….and taxes went up too….but not on the wealthy. The Reagan years marked a major event in the redistribution of wealth as the middle and working classes were relieved of ever increasing amounts of annual income and the country’s wealth was redistributed to those in the upper 3% and to corporations. More
Neo-cons love war and torture, increased regulations, tyranny, and taxes; with our taxes going to the plutocrats of the private banking community. They support governmental destruction of our environment, under the pretense of protecting it. They, also, overtly support corporatism (facism for oligarchs) and any other measures supported by the republican party that enrich the private International Monetary/Banking Cartel at the expense of the American people.
Neo-libs love war and torture, increased regulations, tyranny, and taxes; with our taxes going to the plutocrats of the private banking community. They support governmental destruction of our environment, under the pretense of protecting it. They, also, covertly support corporatism (socialism for oligarchs) and any other measures supported by the democratic party that enrich the private International Monetary/Banking Cartel at the expense of the American people.
I’m off to Washington, D.C. on Monday discussing anti-ObamaCare strategies with Members of Congress. While I’m there for the week, let me ask you to have some fun and be engaged for freedom right where you are!
What makes you sputter with disbelief about ObamaCare?
You can Vote for the WORST one below…and support CCHC at the same time!
$13 = the 13 times ObamaCare forbids judicial review of federal (Dept. of HHS) regulations.
$21 = the 21 new ObamaCare taxes.
$30 = the 30 new rosters of political appointees authorized by ObamaCare.
$40 = the 40% tax on high-cost health plans.
$53 = the 53 new HHS regulations authorized by ObamaCare.
$60 = the 60 U.S. Senators who voted for ObamaCare.
$68 = the 68 times ObamaCare authorizes the expenditure of, “such sums as may be necessary.”
$123 = the average amount deducted from your paycheck for the CLASS Act unless you opt-out.
$219 = the 219 Democrat Representatives who voted for ObamaCare .
$560 = the 560 times “health plan” is written in by ObamaCare. True insurance not allowed.
$695 = the minimum fine an individual will pay if he or she doesn’t buy health insurance.
$906 = the 906 pages of the fine-print, reduced-size version of ObamaCare.
$1501 = Section 1501 which unconstitutionally requires citizens to purchase health insurance.
$2014 = the year ObamaCare will be implemented if not repealed.
$3267 = the 3,267 times “Secretary” is mentioned (empowered) in ObamaCare.
$____ = the number of lies you think you have heard about ObamaCare. 🙂 Pick one and then Donate that amount to CCHC to help us Defeat it! More
Date: Monday, May 31, 2010, 1:22 PMI missed this one earlier. Looks like Obama, Pelosi and Co., have their road map already.
Martin: Found this on the Ways and Means website. This is only SOME of what’s coming. Take note of the very last two listed.
2010
•Medicare cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/10)
2011
•Medicare Advantage cuts begin
•Medicare cuts to home health begin
•Medicare reimbursement cuts when seniors use diagnostic imaging like
MRIs, CT scans, etc.
•Medicare cuts begin to ambulance services, ASCs, diagnostic labs, and durable
medical equipment
•Impose new annual tax on brand name pharmaceutical companies
•Americans begin paying premiums for federal long term care insurance
(CLASS Act) (see FOX news story on this in todays headlines)
•Prohibition on Medicare payments to new physician owned hospitals
•Seniors prohibited from purchasing power wheelchairs unless they
first rent for 13 months
•Employers required to report value of health benefits on W2
•New Medicare cuts to long term care hospitals begin (7/1/11)
•Additional Medicare cuts to hospitals and cuts to nursing homes and inpatient
rehab facilities begin (FY12)
•New tax on all private health insurance policies to pay for comp.
eff. research (plan years beginning FY12)
2012
•Medicare cuts to dialysis treatment begins
•Require information reporting on payments to corporations
•New Medicare cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/12)
•Hospital pay for quality program begins (FY13)
•Medicare cuts to hospitals with high readmission rates begin (FY13)
•Medicare cuts to hospice begin (FY13)
2013
•Impose 2.3% excise tax on medical devices
•Medicare cuts to hospitals who treat low income seniors begin More
For over a decade, accountant Walter Burien has been trying to rouse the public over what he contends is a massive conspiracy and cover-up, involving trillions of dollars squirreled away in funds maintained at every level of government. His numbers may be disputed, but these funds definitely exist, as evidenced by the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) required of every government agency. If they don’t represent a concerted government conspiracy, what are they for? And how can they be harnessed more efficiently to help allay the financial crises of state and local governments?
The Elusive CAFR Money
Burien is a former commodity trading adviser who has spent many years peering into government books. He notes that the government is composed of 54,000 different state, county, and local government entities, including school districts, public authorities, and the like; and that these entities all keep their financial assets in liquid investment funds, bond financing accounts and corporate stock portfolios. The only income that must be reported in government budgets is that from taxes, fines and fees; but the investments of government entities can be found in official annual reports (CAFRs), which must be filed with the federal government by local, county and state governments. These annual reports show that virtually every U.S. city, county, and state has vast amounts of money stashed away in surplus funds. Burien maintains that these slush funds have been kept concealed from taxpayers, even as taxes are being raised and citizens are being told to expect fewer government services. More
THIS IS MY COUNTRY! And, because I make this statement DOES NOT mean I’m against immigration!!!
YOU ARE WELCOME HERE, IN MY COUNTRY!
Welcome! To come through legally:
1. Get a sponsor!
2. Get a place to lay your head!
3.Get a job!
4.Live ByOURRules!
5.Pay YOURTaxes!
And
6.Learn the LANGUAGE like immigrants have in the past!!!
AND
7.Please don’t demand that we hand over our lifetime savings of Social Security Fundsto you. If you don’t want to forward this for fear of offending someone,
Then YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM! When will AMERICANS STOP giving away THEIR RIGHTS???
We’ve gone so far the other way…bent over backwards not tooffend anyone.
But it seems no one cares about theAMERICAN CITIZENthat’s being offended!
Where is it written that Americans, who have been granted life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by their Creator, at great cost, have to accept anything less? Why must we accept slavery in place of liberty? Why should we accept mediocrity in place of achievement and excellence. Why must we accept debauchery and corruption in place of morality?
Why must we accept our sovereignty being blurred by the one-world-order and centralized control of world power by the moneyed elite? Why is it we should allow millions of illegal aliens to flood into our country, take advantage of our government-mandated generosity and exclude legal Americans from available employment? How can we just sit there and do nothing when radical environmental laws eradicate what is left of our property rights? Since the time of the Magna Carta in 1215 and later in the writings of John Locke, it has been known that without property rights, no other rights are possible.
By what right or authority does government have, to use our tax money, that is taken from us at the point of a gun, to reward failure, penalize success and choose winners and losers, that only the free markets should be able to do in a free society? Under what law does the non-producer have a right to the fruits and labors of the producer, except by the voluntary generosity of that producer? More
If this doctor is correct, we are in deep doo-doo. Healthcare reform is actually the medical version of the Wall Street bailouts. Insurance companies now have an unlimited supply of funds. Pharmaceuticals get almost total immunity from liability. Illegal immigrants get free healthcare and pay no taxes. And we get taxed into the poorhouse so these people can get rich or get a free ride. ___________________________
An Indianapolis doctor’s letter to Sen. Bayh about the Bill (Note: Dr. Stephen E. Frazer, MD practices as an anesthesiologist in Indianapolis, IN ) Here is a letter I sent to Senator Bayh.. Feel free to copy it and send it around to all other representatives. — Stephen Fraser
Senator Bayh,
As a practicing physician I have major concerns with the health care bill before Congress. I actually have read the bill and am shocked by the brazenness of the government’s proposed involvement in the patient-physician relationship. The very idea that the government will dictate and ration patient care is dangerous and certainly not helpful in designing a health care system that works for all. Every physician I work with agrees that we need to fix our health care system, but the proposed bills currently making their way through congress will be a disaster if passed.
I ask you respectfully and as a patriotic American to look at the following troubling lines that I have read in the bill. You cannot possibly believe that these proposals are in the best interests of the country and our fellow citizens.
Page 22 of the HC Bill: Mandates that the Govt will audit books of all employers that self-insure!!
Page 30 Sec 123 of HC bill: THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get.
Page 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill: YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!!
Page 42 of HC Bill: The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC benefits for you. You have no choice! More
National Association of Rural Landowners and nationally recognized author on freedom and property rights issues.We are spreading the message of American Freedom around the globe.
What has happened to America and our beloved Constitutional Republic? What catalyst or disease transformed politicians into men and women who have become devoid of honor? No, not all of them, but way too many. Why have the principles of freedom and liberty become passé, out-of-date, or just plain irrelevant? How is it we have morphed into the false loyalty of “my party, right or wrong, my party.” That’s Nazi stuff, not American. What on earth possessed us to “spit” on the foundation of our liberties, in favor of what …… Security? Comfort? Enslavement? Have we lost our collective minds? More
The Holy Bible has less than 1,300 pages. But, how would you like to be tasked with having to read all those pages, until you understood them, in a month, a week, or a day, while having what some say is the most difficult job in the world?
President Obama did something far more heroic than that. He carefully read twice that many pages, and all of it was in some of the most poorly written, most abstruse legalese imaginable. It was the 2,700, plus, pages of the Healthcare “Reform” bill, commonly called Obamacare; and since this bill was always changing, add another 300 pages poor Obama had to read. More
by Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved
As April 15 approaches, several tax day protests are planned around the country. At the heart of these protests is the unrepresented debt that has been foisted on to the people of the (50) sovereign states; people who find they are being taxed to pay for illegal wars and corporate bailouts among other things.
The IRS is not a federal agency. The debt incurred for illegal and unlawful activity by the federal corporate government is not ours. Let those who incurred the debt, pay it.
How many of us are aware that all the so-called laws passed by congress apply only to those inside the Federal zone? The ten mile square boundary of Washington D.C. is the federal zone. Only the people who reside inside that boundary are citizens of the corporate UNITED STATES. More
The PPJ Gazette 