America: Are We Still The Land of The Free?

One of the biggest questions that needs to be asked today is “Who are we?” I was raised to believe that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. That freedom has become harder to find these days mostly because we, as a people, weren’t brave enough to stand up and protect our freedom. There is also a certain degree of selfishness. As long as the latest assault didn’t affect you personally…did you stand up and say “No, this is wrong”? Did you vote for people that proposed raising taxes on “millionaires” simply because you were not a millionaire or did you ask your government “what have you done with the trillions you have already spent?” Does it bother you to know that the millionaire’s tax you voted for kicks in at an annual income of $250,000 or is that still high enough that it doesn’t affect you? Better yet…do you really believe that as the revenue stream from these “quarter-of-a-millionaires” dries up that, eventually, the government won’t have to redefine a “millionaire” again as someone whose income is a little closer to your own?

I warned years ago when a slew of sin taxes were proposed on tobacco products that no matter where you stand on the habit of smoking, that this was a bad idea. The tobacco taxes weren’t really about forcing people to quit, they were about a new source of revenue. As more people realized the hazards associated with smoking, many quit and smoker’s numbers were steadily falling when these new sin taxes were proposed. When it came time to pass the tax, the smokers opposing the tax were in the minority and the tax passed easily. That really wasn’t a surprise because by then, government had already learned how to create support by labeling the target group. This time it wasn’t the greedy rich people we were going to tax but those inconsiderate smokers. In fact, this wasn’t about saving their lives anymore. The theory of second hand smoke had turned the issue away from using sin taxes to encourage healthy choices, into punishing smokers for engaging in a habit that could affect your heath, not to mention raise your health insurance costs because of their increased medical demands.

I said then that this was just the trial balloon. If we would authorize the government to use the tax system to force lifestyle changes where smoking was concerned, then we had just given them the authority to control any personal choice that government deemed unhealthy or dangerous. People thought I was being ridiculous then and some even said I was bordering on becoming a conspiracy theorist. Unfortunately, my vindication can be found in the pages of the healthcare bill and in local newspapers. The new healthcare bill adds a tax for sugary beverages and tanning salons because they are bad for you. California is now proposing a new “junk food” tax; and if you think that won’t become popular enough to be considered by every cash-strapped State and City government, then think again. I will bet you anything right now that it will even be considered as a new revenue source for the healthcare bill before the plan is fully implemented in 2014. After all, the healthcare bill has already changed the definition of a millionaire to be any individual that makes more that two-hundred thousand dollars or any married couple making more than two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Ink can be very powerful in Washington.

Now that we have vilified smokers, some would like to take that even further. Brooksville, Florida has just announced that it is looking at plans to crack down on smokers in the most egregious display of an abuse of power ever perpetrated by a municipality. During Monday's 5:30 p.m. meeting at City Hall, council members will consider a tobacco policy that forbids smoking or chewing the substance on city property, in city-owned vehicles and personal vehicles that are on city property or are being used for a city function. The policy would apply to city employees and the public alike.

City employees would have one year to quit smoking or chewing tobacco or face disciplinary action that includes termination "Depending on the facts and circumstances of each infraction." Employees could also pay to participate in a smoking cessation program on their own time. Applicants that admit to using tobacco would be denied employment altogether. This is an outrage and people that believe that America is still a free nation and that government has no business interfering in our personal choices should speak out loudly and without reservation. Just as the sin taxes are now being expanded to junk foods and sugary beverages; this is not as much about smoking as it is a direct assault on personal liberty that will more than likely be expanded as well.

The overweight contribute as mightily to the cost of healthcare as smokers do and in fact, as the high taxes on tobacco products reduce the number of people that smoke in this country, some have already claimed that obesity now exceeds smoking as the number one cause of preventable death in America. Those sources also state that obesity related illnesses have already reached parity with smoking in the amount of healthcare dollars used to treat the affects of bad personal choices. Is it a really absurd that one day Brooksville might decide the cost of providing health insurance for the obese had become too prohibitive? Does the American’s with Disabilities Act cover Americans that have “chosen” to become disabled because of their eating habits? Before anyone gets confused, I am not advocating that the obese should become the new target for government oppression but I have more than a sneaky feeling that your Federal government is about to open that door and the States will follow suit.

Don’t forget that after the healthcare bill was signed Nancy Pelosi said that “this is more about diet than diabetes.” Well, that isn’t possible unless Nancy knows that the new law intends to write your diet for you somewhere in the thousands of regulations and directives that have yet to be written by the healthcare advisory board created by the legislation. Michelle Obama has publicly made her cause the fight against childhood obesity and surely, the government will now reflect that battle in their new guidelines for school lunch and fitness programs. The healthcare bill already includes a hefty sum for play yard equipment designed specifically to promote healthy activities.

Again, health is something that should not be taken for granted. A healthy lifestyle can spell the difference between a long and productive life and a long and debilitating illness. The information is out there already and people, so far, have made choices based on their personal beliefs. If we allow government to make those choices for us, or if you believe government should have the power to exclude smokers from even earning a living, then where will it end? Will we have to surrender contact sports and motorcycles? Will high-heels and roller blades be banned? What about the potential for the spread of disease? Since the policy being considered by Brooksville reaches into people’s homes by saying if you use tobacco in any form, at any time and in any place, you cannot work for the City then is stands to reason that allowing this to stand invites the government into our homes to control even more behavior. The worst part about this is that the City and not society, would then establish what in safe and what is not. They would determine your health and welfare choices based on their criteria, not yours.

Suppose they determine that speech could be dangerous because of the anger it could possibly incite? There goes the First Amendment. Guns can be very dangerous depending on whose finger is on the trigger…should we ban guns because of the health implications….goodbye Second Amendment. Ridiculous? With this ban on smoking and the City of Brooksville already planning on testing people to make sure they aren’t smoking at home…where is your Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure? Where is the sovereignty of your person and property? Where the hell is the Constitution?

So the question again is “Who are we?” What is the America you believe in? Have we surrendered so many of our rights already that the government is already poised to take more based on the precedent set by our silence with sin taxes. After all if you can tax it, you can control it and if you control it, you can ban it and if you ban it….America just isn’t America anymore, now is it?

Paul

Bart Stupak caves on abortion - Healthcare passes

The debate is over and the healthcare bill has passed the House by a vote of 219 to 212. Pro-life turncoat Bart Stupak announced late Sunday that he had reached an agreement with the President that an Executive Order would be issued upon passage of the Bill that would uphold the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the use of Federal funds for abortion. Stupak is either a fool or he was merely holding out for his share of the free-flowing money the House leadership used to purchase the votes of so many of his colleagues. Truthfully, I think his support was needed to provide a margin of comfort so Nancy Pelosi and the President leaned hard enough to make him fold like a cheap suitcase. I’m sure he waited too long to get one of the sweetheart deals his other friends received so in the end, all Mr. Stupak will get is an Executive Order from the President so that he can claim he stood fast on his principals.

First of all, considering the track record this President has at keeping his word, I doubt the Executive Order that Stupak will receive contains little more than a confirmation of the language that is already in the bill; language that is woefully inadequate to accomplish what Stupak claimed was essential to gain his vote. Why am I so cynical? The President has far more pro-choice Democrats to placate than the block of so-called pro-life Democrats that Bart Stupak had spoken for. The bill contains language that would allow someone purchasing insurance through the exchange to write a separate check for abortion coverage in order to claim that no Federal funds were used. Asking people to write a separate check for abortion coverage when purchasing insurance through the exchange means very little when the policy itself is subsidized with Federal money. This is a neat little accounting trick that amounts to little more than shifting money from one pocket to the other.

An iron clad guarantee would be the elimination of abortion coverage in the insurance available through the exchange, allowing insurers to offer a separate rider that people could purchase individually and totally outside of the exchange if they so desired. But that really isn’t the issue; now is it. The Hyde amendment already allows the use of Federal funds for abortion in the case of rape or incest but that does not go far enough for Progressive Democrats. Abortion may be a medical procedure but is it healthcare? For abortion to be considered healthcare one would have to place unwanted pregnancy in the same league with disease or illness instead of calling what it is….the natural and expected result of unprotected sex. One would think that abortion wouldn’t be an issue after the advent of AIDS or the less catastrophic but equally chronic plethora of sexually transmitted diseases but apparently, even the threat of disease cannot quell the fever of human desire.

I find it interesting that the pro-choice advocates that have, for years, rallied around the battle cry of “Leave my body alone” are now signing up in droves to support a bill that will give the government an incredible amount of control over those same bodies. Pelosi already said that this more about diet than diabetes indicating that our pro-choice friends may have retained control over their wombs but through this bill, have surrendered freedom of choice in nearly everything else that makes them human.

Progressives operate under the firm belief that there needs to be controlling power at the Federal level because the general population is incapable of making rational and informed decisions for themselves. The exchange was not a compromise to cure a healthcare crisis; it is phase one in the creation of a single payer national healthcare system that will make all of your healthcare choices for you; eventually using monetary penalties to force behavioral changes to reduce government healthcare costs. Even that will not be enough and as the deficit and debt increase because of this malignant entitlement program, the actual rationing of care is as inevitable as the collapse of the private insurance system that is already written into the bill.

The provisions in this bill that mandate changes to the level of coverage that must be offered by approved plans coupled with the proposed caps on premium increases can only have one consequence. Those provisions are intentionally designed to drive private insurance out of business because there is no way they can compete with the subsidized plans offered through the exchange. As the availability of private insurance becomes scarce, the Federal government will “have to” come up with a public option to shore up the exchange with full knowledge that the destruction of private insurance is imminent. When the last private insurer is driven into extinction that is when the public option will morph, out of necessity, into the single payer system Progressives wanted from the start.

No? Well, an employer that currently pays more than $10,000 per year per employee for private healthcare insurance will find some curious things. If even one of his employees seeks a “better deal” through the exchange, the employer will be fined approximately $2,000 for EACH of his employees. If he provides no insurance at all he will pay a fine of $3,000 per employee and be assessed an additional payroll tax for healthcare. As it turns out, the penalties for not providing healthcare insurance are less than the insurance itself. Maybe that’s the $3,000 reduction in employer costs the President said your boss would see if this bill passes? Almost, but then there is the loss of the Bush tax cuts in 2011.

The Executive Order that Stupak will attempt to use to placate his constituents is not a law so it can be rescinded by a future President with the stroke of a pen and I predict we won’t have to wait that long. If this bill becomes law, Obama will need those pro-choice Democrats to continue his agenda and I fully expect that Stupak’s “piece of paper” is one of the bargaining chips that will be auctioned off to obtain future votes for card check, cap and trade or immigration reform.

The American people have been riveted on the healthcare debate and are solidly opposed to this monstrosity. They are watching the debates and saw Bart Stupak not only as one member of Congress that actually stood for principal but as their last hope to defeat this bill. Defeat would have allowed us do something for healthcare that didn’t involve expanding the power of government to that of the level of a totalitarian dictatorship but that hope was stolen from the American people by Stupak today. The Executive Order that Stupak will wave at his constituents to gain their forgiveness for voting for this bill will not shield him from the fallout (or the rotten tomatoes). Let’s face it….if he had said he was opposed to the bill over money or the expansion of government and changed his mind later, he might have been forgiven. Since he made himself the poster boy for Congressional principals, the surrender of his convictions will be used by those that run against him as a clear display of his lack of character and pro-life organizations began that assault the moment the vote was concluded.

The healthcare debate is far from over and even though the Senate has promised to use reconciliation to pass the bill, there are points of order that will be raised by the Republicans for every component of the reconciliation package that is not a budget issue. After all, reconciliation is a budget procedure and anything that is not related to budget, will most likely be stripped from the reconciliation package if the Senate Parliamentarian agrees that it violates the rules of reconciliation. If anything in the reconciliation package is changed, it will have to go back to the house for a new vote; a vote that will take place after these poor Democrats have gone home for the Easter break, faced their constituents and tried to explain what they have already done. I seriously doubt Mr. Stupak’s piece of paper will make a damned bit of difference to any of them.

The Democrats have ignored the American people and that has enraged more of us than a sequestered Congress could possibly imagine. Pelosi and Reid forced this through on strict timelines to avoid the same harassing town halls Congressional members were subject to last summer. The leadership tried to convince their members that the opposition to the bill reflected by the polls is that people want more, not less and that since this bill will eventually achieve that, they will be vindicated. Well, the leadership has misread the people and this vote will go down in history as a political suicide pact. Too bad Nancy Pelosi represents a district that is even further to the left than Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez or she would be packing her office this November too. The only solace I have is that it is virtually guaranteed that by the time January of 2011 rolls around, she will no longer be Speaker of the House.

Paul

The Real Healthcare Crisis

Unemployment has reached 10.2%, more than 2% higher than the administration promised we would see if the Stimulus bill were passed. The Stimulus bill has been a dismal failure and the government agency monitoring the funds that were spent has been accused of misreporting job data in an attempt to allow the President to save face as the economy continues to stall. But 10.2% doesn’t tell the whole story. When adjusted to add those that have exhausted their benefits or have taken part time work or minimum wage jobs outside of their regular industry to stave off financial ruin, the unemployment figure is a frightening 17.5%.

Job creation is something that government cannot do. Only thriving industries and businesses create jobs; particularly, the jobs worth having. The best thing government can do to help a stagnant economy is to place more money in the hands of consumers and to create an environment that business can grow in. Only tax relief and the elimination of meaningless over-regulation can provide real economic stimulus. Unfortunately, the President and the radicals he has surrounded himself with do not believe in free market solutions because they do not believe in the free market. A healthy and successful free market diminishes the importance of government so neo-socialist bureaucrats will always take actions that bridle the free market if for no other reason than to preserve their own power.

The last thing any government with a basic understanding of economic principals would do in a recession is add more taxes and more regulations to a faltering economy. Yet, that is exactly what they plan to do and more. If the House healthcare bill becomes law, small businesses and the wealthiest, most productive Americans can expect to pay massive new taxes. The bill also includes hidden fees and “excise” taxes that will fall heavily on the elderly.

Under the bill that passed Saturday night, citizens reporting income over $500,000 and married couples earning more than $1 million would be slapped with a 5.4% surtax on all income above those thresholds. After taking into account the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, those people would face a marginal tax rate of 45%.

Despite the President’s promise that small business will not suffer, very small companies, companies with payrolls with less than $500,000, will be exempted. All other companies will be slammed with new taxes adding up to 8% of their payroll if they don’t offer insurance as dictated by the Pelosi bill. The Joint Committee on taxation says that the surtaxes will raise $460.5 billion over 10 years, with almost a third of that amount coming from small business.

The Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform outlines other taxes the will result if the Pelosi bill is passed:

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).
Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services. Managers' amendment delays until 2012

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Repeal in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Repeals the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act. Original bill merely delayed for nine years

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.
Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

Deny Cellulosic Biofuel Producer Tax Credit to “Black Liquor” Resulting from Wood Pulp in Paper Production (Managers’ Amendment Page 14)

It is clear there are far more pages in this bill devoted to taxes than are devoted to healthcare. If this bill is passed into law the taxes take effect immediately but the majority of the legislation actually dealing with healthcare does not go into force until 2013 and beyond. These taxes will further cripple the economy and independent estimates place the cost of this bill beyond mere dollars and cents as an additional 5 million jobs will be lost as a direct result of its passage.

The next assault on America is the Cap and Trade or “Climate Bill”. The taxes imposed on energy and business will spell the death of the American economy and the loss of personal property rights. Thanks to the banking crisis, the Federal Government already owns 40% of home mortgages in this nation. During the dark days between World War I and World War II, the Weimar Republic of Germany was faced with a collapsed economy and an explosion of their national debt. They monetized their debt by printing enough cash to cover it which caused a 10,000% rise in inflation as the gold reserves were no longer sufficient to cover the currency. The Republic created a new form of money backed by the only thing they had left….land.

Is this where we are heading? Will the Federal Government attempt to print us out of debt and as the economy crashes and more mortgages become the property of the United States; will we find ourselves in the service of the government or lose our homes? The government has already proposed the forgiveness of student loans for a ten year commitment to public service. The last time something like that was the routine order of business it was the dark ages and the “public servants” were called serfs.

Paul

***Special Newsflash****

The White House announced it will stand by Van Jones in spite of the overwhelming evidence of ridiculous and radical statements he has made that have recently come to light. Whether or not Mr. Obama knew about Jones’ background before he appointed him to a position of power within his administration is now a moot point as the White House certainly knows who and what his is now.

The decision to support Van Jones brings the President’s judgment into question. Now that he has chosen to keep the most controversial and divisive member of his team of advisors in such a sensitive position, one must question Mr. Obama’s true motives.

Mr. Jones must be fired and the rest of the special advisors must be carefully scrutinized to see if there are any other equally disturbing figures lurking in the back rooms of this administration.


While Vice President Biden declares victory for the Stimulus Bill, the jobless rate continues to climb. The economy shed another 216,000 jobs in August bringing the unemployment rate to 9.7%, the highest in 26 years. It begs to ask the question “What is the Federal Government using as its criteria for success? Hopefully the Secretary of Education will not suggest that the dictionary their definition came from is now approved for use in the U.S. public school system.


In line with President’s faltering approval rating, the Congressional approval rating has plummeted as well. A recent poll shows that only 29% of respondents were favorable of Congress while a whopping 57% would vote them all out and start over if the elections were held today.

Nancy Pelosi has suffered more than most in the recent flogging by pollsters with those that approve of her performance at an abysmal 19%. Her response was an equally bizarre “I don’t care”. She added “I think I am trusted” then implied that it didn’t matter if she was liked as long as long as she was trusted.” She must have consulted with Joe Biden on the definition of success to reach that conclusion with a 19% approval rating.


This was a special newsflash so please continue below for today’s real attraction, the First Amendment – Part Two; Freedom of Speech

Paul