I know we’re all supposed to forget about the four Americans killed in Benghazi – that was ages ago, and we had a presidential election that validates all the lies Obama and his people told about the incident, so it’s a clean slate all around. Those four “bumps in the road,” as Obama called them, have been paved over with a steamroller.
But for anyone who still cares, all of those big investigations and partnerships with local law enforcement touted by the President have resulted in exactly zero terrorists in custody. The one and only person held thus far in connection with the attacks, was just released by Tunisian authorities.
Publishing the names and addresses of people who follow the law is not, or should not be, “news.” So for a newspaper to put an interactive map online of handgun permit holders, you have to wonder what their agenda might be. Aside from trying to perhaps, boost circulation, publishing this type of information serves only to intimidate citizens because they have a permit to own a handgun. They “justify” doing that because in New York that is considered to be “public information.” The obvious agenda of the newspaper is jumping on the anti-gun bandwagon. You don’t like guns? Fine, use your editorial pages to say so. But don’t go on the offensive against lawful citizens.
Aside from acting as a bully towards people who follow the law, the publishing of that information has put all of them at risk for any number of reasons. It’s a treasure trove for burglars looking to steal some weapons. But worse than just that, all law enforcement and who knows how many judges, active or retired, are now identified for the people who were arrested or sentenced by them. This puts them and their families at risk for retaliation.
I see this as an abuse of what public information is all about. Inquiring for public information and making that info available to the detail that they did, putting people at risk, and representing it as a news product is an abuse of the availability and purpose of public information, and an abuse of their constitutional right of freedom of the press. It is an abuse and invasion of privacy for the people listed, and should be actionable in civil court.
In support of the victims created by the actions of the newspaper, I have culled a few signs to make a point in support of the Second Amendment.
Truth is, if you knew why you got a payroll tax break in the first place, then you should be ashamed of yourself for not wanting to pay more taxes now. Long story short, you’ve been had. Senior citizens have been had. The low-information voters have been had. And President Obama got re-elected.
But the fun deception doesn’t stop there. The so-called fiscal cliff deal greased the palms of those one-percenters. It’s crony capitalism at its best. Check this, How do you like your smaller paycheck?
Seven features of an effective tax system. An effective tax system is one that can meet all seven.
SIMPLE. It should be easy to understand.
FAIR. Has the same rules for everyone. Emphasis on EVERYONE.
VISIBLE. Taxpayers can plainly see the taxes they pay and the cost of government in their lives.
NEUTRAL. The revenue needed to sustain the government and the system of taxation to collect it, must not interfere with the economic choices of people, business, and corporations.
EFFICIENT. An efficient tax code will, minimize administrative and enforcement details for the government, minimize compliance details for the taxpayer, and maximize cost effectiveness for the government and the taxpayer.
STABLE. All the features that make the tax system effective also serve to reduce the need for frequent changes to it, thus people, businesses and corporations can plan accordingly for the future because of the stability inherent to the tax system.
FOSTER ECONOMIC GROWTH. The tax code must be free of any obstructions and penalties that deter capital investment and domestic businesses which in turn obstruct job growth and the potential for greater wages. It also must be free of any details that deter any individual’s motivation to work, save, and invest.
Of paramount importance in items six and seven is the elimination of uncertainty. It is the uncertainty that any decision a person, business, or industry makes might come back to bite them in an ever-changing taxing environment.
The current IRS code fails to meet all seven elements. Time for bold and real tax reform has come. Let your federal representative know that you support H.R.25 in the House.
UPDATE: Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA7) introduced H.R.25 into the 113th Congress yesterday Jan 3, 2013. The Senate version cannot be introduced until January 22 at the earliest.
And to further illustrate the need for a more efficient tax code, look how much difficulty our Treasury Secretary had in paying his taxes.
Here’s a snapshot of how complexity begets uncertainty.
According to government figures, there have been approximately 4,428 tax code changes in the last 10 years, including an estimated 579 changes in 2010 alone. Based on an analysis early last year, the tax code had grown from 1.4 million words to 3.8 million words just since 2001. Between 1986 (the last major tax reform) and 2005, Congress passed 14,400 amendments to the tax code – an average of 2.9 changes every day for the full 19 years.
By contrast, the entire FairTax bill is 145 pages.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) has pledged that his first bill would seek to repeal “every syllable of every word” of the Obama administration’s “‘Affordable’ Health Care Act.”
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (R)
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (R) of was sworn into office Thursday on a historic day that saw him become the first African-American United States senator from the South since Reconstruction and the upper chamber’s only current black member.
Ding Dong. Some think he is already dead. Chavez’s opposition party might get another chance to free Venezuelans from the dictator and maybe have food on the shelves in markets again. The country may have a shovel-ready project of their own.
Give credit where credit is due, to the fine health care system in communist Cuba.
Only President Obama has the nerve to lie (and get away with it) to the American people when he says he is serious about cutting taxes and reducing the debt.
President Obama’s statement at the pep rally in The White House yesterday . . .
Last year in 2011, we started reducing the deficit through $1 trillion in spending cuts. Those have already taken place.
The truth is, shelving a proposed trillion-dollar spending measure is not reducing or cutting anything real.
The agreement being worked on right now would further reduce the deficit by asking the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans to pay higher taxes for the first time in two decades, so that would add additional hundreds of billions of dollars to deficit reduction. So that’s progress, but we’re going to need to do more.
The smoke and mirrors that the media ignores and the dumb masses can’t figure out is that, there is no connection between raising taxes and deficit reduction. Period.
The bill that passed the Senate earlier today raises taxes, and raises spending. The ratio is 1:6.7 For every dollar of tax increase, spending increases nearly seven dollars. It does zip, zero, nada to decreasing the national debt or the deficit. And what’s worse is this. The Left is fine with the lies. They’re upset because, in their mind, Obama caved and didn’t raise taxes enough.
Monday’s Morning Joe show on MSNBC led off with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) responding to a question from Co-host Mika Brzezinski, expressing frustration as to why this fiscal cliff exists, and why doing something about it has come down to the last minute.
The short answer to her question is this. The leadership (Obama, Reid, Biden) does not have the balls to be open or transparent about what they want, and don’t want, to do. Don’t you remember when Speaker Pelosi said, unequivocally, you’ll have to pass the health care bill to see what’s in it? That’s the way Obama rolls.
There is a 4 1/2 minute set-up to the segment with Sen. Coburn.
Transcript is below.
Mika Brzezinski:You are paid to take care of this country’s wallet, to take care of this country’s reputation, to take care of this country’s health. Why wouldn’t you all just stay there and get it done. The whole thing. Not something little. Not something that ‘kicks the can down the road.’ You’ve used that phrase time and time again saying we can’t keep kicking the can down the road. I’m tired of hearing it. But even moreso our country needs some stability and balance and not temporary solutions. Why wouldn’t you all, who are paid to do this, stay there ’till you get it done?
Sen. Coburn: No one can argue with that. The problem is what you have to argue with is the fact that everything is done in a dark room, back room, not the committee, not on the floor. And the reason we haven’t achieved anything, is that the process that was intended to work for our country doesn’t work anymore because we won’t bring bills to the floor anymore.
We wouldn’t be where we are today if we actually had regular order in the Senate where you actually had bills come to the floor that actually went through committee, and amendments were offered and we took an up or down vote and then did something with them. We’ve not done that. And that’s because our leadership values the political more than they value the country. We put a premium on protecting members rather than exposing truth and letting the American people see the process.
… we have not done our job but the reason we’re not doing our job is because most members want to have it both ways. They don’t want to have the criticism of making a tough decision.
Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.
