My Blog

I was reading on the bill that just passed the House. Someone put a few blurbs together about what some of the bill says. Please, please, call and write your Senators and tell them not to support this complete overhaul of our health care system. We don’t need a complete overhaul. We need change, but not that costs $1.2 trillion over 10 years. It’s full of pork!! And it gives too much power to the government. Which article of the Constitution says that the government can MAKE me buy something or tax me and throw me in jail if I don’t? Where is the liberty and freedom that we used to have going? We should be outraged, but most of us just sit back and take it. WAKE UP, AMERICA!!

This bill reduces medicare funding by an estimated $500 billion, the bill fundamentally changes how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals permitting the government to dictate treatment decisions. SEE SEC 1302 (pp 672-692).
Sec 1114 (pp 391 – 393) replaces physicians with PAs in overseeing care for hospice patients.
Sec 1158 – 1160 (pp 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what IT COSTS IN THE LOWEST COST REGIONS OF THE COUNTRY.
Sec 1161 (pp 520 – 545) cuts payments to MEDICARE ADVANTAGE Plans (used by 20% of seniors).
Sec 399V (pg 1422) Provides for grants to community “entities” ACORN
Sec 222 (pg 617) Provides reimbursement for culturally & linguistically appropriate service.

This happened last night so maybe the nation has not woke up yet. But the Senate killed a proposal that would have kept a Bush administration drilling policy in place. This effectively lets Obama dictate our drilling policy for the outer continental shelf. And his administration is content to not allow any drilling. Of course, this fits right in with all this climate change tripe that Obama has been spewing in the past week or so. WAKE UP, AMERICA!! Don’t let this miniature Idi Amin take over this country! The Legislature is full of his cronies that don’t want to cross the annointed one. Let’s vote these jokers out in 2010. Here’s the story.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/24/senate-blocks-bid-offshore-drilling-policy/?test=latestnews

And go here to see how your Senator voted. Keep in mind that a Yea vote was a vote to not accept Vitter’s motion and kill the proposal. Anyone who voted yea needs to be run out of office in the next election. http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00293

I’ve been listening to quite a few people’s opinions about our President and his policies. Most people that I talk to are past the point of being disappointed. They are downright pissed off. Most of them want the President removed. In fact, they wish he had never been elected. However, they don’t wish any harm to come to him. That’s just not right, and not just because Biden would be a worse President. And heaven forbid the chain of succession ever got to where Pelosi would be President. I digress….. I did hear one person say it would be nice if we could get some dirt on him so we could impeach him.   To that end, I have found an article that might help us get to that point.  It comes from The Washington Examiner on July 27, 2009, written by Mark Tapscott.  It talks about some dirty dealings in the “bailout” of Chrysler.  If this thing could get some legs under it, we may be on to something.   Read on….. 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Furor-grows-over-partisan-car-dealer-closings-46261447.html

I got an email from a friend about cash for clunkers. I’m not sure who the original author is, but it was quite a compelling read. Here it is:

Cash for Clunkers was hailed as a tremendous success, exceeding all expectations. What a great deal! Take your perfectly serviceable trade, drain the engine oil, fill the engine with a sand solution, and then run it until it self-destructs. And this brilliance only cost the taxpayers $4500 per trade-in destroyed plus about $500 in administrative costs (dealer and federal government combined).

Great, so far so good. What could possibly be more efficient than showering new car buyers with $4500 in taxpayer funded cash? This saves each buyer $4500 on his new car purchase that he can use to purchase other goods and services or put in savings right?

Well………..not exactly.

Any car traded in under this program had to be running and so none of them were worth $0.00 dollars. In fact, if my unscientific reading is correct, the average trade-in sent to the scrap heap by this program would have been worth $3100 wholesale without this program. Uh, OK.

So that means we shelled out $4500 in taxpayer cash plus administrative costs to dole out a net benefit of $1400 to the car buyer, right? Though it’s not looking like such a great deal for the taxpayers at this point, $1400 is better than nothing, at least if you’re the car buyer, right?

Well……………….not exactly.

It turns out that most states, other than California, only charge sales tax on the net difference between a trade-ins value and the new car price. Here in Arizona our sales tax is 9%. All state governments have decided that the $4500 provided by the cash for clunkers program is not a trade-in allowance and is therefore subject to sales tax. So a standard trade in (non clunker) allowance of $3100 actually provides a net reduction in the after-tax new vehicle price of $3380 ($3100 x 1.09). This reduces the net benefit to the average purchaser utilizing cash for clunkers to $1120. A $1120 benefit to one taxpayer that cost his fellow taxpayers $4500. Uh, OK. Is that it?

Well…………..not exactly.

It now comes to light, after the program is finished and the deals are done, (although the dealers have not been paid yet), that there’s more! It has been determined that the $4500 allowance is taxable income to the car buyers who took advantage of it!!!! The non-clunker deal after sales tax allowance of $3380 is not taxable income to the car buyer. The $4500 government allowance is taxable income subject to both federal and state income taxes. Here in Arizona our state income tax is 5%. The top federal tax rate is 35% for a combined income tax of 40%. A high income Arizona car buyer with the average trade in who took advantage of cash for clunkers will pay $1800 in income tax on that $4500 government allowance if he is in the top bracket. Thus a high income car buyer would end up paying a net after-tax penalty of -$680. Even car buyers in much lower tax brackets who live in states like Texas without any state income tax and with a federal tax rate of 28% would still pay $1260 in income tax (28% x $4500) on that $4500. So even for a lower income taxpayer living in a no income tax state, the average net, (after sales tax and income tax), benefit of the cash for clunkers program amounts to MINUS -$140. Uh, OK.

You mean that taxpayers shelled out $4500.00 per car (just under 3 BILLION DOLLARS TOTAL) to provide the average buyer taking advantage of this program a net after-tax PENALTY that amounts to $140.

Yeah………exactly.

Uh, OK. OUCH!!!!!

I wrote my Senator, John McCain the other day to express my thoughts on the so-called energy bill that the House passed and will be coming to the Senate.  I told him that I expected him not to support it.  I have pasted the content of his letter below for you to read.  He says in it that he doesn’t support Obama’s vision, but he has his own vision of cap and tax that he would support.  I’m very disappointed in Sen. McCain.  After his email, I have pasted my response to him.

Dear :

 Thank you for contacting me regarding climate change. I appreciate knowing your thoughts on this issue.

 According to extensive international scientific studies, including reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, dramatic increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are causing global temperatures to rise. Human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels, are the primary source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere.

 As Americans, we can no longer ignore our significant contribution to this foremost environmental threat. The United States must act responsibly to address this issue and work to preserve the global environment for future generations. It is also essential that we maintain our leadership role as the world moves toward an international market for greenhouse gas reductions.

 Climate change legislation has been the subject of Senate debate for a number of years. As you may know, Senator Lieberman and I have been working to pass legislation to address this critical issue since 2003. Most recently, in January 2007 Senator Lieberman and I introduced S. 280, the Climate Change Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007. This bill placed a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases companies could emit and established a market-based trading program. The trading system proposed under S. 280 allowed companies to buy or sell emissions units. A company that reached the required levels in certain emissions would have been able to trade emissions “credits” with a company was struggling to meet emissions requirements. Without a market-based greenhouse gas emissions program, it would be increasingly difficult for U.S. companies to operate abroad and to maintain their position as leaders in the global marketplace.

 Earlier this year, President Obama released his budget plan, which relies upon raising nearly $650 billion dollars of revenues from a climate credits auction. This large revenue producing mechanism was not the cap-and-trade system I had envisioned. The President’s proposal of auctioning one hundred percent of the carbon credits is bad economic policy that would cost businesses billions of dollars and allow for little to no transition into a low carbon system.

 More recently, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. While I still believe that climate change is a critical issue that must be addressed, some significant changes will have to be made to this legislation before I can support passage of similar in the Senate. However, please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as I work together with my fellow Senators and the Administration to negotiate a successful method of addressing this critical issue

 Thank you again for sharing your views. Please feel free to contact me regarding this or any other matter of importance to you.

 Sincerely,

 John McCain

United States Senator

 JM/cd

And my response……

 

 

United State Senate

Washington, DC

 

Senator McCain,

It disappoints me greatly to hear that you have bought into the farce that is global warming. In fact, it’s not called global warming anymore. Now it’s climate change. The climate change that happens on the planet is a naturally occurring phenomenon. More and more scientists are finally standing up to the bullying that government and even their own colleagues have been subjecting on them to come forward and show strong support and evidence that global warming/climate change is not caused nor impacted by humans. It is occurring naturally. The earth goes through cycles as a matter of course.

Even though you buy into the global warming farce, I’m also very disappointed to hear that you believe in a cap and tax system. How can you agree with this concept as it will push a regressive tax on each and every citizen of this great nation? And how can you support this when most of your constituents don’t?

Senator, you have proven to me that you are not a true conservative. From global warming to amnesty for illegal aliens, you are letting conservatives in your state, nay, the nation down. On the illegal alien issues, you only started saying secure the borders first when your constituents went after you for trying to provide amnesty first.

Unfortunately, unless you make a marked change in your stands on issues, I will not be able to support you anymore.

I don’t expect I’ll get a response to this email. It will be a pleasant surprise if I do.

Respectfully,

 

 

Think about it….companies shop around for the best deal on insurance on behalf of their employees. They do this to keep the cost down. If the government offers lower cost health care than private insurers, just watch how fast companies don’t offer insurance anymore. This will improve the companies’ bottom lines. And private insurance will then basically have to go away because people, looking for the best deal, will buy into the government’s plan. Insurance companies can’t offer group pricing for health care when there is no one in the group. So, private insurance companies will not be able to compete. All this sounds OK so far, right? Lower cost health care for everyone! Wrong. First thing that will happen is the government will raise taxes to cover the expense of treating everyone. Even after raising taxes, when the gov’t figures out that they can’t afford to pay for every person that wants to be checked for a cold, or a sports injury, or needs a knee replaced, or bypass surgery, they will start finding ways to deny service. The UK already does this. They are denying smokers bypass surgery and overweight people hip and knee replacements claiming that their “lifestyle choices” are what created the need for treatment. The other side of this is that the government will start mandating how much it will pay for service. This will cause hospitals to lose income. And physicians, surgeons, anesthesiologists, etc. will all have to take pay cuts. People who wanted to be doctors may pick a different career path because of this. Doctors, lawyers, baseball players, football players etc. may get into their field because they love it, but they stay because they get paid enormous sums of money. So, while the messiah says that the government isn’t going to take away your option to keep your current health care, he’s not being totally honest. He knows that companies will dump the costs of healthcare leaving the employees with very few options, one of which is the government’s plan. And my prediction is that if that happens, if the only real option for health insurance is the government plan…it won’t be too long before the government passes a law that says you have to buy it. I’ll leave you with this thought…If a doctor has the opportunity to treat someone who will pay out of their pocket for care at a rate higher than the insurance would pay, don’t you think he’ll take that patient and put that patient in front of all other patients? (This happens in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia.) So there’s another “new law opportunity” for Congress.

Supporting link: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18103

So, is the stimulus package working to help raise our economy out of the recession it’s been in? I don’t think so. What has happened to change the course of the recession is our President, Barack Hussein Obama has finally shut the hell up. All the Chicken Little, the sky is falling bunk that he and his administration was spewing was at best keeping the recession at the state it was in, but at worst made the recession worse than it was going to be.  Did you hear me?  The stimulus package did not slow nor stop the recession.  The recession turned around on it’s own.  Case to point, this document, based on a CBO study, states that only 25% of the stimulus money will be spent by the end of 2009.  It’s June 2009 right now.  It would be safe to say that not more than 12.5% of the stimulus money has been spent so far.  But the economy is turning around.  http://rutledgecapital.com/2009/06/03/how-much-of-the-stimulus-money-has-already-been-spent/

The next step is to write, call or fax your Senators and Congressmen and tell them to stop the rest of the stimulus payouts.  It is NOT needed.  All it do is drive us into debt that our children’s children will be paying off.  Use this link to find Congressional contact information.  http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml  You can use this to contact the President and Vice President as well, but I think that would be a waste of time, effort and resources.  Their track record has shown that they don’t care what the American people think/desire.

Each and every one of us is an indentured servant. We are indentured by our government. The biggest difference between Americans today and the indentured servants in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is that those indentured servants actually had a specified term for their servitude (read: slavery). Americans don’t. Our government owns us. You don’t think so? You think I’m full of crap? Riiiigghht. You keep thinking that, Buckwalter! Imagine that you have paid off your house or you have a bare, unimproved piece of property that you own outright. Now, just let it sit there. When that property tax bill comes, just throw it away. Don’t pay it. When the next notice comes, ignore it. It won’t be very long before that government (that you think doesn’t own you and everything you have) will be putting a lien on your property, and then they’ll put it up for auction. If it’s unimproved land out in the middle of nowhere, you’re tax bill is probably $50 a year or some insignificant amount. But the government will take your land that is worth possibly hundreds or thousands of times the tax amount and sell it to the highest bidder (usually for less than the property is worth) to get that $50 that they TELL YOU they are ENTITLED to. Yeah…the government doesn’t own you and all your stuff. You keep thinking that.

Is there anything that you can do without being taxed by the government? I challenge you to respond to this post and inform me of what it is. By the way, if they tax it, fundamentally that means that you don’t own it. They LET you own it. 

Take a look at the link below.  When you read it, look at the industries that are swapping “help” for huge portions and control of those industries.  The government already owns the industries.  With these huge payouts, the government is paying hush money to these industries.  The money is being used to keep the industries quiet while the government takes overt control of them.  Time will tell whether our government will relent and let the industries appear to control themselves once again.

http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bailouttracker/

Now tell me, with all the BS conviction that you can, that the government doesn’t own EVERYTHING.  We have let our government get so big that we exist to feed the government machine.  We are supposed to control the government, but we are now letting the government control us.  WAKE UP, AMERICA!  Take care of yourself!  Quit looking to the government for everything.  Once we do that, we can roll back the insidious taxes and start living a more free life.  A life that doesn’t exist to support the government.

See the original article here…

On his Monday evening talk show, Michael Savage — one of America’s most popular hosts — articulated an important truth: Barack Obama is a creation of a leftist media, to which we would add: Especially The New York Times.

Savage was commenting on a June 15 Gallup Poll which showed conservatives are now the single largest ideological group in the country.

According to Gallup, five months into the Obama administration — which The Times insists reflects the will of the American people — 40% of Americans call themselves conservatives, 35% moderates, and 21% liberal.

The radio personality, whose national audience exceeds 8 million, then asked the rhetorical question: If a plurality of Americans are conservative, why is there a “neo-Marxist in the White House” who’s successfully implementing a socialist agenda?

The answer, said Savage, is because we have a “neo-Marxist media.” This isn’t name-calling but an accurate assessment of what might be called a partnership in crime — Barack Obama and the mainstream media. Read more…

Some may have seen this already. It was sent to me and I thought it should be posted here and as many places as it can be. I’m not sure who the author is. First this was funny THEN you realize the awful truth of it.

The Tax Poem

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he’s fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule. Read more…