By all indications things are getting worse not better in the US economy. The government has continued to meddle in the marketplace and keeps coming up a loser. Now Barack Obama is intent upon seeing a significant increase in the minimum wage. And what will that do? it will cost more jobs.
But, it gets worse… Obamacare will cost 2.5 million jobs. And, the CBO reported today that Obama’s minimum wage hike will cost the country another 500,000 jobs. The Daily Mail reported:
The White House may have to scrap its plans to aggressively promote a 40 per cent national minimum wage hike now that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the move would likely cost the U.S. 500,000 jobs by the second half of 2016.
The CBO’s report, released Tuesday afternoon, also estimated that it would pull 900,000 low-income Americans above the federal government’s poverty line.
The White House didn’t answer questions about whether that trade-off is acceptable to President Obama, but Senate Democrats have pushed hard for legislation that would implement his goal of driving the minimum wage far above its current $7.25 level.
Looking at Hoft's report, one would almost think that the plans of this administration were designed to hurt the economy.
Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino – “It’s to the point where these
(Obama) scandals in and of themselves would be huge, backbreaking
scandals are just lost in the ‘scandal fog’ of this administration.” He
added: “It’s worse than people know; I’m not trying to scare you
either.” [gopthedailydose.com]
I received an email yesterday that made a pretty good point. I have no idea if the author was ever really a government employee, but that doesn't matter. The email says makes a solid case that the government shutdown had to have been planned months in advance. Here's what it said:
"I
have worked in thegovernment on and off for 40 years. During that time I
became quite familiar with requisitions, bidding, awarding contracts
etc. It is a time consuming process with bean-counters and pencil-necked
bureaucrats every step of the way. The simplest request takes months
not days or hours. In less than 8 hours of the shutdown, miraculously,
professionally printed 3X4 foot signs appeared all over the country in
the tens of thousands saying-“this [park, facility,etc. with custom
logos] closed due to government shutdown. There has not been a government
shutdown in 17 years. These signs were designed, specifications were
determined, signs were then requisitioned, bids were posted and
vetted, government contracts were awarded. The materials were then
ordered and the signs manufactured then distributed by U. S. Mails or
freight companies. This shutdown was orchestrated and planned well in
advance at least 6-8 month ago. Millions of tax dollars were appropriated
and spent in this process. There is a paper trail a mile long leading
directly to the White House. "
Remember folks, I've been telling you this for years and years now, if anything happens in politics you can pretty well bet that somebody planned it that way.
Something bigger than a shutdown is afoot. Be very alert.
Have you ever heard of Bitcoin? During a recent panel discussion when asked about his desire to end the Federal Reserve (his license plate even says "NDFED") Massie was asked what would replace it and he blurted out "Bitcoin". I won't try to describe what "Bitcoin" is, I'll leave the research on that up to you.
But up until very recently this Internet based method of exchange which in a sense it's own currency for goods and services is getting some rather mainstream attention.
At its most basic level a Bitcoin is a form of money that can be used
to pay for products or services just like the dollar bills that sit in
your wallet.
A Bitcoin lives as code inside a computer. It’s intangible, but it works in many ways like cold, hard cash.
To acquire a Bitcoin, you need to buy it with another currency or
have someone send it to you in a transaction. To hold a Bitcoin, you
need to keep it in a digital “wallet,” a piece of software, on your
local computer or you can you can allow a company to hold your “wallet”
on their servers.
Bitcoin payments are made by transferring the digital currency
between two users’ “wallets.” The fees for these transfers are lower
than for more traditional forms of payments, like using a credit card or
a bank transfer, because they are not backed by the safeguards and
intermediary services provided by companies like Visa or Bank of
America.
Bitcoin is “decentralized” meaning that it’s created and maintained
by a network, rather than controlled by an institution like the Federal
Reserve. The monetary policy of Bitcoin has already been established in a
sense, with a cap of 21 million Bitcoins being able to enter
circulation to reduce the risk of inflation.
Right now the price of a Bitcoin is around $100.
Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are increasingly drawing the
attention of federal and state officials, though many have yet to
formally express their views.
The chief worries have been whether they can be used by criminals to
launder money, sell drugs, fleece unsuspecting consumers or evade taxes. [POLITICO]
Bitcoin, at this time, appeals primarily to people who dislike government, want to avoid taxes, and have a bit of a radical libertarian/anarchist type philosophy. It's geeky, operates in its own subculture and requires a more sophisticated level of computer knowledge than your typical grandma who sometimes checks out Facebook.
For these reasons it should come as no surprise that Ron Paul acolyte Thomas Massie may very well be the first U.S. Congressman to endorse using Bitcoin instead of US currency. How this squares with the people in Bromley, Sligo, Corinth, Perry Park, Covington and Alexandria is yet to be seen. But for a Congressman whose focus until recently has been upon playing "junkyard wars" and building robots the appeal of his latest radical idea is anybody's guess.
Hitler had his SchutzStaffel (SS) and his Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) to keep people in fear of their government. According to the New York Times the United States Government through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has engendered a similar type of fear among its citizens.
Representative David Camp, Kentucky's Hal Rogers and a number of democrats are quoted in the NYT article saying much the same thing.
“There isn’t a person I come into contact with back home — or anyone in
this country frankly — who does not fear the I.R.S.,” Mr. Camp said last
month in opening the first hearing into the agency’s targeting of
conservative groups for special scrutiny. “They fear getting something
wrong on their tax filings. And they fear the I.R.S.’s ability to audit
them and wreak havoc in their lives.”
“People are outraged with I.R.S. more than I’ve seen about anything
else,” said Representative Aaron Schock, Republican of Illinois and a
Ways and Means member.
House Republicans are determined to stoke the anger, and Democrats are
in no mood to stand in their way. At a hearing Monday of the House
Appropriations Committee, lawmakers from both parties flailed Daniel I.
Werfel, the newly appointed acting I.R.S. commissioner, demanding
drastic change.
“It seems we have a new misstep every day at the I.R.S.,” said
Representative Harold Rogers of Kentucky, the committee’s chairman. “I’m
very troubled with what might come to light next.”
Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York, the panel’s ranking Democrat, pronounced herself “furious.”
“What was the I.R.S. thinking?” she asked.
But some people think that the IRS targeting of TEA party and Liberty groups needs to stay focused on the abuses of the IRS and not turn this situation into a call for tax reform.
Kevin Kookogey, president of Linchpins of
Liberty, a one-man organization in Williamson County, Tenn., said any
effort to jump from I.R.S. targeting to tax-code simplification “would
be a misstep.”
“I do not like the complexity of the tax code, but this is political
targeting, as simple as two plus two,” he said Monday. “If this is used
as a political ploy to change the tax code, we will have missed the
moral issue here, and nothing much will have changed.”
I agree that the abuses of the IRS need to be handled as a separate incident of government over-reach and the abuse of power, but there may be no better time to eliminate the IRS and repeal the income tax than there will be when the smoke clears from this explosive scandal.
We should strive to have both results in play. Curb the abuses of power but at the same time get rid of the henchmen who will still be there for the next guy to use as his personal army against the people.
When TEA party groups sought tax free status with the IRS and found themselves entangled in a White House driven program of retribution they came face to face with the punitive nature of the current tax code. They also invited a snake into the house, the kind that bites.
The need for "tax exempt" status only exists in a world where taxes are paid by some and not others. And the "exemption" from those taxes only exists in a world where lobbyists can persuade congress to grant "exemptions".
That's why real tax reform will take bold men to get behind it. Those who have spent their lives lobbying for clients and pocketing millions along the way have found the sandbox of taxes a great place to play. Carving out exemptions, negotiating credits, adding sub-paragraphs to sub-paragraphs in the Internal Revenue Code and creating a system that requires lawyers, and accountants and tax-preparation companies to do the calculations has created a labyrinth of cottage industries so intertwined with the current tax structure that any serious attempt at modernization will be met with fierce resistance from those who profit off of taxes as they currently exist.
Don't think for one minute that thousands of people with a vested interest in keeping the status quo, with perhaps some pork barrel tweaks, aren't already putting together well crafted messages to deliver to the public and to elected officials why anything that really makes sense is a bad idea.
But this scandal over the IRS targeting TEA party groups might just have enraged the wrong monster. Every evil the TEA party railed against was found in bed together in this infuriating mess.
There is the mean old IRS, the dictatorial president, a huge federal bureaucracy too big, David Axelrod said, for even the president to control and of course the lobbyists and DC insiders who are lining up to prevent their cash cow, the income tax, from being slaughtered.
As the old saying goes, you can milk a cow for a long time, but you can only eat it once. Meaningful tax reform, like moving to the Fair Tax, will kill the cash cow for a lot of people suckling off of her for decades. But the move will not only eliminate the punitive nature of the cows now obvious kick, it will give plenty of red meat to a growing TEA party appetite for liberty. And that's a good thing.
I had the pleasure of participating in the republican primary for Congress from my district last year. Of course as I told everyone, I was more George Plimpton in the Paper Lion than a conditioned player on the field. But I did have one take-away that I feel it is time to share. Even those I respected most were mealy-mouthed about changes to the tax laws.
I heard nearly every candidate say, when asked, that they were in favor of a "fairer-flatter" tax. I guess that's an homage to both the proponents of the "fair tax" and proponents of the "flat tax" and a way to show voters that you empathize with their dislike of the income tax.
But none really committed to any effort to make a dramatic and historic change for America. I did though. I favored the "Fair Tax". Yes I had some questions about the "prebate" but continue to be certain that some of the difficult details of that portion of the proposal could be worked out.
Proponents of the Flat Tax would keep the IRS, and apparently don't think the Fair Tax would pass.
But there is probably no better time for a discussion and for a strong push for the Fair Tax than right now.
Why not the Flat Tax? The Patriot Post has done a comparison of the Fair Tax, the current Income Tax and the Flat Tax. I suggest that you CLICK HERE to do your own comparison.
Why do I prefer the Fair Tax over the Flat Tax? Here are a few examples.
I was not surprised that a candidate would bob and weave during a campaign and was thrilled to have the chance to share the stage with the others to engage in the ongoing debate about the future of our nation, but now we are at a time when talk should end and action take its place.
Barack Obama has tried to distance himself from three major scandals this past week by blaming everyone except himself. David Axelrod even appeared on the Sunday shows and offered an excuse which caused Rush Limbaugh to chuckle and agree. Axelrod said the government was just too big for the President to control.
But as the layers of denial and deflection have been batted away what appears at the core of these serious problems is at best an incompetent and at worst the architect of perhaps the greatest threat to liberty to ever occupy the office.
Now the Wall Street Journal has had enough. In an article yesterday the mask was pulled off of Obama and full blame for the actions of the IRS laid right at his feet.
Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives?
No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was.
President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the
IRS is an "independent" agency and that they knew nothing about its
abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama
picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies.
But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr.
Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly
what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that
conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly
call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and
publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action.
Breitbart has a meme which hits the same message.
And as I said as soon as this IRS scandal broke, this is the one that will fire up everybody, liberals and conservatives alike, because it is proof that the President is capable of abusing power and that is someting only the most dedicated communists and dictators love.
You can yell "TYRANNY" over anything else you want, but this IRS scandal is the spark in the presence of the powder keg that all Americans despise.
Seriously, if there was ever a time for updating the taxing system in the United States it is now.
Which elected official will be the bold one, to capture the nation's attention, to rally a nation behind him/her and call for the elimination of the IRS and the shift to the Fair Tax for our future?
One comes to mind. Mitch, now is your moment to make history.
IRS spokespersons have said that "low level" workers are the ones who targeted TEA party and other such groups for what some are describing as intimidation examinations. But in an article over at Gateway Pundit one commenter who claims to have knowledge of how the IRS works, says the blame is much higher up.
This cannot possibly be. As someone who has gone through IRS
certification (due to the off chance we may encounter taxpayer data
during investigations), I can attest for the extensive rigor and
controls that prevent such low level activities. For instance, the mere
act of someone pulling up a neighbor's tax data would set off numerous
alarms; investigation and prosecution would be inevitable. Cases are
distributed in a manner that a low-level worker would not have access to
all "tea party" and "patriot" filings.
Only senior level IRS executives are able to bypass those controls.
And that IRS spokespersons are lying suggests how far up the
conspiracy goes. I'm rather confident that a competent investigation
would show White House political appointees had directed these actions,
in collusion with senior level IRS officials. Nobody down below would be
able to have such a broad reach and get by without being terminated and
criminally prosecuted. [Gateway Pundit]
While Michele Bachmann thinks the IRS scandal was leaked as a diversion to the Benghazi story, actually it might have the makings of a very serious problem that reaches very high up in the Obama Administration. Look for extensive hearings which focus on Timothy Geithner and Valerie Jarret.
Ron Paul left Congress last year but he didn't leave a void. POLITICO is saying that Justin Amash might be the new Ron Paul in the people's house. POLITICO also names Kentucky's Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, Raul Labrador, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee as part of the movement working to change the face of the GOP.
Amash says in the piece that
"This next generation of liberty Republicans...we’re interested in making sure
that … we re-brand the Republican Party as a place that is welcoming to
people from across the political spectrum and follows the founding
principles of our country: limited government, economic freedom,
individual liberty.”
Please read that again. Amash wants to re-brand the Republican Party as a place that is welcoming to people from "across the political spectrum". He doesn't say that those people need to embrace the Republican Platform, hold dear republican principles, honor the tradition and foundation of the Republican Party or become republicans. Rather he says that he wants the party to be more welcoming to people from "across the political spectrum" and that IN ADDITION his group wants the GOP to follow our founding principles.
Now I'm all on board with following our founding principles, but what Amash seems to forget in this kum ba yah comment is that we cannot let people from all across the "political" spectrum take over the Republican Party.
At one end of that spectrum are the skin-heads and neo-Nazis. At the other are atheists and those who favor partial birth abortion and have a socialist agenda. Now what might escape young Justin is the fact that in reality both ends of that spectrum came together once before in Germany in the 1930's. Why would we want to welcome any of that into the GOP?
Sometimes this garbage talk from the Ron Paul kids sounds good as the bong water bubbles but there are better reasons why the GOP needs to stand on its own and not become the flop house youth hostel for every vagabond from anywhere along the political spectrum.
A lot of bad things were done in the name of "limited government" and "individual liberty" over the years. Not that I am advocating for more government or less liberty, but don't forget that we fought a civil war in this country to guarantee liberty to African Americans as human beings against claims that telling slave owners what to do was "too much government" and interfered with "individual liberty". It was the Republican Party that won that war.
And don't forget the actions of southern democrats after that war all the way up into the 1960's who perpetuated a culture that denied African Americans the full rights of citizens under the doctrine of "separate but equal". Gun restrictions were imposed to deny African Americans the right to defend themselves from lynch mobs and it was the Republican party and its leaders that put an end to those policies.
Three fourths of the "nay" votes against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came from the Democrats in the House. Today's gun control measures are supported by far more progressive democrats than any republicans and calls for more social welfare programs, the removal of religion from society replaced by worship of the government are all moves which have much more support from within the Democratic Party than the GOP. Why in the hell would we want to welcome those parts of the "political spectrum" into our party? We need to work tirelessly to marginalize, minimize and ostracize those political notions, not sit and contemplate the possibility that they might have merit.
Maybe the Ron Paul revolution is winning over the GOP, but I'd like to think that it is the part of that revolution which calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve, balanced budgets, less military adventurism, lower taxes, less wasteful spending and a mature approach to the problems of the future with a healthy respect for the history which we share.
But if kids like Amash want to transform the GOP into a commune for "anything goes", I say the sooner the GOP rids itself of those ideas the better.
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