Cap and Trade: Power to the Masses?

Introduction

As we embark on the 3rd week of December our world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss climate change, or as it was formerly known as “Global Warming”. What is on the table in Copenhagen is GLOBAL GOVERNANCE of our lives. Even though you may think it can never happen, the new treaty, much like the Kyoto Treaty is meant to damage us economically. Thankfully, we have not ratified Kyoto, and have no intention of ratifying it. In America, for a treaty to be ratified, it must be signed by the President and ratified by our Senate, which must attain a two-thirds majority. When the Kyoto Treaty was brought up in the Senate, it was rejected 98-0, let us hope that our leaders have not fallen the other way. The most important thing to note though, is that Cap and Trade is already here. While it would be terrible if the Copenhagen Treaty passed our Senate, we already have H.R. 2454, the current U.S. version of Cap and Trade. Ed Markey and Henry Waxman produced this bill which passed the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009. If it passed the Senate and was signed by the President, that would be the largest tax increase ever imposed on the American people. Cap and Trade is a scam! You know who came up with the system of Cap and Trade and who lobbied for it? ENRON. We all remember Enron in 2000-2001 when they manipulated the markets causing electricity prices to skyrocket.

And even our President agrees that energy prices will go through the roof:

Climategate

Over the Thanksgiving week, a major controversy poured out which exposed “Climate Change” for the true fraud it is. Several E-Mails sent out by climate “scientists” were hacked into, revealing a volley of information suggesting that the science of global warming is not settled. Some E-Mails were extremely old like this one from Phil Jones, sent in 1999:

“I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”

Kevin Trenberth wrote the following on October 12, 2009:

“The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.”

The science of global warming is not settled, and there are many new reports suggesting that the temperature of the Earth actually dropped in the past 10 years, despite the increase in carbon dioxide emissions.

Effects of Cap and Trade:

The Obama Administration calculates that the average family will have to pay an extra $1761 per year for the Cap and Trade legislation. This is equivalent to a 15% tax increase. In a recession, do you think that would be a good idea? And do you really believe that these new taxes, fines, fees, or whatever you want to call them will go to our environment? Of course not! Our politicians make promises they don’t know how to keep or can’t keep. They promised us Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but they have bankrupted Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security is expected to go bankrupt by 2041, while Medicare is expected to be unsustainable by 2017 under the latest projections. The money that will be collected from the Cap and Trade Taxes will only harm the economy. Within five to ten years of the legislation being passed; it is expected that the gross domestic product (GDP) will decrease $640 billion dollars. Common Sense tells us that this is unsustainable, and with the current amounts of government spending our national debt could bankrupt our country.

Sources:

http://www.karlloren.com/healthinsurance/p41.htm

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/a-secret-cap-and-trade-tax-of-1761-per-family.html

http://www.jbs.org/freedom-campaign/5033

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124588837560750781.html

http://www.newswithviews.com/Morano/marc102.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_e-mail_hacking_incident

 

Healthcare: New Taxes

Introduction

I’m sure that you and your family are hurting like many other families all across America due to this recession. Well, it’s not getting any better, no matter what any of our elected leaders do or tell us. Right now, Congress is struggling to pass a “healthcare overhaul” as fast as they can. Our representatives and senators are telling us that it will take the burden of employer-based health coverage off of businesses, will help our economy, and my favorite “ensure no insurance company can drop your coverage when you most need it”. Truly, do these people even see what they are doing? Their new healthcare bill has over 20 taxes in it and is currently 2,074 page long! Don’t think it’s going to help America now, do you? Simply, this new bill increases existing taxes, tightens controls over the private sector, and ultimately will HARM, NOT HELP business in America to regain its strength.

Taxes & Regulation in the Healthcare Bill

Our politicians first argument that we need their new healthcare reform bill is that it will be better for businesses and take the burden of covering employees off of the business owner. Oh yeah! Well, the money to pay for this bill must come from somewhere; either borrow it from other nations and spend it, or tax it from the economy. Both are bad ideas, since our national debt recently crossed the $12,000,000,000,000 (twelve trillion) mark, and since we know that higher taxation, for one-does not help our economy and two-has not been shown to increase tax revenue just because the tax rates are higher. In the current healthcare bill, there are 20 new taxes and several new regulations.

Here is the list:

1. Flat tax on alcohol: currently liquor is taxed the most in the United States, more than beer, wine, or any other alcoholic drink. This flat tax will implement the same high sales tax on beer and wine, by raising the current taxes on those drinks to that of liquor. This will greatly damage the brewing industry since they pay BOTH an income and sales tax. One on their revenues and one on their sales.

2. An excise tax of 40% on health coverage: this tax will hit anyone who spends more than $8500 (individually) $23,000 (families). That will be terrible for any employers or individuals who buy healthcare coverage and spend more than the amounts shown. Families that are larger will be impacted more because they obviously spend more as a family.

3. Fees on importers of branded drugs: I have not yet confirmed the rate, but I do know that this will be a $22 billion dollar tax increase. This will only cause healthcare costs to go up, not down.

4. Increase in FICA Payroll taxes: this will be an increase in the Medicare portion of payroll taxes. In this economy that is the worst thing that you can do, because for one, it will take more money of peoples pockets and it is a regressive tax, meaning the burden will be on lower-income families. Although this tax pays for Social Security and Medicare, the only way to truly increase revenues to those two programs is to grow the economy, which taxes don’t do!

5. 5% tax on cosmetic surgery procedures: this is a $6 billion dollar tax increase on cosmetic surgeries and similar procedures. I don’t know how putting a tax on procedures will lower healthcare costs, it really doesn’t make much sense. And if something doesn’t make sense, it’s nonsense.

6. “millionaires” tax: although this tax is called a millionaires tax, there have been reports suggesting that it will hit everyone no matter what tax bracket you are in. Starting at 1% and increasing gradually to 5.4%.

7. Tax on employers who do not provide coverage: this tax would be implemented on any employer who does not provide coverage for his employees and has a payroll larger than $250,000/year. The tax ranges from 2%-8%.

There are several other taxes included in the bill, Congress is even thinking of taxing Sodas and I-Pods to pay for this bill. You will be taxed if you have health coverage, you will be taxed if you don’t. You will be taxed if you buy your coverage, your employer will be taxed if they buy or don’t buy your coverage. This bill is a complete disaster and it is expected to cost $1.5 trillion dollars MORE than what the Congressional Budget Office predicts. And you may ask, how can they be so far off? Simply accounting tricks used to cover up its real costs.

Glenn Beck Discusses New Taxes:

Along with taxes come several regulations, two particularly caught my eye:
1. Jailtime: this is a regulation, that if you do not buy healthcare coverage, you get JAILTIME! If this bill passes, you will no longer have the right to not buy health coverage. The jailtime regulation will hit poorer families the hardest, because many of them cannot afford an extra $700-$1,500 a month. Congress must understand that if I don’t want to buy healthcare coverage, then they cannot force me to do so. There are people in America that do not have healthcare coverage, that can afford it, but choose not to buy it. It would be like the government saying that the average American is three or four pounds overweight, so we need to shut down all of America’s fast food restaurants. This is simply how these progressives think, they believe it is their right to decide what is best for you. Know this America, only you can decide what’s best for you, not anyone else and most certainly, NOT the state.

Glenn Beck Discusses Healthcare Jailtime:

2. No more “pre-existing” denials: if passed, the healthcare bill would include a provision that would make it illegal for health insurance companies to deny you coverage for healthcare. Now at first it does sound great, but think about it. If health insurance companies cannot deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, that will make everyones premiums increase. Why? Because if a patient needs a $10,000 surgery and they cannot be denied, how much is everyone who is insured by that company going to need  to pay every month to cover surgeries that cost more. It would simply be like AIG insuring homes that are already burned down, or Geico insuring cars that have already gotten into an accident, it makes no sense. This will make our premiums go up, and when they do, you will probably be able to count on old Uncle Sam to come in and “fix” the problem.

“Shinning Examples” of Government-Run Healthcare

Medicare and Medicaid are flawed systems that currently deny more people healthcare than any major private health insurance company. From personal experience, I’m aware of a Medicaid patient who died, not because of the quality of  the private system, but because of the downfalls of the government-run system. She had diabetes and needed a pancreas transplant. She was told by the government that she could not go to the hospital she needed to go to for her treatment, and that she must stay in her local area. Unfortunately, she died because of the lack of efficeincy of our public-sector government.

A friend of mine who lived in Canada, hurt his ankle one day and needed stitches. He had to wait eight hours to get his stitches. That is absurd, only for stitches, he was forced to wait several hours for them. Imagine how many lives we will be able to save in America if we just had a system like that!

Sources:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574358882642883214.html
http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/reid-health-care-bill-adds-new-tax-increases-costs-twice-as-much-as-promised/
http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1187-The-Health-Care-Bill-s-Tax-Increases
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574358882642883214.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22675.html

Glenn Beck Program, Fox New Channel

Obamacare vs. Private Health Insurance

Introduction

Only nine months into his administration and Barack Obama is struggling to transform our healthcare system into a complete disaster. His motive is to nationalize the U.S. healthcare system and implement single-payer government health insurance, much like what exists in Canada or the U.K. As Americans we must question him with boldness and speak without fear: “Why Mr. President, why do we need to completely transform our healthcare system?” And of course progressives like Mr. Obama will answer: “We need to ensure that no insurance company can drop your coverage”. Well let’s analyze that, if we have an inefficient government system where more people are denied treatment than under a private system, we will have more deaths.

In nations with socialized medicine, everyone is covered, but not everyone is treated. Every year many are denied the treatment and care that they need to live. In Canada, people die waiting for heart surgery operations, and there are six month waits for cataract surgeries. A drug called Avastin, used to treat colon cancer, costs $50,000 per year. The governments of Canada and the United Kingdom do not allow the use of this drug because of its high costs. Therefore in those countries the death rate due to colon cancer is 39%-41% compared to 25%-32% in the United States.

Medicare DENIES Treatment!

A major bill is being proposed by the United States Congress called the “United States National Health Act” or the “Medicare for All Act”, which would essentially nationalize the entire healthcare industry. This act documented as H.R. 676 says in is preamble: “To provide comprehensive health insurance for all United States residents, and for other purposes”. Yes, it is true that with this bill everyone will be covered with health insurance, but it is not guaranteed that all people will receive the treatment they need. In fact, when politicians tell you that we need nationalized healthcare to ensure no one is denied treatment, they fail to acknowledge that their system of Medicare denies more people than private insurance. It’s true look at the below table (Date Range: 03/01/2007-03/10/2008):

Insurer	Count of Records	Denied Records	Percentage Denied
Aetna	637,239	43,317	6.80%
Anthem	250,070	11,546	4.62%
Cigna	263,728	9,060	3.44%
Coventry	20,487	590	2.88%
Health Net	4,975	193	3.88%
Humana	143,026	4,142	2.90%
Medicare	6,938,431	475,566	6.85%

Who denied the highest percentage of people? MEDICARE! So yes, under “Medicare for All” everyone will be insured, but not everyone will receive treatment. More will be denied treatment under nationalized healthcare than under our current, free-market system. Say NO to Obamacare, it is just more government control over all of our lives. The capitalist forces of the free-market will better our healthcare system through competition and honesty, monopolized Obamacare will NOT!

Fair Tax: What is the Fair Tax? Myths and Facts

Introduction

The fair tax is a proposed change to all federal tax laws in the United States, which would replace all income taxes with a single national retail sales tax levied at 23%. Under this act the tax code would be simplified from its current 60,000 pages to around 128 pages. Also, instead of taxing production, the act would tax consumption of goods which would allow the economy to grow at a faster rate. Imagine, if all people in America were able to keep every cent they make, how much more money they would be able to spend.

“To promote freedom and fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States”-Preamble: Fair Tax Act (HR 25)

 

History of Taxation in the United States

 

Before the income tax most of the government was funded by tariffs on products, after World War I, the tariffs were replaced by income taxes. The first income tax ever imposed was during the Civil War from 1861-1862. At that time a 3% tax was levied on anyone who made above $18,250 (adjusted for inflation) and a 5% tax for anyone who made above $228,000 (adjusted for inflation). This income tax was used only because the federal government needed money for this critical time in our nations history, the tax was repealed in 1872.

After this tax was repealed all other attempts at imposing direct income taxes were fought out in courts. At this time the United States Constitution specified that Congress could impose a direct tax only if it was apportioned among the states according to the census population of each state. To keep these lawsuits from happening, Congress proposed the 16th amendment in 1909, which was later ratified in 1913. This amendment gave Congress the power to, at will, impose direct income taxes on all wages, earnings, and savings. Originally the tax code was only 14 pages and was only levied on the top 1% income earners. Now that same power granted to Congress in 1913 has given our government the power to collect more than one-third an average American’s income. 

Benefits of a Fair Tax

1. Fair taxes would provide more freedom and equality to Americans when it comes to taxes.

2. The tax code would be much simpler to understand.

3. There would be MORE revenue to the federal government.

4. Our economy would go through an enormous period of growth.

Myths and Facts:

Myth: Under the fair tax: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would be abolished, because there would be no payroll tax.

Fact: There will still be Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid because revenue from the payroll tax would not be abolished, the way revenue is attained would be changed.

Myth: The fair tax is not revenue neutral.

Fact: After repealing ALL income taxes, the fair tax would be levied at 23% on consumption, which would provide enough revenue for the government. Some analysts estimate that it would collect up to $385 billion more than our current taxation system.

Myth: The Fair Tax is regressive and shifts the tax burden onto lower and middle income people.

Fact: The Fair Tax eliminates and reimburses all federal taxes for those below the poverty line. This is achieved through eliminating the highly regressive payroll tax.

Let’s, as Americans unite and put the going out of business sign on the Internal Revenue Service.

Socialism: A Not So Lovable Story

Introduction

Throughout the United States many Americans are being forced down the road to socialism; a road that if we venture down, will be difficult to return from. Everyday the government is spending hundreds of millions of your tax dollars all in the name of,  “the greater good”,  ”economic recovery”, “healthcare for all” or “democracy”. These comments are thrown around by many politicians, politicians who are not Democrats or Republicans, but politicians who are progressives. Progressivism is an ideology that regards the individual as being nothing if the individual’s ideas conflict with the goals of the state. In simpler terms this means the government is more important than you. Politicians will hide behind curtains and say that what they are doing is to better the society or as our President put it, “fundamentally transforming the United States of America”. My question towards the progressives is what are we going to transform to? And why? America is the freest, most prosperous republic ever seen.

Democracy and Republicanism

Today in America, the words’ Democracy and Republic are thrown around interchangeably, but when in reality they are very different concepts. First of all America is a republic, not a democracy and it would be beneficial to know the difference. In a republic everyone’s rights are subject to the law and the government is limited by a Constitution; however in a democracy every citizens rights are subject to majority rule. Within democracies the majority of people are not restrained, if more than half of the people can be convinced to want something, they rule.

Even America’s founders recognized the dangers of democracy; Thomas Jefferson once stated: “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” In this he is right, if America were a democracy then the law would not apply to all people, but would apply to the people who the majority have decided it should apply to.

For example: In a country that is a democracy, there are two political parties; Party A and Party B. Lets say the population of that nation is 1,000,000 people; 49% of them are registered with Party A and 51% are registered with Party B. If Party B decides to imprison Party A, since they are a democracy, they have the ability to do so. Consider the same scenario in the United States, a Republic: Party A has 49% of the people registered with them and Party B has 51% of the people registered. Party B cannot imprison Party A, because we have a Bill of Rights, where there is rule by law, not by political party and not by majority.

Democracy to Oligarchy and Socialism

In the recent past we have seen nations go from a democracy to a socialist oligarchy. On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China was officially proclaimed under Mao Zedong. Along with proclaiming its establishment, Mao created a new Constitution for the nation, a constitution that described China as, “a democratic people’s dictatorship”. This is what happened in China:

1. The majority supported Mao and his party to rule China

2. Mao Zedong officially proclaimed establishment of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949

3. Government power was used to take land from land owners and give it to peasants

4. Mao Zedong moved to the “second step of socialism”; collectivization and democratization of the economy

5. “To overtake Britain and catch up with America”(in steel and agriculture production) as Mao said, he launched a five-year plan, known as the Great Leap Forward

6. In 1961 the Great Leap Forward was cancelled because of its failure (famine and the deaths of millions)

Make Mine Freedom, the video shown below, warns of the dangers of progressivism:

 

What is described above can happen in the United States, history does repeat itself. Think about it, the majority supported progressives in the last two elections who spoke of “transforming America”. Then those progressives took over the auto industry, the financial industry, and are now struggling to nationalize the healthcare and energy industries. Stand up America, Save the Republic! 

It is also important to note that even though the official name of China was the People’s Republic of China, China was never a republic. In reality, China was a communist state or a state-controlled democratic oligarchy. Nowadays in China, there are ongoing political and economic reforms, which are moving China away from communism.

TEA Party Time

  

Since our government went out of control and began spending hundreds of billions of dollars on “the greater good” and “the economy”, TEA Parties have been uprising all across the United States. The message is simple: “we want our Republic back”, and we want politicians who have a spine to make decisions for the individual, not the collective. We also want low taxes, less government, more freedom, free and fair elections, and the ability to sink or swim on our own without government intervention. Is that so much to ask for? We had it in 1776, when our nation was founded. Where did those principles and values go over the years?