What's a Fair Tax?

I had a note the other day from a friend who watches network news. She said she was confused by the tea parties. Didn't they (participants) understand they were getting a tax cut?

1) Yes, they did. 2) The tea parties weren't about taxes. They were about spending.

I tried to point out how I feel about taxes, and why it doesn't matter that I'm not among the wealthy paying the US tax bill, that I still don't think the system we have is "fair." Everyone talks about how unfair it is for the wealthy to have all that money. Really? They either inherited it, at a horrendous tax rate, or they earned it, also a horrendous tax rate. Why is it unfair that they have it? I thought that was the beauty of America ~ that anyone could be born anywhere and work their way up to millionaire.

But what about all those big corporations earning all that money? Way too much money? Folks, corporations are people. Corporations don't pay taxes, people do. A few months back, there was a loud cry against Exxon Mobil for "excessive" profits. Who defines excessive, by the way? You know who benefits from those profits? Thousands of retired people whose pensions are invested in those stocks. Do I want them to continue posting those excessive profits? You bet I do! Do I want them to continue to hire the hundreds or thousands of people who work in drilling, retail sales, refineries, credit offices and other businesses connected to the company, and others like them? You bet I do! When they prosper, so do the rest of us.

Here's the truth you won't read in The New York Times. The rich are *already* carrying our country! This is a perfect analogy that anyone can understand, put together by Glenn Beck's team:

"Imagine 24 eggs, each representing about 5.5 million American tax filers.

Six of those two dozen eggs pay 99 percent of all U.S. income taxes. (N.B. That means that 18 eggs, or 99,000,000 tax payers pay 1% - hmmmm, how is that fair?)

Four of those six eggs pay 91 percent of all U.S. income taxes.

And one egg — just one — pays 65 percent of all U.S. income taxes."

Do the math. Of 132,000,000 tax payers, 5,500,000 of the wealthiest are paying 65% of all income taxes. That's after all the deductions, loopholes and whatever else the tax preparers and lawyers can figure out. They are still carrying that burden, and it is a burden.

Or look at it this way, to make life even easier. And this is super simplified, and proportions may not be right, but just looking at it from a very simple point of view. Let's say that $100 is going to be paid in taxes in our village. Let's say 24 people are going to pay it.

In the example above. 1 person would pay $65 of the taxes. Three people would pay $8.67 each. Two people would pay $4 each. The other 18 people would owe a total, combined of $1. That means each of them would pay, about 5.5 cents.

Maybe you can look at that and think it is fair, because, after all, the person paying $65 makes a lot more than the people paying a nickel+. I look at it and wonder why the person paying $65 is hanging around the village. What does he need the other 23 people for? They are living off his production, his work and his ingenuity. We didn't even address the 24 people living in the village who pay no taxes whatsoever, but enjoy the benefit of the taxes others are paying.

Back to real life. I don't think it's fair that the extra $66 taxes I paid this year, over and above what was deducted from my income each month, goes right into the pocket of someone who pays no taxes whatsoever. They get something called a refund, based on tax credits. My question is how they can get a refund on $0 paid? The only way is by dipping into my pocket and stealing my production. That's either theft or welfare, whichever you choose to see.

I don't think it's fair that someone who has the ability to make millions and millions of dollars has 70% of their income taken away from them because someone else "needs" it. Because they make more and have more, what right do I have to dip into their pocket and take it?

To me, that's socialism, progressivism, maybe even communism. It sounds suspiciously like, "From each according to his ability and to each according to his need." Sorry, I don't go for that. You earn it, you have a right to keep it.

There's no "social conscience" about it. It's yours. What I can make is mine. *I* get to choose which social institutions to help, whether it's battered women's shelters or saving the spotted owl.
The government's purpose is not to provide me with "services" -- free health care, for instance; government owned banks and auto manufacturers, for instance.

The purpose of government is to protect citizens from foreign threats and to provide those things needed by all states, such as interstate highways. Its purpose is to provide a simple system of laws by which we all can live, laws we can trust not to change with every change of the wind. Laws based on principles and basic common sense values, such as honesty.

Take a lesson from history. Look what happened to Rome when it taxed everyone to provide bread and circuses for the masses. Look what happened when the military was devalued and mercenaries were hired. Okay, we didn't get to mercenaries yet, but you can't think that saying our returning veterans are a hot bed of terrorist possibilities isn't devaluing, so we are on the road going in that direction.

What happened? The guy with the big elephants came over the mountains and took away everything! Taxes, bread and circuses, homes and safety, all of everything the Romans had. So who is waiting over the mountains with elephants to come take away ours?

FYI

I wanted to bring to your attention some things of importance.

• MERCK is backing off (for now) their quest to mandate vaccination of young girls with Gardisil
• Police State Alert: HR20-New Mother's Mandated Mental Health Test-PASSED HOUSE!
• Mother seeks return of her youngest daughter unlawfully abducted.

There is so much going on around us that it is hard to keep up. I am hoping you will go and read these items and take action where necessary. It boggles my mind when I see the evil that is being perpetrated upon this nation.

Thank you for taking the time to educate yourself on these issues, it is the only way we can fight against the evil that is overtaking in our country.

Tomorrow is Sunday, I ask that we each take time to pray for our country and our families. May God give us wisdom, may he remove our blinders, and give us courage to stand.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Or his associates acting in his name. There seems to be a rabid distrust of government growing in our nation. It's been bad for a few years, but the last few months seem to have exacerbated the problem to gigantic proportions. What has caused this fast acceleration into distrust, and even fear, of our own government?

I think a lot of it is the unknown. We've elected a president who was unknown to most of America until less than a year ago. He didn't really define himself during the election. Other than being hailed as the first black president of the country, his popularity seemed to hang on his message of change and hope. It was never clearly defined what the change would be, or what we were hoping for, but 52% of America went for it at the polls.

Now we are past the 3 month mark in the presidency. We've seen things which trouble us, even if we weren't troubled before the election. We've seen crooks and tax dodgers given important positions. We've seen the first major act of the president run our debt to historic highs in a very short time, and we've seen bills on the table and voted in without anyone having a chance to read and digest them properly. What was the rush?

We've seen our president apologize for and denigrate our country, cozy up to our enemies, such as Hugo Chavez, and back away from our friends. We've seen an appalling lack of political protocol knowledge, pitiful gift giving, and a somewhat lower class of behavior and dress than I would expect to be shown by a President and First Lady of the most powerful nation on earth.

At the same time that those things are happening, we've seen a president who changes his mind every day on something he's said recently. A good description is flip-flopping. We still, after 3 months, don't know who our president is. We don't know what he stands for. It seems to change on a daily basis. I don't think that's the change we wanted, is it?

Am I against Obama? Not as a person. I give him the benefit of the doubt about wanting the best for our country. I wish he would think his positions through before making a statement to the press. I wish he had some pride and belief in our country, and our founding fathers. I wish he would just say what he believes in, or what he plans to do, specifically, instead of speaking in generalities which may be different tomorrow.

So, it's hard to know, hard to expect one thing or another from the president, or from his administration. This instability causes more distrust and fear. If there were nothing to hide, why would things keep being hidden?

We see misdirection: AIG is a case in point. What's the big deal about the bonuses that were already agreed to by the administration? $165,000,000 cast into the ring of violent rhetoric almost the same time that close to $1,000,000,000,000 is added to our debt. Yeah, drop in the bucket. So why was such a big to-do set up, including comments by the same president who knew in advance, and had okayed them in advance? Because that took our minds off the near-trillion dollars Congress was passing.

Another case is GM. Obama clearly stated that the government had no intention of running the car company. He made it sound like the government was offering no more than a bandaid. Then immediately, he fired the head of the company and put in one he liked. Then he guaranteed the warranties on the cars, and sent a White House team to GM to work out a new business plan. What do you want to bet GM will become the state-sponsored manufacturer of all those energy saving cars ~ the ones most Americans don't want? The ones that use bio-fuels which cost more energy to produce than the energy they can possibly provide. Yeah, no government intervention there.

A final example, though there are others, may be what he says about the rich and free-market enterprise. "I strongly believe in a free market system," he said in London after the G20 conference. "In America, at least, people don't resent the rich," he said. "They want to be rich. And that's good."

Other than a lot of government spending and rescuing (and I realize bailouts started with Bush, and I wasn't happy about them then, either), where's the action to back up the words? What has he done to prove that he feels that way? He wants the government to do more and more and more for its people, and that means the people will do less and less and less for themselves. If we look to the government to save us from everything, then what need is there for us to do anything?

Where are the tax incentives and other incentives to companies of all sizes to keep jobs in the USA? Where is the government getting out of the way and letting small business get on with the job of employing America and building its prosperity? All I see is more tax burden, more regulation, more government paperwork.

Who will pay for all that government? 100% of Americans, that's who. There won't be any of us who aren't paying for it, and suffering the burden of it. We can't expect the top 2% of money-makers to pay the whole bill. They don't make enough! In fact, right now, we can't pay off our debt, if we stopped spending one single penny for government.

So, why do we distrust our government? Because it lies and misdirects us, and not just the administrative branch. We keep electing people to represent us, and then they don't. We keep expecting people to do what they say, and then they don't. We keep expecting honesty of politicians, but then they aren't honest. Maybe it's not so surprising that there is a rising percentage of people who don't trust our government.

What I Learned From a Muslim

Gail has invited me to do posts on the blog, so this morning I'd like to talk about the meaning and impact of the word "movement," as it relates to our political situation today. How does that relate to learning anything from a Muslim?

I've noticed a tendency for human beings to lump everyone into a category and call it good or call it bad, or even evil. I don't care for extremists, no matter what their religion, and I resent being called an extremist because I believe in my Constitutional rights. So I began looking for examples of Muslims who aren't extremists and terrorists, in order to keep my perspective on Islam. It isn't always an easy search, because extremists are so vocal and violent, and the mainstream Muslim population doesn't often stand up against them.

There is a woman in San Antonio who organizes protests against Muslim extremists, and she has been on Glenn Beck a couple of times in the past. There's also a man who is head of a Muslim organization who has been on Beck quite a few times, and these two are rational human beings who do decry the activities of violence by the Muslim terrorists.

I found a blog which is co-owned by two quilters, one a Muslim and one a Jew. That was a good beginning. As they said, if they could find common ground, maybe the rest of the populations of their countries could, too.

Yesterday, I found another, Eboo Patel. A couple of years ago, he wrote a book called Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. I read all I could on the Amazon site for his book, and it sounded like something I needed to read, so I ordered it. Here's the thing I learned from him -- the meaning of "movement," politically.

"In a world where the forces that seek to divide us are strong, I came to one conclusion: We have to save each other. It's the only way to save ourselves." P. 180

"Movements re-create the world. A movement is a growing group of people who believe so deeply in a new possibility that they participate in making it a reality. They won't all meet. They won't even know everybody else's names. But somehow, they all have the feeling that people on the other side of the city or country or the world believe in the same idea, burn with the same passion, and are taking risks for the same dream." P. 181.


The minute I read this definition of movement, I thought of the tea parties of April 15, and the few before and after. What these people want to do is re-create the United States -- or perhaps it would be more accurate to say we'd like to return to what the United States once was. Re-create our nation as a Constitutional Republic.

Next defining sign is a "growing" group of people. Again, the tea party groups fit that. The number of people across the country who are dissatisfied with the growth of government and the move toward progressiveism, socialism, fascism, whatever ism you choose to describe where our government is going, is definitely getting larger by the day.

Do we believe that we can create a new possibility for this country? Yes, we do! We have the legal process in place in the Constitution. We need to move forward now, while we still have the Constitution to back us up. If our country goes to "TransNationalism," our Constitution has no meaning any longer. If the Supreme Court, whose job was designed to keep the Legislative and Executive branches in control, begins to look toward "global" society for it's mores and laws, then it is no longer able to do it's job. At that point, the Constitution is suspended, for all practical purposes. But we who believe in the Constitution, in legal protests, in rallies and uniting as a group to protest the things we don't want government to be, believe we can make a change at this point in history.

Before this, we were not united. We didn't realize how quickly things were moving in the wrong direction. We were busy with our lives, and not paying attention. It isn't about being Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, Constitutionalist, or any other party. It's about *people* who have come together to protest something we don't want -- bigger, nanny-state government.

I don't care what you call it, I don't want it. I want the government to get out of my way, and let me get on with living my life my way. The government doesn't have the right to tell me when to be charitable, or even that I need to be charitable. It doesn't have the right to try to make me feel guilty because I've worked all my life in order to support myself and my chosen way of life. It doesn't have the right to insist that my labor production is too much and needs to be given to those who haven't produced.

I'm not wealthy. I don't care which of the guidelines, and there are many, from the current administration you use, I don't fall into wealthy in any of them. I live on a pension, and whatever I've managed to save, which is now pretty much worthless thanks to the poor fiscal policy of the last ten years. Nevertheless, I don't want someone making a million dollars a year to be taxed to give me more than I was able to earn for myself. I don't deserve it! That person who earns it deserves it!

My pitiful amount of taxes paid should not be going to those who pay no taxes. When did our country stop letting people fail? What incentive is there to work and earn when the government will take care of you if you don't? It didn't work for the Soviet Union, and it isn't going to work for us. You want to see the future of America under this kind of thinking? Look at Cuba, touted this week as such a big success. You want to feel wealthy when you own a 30-year old car? You want to be afraid to voice your opinion about the government or your leaders? You want to be arrested in the middle of the night and never be seen again? Sorry, move to Cuba! I don't want any of that in my United States.

The thing the Tea Parties did, and which must scare the pants off the liberals because their media is still making fun of them, days after they are over, was show us Patel's last sign of a movement. There are people I will never meet, from all over this country, who feel the same way I do. They don't want what's happening in our government. The infamous CNN segment from Chicago with a so-called reporter and the dad with his two year old is a perfect example of the extremes the liberal media will go to in order to confuse watchers about the issues.

The "reporter" tried to shout down the dad, who was answering her question, by talking about his tax "cut" and being darned rude about it. They don't get it. It isn't about paying taxes so much as it is about spending the taxes we pay. It's about going into debt for trillions of dollars that we can't pay, our children can't pay, our grandchildren can't pay! We'll be lucky to pay the interest on a continuing basis.

Our country cannot survive under this debt burden. What's it going to do? Go into Chapter 7 or 11 bankruptcy? I don't think the debt-holders will go for that. Print more money? That doesn't work. The money has to be worth something, and the more you print, the less each dollar is worth. It's common sense, if anyone in Washington still has any, which I am beginning to doubt.

So listen up. We have a movement going here! And as I previously quoted Patel, "In a world where the forces that seek to divide us are strong, I came to one conclusion: We have to save each other. It's the only way to save ourselves."

Why is this Happening in the United States of America

Why are these "agents" doing this to American citizens????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUzd7G875Hc


If this does not piss you off................NOTHING WILL!!!!!!!!!

Do you think this is an isolated incident, THINK AGAIN.

AND DON'T GIVE ME...............He must have done something wrong....NO HE DID NOT!

Oh he should have just corperated.................NO AND HELL NO
JUST HOW DO YOU THINK THINGS GOT THIS WAY.

Let me share a story with you. First I am not as brave as Pastor Anderson, you will see I was part of the growing problem 3 years ago.

We (DH & I) were coming back to Ca. from Wy. for a load of furniture during our move. It happened to be hunting season, we go through the Ca. border check on the I15 just out of Barstow. We were hauling a large trailer and there was mud on the truck. So we stop and are asked if we had a good trip, well of course we said yes, cause it had been uneventfull. All of a sudden we are instructed to pull over to the check area. Huh?????? Next this game and fish agent wants to see in the back of our trailer. Why? "Well, you said you had been hunting" "No, I did not say that, I was not hunting, I said we had a good trip, we are moving." So they automaticly decided because we said we had a good trip that we got a deer. Never tried to carify that we had been hunting. At this point they did not care to hear our words, they just wanted to see in the trailer. In front of us ATF agents are rifling through a guys rifles (why?, what are they doing going through his rifles?). Why are there ATF agents at a produce check point?????? Now Kirk, was going to tell them no, but I freeked (knowing we had a gun under the seat) told him to let them see, so he let them see our empty trailer and toilet (sawdust) that was in the back. As one of the blank-blanks walked past our ice chest he opened and looked in.

WHAT IF WE HAD SAID NO.......we would have gone through the same type of thing.............this was 3 years ago.........think how more brazin they have become. The video of this pastors experience is an example. I am ashamed to say, I gave into the fear.

My hat is off to Pastor Anderson, thank you for making a stand. Our prayers are with you. You are the kind of Pastor we need, the kind of American we need and the kind of man we need. I pray God will give me the same kind of strength He has given you.

Think this can't happen to YOU..........think again.

When will we take a stand? When will we say no more? When will we stop listening to paid talking heads that keep trying to tell us.....write letters, go through the courts.....ya da, ya da, ya da....
WHEN????????


YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE

Movies

Let us talk about movies for this first post. I think once you have read this you will know where this blog is leading.

Movie 1: The Matrix. If you have not seen this movie you should. You will learn from this movie if you have swallowed the blue pill or the red pill. Do you live in a fantasy world or do you see reality?

Movie 2: Braveheart. Another move that should be seen by all so one can understand the burning question, are you a William Wallas or a Noble?

Movie 3: Patriot. This movie will help you understand what price was paid for you to choose as you do.

Depending on what you have learned from the first three movies, possible future outcomes of a wrong choice.

Movie 4: Minority Report. Think this can't happen?
Movie 5: Schindler's List. Think it can't happen again, it is happening!

I am amazed at what we can learn from real movies if we will only see what the maker is trying to tell us.

Movie 6: America Freedom to Fascism. We are living this one, bet you have not seen it.

So are you part of the problem? OR Are you part of the solution?


Note: All comments will be monitored, no flaming allowed. You don't have to agree, it is your right to express your opinion, I am expressing mine........IT IS MY RIGHT.