Trump's Wall

President Trump proposed a 20 percent tariff on imports from Mexico in order to pay for the wall he plans to build on the southern border. It is assumed that the 20 percent tariff is a negotiating starting point. A tariff is a tax on imports which will make a product more expensive and favor domestically produced goods over imports, while raising revenue for the government of our country.

Tariffs were a major government revenue source during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but today we are a low tariff country, with a few exceptions. Other countries protect their domestic industries by charging heavy tariffs and some as much as 100 percent.

A tariff helps those companies and countries that can supply goods most cheaply, presumably because they are more efficient, but some governments provide their companies with export subsidies in order to allow them to reduce the selling price of their goods on foreign markets.

Dan Lombard argued that “a 3% transit tax over three years would pay for a wall.” Infuriated by the economically illiterate commentators who claim that the tariff would be passed on entirely to the consumer, Lombard said that a $700 washing machine crosses the border with a price tag of $400, but time transit charges, warehousing expenses, sales commissions, overhead markup, and profit are added onto the $400 price, pricing the washer at $700 but the tariff is applied onto the $400 price tag. Customers will pay a certain amount more for that brand produced in Mexico but the company that makes the washing machine “will absorb the cost as the price of doing business.”

What exactly does Mexico export to us? http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-does-the-u-s-import-from-mexico-a-whole-lot/

According to government trade data, Mexico exported $295 billion worth of goods to the U.S. in 2015: autos (74 billion), electrical machinery (63 billion), machinery (49 billion), agricultural products (21 billion), fuels (14 billion), plastics (17 billion), optical and medical instruments (12 billion).  In the agricultural products category Mexico exported to the U.S. corn, soybeans, dairy products, pork and pork products, beef and beef products.  https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/mexico

On January 27, 2017, President Trump tweeted that “Mexico has taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough. Massive trade deficits and little help on the very weak border must change, NOW!”

A trade deficit with Mexico is the excess of our imports over exports. U.S. goods trade deficit with Mexico was $58 billion in 2015 and U.S. services trade surplus with Mexico in 2015 was $9.2 billion. Mexico was the third largest supplier of goods to the U.S. in 2014 and supplied services in transportation, travel, and intellectual property (software). https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/mexico

U.S. foreign investment in Mexico totaled $107.8 billion in 2014 by nonbank holding companies, manufacturing, and finance/insurance.

Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert told Fox News that billions of dollars had been appropriated for a virtual wall on the southern border during the Bush administration but Janet Napolitano disregarded Congress and “we let her get away with disobeying the law.”  http://investmentwatchblog.com/funds-already-appropriated-for-wall-its-going-to-happen/

According to the Daily Caller, “The transition team is planning big spending negotiations with Congress, which will include money for the wall.” President Trump “plans to make Mexico pay for the wall directly or indirectly by increasing fees on visas and border crossing cards, enforcing trade tariffs and taxing money transfers abroad.” The pre-cast concrete wall will be 35-50 feet tall, costing an estimated $8-$12 billion. Of the 2,000 mile border with Mexico, 650 miles are already fenced and illegals have no problem climbing the existing barrier. http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/10/trumps-plan-for-the-wall-on-the-mexican-border-materializes/

It is obvious to any traveler that Mexico must repair their own country and must stop using the United States as their social security blanket at the expense of American taxpayers. Drug cartels operate across the border back and forth unimpeded, and illegals send home billions of dollars of untaxed money to Mexico.

As many have suggested, a tax should be levied on money wired to Mexico via Western Union, Money Gram, etc. On the average, money wires are only charged a service fee of $10.99 to transfer a few hundred dollars.

Most illegals, who do work hard and long hours, request to be paid in cash which means that they evade paying state and federal income taxes, Social Security taxes, etc.  At the same time, they benefit from our free medical care and other forms of welfare. As they consume goods and services in this country, they do pay sales taxes.

Some Illegals pay tax via ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) also known as W7. The earned income tax credit they receive based on reported income on W7 is far greater than the actual state and federal taxes they pay. Some even claim children who are not even theirs or do not reside in the United States. Tax refunds amount to $4.2 billion according to a 2011 audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2015/08/20/trump-bashes-4-billion-in-irs-refunds-to-illegals/#4945c4de7025

Let’s assume that the 11 million illegal aliens that apparently have not grown in numbers in 20 years since the MSM has championed their cause, send home south of the border $1,000 per month, a sum total of one billion untaxed income earned while illegally in the U.S., a cool $12 billion a year. Some may send less, some may send more. To save money, several illegals rent one apartment and use one common van as transportation. The money sent to Mexico support their families left behind for years and helps them save for building a nice home.

Michael Savage made the argument on his radio show that you cannot and should not deport law-abiding illegals (although when they cross the border of another country illegally, technically they are not law-abiding), that only criminal illegal aliens should be deported. Quoting data from the Government Accountability Office, 25 percent of the prison population is made up of illegal aliens and “criminal illegal aliens are arrested on the average 7 times.” https://www.numbersusa.org/pages/incarcerated-illegal-aliens-0

One of the reasons Savage cited for not deporting “law-abiding” illegals was that many work diligently and very hard in construction and in restaurants. “Who is going to wash the dishes,” he asked rhetorically. “And who is going to pick the crops? You?” This argument is weak as humans no longer need to pick crops, there are machines that can pick any kind of crop – back-breaking manual labor is no longer necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6VKBb9MmJc

The assumption is also made that millions of low-skilled Americans who are unemployed are either too educated for the job, lazy, or are unwilling to work in the restaurant business or construction industry.

But, for every illegal alien who is gainfully employed, if they are not here alone, he has a wife and children at home who are dependent on Medicaid and some or all of the thirteen U.S. Welfare Programs, costing American taxpayers plenty. And anchor babies make their parents eligible to stay in the U.S. and eventually the extended family.

The welfare programs include: http://federalsafetynet.com/us-welfare-programs.html

-          Negative income Tax (Earned Income Tax Credit or EITC, and the Child Tax Credit)

-          SNAP (food program, formerly food stamps, but is now a debit card which is often abused)

-          Housing assistance

-          SSI (cash to low-income individuals)

-          Pell Grants (up to $5,500 in grants to students from low-income households)

-          TANF (cash for individuals moving from welfare to work)

-          Child nutrition

-          Head Start (pre-school program to low-income families)

-          Job training programs

-          WIC (healthy food to pregnant women and children up to five years of age)

-          Child care (block grants to states and private agencies who administer child care programs to low-income families)

-          LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program for heating and cooling)

-          Lifeline (Obama Phone) – discounted phone service to low-income individuals.

Savage argued that Americans must tread lightly in withdrawing these benefits to Mexicans as it would destabilize their economy and would create a vacuum of financial support of the population, leaving it open perhaps to a country like China to become the Big Brother provider which might not be in the best interest of the United States.

Even though Democrats and their leftist cohorts are lobbying against the southern border wall, and shrieking that it cannot be built, that it is inhumane, that it is being escalated anyway, that it would take a long time to build, and states like Texas, California, and New Mexico are rightfully Mexico’s anyway, they build tall security armed fences around their mansions and properties. The wall worked for China and it works for Israel. A former Mexican president even went as far as saying that Mexico is wherever there are Mexicans. However, if anyone crosses their borders illegally, they go straight to jail.

Equality, Efficiency, and Dependency

Countries run more efficiently when there is less government intervention. Government certainly has its role in providing a strong military, adequate border defense, police and fire protection, and education.

Unfortunately government intervention in the free market has caused again and again more harm than good. And government has now become a Hydra that we fail to legally slay. Voting in a new government has been discouraging; it is now impossible to rid ourselves of the encroaching octopus with sharped-edged suckers.

Contrary to economic laissez faire, President Bush said in 2008, “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” In other words, because his administration attempted unsuccessfully to reign in the Democrats with their entitlement plans to lend money for homes to people who could not afford them and then disabled regulations that would have checked bank loans and mortgages, he had to prop up the too-big-to-fail bankers whose bankruptcy would have sent painful shockwaves around the world and would have upset the crony capitalists. The taxpayers were forced to the rescue.

The non-stop tirade of the “rich do not pay their fair share” and “you did not build that” began the vilification of small and large businessmen, followed by the marginalization and destruction of the middle class, the very geese that lay the golden eggs. The government nanny must be in total control of every facet of our lives.

Productivity, the industrial revolution, manufacturing are better left to other parts of the world. The new global order dictates that we must now be a service society, government-catering to the “hope and change” new citizens coming from far-flung corners of the illiterate third-world kingdom.

You can’t make a “living wage” at your minimum-wage job? It’s the fault of the rich! You vote for a living, stay on welfare, have out-of-wedlock babies, drop anchor-babies, and keep bringing in the flotsam of the world to replace the millions of babies aborted since Roe v. Wade. Make sure you vote into office the same corrupt politicians that keep you perennially poor under the guise of protection; you are dumb enough after graduating from a Common Core school to believe that it’s the fault of the rich who keep you “down.”

Do you accept any personal responsibility for your boorish behavior, drug use, lack of motivation, poor education, sloth, and lack of job skills? Nanny government tells you it is not your fault; you are entitled to the wealth of the rich. And when the rich run out of money, because socialists always run out of other people’s money, they can fleece the middle class, people who worked hard for a living, got an education, and paid taxes.

Today’s rich pay taxes to support the government and the welfare state.  The rich of long ago, after taxation, even though still wealthy, did not enjoy the comforts that you have in your alleged poverty of today. In the winter of 1695, when the climate change industry did not exist, the wine at the palace of Versailles froze in the fancy goblets at King Louis XIV’s table. Even in the nineteenth century America, the ink froze in the inkwells in winter time, that’s how cold and miserable life was.

The Pennsylvania legislature almost destroyed George Washington’s army quartered at Valley Forge. The government decided to try price controls on commodities that were needed by Washington’s army. No farmer with a large family to support was dumb enough to sell their produce at controlled prices when the British were paying in gold. The army almost starved to death in the winter of 1777-1778. The unwise government price controls brought the army to its knees.

Government does not believe in Adam Smith’s “invisible hand;” there is no such thing as people, by pursuing their own self-interest, are led by an invisible hand to promote the well-being of the community. The government must intervene because they know best.

If government does not dictate every last rule and regulation in great detail, how much and what we can eat, what we can drink, how much salt we can ingest, what doctors we can see, what homes we can live in, what cars we can drive, how much electricity we use, how much water we can have, what crops to plant, we are doomed to failure.

To avoid massive voter fraud, by the time the drive for a national “voter” I.D. becomes reality, we will all be chipped and the government will know where we are at all times, just like dogs and cats.

Government intervention to slay the war on poverty has perpetuated and deepened poverty after spending trillions of dollars. In spite of Affirmative Action programs and other wealth redistribution schemes aimed at destroying social injustice, people are still differently-abled by birth; some like to work more than others; some are risk takers and others are comfortable in their status-quo; some like to work the night shift while others no shift at all, they are happy with government handouts; some like to go to school and learn new things, while others enjoy partying and living it up; some don’t stay  on any job long enough to get work experience; why try if welfare is literally forced upon the sloth and unmotivated; some have inherited wealth that must be confiscated for the common good; others who built an enterprise did not really built that, it just happened by magic, it came via the public roads; and others were just plain lucky and thus does not deserve the fruits of their labor.

Keynesian economists have been telling us for decades that “America has more income inequality than other wealthy nations” and this miscalculated inequality “has been on the rise in the last 25 years.”  But none of these calculations include welfare, free medical care, WIC, and other similar programs. They are strictly looking at income disparities born by many factors connected to lacking personal responsibility, education, and the dissolution of the family.

You can tweak statistics to prove whatever you set out to prove so calculations of this “inequality” does not include the many financial dependency programs currently in place. According to the U.S. Census, there are over “100 million Americans who receive at least one welfare program run by the federal government and it does include Social Security and Medicare.”

Even Keynesian economists admit that policies that redistribute wealth or income reduce the rewards of high income earners, raising the rewards of low-income earners, thus reducing the incentive to earn high income.  We trade economic efficiency for equality and create a nation of dependents who would rather stay home and draw benefits from those who still work.

It is a fact that 70 percent of all government spending involves programs that create government dependence. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 60 percent of all U.S. households get more transfer payments than they pay in taxes.  “Terrence P. Jeffrey calculated that 86 million Americans work full-time in the private sector while 148 million Americans receive benefits from the government.” http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/18-stats-that-prove-that-government-dependence-has-reached-epidemic-levels

Education was for many generations a way out of poverty when the family was intact. But when the family unit was destroyed by a government that stepped in as the daddy for generations of fatherless children, college costs have escalated, and professional jobs were shipped overseas at an alarming rate, it was hard to sell education anymore.  Government and Democrats have advocated spending more money on pre-school programs and on inner-city children but the results were dismal. And the uneducated adults could not be lifted out of poverty; they remained on inter-generational government dole.

We have certainly tried for generations to alleviate poverty through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed forms of discrimination in rates of pay and hiring standards and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Equal pay for equal work was a daunting if not impossible parameter because we are different in our ability, education, experience, etc.  Affirmative action stepped in with hiring quotas for minorities and females.

The problem was that many who were given this preferential treatment over other hires were really less qualified or not qualified at all. They were expected to learn on the job. Critics argued that numerical quotas and compulsory hiring of unqualified workers was certainly a problem in many professions, including the field of education. Replacing qualified “white males” with “other, less qualified workers” was certainly counterproductive and inefficient. Proponents of quotas countered that it was necessary to redress past wrongs, especially slavery. “Putting more women and members of minority groups into high-paying jobs would certainly make the income distribution more equal,” affirmative action supporters argued.

Today the important economic balance of efficiency over equality is completely discounted by Democrats and their supporters who are arguing for a complete replacement of the free market system with socialism on the ideological belief that everything white men have accomplished has been tinged with racism, bigotry, and inequality and only adopting the Marxist ideology would redress that problem. Certainly these Democrats have not studied the recent case of Venezuela and its economic woes resulting from a full-blown socialist poverty state established by the late Hugo Chavez.

There is a lot to be said about government control from cradle to grave.  A population fully dependent on an omnipotent government is easier to control in a high-rise city dwelling setting than spread out over miles on the land. And when government runs out of other people’s money, it will have to scale back and possibly withdraw the largesse to the generationally dependent.

The free market mechanism is efficient but it does not promote the total equality desired by Marxist supporters. Such equality must be achieved by force, by government fiat, redistributing to the world the “unjust and unearned income and wealth” of billions of enterprising people.  When that is achieved, we will have reached Orwellian utopia.

Lucky for us, total government control works because they know what is best for us – nuclear armament of Iran, our sworn enemy, and a peaceful invasion with illegal immigrants brought from third world nations that will quietly complete the fundamental transformation of our expansionist evil empire into a malleable tin pot dictatorship.

We will be turned into an irrelevant impoverished nation as envisioned by the Washington political elites, a nation ruled by a one-party government that worships primitive cultures and obedient welfare-dependent subjects and favors global economic de-development.

The low information voters and welfare recipients will be satisfied with a minimum, grateful that the “man” sends them a check every month in exchange for nothing. The fact that governments do not produce anything of value seems to escape their understanding and, without the hard labor of many, their undeserved and unearned “entitlements” would not arrive promptly every month.

 

 

 

 

 

My radio segment with Silvio on taxes, unemployment, and the Greeks. February 6, 2015

My national blogtalk radio segment with Silvio on strange taxes and the Greek economy. Click on my segment, the oval with the time, 00:39.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2015/02/06/taxes-and-other-us-economy-issues-with-dr-ileana-johnson

The Big Lie

Puppet Shop window in Florence
Photo: Wikipedia

While the country is busy blaming the measles outbreak at Disneyland on the official story line that it came from “overseas,” and the main stream media is pushing the agenda of vaccination, blaming the outbreak on the statistically insignificant number of Americans who refuse to vaccinate their children, the media is deliberately ignoring the elephant in the room, the illegal aliens bussed and flown in continuously since last year by this administration from countries where measles is endemic because of lack of vaccination and poor or non-existent healthcare.

The media is also gloating over the 5.6% unemployment rate which the Chairman and CEO of Gallup, Jim Clifton, described in his article as “The Big Lie:  5.6% Unemployment.” “The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.” http://www.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/181469/big-lie-unemployment.aspx

While Americans have been told that their refunds may be delayed due to Obamacare penalties and calculations for those who may owe money to the IRS for overpaid subsidies, illegal aliens, as usual, are getting the red carpet treatment with taxpayer dollars. American taxpayers have to file an additional form, 8962, with 12 rows and 6 columns (72 boxes), to compute subsidies for each month of 2014.

“Consumers may be subject to tax penalties for any month in which they had neither insurance coverage nor an exemption.”

Do not expect speedy service or prompt answers from the IRS as they are busy with other issues. Thirty types of exemptions from penalty have been set up by the federal government, including for those in states that did not expand Medicaid, religious beliefs, or premiums higher than 8% of household income. Documentation must be provided to the IRS for such hardships.

Illegal aliens, who were working under the radar of the IRS were encouraged to pay taxes via the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Many illegals took advantage of this loophole and claimed numerous children in the country and outside of the country under the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to the tune of $4.2 billion in 2010.  

According to Washington Times, “IRS Commissioner John Koskinen confirmed Tuesday that illegal immigrants granted amnesty from deportation under President Obama’s new policies would be able to get extra funds from the IRS for money they earned while working illegally, as long as they filed returns during those years.“ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/3/irs-offers-extra-tax-refunds-to-illegal-immigrants/#ixzz3QnJt4B1q

The new amnestied illegals, will receive official Social Security numbers, enabling them to file retroactively three years for Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), “potentially claiming billions of dollars in additional payments they were ineligible for before the amnesty.” The Earned Income Tax Credit was established in 1975 for American citizens whose income fell below the federal poverty line.

Likely 4 million illegal immigrants are going to receive this administration’s “deferred action” or “deportation stay,” and thus work permits. Supporters of ITINs and EITCs say that it would be “unfair” to withhold billions from children who are likely U.S. citizens anyway because they became “anchor babies” when their illegal moms gave birth in this country.

In the meantime, while you lost your doctor, your premiums skyrocketed, the deductibles went through the roof, co-pays were larger than ever, your medical care took a dive, had to see a nurse practitioner, and you had to drop your good health insurance and accept substandard insurance on the Obamacare exchanges, the illegal aliens are receiving income tax refunds and free medical care, while you are trying to find three jobs to replace the one full-time job you lost because of the Affordable Care Act mandates. But, on the bright side, if you are a man, you now have free contraceptives.

 

Taxes, Taxes, Everywhere

The only guarantees in life are death and taxes. Death follows life and taxes follow you everywhere like an incurable disease.

Nobody woke up one day and said, let’s tax the heck out of people for their bad behavior, for existing, for traveling on roads, for smoking, for drinking, for trash disposal, for luxury goods, for pollution, for phone use, radio, TV, Internet, for buying goods and services, property, hunting, fishing, building, learning, farming, and other purposes.

Taxes were added slowly over centuries for the “common good,” to redistribute wealth, to subsidize politicians and their parties, for “climate change” and for not buying health insurance. It was a slow, one paper cut at a time until the tax-paying and hard-working citizens bled to death from the burden of taxation.

Taxation has become a very lucrative bottomless funding industry, easy revenue for the ever-spending politicians who keep squandering or giving away taxpayer dollars often to the enemy.

Taxes are so ancient, they are even mentioned in the Bible. Tax collectors during the time of Jesus could stop a person and tax them for what they were carrying.

Matthew 22: 15-22 talks about Caesar’s imperial tax levied on non-Roman citizens:

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. ¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷ Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸ But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, ²⁰ and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹ “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

²² When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22:15-22

Ancient Egypt used scribes to tax cooking oil. The annual flooding cycle of the river Nile prompted the taxation of people based on the flood level; those whose land was never flooded paid lower taxes. Egyptians whose land was flooded annually paid the highest taxes.

Ancient Greece taxed its citizens during times of war and rescinded the tax once the war was over. How unheard of to rescind taxes, they certainly would not do it today! Foreigners had to pay a poll tax called metoikion for not having an Athenian Mother and Father.

The Romans were tax happy. They paid customs duties called portoria. An inheritance tax paid for the military retirement. The corrupt Roman tax collectors in the British Isles led to Queen Boadicea’s revolt in 60 A.D. with her army of 230,000 which killed 80,000 people before Emperor Nero crushed it.

Cato convinced the Senate in 181 B.C. to pass laws imposing high taxes on foreign goods such as carriages, perfume, silk clothing, and highly educated slaves.

Cemeteries were exempt from property taxes in Roman times, so the poet Virgil came up with an ingenious idea to avoid paying taxes on his home. He buried a fly in his yard with pomp and circumstance, speeches and food, in order to exempt his villa as a cemetery. We are not sure if his loophole worked.

Emperor Vespasian placed a tax on urine collected from public toilets. Those needing urine to launder (whiten) wool paid a tax when they bought it.

When Judea became a Roman protectorate following its conquest by Pompey in 63 B.C., the Jews had complete religious freedom as long as they made a daily contribution to the Roman emperor’s coffers. They were exempted from military service and were allowed to run their own businesses.

Assyria (mât Aššur) was the ancient empire located in the northeastern part of modern Iraq, on the east bank of the Tigris River. The Assyrians treated their neighbors so badly during their pillaging raids that the chieftains decided to pay tribute and swear allegiance to the Assyrian king in order to avoid the hordes descending on them from the desert. The system of taxation in the name of their god Ashur was so efficient that it supplied the empire with money and men.

The Chimu Empire which existed in northern Peru between the 13^th and 15^th centuries did not have a system of coinage. As master weavers, they used textile as payment for taxes and tribute.

The Incas used an elaborate system of one foot cords with other colored strings attached called quipu, “knot,” with which they were able to record “the tributes received from conquered tribes and taxes owed to the king by his subjects.” Those who kept up with the quipu were called quipucamayocs and were exempt from taxation and other duties.

The Anglo-Saxon Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets of town to persuade her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, to reduce taxes on the residents of Coventry in the 11^th century England.

Poll taxes were levied in 1377-1380 by the Regency of Richard II in order to pay for the French war. The taxes were extremely painful to the poor since both rich and poor had to pay the same rate. In late spring 1381 a crowd of 20,000 peasants and laborers rebelled outside London against the aristocrats whom they blamed for the high taxes they had to pay in order to support the failed war with France.

Armed with axes, bows and arrows, the rebels refused to pay taxes and marched through town and burned buildings owned by aristocrats, destroying legal documents that implicated those who did not pay their taxes.

Excise taxes on goods such as meat, grain, tobacco, wine, lamp oil, silks, spices, and even luxuries were quite burdensome across the centuries.

In Cordoba, the capital of the Muslim Andalucía, the non-Muslim citizens had to pay a poll tax based on income and could be paid in installments. The source of revenue to Andalucía was so large, the Moors discouraged conversion to Islam.

The colonists paid import duties on sugar, wine, and molasses under the Molasses Act. The Stamp Act collected taxes from colonists on newspapers and commercial and legal documents.

There were English taxes on soap, a property tax based on the number of windows, on the number of bricks, scutage (opt out of war duties), candles, wig powder, salt, perfumes, printed wallpaper, TV (black v. color, even blind people must pay), a property tax based on exterior appearance (Italy), a tax on freedom (Rome), beards (Russia), furs, cooked v. raw food, stolen property, and many other strange taxes in various American states. http://www.efile.com/unusual-strange-funny-taxes-throughout-the-world-and-history/

Some taxes are necessary for the running of a large empire but others are burdensome and unnecessary, often necessitating a licensed accountant to understand the ever-intricate code. The IRS code, famous for its complexity, comes to mind.

It will be interesting to see how much revenue will be generated from the Obamacare insurance non-compliance tax/penalty. A lot of health exchange beneficiaries who receive subsidies will be apoplectically surprised when the subsidy or part of it will be taxed.

 

 

 

Silvio Canto Jr. Blogtalk Radio on taxation, August 16, 2013

Thirty minutes with Silvio Canto of Dallas on brief history of taxation, what would create jobs and improve the economy, Obamacare is still a tax even if it is defunded.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2013/08/16/the-us-tax-code-with-dr-ileana-johnson-paugh

My Doctor Is Now the IRS

The Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, “A Brief Overview of the Law, Implementation, and Legal Challenges,” gives a new definition to Nancy Pelosi’s statement that we had “to pass Obamacare to find out what’s in it.” Not only did Congressmen not read the 2,700 page law before they voted and passed it by twisting arms and briberies, but they now have to be informed of the disaster they have created. (C. Stephen Redhead, Hinda Chaikind, Bernadette Fernandez, Jennifer Staman, July 3, 2012)

The unfortunately named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, passed by 111^th Congress, touted the following:

-          increased access to health insurance coverage (not necessarily access to health care)

-         expansion of federal private health insurance market requirements

-         creation of health insurance exchanges to provide individuals and small employers with access to insurance

-         expansion of Medicaid coverage

The federal government pledged to cover the cost of the most massive bureaucratic expansion of our health care system by an increase in tax revenues and reduction in spending on Medicare and other federal health programs.

According to the Congressional Budget Office estimates, Obamacare will add at least $1 trillion dollars to spending over the next ten years. Since we are already broke, do we really need more spending we cannot afford?

As soon as Obamacare became law, the legal challenges began. Individuals, states, and other groups sued on constitutional grounds - the forced mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance being beyond Congress’s enumerated powers. The states sued because the expansion of Medicaid infringed on states’ rights, forcing them to accept “onerous conditions in exchange for federal funds.”

The Supreme Court issued on June 28, 2012 its decision on National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. The findings were as follows:

-         “the individual mandate is a constitutional exercise of Congress’s authority to levy taxes”

-         “the individual mandate is not a valid exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause or the Necessary and Proper Clause”

-         “In regards to the Medicaid expansion, the federal government cannot terminate current Medicaid program federal matching funds if a state refuses to expand its Medicaid program”

-         “If a state accepts the new Obamacare Medicaid expansion funds, it must abide by the new expansion coverage rules”

-         A state can refuse to participate in the expansion without losing any of its current federal Medicaid matching funds”

-         “All other provisions of Obamacare remain intact” (ACA: Summary, July 3, 2012)

The Supreme Court, using semantics in its decision, changed the law written and passed by Congress, making the individual mandate a “tax.” Justice Roberts used the opportunity to make his mark in “judicial activism from the bench” history, by siding with the liberals.

“While most of the major provisions of the law do not take effect until 2014, some provisions are already in place, with others to be phased in over the next few years,” more specifically, 2018. (CRS Report for Congress, July 3, 2012)

Temporary programs were created for “targeted groups.” These programs were responsible for the premium escalation of everybody’s health insurance since 2010. The targeted groups were:

-         High-risk uninsured individuals with preexisting conditions

-         Reinsurance program to reimburse employers for a portion of the health insurance claims costs for 55-64 year old retirees (unions must be protected)

-         Small business tax credits for businesses with less than 25 full-time “equivalents” (FTEs), average wages below $50,000 who choose to offer health insurance.(suddenly, employees have become “equivalents” in federal jargon)

-         Prior to 2014, “states may choose voluntarily to expand their Medicaid programs”

Private health insurance changes have taken effect and are responsible for such increase in premiums that eventually everybody will be forced into the federal health exchanges, including “children” under the age of 26.

-         Children under 19 cannot be denied insurance and benefits based on preexisting conditions

-         Major medical plans cannot impose any lifetime dollar limits on essential health benefits and are prohibited from doing so beginning in 2014 (Does anyone believe that these companies will stay in business after 2014?)

-         Preventive care with no cost sharing must be provided

-         Coverage cannot be rescinded except in case of fraud

-         Insurers must have an appeals process for coverage and claims (I thought that existed already, are they trying to reinvent the wheel?)

-         Insurers have to limit the ratio of premiums spent on administrative costs v. medical costs – called the medical loss ratio, MLRs.

I predict that most private insurers will be pushed out of business. Americans will be forced into a government health insurance exchange, a privilege for which they will have to pay a tax determined by the omnipotent government. A 15-member bureaucratic death panel will deny as much medical care as possible based on age and utility of a “unit” (person) in order to save money.

Obamacare is so great that the ruling elites and Congress have exempted themselves from it. We will have a two tier healthcare system, just like under communism, the elites will have their private hospitals and polyclinics while the proletariat will become part of the exchanges where shortages, rationing, and denial of care will dominate.  

Health care will be financed, organized, and delivered according to the rules of the IRS and HHS. Poor families will receive subsidies to purchase coverage through health exchanges. Excise taxes will be imposed on those who can afford Cadillac plans. The tax code, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and other federal programs will be modified in order to reduce benefits for rationing purposes and to tax those able to pay more.

As enacted, Obamacare “requires state Medicaid programs to expand coverage to all eligible non-pregnant legal residents with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level, or risk losing their federal Medicaid matching funds.” The Supreme Court, however, found that the Medicaid expansion violated the Constitution. (CRS, p. 6)

Obamacare will make the doctor shortage worse. It has already caused the cancellation of many doctor-owned hospitals. Thousands of new bureaucrats will take over our health care system while the federal government will replace American trained physicians, who might leave the profession, with third world doctors. Plans to admit students to medical school based on racial and ethnic quotas and not merit, involving shorter training, will exacerbate the problem and deliver substandard care.

Doctors will be paid the same regardless of specialty and the government will set all doctors’ fees. (ACA, p. 241, p. 253)

Based on the Massachusetts model of Romneycare, the average wait to see a doctor will expand similarly from 33 days to over 55 days. Patients will have to pay for life-saving drugs but life-ending drugs will be free. If health care for everyone is important, shouldn’t life-saving drugs be free instead of life-ending drugs?

The government will specify which doctors will write an end-of-life order. (p. 429) Patients on social security will be required to attend end-of-life planning seminars every five years, a sort of death counseling, and a mandated advanced-care planning consultation. (p. 425)

Oncology hospitals will ration cancer care according to the patient’s age. (p. 272, section 1145)

IRS will control the enforcing of Obamacare, have direct and mandated access to our bank accounts, will levy 20 new taxes, will control costs,  promote efficiency, and, in the process, will reduce our life expectancy by denying needed care - that will kill many Americans before their time.

IRS will have real-time access to an individual’s bank account and will have the authority to make electronic fund transfers from those accounts. (ACA, pp. 58-59)

The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation cost projections for Obamcare do not include the Supreme Court’s decision, which precludes HHS Secretary Sebelius from penalizing states that choose not to participate in the Medicaid expansion. (CRS Report, July 3, 2012, p. 5)

If a state decides not to implement the Medicaid expansion, “low-income adults below the poverty line who were not covered by, or eligible for, the state’s existing Medicaid program would in general be ineligible for the exchange subsidies.” (CRS Report, p. 8)

Low-income Americans would have to pay for the health exchange out of their own pockets. The very people President Obama vowed to help with his mandate are now being taxed by his regime because they merely exist and the government knows what is best for them.

If the medical profession is allowed to unionize and thus strike, a new Pandora’s Box will be opened. Recently in the UK, unionized doctors and nurses went on strike, leaving patients without care, while scheduled surgeries were postponed.

David Martin, Executive President of the Media Research Center, said, “the media played a role in deceiving Americans about the impact of this horrific law, regurgitating verbatim every lie told by the Obama Administration. Every promise the media and the Obama Administration made about Obamacare – that it would make healthcare cheaper without increasing taxes or deficits, that you can keep your doctor, the businesses would not be hit with crippling regulations and taxes – has been broken.” (June 28, 2012)

Political pundits, liberals and RINOs, have attempted miserably to spin the Supreme Court’s decision in perplexing ways such as, Justice Roberts tricked the liberals by siding and voting with them, but he is such a brilliant and clever conservative.

Interestingly, Senator Obama voted in 2005 against the man who saved his health care law. “The bottom line is this: I will be voting against John Roberts’ nomination.” Senator Obama continued, “I hope that his jurisprudence is one that stands up to the bullies of all ideological types.” Justice Robert’s “jurisprudence and outstanding legal thinking” did not stand up to liberal bullying and he voted against the productive Americans in our society.

Americans are not giving up. Orly Taitz filed a class action suit on behalf of Christian and Jewish U.S citizens.

“Healthcare Obama Tax is illegal as it violates Equal Protection Clause, Due Process Clause, Establishment Clause, and Free Exercise of Religion Clause of the U.S. Constitution by exempting Muslim citizens, and places a heavy tax burden on Christian and Jewish U.S. Citizens to pay a de facto Judeo-Christian Obama Tax not only for themselves, but also for Muslim citizens, who are exempt.” (July 5, 2012, 113 page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California)

The stark truth in Realityville is that Obamacare is the biggest victory for President Obama, the biggest loss of personal freedom in America, the downgrading of medical care quality to levels of third world nations, the highest tax hike in the history of our country, and the biggest usurpation of our Constitution.

Columnist Note: Credit due to Honorable David Kithil of Marble Falls, Texas for providing specific page numbers from HB3200

Friday Radio Chat with Silvio Canto Jr. of Dallas

One hour chat with Silvio on economy, Obamacare, Euro zone situation, France, eastern Europe, education updates, new taxes
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2012/07/06/our-friday-chat-with-dr-ileana-johnson-paugh

Subsidized and Expensive Solar Energy Bites the Dust Again

Solar Trust of America, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware courts, the ninth solar energy company to bite the dust, adding to the previous list of BrightSource, Beacon Power, Ener1, Evergreen Solar, Fiskar, Solyndra, Sunpower, and Spectrawatt.

Solar Trust of America, which listed assets between $1 to $10 million and liabilities between $10 and $50 million, was unable to meet the Department of Energy loan guarantee deadline. The $2.1 billion loan guarantee was “the largest amount ever offered to a solar project.” (The Washington Examiner)

“Despite the posturing and finger pointing, the American solar energy industry is alive and well.” He continued, “One company’s bankruptcy [Solyndra’s] has cast doubt on the credibility of a government program that is otherwise being administered with incredible efficiency,” said Uwe Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Solar Trust, in an op-ed in the Huffington Post.

Spiegel Online reported that even Q-Cells, the biggest solar cell manufacturer in Germany and the world has filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, with a record loss of $1.1 billion in 2011. In Bitterfeld-Wolfen, 2,200 workers have lost their jobs. Q-Cell’s share price was 9 cents.

Q-Cell blamed competition from China, management issues, and solar energy subsidies. When the government subsidies dried up, Q-Cell was not able to compete in a real market as their product was expensive to make. Production prices have fallen in China by 30 to 40 percent, much faster than other companies could scale down their costs, especially when relying on government subsidies.

“Solar subsidies had been a highly effective political means of promoting the environmentally friendly technology.” (Stefan Schultz)

Scheuten Solar from Freiburg declared bankruptcy in March 2012. Solarhybrid and Odersun from Frankfurt-an-der Oder filed the same month. Berlin-based Solon and Erlangen-based Solar Millennium filed for bankruptcy in December 2011.

The reality is that there is no cheaper substitute right now for fossil fuels as a source of energy, no matter how the administration and its proponents spin it. Solar power is expensive, windmills are expensive, noisy, and unsightly, hydropower does not provide enough energy for our large economy, and nuclear power requires more plants to be built. Two reactors are in the works in Georgia.

Using crops to produce bio-fuels has caused a shortage of key grains such as corn in many countries and caused the price of food to spike. “Energy prices affect the production of fertilizers as well as costs related to food distribution and farm machinery use.” Grain futures spiked when the U.S. government reported that grain stocks were lower than estimated, and soybean and wheat plantings fell. (Reuters)

According to the Heritage Foundation, a Senate bill, rejected 51-47, and encouraged by President Obama, “attempted to impose higher taxes on the oil industry as punishment for their profits.”

Instead of easing regulations and allowing for domestic drilling, liberals stage votes to punish the evil oil companies at a time when average oil prices in the country passed the $4 mark and the crude oil is $105 per barrel. No mention is made of the fact that oil prices are quoted in dollars and that crude supplies are getting short. A currently weak dollar causes a higher price for crude. Further complicating the problem, “High crude oil prices have fueled the upward pressure on inflation since the start of the year.” (Reuters)

David Kreutzer, a Heritage expert, describes the manufacturing tax credits that disadvantage the oil and gas industry:

“The unfair tax break that makes up nearly half of what Obama calls ‘subsidies’ is the manufacturing tax credit. All manufacturers except the oil and gas industry get to deduct 9 percent of their revenues before calculating their tax bills… Though oil and gas producers get the deduction, they are singled out for a lower 6 percent deduction. The oil and gas industry gets a deduction that is only two-thirds as generous for all other manufacturers…yet the deduction is called a subsidy to oil and gas. The President’s proposal does not eliminate the deduction for any other industry.”

The crony capitalist green alternative energy has not worked so far, it has sunk billions of taxpayer dollars at a time when we can ill-afford it. Obama’s FY 2013 budget contains more billions to fund the Department of Energy research that is not commercially viable. (Nick Loris)

As we are witnessing a very slow and painful economic recovery at an average rate of 2.4 percent economic growth, at least one percent below of what the period 1947-2007 has experienced, our government is pursuing alternative energy sources at all costs, hampering economic growth and real job creation while pushing non-existent green jobs.

As liberals keep saying, “we are not paying our fair share,” the U.S. corporate tax rate of 39.2 percent is now the largest in the world as of April 1, 2012. The average tax rate for other developed nations is 25 percent. (Mike Brownfield, Heritage Foundation)

It would be nice if our government would stop spending so much money borrowed from China, and multi-national corporations like GE would pay some taxes instead of filing 57,000-page tax return to shelter them from paying. Was it not Congress that passed legislation enabling large corporations to move their headquarters, manufacturing, jobs, and investment to other countries?

Nobody stops liberals, who love to capture sound bites about “paying a fair share,” from writing a large check to the IRS simply because they are so rich and “we must spread the wealth to the poor.” They can start by giving the rest of us an example of the “communist generosity” they so admire and advocate.

In the meantime, I hope liberals of all stripes stop the alternative energy talking points and start drilling domestically for oil. They cannot put windmills on a car and cannot power electric cars without electricity produced cheaply by the coal industry.