Fair Tax Presentation @ Monmouth TEA Party Meeting 10/10/11

 

The Monmouth TEA Party Group is please to be hosting Glen Ebbing, president of the Quincy Fair Tax Group at our October meeting.  He will be giving a presentation on the Fair Tax and answering questions.

click here to see facebook event

The Obama Way: screw the taxpayers, pay off your friends

It's pretty obvious at this point that this POTUS's priorities include making sure his friends get bigger slices of pie than anyone else and making sure the taxpayers get nothing (NO piece of pie)  if his friends turn out to be not only greedy but incompetent.
  This is the Chicago way; this is the Obama way. This is the principle of governing, apparently, that has become the Way of the Weasels in this White House.
  Take, for example, the Solyndra mess. The White House was warned that the company was not solvent and could not possibly make any money, but still loaned hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to it. NRO:

Homing in on one of the several shocking aspects of the Solyndra scandal, lawmakers noted that, a few months before the “clean energy” enterprise went belly-up last week, the Obama Energy Department signed off on a sweetheart deal. In the event of bankruptcy — the destination to which it was screamingly obvious Solyndra was headed despite the president’s injection of $535 million in federal loans — the cozily connected private investors would be given priority over American taxpayers. In other words, when the busted company’s assets were sold off, Obama pals would recoup some of their losses, while you would be left holding the half-billion-dollar bag.

As Andrew Stiles reported here at NRO, Republicans on the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee say this arrangement ran afoul of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

And who gets paid back first? Why, the Obama friends! Not the taxpayers.
  To this date, we do not know (why should we be allowed, after all? This is the Obama way.) if the second loan Solyndra applied for was given by the taxpayers. Why can't we know this? Why isn't this public information? Why the secrecy, White House?
Over the weekend we learn that GM union workers are all getting an outrageous $5000 "signing" bonus with their new contract, which wouldn't be a problem if 1) cars didn't cost so much already  2)  they weren't pushing expensive inefficient crap like the Chevy Volt on the public   3) they didn't still OWE THE PUBLIC billions of dollars. Mickey Kaus:

How about paying back the $15 billion first? I’m sure there are sophisticated arguments for why the UAW members shouldn’t pay back the taxpayers who bailed their employer out of bankruptcy before they negotiate a deal that gives them each a $5,000 bonus. I just can’t think of them right now. … Just from a PR standpoint, repaying the debt would seem like a good idea. …

  So let's get this straight, GM. You still owe the taxpayers billions of dollars but you're giving every employee an extra $5000? And your union boss calls US, the taxpayers and car buyers, SOBs for wanting to reign you in?
  Of course, GM workers are not allowed to strike on this new deal as per their government takeover agreement, and that is the only leverage, Kaus points out, that the unions hold over the company, which doesn't seem to be a problem. Obviously these two are in bed.
  Then let's take health care. Unions pushed the Obamacare debacle like it was a really good thing. Mmm. Then they all applied for and received exemptions from having to be part of that program themselves. There's some panic as they realize that the structure of Obamacare will eventually force everyone into the same mess.
  So now we get the whole class warfare argument about taxes. POTUS is going to make everything better by taxing the hell out of the only people in this country making money. Something like 1/3 of 1% of the population falls into the category POTUS wants to tax. Yeah, that'll dig us out of this mess.
  And the unions continue getting away with snookering the taxpayers.
  The White House favors its friends and screw the working man. Yeah, that's right. If you're not in a union, you're a WORKING MAN or WOMAN.
  So, hey, Day of Rage protesters? You'll get right on this, right?

full article: Tea Party at Perrysburg: The Obama Way: screw the taxpayers, pay off your friends

The Old Man And The Sea - 2011 | ZeroHedge

 

Winning and losing are not what is important in life, as we all will lose out to death in the end. It is the honor gained during the struggle that matters. It’s the legacy we leave for future generations. Did we fight the good fight, or did we sit idly by while life passed by? Did your life mean something to someone? You can stay safely on the shore or you can jump into your skiff and sail into the deep water and conquer your marlin.

Ron Paul has a clear vision of the America our forefathers imagined. It is a vision of a people free from government control of every aspect of their lives. It’s a vision where the people keep what they earn and don’t pay half to government to be redistributed based upon a politician’s re-election aspirations. It’s a vision where the people are free to make their own choices and free to succeed or fail based on their own merits. It’s a vision where a truly free market exists and private bankers do not control and manipulate the currency. It’s a vision that calls for a strong national defense, not being the policeman to the world. It’s a vision where we follow the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law. It’s a vision where a limited government ensures the liberties and freedoms of the population. It’s a vision that calls for balanced budgets, sound money, and citizens and corporations accepting the consequences of their actions. If Santiago was a fisherman in the U.S. today, he would be required to have a license to fish, a permit for his boat, pay taxes on his catch, and probably have to release the marlin because it was endangered. Some government thug would have met Santiago at the dock and written him a ticket for being at sea too long and illegal feeding of sharks.

full article here: Guest Post: The Old Man And The Sea - 2011 | ZeroHedge

Area tea party calls out detractors - Galesburg, IL - The Register-Mail

 

“Tea partiers have the common view that we need less government, less taxes, less spending, less regulation and more personal responsibility,” Block said. “We ought to deal with our debt. The nation cant live the way we are living. We dug the hole for ourselves, and it’s time to fix the problem.

full article: Area tea party calls out detractors - Galesburg, IL - The Register-Mail

"Hardest Hit" in Illinois aren't those facing foreclosure, they're those paying taxes

 

Question is, who really is the "hardest hit" in Illinois?  Certainly no one enjoys seeing a neighborhood family be forced to pack up and move out because the recession pushed them into unemployment or underemployment and out of their homes.  But what about the folks who bought homes within or under their means, sacrificed new cars, food and clothing in order to make their house payments and pay their taxes?

How about those who are struggling with the same jobs they've had for years, but have had to make salary and wage concessions to keep their companies afloat?  And all the time, they were paying federal taxes so that hard-earned money can be dished out to neighbors through the greased palms of bureaucrats seeking political allegiance?  How about those small businessmen whose overhead has multiplied via jacked up health care costs, thanks to Obamacare?

We think maybe those good folks that "play by the rules" are once again left holding the bag - those folks are Illinois' real "Hardest Hit."  Maybe that sounds cruel and heartless, but where does this stop?

read the full article here: Illinois Review: "Hardest Hit" in Illinois aren't those facing foreclosure, they're those paying taxes

Social Security is a “PonziScheme”, says Rick Perry

This Letter to the Editor By Charlie Gruner of the Galesburg 9/12 Group was in today's Register Mail:

Texas Governor Rick Perry called Social Security is a “PonziScheme”

A Ponzi Scheme, namedfor Charles Ponzi, is a pyramid scheme where the schemer takes money form“investors” and promises far better than normal returns on that “investment”.In order to make the initial investors believe that the scheme is working hehas to pay out “profits” to fulfill his promises. He gets this money from thenext group of investors.

To keep the scheme solvent the schemer has to keep expandingthe base or increase the required investment from future investors. Eventuallythe Ponzi scheme is unsustainable and collapses.

When the Social Security Act was passed (August 14, 1935),it was sold to the American People as a form of “insurance”. (Any insurancecompany run like the SSA would be closed down and the officers jailed.) Therewere promises made to the public, among them that it would be voluntary, thatthe Social Security Number would never be used as identification, that the taxwould never exceed 2% and that only you, the SSA and your employer would everhave to know that number. Every single one of those promises has been brokenover the years.

Let’s examine Social Security against the Ponzi scheme. ThePonzi scheme is completely voluntary. Social Security is not, even though itwas originally presented as such. The Federal government does not have todepend on volunteers because it can, and does, use the power of coercion. Onceyou’re in, you cannot opt out. On this level the Ponzi scheme is the betterdeal. First, you don’t have to get in if you don’t want to. Second, you can optout at any time by simply not re-investing.

How about expanding the base that is continually bringing inmore money to pay out on the earlier investors? Social Security has increasedthe base in at least three ways. First, the people who were specificallyexcluded originally (including self-employed, professionals, certain governmentworkers, higher-income citizens, etc.) were required to join. I was required toget my Social Security card when I was 16 years old and got my first job. Nowyou cannot bring your new-born child home from the hospital without the card.

The second way that the base has been expanded is simply byincreasing the Social Security tax rates. Since 1937 these tax rates haveincreased 19 times. Third, the base was expanded by increasing the amount ofincome the tax applies to. In 1937 the rate applied only to income up to $3,000per year. This has been increased 42 times until it now applies to income up to $106,800.

The Social Security tax rate was decreased exactly once inthe last 74 years, by one-tenth of one percent, the exact amount of theincrease in Medicare tax. The Medicare tax was implemented in 1966, which couldaccount for 12 of the rate increases because Medicare and Social Security werededucted under one entry on your pay stub. That changed in 1991 when it wasdecided that the increases in the tax might be noted by the public easier ifthey were given one number rather than if they had to add them together, so nowthere are two line items. Medicare has worked in a way similar to SocialSecurity in that the base kept changing. The difference is that in 1991 thelimit on earnings was changed to No Maximum. Social Security taxes are appliedto income up to a maximum of $106,800 this year but there is no limit for Medicare.

A while back we all watched the news as Bernie Madoff wasconvicted of fraud. We were told that he built the biggest Ponzi scheme in thehistory of the world. Actually, Madoff’s scheme pales beside the fraud of SocialSecurity. Even the Social Security Trustees have been saying that the systemcannot be sustained for too many more years. But even that isn’t all. Rememberthe trillions of dollars that we are in debt? Social Security owns much of thatdebt. It’s not just China and Japan; it’s everyone in the country who has aninterest in the Social Security system. That means almost all of us.

Something has to be done to insure that people who aredependent on the system will not be abandoned, but it cannot go on forever.While it may be comforting to know that the government is going to look out foryou in your future, the reality is it can’t. What we as citizens have to do isbe vigilant and not vote for anyone who promises something that has to be paidfor by someone else or that offers us something for nothing. Now as always, “there’sno such thing as a free lunch”.

CharlieGruner

Knoxville, IL

Letter to the Editor: Farmland Fines

Dear Editor –

If you come toward Monmouth and you smell an odor, it isn’t coming from Farmland’s hog processing plant. It is coming from the federal government! We read that on August 22, 2011, the Justice Department settled with Farmland for, what seems to us, following the law!!!

The settlement of $290,400 was because Farmland was essentially protecting itself from litigation if they hired illegal aliens to work at the plant. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 established a prohibition on employers from hiring unauthorized workers and established criminal and civil sanctions. The lawsuit sited Farmland for “imposing unnecessary and excessive documentary requirements on non-US citizens and foreign-born US citizens when establishing their authority to work in the United States.” It seems to us, Farmland was covering itself because of all the fraudulent documentation that is available to illegal aliens.

Part of the problem is that on August 24, 2009, Illinois enacted S1133 prohibiting the state or localities from requiring employers to use an employment eligibility verification system. As of June 15, 2011, Illinois is the only state to impose limited usage of the E-Verify system. E-Verify was implemented by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to help employers determine employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers. How else is Farmland to determine eligibility other than asking questions of potential new hires? Farmland is a private company. Where does the government get off thinking they have the right to control a company? The company has all the risk and provides a service to the community – jobs. What is government’s contribution? Uncertainty about the future.
To add to the uncertainty and confusion, IL passed HB 1743, which creates privacy and antidiscrimination protections for workers if employers participating in E-Verify do not follow the program’s procedures. Is your head swimming yet?

Government says it is OK to be here illegally but damned the company that works to have a legal operation.

Western IL can not afford to lose industry which in turn causes a loss in jobs!!! I’m not sure President Obama or Governor Quinn makes that correlation when they add more tax and regulation to companies, sign wishy-washy legislation and sue those companies that are needed to provide jobs. Western IL does not have an over abundance of industry. When one shuts down, the effect is devastating. Just ask Galesburg after Maytag left.

Businesses are there to make a profit. When they hurt, the entire community hurts along with them.

D. M. Wasson and C. J. Parrish
Monmouth Tea Party

link to the original article: http://www.galesburg.com/news/business/x1153511442/Farmland-to-pay-290-400-in-penalties