H.R. 2454 American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009

Late last Friday night America sat weepingly glued to the one-eyed monster reviewing the life of Michael Jackson, decade-by-decade, over and over on channel after channel.  Hoping no one would notice, the House of Representatives chose to take advantage of the situation by pushing through a bill that will further undo our industrialized nation.  This is another “bandwagon” bill that very few of our Representatives even bothered to read (once again).  Since many of them are personally very heavily invested in renewable energy companies, it’s not necessary to actually know all the ins and outs of how their money will grow.  They just know that the passage of this bill is a must for their investments.

There’s a reason why legislation is called a “Bill” as it passes through Congress.  The Congressional Budget Office estimates this one will cost $175 a year per household.  And a yet undefined amount of the allocation will be to pay other countries ‘not to cut down trees or clear vegetation’.  Did you pay attention to that last statement? This is your money going across continents and overseas to help line the pockets of Congress.

One hundred and seventy-five dollars per year per household is only a start.  With the passage of this bill in the Senate, and the signing into law by a man who may or may not have the authority to actually do so, more American jobs will be lost.  It has already happened in Europe.  Environmentalists and economists are in agreement that the passage of this bill will cost American jobs.  The only question is, “How many?”   The estimates range from 1.75 – 3.2 jobs will be lost for every green job created.  So we are left with fewer jobs and a greater financial burden.

The “inconvenient truth” is that the average global temperature has flat-lined since 2001.  Yes, there has been an increase in CO₂ emissions but this bill was originally written under the scare tactic that global warming was going to devastate the earth.  Now there’s speculation about global cooling in the near future.  Even environmentalists question if this massive spending will actually do anything to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Here again we have a situation where Congress is going to force businesses out of the country.  It will force businesses out by making it no longer profitable to operate here.  The jobs will go to countries that have no standards for the environment or human rights.  Those countries will only increase greenhouse emissions, paving the way for our legislative branch to impose more stringent standards on you and me.

I personally like the way they added “And Security Act” to the title.  It makes it more palatable to the uninformed sheeple of America who are staying tuned to ABC news so they don’t miss the next celebrity death.

Coming soon to your automobile purchase and/or registration will be a “dark color” surcharge.

EXCESS TAXATION PROMOTES BLACK MARKET BARTER

Let me first open this rant with the statement that I’ve made many times before.  “I understand that the government needs to tax the citizens to survive and govern.  I have no problem with that.  My objection is to abusive taxation for no reason other than Congress wants to spend more money than they have on things that the citizens don’t want.  Many of the ‘projects’ that our tax dollars fund have no bearing on governance or legislating.”

That said, perhaps you can understand why I rant so frequently on taxes.  At this time, increasing taxes is not helping bring more revenue to government agencies it is actually bringing less.  The higher taxes rise, proportionately fewer dollars will ever make it to the inane programs sought by our representatives.

The new economy is becoming more and more diverse.  As we experience George H. W. Bush’s “Read my lips” approach taken to the ‘Nth’ degree by the current administration, the underground economy is widening and going deeper than ever before.

Obama said during his campaign, “I can make a firm pledge.  Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.  Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”  He continued to espouse, “You will not see any of your taxes increase on single dime.” He makes Bush’s “No new taxes” almost believable (and we know that’s not true).

That was on September 12, 2008.  On February 4 of this year he signed legislation increasing the federal tax on cigarettes by $.62 per pack of 20.  This doesn’t affect me in the least.  I use it as an example only to express the point that the people hit hardest by this increase have been those who can least afford the increase: primarily the poor and undereducated and underemployed (the greatest majority of his constituency).  Of course they have the opportunity to quit.  It’s not like smoking is addictive.

As an aside, that tax increase has also contributed to increased crime.   By raising the market value of a substance that many people crave, it has made the transporters an even greater target of hijackers.  But that’s another story.

That was only the beginning though.  Since then, to follow suit, we have seen both federal and state tax increases slapped onto: candy and soft drinks, coffee and tea, gasoline, electricity, heating oil, natural gas, highway usage (tolls)… and the list goes on almost endlessly.  It is not endless, however, because Congress is finding more and more things to tax and more ways to increase taxes that already exist – like your current health care.  A perfect example of a new tax is the Value Added Tax (VAT)  The VAT is a tax that will be added to virtually every transaction that includes the transfer of money from one person or group of people to another.  This tax of 10%-25%  will be added on after the local, state and existing federal taxes are applied.

So this excess taxation by our local, state and federal governments is causing people to do more bartering for goods and services without reporting those transactions and not reporting some or all of their income.  Many people who can are now working “under-the-table”.  And I’m not just talking about the Illegal Aliens, I’m talking about the people who have been laid off from their jobs and are doing ‘pick-up’ work to supplement their unemployment insurance.

What happens when this occurs?  Otherwise law-abiding citizens perform criminal behavior in order to survive.  It’s pretty simple to me.  I can’t believe our government entities can’t grasp the concept and understand how they are hurting themselves and the citizens with their greed.

Here’s how it works:

John loses his job as a master electrician due to lack of work and files for unemployment.  He has gone from a tax contributor to a tax receiver.  The government has less tax coming in and more going out. Because John’s income has been cut to one quarter or less of what it was last week, last month or six months ago, John has to do what is necessary to survive.   He purchases less.  Sales tax revenue is reduced. He conserves on his auto use.  Gasoline tax revenue is reduced. He doesn’t eat out at Miguel’s Mexican Restaurant as much.  Restaurant business and employees suffer with less patronage and fewer tips.  Several service personnel and perhaps a cook or two lose their jobs and become tax receivers.

And that begins the underground or black market economy.

When John does go to Miguel’s, Miguel mentions that he needs some electrical work done on his house but can’t afford to pay an electrician right now and doesn’t know how to do the work himself.  John says he’ll do it if he can bring the family in for dinner once a week for X weeks.  Miguel agrees and asks only that John will also tell his friends about the fine, authentic Mexican food at Miguel’s.

Now we have the city losing out on permit revenue because only John and Miguel know about the electrical work.  No taxes are paid on the “income” John receives for his work because it is not reported as income.  Miguel gets the work done for the cost of the food that John and family consume and he writes that off as it’s melded into the cost of goods sold (the kitchen staff would be paid anyway).  No sales tax is paid, because no sale is recorded.  Miguel gets third party endorsement to increase business and saves on his advertising budget.

Then Miguel goes to the dentist, and then the dentist calls a plumber…

Casual bartering has gone on since the beginning of time.  Though the transactions are supposed to be reported to the government that scenario almost never happens .  Now the government is forcing us into black market negotiations in order to survive.  At the same time taxes are raised, the overall revenue received is reduced and the only way for the elite to get their hands on more money is to continue raising taxes until we are left with no income or spending power at all.  That’s called depression.

And it’s all so that some Senator or Congressman can assure his/her re-election by granting $300,000,000 to a private non-profit agency in his/her district to conduct a three-year study on ‘the irresponsible mating habits of the female Tick-Spotted Moose Spider and the psychological trauma to the male of the species related to the behavioral disorder’.

Be informed and vote wisely.  And hey, have a great time at your garage sale this weekend!

ELECTION FRAUD

People across America and around the globe are clamoring for Obama to make a definitive statement regarding Iran, the recent election or the protests occurring there.  His avoidance of direct statements could just be political no-speak, but I think otherwise.  I believe it is beyond the fear of being perceived as a meddler.  I think it goes even beyond his inability to make a non-personal agenda driven decision without finite polling data.  I think he’s afraid to take a stand.

Think about it for just a pair of seconds.  The protests in Iran are about election fraud.

If Obama takes a side, if he backs either the protesters or President Mahmoud I’m-in-a-Jihad, he would be admitting that there is really a thing called election fraud.  Can you say ACORN? It would open more questions from even more people regarding his personal ascension to office.

It is readily accepted by the majority of intelligent people, and others as well, that the media and ACORN were the primary drivers in our most recent presidential election.

I’m not a conspiracy nut (at least I try not to be), but when you look at the number of court cases currently surrounding ACORN for (allegedly) mishandling monies, unaccounted and unaccountable millions of dollars, voter registration, the use of felons (people who have lost their voting rights) to collect voter information, paying some people in cigarettes, alcohol and even cash to register and vote, transporting people without identification to the polls and telling them how to vote…

Then, if you factor in that Obama has reportedly spent millions of dollars protecting from public view and scrutiny the very documents (birth certificate, school records, tuition grantors, thesis paper(s), passport information, etc.) that would legitimize his authority to make decisions affecting over three hundred million U.S. citizens and untold millions of people around the world you must have a genuine concern.

If he supports Ahmadinejad, and the election is found to be rigged, he’ll be wrong in front of the world.  If he backs the protesters, he’s effectively admitting that he believes the election could have been fraudulent.

We know that Mahmoud has no respect for Barack.  But Ahmadinejad may have a lot more in common with Obama than first appears on the surface.  For one thing, neither is commenting on the other’s election.

OBAMA THE TYRANT

In a press conference on June 23, President Obama used the words “But only I am the president of the United States”.  He was referring to the fact that opinions of others, including his closest advisors and mentors in the House and Senate, mean little when it comes to doing things his way.

We have heard many times now the childish debate or conversation ending “We won” from not only Obama, but also his vice president and press secretary.  It’s like saying, “I don’t have to be right.  I don’t have to represent the people.  I’m doing this my way”.

I have to question how this is any different from Karl Marx, or Vladimir Lenin or Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro or even Adolf Hitler.  All are, or were, tyrants whose rule left little room for input from the commoners about their lives.

We have the “News Broadcast” (aka Town Hall Meeting) direct from the White House by Obama friendly ABC News.  They will be covering the president’s National Health Care project.  While readily and heavily denied by this administration, even a blind man can see that this is a propaganda forum disguised as a legitimate reporting session.

On the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, so to speak, is the silencing of any and all who would like to speak their minds regarding the propriety of dealings by Congress, this administration or liberals in general.  Called the “Fairness Doctrine”, liberals would like to express their position of tolerance by eliminating any opinions that differ from their agenda.  Beyond that, the Homeland Security Chief has flagged anybody who has: fought in the military, or opposes abortion, or opposes one world government, or wants increased security by enforcing our borders and immigration laws, or who believes citizens have the right to protect themselves with guns against gun wielding criminals, or…as Right Wing Extremists that must be closely watched by law enforcement.  The Right Wing Extremists command more attention for their words and thoughts than criminals do for their actions now.

Grow the government, control the media, limit the access of citizens to government, take over commerce, industry and financial institutions and control the minds of our young with political indoctrination under the ruse of state run education seems to be the direction the government is taking our country now.

There was not even a fork in the road that brought us to this place.  The choices for our leaders were to continue on the path our forefathers set forth, with compensating variances for today’s world, or a rapid and sharp ‘U’ turn that has us heading exactly in the opposite direction.  For over 270 years we were a strong and respected leader in world policy and economy.  The past thirty – forty year span has us now struggling to reach mediocrity within the “Global Society”.

But you can have your supplemental subsistence payment mailed to your door.  I guess that’s the good thing.  You will be able to subside while some government bureaucrat decides if you’re worth the cost of the chemo or radiation treatment.

PROPAGANDA

Starting on June 24, 2009 we will no longer have free and open airwaves.  I’ll talk about the “Fairness Doctrine” later since Congress has been quietly slipping it through.  But here I want to share my thoughts on the town Hall meeting that will be conducted in the hall of the town now known as Obamaland.  (I think this may be the 57^th state he talked about on the campaign trail.)

It seems that Charlie Gibson will be moving into the bedroom next to the president (adjoining door?) so he will have full access to the president for a town hall meeting.  We know that the network news has been in bed with this president since the start of his rise to stardom.  In fact, the network news is responsible, in large, for that happening.  But when they move into the White House…  It can only be for propaganda purposes.

The Town Hall will be for the promotion of Nationalized Health Care.  You know the plan.  It’s another chance for this administration to take and spend more of your hard earned dollars, and those of your children and grandchildren, for something you won’t be able to use and future generations don’t want and can’t afford.  And it’s all under the guise of equal opportunity.  They have to tell us over and over again how good it will be for us so we don’t think differently.

Seniors have already been told to “suck it up” and learn to live with aging rather than seeking treatment for the associated ills and pains.  Where’s the equality here? We know from the other countries that have instituted State run health care that bureaucracy gets in the way of medicine.  If you think  the profit margin of your insurance company limits your access to your doctors, just hang on when we hit controlled costs handled by inexperienced and incompetent bureaucratic cronies of, and donors to, this president.

I’ll bet they’re already rehearsing the “tough” questions at the White House.  You won’t have a chance to ask any.  Rush Limbaugh won’t be invited.  In fact, anybody to the political right of Benito Mussolini won’t be able to question this program, or this president.  The “questions”, if any are allowed, will be pre-scripted for a teleprompted positive spin.  This is the way it is and this is the way it will be just about sums up the Town Hall Meeting coming on June 24.

Town Hall meetings used to be an interaction between the people and the government.  Not any more it seems.

Change!  Hope!  These were the key words of Obama’s campaign.  This is the change we are getting.  “We the People” no longer count in this once great land.  Congress used to vote on policies after actually reading them and considering input from constituents.  The change here is that you’ll hope members of the Black Panthers or ACORN don’t come to your house, cock your head back and stuff them down your throat.  ABC news will record the two or three people who swallow willingly and they’ll make it look like nationalized health care is the choice of the whole country except for you.

THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED!  Will you be on the news?