THIS IS HOW THEY REPRESENT US (THEMSELVES)
To a person who uses the logic of someone who works for a living and lives outside of the Swamp, any legitimate tax bill that seeks to reform the existing broken income/payroll tax system would eliminate tax extenders. Tax extenders are special tax benefits that have to be renewed, usually in one to three years, or they expire. The Swamp loves these tax extenders because then they can extort the beneficiaries for a continuing flow of funds in order that the Swamp can influence Congress to extend it over and over again.
Ideally, the Swamp wants to have issues that are favored by one wealthy group and opposed by another. They are like the judge in the mining camps in the 1890's who opened his court by announcing, "This morning at 8:00 am the attorney for the plaintiff handed me a bag containing $10,000 in gold and at 8:30 am the attorney for the defendant handed me a bag containing $10,000 in gold. Now we can have a fair trial."
The Swamp sees their job as not making any value judgments but only to extract as much money as they can as the mouthpiece of their employers. It is not their problem if the positions they advocate hurts everyone else but their clients.
Tax Extenders Are Not Free
A tax extender that provides a tax break means less income tax is collected by the U.S. Treasury and the people receiving the tax break get to pay less income taxes and keep more of their cash. Congress doesn't reduce expenditures to reflect the reduced income tax collections. Instead, they make up for the lost revenue by increasing the national debt.
The Swamp has convinced many of the leaders of Congress that the size of the national debt is not a real concern. Any Member who opposes any increase in the national debt means that you don't get contributions from the Swamp or are ostracized by your party's leadership for not "going along to get along."
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines a bribe as, "Money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust." The Swamp realizes that many of these tax extenders need to be hidden because they are seen by the public as "pay-offs" or "bribes" by people who pay money to the Swamp that they know will be shared with Members of Congress to get preferential treatment for certain people or groups at the expense of the rest of us who are not paying.
The Question--How Can They Hide Tax Extenders?
The Swamp and the leaders of Congress know that if you create a lot of attention on something else, you can sneak special pay-offs into bills that will, hopefully, either not be noticed or explained by saying, "This was the only way we had to pass the bill." That was why the Swamp saw a great opportunity in the need to pass a resolution to continue operating the government and the new budget bill. No one was supposed to see the amendments that were quietly added.
Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, has written an excellent analysis of this blatant selling of hidden tax benefits for cash payments to the Swamp and Congress.
Mr. Phillips points out:
- $17.4 billion in additional tax cuts were hidden in the two-year budget deal that just passed;
- This is in addition to the $31.3 billion in temporary tax cuts included in the January 22nd continuing resolution which temporarily suspended the implementation of the medical device tax, the tax on high-cost health insurance, and the annual fee on health insurance companies;
Add to this that almost all of the individual changes actually expire in 2025 if not extended. This means that all of those who favored and those who opposed the individual changes will be paying lobbyists to advocate their positions.
Betrayal After Trust
Members of Congress are elected to represent us and to put our interests ahead of their interests. Maybe this is naïve, but many of us outside the Swamp believe that people should do what they say. If Congress doesn't put our interests first, are they not betraying our trust? In the Merriam Webster dictionary, treason is defined as betrayal after trust. Isn't it time to look at the actions of the Swamp and the leaders of Congress who are complicit as people who are betraying our trust that they will represent us and not themselves and their wealthy friends?
The actions of the Swamp and the complicit Members of Congress are saddling us with a huge and growing national debt, looming inflation and a broken income/payroll tax system whose only reason for existence is to provide money to the Swamp and their tame Members of Congress.
Cicero, the great Roman philosopher, made this comment on the actions of Roman leaders who were doing things not for the benefit of the people of Rome but for themselves.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”
Conclusion
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. He served as the 16th President of the United States and served from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln's actions led to the end of slavery in the U.S. and the end of the Civil War.
Lincoln was a man that came from the humblest beginnings and was largely self-educated. He became a master of the English language. In response to many who doubted that the American people still had the will to preserve their nation and the freedom of the enslaved, Lincoln said, "Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors."
We can never, ever give up if we want to save our country from the Swamp and the actions of people who believe that the rest of us are not capable of making decisions for ourselves. For the sake our children and grandchildren, we have to take the way we fund our government out of the hands of the Swamp and pass the FAIRTAX!
The truth is the truth. Remember, if we don't continue to tell the truth and demand a change, then this quote from George Orwell's 1984 may foretell our children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
WHAT CAN EACH OF US DO
Call up the local or D.C. offices of your House Member and two Senators and you can use the following script:
- I am sure that Representative ____ or Senator ____ is in favor of everyone obeying the income tax laws.
- After they assure you that their boss is not in favor of anyone breaking the law, ask if they are aware of the Cebula study showing $9 trillion of evaded income/payroll taxes over the next ten years.
- Since most will say they don’t believe their boss has seen the study, either drop off a copy or get an email address and send a copy to them for their boss.
- Say you are going to call back in a week and ask what the Representative or Senator is going to do to stop this evasion.
- In a week, call back and ask specifically what the Representative or Senator is going to do to enforce the law.
- They probably will say their boss believes that simplifying the income tax will handle the problem.
- Explain that when people evade income taxes, they are also evading the 15.3% payroll/Medicare tax and state income tax. So it is unlikely that they are going to pay 30% or 40% when they were paying 0% because they have already decided it is okay to cheat.
- Say that the only way to reduce evasion is to increase by tens or hundreds of thousands the number of comprehensive IRS audits done each year.
- Point out that Evaders do not self-identify by putting an “E” on their income tax return.
- 80% of the people likely to be audited are trying to comply, but they will be forced to endure these IRS audits as well.
- Ask if the Member is in favor of this?
- If they say no, then ask again how the Member proposes to stop people breaking the income tax laws.
- Then explain that the way to handle evasion without unleashing the IRS audits is the FAIRtax.
If you can see your Member or attend a town hall and ask these questions, you can be even more effective.
THE UNITED STATES OF TAXATION
FAIRTAX POWER RADIO EPISODE #96
In this week’s episode, The FAIRtax Guys continue their discussion of The State of Taxation in America. It’s not a pretty story, but someone has to tell it! As Bob frequently says, no one could design a more fraud prone, error prone, complicated, unfair system of taxation if they tried. The income tax system is a mess because Congress has had over 100 years to screw it up. Get the specifics and learn what you can do about it. We will free ourselves of the income tax when enough citizens demand the FAIRtax.
LAST WEEK’S EPISODE
Since the President recently gave the State of the Union address to the nation, The FAIRtax Guys decided they deserved equal time! OK, our podcast is not an hour and a half long, but they demonstrated that the State of Taxation in the U. S. is terrible and getting worse all the time. Evasion - growing every year. Complexity - getting worse every year. I D Theft - afflicting hundreds of thousands of people every year. So what is the answer? If you listen to last week’s episode, you’ll find out but here’s a hint - Make Taxes Fair Again!
NEXT WEEK - LIVE BROADCAST FROM CPAC
On February 22, 23 and 24 The FAIRtax Guys will be broadcasting LIVE from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington DC, one of the biggest political conferences of the year. We will start broadcasting at 10am and will be live until noon. Then we will do it again in the afternoon. We have already lined up interviews with several Congressmen who are FAIRtax cosponsors. You can listen to us LIVE at: http://bit.ly/2oesbk7 We also plan to do Facebook LIVE events during the interviews. Mark your calendars: FAIRtax Power Radio LIVE on our Spreaker page (link above) next Thursday, Friday & Saturday accompanied simultaneously by Facebook LIVE interviews with public figures. Keep checking your social media pages for updates.
HELP THE FAIRTAX GUYS EDUCATE OTHERS ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM. Telling your friends and relatives about our free weekly podcasts is a great way to help us garner more support. It is the American people who must demand REAL tax reform in Congress. We must inform America about the FAIRtax! Please help us.
You can listen to FTPR on any platform - Mac or PC, iPhone or Android. And it’s 100% free.
Listen on Spreaker.com (http://bit.ly/2oesbk7), iTunes (http://apple.co/1Te8VdF) or iHeart Radio (http://bit.ly/2eqEG7y) on your computer or smartphone. The easiest way to listen to FTPR on your smartphone is by downloading the free FTPR app. Just search for “FAIRtax Power Radio” in your app store, download the app and start listening. If you have trouble finding our free app, download the free Spreaker app.
We post a new episode every Friday morning. Please listen and tell everyone you know about the FAIRtax Power Radio.
The FAIRtax: Once You Understand It, You’ll Demand It!
AMERICA’S BIG SOLUTION - WHERE ONE BEGINS THEIR JOURNEY INTO THE FAIRTAX
America’s Big Solution is a basic introduction to the FAIRtax and is meant for people of any age. Do you know someone who would like an introduction to the FAIRtax and would prefer to read about it rather than search online for Tweets, Posts and Shares? If so, America’s Big Solution is your choice.
America’s Big Solution is an introduction to the FAIRtax written by Terry Tibbetts, author of A Spartan Game: The Life and Loss of Don Holleder, with help from Ron Maiellaro, President of the Florida FAIRtax Educational Association.
You can buy an electronic version of ABS as follows: AMERICA’S BIG SOLUTION is available for only $2.99 for the Amazon Kindle (http://amzn.to/1WIRHry), the Barnes & Noble Nook (http://bit.ly/1XeG8bH) and Apple iOS (http://apple.co/1tnqK0P).
You can purchase a print copy at the same Amazon link above for $9.25. Regardless of whether you choose the electronic format or the print format, you’ll find AMERICA’S BIG SOLUTION will give someone the boost they need to begin their study of the FAIRtax and the suggested resources to learn more. Buy AMERICA’S BIG SOLUTION now!
LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION
These links will help you promote and support the FAIRtax, make yourself familiar with the links below. We always do our best to keep our AFFT community up to date, and you can stay ahead of the curve using these convenient sites.
- The website of Americans for Fair Taxation (www.fairtax.org)
- Read the Summary of the Evasion Study.
- Welcome to the Online FAIRtax Community (member.fairtax.org)
- The website at which you can help make it happen. (www.bigsolution.org)
- The Facebook page for Americans for Fair Taxation
- The Facebook page for The FAIRtax Guys
- The Twitter page for Americans for Fair Taxation
- PopVox - Connecting people and lawmakers for more effective participation and better governing
- YouTube channel for AFFT
- The Official FAIRtax Logo Store (www.fairtaxlogostore.org)