STARVE THE FEDS

I am posting this on the fly. I don’t know how my math is going to turn out. You probably don’t believe me, but oh well.

I am not talking about the old American slave period up until the Civil War. I’m talking from a purely mathematical perspective.

If our tax rate was 100%, which means all of the money we make goes straight to the government, that would mean we would be working for nothing. Of course, like many others, if I worked and got no net wages from my work, I’d quit my job. So in that situation, the government would have to use deadly force and intimidation to get us to work. Hence, slavery.

I fall into the trap of just paying attention to income taxes when talking about taxes in general. It’s the type of tax I have most firsthand experience with; I worked at the H&R Block in Wooster, Ohio, for 4 years during peak season.

It’s not just income taxes. It’s also sales taxes, gasoline taxes, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and hidden taxes that are passed along to the consumer after going through the supply chain.

So let’s just say I make $40,000 per year. That is not my actual salary, but let’s just say that it is. On income taxes alone, based on filing single for tax year 2009, taxes will total $6,188. That leaves me with $33,812.

I commute long distance to work. My car gets 35 miles to the gallon, and I drive 70 miles to work one way. I’ll assume I drive about 4,400 miles per month; and federal and state gas taxes amount to 46¢ per gallon in Ohio. That comes out to $694 total for gasoline taxes for the year. That leaves me with $33,118.

I buy approximately $75 worth of groceries per week. That would make $3,900 per year. My county’s sales tax rate is 6.75%. Therefore, another $264 went toward my county, which leaves me with $32,854.

Let’s not forget Medicare and Social Security! How can I forget my longtime friend whom I never see unless I get my paycheck, and then he’s there to hold out his hand and take 7.65%. Seeing any return on that is highly unlikely given government’s lovely track record when it comes to promising entitlement programs. That 7.65% affects the entire $40,000; so let’s say goodbye to another $3,060 that I’ll never see again. That will leave me with $29,794.

Ohio has a state income tax system. Their tax tables put a $40,000 per year worker at $1,408 due in state taxes. Yikes, that puts me down further to $28,386.

I work in Akron, and they have a city tax rate of 2.25%. There goes another $900 toward a city I don’t even live or vote in. Hey wait, isn’t that taxation without representation? I’m left with $27,486.

My real estate taxes amount to around $1,200 per year. The money goes toward my township, whose government I have no qualms with whatsoever, but it also goes toward our local school district that I’ll more than likely never send my child to. That leaves me with $26,286.

Let’s not forget the hidden taxes that get passed along the supply chain! You do know that every time a product is made and sold along the line, taxes get paid and added in along the way. The tax is included in the price of the final product. For example, the wheat farmer is taxed on his property, the wheat purchaser pays sales tax on the wheat, the mill sells the wheat to a manufacturer who pays tax on the wheat, who then turns around and sells bread to the grocery store, who also pay the tax. A smart business never eats their tax, they just simply pass it along to the next buyer.

An estimate of the total embedded hidden taxes we pay as consumers is about 23%, or 23 cents for every dollar. I’m not sure how accurate this estimate is, but it seems to hold up over time so far. Source: The FairTax Book by Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder. The 23% is an inclusive number, I won’t get into the difference between inclusive and exclusive tax rates; you can look that up. Using the $3,900 per year of groceries at a 23% inclusive rate, that puts the hidden taxes at $897. That leaves me with $25,389.

I think I covered as much as I could in one sitting. I did not cover other goods and services besides groceries, and I did not cover government administered tolls on freeways. I also did not cover drivers license renewal fees. We could estimate that those costs would put me down to approximately an even $25,000. That means $15,000 went to taxes. The true tax rate overall is $15,000/$40,000 = 37.5%. If I made $40,000 per year, I got to keep 62.5% of that money (or 5/8 if you like fractions).

And to think of all the tax clients who made $15,000 per year and walked away with a $5,000 refund every year while paying no taxes.

If 40% of the American population currently pay no income taxes, how close is that to approaching, say, 60%? What if that 60% always voted to take the money away from the other 40% that pay taxes?

That is why it is absolutely essential that an American citizen should lose the right to vote should they receive more tax money than they paid in. Think of it as an admission price for participating in our country’s government. If you need help, that’s fine, but don’t vote yourself more help. That vote should go toward whoever is indirectly giving you that money. If we keep status quo, that’s the end.

Taxes is the most quantitative way of measuring freedom. If a 0% tax rate equals complete freedom from government, and 100% equals absolute enslavement to the government, then I am only 62% free. The government has entitled themselves to over a third of my income.

There goes the argument about the whole “taxes for the rich” idea. Unless you consider $40,000 rich, I guess.

If the federal government raises tax rates directly or indirectly by even 10%, that would put me down to 52% freedom. Almost half. How would you feel to be half owned by the government? Does that also mean that half freedom is also the same as half slavery? Is the glass half full or half empty?

Granted, taxes such as real estate and sales taxes are voluntary to the extent of how much I buy.

But as for the feds, starve them. Absolutely. Starve the feds, and increase our freedom.

It has been awhile, and it seems things have died down some. Our town hall gatherings have not let up, the government and mainstream media have not let up for the most part, but I have been more at peace with how things are going. Either that, or I’m just numb to it all.

We all know, and many of us are about to find out, that August 2009 is not just about health care at all. Health care was the last straw among many straws that began largely with the Bailout Era starting with Bush and powder-kegged by Obama’s takeover of private industries. Anyone expecting us to go to sleep after the health care fight is over is just in for a rude awakening themselves. The evidence is just too strong. It’s more apparent that a sleeping giant was awakened, and is angry for being stirred awake. We’ll be vigilant until we’re comfortable taking a long nap again; and you can be assured that is a hell of a long ways away from now.

I think proposed bills should be no longer than 50 pages maximum. If you can’t write a bill in 50 pages or less, then it shouldn’t be considered for law in the first place. A true liberal would “fix” health care by just easing the limits on Medicare and Medicaid so that everyone was covered, and the problem is solved for them just like that. I don’t agree with that idea, but the proposal is so simple it begs the question: Why go to the lengths of having a thousand-page bill full of lawyer-ese gobbledegook that no one can read and comprehend?

That’s another thing. The Lawyer-ese Gobbledegook Game plays to the government’s advantage every time. The language is so vague that people reading the same bill can interpret it in different ways. My guess? This “death panel” thing, I strongly suspect this was reality. I’ve already established that the government has a strong financial interest in letting you die, so it’s not that far-fetched of an idea. Someone reads the bill and says “Oh look! You got death panels in there!” Then some government schmuck can say, “I don’t see it in there” because the language isn’t clear.  Factcheck.org will jump on the bandwagon and say they don’t see it stated in the bill either. Sarah Palin gets crapped on again, and the government will switch intentions either temporarily or permanently, depending on when We The People would let up and get lazy enough to trust government again by default.

I’m also getting sick of this Swine Flu business. The stats I see say that American people die from regular flu much more often than swine flu, so why all the crisis mode? Are people secretly rooting for a pandemic? Why the rush toward a vaccine? I’m still on the fence on whether to trust government administered vaccines, but the way this Swine Flu business is being conducted, I’m willing to side with the ones who refuse to be vaccinated. Whether there are plans to quarantine the vaccination dissenters is still up for question in my mind, but it’s definitely something I’m keeping my eyes open for. Some sources tell me we’re headed for martial law in the fall or winter; we shall see. It must be dark times in America if people have to actually consider that their government would possibly undertake in such a thing. I laughed when people accused Bush of wanting to become a dictator. I don’t laugh so much when people say the same of Obama.

There’s still Crap and Trade. There’s still “Immigration Reform” (Amnesty). There’s still Card Check. I’m not laying down.

I’ve chosen a path for myself that I’ve been guided towards. The people of my local area have helped me immensely, and whether they’ll help me some more over an extended period of time will determine with finality what will happen with me. I’m excited about this journey. I never imagined I’d end up this direction. I’m angry with my current government for betraying my trust, so that I am compelled to do something about this myself. It was so nice to be asleep.

I want to make one point very clear. Never in my wildest dreams do I want any President assassinated. I have been very troubled when I saw an online comment on a local newspaper that said that this particular person would be “relieved” if he found out the President was killed. You have no idea what you are saying.

I’ve been in a country whose political stability felt like it was hung by a thread. It wasn’t as bad as Afghanistan or Iraq, I’m sure, but enough to know that freedom isn’t free. It takes an active amount of people willing to sacrifice themselves for their country to have a free country. A free country cannot sustain itself on its own. Evil is for real, and is contagious if left untreated.

We would be in much worse shape as a country if Obama was murdered. First of all, it’s dead wrong. It cannot be justified, not even if he was ten times worse than he is now. And just for the record, if any fool were to ever make the attempt, it is not on the part of us “Tea Partiers”. Consider this a pre-emptive condemnation. If we’re pushing Obama out, we do it legally and peacefully. End of story.

Second of all, anyone who considers the idea, or even jokes about the idea, is by default revealing that they take our stability for granted. You would not only destroy the life of a human being, his family, and his followers, but also the country and its rule of law. How would anyone trust the security of a Presidency ever again afterward? How long would that take? And for that matter, how much of a thread was this nation hanging on after what happened to Lincoln and Kennedy?

Personally, I even feel mighty uncomfortable seeing  signs comparing Obama to Hitler that a handful of protesters carry around.

What is the next step though?

We’ve shouted at the TV. We’ve watched an occasional C-SPAN for the first time of our lives. We’ve started listening to talk radio. We’ve started writing and calling our Congressmen. None of this had any effect. We then started protesting – again, for the first time of our lives. We protested some more and made some national noise April 15. We protested even more July 4th and August 1st. What happened? They still ramrodded the “stimulus” package, Cap and Trade, and tried the same with health care. It was only health care that the mark was made. We made it by a combination of our opposition in addition to the Congressional Budget Office finding that the government’s budget estimates were hundreds of billions of dollars too rosy. That didn’t stop the bill, it just slowed it down enough to make the Congress miss Obama’s deadline for bill passage.

It was but a small victory, and we knew it. I feared once that we’d miss the opportunity to meet our Congressmen at town hall meetings and take advantage of this open gap over a month long. We awoke. And it’s about damn time many of you noticed. However, this is no guarantee that our Congress will reconsider this bill. They can still ramrod it come September.

So what’s next? What if the government doesn’t listen to our pulse and shoves this bill through? What’s the next step?

The media chose to report that militias have arisen this past year. Ruby Ridge and Waco are being recalled and name-dropped throughout news reports and commentary. Is this it? Is this the next step?

I know of some who think so. They are downright convinced that FEMA is being prepared to set up camps whenever a crisis ensues and Obama declares martial law. They also warn that the government will blow up their own federal buildings to make the right-wingers appear as scapegoats. As for myself, I’m not so convinced of this one, but I’m keeping my eyes open.

Mark Levin warned on his show that if politicians can’t handle the town hall situations now while health care is being debated, just wait until health care is actually passed. In his words, “They ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.

November 2010 is too far away. I know Democrats and liberals said the same for 2004 and 2008, but the only irreversible damage Bush caused was adding an entitlement program in Medicare Part D; something that many liberals favored.

Obama can go on and on about how he is “proud” of the debate going on in the town halls, but we know damn well that he would have signed that health care bill had it passed both sections of the Congress before August. Then we’d really know if there were death panels or not.

The anger hasn’t subsided. To know that the “Silent Majority” did exist was a wonder to behold for us. To know that we aren’t getting half bad at this organizing thing, was another wonder to behold. To know that we are still downright pissed, is another. And now we’re at the next level. It hasn’t left us. I personally do not know what’s going to happen next. I just know we won’t retreat or become quiet again like we used to.

There will come a point where every American is going to have to decide which to believe – a fellow American or what the government and media tell them. The “Tea Party” movement has gone so widespread that more and more people are going to be confronted with the ideas espoused by groups like us. Even the most resistant person who tends to believe the liberal side of things more often than not is going to see that they know someone who is part of this, and they don’t match the stereotype that is pushed by the media and our government that claims to represent us.

Here it is in black and white; this is the Tea Party movement as I see it. Take it as you will.

We ARE ordinary Americans, most of which come from the mainland, or “flyover country”.

We ARE NOT paid by the Republican National Committee or by insurance company lobbyists. We know of no such people; we are equally as privy to their political whims as you are. That claim is always met by sarcastic mockery, such as in “I’m still waiting for my damn check, how about you?”

We ARE NOT mobsters. The only time violence broke out at a recent townhall meeting was when the President himself sent out orders to his brethren to “punch back twice as hard”. Unless I’ve missed something since August 6th, it seems like the Tea Partiers are still confronting Congressmen with questions without violence, while crickets are chirping eagerly awaiting the quick and swift condemnation of the violence by Barack Obama himself. It’s only been 5 days; give him time. Chirp chirp chirp.

We ARE NOT that organized. We have most certainly networked with each other in order to attend townhall meetings and county fairs using Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. We do not take direct marching orders from anyone nationally. There is no Tea Party leader, not even a de-facto one. In fact, some of us wonder ourselves when Republicans will wake up and seize the opportunity to run on our platform. I mean, come on, please steal our ideas! It hasn’t happened. Some well known national leaders may try to capitalize by getting easy crowds for their speeches, but they seem to do it more for themselves than for us.

Seriously, we are NOT that organized. I can’t tell you how many meetings are awkward and lacking structure. We haven’t done this before. I’m sure if an experienced activist attended our meetings, we’d be laughed at due to our obvious naive mistakes we make. We’re not good at this, but we will be. We’re slowly emerging from a group of people that want to air out their political-talk-show-host-wannabe speeches to a constructive force that’s aiming to make our mark quickly.

We work for free. We’re not paid like ACORN, or any similar “rent-a-mob” organization that likes to grab headlines by artificially inflating protest turnouts. We don’t need their help, and we certainly don’t need to raid American tax dollars to fund such frauds.

Many people are starting to realize what the “Silent Majority” truly looks like, including ourselves. We’ve been so silent previously that we hardly talked to each other at all. The beautiful thing is, we aren’t backing down. Our trust of the government has been so betrayed that even if the government did a 180 and started treating us like the American citizens we are and not shoving bills down our throats, we still wouldn’t trust them. Our vigilance is at an all time high, and I’d be surprised if we let up on that at all before we die.

The word is getting around. Town parade organizers are absolutely excited to hear from us when we inquire about participating. The thing I’m finding most ironic about this, is that we’re not really all that “underground” whatsoever. We’ve got websites up the wazoo. The government’s and the media’s attempt to keep us “underground” may work to our advantage. To me, that gives us a feeling of rebellion; a feeling of “we’ll show them”; a strong sense that we will inevitably be vindicated because what we are doing is right.

We ARE highly motivated by moral standards, and doing what is right. To many of us, it is strictly a duty. It has to be duty, because our meetings are full of retirees that would normally grumble about going to get the mail from their own mailbox.

We do have many crazy people; there’s no doubt about that. For every 10 reasonable persons at the meeting there seems to be a brainiac that would waste a Tea Party organizer’s precious time by arguing that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had enslaved all Americans and we just don’t even know it.

Some of us are gun nuts. Some of us are not, although many are buying firearms and ammunition now, just in case. Our local Feather Fur Outfitter store can’t keep up with the ammunition demand.

Some of us are “birthers”. Some of us aren’t. Some of us don’t care due to the impracticality of the situation. Even if the birthers are right, what have we truly accomplished? Others would argue on Constitutional principle.

Some of us are religious, and cling to the Judeo-Christian principles this country is founded on. Some of us are not religious, yet respect the religious and moral principles that law written by man can’t duplicate. Some are ultra-Libertarian enough to not want to even discuss religion with politics.

Some of us have extra money and can donate bus fare tickets, pickup trucks, and conference room fees to keep it all going. Many of us just have enough money to keep ourselves going, and would rather donate our time. Some of us are seriously considering a run for office. Some of us remain political talk show host wannabes who want to deliver the speech of their lives, which is all right.

We’re all passionate, or we wouldn’t show up. We wouldn’t pay attention, and we’d let the government do its bidding without any objections. We’re all legitimate, because despite many of our differences, we all share one general vision. We all cooperate together, because I know there are many I wouldn’t hang out with on my own, and many who wouldn’t look twice at me.

We don’t bear swastikas. We’re not Nazis. We’re not racist. I haven’t heard one racist word come from our meetings once. We don’t care what color he is. We just want our government to represent us and not steer us down an irreversible path.

Again, I welcome any debate. I’ll take on any media outlet. I’ll take on anyone personally, and I won’t raise my voice to you unless you do so first. Who is afraid of harmless debate?

Only the ones who know they’d be crushed by losing the debate, that’s who.

You can believe me, or you can believe the media reports on us that border on outright slander. As far as I’m concerned, the media is dead because I am alive.

“When asked by reporters, President Obama quickly denounced the SEIU for ‘acting stupidly’ in the violence that erupted at the Carnahan Town Hall meeting in South St. Louis County, Missouri, on Thursday, August 6th.”

Oh wait, no he didn’t. My mistake. Sorry.

June 23, 2005. The Supreme Court renders its Kelo vs. New London decision in favor of New London. Basically, the Supreme Court gave U.S. cities the right to seize private property to hand over to corporations to develop hotels, vacation resorts, etc. so the city can collect more tax revenue.

Various dates in 2008. In rapid succession, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, General Motors, Chrysler, Ford receive a total of $635 billion of bailout money. Previous to this, the government averaged a bailout once every 4 years.

October 3, 2008. The $700 billion bailout bill was passed in a rush. John McCain suspends his campaign to vote “yes” and effectively destroyed his chances of winning the 2008 election. Program is called “TARP” now.

November 4, 2008. Barack Obama wins the Presidential election.

January 20, 2009. Barack Obama takes office.

February 17, 2009. Obama’s stimulus plan is signed and passed into law under a similar rush. Now known as the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act”. This pork-filled bill cost taxpayers $787 billion.

February 23, 2009. Rick Santelli calls for a July 4th Chicago Tea Party in his rant heard around the world on CNBC.

February 27, 2009. Chicago Tea Party takes place. I guess July 4th was too late for first-time activists to speak up. Unsurprisingly not acknowledged by the media, even conservative media was hesitant to mention anything. Mocked by liberals.

April 15, 2009. Tax Day Nationwide Tea Party attended by hundreds of thousands in cities around the country. Intense media coverage. Mocked even more by liberals. Tea-bagging jokes dominate political discourse.

July 4, 2009. More Tea Parties nationwide. Media backs off considerably. More activists speak out, more of us consider running for office. I’m not the only cuckoo wanting to run for President.

July 31, 2009. Congress unable to pass health care bill due to unexpected resistance and Congressional Budget Office findings. Congress goes home to try and sell health care plan to their constituents.

August 1, 2009. Town hall meetings turn against the Congress. Congressmen are shouted down by anger, discontent, disenfranchisement, and most importantly…. facts. Congress retreats by canceling meetings.

August 6, 2009. After accusing us of manufacturing anger and being paid by insurance company lobbyists and the Republicans, Obama sends an impassioned directive to his allies to “fight back twice as hard”.

August 6, 2009, same night. Violence breaks out in St. Louis. Black conservative seriously injured. Union thugs in purple shirts (SEIU) go on the offensive. Up until this day, all Tea Party related events were peaceful, no matter how many of us crazies attended.

September 12, 2009. Washington, D.C. Oh, yes. Washington, D.C.

See you there.

I saw a statement on Facebook the other day; it said something along the lines of “If government is supposed to be run more like a business, will they pack up and go to Mexico too?”. The question apparently alluded to the sorry state the city of Niagara Falls, New York, is now.

I understand the frustration, as I am originally from Western New York, and root for my home area to do well. However, that statement is untrue on many levels.

First of all, government should not run on a profit. They don’t produce anything, they don’t provide competitive services; therefore, there should be no profit. It sure would be nice to have a surplus every once in awhile, but I am a realist (even if Clinton did achieve a surplus briefly with a Republican Congress). The government/ non-profit mentality is to use up all the funds allocated or else you leave the impression that you didn’t need the money in the first place.

Second of all, government would not pick up and leave Washington for Mexico City (at least literally if not figuratively at times). The reasons “for-profit” companies may do this are for many reasons; including cheap labor, favorable political climate, and cheap freight.

I don’t like this any more than many of you do. Being someone who has lived in the Rust Belt for all my life where the steel industries’ abandonment of my hometowns have devastated many a family, I’ve seen and lived the lasting damage. Niagara Falls is proof of that. The actual falls themselves are beautiful and something to behold, but the city itself is a complete hole.

I don’t like how companies abandon American labor for cheap foreign labor. I confess that I snicker at times when I hear about various quality control issues originating from China. I rejoice when I see companies that originally looked to Chinese labor to cut costs now have to reconsider due to quality issues and rising fuel prices.

However, there is one overlooked aspect where I don’t blame the companies at all for leaving; and that is avoiding high taxes. To me, that is only common sense. I love New York and all, but New Yorkers cannot seriously support some of the highest taxes in the USA and then expect businesses to stay and pay those taxes. The same goes for Michigan and the auto workers’ union. You cannot pay $35 per hour for a $17 per hour job and expect the company to stay put. Unless, of course, your company is bailed out at our expense, is nationalized, and restructured to favor unions going against any bankruptcy and contract law, but that’s another story.

The USA corporate tax rate is 35%, one of the highest in the world. Ireland’s is 12%. Where would you set up shop?

Personally, I would set up shop in the USA as much as I could, but I know my profits would be taking a serious bath. The tax cuts could help me expand my business, and hire more employees.

I’ll never understand those who are mad at oil companies for making a $40 billion profit during one quarter. The oil companies actually have to pay workers to drill, build rigs, and refine the oil. The government collects $14 billion of that money for doing none of the work, assuming the $40 billion is before taxes, and the corporate rate is a flat 35%. I wouldn’t mind making $14 billion from doing nothing, would you?

If you individual states want to pay high taxes, that’s fine with me. But don’t go crying when the new auto plant wants to relocate to Alabama. Don’t cry to me or anyone else when your favorite doctor moves to Texas to take advantage of their caps on malpractice suits. With common sense ideas such as a flat tax or Fair Tax, there’s no reason that a real reform in our tax structure wouldn’t provide some wonderful incentive for all the companies that left to come back.

More taxes = more government. More taxes = less business. Therefore, more government = less business. Less business = less jobs = worse economy. Take your pick and live with the bed you helped make.