Solving the Health Care Problem All by Myself

The obvious solution to the health care problem is self-insurance. The Obama Tax is designed to effect those who are young, healthy, and can afford insurance. Who makes the decision about what someone else can afford, I don't know but that is beside the point. The point is that if one is young and healthy and can afford insurance, then one can probably afford to pay their medical bills, and in fact they probably DO pay them.

The folks running up the tab at emergency rooms are people who are young, healthy and CAN'T afford insurance, but don't yet qualify for medicaid.

If you think about Lasik eye surgery, it is a technique for correcting vision via laser surgery. Lasik is not covered by any insurance, it is an elective surgery. When it first became available, it cost somewhere around $5,000.00 per eye.

Today you can have both eyes done for less than $1,000.00. Why the price drop on a highly skilled high tech procedure? Market forces. Since the customer must pay for this procedure out of their own pocket, they will only pay a certain amount. As more physicians became proficient in the operation (increase in supply) the price went down (to meet demand).

If you study any elective procedure which is in demand, but not covered by insurance, you will find similar cost reductions.

The easiest way to reduce medical costs is to get rid of insurance altogether. The insurance companies won't like it, and I don't for a moment suggest doing that by government fiat, but if everyone was invested in a medical savings account that they had control of, was tax free, and could be used for any health related expenses, not only would everyone have coverage, but they would put downward pricing pressure on the entire health care sector. In addition, since everyone is paying for their own healthcare out of their own pocket as it were, they would tend to take better care of themselves. Everyone would have skin in the game.

For the truly incapable, some system for funding their Health Savings Account could be worked with a tax credit.

This eliminates the whole pre-existing condition argument, since it is your own money you are spending on your healthcare.

Average lifetime medical cost per person is roughly $360,000 according to NIH. If you would contribute $390.00 per month into this account even at a modest 3% return, you would have enough money to cover your lifetime medical costs. That is less than half the cost of an average insurance plan these days.

For those with employer based coverage, employers could either contribute to your HSA or they could just pay you more.

Obama's New Flat Tax

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRS Obama Simplified Flat Tax Form

How much did you make last year? $__________________

Send it in.





Thank You

Senator John Kerry Lobs Grenade at First Amendment in Ongoing War on Prosperity

On MSNBC yesterday, Senator John Kerry took aim at the First Amendment of the Constitution when he suggested that the media should censor the Republican Party and their members of the Tea Party.

“And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely. The media in America has a bigger responsibility than it’s exercising today. The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual.

“It doesn’t deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. And the problem is everything is put into this tit-for-tat equal battle and America is losing any sense of what’s real, of who’s accountable, of who is not accountable, of who’s real, who isn’t, who’s serious, who isn’t?”

The problem for Mr. Kerry is that the public does know who is serious about debt reduction and who isn't.

In light of the fact that Standard & Poor's rating agency lowered America's credit rating from AAA to AA+ citing in part;

“The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics.”

“The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to 'AA' within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.”

It would seem that the Tea Party representatives were the ones making the logical case for a Balanced Budget Amendment, cutting spending in a real way and insuring those cuts take place by capping spending. It would seem in light of the results here that Mr. Kerry's party are the ones who are not living in the real world.

As the War on Prosperity being waged by the Democratic party becomes more and more vociferous, the American public is becoming increasingly aware of what is actually going on. The fact is that this country's economic problems, brought on by the Obama Administration's policies of attacking Prosperity, are becoming almost impossible to ignore. This has forced the generals on the Democratic side to try to reinforce their battalions in the Media by taking aim at freedom of speech.

The First Amendment of the Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

For a United States Senator to urge the press not to report a view held by a majority of the American public in blatant violation of the Constitution only shows that the opposition to the War on Prosperity is growing.

The public is aware that we have a real problem with government spending and regulation in this nation. Our national debt has now reached 100% of gross domestic product with this latest round of new borrowing. Americans realize that Spain's debt problems, which contributed to Thursday's stock market crash, are the result of Spain's debt ratio of 120% of that country's GDP. We are rapidly approaching an equal ratio of debt to GDP, and while those waging the war would like to have that much more of our children's money to spend in the US, the public knows it is unsustainable. The media knows it is unsustainable, and to continue to support the policies which exacerbate it is becoming ludicrous if not just plain silly.

Obama's War on Prosperity Continues

As the Vice President makes no objection to the accusation that the Tea Party are terrorists, the real terror is being foisted on the American public by the Administration's ongoing War on Prosperity. Aided by his obedient Democratic soldiers in the United States Senate, Big Union Labor Leaders, and the National Press, the Obama Administration pursues it's frontal assault on the nation's economy and the those who would lift it out of malaise.

Before the debt ceiling bill, which no one on either side of the aisle nor Wall Street likes, was even signed Tim Geithner was busy heaping another massive $600 billion of debt upon our unsuspecting children and grandchildren, further insuring their indentured servitude for generations to come.

Then Yesterday, another General in the War on Prosperity, Ray LaHood mounted a fresh assault on the American Farmer, by proposing a new requirement that anyone operating farm machinery, even on their own farm, must hold a Commercial Driver's License. What possible rationale can there be for that, other than to make it increasingly difficult for the family farm to eek out an existence while they do their best to provide the rest of us with sustenance, and to give the government a greater hold on the means of food production in our country?

The front lines of the War on Prosperity are many and varied. By edict issued from the Commander in Chief, all health insurers are now required to provide, free of charge, birth control and other reproductive services to all insured women. After the ObamaCare takeover of the entire health care system is complete, this edict will encompass all women. By requiring all insurers to now cover the co-pays for these services, Mr. Obama has increased the cost of health insurance for everyone, and made it just that much harder for any employer to hire additional employees.

The ObamaCare munition in the War on Prosperity has already taken its toll on tanning salons, some 3100 of whom have closed their doors resulting in the loss of 24,000 jobs. This due to a ten percent tax on tanning. The law continues to provide tremendous uncertainty for those who would like to hire, but find it impossible to compute the cost of doing so, and therefore do not.

Another front is lead by Big Labor, with heavy supporting fire from the National Labor Relations board. The NLRB is currently obstructing the hiring of thousands of manufacturing workers in South Carolina. At issue is the expansion of a Boeing Manufacturing plant in that state. Boeing wants to hire, workers want to work and the jobs are good high paying jobs, but the NLRB stands squarely in the way because of the workers right to choose against union membership in that state.

Meanwhile, the battalion lead by GE CEO Jeff Immelt, the Director of the administration's job council, has sent his corporation's medical unit to China, along with that unit's manufacturing jobs.

Leading the PR campaign in the War on Prosperity are the national press who either ignore the devastating effects this Administration's policies are having on our economy, or defend them.

On the science and technology front, NASA's space shuttle program has been brought to a halt, costing another nine to thirty thousand good jobs, and killing an unknowable quantity scientific and technological advances the program may have continued to produce.

The environmental army, meanwhile, pushes it's advance on the energy producers, preventing the mining of coal, the completion of pipelines, and the production of oil. This front, by far the largest against the unemployed is estimated to be preventing the creation of over a million jobs. From light bulbs, to low flow toilets, to washing machines, the EPA continues to lob grenades at manufacturers of every kind of good they can think of. It is estimated that their recent new CAFE standards requiring automobile manufacturers to produce cars averaging over 50 miles per gallon will cost another 200,000 jobs.

Why is this Administration waging the War on Prosperity? What they say is that “Millionaires, Billionaires, Private Jet Owners and Oil Companies should pay their fair share” of the tax burden. The fact that the top 10% of Income Tax payers already pay 70% of the Income Tax, and the bottom 47% pay no Income Tax makes no difference to them, because who pays the tax is not what they mean by “fair”. What they mean by fairness is sameness. In other words, everyone should have the same amount of goods and services. Unfortunately, the only way to achieve sameness is to lower everyone to the least common denominator. All socialist philosophy works that way in practice. The problem is that it doesn't work. It requires that the means of production be eventually transferred to the state. And all work be performed for the state, and that compensation be equal for everyone. That is what the War on Prosperity is designed to do. Rather than echo John F. Kennedy's proclamation that a rising tide lifts all boats, the Obama regime has decided to lower all boats to the bottom to achieve equality. Unfortunately we will be equally poor and disenfranchised. This philosophy fails to take human nature into account. Humans are by their nature competitive, and some will always rise above others. The difference between free market capitalism and socialism is that the latter requires force for the elite to rise to and maintain their power, while the former requires ingenuity.

No wonder those on the left see the Tea Party as terrorists. They ARE terrified. As more and more of the American public figure out what the left is up to, the left begins to lose their ability to further enslave them. Just as King George viewed Madison, Jefferson, Washington, and Paine as revolutionaries, so must the Washington elite view the Tea Party. The Tea Party wants the same thing that those early patriots did, freedom from tyranny!

Speaker Boehner Selling us Out Again!

John Boehner is selling us out again. He sold us out on the CR when the cuts turned out to be minuscule, and he is selling us out now with this new plan.

Imagine going to your banker and trying to borrow $24,000 with a monthly income of $2,000, expenses of $3,000 and total indebtedness of $150,000. Tell your banker you are going to spend $81.00 less per month next year and that should make you solvent. That is the loan application we have been given by Speaker Boehner and his conspirators in the Senate!

No loan officer in the country would approve that loan, and if it was found out he did, he would go to jail! We, as a country do not deserve an AAA credit rating, and this bill will do nothing to convince anyone that we do.

Why are the decepticons in congress working so hard to pass such a bad bill? Cut, Cap & Balance already passed the house. The Senate has not passed anything! Adjourn the House and let the Senate pass something. Without real spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment, there is no hope of ever getting our federal budget under control, and we will all be sold down the river!

Where Does the Buck Stop?

Last night we heard the President of the United States once again take to the microphone and lecture us about the debt crisis. While I listened very carefully to what he said, I was saddened. It was little different from many speeches he has given recently with no plan, no new information, and very little truth.

There was a time in America when we were proud of the leader of our country. There was a time when, rightly or wrongly, we trusted what he said. There was a time when we could tell our children to be inspired by his words, to look up to him and aspire to the quality of his character.

It is no longer that time. Our country has a serious problem. We are spending our children into indentured servitude, slavery as it were. We are digging for them a hole from which they will find it impossible to extract themselves. Everyone knows this, it is self-evident.

A man with integrity, with strength of character, a man of leadership, would take bold action. He would acknowledge the elephant in the room and recognize that when one finds one's self at the bottom of a deep hole, the wise course is to stop digging.

What did we hear from our President last night? First of all, blame Bush. Nothing new here. Second, scare people. He once again threatened senior citizens by offering to withhold their Social Security checks. The problem is that threat is an outright lie, and designed only to maintain a hold on his power, and to urge us to let him make the hole deeper with a backhoe, rather than a shovel. How am I to teach my daughter the value of honesty when the President of the United States knows very well that he cannot stop the Social Security payments, even if he wanted to. There are 2.6 trillion dollars of treasury notes in the Social Security trust fund. Those treasury notes are already there, and are not affected by the debt ceiling. Mr. Obama knows that they can be negotiated in order to pay our seniors, and that the law requires him to do so.

He threatens default on our debt, when he also knows full well that there is more than enough money coming into the treasury on a monthly basis to service our debt, pay our soldiers, and cover our most pressing obligations.

There is no integrity in this man. He is concerned with his own political future, period. How can I point to the Office of the President of The United States, and tell my daughter how great this country is? How can I talk about the principals which made America the most desirable place in the world to live, when we have such a blatant ego-maniacal liar for our leader?

He has offered no plan. He has obstructed every sensible plan offered. He has stood squarely in front of every effort of business to grow our economy, from denying permits for oil and coal exploration, to blocking manufacturing plant expansion, to taxing tanning salons out of business.

So we should hand him a larger shovel, a mechanized shovel with which to bury us and our posterity? Should we allow this man to heap further debt upon the heads of our children while continuing to limit their opportunities for the future? Should we sell our children into never ending servitude to a government whose leader cannot muster up the intellectual honesty to admit he might be wrong about anything?

I say NO! I say not while I still have the ability to speak for the lovely young woman who is my daughter! This is my country. I earned the money the federal leviathan extracts from my pocket every two weeks. It is NOT your money Mr. President. I do NOT agree to make the payments on the debt you wish to incur on behalf of my daughter and me. Many brave souls gave their lives to extract themselves and their descendants from the yoke of Tyranny and if it becomes necessary, many more will. If the buck will not stop with you Mr. President, then I say the buck stops here, with me and mine!

Shame on You President Obama!

What part of out of money, and live within your means do the Democrats and Barrack Obama not understand. They whine and complain that we need to reach an agreement, when the House of Representatives have already done the job they were sent to Washington to do, Cut, Cap and Balance.

Does Harry Reid REALLY think we the people are that stupid? While Highwayman Harry cries over the possible loss of federal funds for his beloved Cowboy Poetry festival, and Barrack Obama refuses to rescind the 53 Billion Dollars promised to his buddy Jeff Immelt at GE to build High Speed Rail no one will ride, Rome is on fire.

I feel compelled to remind everyone that in 2006 Barrack Obama himself said, "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."

You are right Mr. President, we do deserve better, and the lack of leadership is squarely in your corner. The GOP in the House have done their job, you just don't like it. You and Highwayman Harry would much rather enslave our children under a mountain of unspeakable debt than swallow a little pride, admit your policies haven't worked, and accept a deal to pull our beloved nation back from the brink of disaster.

Shame on you Mr. President. Shame on you Mr Reid. We know. We the American public, know that like Nero, you are fiddling while the Nation burns. We know you would prefer to burden our children and grandchildren with the yoke of bondage to the Federal Leviathan for generations to come, you would gladly hand our country over to our advisories than act responsibly. You do not fool us.

When the country crumbles under the weight of your massive increases in spending over the last two and a half years, we WILL hold you responsible. We know it is only your ego and childish insistence on having your own way for political reasons which will lead the country to ruin.

Shame on you Mr. Obama, Shame on your house!

Gang of Six Hustled by Democrats!

I listened very carefully to Sean Hannity's interview of Saxby Chambliss on Thursday, and I am convinced that the so called Gangland of Six were set up by the Democrats and Barrack Obama.

Senator Chambliss maintained that the gang had been meeting for about a year to come up with a deficit reduction package. He insisted that they never had any intention of competing with Cut, Cap and Balance and were not that close to an agreement. He seemed genuinely shocked that people were upset with the gang for their work, or their final work product. One thing he said, that Hannity seemed to miss because Sean was so angry, was that on Tuesday, the day of the House vote on Cut, Cap and Balance, the three Democratic members of the gang suddenly capitulated to what was at the time, the Republican position!

Senator Chambliss seemed genuinely surprised that the Democrats suddenly dropped the rest of their objections to the current negotiations and moved to the Republican position. Happy with their sudden victory after a year of negotiations, Mr. Chambliss, and I suppose the other two Republicans on the committee, never gave a thought to the timing of the agreement. Happy to have reached a deal after so long, they went about their business without a care.

At that moment, our Liar in Chief must have gotten the phone call he was waiting for, knowing it was coming because he orchestrated the deception. He must have told the Mafia of Three to move to the Republican position so he could run out and interrupt Jay Carney's news conference. Obama made his “stop the presses” announcement, thereby undermining the House's vote on Cut, Cap and Balance.

In terms of public policy, there is no question that Obama is incompetent, unless he IS actually trying to destroy this country and everything it stands for, but politically he is every bit as slippery as Bill Clinton was! Do not take this man for granted my fellow patriots. If he is to be defeated it will require great skill!

President & US Senate Support Slavery of our Children!

That may sound like a provocative headline, and it is, but it is also the truth! Our current debt is $14.519 Trillion. That means my 12 year old daughter's share of that is currently $46,564.00. Add in the current unfunded liabilities of $114,751,918,000,000.00 and her share of the national debt plus unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare is $414,583.72 or $1862.00 per month every month for THIRTY years. On top of that the US Senate and President Obama want to add an additional 2.4 Trillion dollars which, under the McConnell plan, have no spending cuts associated with it, and under the Gang (appropriate name for what they are trying to do) of Six plan nobody knows.

Assuming we stopped borrowing right now, and my daughter could get a job right out of high school making $40,000.00 per year, she would already owe her entire take home salary to the government. She did not vote for these debts. She did nothing to create them, yet there she is at twelve years old owing the Slave Owners in Washington nearly a half-million dollars. You owe that much too!

We are all rapidly becoming enduntured servants of the leviathan we call our government. It has long ago ceased to be a governemnt of the people, for the people and by the people. It has become instead a government of the career politician, for the career politician and his friends, and by the lobbyist and government dole recipient. Unfortunately soon there will be no producers left to feed the insatiable appetite of the gluttonous belly of the political beast in Washington DC.

So yes, the President and the US Senate, by refusing to support the cut, cap and balance plan which passed the House of Representatives last night, and offers a real chance to start to get a handle on our spending problem, are de-facto showing themselves to be in favor of enslaving our children and grandchildren now and long into the future.

It is time to stop the practice of making slaves out of ourselves and our children. It is time to stop NOW. We are the governors of this country, not the lazy, cowardly career politicians in DC. Let them know. Let them know that if they do not free your children from the yoke of bondage now, they will be sent home to labor under that very same yoke themselves. It is YOUR country, YOU can make a difference. You have until Saturday, and then it too late.

Stop the Senate from Handing a Blank Check to Obama!

Well, folks, I am sorry to report that the fix is in. The Senate, in back room dealing, appears to be prepared to hand President Obama a blank check to spend our children's as of yet unearned money any way he pleases, to the tune of an additional 2.5 TRILLION dollars.

I listened to John McCain yesterday on the Sean Hannity show, and he all but said as much! Mr. Hannity was asking repeatedly about cut, cap and balance, and McCain said he was going to fight for it, but then consistently argued for the McConnell plan. He barley gave lip service to cut, cap and balance, and got angry when Hannity pressed him about the McConnell plan. McCain said it was a last resort, but then continued over and over again to argue it's merits. Heaven help us!

In making my calls to Senate offices yesterday afternoon, my impression did not change. Republican staffers with whom I spoke, seemed to be hedging when I brought up the McConnell plan and my opposition to it. The Democrats staffers just gave me the “yeah, yeah I'll pass your message on” routine.

McCain told Hannity that his office had been flooded with calls from seniors who were frightened by the Obamascare campaign. The fact that the Administration could not stop social security checks from going out, even if they wanted to, because of the way the Social Security Administration's computers are programed, didn't get in McCain's way. Our only course has to be action!

If these Senators' offices are overwhelmed with calls from concerned citizens like you and me, we might have a slim chance of beginning to free our children from the slavery and tyranny being foisted upon them by our so-called representatives.

Given the fact that ICE is busily shutting down blogs and seizing domain names, I don't know how long we will have the opportunity to speak in opposition to this Administration's ongoing power grab and usurpation of the rights with which we were endowed by our creator!

I urge anyone who is interested in freedom, in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to call as many Senators as possible and voice strong opposition to Senator McConnell's plan to hand over a blank check to the President, so he can spend as many of our children's hard earned dollars as he chooses! Do it today! Do it now! Time is running out for our beloved nation!

Akaka, Daniel K. - (D - HI)

(202) 224-6361

Web Form: akaka.senate.gov/email-senator-akaka.cfm

Alexander, Lamar - (R - TN)

(202) 224-4944

Web Form: alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email

Ayotte, Kelly - (R - NH)

(202) 224-3324

Web Form: ayotte.senate.gov/?p=contact

Barrasso, John - (R - WY)

(202) 224-6441

Web Form: barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs...

Baucus, Max - (D - MT)

(202) 224-2651

Web Form: baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue

Begich, Mark - (D - AK)

(202) 224-3004

Web Form: begich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=EmailSenator

Bennet, Michael F. - (D - CO)

(202) 224-5852

Web Form: bennet.senate.gov/contact/

Bingaman, Jeff - (D - NM)

(202) 224-5521

Web Form: bingaman.senate.gov/contact/

Blumenthal, Richard - (D - CT)

(202) 224-2823

Web Form: blumenthal.senate.gov/contact/

Blunt, Roy - (R - MO)

(202) 224-5721

Web Form: blunt.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Boozman, John - (R - AR)

(202) 224-4843

Web Form: boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

Boxer, Barbara - (D - CA)

(202) 224-3553

Web Form: boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/

Brown, Scott P. - (R - MA)

(202) 224-4543

Web Form: scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailscottbrown

Brown, Sherrod - (D - OH)

(202) 224-2315

Web Form: brown.senate.gov/contact/

Burr, Richard - (R - NC)

(202) 224-3154

Web Form: burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Conta...

Cantwell, Maria - (D - WA)

(202) 224-3441

Web Form: cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

Cardin, Benjamin L. - (D - MD)

(202) 224-4524

Web Form: cardin.senate.gov/contact/

Carper, Thomas R. - (D - DE)

(202) 224-2441

Web Form: carper.senate.gov/contact/

Casey, Robert P., Jr. - (D - PA)

(202) 224-6324

Web Form: casey.senate.gov/contact/

Chambliss, Saxby - (R - GA)

(202) 224-3521

Web Form: chambliss.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email

Coats, Daniel - (R - IN)

(202) 224-5623

Web Form: coats.senate.gov/contact/

Coburn, Tom - (R - OK)

(202) 224-5754

Web Form: coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactsenatorcoburn?p...

Cochran, Thad - (R - MS)

(202) 224-5054

Web Form: cochran.senate.gov/email.html

Collins, Susan M. - (R - ME)

(202) 224-2523

Web Form: collins.senate.gov/public/continue.cfm?FuseAction=Contact...

Conrad, Kent - (D - ND)

(202) 224-2043

Web Form: conrad.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm

Coons, Christopher A. - (D - DE)

(202) 224-5042

Web Form: coons.senate.gov/contact/

Corker, Bob - (R - TN)

(202) 224-3344

Web Form: corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe

Cornyn, John - (R - TX)

(202) 224-2934

Web Form: cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm

Crapo, Mike - (R - ID)

(202) 224-6142

Web Form: crapo.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

DeMint, Jim - (R - SC)

(202) 224-6121

Web Form: demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactInformation

Durbin, Richard J. - (D - IL)

(202) 224-2152

Web Form: durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Enzi, Michael B. - (R - WY)

(202) 224-3424

Web Form: enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=e-mail-senator...

Feinstein, Dianne - (D - CA)

(202) 224-3841

Web Form: feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactU...

Franken, Al - (D - MN)

(202) 224-5641

Web Form: franken.senate.gov/?p=contact

Gillibrand, Kirsten E. - (D - NY)

(202) 224-4451

Web Form: gillibrand.senate.gov/contact/

Graham, Lindsey - (R - SC)

(202) 224-5972

Web Form: lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Em...

Grassley, Chuck - (R - IA)

(202) 224-3744

Web Form: grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Hagan, Kay R. - (D - NC)

(202) 224-6342

Web Form: hagan.senate.gov/?p=contact

Harkin, Tom - (D - IA)

(202) 224-3254

Web Form: harkin.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Hatch, Orrin G. - (R - UT)

(202) 224-5251

Web Form: hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=Email-Orrin

Heller, Dean - (R - NV)

(202) 224-6244

Web Form: heller.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm

Hoeven, John - (R - ND)

(202) 224-2551

Web Form: hoeven.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-the-senator

Hutchison, Kay Bailey - (R - TX)

(202) 224-5922

Web Form: hutchison.senate.gov/?p=email_kay

Inhofe, James M. - (R - OK)

(202) 224-4721

Web Form: inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Con...

Inouye, Daniel K. - (D - HI)

(202) 224-3934

Web Form: inouye.senate.gov/Contact/ContactDKI.cfm

Isakson, Johnny - (R - GA)

(202) 224-3643

Web Form: isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Johanns, Mike - (R - NE)

(202) 224-4224

Web Form: johanns.senate.gov/public/?p=ContactSenatorJohanns

Johnson, Ron - (R - WI)

(202) 224-5323

Web Form: ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Johnson, Tim - (D - SD)

(202) 224-5842

Web Form: johnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact

Kerry, John F. - (D - MA)

(202) 224-2742

Web Form: kerry.senate.gov/contact/

Kirk, Mark - (R - IL)

(202) 224-2854

Web Form: kirk.senate.gov/?p=contact

Klobuchar, Amy - (D - MN)

(202) 224-3244

Web Form: klobuchar.senate.gov/emailamy.cfm

Kohl, Herb - (D - WI)

(202) 224-5653

Web Form: kohl.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Kyl, Jon - (R - AZ)

(202) 224-4521

Web Form: kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Landrieu, Mary L. - (D - LA)

(202) 224-5824

Web Form: landrieu.senate.gov/about/contact.cfm

Lautenberg, Frank R. - (D - NJ)

(202) 224-3224

Web Form: lautenberg.senate.gov/contact/routing.cfm

Leahy, Patrick J. - (D - VT)

(202) 224-4242

Web Form: leahy.senate.gov/contact/

Lee, Mike - (R - UT)

(202) 224-5444

Web Form: lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Levin, Carl - (D - MI)

(202) 224-6221

Web Form: levin.senate.gov/contact/

Lieberman, Joseph I. - (ID - CT)

(202) 224-4041

Web Form: lieberman.senate.gov/index.cfm/contact/email-me-about-an-...

Lugar, Richard G. - (R - IN)

(202) 224-4814

Web Form: lugar.senate.gov/contact/

Manchin, Joe, III - (D - WV)

303 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510

(202) 224-3954

Web Form: manchin.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm

McCain, John - (R - AZ)

(202) 224-2235

Web Form: mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Con...

McCaskill, Claire - (D - MO)

(202) 224-6154

Web Form: mccaskill.senate.gov/?p=contact

McConnell, Mitch - (R - KY)

(202) 224-2541

Web Form: www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=contact

Menendez, Robert - (D - NJ)

(202) 224-4744

Web Form: menendez.senate.gov/contact/

Merkley, Jeff - (D - OR)

(202) 224-3753

Web Form: merkley.senate.gov/contact/

Mikulski, Barbara A. - (D - MD)

(202) 224-4654

Web Form: mikulski.senate.gov/contact/

Moran, Jerry - (R - KS)

(202) 224-6521

Web Form: moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=e-mail-jerry

Murkowski, Lisa - (R - AK)

(202) 224-6665

Web Form: murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact

Murray, Patty - (D - WA)

(202) 224-2621

Web Form: murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm

Nelson, Ben - (D - NE)

(202) 224-6551

Web Form: bennelson.senate.gov/contact-me.cfm

Nelson, Bill - (D - FL)

(202) 224-5274

Web Form: billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Paul, Rand - (R - KY)

(202) 224-4343

Web Form: paul.senate.gov/?p=contact

Portman, Rob - (R - OH)

(202) 224-3353

Web Form: portman.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm

Pryor, Mark L. - (D - AR)

(202) 224-2353

Web Form: pryor.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe

Reed, Jack - (D - RI)

(202) 224-4642

Web Form: reed.senate.gov/contact/contact-share.cfm

Reid, Harry - (D - NV)

(202) 224-3542

Web Form: reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Risch, James E. - (R - ID)

(202) 224-2752

Web Form: risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email

Roberts, Pat - (R - KS)

(202) 224-4774

Web Form: www.roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=EmailPat

Rockefeller, John D., IV - (D - WV)

(202) 224-6472

Web Form: rockefeller.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Rubio, Marco - (R - FL)

(202) 224-3041

Web Form: rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Sanders, Bernard - (I - VT)

(202) 224-5141

Web Form: sanders.senate.gov/contact/

Schumer, Charles E. - (D - NY)

(202) 224-6542

Web Form: schumer.senate.gov/Contact/contact_chuck.cfm

Sessions, Jeff - (R - AL)

(202) 224-4124

Web Form: sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Constitue...

Shaheen, Jeanne - (D - NH)

(202) 224-2841

Web Form: shaheen.senate.gov/contact/

Shelby, Richard C. - (R - AL)

(202) 224-5744

Web Form: shelby.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailsenatorshelby

Snowe, Olympia J. - (R - ME)

(202) 224-5344

Web Form: snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=email

Stabenow, Debbie - (D - MI)

(202) 224-4822

Web Form: stabenow.senate.gov/?p=contact

Tester, Jon - (D - MT)

(202) 224-2644

Web Form: tester.senate.gov/Contact/index.cfm

Thune, John - (R - SD)

(202) 224-2321

Web Form: thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact

Toomey, Patrick J. - (R - PA)

(202) 224-4254

Web Form: toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact

Udall, Mark - (D - CO)

(202) 224-5941

Web Form: markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact

Udall, Tom - (D - NM)

(202) 224-6621

Web Form: tomudall.senate.gov/?p=contact

Vitter, David - (R - LA)

(202) 224-4623

Web Form: vitter.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Con...

Warner, Mark R. - (D - VA)

(202) 224-2023

Web Form: warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact

Webb, Jim - (D - VA)

(202) 224-4024

Web Form: webb.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Whitehouse, Sheldon - (D - RI)

(202) 224-2921

Web Form: whitehouse.senate.gov/contact/

Wicker, Roger F. - (R - MS)

(202) 224-6253

Web Form: wicker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EMa...

Wyden, Ron - (D - OR)

(202) 224-5244

Web Form: wyden.senate.gov/contact/

Patrick Henry Revisited

On March 22, 1765 the British Parliament passed a law they will forever regret. It required the colonies in America to purchase paper for all legal documents from England, thereby subjecting them to a tax. This tax extended even to playing cards.

It was not the amount of the tax to which some independent minded colonists objected, but the principal of the tax and its precedent. For the first time, a tax was imposed on the colonists to raise revenue rather than to regulate commerce. This law was the catalyst that eventually led to the American Revolution.

Let us give that some thought in the light of our current situation. The crux of the problem was that the tax was passed over the objection of the people upon whom it was imposed. They had no representation in the British parliament, and when they passed some resolutions in the Virginia legislature which opposed the new tax, the British governor of Virginia disbanded the House of Burgesses (the Virginia Legislature).

It has been said that "he who forgets is doomed to repeat". Our current debt limit crisis is one made of a similar situation. While in theory, we have representation in the body that is itching to again raise taxes, the states house, the US Senate, our representatives there seem prepared to completely ignore the wishes of the majority of the people they presume to represent. In fact, they seem willing to abdicate their responsibility all together, and hand a blank check over to our Spender in Chief in the White House. An act of this horrendous irresponsibility would be akin to King George and his minions disbanding the Virginia House of Burgesses!

The tyranny, however, is more subtle in our situation. The taxes to be imposed, verily already imposed, are taxes upon those whom have ABSOLUTELY no representation to protect themselves from the slavery being foisted upon them, save the representation WE can provide. They have yet to be born, or reach the age of consent. They are our children and grandchildren.

Set aside for a moment, the legislation and regulation which has already been shoved down our collective throats by either last minute, back room negotiations and maneuvering, as is the case with Obamacare, or the mountains of regulation we are forced to abide by without our consent; imposed on us be Executive Edict, or edict of his Czars. Let us turn our attention to the fact that our children and grandchildren already face a mountain of debt they did not create, nor vote for, and whose obligations will extract an ever larger and larger share of the fruits of their labor. If this is not the definition of Tyranny, I don't know what is. We are in effect selling our children into slavery. And for what? So our Dictator in Chief, and his agreeable bobble heads in the Senate can enrich their friends and supporters, and try to cement themselves in the seats of power which insures the slavery will continue? Hundreds of billions to Jeff Immelt at GE, Hundreds of millions to the Labor Unions, and millions and millions more to the lapdog media!

What is the President's response. Blatant outright lies and fantasies that 80% of the public agrees with him, and that he has no responsibility to end the tyranny. I, for one, must agree with Patrick Henry, "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, and my children, give us Liberty....Or give us death!"

Fixing the Deficit All by Myself

In the current debt ceiling and deficit talks, one of the major things missing is talk about growth. If Mr. Obama is so intent on raising revenue, he could do it all by himself. Taxing oil companies seems to be high on his priority list. All he has to do to generate more revenue from both oil and coal producers is to let them produce!

According to Fineberg Research in 2006, the Federal Government collects about $0.47 for every barrel of oil produced in the US. With approximately two trillion barrels of oil proven, but untapped oil, that represents almost a trillion dollars of untapped revenue. The oil isn't being produced due largely to regulation from the EPA and the Obama administration. In addition to the direct revenue from the “evil” oil companies, this untapped reserve also represents thousands and thousands of jobs. These jobs are not just directly in the oil fields, but would be created by supporting the new oil field hires. They all would have more money to spend on consumer items, a boon for the local economies where the oil is located, and a boon for the unemployment rate.

I'm going to lose points with this one, I know, but here goes. The National Marijuana market is estimated to be about 100 Billion dollars per year. It is rather silly to argue about the health risks of Marijuana, when alcohol is perfectly legal and is the third leading cause of lifestyle related deaths behind tobacco and obesity. The revenue derived from legalizing it would be significant, not enough to solve the deficit problem, but again it would create thousands of jobs, and people who work pay taxes. Farmers, farm machinery manufacturers, and merchants would all benefit from its legalization.

Get the NLRB and other regulators to back off. Boeing is trying to create thousands of high-paying jobs in manufacturing, but Obama's NLRB is stopping them. This is a real shame, especially since aircraft are one of our major exports.

Repeal Obamacare and save $1.2 trillion instantly! In addition to the instant savings, this one measure alone would release trillions of dollars in pent up capital. Business would feel more confident about expanding their operations, and entrepreneurs would feel more confident about going into business. The tanning tax alone has already cost 24,000 jobs and closed 3100 small businesses.

Growing GDP by just 5% per year would add $100 billion to the revenue stream, and an unemployment rate of 6% would more than double that!

Yes, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security need to be addressed, soon, and with common sense. But there are solutions to our deficit problems which should be implemented with all due haste, and none of them have to do with changing the depreciation rate on private jets!

Dirty Little Secret About the Budget

The US Government cannot pay it's bills. The credit card is maxed out. The Administration, Wall Street, and many of the Democrats in the House and Senate are begging for a credit limit increase on our collective Visa card known as the debt ceiling.

The Republican party, particularly the Tea Party wing, are insisting on very real budget cuts without tax increases, before they will consider any debt limit increase. In addition, they are demanding an amendment to the Constitution that requires a balanced budget. Why this insistence on cuts and other measures to be sure of lower spending prior to allowing the government to borrow more money? Because the one thing Congress, and especially this Administration, never does is spend less money. The Democrats are telling everyone that the must have tax increases on the “Rich” in addition to spending cuts to begin to bring our budget into balance. The “millionaires and billionaires” must pay their fair share and share some sacrifice they tell us. There are several problems with this statement, however. First of all, they are not really talking about millionaires and billionaires. There isn't enough money there. What they are talking about is wage earners who make over $200,000 per year filing separately, or $250,000 if filing jointly. According to the IRS, in 2008 3.4 million taxpayers reported adjusted gross incomes between $200,000.00 and $500,000.00.

According to the IRS, in 1992, the top 20% of wage earners paid 65% of the income tax. In 2001, when the top rate was 39.5% the top 10% of wage earners paid 64% of the income tax, and in 2008 when the top rate was 35%, the top 10% of wage earners paid 70% of the tax. The threshold for this 10% is an adjusted gross income of $113,799.00 per year. That is not what I would call excessively rich. The interesting thing about this is that the bottom 50% pay 3% of the tax, meaning that the other 40% of taxpayers with adjusted gross income between $33,048.00 and $113,798.00 pay 27% of the total income tax collected by the IRS. The percentage of tax paid by the bottom 50% has been steadily DECREASING since 2001. Federal Revenues have fluctuated from 2.0 trillion to 2.56 trillion in the years 2005 through 2010, peaking at 2.56 trillion in 2007, and dropping to 2.16 trillion in 2010. Spending, however, has steadily increased from 2.4 trillion per year in 2005 to 3.8 trillion per year estimated in 2011. The question we REALLY need to be asking, is where has that extra TRILLION dollars per year since 2008 gone?


The dirty little secret is this, in 2008 we were told that we had to pass a temporary stimulus package of nearly a trillion dollars to keep the unemployment rate below 8%. The money, we were told, would be spent on “shovel ready” projects which would put people back to work. Since then the unemployment rate peaked at over 10%, dropped down to 8.9% and has now risen back to 9.2%. Real economic growth has stagnated at a meager 1.8%, and our national debt has grown to nearly 15 trillion dollars, or 102% of GDP.

The secret is that this stimulus money isn't temporary. While the democrats claim that they can't cut the budget without throwing grandma out into the street, or starving children with autism or some such other gut wrenching evil, the fact is that 861 billion dollars is simply an increase in spending in several programs over the 2007 levels. (data obtained from the Government Printing Office). The level of spending was too high then. Granted some of the increase is in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Unemployment benefits, and those programs must be addressed, but I don't recall too many stories in the national press about folks starving in the streets in 2007. Government spending equals power in Washington DC, and those folks are loath to give up any power, so the spending, and the borrowing from our children and grandchildren continues unabated.

Serious Blog Alert! Our Government's Purse is Full Enough!

Our government does not tax too little, it spends too much.

In response to a “call congress” campaign to voice objection to a debt limit increase without a balanced budget amendment, real significant cuts in spending, and no tax increases, I received several standard “tax the evil rich” responses. In one response, a friend of mine stated that per capita GDP has increased throughout the economic meltdown. While it is true that GDP increased in 2007 and 2008, all be it at a very slow pace, GDP actually dropped in 2009 according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That being said, this “tax the rich” philosophy beg the questions how much is enough, and who is it that you consider rich? Leaving aside the fact that if you confiscated the ENTIRE wealth of the fifty richest people in the US (many of whom are democrats by the way i.e. Gates, Buffett, Ellison, Bloomberg, Page, Brin, Soros, Perelman, etc.), you get about 650 billion dollars (figures from Forbes Magazine). That is not even enough to make up half the deficit in this year's budget.

The current top rate for wage earners is 35% which cuts in at $379,150.00 of taxable income. My dear friend states that this is the lowest rates have been since shortly after the great depression. The fact is, however, that in 1992, the top rate was 31%. Be that as it may, let's explore this idea of taxing the rich some more. In 1992, the top 20% of wage earners paid 65% of the income tax. In 2001, when the top rate was 39.5% the top 10% of wage earners paid 64% of the income tax, and in 2008 when the top rate was 35%, the top 10% of wage earners paid 70% of the tax. The threshold for this 10% is an adjusted gross income of $113,799.00 per year. That is not what I would call excessively rich. The interesting thing about this is that the bottom 50% pays 3% of the tax, meaning that the other 40% of taxpayers with adjusted gross income between $33,048.00 and $113,798.00 pay 27% of the total income tax collected by the IRS. The percentage of tax paid by the bottom 50% has been steadily DECREASING since 2001. Federal Revenues have fluctuated from 2.0 trillion to 2.56 trillion from 2005 through 2010, peaking at 2.56 trillion in 2007, and dropping to 2.16 trillion in 2010. Spending, however, has steadily increased from 2.4 trillion/year in 2005 to 3.8 trillion/year estimated in 2011. The question we REALLY need to be asking, is where has that extra TRILLION dollars per year since 2008 gone? In 2009, 2010, and projected for 2011, we have spent an EXTRA trillion dollars more per year that we did in all the years gone before. Even under George Bush, who spent money like a drunken sailor, mostly on war toys, we weren't spending at anywhere close to the rate we are now. Were children starving in 2008? Were old people going without food, clothing and housing in 2008? I don't remember that. I don't remember autistic children starving in the street in 2008, do you?

So where did the money go? 28 billion dollars of it went to GE for high speed rail no one will ride. 0.5 billion for cash for clunkers, 10.6 billion for first time home buyers, 9.2 billion for child tax credits (one reason the bottom 50% pay a smaller share of the tax), 186 billion for grants to states to fund pensions, Medicaid and unemployment, 82 billion to the Department of Education and National Science Foundation (shrimp on treadmills program), 25 Billion to the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, the list goes on and on. Of the 2.4 million jobs the administration has claimed to have “saved or created” each job cost $278,000.00 in stimulus money to create or save. That is a fairly expensive way to create and save jobs, which brings me to corporate taxation.

The current corporate tax rate is 35%. When a corporation is creating a budget for coming years, one thing it must take into account is its tax liability. Along with the costs of labor, raw materials, fixed operating costs and the like, they also estimate their tax liability. When a corporation decides how much to charge for its product or service, it must take its tax liability into account. If taxes go up, the price of the good or service goes up accordingly. That means the only thing increasing corporate tax rates, or capital gains rates for that matter, does is pass that tax on to the consumer. When tax rates are unreasonably high in comparison to rates in another state or another country, it provides an incentive for a corporation to move to another state or country. Please take note of the mass exodus of companies from New York, Michigan and California and the gain in Texas. We currently have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, which explains why GE, our President's favorite corporation, moved much of its operations offshore, and paid NO corporate tax in 2010.

With all that said, it becomes clear that we do not tax too little, we spend too much. The only result we will get from raising top tax rates, is that we will shift an even higher burden on to those carrying 70% of the weight now, and diminish economic activity, pushing corporations overseas, and putting increasing strain on an overwhelmingly thin job market. With 9.1% unemployment, and REAL unemployment (including those who have given up looking) over 15%, the last thing that makes sense from an economic point of view is increase the burden on those who are carrying the bulk of the weight now. Anyone who has a sound background in market economics will say the same thing.

Finally, President Obama attacked private jet owners, saying they should lose the tax break that his administration gave them early in his term. This “break” allows a company to depreciate the cost of an airplane, or improvements to an airplane, over a period of five years instead of seven. For those of you without a background in accounting, depreciation is expensing a purchase over a period of time. If a company leases a car, for example, the monthly lease payment is an expense, and is subtracted from the company's income before tax is calculated on that income. If the company purchased the car instead of leasing it, the price of the car, minus it's expected value after seven years, has to be divided by the number of years (seven in this case) and 1/7th of that value is expensed from each year's income before tax is calculated. The only thing changing the length of depreciation for an airplane does is make the company either less likely to buy or refurbish an airplane, or extend the period of time in between such purchases. The reason the depreciation period was shortened in the first place, was to save airplane manufacturing jobs by encouraging companies to trade their planes in faster. Now we want to slow down the turnover of airplanes and put those jobs in jeopardy?

There is no clearer example of this kind of thinking as when George Herbert Walker Bush went along with the luxury tax in 1990. The reasoning was the same. It went like this; “When people are hurting, and need jobs, why shouldn't the rich pay a little more. They are buying yachts and other luxury items, like diamond rings, and we ought to put an extra tax on those items.” Against his better judgment Bush 41 went along with congress on that one. The actual effect though, as one might guess, is that “rich” people quit buying yachts, or bought them offshore. The net effect was that revenues went down, and 200,000 people who worked in the boat building industry lost their jobs. Ultimately it cost Bush the 1992 election.

If you still think “tax the rich” is a good idea, I would encourage you to read anything by Allan Meltzer, Professor of Economics at CMU, Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winner in Economic Science and Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, or Ayn Rand for that matter. Rather than take money from the folks in this country who work hard, create business, and create employment for the rest of us just so we can give it to other folks to see what happens when a shrimp gets some exercise, we ought to stop the excessive spending. We should fix our long term problem of unfunded liabilities for Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security in a way that protects our seniors, and insures our safety net exists long into the future. That way we can let business get back to work doing what they do best, which is grow our economy!