obamacare (204)

Rajjpuut's Folly: Used that Brain Lately?

Items of Interest for Thinking Americans
Item: According to pollsters at Rasmussen Reports, 43% of Americans believe that government programs increase poverty in the nation while just 22% of the nation’s likely-voting adults believe that those programs decrease poverty. 23% say they have no impact. 33% of all voters say the government anti-poverty programs are at least somewhat effective. 62% disagree and say they’re not effective. This includes 7% who believe the programs are Very Effective and 21% who say they are Not At All Effective.
Item: You GO, Arizona. They’ve done it again in Arizona where Proposition 106 (the Healthcare Freedom Act for Arizona) would amend the Arizona Constitution to prohibit any law from compelling any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system, allow a person or employer to pay directly for lawful health care services without being penalized or fined, and allows health care providers to accept direct payment for lawful health care services without being penalized or fined. Besides Obamacare being a mad law in a multitude of ways and increasing the National Debt it’s horrifically complicated and creates 388 brand new federal agencies or offices. Yeah, Arizona!
Item: the recently defeated Defense Funding Bill had provisions about illegal aliens; openly homosexual behavior in the armed forces; and abortion . . . wonder if there was anything in there about the military’s budget?
Item: According to Rasmussen, 52% of Likely U.S. Voters say their own views are closer to Sarah Palin’s than they are to President Obama’s, while only 40% say their views are closer to the president’s than to those of the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate. Within the Political Class, however, 68% say their views are more like Obama’s, while 63% of Mainstream voters describe their own views as more like Palin’s.
Eighty-four percent (84%) of Republicans and 59% of voters not affiliated with either major party say their views are more like Palin’s. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Democrats say they think more like the president. White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs last week said Palin is perhaps “the most formidable force in the Republican Party right now,” but just 22% of all voters agree. Fifty-two percent (52%) do not believe Palin is the party’s most formidable force. Twenty-six percent (26%) aren’t sure.
Item: bumper stickers on a hybrid-electric car . . . “Save the polar bears, stop global warming” and “Don’t vote, it just encourages the bums” Sounds like the Dems are praying for a very light turnout . . . perhaps the bears will save them?
Item: Barack Obama’s aunt from Kenya, an illegal alien for several years, claims the U.S. now owes her an American citizenship.
Item: 50% of Americans give Obama a “poor” rating on economic issues, according to Rasmussen while 35% rate his performance on jobs and the economy as either excellent or good. 71% of Americans say the best way to create jobs is to cut taxes while only 17% prefer increased government spending as the best way to create jobs. In another poll, 61% of Americans want Obamacare repealed with 56% saying it will be bad for the country and 61% saying it will increase federal deficits and the national debt.
Item: Because of the new Obamacare regulations beginning to kick in or threatening to kick in by 2014, some insurance companies have dropped child coverage . . . which would soon be mandated till age 26 under their parents’ carrier by Obamacare and would even be required regardless of pre-existing circumstances no matter if the parents waited until their children were sick before signing up for coverage.
Item: Ever heard the term “shovel-ready?” The stimulus bill that funded a lot of $10,000 “your stimulus dollars at work” signs, liberal art projects and esoteric research grants immediately, but which was supposed to quickly get the country back to work with shovel-ready projects has apparently set up an almost impenetrable red-tape obstacle course for legitimate businesses seeking stimulus funds. Many reports exist of would-be employers spending a year or more seeking to clear legal hurdles thrown up before them to prevent their hiring of new people and receiving stimulus funds.
Item: Reports that officially the recession ended in May, 2009, appear to have been greatly exaggerated since the country’s lost more jobs than it created during the ensuing fifteen months.
Item: 56% of the HOPE-benefitted students (Helping Outstanding Students Educationally) did NOT need any financial help in Georgia (the originating state) and across the country and not surprisingly, HOPE programs are running out of money without helping very many needy students.
Item: Medical marijuana has caused police departments across the nation huge problems deciding who’s legal and who’s not and even who’s a dealer and who’s not.
Item: Remember Rachel Carson’s ecological disaster, ‘er ecological masterpiece Silent Spring? The sixty million malaria deaths that have occurred each year since DDT was banned (in 1971 only 43,000 deaths worldwide from Malaria occurred, today two million die from malaria annually) despite the paucity of scientific evidence (which actually amounts to zero scientific evidence) she provided have got scientists debating the virtue of a world without mosquitoes. Most say their environments might “hiccup” and then go on as normal. How do you kill several dozen TRillion of something? They’re working on it . . . . Rajjpuut suggests that mosquitoes, damn them, play an important role in pollination. The males (which don’t bite) are nectar drinkers and the scientists should know that. Kill ‘em, kill a lot of ‘em and prevent malaria and the other eight awful diseases they carry, but don’t go too far.
Item: President Obama recently denied that he and his administration have repeatedly vilified business and denied that Americans are growing frustrated with his job performance but he did it in a very strange way . . . “IF I was green or I was purple, people are still going to be upset if they have no job or they’re losing their home; we’ve done everything we could to buck up businesses.” Hmmmmm besides his grammar mistake . . . what exactly has the president’s color got to do with the economy? Somebody send the “too-cerebral” Barack a book on the subjunctive and remind him, that despite his much ballyhooed “post-racial presidency,” everything in this country is NOT related to someone’s skin color. And NO, MR. PRESIDENT, taking over businesses is NOT the same as bucking them up.
Item: The “Dream Bill” to benefit illegal aliens and “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” repeal amendments within the Obama defense budget proposal were rejected again today, both for the umpteenth time. There seems to be no statute of limitations for relief from facing ill-conceived laws.
Item: Why is it that no conservatives or Republicans ever mentions that 4.2% of Blacks voted for McCain and 48% of Whites voted for Obama (more than and a higher percentage than either Kerry or Gore received) when racism is implied as something that Whites only are guilty of?
Item: Some Republicans are coming to the rescue of Ms. Christine O’Donnell their Delaware senate nominee recently lambasted by Karl Rove and others. It seems to Ol’ Rajjpuut that Rove’s got it right and that Mr. Castle (whom O’Donnell defeated) was preferable to a one-time witch and an admitted present-time Marxist (Coombs, her Democratic opponent) . . . good work TEA Party Express.
Item: Obama’s still telling his “car in the ditch” lie . . . why don’t conservatives or Republicans remind the Democrats that with their help and ACORN’s abuse and 30 years of CRA ’77 mortgage-guarantee law and its expansions they took the country from ¼ of 1 percent bad home loans to 34% of all home loans being fiscally-irresponsible and granted at less than 3% down payment . . . why not remind progressives and Democrats that they created the sub-prime lending crisis and Obama’s treasury secretary recently said that without G.W. Bush’s 2007 law the recession would have been much deeper and home prices would have plummeted . . . why is this never mentioned?
Item: the Democrats and Obama Administration have made a big deal about them being behind “extending the Obama tax-cuts to the middle-class” while the Republicans, they say, want tax-cuts for millionaires. FACT CHECK. It is impossible to extend what doesn’t exist. There are no “Obama tax cuts for the middle-class” being presently discussed; the cuts in question are about nine years old now and were created by the Bush administration. Secondly, the Republicans want to extend tax-cuts to 100% of Americans while Obama wants to raise taxes on the job providers, the vast majority of which are not millionaires but rather individuals earning more than $200,000 or couples earning more than $500,000. Meanwhile Mr. Obama and his administration have pointedly refused to bring up legislation to extend his stimulus bill’s “Making Work Pay Tax Credit” which provided individuals up to $400 and couples up to $800 in credits from their withholding. If anything could be called an “Obama middle-class tax cut” that would have been it. But the Administration has pointedly NOT created a budget this year and any MWPTC tax cut extension would either have to be passed within the overall budget or raised as a separate item . . . which the Dems have also pointedly decided NOT to do thus far. Whatever names you call them by, eliminating such programs amounts to a willful tax increase which is a monstrously bad idea during a recession, much less a severe recession.
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British Health Care System Verging on Collapse
“A month of nights, a year of days
Octobers drifting into Mays
I set my sail as the tide comes in
Then I cast** my fate to the wind”
All’s superwell in God’s Heaven. ‘Tis indeed a wonderful world, especially when we can just let go because all the nasty irrelevancies are out of our way. Under those conditions, your health is everything, and just owning good health is the key to Eden . . . uh-oh those damn irrelevancies again . . . .
The love of Obamacare Czar Donald Berwich’s life may be near death and so he might need to find another lover. Berwick, who launches into rapture everytime he speaks of the British National Health System that Obamacare was modeled upon has gone so far as to say, “I just love the British health system,” and to talk of ‘her’ as a “seductress.” Unfortunately, the Brits are now talking about the potential for their National Health System to totally collapse. The Brit program, like Obamacare, has turned out to be everything a FOX News commentator named Glenn Beck said it was. Besides its numerous other faults discussed in detail at:
Obamacare has been openly called “redistributional” by Berwick on at least three separate occasions; and Berwick has said that “It’s not a question of ‘IF’ rationing takes place but of ‘HOW’ rationing takes place.” Since we’re talking about Obamacare being modelled upon the British example that would mean the biggest rationing would be for infants and children under three years of age; and for citizens over 60 years of age. From age 3 to age 60, the British system is probably not all that bad . . . well, then again . . . .
The British base their system on a value of a human life of $45,000 and getting more than $45,000 worth of care for a toddler or for a senior or for others in iffy medical straits is not in the cards usually. What exactly Obama and Berwick and the Progressive Left see to admire in the British system and in Obamacare really is a shocking concept.
A. First and foremost they presumably like that the first two Obamacare outlets set up in the country in New Mexico and Pennsylvania have set up abortion payments, (Sorry Bart Stupak, but Barack was just funning you when he promised abortions wouldn’t be funded!)
B. That $45,000 price tag that doesn’t amount to a “death panel” now does it. Oh, wait, the talk is that the price tag for Obamacare will be $150,000, well that’s a lot better, huh?
C. Perhaps it’s the rosy statistics on chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and stroke? Britain’s cancer survival rate ranges between 40.2 percent and 48.1 percent for men and between 48 percent and 54.1 percent for women, compared with 66 percent for U.S. men and 63 percent for U.S. women. The story behind that rate differential in the British System would take several pages, it’s ugly. But suffice it to say that top cancer survival rates of 48.1% for men and 54.1% for women are abysmal.
D. About 6-7% of British patients are rich enough to pay for medical insurance and avoid needing to brave NHS, but choice of treatment is virtually impossible for the rest of the populace.
E. And, of course within the British model there are some “rogue doctors” who work privately outside the system – which is where those who can afford it go rather than risk their life within socialized medicine . . . so the poorest treatment is mostly foisted off on the poorest people – that’s OK, right?
Well, in any case, if the British National Health Care System goes under as it seems it might, that might really steam the 60% of Americans now already calling for the repeal of Obamacare . . . might even add a few more voices to the outcry . . . .
Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
** Cast Your Fate to the Wind lyrics by David Benoit was a very popular song but the instrumental was ultra-popular and had three or four revivals. Not sure who composed the melody. The rendition by bent-note artist Floyd Cramer of “The Last Date” fame is Rajjpuut’s favorite. When Ol' Rajjpuut gets stressed music like that or Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" usually do the trick.

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The British National Health Care System has calculated that a human life is worth $45,000 . . . Obama recess-appointee Donald Berwick calls himself, ". . . in love with the British system . . . "

Even Gold Taxation Part of Obamacare

Infamously, the Squeaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi told us “we’ll have to pass it, so you can find out what’s in it . . . .” and then she promised us, “. . . but, you’ll like it.” Clearly she was lying again. Obamacare (though it was only one bill) created almost 390 brand new U.S. government agencies (almost ten times as much as FDR created in 12+ years in office):

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jul/26/letters-to-the-editor-monday/?partner=yahoo_feeds

Item: The link above shows you that the Brits value a human life at $45,000. And Donald Berwick has said, "I am in love with the British system." Why exactly is that important? Consider this, Lee Iacocca before he went to Chrysler to bankrupt them and earn them their 1979 bailout, worked at Ford and is most infamous for designing the Pinto with its exploding gas tanks. As early as 1972 (38 years ago) Iacocca had put such stringent limits on Pinto design as far as costs, weight, passenger compartment maximum volume, trunk minimum volume, etc. that when he and his toadies were presented with evidence of the potential for catastrophic failure of the Pinto, he refused to add a $9.95 fix that would have made the Pinto a perfectly safe automobile. The reason? At that time the cost of a human life was reckoned by insurance anlaysis at precisely $200,000 and cost-benefit analysis said the Pinto would be more profitable without the $9.95 per car safety improvement. It was literally "all about 'trunk^^ space' " according to insider testimony. Well, in the case of Donald Berwick, Barack Obama and Obamacare, it's all about coffin space.

Item: As the Republicans told you, there are NO provisions for controlling costs or improving health, not one.

Item: The elderly will definitely now pay for a much, much larger percentage of their own healthcare costs . . . soon with their fixed incomes ravaged by inflation (more on that later).

Item: Unlike what Bart Stupak said Obama promised him, federally funded elective abortions are now the law of the land. Remember that fellow that yelled out “You liar!” when Obama was addressing the congress and the president said that abortion would NOT be covered, well he was correct but will NOT be getting apologies any time soon, now will he? The very first two institutions to set up shop for Obamacare in New Mexico and Pennsylvania began by immediately providing for abortion coverage. Regardless of your particular stance on abortion, one thing 78% of Americans agree upon is that the U.S. government should NOT pay for elective non-health threatening surgeries with abortion #1 on their "don't pay list."

Item: we now know beyond a doubt, the deficits and national debt will surge rather than shrink because of Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has dramatically ratcheted up its evaluation of Obamacare costs and of course they didn't even consider the separate "doctor-fix" that congress just passed.

Item: You will be able to keep your same health care insuror and same doctor only if you’re lucky. Most likely if you’re part of a small- or medium-sized business, your employer will be forced by the economics of the issue (expense!) to abandon providing health care for his/her employees and pay a less expensive fine for not doing so. You’ll then have to provide your own health insurance, sorry 'bout that.

Item: As Obama’s new healthcare head (recess-appointee of a yet another communist, not just socialist, on the sly) Donald Berwick has informed us, this socialized medicine approach known as Obamacare WILL indeed be “rationing healthcare” and must "by definition, to be just" indeed “be redistributional.” Berwick is a real winner. He describes himself as a "fan of socialized medicine but everything about him revealed in his published works goes light years beyond mere socialism. He believes that intelligent planning by people like him is best for you, especially in health care. He is also essentially a phony: the Washington Times reported that two Harvard professor positions claimed for Dr. Berwick were essentially "honorary" posts with minor teaching and administrative duties. He has described himself as "in love with the British National Health Care System," which has 1.6 times the percentage of cancer deaths as we do here in America. A system where long waits have repeatedly and constantly been written up in the English press as causes of tragedies where people in their emergency rooms die of dehydration and bleed to death or asphyxiate while waiting to be seen..

http://blogs.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/7/recess-move-draws-bipartisan-fire/

http://eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=XdZukUuz2G

Item: What Obamacare definitely does do is: in time wipe out the health insurance industry; create 390 new government bureaucracies; extend government control over Americans to life and death matters (sorry, Grandma, but it’s just too expensive, the government won’t pay for it); create long waiting lines for services; provide for abortions funded by the government (you can bet they won’t be rationed!); and add to the mountains of debt. The appointment of Donald Berwick will make the American health care system a device for population control by medical rationing. Read debt, death, long lines, poor quality care as well.

Item: There are many surprises, but here’s an example of just how invasive the bill is into every day life. If, you like Rajjpuut, see the government’s invasion into every aspect of our daily lives as certain to prompt inflation, than runaway inflation and ultimately*** hyper-inflation – you may have considered putting some money into gold. One of the Obamacare provisions will now tax gold coin and bullion transactions (nothing wrong with taxing profits, but taxing every single transaction amounts to a federal sales tax which is, at the moment unconstitutional). That tax itself and the amount of paperwork required will make gold transactions much more expensive. So much for trying to look out for yourself because the government was inflating the currency . . . .

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

^^ Figuratively "all about trunk space" means that putting every single item, including human life, into a dollar and cents evaluation of cost versus benefit was the corporate mindset of Iacocca's Pinto division when they made their decisions; and the fault was NOT all with them. Apparently every one of their studies and those of their competitors literally showed that car buyers were about Eight times more likely to reject an automobile based upon trunk space than its safety features or lack of them. Stupid on both ends, eh?

*** because the Federal Reserve Bank printed 14 times as many dollars in 2009 as were circulating in 2008, technically each 2010 dollar is now worth about 6.6 cents in 2008 money. 14 + 1 = 15 times as much money in circulation so with 100 pennies in each dollar 100/15 = 6.6 cents

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Obamacare’s First Implementations Reveal

Obama Abortion-Betrayal of Promise to Stupak

Regardless of how Americans view abortion, roughly 75% of Americans have agreed on one thing: public funding of “elective abortion” is a very bad idea. Elective surgeries including things like “stapling stomachs, hair implants, cosmetic plastic surgery and elective abortions are all personal choices and are not absolute medical emergencies like, say emergency, therapeutic abortions are.

Based upon his personal history as candidate and president, it was only a matter of time before this most incredible of all Obama lies surfaced. The surprise is that it came on the very first publicly announced implementation of Obamacare, the very first. Barack Obama who accused his accusers of “bearing false witness” against him at the final moments of passage of Obamacare, has been proven to be the ultimate bearer of false witness in the most dishonorably possible way. And remember he said to turn off FOX News because they and the Republican Party were “fabricating things.” And of course charges that Obamacare was 1) going to cost far more than advertised and 2) would raise the deficits of the nation were “fabrications” also.

The very first implementations of Obamacare today are setting up state coverage for “elective abortion” at 80% in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and reportedly two other states. Doesn’t Bart Stupak look like a complete idiot now. If the poor cretin blew his brains out, would anyone blame him . . . how humiliating, he made a stand supposedly on principle and then took the word of the president of the United States that no federal coverage of abortion would occur . . . and now it’s obvious Stupak was an A-1 Sucker! Remember Bart Stupak telling the country, with that signed paper in his hand, that “Republican claims that federally funded abortions were part of Obamacare were "disingenuous?"

There are a few good things about Barack Obama:

A) He’s made the nation aware of the evil of progressive administrations like FDR’s and Woodrow Wilson's. For example, a large percentage of Americans now understand for the first time that FDR, rather than ending the Great Depression (only World War II did that) actually extended it at least another eight years.

B) He’s been unable to keep his communism under wraps (55% of Americans now believe Obama’s a socialist according to a poll released today by James Carville a liberal survey group) Americans are becoming aware of his communism, slowly but surely. Remember he wrote an autobiography called “Dreams from My Father,” (meaning his Kenyan birth father), the man who wrote this masterpiece calling for 100% taxation among about six other atrocities upon Kenya’s people:

http://www.politico.com/static/PPM41_eastafrica.html

C) Some, like Rajjpuut’s wonderful readers have learned about Cloward-Piven Strategy . . . how C-P Strategy deliberately bankrupted New York City via the NWRO creating a welfare crisis; how Cloward and Piven suggested to radical followers that housing and voting were the next areas to implement (abuse) and how the Motor Voter Act has been abused by ACORN and how an Obama political appointee to the Department of Justice has now ordered the DOJ NOT to enforce even the weakened Motor Voter Act against dead people, felons, duplicate entries and fraudulent entries on the voter rolls. Oh, and for those who suggest Rajjpuut is

"paranoid" rather than just revealing the news, remember this: 32 ACORN voter registration officials have already been convicted; and in the Black Panther voter intimidation case, the biggest victim was a Black poll watcher the Panthers called an "Oreo" and an "Uncle Tom" and threatened that if he came outside he'd get the "sh__ kicked out of him," so the real "racism" comes always from the left while they accuse everyone else.

D) Some, like Rajjpuut’s wonderful readers have learned about how based upon C-P Strategy, ACORN took advantage of Jimmy Carter’s ’77 CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) and expansions in ’92; twice in ’95 and the steroid version of mortgage guarantee laws in ’98 to force home lenders to make loans to people without jobs; people without rental references; people without homes; people without I.D.s; and even illegal aliens. Thank you, thank you, ACORN; and thank you, too, progressives.

E) Many people have come to believe that global warming and the cap and trade legislation that Obama’s been pushing to respond to “global warming’s dangers” is 100% a lie, as the ultra-liberal London Times admitted back on Nov. 29, 2009:

http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=4500

F) It appears that virtually the only TANGIBLE job creation by the Obama stimulus and recovery act are a series of huge green and white signs commissioned for Democratic sign-makers saying "This project (the sign itself?) brought to you courtesy of the Stimulus and Recovery Act" at $10,000 a sign.

G)
And on top of the great news today about the Gulf Oil Spill being at least tentatively capped, Barack Obama has shown his true colors with the Oil Drilling Moratorium he’s called for. Here are the facts, if he's allowed to pull that off, he himself has most likely caused more ill-effects to the Gulf economy than the spill itself . . . ah, inhumanity!

That’s the good news, but while Barack Obama moves us every day ever closer to calling him Chairman Big Brother, it’s a mighty, mighty thin soup . . . .

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

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Rasmussen Polls Highlight Big Opposition
to Obama Socialist Agenda

If socialism and big government are the desired ends, Americans are not buying it according to the highly accurate Rasmussen Reports polling service.

Item: 68% of Americans are against boycotts of Arizona over their new Immigration law. While Obama and the federal government are permitted 17 specific powers, 55% of voters would like a law like Arizona’s in their own state because they don’t believe the federal government is protecting our borders.

Item: when it comes to terrorism, 52% of voters say we are NOT safer today than we were on September 10, 2001 just before the 9/11 attacks.

As the rest of the poll data shows, it seems that in the voters’ eyes Mr. Obama is NOT doing what the federal government is supposed to do and doing everything else instead. It also appears that Americans do NOT want to be ruled from the left . . . or the right or the center, but want to rule themselves:

Item: 72% do not believe Congress knows what it’s doing when it comes to the economy. Along those lines, 41% expressed the opinion that a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than Congress.

Item: Rasmussen’s Daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows President Obama’s favorability rating stands at -18 with only 25% of voters highly approving of the job he’s doing and 43% highly disapproving. Overall 44% at least somewhat approve of the President’s work while 55% disapprove.

Item: It appears Nancy Pelosi was wrong when she said, “We’ll just have to pass it so people can see what’s in it (and you’ll love it)” in reference to the Obamacare health measures. 63% of American voters now favor repealing the bill. As a move toward socialism, roughly 390 separate government agencies are created by Obamacare – just one law. In contrast only 40 separate federal agencies were created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in just over twelve years in office. Obama has been in office fifteen months.

Item: 65% of all Americans and a surprising 51% of Democrats now espouse “mainstream”^^ views up from 62% in March and 55% in September. Only 4% now support the “political class” (those numbers are staying steady at the lowest such reading in Rasmussen polling history). When “leaners” are included 81% align with the mainstream and 12% trend toward the political class.

Item: 67% of mainstream America consider Obamacare “bad for America” while 77% of the political class believe Obamacare is “good for America.”

Item: 76% of Americans say they trust the voters more than they do the politicians and 71% see the federal government as a”special interest group” looking out mainly for its own welfare. 70% believe that the government and big business generally work together for their own benefit against the interests of the people.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

^^The three questions used to calculate the Political Class Index are:

-- Generally speaking, when it comes to important national issues, whose judgment do you trust more - the American people or America’s political leaders?

-- Some people believe that the federal government has become a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests. Has the federal government become a special interest group?

-- Do government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors?

To create a scale, each response earns a plus 1 for the populist answer, a minus 1 for the political class answer, and a 0 for not sure.

Those who score 2 or higher are considered a populist or part of the Mainstream. Those who score -2 or lower are considered to be aligned with the Political Class. Those who score +1 or -1 are considered leaners in one direction or the other.

In practical terms, if someone is classified with the Mainstream, they agree with the mainstream view on at least two of the three questions and don’t agree with the Political Class on any.

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Patriotism: a High-Demand Commitment

Part II: Guaranteeing Our Freedoms

Audacity of Presidential Power-Grabbing

Abhorent to Nation’s Founders

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism

http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/06/01/meaning-of-federalism/

http://www.umt.edu/law/faculty/natelson.htm

In the first installment of this series on constitutional-conservativism
(
http://rajjpuutsfolly.blogtownhall.com/2010/05/19/obama,_mainstream_media_label_tea_party_insurgents.thtml) we looked at freedom, per se. Rajjpuut continues with a close look at personal and state freedoms as discussed in the all-important 10th Amendment, sometimes known as the “Federalism Amendment.”

Barack Obama is the national nightmare that some supporters of the Articles of Confederation and other anti-constitutionalists back at the nation’s founding strenuously condemned. Seemingly ignoring all seventeen of the allotted powers (enforcing our borders; standing up to our nation’s traditional enemies; obeying the uniform laws of bankrupties; and keeping treaties with our friends are all powers which Barack Obama has not chosen to exercise according to the folks in Arizona; South Korea; certified creditors of GM in Indiana; and allies in Poland to name just a few instances), Obama has made himself a picnic in abusing the constitution by advancing powers NOT granted by the Constitution. Many thought that Franklin Delano Roosevelt grossly overstepped the bounds of federalism with the 40 new agencies his administrations created. Barack Obama created almost 390 new agencies just in one law: Obamacare.

The powers of the federal government are listed in Article I, Section 8. They are available for anyone to read and simple to understand. More importantly, these powers

A. follow a simple, predictable pattern and

B. Much discussion was also made of which powers the federal government definitely did not have and should not have.

In its obvious general outline of powers for the federal government which amount to the 17 specific powers allowed, the Constitution provides for a government which protects the nation’s borders and defends against foreign invasion by maintaining an efficient army and navy; deals with custom and tariff matters; conducts foreign relations including war and treaties; settles disputes among the states and facilitates trade and intercourse among the American people and states and with the peoples and states within sovereign foreign nations.

Before looking at the powers the founding fathers refused to grant to the federal government, it’s crucial to understand that in a federal system such as ours the efforts over the entire two hundred plus years of the nation’s existence to turn the states into “departments or extensions” within the federal government . . . that is, into mere “administrative units” of the national govermnet is the greatest single threat to our nation’s survival as the founders foresaw and planned for it. Recent “States Rights” discussions (that is, up until the contemporary furor in Arizona over that state’s immigration laws and the 21 State “rebellion” against Obamacare directiives for the states that would literally bankrupt every state both calling for a new appreciation of the 10th Amendment to the Constitution) arguments were as insipid as the notion that people wishing upon stars might somehow influence the cosmos to somehow influence our fates. Lyndon Johnson’s expansion of the “Welfare State” is the prime example of this insidious trend both in Welfare itself and in Medicaid especially . . . the states were turned into administrative arms of the federal government’s policies. Nixon’s policies of “federalistically” turning over large grants of federal monies to the states has undoubted great practical value, but only confuses the issue . . . why is that money in the federal hands in the first place?

Federalism, and specifically the 10th Amendment, is the single greatest system ever devised for the protection of individual and state liberties and for providing counter-balance to over-reaching by the federal entities. Powerful centralized government is the threat to our listed freedoms and to freedom of action. That is, because we don’t have LISTED LIBERTIES for the individual or the states . . . but they are free to do whatever is not listed as criminal . . . we have true liberty. Confusion about the limits of federal government must be cleared up and must be always aligned with the intents of the founding fathers if this blessed state of liberty is to prevail. All powers NOT listed in the Constitution are specifically reserved for the states and individual citizens.

And just how far has the nation strayed from this wise path? Virtually no one today understands the breadth of discussion, consideration and debate that ensued once it was popularly agreed that the Articles of Confederation were too weak. During the argument going on over possible adoption of the Constitution, the Constitution’s advocates also enumerated powers the federal government absolutely would not have. The Bill of Rights was, one answer to critics. The most Republican document in the world still stands us in good stead 223 years after its creation. But the biggest protection, the thing that satisfied virtually all the Constitution’s detractors was the addition to the Bill of Rights of the last of the original Amendments: the 10th Amendment. The federal government would NOT be granted the potential for unlimited power but severely limited in power and abuse potential and all powers NOT specifically enumerated for the federal government would be reserved to the individual states and to individual citizens.

In addition, moreover, the Constitution’s proponents publicly told the people some of the important subjects which fell within the states’ exclusive jurisdiction - and outside the federal government’s control in a variety of speeches, newspaper articles, letters, and pamphlets. Chief among these proponents were, of course Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Other names of note include:

James Wilson (convention delegate and chief proponent in Pennsylvania), Edmund Pendleton (chancellor of Virginia and chairman of his state’s ratifying convention), James Iredell (North Carolina judge, pro-Constitution floor leader at his state’s ratifying convention and later U.S. Supreme Court Justice), Maryland Congressman Alexander Contee Hanson, Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant (a Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court), Alexander White (Virginia lawyer, ratifier, and later U.S. Senator), prominent businessman Tench Coxel and John Marshall (ratifier and later U.S. Chief Justice).

Here are some of the powers they solemnly promised would be outside the federal sphere:

  • governance of religion
  • training the militia and appointing militia officers
  • control over local government
  • most crimes
  • state justice systems
  • family affairs
  • real property titles and conveyances
  • wills and inheritance
  • the promotion of useful arts in ways other than granting patents and copyrights
  • control of personal property outside of commerce
  • governance of the law of torts and contracts, except in suits between citizens of different states
  • education
  • services for the poor and unfortunate
  • licensing of taverns
  • roads other than post roads
  • ferries and bridges
  • regulation of fisheries, farms, and other business enterprises.

The vast majority of these areas have been encroached upon by the federal government already. For example, the national endowment for the arts and other such organization is not a federal matter; involvement in the welfare state is forbidden; as is educational involvement; interstate highways; income taxes; inheritance taxes; family affairs; the national guard as we know it; control of personal property; and a hundred other areas where the federal government has crossed the line drawn by the 10th Amendment.

Right now our National Debt is approaching $14 TRillion; more shockingly our national obligation for Government Spending Boondoggles and Government Interference Boondoggles (GSBs and GIBs such as Social Security, Medicare and the federal side of Medicaid) has reached $109 TRillion . . . all this problem debt was created in areas where the Constitution forbid the federal government to tread. The lifeblood of the nation has been poisoned by this wanton and total ignorance and denial of the 10th Amendment. Most Americans not only don’t understand the provisions of the 10th Amendment, but because of the welfare state and the gross entitlement sentiment many citizens would also feel threatened by the loss of federal government involvement. The problems are exacerbated when its realized that these programs were all created as set asides and that congress never obeyed its own laws and set the money aside for these programs. Here, then lies the root cause of our present fiscal unaccountability and the potential for danger from the Obama administration’s headlong power grab . . . .

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

Read more…

The possibility of Obama ‘vetoing’ his Obamacare legislation because of recent discoveries from the Congressional Budget Office that it violated two of his campaign pledges about overall costs and reducing the deficit . . . now seems to be on the back-burner. Apparently the sensible notion was released as a trial balloon and was just a “tease” designed to confuse conservatives. No change is now expected. This is a perfect time to see how well President Obama came through on the fifteen most crucial promises he made about “reforming” health care in this country.

  • 1. Health care will cost less for the individual and the government. That was why the "vetoing" of Obamacare actually made sense. It has now been revealed by the CBO that it will cost much more and will not help reduce the deficit.
  • 2. Better care would result. Not according to the Congressional Budget Office and American physicians. Worse care and longer waits are the future for American patients.
  • 3. Deficits would be reduced and Obamacare would help the nation meet the challenges of the future. Sorry, the CBO shows that Obamacare will NOT pay for itself even using ten years of taxes to cover the first six years of the program's operation. It will increase deficits and the National Debt.
  • 4. It was part of his promise there would be “no new taxes on the middle-class.” However, Obamacare will begin collecting taxes on virtually everyone including the middle-class right away to pay for the program’s start in 2014.
  • 5. Abortions will NOT be paid for with Obamacare and your tax dollars. The reason that Bart Stupak and eleven other “pro-life” Democrats held out till the last 24 hours was that they could see there was no provision in the law forbidding abortion funding. Then President Obama gave Stupak a promise there would be no funding of Abortions – a promise that has no legal power. Abortion funding is still NOT prohibited in the law as passed.
  • 6. Not one dime over $900 Billion to fund it. The CBO now shows it coming in at over $1 TRillion which is what’s causing the deficit increases it will bring.
  • 7. Health Care unconscionable profits for Insurance agencies will be reduced dramatically. First of all health insurance profit margins were 3.2% last year one of the lowest profit margins of any profitable industry. Secondly, thanks to Obamacare their absolute profits wil rise at least for the foreseeable future as 30 million new customers are added to their client rolls.
  • 8. This is NOT socialized medicine. Ahem, FDR implemented 39 key agencies as part of the “New Deal" . . . but Obamacare creates almost 400 new agencies in just one monster law . . . medicine will become much more complicated and less user-friendly and, yes, it is obviously a government program now incorporating all the old agencies and 392 new ones . . . .
  • 9. We will seek bi-partisan input and support. The only thing bi-partisan was that 34 House Democrats joined the Republicans in voting against Obamacare. Obama held a shuck-and-jive bi-partisan meeting where Republican input was totally ignored though it obviously made the most sense. Democrats talked for a bit longer than Republicans but Obama talked and harrangued for longer than both together. In the end not one of about ten great Republican ideas made it into the bill.
  • 10. We’ll put this on C-Span; the creation of this new law will be open, transparent and a non-political process. BARF!
  • 11. You’ll till be able to keep your current doctor and current health care insurance if you want to. Sorry, but a lot of doctors will not be a part of this program; and a lot of insurors will no longer be insuring the same employers because of the debilitating effect of Obamacare on employer finances.
  • 12. There will be NO rationing of health care. Were you born yesterday? Longer lines? Fewer doctors? More regulations between you and your doctor? Attempts to call a great deal of the most expensive medical possibilities “optional” for the elderly – rationed care is the ONLY way that Obamacare could hope to work, sort of.
  • 13. We’ll not go down that road (reconciliation) to pass the bill. That’s how they did pass it.
  • 14. We’ll make sure there’s a five-day period for public comment before the bill is signed into law. Never happened.
  • 15. We will “reform” the health care industry. They have enlarged the government and the health care bureaucracy and thrown a lot of money at the “problem.” The word “reform,” however, means to “improve” or “make better.” They clearly have NOT reformed the health care system.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

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Last Rajjpuut Remembers . . . .

Loyal readers will remember that repeatedly Rajjpuut not only excoriated the Congressional Budget Office for their gutless refusal to stand up to the “pie-in-the-sky” assumptions included in the Obamacare budgeting but also assured followers that if made into law, Obamacare would bankrupt the country among other hideous consequences. The process of passing the law particularly the last minute cave-in by Bart Stupak and eleven other so-called “pro-life” Democrats to pass the bill; and the particulars of the bill which NO ONE STILL HAS READ IN ITS ENTIRETY even now; and the irresponsibility of cost estimates; and the moving of 16% of our economy into the government sphere were each of them more than enough to demand a thumbs-down vote. Taken together, they promised a hideous new law sure to wreck the country. Right now 58% of Americans agree the law must be repealed and only 31% think it shouldn’t be repealed. All of that, however, might have just become moot points.

The “Anointed One” himself, Barack H. Obama, Jr. appears ready to exercise the veto pen upon his own foul “reform” of the health care system. You read that correctly. In the train of recent revelations by the CBO that the bill was not going to cut deficits but rather increase them mightily , Obama appears poised to axe parts of his legislation. Rajjpuut has a better idea: sh__can the whole mess and start over with five goals:
A. Real tort reform to make malpractice insurance costs less and excess testing costs much less and health care costs dramatically much less
B. Cutting costs with minimal effect on the present system by eliminating waste and abuse and fraud
C. Insurance sales across state lines allowed
D. Emphasis on prevention and regular physials
E. Less than 200 pages employed in the whole bill.
As Rajjpuut has mentioned often, politicians tend to be slimy individuals when it comes to semantics and use of semantic tricks. While it sounds “bad” to be against “reform” any time; the word-reform, especially from Barack Obama’s tongue, is not the thing-reform. The word “reform,” you’ll note has been attached by Obama and his administration and the Democrats in both chambers of Congress to mean “changing to greater government control” rather than its previous dictionary meaning of “improving something.” Rajjpuut suggests a 100% reform of the Democratic Party and Barack Obama and especially of his administration.
This not-that-surprising turn of events comes after the so-called “surprise-announcement” that congressional budget referees now predict healthcare reform could top $1 trillion as conservatives have said for over a year now. Let Rajjpuut be clear here: Obamacare will eventually come in at $4 TRillion, not in total -- but $4 Trillion per year, the way it is currently written. Government-Freebies, or more accurately “Perceived-Government Freebies” always are in much higher demand than predicted. If, like Rajjpuut you’ve ever seen four or five male bears in the wild (who normally can’t stand each other within 100 yards) five feet apart during berry season as they gorge on nature’s bounty . . . you’ll understand where the 4X factor prediction comes from. And, of course, the law doesn’t really begin to come into play until 2014 . . . so meanwhile it’s killing the economy for four years with nasty taxes.
Those naïve hayseeds among you might consider all this to be an “explosive” revelation. Nothing could be further from the truth. The laws of economics did NOT go to sleep for a hundred years just because a politician totally ignorant of them moved into the oval office. Oh, a few more details, besides its own internal lack of integrity and fiscal inconsistency: the law still threatens to cut physicians’ income and to raise Medicare costs and to bankrupt each and every one of the states because of new Medicaid requirements. Ain’t that sweet?
House Minority Leader John Boehner, said this new CBO analysis ". . . coming just weeks after the Obama administration itself released an analysis confirming that the new law actually increases Americans’ healthcare costs, this provides ample cause for alarm. The American people wanted one thing above all from healthcare reform: lower costs, which Washington Democrats promised, but they did not deliver. These revelations widen the serious credibility gap President Obama is facing."

Jennifer Hing, spokeswoman for Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee, told Fox News: "If Congress were to approve all of this new discretionary funding authorized in the healthcare bill, almost all of the administration's highly touted savings would be made null and void."

CBO estimators also said they simply had not had enough time to run the numbers. Costs could go even higher, because the legislation authorizes several programs without setting specific funding levels. Rajjpuut would say, that is virtually always true. Too little study and too much spend-spend-spend and way too little actual understanding make Congress dangerous to the country’s political health and fiscal soundness. NO BILL should ever become law until sufficient time to truly understand all its ramifications has been taken . . . .

In the wake of the obvious example of highly-socialistic Greece’s present demise with fellow European socialistic countries England, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain (more or less in that order) waiting in the wings for their own fiscal comeuppance . . . Rajjpuut suggests it’s high time this country and its leadership got its feet on the ground. Europe is in chaos trying to avoid the utter financial failure of tiny self- indulgent Greece, the European Union (EU) this week pledged $1 trillion to inject green money into the veins of Europe's socialistic vampires. Not to go unmentioned: about $76 Billion coming from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) comes from American taxpayers . . . we’re actually supporting other countries’ failed experiments in socialism, doesn't that make you happy? Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave and the Founding Fathers? Their ghosts are right now discussing reincarnation to ignite a new American Revolution***.

Last Rajjpuut remembers, the Berlin Wall came down . . . a symbol of the differences between capitalism and communism (socialism taken to its logical extreme). Remember . . . they had to pen their people in and even that didn’t work thousands died trying to leave their corrupt stinking corpse of a system. Look at our borders, we’re having huge problems keeping people out. Last Rajjpuut remembers, the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST republics (what a laugh, republics!) collapsed freely and voluntarily as her leaders admitted their system didn’t work. Last Rajjpuut remembers, the Warsaw Pact countries joyfully abandoned their own wonderful socialisms. Last Rajjpuut remembers, communist China is now prospering as they’ve adopted a huge level of capitalism upon its own rotten corpse of Marxism. Last Rajjpuut remembers, people still die striving to leave Cuba and make for our shores on inflated truck inner tubes. Last Rajjpuut remembers Adolf Hitler only gets credit for 13 million deaths while Stalin and his commies killed 25 million and Mao, IN PEACETIME, caused the death of almost 57 million Chinese. How difficult is it to reach the conclusion that SOCIALISM SUCKS!

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

*** For God’s sake, fellow citizens, IF you have NOT read and understood the following brief words, you are, like Obama, an utterly ignorant fool when it comes to economics, correct that situation immediately:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html

and for good measure, more brevities:

http://jim.com/econ/chap02p1.html

http://jim.com/econ/chap02p1.html

and the Full Monty:

http://jim.com/econ/

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What's a Poor TEA Party to do?


The mainstream media when discussing the TEA Party mostly performs a continuous non-stop conversation using the Obama propaganda-nonsense re-using their progressive-labels, terms like “racists, hate-mongers, astro-turf, stupid, extremists, and violent.” You can hardly hear the term “TEA Party” on the air without one of those nasty six propaganda adjectives attached somewhere in the "news" coverage. Only very rarely does the lamestream media try to talk sense or semi-sense about the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party phenomenon. When they do, they mostly seek comparison with Ross Perot’s bumbling political attempts in 1992 and 1996 or call it “a third-party movement,” or even compare them to Ralph Nader. They could be right, but hopefully NOT. Rajjpuut believes Perot failed miserably and accomplished just exactly the opposite of what he hoped to do. By splitting conservative voters, he ensured dramatically easy victories for the progressives and nothing more . . . a very sad legacy.

The TEA Party has a huge opportunity awaiting and at this stage (things might be dramatically different in 2012, 2014 and 2016) the worst thing that group can try to do right now is to raise a bunch of money, field a slate of candidates and seek to elect them as a political party. That would playing the Ross Perot card and playing it very, very weakly. The fact is, Americans are fed up completely with politics and politicians and political parties. Fiscal-conservatives and Constitutional-conservatives (the largest voter-bloc in the country) are especially fed up with politics, more fed up with politics than any other group in America. Politics-as-usual like Ross Perot tried, is precisely the easiest way to waste this moment in history. This moment in history, if handled rightly can be considered: the TEA Party moment! Never has America needed a more intelligent grass-roots movement than it does right now. So what can be done? What should be done?

To succeed at anything it helps to know who you are, exactly who you are and who you are NOT. The TEA Party movement, at its heart, gives conservative people an outlet, more importantly, it gives them hope that their voices can be heard. Right now that is a very huge role to play; and it is right now the best that they or you and I can expect; and most importantly IF they truly play that role properly, the TEA Party can make a huge difference in America and can accomplish many of the things that conservative people in their hearts most pray for.

To succeed at anything, it also is very important to know just exactly what you’re up against and who are your friends and who are your enemies. That the present progressive-dominated Democratic Party is the enemy of the TEA Party seems fairly obvious. Many folks believe that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Many folks believe the Republican Party is the TEA Party’s friend. Let’s think a little on that. The Republican Party as it was created in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin would be precisely the TEA Party’s very best friend. Today the Republican Party of 1854, 1856, 1858 and 1860 would be called “Libertarians,” which means fiscal-conservatives, constitutional conservatives and live-and-let-live liberals so long as you don’t “tread on me.” That was a party that stood for something. That was the Republican Party that freed the slaves. That was the Republican Party that eventually replaced the once proud Whig Party which by 1852 had become an effete party trying to please everyone at once that commanded about 26% of the national vote. Those Whigs were, however, someone we need to understand right now.

The American Whig Party itself arose when the original Republican Party lost its vigor and vision and somebody was needed to oppose the takeover by the executive branch and denigration of the Congress by Andrew Jackson (they called him “King Andrew," the Whigs did) and the Democratic Party. According to Wikipedia: "Whig" was then a widely recognized label of choice for people who saw themselves as opposing autocratic rule. The Whig Party counted among its members such national political luminaries as Daniel Webster, William Henry Harrison, and their pre-eminent leader, Henry Clay of Kentucky. In addition to Harrison, the Whig Party also counted several prominent war heroes and national figures among its ranks, including Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott and former Lt. Colonel, western explorer and demi-whig California Senator John C. Fremont (the Republicans’ first presidential candidate). Abraham Lincoln was a Whig leader in then frontier Illinois. Except for a few spotty victories here and there, the Republicans who eventually replaced the Whigs were not at all successful until six years later and helped ensure virtually complete control of the country by the Democrats in 1854, 1856 and 1858 which proved to be some of the most volatile and violent years ever and led directly to the Civil War.

So the question remains, is the Republican Party the friend of the TEA Party? And the answer is . . . mostly NOT. Or most properly, NO, NOT yet! If the Republican Party had stuck to its core-philosophies of fiscal-conservativism and constitutional-conservativism over the last twenty years (twelve years under Republican presidents Bush I and Bush II) the nation would NOT now be in the shape it’s in. In fact, by possibly hijacking TEA Party votes en masse without later adhering to TEA Party desires for real meaningful conservativism in 2010 and future years . . . the Republican Party could prove to be as huge an enemy as the progressive Democrats. Right now, as I write this, there are probably eighty to a hundred rather cynical Republican politicos out there, looking at the TEA Party as a “nifty little parade” and planning exactly how they can jump in at the front and lead it.

All that being true, Rajjpuut believes it’s fair to say that the Republican Party has lost legitimacy among fiscal- and constitutional-conservatives. Once burned, twice cautious. The TEA Party would do best to stay independent of the Republican Party and yet NOT stand in direct opposition to it, the Republicans are, after all, the only ones opposing the Obamanations now going in Congress. That Republican opposition has been crucial and the Republicans share many conservative values at least nominally . . . .

http://www.contractfromamerica.com/Idea.aspx

It would be a hopelessly stupid mistake to run candidates against Republicans in 2010, because it would ensure progressive Democratic victory and more Obamanations. The TEA Party needs to show it’s hand clearly as opposed to the progressive elements of the Democratic Party which dominated the senate debate and most of the house debate. And the TEA Party needs to show itself as opposed to at least 90% of the Obama administration’s “transformations.” So far great things have been achieved by simply holding candidates’ feet to the conservative fire. Is that a perpetually winning formula? What’s to be done? What is the wisest course for the TEA Party? What’s best for America?

The secret for the TEA Party lies in knowing who they are. The TEA Party is a leveraged group of disenchanted conservatives (about 52% call themselves Republicans; 29% say they’re Independents and 19% call themselves Democrats) who are discovering their political voices. The two key words are the term “leveraged” and the term “disenchanted.” Let’s talk plain English here: leveraged means “potentially powerful.” Disenchanted means “fed up completely.” The TEA Party then is a potentially powerful group completely fed up with the political scene in Washington, D.C. and most of their state capitols.

Rajjpuut repeats . . . the TEA Party then is a potentially powerful group completely fed up with the political scene in Washington, D.C. and most of their state capitols. That is the truth and the truth can set you free. So what is the political reality right now?

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/partisan_trends

Democrats according to a recent Rasmussen survey constitute 36.0% of the voting populace and Republicans 31.6%. That leaves 33.4% of potential voters unaffiliated with either party. There are more unaffiliated voters than Republicans and almost as many as the number of Democrats. Many of those unaffiliated voters are sympathetic to what the TEA Party movement stands for; many of them call themselves Independents . . . and as we’ve seen the make-up of the TEA Party is roughly 50% conservative Republicans, 30% conservative Independents and 20% conservative Democrats and virtually all of them are completely fed up and before the TEA Party came along, they were feeling pretty damn powerLESS. But it’s easy to see that if the TEA Party holds the politicians of both parties’ feet to the fire . . . they and “unaffiliated” groups actually control the political process because neither major party holds anywhere near a majority of the voting public's allegiance. It’s just a matter of proper leadership and wisely plotting the course of the groups’ activism and quite frankly, it doesn’t appear to Rajjpuut to be a necessarily expensive process. More on this later . . . .

For the most part, the TEA Party sympathizers belong to a group of people that Rasmussen calls “mainstream America.” The group of people that are largely responsible for frustrating mainstream America Rasmussen identifies as “the Political Class” How does Rasmussen delineate the two groups? Glad you asked . . . .

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2010/65_now_hold_populist_or_mainstream_views

Rasmussen said in his January 31st survey that 65% of potential voters hold Mainstream views while only 4% hold Political Class views. When “leaners” are factored in 76% of Americans hold Mainstream views and only 12% hold Political Class views. Specifically, polling showed 76% of voters generally trust the American people more than political leaders on important national issues. Seventy-one percent (71%) view the federal government as a special interest group looking out mainly for itself, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors. On each question, a majority of Republicans, and Democrats and unaffiliated voters shared those views. Rasmussen’s results would agree with Rajjpuut’s thinking that the Political Class believes that the politicians know what’s best for America and they are the experts and should be left alone to run the country.

Politicians and folks with government jobs, especially those cushy government jobs tend to belong the Political Class. In Rajjpuut’s memory the highest that Mainstream has ever surveyed is right now and the lowest that the Political Class has evered surveyed is right now. The lowest Mainstream numbers he ever remembers were around 49% and the highest political class numbers were roughly 26% or 27%. The lesson to be learned from this? There’s a lot of disenchantment out there and that disenchantment, if properly channeled is a potentially powerful force . . . a force for positive change.Let’s look specifically at why Mainstream voters are so fed up. Recent top gripes include these taken from the mouth of a mythical typical voter:

1. Politicians throwing money around in hopes of curing problems they created by spending money unwisely in the first place. Since unfunded obligations now have reached $108 TRillion, I’m highly upset.

2. Big company CEOs flying private jets and collecting big salaries while receiving billions of dollars of our bailout money.

3. Government telling us we must give up our freedoms and privacy if we ever want to be secure.

4. Politicians trying to control every aspect of our lives for their own benefit has got me boiling mad.

5. Politicians spending our children’s and grandchildren’s money to fund “set aside” programs that they refused to set aside funds for.

6. The mainstream media aligning itself with the political class virtually 100% of the time.

7. Angry citizens with legitimate gripes being labelled racists, extremists and dangerous violent by the Obama administration and the mainstream media.

8. Everything about the Federal Reserve Banking system and how it helped bring us to this fiscal sinkhole we’re in is totally aggravating to me. Now I understand my dollar is likely to be worth seven cents in about five years.

9. Government refusing to protect our borders.

10. Stimulus money spent without our approval.

11. Stimulus money not creating jobs but just being looted.

12. GM using a bailout slush fund of our money to “pay off its debt five years in advance when it only had one profitable quarter.

13. Chrysler now needing another bailout, their third, since I know good friends who’ve lost homes, cars and hope, I find this infuriating.

14. Some being called “too big to fail” being rewarded for their failure while the ordinary citizen who through no fault of his own has to fear losing his job is just taxed more to cover the bailouts.

15. Politicians, especially the Obama administration abusing the Constitution or using it like toilet paper.

16. Greater taxes and greater spending instead of really stimulating the economy by reducing government spending and slashing of taxes.

17. Government abusing the word “reform” when they only mean “greater government control.” REFORM means “making things better” and that’s not happening with the clowns now in office making our decisions. It’s enough to make you want to vote every one of the bums out of office.

18. Major legislation being passed by the slimmest possible vote margins instead of with 90% approval and both parties involved in crafting wise laws.

19. Having the largest (Baaken Fields) oil reserve in the world within our borders and paying an arm and a leg at the gas pump.

20. Knowing that in Europe (where their media even the ultra-liberal London Times keeps them informed) public opinion has now roundly rejected the notion of “global warming” in the face of the Climate-Gate revelations of scientific mal-practice and corruption of statiscal evidence and yet being faced with cap and trade legislation that will cost a minimum of $220 billion per year. Our media hasn't even run stories on Climate-Gate.

21. Seeing irrigation stopped in California and vegetable prices rise so that the EPA can protect a three-inch long fish. Let the EPA figure a cheap way to keep the fish safe and let farmers irrigate. 40% unemployment in parts of Fresno County is ridiculous! Have politicians NO common sense? I find it mind-boggling.

22. Seeing our tax money go to increase the size and complexity and interference-capability of the federal government when it should be going to increasing the number of jobs the private sector can create.

23. Hearing that a VAT (valued added tax) is about 85% likely after November’s elections on top of increased taxes for 2011 created by letting the Bush tax breaks expire and on top of horrendous income taxes.

24. Seeing that our president is 100% convinced he and only he knows best for us, and whatever thoughts we have about what an American government ought to look like and how it ought to be functioning are totally ignored.

25. Seeing that every day America, and everything good and strong and great about it, is being threatened by “transformation” that is becoming more and more of a nightmare. A big part of that nightmare is that our teachers are seemingly teaching that America is evil and needs to be drastically changed. Since those drastic changes include teaching first graders about homosexuality, trans-gender operations, and cross-dressing . . . I’m highly upset.

26. Seeing that the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX with Gore and Obama and Goldman Sachs as prominent players) stands to make, by their own admission, "Ten TRillion dollars selling and producing nothing, but just for handling cap and trade dealings in this country when I know that global-warming is NOT true and cap and trade is not needed just infuriates me. That's a severe conflict of interest for both men and yet the mainstream media won't publicize it.


The list above includes many of the problems that conservative, good and patriotic people are trying to cure when they become politically active by joining or sympathizing with the TEA Party. What can they do but gripe? Does anyone listen?

Politicians really DO tend to listen, especially when it’s nearing election day. Let’s look at the legacy of the TEA Party influence so far. Four elections*** with three resounding victories and one almost-miracle so far. In other words, the TEA Party activism is bringing about change and it’s not even involving huge expense. So why would, should the TEA Party people change a winning formula? They shouldn't. They're doing more to help the country with minimal expense and without becoming a vote-seeking political party then either of the two major parties combined-- don't change a winner!

The TEA Party also has a tremendous new tool at its disposal and to Rajjpuut’s knowledge it has NOT used it so far, more's the pity:

http://www.contractfromamerica.com/Idea.aspx

The TEA Party created this wonderful instrument the “Contract from America” and it’s not using it at all: huge mistake!

The ten items (voted on by sympathizers from the original twenty-one TEA Party concerns) in the Contract from America are perhaps the wisest set of values identified by any political group since the Magna Carta. In brief form, here they are:

And the top ten are…

1.Protect the Constitution


2. Reject Cap & Trade


3. Demand a Balanced Budget


4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform


5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington


6. End Runaway Government Spending


7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care


8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy


9. Stop the Pork


10. Stop the Tax Hikes

The TEA Party created this wonderful instrument and it’s really done nothing with it. The whole nation needs to educated as to what the TEA Party stands for, and not this brief listing above but rather a full and complete picture. For example, 71% of supporters regarded the #1 item on the list “Protect the Constitution” as important enough to be in their top ten from among the twenty-one items voted upon . . . but “Protect the Constitution is too vague. Their original document which Rajjpuut was NOT able to find, (How smart is that, TEA Party?) required every bill proposed in congress to reference the Constitution of the United States and to cite the provisions of the Constitution that allowed the bill to be considered.

So what’s a poor TEA Party to do?

A. Continue with the winning formula of educating and attracting more members compatible with the three main concerns: constitutionally-based government that’s fiscally-conservative, open^^^, transparent and accountable; and that represents the minimum government necessary to work for the people.

B. Practice high standards and non-violence at all times no matter what.

C. Continue holding the feet of all politicians of every political party and the independents too, very close to the fire. Evaluate all of 'em against the ten planks of the "Contract from America."That is the winning formula. Look for those who espouse and practice conservative minimalist government; and, if they don’t keep their word, kick them out next time and elect someone who respects the Contract from America who will keep their word.

D. EDUCATE! EDUCATE! EDUCATE! EDUCATE! EDUCATE! Imagine how much better America would be today if over the last twenty years Americans were educated and truly aware of what was going on in Washington. Imagine how much better Americans will be in 2020, IF 67% of Americans this year learn the ten TEA Party tenets in the Contract from America and 55% of Americans decide that those ten tenets are important.

E. Love America, read about America and study what America is really about and pass that on to your children and grandchildren.

F. By the way, by at least 2016, we should consider making congress a part-time entity, say 160 days every other year. We don’t need politicians and lawmakers, we need to elect statesmen and stateswomen who tinker with the people and the capitalist system the least and spend no more than necessary. Human nature being what it is, lawmakers tend to make laws whether they're needed or desirable or wanted or not, limit the possible mischief by limiting the time available for making laws.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

*** That is, two big wins in New Jersey and Virginia; and a really huge win in Massachusetts and helping an unfunded conservative oust the ultra-progressive Republican funded with $1 million of Republican money from an upstate New York race and almost defeat the semi-conservative Democratic candidate in the election.

^^^ Open means that perhaps 85% of what the congress does is NOT done behind close doors and both parties and the media are invited.

^^^ Transparent means that bills are clear, simple, short and easily understood and placed online for all voters to read-over 96-120 hours before the first procedural voting begins. Amendments (earmarks) not having anything to do with the fundamental purpose of the bill need to reference the constitution or better yet, be cut altogether from all the bill.

^^^ Accountable means that congressmen and the president honor our established processes; and the constitution; and the will of the voters and are willing to discuss these and the entirety of the bills they're voting on with the media and the people and to ensure that they do NOT personally profit in any way from the bill they're supporting.

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April, 2010 Platinum Fleecer Award


To honor the memory of the Last Great American Statesman, William Proxmire (Wisconsin Senator for 32 years) whose “Golden Fleece Awards” uncovered shameless pork barrel projects and focused media attention on all manner of self-serving, waste, and corruption in the United States government: Rajjpuut has since June, 2009, been awarding the “Platinum Fleecer” to the elected or appointed official or private citizen most deserving of the illustrious title.

The April 2010 Platinum Fleecer WINNER is:

California Representative Henry Waxman

Waxman hasn’t been as visible as he might have been, but whenever socialistic boondoggles are being contemplated, Waxman has been one of the main “enablers” for House Speaker Pelosi. Waxman, who has been feeding at the public trough in Washington D.C. for over thirty-five years, has since 2006, been Chairman of the House Oversight and Government "Reform" Committee which is supposed to be the principle agency looking out for the citizens’ well-being vis a vis government abuses . . . our single most helpful friend in D.C. Under Waxman’s “leadership,” however, the Reform Committee is just another boot on the public’s neck.

A few weeks ago, all the liberal media made a huge deal out of Henry Waxman saying he would force the CEOs of several large corporations to “come clean” about their recent financial reports (required by law) about how that fiscal disaster known as Obamacare would rape their companies’ solvency. Waxman, the media let us know, planned to punish the corporate leaders for their “irresponsible, politically-motivated statements saying that Obamacare was putting their businesses in financial jeopardy by dragging these CEOs into a hearing “where the truth will come out.” The CEO’s, of course, let it be known that their “revelations” were required by law. Yesterday, Waxman, weaseled out of the confrontation by cancelling the hearings which would have been, by his own design, extremely high profile. The CEOs are disappointed and the liberal leaning mainstream media is either choosing NOT to run the story of Waxman's cancellation, or burying it in a tiny paragraph on page 23.

Waxman is a weasel. He paraded before the photographers and TV cameramen implying he was going to expose these CEOs for their conspiracy to play politics on the American people by making it seem like his beloved Obamacare would set many of them on the road to bankruptcy . . . he would compel them to testify before the American people and bring the fat cats down in shame and defend Obamacare. Waxman, of course, never mentioned that these CEOs were required by laws created by the U.S. Congress to reveal this information on legal forms created by the congressional laws and that this information was uniformly bleak: Obamacare would devastate their companies. Now, not with such a grandiloquent bang, but rather a whisper, he announces the hearings will not take place. His motive, not to be embarrassed in public when his hearings could have been publicized to all Americans . . . and reveal the truth . . . which is exactly opposite to thestated purpose of the Committee that Waxman chairs, a committee designed about the new Obamacare law and to expose the fraud, waste, incompetence and self-serving nature of government programs.

The mainstream media, naturally, did NOT deem the follow-up story worthy of their time or newsprint (you know them, the same group that never fails to run unfounded allegations by Democrats of the TEA Party’s racism, hate-mongering and stupidity). If Waxman was a huge enabler of Obamacare, the mainstream media is a huge enabler of the Henry Waxmans running this country.

Throwing dirt onto corporate America and others who create the jobs and opportunity responsible for greatness is a common Waxman ploy. Apparently the fellow has never seen honest work he doesn’t despise. This compulsory hearing (lots of talk about subpoenas being served in the original story) was to be just another of Waxman’s crusades against evil capitalists . . . but it bit him in the butt and the weasel didn’t have the grace to announce that he was wrong, the CEOs were right and Obamacare would bankrupt the nation as well as its companies – that would have been way too forthright for our public servant Henry Waxman.

Congratulations, April, 2010 Platinum-Fleecer Award winner, California Democratic Representative Henry Waxman , you've certainly weaseled your way into this award!

Ya’ll live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

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Obama Credibility Gap Widens on Eight Issues

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

According to today’s Rasmussen Reports, skepticism is the word of the day. Most Americans, it seems, lack confidence in the stability of the banking system (54%), most doubt that they will receive their promised Social Security benefits (58%), and most (59%) believe there is significant disagreement within the scientific community about Global Warming. In another problematical area, President Obama indicated immigration reform bills will be brought to Congress soon. In Arizona, 70% favor new legislation there giving police the legal authority to stop and check the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. This too fits into the theme of skepticism because polls have repeatedly shown that voters do not think the federal government is serious about reducing illegal^^^ immigration. Of course 55% of the people want the Obamacare law repealed. Dare Rajjpuut mention that in a poll Katie Couric revealed on CBS news*** showed a few months back, only one in every 14 or 15 Americans believed that Obama’s (2nd) $787 Billion Stimulus had created or saved ANY jobs at all.

It seems that the cynics out there have good, make that GREAT reason, for their doubts. Recent figures show that over eight million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession in October, 2007, thirty months ago. and over four million of those jobs have been lost during Obama’s fifteen months in office. In short, his promise that we will never see 8% unemployment if his stimulus bill was passed not only was just another case of Obama’s mouth writing another check his performance couldn’t cash . . . but his actions including the stimulus hurt the economy and cost us over four million more jobs. Add in one more tricky fact and, if it’s true as it appears to be . . . the Obama Administration fudged the stats to make the jobs situation appear much better than it was . . . it's the unusual question of what exactly DID he inherit, 130 million jobs or 134 million jobs? We know that at the peak of the Bush administration 138 million non-farm jobs existed.

Recently the administration while discussing all the jobs they have been busy “saving or creating,” has been using the number 130 million non-farm jobs as they discuss the economy, but back in January or February, 2009, the baseline for the economy was 134 million non-farm jobs. Why did those four million jobs get dropped from their jobs discussions? And why is Obama acting like 130 million non-farm jobs is what he inherited? Right now an investigation is looking into that question, but Rajjpuut knows where they went, everyone of the four million. In exchange for the government jobs created by the Obama government expansion, the rest were destroyed . . . that is they, like the Confederacy, are gone with the wind. Guv-jobs for radicals in exchange for destroying the economy, lovely, just lovely.

Barack Obama says, “Trust me,” or something similar, quite often, but . . . when it comes to Obamacare’s cost; unemployment; stimulus effectiveness or lack of it; illegal immigration; Social Security; the banking system; global warming; and the process to pass it, constitutionality and benefits of Obamacare . . . on every one of these eight issues Americans are telling him in no uncertain terms, “No, Mr. President, we don’t.” And the incredible trust Barack Obama enjoyed on January 20, 2009? It too has gone with the wind.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

^^^ Some think of them as “undocumented Democrats” whose upcoming citizenship (should Obama's "reforms" pass) will create a jobs-cataclysm no one would have believed just fifteen months ago when the audacity of hope made its premier . . .

*** It was November 29, 2009 to be exact. Back then Couric said, “Although President Obama has been in office less than a year, many Americans are growing disenchanted with his handling of the enormous problems he and the country are facing, from healthcare to unemployment to Afghanistan. His poll numbers are sliding, and at least one poll shows his job approval rating has fallen, for the first time, below 50 percent."

Correspondent Chris Reid chimed in: “The president is getting battered on everything from the economy to foreign policy, some polls show Americans are increasingly questioning his credibility.”

The report asserted that while Obama talks about dealing with unemployment, which is near 10 percent and was at 10 per cent then and expected to rise, he has developed “no new ideas” for dealing with the problem. CBS also cited a poll showing that only 14 percent of Americans believe Obama’s claim that healthcare reform won’t add to the budget deficit, and less than 7 percent believed that the stimulus had created any jobs at all. The late November report also criticized the president for being “indecisive” on Afghanistan, and for returning from his recent Asian trip “with little to show for it.” An expert was quoted as describing his trip to China and the Far East as an “amateur hour,” because he did not line up agreements with foreign countries before venturing abroad. Couric labeled these problems a growing “Obama credibility gap.”

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As the number of states filing lawsuits against the obamination obamacare increases every day, a Tennessee congressional candidate, Van Irion, has filed a Class Action lawsuit against the unconstitutional bill. Americans watched with horror as this process played out in congress, and as the shock is wearing off, anger is now setting in. This highly unethical and unconstitutional process will be put to the test in our court system, and people are signing on in droves.

TN CANDIDATE FILES OBAMACARE CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
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http://www.forbes.com/2002/07/25/accountingtracker.html

If Ol’ Rajjpuut were to visit the web link above and take the top twenty-two corporate scandals before 2003 and then throw in our present financial Armageddon’s corporate misdeeds and add them all together . . . that is, all the Wall Street, all the Bank and lending institutions, and AIG insurance malfeasance dropped into the mix already created . . . and stack all that money in a pile of George Washingtons, one-dollar bills. We’re talking about a stack reaching roughly the distance from the earth to the moon and back down and once around the earth’s equator . . . a truly significant stack of money -- so far, so good.

IF now in a separate pile we take the full cost of federal government malfeasance from just nine sources including both debt and unfunded obligations: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid’s federal component, the two separate stimulus bills in late 2008 and early 2009, and the cost of the government’ three mortgage-guarantee bills (‘1977 Community Re-investment act; 1992 expansion forcing Fanny and Freddy to join the CRA ’77; and Clinton’s 1998 mortgage-guarantee on steroids expansion of the two earlier bills) and finally the so-called health care ‘reform’ law popularly known as “Obamacare.” In the government stack let’s use Ulysses S. Grant, fifty-dollar bills. And, lo and behold the government’s stack of fifties is roughly the same size as the stack of ones . . . oooooops, maybe we shouldn’t be giving government all this control of our lives.

Now Rajjpuut isn’t saying financial reform isn’t needed. True reform is, indeed needed. But “Barack Banking” as contained in the 3,137 pages of the bill before the House of Representatives is just a ploy to expand government control and also a subterfuge to allow all the ACORN-clones now operating under different names to receive renewed funding from the federal government. This is quadruple-dangerous because all Rajjpuut’s loyal readers now realize that ACORN and lawyers like Barack Obama were the agents provacateur abusing the three poorly-written and poorly-conceived mortgage-guarantee laws to force banks and lending-institutions to grant ridiculously unwise loans to people without jobs; people without I.D.; people with abysmal credit ratings; people without home addresses; and especially undocumented illegal aliens. These Cloward-Piven actions by ACORN are the single-most exacerbating events responsible for the creation of the housing bubble and the sub-prime lending crisis that brought this country to its knees.

Given all the evidence, let us just say this: government is ever trending toward becoming more and more government-centric and it’s becoming more and more difficult if not impossible to get government to pay attention to the Constitution, the people and the states . . . in today’s world government only listens to government and the itch to build more government is their main rallying point. This Barack Banking bill is just one more example of a GIB/GSB (government interference boondoggle/government spending boondoggle) that is truly aimed at giving government more power and corrupt ACORN a brand new lease on life with our tax money.

Ya’ll live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

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It gets tougher and tougher to keep up with the ever-shifting sand underneath America's freedoms and the fight to keep shifty congressional hands away from our pocketbooks, not to mention staying current with the “shifting nature” of Obamatruth itself. It's a monstrous quagmire -- here are a few items you might be interested in . . . .

Item:

Obamacare, should it stand against legal challenges, requires over $3.9 billion in taxes from the middle class according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the official Congressional scorekeeper for legislation's tax effects. The new law begins somewhat gently and overall raises $15.2 Billion over a ten-year period but reaches the $3.9 Billion threshold in 2019 by limiting medical expense deductions on income tax. Present law allows a tax deduction of 10% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for medical expenses, but Obama care would cut that deduction to 7.5% of AGI which makes it not only a new tax on those earning less than $200,000 but surprisingly a new tax on sick middle-class Americans.

Item:

U.S. Congress members and their staffs are furious about Obamacare taking away their present “Cadillac” congressional health insurance (which did NOT happen to Reid, Pelosi and some of the top Democratic committee heads and their staffs). Rajjpuut is shocked. But, of course, these things will happen if you don’t actually read the bill you’re passing, eh?

Item:

The number of legal challenges mounted against the constitutionality of Obamacare by individual states threatened by the new law (Obamacare would eventually bankrupt each and every state of the union) has reached twenty-one while another 18-20 states are considering action. Florida actually has filed two separate suits against the federal government based upon Obamacare’s illegal status. Of course, it would be a lot easier to impose big government on the mass of American voters if all those nasty state governments weren’t in the middle shielding people.

Item:

Today is Tax Day, April 15th. 67 million American families, and most earning under $50,000, will pay little or no taxes and 73 million families will pay 98% of all taxes. In accepted tax theory “the rabble” gets real dangerous as they approach becoming the majority in any democracy because then they theoretically can feel free to demand all sorts of services from government and vote all the taxes upon the minority who will pay for all that government. Nevertheless, over the years 67%-70% of Americans consistently (69% in a recent study) say that the maximum responsible tax load anyone should bear, regardless of income is 20%. Currently 35% is the maximum tax level on any Americans due to the Bush policies. When those laws expire on January 1, 2011, the Obama tax requirements will immediately jump to 40% maximum taxes and aim at conversion to 77% taxes by 2013. Since many who pay no taxes also get “refundable tax credits” which thus amounts to a tiny, but guaranteed income . . . . we already have socialism in America.

Item:

Seven of the top eight state income taxers are suffering the seven highest rates of emigration out of their states. High tax states like New York, New Jersey, Massachussets and California are actually losing taxpayers to states like Florida, Texas, Nevada, Colorado or New Hampshire. New Hampshire with no state income tax benefits immeasurably when talented high earners from New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts get frustrated and decide to pull up stakes. The high tax states are the ones with the largest number or percentages of state employees; where the states involved offer them the highest pay and highest benefits; and those employees are members of the most vocal and strongest unions.

Item:
http://www.libertycentral.org/index.html Most people don't know that Liberty Central is actually a bigger "support the U.S. Constitution" movement than the TEA Parties. According to its president, Virginia "Ginny" Thomas, White wife of Black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, her organization and the TEA Party movement are disparaged by the mainstream media and MIS-characterized as racist and unintelligent hate-groups, but these two organizations truly reflect "the heartfelt concerns of patriotic Americans everywhere demanding a return to fiscal responsibility, eliminating deficits, and honoring the Constitution itself." Rajjpuut says, only 7% of the Obama administration and cabinet at all levels have ever held real jobs outside of education and politics and their unceasing "racism" charge against the TEA Party is an attack by the true racists and haters in hopes of using the confusion that arises in continuing their control over our country.

Item:
A recent USA Today newspaper poll showed that those who view the TEA (“taxed enough already”) Party favorably are somewhat wealthier and more educated than the voters at large . . . this despite the lamestream media’s efforts to label all TEA Partiers as uneducated rightwing racist buffoons. In the study, over 50% of those viewing the TEA Party movement favorably were either Independents or Democrats (despite the efforts of Nancy Pelosi to call the movement a “astro-turf” or “fake grassroots” movement created strictly by ultra-right wing Republicans) and Republicans while still the largest single sector in the survey constituted a minority of TEA Party membership and TEA Party advocates.

Item:

Kudos to President Obama for the words spoken about his new space agenda as he revealed in his Florida speech today, Far from dismantling the space program, he talked about revitalizing NASA and revealed some very ambitious forward-thinking dreams. Remember this for pennies on the dollar, NASA has been the best investment American Government has ever made. Flat screen TVS; Tang (hee-hee); GPS navigation systems; cell phones; etc. are just 0.1% Too many jobs were at stake. Too much technical advancement was at stake. Too much national pride was at stake. Rajjpuut would, however, advise the president, to replace his own totally-inept NASA supervisory staff or perhaps better yet, eliminate them altogether. Right now his speech amounts to a lot of pretty words only . . . unless competent people are put in charge of things, that’s all they’ll remain pretty words.

Item:

Rajjpuut denies that any provable global warming caused by human actions is occurring. Certainly, the recent Climate Gate revelations of global warming fraud by scientists would back up his point of view. However, the huge recent Icelandic volcanic ash clouds that are cancelling flights all over northern Europe may make us wish we REALLY HAD been creating global warming. In past history, volcanic eruptions have severely affected weather and even climate (long-range weather patterns) and caused frigid conditions such as the 1816 “Year without a Summer” also known as “1800 and Froze to Death.”
Item:
This nation's oil dependency on the Middle East costs American soldiers dearly. Every time the cost of a gallon of gas increases a dollar the Iranians gain $1.6 Billion from us. Iran is the top exporter of terrorism in the world and designer of some of the worst improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that have endangered, maimed and killed our boys.
Item:
Comedian Mark Klein told a crowd that the difference between Obama and terrorist Osama bin Laden is that "one is an anti-capitalist trying to destroy America. The other is hiding in Afghanistan."

Ya’ll live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

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The infamous words of all-too corrupt Nancy Pelosi have returned to bite the country in the butt. “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it . . .” the irresponsible Speaker of the House said. While the lambs were being led to slaughter, many of us did know and tried to head it off. Of course, President Obama, Veep Biden, the White House staff, Nancy and other senior members of the Congress and leadership staff there are all exempt . . . so the first thing the country is finding out is that ObamaCare is too much of a threat for our “leaders” to treat themselves to it.

Across the nation at least 7% of all residents are not covered by ObamaCare despite its huge pricetags. In the first full decade the law will cost a minimum of $2.4 TRillion despite removing Medicare Advantage coverage for older citizens. Health Savings Account (HSA) owners will either need to buy new policies are ante-up stiff penalty bucks. Although benefits for the most part won’t start until 2014, taxpayers will begin paying ObamaCare taxes NOW and there are a total of 19 new taxes imposed on us because of ObamaCare’s passage into law.

The CBO estimates that 8-9 million people will now lose their employer-provided health care coverage despite Mr. Obama’s promise “people who like their insurance now can keep it.” Expect a huge new tax burden. Here’s what Nancy dropped on us . . . .

Employers must buy government approved health coverage if they have 50 employees or more and at least one of their employess receives a tax credit for health care or pay a yearly penalty of $2,000 per employee.

16,500 new IRS agents will be hired to enforce the taxes mentioned here and other new ObamaCare taxes . . .

The first federal sales tax in the American Republics history has been passed: 10% tax on all earnings from tanning salons paid directly to the federal government.

Individuals must buy a government approved health policy or they must pay a yearly penalty of $695 or up to 2.5% of their income.

Families must buy a government approved health policy or pay a penalty of $347 per child up to $2,250 per family.

All home sales and all other real estate transaction will be taxed 3.8%. Middle income sellers even if they immediately buy a home the very same day must pay this tax which amounts to $7,600 on a $200,000 home.

Medicare taxes are increased on single taxpayers earning $200,000 or more and couples earning $250,000 a year or more (thus it is a huge marriage penalty tax) by an additional 0.9%.

A new 2.9% medical aid tax on items that never were taxed before has now been imposed. All these and many other Obamacare taxes start immediately.

In 2018, however, those of us with so-called “Cadillac health care plans will be imposed a 40% annual tax if their plan is valued at $10,200 for individuals or more and for families if valued at $27,500 or more. Mr. Obama’s union friends, however, will be exempted from taxes on their Cadillac plans.

Projections made by business leaders recently say that by 2018 taxes associated with Obamacare will cost the country over four million additional lost jobs.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

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Hillary Clinton back in Newsweek in 1994 or 1995 said “Abortion is wrong.” Now she’s not only shifted her stance, but she’s gotten downright impolite about it . . . going to one of our biggest allies and taken to telling them how to run their country, ugh! Understanding that the Canucks were aiming to make maternal health the showpiece of Canada’s initiative at the next G-8 summit, Hillary, attacking that plan by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said “You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health and reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion.” Talk about bad manners!

So now Hillary is telling the Canadians they must have abortion-on-demand and is willing to scold Canadians in Canada about that, but also she is indicating just how invalid the little Obama piece of paper promising Bart Stupak his anti-federally funded abortion dreams is going to work out to be. Dumb, Bart, really, really stupid! Now the normal province of the Secretary of State is clearly NOT publically pushing abortion for other nations . . . so where did this come from? Answer: Obama is trying to connect to his abortion-loving progressive-wing and remind them, “When I said that to Bart Stupak, I was only funnin’, only funnin’" . . . So Obamacare is NOT funding abortions, has been proven to be just another lie. Ah well, it was just a matter of time till the matter was taken to the Supreme Court and Stupak’s idiocy was ascertained for good. Now you know . . . your taxes will fund elective abortions. Just another Obama lie.

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Barak Obama has uttered a string of lies that will probably never be equaled by any man or politician if the earth lasts 50 billion years. Among his last 10,000 or so prevarications, Ol' Rajjpuut here lists some of the most obvious affronts to the truth. In selected cases comments have been added . . . .

"I will serve out my full six-year senate term. You know, Tim, if you get asked enough,
sooner or later you get weary and you start looking for new ways of saying things. But my thinking has not changed. I will not run for president or vice-president in 2008..”

"This stimulus money will prevent unemployment from reaching 8%."

"I am not an ideologue."

". . . will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

"This is NOT socialized medicine."

"I am NOT a socialist, I’m not."

"There will be no increased taxes for the middle class."

"There will be no tax increases for persons making $200,000 yearly or less or families earning $250,000 or less."

"I will be the jobs president."

"We will clean up Washington."

"We’ll run the cleanest, most open and transparent administration in history."

"We’ll have C-SPAN right in the room with us during the health care proceedings."

"I’m always open to bi-partisan suggestions . . . ."

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States . . . ."

"This bill will reduce the deficit and lower the national debt."

"Before this all happened, I made every possible effort to prevent the housing crisis."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloward%E2%80%93Piven_strategy Actually, Obama was an ACORN attorney helping the corrupt Cloward-Piven styled organization use shake-down tactics to abuse the three mortgage-guarantee laws and force banks and other lending institution into making dozens of thousands in bad loans to would-be home owners without ID; without jobs; with horrific credit ratings; without downpayments in most cases; to illegal aliens in some cases. Just as C-P's original organization, the NWRO (National Welfare Rights Organization), bankrupted New York City and just missed bankrupting the entire state of New York in 1975 by abusing and overloading the welfare laws . . . ACORN with attorneys like Obama, used the same intimidation tactics to create the sub-prime lending crisis and brought the entire nation to its knees by the end of 2007. The laws in question were all passed by Democratic congresses: Carter's Community Reinvestment Act of '77; the '92 expansion which forced Fannie and Freddie to take part in the same type of mortgage-guarantees; and the Clinton '98 expansion that put the whole process on steroids and played right into ACORN's hands.

"Winning the war in Iraq has always been very important to me."

"Our energy plan will decrease the need for foreign oil."

"I will bring the troops home all of them."

"We’re not going to take over the automotive business, we’re just helping the car companies get over a rough spot . . . . "

"We have created or saved 600,000 jobs."

"We have created or saved 2,000,000 jobs."

"The Atlantic coastline is not the place to look for the answer to our energy problems." Yesterday he gave a confusing set of directives that appear to set in motion a renewal of offshore drilling from the Florida Keys to New Jersey.
"The Recession is over." He's made that statement four different times, perhaps, eventually he may be right when he says it.
"Israel is our most important Middle-East ally, we will never turn our back on Israel." The deliberate creation of a 'crisis' between Israel and us and the recent shunning of the Israeli Prime Minister in the White House speak volumes about our ex-Muslim President's commitments.

"There have been an awful lot of lies told about what’s in this bill, here are the facts: this legislation will improve health care delivery and lower costs for families and businesses and reduce our deficits." The less said about the falsehoods contained in the Obamacare law and the sick process used to pass it the better . . . but those four statements are outright lies.

"America wants this bill."

"I have never been a Muslim. I have never practiced Islam. I have always been a Christian." Actually, Barak Obama was a star student in the Muslim school he attended in Indonesia. He also twice willingly put on Muslim attire to campaign in 2007 on behalf of the Communist candidate for president in his birth-father's country, Kenya. Raila Odinga, that candidate, signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" in exchange for Muslim votes that if elected he would make Kenya a Muslim country. When the 'memorandum' was discovered the revelation of the features of the understanding were so objectionable that purportedly that discovery alone wrecked his chances of election. The Muslims in Kenya wanted laws against radio programs promoting other religions; laws agains missionary activities by other religions; etc. Barak Obama was a knowing part of that. Odinga (educated at the University of East Berlin before "The Wall" came down) and the Kenyan Muslims were responsible for the subsequent riots and arsons against the Christians in that country, but Barak Obama lent his name to Odinga's candidacy and rallied the Muslims to his cause.
"America will have five days to look over this bill."

(at the “Bi-partisan summit”) "That is just not true, we need to get our facts straight." Obama, supposedly moderating this conference impartially, continually interrupted every telling fact or idea of the Republicans attending to call them lies or "talking points" and re-emphasize his own misguided or false principles.

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Ol’ Rajjpuut says it’s not a question of “IF,” but rather “WHEN” the U.S. Supreme Court calls Obamacare unconstitutional and sends it back to congress for a do-over. Right now ten states, led by Virginia which is suing on two separate fronts, have filed suit against the federal government for Obamacare miscues. At the same time a total of at least 38 states other than Virginia are seeking to pass recommended model state legislation so that they can have their ducks in order to challenge the federal government against Obamacare.

One weakness, Rajjpuut sees, is that some of the states are talking about Commerce Act challenges rather than direct Constitutional challenges or challenging on both issues. This is a major mistake. The court has always been reluctant to screw around with the Constitution but might very well jump at a chance to modify the Commerce Act.
Since bankruptcy of all 50 states is at stake, Rajjpuut suggests every bullet be fired and instantaneous reloading take place.

As it stands the provisions of Obamacare that force individual states to take over a much augmented Medicaid and a very much augmented state role in paying for Medicaid are almost certain to bankrupt all 50 of the states with the possible exception of Texas (which has special doctor-friendly and insurance-friendly laws in place) by 2020 or 2022 at the latest. This much you already know if you’re a loyal reader of Rajjpuut’s Folly here or at TownHall.com . . . Listening to Fox News the other night was quite enlightening . . . .

The United States is not some single monlithic entity called “America” but rather a federal system of government with the national government holding some important dominion over 50 semi-autonomous states. The Bill of Rights of the Constitution is sort of like a protective armor designed to negate much of the potentially most objectionable power grabs that the national government (acting upon the states and upon the individual citizens) might attempt. Perhaps the least appreciated and little understood of all the Bill of Rights’ ten amendments is the 10th and last amendment which limits the power of the national government just to assume powers willy-nilly a la Obama and his czars and Obamacare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Amendment

The 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The main reason the states will have a powerful case arguing against the provisions of Obamacare that will bankrupt them is that like so much of what Barak Obama has done his so-called “reforms” under Obamacare are merely commandeering the state legislature’s role in every one of the 50 states for federal purposes which always in the past the Supreme Court has labeled “unconstitutional.” In a nutshell the key question is this: “Should the U.S. Government be allowed to pass laws and programs and force the states to pay for them?” If you wanted a stronger form of the question, “Can the federal government be allowed to pass laws, then force the states to pay for them and bankrupt the states?”

This question about the U.S. Congress regulating state governments has been asked many times and always the answer has been a resounding, “NO!” In Obamacare, as the law now exists, Congress has told the states to modify their health care regulation; they must surrender some areas of health care regulations; and they must spend state taxpayer money in the exact manner that the U.S. Congress is telling them to spend it. The U.S. Congress is removing all self-determination and discretion from the state governments in the health care arena.

According to Fox News senior judicial analyst and former New Jersey Superior Judge and author of the book “Lies the Government Told You,” Andrew P. Napolitano, the longstanding precedent of state regulation of the health care industry and healthcare insurance makes the new sweeping federal legislation “all the more problematic” continuing to say, “Barak Obama is one of the worst presidents in terms of obedience to constitutional limitations. I believe we are run by a one-party system in this country called the ‘big-government party.' " The judge went on to delineate a Republican branch that likes war and deficits and assaulting civil liberties. There is a Democratic branceh that likes welfare and taxes and deficits and assaulting commercial liberties. " President Obama stands squarely with the most leftist portion of the Democratic branch.”
Many people today, believe that the differences between today's ordinary American citizens and their government is much larger than the 18th Century differences between Great Britain and the colonists . . . which is another way of saying what the judge has emphasized here. And the reasons for this? In Rajjpuut's view, the communistic leanings of Barak Obama added to the already entrenched view of the Congress that they constitute a privileged special interest group not beholden to the ordinary voter -- this has made the electorate feel that our country's traditions are being struck down in the name of more power for the politicians.

Napolitano is also no lover of FDR, for the same reasons he criticizes Obama. But he would surprise virtually everyone by saying that when it comes to “constitutional fidelity” the least loyal to the provisions of the constitution was Abraham Lincoln. “He waged war on about half the country, without authority for that in the Constitution, a war that killed 700,000 people if civilians are included. Obama is already close to Lincoln and has surpassed FDR in stepping on the Constitution. Ol’ Rajjpuut has known plenty of southerners who blanched at the term the “Civil War” and preferred to call it “The War of Northern Aggression" as they had been taught in their schools” but from a N.J. judge that’s gotta be a surprise . . . .

Back to Obamacare, the judge continues: “the states have had a role in health care delivery for 233 years, a big role since about 1920, and a huge role since Medicaid was passed in 1965, there is no precedent for the federal government to just move in there. I predict that the U.S. Supreme Court will invalidate major portions of the law the president just signed.” However, according to Napolitano, the bad news is that many of the laws provisions will not be "challengable" until 2014 when they’d go into effect. In any case, the Judge says it takes the average court case four years to pass through the system to reach the Supreme Court. “You’re talking abut 2018 which is eight years from now.

Rajjpuut, of course sees a cleaner, better world and has a better way, the thing to do is for 38 states (the 3/4 necessary for citizen creation of a new amendment to the Constitution) to pass an amendment repealing Obamacare and all its provision, eliminating all the 159 new federal bureaucracies created by the law, and unhiring all 1,650 new IRS agents required by the law. This is the single most magic action awaiting the TEA Party's commitment. There has never before been an Amendment created for the Constitution, this is the TEA Party's divine purpose if ever there was one!

Other points raised by the Judge include . . . .

The federal government lacks constitutional authority to order citizens to purchase healthcare insurance or fine them for not doing so.

The sweetheart deals still in the Obamacare law are definitely unconstitutional. The Gatorade exception, Louisiana Purchase and others “create a very unique and tricky constitutional problem (they violate the equal protection clauses and equal process clauses) because they treat some citizens differently from others” based upon the state they’re living in “so these benefits or bribes whatever you call them” force people in other states "to pay for the benefits of states that pay less.”

The U.S. Constitution created the federal government and it was “not created to right every wrong, but rather to operate only in the seventeen specific, discrete areas where the Constitution empowered it to act.”

One of the more objectionable parts of the law was that a takeover of the student college loan industry was added into the bill so that students taking out loans could partially fund Obamacare. Included in the law was an exception so that a congressional member’s bank (he partially owns it, Rajjpuut believes) could still stay in the student loan business.

Exempting union members from so-called “Cadillac taxes” on expensive health care insurance policies while imposing a direct tax on other citizens is “outright discrimination” and unconstitutional.

“This health care legislation will prove that the UNlimited government folks are WRONG in a very direct and in-your-face way.”

A group very much in tune with Judge Napolitano is the recently-emerged TEA^^^ Party (acronym: Taxed Enough Already) which buys his arguments 100% and seeks to find fiscal-conservatives to back this November. One strong reason for the great distress of TEA Party members: Obama's budget initiatives carried into the future have been shown by the Congressional Budget Office to increase the National Debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio from an alarmingly high 53% to an incredible 90+%. The last nation to embark willingly on such a plan was Japan in the late 80's and early 90's. Today Japan, once thought of as an economic super power, faces a debt/GDP ratio of 192% and her glory days are far behind her.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut

^^^http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/march_2010/most_say_tea_party_has_better_understanding_of_issues_than_congress

Voters across the nation feel closer to the Tea Party movement than they do to Congress according to the latest Rasmussen poll. 52% of U.S. voters believe the average member of the Tea Party movement has a better understanding of the issues facing America today than the average member of Congress while only 30% believe that those in Congress have a better understanding of those key issues. 47% think that their own political views are closer to those of the average Tea Party member than to the views of the average member of Congress. On this point, 26% feel closer to Congress. 46% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is more ethical than the average member of Congress. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say that the average member of Congress is more ethical. There is a wide divide between the tiny Political Class and Mainstream Americans on these questions. Seventy-five percent (75%) of those in the Political Class say that members of Congress are better informed on the issues. Among Mainstream Americans, 68% have the opposite view, and only 16% believe Congress is better informed. By a 62% to 12% margin, Mainstream Americans say the Tea Party is closer to their views. By a 90% to one percent (1%) margin, the Political Class feels closer to Congress.

http://rajjpuutsfolly.blogtownhall.com/2010/03/27/cbo_analysis_by_2020,_obama_budget_will_bankrupt__nation.thtml

http://rajjpuutsfolly.blogtownhall.com/2010/03/26/high_time_for_tea_party__major_parties_to_enact.thtml

http://rajjpuutsfolly.blogtownhall.com/2010/03/26/41_of_dems_say_republicans_should_challenge_obamacare_law_and_63_of_americans_agree_in_cbs_poll.thtml

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National Debt Will Grow to 90% of Gross Domestic Project by 2020

You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time and the Congressional Budget Office too much of the time. However, just as it’s not nice to fool Mama Nature, sooner or later the CBO usually does the job they’re paid to do and the fooling around stops. After showing the testicles of an emasculated amoeba and failing to stand up to the Obamacare budget projections last week, this week the CBO finally stopped squeaking liking mice and stood up like men and after projecting Obama’s budgets out into the future said:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/112xx/doc11231/frontmatter.shtml

The CBO's preliminary analysis indicates the following:

If the President’s proposals were enacted, the federal government would record deficits of $1.5 trillion in 2010 and $1.3 trillion in 2011. Those deficits would amount to 10.3 percent and 8.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), respectively. By comparison, the deficit in 2009 totaled 9.9 percent of GDP.

Measured relative to the size of the economy, the deficit under the President’s proposals would fall to about 4 percent of GDP by 2014 but would rise steadily thereafter. Compared with CBO’s baseline projections, deficits under the proposals would be about 2 percentage points of GDP higher in fiscal years 2011 and 2012, 1.3 percentage points greater in 2013, and above baseline levels by growing amounts thereafter. By 2020, the deficit would reach 5.6 percent of GDP, compared with 3.0 percent under CBO’s baseline projections.

Under the President’s budget, debt held by the public would grow from $7.5 trillion (53 percent of GDP) at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion (90 percent of GDP) at the end of 2020. As a result, net interest would more than quadruple between 2010 and 2020 in nominal dollars (without an adjustment for inflation); it would expand from 1.4 percent of GDP in 2010 to 4.1 percent in 2020.

The yearly interest on the national debt as a budget entity by 2020 would prohibit virtually any semblance of normalcy. And that's NOT diminishing or paying down the debt, just paying interest upon it. As all truly aware citizens know, the reason for the upcoming drops in deficits shown by the CBO are that a series of new front-loaded taxes are about to be sprung upon the nation (great idea during a recession, eh?) to pay for Obamacare and all the projections for incredible benefits from Obamacare all the while cutting deficits is based upon the most optimistic possible scenarios for economic bounce-back.

Since the “jobs-president” rather than concentrating on jobs has been doing everything possible to annihilate jobs with his jobs-busting economic policies . . . it is very possible that the economic situation come 2020 may be considerably much worse than the CBO projects. Since the president has a whole deskload of initiatives like amnesty and citizenship for illegal aliens on his plate that are all very expensive GIBs and GSBs (Government Interference and Government Spending Boondoggles) . . . it is very possible that the economic situation come 2020 may be much, much worse than the CBO projects. Since Obama is looking to make many more “fundamental transformations” to this country . . . it is very possible that the economic situation come 2020 may be much, much, much worse than the CBO projects. It does NOT appear that Obama is through spending this year or ever.

Rajjpuut suggests three new Amendments to the U. S. Constitution (1. Obamacare and all its effects be immediately repealed 2. Federalism Amendment prevents country from passing laws that state governments must pay for such as Medicaid which is set to bankrupt every state by 2020 3. Federal spending be limited to 12.5% of the previous year’s GDP); that come November the voters reject all those who supported Obamacare; and that Obama be voted out for incompetence and operating contrary to his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9610.html

http://www.politico.com/static/PPM41_eastafrica.html

Visit these two links. Read the words from Barak Hussein Obama, Sr., our president’s father, as he tells us the benefits of 100% taxes for Kenya. He didn't think mere socialism was good enough for Kenya, but that the country needed 100% taxes a.k.a. communism and his non-ending diatribes got him kicked out of government. His son devoted his first autobiography "Dreams from My Father" to that man but took great pains never to reveal his politics. As said and proven in these pages often before, President Barak Obama is a communist and his birth-father, mother and grandfather were all communists. The man is doing all he hoped to do, he is overthrowing the American way of life.

Ya’all live long, strong and ornery,

Rajjpuut


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The VAT Cometh

The only way to pay for the behemoth government takeover health care bill is with taxes, taxes and more taxes. You conveniently won't hear much about the upcoming taxes until after the November 2010 mid-term elections, and of course the tax increases already implemented will not hit until early 2011 either. The big push will be the european-style socialized Value Added Tax, more commonly known as VAT.

The VAT Cometh
This massive new entitlement needs a cash cow
http://tinyurl.com/ykpo3f3

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