The Representatives From America @ Margaret Thatcher's Funeral

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Even with the Islamic fascist attacks on April 15 in Boston foremost in mind I wondered from time to time during the week who was representing America @ the Thatcher funeral?  On the day of the funeral I saw BO & Biden appear together on TV so I knew for sure it would not be either of them.

 

In fact BO declined to send anyone from his administration with reasons (excuses) like "This is a hugely significant week in terms of U.S. domestic politics" – with that statement issued before the terrorist bombings @ the Boston Marathon.  BO also differentiated between a state funeral (the monarch) & the head of government (the prime minister).  Any old excuse would do to not honor President Reagan's greatest ally.  At least 170 countries were represented @ the service.

 

I have always found that it is these types of silly issues (like not going to funerals or not putting your hand over your heart during the playing of the national anthem) that so clearly identifies enemies of America.  Or in the case of Hugo Chavez – going to his funeral. 

 

People from America who attended the services @ St. Paul's Cathedral in London included Michele Bachmann, Marsha Blackburn, Dick Cheney, George Shultz, Jim Baker, Newt Gingrich, Henry Kissinger, a representative of Nancy Reagan, & American born Amanda Thatcher, granddaughter of the late Prime Minister.

 

Click here to hear Amanda, currently a college student @ the University of Richmond, read from the King James Version of Paul's letter to the Ephesians Chapter 6, verses 10-18. 

 

The poise, professionalism, & class with which this message was delivered by this young woman far exceeded anything I have ever heard any of the people in BO's administration who declined to attend the funeral ever say.

 

Restoring The Heart That Has Been Torn Out Of America

The recent posting entitled The Price Of Not Being Involved brought many comments & discussions but none summed up the price of not being involved better than "I lived the Norman Rockwell years and like most of my generation, grew complacent and never dreamed it would end up this way."

 

I know many people who still have not recovered from BO's reelection – his win in the November election has torn the heart out of many people who worked for candidates who lost & lost badly.  As for me - I haven't gotten over his first election.

 

I have attended many events where I can see the emotional discouragement.  Just last week on April 15 many people came up to me @ our FairTax Post Office Event & after thanking me for being there with the team I had assembled to help pass out pocket cards said things like "we're gone" or "what difference does it make – we're just a welfare state now."  We reached a ripe audience of disgusted taxpayers on April 15 but complainers or those who have given up will not win the day. 

 

More recently I learned of Tea Parties that have disbanded (see below).  This does not surprise me because I have seen it coming for quite some time as many Tea Partiers became increasingly more aware that they were protesting & working against government programs they were actually taking advantage of themselves – these people are Tea Partiers who support limited government in principle but have come to waver if that practice involves their own immediate well being.  They may still be willing to go to a rally & hold up a sign but taking the lead in real action is another matter.

 

Below is a message I received from the Basking Ridge, NJ Tea Party letting me know they are disbanding.  This is especially hurtful to me since I know the original leader, who has since moved, & have made FairTax presentations to the group twice – the second time to an overflow capacity meeting of people with high energy & an extremely positive attitude toward America & the FairTax. 

 

A Tea Party insider & long time subscriber to RTE told me that without the original leader the Basking Ridge group has limped along begging for new leadership.  Our Tea Partying subscriber believes the Tea Party is not so much suffering from the shock of BO's reelection but rather is just languishing from a feeling of helplessness & fatigue.

 

The odds are stacked against us right now & many people talk as if they know that & have just given up – resigned to whatever happens.  But the attacks will keep coming whether we give up or not as the last post clearly showed re BO's plans to initiate a wealth tax whereby IRAs & 401(k)s are confiscated. 

 

In times of trouble America has always depended upon finding a single person of great leadership ability – a very fragile proposition.  We wouldn't be here today if not for one man - our greatest leader – George Washington.  It very well may take a leader of Washington's stature to restore the heart that has been torn out of America the last four years.

 

 

A  Message From GBRTP Dear Patriots,   We were all stunned and heartbroken, that fateful day in November, when after all of our efforts, our hard work, our persistence, we witnessed the re-election of Barak Obama. We, who braved the aftermath of Sandy to get our neighbors to the polls, now face another foreboding storm with greater consequences.   Like many of you, we the team at GBRTP, were disappointed, frustrated, depressed and angry. As with any loss, any grieving period, this was quite difficult. However, given all that has occurred since then, the constant drumbeat of Marxism, the capitulation of an impotent GOP, and the threats made to our liberty and livelihoods, we can no longer grieve. We MUST act. Now.   As with all organizations, we have experienced our share of challenges. We have had many fruitful meetings, have influenced several local races, have given the grassroots a voice and have educated the public. Unfortunately, the time for self-education, "speaking to the choir", and stereotypical campaign techniques is over. We did not win. We didn't even win in the State or local races. We need to change our tactics, if we want to have a fighting chance and change the trajectory.    The remaining leadership of GBRTP discussed the future of the group after the election. After much deliberation, we feel in our hearts, the only way we can be a force in NJ would be through a merger with existing Tea Party Groups. This coordination will provide the number of thinkers, strategists and leaders necessary to develop innovative grassroots techniques, communicate lessons learned and set a path forward to challenge the establishment.   While we will no longer be a formal organization, we can and will organize local meetings once the new strategy is established. We would like to encourage you all to sign up with some of our colleagues below. We also encourage you to set up your own meetings in the library or in your own home, when concerning issues and events have been brought to your attention. We encourage all to remain engaged, and to think outside the box.   We know in the end what it takes to win. We must defeat the radical left with Constitutionalists, not Opportunists. We must take over the GOP, in all levels of Government just like the Radical Progressive purge of the moderates. The left never backs down after a loss. Neither must we. Defeat is not an option.   We wish you all well in your battles. We pray for courage and for a better tomorrow.   With sincere hearts,   Greater Basking Ridge Tea Party   Remember to Spread the Word.            Tea Party Patriots  Americans For Prosperity  Morristown Tea Party  Somerset County Tea Party

BO's Budget Plan Includes Mechanisms For Bracket Creep & A Wealth Confiscating Tax

"After this proposal, only a fool would pay taxes now to transfer to a "tax free" Roth IRA that the feds may decide to tax someday." – WSJ editorial April 12, 2013 re the portion of BO's 2,500 page 2014 fiscal year budget that places a variable lifetime cap on the total asset value in IRAs & 401(k)s that could lead to confiscation of these retirement accounts

 

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With the realization of the veracity of the above editorial statement many high paid pundits say they are going to write columns about the federal government planning to raid retirement savings accounts – as if this idea is something new.

 

Long time readers of RTE will remember the first posting after the 2008 presidential election when I wrote – "So many left wing Democrats have their own agendas & could pull Obama in many different directions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, George Miller, & Jim McDermott have copied the idea of economic basket case Argentina & floated the idea of nationalizing private pension money by seizing or otherwise confiscating 401(k)s."

 

You can also check my FairTax workshop training sessions – see Q & A write-up in April 2010 posted on RTE re Roth IRAs.  In summary by 2010 it had become more & more obvious to anyone who thought about it that the government had only offered Roth IRAs & Roth 401(k)s because the government needed immediate revenue not some stream of revenue derived from required minimum distributions decades later from a citizenry pleasantly retired without a care in the world.  The promise was that the after tax corpus in the accounts would grow tax free & distributions would never be taxed again.  That promise will not be kept - consider a future politician trying to defend continuation of tax free treatment for money that has never been taxed in the economic environment we are facing if we continue to sleep-walk through the financial problems the nation faces.  Pity the poor person (pun intended) who has opened large Roth IRAs & Roth 401(k)s.

 

So it took several years for BO to reveal the evil he has planned for Americans' retirement savings plans but as indicated above readers of RTE were made aware of the dangers even before BO became president.  There is virtually no chance BO's budget plan will go into effect in the next two years – but watch out after the 2014 elections if the Democrats win back control of the House & maintain control of the Senate.  Both are real possibilities & BO is focusing on making sure they happen.

 

BO masquerades as a deficit fighter by proposing in his budget the replacement of the conventional consumer price index (CPI) with the supposedly more accurate & smaller chain-weighted consumer price index (Chain CPI) to hold down cost of living adjustments (cola) meaning the rate of growth of Social Security benefits.  BO exempts those over 76 & also those on low incomes so the result of this charade is to make the middle class poorer & more dependent on government.   But BO also uses the Chain CPI for inflation indexing the income tax brackets meaning that he is reintroducing the hated term bracket creep to the tax system for the first time in over a quarter of a century.  This subtle change in inflation indexing will move people's incomes into higher tax brackets faster than if the CPI was still used.  BO just never gets enough revenue or people dependent on government.

 

Just when (i.e., January 2, 2013) everyone thought the estate tax laws were finally settled after years of uncertainty BO's budget calls for increasing the estate tax rate, lowering the exemption, & does not index it for inflation to boot.  Steve Forbes will have to renew his call of "no taxation without respiration" & without indexation more & more families will be joining him.

 

But the most dangerous feature of BO's budget proposal is limiting the values of IRAs & 401(k)s to an amount BO feels is needed for a reasonable retirement.  The insidious part of this proposal is that the limitation (known as a lifetime cap – total balance of all of a person's retirement accounts) is not an exact dollar amount but rather is based on the amount needed to produce an annuity payment of $205,000 a year (not indexed for inflation & before tax) for a 62 year old worker in a defined benefit pension plan.  The cap, if in effect in 2013, would be about $3.4 million.  No additions to retirement accounts are permitted above the cap although additions are permitted if the value of the accounts fall below the cap or the cap is raised which is virtually impossible with interest rates @ record lows. 

 

Now the price of annuities is a function of interest rates & when interest rates finally rise to a normal non-manipulated level the cap will fall.  For instance EBRI reports that in 2006 a similar annuity paying $205,000 per year cost $2.2 million – not $3.4 million as it would today.  The obvious unanswered question is what would BO do with the $1.2 million that exceeds today's cap in this example.

 

This could very well be the introduction of a wealth tax which of course is unconstitutional – such a tax would not be uniform, it would not be in proportion to congressional representation (i.e., it is a direct tax but not apportioned by population), & it is not an income tax.  But we are protected from such wealth taxes by the U.S. Constitution.  Too bad for us that the Constitution is ignored by the citizenry & our elected representatives (SC Representative James Clyburn even famously said "there's nothing in the Constitution that says the federal government has got anything to do with most of the stuff that we do") every day of the year except for ceremonial occasions like swearing in a new president on January 20 every four years.  And it certainly would not take much effort, reasoning, or imagination for the Supreme Court (Roberts) to follow the unconstitutional precedent set in the ObamaCare case to find a wealth tax constitutional. 

 

So with no protections as described above it would be just a matter of time before the cap was lowered to include virtually every retirement account in America.  Couple this with the enactment of a 20% VAT & BO will have everyone exactly where he wants them – penniless & dependent on government.

 

Now it is bad enough for us to put up with this sort of thing if we didn't know better - but we do.  The FairTax is the remedy for reversing all of the government manipulation of the earnings of everyone's hard work that increasingly is being redistributed for the purpose of keeping those elected in office.  If this is important to you please make sure that you are doing everything you can to educate the citizenry & spread the FairTax word so that when the right candidates come along who support the FairTax we will have made their job that much easier.