President Obama is right about one thing; it is time to reform our federal tax system. And, the only system that makes sense for America is the FairTax plan.
What is the FairTax plan?
The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.
The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.
The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.
The FairTax:
Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
Allows American products to compete fairly
Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
President Obama has now appointed a Golf Czar. The identity of the newly appointed czar is still unknown but announcements were just made of major rule changes to the game of golf. These changes are expected to become effective March 2010 and may be retroactive in southern States. This is only a preview as new rules, regulations and legislation are still being finalized. Here are a few basic changes:
Golfers handicaps:
Below 10 – greens fees will be increased by 35%
Between 11 and 18 – no increase in greens fees
Above 18 – player will receive a $25 check for each round of 18 holes.
Dollar amounts placed in bets will be as follows:
For handicaps below 10, an additional $10 will be assessed
For handicaps between 11 and 18, no additional amount
For handicaps above 18, players will receive the total amount in the pot even if they do not play.
The term “gimme” will be changed to “entitlement” and will be used as follows:
For handicaps below 10, no entitlements
For handicaps from 11 to 17, entitlements for putter length putts
For handicaps above 18, if the ball is on green, no need to putt, just pick it up.
These entitlements are intended to bring about fairness and, most importantly, equality in scoring.
In addition, a Player will be limited to a maximum of one birdie or six pars in any given round. Any excess must be given to those fellow players who have not yet scored a birdie or par. Only after all players have received a birdie or par from the player actually making the birdie or par, can that player begin to count his pars and birdies again.
The current USGA handicap system will be used for the above purposes but the term ‘net score’ will be available only for scoring those players with handicaps of 18 and above. This is intended to ‘redistribute’ the success of winning by making sure that in every competition, the above 18 handicap players will post only ‘net score’ against every other player’s gross score
These new Rules are intended to CHANGE the game of golf. Golf must be about Fairness. It should have nothing to do with Ability.
I am a child of the sixties. I learned at an early age that there was no danger, no threat, no villain that could not be defeated or foiled in thirty minutes or less. No matter how many and how ruthless the rustlers the Lone Ranger would always find a way to outsmart or out-shoot them just in the nick of time. No matter how powerful or ingenious the villain Superman, somehow, always foiled their evil scheme with no time to spare. And, regardless how huge the mess or dire the circumstances Samantha Stevens could fix it all with a magical twitch of her cute little nose. Ah yes, I learned at a very tender age that there was nothing to fear. Good would always triumph over evil. But, more importantly I learned that there would always be a hero or heroine who would swoop in at the very last second and set everything right again. Unfortunately, it is not so.
For fifty some-odd years, going on four generations now, we have been raised in a haze. Through television and movies, the fodder most of us grew up on, we have been slowly impregnated with a sense that somehow some way everything will work out. Some benevolent hero or as yet unknown force for good will ride over the hill and save us from all the lowlife outlaws. All we have to do is hang on until our savior arrives.
Many of us thought November 4, 2008 was that day. We voted for hope; we voted for change; we voted with our emotions and ignored our own common sense. We bought in to political rhetoric and campaign slogans and abstract goals. We believed because we needed so desperately something to believe in. Many of us believed that the Obama Administration was our hero riding in to save the day. Few voters on that fateful day recognized or comprehended the power that a Whitehouse and Congress controlled by the same party would have, and now…..
Our government is out of control. We all, as well as several future generations, are laying on the railroad tracks and the train is coming fast around the curve. we hear the whistle; we see the steam and we can feel the vibration of the churning wheels on the track. We look imploringly about for surely our only chance is that our hero will race to our side, release us from our bonds and whisk us away to safety. But wait! Our hero is the deaf and blind train engineer madly shoveling coal into the firebox. What ever will we do?
For starters, we can recognize that we are not actually tied down. We only imagine that we are. All we have to do is rise up and stop the runaway train of government from crushing us under its iron wheels. This is a time for heroism. But, this sense of waiting to be rescued is not only childish it’s foolish. We must become our own heroes. We must contribute to our own future and the future of our country. And, not by looking to someone else to lead us but by looking within and choosing the direction we wish to go. A hero is someone who chooses to do the right thing when there is an easier choice to be had.
We all know right from wrong. we may disagree in the methods and means, but we know what’s right and what’s not right.
It is not right to saddle future generations with our debts.
It is not right to regulate freedom.
It is right to protect ourselves by whatever means possible.
Just over a year ago we asked for change. Now, it’s time to demand it. Our government will continue to take control of our lives as long as we continue to allow it. Never before have we had so many methods from which to choose to make our voices heard: make phone calls, write letters, write blog posts, post video online, attend meet-ups and meetings. You can make a difference. You can make your voice heard. You can be a hero.
The choice is yours. Stand up, shake loose the imaginary bonds before they become real, and take responsibility as a citizen of these United States. Or, lay there on the railroad tracks and wait to be rescued.
The time to choose is now. Which will you be, the hero or the damsel in distress?
What is President Obama thinking? First he goes around bowing to foreign Kings, apologizing to the world for percieved discourtesies, offering olive branches in exchange for billy clubs, and now after all this kowtowing he turns around and commits cold blooded murder, on camera!
In case you haven’t yet seen it President Obama was caught on camera, with malice and aforethought, slapping the life out of the Whitehouse fly. To make matters worse he was encouraged and congratulated by the CNBC News reporter on camera with him, as well as several off camera observers. What is this world coming to?
As with all things political the consequences of Mr. Obama’s actions have begun to come to light. The D.C. law firm of Dewey, Cheetum and Howe is in the process of contacting the widows and orphans of the newly deceased insect. The Whitehouse fly, or Whitey as he was affectionately known, was known to be of a promiscuous nature and the number of his dependents is expected to be in the thousands. A civil action suit including the President, the Federal government, and CNBC News is expected to be filed within the next couple of weeks. The D.C. Police Department has not yet responded to our enquiries so the possibility of criminal charges still exists.
On a broader scale the International Housefly Consortium is said to be taking a retaliatory stance on the matter. While it has long been rumored that the IHC has secretly been collecting tiny amounts of enriched uranium, it is now suspected the group has conglomerated enough of the radioactive material to pose a serious threat. Intelligence chatter between the IHC and North Korea has picked up considerably in recent days. We contacted a spokesfly for the IHC and although we can’t be absolutely certain because they are very difficult to understand we think he said, “Although we have no religion to base our actions upon, we are convinced that God is on our side.”
Reports, opinions and suspicions continue to swarm as this story develops and people around the world react to the news. As one worried person in Baghdad put it, “It makes you wonder what kind of person he really is. Perhaps the fly was only reaching out in friendship, and what did he get? SMAK!!”
After all his efforts to convince the nations of the world that he is a man of peace; after all the rhetoric of new beginnings, change, and worldwide brotherhood, in one swift movement we find ourselves on the very brink of inter-species war. What happens now Mr. President? Will you negotiate? Will you retreat? Or, will you at last stand up and declare to the world that America is a no fly zone?
Satirically yours,
Tim Couch
What is President Obama thinking? First he goes around bowing to foreign Kings, apologizing to the world for perceived discourtesies, offering olive branches in exchange for billy clubs, and now after all this kowtowing he turns around and commits cold blooded murder, on camera!
In case you haven’t yet seen it President Obama was caught on camera, with malice and aforethought, slapping the life out of the Whitehouse fly. To make matters worse he was encouraged and congratulated by the CNBC News reporter on camera with him, as well as several off camera observers. What is this world coming to?
As with all things political the consequences of Mr. Obama’s actions have begun to come to light. The D.C. law firm of Dewey, Cheetum and Howe is in the process of contacting the widows and orphans of the newly deceased insect. The Whitehouse fly, or Whitey as he was affectionately known, was known to be of a promiscuous nature and the number of his dependents is expected to be in the thousands. A civil action suit including the President, the Federal government, and CNBC News is expected to be filed within the next couple of weeks. The D.C. Police Department has not yet responded to our enquiries so the possibility of criminal charges still exists.
On a broader scale the International Housefly Consortium is said to be taking a retaliatory stance on the matter. While it has long been rumored that the IHC has secretly been collecting tiny amounts of enriched uranium, it is now suspected the group has conglomerated enough of the radioactive material to pose a serious threat. Intelligence chatter between the IHC and North Korea has picked up considerably in recent days. We contacted a spokesfly for the IHC and although we can’t be absolutely certain because they are very difficult to understand we think he said, “Although we have no religion to base our actions upon, we are convinced that God is on our side.”
Reports, opinions and suspicions continue to swarm as this story develops and people around the world react to the news. As one worried person in Baghdad put it, “It makes you wonder what kind of person he really is. Perhaps the fly was only reaching out in friendship, and what did he get? SMAK!!”
After all his efforts to convince the nations of the world that he is a man of peace; after all the rhetoric of new beginnings, change, and worldwide brotherhood, in one swift movement we find ourselves on the very brink of inter-species war. What happens now Mr. President? Will you negotiate? Will you retreat? Or, will you at last stand up and declare to the world that America is a no fly zone?
Over the last few weeks we’ve heard a LOT about the stimulus/spending bill that was signed into law a couple of days ago. As news of the contents of the bill began to surface and it became evident that this was much more than a stimulus bill I kept asking myself, “Why?” Why would the President of our Country refuse to consider viable alternatives? Why would he race around the Country crying, “The sky is falling,” when no one else was trumpeting that tune? I think most people agreed that something needed to be done, but for the most part only the President seemed near hysteria in his dire warnings. And, why was Congress given so little time to assess the bill before having to cast a vote on it? It just didn’t make sense for normally intelligent and basically pragmatic people to behave in such a way as our President and Democrat Congress members have been acting recently.
I’m a bit of a muller. I like to take an item and set it out in the middle of the table and study it for a while. Then, I walk around to the other side of the table and study it some more. So, I took this particular piece of legislation and I set it out in the middle of the table, on a big turkey platter. Then, I placed the key players, those who were rabidly pushing this bill, around the platter. Then, I placed the lesser players, those who could potentially effect the direction or outcome of the bill in a loose circle around them. Finally, I encircled the whole with the three hundred million American citizens who, for the most part, are simply waiting to see what happens. Once I had the table set I stepped back and I pondered, “What would induce these few players in the inner circle to force feed this turkey to all these other people?”
In the end only one theory makes sense. Our President must be a man of his word. How else does a man of no background, no experience, and no credentials go from Community Organizer to President of the United States in the course of a few years?
Now, I’m not naive. I realize that promises and compromises must be made in the political arena. I understand the political concept that to be of service one must be in office. And, I believe that if someone were to come to me and say something like, “We have the power and the money to put you in the Whitehouse, and we are prepared to do so if you will agree to certain conditions,” my answer would depend on those conditions. I do not believe that my ambitions would outweigh my sense of right and wrong, and likewise I have no reason to believe that if our President were ever faced with such a proposition his sense of right and wrong would not determine his answer. I have no idea whether such a conversation ever took place, but what else can explain the relentless march to the passage of this bill?
I choose, at this juncture, to believe that our President and our Congress believe they are acting in the best interest of our Country. I do not agree with the path we have taken, but I do not believe our leaders are taking us down this path with any malicious intent. Regardless, the path is before us and we can either stand here and bicker about how we got here, or we can take steps to move us toward our goal.
It’s true that our Country is in dire need of change, but the change we need is going to have to come from us, the people. Our elected leaders, as well intentioned as they may be, can not take us where we need to go. They rely on us to tell them where we want to be led. I know it’s a convoluted metaphor but that’s the beauty of government of, by, and for the people.
