Obama is Taking Care of You!

Since taking office, President Barack Obama has signed into law twenty-one new or higher taxes:

1. A 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco

2. Obamacare Individual Mandate Excise Tax

3. Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax

4. Obamacare Surtax on Investment Income

5. Obamacare Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans

6. Obamacare Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax

7. Obamacare Medicine Cabinet Tax

8. Obamacare HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike

9. Obamacare Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka “Special Needs Kids Tax”

10. Obamacare Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers

11. Obamacare “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI

12. Obamacare Tax on Indoor Tanning Services

13. Obamacare elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D

14. Obamacare Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike

15. Obamacare Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals

16. Obamacare Tax on Innovator Drug Companies

17. Obamacare Tax on Health Insurers

18. Obamacare $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives

19. Obamacare Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2

20. Obamacare “Black liquor” tax hike

21. Obamacare Codification of the “economic substance doctrine”

For full details on each tax, check out Americans for Tax Reform

Post Continues on www.atr.org

Rory Stewart: Time to End the War in Afghanistan?

Obama is Lying to YOU!

From the week that O’bama took office and concurrent with the Katrina disaster, he was in California raising campaign funds for his re-election. Remember?

Last week, under the guise of “uniting” the public, O’bama was riding around in his $1.2 million dollar, Canadian made, bus telling everyone how important it was to get people to work. Again, a ruse for his campaign for re-election.

Even scarier, the same week he is telling the public his is trying the hardest to convince Republicans to put aside party differences and agree to “his” agenda, which means more tax and spend, quietly, he is allowing the following to occur. If it were anyone besides O’bama, who has not kept any promise he ever made, I would be overwhelmed this occurred, but not with O’bama. His desperation to stay in power is unlimited. Here is what happened:

Obama’s Administrative Amnesty: From Rumor to Reality (Source: https://www.numbersusa.com/content/

Chris Chmielenski Last year, we were the first to break the news that the Obama Administration was considering options that would grant an administrative amnesty to illegal aliens living in the United States.

Yesterday, that possibility became a reality when White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Munoz announced a change to the Department of Homeland Security’s deportation policy. Going forward, DHS will review deportation cases on a case-by-case basis and focus future deportations only on criminal illegal aliens, allowing non-criminal illegal aliens to stay in the country.

Making matters worse, the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that illegal aliens who receive deferred action or parole from deportation can apply for work permits allowing them to compete with 22 million Americans looking for full-time work. That’s 300,000 illegal aliens who could potentially receive work permits!

So, while Pres. Obama spent much of the week on a bus tour promoting a future plan to get unemployed Americans back to work, his Administration was working behind the scenes to help illegal aliens become eligible for jobs in the United States!

We’ve posted a new fax for Pres. Obama on your Action Board criticizing him for his new policy. With millions of Americans looking for work, and 7 million illegal aliens already holding non-agricultural jobs, Pres. Obama needs to find ways to get unemployed Americans back to work, and not find ways to add more competition to the labor market.

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS UPDATED: After last week’s Iowa Straw Poll and Debate, we’ve updated our comparison grid of the immigration stances of 2012 Presidential Hopefuls. Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, and Herman Cain all received minor adjustments to their ratings, but no grades were changed.

Still, we encourage you to check out the grid and find out which Hopeful has the best position on a variety of immigration issues.

Thanks,
Chris Chmielenski
Director, Content & Activism

Citizens, plug and bail furiously – we’re sinking!

For the Full Story, go to: http://www.swissamerica.com/article.php?art=06-2011/201106090247f.txt

Pat Boone
WorldNetDaily Exclusive Commentary

© 2011

A preview of Pat Boone’s Foreword toThe Inflation Deception: Six Ways Government Tricks Us… And Seven Ways to Stop It! to be released 6.17.11: “In this book my long-trusted friend and advisor Craig Smith and former Reader’s Digest Roving Editor Lowell Ponte explain how this happened, why we feel like the man the Prophet Haggai described as earning wages but seeing his money vanish as if put ‘in a purse with holes in it,’ and how our government now deliberately creates inflation as a deceptive way to tax and control us.”

 

---

Friend, let me paint you a picture. It’s an analogy to the frightful situation confronting our Ship of State, right now, today. You’re in this picture.

See a large lifeboat filled with passengers who are doing all they can to stay alive. Large waves are continually sweeping over the boat, drenching all aboard and threatening to overturn the boat. Even worse, it’s filling with sea water, from holes in the bottom. The situation seems almost beyond solution, and all may be lost.

The ship captain, who did not go down with the ship, is on board and is giving commands from the prow. “Quick! Tilt the boat toward the incoming waves; let the waves wash in – and maybe the inflow will wash out the other side and take some of the collected water with it. And one or two of you strong men, dive under the water and punch more holes in the bottom, to let this collected water out! I’m in charge here, and this is our only hope!”

The stunned passengers scream, “No, Captain, NO! That will sink us even faster! Don’t you see? Turn the boat away from the waves, don’t just invite them in! And we need to dive down and do whatever we can to plug up the holes, even with our blankets and valuables! Then let each of us bail out the water that’s about to drown us all, with our hands, shoes, whatever we can find! That’s our only hope! We must keep this boat afloat!”

Which advice would you want to prevail? Which might save the boat, with all on board, including the captain … and which amounts to certain death?

Surely you see the analogy to where we are in America today, economically and politically. We’re awash in a storm of unpayable debt; there are four applicants for every available job; long-established programs to aid the elderly and the sick are about to be swept overboard; and the commander in chief and his aides are advocating more huge spending, more unpayable debt and even more taxes! It’s lunacy!

In just the last six months, our national debt has increased 15 percent. The administration is borrowing $4 billion a day more, and we’re paying $600 million a day in interest on that exploding debt!

Under Pelosi and Reid, and now President Obama and his team, we’ve added the debt amounts of Russia and Germany onto our sagging taxpaying shoulders. In his first two years in office, the president has increased our national debt by $3 trillion, and wants Congress to approve $1.5 trillion a year for the next 10 years.

In his speech from George Washington University April 13 – just two days before the tax deadline – he promised to raise taxes in several ways, including discontinuing the “Bush tax cuts” which have been a needed incentive for businesses to create jobs. And he was even more emphatic about spending multiplied billions more on research, innovation, infrastructure and other pet programs, to “win America’s future.” Spend and tax, spend and tax … sound familiar?

He said he will reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years – $2 trillion in spending cuts, including defense, $2 trillion in uncovering and abolishing waste, and in “projected” increased revenues (taxes on incomes). This while he intends to keep deficit spending, in his proposed budgets, $1.5 trillion a year for the next 10 years. Can you do the math? He promises to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion –-while adding at least $15 trillion in his spending!

He repeated his plan to trim $500 billion out of Medicare “waste,” while expanding Medicaid by at least that much through his rammed-through health-care plan, mandating that 30 million more Americans subscribe to that program, along with the rest of us who adamantly opposed it.

In the next few months, he will lock horns with Congress over raising our debt limit and his budget for 2012. His intentions for both are to give him even greater authority for more spending on programs “dear to his heart.” How he plans to cut defense – while we’re involved in three wars currently in the Middle East and supposedly defending our borders here at home – he didn’t say.

But the QE2 program, flooding our economy with more billions of printed money, backed by thin air, is continuing under Mad Ben Bernanke, desperately trying to create the false image that America’s economy is improving. And thousands of “new jobs” contributing to that image, are government jobs, adding to the taxpayer woes. Can you spell inflation?

After weeks of haggling and jockeying for political position, both houses of Congress and the president approved a piddling $38 billion in budget cuts, to stave off a government shutdown. That used to be serious money – but compared to a current $14 trillion debt and a $1.5 trillion annual budget deficit, it’s like, as someone suggested, arguing over the bar tab on the Titanic!

Some of my own family think I’m whistling in the wind, but the latest Reuters poll documents that 69 percent of Americans believe we’re on the wrong track. We’re not dummies, or blind ideologues; we can see and hear Niagara Falls ahead, and we want to turn this boat around.

How? Just a couple common-sense suggestions. Restructure Social Security, saving promises for seniors who paid for those promises, increase the retirement age, make contributions larger for younger workers, and make it optional for those who don’t want to pay in for it. The same with health insurance; scrap Obamacare completely, make insurance plans optional for workers, grant tax credits for those who buy their own, and let insurance companies offer their plans across state lines, the good old free-enterprise way. Watch the rates come down and benefits increase, with the weight for performance on the companies where it belongs, and not on the taxpayers.

Cut government programs in half (they account for 25 percent of GDP now), and get it off the backs of businessmen, the supposed “rich,” who not only create jobs, but who already pay over 50 percent of our taxes. Enough is enough!

Tell the captain to sit down, and let the passengers save the boat!

Criminal complaint details O’bama birth-certificate ‘forgery’

Reprinted from: http://www.wnd.com/

Document-imaging expert outlines his case in 22-page filing with FBI

The 22-page criminal complaint filed with the FBI by document-imaging expert Doug Vogt charges that individuals within the Hawaii Department of Health, Obama political operatives and an unidentified graphic artist worked in a multi-state conspiracy to create a fraudulent long-form birth certificate for Barack Obama. Vogt’s complaint asserts: “I have irrefutably proven that the Certificate of Live Birth that President Obama presented to the world on April 27, 2011 is a fraudulently created document put together using the Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator programs.” Get the inside details on what could be the most serious constitutional crisis in modern history, in “Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama is Not Eligible to be President,” autographed by author Jerome Corsi! He claims the long-form birth certificate the White House released April 27 as an electronic document in PDF format was forged from a composite of legitimate birth certificates obtained from the Hawaii DOH archives and manipulated to replace the original authentic information. As WND has previously reported, Obama’s birth certificate number appears to be out of sequence with the birth certificate numbers given to twins born a day after Obama. Susan Nordyke, the first twin, was born at 2:12 p.m. Aug. 5, 1961, and was given certificate No. 151 – 61 – 10637, which was filed with the Hawaii registrar on Aug. 11, 1961. Gretchen Nordyke was born at 2:17 p.m. and was given certificate No. 151 – 61 – 10638, which was also filed with the Hawaii registrar Aug. 11, 1961. Barack Obama was given certificate No. 151 – 61 – 10641, even though he was born Aug. 4, 1961, the day before the Nordyke twins, and his birth was registered with the Hawaii Department of Health registrar three days earlier, Aug. 8, 1961. “It is impossible to have Obama’s certificate number to be four numbers higher than a certificate that came in three days later,” Vogt concludes. Vogt’s forensic examination of the birth certificate number on the White House-released long form concluded that the last “1″ in the number “10641,” as seen in the figure below, is a grayscale image, while the remaining numbers are not. This is, he says, “irrefutable proof that the certificate number is a composite of two numbers and hence a forgery.” Vogt argues that a person or persons in the Hawaii DOH with access to the document-imaging program searched the database for someone close to the actual birth date of Obama and found someone born near Aug. 4, 1961. “Obama may have chosen the 4th of August because they had a baby who died close to his date of birth,” he writes. “The clerk may have cross-referenced the death database to find someone who had died and had a birth date close to Obama’s.” Vogt speculated that someone may have taken the birth certificate number originally assigned an infant girl named Virginia Sunahara, born Aug. 4, 1961, at Wahiawa Hospital in Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawaii. As WND previously reported, Virginia Sunahara died Aug. 5, 1961, at Kapi’olani hospital, due to complications, the same day the Nordyke twins were born there Regarding Virginia Sunahara, Vogt made two assumptions: “The first would be that the Wahiawa Hospital would have filled the COLB (Certificate of Live Birth) form as customary and mailed it to the County Health Department and the Kapiolani Medical Center would have filled out the death certificate. The other less probable would be that her medical records were transferred to Kapiolani Hospital and they would produce the birth certificate and later the death certificate was later included in the group of birth certificates that contained the Nordyke twins.” Get the inside details on what could be the most serious constitutional crisis in modern history, in “Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama is Not Eligible to be President,” autographed by author Jerome Corsi! Vogt speculated that a forger took Virginia Sunahara’s birth number as Obama’s, knowing that she was long dead and not available to complain about identity theft. “We can conclude from this that more than one person was involved in the Hawaii Department of Health to assemble the different components that were used and also do the database searches to find the right certificates to create the fraudulent Certificate of Live Birth and finally someone who signed the fraudulent certificate,” he writes. “I believe that after all the components were assembled they were then given to a graphic artist to actually assemble the whole thing and create the finished forgery. That graphic artist could be located anywhere. In short this was a multi-state conspiracy to defraud the United States.” Date stamp irregularities In Boxes 20 and 22 on the Obama long-form birth certificate, the stamps recording the date the local registrar and registrar general accepted the birth certificate have two different colors on both lines where there should be no color at all. Also, the color differences are evident in Box 22, both in the printed text of the box and in the stamp recording the date that the local registrar accepted the birth certificate, Vogt says. “What I think this is showing us is that the person who put this fraud together was looking for a form that had the right date, namely “August 8 19_1,” Vogt writes, commenting on Box 22. “As you can see the only things that are printed in dark green (R=71, G=92, B=73) are ‘Date A’ and ‘AUG -8 6.’ The rest of the type is in black.” Vogt believes this was a clear indication “that the forger was working in color mode and what they copied from had a color value for some reason unless they put a color value on it.” The color differences are also evident in Box 20, the date the local registrar accepted the birth certificate, as seen below: “The ‘AUG -8 196′ is in dark green (R=87, G=111, B=87) and the ’1′ is in black,” Vogt observes with regard to Box 20. “Yet again, another irrefutable proof this form is a forgery.” Vogt additionally observes that the font size of the rubber stamp in Box 22 is larger than the stamp used in Box 20. “This is unlikely because the same rubber stamp would have been used, at the same time, by the same registrar to stamp the dates in both places and sign the form in Box 21,” he notes. “Since we have two size letters and numbers, this means these elements were taken from two separate forms that may have been years apart using different rubber stamps.” The official seal is not part of the Obama birth certificate Vogt references the embossed seal on the short-form Certification of Live Birth posted by FactCheck.org to determine that the Hawaii DOH was using an electric embosser that applies ample pressure to leave a clearly visible embossment. The embossed seal on the FactCheck.org short-form COLB appeared about three inches from the bottom of the 11-inch paper, but hand seal embossers have only 1 ¾ inch or less clearance for a 2 ¼ inch seal from the edge of the paper. The figure below shows the embossed seal on the Obama short-form COLB posted by FactCheck.org: Vogt notes that even on the Nordyke twins’ birth certificates, as seen below, the embossed seal was evident, even though the image was inverted to white-on-black from the original microfilm image: The figure below shows that the embossed seal on the Obama birth certificate released by the White House is visible only because a color filter was used to see it, otherwise it disappears in the design of the security paper: The figure below shows a close-up of the seal on the Obama long-form birth certificate under color filter: The figure below shows that the embossed seal on the Obama long-form document disappears into the hash-marked background when the document is viewed normally, without color filters: “The official seal on the Obama birth certificate released by the White House on April 27 is a second or even third generation image from another form,” Vogt concludes. “The seal embossing did not distort the lines or type on the form and it most likely was never part of his certificate. Yet another indication this Certificate of Live Birth is an obvious forgery.” Forged state registrar stamp? Vogt concludes the state registrar’s stamp certifying the Obama April 27 birth certificate is itself a forgery. He examined a legitimate stamp placed on a long-form birth certificate copy issued by the Hawaii DOH on March 15, 2011. As seen below, the stamp, with a likeness of the signature of State Registrar Alvin T. Onaka, Ph.D., is placed to the bottom right of the certificate, with the date stamp to the left: Note, that since hand stamps are used on the document issued March 15, 2011, the date stamp and the state registrar’s stamp are not on a straight line. Instead, the state registrar’s stamp is skewed up on the right. As seen below, the registrar’s stamp applied to Obama’s April 27 birth certificate has an error in the word “THE” that reads instead “TXE.” The error did not show up on the stamp used one month earlier. Also note that on the Obama birth certificate, the whole stamp is straight on the form, as seen by the red underline. Vogt concludes that a graphic artist placed the state registrar’s stamp on the Obama birth certificate “to look as straight as possible.” The problem, he stressed was that “no hand stamped notice like this would be placed that perfect on the page.” As seen below, the “A” in Alvin appears to have a smiley face drawn in, an effect accomplished by puting an “E” in the loop of the “A” in Alvin: Regarding the smiley face in the “A” of “Alvin,” Vogt concludes: “We have to assume that either the artifact was already on the security image the forger used, and forgot to erase it, or it was placed there deliberately for some reason that we don’t know yet.” Click HERE to get the inside details on what could be the most serious constitutional crisis in modern history, in “Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama is Not Eligible to be President,” autographed by author Jerome Corsi!

Call Toll-Free to Order: If you prefer to order by phone, you can call our friendly, Midwestern customer service reps toll-free at 1-800-4WND-COM  (1-800-496-3266), Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm Central.

Why is the Government Stockpiling Survival Food?‏

The following article appeared in an email sent 06/09/11 from the following address:

http://www.offthegridnews.com

One has to question what is up? And how this agency is spending when everyone in the government is wrangling about reducing spending. Your comments are appreciated!

It really is a small world … especially in the preparedness and survival industries. With a community that prides itself on staying informed, you can’t really keep things secret for long. So it’s no surprise that we were among the first to get wind of some very unsettling news. In fact, it was so disturbing that we felt it was only right to share with you what we’ve learned.

One of the nation’s largest suppliers of dehydrated food has cut loose 99% of their dealers and distributors. And it’s not because of the poor economy. It’s because this particular industry leader can no longer supply their regular distribution channels. Why not? Because they’re using every bit of manufacturing capacity they have to fulfill massive new government contracts. Look, the government has always been a customer of the industry to some extent. But according to our sources, this latest development doesn’t represent simply a change of vendor on the government’s part. It’s a whole new magnitude of business.

And that’s not all.

Apparently, even though they’ve cut off their regular consumer markets, the industry leader I’ve just mentioned still can’t produce enough survival food to meet the government’s vast requirements. How do we know? Not long ago, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) put out a Request for Proposal, or RFP, for even more dehydrated food. The RFP called for a 10-day supply of meals – for 14 million people. That’s 420 million meals. Typically, FEMA maintains a stockpile of about 6 million meals. Why the sudden need to increase the stockpile by 420 million more? (And that’s in addition to whatever our aforementioned industry leader is supplying.) It almost seems like they’re trying to stock a modern day “Noah’s Ark,” doesn’t it?

By the way, just days after the RFP went online, it suddenly went “poof” … vanished. Could it be that some high level official suddenly realized he was letting the cat out of the bag? That people aren’t stupid, and would recognize the implications of 420 million emergency meals? Has the government removed the RFP from the public process and approached potential suppliers privately instead? We may never know.

But here’s what we do know. This kind of spending by a minor government agency in this economy just doesn’t make sense … unless there are extraordinary circumstances behind it, circumstances we aren’t privy to. Because of all the wrangling in Washington, D.C., over the budget these days, all extras are curtailed. Agencies are spending far less on travel and training expenses, for instance. And they certainly don’t start stockpiling supplies.

In this economic climate, you would expect FEMA also to be minimizing expenses. But clearly, they’re not. If you do the math, the approximate tab for 420 million meals comes to about a billion dollars.

What is so urgent that FEMA is spending a billion dollars on survival food?
Could officials be worried about extensive power grid damage from solar flares? (A big one hit a few months ago and took out communications in China.) Are they worried about riots and demonstrations causing gridlock in communities? (Even Obama supporter James Carville is talking about “civil unrest” being “imminently possible.”) Are they worried about terrorist attacks? (Since the death of Osama bin Laden, intelligence agencies have been ramping up their vigilance even more.)

Go to:  http://www.offthegridnews.com

Both Sides Would ‘End Medicare As We Know It’

It’s a classic example of political rhetoric intended to cloud reality.  Explaining why the most recent Medicare trustee report shows the system going bankrupt in thirteen years (five years earlier than predicted last year), Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner explained the alarming update was the result of, “technical changes in the economic assumptions underlying the projections.”  That’s the delicate way for a politician to say, “We were counting on our economic policies actually working, but as you all know, they haven’t.”

 

 

And while that provides yet another indictment of Obamanomics for conservatives to present in the courtroom of public opinion, the most concerning part remains the fragility of a healthcare system that is being relied upon by millions of elderly Americans — and is being counted on by millions more who are nearing the Medicare eligibility age.  That is why now more than ever it is incumbent upon our leadership to have an honest debate about the future of the system.

No American should naively assume that there is one easy, pragmatic answer to solving the Medicare crisis.  Additionally, no American should naively assume that putting the issue off until one such answer emerges is a prudent approach.  The biggest danger to our seniors is not Paul Ryan and the Republicans who are proposing changes to save the system.  Nor is it Democrats who might do the same.

Right now, the gravest threat Medicare faces is the self-serving politician who champions complacency towards the issue with shameless demagoguery condemning any reform proposals as too big, too dramatic, too risky, and endangering the stability of the system.

Post Continues on www.americanthinker.com

President Barack Obama Makes Time to Meet with African Dictator

Barack Obama has come under fire for extending a formal invitation to a shamed African dictator who has ruthlessly plundered billions of dollars from his own country.

The U.S. President is today having a coveted private meeting with President Ali Bongo of Gabon at the White House in the Oval Office despite his appalling track record.

Bongo’s family has ruled the impoverished African nation with an iron fist for five decades and have used its oil riches to fund a life of outrageous luxury.

Meanwhile one third of people in Gabon live on less than $2 a day and thousands starve to death each year or are forced to pick through garbage to find food.

Critics have pointed out that Gabon, with a population of 1.5 million, is the third-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.

They claim that the only reason President Barack Obama has agreed to the meeting is that he wants to curry favour with an ally to secure America’s fuel supplies – regardless of who it is.

Post Continues on www.dailymail.co.uk

A New Way to Take Your Money! Can’t Raise Taxes? Just Call it a Fee!

We have been hearing for years how our roads and bridges are decaying. Instead of investing in a decaying infrastructure, our politicians have paid off leaders of other countries, invested in researching the effects of exercise on shrimp and a thousand other ways  to fritter away our funds.

Now that we have reached a point where the coffers are empty and promises replace hard dollars, we see yet another invasion of our lives in the form of money extracted from citizens without their approval. Watch for similar instances occurring throughout our country as it will, no doubt, occur. In Texas, we are witnessing a trend to toll roads every where. Despite our payment in taxes on fuel, motor vehicle registrations, bonds to finance roads, we are seeing that the roads we already paid for now being mortgaged to foreign companies who will “convert” our roads to tollways on a massive scale. It is a fact, government, neither local, state or federal can manage money. In their view, they are performing a service. In my view, they are simply leeches sucking on people who produce the money that keeps our economic system alive. This is one example:

WND Exclusive YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
Can’t raise taxes? Just call it a ‘fee’
Colorado grabbing $100 million more though voters never asked for increase
Posted: June 04, 2011
11:10 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WND

In a society where voters more and more are choosing to restrain government and its activities, lawmakers in Colorado were faced with a dilemma: They wanted to borrow and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on bridge repairs and feared voters, who under the state Constitution would have to approve any borrowing plan or tax increase, would object because of the state’s rocky economy.

So the solution adopted in Colorado’s Democrat-controlled legislature was to create an “enterprise” – an entity owned and run by the state Department of Transportation – to take over the responsibility to repair and replace those bridges. As an “enterprise,” its managers, the same people who make decisions for the state agency, could borrow money without voter approval and could raise taxes on taxpayers as long as they called them “fees.”

But now a think tank in Golden, Colo., has published a series of commentaries from analysts in what could be the start of a campaign to highlight what lawmakers did to their constituents, or at least publicize the maneuvers so that voters are aware of why their license “fees” for a $400 homemade trailer now reach a full 10 percent of its original cost – each and every year.

Wake up, America! Your country is about to disappear. Read Mark Levin’s No. 1 best-seller “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto”

The issue arose over the state General Assembly’s adoption in the 2009 session of Senate Bill 09-108, which created a “Colorado Bridge Enterprise.” It has since borrowed $300 million to start a round of bridge repairs, and is charging every vehicle owner in the state a “fee” every year for their “access” to those bridges.

But analyst Tom Ryan, whose critique was published recently by the Independence Institute, said the lawmakers relied “on distortions and deliberate misdirections to subvert Colorado’s Constitution and silence the voice of the people.”

The state Constitution’s TABOR (Taxpayers Bill of Rights) amendment, adopted by voters in 1992, requires voter approval to either raise taxes or borrow money. And that, Ryan, a financial expert with Analyst Strategy Group, is exactly what lawmakers did.

Only they called it something else.

“The bill depends on continued silence for its provisions to move forward. Under FASTER (the disputed law) Colorado families are being forced to pay an unconstitutional tax of almost $100 million annually. This tax hits everyone who registers a vehicle in the state squarely in the pocketbook – a tax that was enacted directly by the legislature without a vote of the people.”

Joining him in expressing alarm over what lawmakers did, and the apparently snub to voters who approved the TABOR amendment, was Richard Sokol, a business owner and member of the advisory board of the Leadership Program of the Rockies. He holds a degree in economics from Yale and an MBA from Harvard.

“The law allows an unelected group of bureaucrats to appoint an unelected administrator and together borrow whatever amounts of debt can be backed by FASTER funds. On December 1, 2010, they did just that. And now Colorado’s citizens are burdened with $300 million of newly issued debt – with the promise of more to come. … All this, and we weren’t asked!”

The law was adopted by a Democrat-controlled Legislature and signed into law by ex-Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat. But none of the many messages left by WND with the multiple offices in the state legislature requesting a comment on the law and its alignment with state constitutional requirements was returned.

A video was created to explain the details. See it at:

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=306377

Sokol explained the issue briefly:

“The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights … passed by voters in 1992 and thus enshrined in the state constitution mandates that the state ‘must have voter approval in advance for … creation of any debt.’ It does not prohibit the state or a district government from borrowing money; it only stipulates that citizens be asked first.”

It also requires voter approval for tax increases, and there was an exception created for “enterprises,” so that a towel fee at a publicly owned recreation center could be raised without a vote, or a university dorm fee could be raised without an election.

Sokol noted other state “enterprises,” such as a state university, nursing home system and the like all “sell a good or service to customers, and that compete for those customers with other businesses. Only willing buyers who actually use the service pay for it.”

However, he said the “Bridge Enterprise” diverges from that plan in several ways.

Under its provisions, “every person who registers a car in Colorado pays on average an extra $18 a year that is designated for the Bridge Enterprise, in addition to an extra $23 per year for road safety. The $41 annual payment is called a ‘fee’ rather than a ‘tax,’ which is nonsensical in itself. … Enterprises cannot be funded by taxes.”

He continued, “Now every Coloradan who registers a car is considered a ‘customer’ of the Bridge Enterprise. It does not matter whether the car is driven over one of the designated bridges or not. In fact, there are large areas of Colorado nowhere near one of the designated bridges.”

“And out-of-state car owners don’t pay at all, even if they constantly use the bridges.”

Then came the decision by the “enterprise” – actually members of the state Transportation Commission who also run the state highway department, to borrow the hundreds of millions.

Observed Sokol, “The Bridge Enterprise and CDOT do the same work overseen by the same managers.” The same people are board members, the same person is executive director and the chief financial officers for the two groups? – the same person.

That person, Ben Stein, in fact, confirmed to WND that of the “enterprise” purposes – the “financing, repair, reconstruction and replacement of bridges” – the only function that could not have been performed by the state agency itself was the “financing.”

A spokeswoman for the state agency, Mindy Crane, also confirmed to WND that, “We have a fair amount of people on staff who are involved in it.”

But Stein defended the machinations that allow the state “enterprise” to borrow money when the state itself could not without voter approval, explaining the “general assembly passed a law; we implemented the law as passed.”

He declined to express an opinion on the constitutionality of the law, or the opinions published by the Independence Institute condemning the bill as imposing a tax.

“Despite the careful wording within FASTER designating the Bridge Safety Surcharge as a fee, the assessment is in fact a tax,” said Ryan. He said his opinion is backed up by that of the general assembly’s own Office of Legislative Services.

He said that organization established ground rules to determine what is a tax and what is a fee. Those include evaluations on whether the charge would “reasonably restrain” government, how much is generated and how broadly the charge is applied.

Ryan noted under those standards, the bridge payments are taxes. But when the FASTER legislation was discussed, not a single lawmaker requested an opinion on how the plans would conform to, or violate, the state constitution.

“The 1989 Colorado Supreme Court decision Bloom v. City of Fort Collins held that a fee is distinct from a tax in that, ‘unlike a tax, a special fee is not designed to raise revenues to defray the general expenses of government, but rather is a charge imposed upon persons or property for the purpose of defraying the cost of a particular government service.’ Ever since the first publicly owned bridges were constructed in the state, bridge maintenance always has been considered a general function and a general expense of government,” he said.

Ryan also note fees “are imposed on direct beneficiaries and must be proportionate to value received. Dorm residents at a state-run university are charged fees for use of the dormitory. … But the FASTER legislation makes no attempt to align the application of the surcharge to opersons directly benefitting from Bridge Enterprise projects,” he said.

That’s because residents of counties with no improvement projects are charged the same as residents of the Denver region, where dozens of repairs are planned.

And he noted while out-of-state residents are charged fees for using a dorm room, out-of-state drivers are not charged for using the bridges under repair.

“The state makes the absurd argument that the surcharge qualifies as a fee because it is assessed only against beneficiaries, but then defines beneficiaries to include virtually every adult living in Colorado while excluding out-of-state beneficiaries.”

Stein also told WND that it qualifies as a fee in Colorado because one doesn’t need to own a vehicle; he suggested a resident could take public transit, even though the districts providing public transit in Colorado are virtually nonexistent outside of the metropolitan areas.

“The proceeds are used to fund work previously performed by CDOT and funded through General Fund appropriations. The only rationale for creating the Bridge Enterprise entity and funding it through a tax masquerading as a fee was to deliberately circumvent TABOR and deny the citizense of Colorado their constitutional right to choose whether improved bridge infrastructure justifies $100 million in additional annual taxation,” said Ryan.

He warned that the limits now for lawmakers to impose “millions in additional ‘fees’ without a vote … is limited only by the assembly’s imagination.”

Sokol noted that a true “enterprise” is when a customer has a choice.

“The state lottery allows someone to decide whether or not to buy a lottery ticket. The more lottery tickets he buys, the more he pays. With the Bridge Enterprise, the government has decided that all Colorado car owners pay, even those who live and work nowhere near one of the 128 bridges. It does not matter whether the car crosses one of the bridges one time, a thousand times, or not times.”

He also was critical of the continuing manipulation of information to allow the program to progress. He noted that because the bridges are owned by the state, not the “enterprise,” ownership must be transferred for repairs to be done. But there are limits on what the state can transfer to an “enterprise.”

So what happens?

“In 2010, ownership of 77 bridges was transferred to the enterprise. … CDOT claimed that only two bridges had value, and that their combined valued was only $1.4 million. The other 75 bridges were claimed to have zero value.”

Stein explained to WND that that was an accounting procedure that reduces the value of the bridges by 2.5 percent for each year of their existence.

Rubbish, charged Sokol. “Using CDOT’s reasoning, our Capitol building – with its gold-plated dome – is worthless! Clearly, that is nonsense.”

Lawmakers thought they had taken care of the issue at the outset.

Their law states, “The General Assembly finds and declares that a bridge safety surcharge … is not a tax but instead a fee.”

“Our elected officials purposely and knowingly breached the faith they hold with citizens. The Colorado Bridge Enterprise is government without the consent of the governed. Shame,” Sokol wrote.

Stein said he couldn’t even speculate on what would happen should future lawmakers – or perhaps voters – overturn the creation of the “enterprise” and its new charges, given the fact that the money already has been borrowed.

Mike Krause, a spokesman for the Independence Institute, told WND it’s an issue that needs exploration and resolution. His organization is non-partisan, non-profit public policy research organization dedicated to providing timely information to concerned citizens, government officials, and public opinion leaders.

Read more: Can’traise taxes? Just call it a ‘fee’ http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=306377#ixzz1OQGCrqU8

 

Do You Believe Doomsday is Near? Some Enlightening Insights!

Almost from the beginning of time, people have predicted doomsday. Often, it is stated by people who become labeled as “crack pots”. Then there are more mainstream advocates of this philosophy, esp. “religious leaders”. Regardless of where you stand on the matter, this is a “slant” I thought I would share with you for your opinion:

Bible prophecy may have a bad name in the light of Harold Camping’s misguided date-setting, but the biggest sign of the end may have been overlooked in all the rapture hysteria of last weekend.

Once again, we’ve seen the U.S. hit with a series of deadly superstorms following Barack Obama’s pledge to return Israel to pre-1967 borders.

Just days after Obama insisted Israel must give up lands it won through military victory with its enemies, some 200 people were killed by a tornado in Joplin, Mo.

There’s a pattern here.

We saw it in Katrina, when George Bush forced Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. In fact, as everyone from Israeli rabbis to U.S. senators have noted, it seems to happen every single time the U.S. pressures Israel to divide the land.

The phenomenon was best documented by Bill Koenig, author of “Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel.”

Koenig points out that nine of the 10 costliest insurance events in U.S. history followed dramatic calls by U.S. officials for Israel to make land concessions in bids for peace with its neighbors. He points out with startling detail how six of the seven costliest hurricanes in U.S. history followed such events. He points out how three of the four largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history followed such developments.

Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, even terrorist attacks have hit America often within 24 hours of calls by U.S. officials for Israel to withdraw from Jewish land.

What does this have to do with prophecy?

It goes right back to Genesis and God’s pledge to bless those who bless the children of Israel and curse those who curse them.

That is a prophecy that has seen every empire of the world come and go – yet Israel remains. It may be chastened by God. It may be dispersed. It may be divided according to His will. But God has punished every nation that has come against Israel. Each one has been judged.

You can choose to believe it or not. It won’t make any difference.

But he that touches the apple of God’s eye will pay a price: “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” – Zechariah 2:8

If you want to understand prophecy, don’t listen to Harold Camping – keep your eye on Israel and study your Bible.

In God’s economy, there is Israel and then there are the other nations.

It was through Israel He chose to reveal Himself to the world – eventually through the birth, life, death and resurrection of His own Son.

And His Son is coming back to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It’s no surprise where He will return and where He will reign – in Jerusalem.

Trying to understand God and His Son Yeshua apart from Israel is a tall order – because that’s how He revealed Himself to us.

His ways are not our ways, and our ways are not His ways.

We can only understand Him through His revelation.

I don’t know exactly what date He will be coming back.

I’m not sure exactly when He is going to call out His children.

But I do know it’s near.

I know it’s near because Israel has been rebirthed as a nation – a prerequisite that simply wasn’t in place until 63 years ago.

The Bible predicts all kind of turbulence and chaos surrounding Israel in the latter days. It will nearly be destroyed. But Israel’s long-awaited Messiah will save it. He will destroy Israel’s enemies. He will reign for 1,000 years.

As Zechariah 12:8-10 reveals: “In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

And one shall ask Him, “What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zechariah 13:6).

Joseph Farah
Editor and Chief Executive Officer
WND.com
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A video spotlighting and explaining Koenig’s work can be seen below:

More prophecy products you may be interested in…

Earthquakes, superstorms, wars and rumors of wars …
Do world calamities remind you of biblical prophecies?

The Islamic world is aflame with revolt and upheaval.

Earthquakes are increasing in frequency and intensity.

Superstorms are ravaging the planet.

Does any of this have a familiar ring?

It’s not a subject the secular media is likely to explore, but millions of people the world over are asking themselves whether the turmoil and disasters plaguing the globe are the signs of the times predicted by Jesus and the prophets of the Bible that would coincide with the end of the age.

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