Top Ten Civil Liberties Abuses of the Income Tax

by

by Chris Edwards
Director of Fiscal Policy Studies, Cato Institute, 2002

Any tax system creates a threat to individual liberty because “the power to tax involves the power to destroy,” as Chief Justice John Marshall observed.[1] But the federal income tax and its enforcement harm civil liberties much more than necessary to raise needed funds for the government. Certainly, the IRS performs poorly and too easily abuses the rights of citizens. But ultimately Congress is to blame for creating an excessively complex and high-rate tax system. New laws to increase taxpayer protections and replacement of the income tax with a simpler, flatter consumption-based tax could greatly reduce the following 10 areas of civil liberties abuse.

Read more

Paul Ends Senate Filibuster Of CIA Nominee Over Drone Concerns After Nearly 13 Hours

by

Great job!!! Proud of your stand:

 

Nearly 13 hours after he started, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., ended a dramatic, old-fashioned filibuster early Thursday morning — having held the floor for most of the day and night to rail against the administration’s drone program while holding up the nomination of John Brennan for CIA director.

Business in the Senate ground to a halt Wednesday as Paul, aided by colleagues from both parties, launched into the filibuster as he challenged the president’s authority to kill Americans with drones.

Paul’s filibuster was longer than most in U.S. history, as most flame out by the 10-hour mark. Paul finished speaking around 12:40 a.m. local time, and his filibuster lasted 12 hours and 52 minutes.

“My legs hurt. My feet hurt. Everything hurts right now,” Paul told Fox News shortly after stepping off the Senate floor, saying he believes “we did the best that we could.”

“I would be surprised if we didn’t hear back from the White House,” Paul said.

Read more

White House ‘Cries Wolf’ 3 Times In 10 days

by

  WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — The Obama administration has incorrectly stated on three separate occasions the effect of the $85 billion in sequester cuts.

CBS News reports that the statements came over the past 10 days.

The first time came Feb. 24 when Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said on “Face the Nation” that teachers were getting fired because of the cuts.

“There are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can’t come back this fall,” Duncan said. He later backtracked, saying he “misspoke” when no evidence was found to his claim.

When President Obama held a press conference about the sequester cuts on Friday, the president said that janitors at the U.S. Capitol would have to receive a pay cut. CBS News reports that Carlos Elias, the superintendent of the U.S. Capitol building and the Capitol Visitors Center, had to email his employees after Obama’s statement saying it wasn’t true.

Then, this past Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that lines at airports grew by 200 percent at checkpoint lines, but those claims were also unfounded.

Despite the misstatements, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says there are efforts “to muddy” the facts of what the sequester cuts mean.

“[T]here are real people out there who will be delayed or who will have their wages cut or … who will lose their jobs as a result of the sequester, while folks in Washington are arguing over whether this particular impact happened when we said it was going to happen or a week later or a month later,” Carney said during Tuesday’s White House briefing.

Read more

More Hussein Bullcrap At America’s Expense – Make It Hurt

by

A leaked email from an Agriculture Department field officer adds fuel to claims President Obama’s political strategy is to make the billions in recent federal budget cuts as painful as possible to win the public opinion battle against Republicans.

The email, circulated around Capitol Hill, was sent Monday by Charles Brown, a director at the agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C. He appears to tell his regional team about a response to his recent question on the amount of latitude he has in making cuts.

According to the partially redacted email, the response came from the Agriculture Department’s budget office and in part states: “However you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.”

The response noted that the administration had already told Congress that the APHIS would “eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry” without additional funds.

Arkansas Republican Rep. Tim Griffin said the administration’s response to Brown’s email shows a bid to undermine efforts to replace the cuts, known as sequester, with less onerous ones.

Read more

Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative Speech

by

“Thirty years following President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) speech, the United States still does not have a comprehensive ballistic missile defense system. While the geopolitical landscape has changed in the interim, the threat from ballistic missiles has continued to grow. Now more than ever, the United States needs a comprehensive ballistic missile defense system.

Join us as our distinguished guests discuss the importance of SDI then, its relevance for today’s missile defense programs, and the importance of missile defenses for U.S. national security in the light of today’s diverse challenges.

Agenda

10:00 a.m. – Panel Discussion
Ambassador Henry Cooper, Former Director, Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, George H.W. Bush Administration
Sven Kraemer, Ph.D., Former Director of Arms Control, National Security Council
Lee Edwards, Ph.D., Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought, The Heritage Foundation
Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D., Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation (Host/Moderator)

11:00 a.m. – Keynote Address
The Honorable Mike Rogers (AL-3), Chairman, Strategic Forces Subcommittee, House Armed Services Committee

12:00 p.m. – Panel Discussion
Baker Spring, F.M. Kirby Research Fellow in National Security Policy, The Heritage Foundation
General Henry A. “Trey” Obering, Former Director, Missile Defense Agency Ambassador
Robert Joseph, Senior Scholar, National Institute for Public Policy, and former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
Jeff Kueter, President, The George C. Marshall Institute (Moderator)”

Reagan

Actual Speech:
Address to the Nation on National Security By President Ronald Reagan, March 23, 1983

Read more

Death Of A Dictator – No Not Obama, Chavez

by

Chavez Dead!! U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla, said it best: “For years Hugo Chavez used fear, demagoguery and force to destroy the freedom, hopes and dreams of the Venezuelan people. He formed military and economic alliances with some of the world’s staunchest enemies of the United States. He snuffed out a free press and meaningful … Read more