Patriotic Federalist

By Mark Alexander · Thursday, March 31, 2011

Project Gunrunner Backfires on the Left

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” –Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

Barack Hussein Obama and his Socialist cadre¹, in their enthusiasm to “fundamentally transform² the United States of America,” have redoubled efforts to do what all tyrannical governments must do to establish absolute state supremacy and usurp Rule of Law³ — disarm the people.

Leftists accomplish this through incremental implementation of gun confiscation measures, most of which are overt political machinations. These include legislation written and promoted by Leftist groups such as the American Bar Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the Violence Policy Center, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and the Brady Campaign.

Current legislation under consideration includes H.R. 308 to limit rounds in magazines, S. 35 to lock in gun show registrations, S. 436 designed to “fix gun checks,” and, most disturbing, the reauthorization of Section 215 of The Patriot Act, which permits the FBI to seize gun sale records (4473’s) pursuant to “an authorized investigation.” Regarding the latter, the Inspector General estimated that between 2003 and 2006, the FBI exceeded its authority under Section 215 in more than 6,000 instances.
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Benjamin Franklin once observed that “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Who would have thought the two would become so closely intertwined? The federal death tax is 35 percent this year, and many states take another cut. Thanks to a recent twist in federal law rescinding a credit for state taxes and replacing it with a deduction, buying the farm in 20 states carries a combined federal and state tax bill of more than 40 percent (including inheritance and estate taxes). The Garden State of New Jersey tops the list, where government takes a whopping 54.1 percent of an estate for a citizen’s privilege of pushing up daisies. Not far behind is Maryland; dying in the supposed “Free State” costs 50.9 percent. On the low end of the top 20 (although hardly low in reality), death in Tennessee costs 41.2 percent.

However, the cost of dying is also costing these states. According to a study by the Ocean State Policy Research Institute in Rhode Island, “from 1995 to 2007 Rhode Island collected $341.3 million from the estate tax while it lost $540 million in other taxes due to out-migration.” The study found that “the most significant driver of out-migration is the estate tax.” In neighboring Connecticut, a study found that from 2004 to 2007, estate-tax free states created double the number of jobs and grew 50 percent more quickly than states with estate taxes. Coincidence? We think not.

Responding to the rising expense of expiring, some states are looking to kill the death tax, a move that is long overdue. After all, as if costs of living weren’t high enough, in some states, it’s the cost of dying that will kill you.

Are your federal taxes too high? Well, stop whining, because, according to the Associated Press, taxes are at a 60-year low. Of course, the “60-year low” is true regarding only one particular statistic: Total federal tax dollars this year will be the lowest since 1950 when compared to the total size of the nation’s economy. (Not so true for the debt and deficit.) However, our individual tax rates are not based on the size of the economy, so this statistic is rather meaningless. Nevertheless, there is no doubt the Left will seize on this to say taxes are too low and must be raised, especially on the hated “rich” who benefited too much from President Bush’s tax cuts. Lost on the Left is the fact that the Bush cuts actually increased federal tax revenue — and the share of taxes paid by those in the top brackets. But since when has the Left let reality get in the way of increasing the size and power of government?

There are several reasons for this “60-year low.” The primary one is, as the AP so eloquently put it, “thanks to a weak economy,” which naturally leads to lower tax revenue as people become unemployed and corporate profits fall. Our ridiculously complicated tax code also leads to falling revenue. For example, thanks to the many new deductions and credits with which politicians bribe voters, a family with two children making $50,000 can avoid paying any federal income tax at all, some low-income families actually make a profit using the tax code, and, yes, the wealthy can significantly and legally cut their taxes using various loopholes.

Never fear, however. Many of us will soon pay more in taxes thanks to ObamaCare, assuming it survives. Some states have already raised taxes because, unlike Washington, they have to balance their budgets every year. There is no doubt that if the federal government doesn’t get its spending and monstrous tax code under control soon, America is headed for a fiscal train wreck unlike any seen before.

The South is increasingly becoming a solid GOP bastion, particularly since the 2010 elections. The trend is so pervasive that Democrats are defecting to the Republican Party in droves. Since the midterms 24 state senators and representatives in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia have switched sides and joined the GOP. The region started trending Republican on the presidential level in 1964 in support of Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign, but many lower offices remained in Democrat hands.

In recent years, however, Republican support has trickled down to the state and local level. All but two of the states in the region have Republican governors, and most state legislatures are under Republican control. The reason for the change: “the increased liberalization of the Democratic Party,” as stated by Emory University political science professor Merle Black. National Democrats hope to start reversing the trend in 2012, when they will hold their national convention in Charlotte, NC.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Doug Elmendorf testified before Congress Thursday that ObamaCare will cost 800,000 jobs. During the hearing, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) asked, “[I]t’s been argued … that the new health care law will create jobs and increase labor force participation. But if I recall from your analysis, it was quite the opposite. Is that not the case?” Elmendorf replied simply, “Yes.”

Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) followed up by asking, “[I]n your estimation, the health care law would reduce employment by 800,000 in [2020]-’21. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” Elmendorf replied again. “The way I would put it is that we do estimate, as you said, that … employment will be about 160 million by the end of the decade. Half a percent of that is 800,000.”

“[I]t’s about jobs,” insisted then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) just days before the final vote on the so-called Affordable Care Act. “In its life, [the bill] will create four million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” Au contraire, says the CBO, and their estimate still includes static scoring, all the phony “savings” and so forth that the law’s authors inserted to make it look better. Somehow, “we told you so” doesn’t quite satisfy.

The Foundation

“[I]f the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted.” –Noah Webster

Liberty

“Most people whom we elect to Congress are either ignorant of, have contempt for or are just plain stupid about the United States Constitution. … Here, in part, is the oath of office that each congressman takes: ‘I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same….’ Here’s my question to you: If one takes an oath to uphold and defend, and bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution, at the minimum, shouldn’t he know what he’s supposed to uphold, defend and be faithful to? If congressmen, judges, the president and other government officials were merely ignorant of our Constitution, there’d be hope — ignorance is curable through education. These people in Washington see themselves as our betters and rulers. They have contempt for the limits our Constitution places on the federal government envisioned by James Madison, the father of our Constitution, who explained in the Federalist Paper 45: ‘The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. … The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.'” –economist Walter E. Williams

Government

“The progressive assault on America continues, and their favorite whipping boy remains Arizona. A three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned that state’s requirement that people show proof of citizenship to register to vote, calling it ‘inconsistent’ with the National Voter Registration Act. In other words, a United States court considers that proving one is an American citizen in order to vote in an American election an ‘undue burden.’ How in the world did we come to this? … What’s the best way to destroy our democratic republic? Getting enough Americans to question the integrity of our election process has to be high on the list. And since every case ever litigated in this country with regard to voter ID has had Democrats lined up on the side where less proof is required for voting — using the phony ‘disenfranchisement’ argument as an excuse — an unmistakable pattern is emerging. A pattern which can be reduced to one simple idea: The acquisition and/or maintenance of power by any means necessary. … Maintaining the integrity of our election process far outweighs any individual undue burdens, and the overwhelming majority of Americans know it. Those who are determined to fight such commonsense provisions aren’t fooling anyone, except perhaps their fellow travelers. There is absolutely no reasonable argument to offer against making sure that Americans, and only Americans, vote in American elections — none. One more compelling reason for decent Americans to get out and vote … Tuesday. Maybe the most important one of all.” –columnist Arnold Ahlert

Re: The Left

“Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt. It’s the Democrats’ coping mechanism for midterm election voter fraud. Faced with multiple reports of early voting irregularities and election shenanigans across the country, left-wing groups are playing dumb, deaf and blind. Voter fraud? What voter fraud? More cunningly, these organizations are seeking to marginalize complaints about election integrity by casting citizen watchdog efforts as racist ‘scare tactics.’ Echoing President Obama’s message to the Democratic faithful on the campaign trail, they are accusing political opponents of suppressing the votes of minorities and the poor. On Tuesday, The New York Times quoted a liberal voting rights advocate, Wendy R. Weiser, wringing her hands over individual Americans taking clean elections seriously: ‘Private efforts to police the polls create a real risk of vote suppression, regardless of their intent,’ said Weiser, director of the Voting Rights and Elections Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. ‘People need to know that any form of discrimination, intimidation or challenge to voters without adequate basis is illegal or improper.’ … Funny. For the past two years, Democratic leaders have had nothing to say about the militant New Black Panther Party goons who took it upon themselves to police a Philadelphia voting booth in 2008 wielding billy clubs and shouting anti-white slurs to suppress votes. Now, they’re treating citizen election monitors as if they are the jack-booted thugs. … Silence dissent. Criminalize watchdogs. Whitewash fraud. Discourage grassroots engagement. Deny, deny, deny. These are the signature tactics of the left in the age of Obama. On November 2, Americans get their chance to say: Enough.” –columnist Michelle Malkin

Political Futures

“Based on the sheer volume of usage, President Obama’s teleprompter must love the phrase ‘our American values.’ The phrase comes in a close third after ‘Let me be clear’ and ‘I will call you out on that.’ Since he uses the phrase so often, we should try to understand what he is saying. … The untethered progressive values of hope, change, tolerance, peace, unity, etc. come to mind. Presumably, the ‘ideals’ and ‘values’ of the left somehow have the power to bind together a country of citizens. … When Obama touts ‘our American values,’ odds are that he is advancing their very opposites. When our American values call for self-preservation, Obama calls for terrorists’ rights. When our American values call for traditional morality, Obama appoints someone like Kevin Jennings as ‘safe school czar’ for children. When our American values call for border enforcement, Obama sees millions of potential Democrat voters. And so on. The ironies of the Obama administration are like a series of never-ending waves crashing upon us. … The sad reality is that a man was somehow elected who is effectively a foreigner to our real American values. Our quintessential American value, liberty, means being free from central control. Of course, that’s the very antithesis to the ideology of the man occupying the White House.” –columnist Monte Kuligowski

For the Record

“Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010 is not Election Day. It is Referendum Day. It may be commonplace for commentators to announce that every election is ‘the most important election in our lifetime’ or something analogous. But having never said that of a presidential election, let alone an off-year election, this commentator cannot be accused of crying wolf when I say that this off-year election is not simply the most important of my lifetime. It is the most important since the Civil War. The reason is that unlike all previous elections, this one is actually a referendum on the direction of the United States of America. … And what would constitute a Democrat victory next Tuesday? Anything other than a Republican landslide. Any other result will be interpreted by the media and by the Democrats as solely a result of the economic recession and as the normal losses of the dominant party in off-year elections. In other words, the only way to ensure that the electoral results are seen as a repudiation of the growth of the state and the other Democrat and leftist goals is through an enormous Republican victory. Only then will America understand that this election was not first about jobs. It was above all about America.” –radio talk-show host Dennis Prager

Culture

“The fate of [NPR’s Juan] Williams reminds us that Americans have developed two personas — one public and politically correct, the other private. Mix the two and big trouble ensues. Here are some reminders about what to shut up about. Don’t discuss the deficit. Instead, call borrowing ‘stimulus.’ Trillions are not much different from billions. Debt can be paid back with more borrowing and someone else’s higher taxes. Ignore the lessons of Greece and California. To appear noble, call for more unemployment benefits, free medical care and more entitlements. To sound cruel, talk about borrowing to pay for them. Keep silent about Social Security and Medicare. If the system is insolvent, it cannot be because we are living longer, retiring earlier, often taking out more than we paid into the pot, abusing disability provisions, or facing an aging and soon-to-be-shrinking population. Instead, rail at fat cats who need to pay more payroll taxes, and at wasteful programs like defense that can be cut to ensure more for the elderly and needy. The checks will always come in time, and ‘they’ will always pay for them. … The NAACP has accused the Tea Party of racist views. The anger over high taxes, debt and big government warrants more concern among the Beltway’s black leadership than exploring the causes of inordinately high incidence of crime, incarceration and one-parent homes, and low high school graduation rates. Whatever one’s private views, groupspeak requires that answers are found outside, not inside, the black community — and demand more programs and more federal money. … We do not quite know how Americans will vote [this] week, in part because citizens fear to talk openly about their concerns and instead employ groupspeak. We suspect that in the privacy of the voting booth, they may prove angrier and more frustrated than we think.” –historian Victor Davis Hanson