QUESTIONS ABOUND

GOOD MORNING WORLD

This is a fired-up Friday submission.  It is full more of questions than answers however.  I have been listening to the news this past week not reading and following as closely as normal.  I have scanned the papers only in passing.  I have done cursory looks on the web.  I am full of questions.

The requirements to be President of the United States of America are three fold only.  The first is that you be a natural born citizen.  OR if you were born in another country your parents had to both be natural born citizens of the USA.  The second is that you are 35 years of age.  The third is that you have to be living in the USA for at least 14 years. 

Those seem fairly simple to me.  The question arises, ‘When did our tax returns become part of the requirement?’  It is written no place in the Constitution.  Then again the IRS is not in that document!

In the research I did to investigate this question one source went back to FDR who did not submit his tax returns.  Nixon submitted 4 yrs as I remember.  Ford submitted a summary only and Carter three years.  It varied from then on.  The source taxhistory.org

(http://www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/PresidentialTaxReturns)

also said the following:

Individual income tax returns — including those of public figures — are private information, protected by law from unauthorized disclosure. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service is barred from releasing any taxpayer information whatsoever, except to authorized agencies and individuals.

Question number 2 is, ‘Are not our candidate’s private citizens afforded all rights?’ Question #3, ‘Why do we need these?’  If they have passed any scrutiny of the IRS and accepted then, ‘What do we need to know of one’s private finances?’  We require no one else serving in public office to submit their taxes.  Of the 535 members of Congress on 17 make their returns public.  When this issue was pushed recently by a news organization, Nancy Pelosi quickly changed the subject to the economy.  She further suggested that if the media was covering this why shouldn’t they open their returns?  Another question!  Seriously?

Does not the President have some rights of privacy?  Do not candidates for the office deserve this?  We need to know what the platform of the candidate is and how they plan to carry it out.  I believe we need to know the character of the candidate as well. 

Character is not found on a tax return.  Or is it?  If you lie about your deductions wouldn’t this exemplify poor character?  If you take advantage of all the available LEGAL options, couldn’t this exemplify wisdom to use the tools at hand?  What do your charitable deductions say about you as a person?

When we hire someone for a job we interview them.  We are given a resume to look at prior to this interview.  The job applicant may even fill out an application.  This is the information we receive.  There may then be a process of one tow or three interviews before an individual is chosen.  Today in our PC world we are not to ask age or ethnicity.  I found it very interesting when our daughter who is now looking for employment with her newly earned BS degree was sent a piece of paper asking, among other questions, her race.

The ridiculousness of the scrutiny that we put our Presidents through today is exhausting.  We spent many TV hours and newsprint columns and internet info to discover that George Bush had not attended all of his National Guard meetings, nothing illegal by the way, and had a DUI.  On the other hand we spent very little time on the passage from President Obama’s book where he said, “I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it.”  Perhaps the reason this was not openly discussed is that he was not arrested?  Cocaine use and an arrest are a felony I believe.  Now we are after Mitt Romney for a prank he pulled in school.  And of course his tax returns.

It is time to make a list of exactly what is required for the paperwork for the Office of President.  Simple – a list!  In order to run for this office you need to supply your school transcripts from college and grad school, your dissertation if one was written, your work experience from college to now, your personal and business tax returns for 5 years and a copy of your most recent physical.  Isn’t that enough?

On the other hand we could listen to what they are saying and judge them on their character.  Think the quote goes something like this, ‘Character is what you do when no one is watching.’  The final question then would be, “What were Mitt Romney and President Obama doing when no one was watching?”

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

PS ……… funny addition – I cut and paste a lot of info from the web to use or not in my writings.  I write my comments above all of these and add what I want.  I then run spell and grammar check before I post.  I was surprised to see that the page I took from Mr. Obama’s book had more corrections that should have been made then my own post!!!  Evidently my stream of consciousness writing is more grammatically correct!!!

TAX HIKES

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Letter to the Editor Of The News Journal,Wilmington,DE:

I am writing in response to the letter from Rev. Long of Chester, Pa. that appeared in your newspaper onTuesday July 3, 2012.  The line above his letter was “Obamacare really means ‘Obama Cares”.”  Rev. Long’s letter mentioned the names the Affordable Healthcare Act has been called and ended with the fact that it may bring Obama a second term and show that he really cares.  I do not want to spoil Rev. Long’s impression of this bill.  I do not believe that caring means paying.  If you care about someone do you not want to take care of them?  This bill charges us all under the guise of care.

The facts are that this bill will cost us all – all of us – $500 billion plus in tax hikes.  The law contains 20 new or higher tax items.  It is the largest tax increase in American history.  The people that pay for this increase – 75% of them – earn $120,000 or less per year.  President Obama said two very important things that need to be added here.

He said, “I will not raise taxes on anyone earning under$250,000.

He said, “The Affordable Healthcare Act is NOT a tax.”

Americans for Tax Reform has a website that details all of these increases documented with page numbers of the bill.  It can be found at http://atr.org/full-list-obamacare-tax-hikes-a6996.  There you will find that in 2010 over $53b taxes took effect.  An example is item #3 “Black Liquor” tax hike of $23.06 that increases the tax on a type of bio-fuel.  Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page 105. In 2011 over $6.4b will go into effect. 

In 2012 we find #9 Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 (Min$/Jan 2012): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns.  Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957

In 2013 we see the addition of over $260b.  Included in this is item #14 on this list.  This is a Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka “Special Needs Kids Tax” of  $13b.  This imposes cap of on FSA of $2500.  This is now an unlimited amount.  One group this will effect is parents of special needs children.  There are thousands of families in the U.S.who use FSAs to pay for the education of their special needs children.  Tuition at one school was documented as $14,000 per year.  Under current tax law FSA dollars can be used to pay for this.  With a cap of $2500 who will pay in the future?  The documentation of this was: Bill:PPACA; Page 2388,2389.

In 2014 we are hit with $60b plus and in 2018 it is $32b.  If this is how Obama Cares I would ask him to please not care so much.  The United States of Americacannot afford it.  Do not take my word for it.  Check it out for yourself.

The question then arises, Can we trust a man who in his OWN words says one thing and then deliberately does another?  I think not.  His own words and subsequent actions set up questions of honesty.  He must not be elected again in 2012.

…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…

LEGISLATION/LEADERSHIP

 

GOOD MORNING WORLD

When our children were little they had a show called ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ that would send information and snippets about our government across the airways. Anyone remember this:

I’m just a bill.
Yes, I’m only a bill.
And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.
Well, it’s a long, long journey
To the capital city.
It’s a long, long wait
While I’m sitting in committee,
But I know I’ll be a law someday
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.

If you remember the tune you are old like me!!!  The picture accompanying this little ditty is a rolled up piece of paper with a ribbon on it.  The cartoon character proceeds to tell the Boy in the piece that a lawmaker comes up with an idea and writes a bill.  Then it shows them arguing over it and the Boy comments on that.  The Bill, the name of the paper roll character, answer that he is lucky as most bills do not get this far they die in committee.  Then Bill says it looks like he is going to live so he goes to the House of Representatives.  If the House votes to keep him the bill then goes to the Senate he tells the Boy and the arguing and discussing begins again.  Bill then explains that if he passes the Senate he still may not make it pass the President’s veto.  Very informative for the kiddos and even their mother though I knew this from history.

So then the question arises – why are the Republicans being blamed for the stalling that is going on inWashingtonD.C.  Our President had a super majority – that is both houses of Congress held a Democrat majority – for the first two years of his administration and could have passed anything he wanted if all the Democrats were on board with it.  As of 2010 the Republicans have a majority in the House.  The Senate still remains a Democrat majority.  Perhaps we need to go a little further to understand.

What the Bill did not go into is the fact that nothing comes to the floor of either house of Congress unless it is put on the agenda.  The agenda is set by the Speaker of the House or the Majority Leader in the Senate.  Any bill that makes it to the floor in the House and passes may be stopped in the Senate if it never gets on the agenda.  In the case of the Congress that is sitting at this time Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada is in charge of setting the agenda for the Senate.  For a bill to move anywhere it needs to be on the agenda.  Once the bill gets to the Senate floor discussion and hopefully compromise occurs.  If discussion leads to a yes consensus then the bill goes back through the whole process House and Senate for a final approval on that which was previously reached.  If it does not reach consensus it is dead on the Senate floor.

The Speaker of the House, Rep John Boehner, is in charge of setting the agenda there.  He has spoken over and over again about 30 bills that the House has passed and Sen. Reid refuses to put on the agenda for the Senate.  There seems to be a disagreement about the number and the Democrats say they have taken up three so the number is 27.  Regardless, how can anything get done if there is no discussion?  Sen. Reid has not brought a budget to the floor of the Senate in three years.  The Republicans forced him to bring President Obama’s 2012 Budget to a vote.  It was defeated 99-0 after the House had defeated it 414-0.  The movement of much of our Congress seems to be stalled in the Senate.  While the Republicans do not have a majority,  they do have a tool called a filibuster that can stall and stop Senate business.

 On top of all of this is the further question of leadership.  It is my understanding that a good leader gets his people together on a regular basis and listens and guides and empowers.  Does not a good leader help bring information forward and guide people to see each others points?  Are we seeing that from our President?  Are we so polarized that we cannot see each others points.  We do not necessarily have to agree.  We can listen and look for ways to compromise if we meet.  When was the last time he met with the leaders of Congress?  Aren’t  these meetings supposed to happen on a regular basis for the good of our country?  In the last few days our President has issued an executive guideline to alter arrest procedures of Homeland Security and invoked executive privilege on document sour Congress wants.  How can the Republicans be faulted?  Is it the House’ fault?  They are having committee meetings.  They are passing bills?  How can they be at fault if the Democrats under the guidance of Sen. Reid are not doing the work required of them?  The question then remains who are the obstructionists at this time?  Perhaps I am missing some big part of the understanding of how our government works?  Perhaps it needs to work together?

 …..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…