If you’re looking for some light reading, skip the federal tax code. Clocking in at 74,608 pages, it’s one of the most complicated and cumbersome documents Washington has ever produced. House Republicans are pledging to change that, unveiling a simple nine-page framework for rewriting the guiding document for the most loathed agencies in D.C.: the IRS. At a mini-retreat yesterday, the GOP tried to regroup on its next big project now that the health care repeal is stuck in Senate limbo until the next fiscal year. One way Republicans are hoping to woo back angry voters is by slashing their sky-high taxes and letting families keep more of their hard-earned money. For House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), Budget Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), this has been a longtime goal — one that President Trump is determined to make a reality.
At a speech in Indiana yesterday, the president called it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.” The billionaire businessman was quick to remind people that they have a Tax-Expert-in-Chief. “I guess it’s probably something I could say that I’m very good at. We’re going to cut taxes for the middle class, make the tax code simpler and fairer for everyday Americans. And we are going to bring back the jobs and wealth that have left our country and most people thought left our country for good.”
Together with House Republicans, he wants to reduce the personal income tax brackets from seven to three (12 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent), double the standard deduction for married and single filers, cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, and kill the death tax, among other things. Since proposing the very first child tax credit, FRC has fought to make the family — the engine of the economy — the center of tax reform. But instead of rewarding families for their role, the government punishes them – not realizing that what Washington does to family budgets has long-term effects on the country as a whole.
The GOP blueprint makes the tax code fairer, simpler, and more efficient. Conservatives should cheer the increase of the child tax credit, end of the estate tax, and the inclusion of a care credit, which lets families better provide for their loved ones. Unlike the Obama administration, which threatened to turn philanthropy upside-down, the Republican plan keeps the tax incentives for charitable contributions.
If all goes according to plan (a big “if” in this Congress!), the House hopes to have the bill to the Senate by the end of October and to Trump’s desk by year-end. If they can manage it, Americans would have a lot more jingle in their pockets this Christmas!
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/irs-e1506642098582.jpg358640Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2017-09-28 19:41:482017-09-28 19:54:29GOP Reform Stops Voters in Their Tax
With so much anger and division boiling over in the country, nothing could have come at a better time than Rep. Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) return to Congress. It was a powerful moment exactly when America needed one — watching the hobbled Majority Whip make his way across the House floor, a scene many wondered if they’d ever see again. Just months ago, he was hovering between life and death, the victim of a vicious shooting that forever changed his life — and countless others’. Now, he’s returning to Congress — reminding Americans what’s truly important in the process.The picture of survival and strength, Scalise talked about how overwhelmed he was by the outpouring of love, warmth, and prayer over the last three and a half months.
“It’s given us the strength to get through all of this and to get to this point today. And it starts with God, when I was laying out on that ball field, the first thing I did once I was down and couldn’t move anymore is I just started to pray, and I’ll tell you it gave me an unbelievable sense of calm knowing that at that point it was in God’s hands. But I prayed for very specific things. I will tell you pretty much every one of those prayers was answered. And they were some pretty challenging prayers that I was putting in God’s hands — but He really did deliver for me and my family and it just gives you that renewed faith and understanding that the power of prayer is something that you just cannot underestimate so I’m definitely a living example that miracles really do happen.”
It was a tragedy, he said, that transcended politics. Democrats, Republicans — it no longer mattered.
“So many of you, again both Republican and Democrat, reached out in ways that I can’t express the gratitude and how much it means to me, Jennifer, and our whole family. It really does show the warm side of Congress that very few people get to see. I want to thank each and every one of you for that. You don’t know how much it meant to me.
“…Every one of us, we come here and we fight for the things we believe in. I have passionate beliefs for some reason some of you don’t agree with all of those, but it is so important that we come up here, we are the People’s House. This is the place where these ideas are supposed to be debated, and we fight through those issues, but ultimately we come together.”
While the country struggles to find its footing in so much turmoil, Steve reminds us that there’s something that binds us all together as Americans: a common kindness, compassion, and decency. “I got to see that goodness in people,” he told his colleagues, “and while some people might focus on a tragic event and an evil act, to me all I remember are the thousands of acts of kindness and warmth that came out of all of this and kept me going through all of it and again just reemphasized just how wonderful most people are and how much compassion there is out there.”
From all of us at FRC, welcome back to Congress, Steve! We continue to pray for your complete recovery, but in the meantime, we’re looking forward to getting back to the business of defending faith, family, and freedom with you in the House.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Steve-Scalise-e1506641357975.jpg360640Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2017-09-28 19:29:272017-09-28 19:30:11VIDEO: Steve Scalise’s Miraculous Return to Congress
With Hugh Hefner’s death, the media has erupted in praise for his alleged contributions to society through the pornography magazine he founded, Playboy.
In reality, Hefner leaves behind a colossal legacy of sexual exploitation.
Playboy popularized the commodification of the female body in soft-core pornography magazines in the 1950s, and it laid the groundwork for the public health crisis of pornography that America is experiencing today.
With Hugh Hefner’s death, the media has erupted in praise for his alleged contributions to society through the pornography magazine he founded, Playboy.
In reality, Hefner leaves behind a colossal legacy of sexual exploitation.
Playboy popularized the commodification of the female body in soft-core pornography magazines in the 1950s, and it laid the groundwork for the public health crisis of pornography that America is experiencing today.
Without Hefner, pornography may have never gone mainstream. His opportune use of nude photos of Marilyn Monroe, who was just becoming a Hollywood sensation, in Playboy’s inaugural issue immediately gained the magazine national attention and notoriety. Further, by cunningly using models that captured the male sexual fantasy of the “girl next door,” and creating an archetype of the detached, “sophisticated” male connoisseur of pleasure, especially sex, Hefner succeeded in making pornography seem as American as apple pie.
Hefner was not a revolutionary, folk hero, or champion of free speech. He was a pioneer in the sexual objectification and exploitation of women.
From its very inception, Playboy made its views on women clear. As Hefner opined in the first issue, “We want to make it very clear from the start, we aren’t a ‘family’ magazine.’ If you’re somebody’s sister, wife, or mother-in-law and picked us up by mistake, please pass us along to the man in your life and get back to the Ladies Home Companion.”
Research shows that Playboy portrayed female sexuality as subordination and women as universally available to the male sexual gaze—a fundamental characteristic of pornography that carries on today.
Patrick Trueman is president of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. He is a former chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division at the Department of Justice from 1988 to 1993.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/hugh-hefner-1.jpg360640National Center on Sexual Exploitationhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngNational Center on Sexual Exploitation2017-09-28 17:09:162017-09-29 20:54:13Hugh Hefner’s true legacy: Sexual Exploitation by Patrick Trueman
The Matrix is a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called “the Matrix”, created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies’ heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Computer programmer Neo learns this truth and is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, which involves other people who have been freed from their “dream world.”
Watch this seminal moment in the film:
The 1999 fantasy/science fiction film “The Matrix” is a metaphor for what mankind is facing in the United States and Western Civilization today. Americans elected a President who is offering us a choice, much like that presented to Neo by Morpheus in “The Matrix” who says:
“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
The term “red pill” refers to a human that is aware of the true nature of the Matrix. This is a metaphor for today’s dystopian political environment know as “the swamp”, a reflection of the Matrix.
There are those who have taken the blue pill and refuse to see the reality, refuse to see how deep the rabbit hole truly is. Then there are those who have taken the red pill and resist the toxic dystopian politics of division, name calling and who stand up rather than kneel to the Matrix. During his inaugural address President Trump said:
Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.
Washington, D.C. are addicted to the blue pill, socialism. Working American people are the yearning for the red pill, capitalism.
President Trump went on to say:
For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital [the Matrix] has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.
Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth.
Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed.
The establishment [takers of the blue pill] protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.
Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s Capital [the Matrix], there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.
That all changes – starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.
[ … ]
At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.
When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.
The Bible tells us, “how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.”
[Emphasis added]
Winston Churchill wrote, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.”
Capitalism is the red pill, socialism is the blue pill.
So which do you want the blue pill or the red pill?
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/blue-pill-red-pill-matrix.jpg360640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2017-09-28 06:44:592017-09-28 16:55:34Choose: The Blue Pill or the Red Pill
“NBC spoke with two unidentified Taliban commanders, who claimed sources in Afghanistan’s security apparatus tipped them off to Mattis’s visit. Mattis…told reporters that Afghan forces would strongly oppose the action.”…”They will find Afghan security forces against them.”
Maybe they will. But will they find Afghan security forces for them? Why not? Afghan forces supposedly on our side have been responsible for numerous attacks on their U.S. “allies.” There remains no reliable way to distinguish Afghan jihadis from “moderates.” What is Mattis doing to address that? Nothing? Why not? Would it be too “Islamophobic” to explore that problem realistically?
“Taliban Tries To Kill Mattis During Surprise Afghanistan Visit,” by Thomas Phippen, Daily Caller, September 27, 2017:
The Taliban claimed responsibility for an attack on Kabul International Airport Wednesday morning targeting Defense Secretary Jim Mattis who was making an unscheduled visit to Afghanistan.
Mattis had left the airport by the time the attack started, NBC News reports, and no casualties have been reported….
“At 11.36 am two missiles were fired on Kabul International Airport from Deh Sabz district, damaging the air force hangers and destroying one helicopter and damaging three other helicopters, but there were no casualties,” airport chief Yaqub Rassouli said according to USA Today….
“We fired six rockets and planned to hit the plane of U.S. secretary of defense and other U.S. and NATO military officials,” one Taliban commander told NBC News. “We were told by our insiders that some losses were caused to their installations but we are not sure about James Mattis.”
NBC spoke with two unidentified Taliban commanders, who claimed sources in Afghanistan’s security apparatus tipped them off to Mattis’s visit.
Mattis was holding a press conference away from the airport at the time of the attack, and told reporters that Afghan forces would strongly oppose the action.
“If in fact there was an attack … his is a classic statement to what Taliban are up to,” Mattis said. “If in fact this is what they have done, they will find Afghan security forces against them.”
EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of U.S. General John Nicholson, the commander of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission, saluting U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis upon arrival at NATO’s headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 27, 2017.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/mattis-afghanistan-e1506591643280.jpg380640Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2017-09-28 05:40:512017-09-28 05:41:27Afghan security forces tipped off Taliban in failed attempt to kill Secretary of Defense Mattis
Seems both the prosecution and defense are “Islamophobes.” My latest in PJ Media:
The trial of Alton Alexander Nolen — a.k.a. Jah’Keem Yisrael, who beheaded a coworker, Colleen Hufford, and tried to behead another, Traci Johnson, at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Oklahoma in September 2014 — has revealed anew the incoherence and inconsistency of our official response to the jihad threat.
Nolen insists he was merely following the Qur’an. In statements he made days after the attack that have just been revealed during his trial, Nolen couldn’t have been clearer about his mindset, worldview, and motivations. When he was read his rights, he responded:
I just feel like … I did what I needed to do. What Allah … says in the Qur’an to do. Oppressors don’t need to be here.
Nolen has a case. The Qur’an says:
When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks (47:4).
Nolen thought Colleen Hufford was not just an unbeliever, but something even worse: she was, he explained, a “slave to the devil.” Nolen himself, on the other hand, was a “slave to Allah.” He told police:
You know the Muslim is somebody who submits their will to Allah … Whatever he wants done, that’s what we do … And you know he wants us to get the oppressors out of this place.
When asked if he regretted murdering Hufford, Nolen answered:
This wasn’t nothing but a trial for me. I passed it … because, like I said, I felt oppressed. … I knew for sure that … if I was to die right then … I was going to heaven.
I feel, you know, you know what I’m saying, if I was to die in five or 10 minutes I’m going to Heaven. That’s all that matters to me.
Here again, Nolen has a case. The Qur’an promises Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah (9:111). Nolen is, of course, still alive, but like the Fort Hood jihad mass murderer Nidal Malik Hasan, he likely believes that if he were to be executed, it would complete the requirements of the passage, and ensure his ticket to Paradise.
When asked if anyone had told him to behead unbelievers, he was quite clear about where he got the idea:
Uh, no. I read the Qur’an. Like I say, the Qur’an is easy to understand. … No one guides me but Allah.
Nolen also confirmed that he screamed “Allahu akbar” as he beheaded Hufford.
Both prosecuting and defense attorneys, however, seem to be discounting Nolen’s statements. The Oklahoman reported:
[H]is court-appointed defense attorneys are asking the jury to find him not guilty by reason of insanity. They have told jurors he is mentally ill and believed what he was doing was right because of delusional misinterpretations of Islamic teachings.
Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn, meanwhile, went even farther, saying:
[Nolen] didn’t know the difference between right and wrong, and didn’t know the consequences of his actions.
Nonsense. He knows very well the difference between right and wrong. The Qur’an says: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks,” and as far as he is concerned, that is right, and he knows that as a consequence of his actions, he will go to Paradise.
Mashburn is saying that standard Islamic belief is tantamount to insanity. Does he have any idea of how “Islamophobic” he is being?
We have seen this before. In Montreal last March, a police complaint was filed against the Dar Al-Arqam Mosque in Montreal for hosting an imam, Sheikh Muhammad bin Musa Al Nasr, who preached:
O Muslim, O servant of Allah, O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.
But this is a quotation that is attributed to Muhammad. Are the Canadian police really going to stop imams from quoting Muhammad? Are Oklahoma authorities really going to ascribe obedience to Qur’anic commands to insanity?…
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Alton-Alexander-Nolen.jpg392640Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2017-09-28 05:27:072017-09-28 05:27:19Oklahoma Beheading Trial of Jah’Keem Yisrael: Is Obeying the Qur’an a Form of Mental Illness?
The National Football League is now plunged into politics as players throughout the sport kneel for the national anthem and President Donald Trump continues to rebuke them publicly.
Undoubtedly, the situation has left many fans and non-fans of the league conflicted or angry.
This fiasco may, however, open the eyes of the public to a serious and generally unchecked issue: billionaire NFL owners sponging enormous amounts of money from taxpayers through crony capitalist schemes.
The fact is that a business that raked in $14 billion in revenue in 2016 is heavily subsidized by local, state, and federal money based on dubious claims about stimulating the economy.
The problem is rampant.
One report on Watchdog.org said that over the past two decades, the NFL has raked in about $7 billion of taxpayer money to spend on stadium renovation and building.
Another study from the Brookings Institution showed that federal taxpayers have subsidized the construction of 36 stadiums at a cost of over $3.2 billion since 2000.
Michael Sargent, an infrastructure expert at The Heritage Foundation, wrote about how sports teams use specially crafted tax breaks to get the public to finance their massive projects.
“Tax-exempt municipal bonds are typically reserved for public-use projects such as bridges, water systems, and other infrastructure,” Sargent wrote for The Daily Signal. “Yet because of a loophole in the tax code, private-use stadiums can take advantage of this tax break, and have done so prolifically.”
In fact, only a handful of NFL and other major league teams use privately-financed venues to host their games.
It would seem after sinking enormous investments into sports franchises, cities would reap serious financial benefits in return.
But this isn’t the case at all.
Research from George Mason University has shown that not only do communities gain almost no economic benefits from subsidized sports teams, but some findings “indicate harmful effects of sports on per capita income, wage and salary disbursements, and wages per job.”
Recently released polls show national anthem protests are deeply unpopular with the American people, but polls also show that the taxpayer funding of sports is also widely disliked.
When likely voters in Nevada were asked if they favored or opposed using $500 million in taxpayer dollars to fund a stadium for the Oakland Raiders to move to Las Vegas, they overwhelmingly said “no.”
According to the KTNV-TV 13 Action News/Rasmussen Reports poll, 60 percent of Nevada voters opposed the funding, and only 28 percent supported it.
Given the massive discontent over national anthem kneeling and rampant politicization of the once unifying sport of football, perhaps now Americans will turn a more skeptical eye toward how their sports teams rely on public money and actually do something about it.
There are some in Congress who have taken notice.
“In America, if you want to play sports, you’re free to do so. If you want to protest, you’re free to do so,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said in a Tuesday speech, according to The Washington Post. “But you should do so on your own time and on your own dime.”
Recent bipartisan legislation on Capitol Hill aimed to strip federal funding from sports teams. A bill sponsored by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., would prevent teams from using municipal bonds that are exempt from federal taxes.
Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., introduced a similar bill in the House.
Lankford said in a statement in June:
The federal government is responsible for a lot of important functions, but financing sports stadiums for multimillion—sometimes billion—dollar franchises is definitely not one of them. Using billions of federal taxpayer dollars for the subsidization of private stadiums when we have real infrastructure needs in our country is not a good way to prioritize a limited amount of funds.
This movement has picked up steam in recent weeks, according to Kerry Picket of The Daily Caller.
On Tuesday, Gaetz became the lead sponsor of legislation that would end the tax-exempt status of professional sports leagues.
NFL and other sports teams have a deep financial interest in getting taxpayers to pay their bills, so it will take a widespread concerted effort on the part of the public to end this gravy train.
Since NFL billionaire owners have gone out of their way to accommodate millionaire players in standing down for the national anthem, perhaps taxpaying Americans should start withholding money from the privileged and let them all stand on their own two feet.
Now may be the perfect time to finally do it.
This article has been updated to include legislation sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
Trust in the mainstream media is at a historic low—and rightfully so given the behavior of many journalists in Washington, D.C.
Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, it is painfully clear that the mainstream media covers liberals glowingly and conservatives critically.
Now journalists spread false, negative rumors about President Trump before any evidence is even produced.
Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. That’s why The Daily Signal exists.
The Daily Signal’s mission is to give Americans the real, unvarnished truth about what is happening in Washington and what must be done to save our country.
Our dedicated team of more than 100 journalists and policy experts rely on the financial support of patriots like you.
Your donation helps us fight for access to our nation’s leaders and report the facts.
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https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/170926_NFLFunding-1250x650-e1506557512684.jpg381640The Daily Signalhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Signal2017-09-27 20:18:342017-10-01 13:05:44Here’s How Much Money the NFL Rakes in From Taxpayers
Most people probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about disease. And at least where STDs are concerned, maybe that’s part of the problem. For the last several years, sexually transmitted infections and diseases have exploded into one of the worse crises no one is talking about. Now, they’re almost impossible to ignore, with rates surging to record highs in young and old people alike. The outbreak of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis reached an astounding two million cases last year, “the highest number ever,” according to the Centers for Disease Control.
A whopping 1.6 million new cases cropped up in 2016, stoking the fears of the medical community that Americans aren’t taking the problem seriously enough. To the CDC, the statistics are even more alarming since some strains of gonorrhea are now untreatable.
Unfortunately, this is just another by-product of sexual liberalism that’s coming home to roost in a nation that’s spent the last eight years — not just encouraging, but funding— messages of irresponsibility. Instead of encouraging morality, Barack Obama used every second of his two terms to promote immorality. And for our libertarian friends the economic burden is nothing to sneeze at. Taxpayers sink almost $20 billion a year into treatments for these infections — most of them incurable, and all of them expensive. Now, sadly, it’s become part of the push for universal health care. The philosophy is simple: live however you want, and everyone else pays the price.
From bathroom policies to free birth control, we’ve sexualized our culture to the point that it’s actually killing us. Instead of ignoring the problem, it’s time for liberals to join conservatives in urging America to stop engaging in risky behavior that results in deadly consequences. Clearly, there needs to be a serious discussion of the long-term implications of the Left’s agenda of sexual-satisfaction-at any-cost — not just for individuals, but for society as a whole. The government has spent years (and even more taxpayer dollars) trying to solve a problem it helped created. How many more will we spend ignoring the real solution: restraint?
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC Action senior writers.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/sexual-liberalism-e1506554710278.jpg352640Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2017-09-27 19:25:192017-09-27 19:25:19The Negative Infects of Sexual Liberalism
Any tax reforms passed by Congress should give relief to middle-class families and small businesses, bring jobs and capital back to the United States, and make the tax code more fair by ending loopholes and breaks for special interests, congressional Republicans said Wednesday in what they call a framework for debate.
The framework from House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other GOP leaders calls for creating a larger zero-tax bracket (an individual’s first $12,000 of income would become tax free, and the first $24,000 for married couples), roughly doubling taxpayers’ standard deduction, and condensing the current seven tax brackets to three.
“This is a historic day,” Ryan said at an afternoon press conference. “This is a day that is a long time in coming. In fact, it was on this day, under this dome, in 1986 that Congress took the final vote on the last overhaul of our tax code. That long. After that vote, President Reagan said Americans would ‘finally have a tax code that they can be proud of.’
“It was true then, but things look very very different today, don’t they?” Ryan added. “Instead of a source of pride, our tax code has become a constant source of frustration. It is too big. It is too complicated, it’s too expensive. Today, we are taking the next step to liberate Americans from our broken tax code.”
“Tax reform that follows the outline we heard today will deliver significant benefits for all Americans,” Adam Michel, a tax policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, said in an email to The Daily Signal, adding:
The outlined tax reform will raise wages, increase job creation, and create untold additional opportunities. The plan goes a long way toward fixing our business tax system that makes it hard for businesses to invest in America.
Depending on their income, individual taxpayers currently may be taxed at one of these percentages: 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, or 39.6.
The three brackets in Republicans’ proposed tax framework are 12 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent.
The framework would end personal exemptions for dependents and increase the child tax credit.
President Donald Trump has made overhauling the tax code a major agenda item during his first year in office, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has promised to deliver it by the end of 2017, now three months away.
Republican lawmakers’ plan would repeal the alternative minimum tax, created in 1969 to ensure that more affluent taxpayers could lower their tax bill only via deductions a certain amount. Many lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, previously have called for an end to the alternative minimum tax.
The framework for tax reform would eliminate most itemized deductions, taken from a taxable adjusted gross income and “made up of deductions for money spent on certain goods and services throughout the year,” as Investopedia explains it.
The plan also calls for repeal of the estate tax—which opponents call the death tax—and the generation-skipping transfer tax, what the Tax Policy Center calls an “additional tax on a transfer of property.”
The plan includes tax benefits to incentivize work, higher education, and retirement security and promises to repeal many provisions “to make the system simpler and fairer for all families and individuals, and allow for lower tax rates.”
The framework also would:
Limit the minimum tax rate for small businesses and sole proprietorships to 25 percent.
Lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, “below the 22.5 percent average of the industrialized world.”
Allow expensing of “new investments in depreciable assets other than structures made after Sept. 27, 2017, for at least five years.”
Lower rates for domestic manufacturers and update rules for various industries and sectors “to ensure that the tax code better reflects economic reality and that such rules provide little opportunity for tax avoidance.”
The Republican plan also seeks to keep companies from moving overseas by taxing both businesses and foreign profits of U.S. corporations at a reduced rate.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus in the House, praised the newly released details.
“At first glance, the policies released today are good news to the American people,” Walker said in a formal statement. “I am proud to see that a large part of the Republican Study Committee’s submission to the tax reform task force was incorporated into today’s framework. We need to begin acting on this framework legislatively as soon as possible.”
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., chairwoman of the House Budget Committee, said the goals would put America at an advantage:
By simplifying the system and getting the government out of the way of our free-market economy, America is made more competitive on an international scale and the potential for unprecedented job creation is unleashed. We believe this will be a catalyst for more jobs, bigger paychecks and fairer taxes—this framework is pro-America. Plain and simple.
Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network, said the plan shows promise.
“I’m encouraged to see that the administration is moving forward with tax cuts for small business,” Ortiz said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal, adding:
While many details still need to be filled in, this is a crucial and positive step in the right direction. Make no mistake: the recent progress in the campaign for tax relief should bring optimism to the 29 million small business owners and the roughly 56 million people that depend on them for their livelihoods.
In a statement provided to The Daily Signal, David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, said the plan will foster economic development.
“Club for Growth is very encouraged and pleased with the long-awaited tax reform outline that the Big Six released today,” McIntosh said. “Fundamental tax reform comes around only once in a generation, and this is our chance. The outline is both aggressive and very pro-growth with its rate reductions.”
Mike Needham, chief executive officer of Heritage Action for America, the lobbying affiliate of The Heritage Foundation, said the plan is a call to action.
“While today’s announcement marks an important and encouraging first step, it is imperative the administration and congressional leaders work hand-in-hand with conservatives to push back against the radical left and the special interests that will pull out every stop to preserve the status quo,” Needham said.
This report was updated to include Ryan’s afternoon remarks.
Rachel del Guidice is a reporter for The Daily Signal. She is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Forge Leadership Network, and The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program. Send an email to Rachel. Twitter: @LRacheldG.
A Note for our Readers:
Trust in the mainstream media is at a historic low—and rightfully so given the behavior of many journalists in Washington, D.C.
Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, it is painfully clear that the mainstream media covers liberals glowingly and conservatives critically.
Now journalists spread false, negative rumors about President Trump before any evidence is even produced.
Americans need an alternative to the mainstream media. That’s why The Daily Signal exists.
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https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/paul-ryan-2-e1506553599257.jpg370640The Daily Signalhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Signal2017-09-27 19:11:302017-09-27 19:11:30What’s in the GOP’s Plan for Tax Reform
This video is a must watch. Please take the time to watch and digest what these black men have to say. The NFL and NBA will go down if they continue to coddle the misguided athletes who are disrespecting our country, our flag and our president!
Officer Brandon Tatum explains why you cannot disrespect the flag without respecting it, why it means so much to Americans, and why the NFL needs to stop disrespecting it.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/cross-american-flag-with-eagle-e1511550293675.jpg385640Wallace Bruschweilerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngWallace Bruschweiler2017-09-27 16:51:202017-10-01 13:04:35VIDEO: Now I have had enough – Why The Flag Means So Much To Americans
Every scam involves two parties – the scammer and the scammed. Little scams, big scams, financial scams, political scams, sex scams, – all involve the scammer and the scammed. Truth is the recognized enemy of the scammer but often the unrecognized enemy of the scammed. Why?
In simple cases of crime and punishment the truth exposes the scam and exposes the scammer to punishments ranging from social ridicule to prison.
In simple cases of crime and punishment the truth exposes the scam and provides the scammed with justice.
We do not live in simple times. We live in complicated times because deceitful scamming has replaced our esteemed American meritocracy and its requirement for the open honest debate of ideas.
For eight years the Obama administration politicized and weaponized every government institution with his Leftist/Islamist agenda – it was the greatest political scam in American history and successfully denied the meritocracy by restricting American free speech with political correctness, moral relativism, and historical revisionism.
Honest debate was replaced with indoctrination in an unparalleled echo chamber of Leftist/Islamist ideals.
Scamming always involves presentation. This explains why Saul Alinsky carefully instructed his left-wing radicals to cut their hair, put on suits, and blend into society to appear non-threatening to their targets. Transformative change according to Alinsky is a long-game and involves disguising your intentions physically as well as politically. Obama became America’s scammer-in-chief – he cut his hair, put on a suit, and blended into American society to conceal his real revolutionary identity and appear non-threatening to the American public.
Here is how scamming works.
The scammer approaches his target with calm sophistication, smooth talking, and an offer irresistible to the target.
The scammer knows his target can be easily duped with promises to deliver what the target desperately wants.
The scammer knows his target will ignore any evidence (willful blindness) that he/she is being scammed.
The target is hooked.
Scamming is always a deceitful enterprise because it disguises the scammers’ true motives. Being scammed depends on the willful blindness of the scammed.
Willful blindness is a form of psychological denial that insists a known truth is not true. So, the wife who “knows” her husband is cheating but refuses to acknowledge it is engaging in willful blindness. If she acknowledges the truth of her husband’s infidelity she would be required to emotionally accept the unacceptable truth and make a decision about how to respond to it. In this scenario the sex scam involves the husband scammer and the scammed wife who has the choice to acknowledge the scam and leave him or accept the scam and stay.
Bernie Madoff was an exceptionally gifted financial scammer because this targets were greedy enough to participate in willful blindness. His Ponzi scheme succeeded for years because of his targets’ willful blindness. Many victims of scammers refuse to seek justice when they finally acknowledge their willful blindness and realize they have been scammed because they are so embarrassed by their own behavior they decide to remain silent. Silence always protects the scammer. The most bizarre response to being scammed are those who double-down on their willful blindness and defend the scam as legitimate.
In 2008 a calm, sophisticated, smooth talking Obama made America an irresistible offer of hope and change. America ignored Obama’s radical socialist background and intent to transform America into socialism. We substituted our own hopes for change and allowed ourselves to be duped by his irresistible slogan “Hope and Change.” He offered Americans something we desperately wanted and we were hooked.
Soon evidence that the country had been scammed began to appear – evidence that Obama was a scammer was being willfully suppressed by the mainstream media, the Democrat Party particularly the Leftist/Islamist axis, the Republican establishment, and the general American public. It was becoming increasingly clear that when Barack Obama was elected on his irresistible platform of hope and change he had duped America. His Leftist/Islamist agenda was carefully concealed by his sophisticated appearance and easy smile – he was the perfect conman who scammed his way to the presidency. Many Americans chose the bizarre response and doubled down and began defending the scam. Why?
Some doubled-down because they were too embarrassed to acknowledge they had been scammed to vote for him. Some doubled-down because they were radical left-wing liberals who welcomed his Leftist socialism. Some doubled-down because they were actually part of Obama’s scam.
Small scams can be a one-on-one deception. Large scams require the participation of many conspiring elements. The globalist elite who run Obama’s scam own the colluding mainstream media, fund the Democrat Party including its radical Leftist/Islamist axis, finance the Republican establishment, all in a continuing effort to move the country toward socialism, internationalism, and globalism.
Obama’s past presidential policies and the divisiveness of his current post presidential “resistance” policies seek to destroy American democracy and replace it with socialism. American socialism is the prerequisite for a New World Order. The globalist elite’s New World order is the mother of all scams. It is a regressive return to the binary feudal system of masters and slaves described in unapologetic detail by English aristocrat Lord Bertrand Russell in his 1952 classic “The Impact of Science on Society.”
Obama’s ongoing resistance movement is a continuation of the globalist elite scam to destroy America. It has escalated into violence, lawlessness, and calls for anarchy. America has choices. We can deny the scam like the willfully blind wife, we can remain silent and allow the scam to continue, or we can acknowledge that we were scammed and finally stand up for American democracy, sovereignty, liberty, and freedom that is the true American dream we were promised.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/obama-1.jpg366639Linda Goudsmithttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngLinda Goudsmit2017-09-27 16:43:282017-09-27 16:46:10The Scammer and the Scammed
In a previous column, I noted that the typical audience reaction to my talks about the improving state of the world is not joy and thankfulness for the progress that humanity is making in tackling age-old problems such as infant mortality, malnutrition, and illiteracy. Rather, it is the concern about the exhaustion of natural resources and the supposedly irreparable harm that humanity is causing to the environment.
Apocalyptic warnings about the end of the world as we know it are as old as humanity itself, but recent news should give the doomsayers some food for thought and lower the temperature, so to speak, in the debate about global warming and its future effects on the planet.
The Models Were Wrong
In a new study that was published in the journal Nature Geoscience, leading climate scientists have adjusted their previous predictions about global warming and stated that the worst impacts of climate change are still avoidable. Professor Michael Grubb, an international energy and climate change scientist at University College London, said that previous scientific estimates were incorrect because they were based on computer models that were running “on the hot side.”
According to the new estimates, the world is more likely than previously thought to achieve the main goal of the 2015 Paris agreement and limit global warming to only 1.5°C higher than was the case in the pre-industrial era. Only two years ago, many scientists dismissed the 1.5°C goal as too optimistic and Professor Grubb went as far to say that “all the evidence from the past 15 years leads me to conclude that actually delivering 1.5°C” is unattainable.
While it is true that the average global temperature is 0.9°C higher than in the pre-industrial era, the scientists now admit that there was a slowdown in warming in the 15 years prior to 2014 – a slowdown that the models did not predict or account for. Professor Myles Allen, another one of the study’s authors, said “We haven’t seen that rapid acceleration in warming after 2000 that we see in the models. We haven’t seen that in the observations.”
What has changed in the model forecasts since the Paris summit in 2015? The data showing that the climate models are running “on the hot side” has been available for years. In 2015, my colleagues Patrick Michaels and Chip Knappenberger noted that climate models have been overestimating the rate of warming for decades. In 2016, John Christy from the University of Alabama in Huntsville testified before the US Congress that the climate models were inaccurate. For their trouble, all three have been labeled “climate change deniers.”
The Nature Geoscience study suggests that humanity has more time to transition away from fossil fuels. Should it? That’s debatable, argues William Nordhaus, a professor of economics at Yale University, and his coauthor Andrew Moffatt, in a recently released paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper combines econometric and climate models to estimate the future impact of global warming on worldwide income.
The Laws of Economics Still Apply
By studying 36 estimates of the costs of global warming, the pair predicts that 3°C warming will reduce global income by 2.04 percent and 6°C warming will reduce global income by 8.16 percent by 2100. Nordhaus and Moffatt’s estimates parallel the broad consensus. For example, the IPCC in their Fourth Report estimated that global “mean losses could be 1 to 5 percent of GDP for 4°C of warming”.
As Ronald Bailey of Reason magazine calculates, current global average income per capita is about $10,000. If the world grows at 3 percent per year over the next 80 years or so, global average income per capita will rise to $97,000. According to Nordhaus and Moffatt’s estimations, therefore, an increase in global temperature by 3°C would reduce global average income per capita by $2,000 to $95,000. A 6°C increase in global temperature would reduce global average income per capita by $8,000 to $89,000.
“We have a predicament,” Bailey concludes. “How much are we willing to spend in order to make those living in 2100, who will likely be at least nine times richer than us today, $2,000 better off?”
That is not a purely academic question. Thanks to the concerns over global warming, governments throughout the world have been busy imposing serious additional costs on economic development and reducing real living standards of ordinary people so as to facilitate the fastest possible transition away from fossil fuels. The above studies add to the complexity surrounding the subject of global warming and human response to it. They also strengthen the case of those who argue that any such transition should be driven by technological change, not government mandates.
Marian L. Tupy is the editor of HumanProgress.org and a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/iceburg.jpg360640Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2017-09-27 16:10:032017-09-27 16:10:03How the Debate on Climate Change Is Cooling Down
At one time it was believed that antisemitism in America was confined to a small group of Right Wing malcontents. This is no longer the case.
In a disturbing article Caroline Glick analyses the rise of antisemitism among Great Britain’s political leadership and the rise of antisemitism in the emerging leadership in America’s Democrat Party. If in the future the Democrats take over Congress and/or the Presidency the problems for Israel and American Jews will be rather serious unless the current trend is reversed which unfortunately is unlikely.
Since 2015, Britain has been one election away from having an antisemitic prime minister backed by antisemitic voters. If current trends in the Democratic Party continue, in the not-so-distant future, the United States might be in the same position.
Two years ago, Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of Britain’s main opposition Labor Party. That officially put an end to Tony Blair’s alignment of the Labor Party with the political center in Britain, both in economic and in foreign affairs.
Corbyn is an antisemite. He refers to Hezbollah and Hamas – two terrorist groups that openly support the genocide of world Jewry and the annihilation of the Jewish state – as “our friends.” He has shared stages with Hamas terrorists and Holocaust- deniers. Since his ascension to leadership of the Labor Party, he has overseen the mainstreaming of antisemitic actions and rhetoric by his party members and supporters.
Shortly after Corbyn’s election, repeated, well-publicized acts of antisemitism by senior Labor Party members forced Corbyn to call for an investigation of the phenomenon. He appointed his ally Shami Chakrabarti to oversee the effort.
The Chakrabarti report – first presented at a Labor Party conference convened last June for that purpose – was not merely a whitewash. It effectively denied that it is possible to be concerned with antisemitism without being racially insensitive to other minority groups. In other words, concern for antisemitism is a form of racism in and of itself.
As for Corbyn himself, he couldn’t be clearer about his feelings. His remarks at his conference on antisemitism were antisemitic.
Corbyn insisted that it’s wrong “to assume that a Jewish friend is wealthy, part of some kind of financial or media conspiracy or takes a particular position on politics in general, or on Israel and on Palestine in particular.”
[ … ]
Over the past week, two incidents occurred that indicate that the party of Harry Truman and Bill Clinton is becoming increasingly comfortable with blaming the Jews.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/KEITH-ELLISON.jpg360640Robert Hellerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngRobert Heller2017-09-27 15:49:462017-09-27 15:49:46The New Democrat Party is not the Party I once Knew and Supported
You can be the blackest black man or woman in the world or you can be the whitest man or woman in the world… that matters little whether or not you succeed in life. You can choose whether or not you will let your color define you. You can choose whether or not you will let your socio/economic circumstances define you, and if you do, that is on you, and nobody else. You and only you can make that choice, and this is the wonderful thing about the United States of America, is it not? So just exactly what is everyone kneeling about?
Growing up, my grandmother had a saying that she repeated over and over again; “From the minute you’re born ’till you ride in a hearse, it’s never so bad that it couldn’t get worse.” No matter what your color is, only you can choose to make it worse…..or better, and when it gets better, it could always be worse. This is common sense teaching. Think it’s not? Stop for a minute and look around you. Really take a good hard look. See? Ah…..Now you are saying, “There but for the Grace of God, go I.” Now if you increase your wealth, your job, your position on the social and economic ladder, you will still be able to look around you and see the same thing. Your situation could always be worse. This is called life!
The NFL and now the rest of professional sports have just turned on everything that they have stood on for generations and the message that they have sent to the youth of America; that message of digging deep down within yourself to be your very best. To rise against all odds and stare down adversity. That you are the only person who can define you.
The message that the NFL and the rest of Pro Sports have embraced is the one of a victim. It smacks of a socialist agenda that promotes absolute equality for everyone, and that nobody should have to work harder than anyone else to achieve their goals to be successful. Only they don’t seem to understand that it’s never been that way for blacks…..or whites. There has always been a social class in America, and no matter how many times they take a knee, there always will be.
There is always going to be people who will try to hold you back. It doesn’t matter if you are black or white, that is a class thing. Nobody is going to just push you to the front of the line ahead of them. Stop with that nonsense. This is where the NFL players and owners are failing in a big way. They are sending a message that there are injustices and inequalities in this country that can’t be overcome by individuals unless the state steps in to pull you through. They are suggesting that individuals need to be coddled and in the process, they are destroying the message that people, and particularly the youth who are watching and admiring them as role models, can achieve the highest level of success if that is what they truly want because we are living in the greatest country on the face of the earth and that their circumstances do not reflect on the future they desire.
Capitalism knows no color but green, and there is but one road to being successful and you cannot get there on your knees. Black, Yellow, Brown, White; Get up, start working and then take what is yours because you earned it and not because you think you are entitled to it. You’ll take some lumps along the way and you’ll encounter some things that aren’t fair. Tough! That’s just life, that’s all. Stop whining, and push on through it. Those that do will one day be a great success. Those who refuse….will still be on their knees.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Drew-Brees.jpg395639Kevin Schmersalhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngKevin Schmersal2017-09-27 11:02:252017-09-27 11:13:18Get Off Your Knees [+Video]
A continually growing population of illegal aliens, along with the federal government’s ineffective efforts to secure our borders, present significant national security and public safety threats to the United States. They also have a severely negative impact on the nation’s taxpayers at the local, state, and national levels. Illegal immigration costs Americans billions of dollars each year. Illegal aliens are net consumers of taxpayer-funded services and the limited taxes paid by some segments of the illegal alien population are, in no way, significant enough to offset the growing financial burdens imposed on U.S. taxpayers by massive numbers of uninvited guests. This study examines the fiscal impact of illegal aliens as reflected in both federal and state budgets.
The Number of Illegal Immigrants in the US
Estimating the fiscal burden of illegal immigration on the U.S. taxpayer depends on the size and characteristics of the illegal alien population. FAIR defines “illegal alien” as anyone who entered the United States without authorization and anyone who unlawfully remains once his/her authorization has expired. Unfortunately, the U.S. government has no central database containing information on the citizenship status of everyone lawfully present in the United States. The overall problem of estimating the illegal alien population is further complicated by the fact that the majority of available sources on immigration status rely on self-reported data. Given that illegal aliens have a motive to lie about their immigration status, in order to avoid discovery, the accuracy of these statistics is dubious, at best. All of the foregoing issues make it very difficult to assess the current illegal alien population of the United States.
However, FAIR now estimates that there are approximately 12.5 million illegal alien residents. This number uses FAIR’s previous estimates but adjusts for suspected changes in levels of unlawful migration, based on information available from the Department of Homeland Security, data available from other federal and state government agencies, and other research studies completed by reliable think tanks, universities, and other research organizations.
The Cost of Illegal Immigration to the United States
At the federal, state, and local levels, taxpayers shell out approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegal aliens. That amounts to a tax burden of approximately $8,075 per illegal alien family member and a total of $115,894,597,664. The total cost of illegal immigration to U.S. taxpayers is both staggering and crippling. In 2013, FAIR estimated the total cost to be approximately $113 billion. So, in under four years, the cost has risen nearly $3 billion. This is a disturbing and unsustainable trend. The sections below will break down and further explain these numbers at the federal, state, and local levels.
Total Governmental Expenditures on Illegal Aliens
Total Tax Contributions by Illegal Aliens
Total Economic Impact of Illegal Immigration
Federal
The Federal government spends a net amount of $45.8 billion on illegal aliens and their U.S.-born children. This amount includes expenditures for public education, medical care, justice enforcement initiatives, welfare programs and other miscellaneous costs. It also factors in the meager amount illegal aliens pay to the federal government in income, social security, Medicare and excise taxes.
FEDERAL SPENDING
The approximately $46 billion in federal expenditures attributable to illegal aliens is staggering. Assuming an illegal alien population of approximately 12.5 million illegal aliens and 4.2 million U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, that amounts to roughly $2,746 per illegal alien, per year. For the sake of comparison, the average American college student receives only $4,800 in federal student loans each year.
FAIR maintains that every concerned American citizen should be asking our government why, in a time of increasing costs and shrinking resources, is it spending such large amounts of money on individuals who have no right, nor authorization, to be in the United States? This is an especially important question in view of the fact that the illegal alien beneficiaries of American taxpayer largess offset very little of the enormous costs of their presence by the payment of taxes. Meanwhile, average Americans pay approximately 30% of their income in taxes.
Taxes collected from illegal aliens offset fiscal outlays and, therefore must be included in any examination of the cost of illegal immigration. However, illegal alien apologists frequently cite the allegedly large tax payments made by illegal aliens as a justification for their unlawful presence, and as a basis for offering them permanent legal status through a new amnesty, similar to the one enacted in 1986. That argument is nothing more than a red herring.
FAIR believes that most studies grossly overestimate both the taxes actually collected from illegal aliens and, more importantly, the amount of taxes actually paid by illegal aliens (i.e., the amount of money collected from illegal aliens and actually kept by the federal government). This belief is based on a number of factors: Since the 1990’s, the United States has focused on apprehending and removing criminal aliens. The majority of illegal aliens seeking employment in the United States have lived in an environment where they have little fear of deportation, even if discovered. This has created an environment where most illegal aliens are both able and willing to file tax returns. Because the vast majority of illegal aliens hold low-paying jobs, those who are subject to wage deductions actually wind up receiving a complete refund of all taxes paid, plus net payments made on the basis of tax credits.
As a result, illegal aliens actually profit from filing a tax return and, therefore, have a strong interest in doing so.
Even though the costs of illegal immigration borne by taxpayers at the federal level are staggering, they only pale in comparison to the fiscal burden shouldered by taxpayers at the state level. Most government taxes and fees remitted to government by Americans are paid in forms other than income taxes submitted to the IRS on April 15th. There are city and state income taxes, fuel surcharges, sales and property taxes, etc…. States and localities also bear the main burden for costs associated with public education, city and county infrastructure, and local courts and jails.
A further complication is the fact that, while barred from many federal benefits, state laws allow illegal aliens to access many state-funded social welfare programs. Because so little data is collected on the immigration status of individuals collecting benefits, it is difficult to determine the rate at which illegal aliens use welfare programs. However, based on the average income of illegal alien households, it appears they use these programs at a rate higher than lawfully present aliens or citizens.
STATE AND LOCAL SPENDING
The combined total of state and local government general expenditures on illegal aliens is $18,571,428,571 billion. The services referenced in this section are supported directly by the payment of city and state taxes and related fees. At the state level, examples of general expenditures would be the costs of general governance, fire departments, garbage collection, street cleaning and maintenance, etc. The state, county or municipality — or even a special taxing district in some situations — may provide some of these services. In most cases, localities offer more services than the state. By FAIR’s estimate, there is approximately a 65 percent to 35 percent cost share between local and state governments.
The estimate of general expenditure services received by illegal alien households, beyond the specific outlays mentioned in the sections above, excludes capital expenditures and debt servicing. The calculation for each state is based on the state’s annual operating budget, reduced by the amount covered by the federal government. That expenditure is then reduced further based on the relative size of the estimated population of illegal aliens and their U.S.-born minor children. As noted in our population estimate, this means states like California, Texas, Florida, New York, etc., with larger illegal alien cohorts, will bear larger shares of these costs.
Offsetting the fiscal costs of the illegal alien population are the taxes collected from them at the state and local level. Many proponents of illegal immigration argue that the taxes paid to the states render illegal aliens a net boon to state and local economies. However, this is a spurious argument. Evidence shows that the tax payments made by illegal aliens fail to cover the costs of the many services they consume.
Illegal aliens are not typical taxpayers. First, as previously noted in this study, the large percentage of illegal aliens who work in the underground economy frequently avoid paying any income tax at all. (Many actually receive a net cash profit through refundable tax credit programs.) Second, and also previously noted, the average earnings of illegal alien households are considerably lower than both legal aliens and native-born workers.
RELATED VIDEO: DNC leader compares illegal immigrants to Holocaust victims
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/illegals-american-flag-e1486685353322.jpg373640Federation for American Immigration Reformhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFederation for American Immigration Reform2017-09-27 10:02:542017-09-27 10:20:32Cost of Illegal immigration: Record $135 billion average $8,075 for each illegal, $25,000 in New York
GOP Reform Stops Voters in Their Tax
/in Economy, Featured, Policy, Regulation, Taxes, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Family Research CouncilIf you’re looking for some light reading, skip the federal tax code. Clocking in at 74,608 pages, it’s one of the most complicated and cumbersome documents Washington has ever produced. House Republicans are pledging to change that, unveiling a simple nine-page framework for rewriting the guiding document for the most loathed agencies in D.C.: the IRS. At a mini-retreat yesterday, the GOP tried to regroup on its next big project now that the health care repeal is stuck in Senate limbo until the next fiscal year. One way Republicans are hoping to woo back angry voters is by slashing their sky-high taxes and letting families keep more of their hard-earned money. For House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), Budget Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), this has been a longtime goal — one that President Trump is determined to make a reality.
At a speech in Indiana yesterday, the president called it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.” The billionaire businessman was quick to remind people that they have a Tax-Expert-in-Chief. “I guess it’s probably something I could say that I’m very good at. We’re going to cut taxes for the middle class, make the tax code simpler and fairer for everyday Americans. And we are going to bring back the jobs and wealth that have left our country and most people thought left our country for good.”
Together with House Republicans, he wants to reduce the personal income tax brackets from seven to three (12 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent), double the standard deduction for married and single filers, cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, and kill the death tax, among other things. Since proposing the very first child tax credit, FRC has fought to make the family — the engine of the economy — the center of tax reform. But instead of rewarding families for their role, the government punishes them – not realizing that what Washington does to family budgets has long-term effects on the country as a whole.
The GOP blueprint makes the tax code fairer, simpler, and more efficient. Conservatives should cheer the increase of the child tax credit, end of the estate tax, and the inclusion of a care credit, which lets families better provide for their loved ones. Unlike the Obama administration, which threatened to turn philanthropy upside-down, the Republican plan keeps the tax incentives for charitable contributions.
If all goes according to plan (a big “if” in this Congress!), the House hopes to have the bill to the Senate by the end of October and to Trump’s desk by year-end. If they can manage it, Americans would have a lot more jingle in their pockets this Christmas!
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
Also in the September 28 Washington Update:
The Plane Truth about HHS’s Private Jets
Steve Scalise’s Miraculous Return to Congress
RELATED ARTICLES:
GOP’s Top Tax Writer Promises More Jobs, Bigger Paychecks With Reform
Tax Reform Just Got Real. Why the GOP Tax Plan Is Great News for America.
VIDEO: Steve Scalise’s Miraculous Return to Congress
/in Culture War, Must Read, Politics/by Family Research CouncilWith so much anger and division boiling over in the country, nothing could have come at a better time than Rep. Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) return to Congress. It was a powerful moment exactly when America needed one — watching the hobbled Majority Whip make his way across the House floor, a scene many wondered if they’d ever see again. Just months ago, he was hovering between life and death, the victim of a vicious shooting that forever changed his life — and countless others’. Now, he’s returning to Congress — reminding Americans what’s truly important in the process.The picture of survival and strength, Scalise talked about how overwhelmed he was by the outpouring of love, warmth, and prayer over the last three and a half months.
It was a tragedy, he said, that transcended politics. Democrats, Republicans — it no longer mattered.
While the country struggles to find its footing in so much turmoil, Steve reminds us that there’s something that binds us all together as Americans: a common kindness, compassion, and decency. “I got to see that goodness in people,” he told his colleagues, “and while some people might focus on a tragic event and an evil act, to me all I remember are the thousands of acts of kindness and warmth that came out of all of this and kept me going through all of it and again just reemphasized just how wonderful most people are and how much compassion there is out there.”
From all of us at FRC, welcome back to Congress, Steve! We continue to pray for your complete recovery, but in the meantime, we’re looking forward to getting back to the business of defending faith, family, and freedom with you in the House.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
Also in the September 28 Washington Update:
The Plane Truth about HHS’s Private Jets
GOP Reform Stops Voters in Their Tax
Hugh Hefner’s true legacy: Sexual Exploitation by Patrick Trueman
/in Commentary, Culture War, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by National Center on Sexual ExploitationWith Hugh Hefner’s death, the media has erupted in praise for his alleged contributions to society through the pornography magazine he founded, Playboy.
In reality, Hefner leaves behind a colossal legacy of sexual exploitation.
Playboy popularized the commodification of the female body in soft-core pornography magazines in the 1950s, and it laid the groundwork for the public health crisis of pornography that America is experiencing today.
Patrick Truman, in a Washington Examiner column titled “Hugh Hefner’s true legacy: mainstreaming the sexual objectification of women” wrote:
Read the full article.
ABOUT PATRICK TRUEMAN
Patrick Trueman is president of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. He is a former chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division at the Department of Justice from 1988 to 1993.
RELATED ARTICLES:
The Human Costs of the World Hugh Hefner Created
Hefner’s Mansion Embodied Hedonistic Fun and Darker Impulses – New York Times
Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion was hedonistic headquarters for his brand – LA Times
Choose: The Blue Pill or the Red Pill
/in Commentary, Culture War, Policy, Politics/by Dr. Rich SwierThe Matrix is a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called “the Matrix”, created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies’ heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Computer programmer Neo learns this truth and is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, which involves other people who have been freed from their “dream world.”
Watch this seminal moment in the film:
The 1999 fantasy/science fiction film “The Matrix” is a metaphor for what mankind is facing in the United States and Western Civilization today. Americans elected a President who is offering us a choice, much like that presented to Neo by Morpheus in “The Matrix” who says:
The term “red pill” refers to a human that is aware of the true nature of the Matrix. This is a metaphor for today’s dystopian political environment know as “the swamp”, a reflection of the Matrix.
There are those who have taken the blue pill and refuse to see the reality, refuse to see how deep the rabbit hole truly is. Then there are those who have taken the red pill and resist the toxic dystopian politics of division, name calling and who stand up rather than kneel to the Matrix. During his inaugural address President Trump said:
Washington, D.C. are addicted to the blue pill, socialism. Working American people are the yearning for the red pill, capitalism.
President Trump went on to say:
Winston Churchill wrote, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.”
Capitalism is the red pill, socialism is the blue pill.
So which do you want the blue pill or the red pill?
Afghan security forces tipped off Taliban in failed attempt to kill Secretary of Defense Mattis
/in National Security, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Jihad Watch“NBC spoke with two unidentified Taliban commanders, who claimed sources in Afghanistan’s security apparatus tipped them off to Mattis’s visit. Mattis…told reporters that Afghan forces would strongly oppose the action.”…”They will find Afghan security forces against them.”
Maybe they will. But will they find Afghan security forces for them? Why not? Afghan forces supposedly on our side have been responsible for numerous attacks on their U.S. “allies.” There remains no reliable way to distinguish Afghan jihadis from “moderates.” What is Mattis doing to address that? Nothing? Why not? Would it be too “Islamophobic” to explore that problem realistically?
“Taliban Tries To Kill Mattis During Surprise Afghanistan Visit,” by Thomas Phippen, Daily Caller, September 27, 2017:
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Robert Spencer in PJ Media: Oklahoma Beheading Trial: Is Obeying the Qur’an a Form of Mental Illness?
Minnesota: Leftists in city of jihad stabbing spree protest Iranian ex-Muslim’s speech: “Islamophobia is White Supremacy”
EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of U.S. General John Nicholson, the commander of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission, saluting U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis upon arrival at NATO’s headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 27, 2017.
Oklahoma Beheading Trial of Jah’Keem Yisrael: Is Obeying the Qur’an a Form of Mental Illness?
/in Commentary, Courts & Law, Culture War, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Jihad WatchJah’Keem Yisrael formerly Alton Alexander Nolen
Seems both the prosecution and defense are “Islamophobes.” My latest in PJ Media:
Read the rest here.
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Al-Qaeda wants Trump “dead or alive” for “crimes against Islam”
Taliban try to kill Mattis during Afghanistan visit, say Afghan security forces tipped them off
Here’s How Much Money the NFL Rakes in From Taxpayers
/in Featured, Policy, Politics, Taxes, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily SignalThe National Football League is now plunged into politics as players throughout the sport kneel for the national anthem and President Donald Trump continues to rebuke them publicly.
Undoubtedly, the situation has left many fans and non-fans of the league conflicted or angry.
This fiasco may, however, open the eyes of the public to a serious and generally unchecked issue: billionaire NFL owners sponging enormous amounts of money from taxpayers through crony capitalist schemes.
The fact is that a business that raked in $14 billion in revenue in 2016 is heavily subsidized by local, state, and federal money based on dubious claims about stimulating the economy.
The problem is rampant.
One report on Watchdog.org said that over the past two decades, the NFL has raked in about $7 billion of taxpayer money to spend on stadium renovation and building.
Another study from the Brookings Institution showed that federal taxpayers have subsidized the construction of 36 stadiums at a cost of over $3.2 billion since 2000.
Michael Sargent, an infrastructure expert at The Heritage Foundation, wrote about how sports teams use specially crafted tax breaks to get the public to finance their massive projects.
“Tax-exempt municipal bonds are typically reserved for public-use projects such as bridges, water systems, and other infrastructure,” Sargent wrote for The Daily Signal. “Yet because of a loophole in the tax code, private-use stadiums can take advantage of this tax break, and have done so prolifically.”
In fact, only a handful of NFL and other major league teams use privately-financed venues to host their games.
It would seem after sinking enormous investments into sports franchises, cities would reap serious financial benefits in return.
But this isn’t the case at all.
Research from George Mason University has shown that not only do communities gain almost no economic benefits from subsidized sports teams, but some findings “indicate harmful effects of sports on per capita income, wage and salary disbursements, and wages per job.”
Recently released polls show national anthem protests are deeply unpopular with the American people, but polls also show that the taxpayer funding of sports is also widely disliked.
When likely voters in Nevada were asked if they favored or opposed using $500 million in taxpayer dollars to fund a stadium for the Oakland Raiders to move to Las Vegas, they overwhelmingly said “no.”
According to the KTNV-TV 13 Action News/Rasmussen Reports poll, 60 percent of Nevada voters opposed the funding, and only 28 percent supported it.
Given the massive discontent over national anthem kneeling and rampant politicization of the once unifying sport of football, perhaps now Americans will turn a more skeptical eye toward how their sports teams rely on public money and actually do something about it.
There are some in Congress who have taken notice.
“In America, if you want to play sports, you’re free to do so. If you want to protest, you’re free to do so,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said in a Tuesday speech, according to The Washington Post. “But you should do so on your own time and on your own dime.”
Recent bipartisan legislation on Capitol Hill aimed to strip federal funding from sports teams. A bill sponsored by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., would prevent teams from using municipal bonds that are exempt from federal taxes.
Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., introduced a similar bill in the House.
Lankford said in a statement in June:
This movement has picked up steam in recent weeks, according to Kerry Picket of The Daily Caller.
On Tuesday, Gaetz became the lead sponsor of legislation that would end the tax-exempt status of professional sports leagues.
NFL and other sports teams have a deep financial interest in getting taxpayers to pay their bills, so it will take a widespread concerted effort on the part of the public to end this gravy train.
Since NFL billionaire owners have gone out of their way to accommodate millionaire players in standing down for the national anthem, perhaps taxpaying Americans should start withholding money from the privileged and let them all stand on their own two feet.
Now may be the perfect time to finally do it.
This article has been updated to include legislation sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
COMMENTARY BY
Jarrett Stepman
Jarrett Stepman is an editor for The Daily Signal. Send an email to Jarrett. Twitter: @JarrettStepman.
RELATED ARTICLE: Boycott the NFL on Veterans Weekend, Sunday, November 12th
A Note for our Readers:
The Negative Infects of Sexual Liberalism
/in Culture War, Healthcare, Must Read, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Family Research CouncilMost people probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about disease. And at least where STDs are concerned, maybe that’s part of the problem. For the last several years, sexually transmitted infections and diseases have exploded into one of the worse crises no one is talking about. Now, they’re almost impossible to ignore, with rates surging to record highs in young and old people alike. The outbreak of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis reached an astounding two million cases last year, “the highest number ever,” according to the Centers for Disease Control.
A whopping 1.6 million new cases cropped up in 2016, stoking the fears of the medical community that Americans aren’t taking the problem seriously enough. To the CDC, the statistics are even more alarming since some strains of gonorrhea are now untreatable.
Unfortunately, this is just another by-product of sexual liberalism that’s coming home to roost in a nation that’s spent the last eight years — not just encouraging, but funding— messages of irresponsibility. Instead of encouraging morality, Barack Obama used every second of his two terms to promote immorality. And for our libertarian friends the economic burden is nothing to sneeze at. Taxpayers sink almost $20 billion a year into treatments for these infections — most of them incurable, and all of them expensive. Now, sadly, it’s become part of the push for universal health care. The philosophy is simple: live however you want, and everyone else pays the price.
From bathroom policies to free birth control, we’ve sexualized our culture to the point that it’s actually killing us. Instead of ignoring the problem, it’s time for liberals to join conservatives in urging America to stop engaging in risky behavior that results in deadly consequences. Clearly, there needs to be a serious discussion of the long-term implications of the Left’s agenda of sexual-satisfaction-at any-cost — not just for individuals, but for society as a whole. The government has spent years (and even more taxpayer dollars) trying to solve a problem it helped created. How many more will we spend ignoring the real solution: restraint?
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC Action senior writers.
Also in the September 27 Washington Update:
Senate GOP at Lose Ends in Alabama
House Moves on Pro-life Pain Killer
FRC in the Spotlight
Previous Washington Update Articles »
What’s in the GOP’s Plan for Tax Reform
/in Economy, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Taxes/by The Daily SignalAny tax reforms passed by Congress should give relief to middle-class families and small businesses, bring jobs and capital back to the United States, and make the tax code more fair by ending loopholes and breaks for special interests, congressional Republicans said Wednesday in what they call a framework for debate.
The framework from House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other GOP leaders calls for creating a larger zero-tax bracket (an individual’s first $12,000 of income would become tax free, and the first $24,000 for married couples), roughly doubling taxpayers’ standard deduction, and condensing the current seven tax brackets to three.
“This is a historic day,” Ryan said at an afternoon press conference. “This is a day that is a long time in coming. In fact, it was on this day, under this dome, in 1986 that Congress took the final vote on the last overhaul of our tax code. That long. After that vote, President Reagan said Americans would ‘finally have a tax code that they can be proud of.’
“It was true then, but things look very very different today, don’t they?” Ryan added. “Instead of a source of pride, our tax code has become a constant source of frustration. It is too big. It is too complicated, it’s too expensive. Today, we are taking the next step to liberate Americans from our broken tax code.”
“Tax reform that follows the outline we heard today will deliver significant benefits for all Americans,” Adam Michel, a tax policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, said in an email to The Daily Signal, adding:
Depending on their income, individual taxpayers currently may be taxed at one of these percentages: 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, or 39.6.
The three brackets in Republicans’ proposed tax framework are 12 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent.
The framework would end personal exemptions for dependents and increase the child tax credit.
President Donald Trump has made overhauling the tax code a major agenda item during his first year in office, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has promised to deliver it by the end of 2017, now three months away.
Republican lawmakers’ plan would repeal the alternative minimum tax, created in 1969 to ensure that more affluent taxpayers could lower their tax bill only via deductions a certain amount. Many lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, previously have called for an end to the alternative minimum tax.
The framework for tax reform would eliminate most itemized deductions, taken from a taxable adjusted gross income and “made up of deductions for money spent on certain goods and services throughout the year,” as Investopedia explains it.
The plan also calls for repeal of the estate tax—which opponents call the death tax—and the generation-skipping transfer tax, what the Tax Policy Center calls an “additional tax on a transfer of property.”
The plan includes tax benefits to incentivize work, higher education, and retirement security and promises to repeal many provisions “to make the system simpler and fairer for all families and individuals, and allow for lower tax rates.”
The framework also would:
The Republican plan also seeks to keep companies from moving overseas by taxing both businesses and foreign profits of U.S. corporations at a reduced rate.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus in the House, praised the newly released details.
“At first glance, the policies released today are good news to the American people,” Walker said in a formal statement. “I am proud to see that a large part of the Republican Study Committee’s submission to the tax reform task force was incorporated into today’s framework. We need to begin acting on this framework legislatively as soon as possible.”
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., chairwoman of the House Budget Committee, said the goals would put America at an advantage:
Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network, said the plan shows promise.
“I’m encouraged to see that the administration is moving forward with tax cuts for small business,” Ortiz said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal, adding:
In a statement provided to The Daily Signal, David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth, said the plan will foster economic development.
“Club for Growth is very encouraged and pleased with the long-awaited tax reform outline that the Big Six released today,” McIntosh said. “Fundamental tax reform comes around only once in a generation, and this is our chance. The outline is both aggressive and very pro-growth with its rate reductions.”
Mike Needham, chief executive officer of Heritage Action for America, the lobbying affiliate of The Heritage Foundation, said the plan is a call to action.
“While today’s announcement marks an important and encouraging first step, it is imperative the administration and congressional leaders work hand-in-hand with conservatives to push back against the radical left and the special interests that will pull out every stop to preserve the status quo,” Needham said.
This report was updated to include Ryan’s afternoon remarks.
Rachel del Guidice
Rachel del Guidice is a reporter for The Daily Signal. She is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Forge Leadership Network, and The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program. Send an email to Rachel. Twitter: @LRacheldG.
A Note for our Readers:
VIDEO: Now I have had enough – Why The Flag Means So Much To Americans
/in Culture War, Policy, Politics, Video, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Wallace BruschweilerThis video is a must watch. Please take the time to watch and digest what these black men have to say. The NFL and NBA will go down if they continue to coddle the misguided athletes who are disrespecting our country, our flag and our president!
Officer Brandon Tatum explains why you cannot disrespect the flag without respecting it, why it means so much to Americans, and why the NFL needs to stop disrespecting it.
I could never express what they have said.
RELATED ARTICLE: Boycott the NFL on Veterans Weekend, Sunday, November 12th
The Scammer and the Scammed
/in Commentary, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Linda GoudsmitEvery scam involves two parties – the scammer and the scammed. Little scams, big scams, financial scams, political scams, sex scams, – all involve the scammer and the scammed. Truth is the recognized enemy of the scammer but often the unrecognized enemy of the scammed. Why?
In simple cases of crime and punishment the truth exposes the scam and exposes the scammer to punishments ranging from social ridicule to prison.
In simple cases of crime and punishment the truth exposes the scam and provides the scammed with justice.
We do not live in simple times. We live in complicated times because deceitful scamming has replaced our esteemed American meritocracy and its requirement for the open honest debate of ideas.
For eight years the Obama administration politicized and weaponized every government institution with his Leftist/Islamist agenda – it was the greatest political scam in American history and successfully denied the meritocracy by restricting American free speech with political correctness, moral relativism, and historical revisionism.
Honest debate was replaced with indoctrination in an unparalleled echo chamber of Leftist/Islamist ideals.
Scamming always involves presentation. This explains why Saul Alinsky carefully instructed his left-wing radicals to cut their hair, put on suits, and blend into society to appear non-threatening to their targets. Transformative change according to Alinsky is a long-game and involves disguising your intentions physically as well as politically. Obama became America’s scammer-in-chief – he cut his hair, put on a suit, and blended into American society to conceal his real revolutionary identity and appear non-threatening to the American public.
Here is how scamming works.
Scamming is always a deceitful enterprise because it disguises the scammers’ true motives. Being scammed depends on the willful blindness of the scammed.
Willful blindness is a form of psychological denial that insists a known truth is not true. So, the wife who “knows” her husband is cheating but refuses to acknowledge it is engaging in willful blindness. If she acknowledges the truth of her husband’s infidelity she would be required to emotionally accept the unacceptable truth and make a decision about how to respond to it. In this scenario the sex scam involves the husband scammer and the scammed wife who has the choice to acknowledge the scam and leave him or accept the scam and stay.
Bernie Madoff was an exceptionally gifted financial scammer because this targets were greedy enough to participate in willful blindness. His Ponzi scheme succeeded for years because of his targets’ willful blindness. Many victims of scammers refuse to seek justice when they finally acknowledge their willful blindness and realize they have been scammed because they are so embarrassed by their own behavior they decide to remain silent. Silence always protects the scammer. The most bizarre response to being scammed are those who double-down on their willful blindness and defend the scam as legitimate.
In 2008 a calm, sophisticated, smooth talking Obama made America an irresistible offer of hope and change. America ignored Obama’s radical socialist background and intent to transform America into socialism. We substituted our own hopes for change and allowed ourselves to be duped by his irresistible slogan “Hope and Change.” He offered Americans something we desperately wanted and we were hooked.
Soon evidence that the country had been scammed began to appear – evidence that Obama was a scammer was being willfully suppressed by the mainstream media, the Democrat Party particularly the Leftist/Islamist axis, the Republican establishment, and the general American public. It was becoming increasingly clear that when Barack Obama was elected on his irresistible platform of hope and change he had duped America. His Leftist/Islamist agenda was carefully concealed by his sophisticated appearance and easy smile – he was the perfect conman who scammed his way to the presidency. Many Americans chose the bizarre response and doubled down and began defending the scam. Why?
Some doubled-down because they were too embarrassed to acknowledge they had been scammed to vote for him. Some doubled-down because they were radical left-wing liberals who welcomed his Leftist socialism. Some doubled-down because they were actually part of Obama’s scam.
Small scams can be a one-on-one deception. Large scams require the participation of many conspiring elements. The globalist elite who run Obama’s scam own the colluding mainstream media, fund the Democrat Party including its radical Leftist/Islamist axis, finance the Republican establishment, all in a continuing effort to move the country toward socialism, internationalism, and globalism.
Obama’s past presidential policies and the divisiveness of his current post presidential “resistance” policies seek to destroy American democracy and replace it with socialism. American socialism is the prerequisite for a New World Order. The globalist elite’s New World order is the mother of all scams. It is a regressive return to the binary feudal system of masters and slaves described in unapologetic detail by English aristocrat Lord Bertrand Russell in his 1952 classic “The Impact of Science on Society.”
Obama’s ongoing resistance movement is a continuation of the globalist elite scam to destroy America. It has escalated into violence, lawlessness, and calls for anarchy. America has choices. We can deny the scam like the willfully blind wife, we can remain silent and allow the scam to continue, or we can acknowledge that we were scammed and finally stand up for American democracy, sovereignty, liberty, and freedom that is the true American dream we were promised.
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on Goudsmit Pundicity.
How the Debate on Climate Change Is Cooling Down
/in Environment, Policy, Politics, Science, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)The models predicting certain environmental doom were wrong, and they’ve been wrong for a while.
by Marian L. Tupy
In a previous column, I noted that the typical audience reaction to my talks about the improving state of the world is not joy and thankfulness for the progress that humanity is making in tackling age-old problems such as infant mortality, malnutrition, and illiteracy. Rather, it is the concern about the exhaustion of natural resources and the supposedly irreparable harm that humanity is causing to the environment.
Apocalyptic warnings about the end of the world as we know it are as old as humanity itself, but recent news should give the doomsayers some food for thought and lower the temperature, so to speak, in the debate about global warming and its future effects on the planet.
The Models Were Wrong
In a new study that was published in the journal Nature Geoscience, leading climate scientists have adjusted their previous predictions about global warming and stated that the worst impacts of climate change are still avoidable. Professor Michael Grubb, an international energy and climate change scientist at University College London, said that previous scientific estimates were incorrect because they were based on computer models that were running “on the hot side.”
According to the new estimates, the world is more likely than previously thought to achieve the main goal of the 2015 Paris agreement and limit global warming to only 1.5°C higher than was the case in the pre-industrial era. Only two years ago, many scientists dismissed the 1.5°C goal as too optimistic and Professor Grubb went as far to say that “all the evidence from the past 15 years leads me to conclude that actually delivering 1.5°C” is unattainable.
While it is true that the average global temperature is 0.9°C higher than in the pre-industrial era, the scientists now admit that there was a slowdown in warming in the 15 years prior to 2014 – a slowdown that the models did not predict or account for. Professor Myles Allen, another one of the study’s authors, said “We haven’t seen that rapid acceleration in warming after 2000 that we see in the models. We haven’t seen that in the observations.”
What has changed in the model forecasts since the Paris summit in 2015? The data showing that the climate models are running “on the hot side” has been available for years. In 2015, my colleagues Patrick Michaels and Chip Knappenberger noted that climate models have been overestimating the rate of warming for decades. In 2016, John Christy from the University of Alabama in Huntsville testified before the US Congress that the climate models were inaccurate. For their trouble, all three have been labeled “climate change deniers.”
The Nature Geoscience study suggests that humanity has more time to transition away from fossil fuels. Should it? That’s debatable, argues William Nordhaus, a professor of economics at Yale University, and his coauthor Andrew Moffatt, in a recently released paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper combines econometric and climate models to estimate the future impact of global warming on worldwide income.
The Laws of Economics Still Apply
By studying 36 estimates of the costs of global warming, the pair predicts that 3°C warming will reduce global income by 2.04 percent and 6°C warming will reduce global income by 8.16 percent by 2100. Nordhaus and Moffatt’s estimates parallel the broad consensus. For example, the IPCC in their Fourth Report estimated that global “mean losses could be 1 to 5 percent of GDP for 4°C of warming”.
As Ronald Bailey of Reason magazine calculates, current global average income per capita is about $10,000. If the world grows at 3 percent per year over the next 80 years or so, global average income per capita will rise to $97,000. According to Nordhaus and Moffatt’s estimations, therefore, an increase in global temperature by 3°C would reduce global average income per capita by $2,000 to $95,000. A 6°C increase in global temperature would reduce global average income per capita by $8,000 to $89,000.
“We have a predicament,” Bailey concludes. “How much are we willing to spend in order to make those living in 2100, who will likely be at least nine times richer than us today, $2,000 better off?”
That is not a purely academic question. Thanks to the concerns over global warming, governments throughout the world have been busy imposing serious additional costs on economic development and reducing real living standards of ordinary people so as to facilitate the fastest possible transition away from fossil fuels. The above studies add to the complexity surrounding the subject of global warming and human response to it. They also strengthen the case of those who argue that any such transition should be driven by technological change, not government mandates.
Reprinted from CapX
Marian L. Tupy
Marian L. Tupy is the editor of HumanProgress.org and a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
The New Democrat Party is not the Party I once Knew and Supported
/in Commentary, Policy, Politics/by Robert HellerAt one time it was believed that antisemitism in America was confined to a small group of Right Wing malcontents. This is no longer the case.
In a disturbing article Caroline Glick analyses the rise of antisemitism among Great Britain’s political leadership and the rise of antisemitism in the emerging leadership in America’s Democrat Party. If in the future the Democrats take over Congress and/or the Presidency the problems for Israel and American Jews will be rather serious unless the current trend is reversed which unfortunately is unlikely.
The New Democrat Party
By Caroline B. Glick
Since 2015, Britain has been one election away from having an antisemitic prime minister backed by antisemitic voters. If current trends in the Democratic Party continue, in the not-so-distant future, the United States might be in the same position.
Two years ago, Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of Britain’s main opposition Labor Party. That officially put an end to Tony Blair’s alignment of the Labor Party with the political center in Britain, both in economic and in foreign affairs.
Corbyn is an antisemite. He refers to Hezbollah and Hamas – two terrorist groups that openly support the genocide of world Jewry and the annihilation of the Jewish state – as “our friends.” He has shared stages with Hamas terrorists and Holocaust- deniers. Since his ascension to leadership of the Labor Party, he has overseen the mainstreaming of antisemitic actions and rhetoric by his party members and supporters.
Shortly after Corbyn’s election, repeated, well-publicized acts of antisemitism by senior Labor Party members forced Corbyn to call for an investigation of the phenomenon. He appointed his ally Shami Chakrabarti to oversee the effort.
The Chakrabarti report – first presented at a Labor Party conference convened last June for that purpose – was not merely a whitewash. It effectively denied that it is possible to be concerned with antisemitism without being racially insensitive to other minority groups. In other words, concern for antisemitism is a form of racism in and of itself.
As for Corbyn himself, he couldn’t be clearer about his feelings. His remarks at his conference on antisemitism were antisemitic.
Corbyn insisted that it’s wrong “to assume that a Jewish friend is wealthy, part of some kind of financial or media conspiracy or takes a particular position on politics in general, or on Israel and on Palestine in particular.”
[ … ]
Over the past week, two incidents occurred that indicate that the party of Harry Truman and Bill Clinton is becoming increasingly comfortable with blaming the Jews.
Read more.
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Get Off Your Knees [+Video]
/in Video/by Kevin SchmersalYou can be the blackest black man or woman in the world or you can be the whitest man or woman in the world… that matters little whether or not you succeed in life. You can choose whether or not you will let your color define you. You can choose whether or not you will let your socio/economic circumstances define you, and if you do, that is on you, and nobody else. You and only you can make that choice, and this is the wonderful thing about the United States of America, is it not? So just exactly what is everyone kneeling about?
Growing up, my grandmother had a saying that she repeated over and over again; “From the minute you’re born ’till you ride in a hearse, it’s never so bad that it couldn’t get worse.” No matter what your color is, only you can choose to make it worse…..or better, and when it gets better, it could always be worse. This is common sense teaching. Think it’s not? Stop for a minute and look around you. Really take a good hard look. See? Ah…..Now you are saying, “There but for the Grace of God, go I.” Now if you increase your wealth, your job, your position on the social and economic ladder, you will still be able to look around you and see the same thing. Your situation could always be worse. This is called life!
The NFL and now the rest of professional sports have just turned on everything that they have stood on for generations and the message that they have sent to the youth of America; that message of digging deep down within yourself to be your very best. To rise against all odds and stare down adversity. That you are the only person who can define you.
The message that the NFL and the rest of Pro Sports have embraced is the one of a victim. It smacks of a socialist agenda that promotes absolute equality for everyone, and that nobody should have to work harder than anyone else to achieve their goals to be successful. Only they don’t seem to understand that it’s never been that way for blacks…..or whites. There has always been a social class in America, and no matter how many times they take a knee, there always will be.
There is always going to be people who will try to hold you back. It doesn’t matter if you are black or white, that is a class thing. Nobody is going to just push you to the front of the line ahead of them. Stop with that nonsense. This is where the NFL players and owners are failing in a big way. They are sending a message that there are injustices and inequalities in this country that can’t be overcome by individuals unless the state steps in to pull you through. They are suggesting that individuals need to be coddled and in the process, they are destroying the message that people, and particularly the youth who are watching and admiring them as role models, can achieve the highest level of success if that is what they truly want because we are living in the greatest country on the face of the earth and that their circumstances do not reflect on the future they desire.
Capitalism knows no color but green, and there is but one road to being successful and you cannot get there on your knees. Black, Yellow, Brown, White; Get up, start working and then take what is yours because you earned it and not because you think you are entitled to it. You’ll take some lumps along the way and you’ll encounter some things that aren’t fair. Tough! That’s just life, that’s all. Stop whining, and push on through it. Those that do will one day be a great success. Those who refuse….will still be on their knees.
RELATED VIDEO: Bill O’Reilly on the Sean Hannity Show talk about the NFL, President Trump and Mr. O’Reilly’s new book “Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence.”
Cost of Illegal immigration: Record $135 billion average $8,075 for each illegal, $25,000 in New York
/in Culture War, Featured, Immigration, Policy, Politics, Taxes, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Federation for American Immigration ReformA continually growing population of illegal aliens, along with the federal government’s ineffective efforts to secure our borders, present significant national security and public safety threats to the United States. They also have a severely negative impact on the nation’s taxpayers at the local, state, and national levels. Illegal immigration costs Americans billions of dollars each year. Illegal aliens are net consumers of taxpayer-funded services and the limited taxes paid by some segments of the illegal alien population are, in no way, significant enough to offset the growing financial burdens imposed on U.S. taxpayers by massive numbers of uninvited guests. This study examines the fiscal impact of illegal aliens as reflected in both federal and state budgets.
The Number of Illegal Immigrants in the US
Estimating the fiscal burden of illegal immigration on the U.S. taxpayer depends on the size and characteristics of the illegal alien population. FAIR defines “illegal alien” as anyone who entered the United States without authorization and anyone who unlawfully remains once his/her authorization has expired. Unfortunately, the U.S. government has no central database containing information on the citizenship status of everyone lawfully present in the United States. The overall problem of estimating the illegal alien population is further complicated by the fact that the majority of available sources on immigration status rely on self-reported data. Given that illegal aliens have a motive to lie about their immigration status, in order to avoid discovery, the accuracy of these statistics is dubious, at best. All of the foregoing issues make it very difficult to assess the current illegal alien population of the United States.
However, FAIR now estimates that there are approximately 12.5 million illegal alien residents. This number uses FAIR’s previous estimates but adjusts for suspected changes in levels of unlawful migration, based on information available from the Department of Homeland Security, data available from other federal and state government agencies, and other research studies completed by reliable think tanks, universities, and other research organizations.
The Cost of Illegal Immigration to the United States
At the federal, state, and local levels, taxpayers shell out approximately $134.9 billion to cover the costs incurred by the presence of more than 12.5 million illegal aliens, and about 4.2 million citizen children of illegal aliens. That amounts to a tax burden of approximately $8,075 per illegal alien family member and a total of $115,894,597,664. The total cost of illegal immigration to U.S. taxpayers is both staggering and crippling. In 2013, FAIR estimated the total cost to be approximately $113 billion. So, in under four years, the cost has risen nearly $3 billion. This is a disturbing and unsustainable trend. The sections below will break down and further explain these numbers at the federal, state, and local levels.
Total Governmental Expenditures on Illegal Aliens
Total Tax Contributions by Illegal Aliens
Total Economic Impact of Illegal Immigration
Federal
The Federal government spends a net amount of $45.8 billion on illegal aliens and their U.S.-born children. This amount includes expenditures for public education, medical care, justice enforcement initiatives, welfare programs and other miscellaneous costs. It also factors in the meager amount illegal aliens pay to the federal government in income, social security, Medicare and excise taxes.
FEDERAL SPENDING
The approximately $46 billion in federal expenditures attributable to illegal aliens is staggering. Assuming an illegal alien population of approximately 12.5 million illegal aliens and 4.2 million U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, that amounts to roughly $2,746 per illegal alien, per year. For the sake of comparison, the average American college student receives only $4,800 in federal student loans each year.
FAIR maintains that every concerned American citizen should be asking our government why, in a time of increasing costs and shrinking resources, is it spending such large amounts of money on individuals who have no right, nor authorization, to be in the United States? This is an especially important question in view of the fact that the illegal alien beneficiaries of American taxpayer largess offset very little of the enormous costs of their presence by the payment of taxes. Meanwhile, average Americans pay approximately 30% of their income in taxes.
Federal Education – $1.6 Billion
Federal Medical Costs – $17.1 Billion
Federal Justice Expenditures – $13.1 Billion
Federal Welfare Programs – $5.8 Billion
Total Federal Expenditures – $45.8 Billion
FEDERAL TAXES
Taxes collected from illegal aliens offset fiscal outlays and, therefore must be included in any examination of the cost of illegal immigration. However, illegal alien apologists frequently cite the allegedly large tax payments made by illegal aliens as a justification for their unlawful presence, and as a basis for offering them permanent legal status through a new amnesty, similar to the one enacted in 1986. That argument is nothing more than a red herring.
FAIR believes that most studies grossly overestimate both the taxes actually collected from illegal aliens and, more importantly, the amount of taxes actually paid by illegal aliens (i.e., the amount of money collected from illegal aliens and actually kept by the federal government). This belief is based on a number of factors: Since the 1990’s, the United States has focused on apprehending and removing criminal aliens. The majority of illegal aliens seeking employment in the United States have lived in an environment where they have little fear of deportation, even if discovered. This has created an environment where most illegal aliens are both able and willing to file tax returns. Because the vast majority of illegal aliens hold low-paying jobs, those who are subject to wage deductions actually wind up receiving a complete refund of all taxes paid, plus net payments made on the basis of tax credits.
As a result, illegal aliens actually profit from filing a tax return and, therefore, have a strong interest in doing so.
Federal Tax Receipts from Illegal Aliens – $22.1 Billion
TOTAL FEDERAL ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Net Federal Impact of Illegal Aliens – $30.4 Billion
State and Local
Even though the costs of illegal immigration borne by taxpayers at the federal level are staggering, they only pale in comparison to the fiscal burden shouldered by taxpayers at the state level. Most government taxes and fees remitted to government by Americans are paid in forms other than income taxes submitted to the IRS on April 15th. There are city and state income taxes, fuel surcharges, sales and property taxes, etc…. States and localities also bear the main burden for costs associated with public education, city and county infrastructure, and local courts and jails.
A further complication is the fact that, while barred from many federal benefits, state laws allow illegal aliens to access many state-funded social welfare programs. Because so little data is collected on the immigration status of individuals collecting benefits, it is difficult to determine the rate at which illegal aliens use welfare programs. However, based on the average income of illegal alien households, it appears they use these programs at a rate higher than lawfully present aliens or citizens.
STATE AND LOCAL SPENDING
The combined total of state and local government general expenditures on illegal aliens is $18,571,428,571 billion. The services referenced in this section are supported directly by the payment of city and state taxes and related fees. At the state level, examples of general expenditures would be the costs of general governance, fire departments, garbage collection, street cleaning and maintenance, etc. The state, county or municipality — or even a special taxing district in some situations — may provide some of these services. In most cases, localities offer more services than the state. By FAIR’s estimate, there is approximately a 65 percent to 35 percent cost share between local and state governments.
The estimate of general expenditure services received by illegal alien households, beyond the specific outlays mentioned in the sections above, excludes capital expenditures and debt servicing. The calculation for each state is based on the state’s annual operating budget, reduced by the amount covered by the federal government. That expenditure is then reduced further based on the relative size of the estimated population of illegal aliens and their U.S.-born minor children. As noted in our population estimate, this means states like California, Texas, Florida, New York, etc., with larger illegal alien cohorts, will bear larger shares of these costs.
State Educational Expenditures – $44.4 Billion
State Medical Expenditures – $12.1 Billion
State Administration of Justice Expenditures – $10.8 Billion
State Welfare Expenditures – $2.9 Billion
State and Local Expenditures – $88 Billion
STATE AND LOCAL TAXES COLLECTED
Offsetting the fiscal costs of the illegal alien population are the taxes collected from them at the state and local level. Many proponents of illegal immigration argue that the taxes paid to the states render illegal aliens a net boon to state and local economies. However, this is a spurious argument. Evidence shows that the tax payments made by illegal aliens fail to cover the costs of the many services they consume.
Illegal aliens are not typical taxpayers. First, as previously noted in this study, the large percentage of illegal aliens who work in the underground economy frequently avoid paying any income tax at all. (Many actually receive a net cash profit through refundable tax credit programs.) Second, and also previously noted, the average earnings of illegal alien households are considerably lower than both legal aliens and native-born workers.
State Taxes Collected – $3.5 Billion
TOTAL STATE AND LOCAL ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Net State Impact – $85 Billion
Federal and State Fiscal Outlays – $134 Billion
Federal and State Tax Contributions – $18 Billion
Net Cost of Illegal Immigration – $115 Billion
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