Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Americans are TEA'd

Americans are TEA'd
by Newt Gingrich 
Posted 03/25/2009 ET
Updated 03/25/2009 ET

Americans are used to April 15th being the day you’re told to pay up.

This year, Tax Day is the day to say you’re TEA’d -- Taxed Enough Already. 

As you read this, liberals in Congress are beginning the process of forcing passage of the $3.6 trillion, high-spending, high-borrowing and high-taxing Obama budget. 

President Obama is even mobilizing teams of his presidential campaign supporters, now a political organization called Organizing for America, who are going door-to-door campaign style to pitch his irresponsibly massive government expansion program that will raise taxes on every single American. 

And what could they possibly be saying about a budget that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted last week will lead to deficits $2.3 trillion larger than the Obama White House is telling us?

Once again, we see Washington promoting irresponsible spending and expecting responsible taxpayers to foot the bill.

Here’s what you can do to fight back: On April 15, join your fellow Americans at Tax Day Tea Parties across the nation to say no to the Obama budget. I want to tell you about two groups that are helping to organize the Tea Parties. Why these two groups? I will tell you in a minute and explain how you can participate.

Get Involved in a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15

You won’t read about it in the elite media, but tens of thousands of Americans in hundreds of American communities are organizing Tax Day Tea Parties for this April 15th.

Some communities have already held Tea Parties to fight back against Wall Street and Washington insiders who’d rather taxpayers ask fewer questions and write more checks. 

Over 4,000 turned out in Orlando this past weekend.

More came out in Cincinnati than at anytime since the Vietnam War protests.

But all of this has been a warm-up act for April 15.

The Reagan Coalition is Reassembling itself to Fight the Obama Budget

Some Tea Party participants call themselves “God-fearing patriots,” and it’s a good description for the movement that is gaining strength.

In outrage against the billions of our dollars being used to pay for the irresponsible behavior of others -- and the trillions more in the Obama budget that will be used to expand government even further into our lives -- the Reagan coalition of the faithful and the fiscally conservative is reassembling.

There’s no super-rich sugar daddy like George Soros pulling the strings.

There’s no special interest group like Moveon.org creating the illusion of a grassroots movement.

And it’s not a taxpayer-funded “protest” group like ACORN.

It’s just ordinary Americans who believe in preserving American values and principles like faith, freedom and smaller government.

That’s why I want to tell you about two groups. Each group is focusing on bringing like-minded people together at the same events.

The first group is TaxDayTeaParty.com, a broad coalition of grassroots groups which has already organized many of the Tea Parties that you probably heard about. They have already confirmed more than 250 locations in all 50 states for the April 15 Tea Parties.

The second group is TeaPartyDay.com which is a joint effort by Renewing American Leadership and the American Family Association. They are committed to bringing people of faith and their families to the Tea Parties. Over 10,000 are already signed up.

Get Your Tea Party Tool Kit at www.
American Solutions has created a Tea Party Tool Kit that you can download and pass out at your local Tea Party. The Tool Kit is designed to communicate, not just that we’re angry, but that we have a bold agenda with better solutions that will actually get our economy growing again. It’s available here.

The Tea Party Tool Kit’s key component is 12 American Solutions for Jobs and Prosperity, a pro-growth, pro-freedom alternative to the irresponsible policies of the Obama budget.

April 15 is just 20 days away. Go to AmericanSolutions.com/TeaParty now to find a Tax Day Tea Party near you and get involved.

Secretary Geithner Has Lost the Confidence of the American People -- If He Ever Had It to Begin With

Another reason to come out to a Tax Day Tea Party is to let President Obama know that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has lost the confidence of the American people and needs to resign.

The Geithner nomination for Treasury Secretary was tainted from the outset. In the midst of a crisis of trust in our financial institutions and our government institutions, the last person we needed for a Treasury Secretary was a public official who had deliberately failed to pay his taxes.

And since then, the news has only gotten worse. As I wrote last week, from the beginning of the crisis last fall, Geithner has been central to the Bush-Obama policy of corporate bailouts that has enriched Wall Street firms with the taxpayers’ money.

The Joke’s On Us: Goldman Sachs Never Needed a Bailout

The latest revelation is perhaps the worst yet.

Remember how the Paulson-Geithner-Bernanke bailout of AIG was initially sold to the American people? We were told that failing to prop up the firm with taxpayer dollars would let loose a cascading failure of the entire banking system.

It turns out that this was never exactly true.

That’s right. Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David Viniar announced last week that his firm never needed the taxpayers’ help after all. Goldman Sachs, it turns out, wouldn’t have failed if AIG had been allowed to fail.

The reason Viniar made the announcement was to divert the public’s attention from allegations that Goldman profited handsomely from the bailout of AIG.

But in trying to tamp down one scandal, Viniar has revealed another: The ground on which Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke sold the $170 billion AIG bailout was -- at least partially -- a lie.

The Top Four Beneficiaries of the AIG Bailout? Goldman Sachs and Three Foreign Banks

So if we didn’t avert a banking crisis with the AIG bailout, what exactly have the taxpayers gotten for their $170 billion? Well, nothing so far. But here’s the list of the top four beneficiaries of the AIG bailout:

1. Goldman Sachs: $12.9 billion
2. Société Générale (France) $11.9 billion
3. Deutsche Bank (Germany) $11.8 billion
4. Barclays (United Kingdom) $8.5 billion

This is the real scandal of the AIG bailout. 

Add the other TARP funds Goldman Sachs received to the AIG pass-through money and you get an astounding total of $23 billion from the taxpayers.

All for a company that now says it never needed help to begin with.

If that’s not a reason to come to a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, I don’t know what is.

See you there.

Your friend,

Newt

P.S. Today, I will testify in front of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Alongside former Justice of the Supreme Court Sandra Day O’Connor and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, I will discuss the recommendations in the Alzheimer’s Study Group’s National Strategic Plan to overcome the mounting Alzheimer's crisis. Earlier this month, I appeared on the “Today Show” discussing Alzheimer’s and will be on “Nightline” this evening. In my next newsletter, I’ll provide more details on the recommendations. I want to thank our members of the ASG.

P.P.S. Those of you who follow my “tweets” on Twitter have already heard my call for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to resign. I’m having a lot of fun with this new technology. If you’d like to correspond with me and follow my “tweets” on Twitter, just click here. Oh, and you can also follow me on facebook as well. 

posted by Kitten @ 9:31 PM 0 comments

Monday, March 23, 2009

Dear Fair Tax supporter,

Knowing of your interest in the Fair Tax, I wanted to share with you a recent speech I gave on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of the Fair Tax. As you may know, I have been an outspoken supporter of fundamental tax reform since I was first elected to Congress. The current tax system is broken and in need of immediate and substantial reform. Accordingly, I have been a long time supporter of the Fair Tax. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, please feel free to share this message with family and friends by using the forward to a friend feature on the left.

With kind regards, I am

Sincerely, 

Cliff Stearns
United States Representative

On March 17, 2009, I joined with a number of my congressional colleagues in speaking out on the House Floor in support of the Fair Tax. The text of my remarks is below.

CONSIDER THE FAIR TAX 
House of Representatives
March 17, 2009

Mr. Speaker,

I'm here to support the Fair Tax. The current U.S. Tax Code is too big, too complicated, and benefits too many special interests, and must be replaced with a code that is fair and encourages savings and investment.

This code has been amended tens of thousands of times, my colleagues, and it's grown to over 60,000 pages, possibly more. For this, and many other reasons, I rise in support of the Fair Tax and urge my colleagues to consider this new tax simplification program.

The Fair Tax will eliminate Federal income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, the alternative minimum tax, and the death tax, and replace it with a flat, simple and efficient consumption tax.

Mr. Speaker, Ronald Reagan hit the nail on the head when he described the government's basic view of the economy as: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, this burdensome view taken by our government has resulted in the current problem we face today, where citizens and business owners across this country devote billions of hours and billions of tax dollars just to navigate the process of paying their Federal income tax.

A simpler Tax Code may have prevented former Senator Daschle or current Secretary of the Treasury Geithner the embarrassment of having to explain their failure to properly pay their taxes due to the complicated IRS tax system.

I know many of my constituents in the Sixth Congressional District are aware of how this simple tax reform will work when implemented. They have written numerous letters to me and voiced their support at many town meetings.

I thought I'd take a moment this afternoon to lay out the basic principles of this legislation for those who are not familiar with the Fair Tax.

The Fair Tax will do away with all Federal taxes such as income tax, the death tax, as I mentioned, all the way down to the estate tax. Basically, many Americans with low incomes will receive a check at the beginning of each month from the Federal Government that will cover the cost of the consumption tax on necessary goods, thus increasing the purchasing power of low-income individuals and completely avoiding any unintended tax increase on their purchasing power.

Furthermore, a study conducted by Harvard economist Dale Jorgenson illustrates that roughly 22 percent of the retail price of an item is the direct result of the cost our current Tax Code places on a product through payroll taxes, business taxes, compliance costs, and other taxes.

Therefore, by paying an additional consumption tax, we will be able to fund our entire government, and the taxpayer can keep 100 percent of his hard-earned paycheck. This would lead to increased savings, increased investment, and Americans, not the Federal Government, would decide how to best utilize their wealth.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, the Fair Tax, through its simplicity, will provide transparency to the Federal budget and Federal spending here in Congress. Each time the government claims a needed tax increase to fund runaway spending, as we do, and government expansion, or special district funding requests, the American citizen would be directly affected by this irresponsibility and would be aware of it immediately through the transparency of the Fair Tax system instead of hidden tax increases and budget gimmicks that our government institutes today.

So now, my colleagues, it is time to get rid of this complicated, inefficient, and unfair tax. Now is the time to institute transparency, efficiency, and, finally, fairness in our Tax Code.

Now, for those of us in Congress and perhaps throughout the Nation who are skeptical, I have a suggestion for them, an approach that I think would be possible. Why not take Washington, D.C. as a demonstration project to see if it would work here in Washington, D.C.; allow all residents of this city to pay no Federal taxes, and institute a fair consumption tax, and this consumption tax would be collected by the city and then sent to the Federal Government. Then we could see how it would work and discern its advantages and disadvantages.

The Fair Tax I think ultimately would prove to be very useful, and I urge my colleagues to stand for real change and support this fair solution.

posted by Kitten @ 6:21 PM 0 comments

Saturday, March 21, 2009

51 Co-Sponsors

Welcome to the newest co-sponsors of the Fair Tax!

Rep. Rob Bishop (UT-1)
Rep. John Fleming (LA-4)
Rep. John Kline (MN-2)
Rep. Zach Wamp (TN-3)

Congratulations to each for standing by their duty to their constituents and doing the right thing. 

posted by Kitten @ 11:19 AM 0 comments

Hello Again!

I haven't posted here in a LOOOONNNNNG time. There really hasn't been much news regarding the FairTax. The occasional new legislative supporter (thanks!), and of course the occasional talk radio personality talk about the FairTax. 

I didn't want to put up a post everytime someone mentioned something good about the FairTax. That would be sort of posting just because. I wanted to post only when something new happened.

In 2006, Neal Boortz and Representative John Linder of Georgia published The Fair Tax Book (available through a click on the Amazon link on the sidebar). It's a very good and easy read. In fact, the Fair Tax itself is very easy to read and understand. 

More recently, several prominent names have been reported as not having reported income on their income tax filings. Timothy Geithner, the new Treasury secretary, is one of them. As Secretary of the Treasure, Geithner is also head of the IRS. Rather embarrasing for Mr. Geithner to have been revealed as a tax cheat, intentional or not. 

Now tell me: if the man who is head of the IRS can't file his income taxes correctly (for several years as it turned out), how is someone like you or me supposed to file our taxes completely, properly, and on time year after year? We are told "ignorance of the law is no excuse" but legislators, former legislators, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others simply pay the taxes and penalties and go on about their business. You and I would be in tax court forever, or paying off the tax and penalty for years if our assests weren't seized for sale at auction. 

The news that brought me back to dust off this blog is that a Special Order Hour was called by Representative Steven King of Iowa. As I understand it, a Special Order Hour can be called by any House member, but is rarely used. On March 17, 2009, after the regular House session, the following members of the House of Representatives spoke:

Rep. Cliff Stearns (FL-06)
Rep. Nathan Deal (GA-09)
Rep. Jeff Miller (FL-01)
Rep. John Mica (FL-07)
Rep. John Linder (GA-07)
Rep. John Duncan (TN-02)
Rep. Phil Gingrey (GA-11)
Rep. Henry Brown (SC-01)
Rep. Paul Broun (GA-10)

Congratulations to each of them for having the courage to step forward and speak on a subject that most politicians wouldn't dream of: putting money back into the hands of the people who actually earned it - The American wage earner.

The video below is of that Special Orders Hour. Nine men spoke from their hearts, so, be warned, it's long. Grab something to drink and get comfortable.


posted by Kitten @ 10:35 AM 0 comments