How Long Did YOU Work for the Federal Government This Year?

Happy Friday - Now F*** You! (Love, the FedGov) - Part 2

This one snuck by me, however, it bears repeating.

August 21st.

What's important about that day? From January 1st, until August 21st of this year, EVERY penny YOU made went towards funding the Federal and State Governments. Every last dime. That's what it takes these days to fund the travesty that is Washington D.C.

See the methodology and a State by State breakdown here: August 19, 2010 - Cost of Government Day Has Arrived!

Do you realize that at the time of the founding of this Nation, you didn't pay income tax, you didn't pay property tax - you actually OWNED that which you made and purchased. Your land was yours, it wasn't to be taken away from you simply for refusing to pay the lease payments on it.

While I will cede the point that some amount of taxation is necessary, how can we possibly agree that we must work the majority of the year simply to settle with the various forms of Government??? This truly is tyranny. It's far past time to get the Government out of our lives.

A Bridge Too Far...Plane Crash Today in Austin

Texas Small Plane Crash Might Be Intentional Act, Officials Say

A pilot furious with the Internal Revenue Service crashed his small plane into an office building in Austin, Texas, that houses federal tax employees, setting off a raging fire.

Officials are investigating whether the pilot, identified by authorities as Joseph Andrew Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer who lived in Texas, crashed the plane intentionally. Stack was confirmed dead.

An Internal Revenue Service office is located inside the building.

Just how furious? Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker took a very short time to come up with the following, copied off of Joe Stack's web site, EmbeddedArt.com (now taken offline by the Host at the request of the FBI):

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Karl has some very salient remarks on his blog post. I hope you'll take a moment to read over there as well. You can read Karl's post here: This Is How It Begins (Wanton Violence)

For now, this is an isolated event. I do not believe, however, that it is a feeling that is unique to Mr. Stack. Many of us are watching 30 or more percent of our hard won earnings being handed off to Wall Street Crooks, Politicians, foreign nations, and those lazy bastards down the street that do nothing but smoke pot and play Playstation on their big screen TV whilest collecting their welfare checks.

The anger is rising, but our leaders care nothing for us. After all, they don't need those of us that work hard and produce to keep them in office, they just need more of our money with which to pay off their constituencies.

How far will it go before something really breaks loose?? Will this be an isolated event or will more people decide enough is enough?

Update: The Statesman has what appears to be the more complete text of the letter at this link.

Time to Celebrate?

Liberals complain over Obama concession

So it sounds like the Public Option might be gone from the ObamaCare bill. Time to celebrate???

HELL NO

What's still in there? Well, the Government will still be in charge of defining each and every plan - what's in 'em, how much they cost, who's eligible, etc. Those plans ARE STILL MANDATORY. Once anything changes in your contract with your current provider, you'll be forced to select one of the Government plans. Bye-bye health plan you like and have already - for good.

Even better, the IRS will DEMAND that you demonstrate that you are enrolled in an approved healthplan. Gone are the days where if you're young and decide to opt out of the whole thing. You can't prove to the IRS that you're in a plan? They fine the shit out of you and forcefully enroll you. Can't afford it? They don't care. Want the Liberty of choosing what you do with your healthcare? GONE

So what are the costs of these plans? Nobody can tell you. You'll find out 18 months after the bill becomes law. We do know that your taxes WILL go way up, Medicare will be cut to the bone (say good-bye to Grandma while you still can), and that the Government will do the same great job running it that they have with Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and the entire fucking country, which is now approaching $12 TRILLION in debt.

I wouldn't trust these idiots to mow my lawn, let alone tell me whom I may see and when if I get a serious illness.

Turn up the volume. I want to see ears bleed in Washington D.C. The only correct option is KILL THE BILL. ALL of it. Every last rotten, stinking, bleeding, oozing, liberty destroying Marxist line of it.

If you are so against Social Security, how do you propose we live in our old age?

I received an email from a so-called "Conservative" and "Pro 2nd Amendment" person today. I'll hit the highlights here:

Having searched http://tyrannyunleashed.blogspot.com/search/label/social%20security, this person went on to say they had lost their retirement in the recent market crash, and that at 60, they needed Social Security to live on. They then asked me what my agenda was.

The post they are referencing is here. As to my "agenda", it is simply this: We can not pay for this stuff. We just simply can not mathematically pay for it.

Social Security was never meant to be your sole retirement income. It was meant to provide a partial pension to make things easier. Workers were expected to provide personal savings, income from children, and corporate pensions to supplement Social Security to allow themselves to stay under a roof and fed.

Over time, corporate pensions have gone away, and in this day and age of consumerism, easy credit, etc, one can not necessarily rely on their children any more either. Observe further that we've gone from a decent house being a postage stamp (by today's square footage estimates) to a 3000sqft luxury retirement home in AZ.

Finally, since we now don't really have a Social Security surplus, the plethora of retiring boomers is creating a situation where Social Security has turned into a ponzi scheme. The money I'm paying into it is going straight into another investor's pocket to keep the checks flowing. And since we're facing a declining population of people paying into the system, we're headed for a giant shipwreck.

The coffers got this way by Congress deciding that Social Security funds were fair game for them to spend (sound familiar???) So now, the funds that this person paid into the fund for their own retirement are long gone - again, it's my money that is going to allow them to retire.

So here is the question. Should I keep paying my money into a system that I know will very likely be completely bereft and bankrupt by the time it's "my turn" to collect? Should I starve down the line because somehow I bear responsibility for Government mismanagement, when all this time it has been people older than myself putting up with the looting and repeatedly voting for more looters? By 2050, the annual Social Security deficit, in 2001 inflation adjusted dollars, will reach $419bil - almost half of the entire Income Tax revenues collected for a year.

The answer? I don't think that people who are about to retire should be cut off and starved, but I also don't think my income taxes need to be raised by 81% (to almost 44% of my income), crippling my ability to live and prosper, let alone save money so that I don't starve when I'm 65 and there is little in the way of social programs left to serve me just so that a bunch of people who didn't save enough to retire can do so.

Furthering my issues with Social Security is the awful return I will get from the monies stolen from me (assuming that number isn't flat out $0). As a single male born around 1977, I'll earn less than .5% on the money I put in to the system when I it is finally returned to me at 65. I could do far better than that on safe Government Bonds alone. Again, I am punished for others' irresponsibility.

Why do I say my money is "stolen"? The Supreme Court ruled in 1960 (Flemming v. Nestor) that I have no ownership or right to the monies taken from me for Social Security benefits. This essentially means that the Government could capriciously tell me next week that I will never see that money again, and I have no recourse (short of going to the rifle).

So what you're basically saying by insisting that I give you my money so you can retire, and insisting that I pay nearly double my taxes so that you retire, with the full knowledge that the system very likely can't survive even long enough for me to get my money back out of it, is that you don't give a good *** damn about my ability to stay solvent, to save for my own future, or to live my life as I please. You'd rather raise my taxes, empty my bank accounts, foreclose on my home, remove the food from my mouth, and trample my Liberty so that you can retire in comfort.

Pardon me if I don't agree with that.

I would encourage you, dear friends, to read about Social Security over at the Heritage Foundation. If you are truly Conservative and Pro-Constitution, I want you to understand what it is you are really demanding when you command us to save Social Security at all costs.

My agenda? My agenda is to attempt to ensure that everyone has the best chance, under the restrictions set forth in the Constitution, to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in this country - and raising taxes to support failed Socialist programs is not the way to do that.

Our Unfunded Obligations

The 81% Tax Increase

From Forbes comes an excellent real idea of what I have been talking about in previous posts regarding our National Debt, and the unfunded obligations we have in the forms of Social Security and Medicare.

There is NO WAY we can afford either of these programs in their current form, without jacking taxes up 81%.

From the article:

To put it another way, Social Security's unfunded liability equals 1.3% of the gross domestic product. So if we were to fund its deficit with general revenues, income taxes would have to rise by 1.3% of GDP immediately and forever. With the personal income tax raising about 10% of GDP in coming years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this means that every taxpayer would have to pay 13% more just to make sure that all Social Security benefits currently promised will be paid.

...

To summarize, we see that taxpayers are on the hook for Social Security and Medicare by these amounts: Social Security, 1.3% of GDP; Medicare part A, 2.8% of GDP; Medicare part B, 2.8% of GDP; and Medicare part D, 1.2% of GDP. This adds up to 8.1% of GDP. Thus federal income taxes for every taxpayer would have to rise by roughly 81% to pay all of the benefits promised by these programs under current law over and above the payroll tax.

Since many taxpayers have just paid their income taxes for 2008 they may have their federal returns close at hand. They all should look up the total amount they paid and multiply that figure by 1.81 to find out what they should be paying right now to finance Social Security and Medicare.

Go take a gander and see what the jackasses in Government are setting us up for.

The Fallacy of Rising Taxes

Corporate Oil Booms in Low Tax Switzerland

Obama talks frequently about raising taxes, but only on the wealthy. "The Wealthy", however, includes small and large businesses which employ people, and spend money in the economy as they buy equipment and patronize other businesses in the area (or Nation) to buy raw materials and other needed equipment/services.

One fallacy of the Left's thinking is this: they assume they are taxing a captive crowd. Unfortunately, many of our lucrative, high dollar employers, such as the Energy Sector, are much happier to leave the country for better tax environments. According to The Tax Foundation, the US ranked number two in the world for highest corporate tax rates, at 39%. Now Obama would have us raise taxes on those corporations further, out of some sense of punishing them for making too much money.

Then we have Ireland at 12.5% and Switzerland at 21%:

Swiss cantons are free to set their own tax rates. For example in Zug, corporate tax is about 16 percent but can fall as low as 9.5 percent for companies that do most of their business outside Switzerland. That compares with an average global corporate tax rate of 25.9 percent, according to consultancy KPMG.

"One trend that we see is that particularly Bermuda-based companies are now moving to Switzerland," said Martin Frey, a partner at law company Baker & McKenzie. "That may only partly be obviously for tax reasons, but also for security reasons and the fact that the Obama administration may go after them."

Many of our larger companies are able to do business anywhere. And you can be sure they'll do it where they can save massive amounts of money. The more our Gov. tightens its tax fist, the more jobs will flee overseas. The more jobs flee overseas, the higher taxes must be raised to handle Government spending, and a vicious loop begins. The result, less jobs for Americans to take advantage of, and less economic growth, as those companies that are left pass on their higher tax costs directly to their customers.

That's right, you raise a company's costs, and it will, in turn, pass on those costs to its customers in the form of higher prices. A tax increase on "the rich" is really a tax increase on EVERY AMERICAN.

It's definitely amateur hour in our Government.

The Unwashed Masses Strike

Taxpayers Furious With Budget Cuts Take Frustration To Streets Of NYC

Now you see, this is the problem with allowing the looters to loot for decades and then trying to make budget cuts. Once you start giving these idiots things for free, they expect that it will be free forever. And when you have to cut those free services because you can no longer afford to give that cash away, well, the looters do what they do best, riot.

These folks are not in it for the good of the country, they don't understand, nor do they care that the state can no longer afford to give them free stuff, they want their handout, and they want it now.

So when you hear Liberals say they just want to give people a little extra to get ahead, think down the road when our economy collapses under the burden of these pigs and leeches and realize the consequences - likely class warfare. The have-nots have been getting their loot from the haves long enough to have expectations that they're entitled to receive that ill-gotten wealth, and if you try to take it from them, they're going to riot and then likely kill you for it.

They don't care that the country can not afford to keep them in food and clothes and home, they would rather take what they need from you than work for it themselves, and they're happy with that arrangement. The question is, are you?

Unbelievable

Pork, pork, lies, damned lies, and more pork.
9,000 earmarks, and a 10% rise in spending from last year. They're not even pretending to tell the truth any more. These idiots will say anything because many in this country either believe it, or don't give a fig either way as long as American Idol will be on the TV tonight.

The new Domestic Agenda
Plenty of tax increases for the "rich". Of course, that includes most small businesses, which, along with the corporations will have to lay off people and pass the rest of the increases on to anyone who consumes their goods - oops, that would be you and me.

$1.3tr Budgets that rely on hope and change, as well as cap and trade (which will grossly raise your energy costs, including gasoline and power for your home) will ensure that this Nation will plunge into the depths of Socialism and misery.

Capped off by...of course...a new Assault Weapons Ban that Holder has announced is a priority for this Administration. Of course, I've been yelling about that since September, not that that matters. Naturally, you have the progression of mouth breathers in the comments for that article hyperventilating about how you "don't need hand grenades to hunt". I don't even know where to start on that one. We've really reached a point where a majority of Americans, by all appearances, are good only for stuffing into cattle cars to go take a shower - at least as soon as their usefulness as idiots has passed.

I'm losing all hope. I hate to say it, but I'm truly reaching a point where I just don't know what to make of it all. This is no longer a Government by, for and of the people, it is an Oligarchy. Stuffed with lawyers and appointees that could give a flying f*** about us. They simply want more power and more money for them and their cronies.

Has Montana seceded yet? I'm ready for some "change" myself.

Edit: I have clarified the cattlecar statement. Please read that statement before you respond.

The Results of Liberalism

California Dreamin' Over? Record Number of Residents Moving

No surprise here. What do you expect when the state has some of the highest costs of living and taxes in the nation? When you insist that the bureaucracy pay for everything, when the state's role is to nanny its citizens, and one should be punished for being prosperous.

Don't believe me? Number two is New York.

You can not just tax things and expect your revenues to go up. Those taxes are always passed down to the consumer, and when the consumer is already being squeezed by high property taxes and job loss, the consumer finds ways to avoid taxes and go elsewhere. The same happens when the company you are taxing realizes they can operate elsewhere at a huge savings to their bottom line (and ultimately to their customer in the form of price breaks).

Unfortunately, we may be about to implement this kind of economics on the entire nation as the Democrats gleefully take up a perceived mandate to expand an already wasteful and bloated government.

We can only hope for a sudden breakout of sanity. Somehow that might be too much change to expect from our Overlords.