More Tyranny + More Taxes = More American Tea Parties

Posted by Gordon on April 15, 2010 at 11:30pm
Posted: April 12, 2010
1:00 am Eastern

© 2010

As early as 1733, colonial frustrations were felt against the British Parliament via the Molasses Act. Indignation grew over the decades, erupting in 1764 when Parliament enacted the Sugar Act and the Currency Act. But it was not until 1765, when Parliament levied the first direct tax upon the colonies via the Stamp Act, that larger protests permeated all the 13 colonies. And though that tax was repealed in 1766, the appeasement was short lived. Parliament passed the Townshend Acts beginning in 1767, placing a tax on a number of essential goods, including paper and tea – something which in turn led to the Boston Massacre in 1770, the Boston Tea Party in 1773, the Intolerable Acts and the First Continental Congress in 1774 and, of course, the Declaration of Independence in 1776, etc.

What's so amazing is that no matter how vast Parliament's control and taxation upon the colonists back then, it all pales into insignificance to Washington's control and taxation upon Americans today. Let me say that again: England's total revolutionary oppression and taxes pale into insignificance to Washington's present control and taxation upon U.S. citizens today.

Our founders fought for a far less oppressive system than in Britain. And though some taxes were levied on early Americans for some consumptives, the burden of taxation was laid largely upon tariffs for the first roughly 150 years of our republic until the inception of the income tax in 1913. Tragically, however, in the last 100 years, the feds have grown government into a gargantuan gargoyle whose taxation tentacles overreach every aspect of our lives.

America's founders would have been horrified at the bloated federal bureaucracy we have now and the maze of taxes we have to navigate: income taxes, employment taxes, capital gains taxes, estate taxes, corporate taxes, property taxes, Social Security taxes, gas taxes and even death taxes – it was excessive taxation like this that drove the founders to rebel in the first place.

What we need now more than ever is smaller government and lower taxes. But that is certainly not what we're getting from Washington. Even as some rejoice over the passing of Obamacare, their joy will certainly turn to mourning once they've experienced the trickling down of related costs and taxes over the years.

When President Obama was recently cornered about prospective taxes and what it will cost to cover Obamacare, it took him 17 minutes and 14 seconds to give a single answer. And his final concluding remarks were, "Boy, that was a long answer. I'm sorry, but I hope everybody – but I hope I answered her question."

Let me summarize. Americans for Tax Reform has pulled from Obamacare legislation almost 20 taxes coming down the pike (with references to the location in the law and the dates the taxes begin) that will be paid by every American in one way, shape or form.

individual mandate excise tax (Page 324/Sec. 1501/January 2014)

employer mandate tax (Page 348/Sec. 1513/January 2014)

excise tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans (Page 1979/Sec. 9001/$149.1 billion/January 2013)

hike in Medicare payroll tax (Page 2,040/Sec. 9015/$86.8 billion /January 2013)

medicine cabinet tax (Page 1,997/Sec. 9003/$5 billion /January 2011)

HSA withdrawal tax hike (Page 1,998/Sec. 9004/$1.3 billion/January 2011)

flexible spending account cap – aka "Special Needs Kids Tax" (Page 1,999/Sec. 9005/$14 billion /January 2011)

tax on medical device manufacturers (Page 2,020/Sec. 9009/$19.2 billion /January 2010)

raise "haircut" for medical itemized deduction from 7.5 percent to 10 percent of AGI (Page 2034/Sec. 9013/$15.2 billion /January 2013)

tax on indoor tanning services (Page 373 of manager's amendment/$2.7 billion/July 1, 2010)

Blue Cross/Blue Shield tax hike (Page 2,044/Sec. 9016/$0.4 billion)

excise tax on charitable hospitals (Page 2,001/Sec. 9007/Min$/immediate)

tax on innovator drug companies (Page 2,010/Sec. 9008/$22.2 billion)

tax on health insurers (Page 2,026/Sec. 9010/$59.6 billion /January 2011)

elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D (Page 2,034/Sec. 9012/$5.4 billion /January 2011)

$500,000 annual executive compensation limit for health insurance executives (Page 2,035/Sec. 9014/$0.6 billion /Jan 2013)

employer reporting of insurance on W-2 (Page 1,996/Sec. 9002/Min$/January 2011)

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 1,999/Sec. 9006/$17.1 billion /January 2012)

The Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, conveniently also reported that the exact number of new IRS employees needed to implement and manage America's new socialized health program is undetermined, though estimates range from thousands of employees on a low end to 16,500 employees on a high end. Or do the feds think the 93,000 present IRS employees can handle the additional workload? Not surprising, the CBO concludes:

CBO has not completed an estimate of all of the discretionary costs that would be associated with H.R. 3590. (Those costs would depend on future appropriations and are not included in the tables accompanying this letter.) As indicated in CBO's earlier estimate, such costs would probably include an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion over 10 years for administrative costs of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and at least a similar amount for expenses of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Was the White House or Congress covering those additional costs?

And with estimates that 32 million more people will have health insurance by 2019, to what clinic or hospital or to which doctor will they go? Even before health-reform legislation passed, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, the U.S. faced a shortage of doctors that is expected to grow to 40,000 by 2020. And who will pay for these new needed physicians, assistant medical personnel, hospitals and clinics in our communities? The federal government?

Of course, with President Obama's promise not to raise taxes on the lower and middle classes, combined with the report last week that 47 percent of citizens pay no federal taxes, half of the readers of this column might feel momentarily immune to the coming increases in taxation. Unfortunately, such financial resistance will be short lived, too.

Contrary to President Obama's plan, most economists (including Washington's) share the conviction that the feds can't pay for Obamacare or fix our economic problems by taxing only the wealthy. Even CBS recently reported, by 2020 roughly 93 cents of every dollar of federal revenue will be eaten up by major entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and payments on the national debt. And yet we don't think adding Obamacare will increase our future financial burden or trickle down to everyone's taxes?

CBS admonished, "Enjoy [lower taxes] while you can. With government spending projected to outpace revenues by $9 trillion over the next decade, today's low tax rates can't last, even if Congress were to find the will to cut spending. Just to eliminate this year's budget deficit, tax rates would have to be 24 to 85 percent, not today's 10 to 35 percent, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., based think tank."

Realizing America's perilous financial situation is why the White House sent out three of its biggest financial guns this past week on three consecutive days to prepare the way for tax increases that will be coming soon to your neighborhood.

First, White House economic adviser Paul Volcker said Tuesday that the feds should consider imposing a "value-added tax" similar to those charged in Europe to help get the deficit under control. He emphatically declared, "If, at the end of the day, we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes."

Second, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned on Wednesday that, in order to avoid overwhelming budget deficits that will suffocate economic growth, Americans must accept higher future taxes and less entitlement benefits: "To avoid large and ultimately unsustainable budget deficits, the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above."

Third, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf came out Thursday and affirmed that the nation's fiscal situation is "unsustainable" and requires major changes.

Well, isn't that just "coincidental" timing that, after raising the national debt again by trillions over the past year and passing Obamacare (more entitlements), the feds are now warning us that if Americans don't pay down the national debt and lessen their future entitlement benefits, America will suffer economic collapse (again)? (Will they ever consider cutting their budgets, like we've all done with ours?)

My frustration with Washington's deplorable status and solutions is what prompted me to film my latest "PSA" ("Patriot Service Announcement"), which was just uploaded Thursday on YouTube under the title, "Black Belt Patriotism."

Of course Washington's financial woes are not going to be solved by laying more taxation burdens upon the citizens of America, but by cutting its spending. Of course, they're not going to do that, which is why we must stand up and shout from the rooftops of America that we're tired of it all. That is also why I encourage everyone to join one of the hundreds of patriot protests around the country on Tax Day, this Thursday, April 15, including in Washington, D.C.

Mostly, we need to fight for a taxation system similar to that established by our founders. They did not penalize productivity through taxes the way we do today. The truth is, that the IRS is still the No. 1 enemy of your pocketbook. Who doesn't fear an IRS audit? It's the only federal agency before which you are considered guilty until proven innocent. It can't be overhauled or even reformed (Congress' attempts have failed). The best answer is to abolish the IRS, sweep away the present tax code and implement a flat or FairTax that lives up to its name – a simple consumptive-based tax system in which equity rules and from which no one can dodge or evade their dues. Let us all contact our representatives this April 15 and demand it.

Again, what we need now more than ever is smaller government and lower taxes. But the present Washington regime is not going to enact such reductions. In fact, it's going to continue a rampage of the opposite. That is why we lastly need to elect only leaders who will slash government spending and refuse to pay for programs that we cannot afford. We all must fight (once and for all) to elect fiscally prudent politicians like our founders, those like Thomas Jefferson, who brought down the national deficit though making the Louisiana Purchase and engaging the U.S. in a war with Tripoli.

Jefferson's warning about government debt and taxes is more apropos now than ever before:

To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers.
Friends, it's not too late, but the window is closing fast. We likely have one more chance to drop our partisan divides and elect only those who will be strict constitutionalists and preservers of our founders' vision and principles, before the entire American economy and government collapses.

As patriots, we're not intimidated by power. We won't be demoralized by a few trying to demonize all of us. We're not going to disappear like a bad dream because we love our republic too much to let her sink without a fight. It's a patriot equation that we've learned and carry on from our forefathers: more tyranny + more taxes = more tea parties.

So shout it loud and proud this week: "We will remember in November!"