Paul Ryan vs Obama

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http://www.patriotthoughts.com

You can read this article at:

http://www.patriotthoughts.com/2010/03/04/paul-ryan-vs-obama/

Thank You, Vytautas

Is America’s Financial Collapse Inevitable?

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http://www.patriotthoughts.com/2010/01/25/is-americas-financial-collapse-inevitable/

Thank You, Vytautas

The Battle To Stop ObamaCare Is Not Over!

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http://www.patriotthoughts.com/2010/01/06/the-battle-to-stop-obamacare-is-not-over/

Thank You, Vytautas

PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.

The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said:  “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail.  It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”

Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]

“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]

“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses.  Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties.  The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.

“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration.  Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates.  Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=153583

Democrats Want To Tax The Rich For Health Care

Key House Democrats decided to raise taxes on the wealthy to help pay for health care legislation. At the same time, Democratic leaders are trying to quell concerns among moderate and conservative lawmakers about other elements of the bill.

Democrats on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee agreed to a new surtax that would start with households making $350,000 a year and begin in 2011, said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

Rangel said the new surtax would be graduated, starting with households at $350,000 and then rising at $500,000 and again at $1 million. Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid would raise about $500 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Lawmakers still can not provide an exact price tag of the overall bill.

The proposal faces an uncertain reception in the Senate and from moderate and conservative Democrats in the House, who rebelled over various aspects—including costs—of the plan.

Several Blue Dog members voiced concerns about new taxes, and it’s unclear whether the Senate would go along with the House on a tax on high earners. Asked if the Senate could support a “millionaire’s tax” to pay for health care, Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D, answered: “I don’t know.”

Defeat The Debt Pledge

“I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility.”

—    David M. Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States

America’s national debt is a record-breaking $11 trillion, and expected to nearly double in the next ten years.

We need to take action now to Defeat the Debt — before it’s too late.

Check out
http://www.defeatthedebt.com/

White House Putting Off Release Of Budget Update

The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its ridiculous predictions about the economy and today’s bleak landscape.

The administration’s annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in Obama’s budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his socialized health care and global-warming tax through Congress.

The release of the update – usually scheduled for mid-July – has been put off until the middle of next month. The White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.

The administration is pressing for votes before then on its $1 trillion socialized health care initiative. Runaway costs are jeopardizing Senate passage.

“Let’s be honest about what this is: an attempt to hide a record-breaking deficit as Democratic leaders break arms to rush through a government takeover of healthcare,” said John Boehner of Ohio, the top Republican in the House of Representatives.

“By burying this budget update until after Congress leaves town next month, the administration is not willing to own up to the consequences of this dangerous fiscal agenda,” he said.

“This routine report could be a nightmare,” Tony Fratto, a former Treasury Department official and White House spokesman under President George W. Bush, said of the delayed budget update. “There are some things that can’t be escaped.”

The Obama administration earlier this year tried to frighten the public by saying that unemployment would peak at about 9 percent without a big stimulus package and 8 percent with one. Congress did pass a $787 billion two-year stimulus measure, yet unemployment hit a 26-year high to 9.5 percent in June and appears headed for double digits.

Obama’s unrealistic current forecast anticipates 3.2 percent growth next year, then 4 percent or higher growth from 2011 to 2013. Private forecasts are contradicting those numbers.

Why is the Obama administration lying to us? Because any downward revision in growth or revenue projections would mean that budget deficits would be far higher than the administration is trying to sell us on.

Setting the stage for bleaker projections, Biden recently conceded, “We misread how bad the economy was” in January.

The new budget update comes as the public and members of Congress are becoming increasingly frightened over Obama’s economic policies.

A Washington Post-ABC News survey released Monday shows approval of Obama’s handling of health-care reform slipping below 50 percent for the first time. The poll also found support eroding on how Obama is dealing with other issues that are important to Americans right now – the economy, unemployment and the swelling budget deficit. The people are beginning to wake up the reality of socialism.

The Democratic-controlled Congress is reeling from last week’s testimony by the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, that the main health care proposals Congress is considering would not reduce costs – as Obama has insisted – but “significantly expand” the federal financial responsibility for health care.

The Obama administration has unrealistically projected that the annual deficit for the current budget year will hit $1.84 trillion, four times the size of last year’s deficit of $455 billion. Private forecasters suggest that shortfall may actually top $2 trillion.

Federal Budget Deficit Sets March Record As It Soars To $192.3B

The Treasury Department said Friday that the budget deficit soared to $192.3 billion in March and is nearing $1 trillion just halfway through the budget year.

Last month’s deficit, a record for March, was significantly higher than the $150 billion that economists expected.

The deficit already totals $956.8 billion for the first six months of the budget year, also a record for that period. The Obama administration projects the deficit for the entire year will hit $1.75 trillion.

A deficit at that level would nearly quadruple the previous yearly record of $454.8 billion set last year. The March deficit was four times the size of the imbalance in the same month last year.

The Treasury report said that through the end of March, $293.4 billion had been provided to companies through the $700 billion bailout provided primarily to banks, American International Group, General Motors and Chrysler.

Besides the bailout, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, received $46 billion last month, bringing the total help to them to $59.8 billion since October.

Government outlays totaled $1.95 trillion through March, 33.4% higher than the year-ago period.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated last month that Obama’s budget proposals would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, which is $2.3 trillion higher than estimates made in February in the administration’s first budget proposal.

The CBO review projected Obama’s budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion annually over the decade ending in 2019.

Economists have expressed misgivings that the massive deficits being forecasted will push interest rates up sharply.