5 Political/Economic Truths

5 Political/Economic Truths

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.

5. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it

Reaction to 4Tucson

I have been asked by a few people to participate with 4Tucson. Here is my reaction to 4Tucson (with the hope that someone may provide a thoughtful response to set me straight if I have an incorrect stance):

I am not convinced that the 5 problems on 4tucson.com (No Vision For Our City, Worship the Environment, Don't Value Families, Disregard For Christian Heritage, Undervalue Economic Impact of Churches) would be something that I would like to spend any time/energy/resources on.

I currently have a full plate when it comes to ideas and opportunities to spend time, energy and resources.

Here is one that I enjoy promoting a great deal: freeproliferibbon.com. I currently have a list of over 100 good ideas that I would like to eventually pick from to work on (eventually) when I get caught up on current obligations, projects and commitments.

So if one of 4Tucson's 'problems to address' included 'Stop Abortions (In Tucson)' then I may be interested in spending time, money and resources with them.

The Council of Church Leaders is a piece that I remember from the 4Tucson flow chart that also raised a flag with me, since that appeared to be something that I would not want to work through. I aspire to be 'too much of an Entrepeneur' to enjoy that sort of filter.

Sincerely,

Jacob Lorion Barr
Internet Business Development
www.iRapture.com

Data Trends Regarding 3 E's: Economy, Energy and Enviroment

These videos are informational and an intellectual pleasure to watch and think about. I highly recommend them! You can find them here:

http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse

I strongly disagree with Nancy Pelosi's stance on KILLING A CHILD

Pelosi, Do not use my (tax) money to pay for abortions! - Jacob Barr

Democrats want to include abortion funding in health care bill AND there is a vote in a few hours!

The following was copied from http://www.frcaction.org/get.cfm?i=AL09K04.

On Saturday, Congress will vote on the massive health care legislation which currently will spend your money on all elective abortion! Speaker Nancy Pelosi's health care bill authorizes the government run "public option" to fund elective abortion and would subsidize private plans that cover elective abortion. Pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak and Republican Rep. Joe Pitts want to offer a pro-life amendment to strike the abortion funding from the bill. However, Speaker Pelosi won't allow it. Instead, they have inserted a fake "compromise" to allow the government to fund abortion through private contractors, but this would still be GOVERNMENT funding of abortion (Medicare also uses private contractors to process fees and no one would call Medicare "private" funding.)
Speaker Pelosi will not allow a vote on a true amendment that would stop funding of abortion so you need to ask your Representative today to oppose the Rule that prevents a vote on the Stupak-Pitts amendment. And if that Rule passes they need to oppose final passage of the bill.
LAST CHANCE TO CALL BEFORE THE VOTE SATURDAY!!! Call your Member of Congress by contacting the Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 or email them here.



Positive Update:

House OKs Vote on Stupak Amendment to Cut Abortion Funding From Health Care


by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 6, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a surprise move after hours of tumultuous negotiations, the House Rules Committee, very early Saturday morning, approved rules for debate on the pro-abortion health care bill. Although it appeared Speaker Nancy Pelosi would deny one, it allows a vote on an amendment to remove abortion funding.

Pelosi's hand appeared to have been forced when pro-abortion House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced earlier in the day that she did not have enough votes to pass the bill because of objections from pro-life Democrats.

The committee okayed a Rule that allows the House to vote on the Stupak amendment, offered by pro-life Rep. Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, to the health care reform legislation.

Stupak had dozens of Democrats who threatened to vote against the Rule and the bill if he did not get a vote on his amendment. If the amendment is defeated, Stupak and pro-life Democrats will likely still oppose the bill because of the abortion funding.

The bill, HR 3962, currently funds abortions in two ways -- by allowing the public option (or government-run health care program) to pay for abortions and by allowing the affordability credits the government would give to consumers to be used to pay for health care plans that fund abortions.

The Stupak amendment would apply the fundamental principles of the Hyde amendment, which has long prohibited abortion funding under the Medicaid and HHS programs, to the health care reform bill and essentially prohibit all government funding of abortion under it.

Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com after the committee vote on the Rule that the vote on the Stupak could be the most important abortion-related vote cast in Congress since Roe.

"This will be one of the most important roll call votes that U.S. House members ever casts on a pro-life issue," he said. "Any lawmaker who votes against the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is, in effect, voting in favor of establishing a federal government program that will directly fund abortion on demand, with federal funds."

Johnson urged all pro-life advocates to call both the Washington and in-state offices of their representatives in the U.S. House to urge support for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.

The vote on the Stupak amendment could decide the fate of the health care reform bill -- because das many as 40 pro-life Democrats could vote against the bill if the Stupak amendment is not adopted and the abortion funding remains.

The House Rules Committee vote came after a long night of negotiation and discussions that, at one point, seemed as if they had gone out of control and would have resulted in the allowance of a limited amendment to only remove abortion funding out of the public option but not the affordability credits.

Stupak told Fox News late in the day that he had "not received any assurances by the Speaker that (the amendment) would be made in order."

"I have not had a deal with the Speaker," he said before the committee allowed a vote on his amendment. "If our amendment is made in order, I believe it will pass. " We've had so many agreements, I don't believe anything unless it's on paper."

Abortion advocates in the House were livid that Stupak's amendment would get a vote.

"There will be no abortion, not just with public funds, but with private funds under the public option, and that's not acceptable," Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, claimed.

And Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, fired off a press release blasting the deal top Democrats made with Stupak and his pro-life Democratic coalition.

She claimed the amendment would force private insurance companies to drop abortion coverage even though "the majority of private health insurance plans currently offer abortion coverage" -- a statistic that has been challenged as untrue.

She said the Stupak amendment "upends the carefully crafted compromise in the House bill and unambiguously restricts women's access to care."

The allowance of a vote on the Stupak amendment came after the nation's Catholic bishops delivered a final letter to members of Congress on Friday asking for a vote.

Doerflinger, associate director of the bishops conference's pro-life office, told the Washington Post that the bishops would drop their objections to the health care bill if the Stupak amendment is added and all abortion funding is removed.

"We become enthusiastic advocates for moving forward with health care reform," he said, if that happens.

The Post described the chaotic scene as advocates on both sides of the abortion divide sought to allow or prevent a vote on the Stupak amendment.

"Negotiations between the two camps consumed much of the day Friday, as representatives from the warring factions shuttled into and out of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office just off the Capitol Rotunda. A deal was finally struck shortly before 9:30 p.m., sending Stupak to the House Rules Committee to request official permission to offer his amendment -- permission that was finally granted shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday," it indicated.

"After the deal was struck, annoyed pro-choice leaders filed out of Pelosi's office to confer with their supporters," it concluded.

ACTION: Contact your members of the House of Representatives immediately at http://www.House.gov and urge a YES vote on the Stupak amendment to stop abortion funding in the health care bill. Also, urge your members to vote NO on the health care bill, HR 3962, if the Stupak amendment is defeated.

Related web sites:
National Right to Life - http://www.NRLC.org

Congressman Hears From a Representative of the People

Planned Parenthood Leader Resigns After Watching Ultrasound of Abortion Procedure

Great News!

City of Tucson says that ALL WHITE MALE OWNED BUSINESSES ARE 5% BETTER THAN WOMEN AND MINORITIES and they also said a few other things yesterday

The City of Tucson does the following according to a few City of Tucson employees that were at a round table event yesterday:
1.  the City of Tucson has a budget for buying homes for sale
2.  the City of Tucson gives advantages when picking a vendor if the vendor is woman or minority owned by reducing the Woman/Minority bid by 5% before comparing it to a white man's business's bid.
3. classes and services are reduced in price or given for free if someone says they cannot afford to pay the price.
4. The budget is down currently but they hope it to be back up soon.

Response to 1: I don't think the city should be involved in the housing market by buying houses, which would artificially inflate the prices of houses by buying houses and I don't know what they would do with these houses that would be inline with what they should be doing.  They should reduce taxes instead.

Response to 2: This is lame.  We should have an equal playing field.  We shouldn't give preference to any ethnicity or to any group.  I think everyone should compete on their own merits.

The city is 'insulting women and minorities' by saying that ALL WHITE MALE OWNED BUSINESSES ARE 5% BETTER THAN WOMEN AND MINORITIES.  And to even the playing field they need to adjust the numbers.

Response to 3: The city should not give away stuff for free.  If someone can't afford the published price tag then they should not buy the service.

Response to 4: They should be looking for ways to reduce spending and taxes and not looking to increase their spending.

Reasons

I feel like the economic strain could be highlighted as:

lack of integrity:
- governmental leader's lack of desire to get out of debt
- - who else can go into hysterical debt over nonessentials?

greed:
- government intervention in the industries that are now having problems
- - we have COUNTLESS and COMPLICATED taxes that are nearly impossible to count and be aware of. Without knowing WHAT exact PERCENT we pay, how can we clearly argue that it is 'too much'. With 99.99% (if not 100%) of Americans not knowing what 'total percent' they pay in taxes, how can we say '55%' is too much.
- - - regardless of whether everyone in Congress (who votes a bill in) reads a bill, most americans are definately not reading the legal verbage of the taxes and laws that our government has accumulated.

lack of intelligence:
- extra high taxation on those that are doing well and in a position to create jobs
- - while illegal aliens pay no taxes and take advantage of those that do pay taxes

encourage lack of intelligence in others:
- special financial assistance for select groups that do poorly or that have the politician's ear/pocketbook

AP found job counts that were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of paid positions

I have heard that $512,000 (per job) of stimulus money has been used so far to create 30,000 jobs.  They didn't even create 30,000 jobs according to this article.

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is promising that new figures being released Friday will be a more accurate showing of progress in President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan. It aggressively defended an earlier, faulty count that overstated by thousands the jobs created or saved so far.

Ed DeSeve, serving as Obama's stimulus overseer, said the administration has been working for weeks to correct mistakes in early counts that identified more than 30,000 jobs paid for with stimulus money. He said a new stimulus report Friday should correct many mistakes an Associated Press review found that showed the earlier report overstated thousands of stimulus jobs.

"I think you'll see a pretty good degree of accuracy," DeSeve said in an interview.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs downplayed errors in job counts identified by the AP's review, telling reporters, "We're talking about 4,000, or a 5,000 error."

The AP reviewed a sample of federal contracts, not all 9,000 reported to date, and discovered errors in one in six jobs credited to the $787 billion stimulus program - or 5,000 of the 30,000 jobs claimed so far.

Even in its limited review, the AP found job counts that were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of paid positions; jobs credited to the stimulus program that were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs that were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.

For example:

- Some recipients of stimulus money used the cash to give existing employees pay raises, but each reported saving dozens of jobs with the money, including one Florida day care that claimed 129 jobs saved.

- A Texas contractor whose business kept 22 employees to handle stimulus contracts saw its job count inflated to 88 because the same workers were counted four times.

- The water department in Palm Beach County, Fla., hired 57 meter readers, customer service representatives and other positions to handle two water projects. But their total job count was incorrectly doubled to 114.

Those errors were included in an early progress report on the stimulus released two weeks ago that featured numerous mistakes, including a Colorado business' claim that its stimulus contract created more than 4,200 jobs. TeleTech Government Solutions actually hired 4,231 temporary workers for its stimulus project, but most of them worked for five weeks or less and the others no more than five months, company president Mariano Tan said.

The short-term positions should have been reported as 635 full-time, 40-hour-a-week jobs under the government's method of calculating stimulus work, Tan said.

The AP's review sampled some of the contract data reported on the government's Web site, recovery.gov, that serves as the official accounting of stimulus data. The review focused on the most obvious cases of jobs wrongly tied to the stimulus because of record duplications or misinterpretations of how the jobs should be counted. In some cases, businesses reported short-term projects with large job counts, which appeared inaccurate in the records. The AP contacted businesses to discuss their jobs reports and confirmed the errors.

Some businesses actually undercounted jobs funded with stimulus money, the AP's review shows, because they reported only new jobs created, not existing jobs saved. But by far the most reporting errors were found in the number of jobs credited to the stimulus.

Gibbs said that early data couldn't be reviewed as carefully as new data will be. "Three days after the data was received, it was required to be put on the Web site," he said.

The Colorado business' job count, along with many others, has been corrected, Gibbs said, and will be updated in Friday's report.

"We disputed, as the AP disputed, the report that came in that calculated a number of jobs but didn't accurately account, the way we account for, a full-time, yearlong employee as being a job," Gibbs said.

His comments during his daily meeting with reporters came hours after the White House issued a midnight press release complaining about the AP's review of jobs the government credits to stimulus spending.

DeSeve, who criticized the AP's review as misleading, said the administration is aware of problems with the early data. Agencies have been working with businesses that received the money to correct mistakes. Other errors discovered by the public also will be corrected, he said.

"As a result, whatever problems the early and partial data had, the full data to be posted on Friday will provide the American people with an accurate, detailed look at the early success of the Recovery Act," DeSeve said in a statement the White House issued just after midnight Thursday.

---

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott contributed to this report.

Government HealthCare Summary

Ruling supports corporate tuition tax credit

Update: According to IBE this corporate tax credit is for C-Corps and not LLCs.

Read more here:  http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/146336

Please donate to Cornerstone Christian Academy in Northwest Tucson (my daughter Kaylie attends there) and I have 2 more children that will attend there when they are old enough.

If you would like more information on how to donate, please contact me.

Sincerely,

Jacob Lorion Barr
Internet Business Development
jakeb@iRapture.com
www.iRapture.com

iRapture.com
4280 N. Campbell Ave., Suite 216,  Tucson, AZ 85718
1.520.HTTPWWW (4887999) ext 1
1.877.HTTPWWW (4887999) ext 1
Cell (520) 232-2121

The Government Can

Bread of deceit is sweet to a man;

 but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
Proverbs 20:17

VIDEO: Reason for High Health Care Costs

Income Slave Tax

The income tax for those who report all earnings is making the honest slaves of the federal government. The deceitful don't care about laws and probably make opportunities to not pay income taxes (by working off the books in cash). Because evil is evil because they don't care about laws/truth. I am sick and tired of paying soo much in taxes.

If our taxes go up 3 percent more, I think it will be 2% cheaper to stop working and lounge on the California beach. I am sick and tired of paying the government more than what I pay on my mortgage and more than what I spend on my family! They take more than any other entity in my life.

debt, the tool of slavery

I received the following from my friend, Mark Stone, this morning and I would like to share it:

It is not our taxes that make us slaves, it is our debt. The borrower is the slave of the lender. That is how the enemy keeps God's people in economic bondage - by making them dependent on banks and loan companies for cash - not by raising taxes. It is God's will for his people to live debt free.

However, It does not happen automatically. You have to make a decision to stop doing things the world way and commit to doing things the Kingdom way ( according to God's word ).

!. Ask the lord to forgive you for racking up so much debt. House note, car note, credit card debt, etc.

2. Determine in your heart that you are never going to borrow money again no matter how much pressure is brought to bear against you to do so.

3. In the same way that you made the Lord Jesus your savior, make him your provider. Believe in your heart that in Christ you have unlimited resources and confess with your mouth that the Lord Jesus Christ is your sole provider.

4. Ask the Lord to break the yolk of economic bondage off of you and put his yolk of economic freedom on you in it's place.

5. Earnestly seek the Lord to supernaturally pay off all your existing debt. See Luke 18 : 1-8. The keys here are be persistent and stay in faith. Also pray that he will keep you debt free from now on.

6. Finally give the Lord a shout of praise. Don't wait, praise him now! In a spiritual battle your praise is a weapon.

With regard to your bill, I am sorry to be taking so long to pay. I confess that it has not been a high priority for me, but today I am raising the priority level to my highest level. My plan is to put a check in the mail to you by this Friday.

Have a blessed day!

Mark

My Reflection:
My dad instilled a fear/disgust of debt in me that I have appreciated to this day.  I have avoided car debt and credit card debt (Thanks to my dad.) since college.  I currently have an operational business debt that comes and goes each year along with a sizable house debt.

The business debt will be paid off in January of 2010 but the house debt has been a bear to make progress on.  However my goal/position is to aggressively pay off the house debt.

Vote to Overturn the 16th Ammendment

The federal government has seized too much power from the people and from the states.

I think we need make the opportunity to vote to overturn the 16th ammendment and bring more power back to individual states.

Wouldn't it be convenient to only have to travel to Phoenix to make a trip to our local state capital to make our voices heard. Traveling to Washington D.C. is too far and our voices are not heard.

What if each state had it's own income tax rate? This would bring 'competition' (a free market idea) to 'income tax'. States that want to attract good businesses may reduce their income tax rate and states that want to spend money on health care, large statues and expensive special interest projects may have more taxes and a higher income tax rate.

The federal government could get a percent of what the states bring in, to pay for the military, interstate highways, national parks and veterans health care.

Local state governments should take care of everything else.

Sincerely,

Jacob Barr
iRapture.com

P.S. Here is a video definately worth watching.. It is incredibly relevant today.

The Role of Government

The Role of Government
September 11, 2009

In 1930, there was one governmental worker for every 205 people; today the ratio is more like 1 to 5. What has happened? I believe it is partly due to the demise of Christian character. As character diminishes, government grows.

Today there is one dependent and one bureaucrat for every three working people. As this continues, the middle class will diminish. There's the very rich and the very poor.

What is the purpose of government? Read Romans 13. Government is here to protect, to punish evil doers, and to defend the land. Romans 13:3-4 says, "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."

But when you get the idea that government is not here to protect but to provide, then you're in difficulty. Our founding fathers knew this. One person wisely said, "We are in deep trouble when we look upon our government as a cow to be milked rather than a watchdog to be fed."

* Adrian Rogers provided this insight.

Tax on Service

Tax on Service? Our city just started taxing Gym Membership and this would equate to a tax on a service!

Many of us in Tucson provide service: barbers, painters, etc. I am the owner of iRapture.com which is a business that provides service. I am concerned that they are going to (continue to) make our businesses more difficult to operate above water.

They also increased taxes on utilities by approximately 10%. But what is unique about the gym membership tax is that the city of tucson is not just a TAXING AUTHORITY, but they are also A COMPETITOR with their disgusting cheap work out areas. (I tried to play racquetball at one of their underkept racquetball courts in an expensive facility that had a used bandade on the wall along with some mustard 'stuff'.)

Super Soaker Sunday

Logical and humorous sermon bit worth sharing.

My response to the Government supporting bad decisions

Freeloaders

It frustrates me that many people do not pay any federal income tax but yet they get free health care, free child care, free housing, free food stamps, free access insurance and go to school and do not work. Why should the working class pay for people to go to college?

Throwing Money at Bad Decisions

The government throws money at groups of people and select business that made bad decisions. This obviously promotes laziness and "satisfaction with louzy decisions" and deters people from building a strong desire to do what is best and to work hard.

Work Hard and Strive Continuously

Perhaps it would be best to work hard regardless of what the government does and just hope that condition to run a business are improved with future elections. But eventually it may be more profitable to 'close up' and sit on a surfboard.

Health Care OR Employment

Health Care OR Employment

With the government creating new taxes for businesses that are the result of paying employees, companies will have 8% less money to employ people. Business will have to pay 8% more tax for each person they pay.

There is a funny thing about percents, you only get 100% of your money as the government creates new taxes that take small percents or big percents, each percent increase is a percent that cannot be ‘regained’. If a business had a profit that is less than 8% of the cost of their employees, then they will need to layoff employees or go out of business. If a business had a small profit margin because of competition, then the cost of goods will go up to compensate this tax increase.

This 8% tax increase will create the following problems:

• employee salary decreases
• price tags to consumers increases
• employee layoffs
• businesses failing if they cannot survive with less money and more taxes
• with all of the above problems, the government will probably collect less ‘total taxes’ and will have more people with their "hand out" in the unemployment line in need of help
• less jobs will be available since the cost of hiring someone has additional taxes tied to it beyond the social security tax, medicare tax, unemployment tax, job training tax, state income tax, federal income tax, and sales tax (on buying equipment)

Businesses have to pay more than just wages and taxes when hiring someone. Businesses need to pay for equipment and furniture and office space to equip the employee to work effectively. The tax burden just decreases the desire/benefit to hire someone. This decrease in desire/benefit reduces the number of people that are ultimately hired and employed.

Healh Care (TakeOver) Reform: Choice Removed and New 8% Business Tax and Video

As a business owner my taxes are going up because I employ other people. I can reduce my taxes by paying people less or by employing less people. Therefore the proposed health care takeover plan will decrease employment opportunities.

Creating a government run monopoly by forcably removing competition's ability to get new customers or create competitive/needed changes will run all current insurance companies out of business.

With this being a very important issue, why isn't there an outcry of people over this terrible idea.

What is the silverlining of this terrible bill: We have the freedom to vote for a new president and new congressmen that will remove these disasters by creating 'change for the better' and not 'change for the worse'.

Health Care Reform Bill (http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/aahca.pdf) has (at least) 2 objectional pieces that I think should be exposed:

PAGE 16: Everyone currently paying for their insurance will be forced to use the government health care within a few years when Health Insurance Companies are forced out of business.

Page 16 starts out at saying that Insurance companies will not be able to get 'new customers' after the Health Care Reform Bill begins on Y1.

GRANDFATHERED HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE DEFINED.—Subject to the succeeding provisions of this section, for purposes of establishing acceptable coverage under this division, the term ‘‘grandfathered health insurance coverage’’ means individual health insurance coverage that is offered and in force and effect before the first day of Y1 if the following conditions are met: IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1...

Then Page 16 says that individuals will not be able to make changes to their insurance coverage. If they do, then they will be required to use the gov't health insurance plan.

LIMITATION ON CHANGES IN TERMS OR CONDITIONS.—Subject to paragraph (3) and except as required by law, the issuer does not change any of its terms or conditions, including benefits and cost-sharing, from those in effect as of the day before the first day of Y1.

Page 150. Businesses that pay a total salary of 400,000 or more will be forced to pay 8% of their employee's salary as a new federal tax to cover this health care.

In the case of any employer who is a small employer for any calendar year, subsection (a) shall be applied by substituting the applicable percentage determined in accordance with the following table for ‘‘8 percent’’:

$1000 Pizza

Two nights ago I had a dream that I can't remember but I do remember one fact from that dream. I remember ordering a pizza and getting the bill for $1000. I kept thinking about how much that was, but in my dream I wasn't shocked.

With inflation bound to go up because of insane governmental spending, I hope that I can stay shocked over the $1000 pizza price tag for along time.. But someday a $1000 pizza may not shock any of us.

National Debt

POW (Prison Outreach Worldwide)

Prison Outreach Worldwide is a ministry that I was just recently introduced to.  They are ministrying to people in prison.  I believe this ministry is working to be a positive influence for those willing to listen in prison.  They probably face intense spirtual warfare with people that they work around.

After reading this blog, perhaps you could visit their website and take a moment to pray for these men that are working to reach out to the men in our prisons who are in need of help. 

www.thepownetwork.com

About Our Christian Nation

OKLAHOMA makes news that everyone should read.

OKLAHOMA makes news that everyone should read.

The state law passed today, 37 to 9, had a few liberals in the mix, an amendment to place the Ten Commandments on the front entrance to the state capitol. The feds in D.C., along with the ACLU, said it would be a mistake. Hey this is a conservative state, based on Christian values...! Guess what..........We did it anyway. HB 1330

We recently passed a law in the state to incarcerate all illegal immigrants, and ship them back to where they came from, unless they want to get a green card and/or become an American citizen. They all scattered. Hope we didn't send any of them to your state. This was against the advice of the Federal Government, and the ACLU, they said it would be a mistake. Guess what..........we did it anyway. HB 1804

Yesterday we passed a law to include DNA samples from any and all illegals to the Oklahoma database, for criminal investigative purposes. Pelosi said it was unconstitutional. Guess what........We did it anyway. SB 1102

Several weeks ago, we passed a law, declaring Oklahoma as a Sovereign state, not under the Federal Government directives. That, for your information, makes Oklahoma and Texas the only states to do so. Guess what.........More states are likely to follow. Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, both Carolina's, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia, just to name a few. Should Mississippi act, so will Florida. Save your confederate money, it appears the South is about to rise up once again. HJR 1003

The federal Government has made bold steps to take away our guns. Oklahoma, a week ago, passed a law confirming people in this state have the right to bear arms and transport them in their vehicles. I'm sure that was a set back for the Kennedys and Ms Pelosi.
Guess what..........We did it anyway. 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling 3-0

By the way, Obama does not like any of this.
Guess what....who cares...were doing it anyway.

Now

After talking to someone who doesn't like to talk about politics, he asked me "When will we see the change? ...in 50 years?"

Well, I received an email today from our state government that answered this question: May 1st 2009.

On May 1st our state income taxes are going up!

And our State Government is also allowing criminals to not get penalized for a brief window!!! How unfair.


Read the email below to see this terrible news:

Arizona Withholding Changes

Senate Bill 1185 amended the amounts required to be withheld for Arizona withholding purposes. Currently the amount required to be withheld is a percentage of federal withholding. For amounts withheld through April 30, 2009 the amount required to be withheld, at the employee's election, is 10%, 19%, 23%, 25%, 31% or 37% for individuals whose annual compensation is less than $15,000. For individuals whose annual compensation is more than $15,000 the amount that is required to be withheld is 19%, 23%, 25%, 31% or 37%.

For income tax withheld on or after May 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009, the percentages will be increased as follows:

Rates for May 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009
Old New rate
10% 11.5%
19% 21.9%
23% 26.5%
25% 28.8%
31% 35.7%
37% 42.6%


For income tax withheld on or after January 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010, the percentages will be decreased as follows:

Rates for January 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010
Old New rate
11.5% 10.7%
21.9% 20.3%
26.5% 24.5%
28.8% 26.7%
35.7% 33.1%
42.6% 39.5%


For income tax withheld on or after July 1, 2010, the amount withheld will no longer be a percentage of federal withholding. The amounts withheld must be based on tables prescribed by the department.

For more information about this withholding law change, visit our website at www.azdor.gov.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arizona Tax Amnesty Program

The Arizona Department of Revenue is offering a tax amnesty program that will run from May 1 - June 1, 2009. This an opportunity for those who live, work, or do business in Arizona and owe back taxes to the state of Arizona or underreported any taxes in past years, to correct those issues with a reduced rate of interest and no civil penalties.

For more information, visit the Tax Amnesty website at http://www.azdor.gov/taxamnesty. If you have specific questions, please contact the Amnesty Hotline at 602-364-3550.

Wall Street Journal reports on 102% income tax rate

income = (salary + bonus - taxes) / year
A bonus can be used to be part of an employees' expected/planned annual benefit, especially when this bonus is a 'regular occurrence'.

Wall Street Journal Article

Listen to the Podcast on This

According to Michael Medved, if the top 2% (as proposed by Pres. Obama) would pay 100% income tax, it would still not pay for all the new spending this year.

So what happens when the "Rich" is taxed more? They can donate/spend/invest less.

This is really bad for job creating entrepreneurs!

Freedoms & Rights from our Forefathers

Thoughts on Patriotism
Liking/agreeing with the government hopefully doesn't reflect on patriotism.. My hope is that our patriotic passion is derrived from the idea that we/citizens have rights/freedoms because of the sacrifice by our forefathers.

Trying to be Positive
On a positive note, I do like our highways/freeways, parks and military.

President Jake of the Internet Party
On another note, when I have the opportunity to change our tax code, I vouch that it will be reduced to 1 page and clarity will be one of the major goals. It will also be designed to be attractive and easy to read. I think it would be helpful for people to know what percent they pay in taxes each year. Most people only know 'their income tax percent' and maybe their sales tax percent but often forget that they pay tax after they work and after they spend and after they die and when they live in a home and when they own a car. In fact the government even has me pay an 'air tax' that is part of my annual car tax.

Beyond all of the tax percents that add up, I also get mad when people work off the books and do not pay taxes since that puts the burden on those that do. If everyone paid their taxes/bills, then many companies and our government would not be in a 'hurt'.

On a positive note, I heard that there is going to be or may be a porn tax and a lap dance tax !
http://www.foxnews.com/video/?playerId=videolandingpage&referralObject=1514309

Governmental programs/waste makes me really mad (regardless of the politician in power who spends our (tax)money). Everybody likes santa clause (free money/benefits from the government for those were unresponsible) and nobody says no to Santa Clause.. ..when in reality the help they get just makes them rely on the government for more help. Bad behavior being rewarded and good behavior being ignored makes me think hard about why I am trying to pay my mortgage off quickly.

Example of Frustration
I recently received a RFP for webhosting for the Texas Lottery and it included several unbelievable requirements, such as "prospective Proposers are required to attend one of the mandatory pre-proposal conferences". The RFP was 113 pages long and looked like it was written like the tax code. My guess is that it would take 10 hours to read and about 12 hours to reply.

I can't believe they wrote a 113 page document to ask for 'webhosting'... You can see this monstrocity here: http://esbd.cpa.state.tx.us/docs/362/81492_1.pdf

This governmental proposal just blows my mind with a lack of common sense for efficiency. This seems like a good example of governmental waste (of time for the preparers and the responders).

Initially this looked enticing and interesting. But I would rather 'not bid' and win/save my time/energy/travel costs instead of bet and potentially win a big contract. So I win every time by not spending money/time on a lottery ticket/proposal ;)

In essence the complication level of the RFP allows this government entity to preselect who they would like to use because 'who can comply' with insane amounts of requirements for a chance at getting a small amount of work. Their motivation is 'barrier to entry/bid'.