Obamacare and the IRS – such a cute couple

So much for Democrats wanting to protect your privacy – I guess, like all of the anti-war protesters when Bush was President, the privacy advocates have all gone silent in support of The Won.  It just goes to show that for almost all Progressives, it’s all for show – if they truly believed in what they have told us, they’d be marching on DC.  Much time and energy has been spent on the Individual Mandate and the IPAB (aka “the death panels”).  Well, here’s a part that I didn’t know – or realize:

The IRS will also determine who is eligible for taxpayer-financed subsidies to purchase health care on the exchanges that will be set up in every state. Anytime anyone’s situation changes — a raise, a new job, a move to another state — that person will be required to report it to the IRS for the purpose of recalculating their eligibility.

Got that??  Generally when you have a serious change in life, and you have to report that event to…Mom.  Or Dad.  Or some other loved one or friends.

So, what have the Democrats wrought here?  That’s right – just ONE MORE STEP in having Government be your family (like it or not).  So, how’s that gonna feel – literally having a brand new Big Brother (again, brought to you by Democrats as not one Republican voted for this Liberty crushing, 2700 page fiasco.  Why is it beginning to feel like it should be called not Obamacare but ObamaBigBrother or ObamaJail ?  How’s it feel to now know that the IRS is now an intimate member of your family?  Now that you’ve gone “all growed up”, Democrats like President Obama and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)  and (at the time of Obamacare passage) Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) and Hodes(D-NH) decided that you STILL needed a set of parents – and they thought it just a dandy idea that it be the folks that “touch” you every April 15th (there has to be a Democrat joke in there somewhere…)

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Public Unions – “Why yes, we do use union dues to buy politicians”

From a press release from James O’Keefe and Project Veritas via RedState:

“This is significant because labor unions are some of the biggest beneficiaries of taxpayer-funded jobs,” says O’Keefe. “If they’re intentionally propping up paper jobs, then they’re complicit in the fleecing of taxpayers.”

The latest video from Project Veritas captures Newark SEIU President Rahaman Muhammad laying out in explicit terms the nature of the relationship between his union and lawmakers like Democrat Senator Robert Menendez.

Project Veritas: “So that means you’re going to get the union dues…”

SEIU: “Exactly!”

Project Veritas: “…to your campaign.”

SEIU: “Exactly! It benefits them.”

So, why do I think that this is no different than the announcement (Laconia Daily Sun, (10/4, page 15)that the Gilford firefighters union endorsing the Democrats in all of the races that touch my hamlet (e.g., NH House, NH Senate),

Er, I don’t.

The latest James O’Keefe video is after the jump

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“Mostly Free” and “Here to shut you down”: Scott & Mike have an economic point to make….but it really isn’t about economics!

It’s about Freedom, plain and simple. Scott has the simple example – a childhood lemonade stand; Mike has the ramifications – do we have Economic Freedom anymore?  If a child can’t even open a side-walk-side homemade drink stand that almost ALL of us have tried at one time or another (or if not personally, someone who has, or has bought such from the same), ask yourself – have we gone overboard?  Have we the type of society that has become all that insistent that every tittle and jot of a bureaucratic rule making insane asylum?

We have prided ourselves, as a country, as being the Land of Opportunity.  What does is say when our children are denied that opportunity at the get-go?  What does it say when adults masquerading has “our protectors” can’t see the difference between a commercial venture and a kiddy stand (who most often, get shamed into backing down)?

Even worse, that these “inspectors” have the chutzpah to believe that they NEED to be there in that child’s face saying “YOU didn’t follow the rules!”.  And lots of rules are being generated quickly, ruthlessly, and without a view to the cost (reformated, emphasis mine):

Last week, 1,571 new pages of regulations were published in the 2012 Federal Register, bringing the total for this year to more than 55,300 pages, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.  In those pages, 76 new final rules were approved, up from 51 final rules during the shortened Labor Day holiday week. That figure is equivalent to a new regulation being published every two hours and 13 minutes, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.  Those new rules bring the total number of pages of regulation to 55,324, with the government set to have 79,463 pages of regulations at its current pace.  Thirty-six economically significant rules published this year have combined compliance costs of more than $17.4 billion, though CEI estimates the true costs are actually higher.

And then we wonder why the US is now only 18th in the world for Economic Freedom.  Those of us who believe in entrepreneurial activities, and that it starts early.  No, it doesn’t mean that the lemonade stand then goes to to something bigger (although a boyhood friend of mine turned his into a little hut that then began to sell candy, then added hot dogs and soda, then ice cream treats….you get the idea.  He now owns several restaurants).

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We need to get them relocated to NH……….

In his first Annual Message to Congress in 1790, George Washington said:

”A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.”

Another example of Economic Freedom as measured by the crush of regulation without regard to cost – the story from  Hot Air:

Gun microstamping could close American factories

I understand that gun owners’ rights and the Second Amendment haven’t really been a touchstone in this year’s elections, but that doesn’t mean that the battle isn’t still being waged. One story out this month hits pretty close to home for me, both figuratively and literally. It involves the Remington Arms plant located in Ilion, a village in upstate New York. They are currently battling a pending move by the state government which would force them to put laser etched microstamps on the firing pins of all their weapons, driving costs through the roof.

Microstamping, or ballistic imprinting, is a patented process that uses laser technology to engrave a tiny marking of the make, model and serial number on the tip of a gun’s firing pin to allow an imprint of that information on spent cartridge cases. Supporters of the technology say it will be a “game changer,” allowing authorities to quickly identify the registered guns used in crimes. Opponents claim the process is costly, unreliable and may ultimately impact the local economies that heavily depend on the gun industry, including Ilion, N.Y., where Remington Arms maintains a factory, and Hartford, Conn., where Colt’s manufacturing is headquartered.

“Mandatory microstamping would have an immediate impact of a loss of 50 jobs,” New York State Sen. James Seward, a Republican whose district includes Ilion, said, adding that Remington employs 1,100 workers in the town. “You’re talking about a company that has options in other states. Why should they be in a state that’s hostile to legal gun manufacturing? There could be serious negative economic impact with the passage of microstamping and other gun-control laws.”

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Well, it’s about time somebody warns Karzai

Heck, it’s about time that a high ranking US official tell this two-bit Stone Age nation head this:

101st In AfghanistanLIMA, Peru (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lashed back at Afghan President Hamid Karzai Friday, saying the Afghan leader should say thank you now and then to the allied forces who are fighting and dying there, rather than criticizing them.

Panetta was responding to Karzai’s complaints Thursday that the U.S. is failing to go after militants based in Pakistan, and instead is concentrating on the insurgents in Afghanistan.

“We have made progress in Afghanistan because there are men and women in uniform who have been willing to fight and die for Afghanistan’s sovereignty,” Panetta snapped, as he spoke with reporters traveling with him to South America. “Those lives were lost fighting the right enemy not the wrong enemy and I think it would be helpful if the president, every once in a while, expressed his thanks for the sacrifices that have been made by those who have fought and died for Afghanistan, rather than criticizing them.”

There are have a number of occasions that the Afghans, including Karzai, have criticized US / NATO (ok, let’s be real here, the brunt is being borne by the US) when thinks have not gone well – Afghans have done the double-cross, turn turncoat, and within the fog of war, innocents have suffered and died and collateral damage has occurred.  I oft think that Karzai fogets that if the US had not gone after the Taliban that had given safe quarters to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, Karzai would not be sitting there with that peculiar hat and mantle.  Yet, he has been quick to beat up on the US and Nato, demanding apologies and money and enhancing the anti-American rhetoric that serves us poorly.

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Anti-Semitism rearing its head in the Lakes Region?

Road side signs of the plastic type on short wire frames are popping up all over the place – a fair number during the Primary last month but exploding in number as the election draw neigh.  Being a news / political junkie, I pay attention to them: whose signs are placed where, are they Democrat, … Read more

Skip, Freedom Is The Symptom, The People The Cause

Skip, true. It is about freedom, but there’s more to it than that. I would suggest that state encroachment on individual liberties is a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself.  It’s about the people. It’s about people willing to cede their liberty and freedom to a faceless bureaucrat in exchange for the illusion of safety, for a handout, or both. It’s the values that people hold that they place themselves as a pet of the state; they willingly devolve themselves into the Burkean “flies of a summer”.

We’ve raised generations steeped in state dependency, and now we see the result of this societal mistake when there’s a problem. When there’s a problem or a challenge, the first reaction of too many people is to call in the Department of Personal Responsibility Absolution to handle it. They believe that they themselves are uncapable of handling the problem, that it’s somebody else’s responsibility.  If there are poor people, the government should handle it.  If there are sick people, government should handle it. Elderly, the government should care for them.

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Ask New Hampshire Democrats About Fines For The Most Vulnerable

Effective October 1st, 2012 (that means it started last week folks)… Hospitals who re-admit patients within 30 days after they were discharged will now have to, under an Obamacare provision, pay fines as of October 1, 2012, which could force hospitals to slash programs that help the elderly, the poor, and the chronically ill. According … Read more

“Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand”, No Kidding, Who Can?

A fellow Granite Stater said, “Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand“.  Good for him, I say.  I take his point:  the bumbler in chief is so over his head that he can’t even muster the intellectual skill it takes to even perform a simple grade school task.  But this guy should have used another example like, “Obama can’t fill out the forms that his type’s are forcing us to fill out when we want to brave opening a lemonade stand”.

“Obama couldn’t run a lemonade stand”, yeah, no kidding. Who can?  Well no one can save the most artfully diligent bureaucracy seeking masochist and the well connected.

That statement used to mean something.  It used to impart a negative meaning on subject of the claim.  But it no longer has such a meaning.  No one can run a lemonade stand any more without the proper registration, licenses, fees, permits, and Department of Lemonade Stand approval to ensure that you’re in compliance with registration, licenses, fees, and permits.

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The media fantasy-world built around Obama

This from Andrew Klavan in City Journal, observing on the entirely predictable outcome of the recent televised debate: “Obama’s hapless fumbling, bad temper, and inarticulate inability to defend his record were actually thoroughly predictable. They were simply facets of the man as he truly is, unfiltered by the imagination of his media supporters: a man who … Read more

Good Call, Maggie – Higher Electric Rates for NH

Maggie -The Red- Hassan

From inception, Maggie “The Red” Hassan has been a strong proponent of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the “Cap and Trade” program that New Hampshire participates in with other northeastern states.  She was instrumental in its 2008 passing and continues to advocate strongly for this nonsensical government swindle.

Maggie -The Red- Hassan

On her campaign website, Maggie declares that RGGI is “good for the economy and the environment” and that it can “help our families and businesses save money on their energy costs“.

Aside from the fact that the RGGI revenue stream has been a severe disappointment (which should only disappoint the beneficiaries of it : enviro-tyrants, the Green industry, and big-government types looking to fill deficits), PSNH recently made a statement that effectively nullifies the argument that RGGI will reduce rates for consumers and businesses.

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How to start a Fight – Part 10

Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the … Read more

How About Those Jobs Numbers?

The Bureau of Laboring Statistics announced that the economy created 114,000 jobs last month.  If we ignore the fact that this is not even enough to address population growth (so the lower unemployment percent of 7.8% actually means bad things), and just look at job growth averages, Democrats might want to ignore this report and … Read more

How to start a Fight – Part 9

After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s License to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would … Read more

Ask A NH Democrat: About Having “A Conversation About Taxes”

Back in 2010 Barack Obama’s excuse for not allowing taxes to rise (by letting inherited tax cuts expire) was that despite Democrats four year grip on congress and their parties complete control of government for two years, it wasn’t time to let that happen.   But not to worry.  He’d let taxes go back up at … Read more

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