This says it all about the so-called healthcare “reform” bill

Posted on 03/23/2010 by Gil Jones

The Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine combined the radicalism of Alinsky, the corruption of Springfield and the machine power politics of Chicago.

Sunday was a pressured, bought, intimidated vote worthy of Hugo Chavez but unworthy of the United States of America.

It is hard to imagine how much pressure they brought to bear on congressman Stupak to get him to accept a cynical, phony clearly illegal and unconstitutional executive order on abortion. The ruthlessness and inhumanity of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine was most clearly on display in their public humiliation of Stupak.

The real principles of the machine were articulated by Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings who was impeached and removed from the bench as a federal judge, before being elected to the House when he said “”There ain’t no rules here, we’re trying to accomplish something. . . .All this talk about rules. . . .When the deal goes down . . . we make ‘em up as we go along.”

via This Will Not Stand: Newt on the passage of Obamacare.

The comment of (impeached and removed) judge Hastings is the most despicable example of what happened, and why.

The lie of an executive order banning federal funding of abortions

Posted on 03/21/2010 by Gil Jones

OK, pay attention now. This is not a pro-life/pro-choice argument. Both sides of that issue should be concerned about this issue. What is the issue? We’ve just seen Rep. Bart Stupak decide to vote “yes” on health care and he is relying on a letter from Pres. Obama that the Pres. will issue an executive order that federal funding of abortions will not be included in this legislation.

It’s a lie for him to say he’s relying on that and the mere issuance of such an executive order is a lie, or at best a false promise having no effect whatsoever and, in fact, federal funding of abortions is a required part of the law of the land.

Here’s why. The landmark case of Roe v. Wade decriminalized abortions and Medicaid came to cover all abortion services. Eventually, an amendment to the medicaid bill known as the “Hyde amendment” restricted funding and yet later further modifications kept some restrictions which still limit federal funding of abortions in some, but not all, circumstances.

The end result is, we presently have in the law the requirement of federal funding of abortions under some circumstances. And an Executive Order cannot alter that result. ONLY if the current health care bill explicitly banned federal funding of abortion could the present law be altered. The President’s swift pen can’t do it.

Thus, regardless of your position on abortion in general, or on federal funding of abortions, you have to be concerned about the red herring be tossed out giving a false sense of how things will work in this regard. It’s just part of the ongoing problem of the process. The games continue.

It’s the journey, not the destination stupid!

Posted on 03/17/2010 by Gil Jones

That line is taken from, among other sources I’m sure, the back of a favorite BMW motorcycle sweatshirt. As an aside, my VERY favorite shirt reads “I didn’t know BMW made cars until I passed one.” But I digress.

The journey is important in many endeavors. No matter how worthy the destination, how you get there matters. It’s true in love, war, economics, motorcycle touring and, also, in passing major legislation.

Assume for arguments sake (I know, but try) that health care reform is needed and further that the already passed Senate bill is a good one (I know, just hang with me …). Even if that were true, the way “they” are getting there is awful. In fact it’s horrible. A total bastardization of the legislative system is taking place and it threatens to trample on the Constitution from several directions. See, e.g., my earlier piece Healthcare bill: Reform the reformation by amending the Senate bill the House didn’t pass. Huh?

Regardless of whether the House passes a bill (or a “Rule”) this weekend, or not, the world and history will long remember what was done. Woe unto “us” the perversion by “them” of procedures that have served this nation well, the literal bribing of a representative with his brother’s judgeship (which especially piques me), and a mere ride on Air Force One to bribe (or browbeat) another:

* * *

Maybe that’s why President Obama decided to do more than call Dennis Kucinich to change his mind on health care. He invited him aboard Air Force One to chat about it. Maybe it was an abduction. Whatever it was Congressman Kucinich left Air Force One a different man than when he boarded.

via What Changed Dennis Kucinich’s Mind? – Glenn Beck – FOXNews.com. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,589590,00.html accessed 3/17/2010).

Process matters. Process is the journey. Don’t forget it.

Healthcare bill: Reform the reformation by amending the Senate bill the House didn’t pass. Huh?

Posted on 03/15/2010 by Gil Jones

Reality, once again, is stranger than fiction. There is apparently a plan in the House of Representatives to “sort of” adopt the Senate healthcare bill and, after it is signed into law, rely on the Senate to amend it to suit the House. The discussion is for the House to adopt a Rule of some sort. An amendment to the Rule will provide that, upon adoption of the Rule, the Senate healthcare bill will be “deemed” to have been adopted. Plausible deniability then exists for House members to say “I didn’t vote for the Senate version of the healthcare bill.” The House then becomes dependent on the Senate to draft, and pass, amendments to take out all the pieces that are objectionable to a majority of the House … like tax-paid abortions.

So healthcare reform is to itself be reformed by amending a known bad law (in the eyes of the House) after the House didn’t really pass it.

Cute, but unconstitutional. The Constitution provides that laws shall have been passed by both houses of Congress … passed mind you … and signed by the President. I can just hear Judge Andrew Napolitano now! Here’s a link to the maneuver. Yes, it’s a Republican site but my point here is not a partisan one, except that I’m kinda partisan about the Constitution. Some really smart people drew it up a few years ago.

The Slaughter Solution comes in three flavors: in the first, the rule simply self-enacts the Senate bill and sends it along to the President for his signature; the second deems the Senate healthcare bill adopted only upon House passage of the reconciliation package; and the third, most egregious option, conditions adoption of the Senate healthcare package on the Senate passage of the reconciliation sidecar. Only then would the Senate-passed healthcare bill be approved by the House. In all three of these scenarios, the Senate-passed healthcare bill wouldn’t be given an up or down vote on its own.

via Committee on Rules – Republicans.

Few generations get to defend their country. Your time is now.

Posted on 03/11/2010 by Gil Jones

I dare you to watch this entire video and then continue to be part of the silent majority. It’s a video of Judge Andrew Napolitano, former New Jersey state judge who sat on that state’s highest trial bench. His main topic is healthcare and the idea that regulation of that activity (and many others) is not within the constitutional powers of Congress. He is well-studied, articulate, and correct in that opinion. He also talks a great deal about the tremendous abuse of power of our entire federal government.

I agree, and agree in particular with his comment from which my title is derived. Only a few generations get the opportunity to defend their country, to defend the freedom of their country from enemies who would take it down. My father’s generation had that opportunity and rose to the occasion in World War II. That was the Greatest Generation. Our — your — opportunity is now. This is the hour when your generation has the opportunity, I say the obligation, to defend the country from the onslaught of a government run-amuck. Heady with the feeling of power, there seems to be no limit to what this government will attempt to ram down our throats. I’m not some radical nut, and neither are you or you would not be reading this far. I’ve taken an oath (many times) to defend the constitution and laws of this state and of the United States. The Constitution takes precedence and citizens of patriotic good faith must speak out.

Click here to view the YouTube video. (you may need to enable popups in your browser)

About Judge Napolitano

Andrew P. Napolitano joined FOX News Channel FNC in January 1998 and currently serves as the senior judicial analyst. He provides legal analysis on both FNC and FOX Business Network FBN . He is also a fill in co-host for FOX & Friends regularly and co-hosts FOX News Radio s Brian and The Judge show daily.

Judge Napolitano is the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of the State of New Jersey. While on the bench from 1987 to 1995, Judge Napolitano tried more than 150 jury trials and sat in all parts of the Superior Court – criminal, civil, equity and family. He has handled thousands of sentencings, motions, hearings and divorces. For 11 years, he served as an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Seton Hall Law School, where he provided instruction in constitutional law and jurisprudence.

Judge Napolitano returned to private law practice in 1995 and began television broadcasting in the same year. Judge Napolitano has written three books: Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws ; a New York Times bestseller, The Constitution in Exile: How the Federal Government Has Seized Power by Rewriting the Supreme Law of the Land ; and A Nation of Sheep. His writings have also been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Sun, The Baltimore Sun, The New London Day, The Seton Hall Law Review, The New Jersey Law Journal and The Newark Star-Ledger. He lectures nationally on the Constitution and human freedom.

Judge Napolitano received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1972, and received his Juris Doctor from University of Notre Dame in 1975.

via Andrew P. Napolitano – FOXNews.com.

Your most important vote … it’s not what you think ….

Posted on 03/03/2010 by Gil Jones

(this was originally thought of as a speech for the Highland Lakes Toastmasters Club on March 2, 2010 — more on that below)

It’s the day after election day for the party primaries in Texas and hopefully everyone got out to vote for the candidate of their choice. With early voting available it has become even easier to vote. What was your most important vote yesterday?

Voting is at the heart of this representative republic of ours. From the day people escaped the King of England and the fiefdoms that made virtual slaves of most, voting has been important, and fundamental, to this nation. The Continental Congress and eventually the constitutional convention adopted a constitution by the process of … voting. The document was then ratified by the original members of the union, state by state, ratified by voting. See the timeline here. What could possibly be your most important vote? It’s not what you think.

For two centuries and more following that time, citizens in cities, counties, states and the nation have been voting for legislative representatives, for the executive branch from mayors to governors to the president and, at least in Texas, for judges. Countless elections are held each year casting millions of votes. What is your most important vote? It may not be what you think it is.

We elect legislators who write the laws, the executive who administers the laws and the judges who interpret the laws. Laws are important, thus your vote is important. Law are important, indeed essential, in a civilized society for it is through those laws that a civilized society regulates the interaction between and among the people. In uncivilized societies all you need is the biggest club, and when a nation-state is uncivilized (e.g. Nazi Germany) all you need is the biggest army. But in a civilized society you must have laws to define how we deal, one with the other.

Our fighting men and women have fought and died all over the world defending our freedom and, at it’s core, our right to vote. And all over the world there are people fighting even as I write this article to try to gain basic freedoms and, in particular, the right to vote. Voting is not only a right but truly is a privilege.

How you vote has an impact on how, and when, and to what extent the laws of our nation impact you, and me, and all of our neighbors. What then might be your most important vote? It almost certainly is not what you think it is.

Laws do regulate our relationships, one with the other. Whether it’s a contract matter, a marriage or divorce, the making of a Will or the probating of one, the resolution of a business dispute or a fenceline controversy, or perhaps obtaining justice for a crime perpetrated upon us, laws have a direct and immediate impact on our lives.

But when one of those matters of societal regulation goes awry, the law means nothing unless and until the matter gets into court for resolution. At a moment in time at the end of a trial there is a coalescing of all three branches of government — legislative, executive and judicial — creating a pinnacle of power that becomes vested solely in active participants in the administration of justice: the jury.

That jury hears evidence, gets instructed by the judge on the applicable law, then deliberates and ultimately: votes. What then might indeed be your most important vote? It’s the one as a member of a jury, an active participant in the administration of justice. That collective vote resulting in a jury verdict can have impact far beyond the immediate litigants. It can in fact come to have nationwide impact. Surely, such a vote or even the potential for such impactful vote is your most important vote.

The jury who sentences a defendant to “X” years for “Y” crime has just set the standard for the plea bargaining process between the District Attorney and defense lawyers for years to come. The jury who determines for the first time that a particular act was negligence sets a standard that governs future similar cases. Whenever a jury assesses a large punitive damage award against a defendant for acting in a malicious manner it will have sent a message deterring that defendant from similar actions in the future. And when even large corporations suffer large damage awards, regular or punitive, that can change not only their behavior but that of an entire industry.

Think of the Ford Pintos and their exploding gas tanks, the Corvair that had a propensity to roll over, or the many suits regarding tobacco or asbestos. Entire industries have modified behaviors, policies and products: all in the face of the votes of jurors.

Certainly, your vote as a juror may well be the most important vote of your career as a responsible citizen. Don’t squander that privilege the next time you get a jury summons. Step up, become an active participant in the administration of justice, and cast your most important vote.

I said this was “thought of” as a speech idea … I did a real quick jot of basic notes two weeks ago, then got tied up in a trial out of town for seven days and, sliding into town last night just prior to the Toastmasters meeting, had to do the speech in substantially an extemporaneous fashion. With some trepidation, I recorded mine along with the other speeches, and mine is here:

Washington: Get back to your constitutional duties — NOW!

Posted on 01/07/2010 by Gil Jones

Healthcare “reform” is not your job. Raising an army and protecting the country — and its inherent sovereignty — IS your job.

In none of the enumerated powers (Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution) do we find anything about regulating not only the healthcare industry but, as you are attempting, the individual healthcare choices of the people. We are not your subjects to be dictated to — we got rid of the king a long time ago!

On the other hand, providing for the defense of the country is clearly required, not merely permitted. What do we hear now? That “. . . Americans will feel “a certain shock” when a report is released today detailing the intelligence failures that could have prevented the Christmas Day attack.” (Foxnews.com http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/07/national-security-adviser-airline-bomber-report-shock/(accessed Jan 7, 2010). That report from retired 4-star General James Jones goes on to detail the utter and devastating failure of our national security system.

There is no sense in pointing fingers at any one administration or session of Congress, Washington did it — i.e. failed. And I suggest that this failure is due to the intense partisan politics, and the headlong rush toward (senseless) change for the sake merely of change, that has so distracted Washington from the priorities with which they should be attending. Washington has become so obsessed with managing — and I suggest micro-managing our lives that they are on the brink of forfeiting our lives and our liberty on the altar of “change.”

I prefer hope, individual liberty, and preservation of what made America great. Wholesale change is not only meaningless but counter-productive. Stop it, and get back to your constitutionally mandated duties!

What’s your view of what’s wrong in America?

Posted on 08/30/2009 by Gil Jones

My view is that NOTHING is wrong in America — not in the REAL America.

It’s the politics in Washington that is trampling on the Constitution, spending us into the poor house, and padding the pockets of special interests that’s wrong. The following is a piece from Glenn Beck that lays it out pretty nicely. There may be something in what follows with which I don’t agree, but I haven’t found it yet. What’s your view?

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again.. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist. This isn’t to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don’t you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why — what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability.. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try — please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me..

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let’s just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy. I’m busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business s of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill.. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot.. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington . Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented.. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when he will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one.

We are coming.. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

Ronald Reagan Speech on Behalf of Goldwater 1964

Posted on 03/31/2009 by Gil Jones

Ronald Reagan
Address on Behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater
Rendezvous with Destiny
October 27, 1964

On the evening of 27 October 1964, Ronald Reagan delivered a nation-wide paid political telecast on behalf of the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater. His presentation was so forceful and engaging that Reagan, hitherto little considered a political figure, became overnight a political force in the Republican party. Although Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson in an landslide and Richard Nixon captured the nomination – and the presidency – in 1968, Reagan’s reputation was firmly established and he recovered the fortunes of the Republican party with his victory in the presidential election of 1980.

Via: http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/reagan101964.html (accessed 3/31/2009)

The text is at this link. But you really need to listen to the audio which you can do by clicking here and either download or open the mp3 file for listening. OR, get the video by clicking here.

Reagan’s delivery of this speech is as powerful as any he ever gave, is full of facts, and makes it so very clear that socialist forces were at work as early as 1964 and before. He quotes many instances of government leaders, primarily in Congress and high Cabinet positions, extolling the virtues of what the government can do for (read as “to”) the “masses.” Lenin, Stalin and Hitler had “masses.” America has individual people who have the freedom, the right and the ability to succeed or fail on their own, subject only to some very basic regulation of society. I suggest that we should return to that notion, chuck all of the lawbooks, and just pay attention to the Ten Commandments.

Read or listen to the speech. It will chill you to the bone and it should remind all of us of how fragile is our individual freedom today. Whatever did happen to the notion of the government having only such power as is derived from the people — or have the people simply given up and determined to hand over their individual freedom? While it may be necessary for the government to take drastic steps to assist this country and the world out of the current economic mess and malaise, it is not necessary to abrogate our freedoms and the basic principles that made this country what it is today — still — the envy of the world.

Power Line – Is the stimulus bill unconstitutional?

Posted on 03/15/2009 by Gil Jones

This is big. Not only for the fact that it may portend a constitutional crisis but for yet one more demonstration of (a) the arrogance of the current Congress and (b) the lengths and depths to which this Congress and Administration will go to expand welfare and unemployment programs, each of which will surely hasten the destruction of the greatest country the world has known. Not only is this scary, but it is indeed simply, sad. America was built through hard work and entrepreneurship — not by motivating people to look for handouts!

From Powerline:

Is the stimulus bill unconstitutional?

March 15, 2009 Posted by Scott at 7:28 AM

Professor Ronald Rotunda is the prominent constitutional law expert now at Chapman Law School. In the column “Some strings attached” for today’s Chicago Tribune, Professor Rotunda looks under the hood of the so-called stimulus bill. In part the stimulus bill is calculated to expand welfare and unemployment programs. These provisions have prompted a few governors to reject the related funds.

Professor Rotunda points out that Congress anticipated these governors. Seeking to bypass such uncooperative governors, Congress added a unique provision to the bill (in section 1607(b)): “If funds provided to any State in any division of this Act are not accepted for use by the Governor, then acceptance by the State legislature, by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution, shall be sufficient to provide funding to such State.”

Professor Rotunda asks: If state law does not give the state legislature the right to bypass the governor, how can Congress just change that law?

via Power Line – Is the stimulus bill unconstitutional?.

If we could but measure the matter, I fear that very soon, if not already, the numbers of people receiving what much of our society has come to regard as “entitlements” will outnumber the productive members of society. And by “productive” I don’t refer to entrepreneurs or investors solely, but any person who puts in a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage — whatever that may be.

In 2006 (the most current figures available) the bottom 50% of taxpayers pay only 2.99% of total taxes and the top 5% pay about 60% — see chart below. How can that possibly continue, especially in the times of economic downturns such as the 08-09 recession? It can’t.

As the top 2% makes less money, which is now occurring, then the 80% slice of tax generation will decline. What would be done then — raise taxes? A bit of math will demonstrate that once the top tier is earning substantially less income, then even at a 100% tax rate the federal budget will not be funded. Exactly where that cross-over point is, I don’t claim to know. But what I do know is that we’re headed that direction — a direction which is a recipe for disaster.

And don’t assume it’s the “wealthy” who are paying the taxes: as seen from the chart below, the top 25% pays 86% of the total taxes and that includes taxpapers making over just $64,702 Adjusted Gross Income! That includes a lot of families simply working hard at honest jobs for a wage. Not “fat cats.”

Here is the chart from the National Taxpayers Union which attributes the figures to the IRS:

Percentiles Ranked by AGI	AGI Threshold on Percentiles	Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
Top 1%	$388,806	39.89
Top 5%	$153,542	60.14
Top 10%	$108,904	70.79
Top 25%	$64,702	86.27
Top 50%	$31,987	97.01
Bottom 50%	<$31,987	2.99
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income Source: Internal Revenue Service

There IS a breaking point. Do we want to push to the very edge and find out where it is? I think not.

Musings of Captain Justice

Leave the world better than you found it . . . Really.

Tag Archives: constitution

This says it all about the so-called healthcare “reform” bill

The lie of an executive order banning federal funding of abortions

It’s the journey, not the destination stupid!

Healthcare bill: Reform the reformation by amending the Senate bill the House didn’t pass. Huh?

Few generations get to defend their country. Your time is now.

About Judge Napolitano

Your most important vote … it’s not what you think ….

Washington: Get back to your constitutional duties — NOW!

What’s your view of what’s wrong in America?

Ronald Reagan Speech on Behalf of Goldwater 1964

Ronald Reagan
Address on Behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater
Rendezvous with Destiny
October 27, 1964

Power Line – Is the stimulus bill unconstitutional?

Is the stimulus bill unconstitutional?

About Judge Napolitano

Ronald Reagan Address on Behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater Rendezvous with Destiny October 27, 1964

Is the stimulus bill unconstitutional?

Ronald Reagan
Address on Behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater
Rendezvous with Destiny
October 27, 1964