You and your money?

Reichsfluchsteuer – literally translated, means “Reich flight tax”, is well and alive today.  First used in Germany in 1931, for those wishing to flee the country – they only had to pony up 25%.  (This was before the Nuremburg laws regarding Jews).  They wanted your money, and you couldn’t leave the country without paying. 

Switch to this year – Chuckie Schumer, has evidently read some history and thought “hot damn! We can make some good money off people!” by proposing the US’s own version of Reichsfluchsteuer – the “Ex-Patriot Act”.  I suppose by wrapping it in the red, white and blue, Schumer hopes to make this less reprehensible. 

I found the full text of the law http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s3205/text”>HERE, and I have some thoughts on this bill. 

Their stated purpose  is to “To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that persons renouncing citizenship for a substantial tax avoidance purpose shall be subject to tax and withholding on capital gains, to provide that such persons shall not be admissible to the United States, and for other purposes.”

Really? So we take their money, which they legally have gained, and wish to avoid the hand of the government that robs people of money, and keeps them out of the US forever? Why?  Why is it thought that people earning lots of money is BAD, and them KEEPING their own money is even worse?

I found out that people that are American citizens, living abroad, have to pay money on what they earn to the US government.  I’m kind of like “why?” 

The co-sponsors to this (no surprise, all D’s) are as follows:

Sen. Richard Blumenthal [D-CT]

Sen. Robert Casey [D-PA]

Sen. Thomas “Tom” Harkin [D-IA]

Sen. Benjamin Cardin [D-MD] (joined May 23, 2012)

Ron Paul has something to say on this as well.  He refers to the government as a “tyrannical regime”, and that only tyrannies need to take the people’s money before they are “allowed to leave”.   He has on his http://www.ronpaul.com/2012-05-28/ron-paul-the-ex-patriot-act-americas-berlin-wall-for-tax-refugees/”page about it,

The Ex-PATRIOT Act goes even further than current law by assessing a 30% capital gains tax on all future earnings of expatriates. Not content just with this additional tax, the bill also grants the IRS the sole authority to determine whether individuals have expatriated for tax purposes and allows the IRS to bar those individuals from ever re-entering the United States. Finally, the bill blatantly violates the ex post facto provisions of the U.S. Constitution by extending all of these provisions to anyone who has given up their U.S. citizenship within the past decade.

This all goes back to “whose money is it?” that you earn for your slaving away at your job.  Does it belong to the government?  Or does it belong to you? 

Bad mom!

We went to Pinchers this past Friday night, to celebrate the youngest's first year of college being over, and then went to go see Men In Black 3.

Pinchers is basically a cajun restaurant - crawfish, fried alligator, shrimp, etc.  We sat out on the patio by the duck pond, and there was Zydeco music being played over a speaker, complete with guy playing spoons on a washboard.  A little kid got a washboard & was playing, and that was cute.  However, one family came & sat at one of the tables outdoors, and requested some song.. that had the lyrics "show your chest.. wiggle wiggle wiggle".. and her little kids, about 9 and under, are up doing basically dirty dancing.  you know, shove your butt out and wiggle it, etc.   I was like what kind of mom lets her kids dance like that? the mom was videoing on her iphone the dancing.

Later when we got home, hubby was browsing I think Free Republic, and he came across this cartoon:

I was like "this is SO much the mom that was videoing her kids doing this dancing!, I have to blog about it".  I would have done it sooner, but we were busy this weekend.  Unfortunately, this is the type of mom that is all too common these days, and it's a sad commentary on the United States.

Taxes

I found this tax graph interesting.  The AVERAGE is 17.80%...so in theory, if everyone paid a flat 18%, wouldn't we end up with the same amount - yet it would be FAIR.  Why should some pay way more than others, and call that 'fair' when it certainly isn't?  18% of 1 million is way more than 18% of 20,000.

Making more money does not take away any money from those earning less.   And I often see those earning less, and on welfare, with nice cell phones, large flat-screen TV, cable, internet, driving large vehicles that are fairly new.   The 'poor'?  Hardly.  Did you know you can buy lobster tails with food stamps? (lone star card here in TX).  That, and gift baskets containing food.  I'm just like "WHAT!??!"

geeze

OH MY GOSH I HATE THIS NEW BLOGGER!

just a couple of things worth mentioning; 1991 biography of obama - 'born in kenya, raised in indonesia/hawaii',

AND obama has brought consensus to DC! it was unanimous in voting against the obama budget!