The Patriot Post® · Chronicle
The Foundation
“The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling which they overburden the inferior number is a shilling saved to their own pockets.” –James Madison
Upright
“The Tax Foundation reports that because of higher federal income and corporate tax collections, Tax Freedom Day came four days later this year than last. And the bad news is that unless Washington takes action, it will take working Americans 11 more days to meet next year’s tax burden. That’s all due to Taxmageddon – a slew of expiring tax cuts and new tax increases that will hit Americans on January 1, 2013, amounting to a $494 billion tax hike. Heritage’s Curtis Dubay reports that American households can expect to face an average tax increase of $3,800 and that 70 percent of Taxmageddon’s impact will fall directly on low-income and middle-income families, leaving them with $346 billion less to spend. … Instead of dealing with Taxmageddon, President Obama wants to change the subject with a gimmicky policy like the ‘Buffett Tax.’ … Stopping a $494 billion tax increase shouldn’t be a contentious partisan issue.” –Heritage Foundation’s Mike Brownfield
“When he’s not talking up his buddy Warren [Buffet], [Obama] has been staggering around demonizing Paul Ryan’s plan, which would lead, he says, to the end of the weather service, air traffic control, national parks, law enforcement, and drinkable water. Given what’s at stake, you might think then that the president would have an alternative plan. But he has none, save for his proposal to pay off the 2011 federal deficit by the year 2526. The Obama No-Plan plan means the end of everything. That really ought to be the only slogan the Republicans need this fall: What’s your plan?” –columnist Mark Steyn
“There is nothing the president is saying now that he has not said many times over. … The Obama campaign brain trust may have concluded that the only path to victory is by pandering to a collection of ethnic groups and interests. Hence, the class warfare theme to activate the left-wing base, the offhand comments about the Trayvon Martin case to show blacks he is with them, the lawsuits against Arizona to please Hispanic voters, and the delay in the Keystone pipeline to keep the environmental lobby and contributors happy.” –columnist Richard A. Baehr
“[T]he simple fact is that Obama is the stay-the-course candidate stuck with a team, a record and an economy ill-suited for a stay-the-course strategy. That’s what gives poignancy to Obama’s recently renewed love affair with Ronald Reagan, whom Obama invokes these days as a model of reasonableness and bipartisanship. … Even before he got the nomination in 2008, Obama said he wanted to be a ‘transformative’ president like Reagan had been. … There were two key elements to Obama’s man-crush. The first was the simple hope that history – or at least the business cycle – would repeat itself. … The other reason the White House admired the Reagan White House? According to Time: ‘Both relied heavily on the power of oratory.’ Then-Press Secretary Robert Gibbs added, ‘Our hope is the story ends the same way.’ And there’s the problem for Obama. He’s sticking to his rhetorical guns on the assumption that he’s the great orator his fans have always claimed.” –columnist Jonah Goldberg
What do you think of Obama’s oratory skills?
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Editorial Exegesis
“The Republican House of Representatives may soon follow the Democratic Senate and give the IRS the power to confiscate your passport on mere suspicion of owing taxes. … Contained within the suspiciously titled ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act,’ or ‘MAP 21,’ is a provision that gives the Internal Revenue Service the power to keep U.S. citizens from leaving the country if it finds that they owe $50,000 or more in unpaid taxes – no court ruling necessary. It is hard to imagine any law more reminiscent of the Soviet Union that America toppled, or its Eastern Bloc slave satellites. … As Reuters reported Monday, overtaxation has led to close to 1,800 Americans living abroad renouncing their U.S. citizenship last year or turning in their green cards – many of them with broken hearts because of their love for this nation. The record number of former U.S. citizens is nearly eight times more than those who renounced U.S. citizenship in 2008, and it exceeded 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined. They did it because of the nightmare the U.S. government puts them – and non-American spouses – through, sniffing over any and all of their finances. … If House Republicans pass this assault on our Constitution, their credibility will be in tatters. And if it is passed and then signed into law, look for constitutional challenges in federal courts throughout the land. They should begin the next day.” –Investor’s Business Daily
Insight
“To tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection: it is plunder.” –British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
“[Extending] the bounds of what may be called moral police, until it encroaches on the most unquestionably legitimate liberty of the individual, is one of the most universal of all human propensities.” –British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
The Demo-gogues
Disingenuous: “Some years ago, one of my predecessors traveled across the country pushing for the same concept. He gave a speech where he talked about a letter he had received from a wealthy executive who paid lower tax rates than his secretary, and wanted to come to Washington and tell Congress why that was wrong. So this president gave another speech where he said it was ‘crazy’ … that certain tax loopholes make it possible for multimillionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary. That wild-eyed, socialist, tax-hiking class warrior was Ronald Reagan.” –Barack Obama
In spite of his best efforts: “There are politicians who say that if we just drilled more, then gas prices would just come down right away. What they don’t say is that we have been drilling more. Under my administration America is producing more oil than at any time in the last eight years.” –Barack Obama, trying to take credit for drilling on private land
Yay government: “I believe in investing in basic research and science because I understand that all these extraordinary companies that are these enormous wealth-generators – many of them would have never been there. Google [and] Facebook would not exist had it not been for investments that we made as a country in basic science and research. I understand that makes us all better off.” –Barack Obama
Iron Man: “I think most folks understand how hard I work and how hard this administration’s working on behalf of the American people.” –Barack Obama when pressed on his disturbing number of vacations
Meanwhile: “I want to thank President Santos and the people of Colombia for the extraordinary hospitality in the beautiful city of Cartagena. We’re having a wonderful time. And usually when I take these summit trips, part of my job is to scout out where I may want to bring Michelle back later for vacation.” –Barack Obama during his trip to the Summit of the Americas
Class war: “[F]or the middle class, the Ryan/Romney Republican budget for the rich is not the path to prosperity. For the 99 percent, the Ryan budget is really the road to hell and we’re here to say ‘hell no, we won’t go!’” –Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL)
Village Idiots
Strained praise: “[T]he president inherited … the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a crisis caused by a shock larger than what caused the Great Depression. And he did the necessary, deeply damaging – deeply politically hard things to get growth started again. … This president’s policies were remarkably successful.” –Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Stumbling into the truth: “The choice in this election is between an economy that produces a growing middle class and that gives people a chance to get ahead and their kids a chance to get ahead and an economy that continues down the road we’re on.” –Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod
Blame the law-abiding: “The laws [like Florida’s Stand Your Ground] are not the kind of laws a civilized society should have and the [National Rifle Association] should be ashamed of themselves. This has nothing to do with gun-owners’ rights. This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. Plain and simple, this is just trying to give people a license to murder.” –New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Unfortunate choice of words: “Talking is good. Conversations have to be forever. You know, they can’t come in spits and starts when there’s an incident [such as that between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin]. I think we all need, as a country, to continue to talk about these issues, to understand our communities and the challenges that we face, which are different and unique depending upon where you live. … [T]here isn’t, you know, a one-shot solution to this.” –Michelle Obama
Judgment: “We have to continue tweeting, we have to continue marching, we have to continue fighting for Trayvon Martin. … It’s a disgrace that [George Zimmerman] hasn’t been dragged out of his house and tied to a car and taken away. That’s the only kind of retribution that people like that understand. It’s a disgrace that man hasn’t been shot yet. Forget about him being arrested – the fact that he hasn’t been shot yet is a disgrace.” –former heavyweight champion and convicted rapist Mike Tyson
Dezinformatsia
Blame America: “[O]ur politics are failing to deal with the massive deep-seeded problems this country has, whether it’s, how do you send your kid to college or how do you not get evicted from your home? Or why do we have inequality akin to Egypt’s?” –The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel
Non Compos Mentis: “Remember: if a black cat crosses your path it is bad luck – except in Florida where you’re allowed to shoot it.” –HBO’s Bill Maher
“[Trayvon Martin] had no weapon and he had every legal right to be where he was. The rush to judgment was those that moved against him, said he was suspicious, and took his life. So to lecture us about rushing to judgment, we’re a victim of a rush to judgment in this case. Let’s be real clear on that.” –MSNBC’s Al Sharpton
From dumb to dumber: “Let’s move on to the Trayvon Martin story. Bill Cosby weighed in with some comments in an interview over the weekend. It was interesting to hear Mr. Cosby talk. One of the things he said is perhaps we need to start this discussion on guns as opposed to race. Has the media focused too much on race … in this issue, because it’s explosive, when guns are the real problem?” –NBC’s Matt Lauer
Newspulper Headlines:
Out on a Limb: “For Obama, Going Positive May Be More Difficult This Time” –New York Times website
Does the Secret Service Know About This?: “Hillary Clinton Dances the Night Away in Colombia” –ABCNews.com
He Heard the Economy Was in the Toilet: “Man With Plunger Tries to Rob New York Bank, Police Say” –FoxNews.com
News You Can Use: “A Gun in Hand Makes a Man Look Taller, Study Says” –Los Angeles Times
So Much for the War on Drugs: “Swiss Court Delivers Blow to US Tax Deal” –Associated Press
Bottom Story of the Day: “Obama Attacks Inequality While Soliciting Big-Money Donors” –The Washington Times
(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)
Short Cuts
“Democratic advisor Hilary Rosen is under fire for saying Ann Romney, quote, ‘Never worked a day in her life.’ Hey, if she really never worked a day in her life, Ann Romney would be endorsing Obama.” –NewsBusted’s Jodi Miller
“If I had a daughter, she would look like Ann Romney.” –radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh
“The thing I hate most about taxes is that the more money they take, the more government we get. It’s the worst possible trade off imaginable.” –humorist Frank J. Fleming
“President Obama released his tax returns. It turns out he made $900,000 less in 2011 then he did in 2010. You know what that means? Even Obama is doing worse under President Obama.” –Jay Leno
“The Justice Department handed in its homework on time to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The administration had to write a three-page paper admitting that the Supreme Court can overturn laws passed by Congress. That was the only statement in the paper, but it ran three pages because they were required to write it three hundred times.” –comedian Argus Hamilton
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team