We Know Who YOU Are Too...

Though PJTV may come off as a little too conservative sometimes, their contributors often have many good points, and if not, they usually are at least pretty clever.

This is a taxpayers' rebuttal of sorts to the Orwellian/Fascist/Authoritarian/Just-Plain-Damn-Scary PA Tax Ad released earlier this year.

As a Pennsylvanian myself, who has been getting enough threats from my "superiors" in the all high-and-mighty PA Commonwealth Government through my TV and my car radio, I must say this is pretty nice to see. Let's hope it carries through!

Contract from America

The Tea Party Patriots organization released their "Contract from America" at the Tea Party in Washington DC yesterday. There's a good amount of solidly libertarian/fiscally conservative planks in there, and a total absence of any that refer to foreign policy (it's too bad the Audit the Fed plank didn't make it in though). Certainly some of the Tea Partiers don't completely understand the link between big government and the empire abroad, but maybe they are starting to come around.

Here are the ten planks, along with the percentage of votes they received (there was a list of about 20 planks online, and participants voted for their top ten).

1. Protect the Constitution

Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does. (82.03%)

2. Reject Cap & Trade

Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures. (72.20%)

Obamacare Will Implicitly Tax the Middle Class

Apropos to the looming tax day, Sheldon Richman discusses the tax implications of Obamacare:

Now that President Obama’s health-insurance overhaul has become law, we can brace ourselves for the new taxes. What new taxes? Aren’t they only on the “rich” and on large companies?....

[T]hose are not the taxes I am not referring to when I say we should brace ourselves. The taxes I mean are the implicit taxes that ObamaCare will impose on most productive people. What’s an implicit tax?....

ObamaCare will tax much of the middle class. Under the new law, everyone everyone will have to buy government-defined medical coverage or have it bought for him by his employer, reducing cash wages. Thus, anyone who would not have bought insurance or would have bought a less-expensive policy will pay an implicit tax.

Read his full arguments on the implicit taxes of Obamacare here.

Taxing Reform

Since passage of health-care "reform," many in the media have been quick to point out the supposed positive effects of the new law. Take for example this recent article from Stacy Johnson at Money Talks News touting the "positive changes" stemming from Obamacare.

After listing the perceived benefits, the article then displays this list of taxes that will be used to pay for this new government power grab:

• Fees on drug companies and insurers.
• An excise tax of 10% on overly generous health plans.
• A 2.9% tax on the sale of medical devices.
• A 3.8% tax hike in your Medicare payroll taxes and on your investment income if you make more than $250,000/yr.
• Fees on employers who don’t offer required coverage.
• Fees on people who don’t get mandated coverage.
• A 10 percent excise tax on tanning salons.

Despite this list, the author displays a typical economic fallacy when attempting to argue that these taxes won't really affect the average person:

Not a penny coming from any individual taxpayer other than those who don’t comply or those that are making more than $250,000/yr.