June 29, 2012

The death of the Court and the protection of individual liberty

What is the extent of Congress' taxing authority?

Cartoon: "Just a Tax"

Are basic and fundamental rights being eroded by the taxing power?

Video: Obamacare Largely Kept In Tact, This Has Negative Impact

The Supreme Court has decided against upholding the constitution and sticks with most of ObamaCare. This decision could hurt you in the future. Reporter Frank McCaffrey spoke with ALG's Don Todd and Counsel Nathan Mehrens to get the story.

What the Supreme Court did

The Court did hold that the imposition of the individual mandate could not be sustained as part of

Congress' Commerce Clause powers, but at the end of the day the result is the same: those who choose to not purchase health insurance must pay a "tax" to the federal government for exercising that right.

Big government incentivizes commercialization of politics

A bureaucratic monster state with the power to hand out virtually unlimited favors and benefits incentivizes the commercialization of politics as a business.

The death of the Court and the protection of individual liberty

By Rick Manning

As originally published by TheHill.com.

The Supreme Court is no longer relevant.

Long viewed as the last bastion protecting the individual from the

rapacious powers of the federal government, SCOTUS, in the name of Chief Justice John Roberts, declared themselves meaningless.

If government can compel individuals to purchase a private product under the guise of its taxing authority, even when the government itself argued that the individual mandate was not a tax, then the government can compel individuals to do anything they choose.

Between the egregious expansion of the Commerce Clause to include virtually every activity that was bestowed on the nation in 1942, and this Roberts ACA decision, SCOTUS now allows the federal government absolute power over every aspect of individual life.

Since compelling activity that the government deems desirable is allowed under the taxing powers, one has to wonder: What's next?

Perhaps a 100 percent tax on all oil revenues to pay for a million more Solyndras?

Or how about a 100 percent tax on the income of everyone who works in certain industries that have fallen out of favor?

Maybe the court will rule that everyone should be compelled to eat broccoli because the government thinks it is good for them, and failure to clean your plate is a taxable activity?

The truth is that the logical conclusion of Roberts' decision is that all of the above, and more, are allowed.

Get full story here.

"Just a Tax"

Permalink here .

Obamacare Largely Kept In Tact, This Has Negative Impact

Video by Frank McCaffrey

Permalink here.

What the Supreme Court did

By Nathan Mehrens

Today the U.S. Supreme Court in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts held that the individual mandate provision in Obamacare, i.e., the requirement for most Americans to purchase health insurance or pay money to the IRS, is a tax that was properly applied by Congress.

The Court held that this payment for not having health insurance was not a "penalty" because it does

not punish the individual for an unlawful act, but is instead a use of the tax code to encourage behavior, much like other aspects of the tax code such as tax deductions and credits for certain behaviors and circumstances.

The Court did hold that the imposition of the individual mandate could not be sustained as part of Congress' Commerce Clause powers, but at the end of the day the result is the same: those who choose to not purchase health insurance must pay a "tax" to the federal government for exercising that right.

Get full story here.

Big government incentivizes commercialization of politics

By Rachel Swaffer

In 2010 liberal grantmaking mega-foundations Tides Center, Ford

Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, and the Rockefeller Family Fund gave a combined total of $203,583,000 to liberal think-tanks, activist groups, and political action committees.

Surprised? You should be.

For years the liberal media has been throwing a tantrum about conservative political spending; they would have us all believe that corrupt conservative activists are buying politics. And since the release of Robert Greenwald's new film "Koch Brothers Exposed" Democrat outrage at privately funded conservative organizations such as the Tea Party movement, Americans for Limited Government, the Heritage Center, and Cato Institute has soared to near apoplectic levels. For example, for every dollar the Koch brothers donated to a free-market organization, progressive bankrollers Ford Foundation and Tides are now spending at least another $23 in retaliation, according 990 tax forms from the hotlycontested 2010 election cycle.

And the activities of these

liberal funders are far from transparent. Basic research into these organizations reveals an impenetrable maze trail of offshore accounts, and backroom fund transfers before the money actually heads off to fund liberal organizations like PETA, NARAL, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Media Matters, the Center for American Progress, and countless others.

A quick look at Ford Foundation's 2010 tax return shows that the overwhelming majority (about 75 percent) of Ford's charitable donations are directed toward politically significant and/or activist groups. In comparison, Greenwald's favorite conservative target Koch Foundation, Inc donated over $10 million dollars to religious, educational, and charitable institutions in 2010; this apolitical charity accounts for 99 percent of Koch dollars according to tax records.

It's not clear whether Greenwald is delusional or simply uniformed. Though Greenwald wants to paint the issue of money in politics as a purely conservative problem, in reality the situation is quite bipartisan; liberal and conservative grant-making

institutions engage in exactly the same practices funding countless think tanks and policy organizations that support their political agenda.

In reality, conservatives are merely attempting to even the playing field as liberal foundations are pouring donations into progressive organizations on a level that far surpasses anything going on in the free market advocacy side of the argument.

This cash-swollen structure of politics is a symptom of a cancerous, sick system wherein the government has jurisdiction over practically every aspect of our lives, making every issue inherently political. A bureaucratic monster state with the power to hand out virtually unlimited favors and benefits incentivizes the commercialization of politics as a business.

Get full story here.

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