Pardon me while I rant for a while...with a purpose.

[Neal Boortz]

Leo Linbeck Jr. passed away last week. Some of you know his name; most
of you do not. Considering the current news about the gross misuse of
the IRS by the 0bama Administration, the name should be important to you.

It was Leo Linbeck, along with Bob Trotter and Robert McNeil, who pulled
together about $22 million dollars to fund a study on how to reform our
destructive tax system in the United States. McNeil, the owner of the
Houston Oilers NFL team, is the only surviving member of the group. These
three should be remembered as true American heroes and patriots.

Linbeck and his friends hired accountants, economists,
financial experts, political scientists and other experts in government
and business to develop an alternative to our current tax system.
Researchers came from such prestigious institutions as Harvard and MIT.
Focus groups were formed to listen to the various plans being considered.
A member of one such focus group, after hearing the details of the tax
reform plan being considered, said “now that’s a fair tax.” The name was
born, and The FairTax was introduced as a bill in congress by Georgia
Congressman John Linder.

Never, in the entire history of the Congress of the United
States, has any legislation been introduced backed by so much research
--- and that, by the way, includes ObamaCare.

Congressman Linder and I wrote “The FairTax Book” eight years
ago in 2005. It debuted No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller’s List.
A book about TAXES … No. 1. That shouldn’t happen, but it did … showing
the hunger that existed in the American public for some way to get rid of
the IRS and simplify our federal tax system; change it from one that
discourages and punishes achievement, to one that rewards work and
protects every families ability to provide for their own basic needs
before funding our bloated and often-wasteful federal government. Two
years later Linder and I, along with now-Congressman Rob Woodall, wrote
another book, “FairTax, The Truth, Answering the Critics” This one came
out as No. 2. The public’s appetite for true and meaningful tax reform
was still strong.

Now I’m not going to get into the details of the FairTax
here. I will write subsequent blog posts, hopefully this week, laying
out some of the details and addressing some of the critiques. Here,
though, is your Reader’s Digest version: Simply put, the FairTax
eliminates virtually all personal and corporate taxes: The personal and
corporate income tax, Social Security Taxes, Medicare taxes, gift taxes,
estate (death) taxes, capital gains taxes, self-employment taxes --- and
it got rid of all of your tax record keeping and tax audits as well. Oh
.. it also got rid of the IRS. All of these taxes are replaced by a
consumption tax. You keep 100% of your paycheck. You save your money;
no taxes. You invest your money; no taxes. You give your money away; no
taxes. You purchase something at the retail level; you pay the
consumption tax. Most important of all .. you don’t pay one penny in
taxes to the federal government until you’ve taken care of the basic
necessities of your family.

The FairTax has been languishing in congress for 9 or so
years. If enacted, it would bring about the most massive transfer of
power from government to the people since our Constitution was ratified.
Politicians don’t give up power unless forced to --- and the only the
people can force our congress to give up the power they have by virtue of
our current tax system. Those serving in Washington will NEVER do it on
their own.

Having said all that …..



LET’S GET TO THE REASON FOR THIS BLOG POST

In the past five years of the rule of 0bama (his words, not
mine), we have seen in vivid detail just how our current tax system can
serve the political goals of a despotic elected official.

Throughout his years in the White House 0bama has used our
income tax as a bludgeon to attack high-achievers. This he has done to
exploit wealth envy. In the beginning 0bama was constantly stating that
the rich needed to pay their “fair share” of taxes, never addressing just
exactly what a “fair share” might actually be. Later his rhetoric
changed; he started flatly stating that the rich, particularly the top
one percent of income earners, were not paying their “fair share.” The
0bamaMedia protected him all the way .. never once asking him just what
percentage of all income the evil top one-percent earned (averaging 17%),
and what percentage of total income taxes collected they paid (averaging
38%). The idea that the top one percent wasn’t paying their “fair share”
was a complete myth, the media knew it, but the first black president had
to be protected at all costs; after all, he was, as Evan Thomas of
Newsweek said, “sort of a God.”

Then things got even uglier. 0bama became alarmed that grass
roots efforts were springing up around the country to fight the
encroachment of big government on their lives and their livelihoods.
Many of these groups used the name “Tea Party” while others adopted
titles with words offensive to liberals such as “patriot” and “freedom.”
0bama announced to his myrmidons and to the fawning 0bamaMedia that these
groups were a “threat to democracy.” Can you guess what happened then?
Somehow, and 0bama would have us believe it’s just a coincidence; the IRS
started targeting these groups when they applied, as they had every legal
right to do, for their tax-exempt status. The extent of the IRS abuse
was astounding; even to the point of asking the members of these groups
for the content of their daily prayers.

The 0bama junta, as they’re accustomed to doing, blamed the
IRS abuses on “rouge agents” in Cincinnati. As every day passes we come
to a clearer understanding that the order for the IRS to target
conservative groups came straight from the White House. Nixon faced
impeachment for lesser abuses involving the IRS. Nixon, though, was
white and thus didn’t have the shield of accusations of racism to hide
behind.



BACK TO THE FAIRTAX

The current stories of IRS abuses by 0bama and his class
warfare storm troopers have brought about new calls for serious
consideration to tax reform. Twitter and other social media venues are
full of comments calling for the abolition of the IRS. I’m getting
literally hundreds of Tweets a day asking about the FairTax and what can
be done to eliminate the income tax, the IRS, and end these abuses once
and for all.

Do I still believe that the FairTax is our best solution to
IRS abuses and the crushing affect our current tax system has on our
economy? Yes! Absolutely!

Am willing to come out of retirement to do all that I can to
promote the passage of the FairTax and the end of the IRS? Again … yes!

But here’s the rub.

I’ve lost faith in our elected officials in Washington. With
very few exceptions, these people are more concerned about preserving
their own positions of power and the perks and privileges that go with
being a congressman or a senator than they are with working to restore
liberty and preserve the American dream.

So if Washington isn’t going to get it done on their own,
where does that leave us? It leaves us with … the people.

Now since you’re reading Nealz Nuze, I can assume that you’re not part of
the problem here. So when I say “the people,” I’m talking about them …
the other people. I’m talking about the people who don’t listen to talk
radio or read conservative or libertarian opinion on the Internet. I’m
talking about people who never read a newspaper, except for the TV
section or the sports page, and people who never watch a newscast but
would go into a state of mental paralysis if they were to miss
Entertainment Tonight.

I’m referring to people who couldn’t name either of their
U.S. senators or their congressman, but who could tell you in an instant
who knocked up Kim Kardashian. These are people who couldn’t identify a
picture of Joe Biden, but could ID Bradley Cooper or Lady Gag Gag in a
heartbeat. We’re talking about people here who think Benghazi is a fancy
dog breed and think of Fast & Furious as a movie for car freaks. When
you say “Eric Holder” to these people they wonder just what an eric is.
We’re talking the Kelly Pickler types: “Hungry? That’s a country?”

And … most alarming of all … we’re talking about people who
would actually elect a miserable and dangerous failure such as Barack
0bama to a second term as president.

To put it bluntly, I’m just not sure there is much hope any
more. Our country can survive 0bama. Our economic structure will have
to be repaired and restored, and freedoms reclaimed .. but 0bama is
survivable. An electorate that can put a dangerous and unqualified clown
like him into the White House, however, is not. Out country can survive
0bama, but not a media that continues to protect him out of fear of being
called racist, or because they can’t shake their religious devotion to
“our first African-American president.”

There’s a reason listenership to talk radio is declining.
Every week you hear stories of talk stations changing their programming
to sports talk. Only rarely do you hear of stations changing from sports
to political talk. When you walk into a bar or restaurant, if there’s a
TV somewhere it will be tuned to a ESPN, not Fox or CNN. Why? The owner
will tell you that people don’t want to be exposed to the news. They
want their sports.

Government education has worked its intended magic. We are,
for the most part, a nation of dumbed-down and disinterested zombies
going through our daily routines while believing that our personal
economic salvation will be a lottery ticket rather than hard work and
good decision making.

The most important numbers to us are the sports scores and lottery
numbers. We have no interest in such mundane matters as tax rates,
deficits, national debt, inflation, interest rates, workforce
participation and economic growth.

The annual March Madness is more important than the biennial
congressional election.

We bemoan the fact that it can take four years for our alma mater to
overcome the results of a disastrous football recruiting season, while
ignoring the fact that we can completely change the complexion in
Washington and the direction of our country in just two years.

The American people will tolerate a losing and ineffective congress, but
a losing football coach has to go.

So right now I’m wondering “what’s the use?” Sure, the FairTax would be
a wonderful response to the current IRS scandal. Not only would the IRS
cease to exist and the 16th Amendment repealed, but Americans would have
to hide in storm shelters or under beds to avoid the good jobs that would
flow from the resulting economic growth.

And the FairTax isn’t the only reform we could be considering. We could
be working to repeal the disastrous 17th Amendment, and once again give
the 50 State governments representation in Washington. Oh! You don’t
know what I’m talking about here? You didn’t know that while Mexico has
an official representative in Washington, the State of New Mexico does
not? But you know who the current NCAA basketball champ is, don’t you?
(I, by the way, do not.)

I’m not totally prepared to throw in the towel here. I’m
talking to the folks at Americans for Fair Taxation, and expect to talk
to John Linder very soon. He’s retired as well, but ready to join the
fight again. I might like to join him, but it would be nice to know that
a good number of the American people would turn their attention away from
The Horny Housewives of Atlanta, Entertainment Tonight, the Kardashian
Kult and the sports page to join us.

More later.

Let me stew over this for a while.

[Nickname unavailable]

On Jun 10, 11:00 am, Neal Boortz <Boo...@WSB.com> wrote:


the war on women continues: the attempt to swindle minority and women
voters seems not to be going anywhere, action speak louder than words:
The truth is that Republicans can't fix their sales pitch if they have
nothing to sell

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-schriock/the-gop-says-what-it-mean_b_3424135.html?utm_hp_ref=politics


Stephanie Schriock
President, EMILY's List



The GOP Says What It Means
Posted: 06/11/2013 6:07 pm



Republicans just can't help themselves. Every now and then, they end
up accidentally saying what they really think about women.
Whether it's former Representative Todd "legitimate rape" Akin or
Governor Chris Christie dismissing equal pay legislation as
"senseless," there's an endless list of blood-boiling comments to
choose from.
But then I remember that the people who are saying these things are
responsible for making laws in this country. It's not just outrageous
rhetoric -- every ignorant and anti-woman comment reflects an actual
vote or veto that rolls back the clock on women's rights and
opportunities. And there are more and more of them every day.
Last Sunday, Representative Marsha Blackburn (TN-07) argued that women
don't want to combat wage discrimination with laws that promote equal
pay for equal work. And she wasn't just arguing. She was legislating.
Representative Blackburn voted against both the Lilly Ledbetter Fair
Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act.
On Tuesday, it started to snowball. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant
said that America's problems with education began when women started
working outside the home. Which would just be grossly out-of-touch
babble if he wasn't running a state that spends less on education and
healthcare than almost any other, and has the highest infant mortality
rate and life expectancy in the country.
On the same day, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on
the epidemic levels of sexual assault in the military, while an all-
male subcommittee in the House held yet another hearing on a bill that
would ban abortion without an exception for the health of the mother.
Republican Representative Trent Franks (AZ-08), who rarely misses an
opportunity to try and take away a woman's right to make her own
reproductive healthcare decisions, said that his abortion ban wasn't a
war on women because "half of these babies... are just tiny little
women."
I don't think I have to tell you that Representative Franks isn't a
doctor. But that hasn't stopped him and the other amateur scientists
in the Republican Party from legislating based on their own ignorant
ideas. And Franks is holding yet another hearing on the ban today,
bringing it one step closer to passing in the House.
During the hearing on sexual assault in the military, Senator Saxby
Chambliss said, "Gee-whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in
place the possibility for these types of things to occur." Gee. Whiz.
Minutes later, his colleague Senator Jeff Sessions argued that
pornography was to blame for high rates of sexual assault, saying rape
is happening because our culture is "awash in sexual activity."
These leaders have a fundamental misunderstanding of what sexual
assault really is. So they're blaming everything else for the problem
-- the presence of servicewomen, the existence of pornography, and
yes, even hormones -- everything except the broken system that has
allowed rapists to commit violent crimes without being punished. And
then they stand in opposition to any kind of effective reform.
This week was a clear, strong reminder that who we elect to office
matters. Right now, we have Republican leaders who don't value women's
contribution to the workforce, their right to choose what happens to
their body, or to live free from fear of sexual violence. And they are
voting accordingly.
Republicans have done a lot of soul searching to try and figure out
why women voters opposed them at historic levels during the 2012
election. They've questioned their message, and their messengers. But
they haven't reflected on their anti-woman policies.
Instead, the GOP just wants to "re-brand," as if a make-over could
cure a disease.
The truth is that Republicans can't fix their sales pitch if they have
nothing to sell. This new wave of offensive rhetoric is a window to
the soul of a Republican Party that has no credibility when it comes
to supporting policies that actually work for women. They're not going
to get away with pretending that their misogyny is an American value.
It's not all bad news. Last year EMILY's List helped elect an historic
number of progressive Democratic women who are fighting back against
the Republican assault on women's rights. And now there are a record
number of women on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Leaders like
Senators Gillibrand, McCaskill, Hagan, Shaheen, and Hirono are the
reason that we are tackling the epidemic of sexual assault in the
military to begin with. They, and their EMILY's List colleagues in the
House, are lending a voice to women who just want to serve their
country without worrying that they'll be assaulted by those who serve
alongside them. And they have common sense solutions to address the
problem.
Here at EMILY's List, we're going to turn our outrage in to action and
elect even more progressive leaders like them who will stand up for
women. If just a few of them can ignite progress, imagine what we
could do with even more.