The arrogant President Obama suggested in an interview published in the New York Times on Saturday that you need to be a lawyer to understand the U.S. Constitution. This is precisely what I mean about law. It is always someone’s interpretation because it is impossible to ever write anything and have it mean a single thing.
Obama made the outrageous suggestion that only lawyers understand the Constitution that is reminiscent of the Dark Ages when that very same proposition was argued as to when the Bible could only be read by priest – never the average person.This was the Dark Age when people could not read and Obama has done everything possible to destroy the foundation of law and the Constitution clearly in his mind because it means only whatever he says it does.
Obama’s outlandish statement was made when talking about members of Congress who have argued he does not have the constitutional authority to unilaterally suspend enforcement of parts of the Obamacare law. To set the record ABSOLUTELY STRAIGHT, Obama is without question WRONG!!!!!! He has the power to veto a law, but to suspend a law. The Constitution provides no such discretion whatsoever.
The New York Times even asked Obama if he “consulted” with “his” lawyer when making that outrageous decision to suspend the employer mandate, which would require businesses with more than 50 employees to buy them health insurance, and which was supposed to take effect on Jan. 1, 2014. Obama’s arrogant dodging of the question illustrates the dangerous position he has place the country in.
“[I]f you heard me on stage today, what I said was that I will seize any opportunity I can find to work with Congress to strengthen the middle class, improve their prospects, improve their security,”
“But where Congress is unwilling to act, I will take whatever administrative steps that I can in order to do right by the American people.”
“And if Congress thinks that what I’ve done is inappropriate or wrong in some fashion, they’re free to make that case,” Obama added. “But there’s not an action that I take that you don’t have some folks in Congress who say that I’m usurping my authority. Some of those folks think I usurp my authority by having the gall to win the presidency. And I don’t think that’s a secret.”
“But, ultimately, I’m not concerned about their opinions–very few of them, by the way, are lawyers, much less constitutional lawyers.”
Obama was merely a lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 1996, and a senior lecturer from 1996 to 2004. He is by no means a specialist in Constitutional Law. There is no question that he does not have the power to pick and choose when mandates are enforced, contrary to the law. As President, he has sworn to faithfully execute the law of the land – not enforce whatever he like or not. That very position would nullify the entire Congress and mean that the United States is a dictatorship, not a Republic. There would be no purpose to elections whatsoever if the President is exempt from the law and the Executive branch has the duty to enforce the laws that only the people can introduce through their pretend representatives in Congress,
Suspending the deadline for the Obamacare mandate that requires large employers to provide health insurance for their workers that was supposed to begin on Dec. 31, 2013 was a political decision that he does not want to take effect until he leaves office for it will cause serious rise in unemployment. Any company with even slightly more than 50 employees will fire all excessive to avoid such expenses. Others will split companies and still others will hire temp employees if not move to contract status rather than employee status. This will also set in motion the end of pensions.
Obama’s argument that only LAWYERS can understand the Constitution is so arrogant it is just unbelievable. George Washington presided over the convention that drafted the Constitution and established the presidency and he was not a lawyer. Therefore, how can there be a Constitution if those who drafted and voted on the Constitution were not lawyers? Is the entire thing just babble?
This is yet another example of the arrogance of Obama and the very wrong path this man has taken the country down and this is not even about left and right politics. This is the great expanded power of Stalinistic surveillance he has supported and endorsed that is inconsistent with criticism the actions in Ferguson, and his Dark Age view of the Constitution illustrates he sees himself with the power of dictator and does not respect the separation of powers of the idea that the people have any role in government.
OBAMACARE & THE IRS – A CLUSTERFUCK MADE IN HEAVEN
1000s Of Firms Aren’t Paying An “Obamacare Tax”, IRS Audit Finds 24% Shortfall
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/20/2014 08:27 -0400
It appears Sen. Orin Hatch’s comment that “everything from this ill-conceived tax’s structure to its implementation has been a disaster,” are coming true. As AP reports, an “Obamacare” tax on medical devices is falling short of its revenue target because thousands of companies aren’t paying it, according to a government audit released Tuesday. An audit found the IRS received only 5,107 returns (against expectations of over 9,000) with a 24% shortfall in revenues. The tax is projected to generate $29 billion over the coming decade, so a 24 percent shortfall – if it were sustained – would be significant.
As AP reports, an “Obamacare” tax on medical devices is falling short of its revenue target because thousands of companies aren’t paying it, according to a government audit released Tuesday.
The tax…
To help pay for President Barack Obama’s health law, Congress enacted a 2.3 percent tax on the sale of medical devices used chiefly by doctors and hospitals, such as pacemakers and CT scan machines. Consumer items are exempted, including eyeglasses, contact lenses and hearing aids.
The tax took effect in January 2013.
Is not being paid…
The IRS estimated it would receive between 9,000 and 15,600 returns for the first two quarters of 2013, the audit said. But the IRS received only 5,107 returns, suggesting that thousands of companies either don’t know about the requirements or are simply ignoring them.
The audit by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration says the IRS needs to do a better job policing the tax.
But the IRS can’t tell who is not paying!!
The tax agency, however, doesn’t have adequate tools to identify which companies owe it, the audit said.
…
While the IRS has taken steps to educate companies about the tax, the agency “faces challenges to definitively identify manufacturers subject to the medical device excise tax reporting and payment requirements,” said the inspector general, J. Russell George.
A 24% shortfall…
For the first six months of that year, the IRS estimated it would collect $1.2 billion from the tax. The audit said the IRS collected only $913 million — 24 percent less than the estimate.
The tax is projected to generate $29 billion over the coming decade, so a 24 percent shortfall — if it were sustained — would be significant.
Companies subject to the tax are required to file quarterly tax forms with the IRS.
It appears Orrin Hatch was right…
“Everything from this ill-conceived tax’s structure to its implementation has been a disaster,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. “It is no surprise that 79 senators went on the record to repeal this job-killing tax.”
* * *
If you like not paying taxes…
The Constitution is a living document open to interpretation. It’s time for you libertarians to wake up to the truth. As well as wake up to the realization that the Keysnesians actually believe what they believe and will interpret any information in support of what they believe.
The only reason that you believe the Constitution is not subject to interpretation is that you believe in its precepts.
Because the ultimate truth is that your belief systems are governed by neurons vying for chemicals in your brain. A belief system that can rope in more neurons from the “minds eye” is more compelling.
You don’t expect Krugmans brain to surrender the only thing it’s ever known do you?
When you come to terms with Dannial Dennett’s Freedom Evolves. You will understand that just as freedom evolves so can you lose it.
“History is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions, have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires.”
Thomas Babington Macaulay
The IRS needs to stop going after big companies such as medical suppliers.
They need to stay focused on the little guy; you, me, everyone reading this post. That’s where the money is. Oh, yeah, despite all the bitching there’s money here. We haven’t been bled dry yet. And until every working American is 100% tapped out, they should leave big companies alone.
Mark ,the constitution is not a living document , it is a legal document . It is supposedly the law that our government is to follow.
So many things prove that our leaders are clueless, Ob ama seems the best at that.
He states that CONgress can’t interpret law because they are not primarily lawyers?
WTF?
CONgress is PRIMARILY made up of lawyers, or career politicians. Wikipedia has a great page on the 111th CONgress which shows 225 were lawyers, compared to the 5 (five) accountants. Is it any wonder these people continue to enact law we can afford?
Recently watched The Tudors, have to say the correlations between his reign and now are striking.
History may not “repeat” but it sure does rhyme.
And Mark, screw your interpretation of the Constitution. The ONLY reason it is “living” is because those that benefited from it evolving were the same guys paying to change it.
And us sheeple did nothing. Same then, as now.
A republic for as long as we can keep it. Wasn’t very long at all, but the fantasy has been much harder to kill and lives on.
Our Constitution was shredded 150 years ago, it is truly sad that so few realize the truth of that.
My father-in-law passed two years ago, leaving two annuities that were re-titled and distributed to my husband (executor) and his brother. One of the annuities did not send my husband the cost/earnings statement, but sent it to the IRS. The total “profit” to my husband via the General Rule was $13 on a final distribution of approximately $1500, but my husband did not report that $13 as income, since the insurance company had not sent him the statement prior to his filing our taxes in 2012.
For the last five months, the IRS has been sending my husband threatening letters, first saying he owed over $2,000 in tax, fines and penality for that unreported income, then backing off to claiming he owed $212 on the earnings of the annuity. They sent him a packet of paperwork to fill out that made absolutely no sense whatsoever… being related to non-reportable IRA contributions, which we could not in any way figure out a relationship to an annuity purchased to help with nursing home expenses.
Anyway, my point here is this: At MOST, the IRS will garner a few dollars up to $212 they last claimed to be owed from my husband’s interest earned on that annuity (which was paid almost entirely to my Dad-in-law and reported on HIS taxes.) So, that means that for five months, some IRS has directed efforts toward this… and we have little hope they will accept my husband’s latest correspondence quoting the rules that apply and offering to pay the tax on the $13 he failed to report.
Obama cannot veto a law, he can only veto a bill.
Someone needs a civics lesson.
It just keeps getting deeper, doesn’t it Maggie?
One year one of hub’s investments sent him multiple 1099s, amended multiple times. We did not file our taxes until August that year, and had paid thousands of dollars more than what we owed.
In November both our company (subchapter S corp) and our personal, received bills from the IRS.
Thanks to the constantly changing 1099, and our missing the last change (which, btw, we never did find out what it said, nor when the thing was sent, we just knew it was AFTER our taxes filed), the IRS claimed we “underreported” our income by about $100.
The fine for this was $106 for the company (whom, btw, doesn’t really pay income tax, the profits flow through to our personal taxes, which is the entire reason for subchapter S corp). The fine for us was $290.
We were fined $396 for failure to report $100 that we didn’t even know about. We paid our accountant a few hundred bucks to come back to us with shrugged shoulders and the suggestion to “pay it.”
Meanwhile, the multi-national corporation that played games with our 1099s, had a virtual negative tax rate.
And “we” wonder why people are pissed? Really?
Good luck Maggie. Over the years I’ve found it easier to just cave and pay, then fight. I’m saving the fight in case of the event it is real money.
It makes me feel really sorry for the millions that can’t even come up with the couple hundred bucks.
Which reminds me, the Boston Tea Party was over a THREE percent tax. Lucky bastards had no idea how great they really had it.
I was sitting in Sansone’s Hyundai Dealership at 7AM this morning ….. yup, Ms. Freud shredded her 3rd tire ($250) last evening … and there was a NY Post newspaper on the table, so I read it.
There was an article about crime. If I were to ask you “What is the number one crime in NYC involving arrest and jail?”, you would probably answer “Drugs” …. and you would be correct.
Now. Try to guess the Number 2 crime. Somewhere around 135,000 arrests.
I’ll give the answer later on this evening.
I also picked up a new recipe which I will try in a few days. It looks YUMMY.
There was a restaurant that started out in NYC, and then moved to New Orleans, where they did a thriving business for 40+ years, until they closed last year. Someone decided to publish their Number One dessert —— Bananas Foster Bread Pudding (which includes rum, butter, and heavy cream …. in other words, stuff necessary to life itself).
If this post gets at least 6 thumbs up, I will take the time to post the recipe.
Mark…the powers enumerated in the Constitution to the government are few…the rest of those powers belong to the people or the states . The Constitution isn’t a living document however the douche bags who use it continually grow the Federal powers see it that way . Their main use of the Constitution is via the Interstate Commerce Clause ; with the help of the SCOTUS the clause has allowed CONgress to regulate every aspect of our lives .
So to those who think it is a living document I say loudly and proudly…FUCK YOU !
Six thumbs up for the recipe in 20 minutes. You all must be a bunch of porkers.
OK, will post shortly.
You have gone a done it now Maggie, if I were you I would be planning on receiving an unannounced ‘no knock’ visit by the local gestapo, at the request of the IRS, who will break down your doors and knock out all of your windows with their flash bangs. They will roll you out of bed, handcuff you and take you down to the station where you will learn to respect the long arm of the law and the almighty power of the IRS. All because you didn’t pay the tax on $13 of income, where do you get the nerve?
@Peaceout WTF was I thinking? In all honesty? When we received the second reply that indicated we only “owed” $212, I told my husband to just pay it and get it off our backs. He insisted it was the principle of the matter. I happen to know from experience that you can only win on principle if you are in a fair fight.
Maggie says, “…you can only win on principle if you are in a fair fight…”
Truer words were never spoken Maggie. Wow, nice.
Having worked for a CPA firm doing taxes early in my career, I can tell you just have a CPA write a letter disputing the amount owed. Once they see you hired anot accountant they usually back off. Don’t know what accountant you used but he sucks.
Good luck to you Maggie and stick to your guns in getting a FAIR and EQUITABLE resolution. There is right and wrong and then there is the IRS where the value of right, wrong and common sense are in short supply.
@jj3 No accountant. Married 21 years and my husband has always prepared our tax filings. We consulted a CPA one time; paid him $200 to tell us what we already knew. Since that one time, we’ve never had any problems, in spite of having invested in several DRIP accounts early in our marriage that required additional research when we decided to divest ourselves of those assets and had to claim the profits. But that was our account issues and we keep good records.
The trouble began with a elderly care attorney from Ohio who purchased several fee-generating (for himself) annuities for my in-laws before my husband was involved with the estate issues. The attorney was insisting my Dad-in-law apply for Veteran’s Nursing Home benefits based on his service in Korea, in spite of his having long term care insurance AND a generous pension from his work AND a sizeable savings from a lifetime of hard work and saving. Horrified because of what we KNOW about VA care, my husband decided to go to Ohio to find out what was going on. So, in a way, that the “accountant” sucked is true, because one very unethical elder care attorney was intent upon siphoning off all my in-laws’ wealth because my husband was 1000 miles away in Oklahoma. Instead, my husband flew to Cleveland, got the family doctor to authorize Dad-in-law to fly, and brought my Dad-in-law to Oklahoma, where we took care of him until he passed away. The attorney was not happy and tried to insist my husband let him continue to handle the estate monies, but backed off immediately when my husband threatened to contact the Ohio Bar and complain.
Another case of a fight that really can’t be won on principle (attorneys will NOT generally sue another attorney, so trying to hire one to fight over an ethics violation across state lines is all but impossible, not to mention prohibitively expensive). However, if you know a thing or two about the law and can cite a couple of relevant statutes and caselaw, an attorney will back off when you’ve shown that know how a reputation is ruined.
Sick legalistic world. Sorry for getting off topic here.
Stuck – I am gonna guess failure to pay some kinda fine or another – parking, speeding, jaywalking, whatever.
“Now. Try to guess the Number 2 crime. Somewhere around 135,000 arrests.” ——– me
Close, llpoh, but no Cigar Store Injun for you.
It’s ….. subway turn-style jumping.
Yup, the subway police are out OUT IN FORCE arresting people for not paying the $2.50 subway fee. Stealing millions on Wall Street? PFFFFFFT!
Nevertheless, is is disturbing that so many fucking people eith can’t, or don’t want to, pay a lousy two dollahs and fiffy cents to ride a subway.
Hey, I was pretty close. I knew it would be failure to pay something or other.
As a decades long acolyte of the law, I suggest that it’s the lawyers and judges, not the public, who can’t understand the Constitution. My observation is that anyone who can read at the high school level can, with a minimum of study, tell you what the Constitution says. It’s not an esoteric document. Lawyers and judges, on the other hand, have been trained to read and interpret the Constitution in accord with past and current political analysis. Consequently the black robes and barristers easily get mired in a maze of Constitutional exegesis mumbo jumbo.
The solution… Interpret the United States Constitution like the State constitutions are interpreted: Follow the plain meaning of the law and, when in doubt, look to the intent of the original legislators.
What percent of Americans have read the Constitution – all of it? I bet under one percent. Obama can lie all he wants, and ninety nine percent won’t know any better.
I wanted to pop in here and update my husband and my status regarding the letter from the IRS I commented about two months ago. So you don’t have to scroll through the comments above, here is the comment I posted above in August.
***
My father-in-law passed two years ago, leaving two annuities that were re-titled and distributed to my husband (executor) and his brother. One of the annuities did not send my husband the cost/earnings statement, but sent it to the IRS. The total “profit” to my husband via the General Rule was $13 on a final distribution of approximately $1500, but my husband did not report that $13 as income, since the insurance company had not sent him the statement prior to his filing our taxes in 2012.
For the last five months, the IRS has been sending my husband threatening letters, first saying he owed over $2,000 in tax, fines and penality for that unreported income, then backing off to claiming he owed $212 on the earnings of the annuity. They sent him a packet of paperwork to fill out that made absolutely no sense whatsoever… being related to non-reportable IRA contributions, which we could not in any way figure out a relationship to an annuity purchased to help with nursing home expenses.
Anyway, my point here is this: At MOST, the IRS will garner a few dollars up to $212 they last claimed to be owed from my husband’s interest earned on that annuity (which was paid almost entirely to my Dad-in-law and reported on HIS taxes.) So, that means that for five months, some IRS has directed efforts toward this… and we have little hope they will accept my husband’s latest correspondence quoting the rules that apply and offering to pay the tax on the $13 he failed to report.
*** end of original comment
Yesterday, we received a letter from the IRS that says nothing. I would scan it if I could, but since we’ve already packed up the house, including the scanner/printer that consumes ink faster than my car burns gas, I will just cite the relevant sentences from somebody at the Austin Texas IRS office.
“Thank you for your response of Aug. 13, 2014.
We used the information you provided to make the adjustment(s) to your adjusted gross income and/or taxable income. This did not increase the amount of tax on your account.
If you have any questions…. ”
Now, I THINK that means they realize that all of this was a big waste of theirs and our time, but it could be that they are just hoping to find a way to turn that additional $13 of income we failed to report into a way to repay the national debt.
I just returned from another whirlwind trip to our little Ozark haven, which is very heaven like for me indeed. However, my cousin came up to bow hunt while I was there and the morning she was preparing to go (she was not successful, but found several places she thought were promising for future visits, so I left her a set of key to the gate and the birdhouse, hoping to find a nice venison roast in the freezer of the INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER refrigerator that I cleaned 30 year old jars and margarine tubs full of petrified stuff from, scrubbed and bleached, and plugged in to hear the whir and hum of a kitchen appliance made in a country which once boasted of the quality of its manufacturing capability. This was while we were getting the birdhouse inhabitable. The birdhouse is the 600 square foot home we renovated for the Yoder clan to live in while they built our log home last year.
So, it is also where we live when we travel there to work on the place and where we will live for a few months until we are ready to occupy the log home, which is completed and “dried in” now, but I prefer this image of it in progress “crawling with Yoders” that was taken while I was living in Missouri last winter with cousins.
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Anyway, I’ve probably posted this elsewhere here, but with all the trips back and forth I’ve lost track of when and where I’ve told my anecdotes. If you have already “heard” this, I apologize, but I can’t help but think that the IRS is literally stalking me these days.
While my cousin was packing up her truck, I’d left the normally locked gate open until she drove away. It was about 8:30 a.m. last Monday morning, the day before I travelled back here to Oklahoma. A Ford Explorer slowed down on the county road and turned in my driveway. Pulled up to the stairs where my cousin and I were standing on the balcony, admiring the overgrown woods beside the creek just across the gravel drive. Out pops a man with a clipboard… my first uninvited visitor to the land was the county tax assessor, snooping around to see if we are living in the log home yet. (NOPE, we are living in birdhouse until log home is finished.) He regretfully admitted he can’t tax us on it until we live there, then he hopefully asked if we had ever camped out in it in sleeping bags. That way, he could tax as a temporary residence. I told him NO… that is why we have the birdhouse. I told him it was be next summer before we have the log home ready to live in, although, between you and me, we do plan to move in as soon as we get the bathroom in the basement operational. But, I am not telling the county that. (Although, last Christmas Eve, when the Yoders had the skeleton of the roof on, but no roof, Nick joined me in Missouri to do some work on the land with a Bobcat and we put an air mattress in the basement under the subfloor with space heaters on three sides and an electric blanket under us and spent our first Christmas morning in our log home. After shivering on and off all night and hurriedly dressing and getting in the car to thaw my feet, we spent the rest of the working trip at my cousins home, in their guest room. However, I did NOT tell the Tax Goon that, since I suspected that would mean the log home could be taxed for all of 2013!)
Good grief… I am locking that gate from now on no matter what. When I told my husband, he was livid. I just laughed it off, saying that even when we get the log home ready to live in, we should park at the birdhouse and walk the 200 yards to the log home at the end of the day, sneaking in the back door and closing all the shutters. And if the tax assessor discovers us there? Simply turn out the lights, head down the hill to the little house and say we are done working on the log home for the night.
I sit here in an empty home in Oklahoma, surrounded by a few boxes and three chairs, two folding tables, a couple of area rugs and a computer, keyboard and monitor. Coffee pot and a few kitchen tools are all that remain. The final inspection was yesterday and next week we close. I’ll be on sporadically and once we are living in the birdhouse and working on the log house, I’ll check in from time to time. I have another little story about leaving this neighborhood we’ve lived in 21 years, but I’ll not bore you with that unless asked.
Oh, and just so you all know. I did find the interview with Capt. McGonagle from 1995. However, after listening to my naive approach to interviewing him and listening to his rambling answers, I decided it really added nothing to the body of knowledge about the USS Liberty incident that was worth the troubling attention it was liable to draw (though at the time, it was shocking news to ME, having NEVER heard about it). So, will all due thanks for your interest in my early journalistic efforts, I have to say the tape will remain boxed up in the basement of that log home you see for quite some time.
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Hopefully this is the link to an image of the birdhouse.
And the log home crawling with Yoders.
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I’m not sure why the pictures don’t always show up the first time…