Monday Brief: Happy Income Redistribution Day

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Brief · April 18, 2011 The Foundation "No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant." --George Washington Government "Rhetorically, Obama defines the 'rich' as millionaires like himself or billionaires like Warren Buffet. But in reality he sets his sights considerably lower: households (and small businesses) that make more than $250,000 a year. As for shared sacrifice, it is hard to find any in his [budget] proposal. Six out of 10 U.S. households receive more from the government than they pay in taxes. If 'shared sacrifice' is the standing order of the day, where is theirs? The president suggests that repealing Bush's tax cuts will save the day. But the vast bulk of those cuts go to people making less than $250,000 a year. The president wants to keep those cuts as his idea while talking about shared sacrifice. Meanwhile, as The Wall Street Journal notes, if you taxed everyone who makes over $100,000 at a rate of 100 percent, you still wouldn't raise enough to balance president Obama's budget, never mind pay off any debt. ... By setting his fortifications so far to the left of the middle ground, he gives the forces of reform room to advance far. The rank and file are ready for battle, with the tea parties at the forefront. The only question is whether the GOP's generals have the stomach for the fight. And that question raises as much dread as hope." --columnist Jonah Goldberg Re: The Left "[I]n 2009, Obama took itemized deductions of $514,819, a foreign tax credit of $59,372, and a deduction for interest on his home of $52,195. He was also able to take a deduction for $49,000 he contributed to his self-employed retirement fund. If he had not taken these deductions, he would have paid taxes on an additional $675,386, which in his income bracket would have meant he owed somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 more in taxes at the top marginal tax rate of 35 percent. Furthermore, he instructed the Nobel committee to donate his entire $1.4 million Nobel Prize directly to 10 charities, thereby avoiding the necessity of declaring the money as income on which he would have owed an additional $490,000 in taxes. If the president is so appalled at the rich and their ability to hire accountants to take advantage of each and every deduction, why doesn't he simply take the standard deduction on his tax return, like most Americans?" --columnist Linda Chavez Liberty "Government is necessary because man is flawed; it is evil because it corrupts men and usurps liberty. That is why the American framers took such pains to limit and check its powers. Love and mercy are not bound by borders, but they are the attributes of people, not functions of government. Governments are restricted by national boundaries and national interests. It is the progressive project to aggrandize government by humanizing it. ... American government does not determine and effectuate our morality; it performs the minimum functions we need it to perform so that our liberty is maximized. That, in turn, maximizes our capacity to live compassionate, redemptive lives. ... Our government does not exist to care; it exists to promote the freedom and security of our body politic. The actions of our public officials are not supposed to be a reflection of how those officials, guided by their private religious and ethical principles, care about their fellow human beings the world over. Public officials must faithfully perform the tasks to which they are assigned in order to fulfill government's limited, necessary functions." --columnist Andrew C. McCarthy For the Record "You remember community health centers, don't you? During the debate over Obamacare last year, congressional Democrats led by Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont ballyhooed new funding for these health care facilities in distressed communities. Relative to other elements of the bill, the additional money for these centers was not controversial. No, community health center funding was widely accepted because the facilities it underwrites do not, unlike Planned Parenthood, perform abortions. The centers provide a wide variety of primary care for the indigent. ... The continuing resolution Mr. Obama and Mr. Reid agreed to ... cuts CHCs by $600 million. ... CHCs offer prenatal care to women and their babies -- 480,000 times in 2009 alone. Planned Parenthood? Its 850 clinics average less than one prenatal visit a month. In other words, it's not their line of work. ... Draping themselves in faux concern for women's health, the Obama Democrats were willing to cut real cancer screenings and prenatal care while protecting an ideological and political ally whose dominant business is abortion. And they were willing to threaten the closure of the national government to get their way. 'Outrage' is an overused word in today's political parlance, but in this instance, its only fault may be that it's far too mild." --columnist Frank Cannon We Need Your Help There is just one day left to support our Patriots' Day campaign. Remember, we depend on the voluntary contributions of people like you to keep The Patriot Post coming each week. Help us reverse our nation's march toward insolvency and set the conservative agenda for years to come. Do it today! Support our 2011 Patriots' Day Campaign $75,000 Donate Online Donate by Mail Reader Comments "I have donated and I thought it was for a good cause, but lately that is all I hear out of you. I have one piece of advice. Get a damn job!! Please remove my name from your pity page please." --Disgruntled Editor's Reply: Get a damn job"? Our staff are all overworked and underpaid, but are motivated by mission. We ask you for support not only to help their families make ends meet, but because every dollar donated provides a student or military Patriot a subscription at no charge for a year. In the inimitable words of William F. Buckley Jr., in his book "Notes and Asides from National Review," may I suggest you "Cancel your own (expletive deleted) subscription." The instructions are in every edition! If you are particularly displeased with our publication or products, please call our complaints department at 202-456-1414. "The missus insisted we take part of our vacation funds and invest in your outstanding campaign for Liberty. (I do not mean 'invest' as Obama uses the term!) We shall overcome the poverty pimps and liberal elites. Keep up the great work Patriots!" --Virginia "The Patriot Post is always filled with amazing comments and commentary, but Mark Alexander's essay, American Patriot Defined, is truly one of the best I've read. It almost brought me to tears when I read the words that fanned the flames of patriotism that burn within my breast. When a man's industry and property are confiscated to give to a man who is without either, neither of them is free. We have to be ever vigilant and fervent in our efforts to thwart or destroy those who would subjugate us in the guise of social responsibility and compassion. Raise the standard, draw the line in the sand and declare ourselves free men who will not let them advance another step. God Bless America and The Patriots who defend and support her." --Joshua "'They want to give back to the country that's done so much for them. Washington just hasn't asked them to,' Obama said. That's a good one Barry and only a complete moron would fall for it ... or a liberal. The FACT is that, no, Washington hasn't 'asked,' they DEMANDED. We could all test that assertion by stopping our federal tax payments and watch what happens." --Rick "Your Friday Digest spoke of the events set for 'International Mother Earth Day.' It is ironic that this year, that day falls on Good Friday. Could there be a more stark contrast in world views? One holiday celebrates the Creator of the world who died to redeem His creation. The other worships the creation as the Creator, something the apostle Paul vigorously denounced in Romans 1:25." --Philip Opinion in Brief "The government is no longer supposed to use hurtful vocabulary like 'war on terror,' 'Islamic terrorism' or 'jihadist.' But some unnamed groups are still apparently trying to kill us. Otherwise, why would the White House keep the demonized Guantanamo Bay facility open? And for what purpose, and against whom, are we still employing the once-hated military tribunals, renditions and preventative detention? Fantasy apparently seems preferable to reality. In our new dream world, borrowed money need not be paid back. Cars run on nasty gas that is produced in faraway places. Mean dictators should flee when told to leave. And radical Muslims are not really trying to kill us. Like children, we turn on any spoilsport parent who nags us to stop borrowing, cut entitlements and government spending, start drilling and building power plants, get real about dictators in the Middle East, and keep vigilant against radical Islamic terrorists. So we will keep dreaming until creditors, oil exporters, enemies or terrorists wake us up." --columnist Victor Davis Hanson Click Here Saluting our nation's veterans Our extensive line of fine lapel pins, caps, decals, bumper stickers, collector's items and more were carefully selected for uniformed and veteran Patriots. military veterans. All sales proceeds at The Patriot Shop go to support our Mission of Service to America's Armed Forces. Faith & Family "On April 1, hundreds of enraged Afghan Muslims descended on a United Nations office building in Mazar-i-Sharif and murdered ... four Nepalese, a Norwegian, a Swede and a Romanian. ... To these people, murdering any non-Muslims they can find is a just and Islamic response to the burning of a Quran. ... There are bad people in every religion, in every country and in every group. But we do not know of any group, let alone millions of people, who believe that murder is a proper response to an affront to their religion (or to their country or to their ethnic group). ... Isn't evil done in the name of one's religion more of an affront than evil done against one's religion? I suspect this is how nearly every Jew and Christian thinks. The vast majority of Christians would be considerably more affronted by murders of innocents in the name of Christ than by insults ... to Christ. Why, then, isn't the Muslim world more affronted by all the Muslims who shout 'Allah is the greatest' while cutting the throats of innocent men, women and children than by illustrations of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper or the burning of a Quran by a crackpot in Florida?" --radio talk-show host Dennis Prager The Gipper "Observing the rites of Passover and Easter, we're linked in time to the ancient origins of our values and to the unborn generations who will still celebrate them long after we're gone. As Paul explained in his Epistle to the Ephesians, 'He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. So then you were no longer strangers and aliens, but you were fellow citizens of God's household.' This is a time of hope and peace, when our spirits are filled and lifted. It's a time when we give thanks for our blessings -- chief among them, freedom, peace, and the promise of eternal life. ... If we live our lives and dedicate our country to truth, to love, and to God, we will be a part of something much stronger and much more enduring than any negative power here on Earth. That's why this weekend is a celebration and why there is hope for us all." --Ronald Reagan Click Here This straight-to-the-point high quality vinyl sticker, made in the USA for The Patriot Shop, measures 6.5" x 2.25". All purchases at The Patriot Shop support our Mission of Service to America's Armed Forces. The Last Word "The other day the post office apologized for its new stamp honoring Lady Liberty. Due to an unfortunate error, the stamp shows not the 19th century Statue of Liberty that stands in New York Harbor but the 1990s replica that stands at the New York-New York hotel and casino in Las Vegas. An ersatz statue of pseudo-liberty standing guard over the world's biggest gambling operation: What better way to round out a week in which the Republicans pretended to pass the most historically historic budget cut in history while the president pretended to come up with a plan to address the debt? ... In such a world, the USPS, bless 'em, has come up with a far more plausible emblem of societal devastation than Hollywood's space monsters and climate-change fairies. After the revelations that the $38.5 billion 2011 budget cut will, in reality, either cut a mere $352 million from the 2011 budget or, in fact, increase it by $3 billion, it might be easier just to build a replica White House, Capitol and Congressional Budget Office at the new Beltway Casino next to Caesar's Palace. Vegas is no longer the world's biggest gambling resort; America is." --columnist Mark Steyn (To submit reader comments click here.) Top Headline Report Almost Half of U.S. Households Will Pay No Federal Income Tax WaPo: U.S. Backed Syrian Opposition President Obama to Ignore 'Czar' Ban S&P Cuts U.S. Ratings Outlook to Negative Obama: Tax Cuts Offset Gas-price Pinch Obama Job Approval Back Down to 41%, Tying His Low More Headlines The Right Opinion Michael Barone: President Whatever Finds Things Not Going His Way Burt Prelutsky: Names in the News Debra Saunders: Department of Obstruction of Justice George Will: Voice of a Conservative Populist Argus Hamilton: From The Comedy Store Peggy Noonan: Obama Is Likely to Lose Burt Prelutsky: Liberals Always Lie Michelle Malkin: America, the Dependent Oliver North: Busted L. Brent Bozell: Justice and Decency David Limbaugh: Obama: Incorrigible Statist and Debt Menace Mona Charen: Obama's Equivalent of 'Death Panels' More Opinion Grassroots Commentary The Excuse Du Jour When Shutting Down the Government Is a Good Thing The Future of the Final Frontier The Safer Streets Gun Owner Survey Results, Part II Is Obama Bullet Proof? Red Bull Journalism More Commentary Policy and Analysis Heritage Foundation Insider Heritage Foundation Research American Enterprise Institute Center for Strategic and International Studies The Cato Institute Hoover Institution National Rifle Association Ludwig von Mises Institute Citizens Against Government Waste National Center for Policy Analysis The Heartland Institute (Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.) 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