Republicans: Please, wake up Devvy Kidd
January 14, 2003Smaller government. Less taxes. Character counts.
All sounds good. So I thought all the years I was a Republican - which I haven't been since 1996 when no one in an elected office wearing the Republican label would investigate the obvious vote fraud in my congressional run. Since then I have belonged to the party of America. I became a constitutionalist, not a conservative.
Below is the truth. I wish the die hard party hacks who think America's problems are strictly the fault of Democrats, would digest this information and pass it along to all their friends in the "party."
As I continue to hear the worn out mantra about lower taxes and tax "cuts," I feel like I live on another planet watching something go on somewhere else. It's as if Washington, DC isn't aware that tens of millions of knowledgeable Americans who have quit filing income tax returns. It's as if Washington, DC isn't aware of the past 3 1/2 years of activities by Bob Schulz and his We the People Foundation and Congress.
Instead, they just continue pulling the wool over the eyes of the desperate.
Americans desperate for "anyone but Gore."
Americans desperate for any kind of tax relief.
They have the people pegged well. Then, there's the other side of the same coin who simply repackage the lies and sell them the next day under a different label. These are the Democrats who have peddled dependency like experienced pimps. Tens of millions of fat, lazy Americans, expecting everything for free from high blood pressure medicine to condoms.
The day of reckoning is coming. I would encourage you to continue monitoring Bob Schulz' web site and spread the word about his new weekly WTP-TV broadcasts. For more information, please go to: http://www.givemeliberty.org
Support the work of WTP because it is the one game in town where the principles actually know what they're doing and aren't out to fleece the desperate being raped by both parties in Washington, DC.
Make a financial commitment each month and follow through. I am.
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Reprinted with permission
Some Tax Cut!
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
One learns over the years not to get too excited about any proposal coming from Washington that seems like a good thing. One must wait for the dust to settle, read the text, examine the fine print, and generally look past the sloganeering. The Bush tax cut is a good example. The more we know, the more suspicious we become.
Bush may be the biggest big-government president ever, but his tax-cut proposal has bought him time. It seems that he wants to step up the timetable for implementing his last tax cuts (only now is the word getting out that the last one hasn't even come into effect yet!), increase the child-tax deduction, and eliminate taxes on dividends (which, on the margin, helps companies that pay them,
old-line companies with more political connections).It's not perfect, but surely this is a step in the right direction, right? Not so fast. Buried on the business pages today is a stunning revelation. The Bush tax cut does not address what will be the most aggressive means of taxation in the coming ten years, the thoroughly evil Alternative Minimum Tax.
If nothing is done about this, it will become a larger revenue generator in the future than the current income tax. The Bush plan does nothing to remedy the problem.
The AMT was originally justified as a way to further loot the well-to-do. Mark Thornton explains:
"It was instituted at a time when the highest marginal tax rate was 90 percent, and the tax code provided lots of juicy tax loopholes for wealthy Americans. Tax rates have dropped but now the AMT, like a stealth bomber, is raising the tax burden on those earning as little as $33,000.
"You could be one of the nearly 30 million taxpayers (according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation) that will have to pay the AMT. That is roughly one in five of all taxpayers. The Bush-league tax cut pushes more taxpayers into the AMT because it lowers regular rates without lowering the AMT rates.
"Therefore, just a few itemized deductions and whammo! you pay the AMT, and your deductions go right out the window. Say goodbye to deductions for state income taxes, medical expenses, business expenses, and even certain home-equity loans.
"With the AMT, you still have to fill out your conventional tax forms, but if you make the minimum, you must refigure your taxes without all your deductions and then pay the 'flat tax.' Given that low-income Americans pay little of the total tax burden, we now effectively have a tax system with all the complications of the old tax code alongside the crushing burden of a system designed to stick it to the rich."
The trouble is that the AMT is deliberately not inflation adjusted, and hence is imperial vis-à-vis the decline in purchasing power. The more the Fed inflates, the more people get roped into the system.
The AMT starts to hit one-child families with incomes of $71,000 by 2006, and couples with two or more children will see their tax credits destroyed.
Even with Bush's plan, the number of people paying the AMT will rise by 9 percent this year and the taxes paid will rise by 28 percent, and then it expands year by year. Over the next 8 years, the AMT monster will seize half a trillion dollars, looted from the middle class and the upper middle class, to fill government coffers.
The Bush administration says that it doesn't have any intention of addressing the AMT. His first tax bill didn't address it and neither does this one.
"President Bush was elected on a promise to cut taxes," said the administration's first tax policy official Mark Weinberger, "not reform the alternative minimum tax." Meanwhile the beast continues to fatten and grow longer teeth.
But does the AMT make headlines? Of course not. Only tax accountants seem to care. Just the letters "AMT" alone are enough to induce stupor.
The information that the Bush tax proposal does not address the problem, and the implications of not doing so, appears buried deep within the business section that political reporters don't even read. Or if you read the Electronic Accountant, you surely know all about the problem.
Meanwhile, the news of the supposed tax cut, and the usual sham between the small-government Republicans and the big government Democrats, is all over the place, and the illusion continues.
Ten years, hence, however, we will look back and note that the Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, and did nothing to slay the beast that is preparing to devour the American middle and upper middle classes.
Of course, the Bush administration knows exactly what it is doing. Whether you look at foreign policy, privacy concerns, government spending, or tax policy, the goal is the same: Build the State!
Web site worth visiting: http://www.lewrockwell.com/
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In these uncertain times
Protect your assets and get informed on how the state of the economy really is and not the political bilge being served up to an unsuspecting public.
Buy gold from Harvey Gordin at El Dorado Gold:
623-434-3322
Here is another excerpt from the highly praised and respected, International Forecaster, January 7, 2003. Compare this with what you are hearing from your party and the insider's controlled media:
US MARKETS
The elitists that control our nation own our congress and own our oil; defense and weapons industries are deliberately creating war in Iraq and the Middle East. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on the war industry to enrich these criminals and to bring about world government.
Waging wars on multiple fronts and, of course, the reinstitution of the selective service draft so our children and grandchildren can fight and die in far away lands for the "new world order."
The experts have been wrong three years in a row, which certainly disqualifies them as experts. The Dow fell 16.8%; its sharpest decline since 1977 and the S&P fell 23.4%. The market has lost $7 trillion since we gave our sell signal in April 2000.
NASDAQ was off 31.5% on the year and is off 73.6% from March of 2000. The Dow is off 28.8% from its high. 2003 will bring us a repeat of 1929-1933 and 1836-1839 and 2004 will be just as bad. Needless to say investors are confused and they should be when 98.2% of the experts are wrong. An absence of a war with Iraq is not going to make the market go up because the world economy's problems are structurally overwhelming. Profits should be up 10-12% in 2003 but at the cost of unemployed consumers. Those profits have to drop off when you have fewer and fewer people to sell to.
By historical standards stocks should be selling at half of what they are. In our mind there is absolutely no question that Dow 7286 will be broken on the downside. S&P stocks are trading at 23 times our projected 2003 earnings. We are now correcting in the second bear market rally and once 7286 is broken to say 4500 to 5500 we'll have another rally. In the final analysis you want to be out of the market except for very special situations, gold and silver shares and the Prudent Bear Fund and the Safe Harbor Fund, which can be purchased from Rich Radez at 800-285-1700.
Our President, thru a backdoor maneuver, is encouraging thousands of companies with hugely under funded pension plans, to use cash balance plans, which will rob almost all Americans with pensions of two-thirds of their retirement. Listen, because this is very important. George Bush is attempting to sell you out.
The US Treasury has proposed rules that would end a three-year moratorium on conversions to a complicated cash balance plan for pensions. Older workers will get and have gotten royally screwed by such a program. If the Treasury, that is George Bush and transnational elitist corporations, among others, were allowed to get to cash balance plans pensions for older worker, they would be slashed by 63%. This will truly be a disaster for workers and their families and should not be allowed to happen. The rules have to be passed by the IRS but that's a formality.
Cash balance is a type of defined benefit plan. Under traditional formulas, pension benefits are calculated as a percentage of wages multiplied by years of service. Thus a 20-year employee would get 30% of his final salary in monthly benefits at age 65.
All the money contributed to the plan comes from the employer. In a cash balance plan, the employer also makes all pension contributions, but the workers pension benefit, which can be paid in a lump sum or a monthly stipend, depends on how much the employer contributes every year and the rate of return earned on the account, much like a 401(K). The plan is portable, allowing workers to carry their pensions from one employer to another. Thus far about 700 corporations have converted to cash balance and it is estimated the switch has cost eight million retired workers $334 billion in promised benefits.
Cash balance conversions stop the continued accrual of pension benefits for older employees. They get the old pension say to 50, but from 50 to 65 years old they get the lesser cash balance programs' lower results. Our friend and benefactor, George Bush, interprets pension law in such a way that cash balance plan conversions would not be in violation of age discrimination laws. We have no protection under the law. Our system of jurisprudence no longer works. This is another national disgrace visited upon American workers by omnipotent fascist government. You must contact your elected representatives and put a stop to this.
Last year the dollar fell 10-17% against major currencies. We see the dollar falling another 10-15% in 2003. The experts see it 5-10% higher, but they are almost always wrong. Downward dollar pressure will come from capital flight out of the US into the euro, pound and gold. Besides, European equity-market valuations appear to be more attractive then those of the US.
The dollar is going lower and unfortunately it isn't going to help the US much because their exports are not what they used to be. The dollar decline is the largest since 1987. Other factors are also hurting the dollar. Lower consumer confidence, terrible Christmas sales, lower factory orders and the plague of job insecurity to name a few. Laying off workers may improve the corporate bottom line but it also means fewer consumers.
Get this, citing a shortage of money; the Bureau of Labor Statistics will stop publishing information about factory closings. Do they really expect us to believe that? What morons! They want to kill the report so business, labor and consumers don't know what is going on.
On January second the US government Plunge Protection Team showed us what market manipulation is all about. First we were told by the Institution of Supply Management that their factory index rose to 54.7 in December from 49.2 in November, which is almost an impossibility considering other contributing figures. That was accompanied by a dollar that was rising versus the yen, euro and pound.
Then came the JP Morgan Chase announcement that they would only have to take a $400 million loss. A deal was supposedly cut with the insurance companies for them to take a $600 million loss. The arrangement has US Government fingerprints all over it. Our guess is the insurance companies were told to take a $600 million loss in spite of having an airtight case. The government probably set up a method of covering their losses.
That, of course, overshadowed Morgan's $1.3 billion pre-tax loss. Then in a still-thin market the Dow advanced 266 points, S&P 29 and NASDAQ 49 points. We called it classical manipulation. As an afterthought Morgan CEO Harrison said, JPM does not have any "real" exposure to gold. "I don't know where that rumor keeps coming from." We do, from our spies inside Morgan. Now they are having the junkyard dogs at the SEC come after us for uncovering the truth. We can promise you one thing: neither we, nor GATA will shut up.
Morgan, the SEC and the whole cabal are terrified that the public will find out that the US Treasury is covering up their losses and guaranteeing their exposure. Don't forget Barrick is part of this also. If we can drag all these criminals into the legal
sunlight, not only will the gold producer go under but also their management since 1987 will lose everything they have in court.The criminality is overwhelming. The professionals on Wall Street are not inept when it comes to gold. They are terrorized into silence. Remember, markets climb a wall of worry and that is exactly what is happening to gold. The cartel tried everything to knock the price down $5 to $6 but had to settle for minus $1.70 while silver rose a penny. We surely have them on the run.
The telecom and DotCom industries haven't bottomed out yet, but much of the suffering is over. Our attention turns now to a more serious problem and that is the vehicle industry. As an example, GM and Ford must refinance billions of dollars of debt as they face potential credit problems. Both GM and Ford are one false move away from the edge of investment grade. They and the sector have the potential to destabilize the bond markets in 2003.
Ford is rated at BBB by S&P, and both S&P and Moody's have Ford with a negative outlook. The fear is they both could become fallen angels and become junk. Ford and GM and Daimler/Chrysler have some $128 billion in debt; the biggest being Ford, which has $61 billion and saw sales fall 10% last
year.The whole credit structure is deteriorating and that is something most professionals don't see and when they do discover the problem they want to look the other way. Of course, the investing public doesn't have a clue. Utilities are another dangerous area with $90 billion in refinancing over the next four years in the US and about $30 billion in Europe. Unfortunately, we see no economic recovery in 2003.
Industry problems include changing accounting standards, and the possibility of war. In all, late in the year interest rates will climb higher, even as we enter depression and credit ratings will fall. That will push stock markets lower as well as bonds. Credit and interest rate problems will be even worse in 2004 and 2005.
Many pension funds are in trouble. IBM has transferred $3.95 billion in cash and stock to its pension plan, expanding investor stock dilution. That was $2.09 billion in cash and 24.03 million shares worth $1.86 billion. IBM trading at $82.00 is headed back to $54.00 and then to $38.00 a share. The final leg of the bear market will take it into the teens. If we are correct IBM will have to come up with a lot more cash and stock, as will many other "blue chip" companies. The US government tells us US pension fund plans are under funded by over $300 billion.
The US media wants to hide the news that IUE-CWA, the International Union of Electrical-Communications Workers of America, will soon go on strike against GE over an increase of $200 yearly in health care costs. The strike threat, the first in 30 years, would idle 17,500 workers or 6% of GE's workforce. A strike that shut or impaired GE's US industrial operations would mean their shares would fall in value. We recommend a short on GE at $55. It is now $24.00 and headed much lower.
Barron's profiled 22 Wall Street experts and their choices for 2001 and 2002 regarding where the Dow and NASDAQ would end up at the end of each year. The results were overwhelmingly dreadful. They were off 15 to 30% in each year. Its not that they are stupid or incompetent, but they are forced by peer influence, their brokerage firms and government to make predictions they don't believe in. The problem is that they have been responsible for billions of dollars being lost in the stock market. They, of course, got behind the recent ISM report, an explosion of new orders of 22%, which is ridiculous when it's impossible to square with almost every other piece of available data, whether from corporations, industry, government statistics or even readings of regional manufacturing activity. Again, they promote the big lie.
Here is another peak behind the Wall Street veil. Schuyler Winter, a former institutional equities salesman at Prudential Securities contends he lost his $1 million-a-year job with Prudential Securities in July 2000, after 16 years with the firm, because he warned a money manager client away from a secondary offering in stock in Purchase Pro, that Prudential was scheduled to co-manage. Winter is seeking over $32 million in commissions and punitive and wrongful termination damages. We saw this and worse go on for 28 years. It's about time someone takes these crooks on.
We find it of significant interest that the Florida State's Attorney General's office has very quietly dropped its racketeering investigation of Alliance Capital Management, which caused $300 million in state pension fund losses in Enron stock. It is no secret that the Alliance people and Ken Lay were personal friends of Governor Jeb Bush.
Florida is in the throes of a debt crisis, largely because they have been financing with debt what they could have paid for with received revenue. Now the state is nearing its statutory limit. With bills of $19 billion, they now pay $1.4 billion a year in interest. Part of the problem is $6 billion in tax cuts by the governor and the legislature. Thus there'll be more debt, more accounting gimmicks, more tax shell games, such as raiding the teachers' retirement fund. Florida's finances are like a huge pyramid scheme. Just more greed, politics and incompetence.
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This is just the tip of the iceberg, believe me. If you'd like real financial reporting, you can subscribe to the International Forecaster and stay ahead of the game. I've been reading it for years and Bob Chapman knows his stuff. So many have lost so everything, please don't be one of them. Those pension funds people are depending on for their "golden years," think again.
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