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Mark Caserta: Muslim outcry over terrorism is missing

27 Feb

…even from our own president.

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FSP EDITORIAL

Feb. 26, 2015 @ 12:01 AM

Civilized nations around the world are mourning the loss of 21 Egyptian Christians, ruthlessly murdered last week by the Islamic terrorist group, ISIS.

The brutal act, a “mass” beheading of “Copts,” an Orthodox Christian minority dating back to the first century church, was aimed directly at the Christian faith. The entire five-minute-long massacre which was videotaped and posted online, was entitled “A Message Signed With Blood, To The Nation of the Cross.”

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The gruesome film emblazoned the severed heads sadistically set atop the victims’ backs. An ISIS jihadist dressed in military fatigues spoke with American-accented English as he pronounced, “All praise is due to Allah, the strong and mighty. And may blessings and peace be upon the ones sent by the sword as a mercy to all the worlds.”

I found this vile message of “blessings and peace” to be sickening and inexorably spewed from the mouth of a demented, Islamic deviant who inhumanely values the glory of death over the condition of life. Surely such an act of terror, in the name of Allah, would be rigorously condemned by those following the Muslim “religion of peace.”

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But few supporters of the Muslim faith have stepped out to denounce the barbarism of Islamic terrorism and rightfully recognize it as a “religious war” being waged by radical Islamic extremists – including President Obama.

However, Reverend Franklin Graham, a Christian, was quick to decry the horrific act and provide some austere perspective to the incident.

“Can you imagine the outcry if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians?” Franklin asked. “Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world? As we mourn with the families of those 21 martyrs, we’d better take this warning seriously as these acts of terror will only spread throughout Europe and the United States.”

He added the grave warning, “The storm is coming.” And I believe the reverend is right.

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A number of recent reports indicate there are already a number of Islamic terrorist “sleeper cells” within the United States spread out across the country. Intelligence reports from Egypt, a nation now at the forefront in fighting ISIS, indicate global jihadist groups are planning a worldwide offensive this spring or summer that could reach targets within the U.S.

One would think that the reality of another Islamic terror attack on the U.S. would spur some sober thought and deliberate action from the Obama administration. But all Americans are seeing is a president who apparently values the sanctity of the Muslim faith over protecting Americans from Islamic militants who value their religion over the lives of those who don’t.

And progressives, like Obama, attempting to “level the killing fields” through a superfluous comparison of burnings and beheadings to other periods of bloodshed throughout history, serves absolutely no purpose in protecting the U.S. and is sanctimonious and naive at best.

How can we ever hope to defeat an enemy that we refuse to recognize?

Yes, there is a storm coming. And President Obama should be leading America as commander-in-chief, not an Islamic apologist.

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Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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DOUG SMITH: TWO GOVERNORS – TWO IDEOLOGIES – ONE FUTURE

22 Feb

Hence, the molding of the 20th century as we know it…

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FSP regular contributor, author and historian Doug Smith

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Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a professor of logic and natural theology at Bowdoin College in Maine. Chamberlain taught himself the Greek required to attend Bowdoin, and was proficient in Latin, Greek, German, Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. He felt very deeply that slavery was wrong, and that good men needed to stand against the secession of the southern states as it would perpetuate the institution of slavery and weaken the Union.

Granted a 2 year sabbatical with pay by the college to travel in Europe, he instead joined the Maine militia. He was offered a Colonelcy by the Governor, but asked to be given a lower rank instead, since he “had much to learn.” He was commissioned as a LTC under Col Adalbert Ames, in the 20th Maine Regiment.

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By the time of Gettysburg, Chamberlain was a full Colonel, and CO of the 20th. Assigned the extreme left flank of the Union line at Little Round Top, he led his men to a stubborn victory over the Alabamians attacking, charging with bayonets after his regiment, reduced in size by casualties and out of ammunition, was again attacked. His actions turned the tide of battle for Gettysburg, and the Civil War. Lee never again mounted offensive actions after those 3 bloody days in July.

For his actions at Gettysburg, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor, and was promoted to Major General. Wounded 6 times in the course of the war, once so badly that his obituary was prepared, Maj-Gen Joshua L Chamberlain was the officer selected by Lt-Gen U.S Grant to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern VA.  As the Confederates passed and surrendered their weapons he ordered Federal troops to salute their defeated enemy.

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Returning to Bowdoin after the war, he was elected Governor of Maine 4 times. Declining to live in the state capitol, he commuted the 36 miles to Augusta and lived in his home across from Bowdoin College. After 4 terms as Governor, he was appointed President of Bowdoin College, and taught nearly every course the college offered at one time or another.

He spent his final years writing about his memories of the Civil War. In 1914, 50 years after the wounds at Petersburg that nearly killed him, he finally died of complications from his war injuries.

As Governor Chamberlain died, another Governor was busily promising and assuring Americans that they would not become involved in the Great War in Europe, which would come to be called World War 1.

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Woodrow Wilson lectured for a year at Cornell, then taught Greek and Roman history at Bryn Mawr. In 1887, he signed a 3 year contract to remain at Bryn Mawr, but in 1888, broke his contract to move to Wesleyan. Later elected as President of Princeton, he was a lecturer in Constitutional Law who was openly contemptuous of the Constitution and advocated for a parliamentary system with greater power vested in the President.

New Jersey Democrat party bosses pushed Wilson’s candidacy in 1910 for Governor. His candidacy was opposed by many who felt that he was an inexperienced newcomer and not ready to be Governor. Events would bolster their argument. Elected in 1910, he served 2 years before seeking the Presidency. When the GOP split the vote between Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, Wilson a neophyte with only 2 years in office, won with only 41% of the vote.

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Wilson’s 1st term was noted for regulation of business, increased racial segregation of government, the establishment of the income tax, and of the Federal Reserve. Toward the end of his term, WW1 broke out in Europe. Wilson tried to broker a peace in 1916, but neither side was interested and the effort failed. He went on to run for reelection on the platform “He kept us out of the war”, promising the American public “It is a war with which we have nothing to do, whose causes cannot touch us.”

Yet, mere months after his reelection, Wilson went to Congress to ask for a declaration of war on Germany, against overwhelming popular opposition to American involvement. Despite his attempts to broker peace, he seemed unaware that the war had ground down to a bitter draw, with neither side gaining ground, and both sides, while rejecting his plan, ready to call an end to the war.  The entrance of America on the side of the English and French stiffened their resolve to continue, and extended the war by years.

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Furthermore, Wilson bent to the British requests to pour American troops in as cannon fodder, causing millions of deaths.  Wilson’s bumbling diplomatic efforts also led him to press Russia to remain in a war which was enormously costly and unpopular there. The direct result of his actions was the Communist revolution and the rise to power of Lenin.  Once the war was won, at the cost of millions of lives, the Allies, emboldened by the addition of America to their side, insisted on the punitive treaty of Versailles, which led in a few decades to the rise of Hitler and another world war for America.

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Two Governors. Two Professors.

One an intelligent, brave, but humble man who accomplished much, without fanfare, or hubris, fought in a war for oppressed people and left a hero’s legacy.

The other a proud man convinced he was right, who discouraged blacks from applying while President of Princeton, was an apologist for the Ku Klux Klan, and naively led the nation into world war and tumultuous foreign relations.

What, I wonder, would be the shape of the 20th century had the humble Governor of Maine lived another few years, and given his final service to his country as its President?

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Mark Caserta: President wrong to ignore people’s will

19 Feb

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FSP EDITORIAL

Feb. 19, 2015 @ 12:01 AM
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President Obama seems to have his mind set on preventing the Keystone XL pipeline from ever being constructed, regardless of the truth about its environmental and economic impact.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill, by a vote of 270-152, to approve construction of the pipeline. That sets the stage for the first veto showdown of the new Congress with President Obama. Twenty-nine Democrats crossed party lines to vote in favor of the pipeline. The Senate approved the legislation in January by a 62-36 margin.

In passing this bill, Congress is rightfully representing the majority of Americans who now favor the pipeline, according to a recent CNN/ORC poll. Results showed 57 percent of Americans surveyed support the project while only 28 percent oppose it.

But far be it for Barack Obama to allow the will of the people to influence his executive decision-making for America. It’s been six years since TransCanada initially filed an application with the U.S. government to construct the multibillion-dollar pipeline, and the administration continues to assert it’s “studying the potential impact on the environment.”

Originally, liberal opponents of the pipeline were concerned with potential spillage as it transported an estimated 830,000 barrels of oil per day during its trek from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast of Texas. But the narrative now seems to have shifted to its impact on “climate change” through increased carbon emissions.

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Despite opponents’ attempts to minimize the jobs numbers, tens of thousands of construction jobs would be created. In fact, the State Department’s Final Supplemental Environmental Impact statement found the project would support more than 42,000 direct and indirect jobs nationwide. At the southern portion of the pipeline, which did not require Obama’s approval and is already built, 5,000 construction jobs already have been created, according to the Pipeline and Gas Journal.

With regard to spills or increased carbon emissions, pipelines are the safest mode of transporting oil and gas. After four comprehensive environmental reviews, the Department of State determined that the Keystone XL poses minimal environmental risk to soil, wetlands, water resources, vegetation, fish and wildlife. State Department studies also concluded the climate effects of the pipeline would be minimal in that Canadian oil is coming out of the ground whether Keystone XL is built or not, so the difference in greenhouse gas emissions is miniscule.

It’s well known that Barack Obama’s loyalties lie with environmentalists and the myth of man-made global warming. But the Keystone XL pipeline would connect the largest, most sophisticated refining hub in the Gulf Coast with the third largest oil reserves on the planet. The U.S. would be closer to energy independence and less at risk from the increasing uncertainty of a volatile oil market.

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If President Obama continues to ignore the voice of the people and indeed vetoes this legislation, Congress must react with a presidential veto override, which requires two-thirds majority.

Interestingly, with the 2016 election on the horizon, legislators’ hearing seems to be improving. So now is the time to make your voice heard.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch.

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STOP COMMON CORE: SIGN THE FREEDOM WORKS PETITION NOW!

17 Feb

TAKE 15 SECONDS AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE

COMMON CORE

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Common Core standards threaten parents’ rights, children’s privacy, and traditional American values.

President Obama supports Common Core’s Progressive education standards and wants every child in America to obey Washington D.C.’s rules.

But American children shouldn’t be tracked, monitored, and educated from DC. And their parents should have a voice in their child’s education.

SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP COMMON CORE’S FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF EDUCATION IN 2015.

GO TO THIS LINK NOW AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR OUR CHILDREN!!!!

https://commoncore.act.freedomworks.org/?source=02171514day#primary_form

Come standards threaten parents’ rights, children’s privacy, and traditional American values.

SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP COMMON CORE’S FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF EDUCATION IN 2015

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Democrats seek relief from health law penalties

16 Feb

Feb. 16, 2015 3:03 AM ET APNewsbreak:

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVARBy RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The official sign-up season for President Barack Obama’s health care law may be over, but leading congressional Democrats say millions of Americans facing new tax penalties deserve a second chance.

Three senior House members told The Associated Press that they plan to strongly urge the administration to grant a special sign-up opportunity for uninsured taxpayers who will be facing fines under the law for the first time this year.

The three are Michigan’s Sander Levin, the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, and Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, and Lloyd Doggett of Texas. All worked to help steer Obama’s law through rancorous congressional debates from 2009-2010.

The lawmakers say they are concerned that many of their constituents will find out about the penalties after it’s already too late for them to sign up for coverage, since open enrollment ended Sunday.

That means they could wind up uninsured for another year, only to owe substantially higher fines in 2016. The fines are collected through the income tax system.

This year is the first time ordinary Americans will experience the complicated interactions between the health care law and taxes. Based on congressional analysis, tax preparation giant H&R Block says roughly 4 million uninsured people will pay penalties.

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The IRS has warned that health-care related issues will make its job harder this filing season and taxpayers should be prepared for long call-center hold times, particularly since the GOP-led Congress has been loath to approve more money for the agency.

“Open enrollment period ended before many Americans filed their taxes,” the three lawmakers said in a statement. “Without a special enrollment period, many people (who will be paying fines) will not have another opportunity to get health coverage this year.

“A special enrollment period will not only help many Americans avoid making an even larger payment next year, but, more importantly, it will help them gain quality health insurance for 2015,” the lawmakers added.

So far, administration officials have deflected questions about whether an extension will be granted. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell has authority to grant special enrollment periods under certain circumstances.

Supporters of the law say an extension would mainly help low- to middle-income uninsured people, the same group that Obama’s coverage expansion was intended to serve. But Republicans may criticize it as another tweak to what they see as unworkable “Obamacare.”

The health care law imposes fines on uninsured people whose incomes are deemed high enough to enable them to afford coverage. The goal is to broaden the pool of insured people, helping to keep premiums in check for everybody.

The law also offers subsidies to lower the cost of private coverage for people who don’t have job-based health care. That financial assistance is provided through a new tax credit.

Although the tax credit subsidies cover most of the premiums for many people, the coverage requirement and the fines that enforce it remain deeply unpopular.

And the cost of being uninsured in America is going up significantly.

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For 2014, the fine was the greater of $95 per person or 1 percent of household income above the threshold for filing taxes. That fine will be collected when taxpayers file their 2014 returns.

But this year the fine will jump to the greater of 2 percent of income or $325. By 2016, the average fine will be about $1,100, based on government figures.

Polls show that many taxpayers are unaware of the potential financial exposure.

Floyd Cable, a real estate agent from Wichita Falls, Texas, said the escalating fines were part of the motivation for him and his wife to sign up last week. Both are self-employed, and stretching to pay health insurance premiums has been a struggle.

“We have been going without insurance the last couple of years just because the rates are so astronomical,” Cable said.

But they were also concerned they could wind up on the wrong side of rising penalties. And, being in his early 60s, Cable said he recognizes the value of having health insurance against unexpected illness.

An extension would probably help people still on the fence, like he was.

“Anything that could be done to give people more time to sort through this, is not only a good move for the administration, but just makes common sense,” Cable said.

Since both the subsidies and penalties under the health law are administered through the tax system, some experts have urged the Obama administration to permanently schedule sign-up season to overlap with tax-filing season.

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The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever

8 Feb

New data shows that the “vanishing” of polar ice is not the result of runaway global warming

The “vanishing” of polar ice (and the polar bears) has become a poster-child for warmists. Photo: ALAMY

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By Christopher Booker

10:15PM GMT 07 Feb 2015

 When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.

This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world – one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-

Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments”. First these were made by the US government’s Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in “global warming”.

 Homewood has now turned his attention to the weather stations across much of the Arctic, between Canada (51 degrees W) and the heart of Siberia (87 degrees E). Again, in nearly every case, the same one-way adjustments have been made, to show warming up to 1 degree C or more higher than was indicated by the data that was actually recorded. This has surprised no one more than Traust Jonsson, who was long in charge of climate research for the Iceland met office (and with whom Homewood has been in touch). Jonsson was amazed to see how the new version completely “disappears” Iceland’s “sea ice years” around 1970, when a period of extreme cooling almost devastated his country’s economy.

One of the first examples of these “adjustments” was exposed in 2007 by the statistician Steve McIntyre, when he discovered a paper published in 1987 by James Hansen, the scientist (later turned fanatical climate activist) who for many years ran Giss. Hansen’s original graph showed temperatures in the Arctic as having been much higher around 1940 than at any time since. But as Homewood reveals in his blog post, “Temperature adjustments transform Arctic history”, Giss has turned this upside down. Arctic temperatures from that time have been lowered so much that that they are now dwarfed by those of the past 20 years.

Homewood’s interest in the Arctic is partly because the “vanishing” of its polar ice (and the polar bears) has become such a poster-child for those trying to persuade us that we are threatened by runaway warming. But he chose that particular stretch of the Arctic because it is where ice is affected by warmer water brought in by cyclical shifts in a major Atlantic current – this last peaked at just the time 75 years ago when Arctic ice retreated even further than it has done recently. The ice-melt is not caused by rising global temperatures at all.

Of much more serious significance, however, is the way this wholesale manipulation of the official temperature record – for reasons GHCN and Giss have never plausibly explained – has become the real elephant in the room of the greatest and most costly scare the world has known. This really does begin to look like one of the greatest scientific scandals of all time.

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DOUG SMITH: General Motors dodges debt and responsibility

5 Feb

Just another company propped up at the taxpayer’s expense…

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Author and historian, Doug Smith, is a regular contributor to Free State Patriot.

General Motors is an incredibly generous company. The 48,000 UAW members who work for them are very lucky, indeed, and ought to be congratulated for their good fortune.

U.S. taxpayers lost more than $11.2 billion as a result of the federal bailout of General Motors, including an $826-million write-off in March of 2014. Government loans to bail out GM (have you written that check to the IRS yet?) totaled over $ 49 billion dollars.

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Meanwhile, GM reported a profit for the 2014 of $2.8 billion. Of course, it would have been twice that, except that GM had to spend $2.8 billion as they recalled over 13 million cars: more than the total number they sold since bankruptcy ( and that bailout on which you so generously lost $ 11 billion ) in 2009. They also had to set aside over $400 million (so far) for payments to settle claims for the (so far) 38 deaths and 51 injuries caused by the ignition switch.

GM admitted that its employees knew of for at least a decade before the recall. GM was forced during a lawsuit over one of those deaths in 2010 to admit both the defect and their employees’ knowledge of it. GM eventually was fined the maximum $35 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to report the fault within five business days, as the law requires. They are spending nearly $3 billion to fix the problem pay off the victims.

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I’m sure the families of 18-year-old Natasha Weigel, and the dozens of others killed by GM and its employees’ negligence and deliberate deception will find their payments quite generous, as will those with crippling, catastrophic injures, all because of GM, and its employees.

Indeed, I for one, am struck, nearly, (but not quite) speechless by the generosity of GM (with our money). GM s earning report, released today, includes the note that some 48,000 hourly employees (that is spelled UAW) will receive $9,000 in profit sharing bonuses.

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This is based on the profits before taking out half of it to pay for recalls, mind you, so they do not suffer any loss from the negligence and incompetence that sent out cars which proved to be instruments of death for 38 people. Furthermore, it is an increase over the $7,500 bonus paid last year, just a month before the Treasury wrote off that $ 826 million.

A little quick math helps to put it in perspective.

$7500 X 48,000 = $ 360,000,000

$9,000 X 48,000 = $ 432,000,000

$792 million in bonuses in 2 years for doing such a bang up job (Ooo, sorry about the pun) of making cars. Very generous, GM. The UAW is certainly did not have to take any $826 million bath on their money, like the rest of us did. Well done.

Of course, the UAW reflects that same spirit of generosity as its benefactors, GM, and us. In 2012, the United Auto Workers spent $11.8 million to help elect Democrats and President Barack Obama.

Or perhaps it was not so generous after all. Their return on that investment was 7,000%.

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Mark Caserta: Tax storm brewing over Obamacare

5 Feb

And it’s heading our direction…

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An FSP editorial

Feb. 05, 2015 @ 12:01 AM

The 2015 tax filing season will predictably leave a very sour taste in the mouths of millions of unsuspecting taxpayers.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that Obama administration officials are scrambling to avoid a “political firestorm” resulting from the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act. Largely due to the opaque nature of the Obamacare rollout, many people still seem not to realize the individual mandate of the ACA forces everyone to purchase a government approved health care plan, even if you don’t want it, or be fined by the IRS.

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The penalties, approaching 1 percent of income for some households, are supposed to be paid with income taxes due April 15. Additionally, many people with subsidized coverage purchased through the new public insurance exchanges will need to repay some of the subsidies because they received more than they were entitled. Most people reportedly chose to have their subsidies paid in advance, based on projected income for 2014. If their actual income proves to be higher, due to a raise or a new job, they will be entitled to a smaller subsidy and must repay the difference.

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“If the advanced premium tax credit amount is too high, the taxpayer could have an unwelcome surprise and owe money,” said Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate at the Internal Revenue Service.

It seems that many people awarded insurance subsidies for 2014 didn’t realize the amount would be reviewed and recalculated at tax time in 2015. Go figure.

An estimated six million taxpayers will have to pay a fine this year because they chose “not” to obtain healthcare coverage in 2014. So understandably, the expectation for taxpayer questions is very high. But with budget cuts within the IRS, available support may be scarce.

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“The IRS is unlikely to answer even half the telephone calls it receives,” Olson added. “Taxpayers who manage to get through are expected to wait on hold for 30 minutes on average and considerably longer at peak times.”

Hardest hit in this healthcare horror are young healthy adults in their 20s or 30s who are being asked to shoulder the brunt of the costs to effectively subsidize the healthcare of older Americans. Those opting to remain uninsured will be subject to a penalty for each month they lacked coverage.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, roughly one million low-income Americans will pay a fine under Obamacare. So as with many young adults, not only will they not have healthcare, Barack Obama will still require them to shoulder some financial responsibility through a levied fine.

So, what do we have to show for this traumatization of nearly 20 percent of our economy? Based on the experts’ numbers, about 22 percent fewer Americans are now uninsured, at an estimated cost per person of around $50,000, based on a recent 10-year cost estimate by the CBO.

Yes, the Obama administration has certainly demonstrated some “shrewd” business tactics.

Regardless, many taxpayers are in for a rude awakening very soon. And this storm is still brewing.

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Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Doug Smith: DESERTION AND OTHER LITTLE ‘FOIBLES’

28 Jan

WHAT 21ST CENTURY PRECEDENT WILL THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SET?

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Regular FSP contributor, author and historian, Doug Smith

The US has not executed a deserter since WW2.  Deserters who simply go AWOL or overstay leave, and are caught or turn themselves in years later, are usually treated with disdain.  They are given prison sometimes, and a Bad Conduct or Dishonorable Discharge from the service.  The military does not spend time or manpower trying to find them.

However, as in the case of Pvt Eddie Slovick, who was executed, circumstances alter cases. He deserted in combat, refused to return to his unit, and put his refusal in writing.  It was a matter of good order and discipline, and his stupidity, that got him shot.

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So what about Bowe Bergdahl? Let s settle one thing right up front. He was given Sgt stripes as a matter of course for being a POW. He did not earn them. He was a POW because he deserted. I am not going to call him Sergeant.  So, about Mr. Bergdahl.

Hasn’t he suffered enough by being in captivity?  That is irrelevant. Suppose the robber who puts a gun in your face in the bank wrecks your car, which he stole, running from the cops and loses a leg. So what?  His injuries were the result of his own bad acts.  They do not lessen his responsibility for robbing you with a gun and destroying your car. And you would not be content with his consequences if you were the victim.

So, too, if a soldier deserts his post, lays down his weapon, and is subsequently captured, his guilt is not lessened.  Neither is his effect on good order and discipline.

Wouldn’t it be better to simply boot him out of the Army with a less than honorable discharge and make it all go away? Better for President Obama, perhaps, who is invested in him being a good guy? But not better for good order and discipline.

In the case of Bergdahl, the details of his desertion make it particularly egregious.

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He was vocal about his disaffection for the Army and the war, and his sympathy with the enemy, for some time before he actually deserted. He put down his weapon and made plans to desert and try to find the enemy, so this was not a spur of the moment thing. He did not “snap” and regret it at once. Also, he was deployed in a forward area, and deserted while on guard in a combat area.

As a result of his actions and the circumstances, the Army had to assume he was lost or captured, and in danger. So they sent out patrols to search for him.  Troops died in those operations, lured in and ambushed by the enemy knowing they were coming to look for this deserter.  The enemy and the Army had the situation of knowing that a troop went to the enemy as a blow to morale. (That the enemy did not receive him, that we know of, as a friend, is just bad planning on his part and not an extenuating circumstance.)

The results of his actions are as important to the case as his intent.

Remember, too, that he was a volunteer. He did not get drafted and then suffer PTSD from his war experiences.  He also had other options. If he felt morally opposed to the war and the Army, he could have gone to his CO and said so, refusing to fight.  He would still face disciplinary actions, possibly prison, and certainly a less than honorable discharge.  But he would not have deserted in the face of the enemy, and, by all appearances, tried to go over to the enemy.

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No, what he did was a truly bad act for a soldier. He deserted his post, and his comrades, and attempted to find and join the enemy.  That is the worst thing a comrade in arms in combat can do.  The Army, and the United States, should make a stern example of him and make it clear how totally unacceptable this was.

Should they shoot him? Well, that is for a General Court Martial to decide.  I would fill it with front line Officers and NCO s, and abide by their decision as to his punishment. If they shoot him, it would be just, since he put lives at risk, cost lives, and showed pusillanimous behavior in the face of the enemy.  (That is military speak for cowardice). If they hold with long standing tradition, and do not, then he should at least serve a long prison sentence, forfeit all pay and benefits, and receive a dishonorable discharge.  Send a message.

My guess is that if the Army resists the pressure from the President to overlook his little foibles, Obama will issue a pardon regardless of the sentence, arguing that his captivity was suffering enough. He will be wrong about that, just as he was wrong to trade 5 bad actors back in action against us for one bad actor from our side.

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Obamacare program costs $50,000 in taxpayer money for every American who gets health insurance, says bombshell budget report

26 Jan

It would have been cheaper just to purchase healthcare for those who didn’t have it…

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See the facts:

  • Stunning figure comes from Congressional Budget Office report that revised cost estimates for the next 10 years
  • Government will spend $1.993 TRILLION over a decade and take in $643 BILLION in new taxes, penalties and fees related to Obamacare
  • The $1.35 trillion net cost will result in ‘between 24 million and 27 million’ fewer Americans being uninsured – a $50,000 price tag per person at best
  • The law will still leave ‘between 29 million and 31 million’ nonelderly Americans without medical insurance
  • Numbers assume Obamacare insurance exchange enrollment will double between now and 2025 

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It will cost the federal government – taxpayers, that is – $50,000 for every person who gets health insurance under the Obamacare law, the Congressional Budget Office revealed on Monday.

The number comes from figures buried in a 15-page section of the nonpartisan organization’s new ten-year budget outlook.

The best-case scenario described by the CBO would result in ‘between 24 million and 27 million’ fewer Americans being uninsured in 2025, compared to the year before the Affordable Care Act took effect.

Pulling that off will cost Uncle Sam about $1.35 trillion – or $50,000 per head.

THE $2 TRILLION DOLLAR MAN: President Barack Obama was in India on Monday when the Congressional Budget Office reported the federal government’s gross costs for a decade of Obamacare will be $1.993 trillion

PROMISES: Obama pledged in 2009 during a speech before a joint session of Congress that his health insurance proposal would cost $900 billion over ten years – a far cry short of current numbers

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The numbers are daunting: It will take $1.993 trillion, a number that looks like $1,993,000,000,000, to provide insurance subsidies to poor and middle-class Americans, and to pay for a massive expansion of Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) costs.

Offsetting that massive outlay will be $643 billion in new taxes, penalties and fees related to the Obamacare law.

That revenue includes quickly escalating penalties – or ‘taxes,’ as the U.S. Supreme Court described them – on people who resist Washington’s command to buy medical insurance.

It also includes income from a controversial medical device tax, which some Republicans predict will be eliminated in the next two years.

If they’re right, Obamacare’s per-person cost would be even higher.

OBAMA AT PRESS BRIEFING

President Barack Obama pledged to members of Congress in 2009, as his signature insurance overhaul law was being hotly debated, that ‘the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years.’

It would be a significant discount if the White House could return to that number today.

Obama in ’09: Obamacare won’t add one dime to deficit

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PRICEY: The federal government will spend $50,000 for each person recruited to buy insurance or neroll in free Medicaid through the Obamacare exchanges

In that same speech, Obama claimed that there were ‘more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.’

$900 billion spent on those people would equate to no more than $30,000 each – less than two-thirds of what the CBO now says the program will cost when the dust settles.

The CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation, a group of members from both houses of Congress, prepared Monday’s report on the overall direction of the federal budget.

They estimated that ‘the net costs of the coverage provisions of the ACA [Affordable Care Act] will rise sharply as the effects of the act phase in from 2015 through 2017.’

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Those costs will ‘rise steadily through 2022′ before leveling off for three years, the groups’ economists determined. But even at that point, the Obamacare program will cost the governemnt ‘about $145 billion’ each year.

That number doesn’t include the insurance premiums and out-of-pocket health care costs paid by Americans – only the government’s role in implementing the law and paying for its guarantees.

And the law will still leave ‘between 29 million and 31 million’ nonelderly Americans without medical insurance, says the CBO.

CBO January 2015 Outlook on Obamacare uploaded by DailyMail.com

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