Tax Day

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926

In facetious ‘honor’ of this being the week that federal law mandates the submission of income tax filings, the Madison Conservative is presenting an abbreviated version of the blog this week to provide some insight into the current realities of income tax law and the hypocrisy of the Obama administration in its continued histrionics relative to ‘tax fairness’.  The President has been continually haranguing the electorate that those who can afford to pay more in taxes should do so, in order to demonstrate their patriotism.

Consider these facts about the tax system in this nation and the incredulity of the two most powerful men in the world with regard to the tax ‘fairness’ issue.

First, here is the idea of taxation as intended by the framers and founders of this country:

The United States Constitution, Article I, Section 9:

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken

Concisely and specifically written; to demonstrate the dangers of a Congress acting ‘in the best interests of fairness to the nation', consider the sixteenth amendment to our august governing document:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

A direct reversal of the founders’ intent, and one that has become a blight and a plague upon the freedom of the American people.

There is also this fact to confirm the belief of the American people that they are in fact being taxed too much and that indeed this nation does not have a taxation problem, it has a definite spending problem – (please note the dates provided – they occur AFTER Tax Day):

April 18 will be Tax Freedom Day, the day when Americans have worked enough to pay all of their federal and state taxes for 2013 – a round total of $4.22 trillion, according to an analysis done by the Tax Foundation.

That's five days later than in 2012.

Americans will pay more than $2.76 trillion in federal taxes and $1.45 trillion in state taxes for 2013 -- for a total of $4.22 trillion in taxes, or 29.4 percent of income. (Figures are rounded.)

April 18 is the 108th day of the year, or 29.4 percent of the calendar year.

Mitt Romney was chastised mercilessly by the political left when it was revealed that his tax rate was a shade over 15%. He was accused of squirreling money away in off shore accounts, and the point was raised about his ‘economic patriotism’ for having such a low rate. The mass media went apoplectic that his rate was not closer to the accepted ‘fair’ rate of 39%, the intended target of “tax equity’, so that the middle class would not have to pay for ‘tax cuts for the rich’.

In that context, consider this official government release:

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama paid $112,214 in federal income taxes in 2012 on adjusted gross income of $608,611, an effective rate of 18.4%, the White House said Friday.

Finally, a favorite of the Madison Conservative. There are many terms to describe this type of arrogance and outright theft. It is a fitting encapsulation of exactly what is wrong with the political class, the tax system and the mindset of a bloated and ineffective government.

To wit:

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, took in $26,400 in 2012 by renting a cottage on the property of their Delaware home to the Secret Service, tax records released by the White House revealed.

They netted $17,944 of that rental money.

The namesake of this blog would be appalled.

The tax-paying electorate of America should be equally outraged and figuratively take pitchforks in hand and storm the castle.

Commentary - The Vice Presidential Debate

This past week saw the Vice Presidential debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan.

Predictably, the American people were again short changed and treated with massive disrespect by both the political class and their accompanying media flacks and wide-eyed sycophants.

The Vice President is literally a stopped heartbeat away from assuming the most powerful political office on the planet.

The electorate who must decided their preferences have few unfiltered options to glean whatever information they deem pertinent to that decision. In a demonstration of political cowardice that would appall the framers and the founders, the two major political parties have cowered behind a ‘Commission on Presidential Debates’ to allow them cover from answering the relevant questions of the American people. This farcical commission determines the number and format of the debates. The process is so pathetically skewed against the exchange of ideological differences that it merely descends into pitiable political theater.

The political class and the mass media have the appalling gall to review it as if it were only sport – presenting score cards to present their opinion of who won.

This nation has serious issues and must not allow a high school debate team mentality to shape the discourse.

There were no winners in the debate; the losers were the American people.

Vice President Biden had many salient points to make, but they were obscured by his need to feign so many facial gestures one would think he was performing pantomime. He also needed to defend the policies and actions of the Obama administration, but again that requirement was lost in a haze of political performance nonsense. Congressman Ryan had the opportunity to explain much of the Romney policy choices and decisions to an American electorate thirsting for leadership. He was co-opted out of that possibility by the theatrics of Biden. That point being made, Ryan also had the responsibility to push through the Vice Presidents’ diversionary machinations to present the information the nation is looking for.

The post debate spin focused not on the policies presented, but, as in the case of an intellectually bereft MSNBC, on a scorecard of who won what issues that were, in fact, not debated.

This nation has a rich history of political discourse, perhaps best exemplified by the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates. The media, needing quick sound bites to present, embrace the imbecilic formats presented by the commission, perhaps due to the fact that it does not require them to be intellectually honest about what issues are being discussed.

The American people must demand that those who wish to be hired as temps in the most significant political office in the nation have a forum wherein they can present their resumes for proper scrutiny.

All that was learned from the last debate is that Paul Ryan is respectful to his elders and that Joe Biden can smirk and smile no matter what the issue.

America deserves better.

The next presidential debate is Tuesday. The Madison Conservative is urging the American electorate to hound their representatives in Congress with e-mails demanding clarity in the debate process; to post on their social media that they demand a true debate; and if queried as to their preferences by pollsters, to respond that they are voting for the Druid candidate.

Accepting the idea of two minute answers and thirty second responses is the act of cowards, not leaders.

We owe ourselves and our posterity no less.