<b>If You Assume The Policy Will Be Corrupted…</b>

First of all, if the base assumption is that no matter how great an idea might be, DC politicians will find a way to corrupt it… why is the 999 plan singled out for special treatment? What makes anyone think that Romney’s 87-page PDF Economic Plan won’t also be instantly corrupted and changed? Or the FairTax that many people are gung-ho for, claiming that it is superior to the 999 plan. Superior how, if the assumption is that Congresscritters will instantly transform it into a basket of giveaways and boondoggles? Or even a Flat Tax?

The second bolding in the quote was added by me and that is what I am addressing.

That answer is simple.  We agree with Herman Cain.  He says that the FairTax is where he intends to end up.  If it was not better why would he want to move past the 999 plan to get to the FairTax at a later date?  The skeptic FairTaxer inserts here “Or does he?”

I really can’t speak for all FairTax activists but I can point out something.   The FairTax enthusiasts are rather suddenly divided into two camps.  One large camp is generally OK with the 999 plan because they simply LOVE them some Herman Cain.  They apparently have listened to him for years and have grown to trust him.  They trust him to follow through on his plan.  They trust him when he says we will end up with the FairTax in the end.

Not everyone listens to Herman Cain on the radio and even within the ranks of those who do, there is a distrust of him because of his endorsement of Governor Mitt “Tail Spin” Romney last election.

The other camp is not so trusting.  Some even outright oppose his candidacy all together.  They think he has abandoned the same FairTax that he himself had said our economy needed.  They think he simply concocted a more palatable, watered down, have-it-both-ways FairTax-Lite plan merely to placate income tax supporters.  A lot of these people have not been listening to him on the radio.  They don’t trust him to be able to keep the liberal democrats and republicans in DC from redirecting his 999 plan.  They think we will end up in a worse taxation situation than we are currently in.  In  short, they pretty much agree with Dan Mitchell.  They don’t see the need in a watered down version that allows both a federal income tax and a federal sales tax at the same time. (h/t Aaron Gardner)

Here’s the pretty daisies found in Cain’s 999 tax reform plan (as I understand it):

The first “9″ in Cain’s 999 plan would leave more money in the average working person’s pay check.  Personally, I love this aspect because I happen to be one of those people.  As it is, employees are paying 5.65% FICA plus whatever their income tax rate is.  The employer more than match that with 7.65%.  All of that is done away with and replaced with 9%.

The second “9″ would be the new corporate tax rate.  It would be lowered to 9% from the current 35%.  This would make the USA much more competitive in the eyes of businesses looking for places to build new facilities.  That means more jobs because we will have less government interfering with cash flow.  In other words, the USA would become an instant magnet for investment. 9% is a drastically better rate.  Nevertheless, it should be zero.

The third “9″ would mean that more people have skin in the game because everyone who buys new things will pay the federal point-of-sale-consumption tax.  It is not a hidden VAT tax either so people will see the exact tax when they make new purchase.

One more really great thing about it is that filing our taxes will become very simple.  People like myself will not have to pay several hundreds of dollars every year merely to file taxes.

I agree that The Sophist is right about citizens needing to stay vigilant  as voters.  I think we citizens have been pretty vigilant since Obama was elected but that did not stop us from having ObamneyCare dropped upon us like an anvil, did it?

Here comes some nasty little thickets (as I understand it):

I don’t doubt that Republicans will hold the house and hopefully Cain (or Perry) will be the next President.  If it is Cain and he gets his plan implemented, none of us can say what will happen in 2014.  The pendulum will swing back sooner or later and conservatives will have even less control than they do now.  All the vigilance in the world will not stop the liberal democrats and republicans from raising the tax rates.

Under Cain’s 999 plan, both taxes would be legal and there to be abused at will by an insolvent and out of control federal government.

The income tax can be abused right now because we actually have it now.  In contrast, right now, the sales tax cannot be abused because we simply do not have it.

Under the FairTax, the entire income tax is thrown out and it is not replaced with any form of an income tax at all.  Under the FairTax, the federal income tax is replaced with a federal point-of-sale consumption tax on only new products and services.  The FairTax does every good thing that Cain’s plan does except it does every one of those good things much better.

Superior Controls:

Within the FairTax bill is a provision that stops the income tax from being collected while the FairTax is law.  There is also a sunset provision that says that in seven years (I think this should be changed to 2 years) the 16th Amendment must be repealed.  (This must be more than a simple repeal.  It must be an aggressive repeal.)  If the 16th is not repealed within the set time, the FairTax goes away and the income tax comes back.  That last part will not happen.  After people see what their pay check looks like and they see what an economy looks like that has not been being slowly poisoned to death by the income tax, most FairTax supporter’s feel very comfortable betting that the 16th Amendment will be repealed.

Cain’s plan to bridge from where we are now to the FairTax is admirable but it is also very dangerous.

Mr. Cain needs to do a much better job courting the FairTax activists who have battled the “We’ll end up with both!!!!” meme for so long.  His plan is exactly what we have argued would not happen.

One more comment should be made clear to Mr. Cain: All it would take for this 999 plan to sink like a lead balloon would be for Governor Perry to endorse the FairTax as written the way Huckabee did last time around.  Why vote for a candidate touting the FairTax-Lite when you can vote the real thing? 

Is it a three man race yet? Go Herman Cain!

P.S. if you live near or in West Tennessee, please come to the Herman Cain Campaign stop on October 14th in Bartlett.

“”The criminal goes free if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence.“

Most Americans have a perception of the 4th Amendment that seems to not be based in reality, at least not in a reality that currently exists. Most Americans think that a search warrant is to be given to the resident of a home before the search takes place and that the search warrant is properly executed by a judge with an description describing for what or whom the searched is being conducted.

Most Americans think they have a right to know why their person, vehicle, or home is being searched by the government.

The forth Amendment:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

That does not seem to be true at all according to this:

UNITED STATES, PETITIONER v. JEFFREY GRUBBS

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the ninth circuit

[March 21, 2006]

“Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court….”

Excerpt:

“….Second, respondent argues that listing the triggering condition in the warrant is necessary to ” ‘assur[e] the individual whose property is searched or seized of the lawful authority of the executing officer, his need to search, and the limits of his power to search.’ ” Id., at 19 (quoting United States v. Chadwick, 433 U. S. 1, 9 (1977)). The Ninth Circuit went even further, asserting that if the property owner were not informed of the triggering condition, he “would ’stand [no] real chance of policing the officers’ conduct.’ ” 377 F. 3d, at 1079 (quoting Ramirez v. Butte-Silver Bow County, 298 F. 3d 1022, 1027 (CA9 2002)). This argument assumes that the executing officer must present the property owner with a copy of the warrant before conducting his search. See 377 F. 3d, at 1079, n. 9. In fact, however, neither the Fourth Amendment nor Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure imposes such a requirement. See Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U. S. 551, 562, n. 5 (2004). “The absence of a constitutional requirement that the warrant be exhibited at the outset of the search, or indeed until the search has ended, is … evidence that the requirement of particular description does not protect an interest in monitoring searches.” United States v. Stefonek, 179 F. 3d 1030, 1034 (CA7 1999) (citations omitted). The Constitution protects property owners not by giving them license to engage the police in a debate over the basis for the warrant, but by interposing, ex ante, the “deliberate, impartial judgment of a judicial officer . . . between the citizen and the police.” Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U. S. 471, 481-482 (1963), and by providing, ex post, a right to suppress evidence improperly obtained and a cause of action for damages. …”

An example of local level government’s disregard for the 4th Amendment:

An example of state level government’s disregard for the 4th Amendment:

“>

An example of federal level government’s disregard for the 4th Amendment:

Moe Lane wrote this piece last Wednesday about The Department Of Education’s violent raid on Kenneth Wright’s home in Stockton California.

When Mr. Lane posted this article, I was busy tracking down information about it and I was hoping to get to interview Mr. Wright on my Saturday radio show. I found out that Mr. Wright had hired an attorney. The attorney found out I was asking around about the case so he called me to tell me Mr. Wright would no longer be talking to anyone about the case. He, on the other hand, had no qualms with discussing the case in detail and was able to answer a lot of questions many of us had regarding the warrant. He agreed to call into our radio show on Saturday. We dedicated the entire hour to this call.

This show aired on WMPS The Point 87.7 FM in Memphis on Saturday June 11th from 2-3pm. While I was on the way to the radio station, my son was injured so I was diverted to the hospital. The other host, Donn Janes, talked with Mr. Wright’s attorney Mr. Mark Reichel about Mr Wright’s home recently being searched by the Department of Education. The interview is about thirty minutes long and well worth the time to listen. Calling in from a cell phone made for a less than optimal recording. Reichel was stuck in LA traffic and had little other choice.

Not only is Mark Reichel Kenneth Wright’s attorney, he also is the attorney that argued the above mentioned case for Grubbs in front of the United States Supreme Court in 2006, UNITED STATES v. GRUBBS.

In an added note made by Reichel, and the most disturbing part of this interview for me came in the latter portion of the show where Reichel talks about the cable company installing equipment in his child’s bedroom. He speculates that this was an action by the the Department of Education that would be legal if they were using provisions provided by the Patriot Act.

Isn’t the Patriot Act supposed to be used to protect Americans against terrorists? Wasn’t that what was sold to the American people?

The notion of a right to the securities mentioned in the 4th Amendment to the Constitution seems to be false. I think that at least this is currently the case. Whether or not the Patriot Act was used in regards to Mr. Wright’s home is really beside the point. The Patriot Act was supposed to be a security tool to be used against foreign agents who would not normally be protected by the U.S. Constitution anyway. If it had been designed to only allow that, it might not be such a bad thing. Unfortunately, it is just one more case of government not letting a crisis go to waste and is a power grab against it’s citizens.

If, in fact, The Department of Education could use the Patriot Act in a case like this, it would show that the Patriot Act has effectively decimated the 4th Amendment. The government will have shown a “disregard of the charter of its own existence” therefore undermining the entire Constitution and our nation as a whole.

First thing I will do is hold a press conference announcing my candidacy in the middle of the DailyKos Netroots Convention.   You can’t get any worse than that so it would all be up hill from there.

At my first campaign stop I would announce really cools stuff like a few of my important picks.

V.P. would go to Congressman Steve King from Iowa if he would.
Michael Becker for Press Secretary if he would.
Donald Trump Ambassador to China if he would.
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn for Secretary of State if she would.
Appoint Congressman Ron Paul to head up the Federal Reserve just to see what the heck happens.

Appoint my son Video Game Czar.

Appoint Jenny Beth Martin Health Care Czar.
Here’s my chronological agenda if elected,

Unplug the money printing equipment.

Demand Congress reduce the Debt Ceiling to 13 trillion to get the argument headed in the right direction.

Restrict the deliveries by the USPS to once per week.  Send all un-needed employees to the unemployment line or the Mexican border for a new assignment.

Begin building a wall at the Mexican border and dub it the great “Yes We Can Wall.”
Wall specs will include but are not be limited to the following:

•    Wall will be continuous from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean
•    Wall will be minimum 50 feet high on Southern side.
•    Wall will be minimum 60 feet high on Northern side.
•    Wall will be 50 feet thick.
•    Benchmark set at highest location along wall route between penetrations.
•    Wall will be level from end to end between penetrations.
•    Wall height will include a 10 foot high parapet on Southern side.
•    Parapet walls will be pointed on the Southern side.
•    Wall height will include a 20 foot high parapet on Northern side.
•    Parapet walls will be flat on the Northern side with a continuous catwalk.
•    Area between North and South Parapets will be flooded to form a moat.
•    Moat will be made suitable for swamp life and become an alligator habitat.
•    18 month time from start to finish.  Start today.
•    Large cash rewards for contractors who finish their section on time or ahead of time.
•    Daily liquidated damages for contractors failing to finish their section on time.
•    Wall will have penetrations only at the legitimate border crossing locations.

Pardon all U.S. citizens being audited by the IRS unless they are a government employee.  If the people at the IRS can’t figure out and agree amongst themselves what they are talking about, it is immoral for them to persecute others for not understanding what the IRS is talking about either.

I would assemble a panel of people who have been audited in the past to audit everyone who works for the IRS. If any violations are found, all assets are seized and sold. Current employees are audited first.  Quitters might get looked at later but maybe not so it would be wise to quit immediately.  Turnabout is fair play and all that stuff.

After those audits are completed, the Miranda Rights will be written across the top of every IRS Document printed.  If a criminal has the right to remain silent until proven guilty, so should the rest of us.

Rename the war on terror, the War on Terror.

Tell the United Nations to go unite elsewhere.  Get out.

Eliminate the Education Department.

Eliminate the Energy Department.

Gut the EPA.

Demand the name of the Farm Bill to be renamed the Corporate Welfare Bill.

Ban those squiggly light bulbs.

Remove all barriers to drilling for oil.

Declare the need for a “Constitutional Convention Amendment”.  Return power to the states by encouraging a Constitutional Amendment that corrects the problems with having a Constitutional Convention.

Change April Fool’s Day to April 15th.

I probably eliminated what must be about a half million federal employees so far, I’ll take a look at Day 2’s agenda after my nap.

• TX -1 Louis Gohmert (R).
•
• TX -2 Ted Poe (R). Cosponsors FairTax.
•
• TX -3 Sam Johnson (R). Cosponsors FairTax.
•
• TX-4 Ralph Hall (R). Cosponsors FairTax
•
• TX-5 Jeb Hensarling (R). Cosponsors FairTax
•
• TX-6 Joe Barton (R).
•
• TX-7 John Culberson (R). Cosponsors FairTax
•
• TX-8 Kevin Brady (R) Cosponsors FairTax
• .
• TX-9 Al Green (D). Cosponsors FairTax
•
• TX-10 Michael McCaul (R) Cosponsors FairTax
•
• TX-11 Mike Conaway (R). Cosponsors FairTax
• .
• TX-12 Kay Granger (R). Cosponsors FairTax
•
• TX-13 Mac Thornberry (R). Cosponsors FairTax
•
• TX-14 RonPaul (R). So RonPaul is RonPaul; what can I say.
•
• TX-15 Ruben Hinojosa (D).
•
• TX-16 S. Reyes (D)
• .
• TX-17 Chet Edwards (D).
•
• TX-18 Shiela Jackson Lee (D).
•
• TX-19 Randy Neugebauer (R). Cosponsors FairTax.
•
• TX-20 Charles Gonzalez (D).
•
• TX-21 Lamar Smith (R).
•
• TX-22 Pete Olson(R). Says he WILL Cosponsor FairTax
•
• TX-23 Ciro Rodriguez. (D).
•
• TX-24 Kenny Marchant (R).
•
• TX-25 Lloyd Doggett (D).
•
• TX-26 Burgess (R ).
•
• TX-27 Solomon Ortiz (D).
•
• TX-28 Henry Ceullar (D).
•
• TX-29 Gene Green (D).
•
• TX-30 Eddie Bernice Johnson (D).
•
• TX-31 John Carter (R) Cosponsors FairTax

So, we FairTaxers lost no ground in Texas.
I wish we could say the same in Tennessee where district 1 Rep. Davis (R) got himself booted in the primary by Roe. Roe talks favorably and says he likes both the FairTax and the flat tax. That’s cool too. Hopefully he will cosponsor both bills. If he fails to do so, we will have lost ground in Tennessee. In the 110th Congress Tennessee had 75% Republican support and 0% Democrat support. We may be back to 50/50.
I hope Senator Chambliss (R) keeps his seat in GA. I went down there for a FairTax Rally in Duluth over the weekend in support of Chambliss.
So, the fight goes on.

The time is ripe. Get it right and do it right now. The Republican Party has just gotten the enema it needed and this is the time to fix it.

We need leaders to lead this country out of desperate times to come.

*We need to cut through the crap and get Flake in the highest minority position in the House. We need to get Coburn in the highest minority position in the Senate. Coburn needs to remain in the senate and not retire back to Oklahoma if that is what he is intending. *

To hell with all the who’s-who protocols. Just get it done.

These other republican do nothing grandstanding jackasses need to take a seat in the back of the room and shut the hell up. They have screwed things up enough.

Make it clear to everyone in the nation that this party has come to its senses.

Please.

Ummmm… Just sit down, I have something to tell you. This is probably going to hurt a bit.

Yeah, you just got nailed again. This time by MAHBA. Yes, It’s true, they dumped you. It’s not your fault, they just don’t understand. I do.

No.. No.. really, I do! I take back almost everything I ever said about you.

But hey, its not to late. Shelby and Fayette County Republicans will forgive you if you come ask them personally. At least I hope so. Get down here. Shake some hands and kiss some babies this weekend. PLEASE!

Just so you know that I’m serious this time, I’m going to talk to the Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville on Saturday and put a word in for you. I’ll be all the way on the farthest end of the district far from Shelby County so I can’t annoy you while you visit.

Just don’t be to over confident and please make sure you win next Thursday.

I’m so counting on ya.