Monday, January 14, 2013
Barker's Newsbites: Monday, January 14, 2013
Saw "Hyde Park on Hudson" yesterday with Mary.
I loved it! (Mary said it was "fine," said she "liked" it well enough.)
If you liked "The King's Speech," you'll like "Hyde Park on Hudson."
Here's the thing, though...
(*DEEP BREATH*) (*LONG PAUSE*)
In a sense the movie made me sad.
A movie set in the 1930's and 40's... featuring America in the midst of the Great Depression and knowing that the characters and "their" adult and near-adult children would end up as "The Greatest Generation"... I couldn't help but instantaneously compare and contrast that America to present day America in my mind.
Thus... sadness.
Folks... the last 23 years have done a number on me.
First George H. W. "Pappy" Bush betraying Reaganism.
Then eight years of that pervert Clinton.
Next... George "Dubya" Bush following in his father's footsteps to further trample the legacies of Reaganism.
And finally... Barack Hussein Obama - elected and then re-elected.
It hurts me... physically hurts me... to be so often ashamed of my country.
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http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/276969-obama-budget-delayed-again-white-house-tells-paul-ryan
The White House has informed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) that it will miss the legal deadline for sending a budget to Congress.
* OH, WELL... IF IT'S ONLY THE LEGAL DEADLINE...
(*SNORT*)
Under the law, President Obama must submit a budget by the first Monday in February, but he has met the deadline only once.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
The annual budget submission is supposed to start a congressional budgeting process, but that has also broken down. The Senate last passed a budget resolution in 2009.
* HEY... HASN'T THE SENATE BEEN CONTROLLED BY HARRY REID AND THE DEMOCRATS SINCE JANUARY 2007...???
* AND YOU WONDER WHY I'M ASHAMED OF MY COUNTRY...???
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130114/AUTO04/301140373/Chrysler-build-Jeeps-China?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said the automaker plans to build some Jeeps in China for the local market — and later, in Russia.
* FOLKS... YOU ARE AWARE - BY THE WAY - THAT CHRYSLER IS AN ITALIAN CAR COMPANY NOWADAYS... RIGHT?
* NOW... FOLKS... AND THIS IS VITAL... READ THE FOLLOWING:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/dec/12/lie-year-2012-Romney-Jeeps-China/
* SO... TURNS OUT THAT FAR FROM LYING, ROMNEY WAS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! CHRYSLER WAS LYING AND POLITIFACT AND THE MSM BOUGHT RIGHT INTO THE LIE!
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/01/14/gop-lawmakers-obama-should-prioritize-debt-payments/
Republican lawmakers on Monday renewed calls on the Obama administration to prioritize payments to bond holders in the event Congress fails to quickly increase the $16.394 trillion borrowing cap,...
* BUT... BUT... BUT... THE LAW REQUIRES PRIORITIZATION OF LOAN REPAYMENTS... THE CONSTITUTION ITSELF (14TH AMENDMENT; SECTION 4) MAKES THIS THE LAW OF THE LAND...
Under such a plan, which the Obama administration has ruled out as unworkable...
* THE CONSTITUTION... "UNWORKABLE...?!?!"
* ABIDING BY THE CONSTITUTION... "UNWORKABLE...?!?!"
...the U.S. Treasury Department would favor some payments over others — for example, ensuring bond payments are made on time and in full, while assuring Social Security recipients receive payments over military contractors.
* BONDHOLDERS - HOLDERS OF TREASURIES - ARE "PREFERRED" DEBTORS ACCORDING TO THE CONSTITUTION. PERIOD. ALL THE REST IS AN ARGUMENT FOR ANOTHER DAY. BOTTOM LINE... PAYMENTS ON THE NATIONAL DEBT ARE THE... THE... CONSTITUTIONAL PRIORITY.
The government has already brushed up against the $16.394 trillion debt limit, and could run out of cash to pay all of its bills by the middle of February if the cap isn’t raised.
* NOTE: "ALL" IT'S BILLS. (THIS ISN'T THE POINT. THE POINT IS THAT FEDERAL REVENUE IS MORE THAN SUFFICIENT TO MEET INTEREST PAYMENTS ON THE DEBT. THUS... NO DEFAULT.)
[D]ebt service costs comprise less than 10% of the roughly $2.5 trillion in revenues the government collects each year, so there is more than ample cash to ensure debt-related payments are met even if the government is unable to borrow additional money.
(*SHRUG*)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) said the U.S. can avoid a financial crisis if it misses some payments while staying current on those owed to its bond holders. “If you have a family member about to max out a credit card, you don’t figure out how to increase the limit,” he said in a statement. “You work to reduce the amount of spending.”
* MAKES SENSE TO ME!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323936804578227890968100984.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Health-insurance premiums have been rising...
* OBAMA AND THE DEMS PROMISED THEY'D GO DOWN. MY PREMIUMS WENT UP 17% THIS YEAR. AND FOR THAT... MY COVERAGE IS ARGUABLY WORSE... MY OUT OF POCKET REAL AND POTENTIAL EXPENSES HIGHER THAN EVER BEFORE.
...and consumers will experience another series of price shocks later this year when some see their premiums skyrocket thanks to the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
The reason: The congressional Democrats who crafted the legislation ignored virtually every actuarial principle governing rational insurance pricing. Premiums will soon reflect that disregard—indeed, premiums are already reflecting it.
* FOLKS... THERE'S REALLY NOTHING TO SAY...
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Eight states — New Jersey, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Washington, Kentucky, Vermont and Massachusetts — enacted guaranteed issue and community rating in the mid-1990s and wrecked their individual (i.e., non-group) health-insurance markets.
* AND THAT WAS THE MODEL FOR OBAMACARE...
(*SIGH*)
Although President Obama repeatedly claimed that health-insurance premiums for a family would be $2,500 lower by the end of his first term, they are actually about $3,000 higher — a spread of about $5,500 per family.
(*HEADACHE*)
While ObamaCare won't take full effect until 2014, health-insurance premiums in the individual market are already rising, and not just because of routine increases in medical costs. Insurers are adjusting premiums now in anticipation of the guaranteed-issue and community-rating mandates starting next year. There are newly imposed mandates, such as the coverage for children up to age 26, and what qualifies as coverage is much more comprehensive and expensive.
(*TAKING A BREAK TO PUKE MY GUTS UP*)
Insurers know that the Obama administration will denounce the premium increases as the result of greedy health insurers, greedy doctors, greedy somebody. HHS will likely begin to threaten, arm-twist or investigate health insurers in an effort to force them into keeping their premiums more in line with Democratic promises — just as HHS bureaucrats have already started doing when insurers want premium increases larger than 10%. And that may work for a while. It certainly has in Massachusetts, where politicians, including then-Gov. Mitt Romney, made all the same cost-lowering promises about the state's 2006 prequel to ObamaCare that have yet to come true.
But unlike the federal government, health insurers can't run perpetual deficits. Something will have to give, which will likely open the door to making health insurance a public utility completely regulated by the government, or the Left's real goal: a single-payer system.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323374504578222130665022160.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
* SUBTITLE THIS NEWSBITE "YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK"
* OTHER POSSIBLE SUBTITLES INCLUDE "JUST WAIT TILL OBAMACARE IS 100% UP AND RUNNING!"
Tax fraud...is now the third-largest theft of federal funds after Medicare/Medicaid and unemployment-insurance fraud.
Tax-identity theft exploded to more than 1.1 million cases in 2011 from 51,700 in 2008. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration last summer reported discovering an additional 1.5 million potentially fraudulent 2011 tax refunds totaling in excess of $5.2 billion.
It's easy for criminals to e-file using a real name and Social Security number combined with a phony Form W-2 (wages) or fabricated Schedule C (business income). The refund can be posted to an anonymous "Green Dot" prepaid Visa or MasterCard purchased at a drugstore. Such cards have a routing and account number suitable for direct deposit. The IRS may even correct a fraudulent return to refund the estimated taxes that the real taxpayer already remitted, as happened to one of my victimized clients.
* OH, GOODY!
Another form of fraud is when an unscrupulous return preparer modifies the bank-routing information on a return so the direct-deposit refund will wind up in his own bank account. He might increase the deductions so a return will show a larger refund due, with only the increase routed to his bank account. The victim will know nothing unless the IRS sends an audit notice. Other preparers have abused the return information of former clients to file false refund returns in subsequent years. Criminals have established physical offices and websites displaying names of major tax-preparation franchises in order to gain genuine return documents and signatures from unsuspecting victims.
The IRS will replace a lost or stolen refund check. However, a stolen refund using an altered or erroneous routing number on a tax return will generally not be refunded until the bank returns the funds to the IRS.
* IN OTHER WORDS... YOU'RE FUCKED!
Otherwise, the taxpayer's sole recourse is a lawsuit against the return preparer.
* AS I WAS SAYING... (*SHRUG*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
Millions of Americans now pay the IRS via an Electronic Federal Tax Payment System debit. Unlike ordinary creditors paid electronically, the IRS is in the business of sending refunds but it doesn't compare names on bank records against its own files.
* UH-HUH...
So, with just the routing information from a personal check, a skilled criminal can use the electronic tax-payment system to transfer funds from a victim's bank account as an estimated-tax payment to another stolen name and Social Security number, then file a refund claim transferring the stolen funds to his own account.
* GREAT...!
(This can be prevented by having your bank place an "ACH debit block" on your account.)
* AND UNLESS YOU'RE READING THIS NEWSBITE OR READ THE ARTICLE DIRECTLY... WHAT ARE THE ODDS YOU'RE AWARE OF THIS...?!
Fraud is a major problem for states, too. Using TurboTax, a 25-year-old woman e-filed a fraudulent 2011 Oregon return reporting wages of $3 million and claiming a $2.1 million refund — and the Oregon Department of Revenue sent her the refund.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
In October, a hacker stole 3.8 million unencrypted tax records from the South Carolina Department of Revenue.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
If you become a tax-identity theft victim, immediately seek a referral to the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit or the Taxpayer Advocate Service using Form 911. Keep in mind that it can take over a year to resolve. The IRS has a backlog of 650,000 cases.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
The national taxpayer advocate has recommended that taxpayers be allowed to tell the IRS to accept their return only when filed on paper, thus preventing e-file tax-identity theft. So far the IRS has failed to allow this.
* YEP. SOUNDS LIKE OUR GOVERNMENT IN ACTION!
Less effective methods are to request an "electronic filing PIN," available at www.irs.gov, and file Form 14039, "Identity Theft Affidavit," so that the IRS might apply additional return-screening procedures. Sadly, conventional credit-monitoring services are useless against income-tax identity theft.
In sum, e-filing helps the IRS with audit selection, costs the Treasury billions through fraud, and transfers many costs of tax administration to you.
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