“These recent maneuverings inside the beltway are precisely why the American people rightly despise Congress.”
So says Senator David Vitter (R-LA) about the most recent Obamacare exemption bestowed upon another select group. Members of Congress and their staff will have 75% of their Obamacare premiums paid by the taxpayers (you and me.) The law says they are required to obtain their insurance through the exchanges just like the rest of us. But they claim they won’t be able to afford such high premiums. Boo hoo.
So they are getting a pass.
Employees at the IRS, represented by their union, don’t want Obamacare either. Acting IRS chief Danny Werfel told Congress, “I would prefer to stay with the current policy that I’m pleased with rather than go through a change if I don’t need to go through that change.”
I feel your pain, Mr. Werfel. We all do.
Thousands of Obamacare waivers have been dished out to select companies, unions and others who provide the large campaign donations. President Obama recently decreed that the employer mandate portion of the Obamacare law won’t be enforced at least for another year. The big guys get a pass while small businesses and individuals get nothing.
A lot of us knew how bad Obamacare was going to be before it ever became law. Those who didn’t are learning, and now a majority of Americans want the law repealed.
And what does Congress do? They are one of the three equal branches of our government and we elected them to represent us. Why won’t they protect us? Why can’t we get a waiver or an exemption? Why won’t they repeal this bad law as we want them to?
America, once the beacon of freedom and equality under the law for all, continues to devolve into a state with two classes – the political ruling class and the rest of us who do their bidding. Our members of congress, elected by the people to represent our best interest, turn their backs on us, giving the goodies to those who run the all-powerful government and those connected to them.
The rest of us? We despise them.
And rightly so.
-Kathy
There is no excuse for what is happening with waivers, exemptions, and delays. In the case of the employer mandate, the House was willing to produce legislation to make that legal. Obama and Reid did not want it because legislation would have opened up ObamaCare to further amendments. Instead, Obama and his supporters much prefer to violate the Constitution rather than allow legislative changes to ObamaCare. The beauty of all this to Obama is that no one seems to have standing to challenge his unconstitutional acts.
In addition, it is being reported by the Democratic and Republican election committees have agreed not to make this a campaign issue in the 2014 elections in order not to inflame the voters. We have developed this elite class who are not bound by the laws that bind us. If I get a chance to speak at the next town hall by my Congressman, Ted Deutch, I am going to ask him why he is violating his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United Sates by allowing money to be spent that was not budgeted by Congress and by allowing the President to create new laws and ignore others.
My only complaint with Kathy’s post is there must be a word that more adequately describes our depth of feeling toward this government than “despise”. “Despise” is too soft a word.
Well Rick, I probably should be choosing my words very carefully. You see, I got my letter from the IRS. I’m being audited.
Is this because of Liberty Trail? Who knows? (Besides the IRS.) But whenever law-abiding, good Americans publicly express a conservative and/or libertarian point of view, they seem to attract the attention of the IRS, don’t they?
-Kathy
This is exactly the problem the IRS has gotten itself into by engaging in politics. Now, no one believe the “audit letter” has anything to do with tax compliance. Rather, we believe it is part of the “behavior modification” Lois Lehner spoke of. The IRS now has power, but not credibility.
The IRS, over 90,000 employees, a budget of over 11 billion dollars, over 70,000 pages of tax code. The whole point of the IRS is very simple, to collect money to run the government. Why has this become so complicated and so costly?
The IRS has been used as a political weapon and given free reign until it has become untouchable. Instead of just collecting taxes it has become a jack booted secret police Gestapo that terrorizes us all.
This abuse of power and tyranny directed at American citizens would never have happened had the politicians chosen a consumption tax instead of the income tax.
No more audits, no more prison for not filing, no more prison for tax evasion. Collect the revenue to run the country at the point of sale at the cash register. So simple, a sales tax ends the tyranny of the despised IRS.
End the IRS, end the income tax, switch to a consumption tax, a sales tax.
Reblogged this on Politics Starts Here.
“Our members of congress, elected by the people to represent our best interest, turn their backs on us, giving the goodies to those who run the all-powerful government and those connected to them. The rest of us? We despise them.”
With an approval rating of less than 20 percent the statistics would lead one to believe that we despise congress. We do but from 50 different points of view. The problem is each individual member of congress is liked and elected by their state constituents.
So out of any one of the 50 states, the elected officials of one state, your state, are “loved” and it is the officials of the other 49 states who are the “bad” guys and despised.
Another layer to this complicated scenario is that most of our elected officials bring just enough pork home to keep getting reelected. Some are just politicians in the game for the power and personal gain. These are the ones whose votes are for sale to the highest bidder. Others are ideologues and zealots in to implement fundamental change that will destroy America as we knew it. The constituents back home don’t have a clue that their congress person is funding and sustaining an ideological movement of “fundamental” change. These members of congress are the Progressives and the enabling establishment Republicans.
There was a time when I felt the situation was hopeless. I no longer feel that way. But I do think that America is in for a painful transition period and turmoil until the majority of Americans identify the enemy of freedom and liberty and then rally together in a common cause to do the right thing.
Where are the Republicans denouncing and taking action over this latest action from the President running roughshod over laws passed by the Congress exempting members and their staff from the law? The silence is deafening. No, instead they clamor about “de-funding” Obamacare. The Constitutional issues, and the power grab by the elite political class, of which most Republicans are also members, don’t bother most Republicans in the Congress.
I’m reminded of Marco Rubio, who many of us fully supported, and in whom we had such confidence. He campaigned on no amnesty for illegal immigrants, yet his first major effort in the Senate, after being elected, was to advocate for amnesty for illegal immigrants. He claims there are only two choices – amnesty or the “status quo”. He’s full of crap. There is a third choice. Enforce the immigration laws.
It’s clear to me that Marco Rubio has quickly recognized he is now a member of the elite political class, and he is unwilling to risk losing his status in that elite group by actually acting on his campaign promises.
Term limits? We never hear any of these members of the elite political class talk about term limits. We never hear them talk about eliminating the IRS. That’s because these two issues form the basis for the existence of the elite political class. Need I say more?
Cebur – You’re right, to a point, which is why the ruling class went after the tea party together. You didn’t see Republicans defending the tea party, even though without them they would not have regained the House. The tea party started holding THEIR representatives responsible, which rocked the apple cart.
An IRS audit, how interesting!!! You really do have to wonder, in this day and age, whether there’s anything legitimate about it. There is little doubt, as the investigation moves forward, there were some bad elements in the IRS. It seems highly unlikely they did this on their own. They had to know it was illegal and would make the administration look crooked, if caught. So, did they do this with no regard to consequences if things went bad? Possibly. However, I doubt it because, if that was the case, they’d have resigned already trying to limit the damage. The fact they’re still around means they expect to be protected, at least in my opinion. I see nothing here that says, “Bless me Father for I have sinned….”