Department of Internal Revenue Service

Continued Inanity from the US Government – Where are the Elected Officials?

Angry Wet Chicken I made the mistake of ranking the various government agencies on how intractable, unintelligent, and irresponsible they are. I ranked the IRS based upon previous experience more competent than the VA. That is a mistake I will not repeat any time soon, as the VA and the IRS are in a neck and neck race to the bottom! Consider how the IRS sends you paper mail notifications; if you have questions, you are referred to a website for answers and provided several customer service numbers. Except, when the website fails, you call the notifications’ numbers and are told that you need to visit the website for faster service. The website refers you back to customer service, whose phone queues are always so full you are automatically disconnected after being reminded to use the website for faster service.

As my mind experiences a total meltdown, I begin twitching, and my head eventually explodes; check out this cat picture: Funny Cat Backgrounds, Pictures, Images Dignified Stray Cat Photos Celebrate Their Unique Beauty

Some will declare this is a one-off incident; surely, the IRS is not this dysfunctional. Try it for yourself sometime. I never ask anyone ever to, believe me, experience this for yourself. Check out the IRS website https://irs.gov. Try to get solid and reliable information, and see how fast your head wants to explode. I have been trying to appeal a decision the IRS made arbitrarily since 21 March 2022 and gotten nowhere fast. Best of all, I have a deadline of 20 May 2022 to register an appeal, yet the website cannot answer my questions and points me back to the phone number on my notification. The phone number auto-answer assistant refers me back to the website shortly before disconnecting my call.

As a small business owner, I had trouble getting my Tax ID number; the website said to call customer support, the phone number referred me back to the website and then disconnected my call because the queues were too full. Ad Nauseum Ad Infinitum, but the joke is undoubtedly on me; the IRS proclaims they respect my time and are anxious to resolve the concern. Can’t you just feel the concern and anxiety emanating from the IRS? Where are the elected officials who need to be scrutinizing the Executive Branch and demanding better returns on the taxpayer’s investment?

As my mind experiences another total meltdown, I begin twitching, and my head eventually explodes; check out this cat picture: Cats wallpaper - Cats Wallpaper (5194935) - Fanpop Just say nope | Grumpy Cat | Know Your Meme

If you’re keeping count, this is the third recent article on the culture of corruption at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in as many weeks. No, I am not behind; the rate of the frequency of VA – Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) reports has legitimately been this overwhelming. Never forget, an indictment is not a conviction, and perpetrators remain innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and the trial and sentencing have been completed.

“Hunter Matthew Burroughs and Stephen Keith Andrews were indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Smith, Arkansas, for their roles in three separate conspiracies to defraud the US government and private workers’ compensation insurers. Their alleged crimes include a billing and kickback fraud scheme with multiple physicians and medical clinics and separate fraud schemes involving the shipment of medications from Arkansas to two Louisiana physicians, who then distributed those medications from their clinics in violation of Louisiana laws. Additionally, Burroughs was charged with wire fraud for allegedly falsifying emails he provided in a civil lawsuit involving his sale of the company.”

Not to be outdone:

“Robin Calef of Brockton, Massachusetts, was sentenced to one month in prison followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of theft of public funds in November 2021. She was also ordered to pay restitution of $102,289 to the VA. In December 2006, Calef’s sister was receiving VA monthly benefits, passed away. She failed to inform the VA of her sister’s death, and the VA continued to deposit monthly benefits into a joint bank account held by Calef and her sister until September 2017. Bank records revealed that Calef made monthly withdrawals of approximately the exact amount of VA benefit funds deposited into the joint account.”

And:

“Derrick Brewer of Enfield, Connecticut, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government funds. In March 2018, Brewer submitted paperwork to the VA offices in Hartford as part of an application for service-connected disability benefits. Specifically, he submitted form DD-214, which indicated that his discharge from his former service in the US Coast Guard was characterized as “Honorable.” However, the form had been altered before its submission. According to official Coast Guard records, Brewer’s discharge was characterized as “Other Than Honorable Conditions” following his convictions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. There is no record of the discharge characterization ever being upgraded. As a result of this submission, Brewer collected nearly $70,000 in VA benefits from March 2018 through September 2020. Sentencing is scheduled for 27 May 2022.”

And:

“Sarah Jane Cavanaugh of Warwick, Rhode Island, was arrested on charges of using forged or counterfeited military discharge certificates, wire fraud, and fraudulently holding herself out to be a medal recipient to obtain money and property or another tangible benefit, and aggravated identity theft. It is alleged that Cavanaugh claimed to be a wounded US Marine Corps veteran and recipient of a Purple Heart and Bronze Star and schemed to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in veteran benefits and charitable contributions from organizations that provide monetary aid; to veterans in need.”

And:

“From 2002 to 2019, Terrie Lynn Christian of Newaygo, Michigan, engaged in a fraudulent scheme that targeted children’s benefits programs administered by VA and the Social Security Administration (SSA). This scheme, which involved obtaining benefits for two fictitious children, resulted in government losses of over $660,000, including approximately $110,000 for VA. Christian was sentenced in US District Court to 30 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and restitution of over $660,000. The VA OIG and SSA OIG investigated this case.”

Do you notice anything odd in these stories of fraud; the documents did not stand up to scrutiny, but fraud was still perpetrated. I have authentic documents proving service; I have had to present original documents several times and sign affidavits testifying these documents are my documents. I am a veteran, and under the threat of severe penalties, I swore that I was not attempting to defraud the US Government. Would someone please explain how these people, and so many others, can commit fraud so frequently? Would someone please explain how the VHA and the VBA accepted clearly doctored documents and fraud executed? Finally, where are the VBA and VA employees being held accountable for failing to do their jobs and allowing this fraud to be perpetrated with complicity? Mediocrity Joke

Time after time, I have been denied help, been given the bureaucratic runaround, and refused assistance until my documentation can be certified. Then after my documents are approved, they are still rejected by bureaucrats who refuse to do their jobs. Yet, crimes and fraud are perpetrated with the same bureaucratic inertia and complicit behavior. Elected officials, do you understand why taxpayers are frustrated?

What reignites the explosion of my head is that these are only two of the multiplicity of government agencies. Nobody knows how much fraud is perpetrated by employees and customers, and worse, even fewer care. Elected officials, will you please explain why you are not more concerned and avidly involved in ending the fraud?

Let me cast your mind backward to 2005. United States v. Alvarez, 567 US 709, is a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was unconstitutional. The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was a federal law that criminalized false statements about having a military medal. Elected officials, when the judges legislated from the bench, overstepping their authority, why didn’t you immediately go back to work and redraft legislation to end the theft of valor and penalize people committing fraud? Instead, you rolled over like a dead, bloated, floating body, and valor theft has worsened! Plato 3

Elected officials, why have you not drafted new legislation to curb government theft? Why have you consistently refused to act to curb the bureaucrats from abusing taxpayers? Why do you remain silent on the shrinking morals in America that open the doors for more abuse of the law? We elected you to the office to take action; what are you doing? Yes, mayors, city councilors, judges, dog catchers, school board members, county commissioners, and every other single officer elected, you are included in this plea for action!

Dont Tread On Me Again, I implore you, the voters, to scrutinize your elected officials for their continued employment. Yes, start today. I know the elections are months away, but it requires time to evaluate performance, become knowledgeable, and prepare to act on election day. You deserve a better government, and those in office deserve to be unemployed!

© Copyright 2022 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.

Political Dysfunction – The IRS Detailed in Spades!

Exclamation Mark Enlighten me, how is the taxpayer to “understand and meet” “tax obligations” when the agency who collects those tax obligations refuses to answer questions, actively hinders transparency, denies accountability and refuses scrutiny? Through forced taxation, collected by fear of the stick, America has been abused since the IRS was created out of whole cloth, not from the U.S. Constitution, but the demented minds of a president and complicit Congress.

Under the heading of “Statutory Authority,” we find the following:

“The IRS is organized to carry out the responsibilities of the secretary of the Treasury under section 7801 of the Internal Revenue Code. The secretary has full authority to administer and enforce the internal revenue laws and has the power to create an agency to enforce these laws. The IRS was created based on this legislative grant.

Section 7803 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the appointment of a commissioner of Internal Revenue to administer and supervise the execution and application of the internal revenue laws.”

Progressive

Progressive and progressivism is a political philosophy that empowers a more extensive and more intrusive government, a government without any shred of decency, and a government as intrusive as possible into your daily life. Progressivism has been the catchphrase for all sorts of political hooliganism and liberty theft at all levels of government. These abuses by the government have been made possible because, as everyone knows, progress, the root of progressivism, is a good thing; it is progress, right? Not quite, according to the politicians and the bureaucrats who think they own you and me. Lemmings 1

Progress is defined as moving forward or onward towards the desired destination. Also, progress can be advancement or development towards a better, or more complete, “modern condition.” Archaic definitions sometimes provide critical insight into a word, and in this instance, the archaic meaning of progress was a state journey or official tour, especially by royalty.

Progressive means something relating to or characterized by progress without the political connotations, using new ideas, findings, or opportunities. In the classroom, progressive relates to an educational theory marked by an emphasis on the individual child, informal class procedures, and encouraging self-expression to the point of sacrificing educational opportunities. The meaning of progressive also refers to making progress, moving forward or advancing, increasing in severity or extent, expanding the base rate of something, and a few other definitions specific to the sciences of computers and lenses for glasses. Lemmings 4

President Woodrow Wilson (D) was a progressive, and many of his political detractors were regressive. The distinction was drawn on a political scale to aid in differentiating and scorning political opponents concerned about the spread of government. We need to be clear that any time anyone talks about progressive taxes, they discuss expanding the base tax rate. Making tax increases sound more pleasant is a key to twisting the meaning of words and exercising tyranny on a population.

Regressive

As you might have probably guessed, regression is the exact opposite of progression. Regressive relates to regression production, decreasing the rate as the base increases, and is characterized by simplifying structures in an evolutionary process. Regression is the act of regressing. Regressing relates to the act of reasoning backward, moving backward to a previous and possibly worse or more primitive state. It is also a privilege of going or coming back to something. Plato 2

Regressive is most used in refusing to cut taxes, so the opponents to “progressive” taxes are automatically regressive. In actuality, progressive is all about increasing government size, government taxes, and government bureaucracy; thus, the opponents of progressive taxes should own and explain why being regressive is a good thing. Yet, they never do, and representative governments across the globe are worse for this plastic language. The consequences of ever bigger government and taxes, fees, surcharges, fines, etc., dreamed up as “progress.”

Tax Gap

Bait & Switch Due to proposed legislation, the media has been quick to jump onto the tax bandwagon. The media are trying to drum up a lot of hype for the proposed bill, calling it fairness, catching the tax cheaters, working to bring “fairness” to the tax system, and progressing the tax system to close the loopholes improve tax enforcement. The “tax gap;” is $600 million in mostly tax errors because the tax system is too complicated. How do you tell the difference between tax cheaters and honest people trying to obey the tax authorities? Therein lies the problem, to the IRS, everyone making an error is guilty until proven innocent, and either way, you will pay something to the IRS to get out of trouble.

What is the problem? The IRS is going to use its newfound enforcement ability from this legislation to punish and abuse. Congress is always talking about closing loopholes, but what they mean is allow political cronies and connections to keep doing what they are doing and force the rest of America to pay for the privilege of being abused.

Tax Enforcement

Question Long have I been concerned that the agencies of the Federal Government have become weapons against the citizenry. With Lois Lerner and the 501 (C) (3) debacle still ongoing at the IRS, this concern about government weaponizing has only strengthened. Yet, what do we find from politicians on both sides of the aisle; crickets, platitudes, double-speak, and an attitude of not caring. What do we see from state and local government officials who are in a position to protect the citizen from run-away government, even less. With the proposed legislation being kicked around, granting money to a Federal Agency with a history of sleight of hand, deviousness, and abuse of power, seems to be the worst mistake possible. Why are the legislatures not taking the IRS to task and scrutinizing them more closely, ending the farrago of Lois Lerner and holding real people accountable for real crimes?

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

The Proper and Improper Role of Government: Chapter 4 – Tax Freedom Day – Do you know why this is important?

Working Dollar In 2019, Tax Freedom Day was 16 April 2019. For those not in the loop, Tax Freedom Day is the day all Federal, State, County, and Local taxes are paid from your paycheck. This date gets further into the new year every year, and with the amount of inflation seen since 16 April 2019, you can bet that Tax Freedom Day will shortly be in the middle of May or July.

What is Paper Money?

Dr. Clarence Carson wrote an article about paper money and the US Constitution, quoted heavily below. Paper Money, “… Paper that was intended to circulate as money but was not redeemable in gold and silver was technically described as bills of credit at the time of the Continental Congress and writing of the US Constitution and US Bill of Rights. The description was (and is) apt. Such Paper is a device for expanding the credit of the issuer.” The credit of the issuer is improved, not the benefit of those forced to use the Paper as credit. Hence, the US Government, to improve its credit, began printing money, and the problems in American Economics took off like a rocket sled on greased rails! Plato 2

Paper Money only has value when the person holding that Paper has confidence in the government printing that money. In every nation across the globe, the only thing keeping value in the paper currency is confidence in the government by citizens paying taxes. Hence, the problems with depressions, the confidence in value are shaken, and the holders of Paper Money become restless and lack confidence that their money is valuable. Bills of credit, Paper Money conveying the value of debt have been around for a long time, as discussed in a previous article on money. Why did the USSR fall; the currency had been worthless for years, and when the citizens had finally had enough, the government fell apart. A fitting tribute and pattern to be heeded from history if we, the government owners, cannot get the government to cease and desist forthwith!

Government and Paper Money

The US Constitution, as originally written, forbids the US Government from printing paper money why; because of how fast the government abuses this power, creating inflation. The Continental Congress was well aware of government abuses with Paper Money, thus restricting the Federal Government to coinage and tying the value to the gold standard. Inflation is nothing more than a hidden tax, where the government controls how much value your money is worth. Every person using US Dollars to make a purchase pays this tax. Thus, by the time a consumable product has been paid for in a store, that tax, inflation, has been paid multiple times, and the consumer is always worse for every point of inflation the government allows.

Irony Did you know that the Federal Government allows 2% inflation every year as a “target?” Consider this for a moment; the government wants your money and calls this tax a “good thing” for the economy. Thus, your prices for everything increase 2% or $.02 every year because the government wants it to. The 2% devaluation of your money is part of the Federal Reserves’ “Dual-Mandate” to achieve 100% employment and price stability. Do you see any logic in making money less valuable as a means to improve employment and stabilize prices? I don’t! Now, consider this, inflation has hit a this year (2021) and has not stopped climbing. Worse, inflation is expected to continue to grow as the government prints more Paper Money, which will eventually end in a depression preceded by massive deflation of the value of the US Dollar. Keep in mind; inflation has become a global problem, as the majority of governments spent money they did not have during the pandemic. Imagine lemmings racing for a fiscal cliff.

Lemmings 5 Josiah Quincy wrote George Washington “that there never was a paper pound, a paper dollar, or a paper promise of any kind, that ever yet obtained a general currency but by force or fraud, generally by both.” Yet, Congress still refuses to learn the lessons taught during the Continental Currency. Debts, runaway inflation, legal enforcement to demand paper money be accepted, all of these lessons were experienced by the Founding Fathers, with Rhode Island being the Continental equivalent of California for bad fiscal policy and idiotic fiscal enforcement. Tax Scheme 2

The founding fathers met during an economic period of deflation, which quickly became a severe depression caused by states issuing paper money that was useless. The founders “hoped to erect a system that would endure, and to do that, they wished to guard against the kind of fiscal adventures that produced both unpleasant economic consequences and political turmoil. Paper Money was reckoned to be one of these.” Paper Money, without the backing of silver and gold, has led to speculation, inflation, deflation, cycles of economic depression, and Congress essentially stole the right to print paper money and borrow from the citizens unconstitutionally! This cannot be stressed enough; there is a direct causal relationship between Congressional action, Executive Orders, and the economic problems America is suffering, including the bondage of debts insurmountable and the abuse of tax schemes! All of which were powers strictly limited in the US Constitution because the founders knew the government would abuse the power of Paper Money! Bait & Switch 2

History shows that when paper money was discussed, the states overwhelming voted to remove the power to print money from the US Government, seeing this as the best method for long-term economic success in America. “The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of removing the authority of the United States to emit bills of credit. The delegates voted by state, and 9 states voted in favor of the motion while only 2 opposed it. (New York delegates were not in attendance, and Rhode Island, of course, sent none.) It is a reasonable inference from the discussion that the delegates believed that by voting to strike out the words, (from the Articles of Confederation, which made up the bulk of the US Constitution), they had removed the power from the government to emit bills of credit.” It is important to note that allowing states to issue bills of credit, print their own money, or stamp coinage was also forbidden. To avoid the economic crisis, the founding fathers were in the middle of when framing the US Constitution and the US Bill of Rights from the Articles of Confederation. How many problems, and how much lower would your taxes be if the Federal and State governments had simply followed the law instead of stealing rights and powers from the governed?

Facts About Tax Freedom Day

IRS Please note, the federal deficit, state deficits, pension crisis, student loan debt crisis, and interest are not included in the numbers quoted below. The following information comes directly from the Tax Foundation (linked above):

- - Tax Freedom Day is a significant date for taxpayers and lawmakers because it represents how long Americans as a whole have to work to pay the nation’s tax burden.
  - This year, Tax Freedom Day falls on 16 April or 105 days into the year.
  - In 2019, Americans will pay $3.4 trillion in federal taxes and $1.8 trillion in state and local taxes for a total bill of over $5.2 trillion, or 29 percent of the nation’s income.
  - Americans will collectively spend more on taxes in 2019 than they will on food, clothing, and housing combined.
  - If you include annual federal borrowing, representing future taxes owed (interest on the debt), Tax Freedom Day would occur 22 days later, 8 May.
  - Tax Freedom Day in 2018 and 2019 was five days earlier than it was in 2017, primarily due to the recent federal tax law, the Tax Cuts, and Jobs Act.
  - From 1930 to at least 1995, Tax Freedom Day has taken 1.27 days longer per year to reach. – I do not have an updated reference for this information since 1995.
  - In 2019, on average, it took:
    - - 42 days to pay the income taxes
        
        26 days to pay payroll taxes
        
        15 days to pay sales and excise taxes, not including surcharges and government fees for services
        
        11 days for property taxes – states control this, some municipalities, it took a lot longer
        
        5 days for Corporate Income Taxes
        
        6 Days for other taxes that always get passed along to the consumer.

Tax Burden I have read economic reports from noted minds in economics that claim had the dollar not been loosed from the ties to the gold standard, America could not have produced the tools needed to win WWII. To which I continue to claim, as Colonel Potter from M*A*S*H so aptly stated, “HORSE HOCKEY! and BULL COOKIES!” Having Congress issuing massive letters of credit, borrowing tremendous sums of money, and the economic fallout remains a millstone about the financial neck of this country. How much longer will Americans pay for debts created during WWII? What about the ever-increasing debt burden and interest that is driving prices and taxes ever upwards?

Knowledge Check! The US Government has acted improperly since establishing the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service. Not just improperly but illegally under the US Constitution as drafted. Illegally, immorally, and unethically towards the founders, and distorted the intent of the US Constitution to protect America from runaway government debt and inflation/deflation/depression cycles common when issuing Paper Money. This is the utter truth, and until this problem is rectified, removing paper money is the right thing to do, even if it means some financial hardship! America can survive financial difficulty; we cannot survive the bondage of runaway debt, interest that sucks all the GDP, and the socialism projects being paid for by tax dollars to buy votes from envious people looking for “equality and fairness.”

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

Did you hear? The IRS Edition

FLASH: 20 May 2021, President Biden wants to spend $80 Billion on expanding the workforce of the IRS by 87,000 new employees over 10-years. Riddle me this, $919,540.23 is the approximate amount per employee; Would someone tell me why the IRS needs to spend so much per employee? Does this announcement seem particularly worrisome? If not, please cease reading now, as I will never convince you to be wary of the Department of Internal Revenue Service. However, with its incredible price tag, if this announcement worries you, let’s discuss a few topics an expanded IRS means.

Where is the money to expand the IRS coming from?

Simple question. I want clear and concise answers. While President Biden thinks some of those funds will come from “catching tax cheats,” cheating taxes is a game for lawyers, and I want to know what the president means by “Tax Cheats.” For example, will he further chase the rich people who are not paying their “fair share;” if so, when will Biden and Obama belly up and write a check for all the back taxes they owe? When will the Clinton Machine be forced to become accountable for all the tax money avoided? Are “tax cheats” regular people who missed a box, forgot to include some income, or cannot fathom how to fill out their taxes and made honest mistakes?

Until Big-Tech did an excellent job of cleaning OIG reports for the IRS, I used to have an OIG report claiming that the Federal Employees owing the most in back taxes was the IRS. Are they in the “Tax Cheat” category, or will the IRS employees continue to be exempt from audits and “fair share” taxpaying because the agency is overwhelming voting Democrat in every election? The more I dig into the IRS; the more questions arise about “fairness,” transparency, accountability, and responsibility.

Politicized or unpoliticized, the IRS is a weapon.

There is a massive problem in the IRS; the “IRS Targeting Controversy” has never been settled at the IRS. On 09 Feb 2018, the last non-profit targeting case was settled. The plaintiff sees no remuneration for the legal fees. The government had to admit it was wrong to target non-profits based upon political leanings. The IRS is hoping lawmakers will see this last settlement and give them a break. Yet, the core problems of being or not being a political weapon, the core complaint of the scandal, was never addressed! The leadership in Congress stopped scrutinizing, and the IRS got away with browbeating people based upon political leaning.

Never forget, Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the center of the non-profit targeting scandal, who had contact with the U.S. President (Obama), pled the Fifth Amendment, and none of the elected officials did anything to get to the truth! I will not allow the elected representatives off the hook to enable the IRS to become a weapon or remain a political animal! America deserves better and can only obtain better through asking questions and demanding concise and truthful answers after transparent audits and investigations that conclude with punishment for wrongdoing!

This leads to a simple question: Is the IRS a political weapon for Democrats and Liberals, or is it an apolitical unit of the government? Let us test the current IRS leadership for a potential answer to this question. 17 June 2021, The Daily Signal reports that the IRS denied tax exemption to a Christian Group because the Bible the group adheres to is associated with the GOP (Republicans). If that decision has you scratching your head, wait until you check out the rest of the story.

From The Daily Signal story, we find the following pretzel logic from the IRS. The link is live; see the letter for yourself!

“In an 18 May denial letter, IRS Exempt Organizations Director Stephen A. Martin said Christians Engaged is involved in “prohibited political campaign intervention” and “operate[s] for a substantial non-exempt private purpose and for the private interests of the [Republican Party].”

“A “legend” at the top of the letter shows nine letters of the alphabet being used as shorthand to represent something. In this letter’s example, oddly, “D” represented “Republican.”

“Specifically, you educate Christians on what the Bible says in areas where they can be instrumental, including the areas of sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, biblical justice, freedom of speech, defense, and borders and immigration, U.S. and Israel relations,” Martin wrote. “The Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the D party and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under IRS Section 50I(c)(3).”

To me, it matters not that the letter D represents republican. America is a Republic, and any political action taken can be connected to a Republican government. Not necessarily the “GOP” as the Republican Political Party. If the IRS official cannot ask questions, the voices inside his head speak louder than his abilities to make logical decisions. In that case, he does NOT deserve his position, having been promoted above his maximum level of incompetence! In making this decision, the IRS official has declared that the democratic party does not ever use biblical teachings to reach conclusions. Is Speaker Pelosi and President Biden aware of this fundamental change in political foundations?

Feel free to tell me in the comments section, do you feel the IRS Non-Profit Targeting Scandal of 2010 thru 2013 has been handled effectively and properly closed? Better still, was it appropriate for Lois Lerner to plead the Fifth Amendment and not have legal actions taken? Finally, do you honestly trust the IRS to be an apolitical, unpoliticized, and neutral agency engaged in honest and forthright government business?

Details about the IRS.

From irs.gov, we find the following, and it raises more questions than answers. Under the heading, “The IRS Mission,” we find the following, poor grammar, wrong sentences, and detestable language and all:

“Provide America’s taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.

This mission statement describes our role and the public’s expectation about how we should perform that role.

- - - - In the United States, the Congress passes tax laws and requires taxpayers to comply.
        
        The taxpayer’s role is to understand and meet his or her tax obligations.
        
        The IRS role is to help the large majority of compliant taxpayers with the tax law, while ensuring that the minority who are unwilling to comply pay their fair share.”

Would someone at the IRS tell me, how are you “providing top quality service” when you cannot reach the IRS by phone, the office hours are limited, and answers are forced to come from hired third parties? I have been forced into multiple-day issues with the IRS Website, no answers, no contact information, and no assistance until I hired someone who answered my questions at $100 an hour. If the IRS reads this article, that is not how you define “top quality service.”

What is “fair share?” Using this phrase, the IRS declares it is already politicizing the payment of taxes, as the expression “fair share” has been captured for more than a decade by the Democratic Party. Using this phrase in your mission statement demands a straight and correct answer in the rest of your marketing materials. Yet, no explanation has ever been found.

Enlighten me, the second bullet point, how is the taxpayer to “understand and meet” “tax obligations” when the agency who collects those tax obligations refuses to answer questions, actively hinders transparency, denies accountability and refuses scrutiny? What are “compliant taxpayers?” Through forced taxation, collected by fear of the stick, America has been abused since the IRS was created out of whole cloth, not from the U.S. Constitution, but the demented minds of a president and complicit Congress.

Under the heading of “Statutory Authority,” we find the following:

At least the grammar and sentence structure are better. However, having read sections 7801 and 7803 of the Internal Revenue Code, I have serious reservations. For example, how did the IRS become the sole government agency in charge of defining an employee, controlling the employee/employer relationship, and acting as the force behind employment law? When did Congress provide you with this authority?

I repeat, only for emphasis, the following:
“The IRS governs every action made in an employment situation, and the IRS has given great latitude to the employer, making you the property of the IRS, with control granted to your employer. As a result, the IRS remains a danger to every American and the globe. Why is the United States the only industrialized nation to not allow options to the employee/employer relationship, squashing innovation, curtailing small business opportunities, and unequally tipping the scales for large organizations? Look to the IRS! Want to point fingers, thank President Woodrow Wilson (D), his complicit Congress, and his executive orders!”

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

The Proper and Improper Role of Government – Part 3

Bait & Switch There many ideas I embraced as a child that brings me short mentally and cause some discomfort. The biggest of these was the support of labor unions. As a kid, I thought labor unions were the best thing since sliced bread. I learned in K-12 how the labor unions had ended child labor, gave us weekends, Federal holidays, and the 8-hour day, among other tremendous and notable accomplishments. Until I lost my job to a labor union guy who took four times as long to complete work, complained horribly and sent me to the unemployment line. I never understood what he had to complain about, times were hard, and I lost a good job to a labor union member.

Apathy Because of the hold, the Labor Unions have on government, the line between government policy and labor union influence is generally so blurred that confusion is bred as to why things work the way they work in government. Unfortunately, every country with a representative government and labor unions has the same problem. Labor unions are entirely Marxist in their ideology, but to keep the masses happy, instead of communism, we get rampant socialism instead. J. T. Murphy writes specifically eloquently on the ties between socialism and the labor unions. Frankly, I have never understood how a labor person can swear they love freedom and America while supporting tooth and nail their labor unions’ Marxist and socialist agendas.

Inflation and Socialism, plus the Captivity of Debt

Public Employment Retirement Costs Are At "Tipping Point" Public-sector labor unions are the number one reason many states in America have seen their credit ratings drop. The debt of the retirement packages and pensions is a millstone around every state’s neck. This is an absolute reality proven time and time again. The pension crisis is so large that Forbes keeps coming back to this topic several times a year. If you would like a primer on the public pension crisis, go here. The public pension crisis is mentioned solely because it remains the number one budget item for too many states. With that much money owed, the debt runs the state’s fiscal decisions, not people, and brings up the captivity of debt.

Look up the principle of “usury” in historical texts, and you find usury occurs when interest is charged on money borrowed, which creates captivity. TheWalletcoach.com eloquently details how debt is captivity. The oldest of historical texts, the Old Testament, is vehemently against charging usury of brothers and family members, but strangers being in debt captivity was okay. Today, the confinement of debt, specifically the public pensions, leads the politicians like a goat to slaughter. But, unfortunately, none of the politicians can find the time to formulate a plan, gather their fellow politicians, and fix the problem. Debt, to the height of the public pension crisis, creates inflation and leads to socialism, as the government runs out of other people’s money to pay for the failures of previous politicians to be fiscally literate and fiscally responsible. Add in the labor unions’ consistent sticky hands, and the local and state governments are in deep trouble. Add in the Federal Government’s debt obligations, and money trouble is a catastrophe! Please note that catastrophe is not an “If” or “when;” it is a current issue right now! National Debt Graph + Bush-Reagan Voodoo Video - zFacts

16 March 2019, Tom Del Beccaro, writing an opinion piece for Fox News, produced the greatest missive I have ever seen tying the principles of debt captivity to inflation and governments becoming socialized! Historically speaking, Mr. Del Beccaro is 100% correct that the socialization of Greece and the fall of the Roman Republic are both tied to government debts. However, the Founding Fathers in America knew history, were literate, and they feared what would happen to this Free Republic (if we can keep it) when the government is allowed to rack up debts! Every single publication I have on the Founding Fathers, and the Founding of America, come back to the bondage of debt and the problems with government debt. However, when the population demands “free benefits” from the government and uses their voting power to elect only those who keep the “Gravy Train” coming, socialism has been achieved in all but name! Government Largess

That fact alone should scare every member of the American Experiment into correcting their government! Yet, what do we find, the exact opposite! Frightening does not entirely cover my feelings here!

Socialism, Taxes, and The Workplace

Returning to the pattern discussed on 16 March 2019, Tom Del Beccaro, writing an opinion piece for Fox News, discussed how taxes are a knee-jerk reaction to “keep that gravy train running.” Therein lay the root causes for how socialism has been promoted in the workplace and how high taxes will eventually go! I have written about this relationship for a long time, but please allow me to refresh memories.

In the United States, the Government Agency tasked with employment, employment laws, and employer responsibilities is not the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB); by statute, it is the Department of Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The NLRB is only there to handle labor unions, labor union growth, and labor union law. The IRS defines what an employee is vs. a contractor or knowledge vendor. Worse, the IRS rigidly protects this relationship as a key to preserving the government’s interest (tax dollars) in keeping socialism in the workplace. Some of my earliest articles deal with these exact principles and the socialized employee structures in which each worker and business is demanded to participate. Gravy Train 2

Upset with how your employer treats you, both on and off the employer’s property, there is only one place to put the blame, the IRS. The IRS states the employer can invade your privacy, in your home, as an extension of “Risk Control” because your employer agreed to the IRS’s demands to pay taxes. Your rights, freedoms, and liberties are curtailed, culled, and clipped in the workplace because the IRS demands the employer play ball with them, and your liberties are the price you pay for a paycheck. Every time I see a labor union complaining about how the employer treats them, I want to shake the stuffing out of the leaders, for it is not the employer but the IRS that should be struck down and disbanded! Yet, the NLRB will always side against the employer, and the labor union, a Marxist organization, wins, the IRS wins, and the employer and non-union employees lose. As a result, socialism in America becomes more powerful and influential.

Socialism and Mothers in the Workplace

As a means to improve the strength of the family in society, several religious organizations would love to see mothers provided the power to stay home. Yet, socialism, as a fundamental operating principle, that all able bodied people must support the state, K-12 educators can rear kids, and the government acquires drones who do as they are told. High fuel prices are no longer discussed on the nightly news because the government needs every able-bodied and disabled person working and asked the media to find something else to discuss. Plato 2

Why does the current president keep ducking questions about inflation; because the higher inflation goes, the higher prices are demanded, and the more people will rely upon the “Government Gravy Train.” Unfunded liabilities (kited checks) are acceptable to socialists as a means of controlling the populace and keeping people in the game. Higher taxes from inflation are good when it controls those in society who would raise their heads and ask questions under the thumb of totalitarian control. If mothers returned home, how fast would demands for improved schools become the big issue in local politics, again? Gravy Train 3

My wife, a single mother due to divorce, while raising her two kids, relates stories of gathering mothers in Seattle to fight the school board and win. Bewitched (1964-1972), the TV show reflects several times where Samantha got involved and changed local politics. It used to be expected in local politics for mothers to have the ultimate last word on worthy politicians for whom to vote. Yet, by increasing prices, mothers had to go to work. It is now standard for politicians to get elected whose only desire is to keep socialism going, stealing liberties and freedoms while pontificating that the other party is at fault for your suffering.

Knowledge Check! I repeat, only for emphasis, the IRS remains the most influential, nefarious, and deadly threat to America. America, what I am proposing will be a culture shock. It will turn many people onto their heads. It will appear anathema, all because we, the citizens, have watched the government become stronger and us the citizens weaker for so many generations. But, the reality remains, we own the government, the government has been abusing us, and the time of big government to solve all the problems from a broken shoelace to fixing the weather has to end! We must believe, gather knowledge, and act as a conjoined whole to make the necessary changes.

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: Revisiting Designed Incompetence

Dont Tread On Me Plato has a point, “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” When writing about the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Internal Revenue Service, or the United States Postal Service, one must remember, these organizations have been intentionally designed to be as bad as they are. The government worker refuses accountability, shuns responsibility, and simply wants to exist doing as little as possible for as much as possible.

In the private sector, the employee is expected to shoulder responsibilities, share in the companies struggles, trials, and the eventual victories. Yet, the government employee is the exact opposite. I have heard it said that government workers are a necessary evil, a scourge, and a disgrace. Except, often times the government employee is just a rule follower and the really pernicious and dastardly government employee are those seeking power in their government employment. The directors, the supervisors, the managers, and the undersecretaries. The staff that never goes anywhere. Political appointees come and go, but the staff is a scourge for life.

Never Give Up! While Plato has a point about apathy in public affairs leading to being ruled by evil men, what is lost in the discussion are the staff members. Tom Clancy wrote about how a jet airliner took out both houses of the Congress, SCOTUS, and Vice President Jack Ryan suddenly found himself as President Ryan, rebuilding the entire US Government. This Tom Clancy novel takes a person into the inner workings of the US Constitutional Government like no other book I have ever seen. Best of all, he explains the intoxicating power the staff members, the executive assistants, and undersecretaries hold over the political appointees to hinder progress, stymie change, and control their fiefdoms against all forces of influence. This is the root of designed incompetence.

What is an excuse?

An excuse is a method to reduce blame attached to an action, defend, or justify one’s actions, an attempt to release one from accountability, or a poor or inadequate example of something. As children, we are taught excuses are like noses; everyone has one and picking it in public is disgusting. Yet, when something happens, two types of people emerge, those who make excuses and those who take responsibility and work to fix the problem.

What is designed incompetence?

Designed incompetence is a ready-made excuse for inadequacies created in business operations, a method to avoid responsibility and accountability. Due to the cost of designed incompetence, it is generally only found in government operations. Designed incompetence can also be intentional actions designed into business operations, so the expected functions are designed to fail purposefully. Designed incompetence is always harmful and destructive in nature, generally will make no logical sense, and will always be the preplanned leadership fallback position. Apathy

Example of an excuse:

- The USPS is running slow, so the delivery of mail is taking longer to deliver than usual.
- COVID has a lot of employees out sick, so operations are slower.
- The person who wrote the order requesting the work to be completed did not do their jobs properly, and the original order must be rewritten.

Examples of designed incompetence:

- The VBA communicates using terminology not universal in medicine to intentionally confuse and hinder making appropriate decisions on veterans’ claims.
- The VHA refuses to write policies and procedures due to a fear of risk; thus, when the VA-OIG investigates, the same recommendation can be made multiple times to write down procedures. The leadership team can escape accountability for failure.
- The USPS has mail carriers dumping mail in dumpsters, these employees are protected by the labor union, so the employee can keep their job, move them to a non-letter carrier position.

Designed Incompetence Feeds Inert and Toxic Cultures

Knowledge Check! Designed incompetence is the root cause for the toxic government employee workplace cultures. When responsibility is shirked, the human psyche feels moral distress, and as the moral distress grows, so to does the self-loathing, self-hate, and feelings of hopelessness. Worse, some people, who have constantly been ethically challenged or morally bankrupt, will use these feelings of self-loathing to capture power. Once captured, the power becomes a drug, and that drug is highly addictive. Thus, a self-fulfilling prophecy from Plato becomes true, “Apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” The more the morally bankrupt and ethically challenged win power, the bigger an example to others of how to obtain power in government they become. But the remaining people who do not receive power are left with a toxic workplace, full of inert people. Motivating inert people in a toxic culture, who are already feeling the stress of acting morally indifferent will leave multi-generational scars on the workforce.

An important point that requires mentioning, “it is not for the lack of money or technology to pinpoint abuses and problems with employees; it is all the inertia of the leadership towards action and the toxic culture which allows and encourages pushing the boundaries that are killing veterans in the VA.” The same is true for any of the alphabet agencies created by the Federal Government, state government, and local government. Walk into a DMV and tell me if you cannot sense a toxic and inert culture is driving down customer service levels. Walk into a welfare office and tell me the people working one side of the counter are not inert. Worse, walk into any IRS field office and tell me how you feel being around the morally bankrupt and ethically challenged. Plato 2

I met some school board officials in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was appalled at the lack of ethics and morals they displayed. Judges and lawyers are driving drink and skating accountability because of their positions and so much more. All because the designed incompetence in government promotes those who have the least reason and ability to be promoted. Plato is absolutely correct, “The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.” For too long, government employees have been allowed to run the asylum while the best and brightest pursue goals in the private sector. If America is to win back her government, the citizen must stand and boldly proclaim “NO!” and then get into government service to change the toxic and inert cultures.

Plato might have been mentioning the following about elected officials, but I find it apt and applicable to the designed incompetence by the staff members, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up governed by your inferiors.” The first time I met my director as a VA employee, I knew two things, she hated me, and I was doomed to suffer under her inadequacies. Both of which came true over the following 360-days. The intransigency of the leadership in administrative positions at the VA is frightening. Ending these abuses of power is the preeminent position of every citizen in every democratically elected society.

Plato 3 The scourge of designed incompetence must end. If this means eating soup with a knife, then we must eat the bowl of soup to the dregs. But, we must act if we are to save our countries from the politicians and the staff that have infested our governments!

NO MORE BS: The IRS – The Pernicious and Detestable Federal Agency

Angry Wet Chicken Now that tax season is, for the most part, completed and behind us for another year. It occurred to me that many people do not know the power and reach of the IRS in their daily lives. Plato is quoted as saying, “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” No truer words can describe the situation with the IRS, and I think it is time every American knows just how destructive the policies of the IRS have been and continue to be.

Employee

UseLegal.com (2012) provides the actual definition of an employee, “An “employee” is defined as “a preference eligible in the excepted service who has completed one year of current continuous service in the same or similar positions” or “an individual in the excepted service (other than a preference eligible)… who is not serving a probationary or trial period under an initial appointment pending conversion to the competitive service.” Ramos v. Merit Sys. Prot. Bd., 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 24378 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 6, 2009)” Essentially, a person can be hired by an employer, but does not attain employee status and protection until that person has been hired for a continual year by the same employer, is not under a ‘probationary period,’ and or appointment. Apathy

An employee agrees to be controlled by an employer; that person’s production is only one of the controls granted to an employer. Employee conduct both on and off the job can be controlled, and the means and manner of producing the work specified. The right to control is the primary determining factor in this relationship. The right to control is also the deciding line between freelance workers and employees. Upon this single imperative hang tax law, the responsibility of parties, risk, and every item in employee/employer relationships, hierarchical structures, and will ultimately decide who or which party is in charge, and is entirely governed by the IRS in America!

The Right to Control

The IRS breaks into three categories the essential components where the ‘Right to Control’ hinges, namely, Behavioral Control, Financial Control, and Type of Relationship.

Behavioral Control: Relates to the questions, what, where, and how work is completed. Employees have set schedules, tight restrictions about how to think, where to sit, etc., dictated by the employer.

Financial Control: Relates to all things money. The employee is forced to accept all terms of the employer without negotiation, from business expenses to taxes. Where Financial Control is, risk shortly follows; where risk is, the threat of litigation follows. Therefore, when the employer has financial Control, risk follows the employer, not the employee. Profit and loss, tools of the trade, and the freedom to offer services to other organizations are all part of the financial controls relinquished by the employee to the employer. Under Financial Control falls the following, the Americans with Disabilities Act – 1990 (ADA).

- The ADA’s seminal beginning originate in 1973 Section 504, which made it illegal to discriminate against those with disabilities if the organization receives Federal Government subsidies.
  - - - “No otherwise qualified individual with handicaps in the United States… shall, solely because of her or his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”(ED.gov, 1995).
      - Classified disabilities by disease; includes “Hidden Disease[s],” is changed constantly to update diseases covered, and dictates the only requirement for the condition is that the disorder “have a material effect on one’s ability to perform a major life activity” (Ed.gov, 1995).
      - Business costs mainly occur in ‘soft’ costs, i.e., changing procedures, reasonable accommodations, etc., something to keep in mind, though, “… noncompliance can cost an employer. For example, in the fiscal year 2006, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) resolved 15,045 disability discrimination charges. It recovered $48.8 million in monetary benefits for workers who did not receive accommodations to which they are entitled under the ADA” (Woog, 2008). Thus, monetarily speaking, noncompliance costs more than compliance.

Type of Relationship: Relates to all things in the interaction of the two independent parties, including written contracts dictating the interaction, risks, penalties, etc. The extent of the relationship is a significant point and colludes with permanency and benefits to form the marriage between two independent entities. The employee forfeits Control in this arena to the employer who automatically sets the terms, demands compliance, and exerts totalitarian Control. quote-mans-inhumanity

Employee Surveillance

IRS.gov (2018) sets the standard upon which the premise for employee surveillance rests; the business organization holds the right to control, monitor, insist, and legally demand employee behaviors. Goshray (2013) quoted Cashmore (2009) and is correct; employee privacy is dead, and the origination is social media. Thus, with the IRS granting legal ability to monitor and control employees, there are no other legal or ethical issues, privacy concerns, or anything else wrong with employee surveillance. If the employee chooses to take issue with the monitoring, that employee is free to end their relationship with the company; in fact, Lyon (2017) substantiated that with newer employees, who have grown up with the acceptance of digital citizenship, surveillance is expected and no privacy concerns exist in the workplace. Patriotism

Holt, Lang, and Sutton (2017) further inform that employee surveillance does not affect potential employees’ rating of the organization’s ethics, nor the organizational views when monitoring, e.g., employee surveillance is higher than another business in the same industry. Holt et al., (2017) further added that employee surveillance has been, and continues to be, radically changed by the technology available (Waxman & Barile, 2016). Returning to the organizational “right,” as provided by the government through both edict and legislation, employees have no individual control and relinquish privacy rights upon hire to the employer (IRS.gov, 2018).

Vargas (2017) reviewed a business and found that the employer considers each employee a criminal and that through working for the company, investigated criminalization of employee behaviors is enacted and reproduced. Essentially, making each employee an automatic suspect anytime a crime occurs, suspecting every transaction, and disciplining for minor changes in expected corporate behaviors. While admittedly, this behavior by the business might be considered extreme, it is not beyond the legal “rights” of the employer. An argument could be made to treat employees better to reduce churn; in this particular industry (retail), high churn means you pay less in wages because good employees leave quickly and bad employees are fired fast. Thus, criminalizing the employee is not wrong; employee surveillance is not unethical and should have no consequences for honest employees. The Duty of Americans

However, labor unions vociferously continue to advocate privacy in the workplace and attempt to place limits upon employee surveillance by a company, completely disregarding the fact that the employer has the legal right and ability to demand and enforce all types of direct and indirect employee surveillance programs (Goshray, 2013; Holt, Lang, and Sutton, 2017; IRS.gov, 2018; Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, 2017; Lyon, 2017; Waxman & Barile, 2016; Vargas, 2017). While Leclercq-Vandelannoitte (2017) attempts to place ethical constraints, prior knowledge, policies, and procedures around employee surveillance, nothing in the IRS.gov (2018) mandates declare an employer has to mention or warn employees that their every keystroke, every conversation, and every action are directly and indirectly monitored as the “right” of the business.

Knowledge Check! Is the pernicious role of the IRS now more understood? Your Employer/Employee relationship is not governed by the NLRB, but by the IRS, and this was by design to protect tax money! Every action made in an employment situation is governed by the IRS, and the IRS has given great latitude to the employer, making you the property of the IRS, with control granted to your employer. The IRS remains a danger to every American, and the globe. Why is the United States the only industrialized nation to not allow options to the employee/employer relationship, squashing innovation, curtailing small businesses opportunities, and unequally tipping the scales for large organizations, look to the IRS! Want to point fingers, thank President Woodrow Wilson (D) and his complicit Congress and his executive orders!

References

Effelsberg, D., Solga, M., & Gurt, J. (2013). Getting followers to transcend their self-interest for the benefit of their company: Testing a core assumption of transformational leadership theory. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(1), 131-143. doi:10.1007/s10869-013-9305-x

Ghoshray, S. (2013). Employer surveillance versus employee privacy: The new reality of social media and the workplace. Northern Kentucky Law Review, 40(3), 593-626. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lgs&AN=90242325&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Holt, M., Lang, B., & Sutton, S. G. (2017). Potential employees’ ethical perceptions of active monitoring: The dark side of data analytics.Journal of Information Systems, 31(2), 107-124. doi:10.2308/isys-51580

Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, A. (2017). An ethical perspective on emerging forms of ubiquitous IT-based Control.Journal of Business Ethics, 142(1), 139-154. doi: http://dx.doi.org.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/10.1007/s10551-015-2708-z

Lyon, D. (2017). Digital Citizenship and Surveillance| Surveillance Culture: Engagement, Exposure, and Ethics in Digital Modernity. International Journal of Communication, 11, 19.

Waxman, S. S., & Barile, F. G. (2016). “Eye in the sky:” Employee surveillance in the public sector. Albany Law Review, 79(1), 131.

U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS.gov) (2018). Independent contractor vs. employee. Available from http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,id=99921,00.html

U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS.gov). (2018). The Agency, its Mission, and Statutory Authority. Retrieved from http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=98141,00.html

Vargas, T. L. (2017). Employees or Suspects? Surveillance and Scrutinization of Low-Wage Service Workers in U.S. Dollar Stores, 20(2), 207–230. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eoh&AN=EP123822581&site=ehost-live&scope=site

In Defense of the Rule of Law – Restoring “… Liberty and Justice for All”

This letter is pertinent to every American citizen as well as those currently holding public office and those seeking to become politicians. Politics has always been an American passion; we talk politics at work with co-workers, across the fence with neighbors, around the kitchen table with family and trusted friends, and almost everywhere else without exception…including public restrooms. Yes, Americans even discuss politics in public restrooms. Conversations overheard and notes written on walls provide plenty of evidence. This is apt; much of the political theater currently thrust into America’s attention is fit only for flushing.

President Lincoln is quoted thus: “Let every American, every lover of Liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their abuse by others. As the Patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear [down] the character of his own, and his children’s liberty. Let reverence for the [Constitutional] laws [of America]… become the political religion of the nation.”

President Lincoln continued on to proclaim, “When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise, for the redress of which, no legal provisions have been made, I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they continue in force, for the sake of example, they should be religiously observed.” The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, “Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois” (January 27, 1838), p. 112.

Americans inherently seem to know right from wrong. Living in a Republic is messy and loud. Yet, from the clamoring on two extreme points, fairness, justice, and mercy continue to stand in the common argument for the regulation of society to ultimately benefit all. Since Americans inherently know right from wrong and are generally just and merciful, the most contemptible actions a politician can make is to forget, upon election, he/she must serve all his/her constituents, not only the political party he/she personally adheres to and represents. This contemptible action, witnessed in many past and current political scandals, simultaneously displayed the actions taken at every level of government from the dogcatcher and school board locally to the president’s office federally. For example, President Obama’s decision to hire Arne Duncan as United States Secretary of Education, the multiplicity of “Czar” appointments, the VA scandal across America, the IRS debacle and the continuing saga this represents, and much more, on both sides of the political aisle, all find their roots in the failure to adhere to the rule of law. Supporting a personal political party’s leanings over the rule of law causes all of America to suffer grievously.

Districts elect their politicians, and an elected politician has only one job, which is to represent the citizens, all citizens of this great Republic, at the level of office elected. This means that the higher in political office, the broader the constituent base, and the higher the public’s trust, and hence the more closely the politician must walk in honoring, obeying, and upholding the laws of the land. If the politician’s first waking breath is not commitment to equality under the law and obedience to America’s Constitutional Law, as described by President Lincoln above, he/she is a charlatan, a hoax, a fraudster, and needs removal from holding a position of public trust. More to the point, failure to honor the elected responsibility to constituents is, by law, criminal negligence and warrants a court of action convened in the form of a public hearing held forthwith to determine status of guilt and accountability under the law for failure to uphold the public trust.

Rugged individuals founded America for people who love Liberty. To love Liberty means fair play and equality under the law as the basic and fundamental building block of society. If an individual personally is unable to tolerate individual liberty, that individual remains free to leave America’s shores and find a more suitable place to live among the other nations on Earth.

Too many people in America have failed to embrace personal liberty for their neighbors; thus, compromising personal liberty for themselves and fundamentally jeopardizing liberty for every American. President Lincoln could not have been plainer on this point, and the extreme examples of the last 20+ years on the Federal, State, and Local government levels are obvious. America is in danger not from without, e.g. terrorism, war, etc., but from within, e.g. politicians, who fail to uphold equality under American Constitutional Law and honor the rule of America’s law. The axiom continues to verify itself, “The wise man in the storm does not pray for deliverance from the storms without, but the storms within.” Direct application of hope, faith, and trust dispels fear as a storm within. If a politician holds a position of public trust, people have placed upon him/her their hope and faith that he/she will honor the rule of law for the benefit of all peoples, not simply those who helped him/her become elected.

A particular point of contention generates with “Special Interest Groups.” Special interest groups do not the full population represent; hence, the reason and label of “Special Interests.” Special interest groups are not capable of representing all the population or they would be called “General Interest Groups,” and not every person in America can be represented by such narrow thinking on any issue, let alone the big issues, e.g. abortion rights, religion, immigration, education, etc. Because “Special Interest Groups” do not represent the full population, limiting special interests, disclosing fully special interest funding sources, and issuing complete disclosure of the reason that particular special interest is pushing a specific legislative agenda are key factors. During the Obamacare debates, in full spectacle of the world, America learned a valuable lesson on the need for full disclosure on special interests. Special interest groups intensely supported, as political favors for the benefit of one political group over all others, software that never lived up to the hype and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. This decision represented a deleterious action full of contempt for the rule of law rather than equal opportunity under the law for all persons. Anytime public money is used to issue a political favor, public trust is breached, the rule of law flouted, and the need for removal from office necessitated; then such persons are held accountable, along with those politically rewarded, in a court of law, and the public’s money is recovered.

The use of public funds in issuing political favors includes employment. Since public employees necessarily receive their wages from public money, politicians breach the public trust should they hire, as a reward for political favors and the public deserves their money back. Kevin Jennings is a specific example; President Obama, through Arne Duncan while in the office of Secretary of Education, hired Jennings as a “Safe Schools Czar.” Duncan knew Jennings would remain a prominent and outspoken member of the LGBTQ agenda through Jennings’ history with GLSEN, as well as a previous executive director for the group and an admirer of Harry Hays of NAMBLA. It seems particularly ironic that to achieve greater public support, under the leadership of Jennings the group GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) changed its name (1997) from the Gay & Lesbian Independent School Teacher Network (GLISTN). His hire represents a significant breach of public trust as a pusher of the LGBTQ agenda. His role in government put him squarely into a position to coerce America’s Public Schools into becoming breeding grounds for the homosexual agenda instead of bastions for learning. Americans felt abhorred that someone who peddles in pedophilia was now in charge of making schools safer. For the record, anytime a legally recognized adult promotes sex with children under the age of legal majority is committing, or aiding in, the crime of pedophilia. By promoting books on adult/children sex, creating book lists and learning platforms promoting this deviant behavior, Jennings has aided and abetted, at the very least, pedophilia in America’s schools. While claiming success due to President Obama’s assistance, the LGBTQ Agenda became “anti-bullying” at a conference hosted by the White House with President Obama being the keynote speaker.

An investment of public money through employment for the political reward of a constituent is what landed Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois in prison. What put him in prison is and continues to be called, “Pay-to-Play.” Investing in a politician that leads to a reward, e.g. employment, with the ability to “play” with the laws of the land remains despicable and worthy of criminal charges with a public trial for all persons in the chain of decision-making; yes, this includes President Obama.

Rest assured politicians can hire whom they choose, but they must do so ever cognizant of the moral fiber and ethical standards of those hired, and the public trust invested through both the voting booth and tax dollars. Kevin Jennings never showed the slightest inclination to support the rule of law or equality under the law for all people. In fact, many of his friends and associates continue to believe that if a person does not think in a similar manner to themselves, that person needs to be destroyed politically, personally, and professionally, this is also referred to as being “Bork[ed].” Represented and exemplified through the actions of such supporters in the removal of Inspector Generals in the Federal Government at large, the changes specifically within the Department of Education, and the cover-ups in the IRS and VA scandals were all designed to hide truth from the American public. This is dangerous ground for America and represents terrorism at the most fundamental level, the terrorism of thought leading to action while holding a position of public trust paid for by public funds. By using the threat of government action to intimidate, coerce, and force societal change, many in government, like Jennings, are committing terrorist acts.

As the elections of 2016 draw near, this missive belongs to the politicians currently holding office as well as those hoping to hold public office: please uphold the rule of law. Please come out in full and unequivocal support of the rule of law and the liberty of all as the only hope for saving America, even if this means people suffer from the consequences of their poor individual decisions. Embrace the rule of America’s Constitutional law. Taxpayers, as represented by their collective elected officials colloquially known as government, cannot and should never be forced to pay for bad personal decisions with public money. Government is not a charitable organization. Hence, government cannot and should not be investing public money in abortion clinics, drug rehab clinics, and other consequences for poor personal decisions. Charitable and religious organizations are sufficient to this task and public money needs investing elsewhere, e.g. providing for the common defense, ensuring free trade among the states, reducing the debt, or lowering taxes, etc.

Stand for the absolute rule of law and America wins. Failure to stand for the rule of law and America loses, utterly and completely. With the failure to stand for the rule of law, politicians elected and trusted by their constituents, who transform themselves into being inadequate to the task to perform according to law. Their names are thence cast upon the dung heaps of history as charlatans and unpitied betrayers of the struggle to keep America the “…shining city on a hill,” full of “…liberty and justice for all.”

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