Conservative Blogger
Saturday, July 4, 2015
The real reason America is exceptional
An American Flag flies at Liberty State Park in
Jersey City, N.J., Tuesday, June 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
A soldier stands guard over sleeping heroes - known only to their Maker.
Now Playing The Common Man: A proud American
A farmer in the heartland gathers his crop as golden wheat shimmers in the breeze. A rancher gallops along the Texas Hill Country -- herding his cattle to the stockyards. A river boat captain pilots his boat down the muddy waters of the Mississippi.
We are an uncommon nation established by common men.A job for the Common Man
In a Tennessee church house a candle flickers -- a preacher prays on bended knee -- asking God to bless our land -- to shed his grace on thee.
A prayer for the Common Man.
When the floodwaters rise and the storm clouds billow -- we stand ready to help -- feeding the hungry -- mending the wounded -- rebuilding homes and lives.
Goodwill for the Common Man.
And in some distant land a soldier stands guard defending our nation -- tending Lady Liberty's flame. They are young men and young women from our big cities and small towns -- willing to sacrifice their lives so that we can be free.
A protector for the Common Man.
We are the sons and daughters of the Common Man.
We are noble people forged by freedom’s fire.
We are an uncommon nation established by common men.
We are proud Americans and this is our fanfare.
Oregon launches program to tax drivers by the mile
David Hastings is a rare American. This long-time hybrid car owner from Oregon wants to pay higher taxes for roads and bridges and says the current 30 cents per gallon state gas tax barely affects him.
"I've been free-loading on the highways for 20 years driving electric cars or hybrid cars, getting at least 40 miles to the gallon. So I haven't been paying my share," Hastings said.
Now, Hastings will pay more thanks to OReGO -- the first pay-by-the-mile program in the U.S.
Oregon’s Department of Transportation has been working on it for 15 years as a way to eventually replace the gas tax, which has been flat due to an influx of high mileage vehicles and people driving less.
Right now the program is voluntary and being capped at 5,000 participants, but an ODOT official told Fox News the ultimate goal is to make it mandatory and change the way states pay for roads -- forever.
"We're trying to make up for a growing deficit, really, because inflation's eating away at our ability to buy asphalt and rebar and the things we need to maintain the roads," said Tom Fuller of the Oregon Department of Transportation.
According to a national usage fee alliance, 28 states are in various stages of following down the same road. However, there are also privacy concerns. Two of the three OReGO systems track and store a car’s every move.
"To put a GPS monitor in everybody's car, the government already knows too much about us as it is," Jeff Kruse, a Republican lawmaker told Fox News.
Others are raising questions about the cost. Getting the gas tax is cheap, but OReGO vendors will eat up 40 cents of every dollar collected, and for those not used to paying any gas tax, it could be a whole new sticker shock – every month.
Jeff Allen, of “Drive Oregon,” supports the one and a half cent per mile usage fee -- to a point.
"We need to be subsidizing and incentivizing electric cars and not putting more taxes or fees on them, not discouraging people from buying them in any way," Allen said.
Republicans look to deliver blow against ObamaCare tax
Despite the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding ObamaCare subsidies, opponents of the law remain poised to strike a key blow against another component of the health care overhaul in a matter of months.
Republicans, with help from Democrats, have gained momentum in their long-running effort to repeal the law's controversial 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices.
The House voted 280-140 to nix the tax, which went into effect in 2013, in June; the debate heads next to the Senate. While Republicans have tried dozens of times to unravel all or parts of the law through repeal legislation, this bill has bipartisan backing -- and, with a potential veto showdown on the horizon, supporters may even have a veto-proof majority.
"Obviously, we are really heartened by the House vote -- I think more significantly, 46 Democrats joined with the Republicans in the House," said J.C. Scott, head of government relations for the trade group Advanced Medical Technology Association, of AdvaMed, which has been lobbying Congress hard for a repeal. It released surveys detailing the tax's negative impact on its member companies in 2014 and 2015.
Scott said, "Clearly the congressional spirit is there on a bipartisan basis to get something done by the end of the year" in the Senate.
"I think the will is there," he said.
A bill introduced in January by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has five Democratic co-sponsors, including the two liberal Democratic senators from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, as well as Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.
The push has enjoyed bipartisan support from the beginning from lawmakers who think the tax has cost the country thousands of jobs in the medical device industry and is drying up resources for private research and development.
"Both Republicans and Democrats understand how bad this tax really is and we owe it to the American people to ensure the development of life saving medical devices are not plagued by high costs that will, ultimately, be passed on to patients," Hatch said in January.
The tax is supposed to help pay for ObamaCare, bringing upwards of $30 billion into the program over 10 years. It applies to all gross company sales of non-retail medical devices and supplies, from X-Ray equipment and MRI machines to bandages and surgical tools. Because it is a 2.3 percent tax on gross sales, the percentage it takes out of profits is much larger.
The repeal push once had even liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on board when the Democrat-led Senate passed a non-binding budget amendment dealing with the issue in 2013. "When Congress taxes the sale of a specific product through an excise tax, as the Affordable Care Act does with medical devices, it too often disproportionately impacts the small companies with the narrowest financial margins and the broadest innovated potential," she said in 2013.
It is not clear whether she is supporting Hatch's latest bill, given she has been a strong supporter of ObamaCare overall.
But the number of Democrats who voted for repeal in the House, coupled with the support Democrats have shown for repeal in two previous non-binding budget resolutions in the Senate, indicate the latest bill at least has enough support to pass Congress. McConnell's office said pro-repeal lawmakers also believe they have enough votes in both chambers to override a veto, which the White House has threatened.
Repealing the tax, the White House said in June, would amount to a "large tax break to profitable corporations."
"This excise tax is one of several designed so that industries that gain from the coverage expansion will help offset the cost of that expansion," said the Office of Management and Budget in a statement. "Its repeal would take away a funding source for financial assistance that is working to improve [health care] coverage and affordability and would increase the Federal deficit by $24.4 billion over 10 years."
Supporters of the tax say there is no real evidence it is killing more than 30,000 jobs, as claimed by the AdvaMed survey, or that it will ultimately shift jobs overseas. The Washington Post's Fact Checker gave these claims two "pinocchios" in 2014 and three on June 30 after reviewing them.
The paper said the impact of the tax on companies is actually smaller -- closer to 1.5 percent -- because companies can claim a deduction on their federal income taxes.
Fact Checker also pointed to a Congressional Research Service study that found the impact of the tax on jobs and R&D negligible, and pointed to another survey of medical device companies by the Emergo Group that found that nearly 57 percent said they did not make any significant staff cuts due to the tax, compared with 14 percent who did.
When asked if the tax was squeezing funds for R&D, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters in January, "I don't think there's any reason why that medical device tax would in any way limit the kind of innovation that the president believes could revolutionize health care."
Government's hold on power hangs in balance no matter what Greeks decide, analysts say
Analysts say no matter what the Greeks decide in Sunday’s referendum vote, the government’s hold on power is more uncertain than its prime minister suggests.
Prime Minister Alex Tsipras is calling on voters to deliver a resounding “no” in the popular vote that he believes will give him strong leverage in his negotiations with creditors to swing a softer bailout agreement for Greece, which has been ravaged by years of austerity, recession and poverty.
A win for the No campaign could allow Tsipras to get a stronger grip on power. However, analysts don’t think that could be the case.
They say a “no” note could still plunge Tsipras’ position into uncertainty if negotiations drag on with creditors who see such the outcome as a Greek snub of the euro. Without a quick deal, banks could stay closed to keep their reserves from running dry.
"A deteriorating import-dependent economy will provoke a rapid decline in public support for the government and fresh elections may become inevitable, but this will take time," said Dimitri Sotiropoulos, political science professor at the University of Athens.
A vote for the Yes campaign could case Tsipras’ public mandate in doubt and force him to broaden his coalition government, political analyst George Sertzis said. The never government may have Syriza at its core, but the cabinet’s composition could change to include “respected personalities who can be recruited to fill that role.”
The radical left Syriza emerged from the political fringes in January as Greek voters sought an alternatives to what they saw as a bankrupt political establishment they blame for opening the door to half a decade of punishing salary and pension rollbacks, steep job cuts and hefty taxes.
Just a few years ago, the country's two main political forces, the right-wing New Democracy and the socialist PASOK parties, commanded some 80 percent of the vote between them. Now, with many Greeks seeing them as kowtowing to the lenders' diktats, their support was dwindled.
Tsipras' youth, unorthodox style and pledges to fight the good fight for the country's poorest endeared him to many and persuaded some that he could take on the institutional behemoths that decide the economic fate of entire nations.
However, the lack of results in Greek talks have diminished the government’s credibility in the eyes of Europe’s power circles.
"This government doesn't trust the institutions of the EU and the IMF, and those institutions trust the Greek government even less," said Sotiropoulos.
Tsipras’ gambit appears to rest on whether he can clinch a deal quickly so that banks can reopen and get money flowing to businesses once more. Tsipras told private TV station Antenna Thursday that he sees a deal emerging with lenders “within 48 hours” after the referendum.
His finance minister, Yianis Varoufakis, told Ireland's RTE radio Friday that an agreement with creditors "is more or less done" and that European officials had put forward "very decent proposals" this week.
The European Union and International Monetary Fund are unlikely to cave in on demands for tough austerity measures, notes Sotiropoulos.
The creditors may offer a vague pledge to consider restructuring Greece’s crushing debt, but that won’t likely happen until the government faithfully implements the terms of the deal for at least 12 to 18 months, said Sotiropoulos.
A 'no' win would be a Pyrrhic victory for the Greek government. You can't survive on Pyrrhic victories because you need funds to keep the country running," he said.
Sefertzis said Tsipras' political decline may come much faster even with a referendum "no" in his pocket as he would have little time to get to keep the country from economic collapse.
With the economy fledgling, Tsirpras’ hold on power would be a “matter of days rather than weeks,” said Sefertzis.
The latest opinion polls put the No and Yes camps in a dead heat as divisions have emerged even within the Greek government. A lawmaker from its right-wing junior coalition partner was kicked out for backing a "yes" vote.
Writing in the liberal daily "Ta Nea," pollster Elias Nikolakopoulos said any predictions about the outcome on Sunday "are exceedingly precarious" because party allegiances in this vote are fluid.
Speaking on Ireland's RTE radio, Varoufakis even suggested that a "yes" win is possible, albeit by a narrow margin. But even then, he insisted his party would come out "stronger and united."
"Syriza will remain the only credible party in the parliament, our young leader will remain the only credible leader of this nation," Varoufakis said.
There may be credence to that. Sotiropoulos said in case of a "yes" win, Syriza could remain part of any new national unity government given its large support.
He said it would make sense for Greece's creditors to compensate the country if a "yes" vote prevails by easing austerity, earmarking more developments funds and finding ways to alleviate the debt burden without necessarily resorting to write-offs.
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