Letter to my Representitive and Senators

Posted by XenokRoy 11 years, 11 months ago to Politics
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I started to write a letter to send to my representatives and senators about what I would like to see to them. My intent is to have it be fairly strongly worded.

I was wondering if others here would take a look at it and provide their feedback. It needs to be concise enough that someone will read it but long enough to cover a few major points.

As it evolves I will update it on this thread, and anyone my use it, in whole or in part for there own letters to there representatives..


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    • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
      How long do you think people would put up with it, if the federal government actually gave us a single tax that made it very evident to the drones how much they are paying? If it was a flat tax of say 28% how long would the 47% that pay nothing put up with that tax?

      It would change the motivations of people voting so yes, I want the one fat tax only because it would open eyes. It is also the reason why we will likely never see it happen.
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        • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
          How do you propose we pay for our debt and our operational costs as a country without tax?

          The continental congress tried the voluntary method and we were bankrupt. Washington and Hamilton started the method of clubbing some minority over the head (by the majority) with the whiskey tax and we have been doing ever since.

          We do have to pay back the money we have borrowed and we do have to operate a military (though we can exist with a much smaller one). How do we pay for it with no taxes?
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            • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
              I am not indoctrinated. On that you are wrong. You also avoided my question.

              If there is no tax how to you propose we pay for things that have to be done to have a society. In particular how do you pay for a military to protect individual property rights without a tax?

              Without a military we will not have our individual rights for long. Freedom has costs, how do you propose we pay those costs?
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                • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
                  You have still not answered my question. What other option do you suggest?
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                    • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
                      Never said my good deeds are your obligation. I am also am not asking you to offer a solution to my problem. I am asking you to offer a solution to your problem.

                      What I am asking, and what you keep refusing to answer is:

                      How do you plan to pay for the costs of protecting your freedom and property rights? Not my freedom or property rights, but yours?
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                        • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
                          Since when is paying your way for the services you benefit from not your problem. A proper role of government is to protect its citizens against the use of force against them by other citizens or by other nations. This proper role does have to be paid for. How would you pay for it?

                          You sound like a anarchist moocher rather than a socialist moocher.
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                        • Posted by khalling 11 years, 11 months ago
                          how come you're happy to lob out the name calling, but get all sensitive when someone does it to you? yea, XR, is not on your page. I don't want to "force" you to do anything. but you're complying with some of the rules or you wouldn't be using the roads, airlines, hospitals. what do you do if someone hits your car? if you're not using any of these remedies then fine. but for practicality sake we are discussing PRIVATE solutions (at least in this thread) and you can pay or not-your choice. Pass the scotch eggs!
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                      • Posted by khalling 11 years, 11 months ago
                        There are ways to pay for legitimate functions of govt without coercive taxation. some non coercive ways include, lottery, Rand suggested a voluntary tax that had to be paid if you wanted your contracts enforceable in court,. I would suggest that tariffs on imported goods (it is voluntary -however I am not in love with this option). Highways should not be a publicly funded concern.
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                        • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
                          I agree. Rand has some excellent ideas.

                          Paying for copyrights and trade marks each year if you want them enforceable would be a perfect wan to handle that aspect.

                          I think most of the services required by government could be paid for just like in business, I purchase what I want by paying an annual fee for the service to be available to me. Schools, libraries, roads, police and fire departments can all work this way.

                          The one I have never found, from rand or anyone else is how to pay for military, thus why I ashed about that one. The best suggestion is a head tax or sales tax everyone pays.
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                  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 11 months ago
                    http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/c2...
                    I'm trying this again. :)
                    I like the idea of deciding to pay for police or fire as a yearly deal, here's my concern about that and the military-I don't want a feudal society. it breaks down too easily. If we have more than one private police situation, we're back to the thug kind of mentality-pay me for your protection. we have to agree on some things. But with fire fighting, I think it works well. In the states there are now areas that contract with fire departments individually or in townships. If your house goes up in flames well-you aren't contracted, well there's a risk to be assessed or I suppose you could be sued by nearby homeowners-maybe that already happens anyway. I'm not sure.Trademarks, copyrights and patents are already handled this way. The PTO is self-funding. The only self-funded agency in the government. All protections are provided through fees. Infringement issues are handle through the courts. It would work really well, but the general treasury STEALS from their fee base-over 1B during the last decade, so their efficiency has suffered greatly, don't get me started, gggrrrrr...
                    however, I am picking up from David that he's all for feudal- so he can hang out off the grid and be prepared if there's trouble for whomever he's prepared to infrastructure and protect. I think he's probably exceptional in his ability to handle those things. I don't get the efficiency of the choice, but it's his choice.
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                    • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
                      The crux of the issue is for a few things, paying for a service does not work. We tried the voluntary method of paying for military during the revolution. We were bankrupt and ripe to be taken over by some other country and loose the freedom we had gained. The articles had failed, they were to weak of a central government.

                      To get out of this we enacted the whiskey tax, and put down the whiskey rebellion. I disagree with the whiskey tax (one of the few things Washington did that set a bad example for later years) because it was a minority paying for the expenses of all.

                      The result of no flat tax that everyone paid an equal percentage was, in the very early part of our country, a tax that some minority paid (whiskey producers) to cover the debts we (the citizens) had incurred. Thus making the majority a bunch of moochers of the whiskey producers.

                      It is a complex problem to look at what the best way to collect revenue is and how to keep that method from getting out of control as it has today.

                      I did not realize the PTO was self-funding. That is cool, and the way it should be with anything that you can do it with.

                      Thanks for the post.
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  • Posted by flanap 11 years, 11 months ago
    I would go with one point: "We know simply you are a pawn of the Establishment and that you are extorted and bribed into doing their bidding. I don't fault you for having no spine and selling out your fellow Americans, same as you don't fault so many for not taking responsibility for themselves."
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  • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years, 11 months ago
    If the gov could understand and respect the true meaning of a budget (not to mention the mooching population who has no clue what a budget is either) then you might have a chance. However, I think you're giving all of them way too much credit. The gov will NOT tell the moochers "NO!" And that's what needs to happen. (Foreign aide, subsidies, bail outs,.... included). Nobody has the nads to say 'no'....until that starts to happen there is no hope.
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    • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
      I agree, looking for ways to give people the "nads to say 'no'" No one is going to stick there neck out there unless they think they have enough support to not get it chopped off.
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  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 11 months ago
    why an income tax? taxes based on income are arbitrary. what about consumption only in the form of sales taxes? Why haven't you included the Dept of the Interior? what exactly has that dept done for you lately? What about the EPA and other depts which can make their own "laws" without checks and balances?
    What about farm subsidies?
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  • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
    <Insert first Paragraph specific to the person it is being sent to>

    • Tax
    o Income tax needs to be the only federal tax on US entities. This means citizens, corporations and investment taxes. It needs to be charged against all forms of income at the same rate (corporate taxes, capital gains taxes go away and income taxes are applied to these entities and income types at the same rate)
    o All other federal fees and taxes (anything where the federal government further steals money from its citizens) needs to be revoked. IE not death tax, no FICA…. Alter the federal income tax rate accordingly
    o Work towards a fair tax that charges each person the same rate regardless of their income level or any other standing. This is the only way a tax is fair and they must be brought into a state of fairness between all those that pay them. No graduated tax schedule, no deductions. A flat rate that is identical for everyone.
    • Borrowing
    o We need to operate within our means, and pay down a minimum of 5% of what we have borrowed every year. (while I realize we cannot hit this quickly, it should be our goal and as such be discussed on how we get there.)
    • Foreign Aid
    o End it. Until we can pay for what we have here at home, foreign aid is a great thing that we cannot afford.
    • United Nations
    o End our financial Contributions. Again until we can take care of our finances here we cannot afford it.
    • Welfare System
    o End it. This will have to be a gradual thing, but it belongs in local communities where there will be far less waste. Not at the federal level, or even the state level.
    • Social Security
    o At worst the retirement age needs to increase greatly (say to 80) and at best it needs to be eliminated along with the taxes associated with it.
    • Military Spending
    o Lower it. We do not need to be the American Empire. We need bases that protect our own lands, not the lands of the Germans, the Japanese or any other lands. We need to respect their sovereignty and their ability to keep it on their own, or lose it on their own.
    • Department of Education
    o Work to eliminate it at the federal level. Our school systems have gotten worse since the federal government became involved, get back out. Let the states run the schools or even better let counties or cities do it. The smaller and more local the better. We need a melting pot of competition and ideas in our school system on how to best teach our kids. This has always worked better than some buacracy telling us how to do it form the top.
    • Department of Urban Development
    o Eliminate it. What are we doing attempting to control urban development from the federal government? Its just plain wrong.
    • Department of Energy
    o Eliminate this department. States should run this. They will do it better and every state would be in competition for providing more cost effective and clean power. That competition would bring in good ideas and each of the states would improve and take ideas from each other that worked. Right now this is a sink hole that simply sucks money out of the government.
    In short if you vote for anything that expands the role of the federal government (its well outside its constitutional scope now) you are not only failing to represent me, but you are a traitor to your country. The federal government is too big, too powerful and controls far too much of our lives. It has expanded beyond its constitutionally defined scope. It did so when the federal government started to assist with railroad construction because “It was too big for the private sector to do on its own.” This too big to fail mentality has continued on and off since that time and it must be rooted out of our thinking. Any Representative or Senator that is not attempting to root out this concept, lower the federal government’s scope/power and control is an enemy to the United States of America and a traitor to the constitution.
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    • Posted by flanap 11 years, 11 months ago
      Do you really think it matters?
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      • Posted by 11 years, 11 months ago
        Maybe not.

        Did it really matter that the declaration of independence was written? Or that the Burgess brought up there grievances with England before that multiple times? Or that the Boston tea party was the result of the rejection of the Burgess suggestions on the 17 taxes forced against the colonists?

        It did not change the course of the king, but it did make it so that when action was needed, it was very clear who had initiated force. The requests and latter demands were well documented and done in the open, honestly.

        I think it the reason the US revolution was successful and formed the government it did at the end rather than end up with a dictator of some type as all other revolutions I have studied did. There may be another somewhere in history where the revolution did not simply put a different dictator in charge, but I do not know of it.

        If we are to do something about it, we must list out what we want to those with the power to do something about it, repeatedly and as often as we can, until they address it, the system collapses or we have support for a declaration of independence again.

        What else can you do? Are we not remiss if we do nothing?
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        • Posted by flanap 11 years, 11 months ago
          When you have critical mass of people willing to die for the right reasons (right meaning the are lining up with established principles of governance as formed by God), then it matters. Else, it won't.
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