Politix Cartoons

When you allow government to funnel your money to in order to “take care” of you, the costs far outweigh whatever perceived benefit in the long run. Thank you Mary D for this great idea!

Colorado just passed the “Health Care Affordability Act.” (I love it
when politicians call a bill something that is the opposite of what it
is.) This bill is tax on hospitals designed to help “fund” the
uninsured by placing that burden on the hospitals. The hospital’s
only choice is to pass that cost down to their consumer, the paying
sick, thus raising health care costs. Analysts estimate that this
will raise individual hospital bills by 5%. For a $10,000 hospital
bill, that’s an additional $500! In essence, it is government kicking
you while you are already down.

This tax…oops… I’m sorry, I keep forgetting it’s a “fee.” If it
were a “tax” it would violate TABOR, but if we call it a “fee,” then
it is okay (even though 40 other states call it a tax). This “fee” is
made even more outrageous by the fact that the legislation does not
allow the hospitals from itemizing the tax on their billing
statements! So much for transparency. Why would the Assembly make such
a provision? For one reason: so that when your hospital bill goes up,
you blame the hospitals and not the government. Being as sick as I
frequently am, this bill irritates me.

To read more on this topic you can go here

The First Amendment guarantees us the right to assembly. Thus, this Wednesday I’m exercising my First Amendment rights by going to one of the many TEA parties being held across the nation. Naturally conservative in all I do, this is a great stretch for me. But I’m looking forward to having fun and I hope you will join me there.

Earl Grey, with a little milk and a little sugar, and with a touch of vanilla… That’s how I like it!

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday, March 16, voted to uphold Governor Bill Ritter’s law to freeze mill levy rates in order to raise property taxes (striking down the decision made by lesser courts). The Colorado Constitution clearly states in the TAx payer Bill Of Rights (TABOR) that the General Assembly and the Governor MUST ask the Colorado Tax Payer before raising taxes. Simple legislation, if you want to raise taxes, ask first. And after Ref C passed, the evidence clearly shows that the Colorado Tax Payer is willing to impose taxes on themselves.

This clear violation of the Colorado Constitution is not an isolated incident. Our Supreme Court has been labeled as one of the most liberal in the nation, and they have continued to rule against TABOR. Many on the left (and some on the right) have suggested getting rid of TABOR altogether. Fine, but that’s a decision that needs to be made by the people, and not the legislators or the courts. However, Amendment 59 this year proved that Coloradans are not quite ready to do away with TABOR yet.

I am amazed every time I hear people talk about tax season. They look forward to their refund as a benevolent act of the federal government. This kind of thinking is a huge demonstration of the lack of fiscal understanding prevalent in today’s society.

To start, let me say this: if you are receiving a refund from the government, you are doing something wrong. It is not that the government is giving you money back. It’s that the government has been earning interest on the money that is already yours for the past year. This is your money, it always has been your money, and through employee withholdings, you have allowed the government to withhold an excess of your money, to earn interest on your money, to spend your money on programs and pork that you may not necessarily agree with. This is money that YOU could have earned interest on, but instead did not.

When tax time comes, the prudent man is the one who owes the government money. Those who own their own business know this quite well. Whereas the common employ never sees the money withheld, those who work for themselves slave away, labor, bid, compete, bring home a hard earned dollar–only to watch up to a third of it stripped away from them in the form of taxes.

To rend onto Caesar at the end of the year the business owner must put away some of their earnings into savings. The benefit is two fold. One, they can earn interest on the money they save for taxes. Two, they have a much clearer understanding of how much the government really does take. Oh, if but everybody would withhold their own money, I doubt they would allow politicians to waste as much as they currently do now.

Try it one year, I dare you. Claim zero on your employee withholding plan. Take a quarter of your dollars earned and put into savings. Then at tax time, use that money to pay your taxes. If you owe the government money at tax time, you are doing the right thing.

This article is even more relevant now that the news coming from California is that the state is going to keep its citizens’ refund checks for an undisclosed amount of time. True, while this is just a tad illegal, those who withheld their own money and will not receive a refund as a result, will not be victimized by the state in this instance.