Garden State Patriot

More change we can believe in. Not only does the House bill manadate that you buy insurance, but it also includes provisions for civil and criminal penalties - including up to 5 years imprisonment - for refusing to do so.

PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail

JCT Confirms Failure to Comply with Democrats’ Mandate Can Lead to 5 Years in Jail

Friday, November 06, 2009

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter  makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said:  “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail.  It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”

Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]

                                                         - – - – - – - – - -                                                   

“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]

                                                         - – - – - – - – - -    
                                                

“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses.  Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties.  The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.

“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration.  Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates.  Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.

Can you say, ‘fascism?’

Following the rally and meeting with some of our representatives, Steve Lonegan gave his take on the day’s events. 

And here some more video of the rally from AFP.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Yesterday, scores of New Jersey patriots – and patriots from all over the country – descended on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Our message was clear: KILL THIS BILL!

We were greeted by several terrific addresses from Congressional Representatives like Michelle Bachmann, Mike Pence and Scott Garrett. Mark Levin, Jon Voigt and our own Steve Lonegan also joined the chorus of speakers.

Afterwards, our delegation fanned out - some meeting with Congressman Garrett and others with Reps. Rothman and Adler.

Here is the first of my videos from the rally. Unfortunately, I was much too far away to capture all the speakers but this will give you a sense of the size of the crowd and you can hear all the speeches in their entirety. I will upload more later (as it’s been a bit time-consuming!). So please look for more shortly.

And at the end of the day, a rainbow formed over the Capitol! A sign of good fortune? We can only hope!

Also, here is an article of interest on yesterday’s protest focusing on Steve Rothman.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

I will be in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to fight against the socialist takeover of our healthcare system. Hope to have video of the events by Friday. This rally may well attract thousands of activists and there should be plenty of press coverage. For those of you reading this, please chip in by calling your member of Congress and telling them to oppose this terrible legislation.

Earlier today I posted about the ‘Congressional House Call’ day being planned by Americans for Prosperity. This event is growing by the minute. I just got off a phone call with Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, AFP’s Tim Phillips and Steve Lonegan. In just a day and a half, Steve Lonegan has 20 buses ready to go from New Jersey area alone to DC. If this is any inkling, we could be on the cusp of witnessing an unprecedented event on Thursday – with thousands of activists prepared to go to Washington, go to the Capitol, and tell their representatives face-to-face that we do not want this!

So, if you haven’t yet joined up and wish to, there is still time. Here is the specific info on buses that will be leaving from the New Jersey area.  

To join the New Jersey Delegation Bus to Washington, DC with Rep. Scott Garrett, Steve Lonegan and your fellow activists, click here.

New Jersey Transportation:
*6:30am- Blue Heron Park and Ride
(located off of Rte 15 at the Blue Heron Exit in Sparta)

*7:00am- Ridgewood Park and Ride
(located on Rte 17 south in Ridgewood)

*7:00am- Shore Mall (behind Value City)
6725 Black Horse Pike, Egg Harbor Twp, NJ 08234-3904

Philadelphia Transportation:
*Rockledge/NE Philadelphia- 8:00am
Huntingdon Valley Mall
Huntingdon Pike and Rockledge Avenues ( Abington, PA)

* Center City ( Philadelphia)- 8:30am
On 3rd Street between Chestnut and Walnut
(outside Independence National Park Living History Museum)

* South Philadelphia-9:00 am
Oregon Diner, 3rd and Oregon Streets

Please email infonj@afphq.org or call 201-487-8844 with any questions.

If you cannot come to DC, I would also suggest that you go to AFP’s web site and see what you can do to do something locally at your representative’s office.

Cross-posted at Red County and Conservatives with Attitude!

When you are done voting, it will be no time to rest on your laurels. The healthcare battle will begin in earnest this week, with the House ready to vote on a bill by the end of this week. As I have posted time and again, we the people need to stand up NOW to try to stop this. 

There are a number of things you can do this week to contribute. First and foremost, Mayor Lonegan is organizing bus trips to Washington, D.C. that will leave on Thursday morning. Here is Steve’s message:

This Thursday, I will be joining Congressman Scott Garrett, Congresswoman Michelle Bachman and dozens of other national leaders on the steps of our Nation’s capitol and I need you to join me.

Together, we can stop the Obama-Palosi-Reed attack on our health care, but only if you act now.

We beat them at Town Hall meetings, we outnumbered them in phone calls and letters and every poll in America tells them the vast majority of Americans are opposed to their radical agenda. THEY JUST DON’T CARE! They have a plan for your future and you will have no say, no control, no other opportunity to fight back unless you act now.

To stop this radical attack on our nation’s future and our individual liberty I am sending buses of freedom loving Americans to Washington DC this Thursday morning for the Hands Off our Health Care rally and for meetings with House of Representatives members in the afternoon.
For departures and information go to taxpayerminute.com
We are going to flood the Congressional office building with great Americans like you and I need you there, your children need you there and your country needs you there.

Buses are now leaving from locations in Bergen County, Sussex County and Atlantic County as well as Philadelphia. I need volunteers to help organize buses, get fliers out and help in organizing this historic and challenging effort.

This is crunch time, folks. Now let’s see what we are made of.

If you can help in any way, contact me at 201 487-8844 or email steven.lonegan@afphq.org

If you can not come to D.C., Americans for Prosperity is urging people to go to the local offices of the representatives. This from AFP’s Tim Phillips:

This Thursday join our “Congressional House Call” day. It’s easy. Just go to your closest House or Senate local office at 12 Noon your local time to make sure they hear your voice one last time before the House vote. To find your closest office and to let us know you will take a stand Click Here: http://americansforprosperity.org/cong.php

We’ve got to show them they’re wrong. Join the “Congressional House Call” day this Thursday by going to your member’s district office this Thursday at 12 Noon your time. Take pictures of your visit and send them to me at TimPhillips@afp-mail.com or post them on my Facebook by clicking here http://www.facebook.com/timphillipsafp

If you cannot go in person use the link to call your member of the House and Senate at 12 Noon this Thursday and tell them you’re making a “Congressional House Call” by phone.

We’re at a crucial time in this health care battle. Please take action!

Personally, I would suggest to all of you to start contacting your representatives tomorrow. We need to put as much pressure on as possible. We can not wait around for tomorrow’s election results to pour in. And even if Chris Christie wins, it is no time to become complacent. Tomorrow’s elections are important but the most important thing going on this week is going to be taking place in the halls of Congress – where the freedoms we hold dear are going to be under a full-blown assault. As, Congressman Pence tells us here, ‘Make your voice heard!’

Cross-posted at Red County and Conservatives with Attitude!

I just got off a brief phone call with Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. I can’t emphasize enough that we are at a tipping point in the healthcare debate. House Democrats led by Nancy Pelousy are primed to pass a 1990 page monstrosity of a bill that, make no mistake, will take over our healthcare system. It is up to us now to stop them.

Rep Bachmann said the House bill will cut $500B from Medicare. On average, people will pay $4000 a year more for health insurance. If you are under 30, 8%-12% of your income will go to health insurance. Ameerican businesses would be made to pay at least 8% more in payroll tax. And 5.5 million jobs could be lost.

On Monday, the House will actually post the final version of the bill. Rep. Bachmann said the bill released today is incomplete and that other items will likely be added to this destructive measure at the last minute with the final version, again, coming out on Monday. Thereafter, the House will have 3 days of *debate* with a vote scheduled for next Friday.

Rep. Bachmann pointed out that if this passes the federal government will ‘own or control’ almost 50% of private sector wealth. Currently, in this bailpout era, 30% of the private sector is in the hands of the federal government. A takeover of the healthcare industry would bring us to an outrageous 48%.

The Congresswoman pleaded for all of us to start calling our Senators and Representatives and to join in the AFP ‘House Call’ scheduled for next Thursday. In fact, she went so far as to say to ‘get here [to Washington] next week,’ go to the offices of our legislators and put as much pressure on possible for them to stop. She believes that they have forgotten the town hall meetings and they think the rest of us have likewise forgotten.

Summing it up, Rep. Bachmann said, ‘This is it. There is no going back.’

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Left-wing kook Alan Grayson is surely making a name for himself. First the nutcase accused Republicans of wanting fellow Americans to die. But Grayson wasn’t done. Next, he insulted every American, as well as Jews everywhere, when he actually compared the Republican healthcare plan to the Holocaust and 9/11. He’s personally and viciously attacked Dick Cheney. All of these offenses are bad enough. But today’s revelation may take the cake.

Last month Grayson appeared on a radio program and to discuss Congressional oversight of the Fed. In the course of the discussion Grayson had these kind words for Ben Bernanke adviser, Linda Robertson.

Not that I expect much in the way of civility from many members of Congress, but this is beyond the pale. Grayson should have been taken to task already for his other hideous comments but has been shielded by hypocritical Democrats in the House, starting at the top with Nancy Pelousy.

You don’t need me to tell you what a firestorm this would have created if anything remotely close to this had been uttered by a Republican Congressman. Pelousy would have been first in line calling for a rebuke. The NOW gang and other so-called feminists would be on the rampage calling for a resignation.

Quite frankly, I hope this nut Grayson keeps talking. I think it only helps Republicans. But a line also needs to be drawn. His rhetoric has gone too far and, in my opinion, Grayson deserves now to be censured.

What say you, Nancy Pelosi?

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Nancy Pelousy is on quite the roll the past few days. Yesterday she mustered up her best Orwellian newspeak to claim that letting the Bush tax cuts expire wasn’t a tax increase.

Ah, yes. It’s not a tax cut but ‘eliminating a tax decrease that was there.’ Mmmm….Okay!

Then, yesterday the Speakerette was asked by a CNS News reporter where in the constitution the Congress had the power to force people to by health insurance. Here’s how that went down according to CNS News (h/t Gateway Pundit):

CNSNews.com: “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?”

Pelosi: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

CNSNews.com: “Yes, yes I am.”

Pelosi then shook her head before taking a question from another reporter.

(Click here for the audio of this exchange)

Afterwards, Pelousy’s office justified the mandate by – what else – invoking the Interstate Commerce Clause; liberals’ favorite part of the constitution to pervert and abuse in their undying quest to expand the federal government.

Pelosi’s press secretary later responded to written follow-up questions from CNSNews.com by emailing CNSNews.com a press release on the “Constitutionality of Health Insurance Reform,” that argues that Congress derives the authority to mandate that people purchase health insurance from its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.

Not too long ago, I posted regarding the constitutionality of healthcare. Embedded in that post was this quote form The Heritage Foundation on this very issue:

Lastly, proponents might argue that national health insurance is part of Congress power “to regulate commerce…among the several states.”  While progressives have often used this clause to expand the federal government, it does not apply especially to the creation of a national health insurance, because to create and engage in commerce is not the same thing as regulating commerce among the several states.

Nobody during the framing generation expected the commerce clause to expand the federal government’s authority to anything relating to or resembling commerce.  James Madison wrote that it is a power “which few oppose, and from which no apprehensions are entertained.”  The clause was designed to prevent some states from taxing goods that passed through their boundaries as those goods proceeded to market.

In Mark Levin’s book, Men In Black (pp. 131), Mark also highlights how the commerce clause was undermined by the Supreme Court and, in turn, used to expand government.

Under the Articles of Confederation, each state had been free to issue its own currency and set its own tariffs. The purpose of the commerce clause was to promote commerce and trade by breaking down these barriers. But over the years, the Supreme Court has adopted an expansive definition of ‘commerce’ to justify virtually unfettered federal intrusion into the conduct of state and local governments, and to defend the establishment of massive bureaucracies and their imposition of seemingly endless regulations on private enterprise. As a result, the government has become increasingly centralized, and the economy is lurching toward socialism.

In this sense, Pelousy’s views are just symptomatic of years of abuse and wrong-headed decisions. This is the logical end when the clear intent of the constitution has been tossed aside, its limits on federal power ignored and the rights of the individual have been disregarded. And that end result is essentially tyranny.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Senator John Thune of South Dakota held a conference call this morning to discuss healthcare. The news out of Washington remains bleak. While Senate Republicans will do everything in their power to stop the Democrats from ramming through Obamacare, without the votes it will be hard to stop.

One of the tricks the Democrats are attempting right now pertains to the so-called ‘Doc Fix.’ This is the nickname for the Medicare doctor reimbursement. Democrats have separated this from the larger healthcare bill in order to hide the overall costs. In January, the Doc Fix is due for a 21.5% cut. But word broke late last week and was widely reported this week that Democrats are trying to get doctors to support healthcare by paying them off and not implementing the cut. The Doc Fix would add $250B to the debt and not be included in the cost of the larger bill. Senator Thune indicated, though, that a number of Senate Democrats were uneasy about this and might not go along with it.

Right now, the Senate appears headed for a potential vote on a healthcare bill this week or next week. There are currently 3 House bills and 2 Senate bills out there. These will ultimately be merged in some way, shape or form and then moved to conference.

Senator Thune said all of these bills shared a couple of common characteristsics. Both would 1) result in higher costs and 2) higher taxes. The Senate bill (I believe the Baucus version) includes a 40% excise tax on Cadillac plans and, of course, then there is the individual mandate forcing people to get insurance or be fined.

Thune said, according to the CBO, 90% of the taxes in the Senate Finance Committee bill would fall on those making under $200k a year. And another scoring of the bill showed that over 50% of the taxes would be burdened by those making under $100k or more. Obama’s promise not to raise taxes on the middle class? Out the window.

Thune said this would result (if it passes) in a $1.8T expansion of the federal government.

Regarding the public option, Senator Thune said that a month ago he thought it was dead in the Senate but now the public option was ‘being resurrected.’ The public option, the Senator said, is what ‘most Democrats in Congress want’ and they ’see this as their window of opportunity’ to get this done.

One of the things the Republicans will push for is a full and lengthy debate, as well as posting the final bill for the public to see for 72 hours before a final vote. As a point of comparison, Senator Thune mentioned that debate for ‘No Child Left Behind’ took 7 weeks and debate on the farm bill lasted for 4 weeks. Certainly, the healthcare bill, which affects 1/6th of our economy, merits a debate just as lengthy as these bills. 

Senator Thune took a few questions from callers. First, the Senator was asked if there were any studies that showed what impact this would have on the inurance industry. He mentioned that there were estimates that 83M-120M people would move off of private insurance and that, presumably, the industry would also ‘lose a whole lot of jobs.’

The Senator was also asked about what the Republicans’ plans were to oppose this. Without trying to sound too pessimistic, the Senator flatly said ‘they (the Democrats) have the votes.’ The Senator also said the Republicans will ’use all of the tools and procedures’ at their disposal but, again, acknowledged that the minority is in a tough spot with respect to stopping the bill – particularly considering the Democrats will likely try everything to get this passed.

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Personally, this is my third conference call with lawmakers on The Hill in the past week or so. In each of these calls, the underlying tone has been one of pessimism and the need for us to re-energize and pressure key legislators to oppose this bill which would utterly destroy our healthcare system.

We need to re-double our efforts NOW and bombard Congress with e-mails and phone. And we simply can’t let up or we will definitely lose this battle. 

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!