Roughly 80 percent of Obamacare customers received subsidies. | Getty
Obamacare rates to rise 7.5 percent next year
But the figures will vary widely from state to state.
Obamacare
customers are facing an average 7.5 percent price increase for a key
benchmark health plan next year, according to limited data the Obama
administration released just days before the start of a challenging
enrollment season.
But the average rate hikes will vary
dramatically from state to state — skyrocketing more than 30 percent in
Alaska, Montana and Oklahoma while dropping 12.6 percent in Indiana.
The administration's analysis
looks at the second-cheapest "silver" plan available to customers when
open enrollment begins on Nov. 1. Those benchmark plans, which are among
the most popular sold on the law's health insurance exchanges, are
important because they're used to calculate how much federal support
low- and middle-income exchange customers will receive toward their
monthly premiums.
More than 70 percent of exchange customers chose
silver plans this year, which cover about 70 percent of medical costs.
Roughly 80 percent of Obamacare customers received subsidies, worth an
average monthly credit of $270.
As the implementation deadline looms large for a deeply controversial new tax regime
adopted largely by congressional Democrats and the Obama
administration, critics of the measure are mounting a constitutional
challenge, saying the scheme is wildly unconstitutional and must be
struck down. Opponents of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act,
or FATCA, have now brought on one of America’s top constitutional
lawyers to lead the fight. In his initial analysis, the heavyweight
attorney concluded that the sprawling addition to the U.S. tax code
violates multiple provisions of the Constitution and, as such, must come
down.
Faced with what even compliance mongers have said would be a
“train wreck” on July 1, the day full enforcement of FATCA was supposed
to begin following previous unilateral delays by the Obama
administration, the IRS and the U.S. Treasury recently announced a
“transition period” extending into 2015. According to the opaque
announcement, the federal government will delay imposing harsh penalties
on banks for now — as long as authorities believe they are trying in
“good faith” to comply with the byzantine new tax regime. In other
words: more lawlessness.
If opponents of the scheme get their way, however, it may all be a moot point. Attorney Jim Bopp — described by analysts as a “superlawyer”
for his role in the Supreme Court striking down other unconstitutional
statutes such as McCain-Feingold — announced that he was taking up the
case. In an interview with the Washington Times and other
statements, Bopp, who is working with the group Republicans Overseas to
kill the scheme, outlined three primary constitutional problems with
FATCA and the related Foreign Bank Account Report (FABR).
“It
is our preliminary opinion that the potentially meritorious claims are a
violation of the treaty power, an 8th Amendment Excessive Fines Claim,
and a 4th Amendment Search and Seizure Claim,” Bopp said in a statement posted online by Republicans Overseas.
“We do not believe that a claim based on an unconstitutional delegation
of Congressional power has merit. We believe that these three claims
form the basis for a successful suit that would stop the damage that
FATCA and FBAR have inflicted on U.S. citizens.”
First of all, because the Treasury is unilaterally signing unauthorized pseudo-treaties with foreign governments to violate privacy rights,
the Senate’s constitutionally mandated role in ratifying treaties has
been usurped. Numerous other experts have made the same argument, as The New American magazine reported in a major report on FATCA published last month. Already, without any purported authority to do so from the Constitution, or the FATCA statute itself, dozens of such “agreements” to gather and share private financial information have been signed with foreign rulers.
According
to Bopp, the FATCA statute also violates two of the unalienable rights
enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Under the Fourth Amendment, privacy
is supposed to be protected and the government needs a warrant to
infringe on it. FATCA, though, takes the opposite approach,
indiscriminately gathering sensitive information on everyone in an NSA-style dragnet for perusal by authorities. Multiple foreign governments have been coerced by the Obama administration to undo their own protections for privacy rights in an effort to comply with FATCA.
Finally,
the Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, as well
as excessive fines, might also represent a viable avenue for challenging
FATCA and related schemes. Under the emerging tax regime, Americans
abroad who for whatever reason have not complied perfectly with
unimaginably complex IRS demands can be hit with crippling penalties and
fines that in some cases could literally threaten the life savings of
entire families. Critics say that must end; and experts believe the
courts might be inclined to agree. Most U.S. expats were not even aware
of the purported IRS requirements that now threaten their financial
survival.
Texas Independence Day Highlights State’s Ongoing Secession Efforts
March 4, 2014 2:13 PM
As
Texas celebrated its annual “Texas Independence Day,” many in the
state’s government leadership and ongoing secession movement say Texas
is finally preparing to become an “independent nation,” from the United
States. (Photo by Ben Sklar/Getty Images)
Houston (CBS HOUSTON) –
As Texas celebrated its annual “Texas Independence Day,” many in the
state’s government leadership and ongoing secession movement say Texas
is finally preparing to become an “independent nation.”
The 178th anniversary of the 59 settlers’ signing of the Texas
Declaration of Independence commemorates the Lone Star State’s March 2,
1836 break from Mexico to create the Republic of Texas. With the Alamo
famously under siege, the delegates declared their independence and
today the only state that ever won a war to become its own country
celebrates March 2 as its own official “national” holiday.
The U.S. brought Texas in as the 28th state of the Union in an event known as the Texas Annexation of 1845.
But recent rhetoric from anti-tax Tea Partiers, libertarians and
state officials alike suggests that the secession movement may be moving
a step beyond parties and re-enactments, The Inquisitr reported.
Texas Attorney General candidate Barry Smitherman has openly expressed the possibility of Texas secession.
Texas Independence Day Brings Up Secession: Do Texans Still Want To Secede?
ADVERTISEMENT
Texas
Independence Day is not only about celebrating separation from Mexico
and becoming its own nation for a time. According to some, the Texas
secession movement uses it as a time to discuss having Texas secede from
the United States.
In a related report by The Inquisitr, most people would call efforts to have Texas secede illegal, but a careful reading of the Texas v. White Supreme Court ruling on the Texas secession during the Civil War era seems to leave a little bit of wiggle room.
Most people in the state celebrate Texas Independence Day with parties and re-enactments, but others point to the political movement still pushing for a Texas secession. For example, Texas Attorney General candidate Barry Smitherman openly says seceding is still a possibility:
“Generally speaking, we have made great progress in
becoming an independent nation, an ‘island nation’ if you will, and I
think we want to continue down that path so that if the rest of the
country falls apart, Texas can operate as a stand-alone entity with
energy, food, water and roads as if we were a closed-loop system.”
Larry Kilgore
is in the running to become Texas’ governor and he believes a “U.S.
economic collapse cannot be avoided” and that the solution is for
“”Texas to secede now or we will sink too.” Still, his chances at
succeeding in his bid for the governorship are said to be relatively low
compared to other candidates. Read More Here
.....
Some Western Md. Residents Want To Form Their Own State
February 10, 2014 11:25 PM
Mary Bubala
WESTMINSTER,
Md. (WJZ) — A tale of two Marylands: Western Maryland and the rest of
the state. Fed up with high taxes and gun control, some people want to
break away and go it alone. Mary Bubala explains why they’re trying to form their own state.
There’s a storm brewing over the beautiful mountains and valleys of
Western Maryland. More and more people in those five counties say
Governor Martin O’Malley is out of touch and they want to break away
from the rest of the state.
“I can’t imagine Maryland without Western Maryland,” said Governor Martin O’Malley.
“Do you actually care about your citizens?” questioned Rob Parr.
“I certainly don’t live in a bubble and I go around the state all the time,” O’Malley said.
“Why don’t you want to listen to people that you don’t agree with?” said Suzanne Olden.
“I spend my whole day listening,” O’Malley said.
Scott Strzelczyk, Suzanne Olden and Rob Parr are part of a growing
group that wants to rip Maryland in two, creating the nation’s 51st
state. They met recently at O’Lordan’s Irish Pub in Westminster to tell WJZ they’re fed up with politics as usual in Annapolis.
“If your vote doesn’t count, it’s the same as having no vote. We’re
not free,” Strzelczyk said. “We’re doing exactly what they did in 1776. I
just simply want to live as a free human being with limited government
intrusion in my life and that’s really why I do this.”
Feb.
10, 2012: Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley testifies in support of a
same-sex marriage bill during a committee hearing in Annapolis, Md.AP
A push by frustrated western Maryland residents to part ways
with their state is gaining momentum as the initiative turns to social
media to get its message out.
Residents in Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick and Carroll
County, for months have been pushing an initiative to secede from the
state and form a new one, called Western Maryland. Among the biggest
problems the group has with Maryland are new gun restrictions, tax
increases and what they call unfair district lines the group claims
unfairly favor Democrats.
The western Maryland initiative now has nearly 9,000 Facebook "likes"
since it was formed in July 2013. Activist Scott Strzelczyk started
the Facebook page as a way to bring dissatisfied residents together.
“Here at the state level, we’re controlled by a single party –
Democrats – and we feel we have no other recourse,” he has told Fox
News. “We’re sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
They also have a beef with the high-crime city of Baltimore.
“Little mystery why this is the case,” the group states. “We don't
want our tax dollars going to Baltimore City or other parts of the state
to support the same old failed policies. The solution is simple. We
want our own state.”
GREELEY, Colo. -- If you mention the word
"secession" most people think of the South during the Civil War. But
today, a new movement is gaining steam because of frustration over a
growing, out-of-control federal government.
A number of conservative, rural Americans are taking
about seceding and creating their own states, meaning a new map of the
United States of America could include the following:
A 51st state called Jefferson, made up of Northern California and Southern Oregon
A new state called Western Maryland
A new state called North Colorado
These are real movements gaining traction with
voters across the country. Jeffrey Hare runs the 51st State Initiative
in Colorado, an effort to fight an out-of-control legislature trying to
ram big government policies down the throats of voters.
"We're at this point of irreconcilable differences," Hare told CBN News.
Secessionist talk has filled town hall meetings and the divide discussed is not just ideological.
"It's predominately left versus right, but it's
urban versus rural because you typically find more typical conservative
values in rural America," Hare said.
An Attack on Colorado?
That's the crux of the issue. Rural Americans across
many states feel they're not being heard. Their laundry list is long
and at the top of that list are stricter gun control laws.
According to Weld County, Colo., Sheriff John Cooke, the state legislature is out of control.
"They are out of touch with rural Colorado," he
said. "There is an attack on rural Colorado and it's not just on gun
control laws. It's on several of the other bills that they passed."
Government mandates on renewable energy,
environmental policies restricting oil and gas drilling, and
controversial social issues like gay marriage have also led to this
divide and talk of secession.
Organizers want to create "North Colorado," an idea
that went to voters in 11 counties this past fall. But not everyone in
Colorado thinks secession is a great idea.
"I don't think that's necessarily the way to make
something happen within the area you live," Colorado resident Greg Howe
told CBN News. "You're supposed to work within our electoral services."
The so-called secession movement in Colorado had mixed results this past November. Some counties approved it. Others didn't.
But the organizers of the 51st State Initiative are undaunted, saying this type of movement takes time.
"Movements take a while; education takes time," Hare
said. "People do have a hard time saying ,'I want to live in a
different state,' even though physically they live in the same house."
"It's hard for them since their lives have been
Coloradoans," he explained. "Their whole lives to say that 'I'm going to
be a new Coloradoan' or 'I want to live in the state of liberty' or
something different."
Many
of the most profitable US corporations paid little or no federal income
tax from 2008 to 2012, according to a five-year study issued by a
left-leaning tax activist group.
Citizens
for Tax Justice looked at 288 profitable Fortune 500 companies and said
that 26 of them - including Boeing Co (BA.N), General Electric Co
(GE.N) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) - paid no federal income
tax in the five-year period.
The group also said that 111 of the 288 companies paid no federal income tax in at least one of the five years measured.
In
a reflection of how the tax code's complexity leaves many issues open
to question, corporations sometimes dispute the way Citizens for Tax
Justice calculates its numbers.
Some of the companies
singled out took exception to the findings. GE spokesman Seth Martin
said: "For each year cited by Citizens for Tax Justice, GE paid income
taxes in the US, as well as billions in other state, local and federal
taxes in the US."
He added, "CTJ inaccurately uses the
current tax provision - a book accounting number - to make definitive
statements about our U.S. income taxes. This is not the same as the cash
income tax that we pay for a given year."
A key player
in Washington's tax debate, Citizens for Tax Justice regularly issues
studies making similar findings about corporate taxes. U.S. lawmakers
often cite them in criticizing the tax code as too complex and riddled
with loopholes.
Despite complaints about it from across
the political spectrum, the tax code seldom changes. It has not been
thoroughly overhauled in 27 years. Congress is unlikely to do that in
2014, said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
"I
have no hope for that happening this year," he told reporters at the US
Capitol on Tuesday, blaming lawmakers' stubborn fiscal gridlock on
Democrats seeking tax increases.
Republican
Representative Dave Camp, who heads the top tax-writing committee in the
House of Representatives, is slated to unveil tax reform draft
legislation on Wednesday, though it is widely expected to sit on the
shelf with previous such drafts.
One of the main
obstacles to reform is the abundance of tax breaks in the code that
benefit corporations and individuals, lowering the effective tax rates
of both and giving them ample reason to resist tax changes that would
harm their interests.
Boeing spokesman Chaz Bickers
said the aerospace manufacturer's tax bills are largely deferred until
it starts generating revenue from airplane sales. "We play by the rules.
We pay our taxes," he said, adding Boeing's total effective tax rate
for 2013 was 26.4 percent.
Verizon spokesman Bob
Varettoni said the telecommunications group complies with all tax laws
and pays its fair share of taxes. He said Verizon paid more than $2.9
billion in income taxes from 2008 to 2012.
The legitimate questions to ask at this point in time would be .......
Exactly what money would the low and middle-income earners be putting aside for savings?
Considering
the unemployment rate and the rising number of the homeless how
realistic or honest would this proposal be?
In a world where the working middle class are disappearing and the poor can barely feed themselves and their families , are retirement savings accounts truly an achievable reality?
The
biggest issue facing the American economy, and our political system,
is the gradual descent of the middle class into proletarian status.
This process, which has been going on intermittently since the 1970s,
has worsened considerably over the past five years, and threatens to
turn this century into one marked by downward mobility.
The decline has less to do with the power of the “one percent” per se
than with the drying up of opportunity amid what is seen on Wall Street
and in the White House as a sustained recovery. Despite President
Obama’s rhetorical devotion to reducing inequality, it has widened
significantly under his watch. Not only did the income of the middle 60%
of households drop between 2010 and 2012 while that of the top 20%
rose, the income of the middle 60% declined by a greater percentage than
the poorest quintile. The middle 60% of earners’ share of the
national pie has fallen from 53% in 1970 to 45% in 2012.
This group, what I call the yeoman class — the small business owners,
the suburban homeowners , the family farmers or skilled construction
tradespeople– is increasingly endangered. Once the dominant class in
America, it is clearly shrinking: In the four decades since 1971 the
percentage of Americans earning between two-thirds and twice the
national median income has dropped from 61% to 51% of the population,
according to Pew.
Roughly one in three people born into middle class-households , those between the 30th and 70th percentiles of income, now fall out of that status as adults.
Neither party has a reasonable program to halt the decline of the
middle class. Previous generations of liberals — say Walter Reuther,
Hubert Humphrey, Harry Truman, Pat Brown — recognized broad-based
economic growth was a necessary precursor to upward mobility and social
justice. However, many in the new wave of progressives engage in
fantastical economics built around such things as “urban density” and
“green jobs,” while adopting policies that restrict growth in
manufacturing, energy and housing. When all else fails, some, like
Oregon’s John Kitzhaber, try to change the topic by advocating shifting
emphasis from measures of economic growth to “happiness.”
President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress in early March, as part of
his fiscal 2015 budget, to reduce some of the tax advantages for
employer-sponsored retirement plans for higher-income earners, according
to published reports.
Plus, the president wants to limit the value of all tax deductions,
defined contribution exclusions and IRA deductions to 28% of income —
and include an overall cap on all retirement accounts, including
pensions, that could bring in $1 billion a year in new tax revenue,
according to a Pensions & Investments report. Read Companies bracing for 1-2 retirement punch
.
According to the report, the proposals are designed to direct more of
the tax preference for retirement savings toward getting more low- and
middle-income people into the habit of saving.
Based on current tax brackets, Pensions & Investments reported that
the 28% limit would reduce the tax advantages of retirement savings for
people earning more than $183,000 or couples earning more than $225,000.
And the overall cap for all tax-preferred retirement accounts would
limit them to providing an annual retirement income of $205,000, which
would currently cap tax-preferred accounts at $3.4 million, but could go
lower as interest rates rise.
So, who might feel the effects of this proposal? Largely, the top 5% of
tax payers. According to the Tax Policy Center, a partnership between
the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution,
there are about 6.07 million Americans who earned above $200,000 in
2011 and they make up the top 4.2% of taxpayers, according to published
reports. Read more about the president’s tax proposal here: Who makes more than $250k, and are they rich?
And what do experts have to say about what the president might propose?
In the main, they say the rich need not worry that their tax breaks for
saving for retirement will be cut.
“We’ve heard these kinds of proposals being discussed in policy circles
for a couple of years now,” said Skip Schweiss, president of TD
Ameritrade Trust Co. and managing director of TD Ameritrade
Institutional. “It would not surprise me to see these ideas become more
formalized through President Obama’s 2015 budget proposal.”
But even though experts expect the president to propose reductions to
some of the tax advantages for employer-sponsored retirement plans for
higher-income earners, few expect any congressional action. “Given the
congressional divide, it’s hard to see something like this becoming law,
but of course one never knows,” said Schweiss.
America
is a great land and lures immigrants worldwide, yet record numbers of
U.S. citizens and permanent residents are giving up their citizenship or
residency. For all the immigrant arrivals the trickle the other
direction is increasing. The number is still small, with the “published”
expatriates for the quarter 630 for the last quarter of 2013.
That brings the total number to 2,999 for all of 2013.
The previous record high for a year was 1,781 set in 2011. It’s a 221%
increase over the 932 who left in 2012. You can call it a shaming or a
public record, but the Treasury Department is required to publish a quarterly list
of Americans who renounced their U.S. Citizenship or terminated their
long-term U.S. residency. The public outing puts Americans on notice who
relinquished their rights.
US Passport (Photo credit: Damian613)
Those seem like tiny numbers, yet the total thus far for 2013 is 2,369. See Number of Taxpayers Who Renounced U.S. Citizenship Skyrockets to All-Time Record High, quoting Andrew Mitchel. Under U.S. tax law, it is not relevant why someone expatriates. Whether the expatriation was motivated by tax avoidance or something else usedto matter, but the law was changed in 2004.
Since then, the tax and other consequences do not depend on why one leaves. Yet after Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin
departed permanently for Singapore with his Facebook IPO riches, there
was an angry backlash. Mr. Saverin’s post-Facebook fly-away prompted
such outrage that Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey introduced a bill to double the exit tax to 30% for anyone leaving the U.S. for tax reasons.
So far, that bill remains unpassed. Meantime, are people following Tina Turner’s lead?
No, and not Eduardo Saverin’s either. Most expatriations are probably
motivated primarily by factors such as family and convenience. Many
people like Ms. Turner have built a life somewhere else and may not plan
to need a U.S. passport. Read More Here
AUSTIN -- For 28-year old Irma Aguilar, raising four young children while working a full-time job is difficult enough.
Suffering from a damaged disc in her neck and debilitating high
blood pressure that leaves her dizzy and bouts of anxiety, she needs
medical coverage. An assistant manager at a national pizza chain, the
San Antonio resident earns too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too
little to qualify for discounted plans on the health insurance
marketplace.
"It just makes me feel like, how am I supposed to get help? I
thought that working hard for your money was supposed to help you go on
in life and help you get some kind of insurance, and we can't even get
that," said Aguilar. "We're the ones working hard. We're the ones doing
everything, and we can't even get a penny out of it. We don't get
nothing. So, do I have to stop working and let my kids drain and me
drain so that way I can get help? It's just not fair to me, and it's not
fair to my kids."
Roughly 1 million Texans are in a similar situation: unable to
qualify for Medicaid under Texas' stringent restrictions and unable to
afford to purchase plans offered under the Affordable Care Act. On
Wednesday, representatives of dozens of organizations gathered at the
Texas Capitol to launch a new campaign demanding something be done for
them.
"It's a moral responsibility to address this situation," said
Sister J.T. Dwyer of the Seton Health Care Family. "Our mission is to
care for and improve the health of those we serve with a special concern
for the poor and vulnerable. So, wouldn't we be interested in this?
These are the vulnerable people who are left out."
With 6 million uninsured individuals, Texas leads the nation in the
number of residents without health care coverage. A project of the
Cover Texas Now Coalition, Texas Left Me Out
is a campaign to compel lawmakers to develop a solution to insuring
Texas' working poor who fall in the coverage "gap" resulting from the
U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to require states to expand Medicaid
to those unable to afford coverage through the health insurance
marketplace.
"The problem is that, because the law was written assuming that the
Medicaid piece would be there, they said nobody below the poverty line
is going to get the sliding scale of subsidies with premiums in the new
health insurance marketplace," said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director
of the progressive Center for Public Policy Priorities.
For a $15 billion investment in state money, over the next 10 years
Texas would draw down about $100 million in federal funds, which Texans
will be taxed for regardless. Gov. Rick Perry has opposed expanding
Medicaid, calling the system "broken." Instead, Perry has advocated for a
block grant which the federal government has thus far seemed
disinclined to provide.
Published time: January 04, 2014 02:10
Edited time: January 05, 2014 16:00
A small, elite group of US citizens has already met their 2014
financial obligation for Social Security two days into the New Year, and
will no longer be required to contribute any of their income to the
federal program.
Nearly all working Americans will continue to pay the social
security tax through the duration of 2014. The 900 wealthiest,
however, have fulfilled their responsibility for the whole year
on Thursday by earning $117,000 – the maximum total social
security is allowed to take from an individual income each year -
on the first and second days of the month.
Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the New School for
Social Research, wrote that if everyone eligible paid all year
long, “the Social security system would be solvent
indefinitely and they still would be the richest and prettiest in
all the land.”
Exactly who made enough money to qualify for the end of Social
Security payments will be difficult to ascertain until the end of
2014, but by January 2, 2012, 894 individuals across the nation
had already fulfilled their commitment. The Los Angeles Times
noted that this exclusive club was made up of mostly corporate
CEOs who were not in the 1 percent or .01 percent, but rather the
.0001 percent of high income earners. Executives at NewsCorp,
Philip Morris, Pfizer, ComCast, and Starbucks all made up 70 of
the 894 that year.
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