Thursday, May 17, 2012

Hey, wait...

At a news conference this morning, Sens. Schumer and Bob Casey, D-Pa., will unveil the “Ex-PATRIOT” – “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” – Act
I remember this part. It was in that ponderous novel by that shrill Russian chick, right?

Man, if Obama was serious about a green energy program that would actually work instead of being a logrolling back-scratching graft scheme (haha no, seriously,) then he should look into wrapping old Strident Ayn's corpse in copper wire and parking some magnets around her coffin. You could power half the eastern seaboard with all those megawatts.

(And since when was Chuck Schumer ever worried about folks crossing the border without permission?)

37 comments:

Cincinnatus said...

All to attempt to distract from the fact that the DC crowd has made all the benefits of US citizenship too expensive for a billionaire to want them.

Anonymous said...

This isn't funny anymore.

I want to wake up and go to school . . . any minute, hurry!

Shootin' Buddy

Anonymous said...

Chuckie Shummer would walk through a mine field to get to a microphone.

Gerry

bluesun said...

If I could do one thing to make billionaires tired of paying taxes try to leave the country, it would be that.

*slow clap* Bravo Mr. Chuck, bravo.

Frank W. James said...

Silly me, when I first read the words "Ex-Patriot Act" I thought someone had come to their senses and was going to nullify the "Patriot Act", but then I realized it was just more insanity...

All The Best,
Frank W. James

Jayson said...

And the worst part, as usual, is that people are buying their brand of BS. People aren't renouncing citizenship directly because of taxes, but because of onerous, intrusive tax LAWS. When the IRS forces citizens outside the country make anyone they ever met in a business sense give their personal account info to the IRS, just what the hell did they think would happen?

Joel said...

Chuckie Shummer would walk through a mine field...

We can dream.

Joseph said...

Frank, what are you drinking to make you that delusional?

Seriously, they think the "fix" to the rich renouncing citizenship is to pass laws taxing them in whatever country they live in? Is that even legal? Would it even work? Hell, from listening to the One, you'd think these uber-rich bastards weren't paying anything anyway and yet one of them renounces citizenship because the taxes are too high?

I'm with SB, I wanna wake up and go to school.

trevalyan said...

The odds just went even that some political leader in Red China will say "Mr. President, tear down this wall!" inside of, say, thirty years. Most liberals say Obama's not a socialist, and then he starts moving clear towards the East German tendency.

If you're a productive citizen, Canada doesn't have anything remotely this crazy on the horizon. Just saying.

Drang said...

As Professor Reynolds keeps saying, Atlas Shrugged is a warning, not a how-to!

Ken O said...

I have been saying for some time now that Rand was a prophet. Crumbling infrastructure, high cost of fuel, motor carriage companies going bankrupt and now this; it is beginning to become terrifyingly apparent that she was right.

RevolverRob said...

I'm so livid by this BS, the steam coming from my ears is setting off the smoke detectors in the house.

Will said...

Along with this, we have CA planning on adding more taxes to anyone making more than $1/4M per year.

Short memories, these assholes. Back about 10 years ago, they did the same thing for anyone earning $1M/year. Fully 1/3 of them LEFT THE STATE!

That was 5000 households, per the states own figures. They claim to have broken even on tax receipts. Of course, they didn't say how much the state lost in money spent here, and how many businesses these people took with them.

That's $5 Billion/year, MINIMUM, that didn't get spent in the states economy.

Anonymous said...

St. Augustine sold his Roman citizenship.
Being a citizen then meant that you were subject to being selected to collect taxes. That meant that if you didn't collect enough taxes, you were responsible for the shortfall, so you and your family would be sold into slavery.

Kristophr said...

Put the magnets on Ayn, and the coils outside the coffin.

That way you don't have to use brushes.

Joe in PNG said...

The really painful thing? All the bad, groan inducing Facebook puns Chucky kept dropping into his speech. I'm suing the bastard for sprained eye rolling muscles after that one.

Ken said...

Nothing says "You are the property of the State" quite like an exit tax.

perlhaqr said...

Fuck those fucking fucks.

No, it's not eloquent, but it is honest.

Cormac said...

I'm picturing Schumer walking into his living room to find his family trying desperately to put out a fire...

and, promply, slapping the extinguishers out of their hands.

First, let's open these windows and fan the smoke (and fire)! It's getting stuffy in here!

This kind of nonsense is only going to make "problem" worse.

Stretch said...

"All your monies belong to US"

Data Viking said...

Anon@12:07, Joel@12:26 - I've never watched any of those so-called 'reality' shows but I'd pay good money to watch members of the political class walk through a mine field to get to the microphone !

Frank W. James said...

Personally, I think KEN wins the interweb...

All The Best,
Frank W. James

Drang said...

Frank, I think I'd have to give it to Cormac...

staghounds said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
staghounds said...

Although you renounce your allegiance, you remain a subject of the King.

G III R, 1812.

Library-Gryffon said...

Sounds like a bill of attainder to me.....

Anonymous said...

The U.S. is one of the few countries that double taxes it citizens. If you work abroad, you pay local taxes AND U.S. taxes. The result is no one works abroad anymore.

The U.S. also claims taxes for people with dual citizenship and makes good money from exorbitant penalties applied to people who have never lived, worked or even visited the United States.

Finally the U.S. claims taxes from you for 7 years after you leave the country and renounce your citizenship unless, of course, you pay a $250,000 penalty up front.

It it time for the torches and pitchforks yet?

Panamared said...

If only the Constitution denied the collection of an income tax to the Federal Government, and maybe if the Senators were selected by the State Government instead of the people. Who would of guessed?

Anonymous said...

Exactly my thought, trevalyan: they're proposing a virtual Berlin wall. The fact that penalties must be imposed to keep productive citizens from leaving this workers' paradise speaks volumes about how far the transition to Communism has gone.

I suggest we name the wall they're constructing in Charlie Scumbag's honor -- something like the Schumer Success and Innovation Containment System.

Goatroper

DJ said...

I'm reminded of a quote from Justice Learned Hand:

"Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands."

What you're seeing in this case is a demonstration of what the Laffer Curve teaches.

Cincinnatus said...

Schumer knows how stupid his legislation is. Its a stunt. But its a stunt that only confirms that Democrats currently intend for the United States to be a banana republic.

LCB said...

It's not the Senate. It's not the House. It's not the Prez...nor SCOTUS. All of them have let the Bureaucracy, the various departments, grow into a huge monster that passes their own rules and regulations to feed themselves. Regulations are enforced as if they're laws and Congress does nothing. When I heard that the Dept. of Education had their own SWAT team I knew that Atlas Shrugged had come true. Don't know when...but this country WILL collapse from the weight of that bureaucracy. And I get sick to my stomach every time I think about it...sick for my kids...

Tam said...

LCB,

"When I heard that the Dept. of Education had their own SWAT team I knew that Atlas Shrugged had come true."

What depressed me about that story was that it revealed how little Team Freedom understood about their own government. That nobody knew about the Inspector General's act of '78, its updating in the Homeland Security Act of '02. The fact that so many people were caught off guard that the OIG of every federal department has badges, and the guns that come with them, made me sad.

dave said...

RE: Learned Hand's comment.

Let's keep in mind that Hand wrote a dissenting opinion, and the Supreme Court upheld the majority. He's right, of course, but the Court relegated him to the losing side.

Tam said...

Yeah, thanks, Captain Sunshine. ;)

LCB said...

Tam,


When our own Senators and Reps pass laws written by bureaucrats and lobbyists without reading them, written in legalize that lawyers have trouble understanding, how ARE we (dah voters) supposed to know what's going on until it hits us in the face? Hence my pessimisim.

LCB said...

Oops...this was supposed to be at the beginning of my last post:

"The fact that so many people were caught off guard that the OIG of every federal department has badges, and the guns that come with them, made me sad."