Obama's Top Ten Lies

Obama's Top Ten Lies

10. “We’ve got shovel-ready projects all across the country.” Most of that shoveling was going on in the Oval Office, but, hey, Obama sold nearly a trillion dollars worth of pork on the back of this bad boy.

9. “I didn’t set a red line.” This double-talk about Obama’s plans in Syria had the Norwegians on the Nobel committee looking up the number of the local repo man.

8. “No more secrecy.” Edward Snowden would seem to have a different take on this.

7. “My father left my family when I was 2 years old.” Obama made this claim in September 2009 when addressing the nation’s school kids. By this date, the blogosphere knew that baby Obama had never spent a night under the same roof as his father, let alone two years, and that his mother surfaced in Seattle with the baby, but without the baby’s daddy, weeks after his birth.

6. “The Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration.” Obama spun this fiction at a September 2012 Univision forum knowing it was false. Three months earlier, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney had made the same bogus claim virtually word for word at a press conference and got shot down on national TV.

5. “Not even a smidgeon of corruption.” Obama said this in response to Bill O’Reilly’s question early this year about the IRS scandal: “You’re saying no corruption?” The occasion was a live interview on Fox News right before Super Bowl 2014. If there were not even a “smidgeon of corruption,” as Obama insisted, it is hard to understand what outraged him, or at least seemed to, when news of the IRS scandal first broke. “It’s inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it,” Obama said in May 2013.

4. “We revealed to the American people exactly what we understood at the time.” Obama made this claim in response to O’Reilly’s inquiry about Benghazi. “The notion that we would hide the ball for political purposes when a week later we all said, in fact, there was a terrorist attack taking place and the day after I said it was an act of terror, that wouldn’t be a very good cover-up.” In fact, it was exactly a week later, on Sept. 18, 2012, that Obama took his first questions about Benghazi on, of all places, the David Letterman show. “Here’s what happened,” said Obama, “You had a video that was released by somebody who lives here, sort of a shadowy character who – who made an extremely offensive video directed at – at Mohammed and Islam.” The usually irreverent Letterman looked shocked. “Making fun of the Prophet Mohammed!” he said. Yes, confirmed a solemn Obama, “Making fun of the Prophet Mohammed.”

3. “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.” This is the compound lie that got Obama re-elected and sent us so far down the road to serfdom we may not be able to turn back.

2. “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.” Obama told this whopper to his assembled staff on his first day in office. Within a year, the two-headed promise had been violated more wantonly than a goat at a Taliban bachelor party. As liberal constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley assessed the presidency, “Barack Obama is really the president Richard Nixon always wanted to be.” Ouch!

1.“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Oh, man, Obama had his hand on the Bible for this one.

May God have mercy on his soul

Now is our time to have faith, to train our children to live by faith and to elect leaders who will trust God

The Faith That Wins!

-Dr. Marshall Foster

Europe is entangled in a war to the death against a relentless enemy out to destroy its precious Christian heritage and bury its liberty. Radical Islam is on the march, manned by tens of millions of immigrants with multiple wives and a massive birthrate. At the same time, most native Europeans have left the Christian faith and fewer and fewer are marrying or having children. The future seems bleak.

What are the known weapons against such a foe? One is the free press which can expose the enemies of liberty. Another is the use of intelligence to rat out terror cells before they act. And when all else fails, there is always the reversion to mass warfare using superior weaponry to kill millions and hopefully break the will of the enemy.

However, these weapons are not sufficient to hold back the tide of Jihad which has been at war with Christianity since the seventh century. There is only one weapon that can defeat the forces of a pagan ideology, whether Nazism, Communism or radical Islam. That weapon is biblical faith. The writer of Hebrews defines this weapon in Hebrews 11. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.”

Chapter 11 goes on to detail how this weapon was used by great heroes who by faith, “subdued kingdoms, brought justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness became strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” Now that is a powerful weapon. The examples below of three European Christians in the 20th century illustrate the power of the weapon of faith. These men arose at times of great crisis in Europe.

Eric Liddell in the 1920s; Winston Churchill in the 1940s; and Christian Fuhrer in the 1980s. Eric Liddell was an obscure seminary student in Edinburgh, Scotland. But in 1924 Eric rose to fame at the Olympic Games in France. He was considered the fastest runner in the world. But because of his principled commitment to keep the Sabbath, Eric would not compete in his race, the 100 meters which was held on a Sunday. As an afterthought he was placed in the 200 meter race later that week. He beat the world’s best athletes against all odds. He became a national hero in Britain and was offered royal titles and the golden key to success when he returned from France.

But Eric had a larger vision. His faith called him to give his life to the mission field of the forgotten masses of souls in China. So in 1925 he left for China and served there with his father and family, never to return to his homeland. When WWII broke out Eric was warned to leave China as it was being overrun by the Japanese. He sent his family home but felt he must stay with his Chinese friends and was thrown into a prison camp. Winston Churchill and the English offered a huge ransom to get Eric Liddell out of the camp. But as the train arrived to pick him up, he placed a pregnant Chinese woman in his seat. He died of disease in the camp, just 3 months before the end of the war.

How does Eric Liddell’s story illustrate the power of faith? When Eric died there were fewer than 5 million Christians in China. But the Chinese believers were inspired by Eric’s faith and other pioneers of the truth. Eric’s faith and sacrifice ignited the torch of faith in millions. Today the number of Christian believers in China is approaching 200,000,000 and China is expected to become the largest Christian nation in the world in our lifetime. The “Back to Jerusalem Movement” in China is training hundreds of thousands of Chinese believers to take the loving gospel of Christ through the Muslim lands of Asia through Pakistan and Iran and on to Jerusalem.

“Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.”
Eric’s faith saw beyond the moment all the way to our century.

In the 1940s, another crisis of faith in Europe was solved by a man of faith. Europe was paralyzed with fear of the Nazi juggernaut. They had just come through WWI which had killed an entire generation of their men. Now they faced Adolf Hitler. Most people in Europe and America were cowering before the Nazi war machine. Millions of the French flocked to the cabarets, drinking their fears away. The English also were living in a dream world of “peace”. Their prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, even signed a “peace in our time” treaty with Hitler just a few months before the Germans started WWII.

It took the Germans only weeks to destroy the French army and trap the English army, 400,000 men, on the coast of Belgium at Dunkirk. During this crisis, with the eminent fall of England and all of Europe at hand, the English called up an old, Christian warrior, Winston Churchill, to be their Prime Minister. Churchill and King George VI called the people of England back to God in a day of repentance and prayer on May 26, 1940.

As the leaders and millions of English met and wept in faith that day, God answered their prayers. Through the miracle at Dunkirk 600 little boats ferried 330,000 soldiers back to Britain right under the direct fire of Hitler’s tanks and air force. God had turned the treacherous English Channel into a sea of glass and covered the sea with a blanket of fog, blinding the German planes.

However, within weeks the entire continent fell to the Nazis. England faced a summer of massive bombing attacks by the Germans called the Blitz, in which almost 50,000 people perished. How could a 66 year-old political has-been turn the tide of tyranny against the greatest army in history? Churchill almost single handedly lifted a nation and the entire free world from hopelessness and fear through his example of faith and his powerful words.

That first summer when Germany’s eminent invasion of England was looming, Churchill lifted the bar above politics to the real spiritual struggle between paganism and Christianity.

He said. “I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.” In another speech before Parliament, Churchill refused to listen to the voices of surrender. He said, “You ask, what our aim is? I can answer in one word, Victory – victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”

The premiere weapon that defeated the Axis powers in WWII was not the bomb or America’s manufacturing of war material. It was faith. And, the spark that ignited that faith was Winston Churchill. He is considered by most historians to be the man of the century. Faith overcomes terror.

In the 1980’s Europe lay divided and on the verge of nuclear holocaust at the hands of the USSR. The Russians had divided Germany with a wall of death since 1960. Into this crisis of civilization stepped an unsung hero. His faith, and that of the East German Christians became the driving force behind the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. His name was Christian Fuhrer, a Lutheran pastor at the Cathedral in Leipzig, East Germany. Christian began the prayer movement in East Germany in 1982. His people gathered to pray for peace and freedom every Monday night at the Cathedral. He and the people were persecuted, beaten and threatened by the Communist government.

But the pastor continued and on October 9, 1989, one month before the unexpected fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of East Germany, he led a prayer march through Leipzig and confronted the troops and tanks of the government with a hundred thousand people praying and carrying candles of peace. The government troop refused the order to fire on their fellow citizens and dropped their weapons and joined the rally. Simultaneously that night other East German cities held massive prayer rallies. This show of spiritual courage broke the back of Honacker’s tyranny and led to the fall of the Wall on November 9, exactly one month later.

I privately met with pastor Fuhrer in Leipzig at his Cathedral in 2001. What a man of faith and courage! Last year, on June 30, 2014, just as all Germans were beginning the 25th Anniversary celebration of their freedom, Christian Fuhrer went to be with His Savior. He was the man who by faith had inspired an entire nation to stand against atheistic Communism.

The message here for our time is that enemies against God’s plan of redemption for His world are always on the prowl. But God has His “Ambassadors of Faith.” They see beyond the fear of death brought on by bullies of the evil one. The Nazis failed, the USSR failed and the Muslim extremists will fail to extinguish the light.

Now is our time to have faith, to train our children to live by faith and to elect leaders who will trust God to see into the future and as Churchill said, lead us to our “Finest hour.”

In an attempt to explain the radical leftist Obama, we are supposed to belief it "just happened"

In an attempt to explain the radical leftist Obama, we are supposed to belief it "just happened"

by Kevin Jackson

Obama just happened to know 60's far-left radical revolutionary William Ayers, whose father just happened to be Thomas Ayers, who just happened to be a close friend of Obama’s communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, who just happened to work at the communist-sympathizing Chicago Defender with Vernon Jarrett, who just happened to later become the father-in-law of Iranian-born leftist Valerie Jarrett, who Obama just happened to choose as his closest White House adviser, and who just happened to have been CEO of Habitat Company, which just happened to manage public housing in Chicago, which just happened to get millions of dollars from the Illinois state legislature, and whichjust happened not to properly maintain the housing—which eventually just happened to require demolition.  Read on........

Valerie Jarrett also just happened to work for the city of Chicago, and just happenedto hire Michelle LaVaughan Robinson (later Mrs. Obama), who just happened to have worked at the Sidley Austin law firm, where former fugitive from the FBI Bernardine Dohrn also just happened to work, and where Barack Obama just happened to get a summer job.

Bernardine Dohrn just happened to be married to William Ayers, with whom shejust happened to have hidden from the FBI at a San Francisco marina, along with Donald Warden, who just happened to change his name to Khalid al-Mansour, and Warden/al-Mansour just happened to be a mentor of Black Panther Party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and a close associate of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and al-Mansour just happened to be financial adviser to a Saudi Prince, who just happened to donate cash to Harvard, for which Obama just happened to get a critical letter of recommendation from Percy Sutton, who just happened to have been the attorney for Malcolm X, who just happened to know Kenyan politician Tom Mboya, who just happened to be a close friend of Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., who just happened to meet Malcolm X when he traveled to Kenya.

Obama, Sr. just happened to have his education at the University of Hawaii paid for by the Laubach Literacy Institute, which just happened to have been supported by Elizabeth Mooney Kirk, whojust happened to be a friend of Malcolm X, who just happened to have been associated with the Nation of Islam, which was later headed by Louis Farrakhan, whojust happens to live very close to Obama’s Chicago mansion, which also just happens to be located very close to the residence of William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who just happen to have been occasional baby-sitters for Malia and Natasha Obama, whose parents just happened to have no concern exposing their daughters to bomb-making communists.

After attending Occidental College and Columbia University, where he just happened to have foreign Muslim roommates, Obama moved to Chicago to work for the Industrial Areas Foundation, an organization that just happened to have been founded by Marxist and radical agitator Saul “the Red” Alinsky, author of Rules for Radicals, who just happened to be the topic of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s thesis at Wellesley College, and Obama’s $25,000 salary at IAF just happened to be funded by a grant from the Woods Fund, which was founded by the Woods family, whose Sahara Coal company just happened to provide coal to Commonwealth Edison, whose CEO just happened to be Thomas Ayers, whose son William Ayersjust happened to serve on the board of the Woods Fund, along with Obama.

Obama also worked on voter registration drives in Chicago in the 1980s and just happened to work with leftist political groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Socialist International (SI), through which Obama met Carl Davidson, who just happened to travel to Cuba during the Vietnam War to sabotage the U.S. war effort, and who just happened to be a former member of the SDS and a member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which just happened to sponsor a 2002 anti-war rally at which Obama spoke, and which just happened to have been organized by Marilyn Katz, a former SDS activist and later public relations consultant who just happened to be a long-time friend of Obama’s political hatchet man, David Axelrod.

Obama joined Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), whose pastor was Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a fiery orator who just happened to preach Marxism and Black Liberation Theology and who delivered anti-white, anti-Jew, and anti-American sermons, which Obama just happened never to hear because he just happened to miss church only on the days when Wright was at his “most enthusiastic,” and Obama just happened never to notice that Oprah Winfrey left the church because it was too radical, and just happened never to notice that the church gave the vile anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan a lifetime achievement award.

Although no one had ever heard of him at the time, Obama just happened to receive an impossible-to-believe $125,000 advance to write a book about race relations, which he just happened to fail to write while using the cash to vacation in Bali with his wife Michelle, and despite his record of non-writing he just happened to receive a second advance, for $40,000, from another publisher, and he eventually completed a manuscript called Dreams From My Father, which just happened to strongly reflect the writing style of William Ayers, who just happened to trample on an American flag for the cover photograph of the popular Chicago magazine, which Obama just happened never to see even though it appeared on newsstands throughout the city.

Obama was hired by the law firm Miner, Banhill and Galland, which just happened to specialize in negotiating state government contracts to develop low-income housing, and which just happened to deal with now-imprisoned Tony Rezko and his firm Rezar, and with slumlord Valerie Jarrett, and the law firm’s Judson Miner just happened to have been a classmate of Bernardine Dohrn, wife of William Ayers.

In 1994 Obama represented ACORN and another plaintiff in a lawsuit against Citibank for denying mortgages to blacks (Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Federal Savings Bank), and the lawsuit just happened to result in banks being blackmailed into approving sub prime loans for poor credit risks, a trend which just happened to spread nationwide, and which just happened to lead to the collapse of the housing bubble, which just happened to help Obama defeat John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

In 1996 Obama ran for the Illinois State Senate and joined the “New Party,” whichjust happened to promote Marxism, and Obama was supported by Dr. Quentin Yong, a socialist who just happened to support a government takeover of the health care system.

In late 1999 Obama purportedly engaged in homosexual activities and cocaine-snorting in the back of a limousine with a man named Larry Sinclair, who claims he was contacted in late 2007 by Donald Young, who just happened to be the gay choir director of Obama’s Chicago church and who shared information with Sinclair about Obama, and Young just happened to be murdered on December 23, 2007, just weeks after Larry Bland, another gay member of the church, just happened to be murdered, and both murders just happened to have never been solved. In 2008 Sinclair held a press conference to discuss his claims, and just happened to be arrested immediately after the event, based on a warrant issued by Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who just happens to be the son of Joe Biden.

In 2003 Obama and his wife attended a dinner in honor of Rashid Khalidi, who just 

happened to be a former PLO operative, harsh critic of Israel, and advocate of Palestinian rights, and who Obama claims he does not know, even though the Obamas just happened to have dined more than once at the home of Khalidi and his wife, Mona, and just happened to have used them as occasional baby-sitters. Obama reportedly praised Khalidi at the decidedly anti-Semitic event, which William Ayers just happened to also attend, and the event Obama pretends he never attended was sponsored by the Arab American Action Network, to which Obama just happened to have funneled cash while serving on the board of the Woods Fund with William Ayers, and one speaker at the dinner remarked that if Palestinians cannot secure a return of their land, Israel “will never see a day of peace,” and entertainment at the dinner included a Muslim children’s dance whose performances just happened to include simulated beheadings with fake swords, and stomping on American, Israeli, and British flags, and Obama allegedly told the audience that “Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine” and there has been “genocide against the Palestinian people by (the) Israelis,” and the Los Angeles Times has a videotape of the event but just happens to refuse to make it public.

In the 2004 Illinois Democrat primary race for the U.S. Senate, front-runner Blair Hull just happened to be forced out of the race after David Axelrod just happened to manage to get Hull’s sealed divorce records unsealed, which just happened to enable Obama to win the primary, so he could face popular Republican Jack Ryan, whose sealed child custody records from his divorce just happened to become unsealed, forcing Ryan to withdraw from the race, which just happened to enable the unqualified Obama to waltz into the U.S. Senate, where, after a mere 143 days of work, he just happened to decide he was qualified to run for President of the United States.

Cincinnati teacher’s book shows how schools let children down

Cincinnati teacher’s book shows how schools let children down

By Walter E. Williams
New York's schools are the most segregated in the nation, and the state needs remedies right away. That was Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch's message to New York's governor and Legislature. She said that minority children are disproportionately trapped in schools that lack teaching talent, course offerings and resources needed to prepare them for college and success.

Simply calling for more school resources will produce disappointing results. There are several minimum requirements that must be met for any child to do well in school. Someone must make the youngster do his homework, ensure that he gets eight to nine hours of sleep, feed him breakfast and make sure that he behaves in school and respects the teachers. None of these requirements can be satisfied by larger education budgets. They must be accomplished by families, or all else is for naught.

Linda Ball, a public high-school history and government teacher in Cincinnati, has written an engaging book about her experiences, titled '185 Days: School Stories.' Let's look at a few of her days.

On Day 167, Mrs. Ball ordered a student to the in-school discipline room for disruption and being in her class without permission. When the student finally decided to leave the room, he told her, 'F--- you,' and then he swatted her on the head with some papers. In her Day 10 section, there's a brief story about how respect is earned. Wesley, a student with an IQ of 140, did an outstanding job on a paper about the Enlightenment but completed only half his assignment and earned an F. Jake, a student repeating her class, told Wesley, 'I have newfound respect for you today.' Failure earns respect.

Here's one result of Mrs. Ball's assignment to propose a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, written by a high-school senior: 'I think the 28th Amendment should be about a choice weather (sic) to join school or not. I think it should be a choice not something you have to do. Because school just ain't for someone like me. For example school just ain't for me.'

Then there's 'Day 44: The Graduate.' David, a senior, hasn't learned much since the third grade, but he has been passed along and is about to graduate. Mrs. Ball says that not everyone needs to be able to analyze a literary character's motives or whether the U.S. motives in the Spanish-American War were justified. David should have been spared the torture and given suitable activities. He could surely wash cafeteria tables, run errands, and change oil and tires. She asks why educators try to force square pegs into round holes year after year, kid after kid.

The grossly poor education that so many blacks receive exacerbates racial problems. During last year's disturbances in Ferguson, Missouri, some people complained that of the city's 53 police officers, only four were black. Such an observation typically leads to suggestions of racial discrimination but never leads to a question about the ability of black high-school graduates to pass a civil service exam. It's natural for a black man with a high-school diploma to see himself as equal to a white man with a high-school diploma. In his eyes, differences in employer treatment are ascribed to racial discrimination. It dawns on few that the average black high-school graduate has the level of academic achievement of a white seventh- or eighth-grader or lower. The black high-school graduates who have unearned diplomas have no knowledge of their being fraudulent.

The bottom line is that if nothing is done to affect the home life and cultural values that produce the nonlearning attitudes and climate that are the subject of Linda Ball's '185 Days: School Stories,' there's little that can be done to improve black education.

The best that politicians can do is to give parents and children who are serious about education a mechanism to opt out of rotten schools. That option is something the education establishment fights tooth and nail against.

The battle for truth has major stakes - ‘Truth’ in a Post-Christian West

‘Truth’ in a Post-Christian West

by Jerry Newcombe

A great quote attributed to George Orwell, author of 1984, is, “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

In poring over the news of late, it’s amazing how much untruth there is, mixed with partial truth. Spin and euphemisms often replace truth.

I read recently that an abortion doctor was honored for his work. But not once was there a mention of the word “abortion” or even a hint of the grisly work he is involved in.

Just last month, noted Matt Rocheleau for the Boston Globe (1/8/15), “Up to 64 Dartmouth College students — including some athletes — could face suspension or other disciplinary action for cheating in an ethics class this past fall.” Cheating in ethics class? This speaks for itself.

Meanwhile, a Christian publisher pulled a book detailing the alleged foray into heaven of a boy who died and came back. The boy admits now he made it all up to get attention.

Even when people preface what they say with the phrase “Well, to tell you the truth,” do they mean to imply that they normally don’t tell you the truth? Note to self: Try to drop that phrase from my speech.

One of the most amazing exchanges in the history of the world was when Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, was trying Jesus of Nazareth and the prisoner referred to “the truth.” Pilate then asked Him, “What is truth?” and he pivoted and walked away.

Just a few hours before, Jesus had said to His disciples during the Last Supper, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” Here was Truth incarnate standing before Pilate, and the blind governor had no clue.

As the famous line in the movie puts it, “You can’t handle the truth!” Or as the great American short story writer Flannery O’Connor once said, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

In our day of relativistic ethics, where there is supposedly no real right or wrong, how can we condemn lying—truly? Unless, I suppose you get caught.

But that wasn’t the way George Washington saw things. Before he retired, he imparted a masterful written speech in 1796, his Farewell Address.

In that Address, he famously noted:

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

He went on to say that we can’t expect morality to continue if we undermine religion. Keep in mind, this was at a time when the vast majority of Americans were professing Christians.

He also said, “Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?”

In other words, how can we expect someone to obey a sworn oath to tell the truth if they have no “the sense of religious obligation,” undergirding that oath?

The founders understood that belief in a God who sees all things and who will one day hold us accountable made a huge difference. That’s why in our days truth is breaking down—even among some professing Christians. But let God be true and every man a liar.

This isn’t just an American problem. It is a problem in the post-Christian West.

George Weigel, an insightful Catholic writer, said in the LA Times in 2006: “If the West’s high culture keeps playing in the sandbox of postmodern irrationalism—in which there is ‘your truth’ and ‘my truth’ but nothing such as ‘the truth’—the West will be unable to defend itself. Why? Because the West won’t be able to give reasons why its commitments to civility, tolerance, human rights and the rule of law are worth defending.”

He added, “A Western world stripped of convictions about the truths that make Western civilization possible cannot make a useful contribution to a genuine dialogue of civilizations, for any such dialogue must be based on a shared understanding that human beings can, however imperfectly, come to know the truth of things.”

The battle for truth has major stakes.

Truth Has Consequences

US SHOULD NOT TAX SENIORS’ BENEFITS

US SHOULD NOT TAX SENIORS’ BENEFITS

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, RepublicanLast week I introduced the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act (H.R. 589). This bill would assist our struggling middle class by eliminating an unnecessary and unjust double-tax on seniors.

Social Security itself is financed by tax dollars, so forcing elderly and senior Americans to list these benefits as taxable income on their tax returns is absurd.

This sneaky technique allows Congress to obtain more revenue for the federal government by taxing benefits owed to citizens who have paid into Social Security most of their lives. When Social Security benefits are taxed, they are, of course, reduced for the person who receives the benefit.

As the Congressional Research Service reports, “Until 1984, Social Security benefits were exempt from the federal income tax. The exclusion was based on rulings made in 1938 and 1941 by the Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Internal Revenue (the predecessor of the Internal Revenue Service). The 1941 Bureau ruling ... viewed benefits as being for general welfare and reasoned that subjecting the payments to income taxation would be contrary to the purposes of Social Security.”

In other words, the 1941 equivalent of the IRS viewed the taxation of Social Security benefits as being unjust and contrary to the purpose for which Social Security was created! For over 40 years, then, Social Security benefits remained untouched by tax-happy congressmen. What made Congress change its mind?

Well, perhaps the opportunity to obtain more revenue for the federal government was simply too enticing for most lawmakers, who didn’t see anything wrong with taxing Social Security benefits to get more money for the government’s coffers.

When Congress first implemented the tax in 1984, it set politically palatable levels so as not to affect middle class retirees.

However, because the thresholds for taxing Social Security have not been adjusted for inflation, more and more retirees are now subject to the tax. What was considered a generous retirement income in 1984 is no longer comfortable, so eliminating this tax will benefit increasingly large numbers of Americans.

As the number of retirees forced to pay this tax increases, public awareness of the tax on Social Security benefits will likewise increase. If congressmen are inundated with complaints from their constituents regarding this unfair and unjust tax, surely Congress could find the will to reduce or eliminate it altogether.

As my colleague and fellow cosponsor Ron DeSantis says, “Americans pay taxes their entire working lives to support Social Security, so there is no reason why these earned benefits should be taxed once again when they receive them. Congressman Massie’s legislation promotes transparency by blowing the whistle on the federal government for double- taxation.”
The Association of Mature American Citizens supports HR 589, and says that the bill “rightly eliminates the unfair income tax on Social Security benefits and ensures that older Americans, who have paid into Social Security throughout their careers, are not excessively taxed by the federal government. Given that mature Americans and seniors have already paid tax on their Social Security contributions via the payroll tax, it is irresponsible for the government to double-tax the benefit in order to generate more revenue. The ‘Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act’ will not only enable beneficiaries to retain more money for retirement, but it will restore integrity to the Social Security program.”

It is time for Congress to end this tax. Please let your representatives know your position on Social Security Taxation and to support HR 589!