Paineful Truth

Our tax system needs help. Serious, far reaching, intense help. Who in this country would like to have a bit more of their hard earned dollars end up in their own pocket? It won’t happen unless some major changes are made. I’ve presented the problem (See my article, June 12 ), now we delve into a potential solution. Now, disclaimer here, I do not claim to be an economist. My aim here is to present a bit of our past and allow that to point out a potential future that will keep America going strong. Not much is said about taxes in our nation’s Constitution. However, many would be surprised to find that when our Founding Fathers wrote our chief governing document they expressly denied the federal government from implementing a certain type of tax. What type of tax did the Founders say was out of bounds? Article I, Section 9, Clause 4: “No Capitation , or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” What ou...

Rachel Dolezal, unknown until late last week, is now quickly becoming a household name. The internet is abuzz with differing opinions and takes on the whole matter. This issue holds particular importance because of the recent media attention focussed on “Caitlyn/Bruce” Jenner. How do these two stories relate? Do they relate? And why does it in fact matter? Dolezal “Caitlyn/Bruce” Jenner is a famous former Olympic athlete and television personality that has had hormone replacement therapy and some cosmetic surgery in an attempt to portray himself as a woman. Jenner made the cover of Vanity Fair ( aptly named, incidentally ) telling the world to “Call me Caitlyn…” This so-called “coming out” was hailed as a wonderful thing. Jenner set a record, amassing over one million Twitter followers in just over four hours. Jenner is also getting a documentary done about the whole thing and did I mention Vanity Fair ? “Hate speech” is the term often used to characterize any cri...

As has been famously said, the only certainties in life are death, taxes and that the Patriots might have cheated when they won that one game. All joking aside, taxes do pose a tremendous problem for America. We hear often about runaway government spending, the national debt and the deficit, however in my opinion, as important as those things are, they are merely symptoms of a greater disease. That greater disease is an unfair, over-complicated, loop-hole infested tax system that has been cobbled together over the past two-hundred years, ever growing, ever expanding until we wake up here in 2015 to find we’ve created a ravenous monster. A monster that is devouring what we, as hard working Americans have a right to call our own. Yes, a government must impose taxes in order to function and exist. We all benefit from good roads and bridges, law enforcement, sanitation, etc. But most would tend to agree that our tax burden is taking more than it is giving. Think of it like...

Round 3: Carson vs. Rubio And then there were ten. Seems like just yesterday social media exploded with the news of Cruze announcing his candidacy. That fervor was only slightly less when Rand Paul followed shortly after with his own announcement. The coverage of announcements has gotten less and less until on Monday (6-1-15), when Lindsey Graham announced his candidacy, no one really even batted an eye.  It’s my goal to examine each candidate individually (see Round 1 , and Round 2 ). Good thing the election is still over a year away, we still just might have time to get through them all. Both Marco Rubio and Ben Carson are very pro-life, which should be the first consideration when selecting a candidate. Government’s job is to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in that order. As the president, the head of our national government, it is their responsibility to stand up for life. I’ll admit some major concern when Carson came out in support of Dr. Monic...