friday
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2007
- Messages
- 801
- Reaction score
- 196
- Location
- Florida
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Conservative
President Obama has a now established pattern of choosing which laws he will and will not enforce. We saw it first when he decided to stop enforcing federal drug laws in states that allow medical marijuana. Next, his attorney general decided to not only stop enforcing US immigration laws, but to sue any state that did. It will be an interesting development if the Supreme Court sides with Obama against Arizona immigration laws since they mirror Federal law. Imagine waking up one morning and discovering that our immigration laws are unconstitutional.
Next Obama’s attorney general decided that bribery charges against the administration, brought by fellow Democrats, were not worth investigating. And most recently, when House Minority leader John Boehner wrote to the President inquiring on the status of implementing the President’s executive order banning taxpayer funded abortion, a bargaining chip used to turn pro-lifer Bart Stupak and his followers, Boehner received no response. Come on now, Mr. President, you even wrote that one all by yourself!
We are now beginning to learn the consequences of Obama’s attitude towards the rule of law. Only a week ago, amid discouraging polls and perceptions that Obama wasn’t actually doing anything in the gulf, Obama called BP into his office for a closed door meeting. When they emerged, BP was oh so sad and remorseful and vowed to set up a $20 billion trust fund to pay any and all damages. Obama has been touting his success ever since. Good, right?
The problem is that if Obama actually did anything, then he is guilty of extortion. Constitutionally, the President of the United States cannot walk into a closed door meeting with a public corporation and demand that they hand over cash. When Joe Barton infamously apologized to BP for the shakedown, he should have instead asked Tony Hayward the following:
“Mr. Hayward, please be very careful in how you answer these questions: Did President Obama offer you or BP anything explicitly or implicitly in order to set up the $20 billion dollar fund? Did President Obama threaten you or BP explicitly or implicitly with anything if you did not set up the fund? Did President Obama mention or imply anything about the status of your current or future drilling operations, availability of leases, or duration of the moratorium on drilling in relation to your setting up of this $20 billion fund?”
Of course, as Senator Kyl has learned, conversations in these closed door meetings don’t matter unless you are wearing a wire.
But now we are learning the folly of Obama’s shakedown and why exactly we have a legal system aside from Obama’s badge and six-shooter. When someone is taken to court and ordered to make reparations in civil and criminal issues the money is non-deductible to the offending party and non-taxable to the receiving party. Not so with this trust fund.
By avoiding the courts, BP now gets a nice $20 billion write-off on their taxes, while the victims have to pick it up. Obama’s shakedown will shift $7 billion in taxes from BP to the victims of the oil spill. But it gets better.
If the monies are recorded as income subject to self-employment tax, you can tack on an additional 15.3% to the victims’ tax bill that BP wouldn’t have had to pay. That’s another $3,060,000,000. Of the $20 billion trust fund that BP has promised to the oil spill victims, half will go to Obama’s government in taxes. All because Obama decided once again that he is too good for our constitution and rule of law.
Of course, I’m sure Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner would make an exception for them.
Next Obama’s attorney general decided that bribery charges against the administration, brought by fellow Democrats, were not worth investigating. And most recently, when House Minority leader John Boehner wrote to the President inquiring on the status of implementing the President’s executive order banning taxpayer funded abortion, a bargaining chip used to turn pro-lifer Bart Stupak and his followers, Boehner received no response. Come on now, Mr. President, you even wrote that one all by yourself!
We are now beginning to learn the consequences of Obama’s attitude towards the rule of law. Only a week ago, amid discouraging polls and perceptions that Obama wasn’t actually doing anything in the gulf, Obama called BP into his office for a closed door meeting. When they emerged, BP was oh so sad and remorseful and vowed to set up a $20 billion trust fund to pay any and all damages. Obama has been touting his success ever since. Good, right?
The problem is that if Obama actually did anything, then he is guilty of extortion. Constitutionally, the President of the United States cannot walk into a closed door meeting with a public corporation and demand that they hand over cash. When Joe Barton infamously apologized to BP for the shakedown, he should have instead asked Tony Hayward the following:
“Mr. Hayward, please be very careful in how you answer these questions: Did President Obama offer you or BP anything explicitly or implicitly in order to set up the $20 billion dollar fund? Did President Obama threaten you or BP explicitly or implicitly with anything if you did not set up the fund? Did President Obama mention or imply anything about the status of your current or future drilling operations, availability of leases, or duration of the moratorium on drilling in relation to your setting up of this $20 billion fund?”
Of course, as Senator Kyl has learned, conversations in these closed door meetings don’t matter unless you are wearing a wire.
But now we are learning the folly of Obama’s shakedown and why exactly we have a legal system aside from Obama’s badge and six-shooter. When someone is taken to court and ordered to make reparations in civil and criminal issues the money is non-deductible to the offending party and non-taxable to the receiving party. Not so with this trust fund.
By avoiding the courts, BP now gets a nice $20 billion write-off on their taxes, while the victims have to pick it up. Obama’s shakedown will shift $7 billion in taxes from BP to the victims of the oil spill. But it gets better.
If the monies are recorded as income subject to self-employment tax, you can tack on an additional 15.3% to the victims’ tax bill that BP wouldn’t have had to pay. That’s another $3,060,000,000. Of the $20 billion trust fund that BP has promised to the oil spill victims, half will go to Obama’s government in taxes. All because Obama decided once again that he is too good for our constitution and rule of law.
Of course, I’m sure Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner would make an exception for them.
