Repeal the Fourteenth Amendment

___On April 28th, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear Obergefell v. Hodges, et al., consolidated cases which will decide whether state laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

___The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 to provide equal protection of law to freed slaves (13th Amendment). The states of the Confederate States of America were forced to ratify the 14th in order to rejoin the union. The 14th has been abused to murder unborn babies, to illegally give birthright citizenship, to overturn a state Supreme Court decision about an election, etc. The legal protection of freed slaves is a moot point now. The 14th Amendment is fertile ground for activist judges for abuse. It should be repealed.

The Fair Tax is the Correct Tax Reform

___The FairTax Act of 2015 is 131 pages long. It is a simple one step flat sales tax at the cash register. It would replace the income, payroll, corporate, gift, estate, capital gains, and alternative minimum taxes. These taxes require over 72,000 pages of laws and regulations. The IRS and tax audits will be unnecessary! The competing "flat tax" keeps both.

___The FairTax, HR25, S155, repeals income, payroll taxes, etc and phases out the IRS. These taxes are replaced by a national tax on all services and new tangible goods sold at retail in the United States. There is no tax on used goods, so yard sales and flea markets are not affected. There is no tax on business-to-business transactions or on exports. Lawful residents receive a tax-cancelling allowance (prebate) for essentials.

___The first part of the Fair Tax is the repeal of the 16th Amendment. Since sales taxes are regressive, the Fair Tax automates prebates to everyone for necessities.

___Congress does not want the Fair Tax. Their power comes from shielding friends from taxes and punishing enemies. Americans are allowing the federal government to control their lives through this social engineering. Our most sensitive personal information is collected by force at least each year and is vulnerable to loss and misuse.

___The Fair Tax is not a new idea. It has been studied and debated for decades! Reports by the Tax Policy Center indicate that 16-20 percent of taxable activity escapes current taxation, so the revenue will be higher, and the rate for everyone can be reduced.

My Credentials as a Constitutional Conservative

___In November 2008 my letter to the editor was published suggesting that we "do the same thing that we did the last time a President was elected from Illinois."

___I started this political blog in 2009. On 4 July 2009 and again on 4 July 2010 I included my Declaration of Independence from the United Socialist States of America (USSA) in favor of the Confederate States of America (CSA, ie "red states"). I and several fellow Constitutional conservatives signed the 2010 version, and I mailed it to the White House. I received email encouraging me to read the White House Web site and email "propaganda." I declined. My 2009 and 2010 income tax refunds were withheld due to "penalties for not filing quarterly" which exceeded the refunds.

___I continue to write blogs and emails, but I do get discouraged with the "hope and change" of this government. On the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation the graduation rate was only 39%! Recently all of the schools that I attended (Wheeless Road, Murphy JH, and Butler HS) made the failing schools list! The number of working Americans is at the lowest number in 37 years. The national debt is $18.2 Trillion and the unfunded obligations are another $95.7 Trillion. Neither of these can be addressed until we have a budget surplus. That hasn't happened since the Republicans got welfare reform through a Democrat PoTUS on the third try - then Clinton took credit for the surplus! Bush with a Democrat-controlled Congress and Obama have dramatically increased the debts.

___There are states who are applying for an Article V Convention of States. This has enough politicians concerned that they are claiming the sky will fall - even though Congress can propose amendments themselves and the same approval is required.

Equal Opportunity v. Equal Results

___Barry Soetoro, aka Barack Obama, has made it clear that he wants equal results in America - and the world. That is the result of socialism - except the leaders have much more than the masses. We have an oligarchy - a government in which a small group exercises control - especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. The Constitution allows more than 10,000 Representatives in the House (1 per 30,000), Congress has capped its own membership at 435! I favor an increase to 4350. This will make Representatives more accountable and make it easier for less wealthy individuals to be elected and serve. This is NOT an increase in the size of government! Adding Inspectors General (IGs) to discover corruption saves billions of dollars. PoTUS has been firing them for doing that! The same benefit will be true by increasing scrutiny of those in Congress. Technology has made it possible for members of Congress to serve from a local office in their district.

___The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution establish a rule of law which allows equal opportunity instead. Success is not guaranteed, but there are few limits for self motivated individuals. There will obviously be some who succeed and those who fail. The "income level" of those who make good choices will be significantly higher than that of those who make bad choices. We have lots of statistics which show the poverty level of families headed by a husband and wife living together and those with a single parent. People with more education succeed to much higher levels than those who drop out because of pregnancy, drugs or "it was too hard!" The people with higher skills continue to get "richer" than those with no skills. This should not be a surprise!

___The growing income disparity is due to success for those at the top rather than failure for those at the bottom. We have a more than adequate safety net in the United States - so much so that there is actually a disincentive to work at the lowest levels. Our "poverty level" per capita income would be at least middle class in over 100 countries in the world!

The Corruption of the Highway Trust Fund

___The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, in addition to beginning construction of the Interstate Highway System, established the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). The Fund was the result of a compromise between outside groups and congressional leaders: in exchange for maintaining a gasoline tax, user fees extracted from motorists, including gasoline taxes (then 3 cents per gallon), would be placed into a new treasury account: the Highway Trust Fund, to be modeled on the Social Security Trust Fund.

___The original law intended for the HTF to last only 13 years, but the fund has been consistently reauthorized. The 1983 Surface Transportation Act created a second account within the HTF: the Mass Transit Account. The Act also raised the gasoline tax to nine cents per gallon, with one cent going to the new transit account. The gas tax was last raised in 1993, to 18.4 cents per gallon.

___Diesel fuel is also taxed, at a rate of 24.4 cents per gallon.

General Fund Bailouts:

___According to the CBO, from 2008 to 2014:

___Outlays from the Highway Trust Fund have exceeded revenues by more than $52 billion, and outlays will exceed revenues by an estimated $167 billion over the 2015–2024 period if obligations from the fund continue at the 2014 rate.

___Since 2008, more than $54 billion has been transferred from other sources to the HTF. Most of this revenue comes from the General Fund. The May 2015 deadline is partly derived from the fact that, around this time period, the HTF will run out of money, and another transfer from the general fund will be required to keep the HTF solvent.

Diversions:

___According to the Heritage Foundation, between 25 and 30 percent of all gasoline tax revenue is diverted from general purpose highway funding to fund transit programs, even though transit only claims around 1.3% of surface transportation mileage. Another diversion specified by the current highway bill includes the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP). In FY 2014, $819.9 million is designated for eligible TAP activities, which include sidewalks, nature paths, community preservation and landscaping. Other significant line items include ferry boats, federal lands transportation and access, university research and the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program.

___Our "crumbling infrastructure" is by design!

Strip Immigrant Felons of Citizenship

___The fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship if 1) born in U.S. and 2) subject to U.S. laws. If an immigrant commits a felony or 3 misdemeanors, then they have failed the second criteria and should be stripped of any citizenship rights already granted.

___The politicians need immigrants - legal or illegal - because the population demographics of the United States does not support Social Security and Medicare without a young Hispanic population.

Out-of-Wedlock Births as a Measure of Immorality

40.7 percent of all 2012 births were out-of-wedlock, which is appalling, and there are vast differences among racial and ethnic groups. Among non-Hispanic blacks, the figure is highest, at 72.2 percent; for American Indians/Alaska Natives, it’s 66.9 percent; 53.5 percent for Hispanics; 29.4 percent for non-Hispanic whites; and a mere 17.1 percent for Asians/Pacific Islanders.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/360990/latest-statistics-out-wedlock-births-roger-clegg