When I first saw that attention-hungry Senator Chuck Schumer (as they say- the most dangerous place to be in Washington is between Schumer and a camera) had announced that he was sponsoring something called the 'Ex-Patriot Act,' I got excited.
You mean finally a Senator was going to find the onions to overturn the Patriot Act and put it in the past? You mean a congressperson finally found the time to read the Constitution and realized it was overkill put into place to enlarge the government at a time of mass hysteria over an attack- that the government didn't let a crisis go to waste but rather took more rights away from us?
I was finally proud of my senator.
And then I actually read the proposal.
It has nothing to do with making America the Land of the Free again.
No, rather it's about a money-grab. If you renounce your citizenship to avoid taxes, you can never come into the country again (and who exactly is dumb enough to have that be the reason they're renouncing their citizenship? That may be the REAL reason, but you'd have to be a total moron to put that in writing. Why not put something about disagreements with the philosophies of the government, or as a statement protesting the over-reaching imperialism of the country? If you don't know how to fill out government forms, that's your problem)
Apparently this was all sparked by Eduardo Saverin (co-founder of Facebook) renouncing his citizenship to become a citizen of Singapore. He owns 4% of Facebook, which translates into roughly 67 million dollars in taxes. Money that can go to help pay for $17,000 drip pans for transmissions for helicopters (I'm sure you saw that story of government waste).
Perhaps.....the real lesson to be learned here (that sadly Schumer will NEVER learn) is that taxes are too high. The very fact that we can spend $17,000 on a drip pan shows that the government has too much money. But rather than tightening their belts, they do everything they can to continue to take more of our money.
I doubt Schumer will ever understand what it takes to make America great. He got as far as having a good name for a bill, but then whiffed completely. I GUESS that's progress?
-Zjabs (Rochester's Official Columnist)
© 2012 Zjabs - 5/21/12
