Weekly Update:

A Publication of the Michigan Militia Corps

Volume 3, Issue 37

November 20, 1996



Clinton's Baggage Worries Democrats

By James P. Tucker Jr.

Many leading Democrats who publicly cheered President Clinton's reelection privately hoped he could somehow lose and spare them the political fallout from having to resign the office.

Aides trailing Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn), Democratic national chairman during his dog-and-pony shows with his GOP counterpart, Haley Barbour, and others pointed to the words of Jerome Zeifman, chief counsel of the House Watergate panel that brought down Richard Nixon in 1974: "There is now probable cause to consider our President and first lady as felons, who are likely to be indicted after the November 5 election."

"It's common for some cabinet members to leave after a first term, but these people are running for their lives," said a White House functionary. "They want to get out before the mud spills on them."

Zeifman said the numerous scandals swelling up around Clinton are worse than Watergate because the Democrats am helping in the cover-up.

And they well remember - it was much discussed at numerous election night receptions and post-election strategy sessions - that Nixon's downfall was followed by huge Republican losses in the congressional elections of 1974 and foreshadowed Gerald Ford's defeat by President Jimmy Carter in 1976.

"I doubt very much that Clinton has four more years in the White House - more like 18 months," said a campaign operative. "He's already determined that the Constitution permits him to pardon Hillary, others and himself. But, after keeping himself and friends out of jail, he'll have to leave Washington in disgrace."

"He's been lucky," said another. "If Ron Brown (late commerce secretary) was not in his grave he would he in jail. But the luck can't last forever."

Any one of the major scandals, they said, could bring down a president and, taken together, they are overwhelming:

- Providing billions of dollars in trade deals to international corporations in exchange for millions in illegal campaign donations.

- Illegally seizing hundreds of confidential FBI files and using the FBI as a political instrument, with fallout at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

- Whitewater, the first lady's involvement in drafting documents designed to cover up illegal transactions which cost taxpayers $60 million.

- Finally, Paula Jones, whose civil suit alleges that the president exposed himself indecently while asking her to perform an act of sexual perversion. The supreme Court will decide if the action can go forward while Clinton occupies the white House.

Miss Jones said she is prepared to describe peculiarities of the presidential anatomy that can only be known by observation, however reluctant the observer.

"The Republicans had a gifted entertainer, Ronald Reagan, to bring them back from Watergate in 1980," said a White House staffer. "Who have we got? Al Gore? Gore's no Reagan and he'll be tainted by the whole thing himself."


Clinton Tax Cut Exposed as Fraud

The current Burden of taxation is hovering around 45 percent of income for federal state and local taxes. According to tax consultant Dan Pilla, that means the average family is forced to live on just 55 cents of every dollar earned. Taxes now consume more of the family budget than food, clothing, shelter and medical care - combined.

"It is time for tax relief," Pilla said "The question is whether you can trust the president to deliver it."

No one has ever accused President Clinton of being inflexible. No one has ever suggested he is too rigid in his thinking. In fact, the Clinton presidency is a shining example of flexibility. One might describe the president's policies as similar to a weather vane. Whichever direction the prevailing winds blow is the direction the president points.

There is no better example of this than the president's proposed "Middle Class Sill of Rights." This is a misnomer of the president's so- called tax cut plan, according to the tax consultant.

"The title is a misnomer because the proposed legislation has nothing whatsoever to do with the rights of the middle class," Pilla said. "The plan was originally offered in late 1994 as a response to the House Republican sponsored Contract with America legislative package."

In 1994, Clinton campaigned hard on the proposition of a middle class tax cut, Pilla added. The president absolutely guaranteed to cut taxes for the middle class and make the rich pay their fair share. The $150 billion tax hike he proposed was to come by increasing the top tax bracket to 36 percent, and applicable to those earning more than $200,000 annually. At the same time, Clinton promised a plethora of new government programs, not the least of which was a costly socialist medicine plan. The $150 billion tax hike on the rich was to be earmarked for that program.

In November of 1992, Clinton won the presidency largely on his two-fold promise to cut taxes for the middle class and to raise taxes only on the richest 2 percent of the population.

In his February 1993 State of the Union address, the middle class tax cut promised by candidate Clinton was trashed by President Clinton. To sell his across-the-board tax increases, Clinton said he "never tried harder" in his life to achieve the promised tax cut. However, he claimed "he just couldn't do it." The deficit was "much worse" than suspected, Clinton said. New taxes were needed to solve the crisis.

"Instead of a cut, Clinton proposed a new BTU (British thermal unit) tax with sweeping regulations, difficult formulas and excessive rates," Pilla said. "The tax was pointed squarely at the middle class."

But average Americans could take comfort in knowing they "weren't being asked to go first, and they weren't being asked to go alone." You were assured the rich would pay through the nose.

"Instead of a $150 billion tax hike to fund the health care plan, Clinton treated America to the largest tax increase in the history of the nation," Pilla says. "His 1993 tax and economic plan raised taxes by $326 billion, none of which went for health care. It was, rather, a 'deficit reduction' plan."

Unfortunately for America, Clinton orchestrated no cut in spending. Therefore, we have seen our national debt do nothing but rise during the Clinton watch, to the point where we now owe about $5.2 trillion in on-budget debt, the tax consultant says. There is no telling the level of unfunded liabilities. When Clinton took office, the debt was about $4 trillion. He has allowed it to grow a staggering 30 percent in just four years.

By May of 1995, Clinton admitted that he raised taxes too much. This angered his Democratic brethren who went out on a limb to support the massive tax hike of 1993. In an interview with Money magazine (May, 1995) Clinton said that he is "trying to persuade Congress that, yes, we should cut middle class taxes."

"How do you go from cramming the lamest tax increase in history down the throats of the middle class - indeed of America - and in the next breath decide the middle class needs a tax cut?" Pilla asked.

During the 1950s and 1960s, taxes never consumed more than 20 percent of income, according to the tax consultant. At today's rates, they are more than 2.5 times higher. Incredibly, Clinton's 1996 economic report to Congress claims that taxes have been "fairly constant" for the past 30 years. This defies his own admission of a year earlier, recognizing that taxes for the middle class should be cut. If taxes have been fairly constant for 30 years, middle income Americans should not need a tax cut.

"Bill Clinton's Middle Class Rill of Rights is a farce because it is grounded in political reactionism," Pilla said. "It is a transparent effort to position himself at the front of the tax reform parade."

During the first Dole-Clinton debate, the president repeatedly claimed that the deficits of the 1980s were caused by the Reagan tax cuts. Nothing could be further from the truth. First off, tax revenues during the 1980s went up, not down. A tax cut should lead to less government revenue, not more.

Clinton's own 1996 economic report to Congress shows that total federal revenue went from $599.3 billion in 1981 to $1.031 trillion in 1990. During the same period, however, federal spending grew from $678.2 billion to $1.25 trillion. Revenue grew by 72 percent, but spending grew by 84.6 percent. Obviously, the spending increase caused the deficit.

The Clinton plan lacks substance. The cuts it proposes are virtually nonexistent in that they are phased-in over such a long period of time. Even after the cuts are phased in, they are phased out for those still considered rich by the administration.

"This is nothing more than legislative sleight of hand designed to make people believe they are getting something, when in fact they have lost big under this administration," Pilla said.

The Clinton plan adds confusion to the law. As if things are not bad enough, the Clinton plan would make matters more confusing with the various phase-in and phase-out standards.

The rules of the Clinton plan do not apply across the board as they should. For example, the $500 child tax credit is not a $500 credit at all. In the first year, it is just $200, but only if your child is under 13 years of age, and then only if you earn less than $60,000 annually.

"This type of messed up nonsense is exactly what we were handed in 1993, with the massive tax hike," Pilla added. "Many of the 81 different provisions of that law were specifically designed to make tax compliance more difficult in order to allow the IRS to collect an additional 25 percent in penalty assessments."

"This type of legislation is the reason why an all time high number of citizens turn to tax professionals for help with their returns," he added.

Pilla said Clinton's Middle Class Rill Of Rights and his campaign promise of a middle class tax cut are a farce.

Spotlight, November 25, 1996


Crazed Environmentalists Want to Take Away Your Automobile

By Jarret Wollsitein

According to a powerful group of environmental zealots, your car and truck are environmental criminals and deserve the death sentence. The zealots intend to do whatever it takes to get them off the road - regardless of the cost to you and the American economy.

The environmental zealots aren't the crazed militants of Earth First, but the bureaucrats who run Clinton's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If they get their way, our car could soon be headed for the scrap heap along with millions of others.

Smog Check II could result in seizure of most pre-1992 cars, trucks, and vans. The first victims will be students, senior citizens, and low end middle income families who can't afford $20,000 vehicles.

"We considered, of course, a general impounding of [older vehicles]... but that is not politically feasible at this time," said EPA administrator William Yellowtail, at a national environmental conference in Colorado in September 1994.

Jim Schoning, of California's Bureau of Auto Repair (BAR), put it more simply. "We're going to get your cars," he told a classic car owner.

As in other states, California again has the dubious distinction of leading the nation. A recent article in Rod and Custom magazine explains:

The proposed EPA Phase II law is designed to ultimately ban all gasoline and diesel cars, trucks and vans in California that are 10 years old and older. Also to be banned am two-stroke engines on motorcycles, outboard engines, chain saws, lawn mowers, and so on.

The vehicles will be labeled "gross polluters" by the EPA, then confiscated and crushed. The EPA's objective is to remove approximately 76 percent of the vehicles now used in California during the next five years... The rest of the United States will then be expected to follow suit a short time later.

Never mind that study after study shows the overwhelming majority of pollution comes from large factories, not cars. Never mind that new technology and existing regulations have radically decreased auto emissions or that the air in most cities is now cleaner than it was 20 years ago. Never mind that our cars and trucks are taken away, our freedom to travel would be drastically restricted and millions of businesses would be forced to close.

The pseudo-Marxist zealots in the EPA and other government agencies pushing the new car confiscation laws see private cars end trucks as a symbol of overindulgent selfishness and plan to eliminate them.

Another provision of this program is replacement of smog testing by gas stations with centralized government-run car testing and confiscation stations. When this was previously tried in California and New Jersey (without confiscations) the results were terrible. Owners had to take a day off work and wan in huge lines for their cars to be tested.

The new system now going into effect will be even worse. According to the Automotive Technicians Association, the new $60,000-plus dynamic emissions testers being used give incorrect results 68 percent of the time. Huge numbers of non-polluting vehicles could end up in the scrap yard.

To supplement car confiscation centers, Smog Check II also requires a national network of roadside "sniffer" units to identify vehicles which don't meet the new standards and issue citations. if you receive a citation, you must take your vehicle to a state testing facility within 30 days or pay a $500 fine.

After being tested by the state, if your car or truck fails the new standards, you will be required to spend up to $450 to have its emissions system repaired or upgraded, then, if it fails again, you will be issued a one-time only waiver, after which your vehicle can be summarily confiscated and crushed. Classic and exotic cars are given waivers until they're sold, after which they must also comply with the new standards. It is impossible for a 1907 Ford Model T or even a 1956 Chevrolet Impala to meet those new standards. This would render classic and exotic cars unsellable.

Rut regardless of how much your vehicle is worth -- even if it's a rare vintage car worth $100,000 - the most the state has to pay you is $800 before destroying your car.

Why would government officials agree to a law that allows the confiscation of millions of cars? The answer is a single word: greed.

First, states that refuse to enact the new EPA regulations stand to lose millions of dollars in federal highway funds. But there is a darker and less obvious motive. Smog Check II establishes a new system of transferable pollution credits. These credits allow businesses to pollute by the maximum amount your crushed car was supposedly capable of. Current market value $7,000 to $10,000 each. But to receive a credit, the maximum amount an authorized scrapper has to pay for your car is $800. So the incentive to fail your car is enormous.

How does a company become an authorized scrapper? By obtaining official government recognition. So far, in most states, only one or two politically-connected companies such as Parsons end Enviro-Test have qualified, creating a virtual monopoly. What's in it for the politicians and bureaucrats? The possibility of millions of dollars in political contributions, endorsements, kickbacks and graft.

Smog Check II's transferable pollution credit system is creating a corrupt new multi-billion dollar national industry based upon destroying your car, truck, or van.

Smog Check II is scheduled to go into effect in much of the nation next year. Unless there is massive public resistance, millions of cars will be destroyed. For example, California's BAR says up to 15 percent of the states' 26 million vehicles could be banned in 1997. That's 3.9 million cars that could be destroyed. They have an estimated value of $30 billion.

In a state with a notoriously bad public transportation system, scrapping 3.9 million cars could make it impossible for people to get to work, school, the grocery store, or the doctor's office.

As the facts about Smog Check II have gradually leaked out - thanks largely to a few crusading radio stations like KSFO in San Francisco and irate car owners' associations - public resistance has grown.

- In California, more than 10,000 people gathered in the state capital on October 16 to oppose the law.

- State statutes in New Jersey and California that designated private driveways and garages "quasi-public property" and allowed car confiscators to snatch your car from your own driveway - without a search warrant - were repealed.

- Ohio's program, started in January, was put on hold when the major authorized scrapper was shut down.

- In Texas, public resistance shut down the program after just three weeks of operation.

Unfortunately, Clinton's zealots in the EPA and state bureaucracies continue to push his plan. But that could be a big mistake. Nothing is more cherished by Americans than their cars and the mobility and freedom they represent. Most of us won't quietly surrender our only means of transportation. If registering your car means risking confiscation, many people simply will flat out refuse to register. And if envirocops try to seize cars from people's private property, many might resist. Government bureaucrats attempting to confiscate millions of cars could spark virtual civil war.


Washington Gave Thanks to God

In 1789, at the behest of Congress, President George Washington offered this humble prayer on behalf of this young nation. (New York, 3 October 1789)

By the President of the United States or America, a proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful of his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor - and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be -- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation - for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war - for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed - for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted - for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of inquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general of all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national end other transgressions - to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually - to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed - to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord - To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us - and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year or our Lord 1789.

GEORGE WASHINGTON


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