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Denver drops marijuana exhibits from county fair By Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — The Denver County Fair is dropping marijuana exhibits from next month's event, a year after some people said they were unwittingly served pot-infused chocolate in the fair's "Pot Pavilion."

The organizer of the county fair insists that the fair is dropping marijuana not because of that incident but because marijuana-related vendor sales were slow. Dana Cain says that Denver has so many marijuana-related festivals that the drug has "become kind of old hat."

The fair last year displayed no actual marijuana, with growers entering pictures of plants for competition. Vendors were forbidden from giving away or selling pot, but more than a dozen attendees filed suit, saying they were given weed-infused chocolates.

They sued a dispensary that handed out the chocolates. The lawsuit has since been settled out of court.

This story has been corrected to show the number of people who claimed they were sickened by pot was about a dozen, not 100.                   http://www.gopusa.com/news/2015/06/25/denver-drops-marijuana-exhibits-from-county-fair/?subscriber=1

If flags can be banned, why not movies and books? By Guardian Web

The New York Post film critic Lou Lumenick has called for Gone with the Wind, the 1939 multi-Oscar-winning epic, to no longer be screened in cinemas.

"If the Confederate flag is finally going to be consigned to museums as an ugly symbol of racism," writes Lumenick, "what about the beloved film offering the most iconic glimpse of that flag in American culture?"

The film, which is still the most lucrative of all time when figures are adjusted for inflation, screens on 4 July in New York's Museum of Modern Art as part of its centenary of Technicolor celebrations. "Maybe that's where this much-loved but undeniably racist artifact really belongs," writes Lumenick.

Adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer prize-winning 1936 novel, Victor Fleming's film stars Vivien Leigh as the daughter of a Georgia plantation owner who falls for her cousin's husband before marrying Clark Gable's gambler-turned-soldier. Set during the American civil war and told from the perspective of white Southerners, the film has long been felt to be one of America's finest. It took 10 gongs at the 1940 Oscars, including one for Hattie McDaniel, who was the first black person to win an Academy award.

The book, as well as the film, says Lumenick, "buys heavily into the idea that the civil war was a noble lost cause and casts Yankees and Yankee sympathisers as the villains". It also, he writes, goes to "great lengths to enshrine the myth that the civil war wasn't fought over slavery — an institution the film unabashedly romanticises".

Lumenick speculates that many in the Academy likely feel the same way, noting that The Wizard of Oz – which was defeated as best picture by Gone with the Wind in 1940 – received a special 75th anniversary tribute. But during the same ceremony (in which 12 Years a Slave was ultimately named best picture) Gone with the Wind was all but ignored.

The critic concludes: "What does it say about us as a nation if we continue to embrace a movie that, in the final analysis, stands for many of the same things as the Confederate flag that flutters so dramatically over the dead and wounded soldiers at the Atlanta train station just before the intermission?"                                                                                        http://www.gopusa.com/news/2015/06/25/if-flags-can-be-banned-why-not-movies-and-books/?subscriber=1

Government and Politics Won't Solve Our Racial Problem By Star Parker

When horrible things happen, such as the tragic mass murder that occurred at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, we try to understand because it is through understanding that we solve problems.

Speaking about the incident, Hillary Clinton said: "It is tempting to dismiss a tragedy like this as an isolated incident -- to believe that in today's America, bigotry is largely behind us, that institutionalized racism no longer exists. But despite our best efforts and our highest hopes, America's long struggle with race is far from finished."

Some of the Republican candidates for president are taking heat because they have not come out so boldly and clearly as Clinton regarding the racial dimension of this crime.

Here's the problem. No one, particularly with all the information we now have about the deranged young man who admitted to committing this crime, can question his racial motivations. He was a sick, pathological racist.

But Clinton, in her zeal to make political capital from this tragedy, conflated and confused very different things -- racial bigotry and institutionalized racism - and as result, at a difficult and sensitive moment, threw out heat when we needed light.

Institutionalized racism is racism that a society officially endorses. It is present when there is a legal framework that supports it.

Institutionalized racism existed in the United States prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Social realities and laws that permitted racial discrimination of various kinds were made illegal by those acts.

So Clinton misrepresents reality to suggest that "institutionalized racism" exists today in America. It does not.

Racial bigotry, on the other hand, is personal behavior. Does it exist? It certainly does. But personal affairs of the heart and affairs of state are different issues.

As Martin Luther King Jr. observed, "morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless."

The civil rights-era laws purged America of legal, institutionalized racism in the spirit of Dr. King, restraining "the heartless."                                                                                                                                                                                  But why, a half-century later, does so much sick personal racial bigotry remain? Why does there remain such a sharp racial consciousness? Why does it remain so prevalent that individuals are judged by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character?

A good deal of this is driven by the refusal of so many -- mostly liberals such as Clinton -- to accept King's simple but profound point that racial bigotry is a moral problem and that "morality cannot be legislated."

The plethora of government programs driven by the pretense that government can go beyond just protecting citizens to become an active tool for creating a more just society have worsened the very problem they pretend to address. Making segregation illegal -- making discrimination illegal -- is far different from forced integration and mandated quotas.

Liberal policies have forced ongoing and increased racial consciousness and division in the country. In doing so, by taking government where it does not belong, trying to solve a moral problem it cannot solve, they have made the problem worse and sharpened, rather than eased, racial tensions.

Worse, taking government where it does not belong has diminished the most important factor needed to solve this problem, which is more, not less, personal moral responsibility by both the victims and the victimizers.

Appreciation for the awesome humility, forgiveness and love demonstrated by the families of the victims of this horrible crime and the other members of this church is the greatest homage we can pay to those who were murdered.

As a nation, we should be turning to the God to whom they were praying, whose teachings they were studying when they were murdered. The answers are there. Not in politics and not in Washington.

Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org. To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.              http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/2015/06/25/government-and-politics-wont-solve-our-racial-problem/?subscriber=1     

OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT : BOB UNRUH

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed the Obama administration another victory in its fight to keep Obamacare alive, allowing that the words "established by the state" regarding exchanges and subsidies means established by the state or the federal government.

The Supreme Court's 6-3 decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the opinion affirming Obamacare's fees as taxes three years ago, said tax credits are available to those people who get coverage through the federally established exchange, as well as to those who get coverage through state exchanges.

The dispute engaged a multitude of Obamacare's rules, regulations and definitions.

The four people who brought the case live in Virginia, where the state refused to set up an exchange, so the federal government stepped in. They did not want to purchase the coverage and read the literal words of the law to mean they would not get the subsidies.

That would have made their costs for health coverage more than eight percent of their incomes, exempting them from the law.

But the government argued the IRS was correct in redefining the law and allowing subsidies to those in federal exchanges, too, meaning the plaintiffs would have to buy the coverage.

A summary of Robert's opinion said the meaning of the words "established by the state," was ambiguous.

So it said in context, they must mean that customers of federal exchanges are included.

Justices Ruth Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy joined.

"At issue in this case is whether the [Obamacare's] tax credits are available in states that have a federal exchange rather than a state exchange. ... The act ... provides that the amount of the tax credit depends in part on whether the taxpayer has enrolled in an insurance plan through 'an exchange established by the state under section 1311..."

The IRS then adopted a rule expanding that to include customers of the federal exchange.

In this case, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the subsidies can come through the federal exchange, and that conflicted with the District of Columbia Circuit, which said the rule "unambiguously restricts" tax credits to state exchanges.

"Oftentimes the 'meaning – or ambiguity – of certain words or phrases may only become evident when placed in context,'" Roberts wrote.

He said three things are required: an individual must enroll in an insurance plan through an exchange, that exchange must "established by the state" and the exchange must be established under Obamacare.

The law, he said, instructs the federal government "to establish and operate the same exchange that the state was directed to establish."

http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/obamacare-subsidies-upheld-by-supreme-court/#kkzVaYuFBoy7BbPW.99

School Nutrition Experts Blast Michelle's Lunch Standards: 'Food Is Only Nutritious IF THEY EAT IT' : Dan Joseph

In a Wednesday hearing before the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, experts from the School Nutrition Association (SNA) testified that the food offered under new school lunch standards, implemented under the leadership of First Lady Michelle Obama, is being rejected by a large number of students. The experts also cited data that the cost of implementing the new standards has led to a loss of revenue for schools across the country.

The SNA's incoming Vice President, Dr. Lynn Harvey told the committee that the primary problem stems from the fact that the new cafeteria offerings simply don't taste very good.

"For two years, local School Nutrition Directors have offered these items under ideal conditions and have encouraged students to try them, explained Harvey. Yet, students continue to reject them because their taste, texture and appearance are quite different from that to which they are accustomed...Students' dissatisfaction with whole grain-rich biscuits has led to a decline in breakfast participation in 60% of our school districts."

With fewer students buying food from school cafeterias the the school meal programs have experienced a significant loss of revenue.

"Over half of School Nutrition Programs in North Carolina are operating at a revenue loss. The average loss is nearly $2.5 million," Dr. Harvey testified.

Harvey also shared similar stories of dissatisfaction from other states.

In one example, Siri Perlman, a nutrition specialist from the Dieguito Union High School District explained that the unappetizing food options were driving kids to abandon the school cafeterias and going off campus for far less healthy options.

"The new Smart Snacks regulations have not had the intended effect in our district. Many students are upset that healthy reimbursable meal entrees can no longer be sold a la carte and that some popular options like hummus and pretzels are off the menu. With a la carte choices so limited, many students go off campus for fast food, soda and sugary snacks. We have experienced a 10 percent drop in revenue and anticipate a nearly $175,000 loss this school year. Allowing reimbursable entrees to be sold a la carte every day would provide students with a larger variety of nutritious choices and help to restore our financial solvency. Food is only nutritious if they eat it."                                                                                                      http://www.mrctv.org/blog/school-nutritionists-blast-regs-students-walking-away-go-campus-fast-food-just-don-t-flavor          http://www.mrctv.org/blog/only-18-school-lunch-programs-expect-break-even-students-flee-new-menus#.fuuruc:BQUV         http://www.mrctv.org/videos/rep-brat-vilsack-school-lunch-programs-there-any-limit-role-state-caring-our-kids          http://www.mrctv.org/blog/school-nutritionists-regs-caused-students-swap-healthy-school-meals-junk-food                      http://www.mrctv.org/blog/school-nutrition-experts-blast-michelles-lunch-standards

MRC CyberAlert Thursday, June 25, 2015 at 9:25 AM EDT Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996

Read online

http://email.mrc.org/q/1IapkX1zbPk24u1PA3YR1/wv

MRC.org CyberAlert                         1. CNN's Don Lemon: Maybe We Will 'Rethink Jefferson' Memorial

CNN's Don Lemon on Tuesday hinted that there will come a day when the United States will have to "rethink" tributes such as the Jefferson Memorial. Legal View host Ashley Banfield brought up the author of the Declaration of Independence. Lemon conceded: "There may come a day when we may want to rethink Jefferson, I don't if we should do that. But when we get to that point, I'll be happy to partake in that particular discussion."

2. CNN's Costello Attacks GOP on Voter ID: 'To Critics, It Seems That They are Trying to Suppress the Black Vote'

On Wednesday, CNN Newsroom host Carol Costello and Democratic strategist Paul Begala attacked both the GOP and Jeb Bush for their positions on voter ID laws. Costello dismissed Republican voter ID concerns by asserting that there "are very few cases of voter fraud in our nation." She added that, to critics, "it seems that they are trying to suppress the black vote."

3. NY Post Film Critic: Banish 'Gone With the Wind' to A Museum Like Confederate Flag

The New York Post's Lou Lumenick likened Gone with the Wind to the Confederate flag in a Wednesday item: "If the Confederate flag is finally going to be consigned to museums as an ugly symbol of racism, what about the beloved film offering the most iconic glimpse of that flag in American culture?" The film critic contended that the classic movie goes to "great lengths to enshrine the myth that the Civil War wasn't fought over slavery — an institution the film unabashedly romanticizes."

4. CNN's Cuomo Badgers Carson to Condemn Competitors on Confederate Flag

On Wednesday's New Day, CNN's Chris Cuomo repeatedly tried to get Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson to attack conservatives, as well as his competitors, on the Confederate flag controversy. Cuomo asked, "Isn't it a part of leadership saying to people who don't want to call what happened in this Charleston church a hate crime – calling them out on that, and showing them that that is not a time to play politics and say that race colors too much of the public discussion?"

5. Mika Heaps Praise on Bernie Sanders In Morning Joe Interview: 'Your Crowds are Humongous!'

In continuing their series of interviews with the announced 2016 presidential candidates, Morning Joe welcomed Bernie Sanders to the program. Co-host Mika Brzezinski lauded the Sanders campaign for its early success and large campaign events. Brzezinski gushed that it's "looking pretty good too! Your crowds are humongous." She then positively cited a piece from the Washington Post which suggested that the senator's campaign – based on the crowd sizes – could indicate that a "growing movement" is brewing in America.

6. Networks Barely Acknowledge Bobby Jindal's Entrance into the 2016 Presidential Field

While Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal became the 12th Republican on Wednesday to join the 2016 Republican presidential field, the top English and Spanish-language network evening newscasts all but dodged Jindal's decision by providing a total of 54 seconds across English networks ABC, CBS, and NBC. As for the Spanish-language networks, MundoFox and Telemundo ignored Jindal's announcement completely while Univision aired an 18-second news brief.

7. AP Retreats, Removes Photo of Gun Pointed at Ted Cruz's Head

After an uproar, the Associated Press backed down and removed a photo of a gun pointed at the head of Senator Ted Cruz. In a statement to Breitbart, AP Vice President and Director of Media Relations Paul Colford conceded, "Five of the photos show Mr. Cruz with images of a pistol pointing at his head and upon consideration we have decided to remove those photos from further licensing through AP Images, our commercial photo syndication business."

8. Ted Cruz Schools PBS's Tavis Smiley on Minimum Wage

Tuesday night saw something rare on PBS, a conservative voice. Senator Ted Cruz appeared on liberal Tavis Smiley's program and hit back at the host's pro-Democrat questions. Smiley demanded, "Well, why can't we raise the minimum wage to a living wage? Why won't you fight for that?" Cruz quickly retorted, "The people who will hurt the most... How does it impact the most vulnerable? Every time you raise the minimum wage, the people who will hurt the most is the most vulnerable."

9. NBC Gushes Over New Photos of 'American Royalty' Kennedy Family

On Wednesday, NBC's Today devoted nearly three minutes to promoting some "never before-seen" photos of the Kennedy family while giving a mere 18 seconds to Governor Bobby Jindal's presidential announcement, burying it in a story on the new U.S. policy on hostage negotiations.

Petraeus, Former Obama Aides Slam Emerging Iran Nuclear Deal -

(Newsmax) – A group of prominent American security advisers, including five with ties to President Barack Obama's first term, warned on Wednesday that a deal on curbing Iran's nuclear program was at risk of failing to provide adequate safeguards.

In an open letter, the group of former U.S. officials and foreign policy experts cautioned that an Iran nuclear deal would "fall short of meeting the administration's own standard of a 'good' agreement" unless it included a tougher line on United Nations nuclear inspections and conditions for sanctions relief.

The release of the letter, which was signed by Dennis Ross, an adviser on Iran and the Middle East in Obama's first term, comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to fly to Vienna on Friday to join the talks.

Several of the senior officials told The New York Times that the was prompted by concern that Obama's negotiators were headed toward concessions that would weaken international inspection of Iran's facilities. They also feared that a deal in the works backs away from forcing Tehran to reveal its suspected past work on weapons while Iranian research and development that would put it on a course to resuming intensive production of nuclear fuel as soon as the accord expires.

"The public nature of the announcement by some of Mr. Obama's best-known former advisers, all of whom had central roles in the diplomatic, intelligence and military efforts to counter Iran's program, adds to the challenge facing" the administration as the negotiations head toward a deadline of next Tuesday, the Times wrote in its article.

Ross told Reuters it was vital that negotiations were not driven by a deadline but by "getting it right."                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Any deal would face fierce opposition from Republicans who have argued the Obama administration is readying a deal that would leave Iran with a clear path to making a nuclear weapon.

Kerry, speaking to reporters on Wednesday evening, said it was too early to say if negotiators could clear the last outstanding issues.

"If they are not addressed, there will not be a deal," he said. "We have been very clear that we are not going to negotiate in public."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/iran-deal-letter-former/2015/06/24/id/652098/#sthash.97ntH6eS.dpuf

TPP Passes: Obama Now A Dictator

Foundation of global government cemented with passage of secretive bill

(Infowars) – One of the most devastating blows to US sovereignty since the country's founding was dealt today as the Senate handed President Obama his Trans-Pacific Partnership victory.

Despite massive opposition from the American people, Tea Party Republicans and a majority of Democrats, Obama was granted fast-track authority by a 60-38 vote.

Sections of the TPP published by Wikileaks have revealed the treaty's vast influence over multiple areas including individual rights, internet freedom and even the rule of law itself. Unelected corporate boards and the President can now wield unprecedented control over almost every aspect of human activity.

"If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you're ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs," Wikileaks' Julian Assange wrote.

Secret TPP chapters regarding immigration also grant President Obama an even greater ability to erode the country's Southern border.

"Obama will be able to finalize all three of the Obamatrade deals, without any Congressional input..." notes Breitbart.

The TPP, which covers 12 countries and more than 40% of the world's economy, will place North America under the same global government structure as the European Union, where laws are increasingly crafted outside of public influence .            https://youtu.be/hCGsUTQBx-c                                  http://www.infowars.com/tpp-passes-obama-now-a-dictator/#sthash.Os8cA3Pc.dpuf  

The "Stupidity" of Gay Marriage By David Lawrence

You're so proud of yourself that you accept gay marriage. How generous your spirit. You congratulate yourself that you are able to think beyond conventionalities.

Tradition is nothing to you. You are so clever that you can be illogical and promote anal intercourse without a chance of procreation. You got everything ass backwards but won't accept normality.

Marriage is an institution not chaotic self-destruction. It is not same sex meaninglessness. It is not love without structure.

Like acceptance of gay marriage is a sign of intelligence rather than a failure to face reality. Like going against the grain fertilizes intellect.

Yeah, you are brilliant because you defy nature and the history of beautiful heterosexuality. For you anal sex is a sign of great intelligence. A hemorrhoid is a logarithm. It is the mathematics of being asinine.

You are an ass. Yet you feel that your head is screwed on right and that you are superior to normality, that your following the road less traveled by will bring you to Oz.

Perversion is perversion. It doesn't make you a bad person. You may be beautiful in other parts of your life. But walking on the wild side of sexual perversion, you are out of touch. You are in a mentally sick world.

When I see same sex marriages on television I wince. I'm not even too enthusiastic about regular marriages. But same sex puts the corn on corny. Pass the butter. Let me slide out of your embarrassing joy. I turn my eyes.

It's not that as a gay academic you are stupid in math and literature but that you are stupid in your sex life. If you can't follow what makes sense you walk off the road and injure yourself on the cliffs of perversion.

I feel sorry for you. You shouldn't defend your doggish position just because you are impelled to kneel. Admit that you veer from normality. Don't be proud of failings.

Be what you be but don't deny that it is a sad world that you inhabit. It may not be your choice. But it is your choice to rub it in our faces.

Lay back. Do your thing. Don't ask us to be an audience to your perversion.

Your release from the closet is creased pants and tripping on the hangers of twisted metal. You are out of touch with the rack of normality. The price tag on your clothes is the cost of insanity. Close the door. Be more than an exhibitionist.

 http://eaglerising.com/20058/the-stupidity-of-gay-marriage/#xpW4l7lBjUcv0T5y.99

Taxing the Rich is the Best Way to Make Us All Poor : By Paul Dowling

Why Taxing the Rich Makes Us All Poor

"I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible." —Milton Friedman

Discrimination Is Wrong, Even on a Practical Level

Just because the rich can afford to pay higher taxes does not mean that the rest of us can afford for the rich to pay higher taxes. It is truer than most people know that, when you hurt even one rich person, you hurt all the rest of us at the same time. And the effect size only multiplies when the entire class of rich Americans is discriminated against—targeted, if you will, by government policy. Discrimination is always wrong. It always seems to backfire, no matter who the subject of that discrimination is. And discrimination is not only wrong on a moral level, but on a practical level as well.

Big Checks Enable Big Waste

Once the wealthy begin to write big checks out to the government, all of that money can no longer be used by the rest of us in the form of loans for our small businesses, for the bank's investment purposes, or for other productive purposes that would enable healthy economic growth. The amount of potential job creation that all of this tax money represents is huge. As tax money, however, these funds would be directed to satisfy the purposes to which the government might apply them—many of which would prove to be incredibly wasteful or even downright destructive.

It's All for One and One for All

Thus, a tax on one taxpayer—or a group of taxpayers—is, in a very real sense, a tax on all of us. For every single one of us loses the benefit of having that money put to work for the expansion of the US economy and the freedom this would ultimately bring.

Stimulating Stock Market Bubbles

With less money supply available to private banks, upward pressure is brought to bear on interest rates, since a lower supply of ready cash always pushes up the price of money, in terms of interest rates. This makes loans more costly and, thus, more difficult to afford. The only counterweight to this is an easy-money policy put into place by the Federal Reserve that keeps interest rates artificially low. But such a policy serves to drive the bank's money into the stock market to earn what cannot be earned on loan interest. This provides a stimulus to the stock market and inflates stock values, ultimately causing a bubble and risking another crash when the bubble finally pops.

A Shrinking Economy Means Shrinking Freedom

Less capital in the private sector also means less economic activity to create wealth. The economy shrinks, which causes the amount of taxable income to decrease. Americans lose much in the way of freedom of choice in the kinds of jobs they can take. The job market suffers, and many jobs become outsourced to foreign lands.

Back-Door Tax Hikes

image: http://cdn1.eaglerising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/taxman-cometh-300x116.jpg

taxman comethTo counter some of these problems, the government has been printing more and more money, but this quantitative easing not only devalues the currency, it also serves as a backdoor tax hike. So, once your employer finally gets around to paying you more in order to compensate for inflation, you might be surprised to find yourself in a higher tax bracket than you were before.

More dollars earned means a higher percentage of your income has to be paid to the IRS in income tax, regardless of the fact that you need the higher dollar amount to purchase the same amount of goods the old wages used to buy. You are earning the same purchasing power, but you are also paying a higher percentage of your income to Uncle Sam.

One Job for the Price of Twenty-Five

Sometimes, the government also attempts stimulus spending by appropriating money for pet projects. The last stimulus bill required two million dollars to create each $80,000 job being funded. The amount of waste this implies is mind-boggling. What this means is that, in order to pay the two million dollars in taxes it took to create each $80,000-government job, the private sector had to forgo the creation of 25 jobs of equal wage value. How much productivity and innovation was lost to the US economy? How many useful new inventions and discoveries did not come about—some potentially life-saving in nature—because the people who would have made them were not working? And just how many lives may have been lost, as a result?

Tax Cuts to Increase Tax Collections

The best economic stimulus actually comes in the form of significant tax cuts. This allows consumers to spend more of their income at neighborhood businesses, allows hiring by those businesses of more workers, and causes the economy to begin expanding. A growing economy creates more taxpayers, more wealth to tax, and—even at the lower rates—would eventually cause more money to be paid into the treasury than before the tax cut.

An important by-product of healthy growth is a greater menu of jobs being created, offering Americans more in the way of choice and freedom. Due to the abundance of job choices that comes about in such an economy, employers must then begin raising wages in order to keep their best workers from going elsewhere. This increases wealth distribution without any need for government intervention.

Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton all enacted significant reductions in taxes to boost American economic growth. Realizing that income-tax cuts under Kennedy worked towards expanding the economy, Reagan chose to make even more dramatic cuts, setting the wheels in motion for an economic boom that would last over a quarter of a century. (Read more about this here: http://eaglerising.com/8311/tax-cuts-best-way-stimulate-american-economy/.)

Every time in the history of our republic that we have cut taxes, economic growth has resulted, and today, because of the Reagan tax-cut stimulus and other pro-growth tax policies under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the US economy represents about 25% of the world economy, despite the damage wrought by the Great Recession and the high-tax, high-regulation policies of the Obama White House.

Taxing Success, Subsidizing Dependency

image: http://cdn1.eaglerising.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/photo-obama-wants-to-raise-taxes-e1425893061100-300x165.jpg

photo-obama-wants-to-raise-taxesPresident Obama is the first US President to reject the importance of incentivizing economic expansion; instead, he has chosen to punish those who are successful in driving the expansion process that grows wealth—for themselves and for others as well. Stepped-up taxation of economic activity, per Obama's policies, in order to subsidize and grow poverty, can only spell disaster for the economy.

There is a well-known economic rule: If you tax it (economic growth), you get less of it; if you subsidize it (government dependency), you get more of it. Upon reaching the point of having more money being paid in entitlements than the government can collect in taxes, the country becomes insolvent. In the end, we redistribute nothing more than poverty, illness, and death. Americans become less free, and, with less wealth to tax, the government becomes increasingly oppressive, confiscating more and more wealth, until any and all taxable assets flee the country. No capital remains that could be invested in new start-ups, new innovations, or new life-saving drugs or technologies.

Wealth Is the Basis for Independence and Well-Being

Government relief should not so generously dispensed that there is no incentive for able-bodied recipients to get back to work and the business of caring for themselves and each other once again. Rather than making all of us equally poor, our government should be in the business of creating equal opportunity for all, helping each of us to become as wealthy and financially independent as possible. More wealth means more lives saved.

An America Divided

Historically, America has not been a land divided along the lines of class, but a land which has striven not to discriminate against anyone, along any lines—be those race-, gender-, faith-, or income-related in nature. Wealthy people have been able to exist in America, unmolested by an overtaxing government or a covetous citizenry. The inspiration their success has provided has proven to be a tremendous benefit to all who have chosen to apply themselves to the goal of becoming successful, in any field of endeavor.

The American Dream

As long as the hard-earned wealth of the American people is respected, rather than exploited, business can grow, and the economy will thrive. The generation of as much wealth as possible for the greatest number of people possible should be the goal. Only low taxes and limited government can facilitate this. The American Dream involves the freedom to manage your own wealth, without its being confiscated by Big Government to be managed for you, without any input from you as to how.

Individual liberty rides to a large extent on the back of economic freedom. As long as an environment of free enterprise and wealth creation is nourished and protected, the American Dream will continue to live on.

 http://eaglerising.com/20070/taxing-the-rich-is-the-best-way-to-make-us-all-poor/#WMdxVHP5Ey6BEe1m.99