For the third session we are watching Gov. Roy Romer's "America's Public Schools: A Crisis and an Opportunity" here again, are a few highlights
-If the US is going to maintain the economic advantage that we currently have we need to rank higher than 24th in Math among industrialized nations.
-The number of drop outs in American schools is at 1.2 million
-There is a need for more rigorous national standards across the country
-The States would be able to come up with the tests, but the Federal Government would pay for them.
-The most important quality for any school system is teaching. The best way to improve this is by recruiting better individuals, currently teachers in the US generally come from the bottom third of their graduating classes.
-To keep the best teachers there should be some form of merit pay based on their student's performance
-Currently the US has 13 fewer class days a year than the top countries in education, and that needs to be fixed
We have now voted to switch to Porter Gross' "Defending America Requires Fixing our our Intelligence System" We picked it up in the middle, so this will only reflect what I have been able to view.
-The Israeli intelligence is the best in the world because they believe that any mistake on their part will cause an explosion or death to their people. The US does not act with that same kind of urgency.
-Our system is not efficient enough in turning intelligence to acting on it.
-The US can't retreat back behind the oceans, they must get the info from the direct sources, not hearing it from global news
-The US military and intelligence needs to have greater freedom to act on information, and not have to worry about Washington.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
2nd Session
A few highlights from Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder on the "Fair Tax".
-The Fair tax creates one sales tax, and eliminates all other taxes (income tax, capital gains, estate tax, etc...). It also limits the amount of information the IRS can hold about someone.
-This would lower the price of goods by eliminating most of the taxes that rise the costs of goo
ds
-The tax is only paid when a family overspends the poverty level for their family size.
-The cost of filling out tax returns amounts to over $350 Billion Dollars
-The biggest change is the change to stop taxing wages to taxing wealth. The wealthiest people in this country don't receive wages, so they get out of paying taxes.
-The current tax code is used to control the behavior of the citizens, the Fair Tax could not be utilized in this manner.
-Lobbyists and Government workers are against it mainly because a complicated tax code keeps them in business.
-The way that the Fair Tax will be implemented is through a groundswell of support from the grassroots. To sign up with Fair Tax you can do so on-line at http://www.fairtax.org/
-Criticisms of the Fair Tax:
-- It's not 23% it's 30%
-The law will say that the price of goods at stores will include the Fair Tax
-- It doesn't reduce government spending
-It's tax reform, not government reform
-- It doesn't get rid ofthe 16th Amendment
-If it got rid of the 16th Amendment it would have to be an Amendment itself, which increases the difficulty of it getting passed
--Bruce Bartlett said that the Fair Tax is "part of the Church of Scientology"
-Years before Fair Tax there was an organization from the Church of Scientology that had a very rudimentary version. It was formed mainly because the IRS refused to grant the Church of Scientology tax exempt status.
-The Fair Tax is a revolution, which can only happen from the bottom up, not from the top-down.
-If the US doesn't institute it first, the country that does will immediately become the haven for all business
-To summarize the answer given of the questions: jobs will come back to the US because of the tax system; everyone outside of Washington is with the Fair Tax (including CPAs); unfortunately it does not directly affect local (property) taxes, however the states will be pressured to copy that system.
-If Texas went to the Fair Tax the state would get the same amount of money from a 2.5% sales tax as it would from the 8.5% sales tax that is around most of the state.
-The Fair tax creates one sales tax, and eliminates all other taxes (income tax, capital gains, estate tax, etc...). It also limits the amount of information the IRS can hold about someone.
-This would lower the price of goods by eliminating most of the taxes that rise the costs of goo
ds-The tax is only paid when a family overspends the poverty level for their family size.
-The cost of filling out tax returns amounts to over $350 Billion Dollars
-The biggest change is the change to stop taxing wages to taxing wealth. The wealthiest people in this country don't receive wages, so they get out of paying taxes.
-The current tax code is used to control the behavior of the citizens, the Fair Tax could not be utilized in this manner.
-Lobbyists and Government workers are against it mainly because a complicated tax code keeps them in business.
-The way that the Fair Tax will be implemented is through a groundswell of support from the grassroots. To sign up with Fair Tax you can do so on-line at http://www.fairtax.org/
-Criticisms of the Fair Tax:
-- It's not 23% it's 30%
-The law will say that the price of goods at stores will include the Fair Tax
-- It doesn't reduce government spending
-It's tax reform, not government reform
-- It doesn't get rid ofthe 16th Amendment
-If it got rid of the 16th Amendment it would have to be an Amendment itself, which increases the difficulty of it getting passed
--Bruce Bartlett said that the Fair Tax is "part of the Church of Scientology"
-Years before Fair Tax there was an organization from the Church of Scientology that had a very rudimentary version. It was formed mainly because the IRS refused to grant the Church of Scientology tax exempt status.
-The Fair Tax is a revolution, which can only happen from the bottom up, not from the top-down.
-If the US doesn't institute it first, the country that does will immediately become the haven for all business
-To summarize the answer given of the questions: jobs will come back to the US because of the tax system; everyone outside of Washington is with the Fair Tax (including CPAs); unfortunately it does not directly affect local (property) taxes, however the states will be pressured to copy that system.
-If Texas went to the Fair Tax the state would get the same amount of money from a 2.5% sales tax as it would from the 8.5% sales tax that is around most of the state.
First Session
A few highlights from David Barton's "Rediscovering God in America"
-Apparently "Modern Readers" don't need to read about religion and morals that Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about when he studied early America
-John Adams answered when asked "Who is behind American Independence?" by giving many reverends and ministers that played a major role in society and in forming public opinion.
-"Seed Time of the Republic" was a book that traced the ideas of the American Revolution back to 6 people, 4 of them were ministers.
-John Wise was a minister in Massachusetts in the late 17th Century. He declared in a sermon "All men are created equal" and that "taxation without representation is tyranny" and that God's favored government was with Representative Government.
-John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" has 150 direct bible quotations, this book was the direct basis for the Declaration of Independence.
-The first stereotyped bible in the United States was done by Benjamin Rush, who was considered by John Adams to be one of the 3 most influential Founding Fathers
-The last military battle signaled the end of the King's rule, which allowed Americans to print their own Bibles in English, titled "The Bible of the Revolution." It was printed by the US Congress for use in public schools
-Benjamin Franklin told the delegates to pray, and they took a three-day recess to go to Rev. William Roger's Church. Franklin claimed that the convention was "divinely inspired."
-James Madison declared that "it is impossible for the pious man not to recognize in it a finger of that Almighty Hand which was so frequently extended to us in the critical stages of the Revolution."
-In Washington's proclamation George Washington said that "it is the duty of all nations to recognize God"
-There were Church services held at the Capitol that had guest preachers come in almost every Sunday.
-Thomas Jefferson applied "Separation of Church and State" to the "Free practice" clause. Originally it was used to preserve the rights of religious groups to publicly express himself.
-A known Klansman, Hugo Black essentially said that Thomas Jefferson was wrong in how he interpreted the Constitution.
-The First African-American to speak in the Capitol was a preacher.
-The list David Barton gave of government trampling on the right to speak about religion was really eye-opening.
-Under No-Child Left Behind it allows children to have religious expression under penalty of the school losing 16% of its.
-Apparently "Modern Readers" don't need to read about religion and morals that Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about when he studied early America
-John Adams answered when asked "Who is behind American Independence?" by giving many reverends and ministers that played a major role in society and in forming public opinion.
-"Seed Time of the Republic" was a book that traced the ideas of the American Revolution back to 6 people, 4 of them were ministers.
-John Wise was a minister in Massachusetts in the late 17th Century. He declared in a sermon "All men are created equal" and that "taxation without representation is tyranny" and that God's favored government was with Representative Government.
-John Locke's "Two Treatises of Government" has 150 direct bible quotations, this book was the direct basis for the Declaration of Independence.
-The first stereotyped bible in the United States was done by Benjamin Rush, who was considered by John Adams to be one of the 3 most influential Founding Fathers
-The last military battle signaled the end of the King's rule, which allowed Americans to print their own Bibles in English, titled "The Bible of the Revolution." It was printed by the US Congress for use in public schools
-Benjamin Franklin told the delegates to pray, and they took a three-day recess to go to Rev. William Roger's Church. Franklin claimed that the convention was "divinely inspired."
-James Madison declared that "it is impossible for the pious man not to recognize in it a finger of that Almighty Hand which was so frequently extended to us in the critical stages of the Revolution."
-In Washington's proclamation George Washington said that "it is the duty of all nations to recognize God"
-There were Church services held at the Capitol that had guest preachers come in almost every Sunday.
-Thomas Jefferson applied "Separation of Church and State" to the "Free practice" clause. Originally it was used to preserve the rights of religious groups to publicly express himself.
-A known Klansman, Hugo Black essentially said that Thomas Jefferson was wrong in how he interpreted the Constitution.
-The First African-American to speak in the Capitol was a preacher.
-The list David Barton gave of government trampling on the right to speak about religion was really eye-opening.
-Under No-Child Left Behind it allows children to have religious expression under penalty of the school losing 16% of its.
Highlights of Newt's Speech
A few Highlights:
-Texas being the only state specifically mentioned by Newt Gingrich for having 133 workshops, the most of any state
-American Solutions is about finding solutions for our children and their children by looking at what has worked, and what hasn't worked and making broad changes so that we follow what has worked.
-Newt's quick political history of America, recognizing the times that things have truly changed in American politics (including when he famously led the Republicans back to power).
Question
This is a question that has been asked here a few times already, all of the broadcasts will be available in the archives afterward. There are a lot of good choices, we're having to vote to decide which one we will be watching.
Newt is going over the line up of trainings, if you're on-line, you can view any of them, so if you're in a group, you need to decide that beforehand so you don't miss anything.
Newt is going over the line up of trainings, if you're on-line, you can view any of them, so if you're in a group, you need to decide that beforehand so you don't miss anything.
Welcome to American Solutions Day
I am here at one of the workshops being held at St. Edward's in Austin. We are expecting Newt Gingrich to being speaking at any moment.
Picture: Scott Specht in front of TxPayerVoice Blog.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Solutions Day is September 29!
On September 29th – Solutions Day – we citizens have the opportunity to start the change in our government- we can choose to do it at the school board level, or the city council level, or the county commission level, or the state legislative level, or the congressional level, or the presidential level. If we have an idea that we want to promote that is going make life better for ourselves, our neighbors and our fellow Americans - this is the opportunity to get involved - and it’s not often that one of these opportunities comes along - this is the first of what we hope will be many. It is time for citizens to take back government!
To sign up to attend or host a workshop, please visit http://www.americansolutions.com. If you are interested in hosting a private viewing in your home, or in hosting an event at a later date, please call Michele at (512) 476-5905 for more information.
To sign up to attend or host a workshop, please visit http://www.americansolutions.com. If you are interested in hosting a private viewing in your home, or in hosting an event at a later date, please call Michele at (512) 476-5905 for more information.
Welcome
Welcome to the Voice of the Taxpayer blog! We'll be sharing information of interest to taxpayers who are eager to keep more of their hard-earned money. We want taxpayers to gain control of government. Taxpayers should be able to determine just how much government we want and are willing to pay for.
Tomorrow, we are joining the Solutions Day activities taking place across the country, and the 113 workshops in 75 cities in Texas alone. We'll be blogging on the workshops and the input taxpayers are providing.
Next week, we are headed to Washington, D.C. to participate in the first-ever Defending the American Dream Summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity. Over 1,500 citizens from across the country will hear from major Presidential contenders, elected officials and policymakers.
Stay tuned -- we've only just begun to take back government!
Tomorrow, we are joining the Solutions Day activities taking place across the country, and the 113 workshops in 75 cities in Texas alone. We'll be blogging on the workshops and the input taxpayers are providing.
Next week, we are headed to Washington, D.C. to participate in the first-ever Defending the American Dream Summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity. Over 1,500 citizens from across the country will hear from major Presidential contenders, elected officials and policymakers.
Stay tuned -- we've only just begun to take back government!
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