Day: January 4, 2013
CRUZ JOINS SENATE, MOVES TO REPEAL OBAMACARE
Tea Party favorite and newly-elected Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took his oath of office today – and immediately moved to take on President Obama’s chief legislative accomplishment, Obamacare. Cruz is the first Hispanic to serve as a Texas Senator.
His first bill, Cruz said, would move to strike “every syllable of every word” of Obamacare. With the retirement of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and the increasing battle between Tea Party conservatives and Republican Party establishment types, Cruz is set to become a leader early in his tenure – and grassroots conservatives are already rallying to his cause.
Read more here.
DEMOCRAT LEGISLATOR: WE NEED TO ‘RESTRICT FREEDOMS’ OF CONSERVATIVES
A New Hampshire legislator wants her constituents to know that she feels conservatives are the “single biggest threat” her state faces today, and she wants to use her powers to legislate to “pass measures that will restrict” the freedoms of Granite State conservatives.
In a blog post made last month on the left-wing site Blue Hampshire, 3rd District State Representative Democrat Cynthia Chase advised her fellow legislators to use their positions to make New Hampshire less welcoming to any conservative or libertarian planning on moving to her state—not to mention those already in residence.
For those unaware, a conservative project of sorts has been underway in New Hampshire since 2001. The idea is that Americans of conservative ideals are to move to New Hampshire, gather in communities, run for office, and work to drive the state toward libertarianism and conservatism. It is called the “Free State Project” and adherents are called “Free Staters.”
These Free Staters figure that the state’s motto, “Live Free or Die,” should really mean something and it is these citizens whose freedoms legislator Chase wants to oppress.
In her December 21 post, Chase wrote that, “Free Staters are the single biggest threat the state is facing today.”
“In the opinion of this Democrat, Free Staters are the single biggest threat the state is facing today. There is, legally, nothing we can do to prevent them from moving here to take over the state, which is their openly stated goal. In this country you can move anywhere you choose and they have that same right. What we can do is to make the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave. One way is to pass measures that will restrict the ‘freedoms’ that they think they will find here. Another is to shine the bright light of publicity on who they are and why they are coming.”
Read more here.
On Saturday, January 5th – THOUSANDS of Americans to Support Hobby Lobby & Religious Freedom
The Saturday hours are 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
The plan:
On Saturday, January 5th, all Americans who value freedom of religion and oppose the HHS Mandate’s unfair impositions upon religious individuals and corporate entities are called upon to show their support for Hobby Lobby by shopping either at their local retail Hobby Lobby store or online.
The story until now:
• September 12, 2012: Hobby Lobby files suit against Kathleen Sabelius and the US Department of Health and Human Services in US District Court for Western District of Oklahoma. They are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
• November 19, 2012: District Judge Joe Heaton rules that privately owned companies such as Hobby Lobby are not exempt from the HHS Mandate on religious grounds because these enterprises do not possess the same religious rights as individuals and religious organizations do.
• December 20, 2012: The US Court of Appeals in Denver rules against Hobby Lobby on the same grounds as the lower court; the Green family vows to appeal to the US Supreme Court.
• December 26, 2012: Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejects an emergency request for injunction that would allow Hobby Lobby temporary exemption from the HHS Mandate pending the hearing of their full case before the high court.
• December 27, 2012: Hobby Lobby’s attorneys announce that the chain plans to defy the Mandate which will take effect January 1st, potentially costing the chain (which employs 13,000) hundreds of millions of dollars in fines by the time their case is finally decided.
The letter from Hobby Lobby CEO David Green that LifeNews received follows:
When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn’t much bigger than most people’s living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God‘s word. From there, Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family.
We’re Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I’ve always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God’s laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week’s biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. We believe that it is by God’s grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We’ve not only added jobs in a weak economy, we’ve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage.
Read more here.
Why Was a 2.3% ‘Medical Excise Tax’ Showing Up on Receipts from Sporting Goods Giant Cabela’s?
anuary 1, 2013 brought a host of new taxes, fees, and charges to the American people. Some of them were anticipated. Others, like the Medical Device Excise Tax (MDET), were not — at least not in this way.
How so? Well, the MDET has started showing up on the receipts for purchases made at sporting goods giant Cabela’s. This receipt from one such store in Texas is making the rounds on the web. It shows an additional tax has been added to the purchase, after the local sales tax of nearly 10% was charged.
A series of phone calls to both the corporate offices of Cabela’s as well as three Texas outlets where the taxes have been showing up yielded what appears to be a satisfactory explanation and resolution.
Customer service reps for Cabela’s stated the added tax was “a computer glitch that has been fixed.” In one case, a representative offered to take my receipt information over the phone and expedite a refund to my credit card. Cash purchases that were hit with the extra 2.3% tax must return to the store for a cash refund.
With that mystery solved, we couldn’t stop wondering about the tax. What is a Medical Excise Tax? Which devices will be affected by it?
Read more here.
U.S. Constitutional Free Press 