$112 MILLION SPENT - 40 CENTS OF EVERY DOLLAR BORROWED

SAW THIS ARTICLE IN CNS NEWS AND THOUGHT YOU'D LIKE TO SEE IT. NO WONDER AMERICA IS BANKRUPT. AND OBAMA SAYS HE NEEDS TO TAX MORE TO "BALANCE" OUR BUDGET. HERE IS ONE VERY GOOD REASON WHY THE DEBT CEILING SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN INCREASED. INSTEAD OF MORE SPENDING, SPENDING, SPENDING, WHY DON'T THEY TRY CUTTING, CUTTING, CUTTING?? NOWHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION DOES IT SAY THE GOVERNMENT HAS THE RIGHT TO TAX US TO SAVE A BIRD. AND REMEMBER, 40 CENTS OF EVERY ONE OF THE $112 MILLIONS DOLLARS IS BORROWED. A GREAT PRESENT FOR YOUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS, DON'T YOU THINK? SOMETHING THEY WILL HAVE FOREVER!

Gov't Paying Farmers, Ranchers $112M to Protect Bird Too Numerous to be Threatened
Friday, August 19, 2011
By Tierney Smith

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is paying $112 million in tax money to farmers and ranchers in 11 Western states to restore the habitat of the Sage Grouse, a bird that has not been listed as either threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species law because the government says there are too many of them.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced last week that the USDA would dedicate $21.8 million to pay eligible ranchers and farmers in the state of Wyoming to encourage conservation practices that preserve the numbers of Sage Grouse.

That will bring to $112 million the total amount that the USDA has distributed over the last two years to eligible farmers and ranchers in 11 states as part of its Sage Grouse Initiative.

“Working with the Department of Interior, we are working together with our producers in the Western part of the United States to avoid having the Sage Grouse be placed on the endangered species list,” Vilsack said during a conference call briefing last Thursday.

“We’re doing this by working with landowners and identifying over 40 practices that will benefit the Sage Grouse, and encouraging landowners with the utilization of our conservation program to basically utilize a sweep of practices within those 40 identified practices,” he said. “In the past two years, we’ve committed $112 million to this Sage Grouse Initiative in 11 states, using five separate programs.”

The money is being paid to landowners through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program and the Grassland Reserve Program.

Vilsack said the greater Sage Grouse has lost approximately half of its habitat in recent decades, but can still be found in portions of Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and California.

The government is providing subsidies to farmers in these states to cover a portion--up to 75 percent, in some cases--of the cost of implementing certain conservation practices, technologies and techniques.

According to Vilsack, ranchers will be paid to implement practices such as: using “sustainable grazing systems” to improve hiding cover for birds; moving "high risk" fences near breeding sites to reduce bird collisions and removing invasive trees from grasslands to allow “re-colonization of otherwise suitable sage-grouse habitat.”

Vilsack said that farmers, ranchers and producers “don’t have to spend quite as much of their own money with the partnership, and at the same time they get some degree of certainty” that they won’t be stuck with much higher costs and prohibitions if the bird is ever added to the endangered species list.

Environmental groups have been petitioning the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the past decade to list the Sage Grouse as a threatened or endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act. However, despite these attempts, the federal government has continued to deny the Sage Grouse classification as a threatened or endangered species because there are too many of them.

“The Sage-Grouse population as a whole remains large enough and is distributed across such a large portion of the western United States that Fish and Wildlife Service biologists determined the needs of other species facing more immediate and severe threat of extinction must take priority for listing actions,” a 2010 Department of the Interior news release stated.

“Based on accumulated scientific data and new peer-reviewed information and analysis, the greater Sage-Grouse warrants the protection of the Endangered Species Act but that listing the species at this time is precluded by the need to address higher priority species first. The greater Sage-Grouse will be placed on the candidate list for future action, meaning the species would not receive statutory protection under the ESA and states would continue to be responsible for managing the bird.”

Moreover, most states do not treat the bird as if it were endangered. In fact, according to a 2010 notice in the Federal Register, state-regulated hunting of sage grouse is permitted in all but one state, Washington.

The agriculture secretary specifically distanced the current programs from past proposals, which had threatened to impose environmental sanctions on land-use if the grouse was placed on the Endangered Species Act--measures that land-use groups labelled as "draconian."

“These programs really are designed to focus on particular conservation practices and conservation techniques and technologies. They aren’t necessarily, like other programs, designed to limit, if you will, utilization of property,” Vilsack said.

Chuck Cushman, executive director of the American Land Rights Association, told CNSNews.com that land owners would welcome the USDA money, but not if it comes with strings attached or doesn't shield property owners from having to implement draconian conservation practices and technologies without government assistance in the future, if the sage-grouse is ever placed on the Endangered Species List.

“The problem is that the government always has difficulty delivering these kinds of services without hooks and trying to get control over the farmers in some way,” Cushman said. “But if they can work with the farmers in a genuine way and really help them and not impose a top down command-and-control will from Washington on them, then it’s a good thing.”

He added: “Any time you make land owners -- farmers -- partners rather than impose controls on them, the government is better off and the sage-grouse is better off and the country is better off, so we’ll hope that this works.”

Rick Krause, senior director of congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation, said as long as the effort remains voluntary, it has Farm Bureau endorsement.

“We support voluntary cooperative efforts such as this to preserve species that are either listed under the Endangered Species Act or are about to be listed,” Krause said. “It must be truly voluntary on the part of landowners. We believe cooperation is more effective than regulation in saving species from going extinct.”

The Interior Department and the Commerce Department are actually responsible for placing species on the Endangered Species List, but the USDA manages much of the federally protected land in the United States.

TAX TSUNAMI # 1 - DEATH TAX TO DIE FOR

On January 1, 2011, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect and drive us deep into a depression. You think unemployment of 9.6% is high? Just wait 6 months. It will be higher, much higher.

These taxes will affect EVERYONE, families, farmers, seniors, small businesses, and big businesses, so don't let the political cronies in Washington try to tell you that they will affect "only the rich." That is an outright LIE, and they know it.

FIRST TAX TSUNAMI: Expiration of the 2001/2003 Tax Relief Act (referred to as the Bush Tax Cuts). In those years the GOP controlled Congress enacted many tax cuts for investors, small businesses and families. They will all expire on January 1. This is what it means to you, middle income average Americans already struggling to support your families, and to you, seniors living on a fixed income.

PERSONAL INCOME TAX RATES WILL RISE. It's the truth. Don't listen to the denials coming out of the mouths of the propagandists in Washington. The top rate increases from 35% to 39.6%. The lowest rate increases from 10% to 15%. All rates in between will also increase as indicated in this chart.

10% rises to 15%
25% rises to 28%
28% rises to 31%
33% rises to 36%
35% rises to 39.6%

No matter where you currently fall in this rate structure, your taxes are going UP, families, seniors, small and large businesses, everyone.

Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will phase out, which has the same effect as higher tax rates. You lower exemptions and deductions? You pay more taxes, simple enough math even for the Washington idiots who are going to allow this to happen. Oh, I almost forgot, many of the people currently running the Washington machine are "tax cheats." They don't care that we will pay more so they can cheat and pay less.

The "Marriage Penalty" will return from the first dollar of income, meaning married couples will pay higher tax on the same income as a single person does. Sure seems fair, doesn't it?

The Standard Deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single person deduction.

The Child Tax Credit of $1000 will return to the pre-2001/2003 rate of $500. Pay attention, anyone who has children. The reduction in this credit will cost you dearly, $500 less for each child you have. Sure hope you didn't have your 2010 payroll withholding figured based on getting $1000 credit for each child. If so, you may be in for a big surprise when you prepare your 2010 return. It could mean the difference between you getting a refund at the end of the year, or owing Uncle Sam money at the end of the year.

The Dependent Care and Adoption Tax Credits will be cut drastically.

And another Big One, the return of the Death Tax.

Under the 2001/2003 Tax Relief Act the Death Tax was phased out. But it's coming back Big Time. Starting 1/1 the rate goes to 55% on estates over $1 million. If you have two homes, a retirement account, a business, business real estate, a farm, investment properties, rentals, stocks, bonds, savings, any combination of these could easily put you over $1 million. After 1/1/2011 your heirs may have to sell your assets, the farm, the business, etc., just to pay the Death Tax. Even if the farm or business is their livelihood, too bad, Uncle Sam is going to want up to 55% of its value over $1 million upon your death.

Here is an easy calculation. Let's say your estate is worth $1.5 million. The half million over the $1 million is subject to 55% tax. You will owe $275,000 in cash to the government, 55% of the value of the assets over $1 million. That will be your estate tax. Can you just "write a check" to cover this. Not likely. Assets would have to be sold quickly at fire sale prices just to cover the tax. This is why the Death Tax Phase Out was included in the 2001/2003 Tax Relief Act in the first place. It is patently unfair to tax someone literally To Death after they have paid taxes on all they have while they were alive. So if you are going to DIE, do it NOW before January 1.

And the last part of the FIRST TAX TSUNAMI?

Capital Gains Tax will rise from 15% to 20%. (Don't dare sell anything that creates a Capital Gain or it will cost you)

Dividend Tax will rise from 15% to 39.6% in 2011 and rise again to 43.4 in 2013. (Don't receive any dividends from stocks, bonds, etc. or it will cost you over double) This is especially onerous to seniors who are living on the dividends from investments. This will affect millions of Baby Boomers about to retire.

And let me add that this is just the FIRST TAX TSUNAMI coming at us on 1/1/2011. I will bring you more information in later blogs on the subject of additional taxes we are facing in 2011.

This government is the robber, the rapist and the killer of our entire economic system. That is, unless we stop them in November.

Ron Kind Listening Session Today

Today I attended Kind's listening session in Hudson. He has represented the 3rd Cong. District since 1996, 13 years. During the session today he talked about earmark reform and how it is long overdue. He said Social Security adjustments have been delayed for too long. He said large corporate farmers have received most of the farm subsidies and this has to change. He said "the deficit is unsustainable." He said he supports leaving the Bush tax cuts on anyone earning over $250,000, those "rich bankers and Wall Street types", because we need to raise revenue. But the gentleman in the audience who asked about the Bush tax cuts was certainly no "rich banker or Wall Street type."

He didn't get to my question, but if he had I would have asked him, Where were you for the last 13 years if you think these things have now gone on long enough? He's voted with Nancy Pelosi 93% of the time. That should tell you everything you need to know about Ron Kind. I believe Pelosi does not represent the values of Western WI, and according to his voting record, neither does Ron Kind.

I will mention one last thing. When I have attended these sessions in the past they have put the question sheets in order of your arrival so if you arrive early you have a good chance of getting called on. So I arrived very early and was one of the first to submit a question. Because of my early arrival I expected to be called on. However, I sat in the very front of the room and observed Mr. Kind's aide previewing the question sheets and separating them into two piles. At first I thought he was separating them by subject. But two piles wouldn't fit that agenda. He then handed Mr. Kind one of the piles and the aide kept the other pile. At that point I knew I would not be called on. Mr. Kind's office knows who I am.

They don't know me by face, but they certainly know my name because I email them and call them regularly, each time filling in my name. I was absolutely certain my question was put into the pile that the aide kept to himself. I can hardly wait until November, 2010 to throw him out of office. He's been there way too long.