As we gather together for Thanksgiving, we will likely be faced with political discussions about the affairs of the day with less-than-enlightened friends and family, Herewith, MCV PAC presents a cheat-sheet of fast facts for you to arm yourself for those inevitable knock-down, drag-out battles … er, cordial discussions.

The 9-page fact sheet is presented in a Q&A format as a downloadable PDF file and covers:
* Some Key Info
* Health Care
* National Debt
* Cap and Trade (Carbon Tax and Global Warming)
* Things You Can Do

Look at it …or… download a copy for your own use or handout …or… to file share with others

http://www.missourivalues.org/thanksgiving_fact_sheet_2009.pdf

Bottom line: Analysis shows that your increased tax burden will be from $1300 to $2000 per year. The range depends on whether you are single or married and what forms Cap and Trade, forced healthcare purchases and penalties, and increased national debt/inflation ultimately take. Note that these are taxes that EVERYONE WILL PAY, since many of the taxes will be hidden in goods and services we purchase, or as taxes and fees collected by employers. Remember that the Obama-Biden campaign repeatedly stated that you would not pay one cent more in taxes if you earn less than $250,000 (or $200,000, or $150,000 depending on which speech it was).
Moreover, although allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire is not covered, Bush tax cuts to expire in 2010 will result in the loss of an additional one million jobs!

MCV PAC hopes this arms you for future debates, or at least puts all the facts you need in one convenient document and location. Thank you for all you do to preserve and spread Missouri’s conservative values.

MCV PAC wishes you and your family a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Below is a list of the tax increases Congress and the Administration have proposed to finance health care reform. This list includes taxes in the bill passed by the House of Representatives, the bill the Senate is currently debating, and other taxes mentioned as a possible way to pay for health care reform. Both house and senate taxes are listed since all are fair game in the final consolidated bill.

1. An income surtax on taxpayers earning more than $500,000 a year,
2. An excise tax on high-cost “Cadillac” health insurance plans that cost more than $8,500 a year for individuals or $21,000 for families,
3. An excise tax on medical devices such as wheelchairs, breast pumps, and syringes used by diabetics for insulin injections,
4. A cap on the exclusion of employer-provided health insurance without offsetting tax cuts,
5. A limit on itemized deductions for taxpayers with a top income tax rate greater than 28 percent,
6. A windfall profits tax on health insurance companies,
7. A value-added tax, which would tax the value added to a product at each stage of production,
8. An increase in the Medicare portion of the payroll tax to 3.4 percent for incomes great than $200,000 a year ($250,000 for married filers),
9. An excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages including non-diet soda and sports drinks,
10. Higher taxes on alcoholic beverages including beer, wine, and spirits,
11. A tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage of up to 2.5 percent of their adjusted gross income,
12. A limit on contributions to health savings accounts,
13. An 8 percent tax on all wages paid by employers that do not provide their employees health insurance that satisfies the requirements defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services,
14. A limit on contributions to flexible spending arrangements,
15. Elimination of the deduction for expenses associated with Medicare Part D subsidies,
16. An increase in taxes on international businesses,
17. Elimination of the tax credits paper companies take for biofuels they create in their production process–the so-called “Black Liquor credit,”
18. Fees on insured and self-insured health plans,
19. A limit or repeal of the itemized deduction for medical expenses,
20. A limit on the Qualified Medical Expense definition,
21. An increase in the payroll taxes on students,
22. An extension of the Medicare payroll tax to all state and local government employees,
23. An increase in taxes on hospitals,
24. An increase in the estate tax,
25. Increased efforts to close the mythical “tax gap,”
26. A 5 percent tax on cosmetic surgery and similar procedures such as Botox treatments, tummy tucks, and face lifts,
27. A tax on drug companies,
28. An increase in the corporate tax on providers of health insurance, and
29. A $500,000 deduction limitation for the compensation paid by health insurance companies to their officers, employees, and directors.

MCV PAC believes that instead of rushing through a badly conceived health care bill and raising taxes to pay for it, Congress should focus first on economic recovery by dropping all talk of tax increases and extending permanently the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. That is the only way to increase the incentives to work, save, invest, and take on new economic risk that will pull the economy out of the “Great Recession” and get unemployed Americans back to work.

Threatening the companies and high income earners that create jobs and employ so many of us is not going to instill confidence in our economy, our freedom to work, our investments, or the future of our country.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173528840207

Come discuss the upcoming Healthcare Debate in the Senate. We will have several experts discussing how the proposed bill will effect doctors, patients and the insurance industry.

Among the speakers will be local Doctor, and State Representative Rob Schaaf. After the speakers briefly discuss the bill and the changes it will cause they will take questions from the audience.

This is a free event that is sponsored by the MWSU College Republicans and Missourians for Conservative Values PAC.

If you have any questions please contact
Colin Hoffman,
816-261-7884
colinrhoffman@gmail.com

http://www.MissouriValues.org

The media, the White House, and the liberals in Congress would have you believe that our economy is recovering. Much ado has been made recently that sectors of our economy are showing life.
From Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, we hear, “The growth is broad-based….It shows that, you know, just five months after the president came into office, we got growth restarted.”
From Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, we hear, “Things are beginning to turn and I think the American people are going to feel that very soon.” (Made on February 23, 2009)
Since these statements were made, unemployment continues to rise. Currently at 10.2%, few analysts expect the unemployment rate to decline soon. We are in the face of a very serious employment crisis in the United States and this White House and the looney tunes in Congress are steering us further off course. Cap and Trade, Health Care ‘reform’, and tax increases on the rich are all distractions in this crisis that will help kill jobs, not create them.
Without jobs, there is no economic recovery. In 1992, James Carville coined the campaign slogan, “It’s the economy stupid.” Today, the message this White House needs to hear is, “It’s the jobs stupid.”

From the AP:
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A friend and the ex-husband of Missouri Auditor Susan Montee have amassed millions of dollars of contracts from Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration under a new competitive bidding system that was supposed to eliminate political favoritism in awarding state license offices.

Attorney James Montee and business associate James Ryan Williams won several of the lucrative contracts despite scaling back initial promises to pay the state sizable chunks of their profits. The difference to their pocketbooks could be an extra $360,000 they otherwise would have paid to the state.

The state auditor, her ex-husband and their friend all deny their political connections gave them an inside track to landing the license contacts, which allow agents to collect a fee from every customer getting a driver’s license, registering a vehicle or paying vehicle sales taxes.

But some losing bidders and former license office operators claim the bid process was fixed so Williams and Montee could prevail.

“There’s no question about it,” said David Peironnet, who bid on the Gladstone license office awarded to Williams. “It was as rigged as it can get.”

Nixon’s Department of Revenue, which oversees Missouri’s motor vehicle bureau, denies any impropriety.

“Politics used to be the main determination in who got an office,” said department spokesman Ted Farnen. “Now it plays no role.”

For decades, Missouri governors awarded fee offices as political patronage plums. But after reports that the FBI was investigating Missouri’s license office arrangements, Republican Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration began seeking competitive bids for some offices in September 2006. A couple of months later, the FBI cleared the administration of any wrongdoing.

Nixon, a Democrat, announced after winning November’s election that he would seek competitive bids for all 183 Missouri license offices. An FBI spokeswoman in Kansas City said the agency could neither confirm nor deny whether it is investigating this year’s license office contracts.

Besides the Gladstone office, Williams also was awarded contracts for the North Kansas City and Liberty license offices and has a bid pending on another Kansas City area office. He and Montee jointly won the Lee’s Summit office. And Montee also won the St. Joseph office, which Williams helped launch. Over four years, those offices could generate nearly $9.4 million in fees, based on statistics from 2008, the latest year available. High-volume offices such as those in suburban Kansas City can be some of the most profitable for their operators.

Susan Montee said her ex-husband informed her in advance that he and Williams would seek the offices. Susan Montee is a close friend of Williams. But Montee said she distanced herself from their business and would hire an outside firm when it’s time to audit their contracts to avoid any conflict of interest.

“I absolutely had no role in anything to do with the fee offices,” Susan Montee said. “They did not have me in the loop, and I did not want to be.”

For each office, the Department of Revenue used a team of two or three randomly selected state employees to score the bids based on operational plans, personnel and other factors, such as how much of their profits would go to the state.

When Williams bid in February on the Liberty, Gladstone and North Kansas City offices, he pledged 16 percent of those fees to the state for the contract’s first year, with declining amounts in each of the next three years. Montee and Williams pledged in their February bid for the Lee’s Summit office to give 18 percent to the state the first year, with declining amounts in subsequent years.

Those percentages were significantly higher than what other bidders offered. Williams said they pledged so much in hopes it would help them win the contracts.

But instead of accepting the bids and picking a winner, the state changed some of its bid specifications a few months later, pointed out deficiencies in initial bids and asked people to submit revised bids.

The request for a “best and final offer” is not unusual in state contracting; a second round of bids has been sought on about half of the fee offices this year. The state’s revision letter said bidders could include “increases in the return to the state.”

Montee and Williams used the second round of bids to lower their proposed payments to the state; most other bidders kept their promised return flat or slightly increased it. When the Gladstone office underwent a third round of bids, Williams lowered his promised payment to the state again — slicing his initial 16 percent pledge in the first year down to 3 percent. Their final total pledges to the state for the Gladstone, Liberty, Lee’s Summit and North Kansas City offices were half their initial amount — a reduction of about $360,000 over four years.

Montee said he couldn’t recall exactly why the numbers were changed but assured: “There’s no impropriety.” Department spokesman Farnen said Montee’s offices still have some of the highest payment rates to the state and that the changed figures are “not indicative of any kind of mischief or malfeasance.”

Williams noted a recession-induced decline in vehicle sales and a projected increase in online vehicle registrations were cutting into offices’ profits. He also said as the state started awarding contracts for other offices, he realized there wasn’t much of a competitive advantage to be gained by promising a high return to the state.

But as Williams piled up win after win, other bidders became increasingly suspicious.

Normally, “if you didn’t make the right bid, you’re just out. And that’s not what happened here,” said John Ferguson, a previous Liberty license agent who bid for Liberty and Gladstone. “They gave those who didn’t make the right bid a second chance. And it’s not because it was going to save the state any money.”

Amy Wagner, the office manager for Lee’s Summit under former contractor Mike Smith, said Williams tried to recruit her to his team and told her in June that “he thought for sure he’d get six” offices.

Some bidders suggested the scoring system seems manipulated. They noted that former license office operators Lloy Glover and Jane Quick — the wife of Clay County Presiding Commissioner Ed Quick — received 28 points for their personnel qualifications and experience in narrowly losing the Liberty bid to Williams. But they received 20 points in that category on their subsequent bid for the Gladstone office — a gap that again allowed the bid to go to Williams.

“I can’t believe they even looked at the proposals,” Peironnet said. “I think they decided who was going to get it and made up some hocus pocus numbers to make it look equal.”

Williams attributed his success to thorough and finely honed bids, based on his experience running the Liberty office for a dozen years under former Govs. Bob Holden and Mel Carnahan.

Montee and Williams said the perception that political connections helped them get the contracts may be the best proof that it did not.

“I guarantee Jay (Nixon) would not have wanted me to get all these offices, because probably the perception does look bad, and as we all know, Jay’s all about perception,” Williams said.

MCV-PAC has learned that Governor Jay Nixon will give the commencement speech at Missouri Western State University’s fall ceremony. We’re betting job openings at the State Parks Department won’t be on the list of graduate opportunities he discusses.

USA TODAY published a piece today on state funded universities, particularly the University of Missouri, spending millions of taxpayer dollars on salaries for coaches.  Gary Pinkel, football head coach for the Tigers, is the fourth highest paid coach in the Big 12 making $2.52 million this year with the opportunity for $850,000 in bonuses.

MCV-PAC sees the marketing value in maintaining a popular athletics program in our state university system.  Is the return on our spending for Gary Pinkel worth breaking the backs of taxpayers in these tough economic times?  USA TODAY points out:

“ MU has instituted a system wide hiring freeze, frozen the pay of most of its approximately 18,000 full-time faculty and staff and tinkered with its pension plan, the latter in particular raising faculty hackles.”

It would seem that the return is minimal and the expenditure is more than MU can bear.  But never fear, liberal State Representative and Saint Joseph School Board Member Martin Rucker (D-29) weighs in on the issue.  Some noteworthy quotes from Rep. Rucker, whose son ‘T’ was recruited by and played for Pinkel:

“Sometimes, you’ve got to spend money to make money.”

As long as it’s not your money Martin and only taxpayer money, we can see how you have no problem with that.

“I don’t know how you can argue to not pay him.”

Let us show you how Martin: The argument can be made that we are in a deep recession and state spending on other programs, like job creation and tax cuts, are far more important than athletics.  Wow…Look at that!  We just did argue not to pay him.  That was easy.

“I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve a raise.”

Thanks for the ‘clarification’, but we already know where you stand Martin. 

MCV-PAC finds is refreshing that Rep. Rucker, who in nearly six years as a State Representative has yet to sponsor one single major piece of legislation, found time out of his ‘busy’ schedule to opine on the subject of wasting our tax money.  At least now, we have it in his words.

Bill Clinton appeared on The Hill today to try and rally support for Obama’s health care system takeover.
According to Carol Lee of Politico:

Clinton argued that even “the most cold-hearted person” ought to support health care reform simply from an economic standpoint. He reminded Democrats of the political momentum their failure to pass reform in 1993 delivered the House of Representatives to the Republicans the following year.

“The point I want to make is: Just pass the bill, even if it’s not exactly what you want,” Clinton told Democrats. “When you try and fail, the other guys write history.”

MCV-PAC disagrees that Democrats lost Congress in 1994 because they failed to pass a socialized health care system. We tend to agree with Ann Coulter’s view from her September 23rd column titled ‘LIBERAL LIES ABOUT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE, PART 5’:

The way I remember it, Republicans swept Congress in 1994 not because Clinton failed to nationalize health care, but because he tried to nationalize health care. HillaryCare failed because most Americans didn’t want it. (For more on this, see “ObamaCare.”)

It was almost as if the voters agreed with the Republicans in opposing Clinton’s risky health care scheme, then voted accordingly.

On Saturday, in an effort to gain the support of Blue Dog Democrats for the health care takeover bill, the Stupak-Pitts Amendment passed 240-197. The Stupak-Pitts Amendment stated that the public option could not be used to fund an abortion, EXCEPT IN CASES TO SAVE THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER.
MCV-PAC applauds the passage of this amendment, but is fully aware it was only an attempt to garner votes and not a true move to cease government funded abortions under the health care takeover.
The clause “except to save the life of the mother” will be determined by a liberal, government run medical board. That medical board will have the liberty to determine which abortions were performed “to save the life of the mother”. Under a Democrat administration, MCV-PAC is sure that determination will be made “liberally”. The whole foundation of the amendment will be undercut by a medical board’s political philosophy on abortion.
In addition, MCV-PAC knows full well that once this bill reaches committee, this amendment will be thrown out of any compromise version between the U.S. House and Senate.
Nice try Democrats, but the conservatives of Missouri aren’t buying your snake oil.
Here is the vote of Missouri’s Congressmen on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment:
YES
Rep. Todd Akin (R-2)

Rep. Ike Skelton (D-4)
Rep. Sam Graves (R-6)
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-7)
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-8)
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-9)
NO
Rep. Lacy Clay (D-1)
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-3)
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-5)

A TEA Party meeting was held in St. Joseph on Wednesday evening. The event was full of an enthusiastic crowd eager to take back America and save it from becoming the socialist wasteland President Obama dreams of.
The focus of the evening’s meeting was the current health reform legislation. A lively discussion ensued about how this bill will drastically change the financial and physical well being of all in the most negative of ways.
MCV-PAC encourages our readers to become involved in the TEA party movement. Take a stand for the conservative movement and let your voice be heard. We have all been Taxed Enough Already!