FairTax Friday | Leaders Fiddle While the Nation Burns ~largest monthly deficit gain ever

 

Do not miss a single issue of FairTax Friday, add info@fairtax.org to your buddy list, contact list or safe list. Weekly Feature Leaders Fiddle While the Nation Burns The United States hit a new record this month—more public debt piled up than any month before in the history of the nation. Unapologetic, Congress bought five luxury private jets for a brand new Congressional fleet because they didn't feel that military jets were good enough for their junkets or their refined tastes. Where did the money come from? The nation borrowed it from foreign creditors and secured the debt with our earnings and the future earnings of our children and grandchildren. The FairTax ends the corruption practiced daily by tax writing committees who treat $2.5 trillion a year in tax receipts as their private property. It bars lobby deals and special favors and shifts power from the government to the citizen. It restores the role of the American people in deciding how much and when taxes are paid by their consumption decisions and it creates a new era of robust American economic growth. But as good as the FairTax is for the nation, it is still ignored, at best, and distorted and despised, at worst, by those in the political elite who profit from corruption of the federal tax code. This week your FairTax organization delivered nearly 100,000 petitions to the House Ways and Means Committee--who could not be bothered to meet with national FairTax campaign chairman, Ken Hoagland. "I am furious that the leading alternative to the income tax has again been ignored along with every American who petitioned their government for redress of grievances," said Hoagland. "This betrayal of the voice of the American people adds fuel to the fire of our determination to break through the wholly unacceptable and un-American shell of disdain for the common man that we are seeing from Washington, D.C." Read more» Question of the Week 1. Are you today inclined to re-elect your incumbent Member of Congress or vote for a challenger? Vote for the incumbent Vote for the challenger Take this week's FairTax Survey Now » Last week, we asked you whether you could e-mail Sean Hannity: 1. Would you be willing to ask Sean Hannity to be an on-line tax revolt march leader? (Click here to send your message.) Yes No FairTax News They just don't get it in Washington. Washington AP by Liz Sidoti There's a gaping disconnect between what Americans care about and what President Barack Obama and Congress, Democrats and Republicans are actually doing. A new Associated Press- poll tells the story: contempt for lawmakers, a bare majority approving what Obama's doing. Or just listen to Robert Watson. He backed Obama in 2008. He lost his job at a direct mail company in the Great Recession. And he's been looking for work ever since. Neither Obama nor Congress, Watson says, is addressing what really matters: "I'm still unemployed." "There's nobody doing any hiring," he says. And when they are, "100 people are going for the same job." He wants Obama to focus more on creating jobs, Congress to stop the partisan games and both to remember who sent them to Washington. "They just can't seem to agree on what's important for this country," laments Watson, 59, of Annapolis, Md. "It's just a mess." Now look at Washington. The White House and Congress are consumed with the partisan gridlock on overhauling health care. That issue is overshadowing everything else_ even legislation in the House and Senate to provide unemployment relief. Read more» Congress Spends Half a Billion on New Jet Fleet Wall Street Journal By Brody Mullins WASHINGTON -- Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds. The purchases will help accommodate growing travel demand by congressional officials. The planes augment a fleet of about two dozen passenger jets maintained by the Air Force for lawmakers, administration officials and military chiefs to fly on government trips in the U.S. and abroad. The congressional shopping list goes beyond what the Air Force had initially requested as part of its annual appropriations. The Pentagon sought to buy one Gulfstream V and one business-class equivalent of a Boeing 737 to replace aging planes. The Defense Department also asked to buy two additional 737s that were being leased. Lawmakers in the House last week added funds to buy those planes, and plus funds to buy an additional two 737s and two Gulfstream V planes. The purchases must still be approved by the Senate. The Air Force version of the Gulfstream V each costs $66 million, according to the Department of Defense, and the 737s cost about $70 million. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Department of Defense didn't request the additional planes and doesn't need them. "We ask for what we need and only what we need," he told reporters Wednesday. "We've always frowned upon earmarks and additives that are above and beyond what we ask for." Read more» Record budget deficit By United Press International WASHINGTON, March 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. government in February spent $211 billion more than it took in, setting a record budget deficit for a month. The U.S. Treasury released data Wednesday saying figures from last month indicate the federal government will probably pass the annual deficit record of $1.4 trillion set in the last fiscal year. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a House of Representatives subcommittee the deficit spending is aiding economic recovery efforts but also is "unsustainably high." The current fiscal year is five months old and the government is showing a budget deficit of $651.6 billion, nearly $53 billion more than the same fiscal 2009 time period. Read more» Take Action Join the Online Tax Revolt, March for America  Join now » Question of the Week Answer it now » Join FairTax in DC on April 15: Find out about Operation FairTax Victory » Update email preferences | Unsubscribe | Contact Us Americans for Fair Taxation, PO Box 27487, Houston, Texas 77227-7487 1-800-FAIRTAX (324-7829)

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record this month—more public debt piled up than any month before in the history of the nation. Unapologetic, Congress bought five luxury private jets for a brand new Congressional fleet because they didn't feel that military jets were good enough for their junkets or their refined tastes.