A thought on eve of Taxday

In the United States, Tax Day is the common term for the day on which tax returns (statements about income taxes) are due to the federal and state governments from U.S. citizens, resident aliens, and certain nonresident aliens. More specifically, this is the last day on which tax returns can be mailed (as postmarked) to avoid penalties, with some exceptions. In the United States, Tax Day has usually been April 15 since 1955.

What you feel when you pay your tax?
a) Patriotic
b) Humble
c) Compassion
d) Charitable
e) Cheated
f) Indifferent



My answer is E, definitely not a, b, c, d, f - Call me selfish, but,I like my money to be used the way I want.

I know i can not have my own Police, I want to use public road, I can not have my own Military, I can not have my own Court system / law and order... (I wish i can...) So I want Government, I want them to do those basic things that individual can not do, what I do not want them to do is to decide how to do enormous spending and add deficit for entitlement programs, I do not want to loose my freedom of choice, how i want to live or die. I want more independence, not dependence.

Social Security:
Social Security is the largest federal social welfare program in the United States. Started as part of the New Deal, it has grown steadily in scope and cost, and currently provides the principal source of income for nearly half of all retirees in the U.S. The Social Security program provides income for retired workers, their spouses and dependent children and benefits for the disabled.

I may come across as somebody, who has no heart, I had been advocating against any entitlement program, but if you are seeing what I am, you may agree with me.

Misuse:
I know several older immigrant gentleman, came at age of almost retirement(around 50 - 60) to this country, and worked with several low paying jobs, like gas station, Walmart, Krogar, for 10 - 12 years. And then suddenly decided to retire.I was wondering why... I did some study, and found a trend... whats going on on those 10-12 years.... They apply for green card, becomes Citizen, finish 40 credits for social security and qualify for Medicare.... Each and every case is same.....
Social Security Credits: Previously called "Quarters of Coverage." As you work and pay taxes, you earn credits that count toward your eligibility for future Social Security benefits. You can earn a maximum of four credits each year. Most people need 40 credits to qualify for benefits. Younger people need fewer credits to qualify for disability or survivors’ benefits.

Loss of Freedom:
I have been asked on two separate instances from two different seniors to withdraw money every 10th of month for 3 months until they return from vacation from their home country. I was curious and asked why do you want me to do that. they acutally gave me their ATM cards and ATM Pins, can you believe it?
I was curious and have asked why do you want that, why don't you keep your money on your account? Ready for the answer... I was told, if they (Government) see money in my account they will reduce my Social security benefit, and told me some bad past experiences.
Do big brother looking at your accounts? how much money you have or keep? Is this not invasion of privacy? Are you not loosing your freedom here? Where are those advocacy group, who keep shouting at every leaf drop, for government who listen to your phone call to and from terrorist countries....

I know several immigrant to Canada, whose sole purpose to immigrate to Canada is their social program, their free health care system, their unemployment benefit system... their nanny state setup.

I know a mature gentleman who got laid off during this bad economical time. I know him to be very strong minded, healthy person, who would have worked at least for another 6-7 years if not 10, if not got laid off. He had put some serious efforts initially but lately i think he is not even trying. He told me recently, "This extended jobless benefit is making me complacent."

I know a young lady who do not want a job because what she might have earned from job was not good enough, not equal to the jobless benefit she is getting after paying for expenses for day care etc... It was hard for me to understand how can some one prefer to stay on government assistance rather than self-reliant...

I don't think this is right, those programs when designed was not designed for these, are they? Aren't they being misused? Aren't they making society weak, complacent, dependent, looser?

I guess not everyone a like, not everyone likes to work, not everyone like to achieve something in life, not every one wants to be self-reliant....

It is very easy to hold high moral ground and justify these entitlement programs, but they are not without serious consequences.
I think the role of government is to facilitate environment that is conducive to create stronger, independent, free society. By creating these entitlement programs government is doing more harm than good to society.

I have always been advocate of self-reliant society base system and not government base system. I came from India, where parents are responsible for raising kids, provide all support social or economical. And kids when grownup are responsible for providing same to parents when they need.

I do not want government to give education loans to students and make them dependent on government for education, I do not want government to provide me with health care and take my liberty to choose what do i need, I do not want government to give me social security when I am old.
I want to rely on my parent when i am dependent, and want to take care of my parents when they are dependent to me. I don't know about you but I want to rely on my blood line up or down more than some strange bureaucrats, congressmen or senators or president.

Have you noticed this: you must have read articles like the following:

http://www.newyorklife.com/nyl/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=d0bd47bb939d2210a2b3019d221024301cacRCRD

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31275812/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

I never liked - name calling Boomerang Kids, warning like.... Caution: Parents are often happy to help out, both emotionally and financially. As a result, the arrangement often works to everyone's satisfaction. However, there are risks, especially for the parents. These include family tension and misunderstandings, but also money.

I want to ask this: Who helped you first when time got tough? Parents or government? Who makes you comfortable just by looking at you with kind eye? Who give you selfless love, without expecting being compensated?

I think it's enough for today...
This is must watch view some one else on tax here (The View):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp-fLyvmPZ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rWNlaxrwyg

In Medicine, the Power of No - Read Between the Lines

This comes from the New York Times In Medicine, the Power of No. How can we learn to say no? The federal government is now starting to build the institutions that will try to reduce the soaring growth of health-care costs. There will be a group to compare the effectiveness of different treatments, a so called Medicare innovation center and a Medicare oversight board that can set payment rates.

You can read the whole article on NY times. Even though I am resisting to tell, I told you so, this was discussed before, wasn't it?

http://myrandomviews.blogspot.com/2009/10/us-faces-h1n1-flu-vaccine-shortage.html
http://myrandomviews.blogspot.com/2008/08/truth-about-socialized-medicine.html

They are not telling out front, they are main stream media, they can't tell you that, can they? so they are putting nice scientific twist to the fact that rationing is coming under Obamacare...

Best way to tell lie is to show you numbers / statistics / provide research reference...

they are telling you, there is Power in telling No... they are telling you:

• On a personal level, anyone who has made a decision about his or her own care knows the nagging worry that comes from not choosing the most aggressive treatment.
• Consider that a recent study found that 15,000 people were projected to die eventually from the radiation they received from CT scans given in just a single year — and that there was “significant overuse” of such scans.
• From an economic perspective, health reform will fail if we can’t sometimes push back against the try-anything instinct.
• We want the best possible care, no matter what. Yet we often do not get it because the current system tends to deliver more care even when it means worse care.
• Advocates for less intensive medicine have been too timid about all this. They often come across as bean counters, while the try-anything crowd occupies the moral high ground.
• The reality, though, is that unnecessary care causes a lot of pain and even death.

Learning to say no more often will be a three-step process, and if the new agencies created by the health act are run well, they can help with all three.

• The first is learning more about when treatments work and when they don’t. “All too often,” the Institute of Medicine reports, the data is “incomplete or unavailable.” As a result, more than half of treatments lack clear evidence of effectiveness, the institute found.
• When patients are given information about potential benefits and risks, they seem to choose less invasive care, on average, than doctors do, according to early studies.
• The tax subsidies for health insurance will shrink, which should help people realize medical care is not free. And doctors who provide good, less expensive care won’t be financially punished as often as they now are.

So in his own word: “In the United States, I don’t know that we’re ever going to get to a point where we limit health care spending, But maybe we could get patients to the same place on their own.” - Dr. Vidal says.

We can just nudge them to where we want them. population is stupid and by nudging them we can reduce the cost of health-care - without this reform will fail...

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
A shit by any other name would stink as bad
Rationing By other Name would be rationing

County Department of Water Resource

This is what i have found from back of my water bill...

Important notice to department of water resource customers
1. Payment must be received prior to due date. Payments not received will be considered delinquent and subject to a disconnection and /or collection fee.
2. Failure to receive bill does not exempt you from payment, late charges, or disconnect.
3. The due date on this bill is for your current charges only. All forwarded charges are considered past due and are subject to a 10% Late fee.
4. A $30.00 service charge or five percent of the face amount, whichever is greater, of the returned item will be applied to all returned checks, drafts, or orders.
5. A $50.00 service charge is applied on all collection activities.
6. It is the responsibility of you, our customer, to ensure we have access to all water meters.

My Story:
I recently have case when i have moved to my new house.... Thank you for your good wishes.... where i have not received water bill for a few months. being new house owner in this country was not sure how frequent bill comes... it's OK to call me idiot, but in my defense, In third world country like India, where I had my child hood water bill comes once a year. They call it Water Tax. I think they have yet to figure out that you can charge for water every month like advanced country like USA. (hope they don't read this and decide to implement)

Any way, one fine day i have looked in my USPS mail box - a notice waiting for me to open, stating They have not received my payments for water bill and my connection is scheduled to disconnect.

What the F*** , pardon my french, i said to myself, i have never received any other communication from county and this is what they send me directly... So i have decided to talk to Customer No Service department of County water department, after 2 hours of music, i have decided it's not going to work, and decided to go to next town and talk to someone in person instead.
Surprisingly My wait time in line was under 5 minutes... Happily i went to counter, on expense of my back, kneeling before the almighty Clark, so that he can listen through that small hole made in thick glass partition between him and the subjects, try to make case that i have not received any water bill until now - can you please remove at least the late fees. He was kind enough to look in to the computer screen, and found that they have record that USPS have returned all bills to them stating can not deliver with no other explanation why they can not put mail in my mail box. And he referred me the same thing mentioned in that important notice on the back of the water bill stated as item 2. And i have to suck it up and pay all late fees.

My views:
I have no way to know, if County really have mailed me water bill. I have no way to know if USPS have received mail from County water department with correct address. I have no way to know what USPS did with my emails. Only thing i know is, what water department told me, USPS has returned my mail stating - can not deliver to my mailbox which is standard USPS approved mailbox, where USPS has kept delivering all other mails and lots of Junk.

County Department of Water Resource is a Government run service, USPS is government run service, If government can not provide me a water bill, its still my fault and i am obliged to pay for late fee for there inability to provide services. Because i should know that water bill comes every month, why it didn't come this month? Right?

Now change the scenerio, it happened with my Kohl's Charge card. I am set with them to send me e communication. for some reason i didn't receive one month's statement in email, and next month in my email it came with late fees, I called them, same argument, she was happy to remove late fees, did it over phone, wait time under 2 minutes. Email may have been lost anywhere, may be their system didn't send it, may be it went to junk filter, may be i have received and ignored it or deleted it accidentally without realizing it or with purpose... Who knows... But they did it for me...

Think Why the difference... Let me help you... I have choice to go to million other cards to use, i have no option to use other water resources, unless i got it checked what is the water level where I live and make water well for myself and than do all filtering and purifying for my water. and for that too have to take permission from government...

Some more comments:
Item 1: Why Payment must be received prior to due date? - Why not it must be postmarked before due date? They can tell you - they didn't receive, But for sure, they can not argue postmark. Post mark is in my control, i can stand in line and make sure postal employee post mark in front of me. i can not control when they receive. Unless obviously you have time to travel to next town and pay in person.

Item 2: The whole article is about this

Item 3, 4 and 5 - Talking about financial charges by banks, look at what government is charging you...
10% late fees - interest rate is bellow 5% since year 2000, currently its like 0-0.5%.
30$ service charge may be for $50 water bill for returned checks....
$50 service charge for collection for $50 water bill

Water and Health-care
Recent Days / Months, there is big discussion going on for the health care reform, where many people including me thinks, that this is step towards single payer system or government run health-care to go to the extreme. People in favor argue that health-care is human-right, mixing heath-care and health-care insurance.

I want to ask this Food, Water, Air are three basic necessities of survival of human, if Government can deny you water unless you pay IN-TIME. what is the assurance that the same will not deny you the health-care if you are unable to pay for it, especially when you have no other choice left.
Something to think about....

For now - my solution for water problem:
I have send them a Voided check in USPS mail, with paper form that they have kindly provided on their website, with my account number, bank routing etc. and authorized them to do something called auto-debit. Auto-Debit is the risk i had to take, providing and trusting government with my financial data, which can be misused. Not believing me, ask people whose last penny is taken by IRS from their bank account without permission.

So for now i am free from USPS mishaps at least. I hope they never tell me we have not received my payment for their own inability to even auto-debit. I will deal with it when it happens.

* $50 water bill is the avg water bill for my household at rate charged by my county

Notice of Taxes - Any Logic?

I had this notice of Taxes from county in my mail. Says this-

On December 1, 2009, the Gwinnett county Board of Commissioners adopted millage rate of 13.25 per $1000 of assessed property value. This represents an increase of 2.28 mills over the rate used for the temporary tax bill you received in September 2009.

You are receiving this bill because of the increase in the millage rate. the amount due for the "2009 Final Millage Rate Adjustment" is the additional amount you owe. You must pay this amount in full by the "DUE DATE" to avoid penalties and interest. NOTE: This billing is based upon the 2009 tax digest and taxes have been calculated using 2009 property values.

two problems:

• They have adjusted the rate on December 1, 2009 - last month of the year - but expecting to apply to whole year

• I have closed the house on September 15th 2009 - I am just off the phone with customer no service of Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner - she told me suck it up - you are responsible for the whole years worth of adjustment even though i had owned this house only for under one quarter of the year...

Any logic here? please..... Any logic?

Find me Logic here

This is from Friday Flash - the school circular from my daughters school:
Morning Car Rider Reminder:
You are welcome to bring your child as a car rider or send them on the bus, but they still must be here, in the building, by 8:50 in order to be counted present and on time. Beingvin line at 8:50 (even if you have been in line for several minutes) does not mean your child is on time.

We will post the yellow sign as soon as the bell rings. Once you see the sign, you will need to drive around to the front to check in your child since they are tardy. You can not do this until 8:50.

We understand this is frustrating....

You may drop off your child beginning at 8:20.

Under no circumstances should students be dropped off in front of the school - even if the car rider line is backed up.

So basically what it mean...
You are car rider - you can use that 30 minute window to drop your child - if there is long backed up line, still you can not drop your child in front of the school before 8:50 - and you stuck in line and your number don't come till 8:50 - your child should get tardy slip

find me logic here please.....

Interesting Video from Jason Mattera

Author of the book Obama Zombies, Jason Mattera has recently posted this interesting video on Youtube....
He walked into the halls of Congress, into the Capitol, and was walking down the hallway with Alan Grayson and was just introducing himself and being very friendly and talking about the health care bill and congratulating him on having such a big part of its passage. So, Grayson is warming up to him and starts to ask him about his favorite parts of the bill and the reporter asked Grayson what he liked best about it and Grayson starts telling him. And then he says, Well, what about these other provisions that are in the bill?
You must see this to know what happens next... I will only say this...
Congressman Alan Grayson ran into someone who apparently knew a bit more about the healthcare bill than he did. When asked about why he would vote for a bill that supported giving taxpayer dollars for treatment of convicted sex offenders, Grayson seemed appalled and had no idea he voted for exactly that.

Note from My View: Is that really happened? Have they passed something just because they think they had to without really knowing in entirety of whats in it? How many other things like this is in The Bill?

More transparency and open government?

“Remember when President Barack Obama promised more transparency and open government?” Raw Story reports on the advance of Hope and Change in yet another “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” moment from Obama.
One day after being sworn into office, President Barack Obama instructed federal agencies to ensure government transparency by complying with the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act law.

"All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government," Obama wrote in a memo to federal agencies Jan. 21, 2009. "The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA."

"The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public," the newly-installed president continued. "They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and down by their Government. Disclosure should be timely."

Turns out that George W. Bush was relatively transparent compared to his successor:

One year later, Obama's requests for transparency have apparently gone unheeded. In fact a provision in the Freedom of Information Act law that allows the government to hide records that detail its internal decision-making has been invoked by Obama agencies more often in the past year than during the final year of President George W. Bush.

Major agencies cited that exemption to refuse records at least 70,779 times during the 2009 budget year, compared with 47,395 times during President George W. Bush's final full budget year, according to annual FOIA reports filed by federal agencies.

An Associated Press review of Freedom of Information Act reports filed by 17 major agencies found that the use of nearly every one of the law's nine exemptions to withhold information from the public rose in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.

The AP review comes on the heels of another bit of government transparency news: that the Obama Administration has threatened to veto a congressional intelligence bill because it objects to efforts to increase intelligence oversight.

Among other things, the proposed legislation would subject intelligence agencies to General Accountability Office review. US intelligence agencies are currently immune from review by the Congressional auditing office.

Critics would do well to remember that government often has good reason to keep sensitive information out of the public domain. After all, we’re fighting a war in Afghanistan as well as battling global terrorist networks. Furthermore, the executive branch has a right to solicit advice on policy, and it can’t get good, honest advice if the people being asked believe that their consultations will get plastered all over the New York Times. While the government tends to default too often to secrecy no matter which party occupies the White House, those issues are valid still.

Of course, conservatives do remember all of this. We recalled it when Obama made a fetish of Hope and Change on the campaign trail, and called the Bush White House the most secretive in American history. Instead of acting responsibly on this issue (as he begrudgingly did on the Patriot Act extensions in June 2008), Obama elected to demagogue on it instead, casting himself as a knight in shining armor unlocking the dungeons of a tyrant.

Now, such denials have increased by 49%, and that’s not counting whether overall requests have increased or decreased. Let’s try to guess: would the press be making more inquiries during Obama’s term in office than Bush’s, or fewer? To their credit, Raw Story has that data, too:

"All told, the 17 agencies reviewed by AP reported getting 444,924 FOIA requests in fiscal 2009, compared with 493,610 in fiscal 2008."

Not just fewer, but over ten percent fewer requests. Putting those numbers together, the Bush administration had a denial rate of 9.6%. The Obama administration has a denial rate of 15.9%.

Here are Questions from My Views:
Which President promised more transparency?
And why is the press 10% less interested in the inner workings of government now than it was in 2008? especially when so much more is going on...