Housing Costs: The Ignored Inflation

Politicians and federal reserve members pat themselves on the back for flooding the economy with money without creating inflation.  They seem to be turning a willful blind eye to one of the most important expenses for average individuals.  Housing.  According to US Census Figures, the median home in the United States has risen to almost $200,000 by 2018.  That is up from about $120,000 in 2000.  According to official inflation data, a median house should be closer to $175,000.  That $25,000 is a large difference, because even with today's low interest rates, it means that the average family will be paying $44,000 extra on a 30 year mortgage.  

Who gets almost 1/2 of that $44,000 extra?  The banks that are pumping extra money into the economy.  Do you think that maybe there is a conflict of interests here?  

The government makes claims of low inflation because people are paying slightly less for electronic components and other consumer items.  Although a person can go without the latest cell phone, just about everybody needs a roof over their head.  So when a politician is telling you that they have pumped trillions of phony dollars into the economy with no inflation, look around your neighborhood for what prices homes have been selling.  You will find the inflation that they claim is lost.  

Court of Appeals Affirms Presidential Elector Duties

The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has ruled that Presidential Electors have a right to vote their conscience.  In the case of Baca v. Colorado Department of State, the court said that Presidential Electors have a "right to cast a vote for President and Vice President with discretion."  The court affirmed that once an elector is elected, the Constitution does not allow states to remove an elector from office or nullify his votes.  It also stated that individual states do not have the authority to hold any elector to a pledge as to how they are going to vote. 

A Conscious Conservative believes that this is a move forward In assuring that Presidential Electors fulfill their duty of voting for the best candidate, not for who the political elite orders.  However, work must still be done.  In most states, Presidential Electors are not independently chosen but are hand picked political lackeys.  Thank you to the brave Plaintiffs in this case, Michael Baca, Polly Baca and Polly Nemanich.

Baca v. Colorado Department of State

IRS Could Tax Jeffrey Epstein Sex Abuse Victims

  

According to a recent change in the IRS tax code , "no deduction is allowed under section 162 for any settlement or payment related to sexual harassment or sexual abuse if it is subject to a non-disclosure agreement."  That is IRS speak for unless a victim of sexual harassment is willing to go public, they are subject to income tax.  As a general rule, personal injury settlements are not taxable.  

Why is Congress and the IRS so interested in outing victims of sexual harassment and abuse? It goes back to an old ruling that only settlements involving physical injuries are tax free.  So the IRS only gives a break to those whose sexual abuse includes physical injury and only if this physical injury is made clear in the settlement.  Adding extra insult is that the victims must also pay tax on the portion of the settlement that goes to the attorneys.  Leave it to the IRS to tax people for money they didn't receive.

A Conscious Conservative believes that Congress should change this code.  So far, no bills to attempt the change have gotten any traction at all.  Codes like this are just more proof of why the income tax is an arbitrary and barbaric form of taxation.  I guess the "evil 1%" includes victims of sexual abuse who get large settlements.    

Arizona Libertarian Appeal Denied

The United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, has refused to take the case of Arizona Libertarian Party v. Hobbs.  The Libertarians were suing to overturn Arizona's ballot access laws.  Arizona has some of the most discriminatory laws for alternative party candidates.in the Untied States.  Arizona uses a combination of laws to keep candidates from parties other than the Republican and Democratic from appearing on the ballot.  There are two laws which especially damage alternative party candidates.  The Arizona Libertarian Party plaintiffs were attempting to challenge one of these these laws. 

The first law states that only the names of the two largest parties will appear on the voter registration form.  That means only the Republican and Democratic Parties have their name on the voter registration form.  There is a checkbox which allows people to select one of those two parties.  People can register as members of a different party, but must follow a procedure that is not made clear on the form of writing the name of that party on a separate line.  This makes it very rare that people register as members of alternative parties, which has swelled the number of independents in Arizona.

The second law states that in order to get on the ballot to be in a primary, a person needs to get a prescribed number of signatures.  The barrier is that those signatures must be either members of your party or independents.  According to the Arizona Secretary of State, there are about 1,330,000 Republicans, 1,186,000 Democrats and 32,300 Libertarians registered.  As far as signatures, a Republican candidate has to get the signatures of about 6400 Republicans, a Democratic Party candidate about 6000 signatures of Democrats and a Libertarian candidate about 3200 Libertarian signatures to be on the ballot.

What do you think is easier, to get 6400 of 1.3 million people to sign a petition or 3200 of 32,000?  According to the case records, Libertarian Party candidates had to get the signatures of between 11% and 30% of all registered Libertarians in a given area to qualify to run for office.  That compares to a Republican candidate needing the signatures of less than 1/2 of 1% of registered Republicans.  The Court appears to put the burden on Libertarian Party candidates to go after independent voters.  Of course, there is nothing to stop Republican or Democratic Party candidates from going after that population also.  This makes the advantage for Republican and Democratic Party candidates even greater.  It is this disparity in percentage of signatures needed which the Libertarian Party was attempting to challenge.    

A Conscious Conservative believes that the Republican and Democratic Parties should be held accountable for rigging elections in this manner.  While they complain about foreign meddling and voter suppression, they fail to acknowledge that they have created a corrupt system.  The results of this system is that nearly 1/2 of voters to not vote in a given election.  It is no wonder.  Nearly one half of all seats only have one candidate due to ballot restrictions.  Why bother to vote when the result is already determined?

Florida City Boots 103 Year Old Granny

The Florida City of Cape Coral, a suburb of Fort Myers, decided it wants to build a $60 million dollar park.  The only barrier is that there are families who have lived on the property for generations.  So city officials showed up with a check and said, "Get out!"

Some of the people don't want to leave.  According to a story from WINK television, one of these homes has a 103 year old grandmother who isn't interested in moving.

Nancy Wickston, who is a relative of the 103 year old woman, told WINK,

"There's five generations under the same roof and they're all on fixed income basically too." (Full Story Here) 

The family is asking for fair market value from the city but feel they won't get it.  What they would really like is to live out the rest of their lives in a home which has been in the family for decades.

A Conscious Conservative hopes that the citizens of Cape Coral will come to their senses and get rid of any city council members who are in favor of disrupting the life of a 103 year old grandmother and her family.  They can find their contact information at the link below.

Cape Coral City Council Contact Information

Canada Restricts Crypto

Canada decided that Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies fall under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act this week. Using the usual scapegoat of fighting terrorism, Canada has put restrictions in place for platforms which trade crypto-currency.

Platforms which trade in currency must now register as Money Services Businesses under Canadian law.  FINTRAC Policy--Money Services Businesses .  They will now be subject to a plethora of regulations.   The chief among these being transaction reporting requirements 

The primary reporting requirement is any transaction of more than $10,000 CAD (About $7600 US).  All "suspicious" transactions are also required to be reported.  The definition of suspicious is left to the eyes of the beholder as the Canadian guidelines state "You are in the best position to know what are usual transactions for your business and therefore what is suspicious."  This undermines the idea of crypto-currency transactions untraceable and anonymous.  Transactions That Must Be Reported  

A Conscious Conservative view is that government should get out of the currency regulation business besides issuing money accepted for public debts.  Otherwise, people should be free to trade in any means upon which two individuals may agree.  Looking for terrorists behind every bush leads to an excess of innocent people getting harassed for conducting respectable business. 

Nevadans Worry About Income Tax

Certain groups in Nevada worry that Nevada may soon have to enact an income tax.  The culprit is a law recently signed by Governor Steve Sisolak.  The bill allows Nevada State Employees to unionize and engage in collective bargaining.  Nevada has long been known as a fiscally conservative state that funds its operation from other tax sources.  However, representatives of the Nevada Policy Research Institute NPRI have expressed concern that employees engaged in collective bargaining will lead to run away spending.  

"The price tag associated with this is something that really worried us," said NPRI Communications Director Michael Schaus, "simply because we're already straining our budgets." according to an article on the 3 News Las Vegas web site.

Conscious conservatives across the country worry about the natural conflict of interest that occurs when public servants are allowed to hold public interests hostage for salary increases.  We also hope that Nevada holds out as one of the examples of how government can be funded without a tax on income.