Immigration Law Watchdog Group Asks OH Inspector General to Investigate Illegal Lobbying by Ohio Latino Commission

This OCHLA group sounds like an ACORN group for illegal immigrants.

From PRNewswire-USNewswire --

WASHINGTON, June 16 / -- The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) has filed a complaint with the Ohio Inspector General against the Ohio Commission on Hispanic Latino Affairs (OCHLA). The complaint, filed on behalf of eight Ohio citizens alleges that OCHLA violated Ohio law by actively lobbying the state legislature to provide favorable treatment for illegal aliens and ignore their unlawful immigration status.

OCHLA is an Ohio state agency created in 1977 to advise the Governor, General Assembly and other state agencies on the needs of Spanish-speaking citizens, especially in the fields of "education, employment, energy, health, housing, welfare and recreation." OCHLA also works to improve access for Spanish speakers to the state legislature and local governments in Ohio. As a state agency, OCHLA is required to carry out its taxpayer-funded mandate in a strictly non-partisan and lawful manner.

"There is enough information to reasonably believe that a violation has occurred. We urge the Ohio Inspector General to launch a full investigation on behalf of the taxpayers," said Trista Chaney, the IRLI staff attorney who assisted the citizens to prepare the complaint.

In their complaint, the citizens identify multiple occasions where OCHLA commissioners allegedly engaged in unauthorized lobbying on behalf of illegal aliens. Lobbying Activity Center reports for 2009 show that OCHLA Public Policy Director Florentina Staigers did not engage in any advocacy on behalf of Spanish-speaking citizens that year, but instead repeatedly lobbied on behalf of illegal alien causes. The complaint also identifies February 2010 testimony by Lupe Williams, an OCHLA board member, which contained no advice for the General Assembly on how proposed legislation would affect Spanish-speaking citizens, but instead urged lawmakers to show illegal aliens special consideration.

According to the citizens, OCHLA's 2010 Latino Community Report on Global Diversity for the 128th General Assembly contains various false or distorted statements, such as "being in the U.S. without papers is not a crime," which the citizens contend were intended to persuade legislators to ignore federal immigration laws and provide illegal aliens the public benefits and privileges available to Spanish-speaking citizens.

In a statement explaining why she approached IRLI for assistance in preparing the complaint, grassroots immigration activist, Julie Aldrich said: "As citizens opposed to state encouragement of illegal immigration, we just got fed up with seeing taxpayer-funded lobbyists from OCHLA showing up at hearings and issuing statements that undermine the rule of law in our state."

The Office of the Inspector General is currently reviewing the complaint and will decide whether to take action with a full investigation into the alleged violations.

The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) is a Washington DC-based public interest law group that assists citizens to take legal action to fight the problems of illegal immigration at the state and local levels.

For further information about the complaint, please contract IRLI at info@irli.org or 202-232-5590.

Tea Party responds to MSNBC's smear piece - "Rise of the New Right"

Congress wants ANOTHER $1 Billion for Teen Jobs

After pledging $124 Million for the new Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), which besides other things will provide employment training & educational opportunities for the general public and at-risk youth in Caribbean states, our "we got ink - print some more money" lefties in Congress are looking to finally help out of work American teens by spending $1 billion over 10 years to fund 350,000 summer jobs for teenagers and young adults ages 14 through 24.

But are the really helping?

Last years Stimulus put $1.2 Billion towards creating jobs for youths, as we can see, like most of the break the bank spending coming out of D.C. -- it didn't work....

From ABC News --

The "American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act," sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), comes during high levels of youth unemployment. In July 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the national youth unemployment rate between ages 16 and 24 was 18.5 percent, the highest since the statistics were first recorded in 1948.

"I hope logic will prevail," New York State Labor Commissioner Colleen Gardner, pushing for its passage, told ABCNews.com. "We can't just look at it as a billion dollars, we're looking at the future of young people and an economic development tool because the money goes to economies in our United States."

Gardner hopes logic will prevail out of this shell game? Exactly what logic is that -- Teach children that it is our government that is supposed to create jobs? It sounds more like indoctrinating children with the thoughts that it is the purpose of our government to be the almighty creator of jobs. This is nothing more than buying future votes for socialist "of the state, by the state" policies.

This money being taken out of our economy NOT going into it. If teens were hired by businesses needing summer help or filling part time positions because of increased consumer spending -- it would be money going into the economy.

It also appears Gardner is using the same failed math calculations created for the current & often incorrect estimates of the Administration for current adult job creation which would be the same math President Obama used to get 57 States (48+2=57) for the amount of teen jobs created if this bill passes....

If the bill passes, Gardner said it could create 20,000 summer jobs in New York, where unemployment between ages 16 and 24 is at 17.9 percent with a statewide general rate of 8.6 percent. Apart from good habits, Gardner added that summer jobs were also important for the local economy because many teens often quickly turn around to spend that money in their own community, showing what's called "high-velocity dollars."

Jobs for teenagers and young adults are being swept away now by a perfect storm of dwindling stimulus money for youth employment and slim state revenues. "It's a combination of factors that's hitting at the same time," said Jonathan Larsen, policy associate at the National Youth Employment Coalition, noting that last year's stimulus tapped $1.2 billion for youth jobs.

The perfect storm Larsen refers to is a man-made disaster -- a perfect $53 trillion & growing man-made storm of disastrous proportions created by unsustainable entitlement spending & bankrupting the future of the "blinded by bailout dollars" teens they are supposed to be helping. In effect they are creating a generation of how will the government help me now teens that will be like indentured servants to the same government that supposedly helped them get a job!

Small Business facing $11B More in Taxes Over next 10 Years

If you are a business owner operating as a small S Corporation -- this post is a must read for you!

From ABC News --

While a possible increase in taxes on the "carried interest" of hedge fund and private equity money managers is getting all the attention, in the same bill Congress is also creating a tax mess for small-business owners in the form of an $11 billion tax hike over the next 10 years.

The tax increase was included in H.R. 4213, a peddler's wagon of legislation (new spending, physicians' reimbursement, extensions of expired tax breaks, etc.) that was passed by the House in a narrow vote just before Memorial Day and is now being considered by the Senate. The Democratic-backed Senate version of the bill includes the same tax on small business.

The tax hit affects the owners of small S corporations (a common way many small businesses are organized) in "professional service businesses"--doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects and so on. An S corp pays no taxes but passes through all its profits to its owners' tax returns, even when those profits or "distributions" are reinvested in the business.

So what is a professional service business? Lawyers, accountants, doctors, dentists, architects, athletes, performing artists, consultants all will be included, according to the statute.

Note this new tax is imposed regardless of the dollars involved; it doesn't matter if, as an S corporation owner, you had $300,000 or $30,000 in nonwage profits--this tax will hit you.

Why is Congress raising taxes now on small-business owners? It is to offset other items in this same bill that the House wants--not just the extension of tax breaks but spending such as the Build America Bonds provision, which provides $28 billion in highly subsidized bond authority to state and local governments (with getting millions in fees). Read More....

And our current Congress claims they are for the little guy!

Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) Assaults College Student

Rep. Bob Etheridge (D – NC) assaults a student.

Please let Congressman Etheridge know how you feel about his disgraceful & criminal actions!

http://etheridge.house.gov/

Rep. Bob Etheridge
Washington, DC
1533 Longworth House Office Bldg
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone:(202) 225-4531
Fax:(202) 225-5662

Flag Day

Leaked Documents Show Most Employee Health Care Plans WILL NOT be "Grandfathered" under Obama Care

From Bizzy Blog --

Earlier this year, in his “Can we lose health coverage? Yes we can” column, syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock made a point asserted in dozens if not hundreds of columns and reports during the hide-and-seek legistlative process that ultimately led to the passage of what is commonly known as ObamaCare: The President’s core promise relating to the statist health care legislation that ultimately became law in March — namely that “If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what” — could not and would not be kept.

In that column, Murdock quoted Cato Institute analyst Michael Cannon as follows:

“Obama’s definition of ‘meaningful’ coverage could eliminate the health plans that now cover as many as half of the 159 million Americans with employer-sponsored insurance, plus more than half of the roughly 18 million Americans in the individual market. … This could compel close to 90 million Americans to switch to more comprehensive health plans with higher premiums, whether they value the added coverage or not.”

In a late Friday afternoon blog post followed by a fuller early evening report, David Hogberg and Sean Higgins at Investors Business Daily confirmed that Obama’s never-credible core promise is on the brink of being shattered, and that the employer-related calculations by Cato’s Cannon were essentially correct (graphically illustrated by IBD at the top right):

Internal administration documents reveal that up to 51% of employers may have to relinquish their current health care coverage because of ObamaCare.

Small firms will be even likelier to lose existing plans.

The “midrange estimate is that 66% of small employer plans and 45% of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfathered status by the end of 2013,” according to the document.

In the worst-case scenario, 69% of employers — 80% of smaller firms — would lose that status, exposing them to far more provisions under the new health law.

…. The 83-page document, a joint project of the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the IRS, examines the effects that ObamaCare’s regulations would have on existing, or “grandfathered,” employer-based health care plans.

Draft copies of the document were reportedly leaked to House Republicans during the week and began circulating Friday morning. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., posted it on his Web site Friday afternoon.

… In a statement, Posey said the document showed that the arguments in favor of ObamaCare were a “bait and switch.”

… (A White House) source conceded: “It is difficult to predict how plans and employers will behave in the coming years, but if plans make changes that negatively impact consumers, then they will lose their grandfather status.”

… In total, 66% of small businesses and 47% of large businesses made a change in their health care plans last year that would have forfeited their grandfathered status.

When one looks at the list of what would cause a plan to get de-grandfathered compiled by Hogberg and Higgins, it’s easy to see why the percentages are so large.

The referenced Treasury document (an 83-page PDF) lays out how employers might react to the new law on Page 36:

Plan sponsors and issuers can decide to:

1. Continue offering the plan or coverage in effect on March 23, 2010 with limited changes, and thereby retain grandfathered status;

2. Significantly change the terms of the plan or coverage and comply with Affordable Care Act provisions from which grandfathered health plans are excepted; or

3. In the case of a plan sponsor, cease to offer any plan.

Option 1 would be nice, but as the IBD reporters noted in the bolded paragraph in the excerpt above, most employers would have run afoul of it during the past year. This means that they would have been forced into Options 2 or 3. Employers choosing Option 2 would have to buy pre-designed and very expensive coverage through the bill’s health insurance exchanges. Employers choosing Option 3 would force their employees to buy pre-designed and very expensive coverage through those same exchanges.

If the legislation stands, the end result over a not very long time will be that the large majority of employers and employees will be stuck in the exchanges, the roach motels of health care — Once you go in, you can’t come out. Statist mission accomplished.

The Associated Press has noticed the story too, but with the weakest of headlines: “Health overhaul to force changes in employer plans.” The content isn’t much better. Earth to AP reporter Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar: ObamaCare, as predicted by so many during the previous year by experts most of the establishment press willfully ignored, will cause many employers to drop their insurance entirely.