OVERSIGHT

WEEKLY OVERSIGHT REPORT

NEWS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE GLEANED FROM THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA

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The Palm Beach County Tea Party (PBCTP) Oversight Function helps members understand current events. Below is a copy of what was sent out in the weekly email. The text beneath each link is a synopsis of the material. A visit to the link provides more detail.

Items in this report generally satisfy the following four criteria:
Underreported: Not likely to be seen or heard elsewhere by the reader
Timely: Occurred since the previous report was issued.
Germaine: Deals with Tea Party precepts and/or Constitutional issues.
Non-Fiction: Not just on someone’s wish list.

Previous reports are available at: Archives.

This report does not represent any official positions of the PBCTP.

Oversight Contributors and the initials used to identify their contributions are: Marion Frank – M.F., Barbara & Mel Grossman – B.M.G.

Please send any comments you have to Oversight.

If this report was of value, you can support the work by visiting donate.

The day for the Oversight Report release has been moved from Friday to Sunday to better accommodate the work schedule of the bureaucrats and politicians generating nefarious laws and regulations that enlarge the size and reach of government and pile up unsustainable levels of debt.

When this email was drafted the U.S. Debt was over $18,920,000,000,000.

 

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The Immigration Bill and Other Useless Legislation

Full disclosure: this is the blog of a cynic.

The immigration bill and other legislation of its ilk are not worth the paper they are printed on.

The reason is we have a Federal Government Executive Branch that only enforces the legislation it likes and only the provisions of that legislation it likes.

Congress needs to be creative and craft legislation that contains enforceable penalties for non-enforcement of the legislation.

Without such penalties, Congress is just frittering away its time and posturing for future votes.

July Jupiter Chapter Features Legislative Update

The Jupiter Chapter meeting for July will be VERY informative.

The program for this month is a “Legislative Session Wrap Up” given by State Senator Joe Negron, District 32 and State Representative Mary Lynn Magar, District 82.

Senator Negron is Chairman of both the Senate Appropriations Committee and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Committee, he also serves on several other committees including Banking and Insurance, Rules and Joint Legislative Budget Commission acting as Alternate Chairman. Representative Magar currently serves as the House Majority Whip.

I am sure many of our members have many questions about Florida’s budget, Medicaid expansion, Citizens Insurance and many other state issues.

Also on the program will be Michael Riordan giving us a lesson on how to communicate with legislators effectively. Maybe Senator Negron and Representative Magar can help with this topic?

Hope to see you all there. Please bring a friend (or two) so we can fill the room, we want to educate as many people on the issues as we can. An educated voter is a conservative voter.

County Proposes $25.3M tax increase

After leveling off last year following 4 years of decline, property values seem to have turned a corner and have ticked up 3.7% this year, easing pressure on county and municipal budgets. As the county has cranked up the millage rate as the valuations fell, will they now start to decrease them? Apparently not.

Jupiter Chapter Addresses IRS Issues

Last evening at Abacoa, the June meeting of the Jupiter Chapter addressed the national scandal surrounding the IRS and how it relates to the local tea party.

Kicked off by chapter leader Laura Hanley, the microphone was passed to President Mike Riordan who started with an overview of the IRS harassment and intimidation suffered by conservative groups since 2010. As members of the Tea Party Patriots, we are supporting their legal activity and the board is meeting with leader Jenny Beth Martin later this week.

Mostly targeted have been 501(c)(4) “social welfare” applications, a category that allows some political activity, as long as it is not the primary purpose of the group (as opposed to 501(c)(3) that does not). At the present time, PBCTP does not hold either exemption, but a decision has been made to apply for both (3) and (4) designations. As Mike pointed out, with all the Congressional and public scrutiny of the IRS, now is probably the best opportunity for a speedy decision.

A primer on how best to communicate with public officials then followed, along with some talking points on the issue, including:

• Targeting of ANY group based on political beliefs is unacceptable
• What can happen to one American can happen to ANY American
• The revenue collecting arm of the government cannot be used to target, intimidate or destroy
• We demand a full investigation into the IRS at all levels

Following some Q&A, we then heard from Ed Wolff on Oversight updates,  Fred Scheibl of the Taxpayer Action Board (TAB) about the upcoming county budget hearing next Tuesday where county staff plans to propose a tax increase, Lynne Sherrer about current activities surrounding the Common Core fight, and Jack McLain of the Constitution Party of Florida with his book “Which Way America?”

Finally, Congressional candidates in CD18 Ellen Andel and Alan Schlesinger introduced themselves to the group.