Its Time to Texit.
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2018 7:00 pm
Hello all,
Despite the sake of this being a political post, I hope the comments and discussions below can be respectful and considerate towards all opinions and options.
Guys, I am to the point that I feel compelled to openly state that the State of Texas needs to hold a public referendum ballot for all Texans to vote whether we should remain a US State or go back to being an independent country. It is my personal belief that not only do we need to have an open and public discussion on #Texit but also that when you vote, you need to check the leave box. I came to this decision several months ago and have been more and more convinced that not only is this what is best for Texas, it is best for America as well.
First Point: I initially realized the fatal direction of the union when the omnibus spending bill passed. Doing the math, our ‘representatives’ passed a bill that took the annual US spending to $4,407,000,000,000.00 of our money for fiscal year 2018 (proof) and (context). Looking to get that into ‘real’ numbers, I divided that out by the current population of the United States (325.7mil) and that came out to spending $13,530.86 for each man, woman and child in the USA. While that might not sound like a lot, you have to account for the fact that that is per person… Since I have five people in my happy little family, that comes out to spending $67,654.28 on my family’s behalf. The US Government spent more on my behalf than my household makes per year. I personally find that completely unacceptable. All of this is aside from the fact that it is basically impossible for a few hundred representatives to accurately reflect the desires and values of 320+ million americans, and as such you wind up with several areas of spending that at least half of the citizenship doesn't agree with. Just look at the Summary of Appropriations Provisions put out by the Democrat's half of the Committee of Appropriations... There are a lot of dollars being throw around that I don't agree with. If members of a different state want to spend tons of money on an education program, great. Let them spend their own money. Same thing goes for us Texans. But having everyone being able to reach into every other state's pockets had led us down a destructive path. One clear example is the bi-partisan STOP School Violence Act of 2018. It passed by a wide margin and almost everyone agrees that it is needed, but in doing so it contributed an additional 50 Million per year to federal spending. While school security is a notable goal, how is the Federal Government supposed to decide for each school and each state what methods are worthy of consideration? While Texas may want reinforced glass, California may want armed guards, and Oklahoma may want none of it and just to remove LTC restrictions. Why should California ‘lose out’ on funding for reinforced glass (That they don’t want), and Texas ‘lose out’ on funding for officers and Oklahoma lose out on all of it simply because the offered dollars doesn’t match their priorities? The result is that every state and every school will try to implement every single solution (even those that might not be effective in their situation) in a money-grab to get federal dollars. The result is rampant spending that may or may not be effective because you have thrown a blanket fix in a grant into the mix.
Second Point: I also recently started my own side business. Drafting buildings as a sole proprietor, from a tax side of things my company and I are one financially. (Basically, I do an architect’s job, but I can’t state that or advertise that way per Texas § 1051.703). But the frightening part of that fact is that there are so many tax laws, fraud laws and regulations that when I tried to research and understand any legal considerations for running my business (selecting and declining prospective projects, sending invoices, declaring income, mixing business and personal accounts, etc) there were literally too many rules for me to read or know them all. I very well could have (or currently am) broken/breaking laws that I don’t even know exist. There are around 5,000 criminal laws (which are a bit easier to navigate) but anywhere between 10,000-300,000 regulations that can be enforced as crimes, taking up hundreds of thousands of pages. Texas law was relatively easy to read and understand (IE, don’t draft buildings above X-size without an Architect’s Seal, don’t steal people’s money, contracts are binding, etc) but the Federal guidelines include possibilities for me ‘knowingly’ breaking ADA (which is 4000 pages alone, not including court cases), committing tax ‘fraud’ by accidental charging sales tax, returning it, and having used that as a deduction in a previous year, etc. ad nauseam to the point that I could literally be breaking the law today without knowing it- or even worse be breaking the law while trying to make the right decisions for my customers. Just look at this example of regulations over 18 months alone. I strongly encourage everyone who hasn’t to read Harvey Silverglate’s Three Felonies a Day. It is really eye opening on the vast array of entrapments that exist.
Despite the sake of this being a political post, I hope the comments and discussions below can be respectful and considerate towards all opinions and options.
Guys, I am to the point that I feel compelled to openly state that the State of Texas needs to hold a public referendum ballot for all Texans to vote whether we should remain a US State or go back to being an independent country. It is my personal belief that not only do we need to have an open and public discussion on #Texit but also that when you vote, you need to check the leave box. I came to this decision several months ago and have been more and more convinced that not only is this what is best for Texas, it is best for America as well.
First Point: I initially realized the fatal direction of the union when the omnibus spending bill passed. Doing the math, our ‘representatives’ passed a bill that took the annual US spending to $4,407,000,000,000.00 of our money for fiscal year 2018 (proof) and (context). Looking to get that into ‘real’ numbers, I divided that out by the current population of the United States (325.7mil) and that came out to spending $13,530.86 for each man, woman and child in the USA. While that might not sound like a lot, you have to account for the fact that that is per person… Since I have five people in my happy little family, that comes out to spending $67,654.28 on my family’s behalf. The US Government spent more on my behalf than my household makes per year. I personally find that completely unacceptable. All of this is aside from the fact that it is basically impossible for a few hundred representatives to accurately reflect the desires and values of 320+ million americans, and as such you wind up with several areas of spending that at least half of the citizenship doesn't agree with. Just look at the Summary of Appropriations Provisions put out by the Democrat's half of the Committee of Appropriations... There are a lot of dollars being throw around that I don't agree with. If members of a different state want to spend tons of money on an education program, great. Let them spend their own money. Same thing goes for us Texans. But having everyone being able to reach into every other state's pockets had led us down a destructive path. One clear example is the bi-partisan STOP School Violence Act of 2018. It passed by a wide margin and almost everyone agrees that it is needed, but in doing so it contributed an additional 50 Million per year to federal spending. While school security is a notable goal, how is the Federal Government supposed to decide for each school and each state what methods are worthy of consideration? While Texas may want reinforced glass, California may want armed guards, and Oklahoma may want none of it and just to remove LTC restrictions. Why should California ‘lose out’ on funding for reinforced glass (That they don’t want), and Texas ‘lose out’ on funding for officers and Oklahoma lose out on all of it simply because the offered dollars doesn’t match their priorities? The result is that every state and every school will try to implement every single solution (even those that might not be effective in their situation) in a money-grab to get federal dollars. The result is rampant spending that may or may not be effective because you have thrown a blanket fix in a grant into the mix.
Second Point: I also recently started my own side business. Drafting buildings as a sole proprietor, from a tax side of things my company and I are one financially. (Basically, I do an architect’s job, but I can’t state that or advertise that way per Texas § 1051.703). But the frightening part of that fact is that there are so many tax laws, fraud laws and regulations that when I tried to research and understand any legal considerations for running my business (selecting and declining prospective projects, sending invoices, declaring income, mixing business and personal accounts, etc) there were literally too many rules for me to read or know them all. I very well could have (or currently am) broken/breaking laws that I don’t even know exist. There are around 5,000 criminal laws (which are a bit easier to navigate) but anywhere between 10,000-300,000 regulations that can be enforced as crimes, taking up hundreds of thousands of pages. Texas law was relatively easy to read and understand (IE, don’t draft buildings above X-size without an Architect’s Seal, don’t steal people’s money, contracts are binding, etc) but the Federal guidelines include possibilities for me ‘knowingly’ breaking ADA (which is 4000 pages alone, not including court cases), committing tax ‘fraud’ by accidental charging sales tax, returning it, and having used that as a deduction in a previous year, etc. ad nauseam to the point that I could literally be breaking the law today without knowing it- or even worse be breaking the law while trying to make the right decisions for my customers. Just look at this example of regulations over 18 months alone. I strongly encourage everyone who hasn’t to read Harvey Silverglate’s Three Felonies a Day. It is really eye opening on the vast array of entrapments that exist.