@Tim
I wrote about the NDP having a statement today.
I actually like quite a lot about Think Progress at times. This article has a lot of facts off the mark by a long shot but, that’s likely to do with the U.S. homeland penchant for not getting it about legitimate expats living abroad who would never owe any taxes. It’s extremely difficult to “get” what’s wrong with FATCA from their position. You’ve also got a lot of partisanship going on there. I wonder what they would think of Democrats Abroad many, many recommendations to amend this monstrosity. It’s quite simple. GO TO RBT..then implement. They could easily catch every tax cheat “off shoring” by going to RBT while at the same time not harming families living long term abroad with zero financial ties whatsoever to the U.S.
Think Progress, as in progressive taxation, amounts to nothing more than punishing people for working hard.
The harder they work, the higher the percentage of earnings they lose to pay for others who sit on their asses.
If the article is correct about the majority of Americans abroad being Democrats, what can I say? They deserve everything the Democrats have given them, especially FATCA.
gee thanks. So you think I deserved being forced to choose between my family here and my citizenship? I was a dem when I was still a “U.S. person: as were many people on this site.
Well, we’re all Republicans now.
I had to quit reading TP during the last US election b/c they shamelessly propped Obama on every topic.
No surprise they love FATCA. They completely buy in to the expats are rich swine and American citizenship is so precious we should all pay dues. What can we expect from a
magazine that is as nasty partisan as any Fox News affiliate?
@Atticus,
I am sorry if you took what I wrote as an insult, it wasn’t meant to be. I have read many things here and articles in the media about your stand against CBT and FATCA. I sincerely admire everything you are doing. You are a true heroine in my book!
But if anyone here is still a Democrat, what can I say? I feel sorry for you because your party has screwed you over and over again. And will keep coming back for more as long as you help them stay in power.
FWIW, I was once a Republican, but now I am proudly an ex-US citizen. I support anyone who takes a stand against CBT, FATCA, FBAR, Exit Tax etc. I don’t care if they are Repubs, Dems, Greens etc. Anyone who takes a stand against the injustices faced by Americans abroad is okay in my book.
Lets just see if the Republican stand will be genuine. After all, they are politicians.
“A senior U.S. Treasury Department official said on Wednesday that Republican Party opposition to a new law meant to fight offshore tax dodging by Americans will not impede the Obama administration’s efforts to implement it worldwide.”
@Wilderness, I have tried really hard to win over people in my riding into helping support the fight against FATCA. In order to do so I have also tried very hard to stay totally non partisan. Otherwise, I’m not going to be able to win people over at all here and I’m trying to get people to come to this meeting coming up! . Also, TP has a membership of over two hundred thousand people and even though I do not agree with everything posted there I DO agree with some of it and I think it’s worth having a civil discussion with them as the facts surrounding FATCA are so horrible some will see that it DOES need amending. Yes, that article was very poorly researched and rather knee jerk…”their side is for it, I’m against it” Really challenging to deal with but…I’d rather point out the FACTS and win them over. I’ve done it before and can do it again. Not everyone but, some.
Also, I’m really, really careful as much as humanly possible to never make a bad remark about others party, belief systems etc..who don’t believe the way I do especially with regard to fighting FATCA or around this issue. I have many friends with differing political views. I do think we need to be careful. In other words we will catch more flies with honey as my grandmother said even when it’s hard.
I appreciate your feedback. I really, really do!!
@bubblebustin,…no…my beliefs are not republican. I agree with their efforts on this one issue and appreciate anyone trying to get justice on this stupid law. I also appreciate anyone’s efforts in fighting this monstrosity.
@Atticus,
I appreciate your non-partisan approach and the analogy of honey vs. vinigar. You are probably right.
However, if one party opposes FATCA while the other party digs in its heels to protect it, what is wrong with calling a spade a spade?
@FromTheWilderness
I don’t know if DA is so much digging its heels in to protect FATCA, more so than trying to appear supportive of US persons abroad while toeing the party line. The FBAR/FATCA Task Force report was so full of wishy-washiness that it was almost painful to read. “US federal debt levels and funding needs suggest that it is not realistic to expect the US Congress to give serious consideration to residency-based taxation in the near term nor for the IRS to ease up on its implementation of the law.” They know as well as anyone that the survival of US persons abroad is contingent on CBT being replaced with RBT. FATCA just speeds up our inevitable destruction. The fact that they make no mention whatsoever of record numbers of people renouncing US citizenship also proves that by trying to satisfy the needs of both the Democratic Party and US persons abroad, they serve neither.
I don’t think Dems Abroad have dug their heels in to protect it. They have not gone as far as Republicans to oppose it as I would like but, they haven’t protected it either. I totally disagree with dems abroad that RBT isn’t possible. In fact I think it’s a foot bullet for them not putting that out there as a possiblity.
I’m just a little sensitive about staying non partisan as I’ve put a lot of work into booking a room, advertising and trying to get people to help in this fight locally as well as get information. People are coming here and emailing me saying liberal bashing going on here and so no dice they don’t want to participate. *disappointing!* This is a very liberal riding and my MP Ted Hsu has done a LOT to help oppose FATCA. In fact I’d love to invite him to participate in some way. I’m getting worried that the meeting for Kingston may be a “no go” … If it turns out it’s a no go, so be it. lol..but, I can’t exactly direct people here again once they’ve been turned off. The other thing is I would LOVE to get more people participating in this fight. Badly. We’ve got critical mass so let’s just get that going even more!
I whole heartedly agree that the current crop of dems in D.C. are just AWFUL and that’s NOT what I voted for at ALL. Their actions on this issue have been beneath contempt and that is just the truth. I DO think it’s worth courting every single person we can to fight this particular law. I don’t disagree with them on other things but, this law? Yes, it’s misguided and just wrong. “Bone headed move” as Obama himself likes to say.
Also, who knows…maybe I am just burned out this week and should shut up. LOL! 😉
@Bubble,
I read the Dems Abroad communique — far too wishy washy for me.
Only real solution for expats — CLN or Bust!
@Atticus
Your expression for shooting oneself in the foot – “foot bullet.”
I never heard that one before, but I love it. Its too funny.
Cheers
@Atticus
NEVER shut up!
@FromTheWilderness
It’s just getting interesting.
bubblebustin, Daily Kos is just as bad as ThinkProgess for taking a partisan position and ignoring any facts that don’t support their version of what the truth is.
Checked out this guy’s Twit feed. He is of the new bred of “journalists” facts-lite, controversy heavy. Understandable b/c it is a stats driven game. The more people you can get to click through, the better the ad rates for the publication.
And the left is just as bad as the right for refusing to see or report on the middle – which is where most of us actually live and where the damage is usually done these days.
I don’t doubt that the USG party line is “we will not back down” but if that is true, why is the WH not pushing Canada harder? Why all the secrecy? On both sides. You almost never hear Canada mentioned in the FATCA articles that do pop up. Perhaps the USG, like the Canadian govt, is not keen to have the terms and the tenor of the talks see too much daylight for fear of what that might provoke.
This Pyke guy is an Internet nobody with less than 1500 followers. I had nearly as many followers when I was slaving away on another activist site, and trust me, I was no one.
He wrote a knee jerk piece that he clearly didn’t research and put a partisan barely truth spin on it b/c that’s what he is paid to do. Preach to the choir and feed their rage. That fact that he doesn’t even really know what FATCA is or who it will impact (like immigrants in America or people who were born and live in another country and simply inherited US citizenship from a parent who left the US as a baby – which frankly doesn’t make them American in any real sense of the word) doesn’t matter to him. He got paid and by tomorrow he will be on to his next non-researched spin and hack and relishing the angst he leaves in his wake. He’s no better than people like Hannity or Scarborough except they have better paying jobs. Ignore him.
@Yoga Girl
Canada’s absence has been noted in the above Treasury propaganda littered article I posted:
“While the Treasury has so far signed more than a dozen of these deals, negotiations with other countries – notably Canada and China – have struggled, sources have said.”
bubblebustin, interesting and an interesting descriptive word as well. Speaks loudly. For what it is worth. I did leave a comment there. Probably too long for any of the choir there to bothering to read and digest before telling me how wrong and conservative I am. (rolling my eyes).
@ atticusincanada…. Please stay well and stay lovely non partisan self….. I am sure all at IBS are conscious of, and so grateful for, your unstinting efforts to publicise and exorcise the FATCA demon. we need one of you in london , england!
I shall de-lurk. I won’t post there because it’s not anonymous.
Raymond Lusk is utterly infurating on that thread! He doesn’t have a clue, but thinks he knows everything! He also thinks that it’s no problem to fill in all the disclosure forms.
It’s also nice to see that it’s now the position of the TP commentariat that US financial imperialism (what else could telling all other countries they have to change their banking/privacy rules to accomodate the US?) is good and proper to pay for US military imperialism. But I guess it’s OK when it’s done by a Democrat.
Furthermore, why do I get the feeling that Raymond Lusk and Alan Pyke would be coming over all ACA/Isaac Brock had FATCA been enacted by a Republican administration and the DNC were opposing it?
Alan Pike is on the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Wall of Shame, because of how many alleged citizens abroad he’s given irritable bowels. I’ve made my contributions in the comments. Raymond Lusk just keeps repeating the same idiotic phrase, that we are “fear mongering”. LOL. Homelanders making themselves look completely idiotic because they pontificate on subjects that they haven’t taken the time to understand.
Well that thread over on TP illustrates that things have gotten worse since I left a decade ago: the Rep/Dem divide has gotten to such a point of rancor that no research, no facts, no rational arguments are able to be heard on any issue, at all. It’s just ideological brawling. WWF (or whatever they are called now) for white collar folk.
I can see now that US expats are well and truly screwed. Think the referee in a WWF match who gets smashed in the middle.
If there’s a silver lining it’s only that these sorts of resentments can be good for reinforcing Canadian identity, and resisting (more) assimilation by the continent’s centre of geo-political gravity. Just in time for War of 1812 memorials, too.
Mr. Pyke according to his TWITTER feed really doesn’t like the Isaac Brock Society. Lets crush him and Think Progress.
https://twitter.com/PykeA
@Tim
I wrote about the NDP having a statement today.
I actually like quite a lot about Think Progress at times. This article has a lot of facts off the mark by a long shot but, that’s likely to do with the U.S. homeland penchant for not getting it about legitimate expats living abroad who would never owe any taxes. It’s extremely difficult to “get” what’s wrong with FATCA from their position. You’ve also got a lot of partisanship going on there. I wonder what they would think of Democrats Abroad many, many recommendations to amend this monstrosity. It’s quite simple. GO TO RBT..then implement. They could easily catch every tax cheat “off shoring” by going to RBT while at the same time not harming families living long term abroad with zero financial ties whatsoever to the U.S.
Think Progress, as in progressive taxation, amounts to nothing more than punishing people for working hard.
The harder they work, the higher the percentage of earnings they lose to pay for others who sit on their asses.
If the article is correct about the majority of Americans abroad being Democrats, what can I say? They deserve everything the Democrats have given them, especially FATCA.
gee thanks. So you think I deserved being forced to choose between my family here and my citizenship? I was a dem when I was still a “U.S. person: as were many people on this site.
Well, we’re all Republicans now.
I had to quit reading TP during the last US election b/c they shamelessly propped Obama on every topic.
No surprise they love FATCA. They completely buy in to the expats are rich swine and American citizenship is so precious we should all pay dues. What can we expect from a
magazine that is as nasty partisan as any Fox News affiliate?
@Atticus,
I am sorry if you took what I wrote as an insult, it wasn’t meant to be. I have read many things here and articles in the media about your stand against CBT and FATCA. I sincerely admire everything you are doing. You are a true heroine in my book!
But if anyone here is still a Democrat, what can I say? I feel sorry for you because your party has screwed you over and over again. And will keep coming back for more as long as you help them stay in power.
FWIW, I was once a Republican, but now I am proudly an ex-US citizen. I support anyone who takes a stand against CBT, FATCA, FBAR, Exit Tax etc. I don’t care if they are Repubs, Dems, Greens etc. Anyone who takes a stand against the injustices faced by Americans abroad is okay in my book.
Lets just see if the Republican stand will be genuine. After all, they are politicians.
the Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/22/1271676/-Republicans-Want-to-Protect-Tax-Dodgers
“A senior U.S. Treasury Department official said on Wednesday that Republican Party opposition to a new law meant to fight offshore tax dodging by Americans will not impede the Obama administration’s efforts to implement it worldwide.”
more…http://www.newsdaily.com/asia/322aca061c1220f2c7b584a698dc500a/us-global-tax-law-unhurt-by-republicans-treasury-official
@Wilderness, I have tried really hard to win over people in my riding into helping support the fight against FATCA. In order to do so I have also tried very hard to stay totally non partisan. Otherwise, I’m not going to be able to win people over at all here and I’m trying to get people to come to this meeting coming up! . Also, TP has a membership of over two hundred thousand people and even though I do not agree with everything posted there I DO agree with some of it and I think it’s worth having a civil discussion with them as the facts surrounding FATCA are so horrible some will see that it DOES need amending. Yes, that article was very poorly researched and rather knee jerk…”their side is for it, I’m against it” Really challenging to deal with but…I’d rather point out the FACTS and win them over. I’ve done it before and can do it again. Not everyone but, some.
Also, I’m really, really careful as much as humanly possible to never make a bad remark about others party, belief systems etc..who don’t believe the way I do especially with regard to fighting FATCA or around this issue. I have many friends with differing political views. I do think we need to be careful. In other words we will catch more flies with honey as my grandmother said even when it’s hard.
I appreciate your feedback. I really, really do!!
@bubblebustin,…no…my beliefs are not republican. I agree with their efforts on this one issue and appreciate anyone trying to get justice on this stupid law. I also appreciate anyone’s efforts in fighting this monstrosity.
@Atticus,
I appreciate your non-partisan approach and the analogy of honey vs. vinigar. You are probably right.
However, if one party opposes FATCA while the other party digs in its heels to protect it, what is wrong with calling a spade a spade?
@FromTheWilderness
I don’t know if DA is so much digging its heels in to protect FATCA, more so than trying to appear supportive of US persons abroad while toeing the party line. The FBAR/FATCA Task Force report was so full of wishy-washiness that it was almost painful to read. “US federal debt levels and funding needs suggest that it is not realistic to expect the US Congress to give serious consideration to residency-based taxation in the near term nor for the IRS to ease up on its implementation of the law.” They know as well as anyone that the survival of US persons abroad is contingent on CBT being replaced with RBT. FATCA just speeds up our inevitable destruction. The fact that they make no mention whatsoever of record numbers of people renouncing US citizenship also proves that by trying to satisfy the needs of both the Democratic Party and US persons abroad, they serve neither.
I don’t think Dems Abroad have dug their heels in to protect it. They have not gone as far as Republicans to oppose it as I would like but, they haven’t protected it either. I totally disagree with dems abroad that RBT isn’t possible. In fact I think it’s a foot bullet for them not putting that out there as a possiblity.
I’m just a little sensitive about staying non partisan as I’ve put a lot of work into booking a room, advertising and trying to get people to help in this fight locally as well as get information. People are coming here and emailing me saying liberal bashing going on here and so no dice they don’t want to participate. *disappointing!* This is a very liberal riding and my MP Ted Hsu has done a LOT to help oppose FATCA. In fact I’d love to invite him to participate in some way. I’m getting worried that the meeting for Kingston may be a “no go” … If it turns out it’s a no go, so be it. lol..but, I can’t exactly direct people here again once they’ve been turned off. The other thing is I would LOVE to get more people participating in this fight. Badly. We’ve got critical mass so let’s just get that going even more!
I whole heartedly agree that the current crop of dems in D.C. are just AWFUL and that’s NOT what I voted for at ALL. Their actions on this issue have been beneath contempt and that is just the truth. I DO think it’s worth courting every single person we can to fight this particular law. I don’t disagree with them on other things but, this law? Yes, it’s misguided and just wrong. “Bone headed move” as Obama himself likes to say.
Also, who knows…maybe I am just burned out this week and should shut up. LOL! 😉
@Bubble,
I read the Dems Abroad communique — far too wishy washy for me.
Only real solution for expats — CLN or Bust!
@Atticus
Your expression for shooting oneself in the foot – “foot bullet.”
I never heard that one before, but I love it. Its too funny.
Cheers
@Atticus
NEVER shut up!
@FromTheWilderness
It’s just getting interesting.
bubblebustin, Daily Kos is just as bad as ThinkProgess for taking a partisan position and ignoring any facts that don’t support their version of what the truth is.
Checked out this guy’s Twit feed. He is of the new bred of “journalists” facts-lite, controversy heavy. Understandable b/c it is a stats driven game. The more people you can get to click through, the better the ad rates for the publication.
And the left is just as bad as the right for refusing to see or report on the middle – which is where most of us actually live and where the damage is usually done these days.
I don’t doubt that the USG party line is “we will not back down” but if that is true, why is the WH not pushing Canada harder? Why all the secrecy? On both sides. You almost never hear Canada mentioned in the FATCA articles that do pop up. Perhaps the USG, like the Canadian govt, is not keen to have the terms and the tenor of the talks see too much daylight for fear of what that might provoke.
This Pyke guy is an Internet nobody with less than 1500 followers. I had nearly as many followers when I was slaving away on another activist site, and trust me, I was no one.
He wrote a knee jerk piece that he clearly didn’t research and put a partisan barely truth spin on it b/c that’s what he is paid to do. Preach to the choir and feed their rage. That fact that he doesn’t even really know what FATCA is or who it will impact (like immigrants in America or people who were born and live in another country and simply inherited US citizenship from a parent who left the US as a baby – which frankly doesn’t make them American in any real sense of the word) doesn’t matter to him. He got paid and by tomorrow he will be on to his next non-researched spin and hack and relishing the angst he leaves in his wake. He’s no better than people like Hannity or Scarborough except they have better paying jobs. Ignore him.
@Yoga Girl
Canada’s absence has been noted in the above Treasury propaganda littered article I posted:
http://www.newsdaily.com/asia/322aca061c1220f2c7b584a698dc500a/us-global-tax-law-unhurt-by-republicans-treasury-official
“While the Treasury has so far signed more than a dozen of these deals, negotiations with other countries – notably Canada and China – have struggled, sources have said.”
bubblebustin, interesting and an interesting descriptive word as well. Speaks loudly. For what it is worth. I did leave a comment there. Probably too long for any of the choir there to bothering to read and digest before telling me how wrong and conservative I am. (rolling my eyes).
@ atticusincanada…. Please stay well and stay lovely non partisan self….. I am sure all at IBS are conscious of, and so grateful for, your unstinting efforts to publicise and exorcise the FATCA demon. we need one of you in london , england!
I shall de-lurk. I won’t post there because it’s not anonymous.
Raymond Lusk is utterly infurating on that thread! He doesn’t have a clue, but thinks he knows everything! He also thinks that it’s no problem to fill in all the disclosure forms.
It’s also nice to see that it’s now the position of the TP commentariat that US financial imperialism (what else could telling all other countries they have to change their banking/privacy rules to accomodate the US?) is good and proper to pay for US military imperialism. But I guess it’s OK when it’s done by a Democrat.
Furthermore, why do I get the feeling that Raymond Lusk and Alan Pyke would be coming over all ACA/Isaac Brock had FATCA been enacted by a Republican administration and the DNC were opposing it?
Alan Pike is on the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Wall of Shame, because of how many alleged citizens abroad he’s given irritable bowels. I’ve made my contributions in the comments. Raymond Lusk just keeps repeating the same idiotic phrase, that we are “fear mongering”. LOL. Homelanders making themselves look completely idiotic because they pontificate on subjects that they haven’t taken the time to understand.
Well that thread over on TP illustrates that things have gotten worse since I left a decade ago: the Rep/Dem divide has gotten to such a point of rancor that no research, no facts, no rational arguments are able to be heard on any issue, at all. It’s just ideological brawling. WWF (or whatever they are called now) for white collar folk.
I can see now that US expats are well and truly screwed. Think the referee in a WWF match who gets smashed in the middle.
If there’s a silver lining it’s only that these sorts of resentments can be good for reinforcing Canadian identity, and resisting (more) assimilation by the continent’s centre of geo-political gravity. Just in time for War of 1812 memorials, too.