As submitted by two Brock commenters. Our thanks to them …
and, once again, to Senator Rand Paul.
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This story is confirmed on Senator Rand’s website.
Mar 4, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Rand Paul today reintroduced S.663, a bill to repeal certain provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and put an end to a defective bill that does not accomplish its objective of ending tax evasion.
…
“FATCA is in complete violation of every Americans’ constitutional right to privacy and adds burdensome regulations that negatively impact our economy. It is a defective law which disregards the mutual respect of sovereignty among nations and drains money from the federal treasury, on top of discouraging overseas investment in the United States. My bill will reverse the negative aspects FATCA has on the economy, prevent the government from bulk collecting U.S. Citizen’s financial data, and preserve the constitutional rights for all Americans,” Sen. Paul said.
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UPDATE: March 5, 2015
AARO team met Wednesday with Senator Wicker (R-MS) who will co-sponsor Senator Paul’s “Repeal #FATCA” bill.
(Washington, D.C., Thursday, March 5, 2015) The Center for Freedom and Prosperity (CF&P) commends Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) for again standing up for millions of taxpayers by reintroducing yesterday his legislation (S.663) to repeal the most destructive and privacy violating provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
http://freedomandprosperity.org/2015/news/press-releases/cfp-comments-on-sen-pauls-reintroduction-of-fatca-repeal-legislation/
Coalition letter against FATCA in 2013:
http://freedomandprosperity.org/2013/letters/ctc-letter-on-sponsoring-fatca-repeal/
Thanks for the video of Sen. Paul’s speech at CPAC.
Excellent points he makes , again, regarding the entire Bill of Rights, and getting rid of the IRS.
I do not know how anyone can listen to him and come away thinking he is some sort of wing nut or racist !
He stands for the Constitution and is serious about it. You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of Republicans who actually do defend the Constitution and mean what they say. The Republican establishment seeks out those who defend the Constitution and tries to destroy them in any way they can. They do not go after the Democrats, they go after Republicans who threaten their status quo. Sen. Mitch McConnell , the Majority leader in the Senate since the mid-terms in November, promised many things. Mainly to STOP Obama’s unconstitutional overreach on so many things, particularly Amnesty. But they have funded everything Obama wants and have betrayed those who voted them into office, essentially siding and voting with the Democrats. On Keystone Pipeline they nearly had it done, but still need more votes to override the veto. IF they had not opposed some candidates in the mid-terms for their own political fortunes, it might easily have been that the Senate would have had those votes to override a veto. They could still do quite a bit to accomplish what is needed by abolishing the Filibuster rule Harry Reid hammered through. But they have not. And it looks as though they won’t. Just hours after Bibi’s speech in Congress they voted to fund Amnesty. A complete betrayal of all they had campaigned for.
That is the reality of politics in the US today and the reason they are in such trouble.
So, to hear Rand Paul speak as he has spoken of often in the past is very refreshing. To hear Ted Cruz and Mike Lee support the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and fight hard for it. ( because when they do they are attacked by their own party for doing so)
Which tells us the majority of Republicans, including leadership, are no better than the democrats in their self interest.
As Sen. Paul says, ‘when they get to Congress and refuse to do their jobs, term limits would help enormously to send them home’ before they have had 30 years to ruin the country.)
How refreshing it would be to have those elected, in the US and in Canada actually DO the jobs they were elected to do!!
@Jim Jatras, Thanks for the explanation. You’re right, most people have never heard of FATCA so he had to provide some context.
Whoever wrote that bill deserves an award. It’s very rare to find someone who spends the time to understand and simplify the tax code. I’d like to talk to this person to discuss the elimination of CBT.
@JimJatras:
I believe we don’t thank you enough, Jim for all your hard work in the early days. I know I certainly appreciate you and as previously commented here, so do we all at IBS!
@Duke of Devon:
If you have watched the video of Rand Paul’s speech at CPAC and your only comment is : “I rest my case” then ‘your case’ should appropriately be filed: In the garbage.
@JimJatras Thanks for all your effort to block FATCA.
AARO @aaro 2h2 hours ago
AARO team met Wednesday with Senator Wicker (R-MS) who will co-sponsor Senator Paul’s “Repeal #FATCA” bill
Thanks, JC. Post updated.
@Duke of Devon
You wrote:
“Don’t hold your breath. Rand Paul is part of the lunatic fringe of the hopelessly dysfunctional, gun loving, anti tax , Obama hating (primarily because he had a black father) Republican party”
This is the typical WEAK ad hominine attack Democrats habitually use against libertarian conservatives. Yet when you get into trouble with FATCA, which was created by Democrats, you have the audacity to try to smear Rand Paul while apologizing that the Democrats are only accidently doing harm to expats.
What part did Rand Paul say about “protecting the Bill of Rights” in its entirety did you not get? Or did you just not watch the video because your mind has already been closed off by all the anti-libertarian propaganda spewing out of the Democrat spin machine?
I think I have a crush on Rand Paul, lol!
Walt ; Can I put you down as ‘undecided’?
I’m a lifelong registered Democrat, the fourth generation in my family. I’ve voted in every US election since 1972, always for Democrats. I despise, loathe and condemn about 99.999% of what the Republican Party currently stands for (if they can be said to actually stand for anything). Bernie Sanders is more my type of senator. I think the 2nd Amendment should be repealed. I think taxes SHOULD be raised on the wealthy. I’ve lived in high-tax regimes like Germany and the UK and never once resented a single cent of taxes I paid there, because of the services I received. So I do not agree with Rand Paul on most matters. On the other hand, I see him as one of the very few Republicans, or US politicians in general, who actually has a well defined set of principles that are based on his own ethical beliefs (whether I agree with those principles or not), and not simply based on pleasing lobbyists, and for that I respect him.
Obviously, like everyone else here, my main concern is citizen based taxation and FATCA. I don’t mind paying taxes, but not to two countries at the same time. Anyway, we all know the arguments. FATCA has pushed me into becoming a single-issue voter, because it is the only issue which affects me as an American abroad. If the US congress wants to coddle billionaires and let the US infrastructure, environment and education system crumble and allow the US deteriorate into a has-been third rate country full of gun-fellating morons, so be it, I won’t fight it anymore. And so I have set aside all other considerations, and will give my vote to whichever politician shows a sincere opposition to CBT and FATCA, which now boils down to one senator.
Bernie Sanders has said nothing about CBT and FATCA. Rand Paul has. My vote is decided. I’ll be informing both of them of this (and other presidential hopefuls besides).
@Barbara
You’ve come pretty close to nailing my feelings about the situation. Thank you.
On being a single issue voter, I agree, because without change, I will soon cease being an American altogether. I don’t care that many in the US don’t care about me. They’re irrelevant then. Those other things like gun control, gay marriage, healthcare, etc etc? I vote on them in the country where I live. I might not even vote in the US if I didn’t have this grievance, although as a citizen I probably should.
There are many who say it will never change, perhaps it’s true, but I believe that every American would want for what we are being denied – that is to be free to pursue what we have without a government stalking us to our dying days. BUT, if the US is stuck on stupid, I won’t be also. At a certain point, enough’s enough.
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society | $75,222 ($1343/day) more needed in 56 days to make the May 1 2015 payment for Canadian FATCA IGA lawsuit/ Il nous reste 75,222 $ à ramasser pour notre poursuite judiciaire
One issue we (collectively as affected ‘US Persons’) have is that we can never seem to get enough signatures on petitions to illustrate that FATCA and CBT and FBAR are serious issues that are directly harming us and our families and businesses outside the USA. We always talk about 7-10 million people affected but can’t even get 100K signatures on the White House petition or any meaningful numbers yet showing support of the Rand Paul bill. Some of this is due to fear of being ‘outed’ but still we should be able to get 100K willing signatures on a petition.
@Duke of Devon
“Can I put you down as ‘undecided’?” — Ha, ha, I have to admit, that was a good comeback.
But really Duke, why slam the guy? Please show me somebody else who is sticking their neck for expats like Rand Paul is.
Your absolutely right, Steve.
Although the real fear for people to put their names and voices out there is a big part of this whole story, it certainly shows we don’t or can’t *walk our talk*.
With the our fellow countrymen, US homelanders, the US government and our own governments looking at us and not fully understanding or caring the ways all of this can ruin individuals’ and families’ lives (as people living and paying taxes in other countries whose only crime is ignorance because of not being adequately educated / informed by the US of US CBT law — not at all tax evading traitors we’re portrayed as), our not being able to come up with a unified show of at least 100K signatures on any petition to protect our own rights and our own futures is or looks pitiful.
@Steve
As I keep saying, if you think that a petition is going to make a difference, we need to be more organized about it because of the time constraints (one month) and the number (100K) of signatures needed to get the petition read by the Whitehouse.
We need to create a data bank of email addresses of at least 100K people willing to sign the petition BEFORE the petition is launched, for there to be ANY hope of reaching the signature goal in the prescribed time.
@Steve, re: petitions. I think part of the problem is the fear most of us have to even publicize the issue itself, much less the petition. I actually posted a link to the petition on my Facebook page, with a one-paragraph summary of what FATCA is and does. Then I slammed my head against the wall and shouted “Idiot!” and immediately removed the post. My Facebook identity makes me eminently traceable. Same goes for my reluctance to post notices on expat-interest websites like AngloInfo and AsiaXpat. Paranoia trumps principle.
“McCain wasn’t a maverick, he’s a RINO” – You can say that again. He says that he’s Republican, but he’s for FATCA and taxing all “unpatriotic Americans” abroad. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a thief. Evidently the years in Hanoi’s prison didn’t teach him a goddamned thing about FREEDOM.
“Many years ago when I worked in a women’s hospital it wasn’t uncommon for American moms to have their babies here in Canada. Dual citizenship was probably not a consideration. Most of them did not have medical insurance in the USA and our hospital fees were a bargain compared to the American hospitals (the higher U.S. dollar helped too).” Hmmmmm?
And taking up Canadian resources (yeah, sure they paid for it ~sarcasm~)… If they couldn’t afford medical insurance in the United States, then how the hell can they settle their bills? Anybody talked to accounts receivable at the hospitals from American would-be parents giving birth and seen how many of those bills went unsettled?
Maybe we should pretty much start complaining about those “Canadian flag-plant” babies just like the Americans are complaining about “furriners” coming to “…’Murrica”.
@ The_Animal
I actually helped out occasionally in the Accounts Receivable Dept. in that Canadian hospital and there really weren’t very many unpaid bills. Any loss to the hospital was very minimal. My husband and I were among the uninsured when we lived in the USA and we did manage to pay all of our medical expenses … but ONLY because those expenses didn’t exceed what little cash we could scrape up. We had neighbours in the USA who paid $20,000 out of pocket for their baby and they even had some insurance. With US medical insurance it isn’t always how much it costs but how much it covers and anyone with pre-existing conditions is in a bad situation. I’m not sure how much Obamacare has helped in that regard.
@The Animal, when my son was born here I’d already been here ten years. He was born two months early and had to be taken by ambulance right after birth to ICU at Children’s Hospital. Well, the head nurse on the maternity floor decided when she saw where I was born to treat me like crap for my entire stay and remind me that as an American she didn’t want me in HER hospital. She made me show her my bandage to see if it was used up enough before she would give me a new one, told me the cost of the aspirin I asked for shaming me for “using our medications here* and generally treated me so badly the other nurses were apologizing for her when she left my room. Here I was with a premie on oxygen and support in ICU and I had to put up with that.
I have never forgotten it. Even after I told her I had already been here ten years and didn’t just come here to use HER medical system she still continued and I finally had to say I didn’t want her back in my room as it was so upsetting. I’d had a C section so wasn’t in the best shape to defend myself against her discriminatory and hatefilled remarks. Plus I didn’t want to argue as I was more worried about my baby. The anti Americanism here is hurtful to individuals at times who have done nothing wrong. As you brought this up I thought I’d say what my experience was because it can and does get out of hand.
If I had been from any other country and even if I had just come here to deliver *which I did not!* she would have been fired for treating me that way. I get it that no one wants people taking advantage of the health care system *I have never done so and did NOT move here for that* but, sometimes such things are just an excuse to treat people you already dislike for other reasons like crap and it’s totally inappropriate.
@ AtticusinCanada
I’m appalled by the treatment you received. I can’t recall any such attitude in the very small hospital I worked in. Sure do hope there was none of that anyway. A mom’s a mom for Pete’s sake. It doesn’t matter what her citizenship is. Actually, knowing how our hospital was funded, it really made little if any difference if we had a Chinese, an American or any other mom delivering there. Each year we estimated our department’s budget, submitted the estimate and the province paid. That was it. Cotton balls and aspirins were not counted — except to make sure supplies were there when needed. I remember being asked to do a 3 year estimate for my department and chuckling because I knew one new piece of equipment which could not be predicted would throw the whole budget off anyway. And it did but I still got the new machine.
Back to the topic. I generally do not agree with Rand Paul on any other issue but, he is right about this.
I am beyond exhausted with the political positioning that is going on right now in the U.S. My entire family are life long democrats there as was I but, it is childish as all these parties have shown themselves to be to not admit when you have made a huge mistake and try to fix it all in the name of going along with party brand. What is the point of dissent if wrongs cannot be righted because it may offend your own party to dissent on one issue? Things have got beyond insane in the U.S. because everyone is stuck on stuck “My party right or wrong no matter who gets hurt!” That sort of thing is the cause of a lot of suffering and the people insisting on that stance at the top are being utterly dishonest with themselves and are not doing their jobs.
Rand Paul and I part ways on many,many things but, not on this. He’s right and the democrats were wrong, wrong, wrong on this. It’s time someone was a grown up in congress and stands up and opposes what is wrong no matter what party they are in. I won’t hold my breath for the democrats to do the right thing here. Sadly, meanwhile Americans overseas are going under the bus at an alarming rate and they seem okay with that as long as they can say they are “right” in public.