UPDATE SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2016
REINCE PRIEBUS CHOSEN TO BE PE TRUMP’S CHIEF OF STAFF
EXCERPTS:
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Sunday chose Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee and a loyal campaign adviser, to be his White House chief of staff, turning to a Washington insider whose friendship with the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, could help secure early legislative victories.
But as chief of staff, Mr. Priebus will be the one who has several hundred White House staff members reporting to him. He will be the primary gatekeeper for Mr. Trump and the person most responsible for steering the president’s agenda through Congress. That role will be especially critical for Mr. Trump, who has never served in government and has few connections to important political figures.
As Mr. Trump denounced the Republican primary process as rigged and, on occasion, threatened to quit the party and run on his own, Mr. Priebus remained neutral. And when Mr. Trump secured the nomination, Mr. Priebus stood by his side.
Mr. Priebus worked with Mr. Trump on the nuts and bolts of presidential politics, trying to smooth his rough edges and staying in close contact as a bare-bones campaign prepared to go up against the Clinton machine.
PRESS RELEASE VIA MR. PRIEBUS JULY 2015
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I found myself wondering just what it is expats will want to focus on now, that the Republicans have the Presidency, and control of the House and the Senate. As Stephen Kish pointed out, this could change in two years (well, really just a bit more than a year as once the campaiging for the interim elections in 2018 start, we will likely have lost our chance to get this done quickly. What we do in the next year is critical to dumping FATCA and CBT.
I started thinking about what they promised and have gone through the Platform. I am going to list the main things I found that relate to our issues; if anyone finds more, please post. I also have two documents that focus specifically on FATCA and RBT as well as the link to Republicans Overseas Resolutions posted long ago on their FB site. It would be helpful if others want to isolate points and phrases to focus on in communications to the Republicans.
People may. may not want to coordinate efforts but I assume there will be letters written, emails sent and so on. You may remember that Congressman Mark Meadows (R NC) introduced H.R. 5935 seeking to have an oversight hearing on FATCA repeal. Once we know the date of the hearings and who will sit on the committee, we would start there I presume. And then follow the movement of what occurs……Calls for witnesses were posted on the Isaac Brock Society indicating interested parties should contact Keith Redmond by email at FATCA_Testimonials@outlook.com
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THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM
excerpts from sections related to our issues
RESTORING THE AMERICAN DREAM
Fair and Simple Taxes for Growth p 1
The current tax code is rightly the object of both anger and mockery. Its length is exceeded only by its complexity. We must start anew. That will be an enormous undertaking and, if it is to succeed, it must command the attention and approval of the American people………….. We will welcome all to this enterprise — to discuss, debate, challenge, and amend — so that together we can restore economic growth for the American people and, even more important, renew their faith in the future
NB:This is their promise to listen.
Our Tax Principles p 2
To ensure that past abuses will not be repeated, we assert these fundamental principles. We oppose retroactive taxation. We condemn attempts by activist judges at any level of government to seize the power of the purse from the people’s elected representatives by ordering higher taxes. We oppose tax policies that deliberately divide Americans or promote class warfare.
NB:This would deal with the bizarre idea that 877A is retroactive.
To guard against hypertaxation of the American people in any restructuring of the federal tax system, any value added tax or national sales tax must be tied to the simultaneous repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment, which established the federal income tax.
NB:This would eliminate the whole need for filing in terms of taxes as value added or national sales tax will not affect Americans abroad in any significant way.
A Competitive America p 2
American businesses now face the world’s highest corporate tax rates. That’s like putting lead shoes on your cross-country team. It reduces companies’ ability to compete overseas, encourages them to move abroad, lessens their investment, cripples job creation here at home, lowers American wages, and fosters the avoidance of tax liability — without actually increasing tax revenues. A more damaging policy is hard to imagine.
NB:Please see an excellent paper by Roger Conklin which outlines how CBT directly affects Trade.(via The Revenue Act of 1962 & The Tax Reform Act of 1976; the U.S. has never recorded a trade surplus since 1975).
We endorse the recommendation of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, as well as the current Administration’s Export Council, to switch to a territorial system of taxation so that profits earned and taxed abroad may be repatriated for job-creating investment here at home. We believe American companies should be headquartered in America. We should reduce barriers to accomplishing that goal. A Winning Trade Policy International trade is crucial for all sectors of America’s economy. Massive trade deficits are not. We envision a worldwide multilateral agreement among nations committed to the principles of open markets, what has been called a “Reagan Economic Zone,” in which free trade will truly be fair trade for all concerned.
NB:Trade is important to Trump. He needs to know how CBT affects it. If they offer territorial taxation to corporations,they can offer RBT to Americans abroad.
A REBIRTH OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
The Fourth Amendment: Liberty and Privacy p 13
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Foreign Bank and Asset Reporting Requirements result in government’s warrantless seizure of personal financial information without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. Americans overseas should enjoy the same rights as Americans residing in the United States, whose private financial information is not subject to disclosure to the government except as to interest earned. The requirement for all banks around the world to provide detailed information to the IRS about American account holders outside the United States has resulted in banks refusing service to them. Thus, FATCA not only allows “unreasonable search and seizures” but also threatens the ability of overseas Americans to lead normal lives. We call for its repeal and for a change to residency-based taxation for U.S. citizens overseas.
NB: This needs no comment. Other than it might be pointed out that many of the accounts reported on FBAR and 8938, are registered government plans. Some even include government grants which are taxed. The idea that these can be used for money laundering or terrorism is simply absurd.
GOVERNMENT REFORM
Reforming the Treaty System p 26
We intend to restore the treaty system specified by the Constitution: The president negotiates agreements, submits them to the Senate, with ratification requiring two-thirds of the senators present and voting. This was good enough for George Washington but is too restrictive for the current chief executive, who presumes to bind this country to bilateral and multilateral agreements of his devising. His media admirers portray his personal commitments — whether on climate change, Iranian weapons, or other matters — as done deals. They are not, and a new Republican executive will work with the Congress to re-establish constitutional order in America’s foreign relations. All international executive agreements and political arrangements entered into by the current Administration must be deemed null and void as mere expressions of the current president’s preferences. Those which are in the national interest but would traditionally have been made by treaty must be abrogated, renegotiated as treaties, and transmitted to the Senate for its advice and consent as required by the Constitution. The United States will withdraw from all agreements and arrangements failing those standards.
NB: Bye bye IGAs
Please see Professor Allison Christians excellent paper The Dubious Legal Pedigree of IGAs (and Why it Matters)
Internal Revenue Service p 27
We also support making the federal tax code so simple and easy to understand that the IRS becomes obsolete and can be abolished.
NB: Bye bye OVDP, Streamlined, threats of penalties etc
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Here are three more direct sources of the Republican positions. I will probably do the same with these as above. But the more the merrier!
Resolution Supporting Residence Based Taxation
Resolution toRepeal the Foreign AccountTaxCompliance Act
A proposed RNC Resolution titled — Resolution to Repeal the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) compiled by Republicans Overseas.
Why do you believe Trump will come through?
Trump and Trudeau have just two things in common:
Their names both start with Tru**
Neither will honour their FATCA campaign promises.
Weird how Trudeau on here was labeled a ‘sociopath’ shortly after his election but Trump–a misogynist as compared to Trudeau’s feminism–gets a free ride.
If he did what he is accused of doing, why has it not been in the news for the 30 or so years that he has been in the public eye?
As far as what he is recorded saying, saying and doind are not the same thing. His opponent was very active in attacking her husband’s vistims and this has been in the news for decades.
The US president is not a king. Obama was able to act as a king because thr “opposition” party was afraid to oppse him. Thus, he got most of what he wanted. This same party very well may have been afraid of “attacking the girl” if Clinton won and there would have been no hope of getting FATCA repealed.
It is up to the Congress, now controlled by the Republican party for the first time in a very long time, to send the bills supporting their platform for President Trump tp sign, veto or let pass. First thing is to ensure that those bills are submitted , debated and passed. Then we can worry about whether or not Trump will sign them or not.
@Japan T
At this point I am more focused on actions than words.
If Trump comes through I will be proven wrong and will apologize for my skepticism.
If Trump fails to come through I will be proven right but without any joy on my part.
“Trump–a misogynist as compared to Trudeau’s feminism–gets a free ride.”
Not from some of us. After the US nominations I called them sociopath vs. psychopath. Before the election I said the next oval office should be built in a jail cell no matter which one of them wins.
“If he did what he is accused of doing, why has it not been in the news for the 30 or so years that he has been in the public eye?”
Remember Bill Clinton did some things when he was governor, but they weren’t in the news until he ran for president? Remember Clarence Thomas did some things, but they weren’t in the news until he was nominated for supreme court?
Have some of the rumours about Pierre Trudeau reached the newspapers or are they still rumours? How long it it take for Mackenzie King’s private life to reach the newspapers? How about Thomas Jefferson?
Bill Clinton’s actions were known to the public, but only locally. My grand parents lived in Arkansas while B. Clinton was govenor of that state. Locally Arkansas and locally NYC are two very different venues. Trump had deeper pockets than a govenor of Arkansas. I am certain that if Trump did what he is alkedged to have done, then either we would have known about it or a reporter would have have found evidence of the payoff of hush money.
Do you Know that Clarence Thomas did those things?
Regardless, yes actions do speak louder than words. We have all heard much said in our defense but little or nothing done. Now we need to make sure they act on their words.
Roy Berg is a scavenging parasitic amoeba. Gets his kicks off others misery.
@Dash1729
No free passes from me. Trump is an Orange Devil. He poses a grave threat to America and the world through misfeasance and malfeascance.
@George, and others re;
“….This is indeed going to trump the ADCS lawsuit and will make it now moot. No regrets though…… The ADCS lawsuit has been overtaken by events…..”
For me, and perhaps others, the ADCS lawsuit is also about the larger issue of demanding equal treatment and upholding our Charter and human and civil rights as citizens and residents of our chosen HOME country, which in my case, is not the US. I gave up on the US seeing sense. My ongoing support is also about sending a message to my non-US federal government that it cannot subvert the democratic process, trample our Charter of Rights and constitution, and throw some citizens and residents under the US bus whenever the bully to the south demands it and banksters lobby for it.
I don’t believe that the end of FATCA will stop future US attempts of a similar extraterritorial kind.
So I don’t believe that our homegrown ADCS lawsuit is now or will be rendered moot – no matter what the US does under Trump. And as it has significance for more than just Canada’s IGA, I believe it needs to proceed and to succeed as an instructive and much needed lesson to the US about extraterritorial overreach and insult to the sovereignty and autonomy of other nations.
I am still in this because there are many who are bound, and will remain so – like @Calgary’s son. I also respect the efforts to make it easier for those who want to to renounce, and not to have US personhood thrust on them without consent. But, personally, as a Canadian, I will continue to support the ADCS legal challenge, ( and even if I had still been a US citizen ) cannot endorse a diversion of that homegrown effort in order to pay for a US lobbyist
( http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/meet-man-youve-heard-desperately-vice-president/story?id=33931692 ) though I have appreciated the many anti-FATCA posts at the RepealFATCA site in the past, and recognize that our interests overlap in some respects on the issue of FATCA.
There are larger issues at play for those outside the US that will not evaporate with this change of US government.
@ badger
I absolutely agree about what you are saying re: our constitutional challenge on FATCA. AND, to make it even better we have Rocco Galati who has launched a constitutional challenge about CETA. Arvay and Galati could land two firm punches at the government for ignoring our constitutional rights and debasing Canada’s sovereignty. Let’s hope so anyway. These court actions are vital and we can be proud of playing our various parts in making them happen. No matter what happens in the USA, our Canadian government has sailed way off course, putting our human rights and Canada’s sovereignty adrift, and we must do whatever we can to set it straight before it floats us into even choppier seas. (Nautical refences for Japan T’s appreciation.)
“I am certain that if Trump did what he is alkedged to have done, then either we would have known about it or a reporter would have have found evidence of the payoff of hush money.”
Hush money wouldn’t surprise me. He even tried to do that with a judge.
Let’s consider Bill Cosby then. Do you think there’s enough evidence? Do you think the decades delay in making the news makes it less likely to be true?
An FBI agent treated me as if I was a kook. Seven years later there were news reports of the arrest of Monica Hernandez. I still get treated as a kook. Some of Monica Hernandez’s cohorts have been arrested too but the ring leaders are still active.
@ badger
I also absolutely agree with your comments re. the importance of the ADCS legal action and of holding two successive Canadian governments accountable for compromising the Charter rights of US Person Canadian citizens. We can only hope that the judge(s) involved have the courage to do the right thing and not be swayed by the considerable power of the US and the banks. One judge (and the two governments) have already failed.
@George & others
I am glad to see you filled with hope with the Republicans’ total victory but I caution anyone about getting too hopeful. In Canada we had our own experience of hope dashed after Trudeau’s victory and the hypocrisy of empty opposition comments became reality. Trump strikes me as completely unpredictable and I will believe FATCA repeal if & when it truly happens. My guess is that the best chances lie with the two people who have actually taken action to repeal FATCA, ie. Rand Paul and Mark Meadows.
For those not wanting to hire a lobbyist to represent us, please consider the following. Some of us can vote in US elections, some can not. None have representation in the US. PETROS, I believe, spelled out how the right to vote does not equall representation. We have no voice in the US gov.. Whispers perhaps but no voice.
The Compliance Condors have their lobbyists. Do you suppose they will sit silently on the sidelines during any discussion on FATCA? If we want to be heard, then we need to hire our own representative. If we do not, we will remain unheard.
An aquaintance is friends with a congressional staffer. The staffer has no knowledge of the hardships we face due to US legislation. We are unheard and will remain so until we hire representation.
Well, lovely to see that this has reverted to the breitbart.ca message board again.
I’ll believe it when I see it, but if the Trump-then-Pence administration kills FATCA and/or so hobbles the IRS that CBT is effectively dead, then I will personally benefit.
But honestly that seems a high price to pay for the legitimation of racist and misogynist discourse, the risks of war and recession, the celebration of ignorance, pushing climate change past the tipping point, and the erosion of gender and reproductive rights.
Given the choice I’d rather file US tax returns in a livable world. But for now at least I can remain on the sensible side of the border, where frankly the taxation issue doesn’t touch me in the least, as I remain fully non-compliant without fear of any consequences.
Said of each and every Republican that ever runs for any office.
Well, Nononymous, like it or not, we are “paying a high price for the legitimization of racist and misogynist discourse”. No more choice in the matter.
I don’t get you. You say:
1) “Given the choice I’d rather file US tax returns in a livable world”.
Then you say:
2) “I remain fully non-compliant without fear of any consequences.”
In other words, you contradict yourself. Are you willing to help try to influence the incoming administration or not?
And speaking of “that promise”, this sounds promising to me. Rince Priebus, Chairman of the RNC since 2010, has been appointed as Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff.
http://ca.complex.com/life/2016/11/donal-trump-chief-of-staff-reince-priebus
If anyone is familiar with “that promise”, it will be Mr. Priebus and now he will be closest of all to the Oval Office.
I just heard that 3/4 of Americans polled view Trrump’s presidency as legitimate, so unless someone can rally many more people to overthrow his government, we’re stuck with Trump (unless he’s impeached – and would you rather have Pence?). Advancing the interests of Americans abroad does not impinge upon the rights of anyone else as far as I know, so, why throw Americans abroad under the bus because you don’t like Trump?
Speaking of racism, Trump has impressive precedents from George Washington to Theodore Roosevelt.
http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/us-presidents-words-concerning-american-indians/
Instead of side issues which mostly affect Americans living in America, why don’t we focus on the chances of a repeal of FATCA and a switch to RBT with a Trump presidency? A lot can happen in the days leading up to this inauguration but I think the thing to watch closely is who will Trump surround himself with and where might they stand on our issues or actually do they even know our issues exist. I’m not allowing myself to be optimistic at this point because we have many politicians (who I’ve learned to distrust) and now an accidental politician (who has virtually no political history for us to reference) to suss out and then try to assess our odds of getting a good outcome. This makes it so important for us to encourage them as soon as possible to truly understand our position. I think Jim Jatras would be a great help, as he has proven himself to be in the past.
I agree 100%.
Trump’s considering Trey Gowdy for Attorney General. He’s not finished with Hillary’s email, but a few of us will take pleasure in remembering how he raked then IRS Commissioner Douglas Schulman over the coals during the IRS targeting of conservative groups scandal.
https://youtu.be/KIpHuAh0sOI
@ Bubblebustin
I’m pleased with Rince Priebus as Chief of Staff and I’d be very pleased with Trey Gowdy as Attorney General. The man is fair and fearless. Right now he seems to be in the “seriously under consideration” slot so let’s see what happens.
Nononymous’ position is clear. They would prefer that we file returns so that they can live toil free in their dream world.
@Japan T, re;
“…….For those not wanting to hire a lobbyist to represent us…..”.
Lobbyists for hire may indeed have experience, but that experience may have included representing and promoting other causes and issues and goals which may or may not be palatable to those who seek to do the hiring and funding.
At the very least, try doing a google search on any such candidate to see what else turns up.