America | Field 2 Field

September 24, 2021September 24, 2021

Banks worry about funding mechanism in Infrastructure Package

Banks across America would like to let you know about a small provision in the massive 3.5 trillion-dollar infrastructure package trying to make its way through Congress and get to the president’s desk. That’s a big piece of legislation to pay for, and one way that Democrats behind the bill want to fund it involves the IRS and your bank accounts. All of the bank accounts.

Paul Merski is the Executive Vice President of Congressional Relations and Strategy for the Independent Community Bankers of America. He said one way the administration wants to foot the bill for the infrastructure legislation is “horrible.”

“They would have the IRS look into everyone’s bank account transactions,” Merski said. “The legislation will force all banks to report on any transaction going into or out of an account worth 600 dollars or more. What it means is every account in America will then get monitored by the IRS as banks are forced to send in your information.”

To generate revenue like legislators envision to help pay the cost, Merski said the IRS will basically be assuming that most everyone in America is a “tax cheat.” It’s going to involve banks across the country sending in large amounts of information to the IRS, who will then have to sort through all of it to figure out what’s happening in each account.

The accounts in question include savings accounts, checking accounts, business accounts, personal and business loans, cash transactions, and even international transactions. To find any potential infractions, the IRS would be looking for a needle in a haystack.

“What we’re fearful of is this idea is going to cause a lot of false audits, a lot of false positives, and a lot of white noise,” he said. “The IRS will then be able to subpoena additional information on people’s accounts, to freeze people’s accounts, to garnish people’s accounts if there’s a dispute with the IRS.

“It’s crazy,” Merski added. “They pretend that they are going after millionaires and billionaires, and our question is, why then, do they need everyone’s account transactions sent to the IRS? The last thing we need is to be sending more information and more data to the IRS.”

This is especially concerning for rural bankers. He points out that community banks do 80 percent of all the agricultural lending in the nation, as well as over 50 percent of all the small business lending. They want customers to know that if this goes through, those banks are going to have to report all of your financial transactions, even loan information, to the IRS.

The Independent Community Banks of America are concerned about the privacy of bank accounts across the country.

“We’re worried that our customers don’t know what’s happening with this proposal,” Merski said. “We want you to know it’s not the bank’s idea to be sending all this information to the IRS. It’s the IRS, the Treasury Department, and the administration demanding that the banks report all these transactions.”

He says the typical small business owner, farmer, or rancher has to know about this idea and understand what’s happening in Washington, D.C. They also want farmers, ranchers, and small business owners to weigh in on the topic.

“If this is something that concerns you like it concerns our community bankers, you need to contact your congressmen and senators,” Merski said. “This is overkill: This is a dragnet, and this is the IRS looking to profile people based on their transactions.

“This is a stop-and-frisk against average Americans,” he added. “It’s going to add a lot of cost and compliance burdens against both bankers and the general public.”

July 21, 2020July 21, 2020

Communism in America – Honest Talk

Communism is an interesting topic that middle-aged people like me haven’t given much thought to since the era of the Cold War. Are you old enough to remember the days of students diving under their desks during safety drills? Evidently, we should have been paying a little more attention to Communism, because it never really went away. It’s here in the western hemisphere. Don’t believe me?

I came across an interesting document that first showed up in front of Congress back in the early 1960s. More specifically, on January 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr., of Florida, read the list of 45 Declared Goals for the Communist Takeover of America into the Congressional Record. The purpose was to give his colleagues, as well as the American population, some insight into Communism and their liberal elite ideas and strategies for America that sound ridiculously familiar. They’re happening right in front of our collective faces.

The list itself was first attributed to Cleon Skousen, a researcher who authored “The Naked Communist.” You really should be shocked at how these have played out in front of us. Some of those 45 steps to Communism have been outdated through the course of history. However, many of them are in play today.

Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not the items could be used for war. We already buy a lot of goods from communist China. There’s also a push from free markets and the European Union to further globalize buying and selling.
Here’s a good one; promote the United Nations as the only hope for mankind. If the charter is ever rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government, complete with its very own military (which it already has). Capture one or both political parties in the United States. They’ve infiltrated the Democratic Party, one that I used to be a member of. If you don’t agree that the Democrats have been taken over, you haven’t been paying attention. As the “Social Justice Warrior Democrats” are pushing for full-bore socialism, this seems to be an ongoing effort. And the “conservatives in Congress don’t seem to feel the need to put a stop to any of it, do they?
Get control of the schools. Use them to promote socialism, soften the curriculum (ever heard the term ‘dumbing down?’), and get control of teachers’ unions. Do you honestly think it’s a coincidence that more and more U.S. college students favor socialism?
Infiltrate the press. Do you think it’s a coincidence that liberal politics gets a lot more positive press than conservative politics?
Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and the movies. Is it a coincidence that “Hellywood” is pretty much liberal across the board? Doesn’t appear to be.
Present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as “normal, natural, and healthy.” Do you see the stuff on TV these days? That would have NEVER been allowed just two decades ago.
Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for “intellectual maturity.” Ever heard the phrase “religion is a crutch?” That’s where it comes from.
Discredit the Constitution as something inadequate, old-fashioned, and out of step with “modern needs.”

Are you depressed yet? I sure am. You’ll like this one if you live in Minneapolis.

Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. “Defund the police,” anyone? Oh, and make sure to treat all behavioral problems as “psychiatric disorders,” which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the “negative influence” of their parents. “It takes a village,” anyone?

How about this one, given all the nonsense we’ve seen during the past four months.

Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use “united force” to solve economic, political, or social problems. Hello… Do Antifa and BLM come to mind? The REAL BLM is a group of “trained Marxists,” according to their co-founder, Patrice Cullors. That’s communism in a nutshell.

As you read these bullet points, do you feel your gut tightening?

Speaking of the liberal elite, it’s long past time to stop voting for the same old people every time we have an election. We have politicians on both sides of the fence who’ve been in Congress since Kennedy was president. Those same people are just NOW going to solve the country’s problems and get us back on track? If they haven’t done so by now, it’s probably time to retire them?

And you, my fellow Christians, take heart. This is Revelations playing out in front of us. We win in the end. The Rapture is coming. I can’t wait. If you haven’t made a real commitment to Jesus, now is the time.

February 12, 2019February 12, 2019

Voting; Why is it so hard to do?

Voting. Why don’t we do it? I’ve got a question I’m still looking for an answer to. Why don’t Americans seem to care about the future of our country? We’d rather exchange recipes on social media than read “one more damn political post.” I get that. I get tired of it too, especially as the liberal left leans more and more toward socialism. But that’s just a symptom. When did Americans stop caring about the future of their country?

Here’s something we can’t relate to. You likely didn’t hear much about it, but Pakistan had its first elections in decades back in July of last year. Elections turned violent during that time as an explosion at a polling place killed 31 would-be voters. About 50 percent of that country turned out for the first democratic election since 1947. They cared enough about the future of THEIR country enough to risk violence.

We likely won’t have to ever face that kind of a threat at American polling locations. At least I hope not. The problem was summed up well in an article on the website enidnews.com. “The problem is “our grasp on representative government is slowly slipping away for one reason: We simply don’t care enough about our system of government to keep it.”

Remember the 2016 election when Trump ran against Hillary? The media had us all up in arms about the importance of the election to the future of our country? Only 55 percent of our eligible voters turned out to vote “in the most important election of our time.” Seriously?

Just FYI: I didn’t vote for either of them. For the first time in my life, I voted for a third-party candidate (Gary Johnson) that I knew didn’t have a shot to win. He was still better than both candidates from the “established parties.” The reason I did that? I did some research. Johnson was twice elected governor as a Libertarian in Massachusetts, a MILITANTLY liberal Democratic-leaning state. Not only was he elected twice, he left the office in better financial shape than he found it. It’s called research.

How much research did it take for my state (Minnesota) to send someone like Ilhan Omar to the House of Representatives? You’ve likely heard the rumors that she married her brother and committed immigration fraud, right? I’m going to teach you a little something about journalism 101. If there’s enough smoke (stories out there that seem to tell the same story), then there’s likely some fire (truth to the accusations).

For example, an article on the Fox 9 TV website in the Twin Cities looked into what the Congresswoman said in explaining the “miscommunication.” The TV station found some “discrepancies between Omar’s stated husband and marriage certificates that are on file with Hennepin County and the state.” How was she still elected? And why didn’t anyone push the issue farther? There are enough questions here that should have immediately disqualified her from even running.

What’s done is done, now.

She’s just one example of numerous people that likely have no business being in office. Don’t get me started on AOC out of New York. How many Republicans have spent DECADES in office? If we don’t hold our elected officials accountable with our voting, we deserve whatever happens to our country. And don’t kid yourselves, the extremist left in the Democratic party want to turn this country socialist as soon as possible. If you look at social media threads, you might be shocked at how many Americans don’t seem to have a problem with it. Its right here in their own words.

And don’t think I’m on an anti-Democrat kick. Amy Klobuchar and Collin Peterson are just two Democrats I’ve voted for in recent elections. I don’t agree with everything they say and do but there’s enough common sense that I have no problem voting for them. Hell, I was a registered Democrat when I became old enough to start voting. As I got older, I switched to Republican (White privilege kicking into effect?). After that, I’m an independent voter and will stay that way for life.

Just checking off a series of candidates under either “Republican” or “Democrat” just because that’s what you’ve always done is foolish. Have you noticed how much the parties have changed over the decades? Do you really believe either one “cares about the little guy?” They don’t. It’s Republicans and Democrats that have gotten us into the situation we find our country in. Divided. Rudderless. Broke (we are). Meantime, we just keep voting to send the same people to Washington, D.C., because they’re in the party we’ve always voted for?

The article on enidnews.com lays it out. We Americans are “pitifully unprepared when we head to the polls, and that’s where the greatest threat to our republic lies.” We’ve got little hand-held computers with us that link us to the collective knowledge of the human race. “But, by and large, we use it to chase click bait that affirms our preconceptions, leaving us collectively ill-suited to guide our own nation.”

“We gorge ourselves on only those information sources that confirm what we want to believe, because we don’t feel any incentive to put in the work required to form independent, informed policy preferences. We pick a team, we let it speak for us, and we only listen to reporting that echoes our team.” For those that only vote “Republican” or “Democrat,” does that sound familiar?

“it’s just another damn political post on some random dude’s blog.” If that’s what you’re thinking, maybe you’re right. I don’t have all the answers. But I’m not convinced that America is so far gone that it can’t come back. Maybe keeping the phone lines open to our elected officials and expressing opinions is a good start? Then, actually doing research every couple years and making an informed choice? That’s an even better idea.