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Posts tagged ‘chris murphy’

Benevolent Tyranny: US Senator Announces New Epidemic, Nanny State Solution


By Norman Leahy | July 26, 2023

Read more at https://americanliberty.news/commentary/benevolent-tyranny-us-senator-announces-new-epidemic-nanny-state-solution/nleahy/2023/07/

The federal government has a long, expensive habit of trying to be our national nanny.  From dictates on how much water flows through our showers, toilets and dishwashers, to how much meat we should eat and steps we should take, there are few areas of life where government doesn’t butt-in to make matters worse for everyone.

Which brings us to Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy‘s proposal to do something about the “loneliness epidemic.”

Yes, the government believes loneliness is a public health crisis in need of attention. But at least the Surgeon General’s office doesn’t call for legislation and spending to addressing the problem. Instead, it suggests a series of cost-free (to taxpayers)  options for individuals:

  • Make time to share a meal. Listen without the distraction of your phone. Perform an act of service. Express yourself authentically.

Setting aside what, exactly, that last item means, Sen. Murphy is determined to side steps the warm fuzzies, and make this a government matter:

  • The National Strategy for Social Connection Act would create an Office of Social Connection Policy within the White House to work across federal agencies to develop effective strategies for improved social infrastructure and issue national guidelines for social connection similar to existing guidelines on sleep, nutrition, and physical activity. It would also provide funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better understand the epidemic of social isolation and loneliness.

Considering government’s track record for making sure we all eat, sleep and exercise right, the only possible outcome of a loneliness czar will be…a loneliness plague.

Underlying Murphy’s thesis for state action, however, is a disturbing embrace of collectivism over individual achievement. As Murphy and Harvard’s Richard Weissbourd wrote in Time Magazine, the big bad behind the loneliness epidemic is…too much individualism:

  • Much has been written about why we tipped toward ourselves over the last several decades. The villains in this story include declines in religious participation and social outings and clubs, fueled in part by television, which keeps us at home. Workplaces also became more focused on profit than on employee well-being and solidarity, and we started lionizing those who stepped over others to get ahead. While those people always existed in society, they were usually identified and treated as outliers that needed to be constrained, not as examples of American greatness.

“Outliers that needed to be constrained…” Sorry, Og: this so-called “wheel” you’ve invented is just too dangerous to the health and well-being of our cozy cave dwelling community. Into the pit with you…

And as for what government power can do to reknit the fabric of American life, Murphy and Weissbourd wrote that the state should, once it’s finished roughing-up the social media companies, dragoon the young into service:

  • Expand..national service programs…bringing young people together from various backgrounds to work on common causes, creating ties across the usual divides and strengthening young people’s commitment to their country.

In other words, bring back a version of the old military draft. Because noting says “togetherness” like sacrificing your time and talent to government. On pain of fines and imprisonment for not cheerfully agreeing to do so.

I would suggest Murphy and his fellow nannies stick to their knitting: addressing the federal budget, finding ways to deal with the debt and deficit, and keeping a close eye on world events.  And leave the rest of us alone to sort out friendship, family and community on our own terms.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Norman Leahy

Norman Leahy has written about national and Virginia politics for more than 30 years with outlets ranging from The Washington Post to BearingDrift.com. A consulting writer, editor, recovering think tank executive and campaign operative, Norman lives in Virginia.

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IRS Hiring Spree is the Biggest Expansion of the Police State in American History


BY: DAVID HARSANYI | AUGUST 10, 2022

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/10/irs-hiring-spree-is-the-biggest-expansion-of-the-police-state-in-american-history/

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The Democrats’ new reconciliation bill isn’t just going to be the largest-ever expansion of a government agency, it’s going to be the largest expansion of the domestic police state in American history. Only a statist could believe that a federal government, which already collects $4.1 trillion every year—or $12,300 for every citizen—needs 80 new battalions of new IRS cops.

The average American has less reason to be concerned about cops with guns—though the IRS is looking for special agents who can “Carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary”— than they do bureaucrats armed with pens who are authorized to sift through their lives. If you pay your taxes you have nothing to worry, Democrats claim. But most law-abiding citizen know they have something to fear from a state agency that doesn’t concern itself with your due process, has no regard for your privacy, and is empowered to target anyone it wants without any genuine oversight.

And, please, spare us this nonsense about the IRS expansion focusing exclusively on “high earners.” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre promised that the IRS wouldn’t engage in new audits of anyone making under $400,000—a claim she has no authority to make and could not possibly predict even if she did. Connecticut’s Chris Murphy also said that the bill was passed to stop an “epidemic of tax cheating amongst the millionaires and billionaires” and promised that “audit rates won’t increase for anyone making under $400K.”

This is a lie. Nothing in the bill that Democrats passed through the Senate limits audits. Murphy, along with every other Democrat in the Senate, voted against a Republican amendment that would have prevented new agents from auditing individuals and small businesses with less than $400,000 of taxable income. Not long ago, Democrats passed the “American Rescue Plan Act”—which had as much to do with rescuing as the “Inflation Reduction Act” has to do with reducing inflation—and changed tax code so that mobile payment apps like Venmo and Cash App were now required to report transactions totaling $600 or more per year to the IRS. Does that sound like a party aiming fire exclusively at high-earning Americans?

Indeed, poor and middle-class Americans are far more likely to do their own taxes, and thus more prone to making mistakes. In 2021, those making $25,000 or less (often the young and elderly) were audited at a rate five times higher than everyone else. The wealthier you are the more likely it is that you can hire lawyers and accountants to work within the system. There aren’t enough millionaires and billionaires in the world to keep a potential new 87,000 new IRS employees busy.

There are other overlooked aspects of the Democrats’ IRS expansion. The bill, for instance, strengthens the federal public-sector union monopoly that funds Democrats’ political aspirations. IRS and Treasury Department employees spent 353,820 hours engaged in union activism—their PAC gives every cent to the Democrats—in 2019. One can imagine what another 87,000 employees would do for that effort. In the real world, laundering taxpayer funds through unions and using them on political campaigns is called racketeering.

None of this is to say that everyone who works for IRS is corrupt or power-hungry or an ideologue. The unassailable rules of giant bureaucracies, however, are that they always experience mission creep, they always do enough to justify their funding, and sooner or later, their leaders become political operatives.

With that said, it’s worth remembering that the IRS doesn’t simply collect taxes, it enforces speech codes. This is what empowered Lois Lerner to target conservatives groups – “crazies and “a—holes” — who used words like “Tea Party” or “patriots” in their names. But, even at the time, leftists at The New York Times editorial board praised the IRS for going after conservative groups because they did not “primarily” engage in “social welfare,” and so did not deserve an exemption under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. Has anything in the evolution of the Democratic Party given you confidence that such power would not be abused or that an engorged IRS would be immune from political pressure?

Wrestling with a insanely complex tax code — nearly 8 million words — costs Americans billions every year. Rather than flattening and simplifying this astonishingly convoluted code, which not only would have saved citizens but the government money, Democrats decided we needed up to another 87,000 people to enforce it.

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books—the most recent, Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, @davidharsanyi.

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How Private Citizens Stepped Up To Get Americans Out Of Kabul When The US Government Failed


Reported by VARUN HUKERI | GENERAL ASSIGNMENT & ANALYSIS REPORTER | September 02, 2021

Read more at https://dailycaller.com/2021/09/02/private-citizens-afghanistan-kabul-airport-evacuation-digital-dunkirk/

Hamid Karzai International Airport in KabulEvacuated
(Photo by Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in recent weeks has left Americans stranded in the capital city of Kabul, and in response, a disparate group of private citizens has stepped up to get people out of the country. President Joe Biden stuck to his plan to withdraw the remaining U.S. military forces from Afghanistan even as thousands of American citizens, legal permanent residents and Afghan Special Immigration Visa applicants remained at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Biden defended the evacuation in an address Tuesday by claiming 90% of Americans who wanted to leave the country were evacuated successfully. His remarks came one day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that between 100 and 200 Americans had been left behind after the U.S. military completed its withdrawal.

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 31: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan in the State Dining Room at the White House on August 31, 2021 in Washington, DC. The last American military aircraft took off from Hamid Karzai Airport a few minutes before midnight in Kabul, marking the end of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan since the invasion following the attacks of September 11, 2001. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan in the State Dining Room at the White House on August 31, 2021 in Washington, DC (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline approached, a number of private citizens with former military or intelligence experience began to organize evacuations to get both Americans and Afghans out of the country. Among them is former Force Recon Marine Chad Robichaux, who was deployed to Afghanistan eight times and has rescued more than 5,300 people from the country. He told the Daily Caller News Foundation about his efforts to rescue orphaned children and other vulnerable people in an Aug. 28 interview.

“We worked a relationship with a foreign government and their military to allow us to work with them and build a plan to clandestinely go in and get certain groups of people, move them onto the airport in Kabul and then utilize charter planes and some of the military aircraft [to get them out],” he said.

A volunteer group of U.S. Special Operations veterans also launched a mission last week to move people in small groups to the Kabul airport and evacuate them from the country. The mission, called the “Pineapple Express,” has reportedly rescued more than 500 people including vulnerable Afghans, according to ABC News.

In many of the private operations conducted by veterans and others, rescuers have used digital communications and other technology to act as emergency dispatchers, call in favors with guards, share intelligence about the Taliban and move families to the right runway to get on a flight, according to The Washington Post. 

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - AUGUST 21: In this handout provided by the U.S. Air Force, an air crew assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron assists evacuees aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

An air crew assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron assists evacuees aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan (Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

A number of operations have used encrypted messaging apps like Slack and Signal to share sensitive information and send photos to the people being evacuated from Afghanistan. These efforts to communicate across thousands of miles are now being called “Digital Dunkirk” in reference to the evacuation of trapped Allied soldiers from the beaches of northern France during World War II.

Members of Congress have also scrambled in recent weeks to provide information to constituents trapped in Afghanistan and aid in evacuation efforts. Several lawmakers told the Daily Caller or other outlets that the State Department had refused to guarantee protection for Americans and Afghans at the airport in Kabul.

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton was among the first members to encourage Americans trapped in Afghanistan to call his office, setting up an email address to help disseminate information. One Afghan American couple, who had been unable to get to the Kabul airport, made it past Taliban and U.S. security checkpoints with the help of Cotton, who gave them a military contact at the airport.

The Biden administration has taken fire from all sides amid the fallout of a chaotic U.S. withdrawal. As expected, Republicans have ripped the administration for leaving Americans behind, but corporate media outlets and even officials who served under former President Barack Obama have gone off on the administration.

Republicans lambasted the administration President Joe Biden is taking fire from all sides amid the fallout, as the Taliban moves to consolidate its power in Afghanistan and thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies remain trapped in the country. 

“The fact that ‘Digital Dunkirk’ exists, it’s a wonderful tribute to the people doing it, obviously the people on the ground in Kabul are awesome, and I’m not talking about them, but the fact that it exists is a — there’s a failure here of the government,” Tapper said.

“My contention is that there is probably no way for the Afghan security forces and the government to collapse overnight and there not to have been a corresponding chaos on the ground and the scenes that you are seeing,” Murphy responded.

“But the idea that this is being done as efficiently as could be done just flies in the face of everything I’m sure you’re hearing behind the scenes, certainly everything I’m hearing,” Tapper shot back. 

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