Gold and Silver Could be Money in Arkansas

Back When Gold Was Money

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  – Today, the Arkansas House gave final approval to a bill that would exempt gold and silver bullion and coins from sales tax. 

Passage into law would not only relieve some of the tax burdens on investors, but it would also eliminate one barrier to using gold and silver in everyday transactions, a foundational step for people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Sen. Mark Johnson (R) introduced Senate Bill 336 (SB336) on Feb. 22. The legislation would exempt coins, currency and bullion from the state sales and use tax. This would include bars, ingots, or coins made from gold, silver, platinum, or palladium that are sold based on the value of the metal.

On April 19, the Senate Revenue and Tax Committee passed SB336 with a technical amendment. Last week, the full Senate passed the bill with a vote of 30-1. Today, the House concurred with a vote of 93-0.

Repealing sales taxes on precious metal bullion would take a step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of commodities. 

Marc Antony as Triumvir (43-31 BC)

The Roman Republic of Marc Antony died 2,000 years ago.  While American paper money becomes more and more worthless, Roman Republic gold coins have held their value to this day.  Maybe our hack politicians could learn a thing or two from Rome on money.

Taxes on precious metal bullion erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs. As Sound Money Defense League policy director Jp Cortez testified during a committee hearing on a similar bill in Wyoming in 2018, charging taxes on money itself is beyond the pale.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on purchases of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35 cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what Arkansas’ sales tax on gold and silver bullion does. 

By eliminating this tax on the exchange of gold and silver, Arkansas would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a small step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“We ought not to tax money – and that’s a good idea. It makes no sense to tax money,” former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul said during testimony in support an Arizona bill that repealed capital gains taxes on gold and silver in that state. “Paper is not money, it’s fraud,” he continued.

The impact of enacting this legislation would go beyond mere tax policy. During an event after his Senate committee testimony, Paul pointed out that it’s really about the size and scope of government.

“If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter.”

Practically speaking, eliminating taxes on the sale of gold and silver cracks open the door for people to begin using specie in regular business transactions. This marks an important small step toward currency competition.

The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where United Precious Metals Association (UMPA) was established after the passage of the Utah Specie Legal Tender Act and the elimination of all taxes on gold and silver. UPMA offers accounts denominated in U.S.-minted gold and silver dollars. 

The company also recently released the “Utah Goldback.” UPMA describes it as “the first local, voluntary currency to be made of a spendable, beautiful, physical gold.”

The “Utah Goldback”

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in South Carolina are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

The Federal Reserve destroys this constitutional monetary system by creating a monopoly based on its fiat currency. Without the backing of gold or silver, the central bank can easily create money out of thin air. 

This not only devalues your purchasing power over time; it also allows the federal government to borrow and spend far beyond what would be possible in a sound money system. 

Without the Fed, the U.S. government wouldn’t be able to maintain all of its unconstitutional wars and programs. The Federal Reserve is the engine that drives the most powerful government in the history of the world.

Read More tenthamendmentcenter.com

Idiot GOP Declares Porn a 'Public Health Crisis'

You Can't Make This Shit Up

Here is why a lot of people vote Democrat.

(CNSNews.com) -- The GOP controlled Arkansas General Assembly has declared that "pornography has created a public health crisis," leading to a broad "spectrum" of public health "impacts and societal harms." The Assembly also stated that pornography can increase "the demand for prostitution and the sex trafficking and slavery of children and young adults, primarily girls."

The Resolution, HR 1042, is an official recognition by the Arkansas government. It is not a law. It reflects the official view of the legislature and a copy of the Resolution is sent to the director of the Department of Health in Arkansas. Similar resolutuions have passed in South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia, and in the State Senate in Tennessee. The Arkansas resolution passed the Assembly on March 28. 

Introduced by Rep. Karilyn Brown, the Arkansas resolution in part says, "pornography normalizes violence and abuse of women and children by depicting rape and abuse as if such acts are harmless.... [D]ue to advances in technology and the universal availability of the Internet, the average age of exposure to pornography is currently 11 to 12 years of age."

Stop Looking At This
Republicans say repeated exposure to the breasts of
hot women increases the desire for slavery.

Further, exposure to porn may "lead to the hypersexualization of teenagers and even prepubescent children" and "research indicates that pronography is potentially biologically addictive."

"[P]ornography can increase the demand for prostitution and the sex trafficking and slavery of children and young adults, primarily girls," and "pornography use can be linked to lessening desire to marry, dissatisfaction in marriage, and infidelity," states the resolution. Also, "this link demonstrates that pornography can have a detrimental effect on the family," and, as a multi-billion-dollar industry, pornography's "influences are reaching the highest levels of society and government."

As a result, the Arkansas Assembly recognizes the "public health crisis created by pornography and the sexually toxic environment it perpetuates and acknowledge the need for education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal levels in order to address the epidemic that is harming the people of our state and our country as a whole." 

“Research shows that pornography is linked to decreased erectile function, increased rates of sexual violence, and several neurological harms," said Hawkins. "For instance, since 2009 there have been 30 neurological studies showing that pornography is linked to negative impacts on brain structure and function, including actual shrinkage of brain regions used for motivation and decision making.

"I’m grateful that Arkansas elected officials are recognizing both the science about pornography’s harmful impacts and the individual accounts of those effected.”

Read More . . . .

The GOP is Frightened by Breasts
Unlike retarded Arkansas Republicans we here at The Federalist celebrate beautiful women.
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Saturday Sultress Chloe Goodman

Saturday Sultress Kate Beckinsale

Saturday Sultress Bar Refaeli

Saturday Sultress Ashley Ann Vickers

Saturday Sultress Kaley Cuoco

Huckabee again, but why?

A man, his gun and his dog. What is there not to like?

Is everyone running for Vice President?

• Huckabee is a nice enough guy.  Certainly as a man he is head and shoulders about the human slime in the White House.  But a Southern Baptist minister has a snowball's chance in Hell of winning the nomination or the election.

Mike Huckabee used his metaphor-rich hometown on Tuesday as a backdrop to launch his second bid for president — the setting drawing contrasts at once with former President Bill Clinton, who also hails from Hope, and President Obama, who ran for office on a platform of “hope” and “change”

“We were promised hope, but it was just talk,” said Huckabee, a former Republican governor of Arkansas. “Now we need the kind of change that really can bring America from Hope to higher ground.”

In a community college auditorium, Huckabee recalled his upbringing in the town that’s now home to roughly 10,000 people, where he said he “was raised to believe that where a person started didn’t mean that’s where he had to stop,” and where he ran in his first race, for student council in junior high school.

“So it seems fitting that it would be here that I announce I am a candidate for president,” Huckabee said to cheers from an enthusiastic, conservative crowd of roughly 2,500, including those in overflow areas. At intervals, supporters chanted, “We like Mike” and waved signs supplied by the campaign.

Huckabee, who proved a surprisingly strong candidate when he ran for president in 2008, still commands a substantial following among religious and social conservatives, having since then cultivated a national audience with a weekly show on Fox News and as a prolific author.

But Huckabee has expressed frustration at the idea that he only appealed in 2008 to evangelical voters — a “misconception,” he told reporters in Washington last month. On Tuesday, he began in earnest to flirt with working-class voters, using his personal story to shape a narrative of social and economic mobility.

“I grew up blue collar, not blue blood,” Huckabee said.

(Real Clear Politics)

.
2008 Republican Primary
Governor Mike Huckabee won eight GOP primary states, come in
second in fifteen states and third in fourteen states.
(GOP 2008 Primary)

Simply, Why?
Is it ego?  or do they just like to hear themselves talk?  I suspect that Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson are actually running for Vice President or a cabinet post in a possible new GOP administration.

Polls: Tom Cotton, Mitch McConnell, Mark Udall lead

Dems Are Feeling The Heat

Republicans now lead key Senate races in Arkansas and Kentucky, while Democratic Sen. Mark Udall has a six-point advantage over his GOP opponent in Colorado, according to three new NBC News/Marist polls of likely voters released Sunday morning on Chuck Todd’s inaugural episode of “Meet the Press.”

Arkansas

In Arkansas, the poll shows GOP Rep. Tom Cotton leading Sen. Mark Pryor, 45 percent to 40 percent. Cotton has led in most public polls in recent months — he was up by two points in a CNN/ORC International poll released last week — though Democrats note that Pryor is within the margin of error in many of those surveys.

Republicans’ advantage in Arkansas extends to the gubernatorial race: Republican Asa Hutchinson leads Democrat Mike Ross by 9 points, 48 percent to 39 percent, a wider margin in the race between the two former congressman than other polls have shown.

Kentucky

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has his largest lead in Kentucky over Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in some time by 8 points.

47% for McConnell, 39% for Grimes and 8% for Libertarian David Patterson.

Most other polls have showed a slightly closer race, though McConnell has maintained a stubborn lead since his late May primary victory.  See NBC News poll

Colorado

In Colorado, Udall leads GOP Rep. Cory Gardner, 48 percent to 42 percent, the NBC/Marist poll shows. That’s a wider margin than other public surveys, but Colorado has been a difficult state to poll in recent election cycles.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has a smaller lead in his reelection bid over former GOP Rep. Bob Beauprez — a 43% - 39% advantage, with a Libertarian candidate earning 5% of the vote.


Read more: Politico.com