Rand Paul's Stand Against Tax Treaties Is More Important Than You Think

**jct74** · 05-14-2016, 04:12 PM

Rand Paul's Stand Against Tax Treaties Is More Important Than You Think

BY JAMES GEORGE JATRAS
MAY 13, 2016

President Barack Obama has now joined personally in renewed efforts to pressure Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to stop blocking the ratification of eight tax treaties pending before the U.S. Senate. Paul is sticking to his guns, and it’s important for Americans to understand why.

Of the eight treaties, seven of them are bilateral agreements with various countries to facilitate cooperation to avoid double taxation and to lower compliance costs. Regrettably, these agreements also unnecessarily change the standard for providing personal financial information to law enforcement agencies from probable cause of criminal behavior, such as fraud—which Paul correctly regards as the only constitutionally permissible standard under the Fourth Amendment—to what amounts to wholesale bulk collection on the pattern of the NSA’s violations of email and phone privacy.

This is Paul’s only concern with these seven bilateral treaties. A simple amendment could conform them to constitutional standards and they could move forward expeditiously.

However, that reasonable solution is not acceptable to Secretary Jack Lew’s Treasury Department. That’s because the Department also insists on using the treaties as a Trojan Horse for one of the most dangerous and dysfunctional laws enacted under the presidency of Barack Obama: the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA.

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http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/...s-78105-1.html

**Origanalist** · 05-14-2016, 04:21 PM

Senator Paul is doing a lot of things these days, busy defending what liberty we have left. He could use a lot more help than he's getting.

**jct74** · 05-14-2016, 04:49 PM

Obama Attacks Sen. Rand Paul for Protecting Fourth Amendment

by Alex Newman
12 May 2016

Obama is angry about opposition to his anti-privacy crusade. Last week, he even slammed Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.; shown) by name, calling on the liberty-minded lawmaker to drop his “quirky” opposition to the administration's controversial new “tax treaties” — agreements with foreign governments to further shred the Fourth Amendment-protected privacy rights of the American people. However, Paul hit back hard, telling Obama, publicly, that Americans' unalienable privacy rights are not “quirky.” Privacy proponents celebrated Paul's “courageous” stand.

By insulting and ridiculing Paul, Obama, a former “community organizer,” was relying on tactics popularized by the late community organizing guru Saul Alinsky. In his hugely influential how-to manual Rules for Radicals, which the radical pro-tyranny activist openly dedicated to Lucifer, Alinsky urges his disciples to mock those who stand in their way. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon,” Alinsky wrote. “There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.”

Obama, who spent years as a “community organizer” agitating for Big Government in Chicago, apparently learned the lessons well. “I’m calling on the Senate, in particular Sen. Rand Paul, who’s been a little quirky on this issue, to stop blocking the implementation of tax treaties that have been pending for years,” Obama was quoted as saying at the White House on May 6. “These treaties actually improve law enforcement's ability to investigate and crack down on offshore tax evasion. And I'm assuming that's not something that he's in favor of.”

So, in short, in Obama's view, because Senator Paul takes seriously his oath to protect the U.S. Constitution, he is “quirky” and might even be in favor of offshore tax evasion if he does not surrender, quickly. At least that is what Obama wanted people to think. But while the establishment media — particularly the Associated Press — did help telegraph Obama's bizarre insults and ridicule nationwide, it also allowed Paul a chance to explain to Americans why he has been working hard to protect the rights of all Americans.

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read more:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews...urth-amendment