Weekly Platts Report #5
This is the fifth of many weekly analysis pieces detailing what Congressman Platts has voted on, or bills that he has sponsored/co-sponsored. 
Mike Koffenberger - Libertarian Candidate U.S. House of Representatives District 19 PAI will briefly describe his action, the bill, and then detail how I would handle the same. Since it is not my full time job to read the entire bill (yet – with your help), I will read the summaries and base my decisions on those. I will also try and describe how libertarian principles apply in my decisions. During weeks that Congressman Platts is not in session or co-sponsoring bills, I will re-visit some of his older votes on legislation that has a had detrimental effect on our liberties.
One bill in which Congressman Platts was the primary sponsor on this week is HR 3234: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow penalty-free withdrawals from pension plans. Since it was just introduced, a copy of the bill cannot be found on the internet at this time. The only other information that can be found is that it is for individuals that have exhausted their rights to unemployment compensation. It is my opinion that this is up to the individual to decide without government permission and without having to pay taxes on any income derived from the withdrawal. For someone to have to make the difficult decision to take money out of their retirement to get by in life, in order to buy food for their family, pay their bills, or whatever it is that they need to do, is difficult enough. You should not have to seek permission from the government, let alone, have to pay taxes on it as “earned income.” While this bill seeks to eliminate the tax penalties applied to the withdrawal, only for those that are unemployed, the entire system of paying taxes on your own income needs to be addressed. This bill is a “safe” piece of legislation. Attempting to tackle the problem of taxing income is too controversial for him. My attempt to tackle the issue of taxation can be found on my web site.
Congressman Platts became the co-sponsor of two ridiculous (for lack of a better word) pieces of legislation: HR 3165: Positive Behavior for Safe and Effective Schools Act and HR 3170: Promoting Alternatives to Truancy and Incarceration by Encouraging New and Comprehensive Efforts (or the PATIENCE Act of 2011 – yes the government loves those acronyms). HR 3165 would expand the use of school-wide positive behavior supports in schools in order to systematically create a school climate that is highly conducive to learning, to reduce discipline referrals, and to improve student academic outcomes. Yes, really…see the text here. To summarize the bill, instead of suspending or arresting criminal juveniles that completely disrupt every other child’s day of learning, we are going to enforce “positive behavior supports” instead. Apparently, these will educate the teachers and principals to positively support bad behavior? Of course they will have to be trained in these procedures, so that will require additional “staff development days” in the school calendars, and more funding.
This bill demonstrates why I support eliminating the Federal Department of Education, all of the programs involved with it, such as “No Child Left Behind,” and eliminating all budget items or legislative power to dictate any education policies. The Republican Party used to be for eliminating the Department of Education because of its complete overreach. The majority of Republicans in the Congress today, which includes Congressman Platts, continue to add more bureaucracy to the education of your children. Talk of the elimination of the Department of Education is now controversial. Just like the belief that the best governments govern least and govern local, the best schools would be those that are governed least and governed local.
The other bill, HR 3170, would amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 to provide incentive grants to promote alternatives to incarcerating delinquent juveniles. A very vague bill that encourages States to support programs that would reduce harsh punishment of juveniles, and provide funding incentives to those States that demonstrate a reduction in recidivism and a decrease of racial and ethnic disparities in the delinquency system. Why the Federal Government believes it is their duty to make the States find ways to reduce criminal recidivism so that they can obtain grant money (which we do not have to give) is beyond me. This issue should be left to the States period.
This week was yet another week lost without Congressman Platts submitting a bill to return our lost liberties, regain fiscal sanity, bring our troops home, or return our government to its Constitutional limitations. This is one of the main reasons that I am challenging him in the 2012 elections. To my knowledge, he has never submitted one bill that would greatly affect a return to the principles above. He consistently submits or supports small pieces of legislation that further regulate every facet of our lives.
For Liberty,
Mike Koffenberger
Libertarian Candidate, U.S. House of Representatives
District 19 – PA
www.mikeforpa.com
Commenting is closed for this article.