{"id":642166,"date":"2018-03-01T18:22:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T18:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=642166"},"modified":"2018-03-01T18:22:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T18:22:06","slug":"a-secret-form-to-opt-out-of-government-handouts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=642166","title":{"rendered":"A Secret Form to Opt Out of Government Handouts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nilus<\/a><\/div>\n

By Nilus Mattive<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

This post A Secret Form to Opt Out of Government Handouts appeared first on Daily Reckoning.<\/p>\n

In a recent story about some of Social Security’s stranger aspects, I promised to tell you how the Amish opted out of the system in a future article.<\/p>\n

Well, grab some popcorn because here it is\u2026<\/p>\n

The Social Security Act \u2014 which marked the beginning of the system we know today \u2014 passed Congress in 1935.<\/p>\n

But for the first 20 years, it didn’t cover farmers.<\/p>\n

So it was only in the middle of the 1950s when most Amish first had to pay into Social Security \u2014 a prospect that created a real ethical dilemma for them.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because even though the IRS characterized Social Security payments as a simple tax, Social Security also very clearly contains the name \u201cOld Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

And to the Amish, insurance demonstrates a lack of faith in God’s plan.<\/p>\n

You can see why they weren’t keen on paying into \u2014 or collecting from \u2014 Social Security.<\/p>\n

This prompted the Amish to send a 14,000-name petition to Washington asking for an exemption from Social Security.<\/p>\n

And when that went unanswered, they pretty much just stopped paying.<\/p>\n

In retaliation, Uncle Sam decided to start seizing property.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s pretty hard to take stuff from people who don’t have bank accounts or much in the way of worldly possessions.<\/p>\n

So the government had to get creative.<\/p>\n

By 1959, an Amish man named Valentine Byler from western Pennsylvania had racked up $308.96 in back taxes and interest.<\/p>\n

And like many others, Mr. Byler had explained to the IRS precisely why he couldn’t make the payments.<\/p>\n

Undeterred, the IRS decided to take three of Mr. Byler’s six horses and auction them off.<\/p>\n

Remember, these weren’t show horses or pets. They were Mr. Byler’s livelihood because he used them to plow his fields.<\/p>\n

The implications of the seizure were clearly lost on the IRS, with the Pittsburgh region’s IRS Chief of Collections reportedly saying, \u201cPlowing never occurred to me. I live in an apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor had Uncle Sam thought through the fact that auctioning off the horses in the largely Amish area would fall flat on its face.<\/p>\n

In the end, yes, the government got its money. But media outlets all over the place picked up the story, and were largely supportive of Mr. Byler.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Amish put additional pressure on Washington through meetings, letters, and threats of legal action.<\/p>\n

By 1965, their point had been made:<\/p>\n

When the amendment to the Social Security Act establishing Medicare and Medicaid was passed that year, it contained a clause that exempted the Old Order Amish from paying into the system.<\/p>\n

At the time the legislation passed, Lancaster Bishop David Fisher reportedly told House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take care of our own people and if we start paying in, the next generation will collect and we don’t want no government handouts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the story didn’t end there\u2026<\/p>\n

Another Social Security scuffle took place between the Amish and Washington in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

The battleground? Western Pennsylvania yet again.<\/p>\n

The crux of the matter: \u2026read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

Source:: Daily Reckoning feed<\/a><\/p>\n

The post A Secret Form to Opt Out of Government Handouts<\/a><\/a> appeared first on Junior Mining Analyst<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nilus Mattive This post A Secret Form to Opt Out of Government Handouts appeared first on Daily Reckoning. In a recent story about some of Social Security’s stranger aspects, I promised to tell you how the Amish opted out of the system in a future article. Well, grab some popcorn because here it is\u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=642166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=642166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=642166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=642166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}