Monday, September 01, 2014

U.S. Raises Fees To Renounce Citizenship As Backlog Develops

by JASmius

And as you probably already figured out, we're not talking about aspiring American jihadist defectors to ISIS:


The United States plans to hike the fees it charges American citizens to give up their passports as the nation also tries to stem the tide of U.S. businesses moving headquarters overseas.

The State Department has boosted the fee for renunciation of U.S. citizenship by 422% to $2,350 from $450.

In other words, the Obama Regime is attempting to deport Burger King, but still hasn't bothered to publicly acknowledge the flood of hundreds (and counting) of Americans to the Islamic State's black banner.  Probably because they can't figure out why the latter haven't paid their exorbitant, confiscatory fee.


“Demand for the service has increased dramatically, consuming far more consular officer time and resources,” Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy wrote, according to Global News.

Really?  Gee, I can't imagine why that could be the case, can you?

“Documenting a U.S. citizen’s renunciation of citizenship is extremely costly, requiring American consular officers overseas to spend substantial amounts of time to accept, process, and adjudicate cases,” he wrote. “The department believes there is no public benefit or other reason for setting this fee below cost.”

Never tell me the Left doesn't understand capitalism, my friends.  Ever,

The wait time for an expatriation interview has increased to as much as six months in some areas, while it is as short as two to four weeks in others, a State Department spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. ...

In recent years, the United States has seen a 221% surge in Americans renouncing their citizenship, according to Forbes. “It isn’t exactly Ellis Island in reverse, but it’s more than a dribble. With global tax reporting and FATCA, the list of the individuals who renounced is up,” Forbes reported.

I guess you could say that not even the Obama Regime can question their expatriotism, huh?

Or their economic sense and self-respect:

Meanwhile, the Canada Free Press reported that both U.S. citizens and American business want to free the home of the brave because of the double-pronged whammy of “high taxes and burdensome tax compliance” in foreign jurisdictions.

“Instead of facing the problems directly, the Obama administration has resorted to punitive measures. The shame and blame tactic of calling out businesses who wish to relocate as “unpatriotic” was undignified. Perhaps realizing that using the same strategy with individuals would be even less well received, they went the more quiet, direct route,” the CFP’s Alan Joel wrote.

Indeed.  Quiet and direct stands a better chance of the expatriot making a successful getaway, instead of simply disappearing in that same matter.  It reminds me rather strikingly of Neo's encounter with the Architect....



A lot of verbatim applicability to almost every dialogual word in that scene to the current political predicament in America in the last summer of 2014, IMHO, other than "Trinity" and "Zion".  But this portion is, I think, most relevant to the topic of this post:

The Architect: The function of the One is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program. After which you will be required to select from the matrix 23 individuals, 16 female, 7 male, to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix, which coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race.

Neo: You won't let it happen, you can't. You need human beings to survive.

The Architect: There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. [emphasis added]

Because it's all about The One's survival - and power.

Exit question: What are we all still doing here?

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