So here's the thing. If my password had been compromised last week when that weird mobile status appeared, all my associated email addresses would have received the Facebook "Your Password Has Been Changed" email with instructions on what to do if you did not do it. It is still perplexing how a mobile status update occurred with SPAM, when I am...
The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.
The reason we have a Senate and not just the house. "When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties.
That following year, 1933, the veterans again marched. President Roosevelt, knowing that violance could not be used against the marchers planned to minimize them and their efforts. As part of a work program, thousands were enlisted and sent to Florida.
Telling his aide Major Eisenhower that a piece of paper cannot interfere with military operations, he sent his troops across the drawbridge into the bonus marcher tent city. The troops set fire to the tents and shacks creating a blaze that burned into the night. Reports said it could be seen in the night sky miles away.
The disillusioned veterans began to leave and head for the cities and towns they had come from. Nearly 11,000 remained when President Hoover gave the order to "evacuate the veterans" from Washington D.C. General MacArthur personally oversaw the Cavalry with drawn sword, Infantry with fixed bayonet lead the tanks down Pennsylvania Avenue.
A bill was introduced in congress to pay them the money promised to veterans in 1924. Heavy lobbying against the payment of this promise by the financial sector and various business groups however threatened to quash the bill. Upset and believing they must take action, a group of veterans led by a sergeant organized and determined to march on...
Starting as a grassroots movement of 300 in Portland, Oregon, the "Bonus Expeditionary Force" or BEF began a cross country march to Washington, D.C. to let congress hear their voices. As veterans around the country heard the news of the Oregonians, they too started towards the capitol.
In 1932 unemployment was 25%. A majority of veterans of the first world war were out of work, cold, hungry and looked to the government to keep the promises it had made to them as they bore the battle.
Reaction to the attack on the bonus marchers turned public opinion aginast president Hoover. In November 1932 the American people elected Franklin D. Roosevelt president on the promise of change and economic renewal.
The result of the Bonus March is an affirmation of the individual citizen's right to protest for a cause, to protest for redress of grievences against the government and a reminder that the government will resort to force to quash opposition. Here in America.
Without warning the troops began throwing tear gas into the crowds, using the flat of the sword and the end of the bayonet to push the crowd toward the drawbridge to Anacostia. MacArthur's orders were to clear the marchers to the drawbridge and then to go no farther.
Except for the efforts of one early rescuer by the name of Ernest Hemingway. He reported what had happened to the veterans and the government's responsibility. The following year, 1936, public sentiment changed and congress overwhelmingly passed the bill authorizing payment of the bonus.
In the senate it was a different story. After considering the bill, the senate stalled and finally voted it down at the end of the legislative session. Senators were escorted out of the capitol through other routes, allowing them to escape the view of the bonus marchers.