#1 – ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate
In a short while, citizens will receive threats from the IRS for not signing up for expensive health insurance they did not want. Millions will be forced to pay $95 or 1% of their income, but that will jump to $325 and 2% next year.
One thing is certain: Barack Obama will brag about how many people signed up. It’s amazing what you can do when you threaten people.
Don’t go sky diving any time soon.
#2 – Opening a Lemonade Stand
Kids do some outlandish things from time to time. Thankfully, we have county government to remind them that opening a lemonade stand will cause total anarchy. That’s why a 10-year-old received a $500 ticket for serving lemonade outside a golf tournament. She should probably apply for a permit right after she’s done playing hide-n-seek.
Of course, county officials remind us: “It wasn’t that we were the big hand of county government trying to come down and squash anything…We were attempting to do what a government is charged with doing, which is protecting communities and protecting the safety of people.”
I’ll file that excuse right next to leprechauns and unicorns.
#3 – Parking Tickets
Parking tickets are every urbanites arch nemesis. As a Philadelphia resident, I can assure you there is no more gestapo-style enforcement than the Philadelphia Parking Authority. One time, I received a ticket for parking 62 minutes in a one-hour only spot. The PPA is so bad that a TV show, Parking Wars, follows heartless enforcers write up tickets for outrageous reasons.
But does it go to fund things like the school system budget crisis? Of course not. It lines their pockets and they don’t care who knows. In fact, the agency extorted Philadelphians for over $230 million in 2012.
I feel so safe!
#4 – Seattle Food Scrap Fine
In a city filled with regulations, it’s not surprising that Seattle bureaucrats are doling out fines for the contents of your trash. Residents will now be fined $1 for every 10% of their trash that contains compostable waste. If you are a habitual food-waster, you can expect a bill as high as $50.
Let’s just hope the trash-tyrants enforce the law by digging through the nastiest compost. Surely, angry residents will find ways to make their life a living smell…I mean, hell.
#5 – Feeding the Homeless
Oh, you want to help those in abject poverty? Silly citizen, that’s a State monopoly, even though they’re not very good at it. A 90-year-old Florida man was given a $500 fine for helping the homeless.
Doesn’t he know the best way to “help” the poor is compulsory taxation to fund bloated and ineffective welfare programs? I mean, it’s not like there are more people receiving government checks than ever before.
Bad news for anyone trying to alleviate the financial strain of government welfare.
#6 – Collecting Rain Water
The government loves to “promote the common good”…as long as you only use their services. In the blue-state of Oregon, a man was jailed for 30 days and fined $1500. His offense? Collecting rainwater on his own property. God forbid anyone use their own property to utilize renewable resources such as nature.
You can rest easy knowing rain water will instead go to waste.
#7 – Hosting Bible Study
In the land of the free, you can practice whatever religion you want…as long as you do so in a building that has the required permits and has been inspected by fire marshals. A God-fearing man was sentenced to 60 days and given $12,000 in fines for hosting Bible study in his own home.
I think it’s fair to say he should fear the wrath of the government before anything that’s in Revelations.
#8 – Building a Pond
EPA bureaucrats are never ending in their regulatory conquest. Although I doubt it will save the whales or combat “climate change”, the EPA fined a Wyoming welder $75,000 a day for building a pond…on his own property. The pond is stocked full of wildlife from ducks to fish, and will serve as a sanctuary for horses to graze, kids to play, and adults to relax.
Apparently, that’s too much enjoyment for the folks at the EPA. They’ve unsurprisingly decided to ignore the county building permit and their own laws. However, this American dream isn’t going down without a fight and the landowner is pushing back.
Such a menace to society!
#9 – Seatbelt Ticket
It seems traffic tickets are endless, but the dumbest one of all has to be seatbelt laws. For one, they are the pinnacle of nanny-state policy. As if I am too stupid to wear a seatbelt and should be fined for my stupidity.
While seatbelts have reduced traffic fatalities, it is worth noting that low-income people have been arrested for failing to pay their fine by the due date. But hey, at least they learned to wear a seat belt!
I bet they’re really safe now that they’re locked in a cage.
#10 – Not Clearing Snow
Wisconsin gets a lot of snow, which is a perfect chance to fine citizens for not clearing it. That’s why towns in Wisconsin are now giving tickets for not shoveling the sidewalk in front of your house…even though it’s city property. The city of Wisconsin Rapids is giving citizens 24 hours from the end of a storm.
Funny enough, all the cities enforcing these fines also have public snow removal crews and contract out overflow work.