Rhode Island No Vax, Double Tax Legislation: People Thought It Was An Internet Hoax, But It’s Real
Laurie Gaddis Barrett: “I never dreamed, never dreamed that I would find a bill like that introduced into the Rhode Island legislature. And as a matter of fact, the representatives that we spoke with later on told me that they had constituents calling them left and right to ask if it was real or if it was an internet hoax.”
In March 2022, we profiled Laurie Gaddis Barrett, a fearless Rhode Island mom who was making waves by challenging authority at every level:
For Barrett, fighting for parents’ rights has been transformative—and nearly a full-time job….
Rhode Island parents are leading that nationwide trend: “There really is a growing movement of parents who are awake now,” Barrett recently testified. “We figured out what’s going on in these schools during distance learning and we’re not happy with the way that it’s going. … We heard these things and we started asking questions.” And then they mobilized.
She describes parents like herself coming together in Rhode Island:
Parents … who just recently became aware of the state of things and are determined to make change at the local level. These are people that a year or even two years ago never went to a school committee meeting. And now they know all about Roberts Rules of Order. Now they know how to do a public records request. Now they know what changes they want to see, and they are determined to help shape those changes.
…. When Barrett isn’t busy with suing the government or staring down members of the state legislature, she’s at war on social media: Politicians, school board members, bureaucrats – all are in her crosshairs.
Recently, Barrett uncovered a legislative nugget that has gone viral, a bill introduced in the state Senate calling for (1) a vaccine mandate, and (2) a penalty for non-compliance to double state income tax imposed on violators age 16 or over. Seriously, we covered the story and how Barrett spread the word on April 20, 2022, Rhode Island Progressive Democrats Introduce Bill To Impose Double-Taxation On Unvaccinated.
Here is the key section of the bill, filed by Democrat Samuel W. Bell, joined by seven other progressive Democrat state senators
23-97-1. Immunization against COVID-19
6 (a) Every person of at least sixteen (16) years of age who is eligible for immunization
7 against COVID-19 and who resides in the State of Rhode Island, works in the State of Rhode Island,
8 or pays personal income taxes to the State of Rhode Island pursuant to chapter 30 of title 44 shall
9 be required to be immunized against COVID-19.
10 (b) Every resident of Rhode Island eligible for immunization against COVID-19 who is
11 under sixteen (16) years of age or under guardianship shall be required to be immunized against
12 COVID-19, with the responsibility for ensuring compliance falling on all parents or guardians with
13 medical consent powers pursuant to § 23-4.6-1.
* * *
21 (e) Any person who violates this chapter shall be required to pay a monthly civil penalty
22 of fifty dollars ($50.00) and shall owe twice the amount of personal income taxes as would
23 otherwise be assessed pursuant to chapter 30 of title 44. All employers must require proof of
24 compliance with this chapter for any employee employed in in-person work within the State of
25 Rhode Island. Employers may choose to waive proof of compliance with this chapter for purely
26 remote work. Any employer found to be knowingly in violation of this section for more than seven
27 (7) days shall be required to pay a monthly civil penalty of five thousand dollars ($5,000) for every
28 violation. [emphasis added]
Barrett appeared on the Tucker Carlson show tonight to talk about the story:
I couldn’t believe it. I never dreamed, never dreamed that I would find a bill like that introduced into the Rhode Island legislature. And as a matter of fact, the representatives that we spoke with later on told me that they had constituents calling them left and right to ask if it was real or if it was an internet hoax.
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Comments
You should encourage democrats to make it a quadruple tax. Piss off enough people and with luck the state will go red.
It is long past time for any free and/or sane people to leave the state BAMN.
Subotai Bahadur
I’m no lawyer, but anybody with half a brain knows if this legislation gets through, lawyers and judges will be all over it quicker than a pit bull on a poodle.
Sadly, especially when dealing with a Democrat controlled polity and/or the Federal courts neither the law nor the Constitution may be in play.
Subotai Bahadur
A living constitution, emanations from penumbras or Twilight Fringe, and Pro-Choice “ethical” (e.g. relativistic, “=”) religion.
In fact the Federal courts have proven themselves abject cowards in the face of Federal and State agencies.
On what grounds would they be “all over it”? I can’t think of any.
Is there a provision for religious exemption from the tax (due to religious opposition to the vaccines)? If there isn’t, there’s your “grounds” – a First Amendment violation in which the state is punishing those persons who are unvaccinated because of their religious beliefs.
The power to tax is pretty close to unlimited, so I doubt a constitutional challenge can work. This is purely within the realm of politics.
HIPPA
HIPAA?
ADA, not HIPPA. HIPPA is a red herring.
They are trying to force you to take something that has a non-negligable risk of serious harm, and want to require you burn years of your life jumping through bureaucratic hoops that they can pull at any time to have the right to your own life.
That is probably the most fundamental medical discrimination ever.
The ADA doesn’t ban “medical discrimination”. It bans discrimination against those with a disability. Not being vaccinated is not a disability.
If I’m allergic to the components of the vaccine, then I cannot get it. This would be medical discrimination.
“Not being vaccinated is not a disability.”
Being unvaccinated leaves a person susceptible to a disease, and the ADA explicitly bans discrimination based on a person’s susceptibility (actual or perceived) to a disease. This provision was created during the AIDs panic, when gay men were being discriminated against because they were viewed as carriers (or potential carriers) of disease. Courts weren’t protecting them under the ADA (as Congress had expected, having explicitly requested courts to interpret its provisions “broadly”), so Congress revised the ADA to include a ban on such discrimination.
This is another example of that “legal water under the bridge” I mentioned a few days ago with regard to reliance on Jacobson v Massachusetts in support of vaccine mandates. It’s literally illegal today to discriminate against/punish someone because there’s a perception that they are, or may be, carriers of a disease.
It’s HIPAA, but what about it? What has HIPAA got to do with it? HIPAA says your doctor can’t tell anyone whether or not you’re vaccinated without your consent. So what? Nobody is proposing to ask your doctor. And if for some strange reason they did want to ask your doctor, they could simply require you to consent.
This bill, if it were to pass, would require you, not your doctor, to disclose your vaccination status. There is no law against that.
“And if for some strange reason they did want to ask your doctor, they could simply require you to consent.”
It’s amazing to see you dismiss a highly touted government “privacy protection” with these words, as if it is No Big Thing
“It wasn’t date rape, your honor. I simply required her to consent.”
There is no consent where there is duress or distraint.
C’mon man. You’re an attorney. You know better.
The only FDA approved “vaccine” is Pfizer Comirnaty which Pfizer has not made available.
ALL of the “vaccines” that are available including Pfizer’s mRNA shots are authorized under the EUA.
The EUA statute states that any treatment authorized is considered experimental and no one can be forced to take them.
How can any of them be mandated?
When you double tax or cut benefits in half for obese black women get back with me
Fat-ist!
The implication is clear: If it takes twice as much to feed you and clothe you and take care of you then, obviously, you should have two votes. And since you are in a special class you should not have to any pay tax.
Work is defined as Force x Distance. Force equals Mass x Acceleration.
The larger a person, the more work is done performing a task. A 300 pound person does twice as much work as one weighing 150, all else being equal, and should therefore be paid twice as much. Equal Pay For Equal Work!
If this bill were to pass, and you lived in RI, then you would have no choice but to pay the tax. The state is not required to obey your suggestions.
No, you’d have the option to challenge it. Grounds? It’s legislation and it’s arbitrary. Arbitrary legislation is unconstitutional. Why is it arbitrary? Vaccination doesn’t prevent transmission of COVID, so the unvaccinated present no threat to the public that isn’t posed by the vaccinated as well. Because the “vaccines” don’t stop transmission, vaccination does not promote a public health benefit that could authorize the state to compel vaccination. (Vaccines can help the vaccinated by mitigating the effects of COVID, and protecting a person from dying, but those are personal health benefits.)
Because the vaccinated pose exactly the same threat to public health posed by the unvaccinated, taxation of the unvaccinated, while not similarly taxing the vaccinated (for posing the same threat) is arbitrary, and is an inequality under the law.
I’m wondering what “immunized” means in legal terms.
In a legal, scientific, and medical context, it meant sterilizing: blocks transmission and infection. With Covax-20, 21, and 22, it simply means reduced symptoms.
Good point!
Whatever they want it to mean. Which is the whole point of course as it’s a loyalty check. A continuously updated means to determine and ensure subjugation to their new religion.
It’s all in accordance with the liberal manual (often called the play book).
The only way those penalties can be collected is if you are working for a living or are an employer.
Welfarists, undocumented day workers, homeless, etc. won’t have any “income” to tax or steal.
This was already taken into consideration in order that Democrats would not lose any voters.
They would still have to pay the fine.
Nope – the ‘officially unemployed’ will NEVER pay a fine. They don’t now, when it comes to court fines, judgements, or other attempts to hijack their wallet. It’s forgiven, and only the gainfully employed ever have to come up with the cash.
That they ( representatives) did it doesn’t surprise me, Other than Covid was the Golden Fleece to the Democrats ( read as Marxists) isn’t a question but what is they all are fighting for Big Pharma like they own it.
Forcing the Fake Vax is a goal unto itself.
The word “Hope” appears on the RI state flag. Time to make a change, to “Hopeless”.
or pays personal income taxes to the State of Rhode Island
……………………..
which includes active duty servicemembers most likely, have not dug into it but when I was in service state of Maine taxed me even though I lived in Alabama then Germany.
not even the same damned country yet I paid federal and state income taxes.
meant to say not the same damned continent but country also applies.
That is because you didn’t change your Home of Record. If you were living in barracks, that might not have been an option, but if living off post you should have changed to Alabama (do they have an income tax and is it less than Maine?).
Alabama was temp (basic/ait) and once overseas in order to change state would need proof of residency of that state, IE utility bill. and maine would still be a bitch about it.
I’m just surprised the feds don’t link Medicare payments with the “vax”.
Make that Medicare coverage.
Don’t give them even more “ideas” than they already have.
Normal everyday people willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the process of political sausage making make a huge difference. As an example, their involvement can keep a bill from leaving committee so that it doesn’t get to a floor vote. It’s much easier to get a majority on a committee to block a bill than a majority of the legislature. Same with school boards, City and County boards. Wining the fights at the local level makes a big difference; see Covid and your County/City public health officials.
Given the fact that the vaccine can cause heart problems in teenagers, this is a terrible idea.
Of course it’s a terrible idea. It was proposed by a Democrat, and a (DSA) Socialist at that; anything proposed by such a person is likely to be a terrible idea.
WHEN WILL THEY START TAXING THOSE THAT SMOKE / DRINK / EAT TOO MUCH / SLEEP TOO MUCH / THOSE THAT DON’T EXERCISE – ETC ETC ETC – YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING…
They’re taxing me right now.
People tend to forget that the “trained Marxists” want half of you to die. Their overlords are worse- they want 95% of us in the ground. All of these policies are designed with that goal in mind. They have weaponised the “Big Lie” tactic of the Nazis and plan to murder you with it.
Why is Legal Insurrection a RI entity? What were they thinking?
They were thinking that Barrington Beach was a damn nice place to have a vacation home, and (aside from the political climate) I have to say that I agree. Seriously, the history is no more complicated than that.
Hard to believe that adults didn’t know what Robert’s Rules of Order is. I thought it was part of the standard curriculum in 7th grade social studies.
It’s valuable to remember that Rhode Island’s personal income tax was a “temporary” measure to lift the state’s books out of the red (this was in the early 70s, if I recall correctly). Within two years of the tax’s institution, the state’s budget was in the black, and in another year or two spending had risen from half a billion dollars a year to nearly triple that amount.
Rogue Island is a total mess of a state.