Obama's tax increase on small business

A tax increase aimed at small business in the veil of health care reform.

Check out the starting point for the health care tax increase from the Senate. It imposes a new tax on businesses with 25 or more employees of $750 per employee per year (a $0.38 per hour per employee tax increase). And Obama promised that his tax increases would not affect small businesses - just another LIE. Also note that a single person making $43K per year (400 percent of poverty level) gets taxpayer subsidized health insurance as does a family of 4 making $88K per year. Another entitlement.

"The public option would not receive federal subsidies and would be funded through premiums. The Department of Health and Human Services would run the plan and set payment rates for medical services and products."

So the government bureaucracy will set reimbursements and decide who gets what treatment? That'll definitely improve health care in this country - NOT! Funded through premiums? If you believe that, I have some swamp land to sell you in mosquito country. Even the private insurance companies can't do that as they must purchase back end insurance to cover their ass in the event of a catastrophe.

I especially like the part where the Democrap Senator (Sherrod Brown) says that an insurance company established by the government that provides services for no profit will bring competition to the private insurance market and not put the private options out of business. Let's see, I open a business competing with yours but selling the product at cost and you think that you'll ever make a sale again? And not only am I giving theproduct away at manufacturer's cost, I am charging you and other taxpayers in the area money to pay for me to put up billboards all over the place advertising the product at manufacturer's cost to assure that everyone knows that they don't have to pay the private market's exorbitant price for that product which includes manufacturer's profit. I have heard Obama use this argument as well. Either Obama and Sherrod Brown are stupid or they think that we are. Probably both.

In Obama's sales pitch he says

"The naysayers are already lining up," he said in remarks before taking questions. The challenge for opponents, he said, is: "What's your alternative? Is your alternative just to stand pat and watch more and more families lose their health care?"

Once again he uses a "straw man", weasel worded argument (more like spin) to create a sense of urgency and crisis like despair. Who is watching families LOSE their health care? Which families are losing their health care? Answers: no one is watching and none are "losing" their health care. Hospitals in America are required by law to provide health care to all. There are over 1,300 private health care insurance options available to everyone in America and a basic policy can be purchased for less than a daily cup of latte from Starbucks.

The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration:

Randomly indeed!

Update on Obama's Notre Dame commencement speech

Yesterday at Georgetown University, Obama told the University to cover Jesus with plywood for the speech. Will the University of Notre Dame be ordered to cover up touchdown Jesus for Obama's visit as well?

Rebuttal to Crooks and Liars Propaganda

The left wing blog Crooks and Liars posted this article for Tax day called "10 Republican Lies for Tax Day" and my leftist buddy sent it to me claiming that there was finally some sanity out there. I went through the 10 lies one by one for him as follows:

Claimed Lie 1
Taxes on small businesses. The government considers these examples below as small businesses (all are over $250K per year):

You can go here for the complete list

Crop production of all types — $750,000
Animal production except for cattle & chicken/eggs — $750,000
Cattle feedlots — $2.5M
Chicken/egg production — $12.5M
Forestry & logging — $7M
Fishing — $4M
Irrigation, sewage, water supplies — $7M
Housing construction — $33.5M
Heavy and civil engineering construction — $33.5M
Dredging and cleanup — $20M
Concrete, framing, and other housing contractors — $14M
Car dealers — $23-29M
RV, motorcycle, & boat dealers — $7M
Furniture, hardware, clothing & sporting good stores — $7M
Electronic stores — $9M
Supermarkets, gas stations & department stores — $27M
Pharmacies — $7M

The CNN report referenced at Crooks & Liars claims that there are 6 million small businesses and is off by at least 75% as they only took people who filed certain schedules in their personal tax returns (deceitful as not all small businesses are Sub S, or sole proprietors). Here are the numbers from the US census which show that there are over 25 million small businesses in America in 2004. America already has the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world and Obama will eventually be compelled to increase that rate.

Claimed Lie 2
Anyone that argues that estate taxes are fair is a communist in my opinion. America was not founded on communist values. Every penny of the money confiscated by estate taxes has already been taxed at least once by federal and local governments. Estate taxes are nothing but redistribution of wealth. If you believe that they are just, then we cannot argue further because I do not and never will. If you want to live under communism, move to Russia, Cuba or Venezuela.

Claimed Lie 3
I've never heard any of the conservative pundits say that 40% pay no taxes. The figure quoted is that 40% pay no federal income taxes. This data comes directly from the IRS.You can download the spreadsheet (go to row 174 and read the truth from the government agency that collects the taxes). Per the IRS in 2005, the most recent data available from the IRS, 50% of the federal tax returns are responsible for 96.93% of the total federal taxes paid. It's true that most everyone pays other taxes such as sales taxes, Social Security, Medicare etc. Obama's claimed tax cuts are not cuts but tax credits (there's a huge difference and for those of you who voted for Obama, you can read about the difference here). When you give federal tax money back to people in the form of tax credits and those people don't pay any federal taxes that is called welfare. In effect you are giving them back all or a portion of what they have paid in to Social Security and Medicare.

Claimed Lie 4
Tax cuts have increased federal revenues EVERY TIME THEY HAVE BEEN INSTITUTED in America. Crooks & Liars uses an unrelated argument that since tax rates were raised by Clinton in the 1990s and revenue increased that this cannot be true. Any high school educated person could see the lack of logic here. Just because revenues increased with tax rate increases once doesn't disprove the record of history that tax reductions have increased government revenues every time they have been instituted. Here is a real researched article from a real economist that illustrates.

Claimed Lie 5
The GOP did not show fiscal discipline during the time that they controlled Congress under Bush and I don't think that anyone on the right is stating this as fact. O'reilly, Hannity, Ingraham, Bennett, Prager, Hewitt, Medved and Limbaugh all speak about this as the failing of the GOP. So who's the liar? The part of the graph that Crooks & Liars left out shows the Obama addition to that with his Porkulus and Omnibus bills. The CBO, a non-partisan group, projects the debt growing by $4.4T over the next 4 years under Obama and a Democrat Congress. This is $200B more than the total debt added from 2001 - 2008 under Bush. Both parties have grown debt and grown government. Clinton reduced the debt in his 2nd term. This coincides with the time frame that the GOP took the majority in Congress (1994) and prior to that debt was rising. The falling debt can be attributed to balanced budget initiatives, Contract with America, huge defense spending cuts and increased revenue. Conservatism is not a value held by any political party it is what our country was founded on and stands for, among other things, small central government and individual freedom. Leftists like to intermingle Conservative and Republican as if they are one and the same. This is not the case.

Claimed Lie 6
To quote Crooks & Liars "President Obama whose stimulus plan delivered the largest two-year tax cut in history." This is projecting tax cuts (and they are credits not cuts - there is a huge difference) which haven't happened yet and it is a 2 year snapshot and doesn't include the future tax hikes that will be necessary to support the spending levels over that time period. Obama has already stated that he will let the Bush tax cuts die in 2010. This will result in a tax INCREASE of 50% for the lowest income brackets and 13% increase for the highest.
2003 tax rate table






2000 tax rate table


This will also cause increases on dividends (by as much as 3960%) and capital gains (at least 33%). By the way, any person that holds equities receives capital gains and dividends regardless of their annual income. In 2003, Bush cut the marginal tax rates as follows lowest bracket by 33% from 15% to 10% up to the first $7K, next bracket up by 8.8% up to $26,250, the next bracket by 11% up to $63K, the next bracket by 9.6% up to $143K, the top bracket by 11%. Note that the tax cuts for the rich were the same or less than those for the poor, contrary to the claim that Bush's cuts were for the rich.

In 1981, when Ronald Reagan took office, the top marginal rate was 70%. He dropped that rate to 28% (a decrease of 60%) and government revenues doubled. He also started the U.S. on a 25 year growth cycle never seen before in American history.

Obama has increased federal taxes on tobacco products by 158% which affects people in the under $250K per year income range. His cap and trade proposal will increase gasoline taxes across the board. Anything that he does with health care will also require tax increases to those making less than $250K per year.

Claimed Lie 7
The depression ended because WWII production geared up and put people back to work (when stuff gets blown up, it needs to be replaced). Just ask your Mom, Dad, Grandma or Grandpa. This occurred even before the U.S. entered the war. FDR's policies (government sponsored Ponzi schemes) are finally failing after 70 years. Read your Social Security statement. Mine says "In 2017 we will begin paying more in benefits than we collect in taxes. Without changes, by 2041 the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted and there will be enough money to pay only about 78 cents for each dollar of scheduled benefits". Medicare's outlook is even bleaker and is projected to be bankrupt in 2016. We just threw Bernie Madoff in jail for doing the same thing that our government is doing as created by Democrat hero FDR. Ask yourself with the New Deal's and the later Great Society's "war on poverty" why all of this money (over $11T in all) has been spent and we still have poverty? Like the bailouts and the stimulus's, this is not working.

Claimed Lie 8
Cap and trade has a track record in Europe and has raised the cost of generating energy. It is a tax scheme that we don't need. If you think that it won't cost everyone money, including those that make less than $250K per year, then you have no common sense. My electric company claims that cap and trade could raise electric rates to its customers by 4x - 6x. Man made global warming is a hoax. Cap and Trade schemes are using man made global warming as the justification to create new taxes. We don't need and can't afford cap and trade taxes.

Claimed Lie 9
If Obama removes the tax deduction for charity from the wealthy, the wealthy will donate less. This is pure common sense and doesn't require any analysis. As the tax code exists, we can donate things that have appreciated (e.g. stocks, bonds, art, real estate) and receive the full value as a deduction from our taxable income without claiming the appreciation as income. Removing this deduction will remove the incentive to donate.

When I purchased my first home, I compared my out of pocket monthly expense for a mortgage to that of renting. I could afford a higher out of pocket expense for the mortgage as the interest deduction would make up for the difference. Do you think that if the government eliminated the tax deduction for mortgage interest that home ownership would decrease?

Tax policy drives monetary behavior.

Claimed Lie 10
This is just more class warfare. Per the IRS spreadsheet, the top 1% of earners pay 39.38% of the total federal tax burden and the bottom 50% of earners pay less than 4% of the total federal tax bill. A linear (and more fair) tax situation would call for 1% of the earners to pay 1% of the total tax burden and 50% of the earners to pay 50% of the tax burden. In New York City, approximately 41,000 (less then 0.5%) persons pay 50% of the City tax burden. Heaven help the other 8.26 million people if those 41,000 decide to leave town. The so called rich are taxed more than enough already and it's time that the other 99% pick up the slack. As Joe Biden says, "it is your patriotic duty".

When you go out to dinner with other people do you negotiate who should pay what percentage of the bill based upon their household income? If so, don't invite me out to dinner.

Broken Promises: New Tax increase by Obama

Starting April 1, 2009 the tax on cigarettes will increase 158% from 39 cents per pack to $1.01 per pack. The expected revenue windfall is slated to fund the health care entitlement known as SCHIP. I have 3 questions for the Obama administration.

1. If smokers bring their W2 showing that they make less than $250K annually to the store with them when they purchase cigarettes, can they receive an exemption from this tax increase?

2. What happens if a large number of smokers decide to quit as a result of this punitive legislation and the federal government's windfall falls short of projections?

3. What additional taxes will be created to make up this shortfall and will those that make under $250K annually be exempt from those new taxes?

University of Notre Dame invites Obama to speak at 2009 graduation commencement

At the East side of the Sacred Heart basilica at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN there is a sculpture that proclaims "In memory of the innocent victims of abortion". The statue was erected by the Notre Dame Knights of Columbus in 2000 and stands in defiance to those, such as the ACLU, who would demand that such statues be removed from public Universities in this country.

This statue not only signifies the advantage that the private, Catholic, University has as being immune from such dangerous foolishness of the ACLU, but also professes one of Catholicism's and the United States' main tenets: that human life is our most cherished, God given, unalienable, right.

The University of Notre Dame and their president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., have shown their willingness to dilute this fundamental belief by inviting Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address to this year's graduating class. Barack Obama, through his public actions, has shown that he does not respect this God given right. In the Illinois State Senate Obama sponsored infanticide by voting 3 times to allow children that survived abortion procedures to be denied life sustaining health care. In addition, Obama in his early days as POTUS has sponsored overseas abortions with American taxpayer monies and has rescinded President Bush's executive order to ban federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

As a ND graduate and a Catholic, I am outraged by the University's invitation to Obama to speak at the commencement and by the awarding of an honorary degree to Barack Obama. There are also numerous other Catholics, alumni and other persons who agree with me as a petition has surfaced to express this outrage.

I am outraged not only for the University's "looking the other way" attitude by this invitation to Obama, but also by the honor bestowed upon him with the honorary doctorate degree. This cheapens the degree conferred upon all real ND graduates by awarding a degree to a person who thinks that there are 58 United States, who believes that proper tire inflation will yield oil savings equal to what can be harvested from U.S. resources, who compares a modern day SUV to the Ford Model T on efficiency, and who states that the "profit to earnings" ratios in the stock market make now a good time to invest. Maybe Obama will need some remedial education before receiving his degree from Notre Dame.

I also wonder if the University will feel compelled to cover the statue pictured here for Obama's visit as an olive branch of political correctness offered to those that might be offended by the statue's message. Heck, maybe Fr. Jenkins should extend an invitation to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor, to give one of his fiery speeches at Notre Dame's Grotto as a pre-commencement rally.

Update on protests at AIG executive's homes

My previous entry noted the ACORN button on the protester placing the envelope in the mailbox. It turns out that the group organizing these functions is a front group for ACORN. This is the same ACORN that received monies in the Stimulus Bill passed in February. I would like to see an audit of ACORN to determine if they used stimulus bill monies to fund these activities.

Hypocrisy abounds in class warfare promoted by Obama led government

In the 2008 election cycle we learned that 41% of the U.S. population pays no federal income tax. This last week it was difficult to tune into a news program or open a newspaper or other media and NOT see a story about the AIG executive bonus payments.

Protest groups are organizing bus tours of AIG executive homes . You can sign up for your seat at many locations that also support and promote the Obama class warfare agenda. In a scene reminiscent of the Hollywood paparazzi, we see protesters standing outside of a private U.S. citizen's house placing notes of protest in the mailbox.

Note the ACORN button on this protester below.
The press, the Obama administration, and our Congress has managed to create public opinion on this issue to the level where we would not be surprised to see lynch mobs on their way to Connecticut soon. This week AIG CEO Liddy was interrogated by the modern day "politburo", that is our own U.S. Congress. Liddy was threatened by government subpoena to release the names of those private U.S. citizens who received these bonus payments. CNN and other media outlets broadcast death threats against the bonus recipients. This outcome caused Rush Limbaugh to ponder that we are forbidden from violating the rights of foreign terrorists plotting attacks against the West on their cell phones, but it is OK to violate the rights of a private U.S citizen who received a contractually valid bonus from their employer.

The lynch mob agitators are promoting the notion that taxpayer monies were used to pay these "unjust" bonuses. This makes it easier to for the agitators to create support for their class warfare agenda by insinuating that somehow the money to pay these bonuses is being taken directly from our pockets and being used to line the pockets of these executives.

The question that begs asking here is just how many of these outraged protesters are in the 41% of our population that pay no federal income taxes in the first place? I question their right to protest based on their lack of "skin in the game". As a "tit for tat" gesture, I demand that Congress release the names of the recipients of the zero dollar federal tax bill so that I can arrange similar bus trips to, and protests at their houses.

ACORN will use fraud to skew census data

In the weeks before the election in 2008, a friend forwarded a "cutesy" cartoon to me that was credited to "This Modern World" by Tom Tomorrow and originally came from Salon.com. The cartoon was satire created to make people with Conservative views look ignorant by asking the question "are you a "real" American?"

This week we learned that ACORN will be recruiting census takers for the 2010 U.S. census. Is there any doubt that ACORN will use the same tactics for counting citizens that they have used in the past to create voter registrations?

Maybe Tom Tomorrow and the editors at Salon need a lesson on the U.S. Constitution which states that the number of members in the House of Representatives for each State is proportional to the numbers of citizens in the State. It will be very easy for ACORN to commit the same kind of fraud, for which they have been previously convicted, on the U.S. census. Like the bogus voter registrations, ACORN will "create" bogus citizens in States that tend to vote ACORN's way which will result in skewing the stability of our Republic by placing greater numbers of partisan lackeys in the House of Representatives from areas that are sympathetic to and in agreement with ACORN's views.

Hmm. It turns out that voter registration fraud and voter fraud are indeed one and the same and that maybe we're not so ignorant after all.

Obama shows disrespect to our closest ally - 3 times

Our closest ally, Great Britain, has been disrespected by Obama 3 times in the last 6 weeks. First Obama removed the bust of Winston Churchill that was given to the White House by Great Britain and he sent it back to England.

Secondly, he failed to honor the British Prime Minister with the traditional, joint press conference with all the flags in the East Room, with the press corps made up of both British and US reporters honoring their first meeting.

Thirdly, as the icing on the cake, after receiving three very thoughtful gifts from the British Prime Minister:

1. An ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President. The same oak timbers that were used to make Obama's desk in the oval office.

2. The framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise (English spelling) Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.

3. A first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

And what does Obama give the Prime Minister of our greatest ally in the whole world? 25 DVDs of classic American Films - not even in blu ray format. How thoughtful. These are items that could have been purchased by the Prime Minister on Amazon.com if he really wanted to see them.

I guess they don't teach manners at Harvard these days.

I thought that the world was supposed to love the U.S after we elected Obama to the highest office in the land. Well in Great Britain here is what they have to say.

Outside of the National Gallery in London (which is a famous art museum as clarification for you Obama voters), there is a statue of George Washington (the first U.S. President as clarification for you Obama voters) that was presented to Great Britain by the commonwealth of Virginia. I wonder how Obama would feel if Prime Minister Brown ordered that statue to be returned to Obama with instructions on where he could put it?

American small business needs more bridges - updated

Update to this posting is that Joe LIED when he said that Louisiana was losing 400 jobs every day. The FACTS actually show that Louisiana is actually gaining jobs. C'mon Joe where's that retraction? Stand up Joe, let everyone see ya.

Where was the fact checking behind the scenes by CBS to point this mistake out to Joe?

American small business needs more bridges

Every time that Joe Biden opens his mouth, America is treated to comedy more laughable than any Jay Leno, David Letterman or Saturday Night Live monologue or skit.


On CBS News this morning we were treated to more comedic antics when Biden was asked by a small business person named Lisa Hendrickson as to how the stimulus package will help small businesses like hers. Joe comes up with 3 very powerful responses suggesting first that transport of her customers to her or maybe the bridge across the creek to get to her needs repair, and thirdly that "smart" utility meters will contribute to her bottom line.

Then Joe tells the audience that Lisa should call him for a specific answer. I wonder how many agents Joe has at his call center to take these calls from the millions of small business owners across America. Let's take him up on his offer to help let's have all small business owners call him (his phone address uh.... number is 202-456-1414) to get the straight information on how the stimulus package will help them.

What was that web site number anyway?

Obama's tax break for 95% of Americans

Okay, the campaign promise has been fulfilled. Obama's massive spending dubbed stimulus package provides for what he calls a tax cut that provides the average American family with $13 per week in relief. In order to get the full effect of this "tax cut" we need to put it into perspective.

This "tax cut" will allow you to purchase:
1. 3 additional #2s on the McDonald's breakfast menu each week. OR
2. An extra 8 gallons of gasoline every week. OR
3. One loaf of bread, one gallon of milk and a bag of Doritos.

What will you spend your windfall on?

Judges in California say release inmates

How long before former Gitmo residents get this treatment?

Obama goes to Elkhart, IN and doesn't get booed off the stage?

In Elkhart, IN there is currently an unemployment rate over 15%. Do you know what the main industry in Elkhart, IN is? This is the recreational vehicle capital of the U.S. In addition, there are many businesses in this area that support the automobile manufacturing industry in Michigan and other parts of the U.S.

Today, Obama addressed Elkhart, IN to gain support for his economic stimulus pork spending bill. What a hypocrite. It was only 8 months ago that Obama said that "we can't drive our SUVs" while the rest of the world is suffering by using less energy than us. The RVs that are responsible for a large number of the jobs in Elkhart, IN are equivalent to SUVs on steroids. Instead of measuring their fuel efficiency in miles per gallon RVs are measured in gallons per mile. Obama and his followers don't want to see RVs being manufactured because they use too much energy and have huge carbon footprints.



C'mon Obama tell us how you really feel.

McCain gets it right on the stimulus bill

John McCain finally shows some sensible thinking instead of giving in to his desire to "walk across the aisle" and feel good backslapping with his opponents.

No pork or earmarks in the stimulus bill?

Tonight, Obama changed his tune related to the stimulus bill. Last week he said "when was the last time that a bill of this magnitude went out without pet projects?" Tonight he guaranteed that there were no earmarks or pork spending in the stimulus bill. I guess that is a matter of perspective whether you consider $4B-$5B for ACORN as an earmark or pork.

You can read about 49 other earmarks here.

Obama triples down on the lie

In his speech tonight, Obama again stated the lie (twice) that the U.S. debt was doubled over the last 8 years. This type of math error should be expected from a person that thinks that we have 58 States.

In my math class a debt of $6T doubles to $12T, not $10T.

Stimulus Package = Socialized Health Care

Remember Hillary Clinton's failed attempt to socialize health care in the U.S. in 1994? Tom Daschle (the tax evasion specialist) says that there was too much debate and discussion which ended up killing the plan then. So, what does he do now? He puts a new bureaucracy called the NCHIT into the Stimulus Bill to take our health care to government control.

Guess who gets the shaft? The elderly. Like the TARP Bill which gave sole discretion to the Secretary of the Treasury to act to ensure the economic well being of the American people, the Stimulus Bill gives broad power to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to determine which doctors and health care providers are practicing "meaningful use" of the systems and policies created by this new bureaucracy. The Bill establishes a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research who will have the power to make the "tough" decisions that elected politicians won't make (e.g. who gets treatment and who doesn't).

This Obama bill stinks more and more as the days go by. Write and call your (non) representatives now before the bill is passed through and made into law.

Another broken campaign promise

We're only 3 weeks into Obama's presidency and another campaign promise has been broken. Remember when the "hope and change" guy promised transparency and no rushing of bills through Congress before they can be read by even the people voting on them?

In fact, Obama's web page says

Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to
the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As
president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the
American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website
for five days.

AND

Shine Light on Earmarks and Pork Barrel Spending: Obama's Transparency and
Integrity in Earmarks Act will shed light on all earmarks by disclosing the name
of the legislator who asked for each earmark, along with a written
justification, 72 hours before they can be approved by the full Senate.

In tonight's speech Obama justified earmarks in the stimulus bill by saying "when was the last time a bill of this magnitude went out without earmarks?" Oh, that makes it OK then, cause he said so.

Obama's U.S. faced with catastrophe speech

Obama spoke to the Democrats at their retreat tonight and said some interesting things.

Obama said that the last 8 years doubled our national debt and mentioned that this was a bad thing. This was an exaggeration as the current debt is around $10T and the last 8 years added $4T which is a 75% increase not 100% which the word double suggests. His new $930B plus in spending will increase annual government spending by 17% and increase the national debt by 20% over the next 2 years (the current spending deficit is around $500B, the stimulus adds another $500B in deficit spending). If that is allowed to continue, the national debt will double again in 7.2 years.

So, more of a bad thing now equals a good thing?

Last November, Obama promised to go through the federal budget line by line and eliminate the waste. Where are the results of this line by line review? Did I miss the news that day? Why are we rushing through Congress a new set of spending before the waste has been eliminated in the current budget? I don't run my household budget this way. Why do we allow our government to do so?

Related to employment he stated that
There were 626,000 new unemployment claims this week
500,000 jobs were lost in January
500,000 jobs were lost in December
2.6 million jobs lost in 2008

This comes to a total of 3.7 million lost jobs since January 2008 according to Obama's math.
He says that his "stimulus" plan will save or create 3 million jobs. How do you account for a "saved" job anyway? This means that given his calculation of the 3.7 million jobs lost since January 2008, we will still have 700,000 people who have lost their jobs that won't have jobs after this so called "stimulus". Wouldn't a real stimulus create new jobs in addition to those already lost?

Obama justified the earmarks in the stimulus bill by saying "when was the last time that a bill of this magnitude went out without pet projects?" Yeah, but isn't that one of the so called "failed policies of the past" that Obama campaigned against for the last 2+ years? Where's the change? Where's the hope?

Where's the money going to come from?

Democrats to America - Taxes? We don't pay no stinkin' taxes

The Democrats don't mind spending money when it is someone elses. First we hear that Democrats are less charitable . Or how about the Democrat's annual boondoggles at the expense of taxpayers. Now we find case after case of liberal Democrats who didn't pay their taxes.

Let's put the IRS on auditing the whole Obama administration from the top down. We might be able to solve our deficit overnight.

Economic Stimulus = Santa's Christmas List

Vegas wants some neon signs, Austin needs a (frisbee) golf course, doggy needs a place to run, kiddies want to swim. These are just some of the "shovel ready" projects that have State and local governments walking to Obama with their hands out to get a hold on some more of our money.

And to add insult to injury, Hollywood needs a stimulus bailout. We should have let this one stay in the stimulus bill. That way Obama could limit actors and directors pay to $500K like he plans for other executives.

My roof needs replacement. I would create 3-4 new jobs putting in solar shingles and would reduce my carbon footprint at the same time. Where do I go to stand in line?

Comrade Obama Nationalizing American Industry

Today Reuters announced that Obama is set to limit executive pay for industries that received bailout money. Note that the article hints that this is the beginning of "a broad effort to overhaul pay practices". Also of note is that this will be popular with "average" Americans. Why would average Americans relish their government limiting the top pay levels for any capitalist entity? This doesn't improve an "average" American's lot in life one bit and in fact tells us that America is the land of opportunity until you make $500K per year then it ceases to be the land of opportunity.

I have started an office pool to predict the date where this policy is extended to other capitalist entities such as those that receive money via government contracts, or how about those that take tax credits from the economic stimulus bill.

Voting has consequences and we have voted in a group of communists that are only beginning to steal our freedoms.

Don't cash that stimulus check

Obama's "stimulus" plan calls for "tax cuts" in the form of checks to be sent to all Americans that meet the criteria. I warn you now: DO NOT CASH THAT CHECK!

Why, you ask?

General Motors, Chrysler and Ford took checks from our benevolent government and were told by Congress that they had to sell their corporate jets. Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and other banks took checks from our benevolent government and are now being told by Obama that they cannot purchase a corporate jet or a redecorated executive suite and are being told by Obama how much their executives can make in compensation.

What strings will be attached to your bailout? How much of your freedom are you willing to give up for a $500 or $1,000 check?

Financial "genius" running Treasury

On Monday 1/26/2009, our illustrious Senate voted 60-34 to confirm Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary. This position, among other duties, is to manage the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. The Treasury Secretary has complete authority over the TARP funds allotted in the banking bailout in 2008. In addition, Geithner will oversee the printing of money to dilute the American currency and create inflation.

It turns out that Geithner failed to pay $43K in Social Security and Medicare taxes between 2002 and 2006. His failure to pay is a result of his employer, the IMF, paying him the gross as if he were self employed. The policies of the IMF also required Geithner to fill out a request to receive the "gross up" allowance that was designed to cover these tax payments. Millions of self employed and small business owners in America have the same responsibility to pay not only their individual share of Social Security and Medicare but also the other half that usually is paid by your employer on your behalf.

Obama, John Kerry and the mainstream media outlets ran to Geithner's aid to announce that his failure to pay was an "honest mistake". It turns out that he paid for 2003 and 2004 when the IRS audited him and found the mistake, but only paid for 2001 and 2002 after he was chosen by Obama as the nominee for Treasury Secretary.

There are really only 2 angles from which you can view this.
1. Geithner lied. This was not a "mistake" at all. He deliberately avoided paying these taxes and was caught red handed. Even after the IRS exposed his error, he failed to go back and correct the 2 years' returns that weren't audited until it was apparent that this information would become public.

OR

2. It really was a mistake and he really is sorry.

Either way, this incident disqualifies him from being the CFO for the United States doesn't it? Apparently the intelligent people such as Barack Obama and 60 of our entitled Senators disagree.

Mainstream media gets it wrong on bailout and taxes

The mainstream media, the Democrats, Barack Obama and his complete staff are without exception calling the program where certain people receive checks from the federal government a "tax cut". Either they are deceiving us purposely or they need remedial education in math.

From a Reuters article on 1/27/2009
"Some $275 billion of the package would go toward tax cuts. The other $550 billion would pay for public works projects, alternative energy initiatives and the bolstering of unemployment benefits and other safety-net programs."

When you hand out money to people who pay $0 in federal income taxes it is NOT a tax cut, it is a wealth redistribution welfare payment - a gift. Was it 3rd grade where we learned that when you multiply anything by zero the answer comes out zero? I guess that rule doesn't apply if your name is Obama or if you report the news for Reuters, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, AP, MSNBC or NY Times.

Facts:
1. Close to 40% of our population pay $0 in federal income taxes (not counting those that don't report their income to the IRS) and 100% of these will receive a check if this bailout is passed.

2. 97% of the federal income tax bill is paid by 50% of the taxpayers.