House GOP Needs To Play Debt Ceiling Hardball

January 2, 2013 Leave a comment

Obama signed the fiscal cliff deal, increasing taxes and Federal spending. Obama got himself a political victory, sealed by moronic Republicans refusal to permanently pass the Bush tax cuts on multiple occasions over the last decade. The biggest loser of them all is John Boehner, who originally agreed to $800 billion in tax increases only to be out negotiated by Mitch McConnell who agreed to only $620 billion over a decade. The real loser though is the American people who once again saw neither party willing to tackle the real problem: Spending. The spending cuts negotiated by the debt ceiling deal of 2011 were delayed two months leading one to wonder if the Federal government will ever cut anything.

We still have a debt ceiling issue as the we’re nearing hitting the limit. Obama declared he won’t negotiate over the debt ceiling. If this is the case, the House Republicans ought to be content not negotiating and thus not raising the debt ceiling. Obama has declared we can’t cut our way into prosperity. Perhaps this is true but we can cut our way to a balanced budget. Unfortunately this President refuses to cut anything. We’ve been extending long term unemployment for years, we could have put a stop to the madness. Instead half of the tax increases will go to extended long term unemployment welfare. Yesterday’s bill did nothing to tackle the deficit problem.

If Obama won’t tackle the deficit problem then Republicans must. The GOP controls the purse strings according to the Constitution. It’s time for them to exercise the power that the Constitution gives them. They put themselves in a rotten position concerning the fiscal cliff, Obama had the upper hand. Now the Republicans have the upper hand and it’s time for Boehner to use it. If Boehner won’t then perhaps Eric Cantor should be the Speaker. Cantor voted against the fiscal cliff monstrosity, Boehner and Paul Ryan voted for it. There’s a clear line in the Republican caucus.

Obama won’t negotiate the debt ceiling, let the debt ceiling hit. Obama wants Obamacare funded, the House GOP should refuse. Obama wants Federal employees paid for, the House GOP should refuse. Obama wants one big spending program funded after another, the House should refuse. The House should pass a military budget, let the Democrat Senate not pass it or let the President veto it. The House Republicans have some power at this point, they need to start using it.

Of course Boehner won’t use the power given to him in the Constitution. He hasn’t over the last two years, he’s too weak to take on Obama. This is the second major negotiation that Boehner lost control of. He lost control of the debt ceiling negotiation in 2011 and he lost control of the fiscal cliff. How many more major fiasco’s are the House Republicans willing to put up with? It’s time for the House GOP to do what they were elected to do: Cut spending. If Boehner won’t do it then perhaps Eric Cantor will.

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Fiscal Cliff Deal A Victory For No One

January 1, 2013 2 Comments

Senate Republicans largely caved on a tax increase bill passed at 2am today. For every dollar of spending cuts, there are $41 dollars worth of tax increases. Of course the Senate and the President failed to address the real problem this country faces: Spending. While the Senate and President will run around touting $620 billion in tax increases (interestingly less than the $800 bill Boehner caved to just a couple weeks ago) that figure is over a decade. In other words, it will only bring in $62 billion this year. We have a $1 trillion budget deficit. Do the math, even when you add in $15 billion in allegedly up front spending cuts we’re not even reducing the budget deficit by 8%.

The entire point of this episode was a class warfare. Obama isn’t the slightest bit interested in reducing the budget deficit. He truly cares not about our nation’s $16 trillion debt that is likely to rise to $20 trillion by the end of his term. Whether Obama is a Keynesian or the sort of socialist who doesn’t have a clue about economics, either way Obama is uninterested in addressing the real problem we face. If we Republicans were  honest, we would acknowledge that neither was Mitt Romney as he never presented a plan that seriously reduced spending. Even if we won in November, we’d be facing the same problem and the same refusal to cut spending.

While the media and President will run around today claiming the fiscal cliff was avoided, the fact is they’re only pushing it off a few years. The debt our nation has is unsustainable. Especially so with the paltry economic growth we have faced under Obama. There is going to come a point where we can no longer afford interest payments on this debt. We’ll be forced to decide whether we continue paying for the military, long term unemployment and social security payments or pay interest on the debt. If we refuse to cut, defaulting on our loans will have the same effect as cutting those programs.

Massive cuts in the future could be avoided if we would start cutting now. Small across the board spending cuts, caps on Federal hiring, not replacing retiring employees etc can reduce the deficit. But the Senate and the President refuse to do any of that and the House is leaderless. No party has a mandate to do anything but more of the same. The country either doesn’t care about this problem or doesn’t understand it. Rather than doing what’s best for the country, Congress and the President are playing class warfare games that don’t even amount to a 10% reduction in the annual budget deficit even if their numbers are accurate. If we really wanted to be honest we would acknowledge that despite rate increases the rich will find tax shelters and the Feds won’t walk away with $62 billion in new revenue absent massive economic growth.

We’re fooling ourselves if we think this is some grand deal worked out by the Senate. It barely involved Obama, once again he has displayed a complete inability to negotiate with anyone in Congress. John Boehner was rendered irrelevant a couple weeks ago. If anything House Republicans came out victorious as the tax increases come in at less than what Boehner originally agreed to. Perhaps the Tea Party still has some power, they got a better deal by holding out. But this is hardly a victory for anyone, especially the American people. We still have a government that refuses to address its spending problem.

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GOP Should Walk After Ridiculous Obama Tax Proposal

November 30, 2012 2 Comments

It appears the Obama administration has made its first offer in the fiscal cliff negotiations. It includes a $1.6 trillion tax hike, $50 billion in new stimulus spending, an elimination of the debt ceiling and undefined spending cuts to be magically decided next year or in layman’s terms never. Yeah, this is the Obama administration’s offer. They aren’t kidding around. Speaker Boehner shouldn’t kid around either, he should walk out of negotiations immediately. Until Obama is going to negotiate in good faith the GOP should refuse to negotiate with him. If one thing is clear, Obama is not being reasonable here nor is he trying to negotiate in good faith.

There have been those who wonder whether Obama really wants to avoid the fiscal cliff. He has a lot to gain by allowing the country to fall apart. He can blame Republicans, which he’s been successful at doing. The media is on his side, they’ll pretend like this is really all about tax increases for the “rich” that the GOP is trying to protect. But a $1.6 trillion tax increase over a decade is hardly a tax increase for the rich only. We have a $1 trillion annual deficit, $160 billion a year in additional tax revenue only makes up for 16% of that deficit. Next year, it’s even less if Obama gets $50 billion in meaningless stimulus spending.

The problem here isn’t revenue, it’s spending. Obama obviously isn’t interested in controlling spending, it’s how he got re-elected. While he blames Republicans for refusing massive tax increases, we’re seriously facing a $20 trillion debt at the end of his second term. How can we ever expect to pay that off in my lifetime, to say nothing of my kids? We need to control spending, pushing it off until sometime next year isn’t going to cut it. Of course Obama’s plan eliminates the sequestration cuts that were part of the debt ceiling deal last year. That ought to tell you were magical spending cuts next year will get the GOP.

Boehner and the House Republicans shouldn’t waste their time negotiating with this clown. This proposal isn’t serious, it isn’t meant to kick start serious negotiations. It’s a Democrat’s dream proposal, as though they have total control of the government like they did in 2009. But they don’t have total control, the country elected Republicans to the House and it’s up to them to check Obama here. Boehner can do that by just walking out and refusing to come back until the President offers a real proposal that isn’t a Democrat fantasy.

Obama doesn’t care if a deal gets done or not. He’s going to blame the GOP and the media will go right along with it. Let him do it, we cannot be afraid to stand for our principles. It’s not worth it for the GOP to cave and give Obama everything he wants. It’s two years before the next election, eventually Obama is going to have to come to the negotiating table lest his popularity take a hit. The country cannot afford a massive tax increase that will hurt the economy. We absolutely cannot afford $50 billion in new spending and we sure can’t afford to put real spending cuts off until a fictional time next year. Obama’s proposal is a disgrace, Boehner and the Republicans have to walk out.

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Half of Americans On The Government Dole

May 26, 2012 3 Comments

Earlier this week we discussed the reality of American poverty. What we call poor in American is actually quite rich when compared to the rest of the world. Poor is considered to be a family of four living on less than $22,350. Two billion people in the world live on less than $2 a day. Our poor have more living space and more consumer electronic goods than the average European family. Poverty in America is relative only to the wealth of other Americans. When we look at the rest of the world, American poverty becomes a laughable joke.

With that in mind, it is shocking to discover that 49.1% of Americans are on the government dole. Some of these people are legitimate, around 15% are on medicare and thus are also on social security. But 15% are receiving food stamps and 26% are on medicaid. We have legions of people getting other programs such as WIC, section 8 housing, free school lunches, free cell phones, condoms, drug syringes and a host of other welfare programs. We’re spending a fortune on all of these programs. The Federal government is massively in debt and state governments are increasingly in debt.

In short, we have many millions more on welfare than need to be. We don’t have a problem with poverty in America. What we have a problem with is people living on the dole who don’t belong there. When people can live on the dole but can still afford multiple cars, cable television, HD television sets, microwaves and air conditioning they’re simply getting to much from the government. I don’t begrudge people these consumer goods and creature comforts. But when you’re on the dole and can still afford all these luxuries you have to wonder why anyone would have the incentive to work.

This is perhaps the biggest problem with the welfare state, it saps people of their incentive to work. It turns people into lazy, dependent slaves of the state. Welfare saps people of their humanity. Life shouldn’t be easy on welfare, it should be extremely difficult thus creating incentive to find work. The problem is that we’ve made it far to easy to live on the dole, to be dependent on the state. It’s simply to easy to get food stamps. We’re handing these things out to people who can afford to buy their own food. If you can afford to buy video games, you can afford to buy your own food.

Taxpayers don’t realize the cost or the ease with which people can obtain welfare. Only half of American families pay income taxes. Those taxpayers are middle, upper middle and upper class Americans. Most have no idea what the criteria is for obtaining welfare, be it food stamps, WIC, unemployment or another form of welfare. So they have no idea how easy it is, they have no idea that people who don’t need food stamps are able to obtain them. But it is easy and nearly half of the country is on some form of government assistance.

At some point taxpayers must revolt against this nonsense. We don’t have legions of starving people, we don’t have legions of poor people who cannot afford food and shelter. We have a lower class that can afford all sorts of consumer goods yet expects the government to pick up the tab for basics. This is patently absurd. We’re not talking about people who suddenly finds themselves unemployed, we’re talking about people who are on the dole long term generation to generation. We have a major problem and the Democrats want to make it worse and the Republicans are afraid to do anything about it. Our welfare state is unsustainable and at some point it will collapse.

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Ryan Budget A Good Start

March 21, 2012 9 Comments

In 2008 then Sen. Obama said that the deficit Bush racked up over his eight years was far too high. He called the new debt “irresponsible and unpatriotic.” In three years and two  months Obama has accumulated more debt than Bush did. Obama of course isn’t called irresponsible and unpatriotic by the press, Rep. Paul Ryan is. Ryan introduced the House GOP’s budget proposal the other day. It contains $5.3 trillion in cuts over a decade, or around $530 billion each year. The Ryan budget includes a revamped Medicare program for younger workers, Medicaid and other welfare reforms as well as a simple two tiered tax code with rates of 10% and 25%.

The left is of course howling about the Ryan budget and you can bet the next round of ads featuring Rep. Ryan throwing a wheelchair granny off a cliff will soon appear. The Ryan budget is a modest proposal though. It still includes yearly deficits, albeit at the so-called ‘historical’ average. Allegedly by 2040 the budget will be balanced, which is of course patently absurd in light of the fact that in the next 28 years we’ll have 14 Congresses that can muddle matters. Nevertheless, the Ryan budget is a starting point for a debate that must take place. We cannot afford trillion dollar plus annual budget deficits as we’ve had during the Obama years.

While the left is busy complaining about Ryan’s budget, they offer no budget of their own. The Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budget during Obama’s term. Obama offered a budget, which defeated in the Senate 97-0. Not even Obama’s own party took his budget proposal seriously. Yet these people will sit back and accuse the Republicans of hating the poor and elderly, even while they try to revamp programs like Medicare in order to save them. The Democrats have no ideas of their own, other than to continue spending wildly without  a budget.

Taxpayers cannot afford annual $1 trillion deficits, nor can we afford to return to the annual $1.6 trillion deficits we saw when Democrats controlled the White House and Congress. We have to start making cuts, Ryan’s budget does just that. There is no reason whatsoever why 45 million Americans are on food stamps. It’s to easy to get them, it’s time to make cuts. There are other forms of welfare that need to be time limited in the same manner as the welfare reforms of the 90′s. Medicare needs to be fixed otherwise it will bankrupt the nation. The idea that bureaucrats in Washington get to decide everything must be the way of the past.

The Democrats are whining about the Ryan tax proposal, with the typical class warfare we’ve come to expect from the left. We have over a $1 trillion deficit this year. Obama supports the Buffet rule which would net barely $4 billion a year and $47 billion over an 11 year budget period during which the government under Obama’s plan would see over $7 trillion in new debt. Obama’s other tax increase proposals for the rich wouldn’t even net $100 billion a year and that’s assuming the super rich don’t shift their assets to tax free bonds and other investments, which they have always done in the past. In short the issue with the budget deficit isn’t tax rates, it’s spending.

While the Democrats complain without offering an alternative, the Ryan budget still doesn’t balance the budget. It still calls for annual deficits and a substantial increase in the national debt. Why is it that the Federal government is unable to live within its means? Nevertheless, the Ryan budget is a good starting place. He revamps the tax code, saves Medicare and makes substantial welfare reforms. It’s a good start. Our nation cannot afford trillions in annual deficits and we cannot afford any more debt. The Democrats plan is more of the same, more spending, more deficits and more debt. At least the GOP is trying to change course.

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A Tea Party Downgrade?

August 8, 2011 Leave a comment

Standard & Poors downgraded the credit rating of the United States last Friday. This is the same Standard & Poors that completely missed the mortgage crisis in 2008. One wonders why anyone should take them seriously. One thing to keep in mind is that Wall Street was in the bag for Obama in 2008, now S&P turns around and whines about the lack of tax increases. While I don’t think S&P is doing any favors for Obama, keep in mind in the background most of Wall Street voted for this President.

The Democrats have decided that the downgrade is the fault of the Tea Party. Sen. John Kerry, David Axlerod, Larry Summers and a legion of House Democrats have declared this a “Tea Party Downgrade.” As though a nebulous group of people that came together in 2009 is somehow responsible for $14 trillion in debt and an unstable economy. No sir, it couldn’t be decades of wasteful spending by Democrats and Republicans. It can’t possibly be because of entitlement programs created by both parties that are bankrupting the country. No sir, it’s the people who want to cut back on the size of government who are responsible for the downgrade.

What’s interesting is that the major Tea Party favorites voted against the debt ceiling deal. Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Michelle Bachmann being the two biggest. On a smaller scale, more than 20 other House Republicans, most of them newly elected Tea Party members, all voted against the debt ceiling deal. This includes my new Congressman Justin Amash.

The Tea Party wasn’t to blame for the debt ceiling deal, the establishment of both parties was responsible. The establishment in neither party takes our debt crisis seriously. We all know the Democrats don’t care about massive deficit spending, their accusations that any cuts amount to terrorism is proof of that. But let’s be honest, John Boehner isn’t all that interested in cutting anything either. He’ll stamp his feet about cutting government but if the GOP wins in 2013 Boehner on his own isn’t going to initiate any cuts in government. Just like the Republicans didn’t cut anything when Bush was elected. In fact, Congressional Republicans created new entitlement programs during Bush’s first six years.

The debt this country has isn’t sustainable. Having debt at 100% of GDP and rising isn’t sustainable. The Democrats and apparently S&P want tax increases but the fact is tax increases won’t slow our debt creation and will only result in a further economic downturn. The fact is, if the Federal government confiscated every penny earned by those making over $250,000 a year they would barely get through six months of Obama’s spending.

Taxing the rich isn’t going to solve our debt problem. In fact, it will make the debt problem worse. Around 60% of our consumer spending comes from the top 2%. An even higher percentage of American investment comes from this group. If they are taxed at a higher rate, they’ll have less money to spend and invest. Who do you suppose will be hurt the most? The people who they are currently buying things from and the companies they’re currently investing in. The end result of tax increases will be a recession, just look at what happened in 1991 when Bush, 41, raised taxes. Go back further to 1930 when Hoover raised taxes and 1933 when FDR raised them even higher. The result was a prolonged depression. Raising taxes isn’t the answer.

The answer is spending cuts. We need serious cuts to the size and scope of the Federal government. We need to take a serious look at eliminating some Federal agencies, such as the Department of Education. Yes, we need to look at some cuts in defense spending. We have 11 support personnel for every soldier on the ground, during World War Two it was 7 to 1. There is room for cuts. We need to curb entitlements, we need to curb food stamps for the college aged sons and daughters of millionaires and we need to put a cap on the number of years someone can be on food stamps just like we already have for welfare. We need to repeal Obamacare before it adds to our debt in 2014.

Only a cut in the size of the government will allow our credit rating to go back to AAA. We cannot continue on with the increases in the debt that have taken place since 2007. It was bad enough when Congressional Republicans passed budgets with $500 billion deficits when Bush was President. But the amount of annual debt tripled once the Democrats took power. This sort of spending isn’t sustainable. We’re 18 months away from having $17 trillion in debt. And then what? The government will want more and more and more. One is left wondering when it will all collapse. You can bet that John Kerry will be first in like to call it a Tea Party collapse.

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Obama, Senate Democrats Prepared to Shutdown Government Over $33 Billion in Cuts

April 5, 2011 Leave a comment

President Obama appears prepared to shut down the Federal government on Friday by not agreeing to a week long extension of the continuing 2011 budget. Speaker John Boehner has indicated that Obama’s position and the position of Senate Democrats will likely cause a shutdown. The 2011 budget has a deficit of $1.6 trillion. The Republicans have proposed a measly $60 billion in cuts over the last several months of the fiscal year. (the 2011 fiscal year ends Oct. 1st) Senate Democrats have proposed $20 billion in cuts. It appears that negotiations have placed the difference at little more than $33 billion.

With a budget deficit over $1.6 trillion, it seems absurd to watch the Senate Democrats and President Obama whine and stamp their feet about an extra $33 billion in cuts. Nancy Pelosi issued a press release accusing the Republicans of wanting to eliminate medicare payments, education for children and so on and so forth. All over a measly $33 billion difference between House Republicans and Senate Democrats. Even if we go from the GOP’s original plan, we’re still only talking about $60 billion in cuts on a $1.6 trillion budget deficit. This debate is absurd beyond belief.

Even more absurd is that the Federal government paid out eight times what it took in during the month of March. The Federal government is grossing less than $200 billion a month, really it’s much less than that when you factor in billions in tax refunds. At best the Federal government is set to gross $2.2 trillion this year, far less than the $3.9 trillion they’re spending. Yet Senate Democrats are busy calling pathetic Republican budget cuts of $60 billion ‘extreme.’ I dare say it is the Democrats who are extreme. They can’t even see the massive debt problem this country has.

Taxpayers cannot afford to have government spending at the level it is currently spending at. Like it or not, the economy isn’t picking up. Consumer confidence is down to historic lows. Gallup shows unemployment still at 10%, despite government claims that it is below 9%. While the stock market is up, so is inflation. Food prices are creeping up, as are clothing prices. Gas prices have doubled since President Obama took office. Here in Michigan the price per gallon of gas is $3.84. The end result of all of these issues is that the Federal government isn’t seeing a substantial increase in tax revenue and taxpayers cannot afford a tax increase.

It is completely absurd to watch Senate Democrats and President Obama shut government down over a $33 billion difference in cuts proposed by House Republicans. There were two issues that voters wanted dealt with according to the last election. Jobs was one, the other was budget cuts. The House Republicans are trying to cut the budget in a pathetically small way and they’re being met by what must be complete lunatics in the Democrat Party who think the cuts are extreme. It is extreme not to cut the budget when our national debt is nearly $14.3 trillion. Just to put the GOP’s $60 billion in cuts into perspective, if we took the cuts off the top of our current debt the debt clock would drop from $14.275 trillion to $14.215 trillion.

If the Federal government is shut down this Friday it will be thanks to extremist Democrats in the Senate and White House who refuse to cut any government despite a national debt over $14.2 trillion and a budget deficit of over $1.6 trillion. In the minds of these radical left-wing Democrats $33-60 billion in cuts is extreme. The fact is the only extremists in DC these days are in the Democrat Party. These people are going to bankrupt the country so as to avoid making any cuts, no matter how paltry, to the budget.

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The Scope of Obama’s Disaster

February 16, 2011 Leave a comment

Dick Morris (of dickmorris.com, that’s dickmorris.com, did I mention dickmorris.com fame) in his most recent article has a graph showing the shocking trend  upward of prices of various commodities and downward for our standard of living. All of this has occurred while Obama has been President.   

  January 2009 Today % chg Source
Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S. $1.83 $3.104 69.6% 1
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel) $43.48 $99.02 127.7% 2
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel) $38.74 $91.38 135.9% 2
Gold: London (per troy oz.) $853.25 $1,369.50 60.5% 2
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL $3.56 $6.33 78.1% 2
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL $9.66 $13.75 42.3% 2
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. fob $13.37 $35.39 164.7% 2
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall 7.6% 9.4% 23.7% 3
Unemployment rate, blacks 12.6% 15.8% 25.4% 3
Number of unemployed 11,616,000 14,485,000 24.7% 3
Number of fed. employees, ex. military (curr = 12/10 prelim) 2,779,000 2,840,000 2.2% 3
Real median household income (2008 v 2009) $50,112 $49,777 -0.7% 4
Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10) 31,983,716 43,200,878 35.1% 5
Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10) 7,526,598 9,193,838 22.2% 6
Number of long-term unemployed 2,600,000 6,400,000 146.2% 3
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009) 13.2% 14.3% 8.3% 4
People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009) 39,800,000 43,600,000 9.5% 4
U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings 5 9 n/a 10
Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10) 29.9 23.5 -21.4% 11
Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date) 140 164 17.1% 12
U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate 89.76 82.03 -8.6% 2
U.S. money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) 1,575.1 1,865.7 18.4% 13
U.S. money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim) 8,310.9 8,852.3 6.5% 13
National debt, in trillions $10.627 $14.052 32.2% 14

(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury

The numbers are shocking aren’t they? The price of gas is up nearly 70% while oil prices have skyrocketed 125% or more. Gold is up 60%, corn is up 78% and sugar is up 168%. Unemployment is up nearly 25% and the number of people on welfare is up 22%. Worse still, the number of Americans on food stamps is up 35%.

All of this is under Obama’s watch. There are a few reasons why these numbers are so terrible. First, the national debt has risen by 32% since Obama took office in January 2009. It’s slated to rise by $1.65 trillion or even $2 trillion if the GOP doesn’t raise taxes as Obama’s budget demands. The Federal government is spending money that it doesn’t have and that seriously hurts American taxpayers and American consumers.

But it doesn’t stop there. Since Obama took office the money supply has increased 16%. That means the Fed is printing money, thus making the money you currently have less valuable. It should of course come as no surprise that the value of the American dollar is down 8% against the more stable Japanese Yen. This is of course bad news for most Americans because it means our money will purchase less goods. Since income is down almost 1%, it means that our income is really down closer to 10% because our dollar won’t purchase as much as it did before Obama took office. The prices of the basic food commodities stated above bear that out. Also note that Cotton is up around 125% since Obama took office, which means basics like clothing cost more.

Obama has been a disaster for middle class Americans and really for all Americans. Obama and the Federal Reserve are increasing the money supply and this making our money worth less. The Federal budget continues to skyrocket with no end in sight, making things worse for all of us. Obamacare has raised taxes and raised costs for employers. As a result, employers can hire fewer workers and cannot offer cost of living raises to their employees. Obama’s massive regulation push is causing employers not to hire while Obama’s Wall Street regulations are causing investors to sit on their money rather than invest in new jobs.

Obama has made our lives worse in just two years on the job. His answer is more government. He wants more regulations, more government bureaucrats running the free market, more government involvement in your daily life. The Department of Health and Human Services under Obama spends more money in one year than the entire Federal government did in 1965. Yet Obama wants more government. There is an alternative to Obama and that’s a return to the principles of limited government that our founders believed in. We must work hard (and pray hard) that the Republicans nominate someone who believes in limited government. The current course of government is unsustainable. It will result in financial ruin for this nation. It will result in the poor house for the middle class.

Filed under 2012 election, Obama, Politics Tagged with , , , , , ,

Obama Just Another Tax and Spend Democrat

February 15, 2011 Leave a comment

President Obama’s budget proposal includes $1.5 trillion in new taxes. He’s bringing back his demands for upper income tax increases as well as a capital gains tax increase for all of us. Middle class tax payers can look forward to a cap on deductions, meaning you’ll be capped at how much mortgage interest and property taxes you can deduct. So much for no tax increases on the middle class. Because the price of gas and other energy isn’t high enough, the President proposes increasing energy taxes. As though those taxes won’t be passed onto consumers.

The President’s budget proposal is a sad comedy of taxes and massive spending. Obama is the new face of the tax and spend Democrat. His tax increases would do little more than stifle the economy more than it is already stifled. Every dollar of money taxed by government is a dollar that is not spent in some way in the private sector. Every dollar of money taxed to pay the interest on our ridiculous debt is a dollar that will not create jobs in the private sector. With Obama’s taxes and deficit spending, he is ensuring a future with less opportunity. Obama arrogantly declares that his budget includes investments for the future, as though government knows how to invest money better than the private sector.

The Obama budget is $3.73 trillion. To pay for this budget the President would need $12,000 from each and every man, woman and child in the country. His budget includes $1.65 trillion in debt, an increase over last year. The President isn’t serious about cutting spending. He isn’t serious about cutting the deficit. If he was serious, he wouldn’t proposing a budget with miniscule spending cuts and an increase in deficit spending. We should expect this though. Obama is nothing but a tax and spend Democrat on steroids.

If one listens to the liberals at the Washington Post and elsewhere you would think that Obama has had to seriously cut back on his plan to remake America. The Post literally believes that the Obama budget ‘reveals vastly diminished ambitions.’ They may very well be correct in this statement. It’s a frightening statement though because it suggests that Obama would take the nation into further debt in order to meet his ambitions for government control. We should thank the good Lord everyday that he has shown us mercy in giving us a Republican House. The GOP House may not cut as much as we would like but at least they’ll block Obama’s absurd deficit spending ambitions.

President Obama is nothing more than a tax and spend Democrat. He hasn’t moved to the center, he’s not trying to work with House Republicans. His budget offers miniscule spending cuts and an increase in the budget deficit. It also includes massive tax increases, which can’t possibly be serious proposals considering the GOP’s pledge not to raise taxes. Obama hasn’t changed one bit, he’s the same tax and spend far left Democrat he always was.

Filed under economy, Obama, Politics, Taxes Tagged with , , , ,

Jobs Report Not As Good As Obama Claims

January 8, 2011 Leave a comment

The job report issued by the Federal government is a complete and total mess. The Obama administration is pleased that the unemployment rate is down to 9.4% and that just over 100,000 jobs were created last month. However if we look closer at the job report we’ll see that over 260,000 people completely left the labor force, which is the real cause of the lower unemployment rate. You’ll recall that the unemployment rate only includes those people who are looking for work. If someone gives up looking for a job, they aren’t in the labor force anymore and aren’t included in the statistic.

Adding 100,000 jobs to the economy is nothing to sneeze at. But when 260,000 people just give up looking for a job, a reduction in the unemployment rate is sort of meaningless. The fact is, this administration has made the economic recovery go much slower than it would have otherwise. Obamacare is causing health insurance policies to increase 30-60% which is slowing job growth. Obamacare is increasing paperwork costs for businesses above and beyond the cost of a policy, which is slowing job growth. The massive increase in the national debt that Obama and the Democrats has slowed job growth.

If government would have stayed out of the financial meltdown of 2008, the economy would be recovered by now and it would be stronger than it was. The Bush bailout did little more than keep failing businesses in the marketplace. Obama’s takeover of GM did little more than keep a dying company afloat. The economy is still feeling the negative effects of keeping these dying dinosaurs in the marketplace, all propped up with tax money of course.

Government loves to claim they create jobs and I’m sure Obama will take credit for all 103,000 jobs created last month. The fact is government doesn’t create anything. They take things away (taxes, freedom etc) while producing nothing. Obama didn’t create any jobs, private businesses with private capital created jobs. Private businesses with the freedom to use their private capital as they see fit would be producing even more jobs if it weren’t for government regulating their businesses and their money. Obamacare is but one example, the endless regulations the Federal and state governments have for individual businesses is almost unbelievable. For every page of law the Congress passes there are hundreds of pages of regulations. The cost of these regulations adds up and costs the economy jobs. Government doesn’t create jobs, they create conditions that prevent job creation.

Filed under Big Government, economy, jobs, Obamacare, Politics, Taxes, unemployment Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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