The Tax Man Cometh...

I was reading some articles and blogs earlier tonight, and I found an interesting link to this video.



Taxes are truly an encroachment on our liberty. This is why so many decent Americans are taking the time out of their busy schedules to peaceably organize and protest - to show the Government that Americans know Freedom, and they're not going to relinquish any more of it without a fight.

It really bothers me there are so many on the left, especially in leadership positions, like Nancy Pelosi...and even the big O himself, that are discounting the worries and concerns of these citizens. They have called them racists, and have proclaimed on National television that "special interests" are behind the "Astroturfing" (Astroturfing is a way for the left to say that, rather than this movement being a grassroots movement, it's manufactured by the Right-Wing Special Interests). The funniest thing is that they say that, and they they get the SCIU and ACORN to recruit protesters (thugs) to go to town hall meetings and protests and intimidate, and in some cases even physically violate, the good, decent, and hard-working Americans that are fed up with the rampant and out-of-control liberal agenda that Obama and the Democratic leadership have embarked on.

Here a few videos that show footage from different protests. I think my favorite is the first one here - it's just a surveillance camera that took image captures as the crowds that ran through the streets of Washington D.C. last week steadily grew larger - it's quite amazing to me. If you're reading this and agree with me, you're not alone. If you disagree, I wonder why you're not alone either.





And here's one that shows how things got started back in February of 2009, not even a month into Obama's presidency.



Just a side note, after the inauguration Ceremony for President Obama, there was hoards of trash left on the ground everywhere. This behavior from the environment-loving liberals?

After the Washington Tea Party on the 11th, things were pretty clean. See for yourself...

This is from the Inauguration in January of this year.


This is from the Tea Party last week. I see a small difference.
I just think it's interesting that people who want the Government to leave Americans alone to be responsible for themselves are, in large measure, responsible for themselves!

Blame Game

This morning I read the following headline on the Drudge Report:
High U.S. Budget Deficits not Obama's Fault - Orzag.

I thought it was interesting that this is the official tone of the White House, and has been since the beginning of this administration. If there's a problem, or if there's any criticism concerning how President Obama reacts to any situations, the standard defense is "Let's not forget, I inherited this (insert problem)..."

The article above is in related to the Budget deficit, which is now estimated to be $1.8Trillion.

To be fair, Obama didn't blame Bush for the NYC Air force 1 press photo fiasco; for that he blamed his Military Office Director.

That was darn decent of him.

What will be a fun game the next three and a half years is to try and guess which official in the cabinet will next fall on their sword for Obama.

Long live the King.

Where's Milton Friedman when you need him?

The other day, as I was reading through some online articles, I stumbled upon a short clip of Milton Friedman on the Donahue show back in what looked like the early '80s. As I watched Dr. Friedman explain his point to Mr. Donahue, something happened inside of me. I was absolutely fascinated by what I was listening to. I'd never heard a public figure make so much sense. That night, I watched over 2 hours of YouTube videos on Milton Friedman. I know, that's absolutely ridiculous, but what can I say? I've shared this find with a few of my friends, but thought it would serve us all well to place it in this venue. I have embedded the first clip I saw here, and if you are so moved, as I was, you can follow that link to find more Milton goodness.

The subject that they discuss in the video is Greed. It's very timely right now, as the majority of public leaders are discussing the failings of Capitalism and how we must move toward a more "fair" society (see Socialism). I hope that you enjoy this.



I truly wish I could be like this man, so articulate in common sense. I hope we all will try and stand up for our values with a similarly calm and confident manner as Dr. Friedman did.

To Regulate, or not to Regulate...

News Flash: "Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight of Executive Pay". This article describes B.O.'s new plan to regulate the Market. What it's saying is that the Administration is seeking to control the salaries of executives from Financial Service companies, Banks, and even other companies in general...whether they've received bail out money or not.

Let's let that last one sink in there...

That's right, Obama's now aiming at taking control of how much an executive can be paid, period. This is one step closer to nationalizing businesses, and taking away the freedom of the American worker, tying the hands of the productive in this country and killing the ambition of those that are seeking to make a better way in life.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't make much money, but I'd like to some day. I don't think I'd be evil if I was getting paid a very handsome annual salary; not if I was good at what I did and being compensated according to what the Market dictates.

I've observed in my chosen vocation that there are different tiers of companies when it comes to pay scale, sort of like Baseball. There's the Little Leagues, the fellas that snack on "Big League Chew" because they don't quite have the stomach yet for the real stuff, then there's the Minors, the ones that are pretty big, but have a hard time attracting the top talent, and then there's the Majors, the ones that have no problem getting the best executives, and paying them what they need to.

Granted, sometimes you'll get idiots, like with a good amount of the banks that got in over their heads (Not all of them did, may I add). But I don't put all the blame on them, the legislative branch really did a lot contribute too. It's sort of like this cartoon here:



People are people, and when you pretty much give them an opening and turn a blind eye, some people will jump at the chance to get a quick buck, and some won't.

Now, here's some choice quotes from that article linked up top:

"Depending on the outcome of the discussions, the administration could seek to put the changes into effect through regulations rather than through legislation."

- Nice, so nobody will vote on it...I guess that's one if the things that we "voted" for in November.


"A central aspect of the plan, which has already been announced by the administration, would give the government greater authority to take over and resolve problems at large troubled companies not now regulated by Washington, like insurance companies and hedge funds."

"Officials say the rules could also be applied more broadly to publicly traded companies..."

So, overall, This is bad. I really don't know how far this new regulation stuff will go, but it is troubling nonetheless. When Government steps out of the way, we unleash the drive and ambition of the American people, and there's nothing that can stop us from there...except the Government...

Welcome to the Circus!

This has been a pretty brutal couple of days for a few choice politicians, as well as the AIG team.

Earlier this week, news broke of the bonuses that AIG was paying to a handful of execs totaling $168M (final amount still in dispute). Now, AIG is the recipient of, to my best estimate, approximately $187B in stimulus money(so the bonuses are .09% of that), which is being funded by us taxpayers. Naturally, because of that last fact, not too many people are excited the aforementioned bonuses. A wave of public outcry ensued, which was followed by strong denunciations from The White House, as well as both branches of Congress.

This is all pretty standard. Whenever there's a public outcry, there's a political one as well. This is most commonly referred to as demagoguery, when a leader or group of leaders makes use of a popular position only to gain power.

I realize this is just a claim, but my reasoning for feeling this way is this: If people like Congressman Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, or Senator Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, were sincere, they'd be stepping down first and offering up an audit trail of all of their indiscretions, but they're not. They're just calling for the firing squad to open up on AIG because it's politically expedient.

How dare they call on anyone to step down from leadership while they themselves enjoy their power, influence, and multitude of perks, all at the taxpayer's expense, while they also spend us into bondage at an unprecedented rate. It's not just those two, it's anyone calling AIG out. This includes almost every politician in Washington, including the President.

Now, I'm not a fan of AIG, I think that giving bonuses out to execs that ruin your company is not only ethically wrong, but really stupid. Add on top of that the fact that they received such a large amount of tax $$ and it's worse. But, strictly speaking, these bonuses were legal, and were made possible by an amendment which was added to the stimulus package that passed in February that not one of the congressmen or senators who voted for it read. It was added to the bill by Chris Dodd, and was approved to go in by a conference between a Senate sub-committee and the White House, according to Nancy Pelosi.

Yes, Nancy placed the blame on the Senate, and the White House, even though she rammed this bill down the throats of every member of her House, making them vote on a 1,000+ page bill within 7 hours of seeing for the first time.

The Dodd amendment gave a loophole to any institution that gave bonuses to its employees or executives as long as the bonuses were planned and contracted out prior to February 2009. So, when pressed on this amendment last week, Chris Dodd lied and said he didn't have anything to do with it, then recanted his lie two days later, but added that the White House told him to lie.

Hmm.

This is a disaster. It's situations like this that make it clear that the leadership in Washington is completely incompetent. These people that couldn't even get their story straight when the media lights are on, are the same people that would love to run our country's Health Care, and that would like to discourage charitable giving so that they, the Government, could take on a more "responsible" role there (see: "Strings attached").

When are we going to stand up to this group of underachievers?

The Great American Ponzi Scheme

Bernard Madoff is expected to plead guilty on Thursday to charges that he defrauded investors in one of the largest ponzi schemes in US history.  This scheme is second only to our current Social Security system scheme (or shall we say Social InSecurity). By pleading guilty, Madoff is not required to tell prosecutors where all the money is.  So, thousands of investors will both not receive the interest promised them...they won't receive the principle that they invested.  Pretty sad...these unfortunate souls are in some cases out their retirement savings.  

Luckily they can still count on the retirement promised by the greatest American Ponzi scheme ever: Social InSecurity!  

Social InSecurity was part of FDR's New Deal and was implemented "supposedly" to eliminate the rising number of older adults living in 

poverty.  (It is worth noting that much of the New Deal was tossed out by the  Supreme Court as unconstitutional, but that Social InSecurity was not because FDR stacked the courts with New Deal judges who would support his "policies.")  The idea that Social InSecurity would pay for the retirement of all Americans is a farce, since the retirement age at conception of the program was greater than the average life expectancy for Americans.  

This means that for every American who actually lived to the age of retirement and started collecting benefits, there were ample workers paying into the system.  As we get closer to a 2:1 

ratio of workers to retirees, we can expect to see Social InSecurity taxes increase and benefits cut-great fun for the whole family :)  (I'd like to send a shout out to FDR for creating unconstitutional programs to treat a temporary ailment, while making that ailment last for over a decade while at the same time creating even worse problems in the future!)

But wait, that is my money that I paid into the system...shouldn't I be able to get the benefit of my investment?  Well...no, you shouldn't according to the courts, no one has any legal right to Social InSecurity.  This means that you can be denied benefits, or worse yet, if the system were to go belly up and Congress can say, "Oh well, thanks for the years you payed in, see you at your new greeter job at Walmart."  

To put this in perspective, if you think that you are going to get a better retirement from investing in Social InSecurity you are like Phyllis Weaver from the greatest 80's movie ever made by Weird Al: UHF.  

Phyllis Weaver has just won a Red Snapper on Wheel of Fish...and this is how the rest of the scene goes down:

Kuni (karate instructor and host of Wheel of Fish): Ahhh, a red snapper.  Mmmmm, very tasty. Okay, Weaver, listen carefully.  You can hold on to your red snapper...[Hiro-San emerges, carrying a table with a box]...or you can go for what's in the box that Hiro-San is bringing down the aisle right now!  What's it gonna be?

[Phyllis Weaver has difficulty in choosing as the audience point to the box]

Phyllis Weaver:  I'll take the box.  The box!

Kuni:  You took the box?  Let's see what's in the box!

[Hiro-San opens the box; the audience gasps.  There is silence]

Kuni:  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing!  STUPID!  You're so STU-PIIIIIIID!

We are all so STU-PIIIIIIID for thinking that Social InSecurity will provide a quality retirement for us.  Chances are that it will be 

defunct, and you will be living in a spare bedroom at your oldest daughter's house.  That's because we are following the crowd in giving our very tasty red snapper to the Government for what is inside the box...you know the rest!  

Also, we allowed ourselves to be lulled into the entitlement mentality that everyone has the right to idle away the golden years sitting on some beach somewhere...or in some rocking chair in a living room in Sun City, AZ.  

So, it looks like we were all duped into believing in a system that's a sham...but wait, messiah was just elected president!  He and only he can fix Social InSecurity, provide universal healthcare, magically create universal education from birth through college, and save the world from global warming!  On second thought, he has the substance and experience that is found inside Hiro-San's box: NOTHING!!!!  He represents the worst of the entitlement movement which would give each American the "right" to claim financial support from every other American.  

How did we get to this point?  The thought used to be that parents work hard to provide more for their children than they had growing up.  Now, in the twisted Bizzaro World, parents are claiming the future earnings of their children so they can sustain their own standard of living. In Bizzaro World we recently passed the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." In the real world, this is known as the "American Robbing from our Kids While Calling it a Reinvestment Act of 2009 Which is Soon to be Followed by a Similar Act of Stealing from our Kids Act of 2010."  So, in honor of such acts, I propose that for the next few years at each child's birthday, we give little Johnny or Jane their own Hiro-San's box of nothing, and buy ourselves a new pair of leather shoes or something else "we deserve."

Oh yeah!  Let's do something about Social InSecurity too before we get left out in the cold by the greatest ponzi scheme in American history.

Possible solutions: personal retirement savings (although this doesn't look too attractive right now with the way the markets are responding to Obama's financial moves), families taking care of their elders, charitable organizations which assist the elderly, or working till you die (FDR did). 

To Tax, or not to Tax...

President Obama has proposed a tax increase to all couples, individuals, and small businesses earning $250,000 or more per year. This tax increase isn't just a rate hike on the top, but also lurking within is a reduction on the amount of deduction these folks can take on all of their charitable giving. So, let's just soak that in. One can only assume, from this, that the federal government is now trying to discourage the wealthy from giving to charities.

According to the speech that Obama gave to Congress last week, the tax hikes are to fund a plethora of long-standing Democratic goodies, but none more at the forefront than...UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE!!! I just heard that Psycho music playing in my head. Did you hear it? The cool thing is, the president is using this tax hike as a "Down Payment" on the health care plan. Guess what the plan is. Oops! There's no plan yet! President Obama is taking money from the top layer of American earners to pay for something that he's all but admitted doesn't exist! Is this reprehensible to anyone else?

So, if you're not one of the people making $250K per year, you're probably thinking...I'm good. Wrong. Something else that President Obama has planned on for some time now is letting the "Bush Tax Cuts" expire in 2010. This means, of course, that if you pay taxes, you'll be suddenly paying a lot more when they expire. Even though the president knows this, he chooses to not call this a tax increase because it's just a policy change, an expiration of old tax policies.

Don't you see the difference? I sure don't.

To make it clearer, here's a tax rate table I picked up, for a nice average salary of $50K/year. Before you read it, keep in mind, President Bush had two tax cuts, and both will expire this year.

Tax Rates - and the Obama Increase - $50,000/year Taxable Income

	2000 Tax Tables	2003 Tax Tables	2004 Tax Tables	2010 Tax Tables - (Bush Tax Cuts have Expired)	Increase with Obama Tax Increase*
Taxable Income	$50,000	$50,000	$50,000	$50,000	$50,000
Tax: Single	$10,581	$9,304	$9,231	$10,581	$1,350
Tax: Married - Filing Joint	$8,293	$6,796	$6,781	$8,293	$1,512
Tax: Married - Filing Separate	$11,143	$9,304	$9,231	$11,143	$1,912
Tax: Head of Household	$9,424	$8,189	$8,094	$9,424	$1,330

So, looks like President Obama is being straight with the American people about wanting to tax the rich, but totally lying about not taxing anyone else.

I understand that Taxation is necessary, to a certain extent, but this is out of hand. The American people are good people, working hard to feed their families and make ends meet. $1,000 would feed a family of 6 for two months. It could fund a couple months of college tuition (undergrad of course) for someone seeking further education. For the President of the United States to so flippantly take this money to further liberal agendas is immoral.