JR Dieckmann
Obamanomics has failed and we're stuck with the bill
By JR Dieckmann
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."— Milton Friedman
Obama and the Democrats have shot themselves in the foot. All of their promises of fiscal responsibility, transparency, and paying down the debt are all a lie. They thought they could get away with uncontrolled spending and redistributing the wealth by raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for it. In the end their tax scheme failed and Bush tax cuts were extended for another two years.
They have destroyed themselves politically and lost credibility and trust. Now they want to add nearly another trillion to the already unsustainable debt before they leave.
We hear from the left that extending the current tax rate will cost us $857 billion that will have to be borrowed. How can continuing the current tax rate cost us money? There are no expenses required to extend the tax rate. The problem is the overspending by Congress and the White House. Their tax-the-rich strategy has backfired on them. The wealthy won't be picking up the tab for the liberals' spending addiction.
Rather than budget the money they receive from the taxpayers, they insist on printing and borrowing more to fund their wasteful programs. Now they still want the money that reasonable Senators and the American people have refused them. It's time to slam the door on the liberal spenders and say "no more!"
To make matters worse, the three stooges, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, tried to ram through another omnibus bill to lock in spending for the next year — just as they did last year. The Constitution requires that Congress pass a budget every year. That is their primary responsibility. For two years in a row since Obama has been in the White House, Congress has failed to live up to its constitutional responsibility to pass a budget.
This was no accident, it was intentional. Pelosi didn't want the American people to see what was in the budget, just like last year. Again she buried the earmarks and socialist-progressive infrastructure in a 2000 page end of session "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what's in it" bill that no one could read. This bill included funding for Obamacare and all of the other liberal-socialist policies that couldn't be passed openly in Congress.
At the last minute Harry Reid found he didn't have the votes and pulled the bill, blaming Republicans for blocking it. Of course they blocked it because it was the right thing to do. But it wasn't just Republicans who blocked it — they had help from a number of Democrats as well. The only bipartisanship in this Congress has been in opposition to the socialist-progressive agenda.
A temporary extension of 2010 spending is being passed instead and the new Republican run House will write the 2011 budget when they convene in January with new rules, ethics, transparency, and responsibility that the Democrats failed to produce. The new Republicans had better not fail on their pledge this time around if they want our trust again. I am worried about the Republican Party leadership that does not share the values of the tea party conservatives.
Congress cannot consider and pass legislation based on any single issue without using it as a spending and wealth redistribution tool as well. It is a simple issue — extend the current tax rates for at least another two years — yes or no — that is the issue. Congress can't even do that without complicating it with other issues and packing the bill with pork. This time it's the unemployment insurance extension which will discourage people from finding jobs for another year.
They still want to play these Washington horse trading games and pit one issue against another. These are two entirely separate issues and should be considered separately. But this is what they always do in Washington. If you want this then you have to take that too. It's always about "compromise" which usually means moving the country further to the left.
There can be no compromise when it comes to the Constitution. Either you respect it and the limits it places on federal government or you don't. Most in Congress don't.
This is why we have laws on the books supported only by those special interests who stand to benefit from them. If Republicans were going to agree to unemployment insurance extensions they should have at least insisted that it be paid for with budget cuts somewhere else to pay for it, not with a $857 billion deficit increase.
But Republicans do not run the Congress, yet. Even over the next two years, they will still have to deal with a Democrat controlled Senate and presidency. Real change won't come until 2013 and only then if Republicans respect the wishes of the American people. It's a miracle that they got as much as they did in this bill.
I have no problem with taxing millionaires and billionaires proportionally on personal income as long as they are not small business employers. If they are Corporate CEOs, Wall Street tycoons, lawyers, and bankers, who are not creating jobs but simply banking the money in their own personal bank accounts, then tax them proportionally, but tax them fairly.
However, if we apply the same tax rates to small business owners who reinvest the money back into the business to grow and create jobs, then that is different. Some may be millionaires but that is a far cry from the wealthy billionaires who profit from investment trading, lawsuits, and corporate salaries and bonuses.
In today's economy, a million really doesn't go very far in business. Furthermore, people earning over $200,000 or even a million are not the nation's wealthiest people. You have to look to the billionaires for that. Yet liberal progressives want to put these hard working business owners in a tax class with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and George Soros. It's odd that they never mention Soros or thank him for financing their party, but small business owners are evil and greedy.
Claire McCaskill thinks we shouldn't be giving "more money to millionaires and billionaires." "And I will tell you this, if they think it's OK to raise taxes for the embattled middle class because they're gonna pout if we don't give more money to millionaires, it really is time for the people of America to take up pitchforks."
What kind of nonsense is this? No one in the Republican Party thinks it is OK to raise taxes on the middle class. And for the sake of economic recovery and jobs, they don't think taxes should be raised on business owners and job creators either. But the real kicker here is "if we don't give more money to millionaires."
Hey Claire, it's not your money to give. It belongs to those who earned it. It belongs to those who you want to take it away from. This is not a communist country. You do not ration out the money to the subjects of your regime. The ignorant drones who voted for you might think America works that way but the rest of us don't. Your class warfare is getting as old as your party's charges of racism and corporate greed.
Charles Schumer agrees with McCaskill. "We don't want to hear our Republican colleagues talk about 'we don't have enough money to pay for education,' or 'we don't have enough money to pay to build that new road,' when they're willing to spend money without paying for it for the millionaires and billionaires.
"Spend money without paying for it" by not raising their taxes? Exactly who is spending tax money here? It is Schumer and the rest of them in Congress. Republicans never asked for that money to be spent, they opposed it. They certainly didn't suggest spending tax money on millionaires and billionaires.
If Schumer really wants to save money, how about eliminating the Department of Education which has no constitutional authorization and is in direct violation of the Tenth Amendment? Get the federal government out of the education business and return control of our schools to the local communities where it belongs. Eliminate all unauthorized departments and agencies of the federal government, then there will more than enough money to fund everything the Constitution authorizes.
The DoED, created by the Carter administration in 1979, has done nothing but degrade the quality of education and impose socialist progressive policies on our schools for the past 30 years. Even Laura Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act" has done nothing to improve education but instead has only encouraged cheating by both students and teachers, and has spent huge resources on illegal alien children. Education in America continues to decline, just as the progressives intend. The ignorant are easier to control than the educated.
Robert Menendez is another big liar in the Senate. "So our Republican colleagues are playing Santa Claus for millionaires, but Scrooge for the middle class. For those who make over a million, they want to give you a big, fat check, averaging about $104,000, with a bow on it..."
Who said anything about giving millionaires a check? The government isn't giving them squat. It's more like Menendez wants the rich to give him a big fat check in the form of a tax increase. Republicans don't want anyone's taxes to increase and the taxpayers don't want any more government control of their money. I won't even get into that mouthy little Weiner from New York. That is the most irritating excuse for a human being I have ever seen.
Are you sick and tired of this class warfare yet? It's all about trying to get you to hate capitalism and successful entrepreneurship — the very founding principals of this country that are under attack by the left. The real class warfare in America is between the political class and the American people.
The Constitution doesn't divide people by class. Everyone is to be treated equally under the law. These people in Congress are sworn to respect and support the Constitution but few of them do. Most are guilty of nothing less than perjury. Few take their oath any more seriously than they do the Constitution itself.
Not only is the Constitution the law of the land, it defines the federal government structure and powers. It is the rule book for Washington to follow and obey. If these elected officials were employed in the private sector, they would have been fired long ago for not following company rules. It seems the American voters make lousy employers.
The Progressive Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda has failed and the American taxpayer has been stuck with the bill. Now it is going to be up to the new House of Representatives and the new members of the Senate to correct this miscarriage of justice that was imposed on the American people. They must do that by repealing wasteful spending and harmful laws and reducing the size of government — not freezing or limiting government growth as some Republicans have suggested.
In 2009, the top 1 percent of tax filers accounted for 20 percent of all income earned that year, yet they paid 38 percent of all federal individual income taxes. The top 1% pays 37% of all income taxes. The top 5% pays 57% of all taxes. The top 10% pays 70% of the taxes.
So when people on the left complain that 52% of the current tax breaks go to the top 5% of wealthy Americans, that is why. They pay 57% of the taxes while the bottom 50% of taxpayers pays only 3% of the taxes. Is that fair and equal treatment under the law? Or is it just another attempt to redistribute the wealth as per Karl Marx and the Democrat Party?
© JR Dieckmann
December 20, 2010
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."
Obama and the Democrats have shot themselves in the foot. All of their promises of fiscal responsibility, transparency, and paying down the debt are all a lie. They thought they could get away with uncontrolled spending and redistributing the wealth by raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for it. In the end their tax scheme failed and Bush tax cuts were extended for another two years.
They have destroyed themselves politically and lost credibility and trust. Now they want to add nearly another trillion to the already unsustainable debt before they leave.
We hear from the left that extending the current tax rate will cost us $857 billion that will have to be borrowed. How can continuing the current tax rate cost us money? There are no expenses required to extend the tax rate. The problem is the overspending by Congress and the White House. Their tax-the-rich strategy has backfired on them. The wealthy won't be picking up the tab for the liberals' spending addiction.
Rather than budget the money they receive from the taxpayers, they insist on printing and borrowing more to fund their wasteful programs. Now they still want the money that reasonable Senators and the American people have refused them. It's time to slam the door on the liberal spenders and say "no more!"
To make matters worse, the three stooges, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, tried to ram through another omnibus bill to lock in spending for the next year — just as they did last year. The Constitution requires that Congress pass a budget every year. That is their primary responsibility. For two years in a row since Obama has been in the White House, Congress has failed to live up to its constitutional responsibility to pass a budget.
This was no accident, it was intentional. Pelosi didn't want the American people to see what was in the budget, just like last year. Again she buried the earmarks and socialist-progressive infrastructure in a 2000 page end of session "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what's in it" bill that no one could read. This bill included funding for Obamacare and all of the other liberal-socialist policies that couldn't be passed openly in Congress.
At the last minute Harry Reid found he didn't have the votes and pulled the bill, blaming Republicans for blocking it. Of course they blocked it because it was the right thing to do. But it wasn't just Republicans who blocked it — they had help from a number of Democrats as well. The only bipartisanship in this Congress has been in opposition to the socialist-progressive agenda.
A temporary extension of 2010 spending is being passed instead and the new Republican run House will write the 2011 budget when they convene in January with new rules, ethics, transparency, and responsibility that the Democrats failed to produce. The new Republicans had better not fail on their pledge this time around if they want our trust again. I am worried about the Republican Party leadership that does not share the values of the tea party conservatives.
Congress cannot consider and pass legislation based on any single issue without using it as a spending and wealth redistribution tool as well. It is a simple issue — extend the current tax rates for at least another two years — yes or no — that is the issue. Congress can't even do that without complicating it with other issues and packing the bill with pork. This time it's the unemployment insurance extension which will discourage people from finding jobs for another year.
They still want to play these Washington horse trading games and pit one issue against another. These are two entirely separate issues and should be considered separately. But this is what they always do in Washington. If you want this then you have to take that too. It's always about "compromise" which usually means moving the country further to the left.
There can be no compromise when it comes to the Constitution. Either you respect it and the limits it places on federal government or you don't. Most in Congress don't.
This is why we have laws on the books supported only by those special interests who stand to benefit from them. If Republicans were going to agree to unemployment insurance extensions they should have at least insisted that it be paid for with budget cuts somewhere else to pay for it, not with a $857 billion deficit increase.
But Republicans do not run the Congress, yet. Even over the next two years, they will still have to deal with a Democrat controlled Senate and presidency. Real change won't come until 2013 and only then if Republicans respect the wishes of the American people. It's a miracle that they got as much as they did in this bill.
I have no problem with taxing millionaires and billionaires proportionally on personal income as long as they are not small business employers. If they are Corporate CEOs, Wall Street tycoons, lawyers, and bankers, who are not creating jobs but simply banking the money in their own personal bank accounts, then tax them proportionally, but tax them fairly.
However, if we apply the same tax rates to small business owners who reinvest the money back into the business to grow and create jobs, then that is different. Some may be millionaires but that is a far cry from the wealthy billionaires who profit from investment trading, lawsuits, and corporate salaries and bonuses.
In today's economy, a million really doesn't go very far in business. Furthermore, people earning over $200,000 or even a million are not the nation's wealthiest people. You have to look to the billionaires for that. Yet liberal progressives want to put these hard working business owners in a tax class with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and George Soros. It's odd that they never mention Soros or thank him for financing their party, but small business owners are evil and greedy.
Claire McCaskill thinks we shouldn't be giving "more money to millionaires and billionaires." "And I will tell you this, if they think it's OK to raise taxes for the embattled middle class because they're gonna pout if we don't give more money to millionaires, it really is time for the people of America to take up pitchforks."
What kind of nonsense is this? No one in the Republican Party thinks it is OK to raise taxes on the middle class. And for the sake of economic recovery and jobs, they don't think taxes should be raised on business owners and job creators either. But the real kicker here is "if we don't give more money to millionaires."
Hey Claire, it's not your money to give. It belongs to those who earned it. It belongs to those who you want to take it away from. This is not a communist country. You do not ration out the money to the subjects of your regime. The ignorant drones who voted for you might think America works that way but the rest of us don't. Your class warfare is getting as old as your party's charges of racism and corporate greed.
Charles Schumer agrees with McCaskill. "We don't want to hear our Republican colleagues talk about 'we don't have enough money to pay for education,' or 'we don't have enough money to pay to build that new road,' when they're willing to spend money without paying for it for the millionaires and billionaires.
"Spend money without paying for it" by not raising their taxes? Exactly who is spending tax money here? It is Schumer and the rest of them in Congress. Republicans never asked for that money to be spent, they opposed it. They certainly didn't suggest spending tax money on millionaires and billionaires.
If Schumer really wants to save money, how about eliminating the Department of Education which has no constitutional authorization and is in direct violation of the Tenth Amendment? Get the federal government out of the education business and return control of our schools to the local communities where it belongs. Eliminate all unauthorized departments and agencies of the federal government, then there will more than enough money to fund everything the Constitution authorizes.
The DoED, created by the Carter administration in 1979, has done nothing but degrade the quality of education and impose socialist progressive policies on our schools for the past 30 years. Even Laura Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act" has done nothing to improve education but instead has only encouraged cheating by both students and teachers, and has spent huge resources on illegal alien children. Education in America continues to decline, just as the progressives intend. The ignorant are easier to control than the educated.
Robert Menendez is another big liar in the Senate. "So our Republican colleagues are playing Santa Claus for millionaires, but Scrooge for the middle class. For those who make over a million, they want to give you a big, fat check, averaging about $104,000, with a bow on it..."
Who said anything about giving millionaires a check? The government isn't giving them squat. It's more like Menendez wants the rich to give him a big fat check in the form of a tax increase. Republicans don't want anyone's taxes to increase and the taxpayers don't want any more government control of their money. I won't even get into that mouthy little Weiner from New York. That is the most irritating excuse for a human being I have ever seen.
Are you sick and tired of this class warfare yet? It's all about trying to get you to hate capitalism and successful entrepreneurship — the very founding principals of this country that are under attack by the left. The real class warfare in America is between the political class and the American people.
The Constitution doesn't divide people by class. Everyone is to be treated equally under the law. These people in Congress are sworn to respect and support the Constitution but few of them do. Most are guilty of nothing less than perjury. Few take their oath any more seriously than they do the Constitution itself.
Not only is the Constitution the law of the land, it defines the federal government structure and powers. It is the rule book for Washington to follow and obey. If these elected officials were employed in the private sector, they would have been fired long ago for not following company rules. It seems the American voters make lousy employers.
The Progressive Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda has failed and the American taxpayer has been stuck with the bill. Now it is going to be up to the new House of Representatives and the new members of the Senate to correct this miscarriage of justice that was imposed on the American people. They must do that by repealing wasteful spending and harmful laws and reducing the size of government — not freezing or limiting government growth as some Republicans have suggested.
In 2009, the top 1 percent of tax filers accounted for 20 percent of all income earned that year, yet they paid 38 percent of all federal individual income taxes. The top 1% pays 37% of all income taxes. The top 5% pays 57% of all taxes. The top 10% pays 70% of the taxes.
So when people on the left complain that 52% of the current tax breaks go to the top 5% of wealthy Americans, that is why. They pay 57% of the taxes while the bottom 50% of taxpayers pays only 3% of the taxes. Is that fair and equal treatment under the law? Or is it just another attempt to redistribute the wealth as per Karl Marx and the Democrat Party?
© JR Dieckmann
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
