Getting Fleeced by the Left, and You're Not Even a Sheep

Dems and other Leftists have the idea that if you confiscate the earnings of the wealthy, that’ll pay for everything, and there won’t be a debt problem; plus all their redistribution and payoffs to their donors can continue endlessly, and they can continue to increase spending.

What they do show, besides irresponsibility, is a total lack of understanding of economics, or the moral tale of the goose that lays the golden eggs.

At one time the marginal tax rate was 90%. That was when JFK brought it down. It went back up, to a little lower percentage, and Reagan brought it down. Dems raise taxes at every opportunity, to as high as they can. Since the Dems see no moral reasons for limiting taxes, why not raise it to 100%? They certainly have the mind set.

Starting where we are now, the top 1% of earners, including salaries, capital gains, and dividends, have an income of $380,000 per year. They pay 38% of our nation’s taxes. If the Dems and Obama were to get all that tax money in a lump sum, it would come to about $938 billion. Our debt is over $4 trillion. Not much of a dent.

The top 10% of earners pay 69% of the taxes. Those are people that make about $114,000 a year, certainly not the millionaires the Left says are not paying “their fair share”. To keep paying for all the entitlements and redistribution, where are they going to get the bucks? Mostly it would come from the middle class in the form of hidden taxes and fees.

“Cap and trade” was one way to fleece the middle class, but even filtered through the Leftist Jurassic Press, the huge increase in energy costs to ordinary citizens could not be masked. It’s been put on the back burner for now. They floated the Value Added Tax (VAT), so every level of production of a product gets taxed, in addition to the current point of sale taxes. Of course the manufacturers are going to pass that cost on to ordinary citizens, the middle class. Next is to eliminate mortgage deductions; a cost to ordinary citizens, the middle class. They want to get rid of deductions for state and local taxes, at cost to the middle class. They want to get rid of property tax deductions, at cost to the middle class. They want to raid retirement funds (they’re already doing this with federal employees) and 401K’s, tax your company health insurance as income, and they’ve already reduced the deductions for charitable giving. Meanwhile, nearly half of the citizens pay no income tax. My view is that no matter what the income, a minimum of 10% should be deducted. Everyone benefits in some way from services this country offers, and if there’s no contribution, there’s no appreciation. That half that doesn’t pay up, think they’re entitled.

When one looks at the tax returns of the limousine Liberals, they have huge deductions. Obama certainly did. If these guys believe so much in the goodness of government, why are they deducting anything at all? Why aren’t they paying more voluntarily?

The cold hard truth is the Dems are attacking the middle class more than the rich. They can confiscate all the wealth of the middle class and the wealthy and still coverage of all their redistributionist schemes will not be paid for. When citizens and companies work to increase their incomes, the Left calls them greedy. When the Left uses the sledge hammer of the government to confiscate the wealth of citizens, and they balk at giving up more of their worked for income, then it’s the citizens that are greedy.  

Of course the Left isn’t greedy, they’re taking away your income and enriching themselves for your own good.    

Just in Case ObamaCare Misses Controlling Any Aspect of Your Life

Apparently the current leading environmental doomsayer is a professor of some sort from Australia, Tim Flannery. He's pushing for an international government to monitor every aspect of everyone's life. The House of (un)Representatives has passed 'Cap and Trade' which is the first step to total government control here. I previously posted how the new ObamaCare will gain control of almost everything. Just in case they missed anything, Obama and his Statist buddies in government and the MSM are advocating for this catch all Copenhagen proposal. Flannery: “We all too often mistake the nature of those negotiations in Copenhagen.” “We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case. The negotiations now ongoing toward the Copenhagen agreement are in effect diplomacy at the most profound global level. They deal with every aspect of our life and they will influence every aspect of our life, our economy, our society.” (emphasis mine)

Here are some of the extraordinary things being developed. Do you think the house you own is yours? Under cap and trade, if you sell your house, it must meet government mandated environmental regulations, or you can't sell. Doesn't matter if the house was built two hundred years ago or two years ago. Property rights are part of the foundation of liberty. That's being taken away with this legislation.

In Europe, surely coming to your town, is the “European Landfill Directive.” It mandates 'smart' trash cans. These have chips that monitor your garbage. These are being used by some towns in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. How long until the technology will develop that will monitor what is in your trash. What did you eat today. Too many chips? Call the Health Police.

Think going to the bathroom is a private act? There's a toilet out, the VIP (Versatile Interactive Pan), that examines your waste. I reported earlier the movement to require everyone to use single ply TP. It may be illegal in the near future to use soft cushy two-ply.

An important control for Statists is travel. Whether the Soviet Union or Communist China, the movement of every citizen is monitored. I say 'is' for the Soviet Union because KGB trained dictator Putin is putting back in place all the soviet apparatchik. The travel control being implemented in Europe, and I'm sure here soon, is that if you fly, in addition to frequent flyer miles, you will have to pay additional prohibitive charges for "excessive" flying. Of course Al Gore in his gas guzzling private jet will be exempt.

Thomas Friedman, a popular Statist writer, sums their view nicely: “One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks.” “But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.”

Communist China where there's no freedom of the press, no freedom of religion, no free speech, where the states murders, tortures or imprisons dissidents, regulates travel...yeah, there's a great political model. What were those stupid Founding Fathers thinking of creating a constitution that ensured liberty for the people? Obviously tyranny and totalitarianism is the way to go.

Cap and Trade Faces Another Setback

The Competitive Enterprise Institute had to file using the Freedom of Information Act to get this from the "transparent" Obama Administration. Guess what? Cap and Tax will cost taxpayers bundles of money. The U.S. Department of Treasury says new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. That's $1,761 a year per household. This is about a 15% tax hike on you and me. I'm sooooo surprised our Dear Leader has been covering this up.

Cap and Tax is only an academic theory and it's unknown if the program will effect anything except the citizens' bank accounts. Can you do with 15% less income? Those of us that are producers in the country, when adding together all the fees and taxes from every governmental level, are already paying out 40%-50%. For what? Of course this program isn't about the environment, any more than ObamaCare is about health. It's about raising money and amassing power.

This may but the brakes on it getting passed. It got through the house by the skin of its teeth. Hopefully this will kill it.

Article here.

Update and Correction On My Previous Cap and Trade Entry

I had stated the CBO had numbers were reflective of the Heritage Foundation's. Oops. Only a portion of it. If you want all the details of the bill go here and click the icon "Energy and Environment". Your representative probably hasn't read the bill. If they are supporting it, it's out of ideology, not sound fiscal policy.

From the Heritage Foundations analysis of the CBO analysis:
"Most problematic is their complete omission of economic damage from restricting energy use. Footnote three on page four reads, 'The resource cost does not indicate the potential decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) that could result from the cap. The reduction in GDP would also include indirect general equilibrium effects, such as changes in the labor supply resulting from reductions in real wages and potential reductions in the productivity of capital and labor).' That's a pretty big chunk of change to ignore. In The Heritage Foundation's analysis of the Waxman-Markey climate change legislation, the GDP hit in 2020 was $161 billion (2009 dollars). For a family of four, that is $1,870 that they ignore."
The CBO left a lot of costs out, which Heritage Foundation itemized.

From Heritage Foundation:
If you are looking for what to say, here’s a list of facts about how the energy tax would:

1. Reduce aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) by $9.6 trillion
2. Destroy an average of 1-3 million jobs, every year
3. Raise electricity rates 90 percent after adjusting for inflation
4. Raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 74 percent
5. Raise residential natural gas prices by 55 percent
6. Raise an average family's annual energy bill by $1,500 annually
7. Increase the federal debt by 26 percent, which is $29,150 per person


If you want to protest this bill call 202 224-3121. This has been busy all day, so I went here where I entered my zip code and it gave me my congresswoman's local office. This is a Facebook site, but I'm sure if you Google your rep's name you could get the same info if you aren't a Facebook member. Or you can email your rep. I'm such a political nerd that I get an email update every time one of these knuckleheads vote.

This vote is being pushed through by the Democrat Party quickly, because they don't want to have a national debate or provide transparency. In a way, I'm kinda glad we're not having a debate here; people are getting killed by the government in Iran, and our Dear Leader said they were having a "robust debate". Make no mistake about it, this is a tax and power grab by the Democrat Party. It absolutely will drive up your cost of living and impoverish you. The Democrats know this, and want this passed before you wake up to it.