Simple Explanation of Our Economic Problems

This is the most simple explanation of the dire straits our economy is in. It's a Left vs Conservative view of the problem and solutions without the yelling. Well worth 12min.

http://youtu.be/iwJTORFuG6g


Of course the politicians won't fix the problem. Just look at the beating Paul Ryan takes for even marginal solutions to the problem. 

It's Only Money

 What could you do with $3.73 Trillion...Obama's budget proposal? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQZ-fSWhz64

This Ain't No Budget, It's a Tax Bill

Because the Democrats and Obama could not stop the Bush tax cuts from being extended, Obama has created this work around. This is his 10 year plan. Most Statist Plans are 5 years, so this is pretty ambitious. This will be a $1.5 trillion tax hike over the next ten years. That’s taking one and a half $trillion out of the pockets of the citizens, money we need to pay for housing, food, child rearing, and transportation to name just a few things.

Of course military spending will be cut by about $78 billion, one of the things the Constitution says the government is required to do; protect the borders and citizens, which this president has shown no inclination to do. We do know Leftists despise the military (they have guns and vote Republican).  

There’s no cuts to any entitlement spending, and an increase in several.

What Republicans need to be saying over and over again is what the Dems say every time a Republican president submits a budget, it’s “dead on arrival”.

This is immoral, that we are spending and borrowing $trillions at least two, maybe three generations into the future, saddling the unborn with massive economic problems they didn’t have a say in creating.

Obama and the Dems have cut revenue to the federal government by their effectively shutting down production of the oil and coal industries. By not being able to produce, there’s no income to tax. This is a huge revenue loss.

Reduced revenue from that, plus reduced revenue because fewer people are working so they aren’t paying taxes, plus about 47% of the population not paying taxes in the first place, and lots of other stuff too numerous to mention in a short post (plus its being mind numbingly boring except for us political and economic wonks), here’s some of the ways he’s going to get blood from the turnip.

Obama proposed budget:

Raises the top marginal income tax rate (big hit on small business profits) from 35% to 39.6%.

Raises the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%.

Raises the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million. 

Caps the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate.  This cuts tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales taxes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses. 

Creates new bank taxes.

Creates new international corporate tax hikes.

Creates new life insurance company taxes.

Creates new taxes on energy

Increases unemployment payroll taxes. (This is on the 53% paying taxes so the 47% can continue to live off the fruits of our labor). My view is that everybody should have some skin in the game.

Taxing management capital gains in an investment partnership (“carried interest”) as ordinary income. 

Companies could no longer deduct the cost of punitive damages from a lawsuit settlement. (Trial lawyers, one of the largest contributors to the Democrat Party after Unions, love this.)

Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing.

Plus there’s a whole bunch of hidden taxes in ObamaCare that we must must must repeal.

House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.):

“The president punted on the budget and he punted on the deficit and on the debt.” “This doesn’t even include any of the president’s fiscal commission’s recommendations [and] it doesn’t address the drivers of our debt.” (The Budget Commission formed by Obama spent $millions to come up with reports and recommendations. Obama didn’t use one of them.)

“I really thought that we would see an advancement, that we would see a step in the right direction.” “Instead we saw a step farther to the left than if we did nothing at all.” 

That Sucking Sound You Hear Isn't Oil Being Skimmed

The sucking sound you do hear is the vacuum left by the lack of leadership from the White House. I've been writing since the second month of the Obama administration that this guy is a whinny crybaby that has no leadership skills. Because of his lack of any management experience, he can't even handle daily events, let alone an emergency like we have in the Gulf. The crybaby perception is the result of his blaming, over a year and a half into his administration, GW Bush for all his problems. Top rule of leadership is to never say anything about your predecessor.

I ranted in an earlier blog about his do nothingness regarding the Gulf oil disaster. We shouldn't be surprised. This is a guy that voted "present" on nearly every issue when he was in the Illinois Senate, and did the same in the US Senate. In the US Senate, to be fair, he missed a lot a votes because he was out campaigning right after he was elected to that once honorable body. So sometimes he didn't vote "present". He avoided making decisions then, never had to make any decisions before that in his professional life, and is avoiding making decisions now.

His lack of ability to lead or even manage, due to cowardice, has led to the dismissal of a fine General, General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Obama is Commander in Chief, and when in command, there has to be solid missions set out and adhered to until completion. In the military there's flexibility to adjust to the situation on the ground. In Obama's oligarchy, he has academics and political operatives that have no understanding of the military. If the top of the command structure is in disarray, then the subordinates will reflect that. McChrystal and his staff were wrong in what they did, but when their boss and his staff are incompetent, argue about the results they want what the mission is, it's a problem. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Vice President Biden, Gen. David Petraeus, Richard Holbrooke and their staffs all argue about the mission in Afghanistan, sending mixed messages to the Military. I guarantee you this is felt all down the ranks, and is seriously demoralizing. I experienced it first hand while in the Navy during the Carter administration. Remember, McChrystal asked for 40,000-45,000 additional troops for optimal success of the mission in Afghanistan, and after 10 months of waiting he got 30,000 promised, plus a deadline for end of the campaign. The inept Obama does not understand that if you tell your enemy your intentions, he will exploit it and kill your troops while doing other serious damage. US troop deaths are up. No surprise there. The Afghanistan mission is on the road to failure. I think that because Obama is so incompetent, the US Military should be withdrawn from the theater before he gets anymore servicemen killed.

Then there's the disaster in the Gulf, and right now 59% of the American people don't think he's handling it well. My thoughts on Obama's incompetency and inability, along with timeline of events and non-action here.

Money. Yesterday or the day before it was announced that the Democrat controlled Congress won't pass a budget, which is mandated by the Constitution. Actually it's one of the few things the Constitution says is a duty of the government. I'm not sure, but I don't think, at least in my lifetime, that Congress has not submitted a budget. I haven't even heard if Obama submitted a budget. Usually by this time of the legislative year, if there were a Republican president, we'd be hearing the Jurassic Press saying "the president's budget is dead on arrival". After looking at a $1.3 trillion increase in spending in about a year, the largest increase in domestic spending since WWII, and a multi-$trillion increase on a massive health care and insurance bill with no way to pay for it, this country is on track to have it's debt exceed the value of the assets of the country. No leadership here. He simply doesn't know what to do. He doesn't understand economics any more that he understands the military.

He's failed with the economy. He's failed with the military. He's failed with the crisis in the Gulf. The enemies of Western Civilization are rattling their sabers even louder because they know he's weak and a coward. We are in grave danger because an indecisive child is in a man's position of power.