2010 Budget Calamity

This post is thanks in large part to Jason Lewis, who went over this during his radio show last night. You can hear it at his KTLK Podcasts website (its the first hour from 2/26/09). First, lets address the federal budget. In 1988, the federal budget was $1 trillion. It took 15 years for the budget to double as in 2003 it was $2 trillion. Over the past 7 years we've accelerated that pace several times over. Consider the budgets for the past few years:

• 2005 - $2.4 trillion
• 2006 - $2.6 trillion
• 2007 - $2.78 trillion
• 2008 - $2.9 trillion
• 2009 - $3.1 trillion
• 2010 - $3.55 trillion (Obama's proposed budget)

In 2009 economists are estimating that our budget deficit will be $1.75 trillion, that's a staggering 13% of our total GDP. But its only going to get worse as spending is ballooning out of control. Consider the proposed $3.55 trillion dollar budget. Throw in local and state government spending on top of that and you are looking at over 40% of what we produce in this country will be consumed by the government. That's mind boggling!!! 40% of our GDP going to politicians is enough to make me want to cry. Is this what this country was founded upon? The idea that the government consumes everything?

The next obvious question then becomes, "how do we fund all this spending?" Good question. Obama's answer, tax the rich. Apparently the American people are just as stupid as he is since 51% think its a good idea. This country was founded on individual rights and yet no one seems to think that the right to prosper is allowed anymore. What the government is doing is nothing more than legalized theft. Let's look closely at Obama's plan. He says he's going to raise the top two income tax brackets from 33%->35% and 35%->38%. That 33% tax bracket starts at $200k, so officially, that is the defintion of rich according to Obama. (That may be rich if you live in Humboldt, IA, but it isn't rich if you live in NYC.) But not only are your taxes going up if you are in that bracket. You will now also lose the ability to deduct charitable contributions, mortgage interest, and child exemptions as well as you lose some deduction phase-outs. Factor all those in and now that top bracket jumps to 42%. Throw in state and local tax rates of 8-10% and now, if you are in the top tax bracket, more than half of everything you earn is going to be taken from you. So I say again, legalized theft. And you are going to tell me that won't effect the economy? Give me a break.

I can think of atleast 3 obvious ways this will sink the economy even more. First, people who are loaded (typically the people who own and run everything) will stop working. If they have enough to retire there is no point in working for 40 cents on the dollar. So you will see more businesses close their doors. Second, if charitable contributions can't be deducted, why would any of the "rich" continue to do so. You will see charitable organizations no longer being able to meet the needs they are supposed to provide. Agencies will cease to exist leaving behind a need in their wake which will allow the government to expand the welfare state even further. And lastly, and I don't know how many times I can say this, you cannot tax the rich! Since the rich produce nearly everything you buy and use, they are simply going to pass along their tax hike into the cost of their product or service. So its the poor folk who see the price of their goods go up that are getting taxed. And if the market won't bear the increased price, well, then we are back to option one above where the rich just quit working.

I think Obama should just come out and outlaw success. I mean, that is what all this legislation is essentially doing. If you are prosperous, successful, and productive then you need to be punished, and the government does that by taking what is not rightfully theirs. Another interesting statistic is that the top 2% of tax payers currently only pay $500 billion in taxes. Even if you double that you won't even come close to closing the budget deficit with the rate the government is expanding.

Its time for a revolt folks... while we can still afford pitchforks and shovels.

UPDATE - 3/4/09

I don't like to say I told you so, but well, I told you so. Here are just a few examples already of exactly what I explained above. People who are considered "rich" by Obama are already looking to cut their tax exposure. Not only that, but they are cutting charitable contributions. I might have a future at fortune-telling if I keep this up. I think this statement from the first ABCNews article sums it up best.

"Dr. Poczatek put it best when she said: “The motivation for a lot of people like me – dentists, entrepreneurs, lawyers – is that the more you work the more money you make, but if I’m going to be working just to give it back to the government — it’s de-motivating and demoralizing.”"

• Upper-Income Taxpayers Look for Ways to Sidestep Obama Tax-Hike Plan - ABCNews
• Why Make $300k When $250k Is So Much More - Heritage Foundation

Earmarks-R-Us

Here's an interesting article about earmarks. Let me temper that article with a few thoughts. First, 9000 earmarks is a lot, but its hard to put it in context without knowing how many appear in typical bills. If most bills have 8000, then this isn't that much of an increase. But if the normal bill has 500, then this is a bit outrageous. Also, lets not be naive in thinking all 9000 earmarks are Democrat spending projects. It wouldn't surprise me if half the earmarks belonged to Republicans. I know they are talking tough now, but it was the Republicans who ballooned our national budget in the first half of this decade. The biggest problem I see in all this is that during the debates President Obama promised us he would go through every bill line-by-line to remove earmarks.

This next article talks a bit about Obama's desire to trim the budget deficit over the next 2 years. The only problem is that its impossible if he's going to continue spending like at the rate he's going. He talks a great game and everyone loves it, but if you stop and think if it will actually work you'll see there is no possible way.

• Obama's First Budget Seeks To Trim Deficit - Washington Post

And other Obama related articles:

• Is the Administration Winging It? - WSJ

Can't let this go. Great to see yet another example of how accurate global warming "science" is right now.

• Arctic Sea Ice Underestimated - Bloomberg

Viva La Revolucion

I'm starting to see the minions revolt, barely 1 month into Obama's reign. I thought I'd set aside this post to keep a running log of this uprising. Without further ado:

• Chicago Tea Party - CNBC Video
• Stiffing Tax Payers With Bad Mortgages - CNBC Video
• A Break For Those Who Least Deserve It - CNBC
• Even the Kids Think He's Full of It - EastValley Tribune

I posted something along these lines earlier in the week here. I link to a few articles discussing why Obama is not fit to fill the role of President. As a bonus, I added a link from the AP talking about the ethics meltdown we now see from the Democratic party.

UPDATES:

I have to say I'm quite surprised by CNBC. They are in all out assault mode on Obama. This cannot be good when a typically Democrat sympathetic station starts attacking.

• Obama Declares War on Investors, Entrepreneurs, Businesses, And More - CNBC (3/2/09)
• A Turning Tide? - Newsweek (3/12/09)
• Are You Punch-Drunk - Politico (3/23/09)

Obama's 7 Failed Promises

You gotta love the openness and bipartisan nature with which this "anything but a stimulus" bill was passed. You'll notice I actually posted a comment if you go to the YouTube page for this video. I can't take people's stupidity anymore and was forced to speak up.

I thought it worthwhile to point out the 7 ways in which Obama broke his campaign promises through the handling of just this one bill. I'm not making this stuff up, listen to his own words in this video and you tell me if any of this happened in the first 4 weeks he's been in office.

Promise #1 - "Make government open and transparent."

Promise #2 - "Make it 'impossible' for congressmen to slip in pork barrel projects."

• Remember, these are his words, not mine, "Shine Light on Earmarks and Pork Barrel Spending: Obama's Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act will shed light on all earmarks by disclosing the name of the legislator who asked for each earmark, along with a written justification, 72 hours before they can be approved by the full Senate. "
• Last minute Gifts - Washington Post

Promise #3 - "Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public."

• Please see the above video.
• Democrats Meet at Midnight without Republicans - Human Events
• Midnight Meeting - House Minority Leader John Boehner

Promise #4 - "No more secrecy."

Promise #5 - "The public will have five days to look at the bill on the website."

• No 48-hr Notice - Human Events


• Obama will sign the bill on Tuesday, which won't even be 4-days from when it made it out of Congress.

Promise #6 - "You will know what's in it."

• The Senators and Representatives don't even know what's in it.
• No One Will Read the Bill - CNSNews

Promise #7 - "We will put every pork barrel project online."

Here are a few more random articles:

• Economists Say No - McClatchy
• Caterpillar CEO Refutes Obama's Comments - ABC News
• Stimulus Sellouts - NewsMax
• No Republican Support - Breitbart
• Federal Obligations Exceed World GDP - WorldNetDaily

More Hope and More Change

The "porkulus" bill is still the talk of the town. Unfortunately 3 idiot Republican Senators sold out and signed on to bankrupt this country.

• Media Pressured the Gang of 3? - FoxNews

I have not talked to anyone that is opposed to some sort of stimulus. I don't think spending on infrastructure is the best way to stimulate the economy, but atleast an argument can be made in favor of it. I personally would go for tax cuts, but that's beside the point. The problem is that the bills in the House and Senate use less than 15% of their total spending on what the bill is supposedly for, infrastructure.

• $300 Million for "Green Golf Carts" - NYPost
• What is Congress "Stimulating" - WSJ
• Pelosi's Indefensible Bill - WSJ
• Chart Breakdown of the Bill - Washington Post
• Pork and Pet Projects - CBS News

Its obvious this is a power play on the part of Democrats, specifically Nancy Pelosi. They are clearly filling the "stimulus" with garbage that would never pass the traditional budget process because it is horribly wasteful. What ever happened to bipartinship, or atleast listening to the desires of the electorate? I mean, Obama promised that on his website (cf . "End the Practice of Writing Legislation Behind Closed Doors", "Sunlight Before Signing", and "Shine Light on Earmarks and Pork Barrel Spending").

• Democrats Shut-out Republicans - Human Events
• More Shady Deals Behind Closed Doors - Business & Media Institute
• Why No Was the Only Option - Weekly Standard
• 62% of Americans Want Less Spending - Rasmussen Poll

Turning Against Obama

I predicted that it would take until September of 2009 for a large portion of Obama supporters to turn on him. As an Obama "hater" I could have told you this guy was an empty suit that would fail miserably as the president. I mean who, other than Obama, would come to office in the midst of one of the greatest economic downturns in the past 100 years and then hand-over the key's to Nancy Pelosi to draft a stimulus bill. Anyway, I've noticed that the backlash is already starting less than 1 month into his reign. And its not just coming from the "right", its coming from usually liberal friendly news outlets.

• Obama Is A Novice - UK Telegraph
• Why Obama’s New Tarp Will Fail to Rescue the Banks - Financial Times

You know its getting bad when the AP starts questioning your ethics.

• Democrats Self-Destructing Over Ethics - AP

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

I thought we were finally to the point where all those who believed in man-made global warming were changing their tune and calling it climate change. It makes sense since real world data is showing that the Earth has been cooling since 2003 and arguably since 1998. Regis Nicoll wrote an article recently explaining this trend. The "inconvenient truth" he points out is that no amount of facts or data will dissuade global warming fanatics from their position. He points to a recent climate modeling study by German scientists that are saying a current 10 year cooling period will lead to global warming.

But it appears our new Secretary of Energy still prefers to use the phrase "global warming" despite the evidence. He is predicting that by the end of the century California may be devoid of agriculture and the cities may disappear. This is all based on climate modeling. The only problem is that climate modeling can tell you whatever you want it to. It is only as good as the data you enter into it, and so far they haven't been that good. Al Gore's models predicted the ice caps would be melting (they are not, here too) and that temperatures would be rising every year (there not, see the Nicoll article). Maybe that's why the new "stimulus" bill earmarked $140 million for "climate data modeling" equipment, because what they have now doesn't work.

Despair and Similarity

I find it interesting watching how Obama is ushering in hope and change in his first few weeks in the White House. Apparently that is short for "fill my cabinet with people who don't know how to pay their taxes."

• Timothy Geithner, your current Treasury Secretary
• Tom Daschle, candidate for Health and Human Services Secretary.
• Nancy Killefer, candidate for chief performance officer.

Does anyone remember what Joe Biden said back in the debates? Anyone? I recall it was Mr. Biden's (and presumably other liberals) position that paying taxes was "patriotic". He even defended those comments later on when the unions called him out. So if paying taxes is patriotic, and Obama is filling his cabinet with people who aren't paying their taxes...... Even the LA Times is writing about this today.

And let's not forget about Bill Richardson. Obama tagged him for his Commerce Secretary back in early January, but Richardson had to withdraw his name after being implicated in a pay-to-play scandel.

UPDATE:

Looks like we've got more tax cheats and Communists. I'll just keep an ongoing list as we hear of more and more.

• Hilda Solis, nominated for labor secretary - 2/5/09
• Rahm Immanuel, White House Chief of Staff - 2/18/09
• Charles Freeman, NIC nominee - 2/27/09
• Ron Kirk, US Trade Representative - 3/2/09
• Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services nominee - 4/1/09