Showing posts with label Taxes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taxes. Show all posts
Thursday, December 8, 2011
He Said What's Not Fair ?
Let me first present to you a fictional narration of unfairness through the eyes of a Liberal/Progressive:
America is a great country that has overcome many difficult times, BUT there are many issues that still face us today. America was founded on a document that broke us from the chains of a European ruler, BUT there are new issues facing our country today that that document does not settle. Today, the fairness in this country has been biased to a certain portion of Americans. Income disparity has grown to an all time high, where 1% holds all of the wealth, while the other 99% struggle. Our economy is unfair to too many people letting the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Our system is holding down minorities, while the rich white men play in a league of their own with their own set of rules. The millionaires and billionaires are manipulating the system to benefit themselves while the burden falls on the backs of small businesses, working middle class families, and the poor. Republicans only want to go back to the same old ways of the Bush administration which would keep giving taxes breaks to the rich, loopholes to corporations, and subsidies to Big Oil. We need a fair level playing field. We need everyone to pay their fair share so we can all advance together as one America. (Enter Barack Obama stage right and cue the music) I will be the one to make this a fair country, I will create a fair playing field, and I will (fill in the blank). Vote for me in 2012, Barack Obama the Creator of Fairness.
America is a great country that has overcome many difficult times, BUT there are many issues that still face us today. America was founded on a document that broke us from the chains of a European ruler, BUT there are new issues facing our country today that that document does not settle. Today, the fairness in this country has been biased to a certain portion of Americans. Income disparity has grown to an all time high, where 1% holds all of the wealth, while the other 99% struggle. Our economy is unfair to too many people letting the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Our system is holding down minorities, while the rich white men play in a league of their own with their own set of rules. The millionaires and billionaires are manipulating the system to benefit themselves while the burden falls on the backs of small businesses, working middle class families, and the poor. Republicans only want to go back to the same old ways of the Bush administration which would keep giving taxes breaks to the rich, loopholes to corporations, and subsidies to Big Oil. We need a fair level playing field. We need everyone to pay their fair share so we can all advance together as one America. (Enter Barack Obama stage right and cue the music) I will be the one to make this a fair country, I will create a fair playing field, and I will (fill in the blank). Vote for me in 2012, Barack Obama the Creator of Fairness.Now I know you might be thinking that that sounded like a message we can all get behind, and its exactly what all the Occupy protests are fighting for. Of course it sounds good to the ear, that's why most of the statements above are usually found on signs, bumper stickers, and Obama’s teleprompter. What you are not asking yourself is HOW do you create fair!!! To the far-left it doesn't matter. See they believe what Saul Alinski says,(a Marxist Chicago community organizer who wrote Rules for Radicals), that the ends justify the means. Meaning it doesn't matter how we get there, as long as we get there. That can be a disturbing and dangerous path, and it is actually what you are seeing develop through the chaos of the Occupy protest.
Obama and most Progressives believe fairness should be created by a higher power, no not God, but Obama himself as President (I know for some there is no difference). Liberals will always use Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, and Gay rights as an example of inequality and how the government can create a more just society. Yes this is true, but Civil rights were being demanded by The People, and then the government responded, and the same goes for Gay Rights currently. Also, those were rights dealing with humanity and how society viewed a certain type of person, then resulting in laws that brought groups of people up in society to be equals at a higher level. I believe economic inequality is being fought to do the exact opposite.Right now President Obama is shaping a dialogue that is creating envy through the prism of unfairness. Liberals want you to see a rich person and ask why do they need all of that money (well unless they are a part of Hollywood, then that money is acceptable because it contributes to their campaigns). Liberals have the mindset that the rich should give up some of their wealth to the poor to create equality. Like Obama told Joe the Plummer, "I think if you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody." Would that be fair? This is why we have a PROGRESSIVE income tax. The more you make the more you pay in taxes. Not just as a total amount due to a flat and equal percentage for all, but you must pay a higher percentage as well. Is that fair? They believe income disparity exists because the 1% hoards all the wealth. So they want more welfare programs to help the poor, which will be paid for by an increase in taxes on millionaires and billionaires that will never need them. Is that fair? They believe poor families are born into poor families, while rich kids like Paris Hilton are born into wealth. So they support a death tax (estate tax) that currently takes 35% of the total value of all assets over $1 million after death, in 2013 it increases to 55%. Is that fair? They claim the rich are not paying their fair share, yet 47% of the country pays NO federal income tax while the top 1% pays 36% of the total federal income tax, the top 5% pays 59%, and the top 10% pay 70%. Is that fair enough? Progressives want to create fairness through tax law and legislation, but stealing from one person to give to another is not true fairness. And, unlike civil rights, creating economic equality does not raise a person’s status, it only bring down the higher classes to seem more equal overall. The democrats will use this illusion of fairness to help the president because he cannot run on his presidential record. He will speak in a bumper sticker fashion that will appeal to a majority of the country because a majority of the country is not rich. Class warfare is all he has left, and he is naming the rich as the enemy. Will you be fooled and persuaded to believe that our country is so unfair? I believe most people are smarter than the president thinks. I believe that a majority will side with the Conservative Mindset.
Conservatives believe that we are all created equal with unalienable rights from God, and we have the right to pursue happiness. However, from birth on we must lay in the bed that we make. Now that bed might not be as nice as your friend’s bed to start, but who is really the one to blame for that. This country does not have a fairness problem, it has an accountability problem. Did you take your school work seriously when you were younger, and if not did your parents hound you for it. Accountability starts with the individual, followed by the family, and then if and only if you do not find the problem there can you begin to point fingers to others. You see, we may not all start life in the same class and we will not all end life in the same class. The government should only be concerned with protecting equal rights at birth and making sure it is possible to climb to the highest social status possible. Sure there are instances of unfairness as we climb to the top, but that is life, and if they are unjust or illegal, then we have laws to handle that. It is not fair to get a job or into a school because the government sets quotas to be met based on sex, race or religion. The government cannot manipulate the free market to artificially create fairness because it disincentives hard working honest people, and that’s truly unfair. The government should not pick winners and losers by shaping tax code and creating exemption for companies based on special interests (That goes for both parties). That is unfair. But it is not unfair to be denied a job because you are unqualified, or to receive a salary that doesn’t cover the expenses of your complex family situation, or that you are not given a job right out of college, or that your neighbor has three speed boats and you have none. Figure out how to get three speed boats, and if it is too late for you then make sure you teach your children so they continue your family’s climb to the top. It is not the rich 1% holding the other 99% down. Taxing the rich is nice sound bite, but you cannot get around the fact that you are take from one person to give to another because you think they have "enough" already. The rich do not stuff their money under their mattress, they invest it, that's why they are rich in the first place. Investment is what starts businesses, create jobs, a triggers new innovation. No matter what way you look at it, nobody works for a person poorer than them. Your boss is always richer than you, if he wasn't then he couldn't hire you. So we must have economic hierarchy, and there must be competition to the top.The president wants you to direct your anger at the rich man, I say be angry at yourself for not finding a way to earn the rich man’s job. Be angry at yourself for not taking your teachers serious, and be angry at your family for not pushing you to be better off than them.
It is time to stopping buying into the idea that democrats are here to help and make everything ok. They dangle entitlement checks in front of the vulnerable, not so they build wealth, but to guarantee a vote. Notice how Obama’s big solution is to tax the rich in order to solve all problems. How much does taxing the rich actually give you? He is not talking about creating wealth for you, he just wants to look like the guy that is there to help you get by. And don’t worry, when that money runs out, as long as you keep voting democrat the checks will keep coming. Welfare, food stamps, and public housing does not create an incentive to climb higher in society because it is too hard to give up free stuff. It creates a mindset of mediocrity and resentment. The idea of free stuff is then what gets past down to the kids along with the idea that the rich man is keeping them there. Kids grow up without seeing what it means to live inside your means and to balance a checkbook. Now this doesn’t apply to allow families on assistance, but more and more kids are being born into this environment of "free stuff". It creates an entitled society that is doomed for failure. The ones that are fooled the most are minorities. Like Herman Cain says, “it’s time for the black community to get off the Democratic Plantation.” And to really throw a wrench into the minority melting pot, Asian-Americans are the greatest minority of all, yet they have the lowest unemployment rate of all. In fact, they have consistently held a lower rate since 2000, and it is currently at 6.5%. I wonder if that has anything to do with their attitude towards education and the opportunities they take advantage of in our country, or their reliance on entitlements? It is ironic how liberals are true believers of Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Evolution, but they refuse to make the connection between survival of the fittest and our economy. Despite what you have been told, conservatives do not want the poor and minorities to starve on the streets while they regret their mistakes. We just believe that the idea of poor and unfair has been inflated. For instance, you are not poor if you have a car, a cell phone, a computer with internet, and a TV. No matter how lame that cell phone is, or how slow the internet, that does not equal poor and it certainly is not unfair. You shouldn't request food assistance, renter’s assistance, or utility assistance because it helps offset the prior luxuries mentioned. It seems people these days do not know what it means to be poor. There use to be a time when if you wanted a house you would save up the money, buy some property, and then build your family a house. Now you file paperwork for section eight. Americans are the most generous fair people in the world, but we are getting to a point where we don’t feel like our money is going to those in need. We need to start thinking about who is really being greedy.
In the next eleven months you are going to see democrats pin the lower and middle class against the rich. They will claim the GOP nominee is against the middle class, while they promise to deliver prosperity either through entitlement programs for the poor or public union pensions for the working class. In the end neither promise will ever pay off because they both use money that belongs to other people. Call it Marxism or Socialism it doesn’t matter, the same holds true, eventually you run out of other people’s money. A utopian society cannot be built by redistributing the wealth. Eventually, and a lot sooner than later, our entitlement society will run out of money to support it. When that happens Occupy Wall Street will look like a peace rally compared to what will be in the streets. Remember this election is crucial and will test what you believe. Until then, be smart and question what you are being told to believe. Make sure you understand what you stand for, and more importantly be knowledgeable about what you stand against. It is easy for sound clips to be played to make conservatives sound harsh and cruel, but remember we want everyone to use their freedom to earn wealth and move their family upward in society, not to be tethered to Uncle Sam’s wallet. Work hard, educate yourself, and be charitable, and if that eventually puts you in place with three speed boats one day, then good for you. That's true fairness. That's the American Dream.
Milton Friedman: Fairness vs. Freedom
Milton Friedman: Fairness vs. Freedom
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Friday, July 8, 2011
A True Man-made Disaster
Liberals, and some Republicans, are usually the ones that are quick to spend money that they don’t have, but they understand the country is fed up with the reckless spending. Believe me though, if the Tea Party did not send a message this past November, then it is likely we would have raised the debt ceiling 3 months ago and would have already spent well past it. So now the argument is where do we cut spending and how do we manage the revenue coming in? The basic two sided compromise is Conservatives want massive spending cuts to be on the table, and Liberals want to raise revenue.
Liberals feel that if you raise the revenues that come in, then you have more money to pay down the debt. Now if you applied that to your household or personal budget you would raise revenues by picking up another job. Congress on the other hand, takes more money off of its citizens with taxes. So let’s be clear, Liberals on TV or in Congress will talk about raising revenues, but understand that means increasing taxes. Listen and watch carefully how they will proudly support increasing revenues. Do you feel that more money should come out of your paycheck to pay the debt Congress accrued? In fact, do you actually think the money they get from higher taxes will go to paying down the debt? Now that President Obama has finally jumped into the decision making, you would think that a great leader that once prided himself on being a President that would bring the country together would lead and mediate this crisis. HELL NO! The President put on an embarrassing press conference where he not only attacked Republicans, but started a class warfare by going after the "evil rich.” I guess Barack the campaigner is back. Their strategy is to convince you that we are in debt because “rich” people in America are not paying their fair share. Oil companies are not paying taxes because of loopholes while receiving subsidies, tax breaks are increasing the deficit, and they even singled out people that ride private jets. These are typical Liberal talking points. Will you allow Liberals to divert your concerns about our debt away from Congress and onto a certain class of society? Are the rich the problem? Should we target their wealth to increase revenue? I ask you to think about these questions and put them up against the Conservative mindset. Do the answers you’re told to believe match up to your morals and to the principles of our country? What do you really believe?
Taxes. More taxes on any economic class is never the answer. A huge Liberal idea is that tax breaks increase the deficit. That is why they claim the “Bush tax breaks for the rich” caused our current deficit. In a way this is true, only because Liberals think that if they lose revenue coming in, then they have to borrow money to make up for. If Congress would live within its means, the way a common household is expected to do, then they would not spend it if they didn’t have it. Conservatives believe that cutting taxes will spur businesses to invest their kept income, hire new people, and in result trigger economic growth. That is why deficit reduction is two-fold; you have to cut spending when you cut taxes, something Reagan even failed to do. I’m really lost for words when Liberals even think higher taxes will improve the economy, even if you limit it to only the “rich”. I have been putting rich in quotations because Obama and Liberals label the rich as anyone making more than $250,000 a year. That might sound like a lot, but the problem is that that tax bracket includes many people that work extremely hard for their money, so why single them out even more than our tax laws already do. The fact that they went to college and earned a degree which allows them to make a great living should be rewarded and incentivized, not punished and stolen away for those who chose otherwise. Also, that tax bracket includes small businesses. Small businesses are the foundation of our economy. The Office of Advocacy funded data and research showing that small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all firms, they create more than half of the private non-farm gross domestic product, and they create 60 to 80 percent of the net new jobs. If we tax them more, especially now when we are begging for them to employ more people, it will have the reverse effect and unemployment will essentially increase. As for the evil rich private jet owners, the same principle applies. Ask yourself, how many poor people have signed your paycheck? Also, the corporate rich are the ones that take risks to invest in new businesses and create new markets. The private jets, yachts, fancy restaurants and hotels that we are told to despise the rich for, are all built and serviced by middle class workers. I’m sure they are thankful for the use of their services and products. Attacking the rich for this lifestyle punishes the very class of people that are being told to do the attacking. If we gave into Liberals and taxed all 403 billionaires in the US at a 100% tax rate we would get an additional $1.3 Trillion in revenues. This would not be enough to pay this year’s deficit. This is obviously not the solution to our problem. It is just a side show that our inexperienced leaderless President puts on to avoid making real decisions. The liberal mindset of class warfare to chop down the upper class to make us all equal equates to the mindset of Marxism.
Big Oil, oh that evil and dirty Big Oil. Why the attack on oil? Probably the easiest answer yet. Liberals know that our US economy is driven by the use of oil, but they think oil has had it too easy and is making too much of a profit. How many times have you heard Exxon Mobile’s yearly earnings reported and then followed up with a reason to increase the taxes on them because they can afford it. Liberals want you to hate their large profits. They want you to despise the fact that they have profits in the billions while you pay outrageous prices at the pumps, and they are subsidized! Do not fall into that trap! First off, oil companies get ABSOLUTELY ZERO subsidies. They get tax breaks, and there is a difference. A subsidy means that money is actually given to them out of the US Treasury. Oil companies get a tax break which means they get to keep more of their own earned money when they file taxes. The reason for this tax break is because all businesses and manufactures get the same tax breaks. Money spent on finances for the business or manufacturing costs can be “written off”. Oil companies just spend a lot of money to produce their product. In fact, after research and development, drilling for oil, refining the oil, transporting the oil (sometimes across the world), they still are able to get you a gallon of gas on average for $3.58. But a gallon of milk from our own country on average is $3.50. But you are told to hate Big Oil. The “loopholes” for oil companies that Obama and Liberals want to do away with would bring in an additional $4 billion in revenue, that is 0.028% of our national debt. Again this is not the answer to our problem, just another bone thrown to liberals for the upcoming election. If you want to be mad at anything regarding oil be mad that we rely of foreign oil that harbors terrorists and set the prices, instead of drilling for our own in our own country. Be mad that gas was $1.84 last January and now it’s $3.60. Be mad that the Brazilian oil company Petrabras got a true subsidy of $2 billion dollars from the US.
Liberals hate oil because of profits and the idea of global warming (again a debate for another post). Despite both of those reasons, we cannot allow our government to pick and choose winners and losers. That is not a true free market. Many Liberals hate capitalism because of the crookedness and cheating, well that kind of capitalism is not wanted by Conservatives either. The more government involvement and regulations that are enforced upon the market, the more corruption exists (i.e. Prohibition). We want a free market where businesses win and lose on their own. Do you agree that the government can pick oil companies to be excluded from tax breaks while all other businesses continue to receive them? Especially when you take money from oil companies and give it to a competing industry that Liberals love such as renewable green energy. It is simply Socialism for the government to dictate which companies will succeed and which ones will fail. It is Socialism to redistribute the wealth and profits of one company to another company through taxes. If this is allowed, then which company is next? Should we take from Ford to help out GM? Should we punish the hotels to help out the cruise lines? Should we tax comedies to help promote dramas? Should we take from the private sector workers to pay for the public sector worker’s benefits and pensions? Who makes these decisions and for what reasons? The Conservative Mindset says the consumers decide who succeeds and who fails in the free market. Socialism gives that privilege to your government, and if history tells us anything, that can be a very slippery slope.
The debt ceiling crisis should be taken very serious, but for our President to use it to demagogue his opposing party because of his upcoming election is pathetic. We need someone with the courage to put together a budget and plan that confronts the problems at hand, not divert them into class warfare for their own political gains. This compromise of cutting spending and raising taxes is nothing new. When the deal goes through they will claim a bipartisan effort with "X" amount of dollars of spending cuts for every "Y" amount of new or raised taxes, but if we learned anything from Reagan and Bush Sr., the taxes will go through but the spending cuts will get lost in the rhetoric. We need someone to force Congress to stop its reckless spending by holding the debt ceiling in place. We as Conservatives say tax us fairly and then spend our money responsibly.
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