The Taxman Cometh, and Taketh Away
By the time you finish reading this piece, the federal government will have spent approximately $10 million.
Taxpayers understand April 15 — Tax Day — is a cruel day. In 2011, however, April may be even crueler, as the latest continuing resolution (CR) — the mechanism that is funding the federal government — was passed with minimal spending cuts.
Certainly, taxpayers are frustrated that at a time when the deficit is projected to be $1.6 trillion and the national debt exceeds $14.2 trillion, most members of Congress and the president seem to be tinkering around the edges of spending cuts. Moreover, the shutdown showdown advertised $38.5 billion in spending cuts, which in reality resulted is just $352 million in savings (0.022% of the projected deficit) — or a simple rounding error when putting it up against a trillion-dollar deficit.
According to the Wall Street Journal,
Because some of the cuts would be slow to take effect, and because some of the money was unlikely to be spent in any case, the reduction in actual “outlays” would come to a small percentage of the announced amount.
This type of trickery has been happening since last year. In 2010, not only did Congress fail to pass a budget, they failed to pass appropriations bills for FY 2011. Then, the 111th Congress punted the responsibility to the 112th Congress. When the new Congress convened, there was optimism that spending cuts would be the first order of business, but the optimism quickly faded.
After a vote to de-fund ObamaCare in January, the House then started to play a game of cat and mouse with spending cuts. In fact, the first move by House Republicans was to lower the bar. While they had promised $100 billion in cuts, Republican leadership argued that because four months of the fiscal year had already passed, they only needed to cut $60 billion. Taxpayers were outraged and demanded $100 billion in cuts. With pressure mounting from voters, Republicans finally offered $100 billion in cuts to the FY 2011 CR, which was quickly reduced again to $61 billion after a week of dramatic votes on various amendments.
Better Luck Next Time.
November 2010 is now officially deflated!
Corporation for Public Broadcasting is still receiving Federal Funds.
National Public Radio is still receiving Federal Funds
National Endowment for the Arts is still receiving Federal Funds
National Endowment for the Humanities is still receiving Federal Funds
Americorps is still receiving Federal Funds
Planned Parenthood is still receiving Federal Funds.
Republicans are simply put; BOGUS!
Time to elect a third party and give up on those doofuses. At least when they all loose and Democrats are in office they will Honestly spend us to death.
We need a new contract with America – one that stipulates that, yes, we will organize ourselves into a gov’t and deal only with things we all more or less agree on: a police force, street lights, roads, etc.
Anything that is in the arena of social engineering or Robin Hood scenarios and basically controversial should be left to fate and individual taste and gov’t cleanly left out of it but we can work in towards the middle a little bit like with Social Security and preventing banks and options traders from robbing us and destroying our economy.
The gov’t shouldn’t be involved in families doing anything, not the arts, not Federal education, not head start, heads up, heads down, DREAM Acts, welfare, the internet, funding foreign govts, taxing the crap out of everything in sight, sales taxes, extorting money from us on automobiles we cannot live without, mandatory insurance, etc.
There are lots of ways to get the govt out of our lives and surprise, we wouldn’t have to be taxed so much to pay for all the useless bureaucracies that only socialize us to mix up the fortunes of the unlucky and the lucky and the smart and the stupid and the lazy and the hard working.
I would just amend to everywhere you say “government” add “federal” so it would read “federal government”.
I agree, that’s mostly what I meant.
With 47% of American’s not paying taxes at all, and the bottom 40% actually recouping additional monies from the Fed in the form of credits not earned your dreaming if anything is going to change. No one cares that the top 10% of earners pay approximately 73% of income taxes collected by the Fed. They want their programs, education, housing, and all other social justice B/S…just not on their dime
We have a hyper partisan President, and a Marxism Party playing the fiddle to those bottom 50% of American’s to soak the “rich”. They wont be satisfied til the goose that lays those golden eggs is dead…and as long as we keep creeping toward the goal of more people riding in, rather than pulling the cart, politicians who encourage it, and class warfare it will continue until the nation finally collapses under the entitlement weight placed upon it.
What is truly despicable is how this socialist president of ours uses the class-warfare card at every chance he has. Reminds me of Lenin at the start of the Russian revolution. First they come for the property, then they come for the “rich” (or whoever they think has more than they do), and then they will come for you. Over the next two years, one of two things will happen. Either the definition of “rich” will start to fall dramatically, making everybody pay for Obama’s social welfare programs, or more and more people will be forced onto the public dole, making more and more Americans dependent on the Federal Government for just about everything, from food stamps to housing to education to (and this is the big one) health care.
The America we knew is rapidly disappearing, friends. The America where everybody worked hard and tried their best to make something of themselves so that they could have a better life for their families has been replaced by “what do I get and what more will the government do for me.” Americans now feel entitled to everything, as long as THEY don’t have to pay for it. Problem is, somebody has to, and that “somebody” is you. All of the people living in the social-welfare states in Europe are finding that out right now. The day will come when the bill is due for all of this nonsense and then everybody gets it in the back of the head. Problem is, most Americans don’t every see it that way.
“Simply put, he (Obama) isn’t taking the spending crisis seriously —”
As much as I cannot stand to look at Obama’s face or listen to his voice, in my mind one fact stands out head and shoulders above all others.
Americans have not yet suffered anywhere close to enough under the oppressive rule of Obama to merit any significant change in downtown Washington, DC.
Americans still want their cake and eat it too; they still want the government to carry their load for them, and if they can see a way for this to happen by reelecting Obama, that is exactly what they will do.
Simply put, Americans are not taking the spending crisis seriously — anymore than they considered anything about our country seriously when they elected the man in the first place.
They, Americans wanted change and hope. They wanted everyone to be friends; to hug and kiss and get along with each other. What a ridiculous and downright stupid way to think.
Well, America got what it wanted.
But this time, we’re sorry isn’t good enough. This time America may have ended up making more of a mess of itself than it can fix.
The Tax Man will come alright, but shortly there may not be anything left for him to take.
Within the last 12 months, there have been some inane queries on CNET forums, like: What digital SLR camera should I buy for my 4-year old son? Or, Which computer would be suitable for my 3-year old? I take them as signs of persisting lewd opulence, combined with comfortable stupidity. Until the bubble is perfectly burst and shattered, there can be no recovery of senses.
Okay, what happens when you discover that their homes have been foreclosed by the banks and they’re going for their second; even their bankruptcy?
Maybe they know a few things that you and I don’t. Like, when Obama gets elected he’s going to pay off my house and all of my bills, plus buy me a new car. I won’t have a thing to worry about then.
Betting on 2012 these folks might figure they might as well toss in a new digital camera and computer… for their anchor babies..
Albeit, since we’re talking about CNET perhaps the benefit of doubt goes to some of the screwballs that haunt Craigslist got bored and decided to annoy the tech forums for fun and giggles.
Last night on Minnesota PBS, I saw a new one in terms of giving free stuff to the immigrant communities….this infomercials run all night long, in every foreign language on earth….sure wouldn’t want any of those people who definitely did not come here looking for the American opportunity to miss out….they came looking for the American checkbook, and voila! boy, did they find it.
The new one I saw was wall-to-wall how to get free food in Minneapolis, no matter how much money you make. And this is over and above and beyond the other one that runs endlessly in half hour wall-to-wall, telling the Hmong community (if I were Hmong, I’d be highly insulted) about the importance of not letting their children get burned by having boiling water dumped on them.
I can only conclude that either the Hmong are among the stupidest people God ever created or….the other possibility….that they were flown straight into Hubert H. Humphrey International Land Here And We’ll Support You For The Rest Of Your Life Airport in St. Paul straight out of some Hmong village in the highlands of Vietnam where the altitude is too high for water to ever boil or somebody let the fire go out in 1990 and they couldn’t get it started again.
Your tax dollars at work. It’s a wonderful thing.
The scariest number is $200 billion a month in interest payments. That takes the debt curve to the debt ceiling which is due to crash on May 16th. The jokers in D.C. have nearly convinced themselves that they have to borrow more to pay off the interest while spending like they stole it. It seems that the most important part of their reasoning is to dodge blame while holding the rich, the poor, the young, the old and the military hostages to their phoney promises.
It’s a little over $200 billion a year in interest payments. I don’t know where the $200B/month figure came from.
Thanks, you may live up to your name. My source was probably the talking heads of TV.
“Taxpayers can’t afford this.” Wrong. It’s not about affordability. It’s about accountability, performance and value added.
We, the taxpayers, fund every part of the government, from salaries to SAMs. We’re their employers and creditors. Everything they have is ours. Our funds are used as collateral for loans from other countries, which means we’re their primary creditor. (Get in line, China.)
As the primary investors in this endeavor, we’ve discovered our employees are running amok. They’re irrational, unprofessional, incompetent, unreliable, unpredictable and deceitful. The only difference between the US Federales and Mafia is the latter follows through on its promises. Both are shakedown artists, the Feds have simply declared their own high crimes and misdemeanors to be legal.
The best predictor of future performance is past performance. As the Feds’ primary creditor, we have to ask: Q: What possible rationale could support lending more money to these pikers, pickpockets and pretenders? A: Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zero.
Out here in the real world, no creditor would continue lending to anyone who so consistently demonstrated only two skills: 1. An insane ability to spend; and 2. The sociopathic hubris to threaten, cajole, petition for more to spend – then legislate to make it so.
The crooks are incontrol. Commenters have noted countless examples of idiocy and abuse. With a few red pens and 15-hour days, any one of us could slash billions from the budget.
The fact that neither party, neither house and the Obamatron refuse to do the same is telling. Actions speak louder than words.
“Simply put, he (Obama) isn’t taking the spending crisis seriously —”
I don’t buy this. Obama is Soros’ man – he’s even gone so far as to cut our oil production but gave billions of OUR money to Brazil into a company Georgie owns. Georgie’s fondest wish (he has openly said he has worked his whole life for this) is for the American dollar to crash – to become worthless – as the Pound did in England. Obama is simply doing everything in his power to destroy the Ameican dollar.
I actually think he’s succeeded. It’lls just take awhile for the corpse to know it’s dead.
Barack Hussien Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent.
To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure,
economic crisis and social chaos — thereby destroying capitalism and
our country from within. He is a devout Muslim do not be fooled.
Look at his Czars…anti-business..anti- american.
As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Barack Hussien Obama is
following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University .
They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system
with government spending and entitlement demands.
How does one found a new country?
Now I’m not talking carving out part of the country or anything like that. But isn’t the ocean “international waters” and hence not owned by anyone? If a group went out there, and made an artificial island could they theoretically form their own country?
Could be a good idea. Until we can get to the Moon and Mars. Sheesh.
Obama’s recent speech was textbook liberal thinking; it sets up false arguments that if an individual who is completely disconnected from another individual has a good life and another an unfortunate one, that when it comes to taxes that the fortunate person is to ‘blame’ and is ‘stealing’ from the less fortunate.
At its heart it is the liberal Left’s entire reason for living, the basis of all their thought: that the people most responsible for their own welfare are in fact the least deserving of their fate, good or ill, and so must be denuded or recompensed accordingly.
It sets up America as one giant Sherwood Forest where morality is doled out according to ones financial success. Obama is Robin Hood and he knows that success on the part of one person means that someone else must in turn have been diminished.
All you have to do to join King John and his evil cronies is work hard, be lucky and disciplined and be a success. To be a band of merry men, you must fail, be slothful, unlucky or whatever other slings and arrows come your way which you throw at your betters because that is their use, to even out bad and good people and spread the wealth, and garbage, around. What is the message to our young? That to achieve is to only achieve immorality that MUST be funneled away from you? Why is anyone surprised the ‘great unwashed’ have a sense of entitlement? They are being told they are spiritually deserving and better people who have been robbed by the privileged and undeserving.
The giant elephant in the room is the false connection everyone has to each other as individuals who must trade off their success and failure because the gov’t says so. We are in effect an ant colony wherein individual achievement counts for only how much it can be invested back into the colony. In the end, there is no individual achievement, not really; there is only privilege or the lack of it, the exploited and the exploiters.
The two schools of thought are diametrically opposed because the pragmatic aren’t asking anyone to do anything really, they just want to be left to their own devices. The liberal Left has other ideas and want you to subscribe to to an entire range of notions whether you like it or not and pay for them as well. The Left demonizes people as an explanation and motivator as did Obama in that Wed., Apr.13 George Washington University Speech.
Obama starts out with this:
“From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America’s wealth and prosperity. More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government.”
Then come the big “BUT” “…and a belief that we are all connected; and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation.”
The first is just fluff and that second his real argument and the false one. We are not all connected in the way Obama suggests, not at all and ‘none of your business’ is not something in his lexicon.
According to Obama, this ‘connection’ results in a “conviction that each one of us deserves some basic measure of security.”
Really? ‘Deserve’? That’s a pretty heady word here. ‘Conviction’? On the part of who, and who decides this? Obama would have you believe in the ‘greater good’ but it is the greater good of the ant colony and so not a true and Jeffersonian version of sharing which is to mean opportunity and not a forced sharing which means the fruits of that opportunity. In this sense, Obama’s use of the word ‘fairness’ is monstrous. A fighting chance is all we ‘deserve’. You take your licks otherwise as you or fate decides.
“Am I my brothers keeper” is a rhetorical and philosophical question, not the bewildered acknowledgment of an order from the President of the United States and a ticket to welfare status.
Obama says: “We take responsibility for ourselves and each other;” Again, really? Even into my living room and deep into my wallet and does that ‘we’ mean all of the Third World as well? – apparently it does – more useful drones to vote Democrat.
They say the Devil is in the details but in this case it’s not; of what use are plans, no matter how carefully laid out that are based on nonsense and that ignore the true nature of people and success, as well as our own Constitution that had a keen awareness of human frailty and addressed that frailty to protect all and not to enable frailty to dominate opportunity. The Constitution is meant to let us go our own way, not to act as a lasso.
Obama has the nerve to further demonize his opponents by saying that this ‘sense of responsibility’ is ‘patriotism’. This issue isn’t just about taxes but freedom, it’s about ‘Don’t tread on me’. If Obama had been in charge of the Oklahoma land rush it would have been women and children, gays and blacks and Latinos and the elderly first. America is not a sinking ship and there is no reason to treat it as such because one must be careful of what one wishes for.
According to Obama, individualists and those who acknowledge the role of personal responsibility in life are in fact people who want to throw old people and children to the wolves.
In speaking of the evil Republicans, Obama says:
“They want to give people like me a two hundred thousand dollar tax cut that’s paid for by asking thirty three seniors to each pay six thousand dollars more in health costs? That’s not right, and it’s not going to happen as long as I’m President.”
Well, he got the “That’s not right” part correct but has lost what impelled America to lead the world in art and technology. The fact is that those stipulated 33 seniors have absolutely nothing to do with people who make over 200 grand. What it is is a grand lie, meant to further his own vision of anti-colonialism and take down his opponents to the level of scheming, privileged, immoral and selfish and it’s all straw man, every bit of it.
Bravo sir, take a bow