My favorite bumper stickerFor the last year I have been a member of a discussion group here in St Augustine. Called the Socrates Discussion Group, we have between fifteen and twenty-five members, mostly seniors of both sexes, who discuss many subjects, often controversial, for two hours every Monday afternoon. After one heated (but quite civil) discussion late last year I decided to make some predictions for the next year. Here’s what I wrote and submitted to them at our meeting on January 7.
Observations and predictions for the future, for the Socrates Discussion Group, January 5, 2008.
Howard Johnson
There are several dangerous factors promising possible economic disaster for our nation in the immediate future. That those already in play have not already precipitated an economic collapse is amazing to this writer. I will list them in chronological order.
1. The trade deficit: We continue buying more than we sell on world markets. Even as our economy grew in recent years, billions have left our shores for other nations, enriching foreign businessmen and despotic rulers in the process. This money is increasingly used to buy American businesses, stocks, and real estate. More and more foreign investors are also buying up our debt.
2. Oil, a special case: As domestic supplies of oil dwindle and limits are imposed on drilling for new oil in our lands, more and more oil must be imported at higher and higher prices to supply our hunger for fuel for our vehicles. This has become the largest exodus of dollars from our economy in our entire history. Many of those dollars go to nations whose rulers hate us and plot our demise.
3. Mounting debt: The three tiers of American debt are also growing. Our Federal debt fed by excesses of an irresponsible Congress bent on buying their way into power at any cost to the future taxpayer has doubled in the last ten years. With Social Security and Medicare costs rapidly expanding, entitlements will soon overpower federal revenue. Mortgage debt also has grown, driven by steadily increasing prices for homes and business property, often far beyond real value. People are driving the prices of property steadily upward and often assuming mortgages far beyond their ability to pay. They plan to “flip” their purchase, pay off their mortgage and pocket the difference for a tidy profit. One blip in the real estate market, actually long overdue, and these mortgages will go into default. Consumer debt for cars, appliances and credit cards is another mounting pressure on a banking system already strained to the limits and fed by the very money we send abroad. With oil sheiks, despots like Hugo Chavez, and Chinese banks supplying the capital, what happens if and when they withdraw their financial support? The likelihood of just one of these collapsing will surely precipitate the rest to do the same. Once America’s ability to pay its debts comes into question, everything will collapse and quite suddenly.
4. The political situation and the next election: It is this writer’s opinion that not only will Barack Obama be the Democrat nominee for president in the coming election, but that he will win in a landslide and will carry a large Democrat majority in Congress with him. Aided by an adoring and highly biased media, Democrats will have complete control of the Federal government.
The result: As soon as the polls show this trend and possibly before the actual election, several things will happen driven by the promise of doubled capital gains taxes along with other tax increases. The housing bubble will collapse, the stock market will crash, and consumers will default wholesale. As debt defaults multiply and investment capital flees our shores, the entire debt support system will collapse. Because we are in a world economy, investment capital will move to places like Ireland, China, India, and even Russia. The loss of the American market will bring with it the collapse of much of the world economy. The result will make the “Great Depression” look like a mild recession. It is my opinion that this is the goal of those on the far left. The chaos that will follow such a total economic collapse is precisely the opportunity they want to take control. Eugene Debs and Earl Browder almost put the Marxists in power during the great depression and I’m afraid their successors will succeed this time. I’m afraid their successors, the far left liberal Democrats led by Obama, will succeed this time and America will sink into a dull gray version of the old Soviet Union, a Socialist/communist dictatorship.
Prediction update, October 16, 2008: Unfortunately, while many of the predictions in the previous paragraphs have come true, revelations of many of the actual reasons are never even mentioned by the highly biased media as they seek to be the determining factor in making the election a liberal Democrat landslide in November. Democrats and the media have been touting a depression for most of the last eight years, repeating the left’s mantra, “The worst economy since the great depression,” an absolute untruth. In fact, until the Democrat orchestrated mortgage collapse, the economy was among the best ever with low unemployment and high wages. Another of their mantra’s, “Bush tax cuts for the wealthy” is also an absolute lie. In actuality, the Bush tax cuts increased income taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans by 2% and decreased those paid by the bottom half of wage earners by 2%. This information comes directly from government statistics. You’ll never hear those statistics mentioned by the media for obvious reasons. Incidently, whenever “the left” is used in this article it includes liberal Democrats, entertainers (actors, media personalities, sports figures, etc.) and anti-capitalists of all kinds.
As has been the case numerous times, tax cuts by the Bush administration greatly increased federal tax revenue even as the Democrats predicted a huge loss of revenue. As expected, their grossly erroneous predictions are never mentioned by the media who’s extreme bias has become obvious to all but the dimmest lightbulb. By whipping up and encouraging a very successful class hate campaign against business people—the wealthy, big business, and big oil in particular—liberal Democrat politicians and their cronies in the media have created an emotional anti-business, anti-success attitude within much of the public, particularly those ignorant of the facts. Profit has long been an evil thing in the lexicon of the left including the media. This in spite of the fact that in America, profits are the sole source of investment capital, by far the largest force in job creation, and the largest source of federal revenue. There is no question—class envy and hatred for business works, politically. Ultimately it will destroy our economy, and that is quite obviously the goal of the left.
Here are some remarks by Newt Gingerich:
“Today marks the end of one of the most dishonest, relentlessly one-sided campaigns of bias and distortion by the mainstream media in American history.
“The latest tactic in this elite media campaign has been to declare the presidential race over in an effort to discourage some voters from going to the polls. After all, if Barack Obama has already won, why should supporters of John McCain even bother to vote?
“But this election won't be decided by Keith Olbermann, or CNN, or the New York Times. It will be decided by you.
“So annoy the mainstream media. Remember 2000. Remember how close it was. Remember how every single vote counted.”
Do any of you readers ever consider the fact that only wealthy business people are included in this organized hate campaign? Many entertainers including sports figures and media talking heads earn far more than most business owners, yet the media dotes on them while ridiculing and condemning virtually everyone in business. Likewise wealthy attorneys like Edwards make millions bilking corporations by misleading courtroom actions inflaming class hatred in juries. Anyone who does not comply with their results are forced to do so by the power of men with guns. Attorneys will only go after those with “deep pockets” for purely economic reasons. Yet these types are held in high esteem by the media. Sleazebags like Edwards are virtually immune to media criticism as long as they are Democrats. Incidently, have you ever heard of a Republican trial Attorney?
While most attorneys in movies and TV shows are portrayed with adoration no matter how wealthy, business people are almost always portrayed as evil, sinister cheaters or stumble bums. There have been and now are many lawyer shows from LA Law to Boston Legal glorifying the legal profession, but have you ever heard of similar shows glorifying business people? Of course not. Those who become wealthy in movies or TV, on the professional game fields, or in the courtroom are praised and held up as role models no matter how crass, immoral, evil, or self indulgent they are. On the other hand, business people who become wealthy are universally reviled, insulted, ridiculed and portrayed as evil monsters. For decades, the evil cattle baron as the villain and the lone poor farmer or cowboy as the hero has been a staple plot for thousands of films and TV shows. This pattern has morphed into the staple of poor employee against evil business man employer in many of today’s entertainment offerings.
That many people get their economic and political information from these shows is obvious no matter how in error they are. Emotions almost always triumph over logic. Case in point, the movie The China Syndrome almost by itself convinced the American public that nuclear power was a very bad and dangerous thing and so shut down our entire nuclear power program. This in spite of the fact that nuclear power has the safest record with the least health dangers of any form of power generation. The movie, based on an actual incident at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility, was a fictional story—a fabrication. The facts of the actual incident were the direct opposite of the story. The emergency safety features and precautions built into the plant worked perfectly. The accident was confined to the facility and the safety systems worked perfectly. No dangerous radiation was released and no one was injured. Nevertheless, this Hollywood fabrication falsely convinced the American public that nuclear energy would kill or sicken us all. As a result, no nuclear power plants have been built since, a great loss to our economy.
While the left continues their hate campaign against them, Republicans seem reluctant to speak out with the truth about the root causes of our economic problems. Newt Gingerich is one who does speak out as in a recent article, “A candidate with the courage to tell the truth about Franklin Raines, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, the Carter and Clinton-era pressures for bad loans, the ACORN pressure for bad loans (trained in Chicago by Barack Obama in his community organizer days) would have an enormous response from a country which is sick of predatory politicians, arrogant bureaucrats, and elitist reporters.” Unfortunately, the left (and especially their propagandists in the media) is very capable of personal attacks on anyone who points out these truths with ridicule, hate speech, and false accusations of racism. Together with completely ignoring any negative information about Democrats or positive information about Republicans and conservatives, this produces an extremely false impression of reality in the minds of impressionable (and usually ill informed) voters and the young in particular. Does Tom Brokaw actually expect us to believe that in all the questions submitted for the debate he managed there was not a single one about Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfloeger, or Acorn? Give me a break.
Here’s a modified quote from my unpublished non-fiction book, The Feudals:
When the 13 colonies were still part of England, Professor Alexander Tyler, a Scottish historian, wrote about the fall of the Athenian democracy over 2000 years earlier. “A democracy can not exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates promising them the most money from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.”
NOTE: Since this was written I have discovered the source may not by Professor Tyler (or Tytler). For information about this goto the posting of March 3, 2009.
That is precisely what has happened to our country thanks to the efforts of liberal Democrats. Their “tax the rich and spend to buy votes” philosophy is based in this reality. By pledging more and more money to more and more people, and promising to take it away from the “rich,” the Feudals are buying votes motivated by class envy and hatred. It is easy to see that Obama’s constant mantra, “Tax reductions and government checks for most Americans while the wealthiest 5% get taxed to pay for it. I’ll punish those rich bastards for you.” No, those are not his exact words, but that’s the appeal of his message, loud and clear. At least the words of Jeremiah Wright, his spiritual mentor, “God Damn America” were an honest expression of his feelings. The liberal Democrat campaign follows the same hate driven pattern of racism, class and wealth envy, ridicule, and denigration because they have no ideas or plausible proposals and because hate campaigns work. Their main effort is to accuse Republicans of precisely what Democrats have been doing all along.
Here’s what really scares me. I believe liberal Democrats mean to do precisely what they say they intend to do. This includes: 1) Checks for the lowest half of the citizens. That’s definitely blatant vote buying right out of Tyler’s prediction. 2) Just the promise of the doubling of the capital gains tax is already causing a monstrous flight of investment capital from America. That’s what is depressing the stock market and causing job loss. 3) The so-called “fairness doctrine” will be passed to silence talk radio. This is actually an attack on our freedom of speech and numerous Democrats are already talking about it. 4) Several McCain-Palin campaign workers have been attacked. I see this violence against Republicans as growing in intensity and number. Incited by the class envy and hate speech from the left, these attacks could quickly escalate. The left doesn’t hesitate to use violence to serve their ends. Just ask Obama cohort, Bill Ayers.
A prediction: In addition to what I predicted in January, it is my opinion that given a large Democrat majority in Congress, Obama will continue the destruction of our capitalist economy that the left has worked so hard to achieve. The left will then move us down the road to socialism. Incited by all the hate speech, violence against Republicans, conservatives and those perceived as “rich” will grow in frequency and intensity. From the chaos that follows, a socialist dictatorship similar to the old Soviet Union will eventually emerge just as predicted by Professor Tyler. It will be a bloody and devastating change. As the Bolsheviks did in Russia, or the French did with the guillotine, the wealthy, then the intellectuals, educators, and idealists that started the revolution will be murdered or otherwise disposed of, and the media will be controlled. I wonder how those political satirists from the entertainment world will fare? In the Soviet world dissent was silenced with a bullet or knife. (Trotsky in Mexico for example) My specific prediction is that within the next twenty years the United States will become a socialist dictatorship much like the old Soviet Union.
Right now, during the 2008 national election, here are numerous incidents of voter intimidation like what was recorded by a CNN reporter in Philadelphia. He recorded two Black Panthers in their uniforms blocking the entry to the polling place. One was even wielding a night stick. When he spoke to them he was threatened and recorded the remark, "We are going to elect a black President and nothing is going to stop it." Numerous citizens were so intimidated they left without voting. The left does not hesitate to use intimidation and violence to gain their political ends. Once in power, the left will even use murder as a political incentive to enforce their edicts. It is my firm belief such violence is soon coming to our nation.
Now Obama announces he wants a civilian military force with equal power to the regular military. What for? Maybe he is continuing to follow another leader who brought “change.”
The Sturmabteilung (help·info), abbreviated SA, (German for "Assault detachment" or "Assault section", usually translated as "stormtroop(er)s"), functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party. They played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s.
SA men were often called "brownshirts", for the colour of their uniforms, and to distinguish them from the Schutzstaffel (SS), who wore black and brown uniforms (compare the Italian blackshirts).
The SA was also the first Nazi paramilitary group to develop pseudo-military titles for bestowal upon its members. The SA ranks would be adopted by several other Nazi Party groups, chief among them the SS. They were very important to Hitler's rise to power until they were superseded by the SS after the Night of the Long Knives.
I wonder what color shirts Obama's civilian military will wear. Maybe the same uniform now worn by the Black Panthers as they intimidated voters in Philadelphia.
Don’t say it can’t happen here—it can.
Oh yes, who will Obama pick for his cabinet? How about Franklin Raines for Treasury Secretary, Bill Ayers as the Secretary of Education, and Tony Rezko as head of the Justice department.
Realty check: No, this didn't happen, but it still could eventually. Instead, several of his picks declined, withdrew or otherwise were chastened by gross misconduct, usually tax fraud and deliberate non payment of federal taxes, or in the case of one Republican, withdrawal because of "irreconcilable differences."
Subject: Bar Stool Economics
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But, if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten imes more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls , journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
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While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.
"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in," says the senator.
"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.'
"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the senator.
"I'm sorry, but we have our rules."
And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.
Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people.
They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.
Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises ... The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
"Now it's time to visit heaven."
So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity."
The senator reflects for a minute, then answers: "Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell."
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above...
The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. "I don't understand," stammers the senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"
The devil looks at him, smiles and says......."Yesterday we were campaigning. Today you voted."
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A president's pension currently is $191,300 per year, until he is 80 years old.
Assuming the next president lives to age 80. Sen. McCain would receive ZERO pension as he would reach 80 at the end of two terms as president. Sen. Obama would be retired for 26 years after two terms and would receive $4,973,800 in pension.
Therefore it would certainly make economic sense to elect McCain in November. The results certainly indicate the economic acumen of America’s voters.
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It's not looking good for that bailout plan..... true story.
Back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.
They failed and it closed.
Now we are trusting the entire economy of our country to a pack of nit-wits who couldn't make money running a whore house and selling booze?
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NEW RULES FOR THE WORKPLACE TO ACHIEVE CHANGE AND FAIRNESS
You small business owners out there are preparing for life under a Barack Obama presidency. Here are some new rules for small businesses based on Obama's ideals of change and fairness:
As of November 5, 2008, when President Obama officially becomes president-elect, our company will instill a few new policies which are in keeping with his new, inspiring issues of change and fairness:
1. All salespeople will be pooling their sales and bonuses into a common pool that will be divided equally between all of you. This will serve to give those of you who are under-achieving a "fair shake."
2. All workers below management lavel will be pooling their wages, including overtime, into a common pool, dividing it equally amongst you. This will help those who are "too busy for overtime" to reap the rewards from those who have more spare time and can work extra hours.
3. All top management will now be referred to as "the government." We will not participate in this "pooling" experience because the law doesn't apply to us.
4. The "government" will give eloquent speeches to all employees every week, encouraging its workers to continue to work hard "for the good of all."
5. The employees will be thrilled with these new policies because it's "good to spread the wealth around". Those of you who have underachieved will finally get an opportunity; those of you who have worked hard and had success will feel more "patriotic."
6. The last few people who were hired should clean out their desks. Don't feel bad, though, because President Obama will give you free healthcare, free handouts, free oil for heating your home, free food stamps, and he'll let you stay in your home for as long as you want even if you can't pay your mortgage. If you appeal directly to our democratic congress, you might even get a free flat screen TV and a coupon for free haircuts (shouldn't all Americans be entitled to nice looking hair?)!!!
New rules for professionals in keeping with Obama's ideals of change and fairness:
Since most professionals are licensed by their states, pooling of income, fees, awards, prizes, etc. will be done on a state by state basis. For example, all New York attorneys will give all of their income, fees, awards, prizes, etc to the NY attorney pool. This pooled money will first be used to pay the federal income tax and the remainder will be divided equally between all NY attorneys. This will serve to give those attorneys who are under-achieving a "fair shake".
The same state income pooling process will also be used for physicians, dentists, football players, actors, accountants, race car drivers—anyone in any recognized profession that is not working as an hourly employee of a company. Those professionals who have underachieved will finally get an opportunity and reward; those who have worked hard and had success will feel more "patriotic."
If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to—WELL, YOU KNOW.
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A Bit About our Probable Next President
Website about Obama - http://ahwatukeemusings.blogspot.com/2008/10/barack-obama-william-ayers-acorn.html
Now for the serious stuff, as hard as it is to take politicians seriously.
I am amazed at the responses many of my “Rants” have evoked from the far left members of my family. I have been cursed, ridiculed, called numerous unsavory names including liar and moron, denigrated by members of my family, and ordered never to send emails (that disagree with their political views). It is plain to me that their logic is so weak and their arguments so poor That all they can do is hit me with emotional clubs. It seems to me that is the sum total of arguments from the left. Like DNC chairman Howard Dean’s famous rant, “I hate Republicans. I hate Conservatives. I hate Rush Limbaugh.” all they can offer is ridicule, hate, class envy, and name calling. I challenge you liberals to list any positive proposals your politicians have made. I’ll wager that those few proposals are laced with bigger government bureaucracy, playing to class envy in most Americans, increased taxes on the “wealthy,” or vote buying.
It's an amazing time to be alive in America . We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first front running freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.
We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender. Now that Barack Obama is the Democrat candidate, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.
Sadly, the Hollywood left including the main stream media had a major part in selecting the candidates of both parties. This may even have been the single most important factor in terms of the results. In an age when celebrity has become by far the most important factor for any selection, the celebrity treatment afforded any candidate by the Hollywood/New York media looks to far outweigh issues and even reality. Never mind inexperience, animosity toward middle American values, or mentors shouting, “God Damn America,” Obama has the celebrity so many Americans worship, especially the young.
The reality is this: Mr. Obama is the current odds on choice to be our next President. Its time America takes a closer and deeper look at him. Some pundits are calling him the next John F. Kennedy. He's not. He's the next George Mc Govern. And it's time people learned the facts.
Because the truth is that Mr Obama is the single most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate. He is more liberal than Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton. He is the presidential frontrunner whose rhetoric is so farther removed from his record than any previous candidate. Walter Mondale promised to raise our taxes, and he lost. George Mc Govern promised military weakness, and he lost. Michael Dukakis promised a liberal domestic agenda, and he lost.
Yet Mr. Obama is promising all those things, and he's not behind in the polls. Why? Because the press has dealt with him as if he were in a beauty pageant. Mr. Obama talks about getting past party, getting past red and blue, to lead the United States of America . But let's look at the more defined strokes of who he is underneath this superficial 'beauty.'
Start with national security, since the president's most important duties are as commander-in-chief. Over the summer, Mr. Obama talked about invading Pakistan, a nation armed with nuclear weapons; meeting without preconditions with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who vows to destroy Israel and create another Holocaust; and Kim Jong II, who is murdering and starving his people, but emphasized that the nuclear option was off the table against terrorists - something no president has ever taken off the table since we created nuclear weapons in the 1940s. Even Democrats who have worked in national security condemned all of those remarks. Mr. Obama is a foreign-policy novice who would put our national security at risk.
Next, consider economic policy. For all its faults, our health care system is the strongest in the world. And free trade agreements, created by Bill Clinton as well as President Bush, have made more goods more affordable so that even people of modest means can live a life that no one imagined a generation ago. Yet Mr Obama promises to raise taxes on "the rich." How to fix Social Security? Raise taxes. How to fix Medicare? Raise taxes. Prescription drugs? Raise taxes. Free college? Raise taxes. Socialize medicine? Raise taxes. His solution to everything is to have government take it over. Big Brother on steroids, funded by your paycheck.
Incidently Obama is running many ads saying he will only increase taxes on the top 5% of Americans and leave the bottom 95% alone. This “soak the rich” strategy may please many poor and middle income families with its class envy retribution, but let’s look at it realistically. What happens to the vast majority of the income of the 5% wealthiest Americans? A portion is used to buy things and build things that provide jobs and income for many other Americans. By far the largest amount is invested and most of that investment capital is used to build companies that hire employees and create jobs. This builds the economy and creates wealth. Let’s use the favorite target of liberal “Big Oil” class envy abuse. Exxon paid $28 million in taxes on about $42 million in profits for 2007. That's as much as the entire lower half of all individual American taxpayers combined. The remaining after tax profits of
Finally, look at the social issues. Mr. Obama had the audacity to open a stadium rally by saying, "All praise and glory to God!" but says that Christian leaders speaking for life and marriage have "hijacked" - hijacked - Christianity. He is pro-partial birth abortion, and promises to appoint Supreme Court justices who will rule any restriction on it unconstitutional. He espouses the abortion views of Margaret Sanger, one of the early advocates of racial cleansing. His spiritual leaders endorse homosexual marriage, and he is moving in that direction. In Illinois , he refused to vote against a statewide ban - ban - on all handguns in the state. These are radical left, Hollywood, media , and San Francisco values, not Middle America values.
The real Mr. Obama is far from what the American public want from every poll taken on the subject of socialist programs. But Mr. Obama will win if people don't start looking behind his veneer and flowery speeches. His vision of 'bringing America together' means saying that those who disagree with his agenda for America are hijackers, racists, or warmongers. Uniting the country means adopting his liberal agenda and abandoning any conflicting beliefs. Should you express any opposition to any of his words or actions the media will brand you as racist.
Other than raising taxes, what has he proposed? Change? What kind of change? Repudiation of the Bush policies? All of them? Rescind the bush tax cut “for the wealthy?” The Bush Tax “cuts” not only resulted in a huge increase in federal tax revenue but the actually resulted in an increase in taxes paid by the top 50% of taxpayers and reduced taxes on the bottom 50%. It would be generous to not say Obama is lying, just that he is grossly misinformed, but I doubt that is the case. It is quite clear to me that he knows precisely what he is doing and where it will take us.
