Insanity

Whys is it we give 7 million dollars in aid (tax dollars from your pocket and mine) to China? China is the 2nd largest economy in the planet and now owns several hundreds of billions of dollars of our debt...... and yet we give them money for free? For AID?

How stupid is that?

Note* The best data I could quickly find indicates in 08 we sent 37 million in aid to China and budgeted 7 million for 09.

Simple Health Care Reform

3 Simple steps to make health care more affordable. How come our congress critters can't figure this one out. Makes you wonder if they understand that they serve the people and that the people do not serve them.

Step 1: Remove the Anti-Monopoly Exemption for health care insurance companies.
Step 2: Change the market so that insurance companies compete at a national level. There are currently over 1400 different health care insurance companies in the USA. Only 5-6 offer insurance in my state.
Step 3: Tort Reform.

These 3 steps would make the market much more competitive, driving down prices and reduce costs as the cost of Dr.'s medical mal-practice would go down.

What a farce!

Barak Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. But for what? The nomination was submitted 12 days after he entered office and even if we give him the full time he has been in office... what exactly has he achieved? Just goes to show that the Nobel Peace Prize isn't all it is cracked up to be.

Read me

The only thing that a reasonable person can determine is that the process is rigged.

Out of the mouth of Babes Barack

At a town hall meeting, when asked how private insurance companies would be able to compete with the public option the President responded

"private insurers should be able to compete with the government plan. They do it all the time, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

I don't think he parsed his response very well as it is a proving argument of the folly of government managed health care. UPS and FedEX make a profit. The Postal Service is continually running a deficit and is facing severe lay off and the shutting down of 100s of post offices.

He, the President, makes a scathing argument against government management of anything.

Legislators Gone Wild!

What does it portent when a 1500+ page bill passes that no one has read? And when the bill contains a 310 page amendment with language about the "central procurement state" that was added hours before the vote, and whose language is confusing to the nth degree? This bill is quite possibly the largest indirect tax increase ever passed, and yet passed it did. Without those who passed it being fully aware of its contents.

The impetus for jamming this bill through was to save us all from the "impending doom" of anthropological global warming. A doom whose scientific basis is shaky at best, but which provides an excellent club in forcing "wealth redistribution" by crippling an already troubled economy.

Is jamming bills through congress without anyone having read them really what the framers of the Constitution intended? Is this what we can expect with forthcoming health care legislation?

We the voters need to hold these legislators accountable. Any member of the house who voted for this bill should be voted out of office post haste. How can they represent anything but ideology and special interests when they vote for a massive bill without knowing its contents?

It is up to the constituents of the legislators to remove them from congress. Business as usual should not be allowed to continue.

Chrysler Bankruptcy

I am confused.

How will securing debt through taxpayers' dollars while giving a controlling interest in Chrysler to the UAW save the company?

Won't this at best ensure that the company exists for a few more years before the cash infusion runs out, and the same poor business practices, overly expensive union wages and benefits, and lack of basic profitably put the company in the exact same position it is already in? When the root of the problem is that the company can not profitably produce an automobile due to exorbitant wages and benefits (job banks to pay employees not to work) and poor corporate management, how does a handout change the reality of the situation?

How long until Chrysler would need another handout?

When will we as a populace learn and understand that you can't get something from nothing, that there is no 0 sum? Someone has to pay the piper, and that this case consists essentially of subsidizing a union by placing a burden on tax payers.

Also, it appears in this process, that some creditors are more special than others. At least in the eyes of the Obama administration. The primary creditors with secured debt are being offered much less favorable terms (in the face of law, legal precedence, and tradition) than the UAW.

Does no one else remember the bond holders of the "John Galt Line" from "Atlas Shrugged", and how some, who had favor in the eyes of the administration were paid off, while others were essentially "screwed"? That "need" was more important than law (who becomes the arbiter of need?).

Where is the authority given to the federal government, the treasury department, etc to circumvent the law?

When will Atlas shrug?

QOTD

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
- Thomas Jefferson

Slavery: Beholden to the State

Slave of the State

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines Freedom as:
“1: the quality or state of being free: as
a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence
c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous "

And Liberty as:
"1: the quality or state of being free:
a: the power to do as one pleases
b: freedom from physical restraint
c: freedom from arbitrary or despotic control
d: the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges
e: the power of choice"

The antithesis of Freedom and Liberty is Slavery,

Slavery is defined as:
"1: drudgery , toil
2: submission to a dominating influence
3 a: the state of a person who is a chattel of another b: the practice of slaveholding"

In slavery or bondage an individual is not free to enjoy choice, nor free to enjoy the product of his own labor. A slave works under the domineering influence of another, the slave's time, talent and effort, as the slave is considered chattel, belongs to another.

Are we then, through progressive taxation not coerced into working under an onerous obligation?

Consider this: Joe works hard, has worked hard for years and is relatively successful at making a living. After 10 years in the workforce he is making $100K a year. $100K a year in compensation for 52 weeks of 50 hours a week.

Now 28% of his income immediately vanishes in the form of federal income tax, as well as another 7.65% as his portion of federal payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare). Sate income taxes run him 4% of his income. There are also property taxes, gas taxes, service charges on phones etc that he pays to the tune of 3% of his annual income. For the sake of argument lets say that Joe saves 10% of his earnings and spends on average $50K in maintaing his household etc and that the sales tax rate in his community is 7% making his total sales tax outlay 3.5% of his annual income. Granted,these figures are rough, but it is easily estimated that Joe's total tax outlay is roughly 46% of his income.

Now I will concede that there are certain uses of tax dollars that are necessary at both the state and federal level, but entitlement, welfare and other social spending programs do not fall under that genre. I personally would even go so far as to say that education should be privatized, as it could be ran much more efficiently than it currently is.

The rough numbers indicate that 50% of the federal budget goes into welfare programs, medical programs, social security, etc, etc, so if Joe Works 2600 hours a year and 50% of the 46% (1196 hours of his labor) he is taxed goes to social programs, he is working for the well being some one else 23% (598 hours, or roughly 12 weeks) of the time. He has no say about the use of 46% of his output, and 23% of his total productive time goes directly to support some one else.

Consider these points:
*What happens to Joe's house if he doesn't pay property taxes? Do we really own property or are we just "leasing" it from the government?

*What happens to Joe if he refuses to pay income taxes?

Is Joe effectively then, a slave to the state?


Quotes for Today:

"The power to tax is the power to destroy"
~John Marshall