How would you like to live in a country that has severe food shortages, where eggs are a delicacy, the chicken is an endangered species, toilet paper is a luxury and meat an extravagance? What if you couldn't get your car repaired because the stores were out of spare parts? How about having to put off a life threatening operation because the medical equipment needed isn't working due to the delay in getting spare parts? And let's sprinkle in a dose of Jimmy Carter type inflation of over 20%. If this sounds intriguing to you, move to Venezuela, because that's what's going on.
What caused this mess? Here's a few of the main culprits: State owned industries and services like oil, farms, apartments buildings, health care, banking capital controls, mandatory wage increases, nationalization of foreign owned companies, massive government spending, high taxes on the wealthy and price controls. There just can't be more principles of basic economics being trashed here. What really scary is several of these look eerily familiar in reviewing some of the democratic presidential campaign speeches going on in the U.S.
However, based on the mainstream media, you wouldn't think Venezuela was having any problems. I haven't seen anything reported. Have you? Oh, by the way, if you live in Venezuela, you won't hear it from the media there either. Chavez seized control of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) last Sunday. The other media outlets dare not mention these problems either, for fear of being nationalized, or something even worse.
Assault on free speech is right out of the liberal/socialist play-book. In the U.S. now that the democrats are in power, they are trying to revive the Fairness Doctrine which was abolished by the FCC in August of 1987. Liberal radio talk shows have failed miserably. So the purpose behind the attempted revival of the Fairness Doctrine is to silence successful conservative talk shows by requiring them to include equal time on each show to a liberal point of view. Liberals and socialists can never win in the arena of free ideas and free choice. They can only win by passing laws that are legislated and not voted on. Welcome to Venezuela!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Incomes for the poor are on the rise
It is shameful how the mainstream media (The New York Times, The Boston Globe, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and others) serve up the "news" in a recipe designed to convince the American public that socialism is our only salvation. It seems every story is skewed with that purpose in mind. News that contradicts the benefits of socialism just doesn't get much air time.
One of the drumbeats we keep hearing from this media outlet is how the rich are the only ones improving their economic lot and, no less, on the backs of the poor. There is even a presidential candidate running on the slogan of "the two Americas".
What you won't read in these newspapers or hear about on these TV channels is the Congressional Budget Office's newly released study showing that poor families with children have improved their incomes, after being adjusted for inflation, by more than 33% from 1991 to 2005. As a matter of fact the poorest 20% in the U.S. increased their incomes by 78%, while the richest 20% improved their incomes by 54%.
The reasons for this improvement lie with 1996 welfare reform, expansion of the earned income tax credit and tight labor markets. Some 2 million mothers have left the welfare roles for jobs since the mid 1990s.
This is good news for America. You'd think a success story like this would make the front pages and lead the news. Not a chance!
How can you really take anything these people feed us in the daily news seriously?
One of the drumbeats we keep hearing from this media outlet is how the rich are the only ones improving their economic lot and, no less, on the backs of the poor. There is even a presidential candidate running on the slogan of "the two Americas".
What you won't read in these newspapers or hear about on these TV channels is the Congressional Budget Office's newly released study showing that poor families with children have improved their incomes, after being adjusted for inflation, by more than 33% from 1991 to 2005. As a matter of fact the poorest 20% in the U.S. increased their incomes by 78%, while the richest 20% improved their incomes by 54%.
The reasons for this improvement lie with 1996 welfare reform, expansion of the earned income tax credit and tight labor markets. Some 2 million mothers have left the welfare roles for jobs since the mid 1990s.
This is good news for America. You'd think a success story like this would make the front pages and lead the news. Not a chance!
How can you really take anything these people feed us in the daily news seriously?
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Sunday May 13 2007
How Special Interest Groups Take Advantage of a Lazy Society
One of the most frustrating things is to listen to people support a political position that you know will damage the economy of the United States. What's worse is when it is clear that they know nothing about the subject.
There are certain economic principles that a majority of respected economists, regardless of their political affliation, right or left, unanimously agree upon. From Paul Krugman to Greg Mankiw, economists agree that free trade is beneficial both within and between countries and that government imposed price controls to redistribute income always has the same disasterous economic result. These are the lessons of all economics text books.
The priciples of economics are intellectually compelling, but fall flat emotionally. The media knows this and is invested in trying to convince us that economists disagree. In addtion, it is much easier for the media to sell the story that greedy corporations and bad foreigners are out to destroy us. This is one of the primary reasons that people resist the most basic lessons of economics.
Steel tarrifs are bad for consumers. They increase the price consumers have to pay for the thousands of product made with steel. Yet the number of Americans who think imposing tarrifs on foreign goods far outnumber those who don't.
Farm subsidies are bad for taxpayers and nonsubsidized farmers. Yet 58% of those surveyed agree with farm subsidies.
The minimum wage is bad for consumers, employers and low-skilled workers who get priced out of their jobs. yet 80% of those polled agree with increasing the minimum wage.
Special interest groups, supported by the media, seem to control the political agenda politicians bow to. Politicians eagerly buy into these ridiculous iprograms because a0 they do not do their homework and b) the programs are camoflauged as helping the poor and protecting the average American. These are the very programs the empty the pockets of hard working taxpayers.
It's easy for us to blame the special interest groups and the politicians. But at the end of the day it's the voters who are too lazy to educate themselves on the issues and who keep voting in the same politicians that bow to the special interest groups.
What's a Thoughtful and Compassionate Conservative?
You hear a lot of ugly descriptions of conservatives from those who disagree with conservative politics. I picked the title of this blog as the "Thoughtful and Compassionate Conservative" with purpose.
Thoughtful means taking the time to investigate the facts and understand the subject material. It is not "thoughtful" to parrott special interest groups, whether they are Liberals or Republicans. One should think for themselves and avoid group hysteria.
Compassionate means caring about people, all people, regardless of their political affiliation, or whether they agree or disagree with you.
Now we come to Conservative. The following description comes from The Secular Conservative-a blog of Townhall.com
#1 Equality of opportunity. Civil liberties must be upheld to the degree that equal opportunity is provided to everyone. The principle of equality should not impinge on freedom; freedom is more important than equality. The government’s role is to create equality of opportunity by eliminating restrictions, not by creating new restrictions that favor those deemed to have less opportunity.
#2 Individual responsibility. Individuals must accept responsibility for their own prosperity; one must not rely on the government to level the playing field through wealth redistribution, or to provide that which cannot be obtained individually.
#3 Private property rights. Private property rights encourage prosperity, responsibility, and general cultural advance. The more widespread is the possession of private property, the more stable and productive is a society as long as the price of ownership is determined by the free market. In support of individual property rights, the government must not infringe on these rights through the use of confiscation without due process.
#4 Free market. When markets dictate prices through the mechanism of supply and demand, individual consumers are better served. Protectionist trade policies are damaging to the marketplace. Obsolete industries and poorly run businesses should succeed or fail as determined by the marketplace and not as a result of government interference.
#5 Fair taxation. Economic leveling, a progressive tax system, and the redistribution of wealth only serve to inhibit economic progress and restrict societal prosperity. A progressive tax system inhibits the opportunity of some in order to provide an equal outcome to others. A reasonable tax rate should be set that allows the government to collect enough taxes to cover its expenditures. When tax revenues exceed expenditures, taxpayers should be refunded the difference; when expenditures exceed revenues, the government should reduce spending. Because of the dynamic nature of taxation, increases in tax rates do not necessarily correlate to higher tax revenues, and lower tax rates do not necessarily correlate to lower tax revenues.
#6 Limited government. Government must be limited in its power and responsibility. The role of the federal government is to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for a strong national defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. Our Constitution is an instrument of delegated powers thus, our federal government only wields power as provided by the Constitution. Government must not do for individuals what individuals can do for themselves. Government is to be a servant of the people as represented by the majority.
#7 Strong national defense. Our officials must always act to preserve the sovereignty of these United States, protect the integrity and self-determination of the state, and not concede power to some other authority. Protection of U.S. sovereignty requires a strong military presence throughout the world in order to protect our interests and our allies. A weak military or deference to international organizations risks the encroachment of U.S. sovereignty.
One of the most frustrating things is to listen to people support a political position that you know will damage the economy of the United States. What's worse is when it is clear that they know nothing about the subject.
There are certain economic principles that a majority of respected economists, regardless of their political affliation, right or left, unanimously agree upon. From Paul Krugman to Greg Mankiw, economists agree that free trade is beneficial both within and between countries and that government imposed price controls to redistribute income always has the same disasterous economic result. These are the lessons of all economics text books.
The priciples of economics are intellectually compelling, but fall flat emotionally. The media knows this and is invested in trying to convince us that economists disagree. In addtion, it is much easier for the media to sell the story that greedy corporations and bad foreigners are out to destroy us. This is one of the primary reasons that people resist the most basic lessons of economics.
Steel tarrifs are bad for consumers. They increase the price consumers have to pay for the thousands of product made with steel. Yet the number of Americans who think imposing tarrifs on foreign goods far outnumber those who don't.
Farm subsidies are bad for taxpayers and nonsubsidized farmers. Yet 58% of those surveyed agree with farm subsidies.
The minimum wage is bad for consumers, employers and low-skilled workers who get priced out of their jobs. yet 80% of those polled agree with increasing the minimum wage.
Special interest groups, supported by the media, seem to control the political agenda politicians bow to. Politicians eagerly buy into these ridiculous iprograms because a0 they do not do their homework and b) the programs are camoflauged as helping the poor and protecting the average American. These are the very programs the empty the pockets of hard working taxpayers.
It's easy for us to blame the special interest groups and the politicians. But at the end of the day it's the voters who are too lazy to educate themselves on the issues and who keep voting in the same politicians that bow to the special interest groups.
What's a Thoughtful and Compassionate Conservative?
You hear a lot of ugly descriptions of conservatives from those who disagree with conservative politics. I picked the title of this blog as the "Thoughtful and Compassionate Conservative" with purpose.
Thoughtful means taking the time to investigate the facts and understand the subject material. It is not "thoughtful" to parrott special interest groups, whether they are Liberals or Republicans. One should think for themselves and avoid group hysteria.
Compassionate means caring about people, all people, regardless of their political affiliation, or whether they agree or disagree with you.
Now we come to Conservative. The following description comes from The Secular Conservative-a blog of Townhall.com
#1 Equality of opportunity. Civil liberties must be upheld to the degree that equal opportunity is provided to everyone. The principle of equality should not impinge on freedom; freedom is more important than equality. The government’s role is to create equality of opportunity by eliminating restrictions, not by creating new restrictions that favor those deemed to have less opportunity.
#2 Individual responsibility. Individuals must accept responsibility for their own prosperity; one must not rely on the government to level the playing field through wealth redistribution, or to provide that which cannot be obtained individually.
#3 Private property rights. Private property rights encourage prosperity, responsibility, and general cultural advance. The more widespread is the possession of private property, the more stable and productive is a society as long as the price of ownership is determined by the free market. In support of individual property rights, the government must not infringe on these rights through the use of confiscation without due process.
#4 Free market. When markets dictate prices through the mechanism of supply and demand, individual consumers are better served. Protectionist trade policies are damaging to the marketplace. Obsolete industries and poorly run businesses should succeed or fail as determined by the marketplace and not as a result of government interference.
#5 Fair taxation. Economic leveling, a progressive tax system, and the redistribution of wealth only serve to inhibit economic progress and restrict societal prosperity. A progressive tax system inhibits the opportunity of some in order to provide an equal outcome to others. A reasonable tax rate should be set that allows the government to collect enough taxes to cover its expenditures. When tax revenues exceed expenditures, taxpayers should be refunded the difference; when expenditures exceed revenues, the government should reduce spending. Because of the dynamic nature of taxation, increases in tax rates do not necessarily correlate to higher tax revenues, and lower tax rates do not necessarily correlate to lower tax revenues.
#6 Limited government. Government must be limited in its power and responsibility. The role of the federal government is to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for a strong national defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. Our Constitution is an instrument of delegated powers thus, our federal government only wields power as provided by the Constitution. Government must not do for individuals what individuals can do for themselves. Government is to be a servant of the people as represented by the majority.
#7 Strong national defense. Our officials must always act to preserve the sovereignty of these United States, protect the integrity and self-determination of the state, and not concede power to some other authority. Protection of U.S. sovereignty requires a strong military presence throughout the world in order to protect our interests and our allies. A weak military or deference to international organizations risks the encroachment of U.S. sovereignty.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The Thoughtful and Compassionate Conservative May 9, 2007
Why we need to make the 2003 Bush Tax Cuts permanent
Source: WSJ May 9, 2007 Opinion Section page A16: April Revenue Shower
The proof of the long term success of the tax cuts keeps coming in. Tax revenues for the first seven months are up 11.3%, or $153 billion, over last year. This could reduce the U.S. deficit this year to $150 billion, a mere 1% of GDP. Compare this to the 12 socialist high tax Eurozone countries of 2.4%.
Despite lower tax rates, tax revenue from individual income taxes are up 17.5%. Meanwhile, tax revenue from investment type income is up 30% in the face of the reduced capital gains rate of 15%. So what does the left liberal controlled democratic part want to do?-raise the capital gains tax 133% (see my blog dated May 7, 2007).
Someone please buy these people a complimentary copy of Sim City. The more you raise taxes, the lower the tax revenue because the victims leave town or divert their income streams elsewhere, or just plain stop investing.
The Medicare mystery
Source: WSJ May 9, 2007 Opinion Section page A16: How the GOP Won Health Care
You really needed patience to get through this article. I feel this subject is important enough for me (could be due to my age) to try to translate it into plain English. Here goes:
The GOP initiative "Medicare Advantage" has signed up 20% of the eligible senior population, or 8 million seniors, into private insurance options. The dems are livid. This flies in the face of their determination to have Hillarycare government controlled universal insurance ala France.
The strange thing is that this is a Republican welfare program for poor seniors. Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers 12% more than the government option. The extra money provides extra benefits and reduced copays not available in the government program. No surprise the present value unfunded liability of Medicaire is $70.5 trillion.
The Republicans have attracted strange bedfellows on this program. Among them the NAACP and the AARP. The NAACP seems to have a genuine humanitarian compassionate purpose to their support. On the other hand, the AARP expects to earn $4.4 billion over six years by providing these plans.
The dems strategy? Stall long enough until the unfunded problem becomes so bad that the American people can be duped into voting for universal government health care. What they won't tell the voters is that universal government health care will not be as good, cost more and come out of the pockets of the taxpayers big time. Getting on a long wait list like the Europeans have to do for certain surgeries won't be advertised by the dems as one of the consequences of their program. Why do they always push for programs that have never worked anywhere in the world? What am I missing?
Source: WSJ May 9, 2007 Opinion Section page A16: April Revenue Shower
The proof of the long term success of the tax cuts keeps coming in. Tax revenues for the first seven months are up 11.3%, or $153 billion, over last year. This could reduce the U.S. deficit this year to $150 billion, a mere 1% of GDP. Compare this to the 12 socialist high tax Eurozone countries of 2.4%.
Despite lower tax rates, tax revenue from individual income taxes are up 17.5%. Meanwhile, tax revenue from investment type income is up 30% in the face of the reduced capital gains rate of 15%. So what does the left liberal controlled democratic part want to do?-raise the capital gains tax 133% (see my blog dated May 7, 2007).
Someone please buy these people a complimentary copy of Sim City. The more you raise taxes, the lower the tax revenue because the victims leave town or divert their income streams elsewhere, or just plain stop investing.
The Medicare mystery
Source: WSJ May 9, 2007 Opinion Section page A16: How the GOP Won Health Care
You really needed patience to get through this article. I feel this subject is important enough for me (could be due to my age) to try to translate it into plain English. Here goes:
The GOP initiative "Medicare Advantage" has signed up 20% of the eligible senior population, or 8 million seniors, into private insurance options. The dems are livid. This flies in the face of their determination to have Hillarycare government controlled universal insurance ala France.
The strange thing is that this is a Republican welfare program for poor seniors. Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers 12% more than the government option. The extra money provides extra benefits and reduced copays not available in the government program. No surprise the present value unfunded liability of Medicaire is $70.5 trillion.
The Republicans have attracted strange bedfellows on this program. Among them the NAACP and the AARP. The NAACP seems to have a genuine humanitarian compassionate purpose to their support. On the other hand, the AARP expects to earn $4.4 billion over six years by providing these plans.
The dems strategy? Stall long enough until the unfunded problem becomes so bad that the American people can be duped into voting for universal government health care. What they won't tell the voters is that universal government health care will not be as good, cost more and come out of the pockets of the taxpayers big time. Getting on a long wait list like the Europeans have to do for certain surgeries won't be advertised by the dems as one of the consequences of their program. Why do they always push for programs that have never worked anywhere in the world? What am I missing?
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
The Thoughtful and Compassionate Conservative
Monday, May 7, 2007
Wall Street Journal, Opinion Section, page A14 Title: “Assault on the investor Class”
After reading numerous articles on taxation, it’s difficult not to imagine a group of liberal congressmen and senators huddled together every morning in a communications bunker being fed the latest data on which class of Americans or American companies are making the most money. The purpose of this daily exercise is to come up with a blatant or disguised form of new tax laws to divert that money away from those citizens and into the government’s bank accounts, which they the dole out to get getting elected. There is no better way to describe “wealth redistribution”.
Well, they’re at it again. This article describes a new tax law to increase the taxes on private equity firms by 133% and proposed by Senators Max Baucus-D Montana and Charles Grassley-R??? Iowa, the chairman and ranking minority member of the Finance Committee. Note that “tax and grab” is not limited to Democrats.
In summary, they want to convert the capital gains at 15% on deals to ordinary income at 35%. Guess what’s next. Why not just convert all capital gains tax to ordinary income? It’s investors in these deals that take the capital risk. Private equity deals created 600,000 new jobs from 2000 to 2003, during the recession. Do we really think that investors will continue put money into deals at 35% tax rates? But socialist don’t understand and/or don’t care about the economy. Don’t expect the U.S. to give birth to any more Googles, Yahoos, Microsofts or Home Depots if the liberals continue to rule the government.
Wall Street Journal, Opinion Section, page A14 Title: “Importing Price Controls”
Here’s another great example of liberals, lead by Senator Byron L. Dorgan-D North Dakota and liberal republican Olympia J. Snow-R??? Maine, to cleverly disguise economically disastrous legislation into legislation the people want. Last week the senate voted 63-28 to add a re-importation amendment to the FDA Revitalization Act. The bill sounds great in that it eliminates the ban on cheap imported drugs from foreign countries determined to have safe drugs, including Canada. Who doesn’t get upset with high drug prices? This especially affects senior citizens. Here’s the catch, the new law prohibits American companies from charging foreign exporters higher prices or limiting supplies to those who do not export. After spending billions on R&D, U.S. companies will be competing with drugs coming in to the U.S. at very low prices from foreign companies who are subsidized by their governments and their low purchase price capability. Why not let the market sort it out? Not good enough for liberal socialists! Why will pharmaceutical companies continue to spend billions on new drugs to sell them at a loss? They won’t. So how will we get new drugs? Hillary government run companies, unsuccesful at producing efffective new drugs and squander our increased tax dollars is where this is heading.
Saturday & Sunday, May 5&6, 2007
Wall Street Journal, Opinion Section, page A14 Title: “Chavez Moves Suggest Inflation Worry”
Venezuela has an economic problem that you do not hear on CNN’s nightly news. Inflation is ramped at 20% and rising and shortages of goods are getting critical. Remind you of the U.S. in the late seventies under the Nobel Prize winner Jimmy Carter? Chavez’s social spending binge, to win the hearts and minds of the people, has caused him to transfer $15 billion in central bank reserves in the past two years. He has imposed price and exchange controls in an attempt to keep the country afloat. He is also nationalizing the countries industries and banking. These actions are not working. In fact they are just making things worse. Here we have the perfect laboratory experiment. Why the American liberal left wing senators, congressmen and liberal citizens can’t see the damage caused by Carter’s policies and now Chavez’s is beyond me. They still push the same agenda expecting different results. Wasn’t it Albert Einstein who said that those who expect different results from the same actions are “idiots”. Maybe our politicians do know the outcome, but are so absorbed by their short term desire for power, that they are willing to use this “smoke and mirrors giveaway ploy” on the common citizen who does not pay attention to much beyond today’s paycheck or government hand out.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Reading the Wall Street Journal today there are three articles with a common thread. The problem is no one has bothered to connect the dots. The first is on the front page “Companies Shift More Donations To Democrats”. The second is on page A14 “One Righteous Gringo”, and the third is on page A15 “$650 Billion Tax Hike”.
The front page article “Companies Shift More Donations To Democrats”goes on to provide statistics on how corporate America is loading the coffers of the Democrats presumably to gain influence with the future ruling administration in 2008.
The authors of the article, Brody Mullins and Dean Treftz, merely provide statistics and fail to mention the irony in these new campaign donations. Corporations are giving money that will help elect a legislature that views corporations and their executives as “evil”. This potentially new administration has publicly announced its intention to increase regulations on businesses, oppose free trade and to increase the corporate and individual tax burdens.
So the bottom line is that American corporate executives are convinced that there is no way the Republicans can win the next election. It’s amazing how people act to make their biggest fears become realities. Rather than donate the money to help a party that supports their corporate agenda, they are assuring defeat of that party to try to convince the Democrats to go easy on them when they win the election with the help of the corporate funds donated. Take a look at history and you can only conclude “Fat chance!”
After reading this article one should go directly to the Opinion page A15 and read the article by Stephen Moore “$650 Billion Tax Hike”. The House Democrats in appearing to be heroes by exempting most of the 25 million workers who will be facing a whopping ATM tax bill next year, are orchestrating the demise of the U.S. economy. If they have their way, with the help of all that corporate money being donated to their campaigns (see front page article I commented on above), they will severely increase taxes on most of the key drivers of the economy. Among the proposed increases are the AMT itself from 28% to 31.5% capital gains from 15% to 31%, and individual tax rates from 35% to 40%.
The top 50% income bracket pays 96.7% of all taxes. The top 25% income bracket pays 84.6% of all taxes. The top 1% income bracket pays 36.89% of all taxes. Guess who creates all the jobs in the U.S.? So let’s tax them more so they stop creating jobs. Liberals see no problem with this logic.
Now do you see the irony in the first article?
The third article is also in the Opinion section on page A14 by Mary Anastasia O’Grady. She gets it. Al Gore refused to appear with the President of Columbia on the allegations of human rights violations by that government. The outcome of this insult could well be to kill the US-Columbia Free Trade Agreement, which is supported by a vast majority of Columbians. Here’s another “well meaning, feel good” liberal actually making things worse for the people of Columbia. “How ironic that Columbia’s anti-American hard left, normally obsessed with trashing Uncle Sam, is now rushing to Washington to get help in defeating the will of its own people.” And who do they find waiting with open arms? Al Gore and the AFL-CIO.
This third article underscores the damage that liberals in power will do to not only the this country’s economy, but the global economy.
And in conclusion for today, let’s not forget the real irony of first article “Companies Shift More Donations To Democrats”. It should have been titled “Companies Hell Bent On Committing Group Suicide”
Wall Street Journal, Opinion Section, page A14 Title: “Assault on the investor Class”
After reading numerous articles on taxation, it’s difficult not to imagine a group of liberal congressmen and senators huddled together every morning in a communications bunker being fed the latest data on which class of Americans or American companies are making the most money. The purpose of this daily exercise is to come up with a blatant or disguised form of new tax laws to divert that money away from those citizens and into the government’s bank accounts, which they the dole out to get getting elected. There is no better way to describe “wealth redistribution”.
Well, they’re at it again. This article describes a new tax law to increase the taxes on private equity firms by 133% and proposed by Senators Max Baucus-D Montana and Charles Grassley-R??? Iowa, the chairman and ranking minority member of the Finance Committee. Note that “tax and grab” is not limited to Democrats.
In summary, they want to convert the capital gains at 15% on deals to ordinary income at 35%. Guess what’s next. Why not just convert all capital gains tax to ordinary income? It’s investors in these deals that take the capital risk. Private equity deals created 600,000 new jobs from 2000 to 2003, during the recession. Do we really think that investors will continue put money into deals at 35% tax rates? But socialist don’t understand and/or don’t care about the economy. Don’t expect the U.S. to give birth to any more Googles, Yahoos, Microsofts or Home Depots if the liberals continue to rule the government.
Wall Street Journal, Opinion Section, page A14 Title: “Importing Price Controls”
Here’s another great example of liberals, lead by Senator Byron L. Dorgan-D North Dakota and liberal republican Olympia J. Snow-R??? Maine, to cleverly disguise economically disastrous legislation into legislation the people want. Last week the senate voted 63-28 to add a re-importation amendment to the FDA Revitalization Act. The bill sounds great in that it eliminates the ban on cheap imported drugs from foreign countries determined to have safe drugs, including Canada. Who doesn’t get upset with high drug prices? This especially affects senior citizens. Here’s the catch, the new law prohibits American companies from charging foreign exporters higher prices or limiting supplies to those who do not export. After spending billions on R&D, U.S. companies will be competing with drugs coming in to the U.S. at very low prices from foreign companies who are subsidized by their governments and their low purchase price capability. Why not let the market sort it out? Not good enough for liberal socialists! Why will pharmaceutical companies continue to spend billions on new drugs to sell them at a loss? They won’t. So how will we get new drugs? Hillary government run companies, unsuccesful at producing efffective new drugs and squander our increased tax dollars is where this is heading.
Saturday & Sunday, May 5&6, 2007
Wall Street Journal, Opinion Section, page A14 Title: “Chavez Moves Suggest Inflation Worry”
Venezuela has an economic problem that you do not hear on CNN’s nightly news. Inflation is ramped at 20% and rising and shortages of goods are getting critical. Remind you of the U.S. in the late seventies under the Nobel Prize winner Jimmy Carter? Chavez’s social spending binge, to win the hearts and minds of the people, has caused him to transfer $15 billion in central bank reserves in the past two years. He has imposed price and exchange controls in an attempt to keep the country afloat. He is also nationalizing the countries industries and banking. These actions are not working. In fact they are just making things worse. Here we have the perfect laboratory experiment. Why the American liberal left wing senators, congressmen and liberal citizens can’t see the damage caused by Carter’s policies and now Chavez’s is beyond me. They still push the same agenda expecting different results. Wasn’t it Albert Einstein who said that those who expect different results from the same actions are “idiots”. Maybe our politicians do know the outcome, but are so absorbed by their short term desire for power, that they are willing to use this “smoke and mirrors giveaway ploy” on the common citizen who does not pay attention to much beyond today’s paycheck or government hand out.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Reading the Wall Street Journal today there are three articles with a common thread. The problem is no one has bothered to connect the dots. The first is on the front page “Companies Shift More Donations To Democrats”. The second is on page A14 “One Righteous Gringo”, and the third is on page A15 “$650 Billion Tax Hike”.
The front page article “Companies Shift More Donations To Democrats”goes on to provide statistics on how corporate America is loading the coffers of the Democrats presumably to gain influence with the future ruling administration in 2008.
The authors of the article, Brody Mullins and Dean Treftz, merely provide statistics and fail to mention the irony in these new campaign donations. Corporations are giving money that will help elect a legislature that views corporations and their executives as “evil”. This potentially new administration has publicly announced its intention to increase regulations on businesses, oppose free trade and to increase the corporate and individual tax burdens.
So the bottom line is that American corporate executives are convinced that there is no way the Republicans can win the next election. It’s amazing how people act to make their biggest fears become realities. Rather than donate the money to help a party that supports their corporate agenda, they are assuring defeat of that party to try to convince the Democrats to go easy on them when they win the election with the help of the corporate funds donated. Take a look at history and you can only conclude “Fat chance!”
After reading this article one should go directly to the Opinion page A15 and read the article by Stephen Moore “$650 Billion Tax Hike”. The House Democrats in appearing to be heroes by exempting most of the 25 million workers who will be facing a whopping ATM tax bill next year, are orchestrating the demise of the U.S. economy. If they have their way, with the help of all that corporate money being donated to their campaigns (see front page article I commented on above), they will severely increase taxes on most of the key drivers of the economy. Among the proposed increases are the AMT itself from 28% to 31.5% capital gains from 15% to 31%, and individual tax rates from 35% to 40%.
The top 50% income bracket pays 96.7% of all taxes. The top 25% income bracket pays 84.6% of all taxes. The top 1% income bracket pays 36.89% of all taxes. Guess who creates all the jobs in the U.S.? So let’s tax them more so they stop creating jobs. Liberals see no problem with this logic.
Now do you see the irony in the first article?
The third article is also in the Opinion section on page A14 by Mary Anastasia O’Grady. She gets it. Al Gore refused to appear with the President of Columbia on the allegations of human rights violations by that government. The outcome of this insult could well be to kill the US-Columbia Free Trade Agreement, which is supported by a vast majority of Columbians. Here’s another “well meaning, feel good” liberal actually making things worse for the people of Columbia. “How ironic that Columbia’s anti-American hard left, normally obsessed with trashing Uncle Sam, is now rushing to Washington to get help in defeating the will of its own people.” And who do they find waiting with open arms? Al Gore and the AFL-CIO.
This third article underscores the damage that liberals in power will do to not only the this country’s economy, but the global economy.
And in conclusion for today, let’s not forget the real irony of first article “Companies Shift More Donations To Democrats”. It should have been titled “Companies Hell Bent On Committing Group Suicide”
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