Politics and Insights from History

Yesterday, Barack Obama once again delivered a speech. This time he was in Kansas; something that he almost forgot. Perhaps if Obama stayed in one place he might remember where he is. Yesterday, was December 7, Pearl Harbor Day. Instead of talking about it and commemorating those who died that day, he had to give a speech about how the wealthy don’t pay enough, America is unfair, and how only he knows best.

The bulk of Obama’s speech was basically chastising the rich for being rich. He claims that he wants to build the shrinking middle class. Except, the middle class is shrinking because the government keeps enacting policies that increase the cost of living and force businesses to cut costs by firing people.

Obama slammed Republicans and Conservatives who believe in Reagan’s trickle down economics theory, and who believe in cutting taxes for everyone who actually pay taxes and in cutting government regulations that hinder economic growth and development. Obama claims that Republicans have no ideas and only hold to what doesn’t work. If Reagan’s tax cuts and deregulation did not work, then why were 1980s a decade of economic growth, a prosperity that continued through most of the 1990’s despite Bill Clinton’s increase in taxes and regulation? Obama claims that the Bush tax cuts led to the recession we are in now. If that is so, then how come unemployment under bus remained under 6% until the last few months of his presidency when the housing market collapsed? Meanwhile, Obama’s policies made unemployment shoot up to 10% and the economy is now stagnated with a 9.1% unemployment. But according to Obama his not so new socialist ideas are working.

Obama rants that Republicans have no new ideas. But He and his fellow Democrats have no new ideas either. IN fact, everything they do is just a throwback to F.D>R.’s New Deal programs. Neither side has new ideas and it doesn’t matter if they do or not. What is important is if they have good ideas that actually work.

Almost every other paragraph in Obama’s speech yesterday was him whining how the wealthy don’t pay their fair share. What is fair about 50% of Americans who pay no taxes but receive government welfare from those that actually pay taxes? That’s fair? Taking money from someone and giving it to someone else to fulfill your ideological sense of fairness is fair? Obama claims that a billionaire only pays 1% of his income in taxes while someone earning 50 grand a year pays more. Let’s do the math? Say a person who earns $1 billion annually pays 1% in taxes. That equal $10 million that goes to Uncle Sam. Now take the guy who earns $50 thousand and pays 38% of his income in taxes. That amounts to $19,000 that goes to Uncle Sam. Despite the differences in the tax rate, who still pays more to the government? If this still seems unfair to some of you, why not get rid of the current tax code that even the IRS cannot make sense of and institute a flat tax, where everyone, regardless of their income level, pays the same tax rate. Let’s say the billionaire in the example above still pays 1% of his income in taxes, but now the guy earning $50,000 also pays only 1%. This means that the he will only pay $500 of his annual earnings to the government.

Interestingly, Obama is pushing an extension of the payroll tax cut. But just a few months ago he proposed increasing taxes. Also, he is pushing the extension of a tax cut, while in the same speech he claims that tax cuts led to the “greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression”.

Another thing Obama falsely claims is regarding the 1920s. Obama claims that deregulation and tax cuts led the disaster of the 1920s. The 1920 were the most prosperous decade in our history because we had presidents who deregulated and cut taxes and then minded their own business. Remember Calvin Coolidge? The reason why the stock market crashed in 1929 was because under President Hoover, the government began meddling in the economy again. Then Obama praised F.D.R. whose polices kept us in the depression. His New Deal programs were so great that while the rest of the world recovered economically the U.S. continued to have double digit unemployment and a stagnant economy.

Obama’s speech was the same speech he’s been giving since he was elected. Basically, according to Obama America is unfair, capitalism doesn’t work, the wealthy are too wealthy and could do with less, the poor just need a government program to make it, and, well, the world’s just not fair. This coming from a guy who is going to spend 17 days in Hawaii for his Christmas vacation. Isn’t this something those wealthy CEOs do?

Listen to this speech given by Ronald Reagan at the 1964 Republican National Convention.  Does anything in here sound familiar or remind you of today’s current events?  What Reagan said then has a lot of bearing of what is going on now.  He was right then, and is correct even now.

When are we going to quit allowing ourselves to be fooled by Liberals, or Progressive as they like to call themselves now, and their lies and so called compassion and start standing on our own feet?  When are we going to stop allowing government to take our liberties away for an imaginary safety net?  Are we so afraid of freedom that we would rather give up our God given America rights as specified within the Declaration of Independence?  Which will you choose: the safety and confines or government, or the risks and benefits of capitalism?  Slavery or freedom?

A person once asked, “What is socialism?”  This post is to clear that up.

The words Socialism, Marxism, Communism, Statism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism have been thrown around a lot recently by various individuals. Let me clarify what all of these terms are: they all refer to the destruction of the individual and individual rights where the state (meaning government) controls everything from the economy to the courts to every aspect of everyday life. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the terms as thus:

Marxism: The political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society’s allegedly inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society.

Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy. (Supposedly all people are equally under socialism when it comes to material wealth.  However, socialism always results in ditatorial rule by an oligarchy where some are more equal than others.)

Communism: A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.  (Under Communism the government is up front about controlling every aspect of the economy.  People know where they stand in relation to the state.)

Statism: The practice or doctrine of giving a centralized government control over economic planning and policy.

Totalitarianism: Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed

Fascism: : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.  (Under Fasicsm, the people think they are free, but they aren’t.  Businesses are controlled through strict government regulation, but they operate under the illusion of being part of a free market.)

In essence, there is no difference between these philosophies. They all have a common goal: a centralized government that controls everything: the economy, schools, health care, and the individual does not exist.

1. Why was a stimulus bill passed when we had to borrow money from China to pay for it?

2. Since all revenue generated by the government is already spent and our country is basically bankrupt, why does Congress and the president continue to pass spending bills?  Wouldn’t the sensible thing to do be to cut spending?

3. Universal health care, in all its forms, has failed everywhere it has been tried. Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt and do not provide quality care to its recipients. Why, then, is President Obama and Congress pushing for a Universal Health Care plan? Since the U.S. is bankrupt and is forced to borrow money to meet its spending, how do they expect to pay for it?

4. Cap and Trade failed during the Clinton administration and slowed economic growth. Knowing this, why is the federal government passing it again?

5. We are in a recession and well on our way into a depression, so why is Congress and President Obama passing more legislation that increases spending and our taxes? Such measures prevent economic prosperity and prolong economic downturn.

6. We were told that the Stimulus Bill would stop the rising unemployment rate and create more jobs. Why then, since its passage, the unemployment rate has dramatically increased? Where are all the jobs Obama promised us?

7. In the six months since the Stimulus Bill was passed, over 2 million jobs have been lost, costs are going up, taxes are increasing, and the unemployment rate has almost doubled, sitting at 9.5%. Why is Obama not taking responsibility for this? Why does he continue to blame Bush for the bad economy, especially since the past 6-7 months is the consequence of his bill?

8. Why do we constantly have the same people, the same faces in Congress?

9. Why do former Democrat Presidents keep showing up on the public stage giving speeches or running for another office, while former Republican Presidents tend to just go home?

10. Why do presidents have czars when they are unconstitutional?

11. Why does our government continue to whine the rich do not pay enough in taxes? The wealthy in this country already pay the majority of our taxes. They always have.

12. How much does an individual have to pay in taxes before it is considered enough?

13. Why does the federal government control almost every aspect of our lives? They control the schools, health care, businesses (through various regulations), food and drug, banks, car companies, industry, and agriculture to name a few.

14. Why do people jump for joy when the government says they will give them something for free, knowing all along that it’s never free? (i.e. universal health care or free health care)

15. Why is we are told the less government and deregulation is what caused this current economic mess when for the past 70 years we have steadily moved toward more government regulations and more government programs? (Despite efforts by some Republicans, we have yet to enact massive deregulation and massive, permanent tax cuts.)

16. Why do we have Affirmative Action? In a time when we are supposed to ignore the color of someone’s skin, doesn’t Affirmative Action make look at race first?

17. Why can’t people admit that the only reason Barak Obama was elected, and that they voted for him, was because he is black?

And why can’t the media just admit that they are in love with this idiot, who has the same IQ as TOTUS? (TOTUS is the president’s teleprompter that seems to have been breaking down an awful lot lately.  Good Job TOTUS!  Keep up the good work.)

18. The time when Countries, especially the United States, experienced the most economic growth and prosperity was when the federal government left people alone and did not micromanage everything. Why is it we have not learned from that? Why do we increase the size of government and spending when the economy is failing?

19. Why are liberals incapable of telling people who they really are and what they stand for? (They always run as moderates or semi-conservative to get elected and then show their true colors.)

20. If the state of California is bankrupt from all of their spending on welfare/entitlement programs and are now forced to hand out IOUs, why is Congress and President Obama following their example? Shouldn’t they be learning from their mistakes and not duplicating California? (New York and Massachusetts are also going bankrupt with their big government policies.)

21. Where is the tax cut that Obama promised 95% of Americans? Or is that the extra ten dollars in everyone’s paycheck? (Wow. We can now go to Starbucks to prevent them from going into bankruptcy.)

22. Why is President of Obama, leader of the FREE world, shaking hands and being chummy with dictators who force their people to live in poverty?

23. Manuel Zelaya, former president of Honduras, was overthrown by the Honduran military when he tried to remain in office even though his term was up and the people had voted for a new president. According to the Honduran constitution, Zelaya had to leave, but he tried to usurp the constitution and declare himself president for life. The Honduran military upheld their constitution, their laws. It was not a coup. Obama condemned the actions of the Honduran people and military demanding that they return Manuel Zelaya to power. Could this be an insight into Obama’s true intentions? Is he planning to remain president even when his term ends and the American people elect another to take his place?

President Obama swore an oath the uphold, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Since then he has systematically violated it and has taken over industries that were one in the hands of the private sector. Nowhere in the Constitution is our government (the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court) given the authority to take over businesses, mange health care, dole out welfare/entitlement funds to anyone, to buy crops from farmers.  Why is he not up for impeachment? (Many member of Congress should be impeached as well.)

Why is Obama concerning himself with universal healthcare, cap and trade, and another stimulus bill when we are being threatened by foreign powers?  North Korea vowed to wipe the United States off the map.  Why has Obama not addressed this?

Why is Obama cutting our military defenses?  Does he want the U.S. to be attacked?

How could the Obama administration “misread the economy” when he spent his entire campaign telling us that we “are in the worst economy since the Great Depression”?

Did anyone ever bother to consider that perhaps the 46 million people in this country who do not have health insurance, do not want it? (Everyone in this country has access to health care, even if they do not carry health insurance.  This will change under Obama’s health care plan.)

Did it ever occur to people, especially the government, that the reason the health care system in the U.S. is broken is because the of all the rules/regulations imposed on it by the government and the bureaucracy that always accompanies said regulations?

Why do people turn to the government to fix the economy when it was the government that caused the economic downturn?

Why is it that those who are for universal health care and praise Canada’s health care system, go to privately run hospital in the U.S. and stay far away from countries that have socialized medicine?  Also, if government run health care is so great, why do people who live in countries such as Canada, England, Sweden, etc. come to the United States for medical care? Look at Micheal Moore.  He constantly praises countries like Canada and Cuba for their great health care.  Yet when he needed medical help in losing weight, he went to a privately run hospital in Florida.  Hypocrite!

The U.S. Constitution is no more than 3-4 pages in length.  Why are all the bills passed by Congress more than a 1,000 pages?  Can we say, “pork barrel spending?”

Why is it that lately Congess has passed legislation without even reading or debating the bill?  Isn’t it important to know exactly what you are voting on and enacting into law?

Why would anyone want the federal government to run the health care system, or any system in this country when they destroy everything they touch? Look at the education system.  Since the formation of the Department of Education and the feds took control of education, the quality of education in this country has decreased every year.  High Schools are turning out kids who can barely read or do basic math, much less actually think.  Colleges routinely turn out graduates who know less than they did before they registered with classes.  Very few graduates understand history, basic economics, common sense, or that the gray matter between their ears is for thinking.  Analytical thinking.  It is not for listing to your ipod or watching the latest music video on you tube.

What ever happened to the American Spirit and America’s rugged individualism?

Why are liberals always angry at a bunch of dead, white males? THose dead, white males made this country that they live in and prospered in.