Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Random ruminations (I'm back!)
Some random ruminations from the past couple o' weeks when I was ailin' ...
President B. Hussein Obama told a room full o' Frenchmen -- er, French men and French women -- that America is an "arrogant" nation. How come he had to wait 'til he was overseas to make such a bold pronouncement? Did he learn nothing from the Dixie Chicks fiasco? Oh, and Obama calling anyone or any group of individuals "arrogant" is indeed a case of the pot calling the kettle black (I certainly hope I don't get in trouble with the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton for that analogy). Furthermore, I find it titillatingly ironic that Obama chose to apologize for American arrogance in a nation full of stinky, snobbish fools. Jesus, does Obama even think before he speaks?!
Whilst on the campaign trail, ol' B. Hussein promised that folks making less than 250 grand wouldn't be subjected to higher taxes if'n he became president. In September, he told a gathered crowd in New Hampshire this:
"I can make a firm pledge ... no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes." [Emphasis mine]
Well ... what a difference an election and a couple of months makes. On April 1, tobacco consumers saw their taxes go up 156 percent. Last time I checked, most smokers don't make more than $250,000 a year. According to Americans for Tax Reform 55 percent of tobacco users are "working poor," and one in four cigarette smokers live below the poverty line.
In addition, Obama cannot hope to make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half by only taxing those who make more than $250,000. Indeed, as economist Michael Boskin, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisors under President George H.W. Bush, recently opined in the Wall Street Journal, folks making a grand less than Obama's 250K Rich Crew will soon be socked with a larger tax bill. "Families well below the president's 'no-tax' threshold will get a six-figure bill," says Boskin. So much for that "pledge," huh?!
And while I'm on the subject of who's going to have to pay for our president's crazy-ass schemes, folks in all income brackets should be prepared to open their wallets and purses if Obama's "cap and trade" proposal, which purports to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, passes into law. According to the American Council for Capital Formation and the National Association of Manufacturers, cap-'n'-trade will reduce average household income by between $739 and $2,927 when prices for electricity, gasoline, and other forms of energy spike 'cause of Obama's crazy-ass cap-'n'-trade scheme. (That's what'll happen when you have a president who spent more time suffering over his NCAA b-ball bracket than he did reading up on his Adam Smith, Frédéric Bastiat, Jean-Baptiste Say, Friedrich August von Hayek, etc.)
President B. Hussein Obama told a room full o' Frenchmen -- er, French men and French women -- that America is an "arrogant" nation. How come he had to wait 'til he was overseas to make such a bold pronouncement? Did he learn nothing from the Dixie Chicks fiasco? Oh, and Obama calling anyone or any group of individuals "arrogant" is indeed a case of the pot calling the kettle black (I certainly hope I don't get in trouble with the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton for that analogy). Furthermore, I find it titillatingly ironic that Obama chose to apologize for American arrogance in a nation full of stinky, snobbish fools. Jesus, does Obama even think before he speaks?!
Whilst on the campaign trail, ol' B. Hussein promised that folks making less than 250 grand wouldn't be subjected to higher taxes if'n he became president. In September, he told a gathered crowd in New Hampshire this:
"I can make a firm pledge ... no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes." [Emphasis mine]
Well ... what a difference an election and a couple of months makes. On April 1, tobacco consumers saw their taxes go up 156 percent. Last time I checked, most smokers don't make more than $250,000 a year. According to Americans for Tax Reform 55 percent of tobacco users are "working poor," and one in four cigarette smokers live below the poverty line.
In addition, Obama cannot hope to make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half by only taxing those who make more than $250,000. Indeed, as economist Michael Boskin, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisors under President George H.W. Bush, recently opined in the Wall Street Journal, folks making a grand less than Obama's 250K Rich Crew will soon be socked with a larger tax bill. "Families well below the president's 'no-tax' threshold will get a six-figure bill," says Boskin. So much for that "pledge," huh?!
And while I'm on the subject of who's going to have to pay for our president's crazy-ass schemes, folks in all income brackets should be prepared to open their wallets and purses if Obama's "cap and trade" proposal, which purports to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, passes into law. According to the American Council for Capital Formation and the National Association of Manufacturers, cap-'n'-trade will reduce average household income by between $739 and $2,927 when prices for electricity, gasoline, and other forms of energy spike 'cause of Obama's crazy-ass cap-'n'-trade scheme. (That's what'll happen when you have a president who spent more time suffering over his NCAA b-ball bracket than he did reading up on his Adam Smith, Frédéric Bastiat, Jean-Baptiste Say, Friedrich August von Hayek, etc.)
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Wednesday, April 15, 2009 
