It Takes a Village of Angry Taxpayers

We just taught the local politicians a lesson here in our little city at the foot of the Rockies

They threatened to fire policemen and lay off firemen if we didn't vote them a big tax increase.

We resoundingly turned them down.  

On top of that, a citizens group has started a recall petition for gross financial incompetence (they were funding current operations with new construction fees), and for threatening voters.

Nevermind about those threats!
Guess what?  The council just announced that, tada!  They found other ways to cover the shortfall.  They may have to close city pools and decrease bus service.

Why is the city running pools (at a loss)? 

Sell them to the private sector and they will turn a profit while still serving the public.

Buses?  They are privatized in Socialist Latin America.  And they are more user friendly

Latin America does buses much better than the US.  They go where people need them, when they need them.  No labyrinthine routes and complex schedules it takes a college degree to figure out.  Each bus has a specific run, back and forth with the names of both ends of the route on the front.  A city will have numerous crisscross routes like that, providing transportation to thousands.  And it's all privatized!  In socialist Latin America!

Community Centers:  Turning Wangsters into Gangsters

Finally, the city council gave the municipal community centers 6 months to find private funding, and the liberals are screaming.  What good do community centers do anyway?  I think they just give junior criminals a place to exchange tactics and plot their depredations on the populace. And they probably carry out many of their crimes slouching to and from the community center! 

It Doesn't Take a Village

Kids get bored.  I got bored one time and threw rocks at the neighbors' car, when they were in it, driving.  Papa Silverfiddle beat my ass with a belt.  I learned the value of finding non-criminal activities to entertain myself when bored.

It doesn't take a village.  It doesn't take a community center.  It takes a society that won't tolerate criminal behavior, from kids or from politicians.

And an angry dad (or voter) with a belt (or ballot) bringing down the wrath of God upon a little hooligan (big elected hooligan) doesn't hurt...

Is Socialism "Cannibalism Lite"?

A Modern Day "Modest Proposal"

With each new Trillion dollar bailout and public give-away, lots of us taxpayers are getting uncomfortable. We used to see ourselves as productive citizens; now we wonder if we are being looked at as mere monetary food. Someone has to pay off this massive debt!

This is what cannibalism is at its core: societal self-consumption. In this case, national self-consumption. Very soon, tax-suckers will outnumber tax payers. What's worse, those on the dole have a powerful entitlement mindset about your wallet. It's stealing with a muscular middleman.

Imagine a FEMA pamphlet from the future that illustrates this concept. And oh, by the way, it seems that life sometimes reflects art!

Bon appetit!
-- Hugh Farnham

Those Greedy Taxpayers!

Notice how politicians love to punish recalcitrant voters who refuse to pass tax increases?

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Columbus police will be pulled from highways, high schools and other duties if voters reject a proposed city income-tax increase on Aug. 4, Chief Walter Distelzweig said yesterday. Nearly 300 officers would lose their jobs in layoffs.

Can't get the taxpayer to hand over more money? Then scare it out of them!

We'll cut the police force, crime will be rampant! Those brave, loyal firefighters will be out of a job, and your house will burn down. Like driving? City streets will be a cratered moonscape; a trip to the grocery store could destroy your car!

Meanwhile, in Toledo, wtol.com reports that gun sales in that city are rising as the police force shrinks due to budget-imposed lay-offs.

Gun ownership is a good thing. It's taking responsibility for yourself

If more citizens shot more criminals, there would be less crime, and the sleazy perps who hadn't been shot yet would be looking for a safer way to get what they want.

We have a "make my day" law in my Colorado, and my county applies it liberally. Gun ownership is high, with a few burglars getting shot every year, so breaking and entering is a fairly rare occurrence around here.

Hope and Change Update

By the way, those Columbus policemen are the same ones Obama personally delivered stimulus money to, making a big speech about how this money would keep them employed while keeping Columbus safe.

Columbus Dispatch - Politics
WTOL.com

Suckling at Big Brother's Ample Teats

Our slide to Socialism seems to have taken another lurch downward. Who would have believed that out of every six dollars Americans make, one dollar is straight from the government?

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, government handouts increased from a low in the early '50s of 4% to over 16% today. In total, we are looking at 2 trillion dollars a year going to the "Great Society" - an average of $17,000 per family.

I remember growing up poor on a Wisconsin farm. While most of our liberal neighbors were happy to get their literal government cheese, my stepfather refused; it was a point of honor not to plant your face in Big Brother's bosom and suckle like a child.

I believe at the heart of this is a lack of honesty in the American character. It's all right to steal, apparently, when the government does the thieving for you. I thought it was a crime to receive stolen goods?

The LA Times ran an article recently about how people are using their unemployment to catch up on leisure activities - the new word is FUNemployment. What ever happened to hitting the pavement, handing out resumes, and getting an honest job? What ever happened to personal responsibility?

I have to confess, my faith in the American people is wavering. I am solidly in the Thomas Jefferson / Ronald Reagan camp where the whole of the people, moral and religious, are an anchor to our Republic. I'm tempted to think we are losing our Republic and we only need to look in the mirror to see the culprits.

A question I pose to you is this: if massive inflation or even hyperinflation arises, will these millions on the dole continue "funemployment" activities, or throw an adult temper tantrum? One liberal throwing a tantrum is bad enough, but when you have millions it becomes an historic event. Bear in mind with hyperinflation, that block of government cheese shrinks to microscopic size - and the government won't be able to increase benefits to keep up with skyrocketing inflation.

To those adults who continue to think as children, Big Brother has a chestful of teats to suckle from; to those who resist paying for this outrage, Big Bro also has sharp teeth.

The above graphic is a boobgoblin from South Park, and not to be confused with Janet Napolitano.

- Hugh Farnham

Government Bubble

The end of the Clinton era saw the bursting of the dot com bubble. Rampant speculation had driven tech stock prices to unsustainable levels, and what went up came crashing back down.

We just witnessed the housing bubble's big bang, with resulting downsizing of irresponsible lifestyles. There is talk of bulldozing entire vacant neighborhoods in some failed cities like Detroit.

Unfortunately, government gamblers who are incapable of learning anything continue to pump hot air into the increasingly unstable big government bubble. California voters repudiated their politicians, and now no one knows what to do, since slashing spending doesn't come naturally to a political candy man.

President Obama, fresh from blowing $4,000,000,000,000, brazenly says we are borrowing too much money from China, we're broke, and the irresponsible spending must stop. Oh, and he also wants to fund windmills and free health care for everybody.

Paul Krugman can always be relied upon for liberal doses of economic advice.

Like practically all liberals, he stubbornly pins California's fiscal disaster to proposition 13, the conservative ballot measure that capped property taxes. Krugman goes a step further, predicting the same disaster for the US for the same reason: Those angry, stingy conservatives are blocking "responsible" tax increases that would pay for all this spending.

It's always too little taxation; never too much spending.

We all want something for nothing and the politicians are too cowardly to tell us no, so we end up with more government than we can afford.

China and the US are in a Mexican standoff: We can't stop irresponsible borrowing, they can't stop irresponsible lending, and the negative synergy has us on a mutual downward spiral.

Why doesn't it occur to anyone to downsize our overleveraged government?

NYT - Krugman

Overheard at the White House...

"You what? I didn't authorize ATTACKS on the pirates! I ordered A TAX on them!"

-- Props to papa Silverfiddle

Spreadin' It Around

I didn't vote for President Obama, but I hoped for the best when he was elected. I thought, maybe he would usher in a new era of good feelings, or perhaps emulate President Eisenhower and place himself above partisan politics. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his reckless spending is too much to bear. Is he trying to dig a hole to China?

Does this administration and its confreres in congress not notice or not care about the unsustainable debt they are creating?

What's the endgame?

I keep wondering what the Democratic end game is, and I think it is this: Once the budget is passed, they will come back and say they are forced to raise taxes. The President and Democratic Congressmen will invoke paygo to get the blue dogs on board and their line will go something like this:

"The American people want all these programs, and they must be paid for. Anything less would be irresponsible."

The NeoComms don't want to destroy capitalism like the old fashioned communists did--They want to chain it to the mill wheel and milk it for all its worth. I know, it's a mixed metaphor, but coherence counts for very little these days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/us/politics/03budget.html?ref=politics
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/budget_debate_shows_washington.html
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/04/03/a_dose_of_fiscal_reality_for_obama/
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/obamas_ultimate_agenda.html

Performance Czar Withdraws Candidacy

What the hell is a performance czar and why does the White House need one? Does she direct White House plays and coach the west wing glee club? Maybe she organizes provocative street theater and liberal agitprop pushing government sponsored socialism...

Who is this woman, now joining the Democrat cast of thousands who have cheated on their taxes? We didn't even get to know her before she withdrew herself from nomination to a White House position.

President Obama is going through Democratic tax cheats like crap through a goose.

I'm not the first guy to say this so I won't take credit, but it's no wonder Democrats are for higher taxes, they don't pay them!

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9646DBG0&show_article=1

Senate to Approve Another Tax Cheating Lobbyist to Obama Cabinet

Now we find out that HHS Secretary nominee Tom Daschle failed to pay $128,000 in taxes related to limousine services provided by companies he was lobbying for (oops, I've just been informed he was not lobbying. He was merely helping businesses squeeze money out of the federal government. My mistake).

He will be regulating these same companies in his new job, but that's another story. We need to stay focused on the noble Obama White House ethics code, not the the swiss cheese farce it has become. Anyway Daschle was not a lobbyist, he was a "Strategic Advisor."

But it's all good: Daschle is a former senator and a Democrat, and he paid the back taxes once he knew he had no choice if he wanted the cabinet position.

I have lived in the third-world, and this is what third-world politics looks like. An arrogant political class, corrupted by money, burdens the people with onerous catalogs of legislation and taxes while blithely exempting themselves.

George Orwell was right. The pigs have taken over, and We The People learn that some animals are more equal than others.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-daschle1-2009feb01,0,4970462.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/us/politics/01daschle.html?ref=us

Tax Cheating Oligarchs

So... We're going to put a guy in charge of the IRS who failed to pay his taxes until he was offered the Treasury Secretary position. Yeah, that makes sense. Why not? Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel writes tax code so complex even he can't understand it, leading him to violate the rules he created.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama called disclosures about Treasury choice Timothy Geithner's tax problems an embarrassment Wednesday but said Geithner's "innocent mistake" shouldn't keep him from confirmation as the new administration's top official in urgent efforts to revive the economy.

The revelations that Geithner had failed to pay $34,000 in taxes several years ago derailed Senate Democrats' plans to speed him to confirmation by Inauguration Day, but senators in both parties said the information was unlikely to torpedo his chances in the end.

Think about this for a minute... A congressman who violates the very laws he writes, and a tax cheat in charge of the IRS. If this isn't government decadence at it's finest, I don't know what is.

This is why nobody trusts the government or the empty suits who run this country like a personal fief, extracting the fruits of our labor and doling out favors. This is an oligarchy; but at least it's an equal-opportunity one, where persons of all races, creeds, ethnicities, and religions can rape the taxpayer and pillage public and private property for personal gain and pleasure.

Joe the Plumber was discredited by Democrats and their press operatives when some reporter dug up the tidbit that he was delinquent on some county taxes by a few hundred dollars. If he had just gone big like Geithner, he could have qualified for a cabinet post.

How about Charles Manson for FBI chief?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15thu1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

New Gas Tax

First it was California city slickers escaping to the Mountain West, finding to their shock and horror that livestock lived there, and then demanding the offensive creatures be banned. Now comes the EPA of President George Bush, Republican of Texas, with their plan to tax cow and hog farts.

Sounds funny, but it could run some ranchers out of business. It also reminded me of that famous anonymous Tax Poem.

The Tax Poem

Tax his land, Tax his bed,
Tax the table At which he’s fed.

Tax his tractor, Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes Are the rule.

Tax his work, Tax his pay,
He works for peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow, Tax his goat,
Tax his pants, Tax his coat!

Tax his ties, Tax his shirt,
Tax his work, Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink,
Tax him if he Tries to think.

Tax his cigars, Tax his beers,
If he cries, tax his tears.

Tax his car, Tax his gas,
Find other ways to tax his ass.

Tax all he has Then let him know
That you won’t be done Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers, Then tax him some more,
Tax him till he’s good and sore.

Then tax his coffin, Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he’s laid.

Put these words upon his tomb,
“Taxes drove me to my doom.”

When he’s gone, Do not relax,
Its time to apply the Inheritance Tax.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081205/ap_on_bi_ge/farm_scene_cow_tax_2

Patriotism, Democrat Style

According to Yahoo News Joe Biden made the following comment:

"We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people," Biden said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Noting that wealthier Americans would indeed pay more, Biden said: "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."

This stupid comment provides a rare moment of clarity.

75% of those making over $250,000 per year are actually business owners filing their taxes as an individual. They've already "jumped in" and are "part of the deal." The "deal" they've jumped into is providing jobs for millions of fellow Americans. That's not patriotic? How about if they fired everybody and then sent the payroll money to the feral government, would that make them more patriotic? According to Palooka Joe it would.

It is socialistic (and stupid) to believe that taking money away from job creators and giving it to the feral government will "get America out of the rut." This is what is putting our nation in the rut.

Do these people even think before they speak? It's so easy to expose their ignorance even a redneck with a computer can do it...

Democratic Desperation

The Obama ship is sinking. And like rats and other creatures fearing for their lives, panicky Democrats are grasping and clawing at anything to keep from drowning.

The latest panic attack comes from Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill. She artfully used Alan Greenspan's comments against McCain (whom he supports for president) and demanded McCain explain how he will pay for his tax cuts. Here's her statement:

Alan Greenspan, even though he's a Republican and even though he's a friend of John McCain's, spoke some truth yesterday. John McCain is being irresponsible.

Of course, Alan Greenspan didn't say McCain was irresponsible. Here's what he said according to Bloomberg.com:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. can't afford $3.3 trillion of tax cuts proposed by Republican presidential nominee John McCain without similar reductions in the federal budget.

Greenspan, a lifelong Republican and longtime friend of McCain, said on Bloomberg Television's Political Capital With Al Hunt' that "I'm not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money.''

McCain has said he would balance the cost of most of his tax cuts with budget reductions, while providing few details beyond eliminating earmarks and other pork-barrel spending, which have totaled about $171 billion since 2001. Democratic nominee Barack Obama is proposing fewer tax cuts and more ambitious spending programs.

Don't hold your breath waiting for McCaskill and other concerned Democrats to demand that Obama explain how he's going to pay for his tax cuts and ambitious spending programs...

Governments Make More on Oil than "Big Oil" Does

Here's a little perspective on Big Oil's obscene profits. The first excerpt comes from left coast flagship Los Angeles Times, of all places. Their criticism of raising corporate taxes left me slack-jawed:

We hate spending $60 on a fill-up as much as the next person, but we don't think Exxon or its outsized profits should be the impetus for bad policy. As we've said before, it's a bad idea to pile more taxes onto oil companies for supposedly excessive profits. Exxon already faces a stiff tax bill -- nearly 50% of its taxable income went to the government in the most recent quarter. Increasing the price of success could discourage the company from making high-risk, high-reward bets on new supplies and technologies, which is the opposite of what the country needs.

The Tax Foundation points out that Big Oil is paying record taxes as well. What the demagogic politicians don't tell us is that Uncle Sam's cut of those record profits is almost 50%! Add in all taxes big oil paid to all governments, and one sees that governments are making more money off of petroleum than the oil companies are!

Here's the chart from the tax foundation. My HTML skills aren't the best, so if the chart is unreadable just go to the tax foundation's web site:

"Big Oil" made $20 Billion in net profits last quarter. "Big Government" made $47 Billion. Who's calling who obscene?