My Blog

Tag: Obama

  • Who Pays What Income Taxes?

    At the DNC there was a lot of talk about “Everyone has to pay their fair share.”  That seems to be at introduction into a philosophical discussion about what a particular group should pay.  What is everyone’s “fair share?”

    In Tax Year 2009:

    Top 1%   paid 36.73% of the total tax bill;
    Top 5%   paid 58.66%;
    Top 10% paid 70.47%;
    Top 25% paid 87.30%;
    Top 50% paid 97.75%;
    Bottom 50% paid 2.25%.

    Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
    Source: Internal Revenue Service

    via National Taxpayers Union.

    We live in a country where the top 5% of earners pay over 1/2 of the bill.  How much more should we, as a people, ask them to pay?  What are the appropriate numbers for this summary?  If you asked a progressive, or a liberal, what percentage of the tab should the top 1% pay?  How about the top 25%?

    And if we’re going to have a philosophical discussion about who pays what, should we not consider the role of payment of taxes plays in simply being a good citizen?  Can you be a good citizen, and feel a connection to your country, when you pay nothing?  Do free rider’s feel like they are part of the greater community at large?

    When Obama says that everyone has to pay their fair share does he mean that anyone’s fair share is zero?

  • Race at DNC – Button Says it Plainly

    20120905-181243.jpg

  • Taliban Behead People for Music (CAIR Silent)

    The news out of Afghanistan is that the Taliban beheaded 17 men and women who had gathered for a mixed-gender social event with music and dancing.

    via Business Insider.

    Some parts of the world are simply 1,500 years behind the times.  We need to leave them be.  It’s not worth the American lives and money to try to front-face backward people.

    One questions I do have though is where is the outcry from moderate Muslims?  It appears to me that this sort of behavior is simply acceptable to them.  That’s at least a save assumption until someone says otherwise.

    Back to my first thought… why should we risk our lives trying to save the innocent when their own people refuse to even acknowledge that anything is wrong?

  • Paradoxical Quote on Obamacare

    Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured… but not everyone must prove they are a citizen. Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens.
    — Attributed to Ben Stein

  • Eat the Rich vs. Obama

    I was reading this story:

    President Barack Obama will officially launch the battle over the impending fiscal cliff this morning, announcing a plan to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for people earning under $250,000, while letting the rest of the tax cuts expire.

    via Business Insider.

    This got me thinking about how much money will really flow into the Treasury from “the rich”?  I remember this from awhile back.

    If you have not seen… it’s just plain excellent.
    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661pi6K-8WQ?rel=0]

  • John Kerry = Inside Trader and Profiteer

    Another oldie but goodie:

    For years, Kerry has invested millions in a number of green energy companies that have benefitted from the president’s efforts to aggressively subsidize the industry with taxpayer dollars.

    These companies include Exelon, which received a $646 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan in 2011 to build a solar facility in California and created only 20 permanent jobs, as well as Fisker Automotive, the fledgling electric car company that offshored its manufacturing operation to Finland after receiving a $529 million federal loan guarantee in 2010.

    The loan guarantees, approved by the Department of Energy, were made possible by funding allocated in the 2009 stimulus bill, which Kerry supported. According to Kerry’s own office, the Senator “played a key role” in crafting the portions of the legislation designed to offer federal support for green energy projects.

    Additionally, Kerry co-authored the controversial cap-and-trade legislation that would have effectively imposed a tax on carbon-dioxide emissions. Though the bill ultimately failed, the New York Times noted that Exelon and companies like it “would emerge as financial winners” if the legislation was enacted.

    Kerry has hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a venture capital firm run by John Doerr, a prominent Obama donor who served on the president’s Economy Recovery Advisory Board.

    The firm, where former vice president Al Gore is a partner, invests heavily in alternative energy companies such as Fisker Automotive and Amonix Inc., a Nevada-based solar panel manufacturer that laid off two-thirds of its workforce earlier this year despite receiving nearly $6 million in federal tax credits.

    Amonix was one of 16 companies (out of 27 overall) listed in Doerr’s “green-tech” portfolio to receive some form of federal support under Obama.

    via Washington Free Beacon.

    People — the problem in NOT in Washington.  The problem in on Main Street.  The goofballs in Massachusetts keep voting for this guy (the Lord knows we have our own corrupt politicians.)  That said, how is the not a crime? And, where is the MSM on this story?

  • Gotta Love American Ingenuity (& Tax Avoidance)

    So I’m reading two stories (here and here) about a new law that will effectively outlaw Roll-Your-Own tobacco stores.  It’s something I kinda follow because I always thought it was a decent business model (until the government outlaws your business) and another fine example of what steps people will go through to avoid taxes.

    In short:

    A tiny amendment buried in the federal transportation bill to be signed today by President Barack Obama will put operators of roll-your-own cigarette operations in Las Vegas and nationwide out of business at midnight.  …

    The machines are used by customers who buy loose tobacco and paper tubes from the shop and then turn out a carton of finished cigarettes in as little as 10 minutes, often varying the blend to suit their taste. Savings are substantial – at $23 per carton, half the cost of a name-brand smoke – in part because loose tobacco is taxed at a lower rate.

    via ReviewJournal.com.

    And I was thinking about how sad this was for all the people who work in this industry: the store owners, their employees, the folks who manufacture the RYO machines, their families, the companies who make the cigarette tubes, and the loose pipe tobacco makers, and all of the folks who work in packaging all of these things.

    And then… in the comment section of the Law Vegas article I read this:

    James Fliess Jul. 6, 2012 | 2:47 p.m.

    Just a thought. My understanding, and maybe I’m wrong, is that cigarettes manufactured by these machines must cost (via taxes) as much as other cigarettes. How about this arrangement. The store sells the tobacco and supplies as they always have, but they do not have a rolling machine. A buisness next door does not sell tobacco or supplies, but it rents time on their rolling machine. Does it work?

    Kudos to you Mr. James Fliess!!

  • Obama Must Speak Out on Chicago Carnage

    Headline:

    Obama Must Speak Out on Chicago Carnage That Kills Too Many Kids

    via The Daily Beast.

    The story in generally not worth reading.

    But my comment is:

    1. Chicago has the most restrictive gun control laws in the country. What’s needed is not any new laws but enforcement of the current laws. Find me one — any one single — murder committed in Chicago with a legally held firearm. You can’t!! Enforce the laws already on the books and violence will decrease.

    2. Chicago has not elected a single Republican in over 40 years. There is no way that the NRA or the GOP is in any way responsible for the gun violence in Chicago. The violence in Chicago is the direct result of 60 years of unchecked modern liberalism. First Detroit, then Chicago, then Oakland, then … 


    The people voted for Chicago politics in Obama. They got what they voted for.

  • Obama Campaign Shuts Down Website

    Hagmann, CEO of Hagmann Investigative Services, Inc., a private investigative agency serving a roster of Fortune 500 clients, was given 48 hours by GoDaddy to find a new home for his website before it was deleted.

    Hagmann was told the reason for the shut down was because the website featured “morally objectionable” material. After GoDaddy refused to identify the complainant, only saying that it was not “any official government agency,” further investigation by Hagmann revealed that the order came from a group tied to Obama campaign headquarters.

    Speaking with the chief investigator in the GoDaddy Abuse division, Hagmann discovered, “Ultimately it was found that the complaint originated ostensibly with a group associated with the campaign to re-elect Barack Hussein Obama.”

    Turning to his contacts within government, Hagmann then spoke with another source who confirmed that the ‘Obama Truth Team’ was responsible for the shut down order.

    “I’m laying this right on the doorstep of the Obama Truth Team,” said Hagmann.

    via Infowars.

    Obviously disturbing.

  • Obama’s Policy Strategy: Ignore Laws I Don’t Like

    “In many ways, President Obama has fulfilled the dream of an imperial presidency that Richard Nixon strived for. On everything from [DOMA] to the gaming laws, this is a president who is now functioning as a super legislator. He is effectively negating parts of the criminal code because he disagrees with them. That does go beyond the pale.”

    — Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law scholar at George Washington University Law School

    via POLITICO.com.

    This Jonathan Turley guy is no right-wing nut-job either.  This is a guy who wanted Obama to prosecute folks in GWB’s White House for the alleged use of torture.

    We don’t have kings in this country.  If a president is not willing to recognize the separation of powers enumerated in the constitution then they should not serve.