Category Archives: Political philosophy

RANDOM THOTS on BLAGO, BACHMANN and GREECE

Posted on June 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

From Power Line
Blagojevich will be the fourth former governor of Illinois to go to jail since 1973. It is quite remarkable that President Obama has been able to avoid any significant association with the political culture from which he emerged.

About Michelle Bachmann
No, she is not a flake. She is, however, a gaffe a minute. The MSM would love to see her become the Republican candidate. I am concerned that she could suddenly blow it they way Howard Dean did. Pawlenty polls far below Bachman nationally but well ahead of her in Minnesota where they are both very well known.

Sovereign debt
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of the size of a national economy. Comparing a nation’s level of debt to the size of their economy is a measure of prudence
in the level of borrowing. It is also a measure of their ability to make good on their loans.

We all know that Greece is deep in a pile of organic fertilizer; but few seem to realize the United States is headed even deeper. Here are some samples of debt as a percentage of GDP according to the IMF. Portugal 83, Ireland 94, Iceland 116, Greece 143. Germany and France are 74 and 82 respectively. The Congressional Budget Office currently puts the United States at 93 percent and projects it to be 140% in 1928 and 190% by 1935. And you know no one is going to bail us out.

It is no winder the Democrats have not met their obligation to present a budget for 2 ½ years. It would mean they would be held responsible following in the footsteps of Greece.

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Posted in Economy, Political philosophy

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AYN RAND REDUX – CONFESSION of a RELUCTANT TEA PARTIER

Posted on June 26, 2011 | 1 comment

Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged escaped the Communism of the Soviet Union as a young woman.  So did Luba Sindler.  As Yogi Berra would say, for Luba Sindler, Barack Obama is déjà vu all over again.

Here are excerpts from Luba’s story as first published in American Thinker on June 15.

Confession of a Reluctant Tea-Partier
By Luba Sindler

In the Soviet Union any mass expression of public sentiment was by definition a fraud.  All organizations got their quotas to provide a certain amount of bodies to march through the town celebrating state holidays.  Being a child was no excuse — I remember taking part in an annual May Day demonstration as a 10-year-old member of an ice-skating girls’ group.

My family came to the United States the day before the Thanksgiving of 1987.  Being intellectually curious, I immediately began wondering how this country functions and what makes the United States the envy of the world (don’t believe all that criticism from outside — it’s mostly ignorance).  As a confirmed bookworm I started reading everything in sight from the Constitution and Federalist Papers to the New York Times to National Review by way of the Economist and the Village Voice.  My English improved dramatically but my respect for the media evaporated.

My husband and I applied for US citizenship the day we became eligible.  After that we proudly voted in every election, but the idea of venturing a political opinion never crossed my mind (an unfortunate result of being brought up in a totalitarian society where keeping your mouth shut is a basic rule of survival).  There was something unseemly in proclaiming my deep love and appreciation of America for all to hear.

When candidate Obama showed up, I realized that I had heard his typical stump speech every single day of my old Soviet life from big and small Communist party bosses — the same structure, the same cadences, the same bogeymen, the same demagoguery, the same targets.  The American people had no defense against this rhetoric.  The result of the elections was totally predictable.  To me it was a “Back to the Future” moment. [Emphasis ours]

[It was like] a terrible nightmare.  Running from Communism, finding the safe haven and a new life, and now to have the same wrecking crew coming even here?

In February or March of 2009 my husband, two friends, and I went to the first New York City Tea Party in front of City Hall — more out of helplessness than anything else.  I attended a few more Tea Parties in our area (my husband dropped out, not believing in lost causes) just to support a worthy idea, not to expect any tangible result.

The atmosphere was incredible.  Complete strangers were talking to each other, taking pictures of thousands of funny posters, smiling, and feeling as one.  Contrary to popular opinion outside the United States, here was an ample proof that Americans have a great sense of humor.  People were expressing their opinions in a typical American fashion, loud and clear.

I felt as if I had [found a] home.  [F]or the first time in my life I felt like a real, full-blooded, free American.  It was glorious.

Luba Sindler is not alone.  Her sentiments are echoed over and over by immigrants who have come to America from Communist bloc countries.  Quite a number are going back home, preferring to live in a land coming out of a Marxist socialist past to one they see trending toward a Marxist socialist future.  But as long as there are people like Luba and the Tea Party, America will do just fine.

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OBAMA 23 – ANYONE ELSE 37

Posted on June 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

In a poll released today, by Bloomberg, 30% of all those polled said they definitely will vote for Obama in 2012.  36% said they definitely will not.  Among likely voters the numbers are even more striking.  Only 23% said they definitely will vote for Obama while 37% said they definitely will not.  The Republican Party doesn’t need to win; they only need not to lose.

Tennis is said to be a Loser’s Game.  By that it’s meant that it’s the loser, not the winner, who determines the outcome.  The loser blows it and gives the game away.  The moral is, if you want to win just return the ball, don’t try to blow your opponents socks off.  In that case the coach should say, Mrs. Palin, Mr. Paul you’re out.  Look for Democrats to vote to nominate Palin in those states that allow cross voting for party nominations.  It could be their only hope.

Of course all this is predicated on an unstable foundation; which is that the economy doesn’t show much improvement in the next sixteen months.  A week is an eternity in politics.  But right now an election would be a landslide.

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WHAT IS IT THAT COMPELS AMERICAN COMPANIES TO GO OVERSEAS ?

Posted on June 14, 2011 | 1 comment

The reason manufacturing and jobs are going overseas is as plain as the chart in front of your face.  As you can see from the chart, corporate tax rates have been trending down in OECD countries while U.S. corporate tax rates have remained among the highest in the developed world.

A business can absorb the cost of a little higher tax than its rivals and still remain competitive – – up to a point.  But when the difference is as much as 50%, it starts to become a matter of survival, not just the ability to compete.  At 39% the U.S. rate is exactly 50% higher than the average rate in the OECD countries.

The OECD is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.  It is a group of 34 nations, mostly but not all, located in Europe.  These are not third world countries.  Typical members and their current corporate income tax rates include Germany (15%), Switzerland (8%), and the United Kingdom (26%).  Our rate (39%) is the absolute highest on the entire list of OECD countries.  The only other nations that exceed the 30% level are Belgium and France.

It is no secret which political party is acting to keep it that way.  It is the same party whose constituents complain the loudest about U.S. corporations sending jobs overseas.  It is the same party whose shibboleth is tax the rich.  It’s the party that penalizes achievement and supports indolence.  It is the party with the least understanding of how wealth is created and the best skills for appropriating it to spend in the furtherance of central planning agendas.  It is the Democratic Party.

Onerous domestic taxation is not the only reason companies choose to go overseas.  Laws and regulations are another.  It is not that regulations are more liberal in foreign lands, although that is often the case for certain industries.  The relative attraction is that you can plan and deal with the devil you know better than you can with one you don’t.  If there is one word that describes the business policies coming from the Obama administration, that word would be uncertainty.  Given the President’s position on Card Check, health insurance price controls, drilling moratorium, corporate executive salary controls and eagerness to partially nationalize companies in the name of bailouts it would be foolish to assume the uncertainty would unfold to the favorable side.

While the ever socialistic Europe is moving slightly to the right, the bastion of free market society that is America, is rushing hell-bent for leather to the left.  Eastern Europeans know where we are going.  They have been there and it wasn’t good.  We need to change course before we find out what they already know.  If we continue on the present course, believe me; it won’t be good.

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Posted in Economy, Opinion, Political philosophy, Regulation

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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INCOME TAX AND WELFARE?

Posted on May 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

What is the difference between income tax and welfare? That sounds like the start of a Netflix commercial, but it actually is a sensible question. 

Back in April of 2010 we published an article entitled When Income Tax Is Income, Not Tax. In that post we discussed how some filers could get a tax “refund” that is more than they paid in. Here is a real life example.

An acquaintance of mine has 3 incomes. He has a full pay disability retirement income from a municipal fire department. No income tax is withheld on this pension. I don’t know the nature of his disability; it’s nothing apparent. He has a second income from a full time job at a specialty store. Here he works for the owner as an agent, not as an employee, so no income tax is withheld from these earnings either. The third income comes from an online business. His wife was a full time student in 2010.

My friend duly reported the pension and store income on his tax return. To his utter astonishment, this year he is getting a “refund” of $2,300. Although no contributions whatsoever were made by him during the year, he will be “getting back” 2,300 dollars based on his 1040 filing. His annual income is about 75,000.  He does not need welfare, nor is he seeking it.

What is the difference between income tax and welfare? Sometimes there isn’t any difference at all.

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HEALTHCARE, PROFITS AND INSURANCE

Posted on May 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

 The New York Times Business page reports:
“Health Insurers Making Record Profits”

Well I hope so.

Record profits lead to record jobs. Record profits means a greater positive contribution to a growing economy than ever before. Record profits support growth in dividends, the staple of retired people depending on the fruits of their personal life savings in their end years. Record profits increase the value of a company and its shares of public ownership. When those shares go up in price it increases the value of pension plans and retirement funds. The more companies there are reporting record profits, the more companies there will be paying record taxes. Record profits are a good thing.

What happens when there are no record profits? By definition, a company that’s not reporting record profits is not doing as well as it once did. The enterprise has fallen into a state of decline. Its contribution to the national GDP is less than it was. The general definition of a recession is three quarters of negative GDP. Companies reporting lower levels of profit tend to be a drag on GDP until profits start to grow again. When companies are in a slump they postpone expansion and temper hiring programs even when the decline is judged to be a temporary state. Lower profits are not a good thing.

Somehow I suspect the Times doesn’t see it that way.

Bob B

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AL ZAWAHIRI IS AL QAEDA

Posted on May 8, 2011 | 1 comment

Our studies led us to conclude several years go that Osama bin Laden has played little role in directing the operations of al Qaeda since being driven from Afghanistan by the U.S military. Now we have learned, perhaps it would be better to say – now we have been told – there were no telephone or cable connections between his modest home in Pakistan and the outside world. Cell phones were banned from existence anywhere in the compound. Further we have been told, bin Laden had never ventured outside of the house in more than five years.

Directing a vast organization like al Qaeda requires constant communication. It cannot be run by carrier pigeon or an occasional courier. Furthermore, should a friend or rival seek to wrest control, it would be impossible to prevent while confined to sitting in an armchair at home.

Ayman al Zawahiri is a clever operator who usurped power from a partner before he joined Osama’s al Qaeda. He has proven himself to be a wise director of clandestine terrorist operations. He is quite unlike Osama, who was was a softly spoken, albeit very radical, Islamist with a lot of money. Osama was born into one of the wealthiest and most respected families in the Arab world. However, His primary contribution to al Qaeda was as a fundraiser. His personal wealth was limited when compared to what he was able to raise from others.

When Osama was still in his teens, his radicalism became a concern within his own family and to some in the ruling Saudi family as well. As his activities grew he became persona non grata in his homeland, in Egypt and the Sudan. He had become a “hot potato” that no one nation wanted, not even President Clinton when the Sudanese offered him up. That was before 911, of course. He finally found acceptance in a country run by an equally radical leader, Muhammad Omar, head of the Taliban and in control of Afghanistan at the time.

But bin Laden’s money was running out and so was his effectiveness as a fundraiser. His greatest value to the terrorist organization he founded was always his wealth and his fame. By the time he was driven from Afghanistan, by the U.S. military, all that was left was his fame. Al Zawahiri went from de facto leader of al Qaeda to absolute leader in fact. Bin Laden’s name and mystique were preserved with an occasional release of a video tape. Also, judging by the glimpse we’ve had of the furnishings of his home for the last several years, it appears he was no longer given much respect even by his one-time second in command.

Justice was done with the execution of the man responsible for the atrocity we call “911”. We killed a Muslim hero, but we did not assassinate the leader of al Qaeda.

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OUR SOCIALIST PRESIDENTS

Posted on April 27, 2011 | 14 comments

Wilson, Roosevelt and Johnson were socialistic presidents. All three believed in America but sought to make it an even greater nation. Barack Obama is the first truly Socialist, not just socialistic, president. Obama seeks to transform America into a Marxist Socialist nation. He believes the United States is a deeply flawed arrogant oppressor nation that needs to be brought to its knees. John Bolton expressed it well when he said “Barack Obama is the first post-American president.”

Wilson’s socialistic efforts were unsuccessful. His presidency ran from 1913 to 1921. It was a period of growing prosperity in America. The people wanted no part of his socialistic ideas. Roosevelt (FDR) was elected in the midst of a recession that was the bust after the boom of the roaring twenties. The people turned to government for help. The economic circumstances could be compared to the bust that George Bush inherited following the dot com boom. Whereas, Bush turned the recession into recovery, Roosevelt turned his recession into the ‘Great Depression’. But his intentions were as good as his policies were bad.

Johnson’s contribution was the nanny state with his ‘War on Poverty’. Great welfare programs supported both the misfortunately indigent as well as the slovenly. President Johnson was a politician who built a huge populist power base for the Democratic Party but he was not a Socialist.

Wilson, Roosevelt and Johnson were Democrats who guided the United States in a socialist direction. President Obama is a Socialist who is presiding over the culmination of their work. He must be stopped. The 2012 election is a fork in the road and the road to the left is a one way route. There hasn’t been an election as critical to the future of the nation since Lincoln won the White House.

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HOW DO YOU GET OUT OF THE HOLE WHEN YOU ARE IN DEBT ?

Posted on April 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

George Soros says dig deeper. Watch the brief video here.

He recommends more government spending to bolster a fragile recovering economy. ‘But don’t spend it on consumption’ he says, “spend it on infrastructure.”

But broad based consumption is very the heart of of a strong economy. Infrastructure is just one industry and a union dominated one at that. Soros is talking about Barack’s bridges and roads. Government owns the bridges and roads. Old George is calling for bigger government and greater debt as a way to strengthen the economy. Perhaps he believes that old adage that if you dig deep enough you will come out in China.

I happen to believe Soros is an honorable man. But he grew up in a Communist country and still buys the idea that socialism is the best system, if you can just get leaders to do it right. How can a smart man like Soros be so wrong? For one thing, great wealth, like great fame, is an isolater. It separates you from the rest of the world. Add the guilt many feel for having the wealth and you have reasons enough to see why a good man can be so wrong.

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COZY PAYS OFF FOR IMMELT AND GENERAL ELECTRIC

Posted on March 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

First came Government Motors, now we have Government Electric.
Hugo Chavez, eat your heart out.

Ponder this:

1. In the last two election cycles GE political contributions went 63% to Democrats.

2.GE owns NBC which, in partnership with Microsoft, owns MSNBC.

3. Obama said publicly that the reason he included India in his Asian tour was to secure a turbine contract for GE.

4. GE is not a bank. But GE received 340 B dollars from the TLGP (Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program), a bailout program for which only banks qualify. And yes, that’s a B.

5. No restrictions were put on CEO Jeffery Immelt’s salary as done with other recipients of bailout money.

6. GE paid no federal income tax in 2010, none.

7. GE received a 3.2 B dollar “tax benefit” in 2010, the year in which they paid no tax.

8. Why did GE get bailout money in the first place?

9. GE was in front of the line for a waiver of the burden of Obamacare.

GE is a leading maker of wind power turbines, solar panels and other green technologies that derive their profits from government subsidies not from market demand. Looking at Government Motors and Government Electric we get a glimpse of National Socialism. In a capitalist society, in a business, government may be your friend. In a National Socialist society government is your partner. Collusion and corruption become keys to your success. Competition is handled by selective regulation, not by superior innovation.

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