FOGLIFTING

Congressional Charged $2800 to you this week on its "Taxpayer Credit Card"

"... but look at what pretty things we bought!"

 

from www.rollcallvotes.com, as published in the Ledger-Enquirer, August 1, 2010

 

 

SAVE $5,000

That's right.  Senator Barak Obama is pleading today for a $775 billion "stimulus" package that is actually a wealth transfer of $5,037 per taxpayer to those he chooses.  If you believe that Washington's will spend that money better than you will, don't say a word.  Just let them do it.

Today, Barak said that "only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe."   To say he is a fool is to sell him short.  In politics, making the public fearful has worked since the Israelites begged Jehovah for a king to protect them.  

Those who understand the mess we are in all say the same thing: the free market works and we wouldn't have gotten into this tragic mess if Washington had only left the mortgage market alone.  Instead, Washington created the incentives for over-lending, and now that false prosperity is at an end.  

There is only one solution.  Let the market work.  The only thing government can do by MORE meddling is to make the painful transition deeper and longer.  That is precisely what the "Stimulus Plan" will do.

Please ask your congressmen and women to deny Barak this bill.  We have one wheel off the road and Barak is steering us toward the ditch.  PLEASE.  Voter apathy has gotten us into this mess, and voter demands for responsible government can get us out.

Your congressmen's phone/email/address are listed at House of Representatives and Senate. 

Thanks for reading.

TWO GRENADES TO EXPLODE THE VEILS OF WASHINGTON D.C.

Remember two numbers: $6 and $20,000.  

For every "billion" spent by the United States' federal government, the cost to you the average taxpayer is $6.00.  The math is simple.  One billion dollars divided by the roughly 150 million employed in this country equals $6.67 per taxpayer.  You can be more precise, but the point doesn't change.  $6 is still a great ballpark figure to use.

So what?  Well, every day in the press our president or congressmen propose spending "x" billion on this program or that.  To the uninformed, this is just meaningless noise.  Does anyone even know how much one billion dollars is?  It's not a term that affects us directly... which is exactly why government spending is in those terms.  A legislature wants to win votes with his proposal, not alienate voters who think he's loose with their money.

When you are armed with this knowledge, you can talk intelligently about these issues that really do affect us all.  For example, in today's USA Today Washington is buying up $500 billion in questionable mortgages from banks.  "Wow", you might say.  "That's a big number."  Or, if you use the $6 Rule, you'll quickly figure, "Wait a minute, they are taking $3000 of the tax money that I paid in taxes to give to these banks!"  "What the H---!?"  

Now, that's better.  Sorry to disturb you with reality, but that in fact IS what's going on.

Now that you know enough to be dangerous (VERY dangerous to politicians), spread the word and let's get government under control.

* By the way, $20,000 is the amount of money Washington plans to spend in 2009 per average taxpayer.  Again, the simple math:  $3.13 trillion divided by the 154 million employed in November 2008 equals $20,324 per worker.  To pay out this $20,324, the federal government will access money from:

$8,170 Individual Income Taxes
$9,350 Other Taxes, such as Social Security and Corporate Income Taxes
$2,804 Increase in the Federal Debt (In 2009 net interest payment on the national debt will be $228 billion.  Can you use the $6 Rule to figure our YOUR SHARE of this?)

Thanks for reading.

MARKET RIGGERS vs FREEMARKETERS - THE DAY AFTER

Today, the Market Riggers have assaulted your pocketbook again.  The CEO's of great capitalist names like J.C. Penney, Saks and Petsmart would not be expected to try to ask the game's referees for preferential advantage, but they have.

The National Retail Federation has petitioned the Obama administration for additional retail holidays which will save the Shoppers $20 billion and cost the Taxpayers $130 per person.  This is in the name of "stimulus."  If you are a normal taxpayer, knowing that your government is increasing your cost by $130, will you go on a shopping spree or batten down the hatches? 

Maybe if people falling ten floors in an elevator won't get hurt if they all jump at the same time right as it hits bottom...

One day, people will know that cigarettes are harmful, alcohol is dangerous and this federal economic "stimulus" is the wrong medicine.

FREEMARKETERS vs MARKET RIGGERS

Does it seem right that free market proponents should use the term, "capitalist"?  Karl Marx defined the term after all, and it fails to distinguish between the honest businesspeople and those who have chosen the dark side.  Is a restaurant owner or a software designer or an ethical home builder supposed to be lumped in the same basket as a basic thief who values money and will stop at nothing to get it?  No!

In our current economic cataclysm, there are businesspeople who are at fault.  It was businesspeople who petitioned Washington to "encourage" home ownership.  Countrywide Financial, Bear Stearns and Fanny Mae executives made multimillion dollar salaries because the powerful Senate and House Banking Committees changed the rules of lending to create windfall opportunities for them. 

Were they "capitalists" who simply pursued the most money they could?  Yes. 

Were they right in doing so?  Not hardly.

For too long, honest businesspeople have been lumped together with these cheaters of the system, and hurt so so many poor innocent people.  In the recent tragedy, they caused many elderly to lose their retirement savings and caused the unemployment of millions.  Who is to blame?  Greedy "capitalists."

That brush is too broad.  In a small attempt to correct this inequity, I propose abandoning the language of Marx's propaganda and replacing the word "capitalist" with two new terms which have clearer meaning: "Market Riggers" and "Freemarketers".

Market Riggers are self-explanatory.  Like Mr. Potter of Bedford Falls and Bernard Madoff, these are men who indeed like money, and they are willing to lie, cheat and steal to get it.  A fair game is not acceptable to this crowd.  They deserve every bit of pillory that critics and the general public have to give.

But in the spirit of keeping the baby but not the bathwater, let's not forget those businesspeople who gave us a better life while making an honest dollar, like John D. Rockefeller who delivered gasoline to us from across the planet for less than the price of a gallon of milk from our local cow, Henry Ford who gave us a car everyone could afford, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs who freed us to connect to the world with PC's, J.K. Rowling who enthralled us with her magnificent Harry Potter, Steven Speilberg who's creativity enriched us with gave us Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan.  

How different could two classes of people be? 

My request to you is to please never refer to either group as "capitalists", again.  The confusion works against those Freemarketers, who struggle to produce a great new product or service, or who simply run a shoe store or burger joint.  These Freemarketers need our support and gratitude now more than ever.

Freemarketers have given us and continue to give us new jobs, lower costs of living and a better life.