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The Most Unpopular Politicians: Pelosi and Reid

May 15, 2012

Nancy Pelosi is universally seen as one of the most divisive figures in American politics. Now the poling proves it. 63% of voters have an unfavorable opinion of her, according to a new poll of likely voters by Rasmussen. This makes her the most disliked figure in modern American politics today. Quite possibly in the history of American politics.

The most unpopular sitting politician at the moment, Nancy Pelosi, presided over a House that crafted ObamaCare behind closed doors as she blatantly deceived Americans. She said it would create 400,000 jobs instantly. And who can forget how we need to pass the bill so that we can find out what’s in its 2000-plus pages — doesn’t that seem a little contrary to the whole purpose of a democratic republic?

In the same poll, Harry Reid is the second-most disliked figure, with 57% of voters having an unfavorable view of him.

It’s no wonder that these two are viewed so unfavorably: Reid’s Senate has not even brought a budget up for a vote, let alone drafted a budget in committee, in over three years! 1,112 days to be exact. Under his watch, the debt has risen $5 trillion. Maybe he simply has a flawed understanding of basic math, but all signs point to Reid asleep at the wheel when it comes to addressing our very serious debt problem.

Don’t be surprised if you never see Barack Obama in the same picture as either one of these two unpopular politicians between now and the election. But what Obama may never be able to escape is the fact that they did all of his dirty work.

1,111 Days of Failure

May 14, 2012

Harry Reid’s liberal Senate is an absolute failure. Don’t believe us? The last time he passed a budget was 1,111 days ago. Since then, three Apple iPads have been introduced, but still Reid refuses to even so much as propose a budget for our federal government. No wonder the three highest yearly deficits in the history of our nation have occurred under Harry Reid and Barack Obama.

Typically, any problems that occur in Congress get blamed on the Tea Party or Republican “obstructionism.” Well, it only takes 51 votes to pass a budget in the Senate. So, not a single Republican vote is needed.

Conservatives like Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Pat Toomey, and Sen. Mike Lee have recently proposed budgets that reign in our debt and create fiscally responsible answers for our biggest problems. However, they have hit a firewall in Sen. Harry Reid’s chamber. He even mocks the process, telling Americans not to hold their breath for a budget he doesn’t “need” to complete.

ObamaCare Taxing Americans To Death

May 14, 2012

The Obama axiom seems to be tax, tax, tax, destroy jobs, print more money, interfere with our personal lives, then tax some more. Case in point: To fund the fiscal disaster that is ObamaCare there will be new taxes levied on manufacturers who create life-saving medical devices such as stents and defibrillators.

This “genius” idea to put a 2.3 percent tax on gross revenue will result in a 15 percent tax on manufacturers’ profits from the devices starting in next year. Oh and let’s not forget, these taxes are piled on top of the 35 percent tax burden already imposed on the federal level, in addition to state and local taxes.

So the truth is, ObamaCare claims to lower the cost of health care and will accomplish that goal by raising taxes on the health care industry. Brilliant! Adios to those jobs that would have been created or will be nixed due to the taxaholics in the Obama administration.

Further, we all know that corporations don’t pay taxes, individuals do. Who is going to inherit the tax being levied on medical device manufacturers? The very people who need medical devices. Wait a minute, aren’t those the people ObamaCare purports to help?

According to columnist George Will, “People not warped by working for the federal government, which can print money when it wearies of borrowing” get it. “Capital goes where it is welcome and stays where it is well-treated.” It’s time for America to once again be that place.

Inmate 11593-051

May 10, 2012

Maybe the White House will wake up and realize that their policies have badly hurt America, because convicted felon Keith Judd—currently inmate number 11593-051 of the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas—just beat Obama in 10 counties in the West Virginia Democratic primary. Judd will not even be released from prison until June 2013.

What does it say about the President’s approval with average Americans when 41% of the members of his own party voted for someone who is currently sitting behind bars? The Democrats maintain a 2 to 1 voter registration advantage over Republicans in West Virginia. In that situation, to have a prisoner compete well against the sitting President of the United States might be one of the worst performances by an incumbent president in history. The felon even held Obama below 60% of the Democratic vote in 33 out of 55 counties!

Tuesday was awful for the President. His campaign advisers are probably shaking as they look at the election results. Just think, they are pouring over pages of these vote returns in the Oval Office, and Keith Judd is in his “8×8 office.” Well, Judd does have a toilet in the same room, so maybe the amenities are in his favor!

North Carolina Democrats also took a swipe at Obama this week. Barack Obama won North Carolina in 2008, beating John McCain by 14,000 votes. On Tuesday, the President ran completely unopposed in a Democratic primary and still 20% of the Democrats in that state voted against him. This is absolutely shocking. The President is losing states that he has previously won, and should win in a Democratic primary. If a conservative President performed this poorly, the media would call upon him to forego reelection.

This is not some comical satire. This is reality. The President’s policies are so radical that his party is turning against him and they are looking for anyone to replace him, even people currently behind bars five states away.

One Term Proposition

May 8, 2012

February 2009, President Obama in his own words about the financial crisis: “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” In looking at his record, Obama has done little more than blame others for everything that is wrong, and take credit for anything that has just happened to go his way.

Well Mr. President, what do you have to say after three and a half years? Can you name one successful “green” energy project that we dumped billions of taxpayer dollars into? Can you tell us that this isn’t the smallest labor force in 30 years? Can you tell us blocking tens of thousands of jobs from the Keystone pipeline has kept energy prices low? Can you tell us why your budgets have never proposed a surplus? Can you explain why you have created $5 trillion in new debt?

Finally, do you think this should be a one-term proposition after you answer those questions?

 

ObamaCare Sausage

May 3, 2012

ObamaCare Sausage

During the course of the sausage-making for ObamaCare, the President and his allies repeatedly and profusely promised that “If you like your current insurance, you can keep your current insurance.” They all knew that the vast majority of Americans wouldn’t read the fine print of the convoluted, 2,000 page bill. A study by University of Minnesota Law School professors that was published in the Virginia Law Review shows that ObamaCare will force companies to drop employees off of their currently provided health plan.

So not only does that violate the promises of the liberals—though, that is not surprising—but it mostly creates massive chaos. What is going to happen when tens of millions of Americans are suddenly kicked off of their health insurance? Heaven forbid someone gets injured, or sick, or needs surgery during that period of limbo. This is also going to create massive and incalculable uncertainties. The study asserts that the cost of the health plans in the insurance exchanges that are subsidized by the federal government (aka your tax dollars) will skyrocket. So essentially, many Americans will lose their current insurance, will be in a risky limbo as they are thrown into the new system, and will in turn be facing more federal debt as subsidies begin to skyrocket under ObamaCare.

If ObamaCare is not repealed, the very fabric of our nation will be unraveled financially and morally as this government intrusion into our lives bankrupts our wallets and takes away our freedoms and choices.

The Truth About Taxes

April 27, 2012

30% Tax Increase Part 5: Government Spending

April 13, 2012

A popular cartoon that we at ForAmerica recently circulated showed how the federal government would have spent that huge Mega Millions lottery jackpot in about … 85 minutes. Unfortunately, the spending habits of our government have come to a point where it is difficult to grasp its full capacity to burn through our money.

President Barack Obama has presided over and rubber-stamped the largest increases in our nation’s spending and debt than any other president in history. By the end of his first term, the debt will be $16 trillion dollars. The entire debt from every single president before him was $10 trillion. He outspent the preceding 42 men at a pace that is too high to even fathom.

In January it could get worse. It is hard to imagine how it could happen, but these numbers are predicted by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Under Obama’s presidency, he has been running deficits upwards of a trillion dollars per year based upon revenues of around $2 trillion. If that statistic remains constant, we could be running deficits of almost $2 trillion alone in 2014. Revenues from taxes will be at $3.313 trillion in that year, and if Obama keeps his pace, he will likely bloat the spending of government to $4 trillion. As president, he has shown no signs of restraint for spending every cent of our hard earned money and more.

The amount of money in taxes that the government will take goes up each year by about $300 billion dollars. Compare 2014 to 2011, and the differences in taxes is over $1 trillion. In pure dollar amounts, that is a 43.9% increase in the size of the federal government’s tax devouring plan. This unprecedented rise will likely correspond to outrageous levels of new spending for wasteful programs, and as the CBO predicts, will only slow the economy further. We will move so far away from a responsible, capitalist state that everyday Americans will face government with everything they do. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama could not be more excited.

30% Tax Hike Part 4: The Death Tax

April 12, 2012

If there ever was a time in our nation’s history that the government was more intrusive in our lives, would you say that is right now?

Well, this is only the beginning. Come January, the federal government will grow at an unprecedented rate. If Congress sits back and does nothing (remember last year’s so-called “SuperCommittee?”), then the government will grow another 30%.

No, that is not an exaggeration. That is a modest characterization of the amount of money the government will pull in from tax increases over the next two years. This combined tax increase will be one of the largest in history of our nation.

Previous laws will be expiring from 2001 and 2009, and middle income Americans will see their income tax rates skyrocket 2 percentage points. Higher income earners will be subject to more than 3 percentage point increases in their income tax.

Just what we need when the economy is sputtering, jobs are scarce, and the cost of meeting basic needs continues to rise.

Also, the tax just for dying will increase by 20%. The federal death tax has a top rate of 35%, and at the end of the year that will move to a ridiculous 55%. So, you earned money when you were alive, you were taxed on it through income or other methods. Then, once you die, the government thinks you owe more than half of your wealth to them–just because.

Who does this hurt? It hurts the sons and daughters of folks that have to split up their farmland just to pay off this egregious tax to the government. Money passed down to them from loved ones will be forcibly collected.

We heard a few weeks ago that the IRS will be implementing SWAT teams to collect taxes. Talk about how heartless this policy will become, that once your loved one passes away, a SWAT team could be bursting through your door to call in your tax obligations of half of the money that the deceased owes to the government.

State legislators have been systematically repealing their state death taxes. Tennessee for instance is making a major push to repeal this law because many residents are moving out of the state at the end of their lifetime to Florida, which has no death tax.

It just shows how an intrusive government can completely alter the way that we operate our day to day lives. Not only do we worry about the daily budgets–which the liberal Senate has not concerned itself with for over 1,000 days –but now our retirement decisions face the ominous black shadow of a government just waiting to consume our hard earned money.

30% Tax Increase Part 3: Capital Gains

April 11, 2012

With the expiration of tax cuts from the last decade, small business owners and new entrepreneurs will suffer greatly. The American dream as we know it is facing a brutal quagmire in the future.

Businesses understand this, as the private sector has to create budgets that take into account the changes that will occur in the future. Under Barack Obama and Harry Reid, the government needs no budget. And if conservatives create one, then it is a “radical” budget. Well, since the President’s recent budget received zero votes of support and 414 votes against it in the House, the facts say that the president does not mind being a hypocrite.

One aspect of the tax code that will make a drastic change to the way Americans operate their businesses and investments has to do with capital gains. If Congress and the President do nothing, then the capital gains tax will go up to 20% from 15%.

Dividend taxes will also see a massive jump. Dividends will be taxed at ordinary income tax rates. So for instance instead of being taxed at 15%, those rates will almost triple to 39.5% for some filers!

What’s worse is that if your income is in the lowest income tax bracket of 10% or 15% zone, the capital gains rate is 0%. At the end of the year, that would jump to 10%.  So the people who can least afford to pay will take the hardest hit.

The newly extended 2% payroll tax reduction in Social Security of FICA expires as well. Did someone say “change we can believe in?”

If Washington is content to push businesses out beyond our borders, then Washington needs to be hit hard with the facts: we now have the highest corporate tax rate in the world, the double taxation on business earnings through dividends stifles our economy, and we are in turn becoming a less and less competitive option for global businesses to call home. Small businesses will be looking to shuffle their corporate filing statuses in order to get away from these onerous new tax brackets.

This will wreak havoc upon the economy as businesses are facing massive new costs just to open their doors, and they are stuck in limbo as both Obama and congressional Democrats choose to live in denial. As managers and payroll departments scramble to file year-end taxes, this will only add significant stress to an already strained country.

Every CEO in the country will be looking for ways to save money or else they won’t be able to operate. While the debt of our nation becomes larger than our economy, it is no wonder that some sensible business owners are looking outside of our country to operate.