"Fiscal Responsibility"

I’m inspired! In honor of President Obama’s new budget proposal, I think that we should all go out and practice his personal brand of “fiscal responsibility”.

Step number one is to go to the bank and find out what is the biggest loan that you can get. Take a second or third on your house if they will let you, throw in the cars, the dog, maybe even the kids as collateral and see how much you can get it up to. If they have the nerve to ask what the loan is for, just tell them that you are in a personal financial crisis and you are convinced that the best way to recover is to spend your way out of it.

Let me know how that works out.

I’m not sure what Keynesian planet our President and his advisors reside on, but I’m afraid they are about to coming crashing back down to earth, bringing the global economy down with them.

His current budget proposal reflects a $1.7 TRILLION deficit. Can you even conceive of how much money that is? Think of it this way, the population of the U.S. is about 300 million people. A $1.7 TRILLION deficit means that we have to take out a LOAN of over $5600 for every man, woman, and child in this country. Our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is on a world tour right now, which included talks with the Chinese where she had to beg them to purchase more American debt. I am sure that the Chinese will comply and purchase more debt, but as they do they will want more return, especially as our credit rating starts to dip. That’s what happens when you have a ton of debt, out of control spending obligations, and sinking revenues; your credit rating falls. As it does you become higher risk and the lenders demander higher interest to purchase the debt. What you will soon see, and we are getting a glimpse, is a sharp uptick in inflation as the global economy has been flooded with the US dollar. Along with that we will see rising interest rates, as our lenders demand more return on their ‘risky’ investment. Rising inflation and rising interest rates. Sound familiar to anyone?

Throw into the mix a TRILLION dollar tax increase on businesses and individuals.

Let’s address the issue of “fairness” for a second (one of our President’s favorite words when he talks about tax increases). The upper 1% of income earners in this country bring in about 22% of all of the personal income. That’s a big chunk. They currently pay 40% of the total personal income tax that the federal government collects. 22% vs. 40%. Are we still talking about “fairness”?

Now lets talk about potential. President Obama proposes raising income tax on people making over $250K/year. That’s a good chunk of change and just to add a disclaimer, does not include myself. Who are these people? For the most part they are business owners. Small business owners to be more precise. They are individuals with the means and desire to create jobs for other people. When you raise their taxes, it decreases their potential to hire new employees, in fact it may even cause them to have to get rid of current employees. It is clearly and ANTI-stimulus to our economy. Is that what we need?

Businesses. Well, if you look at the tax increases on businesses, a good portion of them fall on oil companies. That’s an easy target, they are everyone’s favorite villain right? Do you like paying more at the pump? Oil companies are like all companies. They don’t pay taxes, their customers do. When you see increases on taxes for oil companies you need to understand that YOU are the one who is going to pay that tax. You will pay it on every single item you purchase, as well as when you fill up your car. Things don’t appear in stores magically, they are driven there in trucks and trucks use… gas!

So, when you hear our president get up at the State of the Union and say that if you make less than $250K a year you will not pay one dime more in taxes, he is doing two things. Number one he is lying to you. YOU are going to pay the taxes, because YOU are the consumer. Number two he is fueling the fire of petty class warfare. Not for your benefit, but for his personal purposes to try and enact his personal agenda. This is a tactic that he adopted and was taught to do as a community organizer. It is dishonest and it is divisive and takes into account the desires of the few to the detriment and demise of the whole.

Finally the biggest losers in all of this are the poor. “But wait, “ you say, “I thought we were doing more to help poor people?” Unfortunately that is not the case. Charitable donations have already decreased with the sinking economy. Add to that President Obama’s plan to rescind tax benefits for wealthy individuals making charitable donations, along with repealing certain provisions for itemization and you have people seeing less benefit in giving to charity. Instead of rewarding good and generous behavior, the President’s plan will punish hard work and discourage charitable giving. In the end the poor will suffer.

When you hear the President mention “fiscal responsibility” you need to look beyond the words and pay attention to the actions. If this course continues you will see rising inflation, rising unemployment, rising interest rates, rising gas prices, and increased poverty. These are not the hallmarks of “fiscal responsibility” but rather the effects of reckless fiscal mismanagement.