Democrats Have A Taxing Problem

Copyright © 2009 Big Dog. Visit the original article at http://www.onebigdog.net/democrats-have-a-taxing-problem/.

The Democrats are always ready and willing to raise taxes or to eliminate any tax cut that has been put in place. Even though they readily admit that tax cuts help the economy (like when they say we need to hold off on increasing taxes during this economic downturn) they still fail to recognize the benefits once things are better. Democrats always want taxes increased except to the bottom wage earners. They will always cut your taxes because you pay none to begin with.

The funny thing though, is that Democrats don’t like to pay their fair share. Sure, they talk a great game. Bill Clinton once said he should pay more in taxes but he never sent more money into the Treasury to help with the debt. Anyone can do that at any time. John Kerry talked tough about paying taxes but he checked the box allowing him to pay the lower state rate in Massachusetts and his wife made 2.54 million dollars in nontaxable income. The wealthy know where to invest to avoid taxes even as they tell you to pay more.

Look at the number of problems we have had with Democrats recently. Charlie Rangel, the slick talking huckster from New York and Congressman who writes tax policies, failed to pay taxes on one of his properties and he has been gaming the system with regard to homesteading.

Tim Geithner, Obama’s new Treasury Secretary, deliberately did not pay his taxes from 2001-2004. I know they said it was a hiccup or an oversight but he received money to pay them and he signed a form saying he would so he knew about them and chose not to pay them. This is the guy who is so smart he is the only one who can guide us through these economic perils. He was not bright enough to pay his taxes nor was he bright enough to get away with it. How comfortable does anyone feel with his ability to work with money on a much larger scale?

Now it appears as if team Obama has another problem with a tax cheat. Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader and Obama’s choice to lead Health and Human Services failed to pay his taxes and has sent the IRS around 100,000 dollars for the taxes and penalties. This stems from Daschle’s use of a company car and driver which were provided free of charge. He did not report them as income. When Daschle was the Senate Majority Leader he had a car at taxpayer expense and probably figured he was entitled to this…

It appears that Obama did not have such a good vetting program after all. He handed out a questionnaire and asked people to fill it out. He is learning that the people will only provide information they want released but he should have known this all along. He has not released his birth certificate because he does not want the information made public.

Unlike the birth certificate (which, ironically, is under lock and key for the guy who claims transparency in government), the forms Obama uses will eventually be checked and the public will be aware. By then it will have caused embarrassment to the sainted one though there are indications that he knew of the problems and proceeded anyway. And the left skewered Bush for loyalty…

It is funny that the same government that could not get Al Capone for any of his illegal activities such as bootlegging liquor (like the Kennedy’s did) ended up putting him in jail for failing to pay taxes on his ill gotten gains. It is even more ironic that the very government that put him in jail for not paying taxes is now full of people who did not pay their taxes.

But this is the way it is with the do as I say and not as I do Democratic party. Taxes and all the other rules are for the peons. Obama said we can’t have our thermostats set at 72 and expect the world to take us seriously but he has his thermostat so high the Oval Office feels like a greenhouse. Obama said he would be transparent and he has been anything but. Obama promised no lobbyists but he has them and he promised ethics but it looks like some of his nominees are ethically challenged.

All politicians are hypocrites. Democrats are particularly good at it though because they practice it all the time. These people are filthy rich and they do not pay their taxes and at the same time they call for more taxes on the wealthy. Obama chastised Wall Street executives for their greed and irresponsibility and he has nominated people who meet the very definition of greed and irresponsibility to be in his administration.

Not to worry though, Obama said it was a bump in the road and he and Chuck Schumer (a mega idiot) still support Tom for the job. I guess this putz is the smartest man around who can handle health and human services.

Obama has been in office about 10 days and he already has a number of issues that deal with ethics and judgment. He fails on both counts though you won’t hear about most of it in the MSM.

But after all this I have a better understanding as to why Democrats like to increase taxes. Most of their constituency is in the group that does not earn enough to pay taxes and the rest are in the group that just fails to pay their taxes.

Either way, it is the rest of us left to pick up the slack.

I imagine Obama is up to a pack a day after all this.

To Republicans in the Senate; vote no on Daschle.

Sources:
ABC Political Punch
Bloomberg
Politico

IN TOO DEEP.

By Dylan Matthews

My friend and fellow New Hampshire-ite Garrett Nelson raises an interesting point about the Gregg gambit. Regardless of whether Obama eventually appoints him, or whether he eventually accepts, Gregg's reputation among the Republican base has been badly damaged by his statement that he's considering the post. Combine that with his support for Romney in the primaries - which hurt him within the strongly pro-McCain NH GOP - and you've got the makings of a primary challenge here. The most likely challenger would probably be Jennifer Horn (aka "New Hampshire's Sarah Palin"), but any number of obscure state senators could make a decent run at him. Though he'd win the primary, Gregg could be sufficiently bloodied up to give Rep. Paul Hodes - currently behind by only seven points - a good shot in the general.

So it may be that, even if there was little in it for Gregg in this deal originally, he's gone too far to back down. If the choice is between losing a costly election in two years, or gracefully transitioning to retirement through the cabinet, I suspect Gregg will choose the latter.

Democrats Cut Defense But Want Billions In Pork

Copyright © 2009 Big Dog. Visit the original article at http://www.onebigdog.net/democrats-cut-defense-but-want-billions-in-pork/.

The Democrats led by Barack Obama are pushing a so called stimulus package in order to help the ailing economy. The stated purpose of the package is to create jobs and get the economy moving but nearly half of the money being spent will not create jobs and it will not stimulate the economy. It amounts to nothing more than a 314 BILLION dollar payoff to constituencies.

While the Democrats are paying back their friends and supporters with money that we must borrow and that will not fix the problem, they are telling the Pentagon to cut its budget by 11%. The Pentagon is being directed to cut its budget by 55 BILLION dollars while Congress is trying to spend nearly six times that amount on social welfare and other non stimulating items. Democrats are cutting the defense budget while the country is at war and at the same time spending money to combat sexually transmitted diseases all in the name of the economy and job creation. Here is what the Democrats will spend money on while cutting defense:

• $83 billion in welfare payments (the earned income credit for people who don’t pay income tax)
• $81 billion for Medicaid
• $66 billion on “education”, more than the entire Department of Education required just ten years ago
• $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
• $20 billion for food stamps
• $8 billion on “renewable energy” projects, which have a low or negative return
• $7 billion for “modernizing federal buildings and facilities”
• $6 billion on urban transit systems, dominated by unions and which, almost universally, lose money
• $2.4 billion for “carbon-capture demonstration projects”
• $2 billion for child-care subsidies
• $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that’s run in the red for 40 years
• $650 million for “digital TV conversion coupons” (on top of billions already spent)
• $600 million on new cars for government (added to the $3 billion already spent each year)
• $400 million for “global-warming research”
• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

Notice that many of these items will not create jobs and they will certainly not stimulate the economy. These items are getting money at a time when the Pentagon is being told to cut its budget.

We have seen what happens when the Pentagon is forced to make drastic cuts. We had Carter and Clinton who wrecked the military and decreased spending. Now we have Obama who is hell bent on destroying the military and our country right along with it.

We also have word that they will be cutting new weapon systems. Carl Levin had this to say about the situation:

“We don’t want to reduce personnel; we don’t want to shortchange personnel” amid a war, he said. “So we’ve got to look to the future and make savings there. There’s the fact of life.”

Levin declined to name specific weapons that are likely to be on the chopping block. Prairie Pundit

They don’t want to cut the people, just the new equipment that the people use to win wars and stay alive. They don’t want to shortchange personnel they just want to shortchange what the personnel have to do their jobs.

I don’t know why anyone would stay in the service in this environment.

I do know that there will be losses of personnel and there will be more deaths and future attacks on our country because the slobbering idiots in the Democratic party would rather cut defense than any precious welfare program. They want to spend 83 BILLION dollars on welfare while cutting 55 BILLION from defense.

Here is an idea. Take the people on welfare and put them in the military and ship them off to war. Then take the money you save and put it in the defense budget.

Isn’t it amazing that Obama will cut the military and weaken the defense of this country in order to save money and to keep from having to cut welfare? He will also cut the new weapon systems our troops need to protect themselves.

He did not spare any expense in having that nice new Caddy built with all the gee whiz protection.

Barack Obama has also sent 20 MILLION dollars to Hamas as so called “emergency relief.” Anyone with a brain knows that the money will never make it to the people. Hamas will keep it to buy weapons and to ensure the leadership is taken care of. This dimwit we have as a president will send 20 million dollars to a terror group while cutting the defense budget.

Who would be a friend to the terrorists and an enemy to his troops?

First Carter and then Clinton.

Et tu Barack?

Source:
Doug Ross

January Statporn

Traffic in January was the highest ever, with absolute unique visitors at 82,691, 15% higher than the previous best month, which was May 2008.

Year on Year Absolute Unique Visitors +50%
1 Feb 2008-31 Jan 2009 628,210 1 Feb 2007-31 Jan 2008 418,589

Absolute Unique Visitors +36% year on year +64%
January 2009 82,691 - January 2007 50,350 - Dec 2008 70,602

Visits +39% year on year +41%
January 2009 380,148 - January 2008 270,293 - Dec 2008 - 330,849

Page Loads +33%
December 2008 550,684 - January 2008 412,768 - Dec 2008 476,397

Here are my top 20 linking sites (ie incoming hits) for January, according to Google Analytics.

1. - Guido Fawkes 41,474 (27,001)
2. - ConservativeHome 16,707 (14,357)
3. - Spectator Coffee House 15,571, (13,496)
4. - PoliticalBetting 10,442 (8,607)
5. - Dizzy Thinks 4,292 (3,231)
6. +3 Obnoxio the Clown 1,765 (1,666)
7. +3 Ben Brogan 1,688 (1,474)
8. -1 Daniel Finkelstein & Red Box 1,582 (1,995)
9. -1 Biased BBC 1,358 (1,749)
10. +2 Tom Harris 975 (1,300)
11. - Telegraph blogs 839 (1,390)
12. NEW Ambush Predator 822 (-)
13. +3 Little Man in a Toque 790 (858)
14. +1 Bob Piper 734 (864)
15. -2 Daily Referendum 706 (908)
16. +2 Archbishop Cranmer 696 (649)
17. NEW SNP Tactical Voting 674 (-)
18. NEW Boulton & Co 627 (-)
19. NEW LabourList 586 (-)
20. NEW John Redwood 523 (-)

Some popular search phrases

"would iain dale talk to a bunch of naked people"
"ed balls twat"
"iain dale celebrity big brother"
"most shaggable blogger"

Source: All figures are from Google Analytics.

Pointing in the wrong direction

Given a choice between a heatwave in southern Australia, which is reckoned to have cost the lives of 19 people, and a severe ice storm in mid-Western USA, killing at least 42 people and leaving 1.3 million without power, which story would you run?

Well, for the warmist Telegraph, that is a no-brainer. You run not one, nor two but three stories on Australia in quick succession, making sure all your readers are told that this is the "worst heatwave in more than 150 years", where the temperature has climbed to 43°C for three successive days in Melbourne, about 7°C less than a typical summer in southern Iraq.

What you don't point out is that if it was hotter 150 years ago, then this pre-dates the infamous "global warming", concern for which drives this piece. Just for balance, though, you include two lines telling us, "In the southern areas of the United States, thousands of people were still stuck without power after terrible ice storms."

In those "southern areas" things are bad. In some parts of rural Kentucky, there is no water because the power supply to the water utilities has failed. About a million people were still without electric Friday, and small communities are frantically struggling to help their residents.

Some are asking people to evacuate their homes and head south to find shelter, with tiny Crittenden County housing about 9,000 people in emergency accommodation in the town's elementary school and other public buildings.

The fight to return power to Kentucky and other areas affected by the ice storm is difficult because of the sheer number of outages, but also because of the ice itself. Crews have joined the effort from around the country but, even as conditions ease, it gets worse. As ice is melting, power lines and tree limbs are springing upward and hitting other power lines.

Currently, reports indicate that there is no immediate relief in sight. In Kentucky alone, about 545,000 people are still without electricity, and 200,000 are without mains water systems, three days after the devastating ice storm hit the state.

The wider point, of course – which has been made several times on this blog – is that, between the notional (but non-existent) warming that the greenies are twittering about, and cooling, the latter is far more dangerous. Al Gore and his mate Jim Hansen, in diverting attention to what is increasingly looking like zero possibility, may be doing more damage than can possibly be imagined, by pointing in the wrong direction.

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