Tag: private property ownership

Obama’s 2013 Budget – More “Obammunism”!

G’Day!

Tax and Spend! Spend and Tax! Spend, Spend, Spend! These are the only fiscal policies the President appears to support. They were also reflected in his populist State of the Union oration in January. President Obama’s socialist concept for our country is painfully transparent. Higher taxes, excessive federal spending, unsustainable entitlements, reductions in National Defense, and another fiscal deficit of approximately $1 trillion for 2013 are all included in his push for more and bigger central government. Obama appears to believe in “Trickle-down Government”, where a parasitic government extracts wealth created by the productive private sector, adds an administrative processing fee, and returns the residual to government selected individuals and businesses in the hope for “stimulated” economic growth. Does this concept make any sense?

The Democrat-controlled Senate has not passed a budget in over three years. In every year of the Obama Administration federal deficits have exceeded $1 trillion (in 8 years of President Bush the maximum federal deficit was $0.5 trillion). Obama claims that his new budget “saves” approximately $4 trillion over the next ten years. It actually increases the cumulative deficit and debt over this ten-year period by approximately $6 trillion. Other than National Defense, his proposed budget makes no serious attempt to reduce government discretionary spending or entitlements. It appears that the President’s rhetoric is to create class warfare intended to improve his chances for reelection and not for the future benefit of our nation. How far behind Greece are we?

In my opinion, this budget and the State of the Union speech are more of what I call “Obammunism” and is bad for our country. “Obammunism” is essentially turning America into a centrally planned, European-style, bureaucratic, welfare state. This concept is based on a socialist doctrine of forced economic equality determined by an arbitrary bureaucratic definition of “Fairness” or “Fair Share”. Obama apparently wants to establish a socialist nanny state by transferring wealth from the successful businesses and individuals above a government-determined wealth “Threshold” to those below this level. “Obammunism” penalizes hard work and achievement and rewards idleness and failure. Simultaneously, it is stifling economic growth, promoting class warfare, lowering the potential standard of living for all citizens (especially the middle class), and continuing our nation’s decline under a mountain of debt. Obama’s policies continue to undermine our Constitution, our heritage, our culture, and our fundamental principles of individual freedom, free markets, sound fiscal and monetary policy, economic growth, and limited government.

Consider this, who determines “Fair Share”? Under Capitalism, “Fair Share” is objectively determined by the choices of the people in a free market. Under “Obammunism”, bureaucrats subjectively and arbitrarily determine “Fair Share” and impose it on the people. What is to protect you from the “Bureaucratic Elite” changing the wealth “Threshold” from $1 million, to $250,000, to $100,000, to $75,000 or lower? If you support Obama’s policies, nothing can prevent the “Government” from arbitrarily changing “Fair Share” to adversely penalize more and more successful people. If you work hard and succeed in improving yourself and your family, what is to prevent the government from penalizing you for becoming “Rich”?

A society built on “Obammunism” has few incentives for anyone to create value (except bureaucrats, who subjectively divide the wealth, frequently among themselves). If value is created, it is likely to be taken away and redistributed to others. Taking from those who earn and redistributing to those who do not does not create wealth and prosperity. Margaret Thatcher said it best, “The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money!”

The Communists put it this way, “from each according to their abilities, to each according to their need”. This did not work well for the people in the former Soviet Union. Communism’s precursor, socialism, is currently eroding the freedom, growth, and prosperity of the European Union. The path from democracy based on personal freedoms and private property rights to authoritarian wealth-sharing socialism based on central planning and control is not necessarily a long one (see “The Road to Serfdom” by Nobel Prize winner, Friedrich A. Hayek). If it is allowed to continue in America, it will further damage and perhaps destroy both the culture of constitutionally protected personal liberty and opportunity that we have enjoyed for over 200 years. Socialist societies penalize success and reduce economic growth and living standards. Capitalist societies reward success and increase economic growth and living standards. Which future do you want for yourself, your children, and our country?

The growth of Western Civilization and especially the United States was fuelled by the expansion of individual liberties, property rights, and a free market capitalist society. Our nation was established on the fundamental principle that government is the servant of the people, not that the people are the servants of the government. It’s time to take back our country and return to the individual liberties, free markets, economic growth, and limited government we have long enjoyed.

The Old Guy PhD

Is “The American Dream” Dying?

G’Day!

Yes, the traditional “American Dream” is probably dying if the divisive socialist and antibusiness policies of President Obama, the Democrats, and the Unions continue to be supported by our government. Already much damage is being done by the passage of Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank Financial Regulations Act (including the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and the Durbin Amendment), the EPA, the NLRB, and now full force “Class Warfare” by the President to divide the country in an apparent attempt to be reelected. Martin Luther King Jr’s memorial opens this week and his famous “I have a Dream!” speech was about national unity and equality of opportunity not class divisions and wealth redistribution. If we want to preserve our freedoms, our opportunities, and our exceptionalism as a nation, these destructive attacks on our economy, attempts to divide the American people, and collectivist “nanny-state” policies must be stopped and reversed. We must protect and preserve “The American Dream” for future generations and ourselves.

Our traditional view of “The American Dream” is based on the principles our Founding Fathers and Patriots risked and gave their lives to secure for our country and our future. These values were documented in The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights. Primarily these values are: guaranteed individual freedoms (especially from government), equal opportunities for all Americans, decentralized governance BY THE PEOPLE, free market capitalism based on private property ownership, and a specifically limited-power federal government. These fundamental principles have provided all Americans the opportunity to choose our careers, succeed (or fail) based on our own decisions, and retain the fruits of our labor reasonably free from oppressive regulations, unnecessary controls, and excessive taxation. These freedoms and privileges essentially stood for over a century from our nation’s founding until the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913 authorizing direct federal taxation. Since the authorization of direct federal taxation these basic rights have been inexorably eroded as the size, scope, controls, and restrictions by government over our lives and our economic opportunities has expanded. It is time to get government off our backs and return to our traditional vision of success embodied in “The American Dream”.

The socialist and antibusiness agenda supported by President Obama and his allies is accelerating the destruction of this dream. Obama’s alternative is a collectivist society of mandated wealth sharing, unsustainable federal spending, high taxation, limited individual and business freedoms, and highly centralized governance. Obama appears to want a federal government with virtually unlimited power to regulate, control and dictate our lives, our property, and our businesses, including the transfer of wealth from those who have created jobs and earned it to those who have not. Just look at the current “Occupy Wall Street” mobs that have picked up Obama’s message and essentially want to destroy the capitalism that made our country great. Socialism doesn’t work as the former Soviet Union and most European countries, especially Greece, have learned. As Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money”. Is this the vision of America’s future that you support?

So how has the growth of “progressive” or socialist policies influenced “The American Dream” over the last century? Federal income taxes have “progressed” from a maximum rate of 7% in 1913 to a current rate of 35%. Obama and the Democrats are proposing to raise this rate to 40%. (Note: this rate does NOT include the approximate 15% in federal “payroll taxes” additionally paid by employees and employers or State and Local taxes.) Federal government spending has “progressed” from 3% of our national economy in 1913, to a current level of 25% under President Obama (an increase in the size of government by 5% in just two and one-half years by Obama). The number of federal government agencies, bureaus, departments, and employees has exploded since 1913 under both Republicans and Democrats. This was especially true under President Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, President Johnson’s “Great Society”, President Bush’s “Prescription Drug” legislation, and now President Obama’s “Healthcare” and “Financial Regulations”.

The Obama Administration alone has more than doubled the ANNUAL Federal Deficit, increased the National Debt by approximately 40%, increased the cost, uncertainty, and complexity of healthcare, and passed sweeping and largely unnecessary regulation over our essential financial industry. Obama’s healthcare plan alone creates an estimated 159 new agencies and the Dodd-Frank Act requires an estimated 387 new regulations across 20 agencies. The EPA under Lisa Jackson wants to implement and administer new business and job killing environmental regulations that are projected to cost tens of thousands of jobs and increase our energy costs. Essential domestic fossil fuel exploration and development in America has been virtually shut down. (Note: Opening our domestic energy resources could create hundreds of thousands of good American jobs and improve national energy security.) Among other pro-union activities, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is attempting to stop final implementation of Boeing’s new “Dreamliner” factory in South Carolina. The Department of Justice (DOJ) under Eric Holder is disrupting our legal system, suing States for trying to enforce immigration laws, and interfering with mergers that would improve the competitiveness of American Business. Obama’s failed economic policies have stifled business and job creation, stagnated our economy, and significantly expanded the size and spending of our government. These policies are radically advancing an unsustainable European-style centrally planned socialist welfare state for our country and eroding our individual and economic freedoms. Are these “progressive” social policies enhancing our lives or your vision of “The American Dream”?

If we don’t stop this madness and get the government off our backs and our businesses, “The American Dream” of opportunity and success will continue to die and may be destroyed. A nation cannot be successful by confiscating wealth from those who create it and redistributing it to those who do not. Leftwing collectivist policies do not work. These are not the foundation of freedoms and opportunities upon which our country was created and which made America great. It’s time to take back our country and restore “The American Dream”. Let’s get to work!

The Old Guy PhD