Obama's Tax Return

So Barack and Princess Michele had an effective tax rate of 18% on income of 878K.  I can do math.  Excuse my rounding errors.  After charitables they had income of 605K and an effective 18% means they paid 108,900 clams to the Treasury.  Using tax tables for married filing jointly that’s the tax one would pay on 401K of income where the bracket has risen to 33%.  So where did the Obama’s get that $605,000-301,000= $304,000 of write-offs?  Maybe they have really, really expensive child care.  Maybe Barack deducts his utilities, whoops nope, Illinois has a state tax so he can’t do that option.  Maybe he had gambling losses or a bank account in Tangiers or Cyprus under a Muslim name.  I dunno.  How do you get $304K K in write-offs?

 

Whatever it was, he sure spent a lot of time huddling over the kitchen table with an adding machine compared to Joe Biden who had income of $378K and paid 20.4% effective rate on way less income.   Of course Joe only gave about 700 bucks to church or any other charity. 

Sensational review of Obama budget

The Obama Budget is an interesting read.  First of all, I have trouble with the ten-year budgets that he has instituted.  Projections of 10 years, when next year’s congress will be newly elected and will scoff at this year’s budget, don’t make much sense.  “Look, I’m 62 and have worked hard for 50 years.  So you can expect me to work hard for the next 50.”  But that aside, let’s take a look.

            $210 billion reduction over the next ten years is due to reduced interest payments on the public debt.  Presently interest is historically low, nearly zero.  And expanding government debt is sure to raise interest (Europe) or kill the economy with a perpetual recession(Japan).  Given America’s demand for growth, i.e. loose money, how much chance of lower interest do you think  there is? 

            $580 billion  in debt reduction is due to raising taxes on the rich termed “loophole closings”.  I ask you to list, say ten “loopholes”, in the current tax code.  You can’t deduct hardly anything except mortgage payments and contributions.  Maybe Obama thinks manufacturing expenses are loopholes.  At any rate it calls for limiting the amount of deductions you can take, and jacking up business taxes to 42%.  They are already the world’s highest at 25%.  Banks and financial institutions get hit with $100 billion in new taxes. And he wants capital gains rates to go up 8%. And, static model employed, businesses and rich will not likely change their behavior. (Ahem!!) Next Obama wants to cap your 401K and IRA.  The cap is higher than I’ll ever see--$3 million—but understand that you can take your pension as a lump sum and roll it over into an IRA. (you probably won’t get to $3M by saving $2250 per year) A lot of senior executives would max this out. Just remember this.  A government that considers it morally correct to tell you how much money people can save is a government that will confiscate without qualms and will never save anything themselves.

            Medicare spending gets cut $400 billion.  This somehow reminds me of the philosophy of my renters.  Just stop paying the rent or the doctor bills and say you have saved $400 billion. This ain’t hard.  I could just walk out of the grocery store and if someone claims I shoplifted, I would just say I’m saving my grocery money. Anyway, cutting MC should really comfort retirees.

            $200 billion gets cut from mandatory spending (like federal retirement benefits) and $200 billion from discretionary spending like national defense.  Once again, just refuse to pay the bill, and claim it is saving. 

            Finally Social Security gets chained CPI calculations which reduces the cost of living adjustments and “saves” $230 billion.   Are you seniors getting the idea that Barack doesn’t give a darn if you die hungry?  Well seniors vote +15% Republican you know. 

            So there you have it, the big Obama budget which likely won’t pass even among Democrats. Say, I have a novel idea.  Lets go back to the 2006 budget that was almost balanced, add 12% for inflation, and watch the return of prosperity.  (NOT entirely so simple since we have doubled the debt since then, but we had 4.3% unemployment then) 

What's the word for this?

Charrades, Sounds like peaches

Let me note a few things Obama has intended or done.

1.    Interfered with a church’s selection of ministers. Justice Dept. sued a Lutheran church who fired a teacher for teaching false doctrine bordering on paganism. Justice Dept argued that the church/school must consider all job seekers irregardless of faith and beliefs (atheists, Muslims, etc.) Supreme Court ruled in favor of the church/school based on right of assembly and free exercise clauses of First Amendment. (Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC)

2.    Deprive landowners of the right to challenge fines in court. (Sackett v. EPA)

3.    Made Military chaplains accept and perform gay marriage as part of their agreement to serve. (free exercise clause again)

4.    Demanded Catholics and others purchase insurance that covers birth control and abortifacients even though these are against the teachings of their faith.  (Did he miss the free exercise clause when he read the Constitution?)

5.    Attach GPS to a citizen’s vehicle to monitor movements even without any cause to believe that citizen has committed a crime. Was struck down by Supremes in (US v. Jones)

6.    Tried to override state law at his will. DOJ sued several states who had passed state laws to parrot federal law with respect to illegal immigration.  AZ is the most famous.  (also WI,OH,IN) Not only has Obama administration negligently enforced the federal law, they didn’t want states to do it for them. (Arizona v. US)

7.    Drone killed American citizens without bringing formal charges or had battlefield engagement.  When Rand Paul asked if the admin. could use a drone to kill a citizen sitting in a US restaurant, DOJ waffled over the answer until he forced their hand with a filibuster on the Senate floor and a very public attention to the question. (violates A4 “people to be secure in their persons” and A5 “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law”)

8.    Destroy private property with paying compensation was struck down by Supreme Court in AR Fish & Game v. US (A4  “unreasonable search and seizure” and A5 due process and just compensation clauses)

9.    Dramatically sought to extend statute of limitations to impose penalties on acts done years ago. Was struck down in Gabelli v. SEC.

10.  Appointed at least 31 unaccountable ‘czars’ to spend money and oversee various government operations.   This violates Article II Sect. 2 of Constitution “advice and consent of the Senate”.

11.  Has refused to administer defend the Laws of the Land when he refused to defend Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court.  There are many other laws that one could argue he has let lie lapse. Violates Art. II, Section 3, “faithful execution of laws” clause and Declaration of Independence “assent to laws”.

12.  Demanded banks lend to bad credit risks as an implicit payback for being bailed out. This violates Declaration of Independence “free system” clause and A9 “rights retained by the people”.

13.  Was held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in Gulf of Mexico.

14.  Abrogated bankruptcy law to defraud bondholders and hand over ownership of General Motors and Chrysler to union employees.

15.  Stopped deportation of illegal immigrants, even those who had felony convictions under US laws.

16.  Tried to tell a private company (Boeing) where they could and could not locate. (violates A9 once again)

17.   Enacted legal changes through executive orders.  Perhaps most notably established “Dream Act” to illegals which never passed Congress.

18.   Has mainstreamed the Radical Muslim movement.  In particular the DOJ has defended Sharia Law in several cases.  But US Constitution does not recognize foreign laws. Violates A XIV Sect. 3

19.   Obstructs justice and congressional inquiries with respect to Bengazi incident, Fast and Furious.

20.   Has made fun of rural folks and Christians as people who “cling to their guns and their religion”, asked people of color to “vote for revenge” AND continually seeks to create a society of dependents on federal aid and stirs them up to hatred against the rest.

Golly I can’t remember the word that describes what we do to tyrants, but it sounds like peach and the power to do it resides in Congress and is voted upon by the Senate. Can someone help me out in remembering the word?  And I have to tell it to someone in Congress because they evidently can’t remember what it is either.

DHS monitors Christians

I guess there is no escape now.  Glenn Beck/The Blaze ran the following article.

According to a Colorado undersheriff, Ron Trowbridge, alleged that the Department of Homeland Security trained police to look at Christians who take The Bible literally with intense skepticism.

Trowbridge wrote:

On April 1, 2013 I attended training in La Junta, Colorado hosted by the Colorado State Patrol (CSP). The training was from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm and covered two topics, Sovereign Citizens, and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. I was pretty familiar with motorcycle gangs but since we often deal with the so-called sovereign citizen groups I was interested to see what they had to say. The group consisted of police officers, deputies, and CSP troopers. There were about 20 people in attendance.
Trooper Joe Kluczynski taught a 2-hour section on sovereign citizens. Kluczynski spent most of his two hours focusing on how, in his view and apparently the view of Homeland Security, people turn to the sovereign citizen movement. Kluczynski started off by saying there are probably some sovereign citizens in this room and gave a generalized list of those groups that have sovereign citizen views. Among those groups, Kluczynski had listed, were those who believe America was founded on godly principles, Christians who take the Bible literally, and “fundamentalists”. Kluczynski did not explain what he meant by “fundamentalists” but from the context it was clear he was referring again to those who took the Bible literally or “too seriously.”

The sovereign citizen movement is comprised of individuals who believe they don’t answer to federal, state, and local laws. “It is a loosely affiliated group that rejects many elements of governance, including, but not limited to, taxation,” TheBlaze explains.

Well, I have news for DHS.  The people who take the Bible seriously obviously includes what are known as orthodox Christians.  These are the Christians who believe in 9 points about basic Christianity which include such things as Salvation by Grace, human/divine nature of Christ, and literal accuracy of Scripture.  This is what Barna calls ‘evangelical Christians’ and they comprise 8% of the population.  These basic teachings are the basic beliefs of just about every denomination in America.  A few like Jehovah Witness, Mormons, and Unitarians may take issue with one or several of the basic beliefs and are thus called unorthodox.  But since spiritual accuracy of Scripture is only one of the nine, it stands to reason that many more than the 8% fit the government’s estimate (and includes just about every pastor of orthodox Christianity).  In fact, Barna notes that 43% of the population believes in Grace and has had a personal experience of believing in that Grace for themselves.  These, he calls ‘born agains’.  That’s a lot of people for Homeland Security to monitor! (Well indeed, they are also watching those who merely believe that USA was founded on godly principles.)

 

I could perhaps joke that my own denomination is entirely full of people who believe in literal scripture, but we argue about what it means all the timeJ Indeed, I have met those who argue strongly for literal scripture but seem to believe that we get to heaven on merit. Given that our numbers are at least 8% and likely more like 40%, perhaps we should carefully monitor the Dept. of Homeland Security.

 

Are we getting close to the days of Bonhoeffer and Niemuller?

Untold story of Sodom

Okay, so the Hollywood guys decide to alter Biblical stories and it is okie dokie with the public.  So I thought I would tell the untold between-the-lines script of Sodom.  Instead of all the fighting we saw in 'The Bible' by History Channel, here’s how I envision the event unfolding.

“And the Lord appeared to him [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.  He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold three men were standing in front of him.” Gen. 18:1,2.  “Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom…The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.  When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth…They said, ‘No, we will spend the night in the town square.’ But he [Lot] pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house.  But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man surrounded the house.  And they called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.  Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him and said, ‘I  beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.’” Gen. 18:16, 19:1,3-7

            But the men of Sodom would not take no for an answer, ‘It is our mandate to educate the children in the practice of gay love, so that they may be gay and proud and not discriminated against.  So Lot said unto them, ‘But we hold by religious faith that our God has ordained marriage as one man and one woman, not two men, not two women, not a man, two women and a dog, or any other such thing. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man put asunder.’  Then the men of Sodom lifted up their voice and declared, ‘We too recognize marriage, but only love and commitment defines it.  And our commitment is just as good as any.’  ‘Nay,‘ said Lot. ‘For it is self-evident that both God and Nature teach us that it takes a man and woman to reproduce.  And even though love is desirable, the species and family can occur even in arranged marriages.’  The men of Sodom had a rejoinder, ‘We recognize arranged marriages too and that is what we are here to do—arrange a temporary marriage—as our Muslim brothers call it—a gay marriage with these strangers.’  ‘But sputtered Lot, ‘You can’t argue that only love and a tryst define marriage! For to do so neglects thousands of years of tradition, Nature, and God. Not only would that be an invalid marriage, your wrongheadedness would nullify the ability of men to form their own governments.  For the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them they may then assume among the powers of the earth, and to derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Or at least I hope someone has the courage to say it that way some day.’   

            “And they said, ‘This fellow came to sojourn and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.’  Then they pressed hard against the man Lot and drew near to break the door down…And they [the angels] struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.” Gen. 19:9-11.  And the rest is history, as they say.

Is Cyprus the beginning?

Cyprus is broke.  Its government debt to GDP ratio is 145%--much like Greece and worse than Portugal @ 120% or Italy, 115% or USA, 110%.  The European Central Bank vowed last year to save the Euro but with member countries like Cyprus, et. al. how can it continue?  European finance ministers offered to bail out the Cypriots with 10 billion Euros but 17 billion are needed.  Everyone is arguing who ordered who to do what but the idea was floated that the Cyprus government would assess a 10% tax by fiat on all bank accounts.  That led to riots in the street and the members of parliament all passed the buck and said, no, we won’t do any such thing.  Then as the weekend started with banks closed for 10 days, they did a very similar thing, an ingeniously loopy thing, by assessing a whopping 40% charge against all accounts over 100,000 Euros. 

            In USA we’d call this unreasonable seizure, a violation of the Amendment IV.  But TV political idiots chortled that this only hurt the Russian mafia who created Cyprussia by parking big bucks in the banks there. 

            But what happens now?  Among the proposed daydreams of the political class is a Russian Bailout.  Something that would give Russia claim to most of the enormous natural gas field that has been found in Cypriot waters in exchange for a bailout.  But then the thought of having a puppet government and banking system run by Putin where German taxpayer money goes towards making the Russian mob whole isn’t very appealing.  Unlikely to happen.  Hereinafter, no sane individual keeps his money in a Cyprus bank.  No deposits, no banking or at least only a miniscule banking industry.  No banking, no business loans.  With little banking available, how do mortgages get paid, salaries get paid, or anything else commerce-wise?  Clearly in such an economy cash is king.  Bartering begins.  The economy tanks and the government collapses.  Eventually, a succeeding gov’t will have to prop things up by some technique and the likely outcome always points to inflation, which allows a Mt. Debt to look smaller with each passing year until it is under control.  

            But there is more.  Greece’s banking system is heavily interfingered with Cyprus and will likely collapse if Cyprus does.  The ECB and IMF suggested that individual’s accounts be zapped and they are likely to suggest this to other PIIGS countries.  Already there seems to be a solution trial balloon floated that essentially all private stocklholders and junior debt holders of banks be given a haircut (or beheading).  Now it may seem grossly unfair that old grandpa who keeps his life savings in an account, or some investor who bought bank stock should lose most of what they have, in order to bail out the government who created the debt.  True. But this is how government power works.

            What Europeans hope is that the Euro nations’ troubles won’t make the investors of the world very skittish about lending money to Europe.  If that happens, they will have to borrow at a premium of interest and likely make their economies into sinkholes for years to come.

            So what should an American think?  First, the people who are scoffing at concerns over our debt are Fools.   We must get deficit spending  under control, along with entitlement reform.  If you are pessimistic about this happening, then bury some cash, because if the debt disease spreads to USA, there is no big ECB or IMF to bail us out.  We are the IMF and we are too big to bail. Finally, if the credit crisis expands, there will be countries defaulting, that will bring high borrowing costs and stagnant economies, and opportunistic dictators will arise to blame someone else.  Like Hitler blamed the WWI allies.

            I just pray that Obama can watch what is happening to others and learn a lesson before it is too late. You are digging your hole in the backyard, aren’t you.

Odd topics

You know I heard that Michelle said, "Barack, are you coming down with something?  You sure look like the devil." 

If USA ever seized 10% of our bank accounts, wouldn't that be Unreasonable Seizure by the 4th Amendment?  I do however, agree with the Cyprus government officials when they say it is a one-time levy.  Nobody will ever put their money in a bank again.  A better place is under the matress.  There won't be a second time. If you really want to kill the banking industry, just pass a levy on bank accounts.

I listened to Sarah Palin at CPAC.  There is no other pol who happily and steadfastly pronounces conservatism like she does in simple terms anyone can understand.  All the others sound alarmist--as we conservatives are prone to be under Obummer.  But if conservatives are to win again, this is just what they need, a happy warrior like Reagan, not the least bit defensive about belief in conservatism and able to distill big solutions into ordinary terms.  For a century and a half, the R's have stood for a mainstream party of the normal and centrist beliefs of America.  D's were the coalition party of group (fasci)  politics.  If Romney had been simple in his explanations like Lincoln, like TR, like Reagan, like Thatcher, he would have won with 55%.  Sorry, that's the way politics is.

Someone conducted a poll of what concerns us when we pay our taxes.  49% were concerned with how flagrantly the government spends our money.  38% are angered about what other people pay.  8% are frustrated with all the forms and rules. Ha! Those groups are respectively: conservatives, liberals, and businessmen.  Count me in the last group.  As most any guy in business will tell you, keeping your nose clean, doing things honorably so that customers trust you, is about the most important intangible asset of a business.  When you didn't make any money but your tax returns are still a quarter inch thick, when the government sets down byzantine rules and maze-like forms that are enough to make a criminal out of anyone because no one knows what's truly correct, that is the epitomy of evil.  When I hear some gassy Senator yak on about how they are going to add some provision to the code that makes everyone test their books to see if they qualify for some tax break, to disallow certain things for the rich, who never speaks of repeal of all the regulations they make us comply with, I squint my eyes and think, "You are a person who teaches honest and well-meaning men to stumble in confusion.  You sure look like the devil."