Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

February, 2024, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Biden's Failed Immigration and Economic Policies Continue to Degrade American Life

 Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of operating any level of government in this country. 


Even their best efforts are almost always inefficient and ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.


1)We have often discussed the reality that a major American city or possibly an entire state will relatively shortly be forced to declare bankruptcy. These city and state governments have continually raised taxes on city and state businesses and residents which has now driven many of those businesses and residents to flee to greener and less tax burdensome regions. 


This has reduced the tax revenue stream to the city and state government they have left. This has resulted in those governments reducing essential services like police, fire, and EMT which has driven more people out which has further reduced the tax base.


San Francisco has been a prime example of this decreasing tax stream situation:


  • Increasing crime, taxes, and the problems of a growing homeless and drug addicted population has resulted in businesses and residents leaving the city.

  • This has caused many businesses to shutter their stores in order to protect their customers’ and employees' safety and also account for decreased profitability from a declining population and rising crime.

  • Stores that have closed in the city include A&T, Nordstrom, Office Depot, Old Navy, and others.

  • And the problem is not just in San Francisco since its sister city across the bay,  Oakland, is also facing the same problems.

  • And In-N-Out Burger Oakland location was recently closed by the business for the same reasons.

  • Specifically, chief operating officer, Dennny Warwick, said: “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our Customers and Associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies.”

  • Oakland police stats show that robberies in the city are up 38% and burglaries are up 23%.


A very basic premise and duty of any government entity is to protect the lives and property of the citizens it serves. That objective continues to elude the politicians in San Francisco and Oakland as stores are closed simply because the local and state political class cannot guarantee the safety of their employees and customers.


2)Biden keeps bragging about how his economic policies are a great success despite the fact that inflation is decimating household budgets, mortgages are still too high, gas prices are about 50% higher than when he took  office, food prices are up an average of about 20%, etc. 


Now, the one area he can claim some success is that unemployment has stayed relatively low since he took office. However, that number is also a little shaky since the jobs being created are not as lucrative and financially robust as the ones that are being lost. Keep in mind that many tech companies including Facebook, Amazon, Spotify, Citi Bank, and others have already or plan to cut tens of thousands of high paying tech jobs.


In the meantime, Biden’s economic policies are creating a lot of lower paying jobs in the healthcare and service industries. These jobs are real jobs but they are likely paying far less than what the tech engineers were making before they got laid off.


And now another higher than average paying company has announced that it is laying off thousands of workers. United Parcel Service (UPS) recently announced that it is reducing its workforce by a whopping 12,000 positions. 


So yes, the unemployment rate is still low under Biden, But even here his economic policies are a failure since the jobs that are being created are far less lucrative than the jobs his policies are creating.


3)One further quick look at Biden’s supposedly low unemployment figures. While the ;latest job  report said that over 300,000 jobs s=were created last month, there is bad news under this top number:


  • While more jobs were created, the total number of  hours worked by the American  workforce actually went down, which is difficult to do: more people working at jobs but the total number of hours worked is decreasing.

  • The workforce participation rate continues to decrease which means that those actively working or looking for work is going down.


These two realities of the latest job statistics indicate that: fewer people are working or looking for work, more people are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, and the hours being worked are decreasing. Combine that with the continuing loss of thousands of high paying, high tech jobs and we see an economy that is very fragile and challenging for regular Americans.


4)Politicians like New York City mayor, Eric Adams, have sanctimoniously boasted for years about how compassionate they were and that NYC was a so-called “sanctuary city.” This means that illegal immigrants that broke national laws to  illegally enter the country could find a safe haven in NYC.


And they congratulate themselves for years about how compassionate and caring they were being. And then the roof collapsed with Biden’s failed immigration policies allowing over 150,000 illegal immigrants to come to NYC on the promise of sanctuary. As a result, NYC and New York state taxpayers are shelling out billions of taxpayer dollars to feed, house, and give medical treatment to these thousands of illegal immigrants.


This diversion of funds to serve the illegal immigrant population has resulted in real New Yorkers seeing their government benefits being pared back and less of their taxpayer wealth being spent on them for police, fire, EMT, and educational services. And to add insult to injury, consider the latest Adams' program to serve illegal immigrants:


  • The city is about to spend $53 million to hand out in the form of credit cards to illegal immigrant families.

  • The program is supposed to serve 500 illegal immigrant families.

  • This is in addition to these families getting free shelter, on the city taxpayers back, at the Roosevelt Hotel.

  • Adams’ administration claims that this program will save the city $7.2 million a year in feeding these illegal immigrant families while at the same time making life more comfortable and familiar to those that have broken our immigration laws.

  • The families will have to sign an agreement that they will only use the credit cards for food and baby supplies (good luck enforcing that piece of paper.)


I cannot imagine the fraud and abuse of this program by a city government that is already overwhelmed with illegal immigration problems.  Plus, do some simple math: on average an illegal immigrant family will get about $10,600 a year if the $53 million is spread out over 500 families. Homeless American citizens living on the streets of NYC will not get any support in this program. Low income NYC residents will not get $10,600 a year to help feed their families. Thus, as often happens with American politicians, the needs  of American citizens take a backseat to the needs of those that have broken our immigration laws.


One more math  calculation: if it is true that over 150,000 illegal immigrants are being cared for by the NYC  government using NYC taxpayer wealth, and if it costs $53 million to service 500 families, then it would cost about $20,000,000,000 to rollout this program to every illegal immigrant family in the city (assuming for illustrative purposes that an  illegal immigrant family has an average family size of four members). This is $20 billion a year just to feed this throng, it does not include the housing, medical, and other costs to service these folks. 


$20 billion a year, just a fraction of the cost of bragging about being a sanctuary city. In the meantime, city residents that are homeless, hungry, and in need of other services see their needs go unattended to. Horrible priorities.


5)Obviously, Biden’s failed immigration policies and enforcement have resulted in incredible hardships for American citizens and taxpayers. Taxpayers are currently shelling out untold billions of taxpayer dollars a year on the care of the 6 million illegal immigrants Biden has let into the country. This is 6 million people that are unvetted, unvaccinated, and with unknown intentions. 


Besides wasting taxpayer money, known criminal elements have entered the country. This has resulted in a booming fentanyl crisis that kills Americans every day and other crimes such as murder, assault,  and rape that have been the result of unsavory and unchecked illegal immigrants preying on American citizens.


And finally, besides, waiting of taxpayer dollars and criminal activity against Ameericans, consider the following degradation of the quality of life that one U.S. city is dealing with as it relates to illegal immigrants:


  • As a result of the influx of illegal immigrants into the Minneapolis/St. Paul.  Minnesota metro area, its metro transit system has had to post warning signs on its trains and buses to tell people not to defecate or urinate on the floors of its trains and buses.

  • That’s right, things have gotten so bad, so dangerous, so pathetic that signs against public defecation and urination actually had to be posted.

  • These signs are called “Rules For Riding” that try to educate illegal immigrants that certain types of behavior should not be done in this country regardless of previous experiences in other countries.

  • These Rules For Riding include: Don’t poop on the floor, Don’t pee on the floor, Don’t spit on people, Don’t start fights, Don’t smoke, Don’t smoke crack and Don’t have  sexual contact with other riders unless consent is given.

  • Given that the signs are in English and many illegal immigrants do  not speak the language, it is probably a good probability that these rules will continue to be ignored.


This is Biden’s America today: without a process to control and vet those wanting to immigrate to this country, we end up with a declining quality of life for those that obey the laws, an ever increasing tax burden on those that pay the taxes for these illegal immigrants’ needs, suffer increased crime and drug addiction rates, and have to  put up with  public defecation and urination. Another tale where Americans’ needs are secondary to politicians careers and idiocy.


That will do it for today's political class insanity: politicians caring more for illegal immigrants than Americans and Biden’s bogus employment and economic numbers, 


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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



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Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

The Horrors And Destruction That Donald Trump Has Imposed On America...Just Kidding! Part 20: More Good Economic News, Cracking Down on Human Trafficking, and More

Before we start today’s discussion, let’s review my voting history: 
  • I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life. 
  • Thus, I did not vote for Trump. 
  • I have rarely voted for a Republican for national office in my life. 
About 2 years ago, many liberals, Democrats, and millennials were besides themselves with grief and fear because their pre-ordained queen, Hillary Clinton, was not elected President. Instead, Donald Trump was elected, an individual that these same people despised, hated, and feared, an individual they felt would endanger and possibly destroy the country and our democracy. For the past year and a half they fretted, worried and lashed out at anything or anyone that even remotely smelled of Donald Trump.

Given that Trump has been in office for almost two years, I thought, that as someone who did not vote for him, it would be a good idea to review the horror, trauma, and terrible things that Trump has subjected the country to in just 24 month’s time. This is obviously a very sarcastic comment when you take an unbiased look at what has happened during the Trump Presidency. 

The many previous posts we did on this topic identified over 200 good things that have happened to America and Americans since Trump became President can found by entering the phrase “the horrors and destruction” in the search box above.

It has been over a month since we updated this series so let’s catch up with the latest Trump administration accomplishments:

1- In a recent Gallup, 58% of those polled thought that the U.S. is rated “very” or “somewhat favorably” by the rest of the world, a 3% increase from last year and is now at the highest level since 2003.

2-The Trump administration is launching a global effort to end the criminalization of homosexuality, a dire situation that still exists in dozens of countries around the world, concentrated mostly in the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean, with U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest-profile openly gay person in the Trump administration, leading the effort.

3- In another recent Gallup poll, Trump’s approval rating in that poll has risen to 44%, the third highest level for his administration.

4- In a recent Rasmussen poll among likely voters, Trump’s approval rating has risen to 50%, higher than Obama’s approval rating at the same time in his Presidency.

5- According to a CBSNews poll, 76% of those Americans who watched Trump’s state of the union speech approved of his performance while only 24% disapproved of it, a three to one margin of difference.

6- The stock market, as measured by the Dow, is up a whopping 32% or so since Trump came into office.

7- The employment situation continues to improve month over month as almost 300,000 (296,000) new jobs were created in the month of January, 2019.

8-  Foxcomm, one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world, agreed to proceed with it's plans to build a manufacturing and research facility in Wisconsin that will make liquid crystal display screens that can be used in small electronic products.

9- Trump recently signed four pieces of legislation that will actively attack the huge problem of human trafficking including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the Abolish Human Trafficking Act, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act, and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

For those of you that have hated on Trump since day one, and given your obvious gross error in judgment relative to Trump given the over 200 accomplishments we have previously listed and the newest nine accomplishments listed above, let me ask that you to do us all a favor by implementing the following changes in your behavior and attitude:
  • Chill out, tamp down your TDS affliction. No matter how much you hate Trump on a sexist, personal basis, get over it. He is the legally and duly elected President, he will be around for a while so refocus your hatred on more constructive issues and matters. You will live a lot longer if you take your hatred out of your heart and soul and devote it to something positive.
  • I would really appreciate it if some of you would apologize to the Trump voters you have disrespected in some of the grossest terms possible over the past year. You have called millions of voters racists, ignorant, stupid, Nazis, KKK members, and other horrible names simply because you disagreed with their voting choice. No American should be called such disgusting names simply because they exercised their Constitutional rights to the best of their abilities. Plus, slandering over 60 million Americans is no way to unite the country and get it focused on the real issues facing us all.
  • More personally, I would like, no I am demanding, an apology from some of you for your slanderous and disgusting name calling because in doing so, you insulted and disrespected my sister, my family members, my friends, and my co-workers who simply voted their conscience. I will defend their right to vote anyway they wanted and will no put up with your childish and vicious venom and bile directed at them, very important people in my life.
  • And finally, I challenge you to read the following blog post, a post that shows quite clearly that it was hateful people like some of you and your silence during the Obama years that actually caused Trump to be elected. Thus, the people you hate for voting for Trump are actually looking back at you in the mirror:
https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-american-liberals-and-washington.html

If you were silent in the dozens of instances listed in this post then you were responsible for the very thing you hate: a Trump Presidency. Or put another way, a so far successful and productive Trump Presidency. Over 200 accomplishments in about two years is not too shabby despite many of you wanting both Trump and the country to fail.


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:


www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org

http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w




Sunday, September 14, 2014

September, 2014 By The Numbers, Part 2: Debt Out of Control. The Red Ink Postal System, Sinking Presidential Approval and More

On a semi-regular basis we do a series under the theme, “By the numbers.” In this series we look at the latest statistics, trends, and facts that are going on in this country, usually focusing on how the American political class, via their ineptness at doing anything right, is constantly screwing up our lives, our economy, and our democracy, based strictly on the reality of the numbers at that time.

I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: "There is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the correct number.” Politicians do not like to deal with numbers, it messes up their political message and spin as they try to create a different, false reality in our minds. However, the numbers are the numbers and the reality of our lives, numbers devastate opinions.

A famous NFL football coach once said you are only as good as your record. You might think you have a great, talented team with excellent coaching but if you have a losing record, than the reality is that you do not have either a talented team of excellent coaching, the numbers, unlike politicians, do not lie.

More importantly, you cannot expect to resolve an issue or make life better and easier for Americans if you do not have the right, correct numbers to tell us where we are within the reality of those issues. For example, claiming the economy is doing great, even though almost twenty million Americans are still looking for good employment, does not allow you to focus on that twenty million number. 

The false claim forces you to waste time and resources trying to create the false impression that the economy is doing well. It diverts attention and problem resolving resources and attention to the lie and not reality.

So let’s take a second day and go “by the numbers” to see where America’s reality truly is today.

1) The website, Investors Business Daily, recently compared the economic numbers from Texas with the national economic numbers that have occurred under the Obama administration. The findings were quite interesting:
  • Since the last recession started in December, 2007, the Texas state economy has added 1.1 million jobs to its state workforce.
  • Nationally, Washington’s economic policies has resulted in the rest of the country’s workforce having 350,000 fewer people than its pre-recession level.
  • The Texas economic model consists of low taxes and a stable regulatory environment.
  • The Washington economic model, if you can call it that, has raised taxes and substantially increased the regulations of this country across the board.
  • In just the past year, Texas has added almost 400,000 jobs to its workforce numbers, a 3.5% rate that is almost twice the national average.
  • The Texas state unemployment rate has been lower than the national average for 91 straight months and is currently 5.1%, a full percentage point below the national unemployment rate.
  • Since 2011, Texas, a state with about 8% of country's population, has added 14% of all U.S. jobs. 
  • The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found that: "the data show Texas has experienced far greater growth of 'good'-paying jobs than the rest of the nation since 2000."
  • Texas has added jobs in all wage quartiles over this period. unlike other states. with the top two quartiles accounting for 55% of net new jobs. Texas is adding quality jobs.
Texas has found he right economic policies to generate outstanding economic numbers. Washington has not.

2) The website, Fix The Debt, recently put up an article on its website that reviewed the latest debt numbers from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Their findings are not good:
  • While the CBO estimates that annual Federal budget deficits will come down form the past five years in the near future, they are set to rise again as the baby Boomer generation retire and the Washington political class continues to spend and waste money beyond what it is collecting in taxes. The national debt continues to be on an unsustainable course.
  • The CBO estimates that the deficit will be $469 billion in 2015 but by 2024, under current spending trends, it will get back up to an annual number of about a TRILLION dollars.
  • Even the $469 billion deficit next year is ridiculous. It means that every single day of the year, the Federal government will spend almost $1.3 BILLION more than it collected in taxes to cover the expense. It means that every hour of every day in 2015, the Federal government will spend almost $54 MILLION that it does not have. Ridiculously bad economic policies and spending policies.
  • And if that annual deficit number doubles by 2024, these daily and hourly numbers will also double. I guess the good news is that the economy and our financial system could crash before the doubling does occur.
  • The CBO estimates the public federal debt this year is at 74% of the economy, which is amazingly more than twice the 2007 level and the highest since 1950. 
Scary, scary numbers, bringing us close to the brink of financial disaster. But before that financial disaster collapse occurs, the CBO warns of the following terrible consequences of out of control spending in Washington:
  • Increasing Federal spending for interest payments.
  • Restraining economic growth in the long term.
  • Less flexibility to respond to unexpected challenges and expenses. 
  • And finally, increasing the risk of a fiscal crisis (in which investors would demand high interest rates to buy the government's debt).
And this assumes that numbers do not get worse from a spending perspective. As we all know, politicians have any easy time spending more and more money but are incapable or unwilling to ever decrease spending, even if it is wasteful and inefficient.

The CBO report summed these numbers the best: current spending trends are unsustainable. The numbers do not lie.

3) Speaking of bad numbers, consider how badly the U.S. Post Service (USPS) is doing:
  • The USPS recently announced that it lost $2 billion just in the 3rd quarter of fiscal 2014.
  • This is nothing compared to the whopping $15.9 billion it lost in fiscal 2012 but on track to lose more than the $5 billion in lost last year.
  • It has now lost money in 21 of the previous 23 calendar quarters.
  • Since the early 1970s, the USPS was supposed to be at least breakeven from a profitability perspective. That dream is long gone, according to these numbers.
Just another example of a Federal government bureaucracy that is totally broken from both a financial and operational perspective. You cannot keep on posting these kinds of losing numbers every quarter and expect to remain a viable organization.

The really sad part about this situation is that we have been writing about it for years in this blog. But no one anywhere in Washington had the ability or the will to attack the problem with some good problem solving skills. As a result, the taxpayer continues to get hammered by their incompetence.

4) The most recent job creation and unemployment numbers were recently published by the Federal government but those numbers also continue to disappoint:
  • Domestic employers added just 142,000 jobs in August, snapping a six-month streak of hiring above 200,000 and thus, posting the smallest gain in eight months. 
  • While the unemployment rate fell to 6.1% from 6.2% in August, that number is really not good news since more people without jobs stopped looking for one and were no longer counted as unemployed. 
  • Revising past numbers, employers added 28,000 fewer jobs in June and July than the government previously estimated. 
  • The slowdown was unexpected after most recent economic data suggested that the economy was growing at a healthy pace.
Not unexpected, given the track of this President and this Congress when it comes to generating good economic numbers, i.e. they have no track record.

5) According to the most recent Gallup polling numbers, the President’s job approval rating has dipped well below the 40% mark. Recent Gallup results show only 38% of survey respondents approve of his performance. Conversely, more than half of those surveyed, 54%, disapprove of the job he is doing.

Given that this is the lowest approval numbers for this President in the Gallup polling process, that cannot be good news in the White House. But given a broken postal system, out of control spending and debt, busted and ineffective economic policies when compared to Texas, and the bad numbers we discussed yesterday, this low approval number should not come as a surprise. Numbers do not lie, even if this Presidency does.

One last set of numbers tomorrow to wrap up this update to our continuing series, "By the numbers." Hint: tomorrow's numbers are not any better than what we have reviewed so far so be prepared for more bad news, more bad numbers.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w




Thursday, January 24, 2013

The Devastation That Is Obama Care, Part 4: More Restaurants Cutting Hours, Massive Conflicts Of Interest, And Middle Class Taxes

This is the fourth part in our series on how the rapidly approaching Obama Care taxes, regulations, and idiocy are about to crash down on us, our lives, and the economy. We have already reviewed how Americans are losing their jobs or seeing their working hours greatly reduced as a result of the legislation, how it will be next to impossible for the Federal government to meet its deadlines regarding data systems, customer service, etc. as defined by the law’s schedule, how about two thirds of the states opted out of some components of the law, how politicians who originally voted for the legislation are now trying to unto parts of it to protect their political careers, etc.

The next set of insults to our intelligence and fiascoes are listed below:

1) Back in September, the Washington Examiner ran an article that covered the International Franchise Convention in D.C. Specifically, the article reviewed a presentation given by David Barr, an Atlanta business owner of Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises. Mr. Barr had done the Obama Care math as it affects his operations, showing how devastating it will be to his business and his employees:
  • Obamacare will likely cut his profits in half overnight.
  • He showed that small businesses’ only choice is to slash employee hours so they aren't eligible for company-paid health care or stop offering insurance and pay the $2,000 per employee fine.
  • Barr has 23 stores with 421 employees, 109 of whom are full-time. Of those, he provides 30 with health insurance.
  • He currently pays 81% of their Blue Cross Blue Shield policy, or $4,073 of $5,028 for individuals, more for families, for a total bill of $129,000 a year. Employees pay $995.
  • Because of Obama Care, however, he will have to provide health insurance for all 109 full-time workers, a cost of $444,000, or two and half times more than his current costs.
  • That $315,000 increase is equal to just over half his annual profit, after expenses, or 1.5% of sales.
  • As a result, he said, "I'm not paying $444,000."
  • Providing no insurance would result in an Obama Care fine of $158,000, $29,000 more than he now spends but the lowest cost possible under the legislation.
  • As a result of Obama Care and the above reality math, he'll either cut worker hours or replace them with machines to get his costs down to offset Obama Care fines and taxes or dump his employees on the public health exchange and pay the fine
In addition, his experience shows him that most of his low-wage workers he would have to cover under Obama Care won't even take it because their $995 share is too high, meaning those the program was set up for won't see any benefit. And those who do will because they have major health issues, likely resulting in higher premiums to him, lower business profits, and less economic growth and benefit.

Cutting jobs, cutting hours, a real life example, and the math to support it, why Obama Care is going to devastate small businesses and the economy.

2) In mid-November, a Florida news report reported on a Florida restaurant owner. who operates roughly 40 Denny’s locations and five Hurricane Grill & Wings franchises in Florida, Virginia and Georgia, and his intention to add a 5% surcharge to customers’ bills to offset costs from Obama Care once it hits in January, 2014. beginning in January 2014: “People are trying to find ways to avoid the penalties and to avoid having to pay for Obama Care,” said restaurant owner John Metz . “Everyone’s looking for a way to not have to provide insurance for their employees. It’s essentially a huge tax on all us business people.”

As with other businesses, Metz also plans to cut hours of many current employees to under 30 hours to avoid the administration’s definition of full time and thus, sidestepping having to pay for health care insurance.

Metz is a little different from other small business owners, according to the article in that he thinks that getting everyone health care insurance is a good idea and should be pursued but that this is not the right way to do it. His business model cannot afford Obama Care’s requirements, requirements that would add over $3 million to his expense stream every year, an expense he cannot afford: “I have a choice: try to live within the rules, or go out of business.”

3) It should come as no surprise, given this administration’s vast experience and immersion in cronyism that Obama Care would also be infested with serious instance of cronyism, payoffs to friends and favorable entities using taxpayer resources and wealth as the currency. Consider the incest and cronyism that is apparently playing out relative to the development of the health care exchanges, as reported in the Weekly Standard on December 12, 2012:
  • Health and Human Services (HHS) contracted with a subsidiary of a private health care company to help build and operate the very Obama Care health care insurance exchanges in which that company will be competing for business, a blatant conflict of interest.
  • How did this happen? Apparently, the person who ran the government entity that awarded that contract has since accepted a position with a different subsidiary of that same company.
  • HHS, in an attempt to hide this potential conflict of interest contract from the public until after the election, encouraged the company to hide the activity from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
  • According to the inside source quoted in the article, in January, HHS awarded Quality Software Services, Inc. (QSSI) what The Hill reported as “a large contract to build a federal data services hub to help run the complex federal health insurance exchange.”
  • At that time, the director of Obama Care’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), the enitty tasked with creating the operational rules for the Federal exchanges,was Steve Larsen.
  • He had been the insurance commissioner for Maryland when Obama’s HHS secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, was the insurance commissioner for Kansas, The article reports that the two are reportedly close.
  • The CCIIO awarded the Obama Care exchange contract to QSSI while Larsen was the CCIIO’s director.
  • Under the contract signed with HHS, QSSI’s power would be significant since QSSI would create, operate, and affect companies’ ability to sell insurance through Obama Care’s Federal exchanges.
  • The article quoted another The Hill report quote: “A draft statement of work for the contract awarded to QSSI states the contractor should provide services necessary to acquire, certify and decertify health plans offered on a federal exchange. It stipulates the contractor should monitor agreements with health plans, ensure compliance with federal standards and” — somewhat strikingly — “take corrective action when necessary.”
  • QSSI, apparently realizing what a valuable asset it had in the contract and the power and information generated by this Federal contract, started shopping itself around to prospective suitors within the health care industry.
  • In the meanwhile, Larsen left the CCIIO and took a highly paid position with Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, in June, 2012.
  • Surprise, surprise, this summer, UnitedHealth Group bought QSSI.
  • Another quote from The Hill: “One critic familiar with the business rivalries of the insurance industry compared UnitedHealth Group’s purchase of QSSI to the New York Yankees hiring the American League’s umpires.”
  • The Weekly Standard writer presents the following analogy of this mess: “In other words, UnitedHealth Group, through QSSI, would be able to police the same field in which it would be a competitor.”
But it gets worse. According to the article, when the administration found out about this massive conflict of interest, it decided to try and bury the mess until after the November elections. Thus, the merger was never reported to the SEC as required by law. This potential breaking of the law is currently being looked into by the Senate Finance committee.

HHS and the administration has gotten itself into a further bind in that if they tried to void the contract, now owned by a major health car insurance provider, they will never make the deadline laid out by the legislation to have health care exchange up and running by January 2014, even if they could get it done by then.

Conflict of interest (which always sub optimizes the use of taxpayer wealth), missed deadlines, suppression of truth, breaking of SEC laws. Yep, this is a great piece of legislative work.

3) The Associated Press recently ran an article describing an pending new tax that could come about as a result of Obama Care. We have previously reported that Obama Care introduces almost 2,000 new Federal regulations and dozens of new taxes, from medical device taxes, to new Medicare taxes, to taxes on the sale of high end homes, to higher dividend taxes, etc.

Many of these taxes play into Obama’s continual class warfare rhetoric and strategy in that they only touch the higher earning Americans. However, this new tax idea reported on by the Associated Press would squarely hit middle and lower income earners.

According to the article, about half of all Americans benefit from the tax-free status of employer health insurance. Workers pay no income or payroll taxes on what their employer contributes for health insurance, and in most cases on their own share of premiums. It's the single biggest tax break the government allows, outstripping the mortgage interest deduction, the deduction for charitable giving and other better-known benefits.

If the value these of job-based health insurance benefits were taxed like regular income, it would raise nearly $150 billion in 2013. So, let’s do some simple math:
  • There are about 315 million people in the U.S.
  • If indeed half of them have tax free employer health insurance, then there are about 157 million Americans in this situation.
  • If we divide the $150 billion raised by the likely 157 million or so citizens who will be paying the tax, we see that each American in this situation would be expected to pay about $950 or so each year to the Federal government under this tax scheme.
This is $950 that a typical American would not be able to spend on movies, restaurants, clothing, vacations, etc., economic activity that would grow the economy and create jobs. And as we have proven any number of times in this blog, that $950 will never be spent by the Federal government and Washington political class in an efficient, effective, beneficial, or non-criminal fraud manner.

And this would certainly break Obama’s pledge that the vast, vast majority of Americans will not pay more in taxes during his administration. But this behavior is not new or unexpected as the Obama administration has broken so many pledges already, what is just one more that costs the average American almost $1,000 a year for very little benefit in return.

The bad news just keeps on coming from this worthless piece of legislation, with more falling down on us tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

 

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w


Friday, July 20, 2012

Using Obama's Senior Staff To Undercut His Tax The Rich Insanity

Before we do today's post, let me set some personal background:
  1. I am not what the typical American would consider rich.
  2. I drive an eight year old car and my wife drives a six year old car, neither of which cost us over $22,000 when we bought them.
  3. We live in a typical American, suburban, 2,000 square foot home.
  4. We do not take exotic vacations to far away places.
  5. We do not own a boat (or yacht).
  6. We do not own second and third homes in far away exotic places.
  7. Our marginal income tax bracket in 2011 was 15%.
Thus, I personally have nothing at stake when discussing whether the rich in this country should pay more in taxes. All of the plans the President has proposed under his tax the rich class warfare will not directly affect my household.

As we have done many times in this blog, let's quickly review how the Washington political class wastes hundreds of billions of dollars a year:
  • Unbiased, nonpartisan estimates put the annual waste and criminal fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid Federal programs at anywhere from $110 to $150 billion a year.
  • Unbiased, nonpartisan estimates put the annual waste and criminal fraud in the Social Security system at about $100 billion a year.
  • The Federal government has admitted that just one of its unemployment benefits program probably loses $17 billion a year to fraud.
  • The IRS has admitted that it fails to collect upwards of $380 billion a year owed to it under the current tax code but unpaid by tax evaders.
  • If the Federal food stamp program wastes money at the same rate of other Federal programs than about $7 billion a year of taxpayer wealth is lost via fraud in this program.
  • Total waste just from these few Federal efforts: $515 - $545 billion dollars a year.
Thus, without going into other areas of Federal government waste (e.g. defense spending, overstaffing, bad contracting, etc.), we can easily see that the Federal bureaucracy conservatively wastes over $500 billion a year. This comes out to about $4,300 for every U.S. household every year. I am sure that every one of those households would like to see their household income increased $4,300 every year without suffering any cut back in government services if only the Washington political class ran a tighter ship.

This $500 billion annual waste is why no American, rich or poor, at this point in time should be required to pay another penny in Federal taxes. There is more than enough wealth go around, it is just that our Federal politicians waste so much of it.

But that is not how Obama sees it. It wants the higher earners in this country to pay more and more in Federal taxes even though these same earners already pay for a massive amount of the Federal bureaucracy, both in total dollars and as a percentage of total dollars. Their average percentage of income sent to Washington as taxes looks like the following distribution according to actual IRS tax return data (click on the chart for a larger view):












Consider the two tax the rich schemes that Obama has proposed:
  1. In one scheme, Americans earning over $1,000,000 a year would pay more in taxes. This scheme would net the Federal government about $4.9 billion more a year in taxes. This is less than 1% of the annual amount that Washington wastes in current Federal programs. This will virtually no impact on making other Americans' lives better, reducing our national debt, or closing our annual deficits, considering the fact that the Obama administration is running deficits of voer $1 TRILLION every year.
  2. In his other scheme, those Americans earning over $250,000 would pay more in taxes. This would generate about $70 billion more a year in taxes for the Federal government, only about 14% of the annual amount wasted every year. Even this $70 billion a year is only about 6% of an average Obama annual spending deficit so even this higher tax plan would do little to fix the financial state of the country.
The bottom line is that Obama and the rest of Washington's political class could get so much better returns if they focused on just plugging the leaks in current government spending rather than waste time and do all of this political posturing over taxing the rich. In addition, I would think that keeping more money available circulating in our weakening economy, either $4.9 billion or $70 billion, is a better use of this wealth than sending into the black hole of Washington. Obama said the exactly same thing several years ago in 2009: http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/07/10/obama_flashback_last_thing_you_want_in_recession_is_to_raise_taxes

Okay, this is all a long winded set up to using Obama's staff as an example of why these are stupid tax plans. Consider the research and analysis that the Washington Free Beacon printed on July 10, 2012 (http://freebeacon.com/obamas-millionaires/):
  • All of the information from the article are sourced back to the official White House website on White House staff salaries or to the original financial disclosure forms that White House personnel are required to file under law.
  • Thus, a reader can verify that the Beacon article is based on official government documents and not speculation.
  • According to the article, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, Press Secretary Jay Carney, Cabinet Secretary Chrisopher Lu, and senior advisers David Plouffe and Valerie Jarrett all earn the maximum White House salary of $172,200 per year.
  • This top salary band places them well under the two potential tax the rich thresholds that Obama would like to see implemented, either $250,000 or $1 million, but in the upper 5% of all American wage earners.
  • However, the Beacon reports, based on their own personal financial disclosure records, Jarrett’s net worth is between $3.3 million and $13 million. Lu is worth between $2.3 million and $5.2 million, Plouffe is worth as much as $3.6 million, Carney as much as $3.2 million, and Pfeiffer as much as $2.1 million.
Interesting stuff. Now consider a struggling business owner who is trying to get his or her business into a growth mode. They have thrown their life savings into this endeavor. They are trying to contribute to society by producing a worthwhile service or product. Let's assume that they are like thousands and thousands of other small businesses and they file their business and personal income tax returns together because that is the easiest and most advantageous approach for them. 

If they are like many small business earners, they have made tremendous personal sacrifices over the past few years, according to a recent Citibank survey of small business owners: 

“Keeping businesses afloat has required sacrifices on the part of both employer and employees, the survey found. Over the past few years, business owners report that they have, at one time or another, taken less profit (78 percent), worked more hours than usual (70 percent), and used their own money to help the business survive (69 percent).

“But what is most revealing is that the majority of respondents — 54 percent — say they have gone without a paycheck in order to keep the business running. And nearly one-quarter (23 percent) have gone without pay for one year or more.

Employees, too, sacrificed finances for their employers. More than one-third of owners (38 percent) said their employees worked overtime without pay; 18 percent said employees either missed paychecks or had paychecks delayed.” (see this CNBC report for the details: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47723383.)

Times are certainly tough and challenging for America's small business owners.

But let's assume that theoretical small business has gotten their business income up to $400,000 a year. Under Obama's second, and probably preferred tax the rich scheme, this business owner would likely now have to pay additional taxes on about $150,000 of his or her annual income stream.

These are additional taxes that cannot be used to expand the business. These are additional taxes that cannot be used to expand hiring or give additional benefits to employees. These are additional taxes that the small business owner will never see any advantage of paying.

And the ironic thing is that the millionaires sitting on Obama's staff, people that are financially far better off than thousands and thousands of struggling small business owners, people that have already made their fortunes and currently enjoy high salaries and outstanding benefits, will not be impacted at all. Does not seem "fair" or good economic policy to me.

Another example. Consider someone who has a net worth of $6,000,000. They have invested all of their worth in tax free municipal bonds that earn them a return of about 4% a year, tax free. Thus, they annually earn $250,000 a year but will not be paying any more in taxes. The hypothetical small business owner we created above would be paying more in taxes even though their personal and business wealth is likely far below this individual's $6 million personal wealth.

And that is the fallacy of Obama's tax the rich scheme. He wants to increase taxes on current high earners, as he defines them, which may not translate into taxes on the wealthy, as proven by our sample municipal bond investor and many on Obama's staff. Thus, he will be helping to cripple America's job creation machinery, small businesses, without any discernible impact on the economy, our national debt, or out annual spending deficit by the Federal government.

But this type of short sighted, self defeating is typical of most politicians including the President:
  • Rather than do the nitty gritty work of coming come up with a coherent, fair, and economically favorable tax code overhaul, let's just tax more Americans in a helter skelter manner.
  • Rather than do the nitty gritty work of coming up with a coherent, fair, and effective national energy strategy and policy, let's just throw around billions of taxpayer dollars in a helter skelter manner to near bankrupt alternative energy companies (Solyndra, Beacon, Spectra, A123, Ener1, etc.) and see what sticks, if anything.
  • Rather than do the nitty gritty work of cleaning up the waste, inefficiencies, and criminal fraud that is rampant throughout every Federal bureaucracy and saving hundreds of billions of dollars in the process, let's just expand those programs to cover the shortfall of waste and tax Americans more to cover the incompetence.
  • Rather than do the nitty gritty work of understanding the root causes of our escalating health care costs, let's just put another massive Federal bureaucracy in place and implement about two dozen additional taxes to pay for it without understanding how to address and resolve the underlying root causes.
Which I guess is the root causes of our problems with government and the politicians that operate it. They are unwilling, unable, or too distracted worrying about their reelection or personal enrichment to do the nitty gritty work of governing. Maybe that is why major issues never get resolved, our tax burden continues to increase, and our national debt burden is skyrocketing, not only for current generations of Americans but future generations also.

Thus, the next time you hear that the President wants to raise taxes on the rich to make our tax system "fair", remember that he is not necessarily talking about taxing the wealthy, he is talking about taxing current "high" earners. Current earners that are struggling to create viable businesses and the economic growth and jobs growth that comes with it.

Many wealthy Americans, including a lot of Obama's staff are wealthy but not current high earners, under his definition. They already made their wealth and Obama's short sighted tax the rich schemes will exempt them while penalizing the job engines of small businesses. 

It makes you wonder if Apple would still be one of the largest companies in the world from a valuation perspective if Wozniak and Jobs had been considered wealthy, under Obama's definition a few decades ago. They may have been required to pay more in taxes, under Obama's tax the rich scheme, for little in return, when they were still working out of their garages. How many potential Apple-like small business owners are working out of their garages today and will see their potential to grow hamstrung by a shortsighted and misleading tax the rich scheme?

We may never know but we do know that it is unnecessary, given the disgraceful level of government wasteful spending that goes on today.

***********************************
As far as the nitty gritty of running a government, a concept that seems foreign and undoable to many of today's politicians, may I recommend the following links to them for a starting point of actually running a viable, cost effective organization:

Revising the tax code: http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-fixing-our.html

Implementing a coherent national energy strategy: http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-presidency_09.html

Resolving our escalating health care cost issues: http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-solving-our_12.html

Saving the fiscal solvency of Social Security: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2012/02/united-states-of-purple-saving-social.html



We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/