Leaders take responsibility for their actions. They understand consequences. Obama understands neither. That’s why he has consistently thrown everyone, from his pastor to people on his staff, right under the bus.
If you think the guy who authorized the flyover in NYC was the guy they just fired, think again. Obama talks about sacrifice and then spends over 300k of YOUR MONEY to take a photo that guys in my office could have put together with Photoshop.
If you don’t think he was aware of this brilliant idea, think again.
Shocking…Obama throws another one of his guys under the bus. That isn’t a shock for those of us who watched him throw his pastor and others under that same bus during his campaign.
Another great example of leadership.
For those of you who are excited about all the “change” we are seeing…as well as the cheers for “yes we can”…here’s a sobering thought:
The structure of our government for the past 200 plus years has been designed around the concept of checks and balances. No one branch of government should be able to take over and distort this. Unfortunately, we had that issue with the Bush administration, hence the election of a freshman senator to bring us change.
Now, we are getting ready to see the results of all that change. With a filibuster proof majority in the senate and house, and the most liberal president in history, you’re about to get the change you voted for.
If you didn’t like the Bush years, you’re in for a real wake up call…it’s about to get a lot worse. We are increasing our presence in Afghanistan and are taking our deficit to a level that goes beyond all deficits combined over the past 200 years of this country…again, if you didn’t like what Bush did in terms of spending money, that was just the pre roll of what’s to come.
If moderates who shifted to Obama and the democrats don’t wake up and make some immediate changes for 2010 elections, this country as we’ve known it for 200 years will cease to exist.
I’m sure some of you are happy about that…but remember, we have been the most prosperous country, with the greatest opportunity for individuals during that time period. That’s why people from all over the world want to come here.
Let’s try not to forget what made us great…and the checks in place that have allowed that growth to happen. No balances has two meanings…
In case you missed it, Barack Obama said that the latest wave of refinancings acts a “tax cut” for Americans. This guy is truly unbelievable. Is this part of his tax cutting strategy????
I understand that people are in love with the guy and he is a great communcator, but this one takes the cake. Call it what it is…a lower mortgage payment. If you want to cut taxes, how about cutting them on the people that actually pay them.
It’s been a bit tough lately to stay on top of my blog here. The main culprit? Taxes. Just as this market slowed, I had to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay taxes for 2008 as well as estimated taxes for the first quarter of 2009. Let’s just say I was distracted as I went into more debt to pay my taxes in my profitable small business- an interesting concept or some might say an oxymoron.
Now some will say, hey, you’re making money so don’t complain about paying your “fair share”. The reality is that my share equates to 50% of everything my business earns on a marginal basis. 40% of this country doesn’t pay any federal income taxes.
What most don’t understand is the issue of actually running a business, tax burdens and “cash flow”. Indeed, three months worth of business overhead equates to a full year of those profits that make me “rich”. In a down economy, when customers pull back and spend less, and in turn take longer to pay a small business, cash flow gets squeezed. Put another way, if it takes 45 days longer to get paid, the business (that’s me), has to come up with that cash to make payroll etc. In dollars and cents, a business that has 600,000 per month in overhead would have to “find” an additional $900,000 to cover this gap. The average business with $600,000 in overhead each month would earn, at a 15% profit margin, approximately $1,300,000 per year (before taxes, depreciation, etc). Strip out taxes (and don’t take into account the owner taking a salary) and you have less money than necessary to cover that little “gap” of $900,000 I mentioned.
This scenario is reality, not some theory being touted by the media or politicians. It means looking at potential new hires and taking a pass. It means pulling back from additional investment. It means eliminating positions that otherwise would stay. It means fewer people working and less tax revenue to the government as those jobs don’t get created and we focus on cutting expenses vs. growing revenue.
One of the leading democrats in Congress, John Murtha, has no problem spending ridiculous amounts of money on “infrastructure”. To the tune of 150 million dollars, the John Murtha Airport in Pennsylvania has three flights a day to D.C.
Each ticket is subsidized with federal money in that is almost equal to the price the consumer pays. The place is a virtual graveyard. Don’t believe me, watch this video from ABC News:
So what you have is another member of Congress wasting your money so that his constituents can have a massive airport in their backyard, whether it gets used or not. See anything wrong with this picture?
My dad’s parents came to this country and started with nothing. They had 4 children who went on to a variety of careers in finance and civil service. My dad had 7 kids who went on to various endeavors. My dad went through the depression, fought in World War II, raised all those kids, plus some grand kids…and gave us the opportunity to do better than he did.
Today I own my own business thanks to my grandparents decision to come to this country and my parent’s sacrifices. That’s he American Dream. Not what Obama or any of the far left would like you to believe. In their camp it’s the handouts and government creating the dream, not the individuals.
Ok, I’ve been offline a bit, but now I’m back. It’s the day after “tax day” and I’m still scrambling to get money in my account to cover the shortfall from last year, plus my estimated taxes for the first quarter. My marginal tax rate for state and federal income taxes currently sits at 45%. Factor in all the other taxes each of us pay, whether it be for gas, cigarettes, social security, etc, and you come up with an even higher number. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like if some of what’s being proposed gets inacted for future tax years.
The progressive nature of our tax system penalizes you for being successful and growing your income. If you aspire to never earn more than $50,000 per year, our current tax system works great for you. Indeed, most people in this range pay little to no federal income taxes. Under the proposed tax cuts from the current administration, almost half of all Americans will pay NO federal income tax. As government spending, which has been out of control for years, grows even more outrageous, the number who support this spending will pay even more. Those who don’t have to support this spending grow indifferent to massive increases as they mistakenly believe it won’t affect them.
Let me tell you why they are wrong. Instead of focusing on growing my business by adding more employees and making more investment, I have to focus on how I’m going to cover my future tax bills which will certainly grow in the years to come. That means fewer jobs in my company and fewer tax receipts for teh government.
As spending goes unchecked by these individuals our government wracks up incredible debt which has to be paid back…by their kids and grand kids. An estimate puts the annual interest expense on the balooning deficit in excess of $100,000 per year, per person, in this country…and that’s just for the intereest.
We are on the verge of heading down a path of national bankruptcy based on current plans outlined by Obama. People need to rally to stop this madness.
I just caught this article on an IRS Agent that failed to pay taxes. Based on the continued parade of appointees that can’t seem to get their taxes paid correctly, I thought I’d offer this guy up for a postion in the Obama White House
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Calif-IRS-agent-admits-apf-14795847.html
Better yet, since even our wonderful politicians can’t seem to figure out or correctly pay their taxes…despite their insistence that we pay ours-and at a higher rate going forward…why don’t we take a look at the bigger problem than that of even these tax cheats— Our over complicated tax code.
It is time for change…a change to the tax code.
What is it with the idea that something is “too big to fail”? Our entire economy, for over 200 years, has been built on the evolution of companies and business in general. That’s natural. Unfortunately, the natural course of evolution is being interrupted by politicians when it comes to the car business.
Bush made the first mistake by lending money to companies that would be better left to the bankruptcy courts. Obama is now compounding it by giving the illusion that he and his team have a clue about how to run an auto company…and using your tax dollars to do it.
Any 7th grader could have seen that the money taxpayers “lent” to Detroit would never get repaid. You actually need to have positive cash flow and profits if you are going to pay back debt. Detroit has had neither and there was no turnaround in sight. It’s called throwing good money after bad in an attempt to appease the current and former employees of these once great companies.
Let the car companies go through the natural steps of bankruptcy reorganization and tell the politicians to stay out of the business of trying to sell cars. These guys have never run anything, let alone a car company, yet they are going to save Detroit?
Those who bought the stock or bonds, in hopes of a gain, would be wiped out. That’s OK. Those people understood the risk.
