The book's cost is nominal, you are supporting a very worthy cause and it makes a good gift and/or stocking stuffer. (See 1 below.)
On another note, after my knee replacement surgery I have developed so much restrictive scar tissue I cannot straighten my leg. Consequently, I am going in for more surgery to remove same Dec. 20 and thus these memos will be curtailed for a while. (See 1 below.)
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More Sowell on the fiscal cliff. (See 2 below.)
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This is one ticked off turkey. Go Man: ! :http://www.youtube.com/v/F0sk4yGaEk8&hl=en_US&fs=1&
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I recently wrote a letter which was published regarding Israel's post the Gazan dust up and a local man, who also writes LTE's agreed with some of what I said but also suggested I left open the solution. My response, which, I doubt, the paper will publish:
"I have never advocated Palestinians are not entitled to their 'place in the sun.' If, however, they choose to establish a land and or nation disregarding bi-lateral negotiations then they will have to make do with whatever 'spoils' Israelis choose to give them.
Mr. Ravitich is correct when he points out the Palestinian birth rate will eventually subsume that of the Israelis. The fact that Palestinians copulate and reproduce however, should not serve as the basis for allowing them to continue screwing Israelis as well.
In terms of offering a solution, it appears whatever you offer Palestinians is never enough but simply forms the basis for more demands.
Israel should determine what territory they need for self-preservation and allow the Palestinians to occupy the remains. No doubt this will inflame them as well as the rest of the world which does their bidding. So be it.
In fact, current demographics suggest all of Europe and eventually the world will be overwhelmed by Arab and Muslim births so Israel's problem is a microcosm of what is yet to come." (See 3 below.)
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Obama working over time playing politics by painting Republicans into a corner rather than leading the nation in a fiscally responsible manner. All in a day's work for this president.
By seeking the power to raise the debt limit at his pleasure Obama is insulating himself from making decisions about having to restrain spending. (See 4 below.)
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This is how a friend of mine and fellow memo reader responded to a cynical friend of his regarding Boehner etc.. Found it interesting. (See 5 below.)
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Long but well worth reading. Let Peter's words reach G--'s ears. (See 6 below.)
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Where are the protests coming from the progressive liberals? Suppose this had happened under GW? Where are the media and press? (See 7 below.)
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Dick---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1)
Though the words Conservative and Capitalist are in the title, the booklet is non-political in nature.
Half the proceeds from the sale of this modestly priced book goes to The Wounded Warrior Project!
Dick Berkowitz, has written a booklet entitled:"A Conservative Capitalist Offers: Eleven Lessons and a Bonus Lesson for Raising America's Youth Born and Yet To Be Born."
By Dick Berkowitz - Non Expert
Dick wrote this booklet because he believes a strong country must rest on a solid family unit and that Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" has morphed into "A Confused, Dependent and Compromised Generation."
He hopes this booklet will provide a guide to alter this trend.
You can order a pdf version you can download and read on your computer, or print out if you want. Cost is $5.99
The book is also available in soft cover format at a cost of $10.99 plus $2.50 shipping and handling.
Simply go to www.brokerberko.com/book
Booklet illustrations were by his oldest granddaughter, Emma Darvick, who lives and works in New York.
Testimonials:
Dick, I read your book this weekend. I hardly know where to start. You did an excellent job of putting into one short book a compendium of the virtues which only a relatively short time ago all Americans believed. It’s a measure of how far we have fallen that many Americans, perhaps a majority of Americans, no longer believe in what we once considered truisms. I think your father would have agreed with every word, but the party he supported no longer has such beliefs.
I would like to buy multiple copies of your booklet..
You did a great job. I know your parents would have been proud and that your family today is proud.
Mike
You wrote a great book. The brevity is one of its strong points and I know it was hard to include that in and still keep it brief. Your father in haste once wrote an overly long letter to our client, then said in the last sentence, “I’m sorry I wrote such a long letter, but I didn’t have time to write a short one.”
"Dick, I indeed marvel at how much wisdom you have been able to share with so few words. Not too unlike the experience in reading the Bible. I feel that with each read of "A Conservative Capitalist Offers:…." one will gain additional knowledge and new insights…
Regards, Larry"
Dick ,
Your book is outstanding! Due to illness, I've been unable to read it in entirety until today .Your background is often very similar to mine (e.g. Halliburton's influence was very important in my life), and your thoughts reflect very closely the the teachings that I received from my parents and granddad. I will write a more detailed statement in the near future!
All the best, Bob
Your book is outstanding! Due to illness, I've been unable to read it in entirety until today .Your background is often very similar to mine (e.g. Halliburton's influence was very important in my life), and your thoughts reflect very closely the the teachings that I received from my parents and granddad. I will write a more detailed statement in the near future!
All the best, Bob
Regarding your booklet, I have begun to read it and look forward to finishing it this weekend. Congrats on getting it published and on the great reviews. I know how much this booklet means to you and how important getting this message out to the public is.
P------
Dick,
I finally found the time to read your book.
It contains much wisdom compressed within its short space.
Your advice for raising children by inculcating them with the traditional values with which you and I were both reared is the perfect antidote to the Dr. Spock mentality and self-esteem movement of the “Me Generation” of the 60s (remember “Do your own thing”?) from which we have never recovered.
We’re still swimming against the tide.
I commend you for your indefatigable battle against the moral bankruptcy of the Left. Keep up the good work.
All best,
Alan
Dick - The books arrived in the mail yesterday and a check went out in today's mail. Thank you. I just finished reading it and must say how thrilled I am that you took the time to write it. I can't wait to share it with S-----, N---, L----- and D----. In spite of mistakes in my own parenting skills brought to light in your book, the girls have turned out well and I am confident will be better parents because of your book. I love you like a brother, B--
About The Author:
After completing his formal education in 1960, Dick Berkowitz began his
professional career as a stockbroker in Atlanta, joining the nation's
largest Southeastern Regional NYSE Member Firm - Courts and Co. becoming a
general partner in seven years. Dick subsequently resigned after Courts
merged and he opened an institutional office for Burnham and Company. Twenty
years later, after Drexel Burnham closed its doors, he moved his staff to
Oppenheimer in 1990, retiring in 2009
During his business career he served on The President's Commission on White
House Fellows '90 - '92, The Board of Visitors St John's College '95 -2001,
The Board of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars '97 - '98, The
George Bush for President National Finance Committee '98.
Dick also was a Founding Member Univ of Ga. President's Club and Chaired
Blackburn Park Master Plan Committee '98.
Re-locating to Savannah, where he now lives with Lynn, his wife of 40 years,
he continues to manage money for a few clients, remains active serving on
The Board of Visitors of the State of Ga. Museum of Art. He also began The
JEA Speaker Series, serves on The Board of The Savannah Federation
Investment Foundation, The Advisory Board of Spine and Sports and, more
recently, The Board of The Skidaway Island Republican Club - 2012.
Dick Berkowitz also publishes his thoughts on The Middle East, politics and
economics which can be found at: www.Dick-Meom.Blogspot.com
Feel free to forward this to anyone on your own e mail list and encourage
others to order a copy.
professional career as a stockbroker in Atlanta, joining the nation's
largest Southeastern Regional NYSE Member Firm - Courts and Co. becoming a
general partner in seven years. Dick subsequently resigned after Courts
merged and he opened an institutional office for Burnham and Company. Twenty
years later, after Drexel Burnham closed its doors, he moved his staff to
Oppenheimer in 1990, retiring in 2009
During his business career he served on The President's Commission on White
House Fellows '90 - '92, The Board of Visitors St John's College '95 -2001,
The Board of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars '97 - '98, The
George Bush for President National Finance Committee '98.
Dick also was a Founding Member Univ of Ga. President's Club and Chaired
Blackburn Park Master Plan Committee '98.
Re-locating to Savannah, where he now lives with Lynn, his wife of 40 years,
he continues to manage money for a few clients, remains active serving on
The Board of Visitors of the State of Ga. Museum of Art. He also began The
JEA Speaker Series, serves on The Board of The Savannah Federation
Investment Foundation, The Advisory Board of Spine and Sports and, more
recently, The Board of The Skidaway Island Republican Club - 2012.
Dick Berkowitz also publishes his thoughts on The Middle East, politics and
economics which can be found at: www.Dick-Meom.Blogspot.com
Feel free to forward this to anyone on your own e mail list and encourage
others to order a copy.
This is just one 'hero family' you are helping.
May God Bless them and bring them peace!
Dick
There are times when less said is better.
Dick
---
Editor's Note: This column is part II in a series. Part I can be found here.
One of the big advantages that President Obama has, as he plays "chicken" with the Congressional Republicans along the "fiscal cliff," is that Obama is a master of the plausible lie, which will never be exposed by the mainstream media-- nor, apparently, by the Republicans.
A key lie that has been repeated over and over, largely unanswered, is that President Bush's "tax cuts for the rich" cost the government so much lost tax revenue that this added to the budget deficit-- so that the government cannot afford to allow the cost of letting the Bush tax rates continue for "the rich."
It sounds very plausible, and constant repetition without a challenge may well be enough to convince the voting public that, if the Republican-controlled House of Representatives does not go along with Barack Obama's demands for more spending and higher tax rates on the top 2 percent, it just shows that they care more for "the rich" than for the other 98 percent.
What is remarkable is how easy it is to show how completely false Obama's argument is. That also makes it completely inexplicable why the Republicans have not done so.
The official statistics which show plainly how wrong Barack Obama is can be found in his own "Economic Report of the President" for 2012, on page 411. You can look it up.
You may be able to find a copy of the "Economic Report of the President" for 2012 at your local public library. Or you can buy a hard copy from the Government Printing Office or download an electronic version from the Internet.
For those who find that "a picture is worth a thousand words," they need only see the graphs published in the November 30th issue of Investor's Business Daily.
What both the statistical tables in the "Economic Report of the President" and the graphs in Investor's Business Daily show is that (1) tax revenues went up-- not down-- after tax rates were cut during the Bush administration, and (2) the budget deficit declined, year after year, after the cut in tax rates that have been blamed by Obama for increasing the deficit.
Indeed, the New York Times reported in 2006: "An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year."
While the New York Times may not have expected this, there is nothing unprecedented about lower tax rates leading to higher tax revenues, despite automatic assumptions by many in the media and elsewhere that tax rates and tax revenues automatically move in the same direction. They do not.
The Congressional Budget Office has been embarrassed repeatedly by making projections based on the assumption that tax revenues and tax rates move in the same direction.
This has happened as recently as the George W. Bush administration and as far back as the Reagan administration. Moreover, tax revenues went up when tax rates went down, as far back as the Coolidge administration, before there was a Congressional Budget Office to make false predictions.
The bottom line is that Barack Obama's blaming increased budget deficits on the Bush tax cuts is demonstrably false. What caused the decreasing budget deficits after the Bush tax cuts to suddenly reverse and start increasing was the mortgage crisis. The deficit increased in 2008, followed by a huge increase in 2009.
So it is sheer hogwash that "tax cuts for the rich" caused the government to lose tax revenues. The government gained tax revenues, not lost them. Moreover, "the rich" paid a larger amount of taxes, and a larger share of all taxes, after the tax rates were cut.
That is because people change their economic behavior when tax rates are changed, contrary to what the Congressional Budget Office and others seem to assume, and this can stimulate the economy more than a government "stimulus" has done under either Bush or Obama.
Yet there is no need to assume that Barack Obama is mistaken about the way to get the economy out of the doldrums. His top priority has always been increasing the size and scope of government. If that means sacrificing the economy or the truth, that is no deterrent to Obama. That is why he is willing to play chicken with Republicans along the fiscal cliff.
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3)Israel's Building No Obstacle to Peace
Jonathan S. Tobin
The reaction to Israel’s announcement on Friday that it had approved building plans in Jerusalem and its suburbs was nearly unanimous. Even those who disapproved of the vote by the General Assembly of the United Nations to upgrade the Palestinian Authority to a pseudo-state at the world body damned the housing as either a childish tantrum on the part of the Israeli government to demonstrate their anger or a genuine threat to peace. The argument is that by allowing building in the E1 development area that connects the Maale Adumim suburb to the city, Israel will be foreclosing the possibility of a two-state solution since this would effectively cut the West Bank in half and forestall its viability as an independent Palestinian state.
It sounds logical but it’s absolute nonsense. If the Palestinians did want a two-state solution, the new project as well as the other ones announced yesterday for more houses to be built in 40-year-old Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem wouldn’t stop it. That’s true even of those that say that the final borders of Israel and a putative state of Palestine must be based on the 1949 armistice lines with agreed-upon land swaps. Those swaps wouldn’t amount to more than a few percentage points of the total land area of the West Bank and probably preclude Israel keeping many far-flung settlements in the territory. But everyone knows that the swaps would have to account for the Jewish suburbs of Jerusalem, including Maale Adumim and the other towns in the vicinity that are already inside the security fence that does not protect most settlements. But the operative phrase here is “if” the Palestinians wanted such a solution. They have refused every offer of a state they’ve gotten and refused even to negotiate for four years, not to mention employing the UN gambit specifically in order to avoid talks. The notion that Israeli building in areas that everyone knows they would keep if there was a deal in place is stopping peace from breaking out is ludicrous.
Nor should the Israeli gesture be viewed as petulant. To the contrary, it is exactly what is needed to start changing the one-sided nature of the argument in international forums about the dispute over territory.
Though you wouldn’t know if from listening to the UN debate or even to most spokespersons for the Jewish state over the last forty years, the argument about the West Bank is not solely about pitting rights of Palestinians against Israel’s security needs. The West Bank is, after all, part of the area designated by the League of Nations for Jewish settlement under the Mandate of Palestine. It is also the heart of the ancient Jewish homeland to which Jews have historical, legal and religious ties that cannot be erased by a century of Arab hatred.
Some of Israel’s friends and all of its enemies claim that for Israel to speak of its rights to the West Bank is tantamount to saying that it doesn’t want peace. Not so. Just because it has rights there doesn’t mean that it must assert them under all circumstances, or that it wouldn’t, if convinced that peace was to be had, give up some or all of the territory in exchange for an end to the conflict. Indeed, throughout the last 20 years, Israel has been in engaged in peace talks or attempts to revive them, during the course of which it has made numerous concessions about territory to the Palestinians.
For its pains, Israel has been subjected to even greater vituperation and delegitimization during this period than before. So long as it does not speak of its rights, it will always be treated as a thief who must return stolen property rather than as a party to a conflict with its own justified claims.
Even if the E1 area is developed, there will be no obstacle to peace talks that could produce a Palestinian state in almost all of the West Bank except for the major settlement blocs that no one expects Israel to give up. Nor would the Palestinian state be blighted by this project since highways and tunnels could easily be constructed to allow access between Arab areas to the north and the south of Jerusalem. Indeed, Jewish housing in the disputed areas is no more of an obstacle to peace than the far greater Arab housing boom in other parts of Jerusalem.
If the Palestinians truly wanted to live in peace in their own independent state next to Israel they could go back to the negotiating table and get it. If they were ever to actually offer an end to the conflict in which they recognized the legitimacy and the security of a Jewish state no matter where its borders were drawn, they would find the Israeli people would welcome their offer and no Israeli government could refuse. Instead, the so-called moderates among them — Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah-run PA — avoid talks and go to the UN where they seek an international fiat rather than an agreement. Meanwhile, the far more popular extremists of Hamas govern an independent Palestinian state in all but name in Gaza with an iron fist and use it as a terrorist launching pad rather than to help their people.
A few Jewish homes aren’t the obstacle to Palestinian statehood. Their existence would make no difference to a peace deal that spoke of the 1967 lines with swaps, if that was actually the Palestinian goal. The problem is that to the Palestinians and their terrorist leaders, the E1 area is no more or less a settlement than the rest of Israel. Until they can rid themselves of the rejectionist spirit of 1947 in which they rejected the first UN vote to give them a state, talk of peace is empty rhetoric.
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4)Obama warns business GOP debt-ceiling 'game' will hurt economy
President Obama warned Republicans against using a hike in the debt ceiling as leverage to win entitlement cuts, arguing it would play havoc with the economy.
In an address to corporate CEOs at the Business Roundtable, Obama said business leaders “should not accept going thorough” another debt-ceiling crisis like the one in 2011 that caused stocks to fall and led Standard and Poor’s to devalue the U.S. credit rating
He warned a repeat of that showdown would be a “catastrophe” for the nation that would cause a “self-inflicted series of wounds that will potentially push us back into recession.”
Obama’s use of the business venue for the comments was meant to invoke a contrast between his stewardship of the economy and Republicans'. It came in front of business leaders that have differed with the White House over financial reform and the new healthcare reform law.
The president told the CEOs that a fight over the debt ceiling would cause more uncertainty for business. “We can't go there again,” Obama said.
He also quoted Business Roundtable President John Engler, the former Republican governor of Michigan, who said the debt ceiling was "not a good weapon for anything except destroying our own credit rating."
Obama’s comments drew a sharp rebuke from Republicans, who argue Congress’s role in raising the debt ceiling serves as a key check on excessive government spending. GOP leaders noted proudly they were able to force some $2 trillion in cuts during the debt-ceiling showdown last year.
In talks with congressional Republicans to prevent a series of tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to begin in January, Obama has called for changing the way the debt ceiling is raised. Obama’s proposal would remove much of Congress’s role in raising the debt ceiling, making it more difficult for lawmakers to oppose a hike to the borrowing limit.
“The president wants to have the ability to raise the debt ceiling whenever he wants, for as much as he wants, with no responsibility or spending cuts attached,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “This is an idea opposed by Democrats and Republicans alike; it's a power grab that has no support here.”
Earlier Wednesday, the Treasury Department posted a statement advocating that Congress adopt a so-called "McConnell Provision," named after an idea first floated by the GOP Senate leader. Under the proposal the debt ceiling would automatically increase, and Congress could only stop it with a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers.
"Extension of the McConnell Provision would lift the periodic threat of default from the U.S. economy and remove politics from future debt limit debates, while preserving Congress’ essential role in spending, revenue and borrowing decisions," argued Treasury spokeswoman Jenni LeCompte.
But McConnell's office rejected the Treasury Department's characterization of his idea and indicated he would not support such a plan today.
Obama said GOP use of the debt ceiling as leverage in the current round of tax and spending talks was a "bad strategy for America, it is a bad strategy for your businesses, and it is a game I will not play.”
The main fight in the tax-and-spending talks has been over tax rates on wealthier households, which Obama wants to raise. Republicans have ruled out an increase in tax rates, but have been willing to agree to higher taxes in the form of eliminating tax breaks.
The GOP also wants more spending cuts and reforms to Medicare and Social Security, which Obama has balked at so far.
Obama on Tuesday rejected a House GOP proposal that would have reduced the deficit by $2.2 trillion. It included $800 billion in new tax revenues.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday the burden was on the president to propose a plan that was acceptable to both parties.
“If the president doesn’t agree with our proposal and our outline, I think he’s got an obligation to send one to the Congress — and a plan that can pass both chambers of Congress,” Boehner said. “If you look at the plans that the White House has talked about thus far, they couldn’t pass either house of the Congress.”
“We’re ready and eager to talk to the president and to work with him to make sure that the American people aren’t disadvantaged by what’s happening here in Washington,” he continued.
There has been some speculation in Washington that Republicans could use a debt ceiling fight in February or March of 2013 to exert deeper spending cuts and entitlement reforms from the White House. In that scenario, Republicans would agree to a deal that would raise tax rates on the wealthy but turn off scheduled cuts to the Pentagon set forth by Congress last year.
Boehner has dismissed the suggestion, and White House spokesman Jay Carney on Wednesday called it implausible and irresponsible.
Speaking with the business leaders Wednesday morning about the tax and spending debate, Obama said that leaders could “probably solve this in a week.”
“It's not that tough,” Obama said. “But we need that conceptual breakthrough that says we need a balanced plan.”
He also emphasized again that he did not believe a package could only include the closing of tax deductions and loopholes on the wealthiest taxpayers, arguing that rates also needed to rise on the wealthy.
"It's possible to do theoretically, but it is not practical to do… the notion that somehow we're just going to eliminate charitable deductions is unlikely," Obama said.
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5) Wrote to my friend:
Thinking about all this and more this morning, I am continually struck by the realization that the Rs in negotiating with BO are arguing with thin air. Then they compromise as quickly as they can to get a deal. When the ether doesn't respond, they give in more . . .and so and so on. They are so eager to cut a deal so they don't get blamed - when they are going to be blamed anyway.
Question: Is Boehner purging conservatives from committees and committee chairs to save his own butt as Speaker? Is he buying his Speakership by selling chairs and committee positions? Just a thought in my cynical little mind.
My friend's response:
ED:in response to your comments below.
I think Boehner is really not a leader------he somehow evolved into the Speaker's job, but like many people who become managers, in either the public or private sectors,
they simply are not cut from the mold of a Patton, Gingrich(ego and arrogance not withstanding), Romney, JFK, Jack Welch, Iacocca, etc.
I have worked in both civilian and military arena's-----some people have it and some people grow into it, and some people never develop the necessary leadership and management
skills to control, manage and lead an organization to peak performance. Even many small business owners are great plumbers, for example, but fail miserably when they hire
three more plumbers to grow the business. Good managers find subordinates who are better and smarter than themselves, knowing that their exercising of great leadership and
management skills, "that" manager, the overall organization, and his/her subordinates will thrive, grow and prosper together. Along the way poor performers are identified and eliminated.
"Boehner cleaning house"-----he is getting rid of internal threats, rather than controlling, leading, molding, and developing them for the good of the entire House.
By removing them from the key committees he does not have to tolerate their critique. An incompetent manager cannot handle critique----so the whole organization suffers and may fail.
I would have fired him years ago if he worked for me. We have a bad situation that will only get worse. He has no guts to take on O. Scared to death of him. Which is the trait
of a weak leader, weak person, in over his head, obviously. Peter principle personified-----Peter Drucker's definition of what I just described here.
As Kenny describes below----we also have an incompetent, so far in over his head president, that we have a virtually rudderless ship. The body in the west wing will survive and prevail
as long as he has all his cronies covering him and protecting him------incompetent dictators survive only because the people around him want their jobs more than they want what is right
for the good of the organization-----it is why evil dictators can survive-----they have the power of life and survival over all their underlings. Boehner is a weak dictator, O is a dictator in pretty much absentia.
His cronies are throwing the spears---Valerie Jarrett is the lead and evil spearchucker. O just passes it on. Obviously, he has no qualifications what-so-ever----none, nada, devoid of real organizational
and management skills---all he knows are Alinsky's Rules for Radicals which is not about leadership---it is about control, humiliation, and degradation of ones enemies for the ideological "END" purpose.
Bob......
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6)
Planting the Seeds of His Own Demise
The conservative comeback begins now -- on the assumption that a majority of Americans will not welcome a second Great Depression.
Stop that cringing! I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it's not pretty for today's neo-Marxist Democrat party.
The man you see before you as your President today bears a striking resemblance to the main character in a Greek tragedy. He so reeks of hubris. Every word that drops from his lips speaks a haughty derision of the lesser beings not benighted to be a cog in his political machine. All witness Obama the Magnificent, the conqueror of America, which was the world hyperpower, but is now the Sick Man of the 21st Century, en route to terminal illness.
Middle class beware. Did you not hear four years ago Obama the Magnificent bewail that America with 4 percent of the world's population consumes 25 percent of the world's resources? So unfair,you know, the magic incantation of the Obama Regime. He told us that "we just can't keep driving our SUVs, eating whatever we want, keeping our homes at 72 degrees at all times regardless of whether we live in the tundra or the desert, and keep consuming 25% of the world's resources with just 4% of the world's population, and expect the rest of the world to say you just go ahead we'll be fine."
The sloppiness in El Primo's thinking there is revealed by the phrase "the world's resources." But America in reality never consumed any of the world's production. It always only consumed 100% of America's production (including what it traded some of that production for).
That is why previous American Presidents would have said, you got a problem with the American standard of living, you just address your complaint to the Seventh Fleet. But under Obama, America does not even have a Seventh Fleet anymore. We barely even have a First Fleet, and that is doomed to the sequester budget guillotine, on the same road as America's formerly dominant nuclear deterrent.
So much for America's former morally embarrassing global military dominance. And Obama has the same solution for America's former morally embarrassing overconsumption. Reduce America with 4 percent of the world's population to consuming just 4 percent of the world's resources, a decline of 84 percent from its former standard of living. That would be fair, in Obama's eyes. Richard Trumka, call your office.
The Obama Timeline to the Dustbin of HistoryConservatives who want to fight back should start with Obama's Second Inaugural Address and his 2013 State of the Union. These will be grand pronouncements of neo-Marxist principle and strategy. Books should be written unwinding them. They will be monuments to the Obama tactic of Calculated Deception, i.e., taking advantage of what he is sure a majority of Americans do not know, and what he calculates the Democrat party-controlled media won't tell them.
But in his hubris, and self-deception, Obama will plant the seeds of his own demise in the words of those addresses. Every paean to the middle class should and will be written in stone and compared to subsequent performance. Every promise to the poor and working people will be stored for future reference as the impact of Obamanomics on the poor and working people unfolds.
At about the same time, the first shoe will drop -- the 2014 Obama Budget proposal. This will outline what America's socialist future will look like under the Grand Vision of the Great Marxist, as the numbers crunchers effectively force Obama to confess that he wants higher taxes to pay for higher spending, which is what the budget will show. Check out in particular CBO's long-term projections of federal spending, and the national debt. They will show Obama is proposing the so-called Swedish socialism of the government taking and spending more than half of the entire GDP. (Even the Swedes have grown past Swedish socialism.)
Since the end of World War II, two-thirds of a century ago, federal spending has been remarkably stable at around 20 percent of GDP. But in his budget, Obama will propose doubling and even tripling that over the long run, as CBO's long-term projections will show. His budget will also propose national debt spiraling well beyond even what has trashed and ruined Greece, as CBO's projections will also show. In other words, Obama's hubris will lead to worse than a Greek tragedy.
These will be simple indicators of the socialism that has taken over the modern Democrat party. But if you want a simple indicator of why Obama is indeed a Marxist, you can find that in what he repeatedly says about his own tax policies. In a world where, according to official IRS data, the top 1 percent of income earners pay 39 percent of all federal income taxes, three times their 13 percent share of income, and where the middle class, the middle 20 percent of income earners, pays less than 3 percent of all federal income taxes, while earning 15 percent of income, Obama wants to raise all income tax rates on "the rich," so that they will pay what he sees as their fair share.
To a normal person, the fair share of federal income taxes for a top 1 percent earning 13 percent of income is 13 percent of the taxes. For a Marxist, the top 1 percent earning 13 percent of the income while paying only 39 percent of the income taxes is unfair because it is only fair for the top 1 percent to pay most of the income taxes by themselves.
A normal person would see that policy as social theft. But a born and bred Marxist would see that as social justice, because it is unfair for the top 1 percent of income earners to even exist. Their income and wealth is not earned in the Marxist view, but stolen from The People. So it is only fair that the people steal it back.
Don't believe it? Then ask the Obama Administration for their explanation as to why their tax policy is fair. If they say they want everyone to pay the same tax rate, then why are they not for the flat tax? And if that is their standard of fairness, why are they not proposing tax rate cuts for "the rich"? According to the CBO, based on official IRS data, the top 1 percent pay an average federal tax rate of 29 percent, taking into account all federal taxes. The middle 20 percent of income earners, the middle class, pays an average federal tax rate of 11.1 percent. The bottom 20 percent of income earners pays an average federal tax rate of 1 percent.
Warren Buffett, call your office, which is the headquarters of the largest tax shelter in the world. The more Obama raises tax rates on the rich, the more will flee to Buffett's tax shelter, which protects investors from precisely the capital gains taxes, and taxes on dividends, that Obama is raising the most. Buffett is laughing all the way to the bank, but if you are middle class, or poor, the joke is on you, as we will see.
The Second Shoe DropsThe second shoe to drop will be the budget proposal of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, which will come a month later, and will be adopted by the full House. That budget will propose to maintain the long-term historical average of federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, under which America prospered as the mightiest economic engine in world history. It would eliminate most of the deficit after just a few years. As CBO's long-term projections will show, the national debt as a percentage of GDP would stabilize, and then begin a long-term decline, avoiding the Greek tragedy.
That would be accomplished, moreover, without a single American suffering. Ryan's pro-growth, modernizing, entitlement reforms would be better for the poor and seniors than the current, old-fashioned, outdated, tax and redistribution entitlement programs, and all of their perverse incentives, that end up hurting the poor and seniors. Find me a single American who would be a living example to the contrary.
At the same time, the Ryan budget will propose individual and corporate tax reform with sharply lower tax rates for everyone. The difference will be made up by closing tax loopholes, even without counting the resulting boost to economic growth. That economic growth would produce more tax revenue on net, which would eliminate the deficit entirely within a few years. In fact, in a thriving, grown up, completely honest country, these tax reform proposals would be scored on a dynamic basis, which would allow for even lower tax rates, producing even more booming economic growth.
As Ryan has proposed in the past, these reforms would include a 10 percent income tax rate for families earning less than $100,000 a year, and a 25 percent rate for families earning more. It would reduce the federal corporate income tax rate to 25 percent, close to the global average top marginal corporate rate. These will be wildly popular proposals.
You might say this will all make no difference. The exact same has happened each of the last two years, and it made no difference to the American people. No one noticed.
That was the fault not only of the Romney campaign, or of the Republican Party. It was the fault of the conservative movement more generally. Why did that movement not rise up, drive home the truth to the American people, and hold Obama and his Democrats accountable? We have been ringing those alarm bells right here in this column for two years. But not only has the Democrat party-controlled media failed to take notice. Most of the conservative movement has as well.
But this time more shoes will drop, shoes of reality that will do the job the conservative movement failed to do, and that Obama and his neo-Marxist Democrats will not be able to evade.
Do Not Ask for Whom the Bell TollsFirst, the Republicans themselves will get more feisty, I kid you not. A month or two after the Ryan budget goes public, House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) will have the proposed tax reforms written in legislation, scored, and introduced. His Committee will vote the proposals out to the House floor soon after that. The House will pass them.
That will demonstrate the falsehoods that have been told alleging that these Republican tax reforms "do not add up." When that happens, conservative media, the Tea Party, and grassroots conservatives should start calling for those fake "journalists" and misleading "commentators" in the Democrat party-controlled media to resign.
Of course, Harry Reid's Senate will ignore the House passed tax reforms, just as it will Ryan's House-passed budget. Indeed, the Senate will continue to break the law, by failing to pass any budget at all, or even to try. This is where House Speaker John Boehner can man up, by literally suing Harry Reid for failing to obey the 1974 Budget Act, which the then Democrat-controlled Congress enacted. Indeed, Boehner, who is just about the only person who would have standing to sue, should file a class action on behalf of the American people. The case of John Boehner and the American People v. Harry Reid can ask the court to enjoin payment of all Senate salaries until the Senate complies with the law. Win or lose, the case would dramatize and drive home the point to the American people.
But that is only the beginning of the Greek tragedy that will rapidly unfold, and engulf the Obama Administration and the Democrat party. About that time America will begin to miss the Bush tax cuts, really really bad. In his hubris, Obama will maintain his non-negotiation ploy of my way or the highway over the extension of the Bush tax cuts, and the fiscal cliff, with sweeping tax rate increases for the nation's job creators, investors, and successful small businesses, and no specific, proposed spending cuts at all. The Republicans will not take the bait, and the Bush tax cuts will expire in their entirety.
That is when the American people will recognize that Bush cut taxes for all taxpayers, including the middle class and working people, contrary to Democrat and liberal mythology propagated at such wildly overrated media institutions as the New York Times and theWashington Post. Obama and his controlled media bloodhounds will say that the resulting tax increases on the middle class are the Republicans' fault for refusing to go along with Obama's Marxist tax policy. But even the Republicans and the conservative movement will not be able to screw this one up. For even they will be able to retort that the Bush tax cuts were Republican tax policy enacted into law by Republicans, and it took Obama and his new Marxist Democrat party to let them expire.
The Democrat DepressionEven worse for Obama and the Democrats is what the reality of life will be like without the Bush tax cuts. All those soaring rate increases, along with Obama's abusive regulatory policies, soaring federal spending, deficits, and debt, and the Fed's continued mischief, will definitely drive the economy back into recession next year. So far, the Democrats' Marxist Obamanomics has produced the worst economic recovery from a recession since the Great Depression. But for the economy to go back into recession before there has been any real recovery from the last one now four yearsago will be widely recognized as the Depression 2.0.
During the Depression decade, the recovery from the first downturn was better than the recovery America has suffered under Obamanomics. But the renewed recession so soon after the first one drove unemployment back up, and wages and incomes down still further, and put the Great into the Great Depression, in the words of Amity Shlaes.
And that is what next year will bring with renewed, double-dip, recession. Unemployment will soar back into double digits, above even the prior post-Depression peak of 10.8 percent. The deficit will break new world records, soaring past $2 trillion. The national debt will spiral further out of control, bringing the lifestyle of Greece to America. Poverty will set new post-Depression records. Wages and incomes for the middle class and working people will plummet further.
Where will it all end? The same place it ended last time. Reagan gave us Peace Through Strength. Obama will give us what his idol Roosevelt gave us, War Through Weakness.
America won World War II by driving up the national debt to an all time American record of 109 percent of GDP. But Obama in his second term will have run up the national debt beyond that, even without any war, while he unilaterally disarms our nuclear deterrent, which the American people have now empowered him to do as our Commander in Chief.
I am consequently predicting that America's foreign enemies, seeing America has trashed its defenses, and cannot even finance a war to defend itself, will be tempted beyond resistance to attack the American homeland. The result will make 9/11 look like a mere skirmish. The Great Marxist will then politically have turned into The Great Pumpkin.
Thank you, "Progressives." You will then really have transformed America.
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7)'Everyone in US under virtual surveillance' - NSA whistleblower
The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including members of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In an interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this information against anyone.
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