"Not One Single Dime"

Today Congress is debating whether the Bush Tax Cuts should expire or be renewed. The fact that this is being debated at all amazes me. The worst thing you can do during a recession is raise taxes. Everyone knows that; even the most uneducated among us.

The second worst thing you can do is try to spend your way out of a recession. But of course we know the Obama Administration has already attempted that. And, as expected, it has failed miserably regardless of what the President and Mr. Geithner are saying at every opportunity.

During the Presidential campaign in Dover, New Hampshire on September 12, 2008, then candidate Obama stated the following:

"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.... You will not see any of your taxes increase one single dime."

This sounds strikingly similar to George Bush’s claim in 1988: “Read my lips, no new taxes.” We all know he broke that promise. We all know he failed to get reelected. Hopefully, the same will happen here. When Obama allows the George W. Bush tax cuts to expire on December 31, 2010, it should be the final nail in the coffin for hope and change. All of us who are hoping for change may now actually get what we want.

It should also be noted for the record that President Obama has already broken this promise once before. The Health Care Reform Act contains a number of tax increases that originally were called penalties. After much chagrin, the Obama Administration finally had to admit these were taxes not penalties. Since that has been opined upon to death by commentators, I will not dwell on it here. Just suffice it to say he has already increased taxes on the lower and middle classes.

This article is primarily about the Bush tax cuts. And if they are allowed to expire, beginning in 2011, your taxes will increase by much more than one single dime as Obama stated. The raise will be much, much greater. Here's why:

Ryan Ellis wrote an article published July 1, 2010 on a website called Americans for Tax Reform. Mr. Ellis goes into some detail regarding what lays ahead if Obama and the Democrats get their way and allow the tax increase which, by the way, will be the largest tax increase in American history. Voters should arm themselves with this information now in order to make intelligent choices in the voting booth in November. By the way, it may not help regardless of who gets elected in November because a lame duck Democratic Congress with an angry Leftist President may be the most dangerous thing this country has ever seen. Beware mid-November through January!

Here are some facts on the tax increase scheduled for January 1, 2010:

• Personal income tax rates will rise...

- The 10% bracket will rise to 15%

- The 25% bracket will rise to 28%

- The 28% bracket will rise to 31%

- The 33% bracket will rise to 36%

- The 35% bracket will rise to 39.6%

• The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.

• The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level thereby bringing back the so called marriage penalty.

• The dependent care and adoption credits will be cut.

• There will be a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. (If this is allowed to happen, then George Steinbrenner saved his heirs almost half a billion dollars by dying this year).

• The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent to 20 percent.

• The marginal rate on dividends will rise from 15 percent to 39.6 percent

• Health savings (HSA) and flexible spending accounts (FSA) can no longer be used to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines.

• A $2,500 cap on flexible spending accounts FSAs will be added.

• Tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA will double to 20 percent.

• Small businesses will no longer be able to expense up to $250,000 in capital purchases. Instead, the allowance will be reduced by 90% to only $25,000.

• Large business will have their expense deductions slashed by 50%.

• The “research and experimentation" tax credit will be eliminated,

• The deduction for tuition and fees will be eliminated.

• Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

• The student loan interest deduction will be eliminated.

• Charitable contributions from IRAs will be eliminated. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.

To make matters worse, the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) will now be levied on at least 28 million families. That's a seven-fold increase from last year when it was levied on 4 million. This “AMT” disallows many deductions and exemptions such as state and local income, sales tax, property tax, accelerated depreciation, medical expenses and other tax preference items such as Intangible Drilling Costs. Instead, it sets a minimum tax rate of either 26% or 28%.

And because the AMT is not indexed to inflation, the number of households affected by this tax will dramatically increase over time. This was predicted by the Congressional Budget Office way back on April 15th, 2004, when it issued this statement:

"Over the coming decade, a growing number of taxpayers will become liable for the AMT. In 2010, if nothing is changed, one in five taxpayers will have AMT liability and nearly every married taxpayer with income between $100,000 and $500,000 will owe the alternative tax."

In short, the AMT disallows deductions otherwise available under standard IRS rules, and is based upon a very complex set of criterions.

If these changes are allowed to happen, it will be disastrous for the economy. Small business will be stymied. Spending by private business will be substantially lowered or cease completely. What does that mean? Unemployment will go up. We will not only have a double dip recession, we will probably have an economy worse than that of the Great Depression.

Right now, every economic indicator shows that the economy is barely holding onto the ledge. Anything that would cause investors and/or private sector business owners to stop spending may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. These tax increases contain a number of such straws.

For example, if you raise the Capital Gains and Dividend Tax Rate, you will be directly hitting investment. Investment is what drives the economy. For every dollar an investor pays in taxes, it is one potential dollar that will not be used to finance another company or to increase capital expenditures in an existing company. It also makes less dollars available to hire another few employees should the need arise. It also takes the incentive away to make more money. Remember the Lauffer Curve whether you agree with it or not.

The same is true if you increase the write-off period on big ticket items. If a company is permitted to expense $250,000 in capital expenditures each year, it may be more inclined to make purchases of big-ticket items than if it can only expense $25,000 per year. Anything over $25,000 would now have to be capitalized and charged off over a number of years. Private sector business will no longer make those purchases or they will decrease dramatically. Look at what happened after the Homebuyer Credit and Cash for Clunkers ended. It would be the same thing. Jobs will be lost and/or not created.

Middle Class homes will not make additional purchases as well. If you cause an average family to pay an additional 5% in taxes, that is 5% less discretionary income to keep the economy moving. Plus, if people lose faith in the economy, more money goes into savings which is also dangerous because money saved is not money spent. Personal savings rates are already up so this is already happening.

In addition, we are on the verge of a deflationary spiral which is considered a disaster to an economy in the sense the people do not tend to spend money when they think prices are going down because they are waiting for price decreases. Manufactures, then lower prices to stimulate purchases. This does not work because every price decrease is met with more expectations on the buyers for more price decreases. The last time this happened in the United States was in the 1930’s. We have now had three straight months of decreases in the Consumer Price Index. At what point are we officially in such a spiral?

When you couple the tax increases set for January, 2010 with the possibility of deflation, we are on the precipice of a disaster the likes of which this country has never seen. Also, by the way, does the printing of fiat money in the manner that the government has in the past 18 months scare anyone? Shouldn’t we be in the midst of the greatest inflation this country has ever seen? This is a doomsday scenario waiting to happen.

In closing, it is my opinion that this tax increase cannot be permitted. It is not the way to close the budget gap. Congress must find other ways to do so. They cannot rely on more taxes. They must limit the size of government by necessity even if that is not what they want. Governor Schwarzenegger has had to do it in California and it has made him extremely unpopular. Sometimes the tough decisions are the necessary ones.

Congress must reign in spending. Keep the tax cuts in place for another 4-5 years or make them permanent. Give the economy a chance to cycle its way out of this depression. Do not make it any worse.

Maybe we can start by eliminating some government programs. Maybe the Department of Energy which has proved useless should cease to exist? Maybe the Health Care bill should be left unfunded? There are many other ways to curb the spending even to the extent of privatizing the Post Office.

A tax increase to allow uncontrolled spending to continue is not the answer, especially in light of the fact that President Obama will be breaking one his most solemn campaign promises. Of course with him that does not seem to be an issue. He is breaking promises ever day he is in office. Maybe that is why his approval rating currently stands at about forty-three percent.

© 2010 by Craig Covello and Frank DeMartini. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

"Passionate Conservatives Versus Radical Progressives Versus Anarchists, What's the Difference?" by Craig Covello

A few days ago was April 15th; tax day. If you are among the 50% who actually pay federal income taxes, you might consider this a day of sadness regardless of whether you're getting a tax refund. After all, the government has your money and a significant portion has been given to those who don't pay taxes.

But by now we all know that a growing number of people who actually do pay taxes have formed an organization called the Tea Party Patriots with the express purpose of protesting the socialization of America. Last year, they turned out in numbers by attending over 800 events around the country. This year probed to be the same. The political left and the media have unsuccessfully tried to paint this organization as racist, artificial, homophobic and uninformed. They have also implied that Tea Party Patriot rallies create a climate for potential violence. If you've read my articles in “The Obama White House Diaries” dated February 24 and April 6, you know that nothing could be further from the truth. Despite that, some people probably still believe that all activist organizations, regardless of polarity, are pretty much alike because they are comprised of people who appear to be on the fringe of society. That assessment would be wrong.

Gallup poll confirmed earlier this month that Tea Party participants truly represent the larger demographics of our country. They are not "fringe". They are simply standing up for constitutional principles upon which this nation was founded. Tea Party Patriots play by the rules, obey the laws and express their views in a straightforward, honest manner. They don't believe in any form of violence. This is demonstrated by the fact that there have been virtually no arrests at any Tea Party gatherings to date, which have numbered close to 1000. Here is a statement taken from The Tea Party Patriots website which expresses the tenor and tone of the movement:

"Last year on April 15, 2009, millions of hard-working Americans stood in unison at over 800 protests around the country. These protests, which became known as the Tax Day Tea Party, expressed real concerns against reckless government spending and spawned millions of Americans to get involved in their local Tea Parties which today are holding elected officials accountable."

Let's compare that with some recent events and statements made by those who presumably oppose conservative politics.

Example 1 - Last Friday night in the New Orleans French quarter, a group called Iron Rail rallied some protesters of their own in order to crash a Republican dinner fundraiser for Gov. Bobby Jindal. The group assembled in front of Brennan's restaurant and shouted obscenities at patrons, many of whom were families having dinner and not part of the Republican event. The crowd tried to rush the restaurant doors, but were driven back by police. Later that evening around 11 PM after the crowd had dispersed, it appears that a group of men stalked Jindal's chief campaign fundraiser Allee Bautsch and her boyfriend Joe Brown as they left the restaurant. Both were beaten savagely. Both are in the hospital, One had to undergo surgery. There were conflicting stories whether or not the attack was politically motivated, but Bautch's purse was not taken. I'll let you draw your own conclusions. Here is the charter statement from Iron Rails' website:

"Founded in December 2003, the Iron Rail is committed to an anarchist, antiauthoritarian, feminist, anti-racists, queer positive and class conscious politics... as an anarchist collective, the Iron Rail has no bosses or managers. Group decisions are made collectively in weekly meetings and members are encouraged to be creative in initiating individual projects."

Example 2 - A recent letter was sent to over 17,000 school employees by a teachers union known as the New Jersey Education Association. The association's president, Joe Coppola, jokingly prayed for the death of New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

"Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson and my favorite salesman Billy Mays. I just want you to know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor."

Example 3 - On March 26, 2010, someone shot a bullet into Congressman Erik Cantor's campaign office in downtown Richmond Virginia. Police have judged this to be "a stray bullet as part of random gunfire". No suspects have been found. Cantor is a Republican, and many have speculated this violence was in response to Republican opposition towards health care bill. But again, that's speculation.

Example 4 - There is a new movement called "Crash the Tea Party" which was founded by a middle-school teacher from Beaver Oregon named Jason Levin . The following statement was taken from their website:

"Who We Are: A national network of Democrats, Republicans, and independents who are all sick and tired of that loose affiliation of racists, homophobes, and morons; who constitute the fake grassroots movement which calls itself "The Tea Party."

“What We Want: to dismantle and demolish the Tea Party by any nonviolent means necessary.”

“How We Will Succeed: by infiltrating the Tea Party itself! In an effort to propagate their pre-existing propensity for paranoia and suspicion... we have already sat quietly in their meetings, and observed their rallies.”

“Whenever possible, we will act on behalf of the tea party in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities (misspelled protest signs, wild claims in TV interviews, etc.) To further distance them from mainstream America and damage the public's opinion of them. We will also use the inside information that we have gained in order to disrupt and derail their plans.”

“Sound like fun? It is!! If you'd like to join us, just click on the word "crash!" Below...”

Sounds like fun? This guy is teaching our kids. So let's review. We have beatings, shootings, jokes about killing political rivals and covert activity, all directed towards conservatives.

I think I've made my point.

http://www.crashtheteaparty.org/

http://www.teapartypatriots.org/

http://thehayride.com/2010/04/the-brennans-beatdown-piecing-together-a-story/

http://biggovernment.com/kolson/2010/04/13/death-prayer-for-nj-gov-christie-is-yet-another-tasteless-attack-on-reform-minded-state-leaders/

© 2010 by Craig Covello. Used with permission. All Rights Reserved.

12 Taxes in Health Care Law Violate Obama’s Pledge Not to Increase Taxes on Households Earning Less than $250,000

This is an article that must be read.  It simply says it all and shows how truthful our president is to the American public.

This bill truly is about redistribution of the wealth.

Frank

“Die Quickly”

Representative Joe Wilson shouts in the House Chamber to President Obama during a speech on Health Care Reform, “You Lie,” and is forced to apologize to the President directly and compelled to apologize in the House where the incident occurred. He chooses only to apologize to the President. This did not make him many friends in the Democratic Caucus. They could not bully him into a formal apology in the Chamber. What happens next, the Democratic House votes to rebuke him in a meaningless resolution. Of course, the vote is along party lines.

A few weeks later, Representative Alay Grayson of Florida, who also happens to be a Democrat, says while debating Health Care Reform on the House Floor:

"If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly. That's right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."

And, what happens to Grayson: Nothing! The Democratic Congress does nothing. Speaker Pelosi says she will not force him to apologize or withdraw his statement. A resolution along the lines of the one rebuking Wilson is introduced in the House by the Republicans and fails. This is just another example of the Democratic double standard that exists in Congress.

But, the deeper question is this: has the debate over health care gotten to the point where the Democrats say that Republicans want Americans to die and Sarah Palin throws remarks out like “Death Squads.” Has it all come down to fear mongering and hatred on both sides? What happened to the intellectual form of debate, not only in Congress, but in the media as well?

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article for this column entitled, “Why We Can’t Sign onto the Democrats Health Care Reform?” In that article I attempted to give a carefully thought out argument relating to Conservative issues in the current Democratic proposal. I am not in Congress. Why can’t our elected leaders do the same? Why must they resort to fear and hatred? Is it because they have no faith in the American public to understand policy decisions? If that is the case, they are deadly wrong. We do understand and that is why President Obama and the Democratic Congress cannot get HR 3200 passed in its current form despite their overwhelming majority.

Senator Baucus of Montana, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is fighting to get his proposed bill through the Committee. The bill has been in the mark-up phase for about two weeks. Numerous amendments have been added to it such that it has been reported to be now over 1,000 pages long. Here they go again.

And, now, Congress is debating whether this bill or HR 3200 will be available online for 72 hours before any vote on them. Why are they even debating this? Wasn’t that one of President Obama’s main campaign promises? Did he not promise more transparency in government? Didn’t he want to stimulate fair and open debate?

The very liberal Saturday Night Live ran a skit last week in which President Obama was parodied. The main point of the skit was not that the President is too liberal, but that the left should be just as mad as the right because after nine months in office, the President has done absolutely nothing. You can find the skit at: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/obama-address/1163263/. And, one of those nothings is more transparency.

Both the Congress and the President do not want America to see either proposal before they are passed. They do not want any more debate. They know that if intellectual debate continues, the current form of Health Care Reform will fail. At first Senator Baucus’ bill looked like it would work. It was just a bad enough proposal to get both sides a little angry. It smelled like an old fashioned form of bipartisan compromise.

However, to the dismay of the Democratic Leadership, it did not contain the required public option. The Democrats from the far left have sworn that a bill without the public option will not happen. The Republicans will not vote for any bill with a public option. The middle of the road Democrats, the Blue Dogs, are the key. So, maybe the plan is to just sneak the public option in at the last minute, create a sense of urgency and convince the Blue Dogs to vote for it. This is not transparency. This amounts to lies and deceit. Hey, maybe Wilson was right?

I have another question regarding this issue. Why will this miraculous form of Health Care Reform that is being proposed by the Democratic Leadership not take effect until 2013? Maybe, because the President and Congress both know what a disaster it will truly be and they want the President safely into his second term before the disaster strikes. Again, this seems deceitful. Hey, maybe Wilson was right?

President Obama says he wants the bill to be revenue neutral and will sign it in no other form. Yet, neither the President nor Congress has any plan on how to pay for it and keep it that way. Other than higher taxes that is. Oh, I’m sorry; the President and Congress are not calling them taxes. Remember, Obama promised that no one making less than $250,000 per year would have higher taxes. So, how is this bill being paid for: penalties. Sounds to me like taxes, after all if it smells like a duck . . . Again, maybe Wilson was right?

But, I digress. The point of this article is supposed to be about civilized debate. That is what we need. We need Health Care Reform. We all agree on that. Maybe Congress should stop trying to bite off more than it can chew and debate the real issues on Health Care Reform. Only, after real civilized debate will we be able to come up with a plan that actually works and makes both sides a little mad and both sides a little happy.

As I have stated before, the Republicans want the following issues addressed and debated. If the President wants this bill to be bipartisan and wants some Republican support, we need the following to be debated:

1. Coverage for Pre-existing Conditions;
2. Tort Reform;
3. Insurance availability across state borders;
4. No coverage for illegal aliens;
5. No coverage for elective abortions; and,
6. A means to pay for it that makes sense across the board and that will somewhat revenue neutral. (Anyone that thinks this is not going to cost some money is dreaming).

The Republican Party does not and has not ever wanted people to “die quickly.” It does not want people to die at all. But, it does want a carefully thought out plan that protects the people, the sovereignty of the states, and is fiscally sound. Representative Alan Grayson is definitely wrong and should apologize to the American people for his outlandish and hate filled statement.

© 2009 by Frank T. DeMartini. Permission to copy will be freely granted upon request.

Big Government, Big Mistake

The biggest success of the Spending Bill”, oops “Stimulus Bill,” is ending. Yup, that is right; “Cash for Clunkers” is going away on Monday. Why? Because it was such a big success, the government ran out of money for the program not once, but twice. This time President Obama is shutting it down. No more money. It is finished. The official spin is that is brought the automobile industry back from destruction. Or, did it?

In my opinion, it is just another example of a government program that did not work contrary to what I said in a prior column. To begin with, the government mistook the popularity of the program and only allocated one billion dollars of stimulus money to the bill. That money ran out in less than two weeks. Then, Congress immediately allocated another two billion dollars. That money is running out in less than four weeks. Another Big Government miscalculation!

But, the problem with “Cash for Clunkers” is even deeper than that. Automobile dealers started threatening this week to stop utilizing the program because they were not getting the government money. They were selling cars under the program and waiting for the check to show up. Some dealers have not gotten any money at all yet. So, they threatened to stop using the program. Fearing another publicity debacle, a few days later, the President ended the program. Smells fishy right? Maybe, the dealers will be waiting a long time for the money, and the government wants to stop the bleeding because it cannot handle the demand and does not want the situation to worsen.

Further, I have been told that there are people in Southern California that are buying crappy cars for $500.00, taking them to a dealer and leaving with a new car. The only problem is that the new car is sometimes heading south of the border. No payments to be ever made. And, no repossession, because the cars are gone. Really smart; right? Another carefully thought out government plan! The taxpayers are now paying for cars that may not get paid for or kept in America. Big Government, Big Mistake!

“Cash for Clunkers” is just another example of a long list of government failures. It seems that every time the government gets involved in anything domestic, it fails. The first example shall be Social Security. To most people this is the most successful of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Well, it is bankrupt and many people in my age group believe they will never see a dime from any money they have contributed to the program.

From its conception, Social Security has been problem filled. Congress has tried to save it countless times and it still goes broke every few years. I remember during the Reagan administration, we were promised that Social Security was fundamentally sound after another tax hike to keep it funded. How many times have we heard this same story since then? And, again Social Security is broke. Big Government, Big Mistake!

Do we even need to talk about the great success of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society?” Or, should I just say that most of the programs are no longer in existence and those that are, well, they are broke. Let us start with Medicaid and Medicare. Both parts of the Johnson plan and both are broken and broke.

The welfare programs of the Great Society have pretty much been eliminated. And, who eliminated or fixed them? A Democratic President that admitted they needed fixing. But, did he do it with a Democratic Congress? No, he did it with a Republican Congress. In summary, the Great Society is just another example of: Big Government, Big Mistake!

How about a few words now about the biggest government failure ever: the United States Postal Service. If there was ever an entity that needed to be privatized, this is it. Take it away from the government and it will immediately become a profitable and lean organization, instead of the nearly bankrupt mess that it is. Who can be proud about an organization that’s claim to fame in the last twenty years is coining the phrase, “Going Postal!” Big Government, Big Mistake!

So, why do we insist on creating more programs? Obamacare is the latest program on the table. I and my blogging partner Ira Schwartz have written ad nauseam about this pending social disaster. The people are openly rebelling against it. And yet, Congress does not get it. The Democratic Congress has stated within the last 24 hours that this bill is going to be rammed through even if it does not get one Republican vote; even if the Blue Dog Democrats oppose it; even if they must invoke Reconciliation in the Senate; and most of all, even if the majority of the country opposes it.

Barney Frank told his constituents at a town hall meeting this week that he did not even care what he was being asked about the health care bill. Obamacare was good for the country and it was going to happen. He did not even answer questions asked because he did not have respect for the people asking them. Nancy Pelosi does not care. Barbara Boxer does not care. Harry Reid does not care. President Obama does not care. It is going to happen. And, when it does, what will be the result: Big Government, Big Mistake!

Do everything to stop it for the reasons cited in prior columns and because it is bad for the country. Force the Democrats to come up with a bipartisan health care bill that the whole country can be happy with! We cannot afford one more, Big Government, Big Mistake!

© 2009 Frank T. DeMartini. Permission to copy will be freely granted upon request.

Tax and Spend is Back

My movie for the ABC/Family Channel and Millennium Films, “The Prince and Me 4,” is pretty much in the can. We have two more days of shooting in Bangkok and will be finished on Saturday. The last few weeks have been very hectic as we have been pretty much shooting in the jungle with all of the infestations that come with being in a jungle. I must say that I’ve seen more creatures that I never new existed during this adventure; all of them creepy and crawly.

But now we have a break for the first time in four weeks and I am ready to start thinking about the economy and politics again. After reviewing the news today and catching up on articles that were sent to me by my readers, it seems that the world truly is falling apart. Well, at least, that is what Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama would want everyone to think.

The biggest spending package in the history of the United States, in the guise of a stimulus package, is now law. Unfortunately, as I have said many times in the past few months, it is not working and will not work. Unemployment is up. California has just hit double digits in that category. The banks are still not loaning and foreclosures were up 30% in February. The economy is shrinking, although at a much slower pace than Obama and Pelosi want you to think. And, what do our friendly Democrats say they want to do to end this recession? What do you think? Spend more. Congress is already contemplating another stimulus package after spending 870 billion dollars of “fake” money a few weeks ago.

Let’s give more people more free money. That’s what I always say. Oh, I’m sorry, not me, the Democrats. Well, it seems to be working with the public. Obama’s approval rating after less than two months is at 60%. However, major economists are not buying into the Obama euphoria. According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, economists gave Obama an average score of 59 out of 100 on his economic performance. The majority sentiment from these economists is that whatever is being done is being done too late.

I beg to differ with these economists in one major way. I feel that too much money is being spent. This presidency is beginning to look like the traditional tax and spend policies of Democrats that go back to Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. The old world Democrats are back to haunt us. Maybe I should go back to my cave in the jungles of Thailand. Am I mistaken or did the United States reject this kind of thinking by not electing George McGovern, Walter Mondale, or Michael Dukakis president?

Stimulus packages do not work. Japan in the 1990’s passed one stimulus package after another. Nothing helped. The recession and zero percent interest rates lingered. The only thing that ends recessions is the end of the cycle. Just leave it alone and it will get better. That is the right way to deal with this. Putting the country deeper and deeper into debt will just make the recession worse.

This recession, as bad as it is, is not nearly as bad as Obama and his cohorts are claiming. It is more comparable to the recession of 1981-82 than that of the Great Depression. Bradley R. Schiller, an economics professor at Nevada–Reno in a recent article entitled, “Obama’s Rhetoric is the Real Catastrophe,” makes a strong case that the numbers in this recession do not pan out with the Great Depression and that Obama is “turning fear mongering into an art form.” Isn’t this exactly what people blamed the Republicans for in the last eight years? After 9/11, all we heard was that Bush and Company were using fear to keep the American populace at bay.

I agree with Professor Schiller. Unemployment now is at about 8% nationwide. In the 81-82 recession it peaked out at about 11%. Both of these numbers are way below that of the Great Depression where it peaked at more than 25%. The Congressional Budget Office is predicting that the economy will shrink by approximately 2% this year. That’s about four times less than the economy shrank for three years in a row in the early 1930’s.

Basically, Mr. Schiller is arguing that Obama’s words may be creating more of a catastrophe than the actual economic numbers are showing. If Obama does not stop, consumers will not purchase goods and services. Obama will have created a self fulfilling prophecy and we will be in the middle of a second Great Depression.

Wall Street seems to agree that Obama is failing as well. On February 10, Treasure Secretary Geithner unveiled Obama’s economic plan to the country. Since then, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off almost 20%. In fact, other than the last two trading sessions, the Dow has almost completely collapsed. At what point will people start believing in the economy again? Maybe, they need a little pep talk along the lines of Ronald Reagan, instead of the catastrophic talk that is coming out of Obama, Pelosi and Reid’s collective mouths.

Senator John McCain has recently been quoted as saying that the 870 billion dollar stimulus package is full of earmarks. One of his recent TV appearances had him stating that Obama ran on a platform against earmarks and now he has passed the biggest earmark in Congressional history. I guess he forgot his campaign promise or just ignored it.

A careful look at this stimulus package proves McCain is correct. The biggest individual earmark in history, two billion dollars to build a power plant with zero emissions, is a guaranteed failure. Even the best minds at MIT say that this technology is not available yet. Maybe, Obama is just beginning to realize that this is how Congress works? Or, maybe he knew that all along and he should just tell the American public the truth. He is going to do whatever is necessary to get his Socialist agenda passed into law, including bankrupting the American government. In fact, some of the pundits are beginning to call him “Comrade Obama.”

Another wonderful earmark that was in the spending bill is a pet project of Senator Harry Reid: A beautiful museum for his home state of Nevada. I don’t care what kind of museum it is, the federal government should not be paying for it. But do not tell Harry Reid that. It is something he really wants. Maybe if he screams and yells loud enough he will get the Federal Government to pay for the high speed railway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles which is another of his pet projects. At least, I will get some enjoyment out of that. No more driving on Interstate 15 on Friday afternoons. However, I am sure the businesses along Interstate 15 would suffer tremendously. No more “Bun Boy,” “Barstow Station,” or “Peggy Sue’s Fifties Diner.”

A reader of mine, Tay Voye from Spokane, Washington stated to me in an e-mail that the, “870 Billion raid on the treasury is the biggest theft in the history of mankind and most people I know think it is just great…scares the hell out of me.” Right on, my brother. This, coupled with Obama’s recent budget proposals show that our Democratic friends do not care how much they spend, even if its borrowed money.

Obama’s recent budget proposal has an expected deficit of 1.7 trillion dollars. That’s right, trillion. Even in Bush’s worst deficit year, he spent only about 500 billion more than the government collected. President Bush may have doubled the deficit in his eight years in office, but Obama is going to try and double it in his first four. In fact, at the current pace, he may triple it if he gets reelected. Obama’s proposed budget deficit is 12% of the GDP. The last time we saw that number was in 1945 during the highest spending period in World War 2. Bush’s absolute worst number does not even come close. But, President Bush is one of the most hated men in the country and Obama is one of the most loved. I just do not understand this.

Another one of my readers, Lew Whitehill from Kentucky stated that Obama is, “On a dangerous path for the country. Wall Street is voting every day with the Dow as the ballot. . . .undisciplined spending and uncertainty keeps the Dow moving lower. This is just a bare bones starter regarding Obama who is most ambitious in attempting to dismantle the free market and discourage risk reward incentives. Those that I know have seen their net worth plummet without any real signs that their net worth is recoupable. In other words, I can’t stand him and what he stands for. Neither can most of the people that I deal with. So, I ask myself, where is the 50-60% of the populace that support him? Those idiots are out there somewhere.”

If Obama’s approval rating is still pretty darn high, at least, the majority of the country feels that Congress is failing. The latest average of polls has their disapproval rating at 55%. Maybe, we can get rid of them in two years and then Mr. Obama will have no more power. He may have to live with a hostile Congress that will not let him do whatever he wants. Although, his beloved Democratic Congress is not letting him do too much without their earmarking anyway.

I must state for the record that Obama is keeping some of his campaign promises. He is doing everything he can to keep the pro-abortionists and pro-death supporters happy. One of his first acts was to sign an executive order cancelling one of President Bush’s executive orders that was anti-abortion. And, just this week, he signed or should I say executed an order making stem-cell research more readily available in the country. I am sure this makes a bunch of Republicans in the south that voted for him really happy. Of course, I am sure he does not care about them anyway. He just needs to keep Illinois, New York and California on his side. They support him financially and that is all he needs. Maybe, they will abandon him as they see their pockets getting progressively emptier.

It’s time for me to close this week and in closing I would like to say that I will be back in the United States in about one week. I hope it is the same as when I left it. Of course, I am definitely a lot poorer than when I left. Shooting this film in Bangkok has been a pleasure and I want to thank all of my hosts in this wonderful country. You all know who you are. Now, it’s on to post-production.

© Copyright 2009 by Frank T. DeMartini. Permission to use excerpts will be freely given.