OBAMA'S $33 BILLION TAX CREDIT

During his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, President Obama brought up one point that really interested me. I guess the reason that it made me wake up from the mind-numbing stupor that the rest of the speech had put me in is because ... I had advocated it from the time of the first stimulus program.

The tax credit for businesses that hire new employees should have been part of the stimulus program from the beginning. Not that I don't think that building tunnels under roadways in New England so that frogs can safely cross the road was not a good use of my tax dollars (NOT!), but encouraging companies to hire workers ... Now there is an idea that will improve the employment situation in the United States.

Of course, besides being late, there are several other things the President has gotten wrong on this idea. Feel free to add others if I miss anything.

1. The money should be taken out of the unspent portion of the pork-laden stimulus package ... not the TARP money that has been paid back. Use the TARP money to pay down our national debt.
2. A company can hire a worker that makes $7000.00 a year and get the entire $5000.00 tax credit ... Why would we want to do that? We need full-time job creation, not part-time jobs.
3. Companies would be capped at $500 million dollars in tax credits so that big businesses would not be getting the lions' share of this money ... If I'm an unemployed worker ... I don't care if my paycheck comes from IBM or Moe's bar and grill, a job is a job. Don't cap a large company ... if it wants to hire, let it.
4. The current proposal has provisions for tax incentives to companies that increase pay ... this is estimated to account for more than half of the $33 billion. Drop this provision and use it all for the creation of full-time jobs. At $5000.00 per job, this translates into 6.5 million jobs ... Voila, back to 5% unemployment.

As usual, the Democrats can screw-up even a great idea. Don't let them. Call your representatives and offer your support for this idea ... but ask them to make some changes.

Sphere: Related Content

Is The Recession Over???

Don't count on the recession being over just yet. We have been hearing about job losses slowing down, factory orders being up, housing sales starting to take off and the stock market chugging away ... but all this can end quickly.

Unemployment always goes down in December, as many retailers hire temporary workers for the Christmas Season. These workers are then let go in January after the sales are over.

Factory orders are up, being led by orders for cars. New car inventories were depleted by the "cash for clunkers" program, and once inventories are replenished, these orders will fall.

Housing sales were bolstered by the $8000.00 tax credit that new homeowners were given last year. Even though the credit has been extended, most of those that were in the market already purchased, and we should see a fall in housing sales.

The stock market is on a high after many companies reported huge earnings. These companies are front-loading their profit and earnings statements because the fear is that taxes will go up next year and they want to report earnings before any new tax rates set in. Wall Street will come to this conclusion fairly soon and the market will over-react, wiping out most of the recent gains.

President Obama will continue to make banks, financial institutions and big corporations his scape-goats, exasperating a hatred between the common investor and the companies that need their capital.

I'm not an economist, but this seems to be a recipe for a double-dip recession.

Sphere: Related Content

Congratulations Massachusetts

Now that Scott Brown is the Senator-Elect for the great state of Massachusetts, let's see what tricks the Democrat Party plays to shove Obama-Care down our throats. Already, one Democrat Senator, Jim Webb of Virginia wants actions on health care legislation halted till Brown is sworn-in.

Now we will see if our representatives in DC are willing to actually represent us ... or if they will once again go against the will of the American people and push their own agendas.

Hopefully this election has been a wake-up call to ALL of our politicians. We hired you ... we can fire you too.

Sphere: Related Content

They Just Don't Care What The People Want

Just when you thought that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel in the Health Care Debacle being hammered out in the back-rooms of Washington ... we find out that the results of the hotly-contested Mass. special senatorial election on Jan 19th may not matter at all.

The Senate race between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley is in a virtual dead-heat. Brown has vowed to kill the health-care bill if elected and Coakley is supporting its' passage. The fact that a Republican is even competitive in a race in very left-leaning Massachusetts is evidence that the American public DOES NOT WANT THIS BILL.

If elected, Brown would break the super-majority now enjoyed by the Democrats in the Senate. This would force our Senate to go back to the drawing board on health care and come up with a bi-partisan bill that could include some Republican ideas like "tort-reform" and the ability to purchase insurance across state lines.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE!!!

Going into their bag of dirty little tricks, the Democrats, in the person of the Mass Sec of State is telling us that it may take weeks to certify the election ... and then there is the problem of Vice President Joe Biden finding the "time" to swear in the new Senator.

If the State of Mass. elects Brown, it is because the people do not want this bill ... we want health care reform ... just not THIS bill. To delay the seating of a democratically elected Senator, just so an interim senator (appointed by a Democrat governor) can vote for this bill borders on unconstitutional ... and is against the spirit of this Democracy at the very least.

Sphere: Related Content

Do we need to waste any more money?

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has just announced that he is extending the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) till October of 2010. This is the 700 billion dollar program that was set up to bail-out banks from their toxic assets. The program was set to expire on 12/31/09 unless the administration decided to extend it.

Some banks have been paying back the TARP funds (with interest) and other institutions are in the process of doing the same. Seems that we currently have about $200 billion dollars currently in the TARP fund. Instead of using it to pay down our massive debt, the President wants to use it to stimulate job creation.

I suspect a more sinister use of the TARP money. I don't think it's coincidental that the extension of the program ends right before the 2010 November elections.

$200 billion makes for quite a nice political slush fund. By targeting these "job stimulus dollars", to congressional districts that may be at risk, the Obama Administration can help Democrats get re-elected. This is an especially nice carrot to wave in front of "Blue Dogs" that may take a lot of heat for voting for the health-care and cap and trade bills.

The $200 billion will take "Chicago-Style" politics to the National level.

Then again, I may just be a cynic.

Sphere: Related Content

Don't Give A Terrorist A Fat Lip

Back in 2004, 4 Blackwater Security guards were found murdered, mutilated and charred, hanging from a bridge over the Euprhrates river in Fallujah Iraq. The murderer behind this, Ahmed Hashem Abed, has been captured by the Navy Seals. However, 3 of our heroic Seals that helped in the capture are now awaiting a court-martial. It seems that Abed told investigators that he had been punched and had the bloody lip to prove it.

So I guess we will take the word of a terrorist against our brave troops now? No wonder morale in the military keeps going down.

I would hate to see a bunch of "killed while attempting to escape" incidents happening now ... Lest we give Bin Laden a fat lip when we capture him.

Sphere: Related Content

Will Someone Please Tell The Speaker To Shut Up

Nancy Pelosi decided to once again open her big mouth in an interview aired today on NPR. Pelosi, once again over-stepping her position as Speaker of the House, took a turn at being Secretary of State. She denounced Afghan President Hamid Karzai as an "unworthy partner", undeserving of a big ramp-up of troops or civilian aid.

Madame Speaker, since when is foreign policy made in the House? I think you need a refresher course in the Constitution! Policy is made at the Executive Branch ... the Legislative Branch decides the funding.

Now I have no doubt that the Speaker is well aware of what she is doing, and have a strong suspicion that her stupid comments were cleared by the White House. As our Ditherer-N-Chief is still several weeks away from a decision on troop levels in Afghanistan, perhaps San Fran Nan is setting a base from which a "No New Troops" movement can grow.

As for the President, the excuse of it will take 3 or 4 months to get the troops to Afghanistan, so there is no need to hurry is getting a little thin. If you had made your decision when the troop request was made ... the troops would already be starting to arrive and our young men and women in the combat zone would already be a little safer ... or do you even care?

Sphere: Related Content