The American Spectator : Washington's Plot to Explode Your Taxes

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The Obama Watch

Washington's Plot to Explode Your Taxes

By Peter Ferrara on 6.24.09 @ 6:08AM

How else will the Obama plan meet its goal of total social and economic transformation?

Everyone in Washington knows the record Federal deficits and debt are out of control and can't continue. President Obama knows it. The ultraliberal Democrat Congressional leadership knows it. Rank and file Congressional Republicans and Democrats know it. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has been openly saying so.

Obama's economic policies, adopted by the Democrat-controlled Congress, call for total Federal borrowing of $3.5 trillion this year alone! The Federal debt is projected to soar over the next 10 years to a peacetime record of 84% of GDP, and to keep on growing past the all-time record of 113% of GDP during World War II. Rep. Paul Ryan, ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, projects it will climb to 200% of GDP, twice the size of our entire economy. That would be 5 times the level of national debt that prevailed for decades before Obama.

This is the result of adding Obama's extreme, liberal left, Keynesian economic plan, with its trillion dollar stimulus package of wasteful spending that will do nothing to stimulate the economy, on top of the exploding costs of our current entitlement programs.

Obama's New Amerika

But not to worry, because the Congressional Democrat leadership and President Obama have a plan. First they are going to pass national health care, adding the biggest entitlement of all to the fiscal catastrophe we already have, giving new definition to the term fiscal insanity. Then, after that, they are going to come back to us and say, gee, we have no choice now but to raise your taxes, really, really, really raise your taxes, to record-shattering levels, to levels so high that it will change the fundamental nature of our economy and our nation.

After that, America will no longer be a land of prosperity and booming economic growth, as it has been for hundreds of years, since early colonial days. It will no longer enjoy the highest standard of living in the world. It will instead be America the Welfare State, with a government so big and overwhelming that everyone will be scrambling to get their personal gravy in government handouts, rather than producing for the marketplace and consumers.

Example Number 1 of this will be the new Obama health care system, where the doctors and hospitals will all be working for the government, who will be paying their bills, not you the patient, who will just be along for the ride. When the government tells them not to provide medicine for macular degeneration, or cancer treatment for senior citizens because it is not "cost effective," or referrals to specialists until it is too late, the doctors and hospitals will all hop to and salute, because they will be desperate for their slice of federal funding.

In this new system, everyone -- patients, doctors, hospitals, etc. -- will all be sacrificed for the "greater good," as defined by the liberal left. Doctors and surgeons now refusing Medicaid and Medicare patients because the government won't pay them enough will find the same government is refusing them adequate payment for everyone. Cost pressures will lead the government to clamp down more and more over time on payments to doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and other health providers. They will be vilified in the media just like the bank executives are now in regard to their traditional bonuses. As a result, investment will collapse in new hospital capacity and medical facilities, and development and adoption of new, cutting edge, health technologies and advanced, high tech, miracle drugs, sacrificing the interests of sick patients. This is how Canada got to the point where a hospital room could not be found in British Columbia for a mother experiencing accelerating birth contractions, and she had to be flown over the Rockies to the next state, Alberta, while giving birth, to find maternity care. Human capital will flee the health system as well, as older doctors retire early and new ones choose other professions instead, further constricting care for sick patients.

The Current Entitlement Catastrophe

Adding this new, massive, health care entitlement on top of the enormous entitlement mess we already have could not be more ridiculous and wildly irresponsible. The latest Trustees' Reports show that the current unfunded liability for Medicare alone is $89 trillion. Social Security adds another $15.1 in unfunded liabilities, for a total of $104 trillion. And that doesn't even count Medicaid. The entire American economy right now only produces about $14 trillion a year.

Since World War II, going back 60 years, federal spending as a percent of GDP has been stable, hovering around 20%. But the cost of the three big entitlement programs alone, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, is now projected to balloon eventually to 20.5% of GDP. Counting burgeoning interest on the national debt, on our current course federal spending will rocket towards 40% of GDP. Counting state and local spending, total government in America will consume over 50% of GDP. GDP will collapse in the face of all that spending and the resulting taxation and debt, increasing the percentage of government spending further. America will no longer be a free country, at least in terms of the freedom of people to enjoy the fruits of their own labor and decide how to use what they earn for the pursuit of happiness.

This doubling of federal spending as a percent of GDP implies a doubling of federal tax rates. The Heritage Foundation reports that trying to pay all of the promised benefits of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by raising income taxes would require raising the top 35% tax bracket to 77% and the 25% tax bracket paid by middle income earners to 55%. All income tax brackets, in fact, would have to be doubled.

By 2018, less than 10 years from now, Medicare Part A will be running a deficit of close to $100 billion. General revenue contributions for Medicare Parts B and D that year are now projected to be $364 billion. Consequently, the deficit for Medicare alone that year will be close to $500 billion (and that assumes a scheduled reduction in doctor and hospital reimbursements of over 20% starting in 2010). Yet, Obama and the Left are preparing to fight for an "option" for everyone to join Medicare or its equivalent as the answer to our health care problems. This is their "public option," which they say will keep insurance companies honest. But who is going to keep the government honest? These people just cannot be numerically literate.

How the Plot Will Work: A Tax Increase for 95% of Americans

After Obama's socialized medicine plan is passed, the hue and cry will start coming out of Washington, and will be echoed throughout the Democrat Party controlled media, that something has to be done about this fiscal catastrophe. The answer will be to appoint a new federal spending and tax reform commission, which will report back just after next year's election. America will then be permanently mangled by the enactment of extremist, bone-crushing taxes early in 2011.

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topics:
Taxes, Entitlements, Government Spending

About the Author

Peter Ferrara is Senior Fellow at the Carleson Center for Public Policy, Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Heartland Institute, and General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under the first President Bush. He is the author of America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb, now available from HarperCollins.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (77) | Leave a comment

Melvin| 6.24.09 @ 7:32AM

I thought I would never ever hear myself say this, and even at this movement I am still seeking a sign that would prevent me from saying so.
But to echo the words of my now deceased father. "I don't condone what Timothy McVeigh did in Oklahoma City, and it was very wrong in murdering all those innocent people, but dammit he parked in front of the wrong building."
My father was eluding to the fact that Timothy McVeigh should have parked in front Congress and the Senate.
We the people have tried everything to redress our grievances to Congress and the Senate, we have pleaded through letters, emails, and phone calls to our elected representatives but our message of smaller less intrusive government has unfortunately fallen on deaf ears.
Our government seeks to remake us into something that Americans are not and they will seek any means to achieve that goal.
But we the people must also achieve our goal through any means possible as well.

Big J| 6.24.09 @ 8:08AM

Melvin, I couldn't agree with you more. I take comfort in the knowledge that the American people cannot live in tyranny, that it is not in our genetic make-up. At some point, I fear that it will become a physical battle, though I prefer the voting box. I stand ready in any case, and firmly believe that the majority of Americans do as well.

The liberal elite class wishes to create a country full of government dependents, to destroy and rebuild our nation in their image, with complete control of our lives centered in the cesspool that we call Washington D.C.

Not on my watch, my friends.

Curly Smith| 6.24.09 @ 8:19AM

That's a mighty bleak picture but it overlooks two important points:

- All of Medicare's liabilities will be rolled into the new National Health Plan; and
- Those liabilities will disappear when future Health Care is rationed by the National Health Czar

There are a number of studies showing significant "wasteful" medical spending occurs during the last few months of a patient's life and you can be sure that the new Health Czar will implement a plan to minimize those costs. The Czar could use actuarial tables and refuse treatment to those who have exceeded their life expectancy (which then reduces the life expectancy in future table updates) or simply declare that no medical treatment will be given after age 60 to avoid wasting precious Health Care Resources on people who aren't contributing to society. Of course, large donors to the DNC will be exempted from the rationing restrictions as long as they keep their donations current...

Jack Olson| 6.24.09 @ 8:32AM

High levels of taxation will stimulate high levels of tax evasion, hence tax enforcement will become ever more coercive and intrusive. Now that state governments are dependent on the federal government for most of their revenue, they will cooperate readily with the new, stricter tax collection. It is already impossible for a private citizen to tell whether or not he has complied with the nightmarish federal tax code, but when the rise in federal taxes drives most of the population to tax evasion and stimulates more and more lobbyist demands for tax advantages for the special interests they represent, everyone will naturally assume that practically everyone is cheating. And they will be right.

stephanie| 6.24.09 @ 8:36AM

I never thought it would get to this point in my life time. I am truely afraid.

And speaking of afraid, why are the republicans to damned scared of this president that they won't speak up?

JamesJ| 6.24.09 @ 8:54AM

Melvin, I, too have often said: "Lord forgive me, but I fantacize that the 4th plane made it to the capitol during a joint session of congress. on 9/11.

Bram| 6.24.09 @ 9:00AM

Curly - nothing is more ironic than hearing a Democrat talking about a government program to eliminate waste in an industry.

Emo| 6.24.09 @ 9:05AM

""Melvin, I couldn't agree with you more. I take comfort in the knowledge that the American people cannot live in tyranny, that it is not in our genetic make-up""

Dont count on it.

I dont think Obama will raise taxes to "bone crushing" levels until after he is re-elected

Greg| 6.24.09 @ 9:07AM

I sure hope that all government employees including the congress and the president are going to have to go to this health care system so they will feel our pain.

mike coler| 6.24.09 @ 9:11AM

As a retired officer, I'm scratching my head on how the same government that bought our soldiers $500 hammers, and $800 toilet seats is now going to offer blood tests and chest x-rays at reasonable prices.

Louis Jenkins| 6.24.09 @ 9:27AM

Though written 200+ years ago, the following rings true today.

Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One

B. Franklin, 1773

Article XI. To make your taxes more odious, and more likely to procure Resistance, send from the Capital a Board of Officers to superintend the Collection, composed of the most indiscreet, ill-bred and insolent you can find. Let these have large Salaries out of the extorted Revenue, and live in open grating Luxury upon the Sweat and Blood of the Industrious, whom are to worry continually with groundless and expensive Prosecutions before the above-mentioned arbitrary Revenue-Judges, all at the Cost of the Party prosecuted tho’ acquitted, because the King is to pay no Costs. Let these Men by your Order be exempted from all the common Taxes and Burthens of the Province, though they and their Property are protected by its Laws. If any Revenue Officers are suspected of the least Tenderness for the People, discard them. If others are justly complained of, protect and reward them. If any of the Underofficers behave so as to provoke the People to drub them, promote those to better Offices: This will encourage others to procure for themselves such profitable Drubbings, by multiplying and enlarging such Provocations, and all will work towards the End you aim at.

Zopilote| 6.24.09 @ 9:33AM

It's not about health care, it's about power. If it
wasn't about power then Congress would be obliged to use the same plan Obama lays on us peons. Health care is the best way to insure a permanent Democrat control of government. That and giving citizenship to illegal aliens.

Robert Rosencrans| 6.24.09 @ 9:36AM

No man, woman or child in America is safe, while the U.S. Congress is in session.

E Howard Bailey| 6.24.09 @ 9:52AM

Go to 'The Obama File' by Beckwith- the ultimate file on the net.
'The Obama file' has been selected by The Library of Congress for inclusion into its historical records.

Sue| 6.24.09 @ 9:56AM

To Gregg: Per the WSJ the other day, the Kennnedy Healthcare Act exempts all of Congress, federal employees, and the Union members. (This, of course, could be expanded to include all union members, not just the UAW). Do you think then that everyone would join a "union" just to get away from this idiocy?

The only people they are targeting are the capitalists and the real producers.

Sue| 6.24.09 @ 10:02AM

Knee Replacements Are Determined to Be Cost-Effective: WSJ = June 23, 2009

A $20,000 procedure to replace a knee ravaged by arthritis in the elderly is generally a good deal for both patients and the federal Medicare program that pays the bill, according to a new study.

The analysis, which appears in the curent Archives of Internal Medicine, found that the year of benefit cost about $18,300. Researchers said the amount fell well within the threshold of $50,000 per year of better-quality life generally considered as COST-EFFECTIVE.

The findings reflect growing interest in determining the value of big-ticket medical treatments amid efforts by the Obama administration and Congress to contain costs and overhaul the health-care system.

"Unfortunately, we as a society have limited resources and need to figure out whether we are spending our money wisely," said Elena Losina, an author of the study and a professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School. "And as it often happens, the return on investment is less in the elderly population."

Per Peter Bach, a physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and a co-arthur of an editorial that accompanied the study, "the argument is that we don't have to cut things off based on cost; we have to cut things off that don't have effectiveness. But the problem is, it's not easy to do well because we don't know what effectiveness is."

NOW HERE'S THE AMAZING PART:

Dr. Losina said the study suggests that while high-volume centers, which do more than 200 annually, are more cost effective, the difference isn't significant enough to RECOMMEND RESTRICTIONS AGAINST DOING THE OPERATION IN LOW-VOLUME HOSPITALS.

This is how we're going to get to long, long waits for surgery and even seeing a specialist. If they close down the rural hospitals because they don't do enough of a certain type of procedure, regardless of its benefit to the patient, these patients will flood metro hospitals and long waits will occur. If they don't suspend the procedure based upon cost-effectiveness first, of course.

Does anyone remember when we all felt that the "value" of life was precious no matter how old or young? We have now proceeded in our society to place dollar signs on individuals - doctors instead of alleviating suffering will now be the messenger of "suffer yea old and infirmed; we have the technology, but it's not for you."

The real tragedy of all of this is government had no business getting into health care in the first place. But now that they're in it and they are spending our money as though it's "get in free day" at the candy store and have been for 50 years now, we won't get the medical care we need to extend our lives because it may not be "cost-effective" based upon some "study" done by some unnamed paid bureaucrat. Yes, they will become unnamed as any rationing program becomes more controversial and is seen as causing people to unnecessarily die early.

Has it occurred to anyone yet that $50,000 won't even cover a "stent" operatoin? HMMMM?

Now, did anyone catch the comment from Dr. Losina about "spending our money wisely?" Can you or the government be a better arbiter of how to spend your money?

We can "waste" billions/trillions of it given to non-producers (washing cars for mayors of cities), but we dare not question the "rationing" of our resources to the elderly or infirmed?

This is pure and unabashed marxist/socialist government and if some of you are still sitting on the sidelines, I only pray that you won't need that "stent."

Oldefarte| 6.24.09 @ 10:07AM

Peter's article/comments are just about the best thoughts I have read/witnessed in my considerable lifetime concerning this age-old [currently magnafied] governmental welfare problem; and I thank him profusely for his ideas! His truth is what I've known for a long time about Obama and these liberal Democrats-------that INCREASED TAXES are their game plan to PAY FOR their explosion in welfare-related, so-called governmental stimulus. It's not a question of 'IF', but 'WHEN'!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alan Brooks| 6.24.09 @ 10:09AM

at least today's piece is accompanied by no photos of Soviet tanks, or Chinese planes.

Mike| 6.24.09 @ 10:31AM

Typically, Peter Ferrara spins a theory of conspiracy. The conspiracy is the one of the Federal government against the citizens of the United States of America. Mr. Ferrara's latest installment of his conspiracy fantasy can be seen in the scary prognostication presented above. What some conservatives don't seem recognize, or choose to ignore for ideological reasons, is that we have the government the majority of Americans want. How so? Would anyone disagree that the first priority of everyone in the Federal government is to get re-elected? How does one get re-elected? By promising NOT to bring home the bacon? I still believe former Senator Ted Stevens was hypocritically and unfairly maligned. He did what the majority of his constituents expected him to do. He did what his fellow Senator did and continue to do. I believe TAS and the GOP give voice to the diminishing number of people who don't work for government, don't work for a company that contracts with government or needs government support to stay in business and don't need the benefits of the social safety net because they are still employed. Henry Fairlie identified these people as having it made or those on the make. The number of people populating this category shrank rather dramatically during the economic meltdown. Anyone who doubts this might want to revisit last November's election returns.

Sue| 6.24.09 @ 10:40AM

Privatize "Medicare;" don't "Socialize" everyones' care:

Why doesn't the government talk about the "private market" fixing the health care mess? Instead they focus on the "private market" as causing the mess. Now, let's be practical. Does anyone really believe that it's the "private market's" fault that health care is so expensive in this Country?

Government-provided medicare/medicaid health care controls about 60% of the health care industry; this includes doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmaceuticals, durable good providers, therapists, home health, etc. Now why is the "market based" economy getting the blame for the cost/value problems?

It's really quite simple. When the government "squeezes" the reimbursement amounts to the above providers, the difference is passed on to the "private market." They have no choice. The doctors won't operate at a loss, neither will the hospitals or the others. So, we private purchasers of our insurance pick up the tab for the "unpaid" medicare/medicaid costs. We also pick up the taab for the uninsured costs via the same market place system.

If the government were to "take over" all of the health care, would our costs go down? I don't see how. We could eliminate the "profit" motive, but we would have to create a "government bureauracy" to funnel out the payments and collect the revenues. Then, think about all of the current workers in the health care industry. They would become employees of the government, therefore, exempt from the "public option" too; can you see how this does not make any sense?

Robert Reich, this morning in the WSJ, June 24, 2009: Why We Need a Public Health Care Plan,
"No other issue in the current health-care debate is as fiercely opposed by the medical establishment and their lobbies.... Of couse, they don't want it. A public option would squeeze their profits and force them to undertake major reforms. That's the whole point."

Now, what major reforms? Rationing - so the government could even pay less or not pay at all, for the medical care provided to seniors.
He further states, "critics say the public option is really a Trojan horse for a government takeover of all of health insurance. But nothing could be further from the truth. It's an option. No one has to choose it. Individuals and families will merely be invited to compare costs and outcomes. Presumably they will choose the public plan only if it offers them and their families the best deal - more and better health care for less. Private insurers say a public option would have an unfair advantage in achieving this goal. Being the one public plan, it will have large economies of scale that will enable it to negotiate more favorable term with phar. companies and other providers. But why, exactly, is this unfair? Isn't the whole point of cost containment to provide the public with health care on more favorable terms? If the public plan negotiates better terms - thereby demonstrating that drug companies and other providers can meet them - private plans could seek similar deals"

Can you believe this man is a professor of public policy at the Univ. of CAl at Berkeley and doesn't understand supply and demand economics? He answers the Trojan horse concern by saying that because government "taints" the marketplace, the private providers will somehow benefit as well. He proceeds to disclose how "of course, it's a Trojan horse" but he doesn't understand it himself.

I won't bore you with other ridiculous comments he made - but the whole gist of his supporting arguments lie in the fact that the government can be a better provider of health care than the private market. If that's true, then why do they constantly reduce their reimbursements to the suppliers? He also proceeds to attack the "profit-making" insurers by saying, and I do not kid you, "the public plan would merely force profit-making private plans to take whatever steps were necessary to become more competitive." In other words, because of the government "tainting" of the marketplace supply and demand and purchasing powers of the government, the "profit-motive" will be drummed out of existence.

Now this is their real objective.

This man has been drinking the socialist kool-aid for so long that he does not understand that when the government enters into the marketplace as a "purchaser" of anything they create a "false" market with "false values" and the taxpayer always comes out on the short end of the stick.

Of course the public option is going to be "cheaper." The government coercion of the suppliers will make it so. Didn't you see the pharmaceuticals roll over on the $83 B bill? Who's going to pick up that tab? The private purchasers of medications and the shareholders with reduced returns on investments.

This might just include you if you're in a pension, own stock or have mutual funds. But that's no matter to Mr. Reich. He just wants more government control over your lives and the "do gooder" feeling he'll get when he goes to bed at night HAHAHAHAHAHA .

The Trojan horse is true and it is coming for you and it will have inside it the czars of health care cost-effectiveness and you will see your undertaker a lot faster in your lifetime.

Sue| 6.24.09 @ 10:53AM

To Mike: The Army's slogan used to be, "be the best you could be." Now, I know it is the "Army" but what is so wrong with the citizens of this Country realizing that they and only they will have their best interests at heart? No one would suggest that there isn't room in this Country for compassion to take care of the weak and the citizens who cannot work or provide for themselves. No one would suggest that "safety-nets" are not needed. We have unemployment insurance; job retraining programs, welfare, etc. The simple fact is, none of these programs work to begin with. By the time you're fired or laid off, who's going to pay the bills while you retrain? You have to be completely destitute to get welfare. So you end up losing your house and other items.

The real issue is "take care of yourself" first. Not take care of the lazy, the moochers, and the looters. This is lost on most all of our citizens and it's primarily due to the public school system and the passing on of values to our children.

I feel as though I'm fighting the hippies from the Sixties and they will never go away. A bunch of self-indulgent, spoiled children whose parents paid their way through college, gave them everything and they still aren't satisfied. They have to remake America to not be the America of their parents even if it means destroying America for themselves.

I was from this generation, but not of this generation and to this day, I think it was a significant turning point in America where instead of becoming the "next greatest generation" they have become the "next greatest looting generation."

Melvin| 6.24.09 @ 11:06AM

People, every single one of you is absolutely correct in your opinions. We the American People have tried to do the right thing, but to no avail.
The next thing we should be discussing amongst ourselves albeit no publicly as in this forum in what is the next step.
The American public is not the U.N. the time for talking is over, we've talked we've analyzed, we've done everything that is rational is possible.
The thing of this is people, I'm not some loon walking around that has a chip on his shoulder against the government.
For the first time in my working life I had to write a check at tax time this year, on top of having extra withholding and taxed at a single rate. NC through the former Gov. of Mike Easley created their own green energy tax and now our electric bills are going up again for the second time since Jan. because the electric company is passing the green tax onto the customers.
NC Insurance Commissioner Jim Long allowed the insurance industry to jack our home owners insurance up 30%, then on top of it our local county commissioners raised our property taxes 17%, my God people this insanity must stop!!!
Now the Federal government wants us to pay more taxes on top of the increases we have already had at the state and local leaves.
Dammit the only option the working man and woman has left is through direct confrontation, our backs are up against the wall and we cannot back up any more and the only thing we have left is to come out swinging.

Melvin| 6.24.09 @ 11:12AM

I apologize for some of my previous misspellings above, the brain thinks faster than the fingers, but I get so passionate about this because at this rate I will have nothing left to leave to my children, the government will have taken it all.
I don't want my children and grand children to be slaves to the federal task master, all I want to leave them is a little something, but now all I will leave them is debt that was not created by me, but by some faceless political bureaucratic hack.

JerseyJ| 6.24.09 @ 11:33AM

Mike seems to think ... "we have the government the majority of Americans want"

Mike, you are so utterly and completely confused, it's not even worth trying to explain things to you, but what the heck ...

We can revisit last November's election results if you'd like, but that would require a complete audit of the legitimacy of every vote cast as well as an investigation of the activities of ACORN and the Black Panthers (on an aside, it would also reqire proof of eligibility of all candidates). Since the required investigations of ACORN have already been squashed by the current administration, you can bet what the results would be. Even so, I'm up for it if you are.

Despite all that, in the results are history recorded there was no mandate given in the last election. If you think that BHO garnering 53% of the popular vote means the American public wants more government in their life, you are, as I already mentioned, seriously confused. One simply needs to look at the results of the latest CA proposition votes to understand that the public (when allowed to speak) gives an emphatic and crushing NO vote to runaway spending and more government intrusion. Incidentally, the response from the CA State legislature naturally was not to take the mandate of the public's demands and try to work towards those ends, but rather to state that the Proposition system is flawed and needs to be changed so they can get back to doing whatever THEY want and not what the pesky public wants.

In the last election, the independent (small i) and anti-Bush voters were sold a bill of goods by our teleprompter-in-chief. Lying is clearly seen as a problem-solving skill or a means to an end with this guy. These independent (again little i) voters are beginning to experience widespread buyer's remorse and the number of dissatisfied customers grows daily.

The amount of untrue, half-true and barely-true statements made during political campaigns is unbelievable. We've come to expect it. Even though most know the statements are blatently false, there are still those that will vote not for practical solutions, but for pie-in-the-sky promises of "vote for me and I'll make your life better". It's sickening and people like you who perpetuate the problems based on your perception that "it's what Americans want" because "your" candidate won a narrow victory by making promises without regard to practicality are detestable to me.

Those promising you a social utopia are lying to you in order to take from you your freedom, liberty, money, control, power, etc, etc, etc. It's not some conspiracy as you think the author is claiming, but rather it is simply human nature.

The Constitution was drafted for the very purpose of LIMITING government because the crafters knew of the propensity of individuals in government to attempt to expand their own power. This country was formed as a Representative Republic in response to (as we all learned in gradeschool) "Taxation without representation". I submit to you that given the past jerrymandering of representative districts and the complete failure of senators to listen to their constituents, we are once again without representation and we all clearly know the other half of the equation, taxation, is rampant. Two hundred plus years ago this situation resulted in a revolution, I see above that there are those average Americans who think the same result is impending.

Joe| 6.24.09 @ 11:34AM

"I don't condone what Timothy McVeigh did in Oklahoma City, and it was very wrong in murdering all those innocent people, but dammit he parked in front of the wrong building."

Melvin & JamesJ and others I understand exactly how you feel. But be careful what you say, since the Obama Admin may come after you right-wing nut jobs. Who knows who is watching this web-site. These people are truely evil like the Soviet Union.

Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 6.24.09 @ 11:36AM

Having their taxes increased beyond all capacity to pay is not what the people thought they were getting by voting for obumassiah. After all, barry-the-brain promised that anyone earning less than $250,000 annually would not see their taxes increase one thin dime. Of course, he did not technically lie. The only way he would be guilty of speaking an untruth is if taxes increase exactly ten cents. Still, since it was uttered to mislead voters it would still constitute bearing false witness, but surely such a phenomenal Biblical scholar as the doofus-in-chief purports to be is every bit as expert on The Ten Commandments as he is on the Constitution of The United States. Recall that while an illinois senator, he voted to deny medical assistance to United States Citizens. This lack of medical care would effectively kill babies. This clue alone tells us all we need to know about this baby butcher. If he believes killing helpless children is acceptable because they are inconvenient, we are all in danger for our lives. If he gets the Cap and Trade Bill of his dreams and gets control of the health care system, our nation will be just as dead as an inconvenient infant struggling for its life in a hospital metal tray. Tyranny of the majority is still tyranny. That slavery was acceptable to a majority of Americans as was segregation did not make these ideas right. Denying Americans their Constitutional Liberties is always wrong no matter how many voters approve. No matter if a presi-dunce approves. No matter if a con-gressman approves. No matter if the biggest bench approves. Tyranny is still Tyranny and must be resisted at all costs. Unless we are willing to defend our nation with “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” from its enemies both foreign and domestic we must concede the moral high ground to unarmed Iranians.

Howard| 6.24.09 @ 11:38AM

Look at California as a forerunner of what the federal situation will be. Services for everyone, reluctance to pay for it, and soon the s**t hits the fan. Once our Chinese "friends" stop buying our paper, the end result will be the Federal Reserve monetizing the debt. People will look back wistfully at the Bush administration. BUY GOLD!!

Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 6.24.09 @ 11:42AM

Howard, and lead!

lynnrockets| 6.24.09 @ 11:46AM

Relax. Now sit back, take a deep breath and repeat to yourselves, "There is nothing we can do. The Democrats are in power and will remain so for a long, long time."

The Republicans no longer have any viable and strong frontrunners for 2012. The newest implosion comes from Mark Sanford (and Son) and his confused international wanderings. Don't cry for me Argentina.

This of course, follows John "Family Values" Ensign's marital wanderings. We also had Bobby Jindal-bells' wonderfully childlike nationally televised speech. Oh, and Newt Gingrinch's total alienation of female and Latino voters with the "racist" name-calling. Sarah Palin and the Wasilla Hillbillies need no further introduction. Tim Good'n Pawlenty and Mittwit Romney the sometimes liberal, sometimes conservative flip-flopper are on deck. Oh boy, the summer should be fun. In fact, let's start the fun right now with this...

SOUTH CAROLINE
(sung to the Neil Diamond song “Sweet Caroline”)

Where he began, we can’t begin to know where
But we do know that something’s wrong
Does Sanford drink?
Is this guy dumb or dumber?
Will Mark next fly off to Hong Kong?

Vans, minivans, roams about
Losing me, losing you
South Caroline
Why did Sanford leave the hood?
He should resign, that would do your state some good

Why, oh why?
Is he all-right, is the guv’nor so lonely?
Where will he next wander off to?
Maybe Frankfurt?
Frankfurt or maybe Boulder?
Not Pennsylvania Avenue

Done, he’s now done, petered out
He should be, in the zoo
South Caroline
Is Sanford misunderstood?
He should resign, that would do your state some good

(musical interlude)

South Caroline
Why did Sanford leave the hood?

South Caroline
Is Sanford misunderstood?

South Caroline

Gill O’Teen ✝✡ | 6.24.09 @ 11:57AM

I am not looking to the republi-con party to show any leadership in saving this country from the demo-communists now in charge. I would never ask a boy to do a man’s job, and the rino-cerous MOPs certainly are acting like children hypnotized by the glow of obumassiah’s teleprompter.

Dustoff| 6.24.09 @ 12:18PM

lynnrockets
++++++++++++++++++

Don't quit your day job.....

Jezzzz

Stan Redmond| 6.24.09 @ 12:51PM

I am preparing to move my business and even myself offshore. It can't happen soon enough under this clown. But in the meantime I know exactly how Obama will get away with NOT raising taxes on everyone. They won't be called taxes and they won't be collected directly by the feds. He will enact some stupid legislation calling everything a "fee" or some other stupid buzzword for tax. AND they will be collected through the states. He already has his fingers in the states through forced bailout / stimulus money and like he did to the financial companies and car companies will now require states to pick up the massive spending increases. And what will the states do? Raise the taxes on the state citizens thus shielding the Obama from any reaponsibility.

It is truly sad how quickly the government has destroyed this economy. Spending, regulation, taxes. All out of control and no one is clean on this. It will not be Americans that revive a sluggish world economy but India and Brazil and other developing countries. The rest of the world will be happily growing and the US will sit back with no money and a stagnant economy for decades to come.

BUT HEY, it's free when someone else is paying for it!

Old Texican| 6.24.09 @ 1:20PM

Melvin
I appreciate your passion...nevermind the typos.

I think you are absolutely correct...across the board.
Nevertheless:
I want you to begin thinking, "Martin Luther King" and "Ghandi".

Yes, most of we productive Americans are well armed...for deer...for quail...for squirrels...and for intruders.
Armed insurection, and/or armed revolt will make us the "bad guys".
Darn it, we have to go after these murderers with empty hands.
A lot of us will be jailed, bankrupted, or reviled in the process. Some of us might be shot, just like in Iran.
So
We gotta' march, and we gotta' sit down on the job and take NO pay that can be taxed.

Again... a good beginning is the Tea-Party movement. Please find one near you and show your face. At least FOX will cover it with pictures.

I repeat...we must not be cast as the "bad guys".

Another thought: "Timing is everything" sorta' like location location location. A rule of the universe.
I truly believe there will be an over-reach by these idiots. They are betting that we will lay down, (or lie down...for you yankee knotheads).

If cap and trade passes..."the timing" will move closer. If Card-check passes..."the timing" will move closer. If the sneaky "healthcare reform"
passes, the timing will move closer.
If Iran nukes Israel, the timing comes closer. Conversely, if Israel nukes Iran...the timing moves closer.
Melvin, you and I may wind up with our headstone saying: "He loved our Constitution"

"But", you say what if there is no one to carve the headstone?
Heh!
No fear! We WILL WIN!
The only question is exactly when, and some of us WILL be looking down from the clouds to watch it.
(Even so, Lord, come quickly)

Old Texican| 6.24.09 @ 1:34PM

Lynnrockets
Kiss my hiney! (grin)
See my post above.
We ain't gonna' lay down...and we will probably starve you non-productive idiots off even the internet if we sit down.
Your mommy may still love you...'till she gets broke and hungry.
We aren't leaving it up to "Republicans" any longer. WE shall decide when to cut your types off the tit.

Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 6.24.09 @ 1:45PM

Stan Redmond, where are you preparing to move your business and even yourself? Don’t tell if you think obumassiah’s green-shirts will try and seize you or your property before you can get away. I too am looking for alternatives, especially finding a safe haven for my family, as will many others after we are forced to gorge on massah’s despair and chains. It’s looking more and more like my only escape hatch will be found on the streets in the example of Neda Agah Soltani’s compatriots.

Old Texican, it's later than even you think. Ol' blue-lips is drawing the line in the sand on ABC tonight.

Old Texican| 6.24.09 @ 1:53PM

Hi Gill O teen
Good thoughts always. Thank you.
Do you recall where that "original line in the sand"...was drawn?
Heh!
Right here in Texas at the Alamo.

This whiney scumbag is betting on us laying down.
What if we don't? He don't know what a line in the sand even means. Not really though he thinks he does.
Best regards

bruce| 6.24.09 @ 2:10PM

time to break out the pitch forks and heat up the tar!

Mike| 6.24.09 @ 2:12PM

Sue: You write: "No one would suggest that "safety-nets" are not needed. We have unemployment insurance; job retraining programs, welfare, etc. The simple fact is, none of these programs work to begin with." Be sure to share this with all of the people who have been laid off and are relying on these programs that don't work.
Further, you write: "The real issue is "take care of yourself" first. Not take care of the lazy, the moochers, and the looters." Ah yes, the welfare queen driving the Cadillac. Reagan's favorite made up story that was, and still is, appealing to many.
And finally, you write: "I feel as though I'm fighting the hippies from the Sixties and they will never go away." Sounds like you missed the 60's and judging from your bitterness the 80's and 00's too. Pity.

Jersey J: I'm still waiting to revisit the 2000 Presidential election, but it won't happen. Enjoy your paranoia.

Old Texican| 6.24.09 @ 2:29PM

Mike,
you and your fellow pimps do pretty well, though your girls don't.
Sue ain't in your stable though, and if you screw with her further you have to answer to me...GOT IT? I shall bury you with truth....comically!

Have you got your "blue-shirt" measured yet, scumbag?
You wanna post here anymore ?

Mike| 6.24.09 @ 2:41PM

Old Texican

........and the horse you rode in on, too.

sandyinohio| 6.24.09 @ 2:47PM

Old Tex, I like your style and your thinking. I mean, when PRAVDA writes an article warning your US President not to go down the socialist path, it only ends in tears, what's a patriot to think?

JerseyJ| 6.24.09 @ 2:56PM

Mike is ... "still waiting to revisit the 2000 Presidential election, but it won't happen. Enjoy your paranoia. "

I'd welcome that as well, but do you honestly think Al "the-sky-is-warming" Gore would have steered us through post-9/11? Let's be serious. He's too busy dabbling in alchemy.

Bush was no prize I'll give you that (only because he completely gave up on conservativism and leaned way too far left to please the big-tenters and libbycans) but his mild overspending pales in comparison to the current spree which will tax us (well, maybe not you because you're collecting MY tax dollars in entitlement programs) into oblivion. Perhaps I'm a touch paranoid (I'm not, but I thought you'd get comfort in the thought), but even paranoids can have real enemies.

Now call me a racist.

Mike| 6.24.09 @ 3:20PM

JerseyJ
"but his mild overspending pales in comparison to the current spree" Two wars off the books that we are still paying for as the adults clean up the mess and the Medicare prescription program constitute mild overspending in your mind. Okay.
And, the neo-cons and their cheer leader at TAS would love to start a war with Iran. Just like in Iraq, I'm sure they will promise us that it will be over quickly and that Iranian oil will pay for the cost of the war.
Now call me an anti-semite.

Stan Redmond| 6.24.09 @ 3:22PM

Gill, India is business friendly to the extreme. Not the greatest place for a family but I have no kids to take with me. South America is good too and I was thinking about Brazil. But I don't speak Portuguise. Good luck.

lynnrockets| 6.24.09 @ 3:30PM

Suspicions confirmed. Mark Sanford was traveling with his mistress. We can now update our list of Republican “Family Values” adulterers.

Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, John McCain, David Vitter, Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Rudolph Giuliani, Ted Haggard, Bob Allen, Glenn Murphy, Jr., John Ensign, Sarah Palin (maybe) and Mark Sanford.

Mike| 6.24.09 @ 3:35PM

Stan,
When the going gets tough, the tough? go offshore. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "America, love it or leave it. When you leave, please take Gill O Teen with you.

Old Texican| 6.24.09 @ 3:45PM

Hi back, Pimp!
I've got a fine buckskin stallion. I am ALWAYS proud to ride him in...to any arena!
So thank you! I am proud of the horse I rode in on.

...Ever been on a stallion...mommy boy?
...Ever been on any horse...mommy boy?

One day soon I will tell you the joke about the little cowboy, (5' 4") who always got all the free beer he wanted...by making horses...laugh...and cry...in sequence. (great story).

Yeah, Jersey...heh!
Just imagine the mess if Algore had been President on 9/11
Picture it guys.....
"...I am deeply troubled by this, fellow Americans!
I invented the internet and I will deny these tacky people access."
Gore is a liar and a scumbag!
Obama is his little brother!

They finally grew enough ignorant people that voted for a couple of bucks....or maybe another hit of drugs.
WE productive Americans will take a stand, sooner than later.
Bye pimps!

Mike| 6.24.09 @ 4:02PM

Old Texican,
Yeah, I've been on a stallion. Know enough about horses to know that what you shovel out of your fine buckskin's stable is what you have for brains. But enough of this good natured banter. Got a tee time.

David J| 6.24.09 @ 4:06PM

Old Texacan, you make me smile. I am totally with you, except I have never owned a buckskin. Lynnrockets - if I had a trillion pages, maybe I could list all the Democrats without values, but I would probably need more room (and I would not have to lie, like you did). Sarah Palin - please, what could you say to make yourself look more foolish?

David J| 6.24.09 @ 4:13PM

Mike - You couldn't tell a stallion from a guilding... even though you probably are a guilding. Why not try using your own brain, and write something intelligent. Can you speak about the article - do you pay taxes?

David J| 6.24.09 @ 4:14PM

Sorry - that's gilding.

lynnrockets| 6.24.09 @ 4:17PM

@ David J

David-You miss the hypocrisy. You see, Democrats do not fancy themselves the "Party of Family Values"
Consequently, when they transgress in that area, they are not the hypocrites that have called on other transgressors to resign.

sly311| 6.24.09 @ 5:08PM

Well my friends, just wait until they get around to rewriting the Second Amendment. Then we'll all be grabbing our ankles . . .. We'll be throwing stones as they're doing in Iran. God help us all.

Mike| 6.24.09 @ 5:30PM

DavidJ
You mean gelding, idiot

Richard Baker| 6.24.09 @ 6:35PM

As always, Lincoln said it best. Obama intends to accentuate the opposite of everything in the following quote. As others have said here, Americans won't long endure this tyranny. Keep your powder dry.
--------------------------------------------------------------
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

.....Abraham Lincoln

Cynthia| 6.24.09 @ 6:59PM

I just pray that you are wrong, even though I fear you are right, because this is so utterly depressing. I think I am going to need to go on anti-anxiety meds for the first time in my life because I seriously cannot take much more of Obama and the media and the liberals and just watching how they are literally destroying and remaking this nation.

My parents are in their 60's and I feel great anxiety about them because they will be the ones denied care under his nationalized healthcare system. And I don't have children, but if I did, I would feel such concern for their future.

I seriously DESPISE this man and mourn what this nation once was. It is truly painful watching him bulldoze his way through and the changes he is making, all of them so insane and liberal. And all of his cohorts, including the media... there are just no words to describe the feeling in the pit of my stomach.

It feels like we are becoming like Nazi Germany. Maybe that is extreme, but look at the way people just idolize and worship Obama and the way they think anything he does is great? And so everything he wants, he gets. Has there yet been anything that has not gone the way he wanted it to? Anything denied this man? It's like he's untoucable and it's just making me sick to my stomach. And I truly think that he, and his cohorts, want a one party nation where Democrats rule and all Republicans are under their thumb, viewed as a bunch of moronic losers.

I am honestly scared and very anxious about the future. I truly feel a lot of fear. Every day it seems to grow because every day it seems that Obama has changed something else or has made another "czar" position or proclaimed yet another month GLTB month or whatever other insane thing he has done.

Every day I wake up hoping I will have one day where I do not have to hear his name. It has yet to happen.

I want to be ignorant of all this because I know I'd feel more peace, but then I'd be ignorant. But to know what he's doing and what's happening... sometimes it is honestly more than I can bear and I just grieve the America that once was and I fear what it is going to become under Obama.

Attack on Iran pending| 6.24.09 @ 7:17PM

Taxes has to rise in USA and UK, and interest rate rise, next year.

Iran has moved from USD to Euros for selling Oil, America imports oil and gas, which means America has to print more money to buy in oil and manufactured goods from China. The money printed, the Americans has to pay interest to the FED, where do you thing they will get the money from to pay the interest from?

Russia and Venerzulia are setting up their own Bank. Iraq wanted the same thing to sell their Oil in Euros, that was the only reason for the Iraq war.

Now we see the Iran Election blown up, to destablize Iran. Main players USA and UK, because their economy will be desimanated.

The false flag Drill manuvers in Israel and USA has been going on now for a few months. To change Drills into real surprise attacks, can America and USA afford these operation, no they can't. Either way America and UK economy is dead and will be for several years.

Attack on Iran, with Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and Iraq, and the prospect of drawing in China, spells the end for America in the short term, not for the RICH, but for business and ordinary people. The price of gold may reach 2000 USD per ounce.

America is looking at world war 3, and it's not a joke.

March 30 2009, Iran has dumped the dollar, America has to buy their oil in Euros.

Anyone who thinks the UK and America is not trying to topple Iran, had better read a few more books. Obama is not trusted, Obama was hand picked, to show a new face on world politics, it's a fake, he is a fake to Americans and to the rest of the world. The proof he has done nothing to lift people out of poverty he has only helped the rich Bankers.

And this healthcare plan will fall in pieces, because Obama is not incharge. Obama is a Puppet. He is to falsely appeal to the Arab world, but the Arab world has seen throught the trick.

Obamas policies is the same as under George Bush. The UK and USA policy is to divide and rule, divide and crush the Iranians.

If this is pulled off it will result in civil war, a divided people. The plan will result in the same as Iraq. Another war killing millions and a war spreading across the Middle East, costing Trillions, and the Americans has to pay the interest on the money printed, great for the Bankers, bad news for Americans.

Syria is to be the next one to be played, to get them on side. All of it is bad news, wars cost money, and no one has money at this time, America can print their own money, but the people has to pay interest on the Trillions of
debts.

Times on Line| 6.24.09 @ 7:27PM

From Times Online July 13, 2007

Iran demands oil pay in yen not dollars
The dollar fell against the yen this afternoon on reports Iran has asked Japan to stop paying for its oil in dollarsRobert Lindsay
The dollar was driven down against the Japanese yen this afternoon, hit by the news that Iran had asked Japan to pay for its oil purchases in the Japanese currency and not in dollars.

Iran has sent a letter to Japanese refiners, signed by Ali A Arshi, the general manager of crude marketing and exports for Iran's national Iranian Oil Company, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The letter asks for yen payments "for any/all of your forthcoming Iranian crude oil liftings." The request is for all shipments "effective immediately".

Japan's oil payments to Iran rose 12 per cent last year to 1.24 trillion yen (£5 billion).

Related Links
Dollar dive lifts pound above $2.03
S&P fears credit crunch
Sub-prime warning drives dollar to record lows
The yen dropped against the dollar initially coming down to below 120 from 122.40 but later recovered somewhat on strong consumer confidence data from the US.

Iran has been deliberately moving its exposure to the dollar and dollar-based assets, faced with the threat that the US could freeze its US-based dollar accounts in response to its nuclear plans.

Three big oil producing nations — Iran, Venezuela and Russia — have all been moving much of their foreign currency reserves from dollars to euros in recent months.

The latest move can only add to the long term pressure on the dollar, already hit by worries about the US economy based on the crisis in the sub-prime mortgage market.

It was also under pressure against the euro and sterling as US retail sales for June showed their sharpest drop for two years. This was later countered by consumer sentiment data showing consumers had high confidence in July.

By mid session Wall Street was trading up on its record rise from yesterday with the Dow Jones index up 29 points at 13890.

Against the euro the dollar was still close to all-time highs this afternoon at $1.378 and against sterling it was $2.033.

Still Working At It| 6.24.09 @ 7:56PM

Lynnrockets, you say that Democrats don't fancy themselves the Party of Family Values. When I think of family values, I think first of a mother and father who are married (to each other), and who raise their children to live decent, productive lives. Do you see those as values to be rejected? Are they really so terrible?

When Democrats and Liberals cackle over the downfall of someone who promoted "family values," I'm reminded of this: Even if my marriage falls apart because of something that I do, or that my spouse does, there is still such things as Love and Faithfulness. We may have failed at reaching them completely, but they exist. Same with Family Values -- even when we don't attain them, they are worth striving for and respecting.

I don't know anyone who has reached every goal they've tried to reach, or is perfect. Do you?

Sue| 6.24.09 @ 8:39PM

Lynnrockets and Mike: you guys must be from the 700 teachers who stand around all day doing nothing. Just like UAW workers! Getting fat and lazy on the taxpayers' dole.

Democrats do not fancy themselves the "party of family values?" I remember a couple of pols running on this platform!

I guess you could say they are the party of soul destroyers (abortion up to birth), party of looters (always taxing to death the middle, upper classes; party of divisions (always touting the poor, the disadvantaged while doing the looting); the party of drunk drivers and murderers (Kennedy, Ted); the party of job seekers (that's a certain type of job that begins with a B); the party of liars (SS will benefit you in your old age - it is not a tax); party of atheists who believe that their "rights" actually do come from government;

Yea, you're right. You don't have any values or principles for that matter. You're worse than a hypocrite - but I'm at a loss for words as to what you are. I thought it may be something that starts with an e and ends in an l. But that couldn't be it if you're an American citizen.

Stan Redmond| 6.24.09 @ 8:50PM

Mike, "when the tough get going"

ABSOLUTELY!!! When it is unbearable and unprofitable to run and maintain my business because of government intrusion and high taxes I have decided to move offshore. If it were a friendly business evironment I wouldn't even consider leaving but would instead expand and hire more people (3 currently). But what I've seen and the innevitable taxes, mandates, cap and trade fees, and regulations coming down the pipeline, I have no choice but to close the doors because I won't make enough money to bother working. SO! I will move to more lurcrative and business friendly places where I am not hated and despised by the government and goons at ACORN for running a profitable business. The only way I can protest against this nonsense is by moving offshore.

Mike| 6.24.09 @ 8:54PM

Sue,
Clearly you are one of those students who missed many, many classes, or you are the product of a private education not renown for academic rigor.

Sue| 6.24.09 @ 8:55PM

Mike: You completely missed my point and I'm not bitter; why, I was labeled a "disadvantaged" female and presented with all kinds of gifts - unearned and not taken by me; all of this in the 80s too.

I've listened to the liberal crap since I was 12 years old. There are so many citizens of this Country who are an embarassment to our revolutionaries, our war heros, and yes, our founding fathers. They had one chance to get it right and I still believe they did. If you want to destroy this Country, you will have to destroy me doing it. And, I think there are a lot of others out there who feel the exact same way I do.

There is nothing wrong with hard work and toiling day after day to reach your dream. Everyday, millions of Americans have done it, are doing it and will continue to do it. It doesn't matter to me if your dream is to be a night watchman or the President of the US. It's your dream and you have the right to attain it in this great Country.

I've listened to the spoiled children of the 60s, the 70s, the 80s and the 90s and now the 2000s and the rot gets more and more rotten with every generation. Each generation wants to "remake" the Country because it didn't go their way or they think they have a better way. The founding fathers knew the way and it is the right way and until something better comes along, I'll die supporting it.

You, on the other hand, just might find yourself in the dead of winter with nothing to eat but your wife (maybe, for you, girlfriend). (Jamestown - The Starving Winter) Everyone thought they were too good to work during the spring/summer and getting the crops in for the winter; let someone else do it; we're the elites of this community. Well, almost all of them died. This will be so again if we don't teach our children the "values" that make this Nation so great.

Sue| 6.24.09 @ 9:04PM

No, Mike. I know my history; I've lived enough to see it, taste it and remember it. I've heard it from my parents, my grandparents and my great grandparents. You, on the other hand, don't seem to have much use for it. The only thing you see is what you want to see. You don't really feel for America, you only feel for yourself and what you have not become not what you could have become.

Keep trying, though, buddy. Your ship will come in some day. I wonder though, when the going gets tough, which side will you chose?

The Social Security Act of 1934 clearly states to "raise revenue" that's why the Supreme's said it is not an "insurance plan" and we have no right to our payments. It will be the same with health care, only the right to receive "payment" will be whether we live or die and who decides when.

I lived that history (the ruling) too.

Martin Howser| 6.24.09 @ 9:14PM

Fellow Citizens of the Republicof the USA.
You need to wake up and now. Obama is not a patriot! His very actions show this. I think that he wants to destroy this country either by economic omission or commission.

The power in this country resides in Congress. They can stop him but we need to replace most of them. They gave us Obama the horrible Tsar of socialism and Marxism.

Replace Congress with true patriots and Obama can be stopped dead in his tracks. Big irresponsible government is not what we need; Congress gave us this economic disaster by not doing their jobs and taking money not to do their jobs.

We must be prepared to remove most of them in 2010. If we cannot we are doomed as a nation.

Pray to God to provide us the leadership and the courage to support it to regain our country from our corrupt Congress.

John II| 6.24.09 @ 9:31PM

For whatever it's worth, I throw my towel in with Sue. It's occurred to me more than once over the past several months that the greatest service the Prophet Obama may have rendered to this great American experiment which he despises is to force the rest of us to think more clearly about what we believe.

Obama is a (relatively insignificant) part of something that seems to emerge with some regularity in the American experience: he is the temptation that the rest us have to think more clearly about in order to resist consequentially, so that that the American experiment may continue.

I think it's almost eerie how this kind of temptation presents itself. In the first place, Obama has already done a great service to the experiment by destroying the Clinton machine. But his next, less obvious service will, I believe, be to galvanize those who still believe in the American experiment: I mean, those who are called paleoconservatives and neoconservatives and libertarian wham-whams, or whatever. I mean, those who really don't believe that the state should be any more than a referee overlooking the real action of the game: the entrepreneurial types who fashion new ideas and new modes of productivity, and the honest thinkers who marvel at the strangeness of it all and suggest proper roles for the doers and the low-key overseers (again, the state referees who make calls on the best plays, but don't pretend to be athletes themselves).

The preposterous Carter helped give us Reagan. To me, it's already beginning to look as if the preposterous Obama will give us . . .? I'd settle for Jeb Bush, but I'm getting old. All I know for certain is that the quality of conservative public discourse and reflection has risen dramatically in the past six months--just as it did during the Clinton years.

Still Working At It| 6.24.09 @ 9:45PM

Mike, I notice that you look down your nose at some folks here for mistakes in spelling and other matters unrelated to the topics being discussed. I myself used an incorrect word in my previous comment, because I changed a sentence too quickly. Ad hominem attacks may be fun, but they don't advance the discussion. And if you believe that you have had educational advantages over others who are here, why would you lord it over them? Isn't that mighty elitist for a Dem/Lib?

just a citizen| 6.24.09 @ 10:01PM

As I watch the series "John Adams", I see that the same may come to pass in our lifetime.
I see people becoming more and more disalusioned with BHO but know not what they can do besides what they do in the voting booth.
I say get involved in your local government, state government and federal government.
GET INVOLVED!!! You can make a difference.

bobc| 6.24.09 @ 11:38PM

We have a President and Congress that refuses to listen to the people, Obama said he would listen to both sides, but he isn't. He is a very closed minded person.

I think he is breaking us on purpose, I believe he actually hates this Country as well as most citizens.

He will go down in history as
1. The first black President
2. The first president to bring the USA down to her knees, never to get up.

What a legacy!

I am very sad to see this happen to our Country and all the calling, faxing and emailing them...does no good.

What an arrogant bunch of elitists we have in DC.

Mandarin Traveler| 6.25.09 @ 12:41AM

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

If you don't know where these words came from, you probably graduated from public school.

TAX & SPEND UK & USA POLICY| 6.25.09 @ 7:07AM

World Dictatorship
G-20 Summit In DC On 11-15-8
By Webster Tarpley
11-10-8

This is a confidential strategy paper for the November 15 G-20 summit in Washington DC. This is not a new Bretton Woods in any sense, but rather a British-steered attempt to impose the dictatorship of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the entire planet, wiping out all hope of economic recovery, the modernization of the developing countries, and national sovereignty at the same time.

Under this plan, the IMF would dictate the economic policies of all states. The IMF orthodoxy is austerity, sacrifice, deregulation, privatization, union busting, wage reductions, free trade, the race to the bottom, and prohibitions on advanced technologies. These policies would strangle humanity.

The Brazil-Russia-India-China bloc is reportedly objecting to putting so much power into the hands of the IMF, which is dominated by the US and the British, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Treasury Secretary Paulson of Goldman Sachs laying down the party line.

The new Chinese economic measures are the opposite of the bankers' bailouts imposed so far in the wealthier countries. The Chinese will spend $585 billion on infrastructure, transportation, housing, and food production, with special attention to railroads, airports, and roads. The Chinese package is in the spirit of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal, and it will maintain forward progress for China. The US $700 billion bailout and the UK and EU versions are a futile attempt to prop up the $1.5 quadrillion derivatives bubble. Sensible economic policy starts with wiping out the derivatives cancer.

The interest of humanity can only be served by preventing the Washington conference from carrying out the plan outlined below. If Russia, China, and the developing countries can mount an effective opposition, the world will divide into two blocs - a pro-derivatives, anti-production Malthusian-monetarist bloc, which will tend to fall behind because of its own policies; and, on the other hand, an anti-derivatives, pro-production bloc of nations seeking modern technology, and the full fruits of scienitific and economic progress. Persons of good will in all nations are encouraged to mobilize to make sure that their own country joins the pro-production, anti-derivatives bloc.
Preparations the for economic summit in Washington on November 15 are well advanced. Here are the five points which are currently on the agenda to be adopted by the invited heads of state. The overall philosophy is to continue globalization by reinforcing free trade and by creating a world economic government under the IMF.
The IMF Program Reads As Follows:

1) require the credit rating agencies to be registered and monitored and submit to rules of governance;

2) halt the principle of a convergence of accounting standards and re-examine the application of the fair market value rule in the financial field, so as to improve its coherence with the rules of prudence and conservatism;

3) to resolve that no market segment, territory, or financial institution shall escape from a proportionate and adequate regulation, or at the least, surveillance;

4) set up a code of conduct to avoid excessive risk-taking in the financial industry, including in the area of compensation. Supervisors will have to follow this code in evaluating the risk profiles of financial institutions;

5) to entrust to the IMF the primary responsibility, along with the FSF (Financial Stability Forum - Basel), to recommend the necessary measures to restore confidence and stability.

The IMF must be equipped with the essential resources and suitable instruments to support countries in difficulty, and to exert its role of macroeconomic surveillance to the fullest.

Tony in Central PA| 6.25.09 @ 2:50PM

I just finished reading a book about the last days of the Athenian empire in ancient Greece. I was struck by the similarity of the taxation methods between the empire at the close of Athens and the Obama Administration's ever - increasing burden being laid upon a small segment of the population.

One reason that a majority of Americans don't really care about the deficit may well be because at tax time they receive a check instead of writing one. Under Obama, this yearly rebate may continue, but they will likely be taxed in many little ways they don't recognize or understand.

I've read that a tired democracies are replaced by despotisms and that bondage follows dependecy in the historical cycle of democracies. I didn't think I'd live to see it here.