Tax and spend results staggering

Opinion

March 6, 2013

Tax and spend results staggering

FOR THE DAILY SOUTHERNER Bob Harper The Daily Southerner Wed Mar 06, 2013, 10:00 AM EST

TARBORO — Let’s imagine a married couple going to a financial councilor about their personal financial problems and their meeting goes something like this:

Okay,” says the financial counselor, “You say you’re having some budget problems huh?”

Well, I guess we might,” answers the husband. “When we try to pay our monthly bills we come up much shorter than what our income is.”

That’s nothing to worry about. Our government has been doing that for years; use them as a role model.”

Oh, alright,” answered the couple. “I would like to trade automobiles, my Mercedes is 18 months old now and I’d like to get a new one.”

Don’t see a thing wrong with that. In fact you might want to step up to a more expensive model.”

How about my BMW,” spoke up the wife? “It’s just two years old?”

Another good idea,” said the financial advisor. “It would be good for your self-esteem.”

The married gentleman seemed a little nervous and almost stuttered when he spoke, “I’m afraid we’re maxed out on three credit cards and we can hardly pay the interest on them.”

No problem, I bet if you tried hard enough you could still get three more cards and borrow on them to pay the interest on the other three.”

The husband still seemed concerned, “You know, we have three children and the first will be due to start college in three years, shouldn’t we do something about their future?”

Of course not…just kick that can down the road. Let the little buggers take care of themselves. Why should we worry about kids, grandkids and so forth? Live for today and to hell with tomorrow.”

The couple slowly rose from their seats and moved toward the door. Just before they turned the knob on the door they turned and the wife said, “Well, we do thank you Mister Obama for all of your advice.”

Now, wait a minute, should I really use the above as an analogy on how our president and our government views how our economy should work? But, has anyone heard the president say anything other than to raise spending and raise taxes to get us out of this recession that’s been going on since the second year he took office.

Oh, but we must realize Obama inherited all this stuff from President Bush. Right? Oh sure, the Democrats controlled the house and senate the last two years Bush was president. That’s when the house and senate decided that everyone should own a house regardless of credit rating or income. Senator (at the time) Obama voted for this bill which brought on the housing crisis. You’re not doing anyone a favor when you load them up with house payments they can’t afford.

Now we have an over $16 trillion deficit and it’s climbing straight up like a jet fighter plane with no slowdown in sight. We also now have the frustration of the Sequestration that was created by Obama and Congress to place automatic cuts in effect. These automatic cuts would be very tough on the economy and the Republicans said that the cuts should be made, but they should be made in areas that really needed cuts and not in areas that would cause undue pain. But, politics come into play, not logic.

The president sees a political opportunity, if he can keep the across the board cuts and not select the needed cuts in areas where there is a lot to gain, and virtually no pain. Then the pain can be blamed on the Republicans and to heck with who gets hurt. His answer is like a broken record…more spending and higher taxes. At the same time he refuses to address the future of Medicare and Social Security. Best to kick that can down the road.

So, how well has the Obama policies worked so far? The year after Obama took office (remember he had control of both houses) unemployment rose to 9.3%, It’s now at 7.9%, but there are 8 million individuals who just work part time because their hours have been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

During George H. Bush’s term in office unemployment averaged 5.18%. Full employment is considered about 4% because of movement from job to job and because of those who don’t want or need a job. Our current president seems to think we can tax and spend our way out of our economic problems, but that has never been accomplished in all of history. It’s kind of like an alcoholic trying to cure his drinking problem by increasing the intake of his whiskey of choice.

Okay, alright, but how can we cut spending? Well, we have $150 billion in government duplication and waste. In fact the Democratic controlled Senate, (that has refused to even summit an annual budget, one of their legal responsibilities) has also defeated an amendment that would prevent the creation of duplicate federal programs. In other words let’s create more duplication and waste.

More duplication, more waste, more spending, more taxes…Oh happy day, let’s have another drink.

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