The largest tax hike in history is due to strike the United States on January 1, 2013. Known as “Taxmageddon,” it would impose $494 billion in higher taxes on the American people in the first year. So terrible would be its impact that yesterday Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Senate Democrats that the country is headed toward a “fiscal cliff” and that Congress must deal with the impending tax nightmare.

On Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced that his chamber will take up the issue before the November election. Knowing Washington’s general reluctance to do anything of substance in an election year, Boehner’s announcement was welcome news given the disastrous ramifications the threat of such a massive tax hike is already having on the economy. That’s according to Mohammed El-Erian, CEO of Pimco, the world’s largest bond trading firm. El-Erian argues a “prolonged political inaction is likely to postpone building plants and purchasing equipment and to discourage them from hiring.” And that is only an inkling of the blow that would strike the economy if these tax hikes actually took effect.

How could nearly half a trillion dollars in higher taxes hit the American people so fast? What hath prior Congresses wrought? Heritage’s Curtis Dubay explains that the tax hikes come from a series of expiring tax cuts and the imposition of even more new taxes. And Heritage’s J.D. Foster writes that Americans can expect to see the following tax consequences starting next year:

- Income tax rates shoot up,
– The child credit is cut in half,
– The marriage penalty roars back,
– The capital gains tax rate goes up,
– The dividend tax rate soars,
– The payroll tax rate jumps two percentage points,
– The death tax is restored to its punitive past,
– The Alternative Minimum Tax relief expires, and
– A uniquely pernicious additional payroll tax hike from Obamacare takes effect.

Taxmageddon not the only tax problem. A consensus is coalescing in favor of fundamental tax reform, and many members of Congress understandably want real progress. Fortunately, there’s a solution if Congress gets its act together and decides to take action. Foster writes that solving America’s tax problem should be a simple two-step process:

Step 1) Prevent Taxmageddon. If Congress doesn’t act, Foster says, “The effects on families and businesses would be devastating; the effects on the economy no less so. Congress should make current tax policy permanent and eliminate, once and for all, this cavalcade of tax hikes.” Washington should take action before the election and before the tax hikes hit in order to bring more certainty to the economy and give taxpayers much-needed relief. Taxmageddon is anti-tax reform, a big step in the wrong direction.

Step 2) Usher in true tax reform. America’s tax code inhibits growth and bedevils taxpayers with its maddening complexity. Having prevented a big step in the wrong direction with Taxmageddon, Congress should then lower marginal tax rates and eliminate taxes on saving and investment while eliminating the many ill-advised deductions, exemptions, and credits that distort the economy and clutter the tax code. Foster points to Heritage’s New Flat Tax, contained in the Saving the American Dream Plan, as the best way to simplify the tax code, make it more fair, and encourage the kind of economic recovery America needs.

Speaker Boehner warned that if Congress does not take action soon, “We’re going to have this mess all stacked up until after the election. And you want to talk about a train wreck? You’re talking about a big one.” He’s right. The American people can’t afford the $494 billion Taxmageddon train wreck, and the time is ripe this summer for Congress to do something to prevent it.

As usual with this president, Obama’s trip to and speech from Afghanistan had way more to do with politics than any real substance.

Seven thousand miles, one way, is a long journey to share war remarks with countrymen that he should have and could have shared back home many months ago. Despite the administration’s best backgrounding sales efforts, the document he signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a meaningless basic agreement to talk later about forging a real agreement.

Nothing was essentially changed by what the media lovingly called his “secret trip” to the war zone, which was simply unannounced for security reasons.

So, how much did this useless little jaunt cost the taxpayers this time? I guess we’ll find out eventually. But we must remember to add in all the goodies he’s promised to the corrupt Afghan government as well. What was I heard? TWO BILLION? Was that a year, or in total? And we shall never forget the cost in the lives of our military men and women, those who will never come home (68% on Obama’s watch), and the many whose lives will never be the same, physically, mentally, or emotionally. There is no dollar number that could EVER reflect that cost!

So, what was this word BO left out?

In his speech last night the president noted the more than a half-million Americans who’ve served in Afghanistan. But in remarks that Obama wanted focused on an optimistic end to the conflict, he failed to mention the 1,957 Americans who’ve died there since 2001, 68% of them during his presidency. And 93 in the last 122 days.

Nor, as it turns out, could the politically-inclined president of the United States find room anywhere among his 1,556 words for the seven letters that could make his surges and all those sacrifices seem more worthwhile: “victory.”

The one word that Americans have fought and died for in way too many wars. Victory! There is no victory when you aren’t allowed to win. Enemies are to be killed….not won over to your side. It just doesn’t work that way. Well, at least it didn’t use to, when Americans were proud, and men stood up for their principles, AND their country.

If you happened to have missed BO’s little campaign speech last night, you can read it on the White House website.  Sadly, I did watch it, and nearly lost my dinner in the process.  It’s also at the bottom of link above.

Ya just gotta love this little tidbit:

But over the last three years, the tide has turned. We broke the Taliban’s momentum. We’ve built strong Afghan security forces. We devastated al Qaeda’s leadership, taking out over 20 of their top 30 leaders. And one year ago, from a base here in Afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. The goal that I set — to defeat al Qaeda and deny it a chance to rebuild — is now within our reach.

I’m not really sure what planet that dude is on, but it ain’t planet Earth with the rest of us mere mortals. al Qaeda has branches all over the world, and they still have a large bullseye on the Big and Little Satans. No matter the name of the TERRORIST group, they are all the same in their goals. Destroy Western civilization, and kill any who do not submit to their phony god.

Oh, and then there is this:

Fourth, we’re pursuing a negotiated peace. In coordination with the Afghan government, my administration has been in direct discussions with the Taliban. We’ve made it clear that they can be a part of this future if they break with al Qaeda, renounce violence and abide by Afghan laws. Many members of the Taliban — from foot soldiers to leaders — have indicated an interest in reconciliation. The path to peace is now set before them. Those who refuse to walk it will face strong Afghan security forces, backed by the United States and our allies.

Really? Dude….put down the doobie, K? Rational human beings don’t ‘negotiate with terrorists’.  The Taliban?  Just another name for evil Islamonazis, and they are terrorists.  Simple.  The Afghans are not our partners in this ‘war’.  They are as much the enemy as the North Vietnamese were during that ‘conflict’.

Oh, and isn’t it interesting that BO chose the one year anniversary of bin Laden’s death?  Which, naturally, he is taking the credit for…as usual.  Take credit for what he didn’t do, while blaming others for he did do.  Gosh!  What a ‘leader’, eh?

This future is only within reach because of our men and women in uniform. Time and again, they have answered the call to serve in distant and dangerous places. In an age when so many institutions have come up short, these Americans stood tall. They met their responsibilities to one another, and to the flag they serve under. I just met with some of them and told them that as Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder. And in their faces, we see what is best in ourselves and our country.

Our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians in Afghanistan have done their duty. Now we must summon that same sense of common purpose. We must give our veterans and military families the support they deserve, and the opportunities they have earned. And we must redouble our efforts to build a nation worthy of their sacrifice.

….will anyone bring up the fact that our military is being decimated and demoralized?

Did you know that military family and friends have to buy their soldier the equipment needed to keep them safe?  Well, at least as safe as possible in a war zone.  Why?  Because the freakin’ military doesn’t have the money needed to supply our troops, that’s why!

Where are all our tax dollars going that is suppose to keep us safe from the evil that is rampant in the world?  Gee, where should I start?  How about those who believe they are owed a check off YOUR hard earned dollars?  Maybe it’s the over bloated government spending on useless crap?  Or how about the salaries that pay our so called ‘public servants’ who do nothing but whine and complain they aren’t getting their ‘fair share’?  Do you know who are not getting their fair share?  That would be the men and women of our military!  No government employee should EVER make more in a year than the lowest ranked in our military.  NEVER EVER!

Do you know how many pairs of boots I sent to Iraq and Afghanistan?  And I don’t even have a family member serving!  Well, that’s neither here nor there.  The issue is why isn’t our military given the BEST of EVERYTHING?????  Is it because Michelle has to take her monthly vacation to the tune of a half mil?

Yeah…I better stop now.  I promised myself, I wasn’t going to be angry anymore.  Believe me, that’s a real hard promise to keep, but I am trying!

While most of the days festivities apparently were rather peaceful, according to the majority of the lame stream, there were, naturally….incidents.

In Seattle (via Fox News)

A few ‘tools of the trade’ (via Gateway Pundit)
Of course, we must have the ever popular…crap bomb!

Seriously dude?  Is that a banana on your head?  (via The Daily Weekly)

Naturally, Oakland couldn’t be left out of the ‘fun’! (via San Fran local CBS)

Can you see the irony in this picture?  (via Chicago Tribune)
  The vast majority of my readers will see it.

You are in the U.S. Could you at least learn to protest in the language of the land?
“Papers for all”? Seriously? And out comes that “I-word”. ILLEGAL!

Naturally, a member of the Obama administration had to get into the act! (via Daily Caller)

A staffer for President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security is praising the left-wing “May Day” protests.  (snip) Before joining the Obama administration, Snyder worked for the Service Employees International Union, and for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

My favorite take on the whole shebang is the Report Card from Breitbart’s Big Government:

Attendance : D+
Leftist Thuggery: A
Nationwide Strike : F
Media Exposure : D
Big Symbolic Events : D
Political Impact : F
Summary : FAIL

Will you go away now?  (emphasis mine)

Read the whole ‘analysis here.

Then, you have the aftermath.  Who is doing the clean up?  Well, you KNOW it’s not the ones who created the mess, because they are the types who believe it is someone else’s job to clean up after them.  I guess mommy does it at home?

In Oakland, it’s the taxpayers who had the good sense, and common decency, to go about their business, just trying to make ends meet.  Congratulations jack wagons!  Y’all have done to the supposed 99% you claim the 1% have done…..screwed them over!

Washington Needs A Lesson on Student Loans
The Foundry

You know a politician is looking for applause when he speaks in front of a crowd of college students and says he’s there to help them pay back their student loans. After all, who doesn’t like the prospect of free money? But as the saying (sort of) goes, beware of politicians bearing gifts. That’s especially true this week as President Barack Obama travels the country warning students that their student loan interest rates are set to double and that he has the answer to all their problems.

Guess what? He doesn’t. But if there’s one thing the president has managed to accomplish, it’s in turning this issue into a political football. And now the House of Representatives is joining the game.

This all began back in 2007 when Democrats pushed for a five-year student loan interest rate reduction to 3.4 percent as a temporary subsidy in order to help make the loans more affordable. Now that “temporary” subsidy is set to expire, meaning that rates will return to their original 6.8 percent levels. In the midst of all this, the House is expected to vote today on a measure that would keep interest rates where they are — costing taxpayers $5.9 billion for a one-year extension. And under the proposal, the extension would be paid for by taking funds from Obamacare’s Prevention and Public Health Fund. Obamacare, instead, should be repealed outright — not used as a “slush fund” to pay for other programs.

But besides the measure being a flawed and costly way to pay for the lower interest rates, there’s an even bigger problem. The supposed benefits of keeping the interest rates at 3.4 percent are largely illusory, and the president is selling students a bag of magic beans. Economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin explains on National Review‘s “The Corner”:

[The interest rate increase] sounds serious. After all, there are 39 million Americans with student loans owing over a trillion dollars of debt, and interest rates doubling from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent would be a huge hit at a time when households are already struggling.

Serious, except that the president’s plan would apply only to those 23 million loans being borrowed directly from the federal government. Except that not all of those would benefit; it would apply only to the 9.5 million loans being borrowed through the so-called subsidized Stafford loans. Except the lower rate would apply only to new borrowers who apply this year. Except that no payments are made until after graduation, so it would not help anyone for several years. Except that it would lower monthly payments by an average of only $7.

In other words, for an incredibly high cost, students are realizing very little benefit. And don’t forget, these are loans that they’re voluntarily taking on as part of an investment to benefit themselves.

None of this is to say that the federal government should spend even more to subsidize student loans in an effort to make college more affordable. It absolutely should not. Federally subsidized student loans are handed out to millions of college students regardless of risk — let alone whether they can handle college-level work. Thanks to taxpayer backing, the loans are offered at rates far below what private lenders would offer. When the students can’t afford to pay, the American people are stuck with the bill.

On top of all this, government intervention in the higher education marketplace hasn’t even succeeded in bringing down college costs. In fact, the price of a degree has risen right along with government spending. Pell grants have increased 475 percent since 1980, and yet the cost of attending college has increased 439 percent since 1982. It’s a vicious cycle that will only get worse with more government subsidies.

There’s a better way to drive down college costs. Heritage’s Stuart Butler writes that the higher education industry is on the verge of a “transformative re-alignment,” and notes:

…most college leaders live in a bubble in which the costs of ever more elaborate facilities, expanding administrative bureaucracies, and high-profile professors with light teaching loads can simply be passed on to customers in the form of higher tuition.

But those days are about to end. Underneath the surface, upstart institutions are perfecting radically new education technologies and business plans at the same time that young people and their parents are becoming more frustrated with the traditional higher-ed model, and more open-minded about alternatives. There is every reason to suspect that, quite soon, these new institutions will do to higher education what Sony did to radios and Apple did to computing. Afterward, our colleges and universities will never be the same. Few Americans, one suspects, will look back in regret.

Sure, it might strike all the right populist tones to tell college students that you’re going to give them a hand out, but the caustic effects of the policy will only make higher education more costly over time. Instead of a short-term spending splurge that has little benefit, Washington should pursue a long-term strategy that gives students the help they really need.

You’ll also notice, that those in the middle ‘class’ bracket pay more than the tier above them.  Wonder why that is?  Because the government is doing it’s best to kill the “middle class”.

The General Services Administration blew through $820,000 in taxpayers’ money in a lavish ”team building” trip to Las Vegas, and President Barack Obama is “apoplectic” at the news, according to the president’s campaign advisor, David Axelrod. Obama, he says, has devoted his efforts to saving “tens of billions of dollars” in cutting waste, fraud and inefficiency in government. Yet under President Obama’s leadership, government spending keeps growing irresponsibly, and neither he nor his allies in Congress are doing anything about it.

The latest example came last week when Democratic leadership in the Senate again passed the buck on enacting a budget — on April 29, it will have been three years since the Senate last passed a budget resolution. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D–ND),whose job it is to shepherd a budget through the Senate, said of his decision: “This is the wrong time to vote in committee. This is the wrong time to vote on the floor. I don’t think we will be prepared to vote before the election.” Conrad also said that offering a budget would be futile and “would do little to move us closer to a bipartisan agreement that can actually be adopted.”

In other words, budgeting is hard work that he’d rather not do, especially in an election year. Of course, 2011 was not an election year, and yet the Senate failed to pass a budget then, too.

The money that isn’t being budgeted belongs to the American people, and their representatives in the Senate have decided once again that it’s easier to keep on spending without restraint than it is to be responsible to their constituents back home. It’s that very attitude that has led to a government so big and so out of control that scandals like the one in the GSA are able to occur.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars blown in the GSA’s Vegas trip, though, is chump change compared to the hundreds of millions wasted in President Obama’s green jobs stimulus efforts. We all know the story of the bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra and the $520 million taxpayer-funded loan guarantee that went down the drain. But the latest example of wanton waste is Ecotality – a company that manufactures charging stations for the president’s much-favored electric vehicles. Ecotality received more than $115 million to install those charging stations, yet as Heritage’s Lachlan Markay reports, the company is far behind schedule. Now it’s under investigation for insider trading and is facing serious financial difficulties. Even so, the DOE decided to grant the company $26 million in additional funding.

But it’s not just about waste in one government agency. Taxpayer dollars are wasted day in and day out in Washington, as Heritage’s Emily Goff explains:

Washington also misuses taxpayer dollars in less blatant ways. Take the 47 federal job training programs the federal government runs, for example. Or the 15 agencies involved in food safety and inspection. Congress ought to identify areas of program duplication and fragmentation and then consolidate or eliminate unnecessary ones.

Want another example of big government run wild? Take a look at Washington’s spending on welfare programs. It’s the fastest growing part of government spending, and it’s creating a culture of entitlement and dependency in which the American people are expecting to receive support from the state. In fiscal year 2011, total welfare costs equaled $927 billion ($717 billion from the federal government and $210 billion from states). Heritage’s Rachel Sheffield writes that “since the War on Poverty began in the 1960s, the government has spent $19.8 trillion (inflation-adjusted) to fund a growing list of welfare programs.” President Obama wants that spending to grow, and under his plan taxpayers will pay roughly $12.7 trillion on welfare in the next decade.

Welfare spending and unending waste aren’t the only drivers of Washington’s trillion-dollar deficits. The three major entitlement programs–Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security–make up the vast majority of federal spending and will consume all tax revenues by 2049. Yet even though that threat looms large on the horizon, the Senate continues to refuse to pass a budget, President Obama stands by, and the spending continues unchecked. Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, commentator Bill Kristol correctly said, “If you want big government, this is big government.” And if anyone should be “apoplectic,” it’s the American people.

In addition to today being Tax Day, it’s also, coincidentally, “Tax Freedom Day” — meaning that it has taken from January 1 until now for Americans to earn enough money to pay this year’s federal, state, and local tax bill — 29.2% of all our income. In other words, for the first 111 days of the year, everything you earned went straight to Uncle Sam. Compare that to back in 1900, when Americans paid only 5.9% of their income in taxes and Tax Freedom Day came on January 22.

The Tax Foundation reports that because of higher federal income and corporate tax collections, Tax Freedom Day came four days later this year than last. And the bad news is that unless Washington takes action, it will take working Americans 11 more days to meet next year’s tax burden.

That’s all due to Taxmageddon — a slew of expiring tax cuts and new tax increases that will hit Americans on January 1, 2013, amounting to a $494 billion tax hike. Heritage’s Curtis Dubay reports that American households can expect to face an average tax increase of $3,800 and that 70 percent of Taxmageddon’s impact will fall directly on low-income and middle-income families, leaving them with $346 billion less to spend. Dubay explains some of the immediate impacts:

If Congress fails to act, workers won’t have to wait very long to feel the effects. Every payday, they would see a jump in their payroll tax as it takes a bigger bite out of every paycheck. And that only reflects one of the direct hits they’ll face. They’ll feel the pain of other tax hikes they won’t pay directly, like the health care surtax on investment income and salaries over $250,000 — which begins in 2013 along with five other Obamacare tax hikes — because these hikes will slow job creation by taking away resources from businesses, investors, and entrepreneurs.

That fact, though, isn’t making its way into President Obama’s talking points. He’s not mentioning that, absent action, Americans will pay higher income taxes, payroll taxes, and death taxes. He hasn’t spoken about the impending increase in the marriage penalty, the decrease in the child tax credit and the adoption credit, or how those who get tax breaks for education or dependent care costs will see them decreased. He hasn’t mentioned the new taxes under Obamacare, or how middle-income families will be forced to pay higher taxes under the Alternative Minimum Tax — a measure that was only supposed to impact “the rich.” Sound familiar?

Instead of dealing with Taxmageddon, President Obama wants to change the subject with a gimmicky policy like the “Buffett Tax.” The Senate obliged him yesterday by voting on this distraction. Fortunately, it was rejected. Still, while President Obama trains his fire on this class warfare policy, he ignores that if Taxmageddon strikes, the lower and middle class Americans that he says he is fighting for will pay substantially more in taxes to the federal government starting on January 1. Call it the unadvertised side effect of Barack Obama’s failed leadership.

President Obama talks about how this is not a “perfect world,” but in a better world Washington would get its act together, stop Taxmageddon, prevent the American people from suffering the effects of a massive tax hike, and unleash the economy from today’s uncertainty. Then President Obama and Congress would set their sights on fundamental tax reform like the New Flat Tax proposed in Heritage’s Saving the American Dream plan. That’s an attainable goal that doesn’t require perfection.

Stopping a $494 billion tax increase shouldn’t be a contentious partisan issue. As President Obama might say “it just makes sense.” This is the perfect opportunity for Washington to show voters that it can do important things, even in an election year. When it comes to stopping Taxmageddon, the sooner the better.

If you’ve ever bought anything on the Internet, over the phone, or from a catalog, you might have noticed that when you buy from some stores, you don’t pay any state sales tax, but if you buy from other stores, you do. That’s because a Supreme Court decision protected out-of-state businesses from revenue-hungry states. But a new bill working its way through Congress would change all that, turning every online retailer into a sales tax collector. And that’s legislation Congress should reject.

Back in 1992, the Supreme Court ruled in Quill Corporation v. North Dakota that a state cannot force a retailer who doesn’t have any physical presence in that state to collect sales taxes from Internet, phone or catalog sales. So if you ordered a book online from BarnesandNoble.com and there’s a Barnes and Noble store right down the street from your house, you’d have to pay sales tax. But if you ordered that book online from a mom and pop bookstore with one location halfway across the country, they wouldn’t have to collect sales tax from you.

In the Quill case, North Dakota tried to force out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes and remit them to North Dakota, even if they didn’t have a physical presence in the state. Quill Corporation, which sells office supplies and is based in Delaware, had offices and warehouses in Illinois, California and Georgia, but didn’t have any bricks, mortar, employees, or sales representatives in North Dakota. It did, however, have 3,000 customers there and $1 million in annual sales, so North Dakota wanted Quill to collect tax on those sales.

The Court decided that North Dakota’s law was not permissible because the Constitution’s Commerce Clause protects against a state’s unreasonable burden on interstate commerce, unless Congress otherwise writes a law changing the rules. Since that decision, consumers, businesses and the free market have been protected from laws like the one North Dakota tried to impose, but now Congress is considering a law (S. 1832) that would overturn the Court’s decision and allow states to flip the switch on Internet taxation.

In a new paper, David S. Addington, Heritage’s Vice President for Domestic and Economic Policy, explains why Congress should not change the rules on Internet and mail-order sales:

In the long run, the national economy as a whole benefits from allowing consumers to choose freely what they wish to buy, of whatever quality they wish, at whatever prices they choose to pay, and from whatever seller they wish, whether in the same state as the consumer or not.

Intervention by the federal government and the states in the consumers’ choices by enactment and implementation of S. 1832 would increase the revenues of states, but hobbling out-of-state businesses that sell through the Internet or mail order catalogs does not help the national economy.

Addington writes that it’s not surprising that states want a new source of revenue. After all, they’re struggling with their bloated budgets in this weak economy. But overriding the Quill decision would only give states an incentive to increase taxes instead of cutting the size, scope, and cost of government. And it would be consumers and businesses that pay the price.

There are business groups, too, who are lobbying for the law, arguing that it would protect “Main Street” retailers and “bricks and mortar” stores that are supposedly at a disadvantage. But, as Addington writes, “They seek enactment of S. 1832 so that states can prefer in-state businesses over out-of-state businesses in the kind of anti-competitive economic discrimination the U.S. Constitution was in part adopted to prevent.” What’s more, every sale of goods involves at least one physical facility located in one state or another, which means that those businesses already can be taxed by at least one state. In short, no one is “untaxable.”

At a time when the U.S. economy is struggling to get back on its feet, Congress should not enact a law that interferes with the independent decisions of millions of consumers in the free marketplace and overturns the settled expectations of businesses that have made market decisions under the current rules for two decades. And it shouldn’t give state governments a reason to take more money from taxpayers instead of getting their spending under control.

President Obama has touted reports from the Congressional Budget Office claiming his health care law would actually decrease the deficit. But due to a bundle of budget gimmicks and other legislation, calculations show that Obamacare actually adds $698 billion to the deficit. This week’s chart outlines each of those budget gimmicks.

“This morning a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office concludes that the reform we seek would bring $1.3 trillion in deficit reduction over the next two decades. That makes this legislation the most significant effort to reduce deficits since the Balanced Budget Act in the 1990s,” Obama declared two years ago.

CBO actually did project the health care law would reduce the deficit, but that assessment has “always rested on a series of omissions, gimmicks, double-counting of savings, and implausible assumptions that also have not changed since the law was enacted in 2010,” according to James Capretta, a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

The CBO report double-counted Medicare savings, which adds $400 billion to the deficit. The Medicare cuts were supposed to pay for both entitlement expansions and future benefits out of the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund.

So, let’s face a few facts here:  Barack Hussein Obama, and his minions, have been lying to, cheating, and stealing from the American people.   As Reagan said: “It’s not that liberals are ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” All you have to do is listen to Debbie Washerwoman Schultz to know that this is STILL the case. (What a buffoon). They have taken your money, that you worked to earn, and “invested” in companies that anyone in their right mind, with any economic sense, would steer clear of!

They have thrown this overreaching bill in our face, and told us we will like it or else! Or else what? Well, you’ll get fined, and of course, there is always the possibility of spending time in jail because you totally disagree with the idea that the government has the ‘right’ to force you to buy something you don’t need, don’t want, and the country, as a whole, can’t afford.

They lie to seniors, telling them the Republican plans will cut Medicare, and yet, that is exactly what THEY have done. They steal your hard earned money, and give it to people who are nothing more than animals who would go out of their way to murder you in the middle of the street, in a heartbeat, and think nothing of it. They encourage “dissent” in other countries and total anarchy in our own, yet insult and belittle those who disagree with their policies. You know the ones I mean…those who support the Constitution, and would very much appreciate if all elected officials would uphold their oath to ‘support and defend’. Yet when they don’t, and won’t, nothing is ever done so why bother. I honestly question how many who are holding elected office have ever actually read our founding documents? I have no problem responding, that very few know what is even in either of the most important documents, since they have a tendency to misquote, leave out parts, and generally ignore them.

We have a POTUS, who nothing more than a spoiled, narcissistic, little boy, who when he doesn’t get his own way, will go around the elected bodies that supposedly represent the PEOPLE, and sign executive orders. Misuse of power? Oh yeah…and lots of it!  Intimidation, voter fraud, outright theft of the PEOPLE’S money.  I’d say we have plenty of reason to worry.

Note to Republicans in office:  GROW A PAIR!

There has been no perfect candidate….ever! Why do people think there would be one now? Reality snap people! Jesus ain’t running! If there is one candidate who could have joined us all together at the hip, that person is way too smart to want to be dragged into the muck and mire of politics. If I hear, or read, one more time that an otherwise reasonably intelligent person is not going to vote, or write in their choice for POTUS, I think I just might have to reach through the computer and strangle someone!

If you want four more years of the disaster and destruction, then by all means, sit on your principles in the comfort of your little room, thumb stuck firmly in your mouth, whining, while the rest of us do our damnedest to get that narcissitic piece of Marxist garbage OUT of the White House, and back to his little corner of Chicago, where they actually believe he IS ‘the one’. Let him continue his ‘career’ of community organizing, or whatever the hell he was doing before someone shoved him into the lime light, and bamboozled the American people! I, for one, am NOT willing to let this country go down the drain just because the nominee isn’t exactly who I believe would be the best for the job.

This is NOT a case of the ‘lesser of two evils’. This is a situation where we have an opportunity to set the nation back on the right track, and even though Romney isn’t what I consider a conservative, he is a damn sight better than that bunch that has been dragging us into ruin, and oblivion. And let’s not EVER forget about the 2 years prior to ‘the one’s ascension’, we had been stuck with a totally Democrat controlled Congress. The Republicans have the House, they now need the Senate, and send Harry Reid, the useless ‘majority leader’, back into the rank and file, and put a CONSERVATIVE in charge of that body who might actually be able to get a freakin’ budget passed that will start the process of returning to the actual PURPOSE of Congress. When you have a person who refuses to even bring a bill to the floor that might accomplish some of the things WE, The People have been demanding, then what you’ve got is a puppet on strings pulled by the White House, and other ‘shadowy’ person.

We have been dealing with “the devil we know” long enough. And yeah…I do mean that literally. The man is evil! Now, pull YOUR head out of YOUR ass, and work your heart out to defeat Barack Hussein Obama. Don’t forget, we’ll also be kicking out the WORST ‘first lady’, who ain’t no lady, as well! She can globe trot on her own dime! Oh, that’s right….she doesn’t have a dime. Oooops! Well too damn bad! Get a job! And please, for the love of all that’s holy, learn how to dress! You are an embarrassment, and an assault on all five of our senses!

Oh, and listen up RNC!  This is the LAST time you and the media decide who our nominee is going to be!   The RNC can either start listening to the people, or you can go the way of the do-do!  Your choice!  Because WE, THE PEOPLE are FED UP!

Beware the Taxmageddon
The Foundry

Brace yourself. In a mere 271 days, you and your fellow Americans will be hit with a tax hike the likes of which this country has never seen. The Washington Post aptly called the unprecedented $494 billion tax hike “Taxmageddon,” and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke described it as a “massive fiscal cliff.” Whatever your preferred imagery, it’s a really big deal.

Despite all the warnings, President Barack Obama has kept his silence while Congress has made no apparent effort to prevent this impending calamity to families and the economy. The prevailing wisdom is that “something will get done” in a lame duck session of Congress after the election. But why wait? And why after the election?

Here’s why you should be worried. For starters, remember that this is the same President who in 2009 promised, “if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime.” That’s a vow he’s broken, and in 2013, things are going to get even worse if this year Obama doesn’t lead and Congress doesn’t act. Katy, bar the door, there’s big trouble in store.

The tax man won’t draw his billions from the American taxpayer with just one big needle — the massive tax increase will be the product of tax policies expiring in seven different categories, on top of five new Obamacare tax hikes taking effect. In a new paper, Taxmageddon: Massive Tax Increase Coming in 2013, Heritage’s Curtis Dubay details the tax hikes that will occur if President Obama and Congress do not act before the end of the year:

Almost 34 percent of the tax increase from Taxmageddon comes from the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts. These cuts are best known for reducing marginal income tax rates, but they also reduced the marriage penalty, increased the Child Tax Credit and the adoption credit, and increased tax breaks for education costs and dependent care costs.

Another 25 percent of Taxmageddon comes from the expiration of the once-temporary payroll tax cut. The expiration of the patch on the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) — which would raise the income threshold over which families qualify for the AMT to prevent middle-income families from paying this tax that is only supposed to impact “the rich” — accounts for 24 percent of the total potential 2013 tax increase.

The balance of the tax hikes comes in part from new taxes under Obamacare, the expiration of tax cuts in the 2009 stimulus, the expiration of a group of policies known as “tax extenders,” changes in the current policy on the death tax (in 2013, it will rise from 35 percent today to 55 percent and the exemption will fall from $5 million to $3.5 million), and the expiration of businesses’ ability to fully expense new capital investments.

This $494 billion in higher taxes will certainly hit families and business hard in 2013, but their effects are already being felt. Dubay explains that Americans must plan for tomorrow, and the tremendous uncertainty about tax policy makes the future much more uncertain, thus discouraging the investments and other actions needed to spur the economy to create jobs faster today.

So while the President and Congress appear content to put off ’til the 11th hour what they can and should do today, those who will have to pay the higher tax burden are waiting to see what the future holds. Dubay says that this is “slowing job creation and stopping many of the millions of unemployed Americans from going back to work.”

Early on in his presidency, Barack Obama said he knew about the impact of taxes. Back in 2009, on a visit to Elkhart, Indiana, Obama emphatically stated his belief that raising taxes in a recession is a bad idea. Though America is not in recession today, it still struggles with very high unemployment, and so the President’s logic applies with equal force — raising taxes is a drag on job creation. Unfortunately, in a speech in Washington on Tuesday, President Obama unabashedly revealed that preventing tax hikes is not his priority. In fact, he wants to see even more taxes imposed on the American people and on job creators all in the name of “fairness” — may of which are in his budget. That’s a political doctrine, not an economic policy, and it’s a proven recipe for economic disaster.

If the President doesn’t work with Congress to take action soon to prevent a 2013 Taxmageddon, his brand of “fairness” will result in the biggest tax increase in the nation’s history. And that storm will wreak even more damage on America’s already fragile economy. Congress shouldn’t wait for Obama to take the lead in preventing a policy nightmare he might actually favor. Instead, it should act now to prevent these tax hikes from crushing America’s families and our economy.

The CFR’s “task force” has announced that the failure of tax-funded K-12 education is the #1 threat to America’s position in the world.

The United States’ failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country’s ability to thrive in a global economy and maintain its leadership role, finds a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)–sponsored Independent Task Force report on U.S. Education Reform and National Security.

“Educational failure puts the United States’ future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk,” warns the Task Force, chaired by Joel I. Klein, former head of New York City public schools, and Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. secretary of state. The country “will not be able to keep pace—much less lead—globally unless it moves to fix the problems it has allowed to fester for too long,” argues the Task Force.

The report notes that while the United States invests more in K-12 public education than many other developed countries, its students are ill prepared to compete with their global peers. According to the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international assessment that measures the performance of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science every three years, U.S. students rank fourteenth in reading, twenty-fifth in math, and seventeenth in science compared to students in other industrialized countries.

This sounds bad. It is bad. The problem is, all this has been known for years. Nothing changes except cost per student, which rises. Reform after reform is proposed. A few are begun. The performance of the students falls. The cost per student rises.

I’m going to HAVE to slip in a “WE TOLD YOU SO!” here.  What those on the right have known for years, has been confirmed over and over.  This report is just one more confirmation!  The cost of education continues to skyrocket, yet the quality continues to plummet.  There is no one answer, but there is a BIG one at the forefront!

Here are some data on student performance.

• More than 25 percent of students fail to graduate from high school in four years; for African-American and Hispanic students, this number is approaching 40 percent.
• In civics, only a quarter of U.S. students are proficient or better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
• Although the United States is a nation of immigrants, roughly eight in ten Americans speak only English and a decreasing number of schools are teaching foreign languages.
• A recent report by ACT, the not-for-profit testing organization, found that only 22 percent of U.S. high school students met “college ready” standards in all of their core subjects; these figures are even lower for African-American and Hispanic students.
• The College Board reported that even among college-bound seniors, only 43 percent met college-ready standards, meaning that more college students need to take remedial courses.

These are national over all averages. Of course, there are some schools, school districts, that exceed expectations, but those are becoming fewer and farther between. Do you ever ask yourself why? I did, many years ago, and after some majoy reading, investigating on my own, I figured it out. Those school districts that are at the bottom, and usually wholly ‘owned’ by the unions. Yet, in those same districts, taxes keep rising due to the cost of ‘education’. It’s not the education of the student that is so expensive these days….it’s the cost of putting a union hack teacher in the classroom. You aren’t paying for books, desks, needed supplies for your kids. No, you are paying for fat benefit packages, the type of package that will continue to pay the so called ‘teacher’ until the day he, or she, dies.

Yes, I realize this is not the only reason our kids are failing. Once upon a time, our schools were the best in the world, our kids were educated. Not all them were of the high IQ type, but they could at least read, write, and do math, and that’s pretty much what was needed to make their way in the world. If you can’t read or write, you are not going very far, are you! And if you can’t manage to balance your checkbook, you find yourself in a world of financial hurt. (Kind of like what Congress has done to the whole country.)

While the report identifies the problem, which we already knew, it, sadly, has no solutions.

There is a solution: stop all tax funding of education. But the CFR is not going to propose that. Ever. The Establishment wants control over education. Taxation is its tool.

I went to public schools for most my education needs. Granted, there were a couple of years of private schools, but we won’t go into that. First grade was in a private, religious, setting. I did quite well as a matter of fact, but then, I was able to read before I even started kindergarten at the age of 4. Why? Because my parents cared enough about my ability to learn to take the time to teach me. I did the same thing with Brat, and with Jr. Jr was doing math at 3 or 4. Intelligent, but no common sense sometimes.

When I was in the third grade, things started to change. They came up with ‘new math’. New math? 1+1 still equaled 2. What’s to change? Well, they did. I don’t know whose bright idea that was, but I wasn’t the only kid who had problems. Oh, the answer was still 2, I think, but getting to it was a whole different ballgame, and did NO ONE a bit of good. I suppose some moron sitting in a cubby somewhere came up with this bright idea to change basic facts into a psychological challenge? Who knows, but whoever it was, should have been horse whipped!

One important factor though, growing up (from age 6 to 19) in basically the birthplace of the colonies, I got quite a historical perspective of the country before I even got out of elementary school. There was a sign we passed every Sunday on our way to church: “Hampton – the oldest English speaking city in the country. Established 1610. Yep. I got a major dose of American history. Now, you ask a high school graduate who Patrick Henry was, and they give you the deer in the headlights look. Seriously? I had to memorize his “give me liberty, or give me death” speech in the 4th grade! I sat where he sate in the House of Burgess’ in Williamsburg. Does anyone even know who George Wythe was anymore?

I realize I was quite lucky now, even though, at the time, I didn’t know just how lucky I was to have teachers who actually expected us to LEARN! I appreciate my parents involvement in my education, which seems to be lacking in a great many parents today.

Between the lack of fact educated teachers, and the lack of parental involvement, we now have a system of indoctrination, not education.

The statistics are mind boggling! Instead of those so called ‘civil rights leaders’ whipping up folks into a frenzy over a bad situation, without knowing all the facts, they should be gathering in from of the Department of Education and DEMANDING the true education of the youth of today. Instead of shouting at the top of their lungs about ‘injustice’, why not encourage the youth to become education so such injustices will not be part of their lives? Instead of promoting hate towards their fellow man over perceived injustices, how about encouraging the youth to finish school, learn to speak English, pull up their pants, and become part of a society that admires entrepreneurship? How about encouraging personal responsibility, instead of the ‘you owe me’ and ‘blame in “the Man”‘ mindset? Why not teach our young people that families make your life better, instead seeing how many babies you can have so you get more government assistance? And this applies to youth of ALL colors!

We prayed every morning.  We said the “Pledge of Allegiance”. We had the 10 Commandments posted in every classroom. We were taught right from wrong. We didn’t have kids beating the crap out of each other, and parents encouraging violence. If you cussed in school, you were sent to the principal’s office, parents were called, and likely you would either get detention, or suspension, depending on the severity of your offense. No in school suspension either. No, you were kept home, and likely got a whupping you remember to this day!

Along with the reading, writing, history, math, languages, civics and home ec, we were taught values that would sustain throughout our lives, and aid us in being self sufficient. What do they teach now? How to get the most out of the taxpayers through government programs?

/off soapbox