PHAROAH BARACK'S DAY OFF: THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE POLITICAL SOAP OPERA, "AS THE BUDGET BLEEDS"

In the previous episode of As the Budget Bleeds that was aired last April, Democrats and Republicans were haggling over raising the debt ceiling.  They're at again.  In last Wednesday's episode, the part time President and full time adolescent threw a hissy fit and walked out of the debt ceiling meeting after warning Republican Representative Eric Cantor, "Don't call my bluff Eric, I'm taking this to American people."  Thus spake Pharaoh Barack. 

Meanwhile, Senator "Mitch the Pitch" McConnell suggested a compromise that would give the Pharaoh almost complete control over spending by allowing the Pharaoh to raise the government’s borrowing limit without prior approval of any offsetting cuts in spending by Congress.  (The pain of the blame for a government shutdown remains engrained in the minds of many skittish establishment Republicans.)  But many Republicans and Constitutionalists have rejected any delegation of Congressional authority to the Pharaoh (read Chancellor).

Obama denied walking out of the budget talks on Thursday's broadcast.  On Friday, the Pharaoh "gave the participants" the day off from the soap opera (a.k.a, a hiatus) despite the admonition on Thursday's episode by "Timmy the Tax Cheat" Geithner that there was no more time to waste in hammering out a budget deal before the August 2, 2011 debt default date.  Meanwhile, Pharaoh Obama is feeling the heat from the Queen Bee.  Michelle Antoinette demands to be entertained, fed, or sent on another vacation at taxpayer expense!

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Before you take it to the American people Pharaoh, think long and hard about it first.  Your "contribution" to the debt ceiling debate is not very popular with the public.  Many Americans oppose raising the debt ceiling.  In the latest Economist/YouGov Poll, Obama’s latest approval rating is dangerously close to his all-time low rating after the 2010 Congressional elections.  Most thinking people viewed November 2010's election as a repudiation of Obama's Euro-Socialist/Marxist tranformative agenda. (The average leftist leech thinks [sic], "As long I get mine, who cares where it comes from?")

Only 33% of those surveyed support raising the debt limit.  It would be interesting to see how many of these supporters actually pay taxes.  Forty-two percent would not raise the debt ceiling and 25% shrug their shoulders and are not sure.  The most popular solution to the debt ceiling conundrum is to tie the raise in debt to spending cut.  The problem with that is that unless the cuts occur coincidentally with the debt raise they will be illusory.  Obama offers cuts in the future, which may or may not happen.  We saw that last April when John Boehner was snookered by Obama with insignificant budget cuts in exchange for billions in spending cash for Obama's slush fund.

Obama's notion of shared sacrifice is ludicrous.  Yet, there's been nothing offered by Obama and the Democrats to cut any pet programs.  Whenever Democrats use the terms "bipartisan" of "compromise" it means that Republicans must give up their positions and that the Democrats will get nearly all of theirs.  What kind of shared sacrifice is that?  Meanwhile, almost half of Americans don't pay any taxes despite the increasing growth of government and a shrinking tax base.
 

The typical Democrat solution is to tax the daylights out of the rest of us that do pay taxes.  But where's the equity when Obama's corporate crony, GE, a big corporation and its media puppet subsidiary, MSNBC, paid NO taxes for 2010.  To be fair, those individuals and corporations that paid no taxes are taking advantage of what the tax law allows them to take.  Often times the child care credit is a boon for individuals.  But these tax breaks seem to contravene a basic axiom of taxation that there be fundamental fairness to ALL taxpayers.

Here are some suggestions for increasing revenue while re-establishing tax code fairness:

1. The overriding principle must be that everybody should pay something in taxes, even if it is a token amount.
2. Foundations, whether they are non-profit, charitable, or otherwise should pay a low percentage of the gross valuation of the trust corpus, e.g., 0.1%.  It would bring truly wealthy persons such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates back into the taxpaying pool.
3. IRC §503(c)(3) organizations should also pay a low percentage of the gross valuation of all property not directly related to the charitable, religious, or educational purpose of the organization.
4. Abolish the Department of Energy and merge many--but not all--of its functions within the Department of the Interior.
5. Abolish the Department of Education
6. Bring the troops home from Europe.  We've subsidized the European economy for over 60 years.  It's time to wean the Europeans from their dependency on American largess.
7. Stop indirectly funding terrorist groups like Hamas with American taxpayer money.
8. Cut taxes.  Raising taxes on individuals and small to mid-size businesses during an economic Depression is nonsensical.  It's like raising bus fares because bus ridership is low.  The unintended consequences of stupidity is to penalize the few remaining riders, most of whom cannot afford any other means of transportation.  But like most unintended consequences tax and fee hikes, the poor bear the brunt of the financial burden, e.g., sin taxes, raised public transportation fares, and numerous fees.
9. Cut 10% across the board for ALL branches of government.
10. Cut U.N. funding by the U.S. in half.

These suggestions are similar to the punchline of the old lawyer joke, "What are 100,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?"  It's a real good start.

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Over 800 days have passed since the Democrat-controlled Senate has passed any budget.  Neither the Democrats or the Pharaoh have offered any budget plan except to raise taxes and spend more on vote buying entitlement schemes.  Instead, they choose to pick at Paul Ryan's budget proposal like a child picks a scab.  It never heals and the bleeding is constant.

So who will win this budget ceiling contest?  What will probably happen is that Republicans will cave again and get demonized anyway.  The intransigent Pharaoh has the media to back him up in this battle to buy votes for the 2012 Presidential Election.  Stay tuned for the season finale on August 2d of As the Budget Bleeds.  It will be your default if you miss it!

 

Thanks to Obama, this is what you'll soon be

paying for a Big Mac®, Coke®, and fries!