It’s a truly fascinating thing. Had we “gone over the cliff,” do you know what would have happened? We would have returned to the Clinton tax rates.
What is truly remarkable is that the Clinton tax rates are now nearly universally viewed by Democrats as having been 98% pure, distilled evil. Because the Democrat Party has now been saying that Americans can’t afford to pay the stupid and evil tax rates that Democrats once demanded they pay.
But what would have been stupid and evil and harmful to the American economy for 98% of the population is in fact true for 100% of the population. It is simply a gargantuan lie to try to argue that the laws of economics – that when you tax something you invariably get LESS of it – is true for 98% but is a lie for 100%.
Yes, it is a fact of history that the Republican Party under George W. Bush saved America with the tax cuts that helped the middle class grow more and spend more. And it is now a fact of history that Democrats are now implicitly saying that the Clinton tax rates were 98% evil and counterproductive to a growing economy. Democrats were completely wrong about their high tax rates; but Democrats are liars who won’t EVER admit they were wrong. Instead they merely continually shift their demonization and demagoguery to a different target without ever admitting that it was only a relative few years ago that Democrats were attacking the middle class with high taxes that are suddenly now universally recognized as evil.
Isn’t it amazing how Obama, the Democrats and the mainstream media propaganda actually just claimed credit for 98% of the Bush tax cuts while still blaming Republicans as evil for creating the very thing that Democrats are on record as now being 98% for? How does this kind of falsehood pass for truth???
Here’s a little bit of fact for you: BILL CLINTON CUT TAXES FAR MORE THAN HE RAISED THEM. It wasn’t until Clinton CUT the capital gains tax in addition to many other tax reforms that the economy truly took off and the budget deficit shrank. Versus Barack Obama, who has stratospherically hiked taxes on the rich and on the middle class via massive regulation and the equally massive ObamaCare tax hike.
And keep in mind that Bill Clinton – who largely presided over a good economy with the help of Republicans who controlled both the House and the Senate – said “the era of big government is over.” Obama reversed that and now America will pay dearly for it.
It is a fact of history that Democrats are now demanding that we keep 98% of Bush’s tax cuts while simultaneously taking credit for them. While amazingly still saying that the Bush tax cuts – which they now say were 98% good – are still evil.
Democrats claim that their tax hike on the rich, on the other hand, will generate $620 billion in additional revenues. Here’s the first problem with the deal that Republicans were trapped into: no it won’t.
History is now replete, full, satiated, gluttonously gorged with examples of Democrats’ stupid tax claims doing the very opposite of what they claimed it would do. The most infamous example is the luxury tax or so-called “yacht tax” on the rich. Democrats assured Americans that the rich could certainly pay a little more (there’s a line that stupid people keep arguing, isn’t it?) to own luxury items. Democrats saw the government getting more and the rich paying “more of their fair share” (there’s another stupid line of demagoguery for you). What in FACT happened was that it turned out that, guess what, rich people AVOID TAXES just like everybody else tends to do.
Falling Tax Would Lift All Yachts
By AGIS SALPUKAS
Published: February 7, 1992The nation’s luxury-boat builders, many clinging to their businesses after two years of plunging sales, finally got some good news last week.
President Bush, in his budget proposals, asked Congress to repeal the 10 percent luxury tax on yachts priced at more than $100,000 (and also on private planes that cost more than $250,000). The repeal, which Congress is likely to approve, would be retroactive to Feb. 1.
Since the tax took effect in January 1990, hundreds of builders of large and small boats have spoken of it as a stake driven into the heart of an industry already suffering from the recession, tighter bank rules on financing and fallout from the gulf war.
In the last two years, about 100 builders of luxury boats — recreational craft costing more than $100,000 — cut their operations severely and laid off thousands of workers. Some builders filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code.
Now, sales personnel and owners of marine companies are hoping they will be swamped by buyers who have held off in the expectation that the tax will be repealed.
The 10 percent tax applies to the amount of the cost above $100,000, so that a boat selling for $300,000 carries a $20,000 luxury tax. That tax is in addition to any state and local taxes. […]
Also, boat prices have dropped as much as 40 to 50 percent, interest rates have fallen and some lenders have begun to offer financing, though on very strict terms.
In 1991, sales of luxury boats dropped 70 percent from 1990’s level, while overall boat sales fell 18 percent. Relies on Foreign Customers
“The luxury tax really hurt us,” said William J. Healey, the president of the Viking Yacht Company in New Gretna, N.J.
He gestured toward a few big luxury boats being built there. A 50-foot boat costing $800,000 is bound for Italy; a $1 million yacht may be sold in Japan. A 65-foot motor yacht costing $1.3 million is bound for Greece.
The business from overseas, developed in the last two years, is enabling Viking to limp along, its work force cut to 150 workers from 800. “Very fortunately, it has helped us weather the downturn,” Mr. Healey said as he pointed to two production lines that have been inactive for several years.
Domestic demand fell so sharply that a year ago Viking shut an operation in Tampa, Fla., that employed 800 workers. The plant was built in the boom of the 1980’s, when most boat makers could not keep up with demand.
Yeah, that’s right, stupid liberal. Raising taxes on the rich a few percent won’t hurt anybody. They can afford it.
And if you’re either stupid or demon-possessed, you still believe that damn Marxist class warfare lie. But people who prefer the truth and have a clue about something called “history” sure don’t.
The fact of the matter is simple and straightforward: lower tax rates for EVERYBODY creates more incentive to work harder and invest more because you are allowed to keep more of what you earn. It is a simple truth of American history that every single time tax rates have been cut, we have had growth that generated MORE revenue than we otherwise would have.
There’s a second and even more harmful reason that Obama won’t raise more revenue as he falsely claims: because he’s going to be targeting and attacking the small businesses that create jobs. Yes, it’s true on one level that 97% of small businesses won’t see their taxes shoot up and force them to lay off workers and cut back to pay the dictator. But as is often true, another word for “lie” is “statistic.” Because here’s the thing: THAT THREE PERCENT OF THE BUSINESSES DO MOST OF THE ACTUAL HIRING.
I documented this back in July:
Please take a look at the US government census information on small businesses. The latest data they have on file comes from 2008:
Out of 27,281,452 total firms, 21,351,320 are listed as “nonemployer firms.” Which means that 78.23 percent of all small businesses hire ZERO employees. So when Obama says that 97% of small businesses won’t be affected by his tax hike, please understand that the whopping majority of those businesses that won’t be affected aren’t hiring anybody. Another 3,617,764 small businesses have no more than four employees. Those small businesses that hire zero workers plus those small businesses that hire no more than four workers constitute 91.5% of ALL small businesses.
Here’s a more relevant way to look at it. When you consider the businesses that employ more than four people, you are looking at businesses that hire 94.97 percent of ALL the workers who work for small businesses. And while not all of the small businesses that hire between 5-9 employees are going to be paying higher taxes as a result of Obama’s class warfare on small businesses, most of them do. And virtually none of the businesses that hire more than ten employees are going to earn less than $250,000 a year.
So, yeah, the kid who is an “independent contractor” working his paper route won’t be paying more taxes under Obama’s class warfare plan. That’s great. But the overwhelming majority of small businesses (defined as businesses employing 499 or fewer workers) are going to get the crap beat out of them.
So Obama and Democrats like to point out that 97% of small businesses won’t be affected by their tax hikes. But more than 78% of small businesses in his “97 percent” figure are “nonemployer firms” and hire ZERO workers. So no jobs. And when you look at the businesses that hire workers, you are looking overwhelmingly at the businesses that are going to be hit by these new tax hikes. That is simply a FACT. And it is simply a FACT that they are going to be forced to raise their prices to accommodate their rising costs of doing business, which will in turn reduce demand for their products or services, which will then in turn force them to lay off workers because of aforementioned reduced demand.
So what Obama and the Democrats just did is savagely attack the only people who have any chance at creating more job opportunities and bringing the US economy off its back and onto its feet again.
Keep in mind that in pimping his ObamaCare, Obama promised that premiums wouldn’t go up; he promised that if you like your doctor, you could keep your doctor; he promised that he wouldn’t tax the middle class. He lied about EVERYTHING. And he is lying to you now. Because he has over and over again demonstrated that he is a liar without shame, without honesty, without decency and without integrity.
But we’re just getting warmed up describing how truly godawful this “deal” is.
Obama – even on his regime’s own calculations – will only get 8 1/2 days of additional tax revenue by attacking the rich and sabotaging the US economy by hurting job creators. The problem when you consider Obama’s trillion-plus dollar deficits every single year of his entire presidency is that he refused to do a damn thing about the OTHER 356.5 days of the year.
We raised $1.8 trillion in income tax revenue in 2012. It will be a very interesting thing indeed to see if we raise $2.42 trillion as the Democrats claim. I bet we won’t be anywhere near that because it was a lie from the beginning.
Obama has the blue-whale-sized balls to claim that he cut the deficit by over $1 trillion. Even the überliberal Washington Post says he’s a Pinnochio-nosed liar. But let’s just think like people who AREN’T insane and AREN’T demon-possessed for a second: the US national debt is now over 16.4 trillion and will be well beyond that by January 20 when Obama’s first term ends; it was $10.626 trillion the day Obama took office.
Do you remember when our demon-possessed current president demonized his predecessor by pointing out that the debt had grown by $4 trillion over Bush’s eight years in office? I pointed out back in September:
If Obama is a one-term president, which he himself by his own rhetoric said he ought to be, he will have added more than $6 trillion to the debt in his four years by the time he leaves office. The same man who viciously demonized his predecessor for adding less than $5 trillion over EIGHT years. The national debt is over $16 trillion now, and it’s going to keep piling on and piling on until January 2013. With at least $500 billion in interest to pay on top of that.
Again, Barack Obama is a liar and a hypocrite without shame, without decency, without honor and without integrity. He is shameless. The Democrat Party is shameless. And the mainstream media which protects both with their propaganda machine are shameless.
The U.S. fiscal gap, calculated (by us) using theCongressional Budget Office’s realistic long-term budget forecast — the Alternative Fiscal Scenario — is now $222 trillion. Last year, it was $211 trillion. The $11 trillion difference — this year’s true federal deficit — is 10 times larger than the official deficit and roughly as large as the entire stock of official debt in public hands.
And why are we that $222 trillion – and actually that is now more like $227 trillion given the rate of growth of that debt and the five months that have passed since that article documenting the true debt was written – you ask? Easy, 99.99999 percent of that debt which guarantees the collapse of America came from Democrats, and specifically their boondoggle entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
It’s funny, in a sad, pathetic, ironic sort of way: Democrats demonize Republicans for trying to protect America and her interests abroad with a strong national defense. But the only thing the Constitution specifically ordered the federal government to “provide for the common defense.” And note that word, “provide.” It means, “pay for to provide.” The same liberals who demonize us for doing what common sense and the Constitution alike command us to do point to the phrase “promote the general welfare.” Do you get that difference between “provide” and “promote.” If you ask me to provide something, I’m on the hook for it in a financial way. That’s what it means to be a provider. If you want me to promote something, I’m going to say nice things about it and cheerlead for it. But that’s all. And so like everything else, Democrats turned the Constitution, basic morality and true Christianity on its head and made what is wrong right and what is right wrong.
If liberals were actually to “promote the general welfare,” they would cheerlead the private economy and encourage growth by keeping taxes low for those who are willing to work hard so they can keep what they earn. And then, with the minimum size and minimum amount of regulation, they would get the hell out of the way.
What Democrats “promote” is the general cancer instead.
And that mindset became a rotting cancer that is just about to consume and kill the patient America.
This nation is doomed. And if you voted for Obama, you are one of the people who doomed it. We cannot possibly pay these debts that will ultimately bankrupt this country but only after our children and their children are forced to bear the burden and suffer because of your self-righteous and sanctimonious greed a.k.a. “your entitlement mindset.” And one day you will stand before a holy God and answer for the fact that you are a toxic human being whose soul swims in every kind of lie. Because that’s what Obama voters are: bad people who hate the truth and who prefer lies. Aside from your dishonesty, you are greedy and hypocritical – feeling yourself entitled to seize other people’s money when you would scream if your own money were taken from you. And aside from your dishonesty, greed and hypocrisy you are hurting the poor who ought to be helped. Because as I pointed out above – and thoroughly document with the article I linked you to stating it – when you seize the wealth of private citizens who overwhelmingly worked hard and then planned well and then worked hard some more to get that wealth, you end up hurting the very poor you falsely profess to be helping. Because you force businesses large and small alike to reduce their workers. You rob the poor of dignity by preventing them from being able to find jobs. And then you cynically exploit their desperation to get them to vote Democrat so they can be on welfare for life as long as they continue voting Democrat. Oh, you will one day be forced to give an account for all of it, rest assured. And you will be giving that account to a Someone who knows the truth from all of your lies and your slander.
In sixty days this “fiscal cliff deal” that the mainstream media is so damn giddy about will come boomaranging back in the form of a massive political crisis caused by Obama’s morally insane and fiscally evil out-of-control spending binge.
Further, this stupid deal did nothing to avert the sequestration that Obama’s White House invented that will cripple our economy. Just for starters, 1.53 million defense industry workers are going to get their 60-day layoff notices that they frankly should have already received according to federal law that Obama abrogated for cynical political purposes. The defense industry has already began to suffer because everybody knows that Obama is at war with our ability to defend ourselves against war. Obama has already cut $480 billion from defense; and his sequestration gimmick will soon devastatingly cut the Pentagon by $500 billion more.
Republicans were maneuvered into an impossible rhetorical battle against a master demagogic rhetorician. They were demonized as “the party who was willing to force everybody’s taxes to go up over the wealthiest two percent of the country.” When how the hell were the Democrats not “the party who was willing to force everybody’s taxes to go up over the wealthiest two percent of the country”??? Weren’t Democrats threatening to go off the cliff unless they got to attack the top two percent of earners? How were they not doing the very thing they slandered the Republicans for doing???
This country is going to shut down in sixty days over that “spending issue” that Obama and the Democrats absolutely refused to deal with. Because this “deal” did nothing to slow down the debt, nothing to slow down Obama’s shocking deficits, nothing to avert a debt ceiling showdown and nothing to avert the REAL fiscal cliff of Obama’s sequestration plan.
The markets that stupidly surged today will just as stupidly collapse then. Because anybody who isn’t a fool should see this confrontation over insane and immoral debt coming.
Meanwhile, it is God damn America, full speed ahead to ruin. And then the Antichrist and the Tribulation will come.
Tags: $222 trillion, $620 billion, 60 days, actual debt, Bush tax cuts, Clinton tax hikes, Clinton tax rates, deal, defense industry, fiscal cliff, income tax revenues, layoffs, Medicaid, Medicare, promote the general welfare, provide for the common defense, sequestration, sixty days, small businesses, Social Security, top two percent, two months
January 2, 2013 at 6:17 pm
Thanks for the posts. I think you should rename your blog “Continue thinking right”. “Those who have eyes to see…Let them See!” Which I think implies that even though a good person may have some degree of understanding, the truth regarding the evil of the day may seem too incomprehensible to embrace as real. So “let them see” means accept that evil is not only active but AGRESSIVE!
January 2, 2013 at 9:33 pm
Scott Brooke,
One of the reasons I believe in a personal Satan (as the Bible describes) is because the evil that we see is both transcendent and systematic. It is transcendent in the sense that at the Nuremburg Trials all the Nazis (and Japanese in their trials) said that they weren’t responsible; that they merely followed orders. There is a mind behind evil that is larger than a Hitler or a Stalin or a Mao – as evil as these men were. It is systematic in the sense that there is a figure who is more intelligent and more cunning than man directing evil toward a desired outcome.
I most definitely see evil organizing toward the Antichrist and the mark of the beast as described in Daniel and Revelation.
Evil ultimately has no existence of its own, but is merely a perversion of good, just as darkness is merely a deprivation of light. Evil did not exist until God created the finite limited being Lucifer to pervert the good with which he was created. While his abilities obviously dramatically transcend any human being’s, he is finite and limited compared to his Creator. Evil can only exist in the mind of a finite limited being who perverts good.
It is this super human mind that is at work directing human evil toward his own purposes out of his hatred of his Creator.
Your suggestion is actually pretty good, because “Continue Thinking Right” would target those who have BEEN thinking right. And these are the people I wanted to reach out to, in order to try to better equip them with the facts and arguments they need in their own discussions. My actual blog title, “Start Thinking Right” would then target those who have not been right thinkers. And while I’m glad that somebody is willing to put up with these people, that aint me.
Sadly, I would say that even if my blog was poorly named, it is old enough now that it’s pretty much stuck with the name.
January 3, 2013 at 8:55 am
There are so many I want to share this column with. But it wouldn’t do any good. They would stop reading after the second or third paragraph and refuse to go further. I used to like so many of these people and I find I’m starting to avoid them, get away from them. It is sad but I believe it is a necessary step for me to do….
January 3, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Millie,
I’m pretty hard right and understand your plight. When I attempt to discuss some of our country’s problems associated with the Democratic party’s liberal agenda I get met with jaw dropping and blank stares. They don’t understand and don’t want to. It’s a mindset. I have a liberal sister from California who was arguing how important it was for Cal. to pass the Dream Act paying for illegals’ college. She saw no problem with it and she knows Cal. is completely broke.
January 3, 2013 at 9:34 pm
Matt,
Liberals suffer from “Magical Thinking Disorder” and in their little world money comes from rich people in an endless supply if they are just taxed hard enough. So why worry about paying for anything?
Liberalism is the most gutless and most sanctimonious worldview in the history of planet earth. As long as its other people’s money, they will shovel it out (to their special interests in exhange for campaign funds and to their minority bases in order to buy their votes).
Al Gore is the newest poster boy for “liberalism” being numerically equivalent to “hypocrisy.”
January 3, 2013 at 9:45 pm
Millie,
I’ll quote the line from the Penguins in the kid’s movie “Madagascar”:
When you see a liberal and you’ve absolutely got to deal with this annoying person, just remember the penguin’s words: “Just smile and wave, boys. Just smile and wave.”
Just count yourself blessed, Millie: I figure I only have to deal with these people for a short time; they actually have got to live with themselves 24 hours a day.