“Why would they [illegal immigrants] vote for a party that is going to cut taxes they do not pay, but take away government benefits they do receive?” Patrick J. Buchanan
As the country is reeling from the electoral loss and the re-election of President Obama, half rejoicing and the other half in stunned disbelief, the economic reality is beginning to sink in.
People chose the promise of Santa Claus and Christmas every day of the year. Government Santa is likely to slow down in delivering unearned freebies as the economy worsens.
The Dow Industrials reacted immediately to the re-election by dropping more than 300 points. All other indexes also dropped more than 2 percent the next day. The finance and energy sectors will be the hardest hit by the promised increased regulation.
De-developing America has been a stated goal of the President’s platform during the first campaign by increasing energy costs through the bankruptcy of many coal plants via onerous EPA regulations.
Republicans are co-culprits to the de-industrialization of America. They approved NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and allowed free trade with China. Multi-national corporations moved their factories overseas, fired workers, destroyed 6 million manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and moved 55,000 factories out of the U.S. (Patrick J. Buchanan, “Is the GOP Headed for the Boneyard?” November 8, 2012)
The stranded homeless from Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey and New York are poorly cared for, electricity is still absent in many areas, and the infrastructure damaged from the storm surge is at least eight months away from being repaired. To make matters worse, a cold front and a virus outbreak in the FEMA camp is exacerbating the misery.
The divided government, the Democrat controlled Senate and White House, and the Republican controlled House, has many challenges to address. The “fiscal cliff” and reaching the debt ceiling are the most immediate.
On January 1, 2013 the Bush era tax cuts will expire and new higher taxes will take effect, a total of $500 billion, affecting individuals, families, struggling small businesses, and investors. In such a climate of more taxation and lower business confidence, it will be very hard to create jobs. The Obamacare mandate and penalties will additionally force many businesses to make painful layoffs – resulting in higher unemployment.
Massive budget cuts to the military will be automatically enforced through sequestration, a legislative tactic to hold the military budget hostage to the tax increases that Democrats and the administration wish to enforce. Cutting the military drastically and its budget at the time when the Middle East is a basket case, North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran are exercising their military muscles, is not a very safe idea.
Speaker Boehner’s tax reform plan to lower tax rates and eliminate certain tax deductions would lead to higher economic growth than the current anemic 2 percent, resulting in more tax revenues. Raising tax rates without cutting spending is not a viable option. The Speaker of the House believes that “shoring up entitlements and reforming the tax code to bring jobs home” would go a long way to increase economic activity and raise revenue.
Democrats in Congress are eager to raise taxes and continue deficit spending to stimulate the economy. Keynesian economists, who believe it is the government’s job to smooth out the fluctuations in the economy, would choose government spending and tax breaks to stimulate the economy in bad times.
The Washington Post’s Steven Mufson has a bolder suggestion to solve the problem of out-of-control deficit spending that Congress has engaged in: pass a carbon tax to raise enough money to bring the budget deficit under control. “Climate activists hope a carbon tax would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by penalizing the use of coal, oil, and natural gas.” (Carbon Tax getting closer look, November 10, 2012)
Mufson quotes William Pizer from Duke who said that a “$20-a-ton tax on carbon dioxide would raise gasoline prices by about 20 cents per gallon and boost electric bills slightly.” The tax would take place “upstream, at coal mines, oil and gas wells, or terminals for oil tankers at U.S. shores.”
The problem is that higher gasoline and electricity prices would fall on those who can ill-afford them because average Americans spend a larger percentage of their incomes on gasoline and electricity. Companies who export to countries that don’t have carbon taxes would have to be given subsidies in order to compete, more government spending of taxpayer dollars we do not have. Liberals forget that there is also on-going carbon trading in California and the northeastern part of the United States. The environmentalists proposals to tax CO2 emissions is nothing more than a get-rich scheme for those in power, and a sure way to raise cash for more spending, it has nothing to do with the environment or saving the planet, it resembles more environmental piracy.
Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) co-sponsored a carbon tax bill in 2009 but now “has no plans to reintroduce it or support it as part of a tax reform package.” The American Petroleum Institute opposes the carbon tax on grounds that it will constrain energy production and it will impact the American people by increasing costs.
Add all the EPA onerous new regulations and you have a recipe for economic disaster. It does not matter to liberals that China and India would continue polluting with a vengeance. As long as our polluters are taxed, which in turn will pass these taxes to consumers, the budget deficit gap will be solved – until liberals run out of money and the debt ceiling must be raised again or another scheme will be devised to bring in more revenue.
If the fiscal cliff is not averted, the fiscal crisis will be accompanied by higher unemployment, higher inflation, higher food and energy prices, and higher interest rates. Republicans will have to cave in to Democrats because all the subsequent pain the American public will experience will be blamed on Republicans. After all, we’ve been hearing for the past years every day, everything is Bush’s fault and President Obama inherited a mess from President Bush.
Hurricane Sandy gave mayor Bloomberg a fresh excuse to promote global warming and his Agenda 21 plan for New York. EPA can step in and limit CO2 from power plants and other sources through executive orders. Expensive renewable energy will be pushed again at the forefront in spite of the 12 or more bankruptcies that occurred in the last four years. Corn will be taken out of the food supply and put into bio-fuels, including a new brand of Diesel mixed with rapeseed oil that Europeans are already using, DieselMaxx.
According to Paul Driessen, “Billions of dollars in taxpayers’ subsidies continue to flow each year to bureaucratic zealots, environmental pressure groups, universities, and other organizations. These dollars fund junk science, strained justification for indefensible rules, more pressure to regulate for increasingly diminished returns, and outright propaganda.” (Green agenda threatens economic future, Washington Times, November 8, 2012)
Americans are perennially optimistic and that’s a good thing. Fifty percent of Americans are also extremely gullible and believe in government as Santa Clause. They refuse to accept the fact that “fundamental change” is inevitably life-altering, cannot be reversed, may not have a quick fix, or may not have a fix at all. It is not a piece of merchandise that you can return to the store later if dissatisfied.
When faced with pessimism, Americans react by either verbally shooting the messenger with personal insults or discounting experienced opinion as ranting or defeatist attitude. We are Americans and we can fix everything. President Obama is going to help all poor people by giving them the opportunity to succeed. Somehow before Obama arrived on the world stage, the opportunity to succeed did not exist.
I live in Realityville and have observed carefully the European Union and its disastrous socialist economic policies and multiculturalism. These policies are finally bearing fruit in the U.S. We are a new country today, following into the footsteps of the failed lab experiment of the European Union, including the proposed carbon taxes, a form of environmental piracy.
the irony is I received two articles via email today, one written by yourself berating the election results…the other I’ve pasted below. If you have’nt had an opportunity to read this piece, please do so if you can. Both pieces offer a view of America that offers two different paths…one such as yourself which advocate throwing up your hands and attributing the loss of the Republican party to the takers, and the other that wishes to find common ground. Which view best represents American society? Ask yourself that question honestly. Its viewpoints that you espouse that in fact can be the true downfall of America. It’s ugly, incendiary, and the refusal to seek common ground speaks volumes as to your knowledge of how America has operated throughout our history…
I’m seeing Americans post photos of our Flag hung upside down because the President won reelection. They’re defending this action as a “Naval sign of distress”. Let me tell you something: you are not on a battleship, you are a manager at McDonalds in Santee, CA, and you are in fact, a lunatic.
I’ve avoided “spiking the football” over a great night for the President and for common sense in the Senate – Richard Murdock and Todd Akin deserved more than a loss. But I’ve held off, because I respect, am friends with, and on certain issues agree with, many patriotic Republicans who work hard to make this country a better place and simply disagreed with who should be Commander in Chief. That’s fair and healthy.
And, I also didn’t spike the football because I’ve lost before and I know how terrible it feels.
It’s called maturity and not enough people in either party have it.
Cry Babies And Sore Losers The following jaw punch is not directed at common sense Republicans, nor does it condone radicals on the Left. It is directed at the right wing fanatics who put party before country, conspiracy before reality, and ideology before science and intellect.
To Tea Party Patriots and hardcore Religious Engineers:
Republicans lost because their party leadership and most candidates feared you, listened to you, and looked the other way on important issues as you picked the dumbest, craziest nominees in key primaries (Murdock and Akin), or converted otherwise sensible, experienced candidates to Crazy Town (Romney).
There’s nothing wrong with wanting limited government. I do. There’s nothing wrong with believing in God, the Golden Rule, or wanting to reduce abortions. I do, too. But you’ve taken it too damn far and scare the shit out of people you could otherwise persuade.
Yes, the message and messenger matter (you’re failing at both, BTW), but no Madison Avenue P.R. firm, K Street lobbying firm, Fox News “analyst”, or local chapter of “Freedom Works” can sell the flaming dung you’re slinging.
Smart people can lose. But smart people always learn.
You didn’t lose because you “weren’t conservative enough” or because the country has become full of lazy “takers” who don’t want to earn a living or just want America to “turn in to Europe”.
You didn’t lose because of Hurricane Sandy or because Chris Christie hugged the President on TV – they were both doing their jobs.
You didn’t lose because of a liberal media, liberal college campuses, liberal polls that were “weighted to Democrats” (mostly because they were accurate), or because of “election fraud”… actually, that probably benefited you this time.
No. You lost because your policies, tone, conspiracies, rigid inflexibility and irrational rhetoric helped align enough moderates, swing voters, and minority groups whom otherwise could be persuaded by Republicans, to align with Democrats and a beatable incumbent.
It’s not that you didn’t get your message out, it’s that we all actually heard it and threw up a little in our mouths.
There isn’t a mandate for Democrats in this election. Liberalism wasn’t rewarded in this election. However, calm pragmatism, compassion, working together, compromise and sincerity were rewarded. People may not have agreed with President Obama, but more felt he was sincere and that he understood their daily problems, fears, and dreams. If you don’t trust what the polls say, take a look at who is sworn in on January 20th. I thought you’d at least believe in Math when it came to counting to 270.
Sincerity is the only thing in politics you can’t fake. You can’t teach it. No matter how shiny a candidate’s bio is, how smooth he is, or how perfect the gray hairs rest on his temples — any average Joe on the street can spot a bullshitter.
Mitt is a generous and good man, but he didn’t know who he was or “needed” to be at any given time in that campaign. That’s largely his fault for lacking core convictions or personal toughness (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush possessed both traits – that’s why they won).
But you, the right wing base of the party, who drove so many of us moderate republicans out the door years ago, were the main catalyst. Your inability to reason, compromise, or let new facts and evidence challenge your predetermined outcomes led millions of moderates to no longer be able to stand on stage with you.
Frankly, you’re embarrassing – more so than a crazy family member at dinner, or having your mom drop you off at a high school dance.
You say stupid shit and look stupid saying it.
You pass amendments to ban flag burning and then hang it upside down and post it on Facebook when you lose.
You preach limited government in the economy when Democrats are in charge and then look the other way when you’re in charge.
You want a government small enough to stay out of corporations and banks but big enough for bedrooms and hospital respirators (see Schiavo, Terri).
There’s a hatred inside of you that burns in a way that scares normal people.
You made unlikely allies in large corporations who are more interested in tax breaks and loopholes even if the government has to cut your Medicare and Social Security or cut education to a point where states and local governments have no financial choice but to educate your children in portable trailer classrooms with 35 other students.
Would these corporations do this just to help pad their quarterly earnings reports with certain tax and regulatory policies? You bet your sweet ass they do. And you better believe they’re happy to have you make the “freedom” argument as “concerned citizen patriots” on their behalf.
Yet, after those corporations spent billions on TV adds and herded you like sheep over the last half decade to discredit Barack Obama for everything from being a “Godless communist” — to his “being born in Kenya and hatching a secret plot to take down America” — to Obamacare’s “death panels and job killing regulations” –
YOU still lost.
After having a Senate Republican Leader state that his party’s top priority in Congress was to make “Obama a one term President” and a House of Representatives that blocked everything he tried to do and then had the brass to criticize him for “not getting anything done” –
YOU still lost.
After attacking gay people who want equal protection under the law (BTW, I’m referring to the 14th amendment to the constitution, I know you forget most of the amendments after the 2nd one) –
YOU still lost.
After attacking the Hispanic community who’s tired of being spoken “at” like criminals, attacking low income women who rely on Planned Parenthood for services of which 98% have nothing to do with abortion, and attacking relatively trivial things like PBS that children and adults enjoy as “1″ damn television channel that doesn’t include Honey Boo Boo or a “Fox News Breaking Alert” announcing Obama’s latest “Czar” appointment –
YOU still lost.
And after throwing all the red meat in your warped political base out to the rest of the country to eat, the majority of Americans weren’t hungry for it and didn’t trust ordering from your unhealthy, de-regulated menu –
YOU still lost.
You can read me the constitution, but you clearly don’t have a practical understanding of what you’ve read, heard on television, or forwarded to your entire email list of like minded xenophobes.
This country is great because our founders were smart enough to limit the government’s power and give the people enough freedom and authority to correct their own mistakes in pursuit of a “more perfect union” (it’s in the first damn line of the Preamble, in case you can’t find it in your Tea Party Constitution Cliffs Notes).
Our founders were utterly brilliant and sophisticated. I don’t like to speak for them, but I doubt they would have been friends with Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin. Nah, they wouldn’t have made the guest list at Mt. Vernon or Monticello.
But let’s be clear, our founders weren’t perfect. They owned slaves. Only White male property owners had a say in things. Women, blacks, native americans, and other constituencies had to wait for an American dream and in many cases, are still waiting and working for it. Speaking of work, children were working 12-16 hour days with zero safety protections in statute. Zero.
The constitution, subsequent amendments and Supreme Court rulings and opinions since 1800 aren’t perfectly clear.
The founders knew that they, and the constitution they drafted, weren’t perfect. This is why they added a Bill of Rights and why they created a Supreme Court and a process that has allowed us to add 27 amendments to their work of art.
Their imperfection is what led to a Civil War to prove that human and civil rights aren’t a “states’ rights issue” – they’re endowed by our creator, not by legislatures in Mississippi or Alabama, and they’re protected equally in our constitution, but also in our democratically passed laws.
I do ask this: be a real Patriot. Look at that flag you’ve hung upside down. Look at what you’ve done to it and what that means. Thousands of our bravest men and women, braver than me, just lost limbs and in many cases their lives so that Iraqis and Afghani’s could vote however they see fit. I did that on Tuesday and so did you. That’s what that flag stands for – equal access to a process, not a guarantee for any of our desired outcomes.
A country that defeated Hitler, Mussolini, and bin Laden won’t crumble because the guy you wanted to be President got beat.
You lost. Now learn from it.
Paul,
What does your post have to do with carbon tax?
Wow! Did you forget your meds today?
You liberals are unhappy even when you win, you want to squash any opposition.