Category Archives: Economy

Economy, Organized Labor, Pensacola, Politics, Whiners

Is Occupy Pensacola Here To Stay?

The Occupy Pensacola bunch have shown, among other things, that their word is worth nothing. They have now violated their ‘agreement‘ with Pensacola’s Mayor Hayward by three days. What remains to be seen now is whether the mayor is willing to continue to deal with the dishonest entity called Occupy Pensacola or simply move them out.

occupy-pcola-10Speaking to some of the folks there today, they’re not planning on moving any where any time soon. Noble as their cause may be (and it depends on who you ask as to just what their cause is), they are staying put until they fix all that’s wrong in the world. I found some of them to be free-spirited, believing they are doing something good, some totally naive regarding work, responsibility, and wealth, and some were just homeless that came to live there.

If there is a common thread in their ‘complaint,’ it is centered around money and wealth. They want some of it and they resent the fact that Washington (both political parties) isn’t taking if from those that have it and giving it to them.

occupy-pcola-5
Dixie Meise, Safety / First Aid, Occupy Pensacola

What it means to Dixie Meise, the ‘safety and first aid’ person in camp, is that the homeless all need a place to call home. And they expect to stay there until homelessness is ended. How’s that War on Poverty working anyways?

Dixie estimates about 50-60 percent of those present were homeless people. There were many empty tents, apparently belonging to people who have jobs during the day, then return to camp to spend the night.

Calls to Mayor Hayward’s office and an email to ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) president Mike Lowrey as to the future of Occupy Pensacola and the labor union’s support of them have so far gone un-answered.

Economy, Media, Organized Labor, Pensacola, Politics

Obama’s Jobs Act And The Left’s World View

If you want to know why the U.S. economy and jobs picture still sucks, all you need to do is examine the world where the political Left lives. Take this video clip of The ED Show on the Lean Forward (Bend Over) Network for example. The subject is about President Obama’s bus tour trying to push his Jobs Act, aka the class-warfare-tax-increase-labor-union-bail-out bill.

There is one undeniable fact where the first two years of the Obama administration is concerned. Whether by hook or by crook, Obama got everything he wanted. He got the un-Affordable Health Care Act, he got his so-called stimulus bills, he got his auto industry and Wall Street, the mortgage industry, student loan industry. The bail outs, all of them. And most behind closed doors without any input from the ‘other side of the aisle.’

In this video, ‘Democratic Strategist’ Krystal Ball does her best to deny all of it in what has become the Democrats’ narrative.

The republicans have been coming up with the narrative that the President got everything he wanted in the first two years he had a Democratic congress, he had a Democratic Senate so of course he got everything he wanted, when the reality was Republicans from day one said we will defeat this president and they did everything they could to obstruct progress, to obstruct the focus on jobs, to obstruct doing anything that would help the American people.

Since Republicans were not successful in stopping any of it, her point is . . .?

Then there’s this gem from Mr. Pro-Capitalism himself Mike Papantonio, host of the Ring of Fire talk radio show and frequent guest of Sargent Shultz’s show.

Shultz asks Papantonio about taxing the millionaires and billionaires. “What about the millionaires? Do you think the majority of wealthy people in this country would be OK with .5 percent over a million dollars?”

They do. I don’t think they have problems with it Ed because most millionaires understand, they believe in capitalism. And in order for capitalism to work, you have to put money into the system. You have to move it by uh uh if you move it by way of government into people’s hands, that works!

When the Left has their own version of reality and their own definition of capitalism, is it any wonder why Obama’s ‘economic recovery’ has been a dismal failure?

2012 Election, Economy, Organized Labor, Politics

Big Labor Wins Big In Ohio

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The people of Ohio just voted to give labor unions the pin number to their checking account. That is what will happen when the public employee labor unions (teachers, police, fire, state, and municipal) look to the taxpayers for money to bail them out of the union’s unfunded benefits. And when that fails, they will petition Washington to bail them out. That’s when they’ll have your pin number.

With labor-lubricated forces spending more than $30 million to only $9 million spent by the Kasich team, 63% of Ohio voters rejected the same reforms that they enacted earlier this year: banning strikes by all 350,000 state government workers, outlawing collective bargaining among state employees, forcing more meritocratic calculations on pay for state employees, reducing workers’ sick leave and limiting time-off to five days a week, and requiring all public employees to pay 15% of their health care premiums and 10% of their salaries toward pensions.

UPDATE 4:30pm: You might ask, how Ohio voters could have approved this, given that the Obamacare mandate was shot down by a similar margin? All you need to do is to look at the ballot the voters were shown.

Issue 2
Referendum
REFERENDUM ON NEW LAW RELATIVE TO GOVERNMENT UNION CONTRACTS AND OTHER GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS AND POLICIES

A majority yes vote is necessary for Amended Substitute Senate Bill No. 5 to be approved. Amended Substitute Senate Bill No. 5 is a new law relative to government union contracts and other government employment contracts and policies.

A “YES” vote means you approve the law.
A “NO” vote means you reject the law.

YES (To approve the law)
NO (To reject the law)

SHALL THE LAW BE APPROVED?

Who can make any sense of what a vote one way or the other would do? Ohio is a big labor union state. Do you think this ballot was written so vaguely, probably by BIG LABOR, to be deliberately deceptive?

One thing is for sure. The legislature is not done with this issue.

Link: Ballot Language

2012 Election, Economy, Fair Tax, Politics

The Time For Bold Tax Reform Has Come

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In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave the government the authority to tax people’s income (up to 100% of it), was sold to the public as only taxing the rich. Sound familiar?

By 1913, 36 States had ratified the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. In October, Congress passed a new income tax law with rates beginning at 1 percent and rising to 7 percent for taxpayers with income in excess of $500,000. Less than 1 percent of the population paid income tax at the time.

Americans Paying Zero Federal Income Tax Grows

There is a growing number of Americans who pay zero federal income tax after taking advantage of deductions and credits.  This, a result of morphing the income tax system into spending programs during the Clinton administration. The number of Americans in this group has increased by 35%. Up from 43.4 million people in the 2006 tax year to 58.6 million in the 2009 tax year.   No doubt due to record unemployment and more wealth-spreading going on.

Prior to The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, tax relief was generally given in the form of lower tax rates or increased deductions or exemptions. But the 1997 Act  launched the modern proliferation of individual tax credits and refundable credits that are in essence spending programs operating through the tax system.

Large Number of Non-Payers Make Tax Reform Difficult

Federal tax reform requires that the base of the federal income tax be widened, so that overall tax rates can be reduced. However, because of the large number of Americans currently paying zero federal income tax, any attempt to broaden the tax base will be a difficult sell for lawmakers. The millions of Americans who have no federal income tax liability will either be indifferent about tax reform or will positively oppose it, as it would require bringing them into the federal tax base.

When more people don’t pay taxes than pay taxes under the current system, why would anyone think that these non-payers would vote for anyone who would make them pay a ‘fair’ share? Similar problems are bankrupting European countries over benefits. Reforms there means taking benefits away.

These findings raise serious questions about the future of the U.S. income tax system, and the possibility of base-broadening tax reform when the majority of the federal tax burden is borne by a shrinking pool of taxpayers.

I got your base-broadening tax reform right here. It’s called the FairTax and it is what ‘Phase 2’ of Herman Cain’s economic plan is all about. It broadens the tax base from 140 million people to every living human being within the borders of the United States. Under the FairTax, the tax base includes our population of 320 million, plus foreign tourists, diplomats, and illegal aliens. You can’t get a broader tax base nor a better stimulus for job creation, economic growth, personal economic security and national economic security.

Economy, Politics

Sen. Harry Reid Wins M.R.I.O.T.D. Award

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said this on the floor of the Senate.

“It’s very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it’s the public-sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about.”

It is with some reservation that Sen. Reid wins the Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day award. Not because he isn’t deserving of it, but rather that as a conservative, I have some compassion for my fellow-man. He might have some mental health issues for making such a statement and need professional help.

Link: A Moment of Candor From Harry Reid

2008 Election, 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Economy, Politics, Uncategorized

Colorado Proposition 103 Gets A Shellacking

Big news in Colorado. The 2008 election made Colorado a Blue state for the first time in 15 years, Obama 54% McCain 45%, buoyed by the support of the state’s growing Hispanic population, a key demographic to victory in 2012. So you would be surprised to see that 63.5% of the voters rejected Proposition 103 Tuesday.

Prop 103 was a $2.9 billion tax increase in sales and income taxes to be used for schools. I think this marks the first time that the ‘it’s for the children’ excuse has not worked. The people of Colorado feel they are paying enough taxes already and expect the state to do the job with what they have.  A notion contrary to liberal dogma.

“We need to do this for our kids,” said Heath, D-Boulder. “Our kids can’t wait.”

“This is a victory for all Colorado taxpayers,” said Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs. “We can’t help children by bankrupting their parents.”

It looks like ‘it’s the economy stupid’ is paramount in the minds of the people of Colorado and spells trouble in 2012 for an administration that only wants to raise taxes more.

2012 Election, Economy, Media, Politics

Associated Press Behaving Badly

Herman Cain, currently leading polls for the Republican nomination for President, had two big media events today, one day after Politico comes out with an alleged sex scandal involving two un-named women and Herman Cain some 15 years ago when he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association.

The first event was an hour at the American Enterprise Institute where Cain was to speak to his economic policies. That was the topic. After explaining his plan, the moderator stated the ground rules then opened up the floor to let the media ask Mr. Cain questions.

The ground rules were that questions to be about his fiscal policy. Any questions outside of that could be taken at his next meeting an hour later at the National Press Club. That is what the press was told.

Audio: Ground rules of discussion

After two or three questions from reporters, an AP reporter breaks the rules.

This was his question: AP question to Herman Cain

You can hear the moderator telling the reporter that that part of his question was inconsistent with the ground rules.

It’s not hard to figure out why he did it. Thirty minutes later, ABC News leads the 12 o’clock EST national radio news with ‘Herman Cain refuses to answer questions of sexual misconduct with two female National Restaurant Assoc. employees.’

When Bill Clinton actually did sexually assault women, that turned out to be a resume enhancement and the media spent all its time trashing all the women that came forward.

Not only behaving badly, but displaying their usual bias against conservatives.

2012 Election, Economy, Energy, Fair Tax, Media, Middle East, Politics, Race Relations, Supreme Court, War On Terror

Herman Cain At The National Press Club

The Politico article about two un-named women who claimed that Herman Cain directed ‘inappropriate behavior’ at them immediately cast a huge cloud over his possible presidential future.

After addressing that issue today at the National Press Club’s luncheon, it seems to me that Cain knocked it out of the park as a non-issue. Not only did he knock that one out, but he explained his plans for his administration regarding the economy, foreign relations, and everything else very well.

That said, here is Cain’s date with the National Press Club. For walking into the media’s house and answering all the tough questions squarely, I think he handled himself and his campaign chances very well.

As for the actions of Politico, they are just showing their colors.

2012 Election, Economy, Politics

Watch Herman Cain Live, Now

Herman Cain is at the American Enterprise Institute talking about his 9-9-9 plan live and taking questions about it. Here’s the link: http://www.aei.org/event/100493

Date: Monday, October 31, 2011

Time: 9:00 AM — 11:00 AM

Location: Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI

1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

UPDADTE: If you missed it, here is the entire interview from earlier today.