TPN—Alan Caruba: Can We Avoid "Taxmageddon" in 2013?

In 1959, during an interview with the late Mike Wallace, Ayn Rand, the author of “Atlas Shrugged”, said “A free market will not break down. All depressions are caused by government interference and the cure that is always offered is more of the same poisons that caused the disaster.”

After the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, the government’s solution to the crisis was to raise the top tax rate from 25% to 63%. Successively this was increased to 79% and then to 94%, effectively choking off capital formation, investment, and the incentive to start new businesses.

Not until World War Two broke out in Europe in 1939 and threatened the security of the United States and its allies did Franklin D. Roosevelt reverse his failed policies that had stretched out the Depression, turning to private enterprise to build the airplanes, tanks, and guns that would be needed to defeat the Axis powers and, in 1941, the Empire of Japan. Capitalism saved America.

America suffered a little known shock to its economy on September 15, 2008, just a month and a half shy of Election Day, when around 11 AM the Federal Reserve noted a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the nation to the tune of $550 billion dollars in just over an hour or so. The decision was made to close the accounts. Had they not done that, the Reserve estimated that by 2 PM the entire economy of the nation would have collapsed. Within 24 hours, the world economy would have followed.

The financial crisis this triggered was put off by letting the investment house of Lehman Brothers fail and by getting Congress to agree to a $700 billion program to bail out other investment firms and the insurance firm, AIG. Simply put, without a banking system, you do not have an economy.

Americans are in for another shock to the system on January 1, 2013 when nearly a half trillion in higher taxes will become the law of the land. Taxmageddon would be the largest tax hike in the history of the nation.

The taxes pose such a threat to the anemic “recovery” the economy is said to be having that a think tank called the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has been urging the CEOs of corporations and financial institutions to meet with members of Congress to bring pressure to resolve the gridlock that has brought the nation to the precipice of yet another financial crisis.

How bad is the prospect of January 1, 2013? A May 11th Heritage Foundation analysis listed the following:


# Income tax rates shoot up,
# the child credit rate is cut in half,
# the marriage penalty roars back to life,
# 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 unless the Supreme Court strikes down the law as unconstitutional.

CONTINUED:  http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/blog/show?id=3355873%3ABlogPost%3A2020907&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post

SUN JOURNAL LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Remember FDR, by CCTA Member Carlton Melvin

February 23, 2012

Remember FDR


How often do we hear GOP politicians, pundits and the general populace mindlessly espouse the political vulnerability of President Obama due to the sorry state of the economy.


Fact is the economy was far worse at this same time during FDR’s first term. Unemployment was more than double what we have now and he was re-elected in a landslide proving that dependency on the government pays off.


Obama is well aware of this but the GOP and the media obviously still don’t get it. Growing numbers of Americans on food stamps, existing jobs propped up by bailouts, mortgage payments in arrears subsidized by government intervention. Recipients of this mass government rescue are, of course, potential voters who will vote for their “rescuers” even if the rescuers happen to be the very reason for their plight in the first place. Wouldn’t most?


Obama’s glee is further fortified as he observes the GOP candidates and their “character assassination” circus demean their presidential images.


The election is far from being “in the Republican bag”. It must not be forgotten that dependency always pays off for politicians, even when it has in fact critically wounded an economy along with its society.


The GOP should erase all smugness and remember FDR!

Carlton Melvin, Havelock
http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/hear-104510-populace-letter.html

The welfare state is destroying America

First of a five-part series.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on Aug. 14, 1935, laying what he described as a "cornerstone" of the modern welfare state.


At the time, Roosevelt claimed that the sweeping program would, "act as a protection to future administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy."

He was right about the "cornerstone" part, as both parties built on the program in the decades that followed. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson brought us Medicare and Medicaid.

In 2003, President George W. Bush and a Republican Congress added prescription drug coverage for seniors. And just last year, President Obama pushed a national health care law through Congress.

But Roosevelt was dead wrong that the program would help the nation avoid deep debt. Social Security and the entitlement programs that followed its legacy of seeking to protect citizens from the "hazards and vicissitudes of life," turned out to be fiscal disasters.

With health care costs rising and the population aging, America's welfare-state obligations are bringing the country to its financial knees. If left unchecked, the growing debt burden will not only trigger runaway inflation and stifling taxes, but it will also threaten national security.

Spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare alone currently account for 46 percent -- or nearly half of -- federal spending, excluding interest payments. Over the next 25 years, that percentage will explode to 66 percent, or close to two-thirds, according to the Congressional Budget Office..

Numbers associated with the nation's debt crisis are almost too staggering to comprehend. Last month, total U.S. debt surpassed $15 trillion. But a recent analysis by Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff found that when long-term entitlement obligations are considered, the true fiscal gap is $211 trillion.

CONTINUED:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2012/01/welfare-state-destroying-america/2123391?utm_source=Washington%20Examiner%20Opinion%20Digest%20-%2001/23/2012&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest

PEARL HARBOR: THE BACK STORY - DICK MORRIS TV: HISTORY VIDEO!

DON'T MISS THIS ONE! ~ Lynn
In this video commentary, I discuss how FDR knew the Japanese would have to attack us and draw us into the war...and counted on it. Tune in!

http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/pearl-harbor-the-back-story-dick-morris-tv-history-video/

Obama Administration Opposes FDR’s Prayer at WWII Memorial

Conservatives and Republican lawmakers are furious after the Obama administration announced its objection to adding President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s D-Day prayer to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The objection was reportedly raised during a congressional hearing on Republican Congressman Bill Johnson’s bill – the “World War II Memorial Prayer Act of 2011.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obama-administration-opposes-fdrs-prayer-at-wwii-memorial/

Sun Journal Letter to the Editor by CCTA Vice Chairman, Nancy Murdoch

Unions
March 02, 2011 10:13 PM



I saw “Norma Rae,” read “How Green Was My Valley” and a number of other books about unions and the abuses workers suffered in the history of our country and the world. Unions have played an instrumental part in leveling the playing field for workers, especially in the United States. However, the unions played their part in creating the “Rust Belt,” empty textile mills, and outsourcing of jobs. As often is the case, those with the most power overuse that power and the pendulum swings in the opposite direction. Union bosses often have become wealthy, corrupt, powerful, and wield that power politically. Often the worker still loses.

With many states (and the nation) in debt up to their eyeballs, the rubber has met the road. Unions are fighting for their very survival in the Midwest. But is survival, especially public service unions, in the best interest of the American taxpayer in this point in history? Or is only in the best interest of the unions and their cronies?


Public service union members make about 45 percent more money than the private sector, get better benefits, have greater job security and retire earlier than their private counterparts — all on the taxpayers’ dime. Even FDR (certainly no one’s idea of a right winger) said that public service unions were “unthinkable and intolerable.”

The state of Wisconsin’s proposals seems reasonable: employees’ contribution to health care to rise from 6 percent to 12 percent, plus some contribution to their own pension plans, and unions will collect their own dues (instead of the state deducting them from paychecks). Wages could still be negotiated, and most other workplace grievances are part of law (Civil Service and Equal Employment Laws) and will protect the workers.

In 2008 the federal government provided over $600 million to Wisconsin for education. But according to 2009 records, only 32 percent of Wisconsin 8th graders earned a “proficient” reading rate (2 percent were advanced readers) and the other 66 percent were rated basic or below basic. But because of the power of the union, poor teachers are almost impossible to fire as seniority has more value than merit. Even though Wisconsin spends a huge amount per student, the results are a sorry return on the dollar. I don’t expect the scores to improve this year as in the last several weeks, many students have had a substitute teacher or none at all, as rallying at the state House and grounds was more important than teaching.

The demands of the unions and their workers are spreading to many other states, as the states find themselves slaves to a political system that has failed to see where their selfishness and greed are leading. The laws of economics are always true: you can’t spend more than you earn, whether you are an individual, county, state, or federal government.

I, as most Americans, value our police, firefighters and teachers. I want them to make a decent wage, and have fair benefits. However, we are all in this together, or at least should be. United we stand, divided we fall. Are the unions and their strong arm tactics going to divide this country once and for all?

Nancy Murdoch
Havelock

http://www.newbernsj.com/articles/saw-95363-unions-.html