Major Mike's Musings » politics

As The Curtain Lifts

Mike — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:37:40 +0000

I read in this morning’s The Villages Daily Sun that there is a move afoot in Congress to repeal the part of the health care law that requires all businesses to file paperwork on all of their vendors from whom they buy $600.00 goods or services in a year. Small businesses are up in arms because of the expense and massive amount of paperwork required to accomplish this. Democrats and Republicans are both in favor of repealing this section of the health care law.

It was allegedly incorporated originally to collect $19 billion of estimated unpaid taxes. $19 billion to help “pay” for the bill. That the health care bill would pay for itself was just plain incorrect. Now the curtain is being lifted.

Oh, Good. Another Bailout

Mike — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:12:05 +0000

President Obama announced another bailout. It’s not likely to work, but he has to do something besides blame the “previous administration” for the economy.

Here’s why government spending won’t fix the economy: Government money has to come from somewhere.

Taxes. Taxes come from the economy in the first place, so the net effect of government spending from taxes is zero.
Borrowing. Sure that puts extra money in the economy, but because of the interest, each dollar spent is worth less than a dollar.
Printing. Each extra dollar printed reduces the value of all the dollars already in circulation. Thus, each dollar spent is worth less than a dollar.

Government spending doesn’t create new wealth or extra jobs, it just redistributes money from those who pay taxes (or loan the government money) to those who help politicians get elected.¹

- - - - - footnotes - - - - -

I had a little help here from Glenn Beck’s Arguing With Idiots.

Government at Work

Mike — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:44:23 +0000

USA Today reports that the contractors who spent 16 billion dollars of the stimulus package created 30,383 jobs!

Incredible, the stimulus package is working. It only cost $528,610 per job. If the rest of the package is as successful, the stimulus should create just over one million new jobs.

Let’s turn over more stuff for the government to run.

CORA

Mike — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:40:04 +0000

Scene: A senior couple reading the newspaper over a morning cup of coffee.

She: So every year we get a C.O.L.A. to offset inflation…what happens if there’s no inflation?

He: We gat a C.O.R.A.

She: What’s that?

He: Cost of Re-election Adjustment.

Big Brother

Mike — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:48:52 +0000

From the White House Blog:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Seems a little Orwellian to me. Beware: don’t post anything anti ObamaCare or your web site, ip address, or email might make it to the White House suspects list.

Oh, crap . . .

Birthers

Mike — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:46:23 +0000

Note to “birthers”: Get a life!

Universal Health Care

Mike — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:12:38 +0000

Formerly called health care reform, now called health insurance reform bill has been delayed until fall. Whew. That was close. I was afraid we’d get a reform bill that nobody in Congress or the administration will have read. Maybe there’s time now to get some things right. (Warning: this is Congress, however).

History and Governments

Mike — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:16:22 +0000

“The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.” —William H. Borah

The Reason for Taxes

Mike — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:11:37 +0000

“Remember, the reason government is funded by taxes is because it produces almost nothing that people will pay for willingly.” — Mark Hillman

Are You Ready?

Mike — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:32:14 +0000

Sung to the tune of “Are you ready for some football?”

Are you ready for the VAT tax?