The Devil In The Details [Reader Post]

“Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.” Ayn Rand

Defying history, reality and common sense, Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget resolution passed  Congress earlier this month, signaling a dramatic shift in the priorities and scope of the federal government.

Not that most Americans are aware of this. The media has kept them pacified with extensive coverage of the ‘wasteful and duplicative’ $17 billion in cuts contained in the proposal. Cuts that represent one half of one percent of the proposed budget. Cuts that aren’t really cuts at all, merely a shifting of our tax dollars from a conservative program to a liberal one.

The Washington Examiner reports that Republican strategists are having a problem. “The scale of what President Barack Obama proposes to do to the American economy is so enormous, so far-reaching and so potentially disastrous that the opposition party is having a hard time describing it.” Well, I’m not a Republican strategist, I’m just one of the people in flyover country that has to pay for this fiasco and I have no trouble describing it:

Our budget deficit in 2009 will top $1.8 trillion dollars. That’s a 400% increase over last years’ deficit. Translation: For every dollar the government spends, .48 will be borrowed. Budget office figures released Monday would add $89 billion to the 2009 red ink — increasing it to more than four times last year’s all-time high.

One doesn’t have to be an economist or a degenerate gambler to know that a house built on sand eventually collapses. We’re already seeing it. The United States posted its first April deficit in 26 years, a record $20.91 billion shortfall. But not to worry, Obama is going to cut $17 billion. Whew.

Historical evidence of the economic harm caused by raising taxes in a recession is ignored as the Obama administration continues its frantic grab of ever larger portions of the dollars produced by the hardworking men and women of America.

President Obama’s “Budget Blueprint” proposes to raise the tax rate on dividends and capital gains from 15 percent to 20 percent. Heritage Foundation says: “This works out to $27 billion of lost value for current and future retirees unnecessarily redistributed to Congress. That works out to $434 of lost retirement savings for each family.”   

In case we the people object, Obama has also proposed nearly doubling funds to enforce U.S. tax laws next year, with an aim of more than quadrupling funding for tax compliance to $2.1 billion within five years. Tax compliance means IRS. You know, the agency that wields absolute power over each and every one of us. (Correction: over everyone who is not an elected official or heading up a government agency)

After successfully demonizing the oil companies, Obama offers a gift to all the underachievers and professional victims by socking it to the ‘rich’ – whose definition is constantly changing, kinda like the Constitution. Obama proposes to end $26 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks, calling them ”unjustifiable loopholes” in the tax system that other companies do not get. Hey, I’m all for ‘equality’, aren’t you?

Next up: The Obama administration will propose $60 billion in new tax increases over 10 years on wealthy estates, businesses and others to pay for an expensive overhaul of the health-care system. After all, the rich are only rich because they exploited the poor. And the poor, (again, as defined by the left) have a right to health care, just as they now have the right to housing, education, absolute equality and the right not to be offended. Its called social justice. And its a wonderful thing, allowing our elites moral cover as they pick our pockets bare.

Meanwhile, the government revised estimates for the long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security on Tuesday, moving up the date when trust funds for the entitlement programs will run out of money. It looks like Medicare will be insolvent in eight years, meaning, it will be the problem of the next administration. Most likely, a Republican administration, unless, of course, the GOP continues to emulate the left and ends up emulating themselves out of existence.

I know economics is a dreary subject. I also know Obama is counting on economic ignorance, lofty rhetoric and a Democrat majority to pass this budget monstrosity. Having the media in his pocket doesn’t hurt.

Even with the media focusing on the $17 billion in cuts instead of the bigger picture, most Americans aren’t aware of what these ‘wasteful spending and unnecessary programs’ Obama is claiming as budget cuts include:

• Nixing aid to states to pay for jailing illegal immigrants
• Nixing abstinence only sex-education
• Cutting in half a benefits program for the families of slain police and safety officers
• Eliminating new funding for advanced-generation equipment to detect nuclear weapons and radiological materials at U.S. borders and ports and around New York City.
• Canceling plans to extend the border fence along the U.S.-Mexico border beyond the 670 miles already completed or planned.
• Cutting the budget of OLMS, the federal agency that investigates financial crimes that occur when union officials steal from their union.

Each and every cut signifies the loss of a hard won battle fought by the 62 million people who didn’t vote for Obama. The 62 million people that now have absolutely no effective representation or say in the new and improved path our country is on. A path that has already led us to socialism.