Hello, Barack, it’s me. The responsible US taxpayer. I don’t belong to a union. I don’t work for Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers.
I pay my taxes.
I am not underwater with my mortgage.
I did not walk away from my mortgage.
I pay my debts.
I have conducted myself responsibly.
If my 401 K suffers, I suffer. If I have less, I have to make do with less.
What is the reward for my being responsible? I have to pay for all of this:
Your bailout of the auto industry.
Your bailout of the banks.
Your bailout of AIG and their gigantic salaries and bonuses.
Your bailout of Greece.
Your bailout out of those who never should have gotten a mortgage. That program is failure.
Instead of ending it, you doubled down on it. You resurrected the little to nothing down payment mortgage. You said
“The American Dream is being tested by a home mortgage crisis that not only threatens the stability of our economy but also the stability of families and neighborhoods,”
By rewarding all of the behavior that brought us to this horrible state, you are destroying the American Dream. James Dale Davidson said
“When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both. …
And all you do is continue to subsidize failure.
What do we get for all this?
You make me and my kids pay the bill for those who do none of the above. Who will make our retirement plans whole?
Not you. Instead, you will raise my taxes.
Not only will you raise taxes and not help me make my pension plan whole, you will make me pay to make union pensions whole. I did not fail those pension plans but you treat me as though I did.
You are killing the American Dream. It’s first degree murder.
There was a time when individuals rose and fell on their own efforts and merits. On your watch, Barack, failing gets rewarded. The reward of failure, the reward of bad behavior- this will be your legacy. While you enjoy your 50th vacation of the year in your astonishingly lavish lifestyle you continue to kick the financial responsibility can down the road.
We and our kids live on that road. And you couldn’t care less.
Sincerely
Mr. and Mrs. Responsible American Family
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
Very well said and the feeling is mutual. November 2010 and 2012 can not come soon enough!
Is there a “R.I.P. American Dream 1776-2008” bumper sticker?
Excellent, DrJohn. Maybe another youtube video is in order, reciting that very message. One has to think that it would go viral, lol.
Well, it may have died in 2008, but it was diagnosed as terminal when RR authorized the S&L bailouts setting the stage for the “too big to fail” mantra and telling business that Big Brother will bail you out if you lose enough of the taxpayers money. That ended the era of responsibility and started the “blame the other guy” decades.
What an amazing post. I wonder how many American hearts feel the same as this article. I could not have said it much better myself except to add I hate being called rich. I worked 50 hours a week during college so I had to go to summer shcool full time to keep up. I was one of the fools who paid back his government funded college loan. I gave the US Navy six years during Viet Nam as a corpsman. Now that I have worked my but off and am 61 all I can wonder is who will be there when I retire. To all the blacks who say I owe them something I say your wrong. To all the Mexicans who cross our border illegally and expect me to pay for their health care I say go home. Call me what you want but I am an American who has earned his way and am sick and tired of paying others because they have a million excuses NOT to work and expect 0-bama and the Democrats to buy their votes by promising them my money. It’s time to take America back before it’s too late.
You received a tax cut in April of ’09.
Your 401k is certainly worth more today than it was eighteen months ago.
The auto bailout was a success, GM is turning a profit.
Banks have paid back the government – with interest.
Unless you make more than $250,000, your taxes will not increase.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand what your problem actually is.
A big AMEN, brother. America’s high water mark was July 20, 1969. It’s been all downhill from then.
‘You received a tax cut in April of ‘09.’
The fact that our deficit spending is not *currently* being paid for does not mean we can’t complain about it. I concede that there may be alternatives to taxes as a way of resolving the situation, notably high inflation and/or a default, but those are also disasters.
‘The auto bailout was a success, GM is turning a profit.’
Give me $billions and I can show a profit, too. In any case their market share has plunged and I wouldn’t be so sure that they will continue to be profitable.
‘Banks have paid back the government – with interest.’
Some banks have paid back the money they took under TARP. In many cases, these were banks that didn’t really need a bailout but were encouraged to take some money so as to not make people lose faith in the banks that really did need help.
However, the really big bailout did not take place via TARP, but via Federal Reserve purchases of near-worthless MBS assets. Fannie and Freddie also played a role in this, acting as backers for hundreds of billions worth of questionable mortgages. Don’t expect those bailouts to be unwound or paid back.
‘Unless you make more than $250,000, your taxes will not increase’
Do increased state sales taxes as a result of an economic crash count? How about inflation? Anyway, you’re describing current proposals but presenting it as a prediction. Things can change and indeed we have good reason to believe they must…
You received a tax cut in April of �09.
Not me.
Your 401k is certainly worth more today than it was eighteen months ago.
Less.
The auto bailout was a success, GM is turning a profit.
And we turned a $50 billion loss. Success is relative.
Banks have paid back the government � with interest.
One United has missed all its payments.
Unless you make more than $250,000, your taxes will not increase.
You need to read the papers more.
Dear Fred,
I don’t know what fantasy land you live in, but line by line your post is total BS.
Tom in CA
BTW, most folks on this Political Blog have huge problems with the President and the Democratic controlled Congress.
Indeed. Give me billions and assume all my debts and I could make a profit too.
I guarantee it.
@ Fred
Even we stipulated that everything you said was true, everything I said is also true.
tom #10 Actually what Fred says in #6 is true. The fact that “most people on this blog disagree with Pres and Congress” doesn’t change that.See Dr John in#12.
Oh, you mean the roughly $8 per week that our Fed Gov’t masters deemed us worthy of?
Yeah, about that….the W-4 withholding tables were tweaked but the tax tables stayed the same so all that money you got as a “tax cut” throughout the year…yeah, you had to pay it back when you did your income taxes.
Only in your fantasy land my friend.
Considering that the level of hardship withdrawals that people are making it sure would be nice if the values were to increase.
Laughable. Absolutely laughable. GM just invested millions of dollars in an electric car that travels 40 miles on a charge. A car that has to have thousands of dollars of tax incentives attached to it in order to make it even remotely marketable.
Yeah, about that. You do realize that the banks were loaned money through TARP which they then paid off with TARP money. That’s like taking a $100 bill from your right pocket, moving it to your left, and claiming that you paid off your debt.
Riiiight….. You should read more. This article by Art Laffer will get you started.
In addition, you do realize that when the Bush tax cuts expire, you know, the tax cuts that all taxpayers received, when they expire…everyone’s taxes will be increasing.
That’s because you don’t even understand the issues.
A.C Do you dispute THE StockMarket( S&P,Nasdaq,Dow30) are all higher than when Obama took office?
Well said, Dr John, I agree with all you’ve written here. One question though, what the hell is “The American Dream?” At one time, I believed it to be that in America you could be all you can be. Now that’s just an Army recruiting slogan. At another time, the real estate industry had us all convinced it was a nice little house with a yard, a tree and rope swing, a dog, a car in the driveway, and a white picket fence. Later, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young crooned that “Our house is a very, very fine house, With two cats in the yard” and downgraded the whole dream. Something went horribly wrong when America fell for the goodies instead of the accomplishment. So, what is the American Dream anymore?
Arthur Laffer… The guy who convinced the Reagan administration that cutting taxes would lower the federal deficit?
The only problem with the theory is that it didn’t work. Even though it looked good when sketched out on a table napkin.
The New American Dream… to be too big to fail and an assigned seat at the government trough.
Hard working Americans that pay their bills, love God, own guns and believe in the Constitution… need not apply!
@Greg:
Are you denying the reality that tax cuts increase revenue?
Surely not.
Neither Reagan nor Laffer could ever figure out how to get the Dems running congress during that time to stop spending the “extra” money that was coming in because of those tax cuts. Income to the government went up dramatically, which is what every liberal likes to forget. Liberals also like to forget that Laffer was only ONE of dozens of folks Reagan worked with, and HAD been working with for 20 years.
Reagan’s only mistake was: 1. Taking the Dems at their word. 2. Not vetoing enough stuff because he was trying to be bi-partisan.
BushII fell for both of those traps too.
Keynes is taught in 90% of Colleges in America, because it’s endgame is the concentration of power in the elites. Progressives call themselves our “betters” and so it self-perpetuates the myth.
@rich wheeler:
The question Fred posed was not about the Stock Market.
He asked about my 401k plan.
Since my investments are not in that type of plan the answer to Fred’s question is no.
Furthermore, a person’s 401k account may or may not move in correlation to the stock market overall. The movement of account values is determined by the mix of investments that a person has. All too often an employee is invested much too heavily in his or her employer’s own stock and if that stock takes a hard hit then the account itself will suffer a much greater decline in value in comparison to the overall market.
Cigarette taxes which affect 25% of the population, primarily lower and middle income earners went up dramatically, a pack a day smoker saw his federal taxes on cigarettes alone go up $365 per year. This was one of Obama’s first acts as president…. he preyed on those that could least afford the increase and he placed it on an addictive substance. 95% of American’s won’t see a tax increase…. a bold faced lie!
To add insult to injury… the State of WA added another $1.00 a pack increase to the Fed’s $1.00 a pack increase making the total burden $730 a year. But the joke was on the state… the month after passing the increase… cigarette tax revenue FELL by $10 million dollars…. roflmao… dumbasses
@Patvan, #20:
I seem to recall a long stretch of recent years when republicans had control of both the House and Senate; during 6 of those years there was a like-minded republican President in the White House. It always puzzles me that everything can somehow be the fault of democrats.
I guess that’s why the early morning folks at CNBC spend nearly every morning debating if a double dip is coming.
You know, since the market is just smoking…..
I, for one, will stay solidly in cash….
Fred Barnes, you are in a dream world. You taxes will go sky high in 2011 when you have to pay tax on the income reported by what your employer pays out for you in insurance premium That should help you understand a little better you moron…
Yes Greg. I will agree the the batch that was in power for Bush’s first term spent too much.
That’s why they lost in 2006…Repubs stayed home, and the Dems marketed their lies nicely.
But a trillion dollars to political special-interests in one signing????
-Only a Progressive neo-comm could pull that off, and pass it off as a “stimulus”.
The last time Keynes workable-ideas (he did have a couple) actually worked, was because it was implemented by a person of higher-moral order. Truman.
The Highway system he put in place increased the efficiency of Hayek’s capitalism. If all Keynes tax-spending programs were done in that method, it could add to an economy in trouble.
That trillion dollars Obama gave away to his supporters, could have built 250 nuke plants, and reduced our oil/coal consumption by 25%. (We have 102 now.) It would have made everything that uses electricity to be made, cheaper. It would have reduced corporate and home costs, even if we used the same overall BTU’s. The construction and engineering jobs would have been well paying ones, and the results would have been felt for decades. It would have kept jobs here, lessened Saudi influence, and probably another dozen things that would have made his a good, dare I say, great president.*
-THAT would have been an example of (partial) Keynes theory put to work.
Because even then, the spending MUST return back to sustainable levels quickly, or the “curve” flies off the table.
The “perfected” Hayak is Hong Kong before the Chinese took it back.
Perfected Keynes can be seen in Zimbabwee and North Korea now.
*No Republican in the past 10 years would have done it right either, as many of them who had actual power, were Progressives, too. Just slower-moving ones. Which is why the claim of “going back to the Bush years” makes us TeaPartiers simply laugh at you.
This is kinda fun:
Yeah… I totally agree with this post. I pay taxes, I don’t have a mortgage, I have debts, but I pay for them, I stay out of trouble and try to be a good citizen, but I end up paying for deadbeats, bankers, and political cronies.
None of that trillion dollar stimulus, bank bailout, mortgage aid, cash for clunkers, $8000 tax credit, etc. ever went to me. Yet, I will end up paying for it. But the unions get bailed out, the fat cat bankers get bailed out, the teachers get bailed out, the real estate flippers get bailed out, the irresponsible idiots that bought during the bubble get bailed out. Lame.
A. C. With interest rates declining over past 18 months fixed income investments have also appreciated in value.Unless you’re a wild trader or as you said invested heavily in your own company’s failing stock chances are excellant you’ve made money in your 401k. over last 18 months.
PATVANN Tough run for Giants and Barry.They need to get home.Hope your son is doing great!
As already pointed out, a tax withholding cut, is not a tax cut.
Thank goodness we bailed out GM so they could create jobs. . . in Brazil and China. At least the bankers were clever enough to avoid the nationalization the socialist had in mind when forcing the “bail out”.
Just as everyone who paid taxes got a tax cut under Bush, everyone who pays taxes (albeit a smaller percentage actually will pay taxes) will get an increase under Der Bozo, rest assured.
But let us not forget, His “O”lliness had help, his ambitions were jump started by one who, “sacrificed free market principles to save the free market,” and a heard of RHINOS.
We must take the country back from both wings of the Republicrat consipiscy.
Your reward Dr John is to have the honor and privilege of living in the greatest country on the planet. The “greatest generation” willingly paid higher taxes, as high as 80% without sniveling.
@John ryan:
Actually Mr. Top/Bottom o’ the Class, tax rates were as high as 90%.
Where is your documentation that those who paid it did it without “sniveling”?
@ Greg
Greg, you said:
Patvann spanks you with:
And you respond with your strawman:
See how that works. Patvann directly addressed your argument. You had no comeback for his argument, so you build a new argument that has nothing to do with the original. Unless you can somehow do some magic Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation between Reagan and the dem congress and Bush and a republican congress.
I didn’t support Bush and the republican congress’ domestic spending plan. I have emails to my congressman and senators stating as much. But your argument was about Laffer and you deflect it with something completely unrelated.
So the question is: Did Reagan’s tax policy increase revenue? Did Reagan’s tax policy increase economic growth?
@ John Ryan
The greatest generation did not subsidize failure.
It takes a liberal to do that. And it is liberals who are working diligently to free us of the burden of being the greatest country on the planet.
One thing you neglect to mention is the plethora of tax shelters that existed concomitantly with those high tax rates.
@John Ryan
When did we become the greatest country on the planet?
DrJohn: hi, DO we know where ALL of the tax money GOES?: THE AMERICANS,
have a right to know all the details, and where the SMALL change left over if there is, GO
IN WHAT department. bye
IT’S their money.
General Motors a success?
If you do a proper analysis of GM, it’s a mess now run by Unions and incompetents. It should never have been bailed out. The parts would have been picked up by buyers and new blood would have been injected into its veins.
The current GM’s DNA is worse than the one that should have been scrapped.
Before repeating the Administration’s lies, do some homework. It isn’t a success and it hasn’t paid back the money it’s been provided by taxpayers in the U.S. or Canada.
@JR
I wish to know from those liberals/progressives just how they believe that GM is a success. Is it touted on the premise that they repaid their bailout money?
Let’s let Sen. Grassley explain:
So, GM, who liberals claim to be a success, repay a ‘loan’ with money given to them due to TARP?
You mean, they didn’t earn the money they repaid the ‘loan’?
I guess ‘success’ is measured differently by the mentally impaired.
johngalt: hi, IS’NT it SOME DEALS that someone could make under the table,
SECRETLY, so no AMERICAN can find out,.
bye
@ Bees
No, we don’t and Democrats make it as difficult as possible to learn where the money is really going. It took forever to find out that TARP money was bailing out overseas banks while no one overseas was interested in bailing out our banks.