Freedom Fighter Media - Plug the Hole

But instead of acting, the president is playing 18 holes (there's that word again), munching with Medvedev, being told he's a "great guy" by former dead Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney.

Obama isn't even bringing the world together as so many thought he would. According to FoxNEWS (6 May 2010), Mexico, Canada, Britain, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the U.N. Environmental Program all offered assistance and considerable expertise with the BP mess, including "dispersants, gear, booms, the kinds of things to skim oil off the surface of water" and they were met with something akin to "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You."

Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) on 22 June claimed that, "The thing that's outrageous is we only have 20 skimmers off the coast of Florida. There are 2000 skimmers in the United States and we haven’t even asked as a federal government for those skimmers to come to the gulf….the federal government who wants to take over every other aspect of our life can't get this one thing right."

The Economy
Today also marks another day when our current POTUS not only won't plug the hole, but wants to make it big enough to swallow everything in its path. I'm speaking, of course, about the U.S. economy. And speaking of the U.S. economy, here's Obama at the Toronto G20 summit on 27 June 2010:

A strong and durable recovery also requires countries not having an undue advantage. So we also discussed the need for currencies that are market-driven. As I told President Hu yesterday, the United States welcomes China's decision to allow its currency to appreciate in response to market forces. And we will be watching closely in the months ahead. And because a durable recovery must also include fiscal responsibility, we agreed to balance the need for continued growth in the short term and fiscal sustainability in the medium term. In the United States, I’ve set a goal of cutting our deficit in half by 2013. A number of our European partners are making difficult decisions, but we must recognize that our fiscal health tomorrow will rest in no small measure on our ability to create jobs and growth today.

Well, that's all very vague, isn't it? Except the part about "our ability to create jobs and growth today." Who is the "our"? Government, of course. You know the Watty Piper children's story, The Little Engine That Could? Think of government as a twisted version of this, The Monstrous Engine That Can't, an engine that no matter how hard it tries, can't get up the hill, over it, or frankly anywhere near it because it's not designed to. Free Enterprise is the engine that can. Government is the engine that kills Free Enterprise. This is why the government has spent billions in stimulus money -- money it doesn't have (and neither do you) -- and has absolutely nothing to show for it.

So the Obama government -- any government -- can huff and puff about being able to put a chicken in every pot, a cool car in every garage, and a new iPhone 4 in every pocket, but it is no more able to create jobs and wealth than a monkey is to type Shakespeare (with apologies to the monkey). It's all smoke and mirrors.

(art by Leslie Thrasher)

Problem 1: Obama wants to spend us out of our current recession.
Would this work for an individual? Say you make $100,000 a year. You're currently getting bitten by about 35% in State and Federal taxes. That should leave you with 65% of what you earn, except there's more to life than State and Federal. There are property taxes, sales taxes, tolls and tariffs, excise taxes, etc. Now, say you get in over your head financially. You were careful and wise, but your own government spent money it didn't have (also known as "redistribution") and things like the worth of your house are suddenly cut in half, your company has to let you go, and your investments plummet to near zero. Why not follow the government option and just start spending? What could be easier? Your house is soon worth so much that it gets its own zip code, your company not only hires you back, but puts you on the board, and your investments make you the richest person in the world as well as the sexiest person alive.

Just kidding. In reality, you're toast. You never have a chance to "spend your way to recovery" because there's nothing to spend and you can't recover. No one's hiring, you lose your house, and your investments are limited to coupon clippings.

Problem 2: Obama wants to tax more to improve the economy and balance the budget.
Here's something that you can't do...unless you're in organized crime. You're not allowed to shake down individuals for more and more money to pay for stuff for other people. But the government can do this and it does.

Taxing your way to prosperity is a kissing cousin of spending your way to prosperity. If you make people pay too much in taxes, they have less money to spend on things like new TVs, cars, appliances, vacations, furniture, homes, let alone on starting or expanding businesses, hiring people, upgrading facilities, investing in new research, etc.

Taking taxes from the income-creators, the Private Sector, and using it to improve the economy is like removing your internal organs in order to lose weight.

Thomas J. Clement

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(art by Donald Teague)