by Brittany Pounders on September 3, 2010
Sigh. I didn’t want to do it but after watching Meghan McCain give several interviews of her new book, “Dirty, Sexy Politics,” the last being with George Stephanopoulos, the thoughts were running amuck in my head and my fingers were aching for my keyboard, desperate to relieve me of my feelings on the woman-child.
I really, really dislike Meghan McCain. She puts a bad name on young, blonde Republican women all over the country, and this blonde Republican takes great exception to it. Granted, while her washed out political views, her faux conservatism, her watered down morality are about as appealing to me as her hair weaves, we have to show a bit of mercy knowing that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Her dad is a RINO, her mom is a RINO, and that means they make little baby RINO’s.
Meghan McCain was forced onto all of us during the last presidential election. I remember watching a clip of her on The View babbling about…like…how she…like, totally…like became a Republican as a “birthday gift” for her father. I know the depth of that is astounding, but after listening to her for a few minutes, you quickly realize she does a lot of swimming in the shallow end of the pool. Having to put up with her valley girl act and hear about her Twitter tantrums during the entire campaign was about as entertaining as a root canal. And now, her new book being foisted upon the public wouldn’t gain a moment of traction if she didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to opine on Sarah Palin, allowing her another 15 minutes. She’s the brief spark, attaching herself as long as possible to a star, with a steely determination to get as much twinkle for herself out of it as possible.
My problem with Meghan McCain is not that she tries so hard to fit into the celebrity crowd while still falling short of the D-list. It’s not the fact that she strangely reminds me of a faded copy of Paris Hilton…famous for what? A last name? It’s not even the ditzy, bobble head act…that I’m hoping is just an act, but fearing it isn’t. It’s the revolting way with which she forces herself on stage as a representative for Republicanism, and specifically has anointed herself as the voice of young Republicans. She is pro-choice, she’s anti-family values and pro-gay rights, against preaching abstinence, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even know what the word “fiscal” means. So, she has decided to describe herself as a “Progressive Republican” which begs the question, why be a leach to OUR party? Why not become a “Moderate Democrat?”
She’s dissed the Tea Party, calling them “racist old people” on The View. Proving that she hasn’t looked further than her false eyelashes at what the Tea Party is all about, who it consist of, and the fact that it is part of the new energy of the Republican party.
We would never have heard of Meghan McCain if she weren’t the original Roadkill’s daughter, if she didn’t tout herself as a liberal Republican, always standing ready to bash her own team. Slamming Conservatives is always an easy way for anyone to get to the front of the line, to get your 5 minute interview, and to guest spot on The View. She’s figured out exactly what the media wants and stands ready to deliver to prolong her time in the spotlight. My gosh, perhaps we should consider a blind date with Levi Johnston… the other parasite constantly attaching himself to live flesh in order to survive another day.
Just like her dad…she’s a sellout. Daddy McCain does it for personal and political expediency and the baby RINO does it to slither her way into the in-crowd by being a useful idiot for the left. Meghan, contrary to your belief, nobody really considers you the voice for the new generation of Republicans…but you are a darn great example for everything I hope my own daughter never grows up to be. In closing, I leave you with the 11 chapters that didn’t make “Dirty, Ditzy…”, er… I mean, “Dirty, Sexy Politics.” Read them here…
by William J Michie on September 2, 2010
Part 3 of 4: Future Prognostications (Review Part 1 and Part 2)
The question was asked: When would the US debt pass world GDP? When this happens it would take one year of the world’s total output to pay off the US Debt. How would the US debt be funded when this occurs? And as it approached this point, when would the other countries that we are borrowing from say, “No more”?
Some calculations were made using the formula provided in Part two of this series.
The IMF indicates that world GDP will be 4.3 % next year and world GDP is 62 trillion dollars; that is the US economy is 22.5% of world GDP. This was used as a proxy for the future growth rate. The US debt growth rate used in these calculations was 9% (a bit conservative). When was the crossover or the point that the US debt equaled world GDP? This occurs in 35 years. At 4.9% world growth rate, the crossover is 40 years, at 3.5% growth rate 30 years, 2.5% growth rate 25 years, 1% growth rate 20 years and no world growth the crossover is in 18 years. The US debt was assumed to chug along at 9% annual growth rates. And with the recent >26 billion dollar teacher bailout (8-10-10) there is no expectation on the horizon that the United States will be fiscally responsible any time soon.
In an earlier article, another calculation on the US debt as a home mortgage was presented. If the Congress could stop the debt growth at $15 trillion and borrow all the money at 2% interest rate it would take budget surpluses of 500 billion per year for 50 years straight to pay off the national debt. Remember that the current debt is nearly $1.5 trillion per year so there is nearly a $2 trillion dollar swing needed in the budget of the US government to pay this off.
Now place on top of this the 1.2 trillion dollar State Government debt and the nearly 2 trillion dollar local government debt and the 110 trillion dollar unfunded liabilities of the US government (Social Security, Medicare, and prescription drugs) and the total personal debt of 16 trillion dollars and the result is one gargantuan pile of debt.
Today this totals: 142.7 trillion dollars of debt.
Rising interest rates on the debt will cause the debt load to rise, further exacerbating the exponential debt growth. Inflation will cause the debt load to increase as this drives increased spending. Compounding this is that as debt crowds out borrowing for productive purposes, GDP growth is reduced again. Reduced growth only hastens the end of the game. Lastly, taxes will have to go up, further reducing economic growth. Almost every economic lever has already been pulled to keep the economy on the road. It is about to fall off the road and over the cliff. Like a death spiral, it comes!
The point of no return will be when investors loose confidence in the government’s ability to manage the debt. This will occur sometime in the near future. And when it happens it will happen so rapidly that no response by the government will contain the problem, much to Washington’s chagrin.
These are warning shots by the Heritage foundation, CBO, BIS, IMF, WSJ, Gundlach, the CBPP and now with this analysis. But the legislative branch responsible for the budget of the United States according to the US Constitution is collectively deaf, dumb and blind to the warnings. And the government is not like the messianic deaf, dumb and blind kid playing pinball in the rock opera Tommy. That “Pinball Wizard” became part of the pinball machine always playing clean. He played by intuition, he had no distraction, buzzers or bells and didn’t see the lights flashing but instead played by the sense of smell. He always got the replay and no one has seen him fall. That deaf dumb and blind kid sure played a mean pinball. THIS pinball wizard, our deaf, dumb, and blind legislature, shall be quite different as the catastrophe of the collapse of the US financial system has no messianic savior, but rather has perpetrators who purposely desire the utter destruction of the western capitalistic economy by discrediting it. Why? In my opinion, once a Republic (America is a Republic) is discredited, it can then be replaced with another form of government. So which other form of government will it be: fascism, socialism, communism, a dictatorship, monarchy, one world government, or other? Do any of them have any credibility to solve the debt problems? Whatever the answer, is there proof is the next question.
About the Author: William J. Michie, Jr. has a BS and MS degree in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University and an MBA degree from Rutgers University. He has had a 32.5 year career in Polyethylene Product Development with Union Carbide and Dow Chemical Corp. and is the holder of a number of patents. H. Marsman and D. Madio also contributed to this article.
by jessica shockley on September 1, 2010
We are more than halfway through 2010 and quickly moving toward the largest tax hike in American history. The healthcare reform bill and the so-called “stimulus” act was conveniently hidden in a menagerie of tax reforms under our noses and a large chunk of our citizenry never knew what happened.
I always liked the Robin Hood theory of “rob from the rich to give to the poor” until I actually realized what that meant to the American economy. President Obama made the declaration that American taxpayers need to “spread the wealth around” meaning “all you hard-workin’, careful savers just got the rug pulled right under you. Tricked ya’!!!” When the “have’s” get hit with higher taxes in this country, then the middle class and the poor pay a high price with the loss of jobs and tax revenue to state and city coffers. Incomes shrink, the cost of living skyrockets and everyone suffers.
Lower income families will no longer be taxed just 10%, but their federal tax rate will go up to 15%. If you are single and earn $9,350 or more annually, you can count on losing an extra $500 this year. Most individuals with this level of income do not have tax deductions such as school loans or property taxes, making this especially difficult for them.
The next two tax brackets, at 28% and 31% will affect the majority of hard-working American tax-payers. They will bear the brunt of lost income to federal taxes AND the state taxes that will follow on the heels of the federal taxes. Most states are already in the red and will need the tax revenue, so those unlucky citizens with state income tax will bear an even greater crushing burden. This obviously means we will be paying more for our already strapped household incomes. Of course, the more you earn, the more taxes you pay individually. For those business owners, not only do they pay taxes on their livelihood but they bear the burden of the taxes on their businesses as well. If big corporations and small business are paying more in taxes or losing tax deductions, there is less of an incentive to create more jobs and this cost will have to be passed on to the consumer. It is an ugly, deadly cycle.
The programs that are currently in place, as well as new programs that will soon go into effect, will bankrupt this country. On top of this mountain of bad news, we have to consider that America also gives billions of dollars in aid to foreign countries every year that either don’t need it, or hate the United States. For example, we gave Mexico alone roughly $60 million of aid in 2007, but the exact number seems to be hard to pin down for 2008 and 2009. And here’s the million, or should I say the billion dollar question….Do you know who pays for all this aid? (Drum roll!!!!!) You do! We aren’t just supporting our own programs but we help other nations as well, and if you’ve heard the angry, frightened citizens on the street you can see an explosion in the making.
The following are all going into effect in 2011:
- Child tax credit will go from $1000 to $500.
- Over the counter drugs (for example; children’s Tylenol, Advil, etc…) that could once be claimed with your Flexible Spending Accounts are gone!
- Brand name drugs across the board are going to be taxed in the “billions” of dollars which, of course, will raise the cost of medications. Generic forms of these drugs usually do not go into effect until a drug has been on the market for at least ten years.
- HSA withdrawals for non-medical expenses will go from 10% to 20%
- Employee Substance Doctrine (businesses need to watch this one); IRS can make the decision that once “legal” deductions can be categorized as lacking “economic substance.”
- AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) will go from 4 million American families to 28.5 million American families. This means that American families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice and pay at a higher level.
- Small business expensing will disappear by 50% and equipment purchases that cost, for example, $250,000 can only be deducted at $25,000.
- Loss of the Experimentation and Research tax incentive–why would you make a product if you don’t have the incentive?
- Education and Teaching tax benefits have been reduced. Deductions for tuition and fees will no longer be available. Teachers will no longer be able to claim classroom expenses. Employer-funded education assistance has been curtailed. Student loan interest deductions will no longer be allowed for thousands of American families.
- IRA charitable contributions from retirees can no longer be deducted if it is $100,000 or less – it’s gone!
These are just a few of the changes coming. For those of you thinking that these policies are not going to affect you, it’s time to get out of denial. This congress and administration is going to destroy your way of life, pure and simple. While our previous administration put us in a deficit with the cost of a war, they did, however, give us tax cuts. Those cuts are due to expire this year. Some of us are barely surviving financially now. How will you make it next year? On a side note, remember that if you receive government assistance, for example, unemployment benefits, you will still have to claim that as income next year on your return. Go to www.IRS.gov, or www.atr.org (Americans for Tax Reform) to check out more.
