Last week I wrote about the Obama’s administration’s attempts to demonize Arizona and its law instead of coming up with actual solutions to a problem. Well, far be it for me to criticize what they are doing and not offer up a solution. I actually did offer up some ideas during the election in this post. Some of them I took from American Solutions…and some I think came from McCain among others.
The thing is there are solutions, but often politics and political correctness get in the way. Take the following statement from Obama during the election.
“And I will make it a top priority in my first year as President not only because we have an obligation to secure our borders and get control of what comes in and out of our country. And not only because we have to crack down on employers who are abusing undocumented immigrants instead of hiring citizens. But because we have to finally bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. Yes, they broke the law. And they should have to pay a fine, and learn English, and go to the back of the line.”
That is a far cry from what his administration is doing now. But that can be said of a lot of promises of this President. I read something pretty interesting in an email the other day. I cannot remember what the email was about, but one of the statements caught my eye. ”The travesty is not that Obama is President, but that there were so many un-educated voters that would elect such a man. [paraphrased]“ It is a very true statement. We have far too many people such as Eric Holder who bad mouth policies, not because they are educated on them, but rather because they heard someone on TV say that it was poor policy. And since it aligns with his political ideology (or ‘someone’ tells him to), he continues to spew the propaganda. Forget the details and facts. Unfortunately they are not important to an uneducated base. Take the recent comments from Hilary Clinton.
Just last week Clinton took a break from her actual duties to comment on the economy. Here is what she said
“The rich are not paying their fair share in any nation that is facing the kind of employment issues (the United States is), whether it’s individual, corporate, whatever the taxation forms are. Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what – it’s growing like crazy. And the rich are getting richer, but they’re pulling people out of poverty”
That is right; she wants us to be more like Brazil, who was listed as “mostly unfree” in the Index of Economic Freedom. There is no doubt that there will now be hundreds of little liberals out there promoting Brazil as the perfect liberal high tax, everyone’s happy economic model. What Clinton fails to mention (outside of that minor “mostly unfree” thing) is that Brazil’s GDP is only $2 trillion (about the tenth the size of the US), which makes that high ratio attainable. There growth is also directly related to the oil industry. Unlike here in America, they are allowing offshore drilling and are doing so in newly discovered oil field, a very large one. So their main business is booming. And just like a smaller company, one big product can make you or break you. That is certainly helping them right now as is the VAT tax they burden their businesses with.
Another thing she does not mention is that America has tried extremely high tax rates. Our tax rates have varied from the 20′s to the 90′s (%) and studies have shown that the amount of revenue taken in by the government virtually stays the same (as a ratio to GDP). Amazingly enough, the study found that people adjust their lifestyles (to avoid taxes) and become less productive (happens when you do not get to keep as much of what you earn).
Lastly, there is the illusion of the rich not paying their fair share. The top 1% earners pay approximately 40% of the tax burden in this country. This little piece of ignored factual data makes Clinton’s statement completely absurd. About as absurd as people who say the Bush tax cuts to the rich caused the deficit. First, he gave tax cuts to everyone. (Lowest tax bracket got a 5% break). Secondly, the tax break to the rich makes up only 4% of the deficit. (Check my math) The real problem is spending. You cannot cut taxes and increase spending; it doesn’t pass the common sense test. Of course, congress is in complete denial. They refuse to address the issue, both in discretionary and entitlement spending. Instead, their answer is to become more like Brazil. Brilliant.
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