ThePhalanx.com

Democratic leaders and Republicans have reached an impasse in recent budget talks. The two parties are trying to come to an agreement on raising the nation’s debt ceiling. Democrats, however, are insisting that any accompanying budget cuts also come with tax increases, playing into the hands of the wealth envy crowd within the Democratic constituency.

To be specific, the Democrats argue they want to slash “tax cuts” for the oil and gas industry and the so-called wealthiest Americans. Interesting use of language as any cogent person would call slashing a tax cut for what it is, a tax increase. It also demonstrates the economic ignorance of Congressional leftist. What will be the inevitable result if we raise taxes on oil and gas production? The answer is presumably obvious…energy prices will rise.

The left also calls for tax increases on the suppose “wealthy,” in other words the business creators and the small business owners. Exactly what you would NOT do in the midst of an economic downturn. Raising taxes on small and mid-size (and even large) businesses will lead such business to seek cost cutting measures to accommodate the increased tax burden, which translates in to jobs. As long as leftist use envy as a motivation for public policy, rather than logical we as a nation will continue to suffer.

Debbie Wasserman, the DNC Chair, recently declared: “We were able to, under President Obama’s leadership [sic], turn this economy around.”

No statement illustrates the unbelievable disconnect in Washington than this statement. Under the president’s so-called leadership the economy has continued to flounder. This president has cultivated a climate of economic uncertainty that has caused the economy to remain stagnant. Indeed, this president has demonstrated a complete lack of economic understanding and if this economy does recovery, it will be inspire of the president’s efforts, not because of it.

There are several factors that demonstrate Obama’s economic naiveté (or complicity):

1. The Stimulus

One of the first acts of this president was to push through Congress a $1 trillion stimulus bill. This stimulus bill, the president assures us, would turn the economy around and lead to job growth nationwide. As a “leader,” the president asked Congressional leaders to create whatever package they deemed appropriate and he would sign it (what leadership skills). As a result, leftists in Congress created a massive spending bill cover a variety of pet projects from new bathrooms at national parks to condom distribution, programs which are largely insignificant in terms of job creation do nothing to foster business expansion or consumer spending. Even the few projects that had the potential for job creation, such as road building project accounted for less than 10% of stimulus spending and reflect a lack of understanding in the modern economy, the reality is the US is largely a service economy and such projects don’t address the intricacies of a dynamic multi-trillion dollar economy. Indeed, the president seems to embrace a philosophy, that relegates the economy to stagnation I’ll suited to our needs.

2. Taxes

This president has made it clear in no uncertain terms, his desire to increase taxes, particular for individuals and small businesses with income over $200,000, but in reality Obama has and continues to embrace increased taxes across the board. While the president has previously admitted that while lower taxes lead to increased economic growth, it is more “fair” to raise those taxes. He has pursued policies leading to increased economic uncertainty, which has driven down economic investment and frightened businesses from even considering the notion of expanding. The fact that the president would even consider consider taxing small businesses when such businesses account for 70% of all job growth in America is disgusting. Furthermore, by what calculus does this president believe raising taxes will prompt growth in the midst of a recession.

3. Coal, Oil and Gas Policy

This president, since before even entering the White House, has declared open war against fossil fuels in America. Under the auspices of the EPA he has maneuvered to regulate the coal industry out of existence, creating tens of thousands of unemployed workers in the coal industry. He has virtual shut down gulf coast oil exploration, which furthered the unemployment situation in those states. He has refused to allow expanded drilling and under the auspices of the EPA once again, he is threatening production where it already exists. These policies are furthering energy dependency and even as as oil prices skyrockets, further dampening the prospects for economic recovery, and increasing the likelihood of inflation.

4. Healthcare

Practically, under cover of darkness, the president and his cronies have pushed through a healthcare law, which deprived states and individuals of their freedom of choices and is working feverishly to drive private insurers in to bankruptcy, already some 30% of employers are eliminating health care plans, which will inevitably drive individuals in to the waiting arms of the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient federal government. The healthcare law, is quintessential leftist policies, as it embraces the plantation era philosophy that your master (ie, the government) knows best.

The presidential campaign – 2012, is well under way as more and more GOP candidates line up to challenge the inept Obama administration. The most recent addition to the Republican field is former Utah John Huntsman. He most recently served as the US Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China [sic], but resigned that position in order to challenge is former boss.

While Huntsman, is surely a poor choice to replace the already lackluster Obama, he is apparently enough of a threat that the Obama campaign saw fit to strike. They noted that Huntsman, as governor, supported the failed Obama policies, which he now derides, a very accurate statement, which renders Huntsman’s candidacy DOA in the minds of many Republican constituents, but in their attack on Huntsman, the Obama team reveal the flawed thinking that has facilitated a stagnant economy for the past three years. The team accused Huntsman of supporting policies of the past which led to the recession in the first place, a veiled “blame Bush” attack, which ignores Democratic control in Congress since 2006 and further ignores facts. Team Obama also asserted the danger in extending tax cuts for the “richest Americans” and how the president’s policies are creating the jobs of the “future.”

When did it become the duty and responsibility of the president to decide what the jobs of the future should be? In the past it was accepted that the proper role of the government to facilitate a fertile ground for economic growth, by protecting life, liberty and property. Now, it would seem the president believes he has the authority to dictate what industries should be destroyed (ie, gas, oil and coal production) and what jobs should be created (so-called green jobs), in pursuing such policies, both overtly and covertly, the president has condemned tens of thousands of Americans from Pennsylvania to the Gulf Coast to Texas to the unemployment line. Indeed, after 3 years of Obamanomics and picking winners and losers through executive fiat, nary a job has been created, yet we are an additional $4 trillion dollars in debt.

Every American should reject policies that deprive from private citizens and businesses the freedom to grow and prosper. Every American should reject policies whereby government bureaucratic, rather than consumers, determine what businesses will succeed and those which will fail. Perhaps it is time Americans elected a president who embraced the rule of law rather than exhibiting contempt for it.

The president has issued a call for American firms to “step-up” and begin hiring. Well that’s it America, now the economy can begin expanding, now unemployment should fall to 4% and the economy should in short order beginning running on all cylinder. We can say all these things with confidence because His Majesty Barack I has decreed it.

“American taxpayers contributed to that process of stabilizing the economy. Companies havebenefited from that, and they’re making a lot of money, and now’s the time for them to start betting on American workers and American products.”

His highness issued his decree during a town-hall meeting yesterday. And there you have it, firms should ignore profits, they should ignore the economic climate, they should disregard the anti-business atmosphere this administration has endeavored to create. They simply create jobs because the president issued the call, a president who has no understanding of modern economics, a president whose administration is filled with career bureaucrats and academics who have never managed anything and created so much as a single job.

Link:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43003679

“America’s pain is big oil’s profits,” what a joke. These leftists in Congress are simply liars and anyone who cheers of these phony politicians is either a fool or fooling themselves.the fact is oil company profit margins have remained unchanged for years, but of course the average leftist would never acknowledge this reality and their constituents are too ignorant to know any better.

These politicians have the unmitigated audacity to attack job creators. It’s truly laughable considering the reality that these politicians are the ones chiefly responsible for high gas prices. Indeed, the federal government earns far more “profit” per gallon of gas than any oil company could ever dream of, meanwhile they have done everything possible to cut production and restrict future growth.

All across the country the price of oil continues to rise, now eclipsing $4 per gallon virtually everywhere in the country, and what is the response of the administration and his leftist compatriots? “There’s nothing we can do.” The fact is we shouldn’t expect anything from an administration whose economic carelessness makes the former president Bush’s stewardship seem almost brilliant. It is readily apparent that Obama and company want higher oil prices, the president has said as much on multiple occasions. How else can you explain a leftist effort in Congress to raise $21 billion in taxes on the nation’s domestic oil producers, while packaging it as an effort to lower oil prices. Meanwhile the administration over the past three years in the White House and five years in Congress have blocked any serious effort to expand domestic production.

In fact during this period they have pursued policies leading to a decline in domestic exploration, which only furthers our dependence on foreign oil. Naturally, their love of high prices must be disguised and veiled so as not to arise the anger of the electorate, but in their own words the idiocy is readily apparent. Ohio’s Senator Brown declared no point in expanding drilling or domestic production as it would have no impact on production or supply for two to three years. Sadly we have heard these arguments before. In 1996 the Clinton team noted we would see no benefits from expanded drilling for ten years, the same tired and erroneous statement was uttered in 2001. The sad fact is, today is yesterday’s future. 2006 has come and gone and 2011 is here, but the reality is these statements of the past and present were false for another reason. The fact is production and supply are not the only factors influencing oil prices, as the futures market has a tremendous impact on energy prices and firms and individuals must regularly hedge their bets insofar as it relates to expected oil prices to reduce costs. If firms had a reasonable expectation of expanded production and reduced supply we could expect the futures market to respond in kind but as we have no such reasonable expectation, we are left we skyrocketing prices and a do nothing administration, which secretly relishes the thought of higher prices, and for this Barack Obama believes he is entitled to a second term? Only if we are utter imbeciles.

Its official, the former Senator Government is now the Self-Aggrandizer in chief. How is it that someone elected unopposed to the United States Senate who then was elected President having virtually no executive, leadership or qualitative political experience could possibly have such an over inflated opinion of self. Without question His Royal Highness Barack I is the least humble, the least self-less, and the most self aggrandizing president in all of US history. This has become apparent from the public spectacle that is the aftermath of the successful Bin laden mission.

In Barack Obama we have a president who uses what should have been a classified and top secret matter of national security as an opportunity for political theater. Here we have a president exploiting something that should never have been revealed publicly as an opportunity for self-glorification, to demonstrate how unrelenting he his on terrorists, meanwhile placing us in danger, now in another public spectacle the president is the visit with the NAVY SEAL team that conducted the mission in Kentucky. Its bad enough that our nation’s executives outed the SEALs in the first place but more political theater, one would not be surprised given this president’s tunnel vision for seeing his own grandeur, one would not be surprised if he outed the individual SEAL members.

If this man was truly concerned about national security, the Bin Laden mission would have been conducted under great secrecy and would have remained so, our national security team would know the truth, key members of Congress would know, and most importantly Al Qaeda would know, thus providing the deterrent factor, but alas we have elected yet another politician rather than a leader, a very self-serving politician and the consequences are most apparent. Instead of placing the interests of the nation first we have a president seeking his own Gulf of Tonkin moment.