Tuesday, August 4, 2009

How are we going to avoid taxes for everyone???!!!

Explain to me what you think is going to happen now? We have a president hell bent on tackling the most expensive initiatives imaginable!! One being healthcare reform and the other being global warming. And he’s doing in the midst of an extremely poor economy. He’s selling it by using an idiotic view of how our economy will perform in the near future. Being left alone perhaps the economy could recover in his time frame. But the economy is not being left alone! We’re making promises of all sorts that will only cost us money, not bring in more. As can be seen in this article, Tax Revenue is decreasing yet we’re spending more money. Actually phrasing it that way is an understatement, “more money”. His budget is larger than all previous budgets combined! Not the previous 2 or 3 budgets, but all previous budgets since the history of budgets in the US! Now when I say this, I don’t mean the 2009 budget, I’m really combining all promises, ear marks, etc that have been discussed. Or maybe I’m not? I don’t know. Maybe the 2009 budget all by itself is larger than all previous budgets combined?

There are many things in life that do not have the perfect answers. The best way to run a country is one of them. There is no perfect way. Healthcare has no perfect way. There’s just ways that are good enough to get the job done. What is happening now (if it gets passed) is no longer meeting the objective of getting the job done. A single payer system is not good for us. The healthcare industry is a strong industry that provides millions of jobs and billions in tax revenues and paychecks. The economy is struggling and this stuff is being pushed. Now tax revenues are decreasing, financial obligations are increasing. If you think your taxes are not going to increase then please think again. Your income tax will increase if nothing changes in the near future and new taxes that you’ve never paid before are going to be invented. The money that goes into your account will be less. Not only will that be less but even the option of having a job in the first place will be less!!! You put a strain on businesses, small or large and there’s no one out there that can afford their product to begin with, then the business will collapse and the jobs will be gone. The taxes that company paid out along with its employees will be gone, yet we still have a government that wants to spend more and more money! They increase taxes or expect the rich and successful to pay for it and the whole thing repeats, doors close, jobs go away, tax revenue goes away.

I read an article the other day that was talking about healthcare reform and how the President is rushing through it so irresponsibly. There’s no real study of what they’re doing, what possible outcomes could arise, what the damage will be, what positives will come out if, nothing. For example, we put more of a strain on the economy by taxing businesses, more businesses fail, less tax revenue comes in. This is a simple outcome for increasing taxes. What sort of analysis has the government performed on these legislations they’re putting through? Going back to this article I read, healthcare reform will be more expensive than all fortune 500 companies healthcare expenses combined, yet you can’t find a fortune 500 company that has spent this little of time trying to find the best healthcare plan for their company. What makes the President think he can throw all this together in such a little amount of time, perform no analysis, and expect it to work?????????? How can people be fooled by this? How can they say, at least it’s something! This can not be classified as “something”. This is the biggest pile of crap known to man! This is not something!! It’s wishful thinking, its promises being met by politicians for friends. Trillions of dollars are going out that will end up doing no good in the end. They do not necessarily put a trillion dollars into a trash can. It’s going into someone’s pocket, it’s just not going into the right pockets! So….promises, obligations, whatever you want to call them are being met at an unprecedented level by members of Congress. They throw all this together and there you go, we have a new bill thousands of pages long that no one wants to read yet vote on. And they want their constituents to be happy with them and vote them again. Which hopefully will not happen! At least the approval ratings are showing a change!!! Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

So….here’s my little rant for now. It makes me feel somewhat better.

Monday, June 15, 2009

So what is my next post???

Just noticed Kim leave a new comment about leaving a new post. I have no clue what to talk about??? Do I talk about the universal healthcare? Do I talk about Israel and Hamas and Obama and who's side he appears to be on. Do I talk about Gitmo preparing to be closed and sending detainees to Bermuda. Do I talk about Letterman and his "jokes" about Palin (I don't like Palin but still where was the uproar??). Do I talk about going 4 for 7 tonight in softball while playing with a new swing. what do I talk about??!!

What should we look into? What topic should be discussed?? I think one of the most alarming things I've seen is the change we've taken towards Israel. Are we one the same side as Hamas? Which is the same side as Iran? I can only imagine how excited Jimmy Carter is about all this. What a shame it is to have him be from the state of Georgia. He probably thinks Obama isn't doing enough to get Israel to stop building in these settlements. I can only imagine someone telling us to stop building in areas that we won through war.

Should we talk about who is going to pay the other 600 billion to cover the universal healthcare? 600 billion is coming from the rich. Perhaps some will come from reductions in medicare and medicaid payments but where is the rest coming from???

Should we discuss the whol save a dollar to spend a dollar? I find it so funny to hear them preach this idea? How can they attempt to act like they are fiscally responsible after this huge budget and deficit.

Should we talk about the show "I'm a celebrity get me outta here"? I've been watching it on MTV. I never knew how crazy Spencer and Heidi really are!!

What about Letterman and his apology and the lack of uproar.

I beat on the same stuff too often. Big goverment, too involve with too much! Crazy spending, no transparency (there's something bout Obama blocking the visitors log in the white house). I don't know. I need to read something and then write right afterwards once I'm all worked up. It's hard to do one of these when I'm just sitting around doing nothing.

So what are some ideas????????

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

What to do??

How many people out there are turned off from politics? How many people avoid listening to it on the radio, watching it on tv, or reading about it on the Internet? So many times I just want to say forget it and not ever look back. I think I would be a much more positive person if I did so. Perhaps that’s why others avoid it? It causes too much stress to get involved or to stay up on what’s going on. There are very few things that I’m certainly convinced of in my life. One of these few things is that those who support the current administration and say all is well with the direction we’re going simply are not paying attention. Perhaps b/c they do not want to pay attention for the above reasons. They were turned off by war and spending towards the war and all the negative media attention the previous administration received that they developed a habit of not reading/listening/watching. They learned they were happier just not listening. SO when the first person came along that claims he will change things all those who didn’t have the heart for war jumped on the bandwagon. So now all Obama needs to rely on is that he is not George W. Bush and he’ll keep a 60% approval rating until people start paying attention again! How long can those that support him say he’s not that bad b/c he’s not George W. Bush? I pray it can’t go on for 4 years! I don’t blame it on people’s level of intelligence. I blame it on what their heart will allow them to endure. The news is negative, politics is negative, everything in life is negative. There was a commercial a few months ago that played on the radio that was going on about how bad everything is and at the end of this little part they said something like, “and everything is worse than we thought”. That pretty much wraps up the media and what’s being reported. No wonder no one pays attention, it’s bad for your health!

I hope that soon we get over this and little by little people begin to see what’s happening. Our current President considers himself as either a king or a celebrity. He might as well hang out with Hollywood folks all day. He has a huge sense of entitlement as demonstrated by a date that cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’m not saying he can’t go on a date, but why can’t he work it in to one of his trips already planned? Does he really feel he has the right as President to go on a 3 hour date that would cost that much money? If he’s going to charge us that much money to go somewhere, have a meaningful purpose or at least stay there a few days to get some value out of the money we spend! I don’t care what anyone says about Bush traveling to Crawford, he never went there to go out to eat, a play, and then come immediately home! This is what the Hollywood rich do. Wasteful spending!!!! Robin Leech could do a show on this date with the intent to show off how great they are at their extravagant spending. How could anyone really listen to him and not call him a hypocrite? They couldn’t! It’s impossible unless they don’t know the meaning of the word hypocrite! He tells us to tighten our belt, stop wasteful spending, no private jets and no corporate retreats to Vegas or retreats on the tax payers dime. I guess in his defense he didn’t say no date nights??

And then going on to all the reckless decisions these guys are trying to make! Why are they involved in the operational decisions of any private company? Do they really think they can manage everything!? Especially when Obama hasn’t managed anything or anyone! What type of market research have they performed that motivates their decision making? Are these ugly GM cars really going to sell? He does realize that they have to sell for the company to make money, right? Or does he think as long as the car gets 39 mpg that he’s succeeded? Screw the fact that the consumer, you or me, must be willing to spend $20k on the stupid car!

I realize I’m not an expert on anything and I could easily be wrong on many facts, but there are some things I understand well enough to know that so many mistakes are being made! If you could point me to one government business that actually makes money then perhaps I would be a little slower to condemn every decision this administration makes! I’m not aware of any. If you can point me to a government business that you or I deal with that is a least a pleasant place to visit then perhaps I would calm down as well. The government is not qualified to do what it’s trying to do! They’re making things up as they go b/c they have no experience in what they’re getting involved in. And it’s a scary thing! They are going too fast without considering the consequences of their decisions. There will come a point where they’re going to say, oh crap, we’ve messed up. And then that’s when the taxes will come! And then Obama is going to go on another date b/c he promised his Jackie O - wannabe wife he would take her somewhere! They are so out of touch!!

If they could simply ask themselves a few questions before they make all their decisions! Is this idea going to have a return, will the car sell, will we chase all the brilliant minds out of this industry b/c they don’t want to be controlled by the gov’t, will the cost be too great, can we afford this, would I spend my own money on this idea, will this increase or decrease the growth of our economy, will this make America more weak or less safe????? I don't blame them for their way of thinking (except for the self entitlement he feels). I think the idea of having no rich and poor among is an excellent idea, as long as the society as a whole gives all they can to making society better. But you cannot forget the fact that we have lazy people out there who will mooch off the system if given the chance and we have greedy people out there that would retire before they have their money taxed and given to those that are not trying.

I have to stop somewhere, Iwas about to get back into Global Warming and cap and trade but I decided I could save it for another day. Hope you made it all the way through. Not really where I thought this post was going but I don't have the time to proof read and revise. I type until I'm done and that's what you get!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

VAT - Value Add Tax coming to the US??

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052602909_pf.html

Last year I was able to go to Poland and Sweden for work. Didn't really get many oportunities to get out that much due to having to work the majority of the time but on Friday, one of the accountants in Sweden was able to take me out and about to do some shopping. I bought two things, a mixing bowl (kind of a joke but we really the bowl is awesome and is very popular in Sweden)

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002COC82/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A13HTXU7N5QMMA&v=glance

And another glass bowl that was also made in Sweden. I think it cost like 1,000 Swiss Kronos, actually I don't remember how much it cost other than there's nearly 10 Kronos to one US dollar, at least a year ago that was the conversion rate. So I get up to check out and the accountant tells me the VAT (Value Add Tax) is 21% but I can get that money back when I go through the airport. I about flipped!! 21% national sales tax. Could you imagine paying that much on everything plus still paying an income tax! And a high one at that? Well as you can see from the link, there is now the idea being pushed around of adding a national income tax here in the US. We already pay either 3% or 7% here in this area depending on if we're paying for food or some sort of non-food product. Could you imagine increasing that amount by 10% so we can afford to pay for everything that this administration wants? It's just scary. And are you going to tell me that no one over 250k has to pay this 10% if it happens? I personally think it will. I think the President wants there to be few differences between us in Europe. From the taxes to the cars we drive. You know, maybe I could deal driving a 1.0 litre car if I had a 2000 + year old building that I could drive to and look at. But we drive to work and we drive to the mall and we drive to restaurant. Europe has it's cool stuff. We have our economy and our cars!! Don't take that away!! If all things are equal between us in Europe, why would I stay here? Europe has cooler places!! Bigger mountains, cooler cities, more history, etc. Why stay if we become them? And another thing.....you pay for lunch in Euros over there and it cost roughly 8 or 9 Euros. Now when you multiple that by 1.5 and you're now paying $12! For a hotdog and a coke! 3 Euros for a coke alone which is $4.50! Gas is sold by the litre and that costs almost 2 Euros. Multiple that by 1.5 and then by 4 to equal a gallon and you're paying around $10 a gallon! This was when gas was $4 a gallon over here. So...is this really what we want?? Income tax, national/state sales tax, expensive cokes, expensive hot dogs, expensive gas, small, expensive cars, etc!

Obama has made it perfectly clear that he's not pushing off these things that he claims needs to get done any longer. What he's also saying is he's finding the money to pay for it. It's going to be through taxes!! When it does I guess it makes no difference if we live here or Europe??

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

How the President got the Auto industry behind him...

Once again another example of how those making 250k or less will be paying more money out of their own pockets to pay for "Changes". This article goes on to explain some of the problems we'll have when 2016 gets here. This is a very aggressive timeline, 4 years sooner than what Bush called for, that will be very difficult for the auto industry to meet unless they start throwing heavy stuff that isn't absolute necessary out of the design of the car. Cars will be smaller and lighter....and slower :( . Oh well. What about the big-rigs still cruising the highways. Europe has small cars but they also have small freight trucks. These giants that are on the streets now will demolish one of these toy cars. And not to mention another small car will demolish a small car since it has to be light to meet the 35.5 mpg reequirement.

Anyway, on to my topic. The administration keeps mentioning how they are being supported by the auto industry. Have people already forgotten that the auto industry is now made up by the government. It's like me saying I support myself! Was Ford for this?? I really don't know? I guess I would have to do some research. All I know is, those that accepted bailout money don't have much say. They have no say over their pay, their executives, their board of directors, their budgets and what cars they design and sale! And what happens to those of us who own cars in 2016 that aren't paid for and don't meet this requirement? Are we going to have to pay some sort of "gas guzzler" tax? What would be the trade in value for a car that doesn't meet these requirements??? A lot of people can't afford new cars! They have to wait until they're used to buy the car. What about them? What are their options? If the auto industry is actually going to make money out of this deal it will have to be in the customers best interest to buy a new car. If we have an option then most people will pass on buying toy cars that are not safe just to save $1000 a year on gas. That means the auto manufactures will have a bunch of cars sitting on lots that no one has. Either way, someone loses!! Give them the time they need to build a car that is safe and what people want to actually pay for!! Who really wants to be passing a line of semi's while driving one of those new smart cars!!?? Not me!!!!!! Don't rush this! And notice that in this article it talks about the weight these environmentalists carry!! It's crazy!! Forget the economy, forget our pockets, forget about what the customer wants, make some crazy tree huggers happy!! There has to be common ground here. We can't let the gov't make such huge, reckless decisions that will not benefit the majority of the people out there! And again, don't give me this crap that the auto industry is behind Obama and his folks when they have no choice but to stand behind him and support him!! They can't go to the bathroom without his permission!!!

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-05-19-auto-safety-small-cars_N.htm

Sunday, May 17, 2009

I Hate CNN Polls!!

Has anyone else noticed the polls on CNN and how they are stupid and how they don't ever offer the answer that I would choose? For example the poll for the weekend is, should Notre Dame give Obama an honorary degree? My response would be something a long the lines of, it's not really my decision so I don't really care. This is really just the left's opportunity to tell a Catholic school that they need to accept abortion if the majority say yes. The funny thing is the majority does not accept it but the liberal media will have us believe otherwise. Perhaps the majority of CNN readers accept abortion. They have other stupid polls as well that are also awesome but I don't remember them off the top of my head. It seems the polls all to often are there to show that conservatives are in the minority. What they need to realize is that conservatives a lot of times avoid that website. I read it every day however. I find it interesting to see what's on the front page of both Fox News and CNN and to see the spin each put on the news of the day. All this fair and balance crap is bogus for both companies I would say but I think reading from everything may get you a bit closer to where we need to be. Just don't pay attention to the polls on CNN!!

What poll would you actually like to see on CNN? I think one that I would enjoy would be: What do you think Obama gained from meeting with Brad Pitt and George Clooney the first weeks of his presidency? I think Clooney was talking about Darfur and Pitt was talking about poverty or aids or something. Are we to assume that Obama actually learned or gained some sort of insight fromt these two mega stars that he didn't already know? We were/are in the midst of an economic crisis and two of the experts Obama has in his office are stars of some of my favorite movies, the Danny Ocean movies. Is that not ridiculous? What did he learn from them? What did they know that the President of our country did not know or what did they know that his advisors did not know? What was the purpose of these meetings so early in his presidency? Does anyone actually think the President learned something from them??? If he did then that's scary! If he didn't then he's wasting this countries time!! I'm confident that this was just a meet and greet. Autographs were probably passed around and they probably talked about being voted sexiest man for People magazine and they probably told Obama that they'll try to get him on the cover as well. I just can't picture Pitt or Clooney telling the President information that only they know. I mean really...think about it. Think about Obama sitting there wide eyed, nodding his head and saying something like "interesting" or "I can't believe we allow this to happen" or "you have my word that I'll do something abou this" as they talk to him. RIDICULOUS!!!

But seriously, those polls on CNN never have my answer. It's like the only people they are catering their answers to are left leaning folks. For example, how bad is Pres. Bush doing? Bad, Really bad, or Really really bad! And how do you feel about the job performance of Obama so far? He's amazing, Best President ever, or it's too soon to tell but from what I can see he really could be the Messiah. Or how scary is Global Warming? It scares me, we should start walking and riding bikes right now to slow it down, we should kill any living breathing thing to prevent the destruction of mother earth. Or how was the Earth created? Big Bang, created from white hole or black hole, any way other than having some sort of supreme being creating it.

I'm exagerating a bit here obviously but not by much! I think it' so important for us to get our news from everywhere and hope that we're getting the information we need to make a judgement as to what side we feel we should take.

And here's some reading for you that shows some of the ways your money has been spent recently, you actually can read the link rather than actually going to webpage if you want, it kind of tells you what you're clicking on.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/14/government-funds-million-program-make-chinese-prostitutes-drink/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/08/government-funds-study-gay-sex-argentina-bars/

Maybe CNN should do a poll on if this is how they want their money spent!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Controlling Compensation???

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124215896684211987.html

Now this should be a way Obama can help the rich pay less taxes, tell them he's lowering their salary and giving more of the money to those entry level positions. Or to those people who take the entry level positions but really have no desire to go any further in their jobs. Which isn't a bad thing if the job matches up with the needs of the employee. Perhaps their family requires more time, perhaps they already deal with too much stress in other areas of their life and this is all they can do or perhaps all they need is a job that pays $10 an hour and they use for extra money to go on vacation, pay for extra curricular activities, etc. Those are all great reasons to stay working at a job that pays $10 an hour plus your 4% raise each year. Or maybe it's $15 an hour, whatever the case, good for them!! I wouldn't mind Jessie getting one of these jobs in a few years!!! :) However, how can you compare what they do to what executives do?

In my last job a story was passed down to me about someone asking our old CEO of Blue Cross how he justifies paying himself so much money when it's the $10 an hour jobs that keep the company afloat. Many people think this same way, it's the employee that builds the company and make it successful, etc. Well this CEO responds with anger in his voice and says, "It’s the decisions I make that make it possible for you to have a job".

I do not understand why people will make the rich villains. Why? Because their successful, they have money, nice cars, etc? It’s simple jealousy! And I have to admit, I get a little jealous at times as well but I do realize that the jealousy deal is ridiculous! We should be learning from the successful, not punishing them. Observe their work ethic, observe how they think, what they say, decisions they make! Don’t punish them by taxing them more or lowering what they make. As this article points out, if you do it in one area whether it’s the banking industry or whether it’s healthcare, those that are capable of making lots of money will move to another area where they are not limited. So then we end up with a crappier banking industry and a crappier healthcare industry. Socialism promotes mediocrity, why try if you’re not going to rewarded according to your efforts. Socialism in a few industries promotes avoiding those industries! But it’s not hard to see that this is the direction we’re going. And if you think an unemployment rate of 8.5% is bad wait until 10% is the best rate you’ll get.

This administration is poking its hands in places it doesn’t need to be in. Mainly b/c they can’t successfully run hundreds or thousands of companies. They cannot make sound decisions for everyone. My guess is Obama has all these college text books in front of him and he’s trying to find out what he should do. “Chrysler wants to spend $130 million on advertisement in one quarter, ridiculous, this text book says advertisement is risky, lets cut that in half.” Let the guys that earn the big bucks make the decisions. They have many people they are representing and they feel the pressure to make the right decisions. And if they don’t make the right decisions, don’t give them billions of tax payer dollars, tell them what changes to make, and then still see them go bankrupt a few months later!!! Let them go bankrupt to begin with!!!!! Don’t just throw more money in there that will just be wasted, especially if you’re going to make it even harder by telling them they can pay anyone that’s worth anything and they can’t pay out bonuses and they can’t do advertisement and that have to make hybrid cars that no one wants b/c they’re little toy cars, etc! This administration lives in a world of make believe and it’s frustrating! Let the people with the experience make the decisions!!!!! If they make the wrong decisions let them live with it.