Barack Obama gave another speech today blaming former President Bush for our current economic woes. So, what else is new? So old tirade that blames someone else for his massive screw-ups.
So what else did our President say? Not much as first. He wants more government contruction jobs, trade agreements, tax cuts for the struggling, blah, blah, blah.
Obama finally recognizes the elephant in the room, this country’s massive federal debt.
Of course, one of the most important and urgent things we can do for the economy is something that both parties are working on right now –- and that’s reducing our nation’s deficit. Over the last few weeks, the Vice President has been leading negotiations with Democrats and Republicans on this issue, and they’ve made some real progress in narrowing down the differences. As of last week, both parties had identified more than $1 trillion worth of spending cuts already.
But everyone also knows that we’ll need to do more to close the deficit. We can’t get to the $4 trillion in savings that we need by just cutting the 12 percent of the budget that pays for things like medical research and education funding and food inspectors and the weather service. And we can’t just do it by making seniors pay more for Medicare. So we’re going to need to look at the whole budget, as I said several months ago. And we’ve got to eliminate waste wherever we find it and make some tough decisions about worthy priorities.
And that means trimming the defense budget, while still meeting our security needs. It means we’ll have to tackle entitlements, as long as we keep faith with seniors and children with disabilities by maintaining the fundamental security that Medicare and Medicaid provide. And, yes, we’re going to have to tackle spending in the tax code.
There’s been a lot of discussion about revenues and raising taxes in recent weeks, so I want to be clear about what we’re proposing here. I spent the last two years cutting taxes for ordinary Americans, and I want to extend those middle-class tax cuts. The tax cuts I’m proposing we get rid of are tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires; tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners.
It would be nice if we could keep every tax break there is, but we’ve got to make some tough choices here if we want to reduce our deficit. And if we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, if we choose to keep a tax break for corporate jet owners, if we choose to keep tax breaks for oil and gas companies that are making hundreds of billions of dollars, then that means we’ve got to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship. That means we’ve got to stop funding certain grants for medical research. That means that food safety may be compromised. That means that Medicare has to bear a greater part of the burden. Those are the choices we have to make.
So the bottom line is this: Any agreement to reduce our deficit is going to require tough decisions and balanced solutions. And before we ask our seniors to pay more for health care, before we cut our children’s education, before we sacrifice our commitment to the research and innovation that will help create more jobs in the economy, I think it’s only fair to ask an oil company or a corporate jet owner that has done so well to give up a tax break that no other business enjoys. I don’t think that’s real radical. I think the majority of Americans agree with that.
Emphasis added by TRS
Oh, much gosh. Stop the pandering to the extreme liberal left and lead. Our country is in a deep financial crisis and here he is going down his checklist of what makes evil Republicans. Does the President really think people are stupid enough to believe we have to choose between raising taxes and our seniors, raising taxes and education, and raising taxes and jobs? These are all red herrings. Raising taxes is what kills jobs. One of the arguments for passing the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was the fact that raising taxes would slow down the economy while lowering taxes would speed up the economy. Using demagoguery to denounce the ones who are creating jobs does not help. It will only endear him to his liberal base.
Once again the President is engaging in class warfare. Once again the President is attacking the very people who are creating jobs. Once again the President is giving us a pseudo-Hobson’s choice. We do not have to choose between raising taxes and keeping medicare. We do not have to choose between raising taxes and funding education. So, the President gives us a false choice knowing some will not see through his charade.
So what if Barack Obama keeps taxes low on the middle income tax bracket. He will do so for only a year! The bottom 50% of wage earners only pay 3% of all taxes paid into the government. Almost half of the country is getting all the benefits of living in a democracy. They have NOTHING at stake, NOTHING to lose and everything to gain. The ancient Greeks gave the power of the vote only to those who owned a sword. The sword owners were also the land owners. This way the keepers of democracy had something to lose, something to protect. Voting to go to war was done by those going to war. Voting on taxes was done by those who had the land. Voting was done by those with something to lose.
Too many people in this country have nothing to lose by arbitrary laws. Too many people gain by taxing other people’s property and income. Too many people are too easily swayed by the rhetoric and demagoguery of a leader captivated on his own seeming infallibility. Bottom line, we are in trouble because of those who are so easily influenced by a smooth talking politician who promises them other people’s money.
