A Letter I Would Never Write

I have been a little frustrated of late. Talking to those who disagree with me does not bother me. But some people's inability to even listen to a contrary opinion, or even FACTS that are inconsistent with their tightly held worldview, can get a little discouraging. If you read this blog, you know that I leave personalities out (I know, on a few rare occasions I referred to some public figure as a moron), and I discuss the issues of the day in an intellectual manner, trying to cite my sources whenever possible. But every once in a while I am tempted to write a letter that I would never write.

"To my liberal friends,

What is the matter with you? How long will you keep blaming George Bush without recognizing what Obama has done to our economy? The percentage of people who want to work that are actually working is down to 63.6% as of April - the lowest since 1981! Shortly after Obama took office it was 65.7%. So while new jobs in April totaled 115,00, the labor force shrank by 342,000. And you think Obama is turning things around? Why? Because you read the LA or NY Times? Or watch CNN or MSNBC? Our "recovery" technically began in June, 2009. Yet, all other expansions post WWII had the labor force GROWING by MILLIONS at this point in the recovery. (Stats from 5/7/12 Investor's Business Daily.)

Well, here's what the NY Times said in their lead editorial in the Sunday, 4/29/12 edition: "...President George W. Bush was responsible for nearly five times more of the current debt than President Obama." I guess if you are going to so blatantly LIE, it may as well be a whopper! In 8 years in office, Bush never spent more than $3 trillion a year. Obama spent $3.938 trillion in his first year alone. As a percentage of GDP, Bush never had a deficit above above 3.5%; Obama's record: 10.1%, 9.0%, 8.7% and estimated 8.5% for this year. (Deficit figures from White House OMB site. Other stats from a 3/09 paper from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.) I would suggest that you go online and check it out for yourself, but I know that you are more comfortable with your belief system than with facts. You ever ask yourself why that is?

Remember how upset you were with Bush when gas prices got to over $3.00/gallon? He had all those ties to the evil oil industry! Now, gas prices are over $4.00/gallon. Where are you? Where is your outrage? Either the LA or NY Times, both of whom lambasted Bush for his $3.00/gallon gas, not only did not blame Obama in one of their editorials. They actually said we should drive Priuses, ride bicycles, walk to work, or move closer to work. Yes, let's go back to the 19th century! You know, I trust, that your President's Energy Secretary said he would like to see the price of gas rise to what it is in Europe ($8.00 or $9.00/gallon)! Is that looking out for you? No. It hurts you; and it will make every product you buy more expensive, because most products are shipped by trucks, which use GASOLINE! But you will happily vote for Obama in November.

As someone who has always been interested in astronomy and the space program, I mentioned to a dear friend (please don't get mad at me) how upset I was that Obama has basically destroyed the program. He pooh-poohed my assertion. So I used my smart phone and typed in "Obama and the space program." Article after article about Obama's lack of interest in and lack of support for the space program. Yet, you can easily Google "the space program and scientific and medical advances" and you may be surprised by what comes up. Obama has added $5 trillion dollars to the debt, but cannot adequately fund the space program. Well, it doesn't have anything to do with redistributing wealth, hence his lack of interest. And yours, I guess.

Thank goodness the democrats are running Sacramento. They have controlled the legislature for, what, four decades now? They sure know how to tax and spend. Workers earning more than $48,000/year pay a top rate of 9.3%, higher than what millionaires pay in 47 states. But about 40% of California residents pay NO income taxes, with about 25% on Medi-Cal. (Stats from an article by Allysia Finley in an interview with demographer Joel Kotkin.) As Mr. Kotkin notes, it might not be that far-fetched for someone to propose a ballot measure taxing all income above $100,000. at 100%! Between 1992 and 2008, about 4.4 million people (tax filers) left California, while only 3.5 million moved in from other states. Those leaving had higher adjusted gross incomes, on average. And where do Californians move to? States with LOWER TAXES! Of the top nine states they go to, the average maximum income tax rate is 3.44% (versus California's top rate of 10.3%). (Last stats from an article by Arthur Laffer in the 4/17/12 IBD.) "Let them go," you say? Well, they not only take their higher incomes and higher tax payments with them. They take jobs. According to Mr. Kotkin,there are four "growth corridors," including the Gulf Coast, the Great Plains, the Intermountain West, and the Southeast. What do these areas have that California doesn't? Lower taxes, lower costs of living, less government regulation and natural resources. According to Mr. Kotkin: "Almost all of the major tech companies have moved stuff to Salt Lake City," including Twitter, Adobe, eBay, and Oracle. Apple is creating 3600 jobs in Austin, Texas. Facebook and eBay have or will add jobs there also. So, let them all go. That way, you and the remaining people and businesses can pay more in taxes! It's on the ballot, you know.

When those Republicans run things, they just care about saving money! Well, yes, they care about saving YOUR money. But maybe the dems and the public employee unions can get Scott Walker recalled as Governor of Wisconsin. He actually made public employees pay 5.8% of their salaries to their own pensions, and 12.6% to their health insurance premiums. (Of course, I pay 100% of my retirement and 100% of my health insurance. But I don't kick back millions of dollars to the democratic pols like the public employee unions do.) Under Walker, property taxes have actually declined for the first time since 1998. Shameful! Wisconsin has actually moved up the list 21 spots on the best places to do business, during Walker's term. (Per Chief Executive magazine, as quoted from the 5/4/12 WSJ. Other stats from same article.) And taxpayers - you know, the people - have saved $1 billion dollars under Walker. The result is that School Districts have been able to keep teachers' jobs and avoid mass lay-offs. But who cares about saving jobs? You know in your heart that Republicans are evil. You know voting for a Republican is just WRONG!

Here's some good news. The Socialist candidate for President of France has won in today's run-off election! Sarkozy is OUT. Austerity measures are OUT. The winner, Francois Hollande, wants to raise taxes for income over 1 million Euro to 75%, and over 450,000 Euro to 45%. (From the 4/20/12 WSJ.) Think that will help France's miserable employment rate of 62.8%? (Germany's rate - 76.5%, and Switzerland's - 82.9%.) (From an article by Bret Stephens in the 4/24/12 WSJ.) Who cares about jobs? It's time to make those rich bastards pay more taxes. You know, the 1%. I wonder where most of those one-percenters come from? Hmmm. Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Humble beginnings. Many millionaire entertainers? Started out as waiters and waitresses in New York or LA, but with a dream and a desire. But Obama says it's time to punish them for their success, so that's what the country has to do. The government can make better use of their money. Didn't the government create the desktop computer, smartphones, iTunes, iPads Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Google and on and on it goes? No? Well, the government needs that money anyway. It's just unfair to have wealthy people.

So, my friends, go out there and do all you can to get Obama re-elected. He'll raise your taxes, put us further into debt to the point where your children and grandchildren will never get out from under. He'll continue to limit supply so your gas prices will keep going up. The medical advances from our space program will be no more. But under Obamacare we won't be able to pay for all that treatment anyway. And just to make sure of that, Obama created the Independent Payment Advisory Board that gets to decide just how much the government will spend for your particular medical treatment. And it has the bonus of NO CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT! That was written into the law. With a socialist victory in France, it's looking better for a socialist victory again here. So go out and work hard for a November victory and then celebrate.

Your friend,
The Truth-Uncensored.

P.S. "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone..." (Thanks to Joni Mitchell.)"