Obama's Tax Increases: Heralding The Beginning Of The Second Great Depression

Are you ready for double-digit unemployment and double-digit inflation rates? We haven't seen that since Jimmy Carter. But, they are on their way here again.

Barack Obama's tax-and-spend liberal policies are the same exact policies that Jimmy Carter tried and the same exact policies that took us into the recession of late 70's/early 80's. We got out of that recession by cutting taxes and letting the American economy grow.

Only this time, Obama's policies are Carter's policies on steroids. The results are going to be even more catastrophic than Carter's, and those of us who remember 1979 know exactly how catastrophic they were. It was the first time since the Great Depression that we has a misiery index over 20. (Misery index = inflation rate plus unemployment rate.)

Here is what Barack Obama wants to do to our economy according to Jake Tapper of ABC News:

President Obama's budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals. 1) On people making more than $250,000. $338 billion - Bush tax cuts expire $179 billlion - eliminate itemized deduction $118 billion - capital gains tax hike Total: $636 billion/10 years 2) Businesses: $17 billion - Reinstate Superfund taxes $24 billion - tax carried-interest as income $5 billion - codify "economic substance doctrine" $61 billion - repeal LIFO $210 billion - international enforcement, reform deferral, other tax reform $4 billion - information reporting for rental payments $5.3 billion - excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas $3.4 billion - repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs $62 million - repeal deduction for tertiary injectants $49 million - repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties $13 billion - repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies $1 billion - increase to 7 years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers $882 million - eliminate advanced earned income tax credit Total: $353 billion/10 years

Several things to notice here:

1. Look at all the new taxes on oil and gas companies. How high do you think the price for a gallon of gas will go? How badly do you think that will affect low and middle income families? It is not only the gas that will go up in price but anything that has to be transported will go up in price as well. That includes food, clothing and any other consumer commodity that must be transported by ship, truck or rail.

2. The total revenue on these new taxes is $989 billion. That doesn't even cover the porkulus/spendulus bill (1.3 trillion total in spending and interest) and represents only about half of Obama's proposed $1.75 trillion deficit! Who among you really believes that the Dems are going to stop their tax-and-spend orgy at people making more than $250,000 per year? How long before the proposed new taxes extend downwards towards people making $100,000 per year, or $75,000 per year or $50,000 per year? I'm betting months.

I have historical fact on my side for that last assertion. In 1992, Bill Clinton promised that his new taxes would not affect anyone making less than $90,000 per year. After they added up all the numbers, a new tax law was passed through Congress which levied new taxes on people making as little as $36,000 per year. So much for unkeepable promises.

These new taxes will mark the beginning of the Second Great Depression, just as Smoot-Hawley heralded the onset of the First Great Depression.

When all is said and done, the Democrats will only have themselves to blame for the coming financial disaster, but you can be certain they will be trying to pass the blame off on someone else.

You can access the complete entry on-line here:

Obama's Budget: Almost $1 Trillion In New Taxes Over Next 10 yrs, Starting 2011
Jake Tapper
ABC News
February 26, 2009

A Result Of Leftist Policies: Californians Flee For A Better Life

When people are unable to vote for the change they need at the ballot box, they will vote with their feet, that is, they will move to another area where they feel they can better achieve their personal goals and dreams.

What could be going on that people are doing this? Lots of things and all of them bad.

The state of California is experiencing a situation in which people are voting with their feet. For the fourth fiscal year in a row, California has experienced a net loss in population thorugh interstate migration.

According to Michael Blood of the Associated Press:

Mike Reilly spent his lifetime chasing the California dream. This year he's going to look for it in Colorado. With a house purchase near Denver in the works, the 38-year-old engineering contractor plans to move his family 1,200 miles away from his home state's lemon groves, sunshine and beaches. For him, years of rising taxes, dead-end schools, unchecked illegal immigration and clogged traffic have robbed the Golden State of its allure. Is there something left of the California dream? "If you are a Hollywood actor," Reilly says, "but not for us."

Nobody wants to live in an area where more of their hard-earned money gets confiscated by the government or where their children must attend schools that put politics above education or where illegal aliens drive down the average worker's wages with a willingness to work for less.

California is typical of what happens when tax-and-spend Democrats have control of the legislative process. The economy in the Golden State is shrinking due to many factors, not the least of which is that the state government keeps levying higher taxes. The net effect of the high taxes is that wages and salaries have gone down while the cost of living has gone up. People don't want to live under those conditions if they don't have to.

More:

Why are so many looking for an exit? Among other things: California's unemployment rate hit 8.4 percent in November, the third-highest in the nation, and it is expected to get worse. A record 236,000 foreclosures are projected for 2008, more than the prior nine years combined, according to research firm MDA DataQuick. Personal income was about flat last year. With state government facing a $41.6 billion budget hole over 18 months, residents are bracing for higher taxes, cuts in education and postponed tax rebates. A multibillion-dollar plan to remake downtown Los Angeles has stalled, and office vacancy rates there and in San Diego and San Jose surpass the 10.2 percent national average. Median housing prices have nose-dived one-third from a 2006 peak, but many homes are still out of reach for middle-class families. Some small towns are on the brink of bankruptcy. Normally recession-proof Hollywood has been hit by layoffs. "You see wages go down and the cost of living go up," Reilly says. His property taxes will be $1,300 in Colorado, down from $4,300 on his three-bedroom house in Nipomo, about 80 miles up the coast from Santa Barbara.

That's a pretty serious drop in property tax rate and a major reason why so many people are trying to leave the state.

Oh, and the state with the second highest loss in population? New York, another Democrat run tax-and-spend state.

Take a good look at California, folks. It is a preview of what the entire United States will be facing as the socialist-leaning Barack Obama and the socialist-leaning Democrat controlled Congress enact their leftist policies on us all.

If California is an accurate indicator, Obama and Company will be leading us into the Second Great Depression.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Exodus: Californians Flee For A Better Life
Michael Blood
Associated Press via The Morning Call
January 13, 2009