Primary thoughts
Sep 6th, 2010 by David Anderson
We lost 283,000 Jobs in V. P Biden’s Summer of Recovery. We cannot afford an autumn of recovery.
What we need is a better approach. According to economists, national debt is not a crucial issue until it exceeds 90% of the value of goods and services produced in year (GDP) in the nation’s economy. We have reached that point. Some people blame President Bush and some blame President Obama. I care less about blame and more about who will fix it.
The economic uncertainty is frightening investors. The first problem is that it is easier for banks and investors to buy all of this new government debt than take a risk with a business that is creating jobs. The second problem is that a trillion dollars of investment capital is setting in on the sidelines because of uncertainty about government policies. Neither is being invested to create jobs. The result is a stagnant economy. The official unemployment rate is 9.6%. When you take into account those no longer counted or those who were forced to take part time jobs like the hundreds of thousands this summer that went from full time to part time involuntarily, the numbers are around 17%.
It is time we do something about it. We need a fresh approach. Glen Urquhart is offering such a fresh approach. He has proposed reforming government by having commissions examine the various departments and recommending consolidations and savings much like is done with the military through the BRAC commission. We should also establish the SAFE commission to look at the long term entitlement issue and establish a national consensus on how to deal with it.
He has been consistently against new job killing mandates like the so-called Health reform and favors a market based approach. He has also been against the job crushing cap and trade and energy taxes.
Urquhart proposes tax reform for businesses and individuals which would be a tax cut. We have the second highest corporate income tax rate in the world and wonder why we hemorrhage jobs overseas. Our personal income tax was written by lobbyists and lawyers not economists and business people. It is ridiculously complicated. The income tax costs us 200 billion a year in compliance cost. A flatter, simpler tax code which eliminates the AMT and other gimmicks would be a boon. I like the flat tax proposal with healthy personal deductions and child tax credits.
Glen Urquhart has also been proposing a payroll tax holiday when unemployed people are hired. The bipartisan appeal of this idea seems obvious now that President Obama seems prepared to announce his support of it.
I also like that Glen Urquhart is understands that we need stay faithful to the Judeo-Christian values which made America great including the right to life, hard work, family, and respect for GOD.
I joined the effort to elect him in the September 14th Republican primary. I hope you will join me.
Some people blame President Bush and some blame President Obama. I care less about blame and more about who will fix it.
A nonsensical position. It is not a matter of opinion. If you don’t have enough respect for the facts to blame Bush, how can you fix the problem? Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
a trillion dollars of investment capital is setting in on the sidelines because of uncertainty about government policies.
Tax that pile of loot until it becomes cheaper to use it for jobs than to keep it lying around.
trillion dollars of investment capital is setting in on the sidelines
So let’s not hear anything more about policies designed to help recovery by “freeing up capital.”
Stop frightening investors with uncertainty, new regulations, and tax hikes. Cut taxes, reform regulation, and reform government to cut spending.
As for blame, there is enough to go around. I am tired of mere partisanship on both sides. I call it the way I see it. If you disagree, it is a free country.
So let’s not hear anything more about policies designed to help recovery by “freeing up capital.”
It’s not all about policies. It’s about incompetence, instability and uncertainty brought on by Bush, Obama and the ruling class in general. I have been in business meetings where the basic sentiment is this: “We don’t know what the hell they’re going to do.”
In any event, you are ignorant if you think that policies designed to stoke the moral vanity typical to wealthy socialists will build the economy. There is not one historical example of socialism having better results than capitalism. And there are many examples of failure, even in America:
“We had a world in miniature — we had enacted the French revolution over again with despairing hearts instead of corpses as a result. …It appeared that it was nature’s own inherent law of diversity that had conquered us …our “united interests” were directly at war with the individualities of persons and circumstances and the instinct of self-preservation…” –Josiah Warren of New Harmony (Periodical Letter II 1856)
When you have a president who surrounds himself with people who want to redistribute wealth because that is his goal, failure should come as no surprise.
If this is a summer of recovery, it is petrifying to think about what a summer (or any season) of economic downturn would be per those loyal to the Misadministration of Chairman Maobama.
Free market economics does a quite effective redistribution of wealth, with little, if any, of the “Mother, may I?” addy-tood that is endorsed and demanded by what the American Democrat Party has become. This is how those folks stay in office – promise upon promise, payout upon payout, in the never ending march towards expanding the dependency class.
Sadly, I don’t see Urquhart being the GoP House nominee. He is the better candidate, but Rollins has the financial backing and the New Castle County votes. That latter alone controls much of what happens in this state.
Come November, we’ll all have several final choices. Hopefully, folks will think about what the Donkeys have done to this country, and will choose from Republican, Libertarian, Constitution, or Independent candidates for all offices on the ballot. A Democrat? No way, no how, at least for this voter.
It’s about incompetence, instability and uncertainty brought on by Bush, Obama and the ruling class in general. I have been in business meetings where the basic sentiment is this: “We don’t know what the hell they’re going to do.”
Translation: The era of bailouts and subsidy is over, and we are afraid to risk our money without a taxpayer guarantee.
Profit from investments is called, quite accurately, “unearned income.” The justification is that investors are being rewarded for their risk. If they will not take any risk, there should be no reward. Investors who are “frightened” by the marginal increases proposed by Obama do not deserve to be rewarded.
If Reagan “unleashed capitalism” with a 25% capital gains rate and a 50% top marginal rate, why would Obama’s plan to go to 20%/39% be “frightening?”
What a bunch of Wall Street wussies, waiting for big government to hold their hand and wipe their noses.
Wall Street isn’t afraid of socialism – they are afraid of it ending for them.
Richard, don’t buy into the fatalism that they are trying to feed you. If you are clever enough to see who the better candidate is, don’t underestimate 10′s of thousands of your fellow citizens who also have gotten sick of being spoon fed losers from the powers on high. Polling says there is a real possibility of an upset. Even the News Journal is reconciling to that possibility.
I have some fun stuff on line to do my best to make sure. Just do your part to make it happen.
Translation: The era of bailouts and subsidy is over, and we are afraid to risk our money without a taxpayer guarantee.
Not at all, it was a small business meeting. No one there is a member of the increasingly corrupt aristocracy that you apparently want us to vote in favor of.
Investors who are “frightened” by the marginal increases proposed by Obama do not deserve to be rewarded.
We all know that Obama and the ruling class in general will have to pay for their “stimulus” and corruption with more than marginal increases.
Reward is not for you or some tin-pot totalitarian to decide.
…why would Obama’s plan to go to 20%/39% be “frightening?”
It’s the Bush/Obama debt that’s frightening and that demonstrates the general incompetence and increasing corruption of the ruling class. Apparently everyone knows that it’s unsustainable except for them.
Wall Street isn’t afraid of socialism – they are afraid of it ending for them.
This is due to the corruption of politicians who want to rule and condition the Herd based on its appetites and fears. As their power increases everyone is led to become fearful of having the corruption typical to socialism end for them, so they go to the politicians and get more of the same until the nation is bankrupt. At that point rule by fear is all that is left.
“…one is usually chosen as a leader…someone bold and unscrupulous…who curries favor with the people by giving them other men’s property. To such a man…the protection of public office is given, and continually renewed. He…emerges as a tyrant over the very people who raised him to power.” –Cicero (De Republica, i, 2.)
Not at all, it was a small business meeting.
I go to those meetings too. You are right, they are not members of the corrupt aristocracy; they are their imitators and wannabees.
You are right, they are not members of the corrupt aristocracy; they are their imitators and wannabees.
That hasn’t been my experience. I see that you have nothing to say that the fact that the corruption of the ruling class is unsustainable.
Even if you are right that most business people are just greedy, capitalism is still the best system and socialism the worst. This is a historical fact. Apparently I do not have the same moral fervor that seems to be typical to the socialists. Your moral vanity is blinding you. I do not care if a business man wants to sell me a good product because he is greedy. I do not want to have the government take his wealth and give it to the poor to make him pay penance for his sins. His motivations, his character and his class status are not my concern. It’s curious how socialists want to use the government to force everyone to follow the advice of Jewish prophets or live like Christian saints and yet they often have nothing but hatred for the “Jewish influence” and Christianity. Ironically your own creation myths are generally based on the opposite of altruism and portray the extinction of the disabled and the poor as the explanation for progress as we know it, yet we’re supposed to believe that you’re against greed and care more for the poor than anyone else? If your ridiculous creation myths are true then the heretical branch of national socialism is more consistent with reality than socialism.
A nonsensical position. It is not a matter of opinion. If you don’t have enough respect for the facts to blame Bush, how can you fix the problem? Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
The American people ‘blame’ BO for Obamacare, the illegal auto bailout, the ‘stimulus’ that stimulated nothing, the bank bailout, suing Arizona, and pushing the debt to stratospheric levels…polls show that majority of Americans are against all of the above.
This is why the Socialist-Democrats are going to get annihilated in two months. ‘Blame’ Bush all you want- it won’t save you now.
capitalism is still the best system and socialism the worst.
Agreed. So the sooner we purge socialism from our corporate sector and restore properly regulated free markets, the better.
American business is historically overdue for another round of trust-busting. Telecom, insurance, and banking all need to be busted up, have their cronies kicked out of regulatory positions, and compete for consumer business like capitalists should.
What’s the market based approach for health care? Very a vague slogan. Sort of like “power to the people”. During the whole insurance debate, not one concrete proposal, no legislation introduced for “selling across state lines”. Why? It’s just another con game slogan aimed at the low information voter. High information voters, tired of being conned, want details.
The market is sick people who need doctors and hospitals. Glenn is apparently unable to grasp the difference between going out to buy a new TV and having a heart attack. So what is Urguhart’s market based approach? Curious voters want to know. We got sucked in by the small government God on their sleeve balance the budget hucksters before. This time it’s voter beware.
Dave, what, another Urquhart commercial? C’mon. I mean I know you’re on the payroll, but enough already. Why not post the letter to the editor in today’s News-Journal pointing out Urquhart’s error about Tarp funds and Wilmington Trust. Oh, wait a minute, that would probably violate your contract with the Urquhart campaign.
Look, whatever chance Urquhart may have had in the general election ended with his Nazi “gaffe.” You remember that, where he said that people who support separation of church and state are nazi’s. While that may be old news to most readers here, I guarantee you that 90% or more of the voters in the general election are unaware of it, and it will be their first real introduction to Glen. Once they see it, they will move on and Glen will lose. It’s that simple. And if there’s folks out there who haven’t see it, it’s on YouTube, and, of course, will be featured prominently in Carney ads should Urquhart somehow win the primary.
80% of those voters won’t care. The 20% who would are liberals who would never vote for him in the first place. The truth is the issue has been dealt with in the press both electronic and written. It has been factored and it has no play beyond the egg head crowd.
A vote for Urqhart, is a vote for Carney. Rollins is a much better candidate and knows how business works in Delaware. We don’t need a (only been a registered voter in DE for 8 years) carpet-bagging DCite, telling us in Delaware we need to put God before anything elese. I pray to God every day, to watch over my family and business, but I have the right to choose that. I do not need to be told what to believe. His fascist tactics of himself and his campaign have turned me totally off. I don’t even know what the man stands for, other than negative campaigning. He has not laid out his plan on anything. I know you’d like to extend your paycheck another 60 days, but the time has come and you only have 7 days left.
You remember that, where he said that people who support separation of church and state are nazi’s.
Some are, the perversion of separation of church and state is not without historical precedent.
E.g.
“Divorce From Politics Welcomed
Many good Catholics-and this includes many priests, this correspondent has ascertained-welcome the church’s divorce from politics; these always deplored the connection, even in self-defense. Others honestly hold it is the duty of every good German to ‘go into the State in order to help stabilize and save it from extremists.’ Many others still believe the Nazi promises….”
(Nazis and Church Groping for Issue
The New York Times, Feb. 14, 1934, pg. 4
by Otto D. Tolischus)
People who support the separation of church and state in order to be rid of the Jewish influence and/or to establish nature based paganism in the name of environmentalism or pseudo-science are like the Nazis. When they succeed public support for “Earth Day” or the Blood and Soil emerges but any holy days/holidays linked to the Jewish worldview and off-shoots are discriminated against, naturally enough.
In contrast, the American Founders supported the separation of church and state for religious reasons that trace back to the Jewish prophets condemning their own king/leader/Führer based on a transcendent Logos. If history is any measure then the more that their view of the world is lost the more likely it is that there will be no freedom of religion and no separation of church and state.
E.g.
“The German Christians, in turn, are divided into extremists and moderates. The extremists would do away with the Old Testament, revise the New Testament. They wish to make a Nordic church… They would look upon Jesus Christ not as a holy figure but as an historical figure. In the long run, they would force all Germans, except Jews, into a German National Church, based not on Christianity but the consecration of the virtues represented by the Nazi political faith.”
(Hitler Given First Jolt by Protestant Pastors: Refusal of 4,000 Lutheran Clergymen to be Nationalized Brings Nazi Regime Significant Check
by Edwin L. James
The New York Times; Dec. 3, 1933 pg. E1)
If you truly support the separation of church and state then you should do so on the same basis as the Founders.
His fascist tactics of himself and his campaign….
Such as?
The market is sick people who need doctors and hospitals.
People are too dynamic and the moment that you try to manage and plan the market to meet your moral standards it will change as quickly as a mind can change, usually for the worst.
I don’t even know what the man stands for, other than negative campaigning. He has not laid out his plan on anything.…Joke
Where have you been living- in a cave?
Rick is right. Even the one contrast ad is full of issues. That is the basis of the contrast. So even if you missed every discussion, ad, newspaper article, talk show appearance, never visited the website, and did not read the post that you just commented upon, you would still get the issues. Unlike the Rollins ad (s), there is not a single ad which does not discuss issues. Most are too busy with Urquhart to even mention her.
I make no apologies for drawing a contrast. There are real differences no matter how much she tries to deny them all of a sudden. Voters should know the real choice in front of them.
David, why should we take any of your spin seriously. You’re being paid by the Urquhart campaign. But seriously, your analysis is so flawed as to be funny. No one other than the socalled eggheads have been paying any attention to Urquhart so far. Once the public starts to pay attention he is toast. By the way, what do you think the reaction will be in New Castle County (where overdevelopment has been on the front page of the Sunday News-Journal for 2 weeks in a row) once its disclosed that Urquhart is a real estate developer who pushed the big Isaacs’ Glen project in the middle of farmland? Believe me, it’s not going to be well-received. We have a carpet bagging real estate developer who lives in a beach front mansion (but says he chose to live with the middle class) who thinks that those who support separate of church and state are nazis. Most voters still have no clue who he is, and when they find out, they’re going to be, shall we say, less than impressed and move on. You can spin as much as you want to the contrary, but it ain’t sellin’.
David, I was really considering voting for Glen until I read this post.
Why do we need commissions to give us Glen Urquhart’s ideas on how to fix departments and consolidate operations? What happened to DOE hunting? I don’t want a commission’s ideas. I want Glen Urquhart’s ideas.
Is their any idea out there less visionary than a Flat Income Tax? The problem that President Reagan discovered with flat taxes is that they never stay that way. The original 1913 income tax was a flat tax that eventually expanded to 13 brackets. After Reagan’s reform nearly restored it to a flat state, today we have five.
In all, very disappointing. No more commissions! I want leadership!
The first income tax was progressive, but low. We have never had a flat tax. The truth is that the Reagan Tax reform still affects us. Can anyone imagine a top rate of 70% again? We arguing over half of that. The way to keep it flat would be to keep people who believe in that. No tax system will be permanent because we do put them in our Constitution. You can only control your watch.
What we need is fundamental reform.
You have heard other ideas as well such as consolidating energy and interior thereby eliminating duplication, consolidating education programs, consolidating welfare programs, and other efficiencies, but the discussion of the commissions is weeks old. The long term solution is actually going to come with a commission that reports to Congress not the executive. We need auditors and experts who have no turf to protect to find what agencies can be combined or eliminated. We did this for the Military with a great deal of success. The Grace commission under Reagan found some substantial savings but Congress did not put a rule in place that it would vote on them. That would be difference.
I don’t know why you are down on the commissions. They are the only thing that has actually worked, at least when Congress agrees to vote on their report. If any one in Congress with the exception of Paul Ryan, tells you that they understand every agency and every program, they are lying to you. Let alone a candidate. The long term budgetary solution is to actually get the right answers then fight the battle to enact it. Right now we are spending 3 trillion dollars to 4 trillion dollars and no one can even tell you where it all goes let alone how to save everything .
Sure he has specific savings in mind, but how do you know which of 250 education programs can efficiently be blocked together and which ones should not be? You have to actually study them.
That is the reason we never achieved the cuts we sought even when Republicans controled Congress and made cuts in spending increases. We made some reforms, but we never fundamentally changed the government.
Let’s not make that mistake again. This time the people may not give us a dozen years to figure it out.
We have never had a flat tax.
Medicare tax is flat (1.45% of wages with no limit).
Social Security tax is regressive (12.4% up to incomes of $106,800, with the rate going down the more you make after that).
And for unearned income, the Social Security tax is 0.0%.
Three-fourths of taxpayers pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes.
David, why should we take any of your spin seriously. You’re being paid by the Urquhart campaign…SF
Uh, hello. We’ve seen the commercials; David was responding to this post by ‘Joke.’
He (Urquhart) has not laid out his plan on anything..
Are you saying that Urquhart hasn’t ‘laid out his plan on anything?’
Most voters still have no clue who he is, and when they find out, they’re going to be, shall we say, less than impressed and move on…SF
Really? I don’t know anyone who’s voting for Rollins, so obviously you don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.