"John McClane: You know what you get for being a hero? Nothin'. You get shot at. You get a little pat on the back, blah, blah, blah, attaboy. You get divorced. Your wife can't remember your last name. Your kids don't want to talk to you. You get to eat a lot of meals by yourself. Trust me, kid, nobody wants to be that guy. Matt Farrell: Then why you doing this? John McClane: Because there's no body else to do it right now, that's why. Believe me, if there were somebody else to do it, I'd let them do it, but there's not. So we're doing it. Matt Farrell: Ah. That's what makes you that guy. "
"The era of small government is over ... government has to be more proactive, more aggressive." ( Tim Pawlenty2006)
"You're just petty politicians, who'd sooner sign onto the wisdom of a tyrant in another country, than the demands of ticked off voters in your own." (Neil CavutoJune 2008)
“I didn’t question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment.”
Mr. Cheney went on: “The point I made and I’ll make it again is that Al Qaeda functions on the basis that they think they can break our will. That’s their fundamental underlying strategy, that if they can kill enough Americans or cause enough havoc, create enough chaos in Iraq, then we’ll quit and go home. And my statement was that if we adopt the Pelosi policy, that then we will validate the strategy of Al Qaeda. I said it, and I meant it.”
(Vice President Cheney NYT Feb. 2007)
"A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers. (Ronald Reagan March 1, 1975)
"Oh, no! First of all, if I took one vote away from a serious candidate, it would be a sin." (Al Franken Time Magazine, 9/1/03)
Wall Street Tycoon Urges Uber Rich To Be Vigilante Raiders
Vigilante Raiders sounds like some beer league softball team, but its sadly closer to the advice being given by a Wall Street executive who wants the filthy rich to buy up a major US gun manufacturer and scrap it. Mind you this company makes far more than just guns, but this is the new American justice where punishment is politically based.
Business moguls who favor stricter gun-control laws — among them Bloomberg LP founder and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, financier George Soros and entertainment honcho David Geffen – are in the unique position of being able to put their money where their mouths are, and with a single bold move can change the raging gun debate in a way that intransigent politicians cannot.
All statist liberals who are enemies of freedom, liberty, and independence.
These well-intentioned billionaires (and others) should buy Freedom Group Inc., the world’s largest gun manufacturer, from Cerberus Capital Management LP, which has put it up for sale, and literally liquidate it.
Well intentioned?
This Op Ed appeared in the paywalled Star Tribune but you can find its original source at Bloomberg.
William Cohan is/was employed by JP Morgan Chase which was part of TARP and bailouts and was implicit in the collapse of this country economically and politicly. But don’t take my word for it.
If Washington Republicans would spend a few weeks outside of the DC beltway and media cone of disinformation broadcasts from their propaganda machine, they’d realize that America was not salivating at the idea of permanently increasing taxes on our most successful people and businesses making the US less competitive for the best and brightest in this global economy we live in.
If only the Washington Republicans had just looked at the fact that Republicans will be selecting the next Speaker of the US House since they were sent back with a majority in 2012 by voters and the uber liberal Democrats were not…..
Only in the mind of a Washington Republican can you believe that the same voters who allegedly gave Obama and Harry Reid mandates also reelected a Republican House Majority to sit in the corner and rubberstamp socialisms march in America.
Washington Republicans were so paranoid by the pressures of reelection or polling or something that they allowed the media confusion of the issues to force them to literally author a major plank of socialism, redistribution.
From each according to their ability to each according to their needs.
For more bad news and why the McConnell/Boehner deal is so bad read this and this
Of course we also need to be reminded that Government is trying to solve a problem that Government actually created and here we are allowing them to try to fix it but sticking us with a bill for THEIR promises of free this and that.
Spending will continue to skyrocket under this “Republican Plan”. No cuts, no reforms, no sunsetting…. But tax increases are now the law of the land.
Rather than keep kicking the can down the road, Obama and Republicans agreed to just kick the fiscal sanity can off a cliff once and for all.
Which is such great news America. Yep, taxes raised on the uber successful… er rich so they can pay “their fair share” which is exponentially higher and a larger share of the overall financial burden than the rest of Americans…. Which we also just saw in France has an equal and opposite result…..
Oh and spending cuts are not an option, and oh yeah, Obama will not take no on a Debt limit increase….
Which is of course, elevating the fiscal cliff America will continue to face…..
Facts have been withheld from this entire fiscal cliff debate. So have honesty and rationality.
America got screwed last night.
Washington avoided accountability for their decades of floating checks and promises for power and to win elections.
Need immigrant voters: Push amnesty and demonize anyone who just wants to secure our porous borders.
Need senior votes: Refuse to address the Medicare & Social Security insolvency problems and demonize anyone who wants to begin the necessary reforms to protect future generations.
Need young vote: Push gay marriage and demonize anyone who wants simply to define traditional marriage by painting them as the evil that wore white hoods and murdered people for their skin color.
Need hard core anti-Capitalist voters: Push for socialist redistribution tax rates and demonize anyone who wants to protect America’s greatest asset, its mighty economy, from those who see it as its greatest evil.
The fiscal cliff was about un-sustainability in federal spending and liabilities. What happened last night did nothing to address either of those, just check off one of the political to-do’s of the radical leftist socialists.
Its very disappointing that the people who voted yes last night did so after taking an oath to defend this country from all enemies, foreign AND domestic.
I’ll be honest, it really bothered me when Bush hating liberals hung their flags upside down during the 2Ks. But now that the President of the United States and members of Congress are actively persecuting (and some may say prosecuting) Americans due to their wealth, health, or desire to defend themselves, is it time to say something?
Its not something one can safely do in the 21st Century. In the past one could speak out in the town square and slip into the shadows, but now, you get your file marked or that the FBI’s DCAC is watching what I say online and on the phone, you can’t hide after you speak out in opposition to your own Government.
How many more freedoms have to be erased before I stand up? How many more lives have to be lost? How many more people have to be ruined for political ideology? Law abiding Americans can’t be trusted, yet we have to cater to the whims of the UN which would rather slit our throats than …..
Are you OK living in a nation with a Government that thinks the requirement to do business or exercise a freedom should be submitting information that could be used against you criminally? Fingerprints, full background checks, tracking information that will stay with you permanently so your every single move can and will be monitored….
Sen. Feinsetin wants to treat law abiding citizens like criminals, and I am supposed to just say OK, oh well, they gamed the electoral process and bamboozled enough Americans into thinking they can get free stuff by voting Democrat?
The Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (as of Dec 2012), in fact, wants to disarm the American people! The Chair of the Senate Committee tasked with keeping America safe is more concerned with Americans owning guns, than the guns pointed at America. Its also worth noting that Feinstein is on the Judiciary Committee. Which is why this law looks exactly like entrapment. This isn’t just an assault on the 2nd Amendment, it gashes a big hole in the entire Bill of Rights.
No, don’t worry little American, turn over the information that the DOJ will later use to incriminate you, don’t worry, you can have your guns, but we’re going to persecute you first, mark you with a digital scarlett letter next, and be ready to swoop in and arrest your ass……
See also: SAFE Act.
Many of us held out hope that maybe the Supreme Court would protect us from Obamacare, we were wrong. The 2012 elections? Nope, a nation of sheep was fooled. Most Americans know its wrong to go kick down your neighbor’s door and take the milk out of their fridge, but unfortunately, its now a widely held belief that its OK to envy your neighbor’s property and hire the Government to go take what’s theirs and give it to you. (See Idiocracy)
Hey John, its the spending you idiot. You suck at poker, now stop trying to gamble with the future of our Country. You’re playing with socialists, solving the problem is not their goal, socialism is. They’ll take whatever you give them that’s closer to Communism than Capitalism, so give them nothing.
If you don’t have the spine to do so, resign. You’ve done enough damage already.
I promised to educate the public on just who the rich is since no one with an (R) behind the name has the cajones to dare stand up [FOR] the most discriminated class of people in America. (I was required to sit through a Fair Housing workshop yesterday, and yes, income status is a class that can’t be discriminated against. Whether low or high, you can’t treat people differently just because of their income.)
Here’s the chart I created to help show that the people making over $200,000 a year and not exclusively Bill Gates or Monty Burns. A large portion of the incomes in that top bracket Obama and Democrats so desperately want to punish er – make pay their fair share, are not people just hoarding cash to use as toilet paper or to burn for heat because they are greedy fat cats.
They are employers, investors, successful people who worked hard and being rewarded from smart investments…. They are every day Americans who lay a huge role in keeping the economy going.
The key is they are the backbone to our economy. Yes, we need workers, but if there is no one to finance or supply the machines or tools….
Take away “the rich’s” incomes and it will affect the economy, more importantly it will remove any incentive for them to consider doing that again. If everything you worked for was taken away from you would you try to do it again, and again, and again?
This chart shows where the incomes in the top bracket actually come from. The data is from 2009 IRS numbers. Individuals, Farmers, S-Corps, Social Security, Investments, pensions, you name it. All play a significant role in the economy. The economy would collapse with out their incomes.
Take note at the bottom, that if you took every single penny that these people made in 2009 away from them, you’d barely be able to balance the Federal Budget for that one year. Keep in mind by the end of Obama’s 2nd term, we will need almost an additional $1 trillion more in revenue (taxes) just to keep pace with spending increases to balance the budget.
Meet the Rich.
Meet the Rich – Taking 100% of the income from those making over $200,000 a year would have barely balanced the 2009 Federal Budget. Then what?
If you took every single penny that “the rich” made in one single year, it would balance the budget for a single year.
Then what?
Folks, the fiscal cliff is not sticking it to the rich. Its not a matter of socialist fairness and a workers revolution.
The Fiscal cliff is the bills of America surpassing the ability to pay. The housing market collapsed by the very same principles being promoted as the cure for the Federal Budget.
Sub-prime loans, cooking the books, interest only loans, gambling on your income going up at exponential rates so you can afford to double your payments in a handful of years….
Another great example is the dot com bubble. Politicians in Washington are not trying to solve the problem, they are trying to swindle you into thinking they are solving the problem.
You want the spending, then EVERYONE is going to have to pitch in, because as I point out above, there isn’t enough to revenue to take away from the rich in order to keep up the high spending rates.
The narrative being used against Republicans is: “They are the party of the rich and won’t make them pay their fair share.” The Republican party, officials, and candidates have done a terrible job fighting back against that lie.
I’m going to leave the whole how much is fair and I think 1% of the population paying for 40% of Government argument alone for today and focus on the heart of the matter that Republicans need to spread far and wide.
The reason the national debt is sky rocketing and the deficits are growing is not low taxes, its high spending. Now Democrats are seeking a return to the Clinton era tax rates on the “wealthy”. They claim that was the last time we have a surplus.
There are 2 big problems with that argument.
The Republican House lead by Aremy & Gingrich forced Clinton to cut spending.
The 2000′s ended with the dot com bubble. Scores of shell companies were cooking their books in the infancy of the internet boom to get rich quick. Tax revenues were sky high from companies that produced nothing. Similar to the Housing market collapse at the end of the Bush years, the revenue was booked, but it was a mirage not a trend.
Here’s a chart that I made to compare the actual numbers of Revenue and Expenditures from Clinton thru Obama.
Federal Spending vs Revenue Chart Clinton Bush Obama Dec 4, 2012 by: Andy Aplikowski
(Click to enlarge)
The peak of Clinton Revenue (taxes) was in 2000 at $2.025 trillion. Again, that includes the dotcom bubble revenues. You can see that it was a 1 year $200 Billion increase from the previous year.
Just look at the numbers. Obama’s estimates for his next term are pipe dreams.
So what’s the point? Some conservatives and Republicans are throwing up their hands, saying its too late. The point is that Republicans have done a terrible job pointing out the course of the deficit problem, SPENDING.
Look no further than Europe to see that what Obama wants to do won’t work.
Ever expanding government through entitlements and rationed freedoms and a central planned economy where winners are picked based on feeling, emotion and willingness to help enact the political agenda of the left, not free markets – Societies like these eventually run their course. Growth stops, dependency skyrockets, and society is torn apart. Class warfare ensues, and civil unrest takes place.
Stalin was the key to creating the socialist Soviet Union. He tweaked Marxism to create a need for Government, a dependency on Government, that the only hope for everyone to have a shot of having basic necessities was if Government gave it to you.
We are at a fork in the road of America and Obama and his minions on the left know, they have the public convinced that it is not ok for you to go take what your neighbor worked hard to buy themselves, but don’t worry, the IRS will take their money away and Government will give you what you want.
Its like that old saying, “As soon as people realize they can just vote themselves more money, the Republic is lost.”
Of course the media is absent in reporting what is really going on. My suspicion is that because they like it.
This fiscal cliff in America is not coming on January 1st. Its not a crisis of just getting Republicans to cave on taxes. Grover Norquist’s demise will not mark the avoiding of the fiscal calamity.
It will be if we as a free people do fall for the ponzi scheme and promises of the socialist left and pretend that raising taxes on a few rich people will solve a budget crisis created entirely by skyrocketing spending. Spending that was promised decades ago by the first wave of socialist sympathizers in America.
It feels so good to just think that this is a one time rip the bandaid off and everything will be just fine fix. A one time bailout of the Federal Treasury and shazam! everything will be just fine. Government spending can continue to grow at will, and there will always be a 1% to take more away from to redistribute to the other 99%.
Spending is the thing that is going up at unsustainable rates. The only way to balance the budget with out serious spending reductions is huge tax increases.
You could take away every dime of income that the 1% have and it won’t even solve the budget deficit for one single year. In doing so you will have eliminated some of that 1% by bankrupting them and removing their ability to operate their businesses. Which means there will be less of the 1% to get that revenue from next year. Meaning the deficit will grow again and you are right back where you started, but now there are more people dependent on Government.
Obama wants $1.6 Trillion in new tax revenue over 10 years as his answer to the spending crisis. He and his core supporters like Keith Ellison refuse to even consider much needed reforms to the growing federal spending programs creating the deficits in the first place: entitlements.
Somehow taxing Peter to pay Paul is going to balance the budget?
But its for the public good. There is just so much good Friedman material…..
How did we get into the Big Government mess? Liberal do-gooders!
The fiscal cliff debates are about spending.
There is no Santa Claus coming with a big old sack of permanent revenue to bail out America. We spend too much bloody money. Senator Klobuchar is the new queen of do-gooders. She’s an ambulance chasing former County Attorney who is becoming the next Ralph Nader. For every economic action there is a reaction. Ban lead toys for kids, Polaris gets hurt. Require drain covers on pools, public pools close.
There’s always a reason to expand Government…
You can also always find someone you can make people hate and take away what they have to give to someone else. The problem is you eventually run out of other groups of people.
There is no free lunch.
I know some of you out there are saying, ok ok, there aren’t enough rich to make it work but we just can’t even think about cutting anything … and then you think: What about going after businesses for more revenue? Yeah, yeah, that’s got to be the ticket.
I have some bad new for you, there is no Santa Claus.
This is a long post/ Point it
Its the spending stupid. Spending is the reason our debt is so high. You can’t tax your way out of a spending problem.
A headline you will not see. But of course you have been deluged for years about how Republicans were raising property taxes. Whoops, they went down, good thing Democrats won the election by lying about the facts of the whole matter.
And yes, this does not mean that Municipal Welfare isn’t needed. State Spending is going to go through the roof, and yes, you will all pay for it one way or another.
I was already very “over” Congressman Kline & Paulsen, and now they are wetting the bed on taxes.
These 2 divas need to go find something else to do, like oh say, maybe building up the election machines in their districts so that we can retake the State House in 2012…. but that would be hard and these 2 prefer the path of least resistance.
Because its way easier to get good press about surrendering on raising taxes than it is to talk about the out of control spending. That’s right, spending that is so out of control that even if we took away took away every penny that the “rich” make next year, we’ll still not have a single year of a balanced budget. Then of course there is the dirty little secret that these rich people will find a way to avoid this tax increase. Its as simple as just not paying themselves as much as they are. They are rich afterall and don’t need all that money, so they just won’t pay themselves as much.
Which will then lead to the only real way to deal with paying for all the spending in Washington, middle class tax increases.
But nope, hey, let’s give the government even more money, which of course will reduce economic activity, which will cause more employment chaos….
The key to installing socialism upon an unsuspecting or unwilling population is creating enough chaos that they think the only hope is government.
Yes, Obama and the Democrats are trying to install socialism upon America. We’re in the Stalinist phase of the transformation right now. Baby steps. Progressives have been installing bits and pieces of socialism for decades.
And morons like Kline & Paulsen are more worried about getting elected than they are protecting the nation.
