According to our President, “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that.”
Copied directly from the text of his speech in VA. on 7-13-2012 as released by the White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-roanoke-virginia
What have my wife and I been doing the last ten years?
Your blood, sweat, and tears mean nothing to Obama. “Just pay your taxes and shut up - we know what’s best for you.” :roll:
SO NOT an Obama fan believe me, but if you read the speech comment wasn’t it more that he was referring to the highways and bridges that we utilize to be successful in our businesses? Still, a HUGE stretch if you ask me, and I think his Lordship is forgetting that it is EXACTLY our small business tax dollars that are being sucked out of our pockets to line those of his supporter public union bosses. So…all in all…yeah, he’s off-base again.
I am first concerned with the what-if he gets another term and then I am fully scared with his comments about they only give him 2 terms! Putin had the same issue…oh wait… just changed that one! :shock: As long as over 50% get some form of entitlement or pay no fed taxes… how do you beat it? We need to correct this path…all politicians are screwed up and they all need thrown out on their a$$es! Both parties…all of them! :arrow:
What and be run by a dictator or one like those zealots in the screwed up countries where riots, civil wars and human atrocities abound.
Sometimes it’s better with the devil you know.
But then again we have the biggest peanut of all times (nice and cosy/friendly with OB) leading (?) our country.
Time to go Julia.
I hear your point Dave about knowing which devil you have is better than the new devil you do not. I am going back 235 years or so… We still need a gov with elected officials that make wise and educated decisions based on the needs of the masses and not the one. The problem is today it is only about the one. Be it the one president, the one senator, etc… It is all campaigning and back patting, and a$$ kissing for promises made during the elections. The entire world had better open their eyes fast to realize the truth about this all. When all the countires that are part of the modern world fall…what happens? Think of the US, UK, France, Germany, etc…all in ruins and looking like Iraq. Afgan, Somalia, etc… We will set the world back a hundred years if we let this happen. Fix it people… and fix it now!!! :x
The point is, the businesses do not exist because of the infrastructure, the infrastructure exists because of the contribution of the private sector. Without the private sector the internet would be nothing more than a government communication system. Without the private sector there would be no schools, no highways, no railroads, no museums. Every dollar the government spends comes from a corporation, partnership, LLC sole proprietorship or some other private sector business. Either by directly taxing the entity or taxing the wages it pays it’s employees.
The Keynesian in Chief was not there for all the struggles getting going, or for the stress of trying to make payroll and pay the bills after an equipment failure drained the bank account. Of course I don’t recall seeing him in any uniform while I was out chasing Soviet missile submarines off the east coat of the USA either. I guess I have difficulty understanding him because we have so little in common what with me having a somewhat typical American youth.
Rick is 100% correct on this one! It sure the heII is not the tax dollars of the lower 50% that pays the bills (that actually get paid!) Oh, last time I heard the story, the military invented the internet not Al Gore or the rest of the liberals to provide, assist, prop up, build, etc… our private businesses! I am sick of his lies and total BS! He has zero business experience! How exactly did someone with such poor grades get into the schools he did? I could care less where he was born…not going down that road… but other than a couple of years of political service in the corrupt Chicago market… he offers nothing other than his distorted “ALL FOR OBAMA” attitude and has divided this country to a level of 150 years ago! He is all race and money! Nothing else. Fine… all business owners shut down today. Get food stamps, free housing, ride the bus…etc. OH…how long that going to last. We can always borrow some more money from China? This admin is so far past a joke because it is a real and serious issue that is putting the country at a real state of emergency!
There was a story 3 years ago that worried me. Attached to a senate bill was under executive order the creation of a military force that would be under 100% executive branch control for use in the event of civil unrest without having to get congress to lift Posse Comitatus under the law. It was starting to be questioned more openly and then quietly was removed. Now why would a president in his first 100 days need to form a private armed forces segment for his personal use? Oh…maybe his master plan? He has brought this country to the real verge of collapse. Please open your eyes and look “FORWARD” as if the “CHANGE” does not come soon… we are all F’d!!! :x
I don’t understand why more Americans can’t learn from what’s happened in Greece! It’s pretty plain and simple that with so many taking and all of us small businesses giving & giving, there’s not going to be much to give very soon. He’s killing the American Dream and it’s very sad that so many don’t recognize it.
We all started pulling the cart “together” but then some decided to get a ‘free ride’ and jump in cart. Who’s left pulling the cart?!
hmmmm One of the problems in Greece is too LITTLE taxes paid. i.e. all those small businesses there pay NOTHING because they cheat the system and therefor are the ones freeloading on the others that play by the rules. They use the roads, take the public benefits… but skate on the bills.
None of us have a business if we do not have reliable communications and logistics, educated employees, police and fire protection, and a stable banking system. Those things do not exist without the shared investment made through taxes and govt regulation to keep them safe.
You can choose to misrepresent what Obama said for partisan reasons, but what he said was true. Furthermore, there is some thing else that Obama did not make: This current economic mess.
Most small businesses here (TT) pay very little taxes. Those that pay a lot of taxes do so because they are making good money. They would not be making good money in a country where there was not reliable delivery of food stuffs over safe roads, employees that can read and write, customers with money to spend and credit cards to spend it with and peaceful communities largely free of corruption… so stop kidding yourself that anyone is an island or that success comes independently of the system that surrounds it.
It is Romney, not Obama, that will raise taxes on small business owners (like us) and their employees. Get a clue people!
It is Romney and not Obama that is going to raise taxes on small business? Really? Has anyone looked at the number of tax increases scheduled to hit January 1st as things stand right now? Did anyone read the article from the recent International Franchisers convention in DC? A big KFC operator says that he has calculated that when Obamacare hits it will cost him HALF of his net profit. His medical costs will go from 100k a year to 444K a year! So how do we grow out businesses with that kind of a hit? This particular operator, when asked what he is going to do, said that he is going to find everything he can do to reduce the number of employees he has.
Romney is a businessman and a successful one at that. He earned a degree in business and law CONCURRENTLY at Harvard. He has been a governor and a highly successful businessman. He took over the winter Olympics and made them successful and profitable. There is no scandal is his life nor with his five children. Each year he gives several million dollars to charity and his church. (Biden gave $300 last year and apparently Obama does not give much at all either) Romney has served his church in various positions over the years at no pay. Lets ask Staples, Dunkin Doughnuts, Sports Authority, Burlington, Dominos, Toy’s R Us, Warner Music and a host of other companies Bain saved or helped to become more successful just how they feel about whether Romney will support business or not. Lets look at an interesting list of Obama supporters and union pension funds how they like having millions of their dollars invested with Bain.
This country is going to have a very difficult time given the huge debt we now have. It might not be the best idea read the headlines of most of the media who long ago lost their journalistic objectivity. Read the financial minds that have proven themselves credible over the years and see what they have to say. Read the Investors Daily Newspaper. These are sources of reliable info because they are financial people and they speak in terms of what is good and not so good about financial/business matters. Last week the Investor Daily had a very hard hitting condemnation about the path we are currently following in this country with the supporting rationale. Sometimes its the “gut” that gives us the best inclination that things are going wrong. Most of the business people I know in our area have a bad gut feeling. Many of them have money to invest and to grow their business but they are scared to do it because of what they see and feel coming at us.
I have read that there are three things that have helped to get us where we are today. One is that our schools no longer teach much U.S. History (some say they don’t teach much of anything) so we have a generation that does not know about the founding of this country. No knowledge of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. No knowledge of of the founding fathers who put together the most successful blueprint for a free democratic country in the history of the world. Two, our schools, in the main, are indoctrinating our students instead of teaching them how to think and deduce for themselves. The U.S. educational system, long the envy of the world, has sunk to low levels by any measure. Three, we have come to a place where religion is being denigrated at every turn. A great philosopher once said that even if religion were not true it might be the best thing ever invented for mankind. Many of us believe that religion is not an invention of mankind and because of that there are many in this country who criticize and disrespect that belief. This country was founded on freedom of religion among other things. No one has to follow any particular religion nor any religion at all so why is it necessary to disparage those who do chose to follow? One answer is that without the influences of religion there are no boundaries for personal behavior. Everything goes and it seems that parts of our society become more deviant as time goes by.
This country is racing towards Socialism and this is not the United States envisioned by our founders nor experienced to date. It seems so many people are completely unaware of it and/or don’t recognize it. Lack of education is one cause of this; apathy is another. Of course there are those who don’t know and don’t care. On this path we will wind up without our freedoms and a government that controls every aspect of our lives.
In my opinion the bottom line today is that we have a president who made a lot of promises and kept none. He simply has not performed. We are four years into Obama’s term and what are the results? A national debt that has escalated and has us facing the prospect of a financial collapse of incredible proportions. A horrendous unemployment number even if we only take the number the government feeds us at +8% which, among other things, does not count the number of people who have stopped looking for work. A welfare load for 50% of the people in this country. Foods Stamps for 47% and the government runs ads encouraging even more applicants.
A huge problem in the mid-east and Africa where our embassies are under attack (and not because of one silly movie). We were going to be respected in the mid-east and through out the world once Obama was elected. Has not happened. We had an unprecedented take over of General Motors with taxpayer money. When it was all said and done unions now own the majority of General Motors and the company owes the taxpayers around 45 billion dollars. And a U.S president forced the CEO of a public business to resign. By what right? The government has refused to enforce our borders so we have a big influx of illegals coming from the south who mostly immediately sign up for welfare and vote. By many reports there are terrorists coming in with the illegals along with the drug trade. The Democratic Convention required photo I.D. for attendees yet that party fights every attempt for individual states to ask for photo I.D. to vote. The Obama administration fights every attempt to develop energy in this country. Yes, it gives out leases in some cases but then they prevent most of those leases from being developed. It is estimated that the Bakkan (sp?) basin which stretches through South Dakota and I believe one other state and then into Canada has more oil than all of the oil reserves of the whole mid-east. They estimate that there are tremendous reserves in ANWAR but no drilling there either. It is said they don’t want to ruin the “pristine environment”. The necessary drilling would take place on less that 2% of the land and I read that the average temperature there is about 60 below zero. Sounds pristine to me, huh? We have the energy reserves in this country to eliminate our national debt completely so why not?
I find it difficult to find any improvements in the last four years. If that is the case most CEO’s would be replaced. But now the president is promising to actually keep some of the promises he made when he was elected four years ago. Where does he get any credibly for this? I also think its time to stop blaming Bush. If not after four years then when? One time I would like to see this president take some personal responsibility instead of blaming someone else for every failure. That is what leaders do. One last thought. Joe Biden is one heartbeat away from being president at any given time. A thought often applied to the VP over the years whoever it might be. How many of us would be comfortable with that turn of events?
All of us just want to be able to run our businesses and take care of our families. We can take the normal ups and downs of the economy but what we are experiencing is crazy. We need someone in that office who understands business and has a track record. Give me Mitt, give me Sam, give me whoever but this is not working. A third stimulus? The other two did not work so why this one? Because of the election? By most measures we cannot sustain the debt level that we have now and Obamacare is looming big after the first of the year. Read the provisions of Obamacare. On top of the debt we now have Obamacare is going to crush us even though about 750 billion is being taken from Medicare to put into Obamacare. Those of you who are at the medicare age or close to it ought to think about that.
Re: You did not build that!–CRISIS NUMBERS
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 … bs=article
This article from the Wall Street Journal lays out what we are facing and it is not pretty. If Romney wins we at least begin to turn the ship around. If Obama wins, read the article to find out where we are going to wind up because Obama is going to only continue on his present track but he will double down because what will he have to lose?
We have too many people in this country who cannot think for themselves or they simply are products of a failed school system, or they don’t care enough about the affairs of government to pay attention; or all three. The numbers, the spending, what it is going to do to us is absolutely astonishing. You will not want to read this article and yet it is something every American needs to read. There are some business people in this country who are aware of this story and have been for some time. They are not about to invest to expand their businesses or hire more employees.
I was thinking today that I have to find a way to do with fewer employees to get under the Obamacare threshold of employees. It might even mean selling a location or two. This Wall Street article does not take into account the financial burden that Obamacare is going to present us.
And more good news today. The government accounting office reports that now 6 million middle class will be in violation and subject to fines because of Obamacare.
And, a video of Obama saying on camera that, yes, he believes in re-distribution. This was 1998. Does anybody think he has changed his mind?
GM wants to get control of their company back. It seems they are having trouble hiring the top notch people they need because those people are wary of going to work for a company that is controlled and partially owned by the government. Obama says, request denied. I wonder if its also because the government has put limits on what GM can pay their people? To me this seems like a picture of what we can expect from a president who wants to re-distribute the fruits of production from the producers to the non-producers. At some point the producers will cease to produce when they realize the efforts of their work will be taken by the government. “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand epitomizes this scenario very well.
And now we have the mid-east flaring up with demonstrations in many countries. Our foreign policy is in shatters and we are becoming the laughing stock of the world. Is there one area in the last (almost) 4 years when we can point to success or even progress? We are so deep in debt from excessive trillion dollar spending years that most every wise person is in agreement that we cannot possibly support the interest payments. January 1st the new taxes will hit us. Obamacare is beginning to be implemented and by the governments own estimates it is going to cost us a lot more money than they told us. Our military is being weakened dangerously. Does anyone think that the radical Muslims are not going to take advantage of that? And Russia? and China? Unemployment stands at 8+ % and if the people who have quit looking for a job and therefore are not counted its probably 50% more than that. Because Obama said he was going to make it very tough for coal companies to stay in business we have now seen 8 coal companies close down and how many jobs lost? Meanwhile, every one of the approximately 8 green energy companies Obama invested taxpayer money in has gone bankrupt after, of course, donating some of the stimulus money they got to…who? 47% to 49% of the people in this country are on welfare of some sort. Another 7 or 8 million are on disability. There was a big surge in food stamp applications when Obama stripped the work requirement out of the welfare rules.
America was built on self-reliance, self-responsibility and freedom to pursue our dreams. People were so motivated because as opposed to many other countries, in America you could create, work hard and reap the rewards of your efforts. People did not lean on government and expect that government (meaning the other taxpayers) would provide for their needs. And we prospered beyond the wildest expectations. Now we are fast entering a period when a large number of people depend on government for their very existence. There is a price to be paid for that and it is the cost of our freedoms. Thomas Jefferson said that when people realize they can vote freebies for themselves by voting for the politicians who will promise to provide them then democracy is over.
Anybody who reads history should be able to see where our present course is going to lead us. We are already deep into the swamp and yet some go along thinking everything is just dandy. No danger here. We are already into Socialism and going deeper. Socialism has never worked in the history of the world. Socialism represents the exact opposite of every American ideal that made this country the greatest success story in the history of mankind. We just had one of the two major political parties on display with their convention. First they took God out of their platform and then it was put back in even with an outpouring of boos from the convention floor. In America? Then the call by some to eliminate or cap corporate profits. The interviews of some of the attendees actually thought this was a good thing. In America? We have really hit some new lows. And none of this causes any outrage? Nobody is particularly concerned? The proverbial sheep are being willingly led to the slaughter. Socialism and even Marxism is on display right in front of us and either we don’t recognize it or don’t believe it. I am in the last stages of my life so I will undoubtedly miss the end of this ugly story. I will be one of those whose life span will be determined by a panel of faceless government officials deciding whether the operation or care that I need to remain alive is worth it given my age. And yes, that is going to happen. Research it and find out for yourselves.
Where in this picture above are the indications that the last four years have been anything but a disaster? We do not have much time to wake up. Most of us don’t care what religion, what ethnicity or what color our president might be. We do, or should, care that what he does perpetuate the ideals that made this country so great. Preserve our freedom to pursue our dreams and practice our individual choice of religion. Protect our rights to become successful and even fail without recrimination. Allow us to help those who truly need help as we feel and determine for ourselves. The American people have always been generous and quick to help others whether Americans or people from other countries. It is not government that has built the great museums, hospitals, institutions of learning, great libraries and other public benefits. These things have come mostly from wealthy Americans who, after amassing their fortunes, turned to helping others. Do we remember the days when wealthy successful people were admired for what they achieved? They were admired and inspirational because everyone else knew that they could have the opportunity to achieve their dreams as well. We learn from the very successful. We benefit from their experiences. Now we have come to a time when instead of aspiring to be where they are there are people who think they should be brought down to our level. Class warfare–class envy.
When I was a young man I read the stories of every successful person I discovered. It was so exciting to see where some of them started and how they started. Some had absolutely no money, some no education and many of them failed more than once before they became successful. Every one of them, incidentally, remarked that they learned more from their failures than their successes. I knew that I had an opportunity to achieve my own level of success if I was willing to pay the price. What a great feeling! Nobody was going knock on my door and tell me I could not do it or that I was not capable of doing it. And there were many people along the way who gave me help but only after they recognized that I was doing all that I could to help myself first. Nobody gave me money but many gave me advice and encouragement. I was convinced that if I was not smart enough then I would simply outwork everybody else. Either way I was going to achieve. There was heartache, there was stress, there was failure and there was also the happy times, the small successes along the way and the pure excitement of feeling that I was accomplishing my goals. What a great country this is. There are so many more opportunities to learn and access information today than in those days. Why, I can go online and teach myself how to be a chef if I wish. I can go online and read the history and experiences of all the pizza operators in the Think Tank. Instead of having to live through all the learning lessons I can shorten the process by reading about what others have done.
We must preserve this country, its ideals and principles. It is the best experience mankind has ever encountered. We are blessed to be Americans but we have a responsibility to ourselves and our families to take care of what we have been given. We don’t all have to think alike but we do have to think things through. It is important to read what our founding fathers had to say. By most all evidence and opinions they formulated the most successful system of government in history. To know of their reasons for what they did is crucial to our understanding of events today. I was struck by a comment that John F. Kennedy made when he was president. He had called a meeting of the best minds in the country. When he walked into the meeting he said he was said he was so impressed with the intelligence and experience there. He said the only time there was more wisdom and intelligence in a room was when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. This put me on a path to learn a lot more about Jefferson and therefore about our country and its founding. What an incredibly intelligent and accomplished person he was.
Now I got on a roll this evening and said way to much. For that I apologize. Its an old man thing. I love this country and I would like my children and grandchildren to be able to have the opportunity to pursue their dreams to the extent of their abilities and desires and to do it unimpeded by a government that has decided it should dictate every aspect of their lives in opposition to the intent of our founding fathers.
Lets lighten it up a little:
A woman took a big back-swing and fell as she followed through on her shot.
The White House group behind her included the President.
Seeing what happened, he hurried to help the woman up.
As she bagged her club and turned to leave, he said to her, “I’m President Obama. I hope I can count on your vote in November.”
The woman, laughing, quickly replied, “I fell on my butt, not my head.”
y
Hmmm… the middle class people who do not have health insurance but want the rest of us who do to pay for it when they have medical issues? I have no problem with them having to pay their fair share.
All gov’t believes in “redistribution”. That is what taxes are. Quit hyperventilating about Fox News and get informed. We all benefit when people are educated, roads and bridges are in good repair and we have stable safe communities. How are those things paid for? Redistribution.
Obamacare will cut profits in half? On January 1st we are going to be hit with a long list of new taxes?
A franchisee who will have 450K in medical insurance costs has what 250 employees? I would guess that comes to 30-50 stores. “Small business?” Not the way I think of it.
Obama care has zero impact on businesses with fewer than 50 employees… hmmm More than a little hyperbole there.
Medicare had zero changes in benefits to qualified recipients, some cuts made in reibursement rates but mainly a shifting of where things are billed; i.e. not a change in tax or benefits.
New Taxes? OK… list them. Read through the details. Yes, there are changes to various deductions and tax thresholds. There are also tax changes on high income but no new taxes on individual with taxable incomes less than 200K and couple under 250K. There are also changes on things like what benefits are taxable so an employer providing a health insurance plan to an employee family that costs more than $27,000 per year will have to call that a taxable benefits. hmmm seems fair to me.
Here is a good summary of the tax changes and how they impact individuals:
http://www.meridiancp.com/images/upload … _Way_2.pdf
Read it and think about who it impacts. Does it impact you? Any of your employees? Even for a company with many employees at these levels of compensation, think about what portion of total wage cost these employees represent and what the impact will be.
A new tax on the wealthy? Not really. The proposal just goes back to the tax rates we had during the largest economic expansion in history (also known as the Clinton era). Bush handed out goodies to the wealthy and for what? The story spun that they are the people who create jobs? Nonsense. If businesses large or small uses money to create jobs it is already exempt from taxes (you get a deduction!). Investment income is already treated favorably under the tax code.
The health care mandate could be considered a tax I guess… but it will be a LOT less expensive for us than the private health insurance we currently buy! One of the reasons health care is so expensive is all the free loaders not paying into the system. I think the new system will SAVE a lot of money for those of us that have been paying.
Taken from the Wall Street Journal website (Hardly a Liberal source!):
Study: Romney’s Tax Plan Hits Middle Class
A new study suggests that Mitt Romney’s tax plan would benefit the rich and hurt the poor and middle class, no matter how current blanks in the plan are filled in.
By John D. McKinnon
A new study released Wednesday suggests that Mitt Romney‘s tax plan would benefit the rich and hurt the poor and middle class, no matter how current blanks in the plan are filled in.
Mr. Romney’s ambitious plan would extend current Bush-era tax rates, plus cut rates another 20 percent, eliminate investment taxes altogether for households making under $200,000, and abolish the dreaded alternative minimum tax. But it provides few details about what tax breaks would be pared to offset the budget hit.
The study basically concludes that eliminating tax breaks to offset the impact of Mr. Romney’s rate cuts would inevitably hurt the middle class. It was done by scholars working with the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
Even assuming that tax breaks such as the charitable and mortgage interest deductions are eliminated for the wealthy first, and only then reduced as needed for other income groups, “the net effect of the plan would be a tax cut for high-income households coupled with a tax increase for middle-income households,” the study concludes.
The study makes an assumption that might or might not prove out when the legislation gets written – notably, that capital gains and dividend rates aren’t changed from the current 15% top rate for high earners. Holding the line on current investment tax rates is GOP orthodoxy right now. But when deal-making time arrives, it’s possible that GOP opposition will soften, if it’s necessary to get a broader deal with Democrats on lower rates.
So yes, it is Romney that will increase taxes on you an me.
Some additional thoughts
I would assume that the overwhelming percentage of the 47% to 49% of the people in this country who are on some sort of welfare and pay no taxes are also those who cannot or do not pay for health care. The “wealthy” (definition needed since Obama has moved the bar between 150k and 250k over time) we can reasonably assume pay for their healthcare. That leaves only the middle class paying for healthcare does it not?
This smacks of typical liberal elitist thinking. Liberal elitists usually think they alone have the intellectual capacity to think and are the depositors of all correct intellectual thought. Of course the rest of us simply and blindly follow the line of thought put forth by Fox News (or fill in the blank). To most liberal elitists, one follows or believes as they do or you are assumed to be not only incorrect but incapable of thinking and researching on your own.
The history of liberalism is one of failure and dependency. The two biggest states in the U.S., New York and California, are perfect examples. California is a beautiful example. California’s present is dismal and its future frightening. The state is unimaginably mired in debt and yet the state legislature and governor just pushed through a high speed rail system that is estimated to cost in the 100 billion dollar range but will surely, as all government projects do, will cost easily double. (Think Obamacare originally estimated to cost about 850 billion with the latest estimate (government figures) at 1.8 trillion,) Other shinning star liberal states might include New Jersey, though its turning), and Michigan. In California the liberals have destroyed the schools. Every election they cry that we need money “for the children”. We need to hire more teachers, repair infrastructure, etc. Amazingly most of the time the money is approved. Then the teachers get raises along with administrators. More free lunch, breakfast, and now dinner programs have been instituted. Little infrastructure is improved and the call goes out again for more money. The last ranking that I saw had the Los Angeles school district with the highest number of administrators making six digit salaries in the nation while its academic ranking was at the bottom.
LBJ’s Great Society poured billions of dollars into the effort to eliminate poverty and there is now more poverty than ever and this was before the 2008 crash. Note Obama’s recent move with welfare. He stripped the work requirement out of the law. He was required to go through Congress but he just took it upon himself to strip the requirement. There was an immediate surge in food stamp applications. Of course this was the goal anyway. More votes and more people dependent on the government.
“Non Partisan Tax Policy Center”? Maybe not so much. In the particular report referencing the framework of the Romney tax plan there was some cherry picking, convenient omissions and in places where there were not enough specifics the TPC made their own assumptions about Romney would do and then drew conclusions about the over all plan. Perhaps the most glaring omission concerned the result of Romney’s Tax Plan. Romney’s goal is to encourage savings and investment which is a factor in growth as well among other things so he has put forth. So if this highly successful businessman (Romney) has calculated that his plan is going to spur growth then that will also increases tax revenue. The TPC conveniently ignored the probability and/or possibility that there will be growth.
As I have read through various sources of commentary a thought continuously flashed in my mind. Both Obama and Romney have outlined what they will do with regard to tax policy. I am asking myself which one has the most credibility? Is it Obama who made many very promising commitments and followed through on virtually none? If so, if he did not follow through on his promises the first four years by what measure could we assume he will even try to follow through when he does not have to worry about getting re-elected? Or would I place my trust in Romney who has demonstrated tremendous ability and success in business? Would it be Romney who has a history of keeping his word?
A comment was made that Obamacare would have zero impact on businesses with 50 or fewer employees. When and if Obamacare gets implemented who would bet that those businesses would not also fall under the same regulations as all other companies? This is not only a reflection of Obama’s history it is a political reality. Would they really allow all of our pizza businesses with under 50 employees operate at a significant competitive advantage over the bigger guys?
Another point/comment made about Obamacare. It is actually going to save money? It is already causing medical premiums to rise. It is already going to cost in excess of double what Obama said it would cost. We went from 850 billion to 1.8 trillion according the government figures. Well, where is the government going to get this 1.8 trillion dollars? They started by cutting out 3/4 of a trillion dollars out of Medicare. If you squeeze the tube of toothpaste you can move the toothpaste but ultimately it has to squirt out somewhere.
Obamacare is going to hang on this economy like a lead weight. There will not be enough doctors to take care of the additional millions of people brought into the system. Even nurses will be in short supply. Your care is not going to be the best because of the sheer numbers of patients flowing through the system. Of course then there is going to be the “grading” system for doctors which will affect their compensation. Who is going to do the grading? It will not be medical people it will be panels of non-medical government people. Doctor’s will penalized for sending patients to the hospital to often. They have an interesting rule where if a patient is released from the hospital the doctor cannot have them re-admitted until a certain period of time has elapsed.
I still recall that member of the British Parliament who came to this country and gave a speech. He said that England is cooked and done. The schools are in disarray, the government is broke, the welfare system is killing them and their national healthcare system has been destroyed. He said that America is headed to the same place as England is now but America has time to turn it around but not much time.
Another comment referenced that Obama did not create this mess. And we know where that conversation would go. Four years and it is still the fault of Bush. At what point does it become Obama’s problem? Trillion dollar deficits are not a huge part of the problem? This president has created more debt in four years than all of the presidents throughout our history. And we do not have the ability to pay it back. When interest rates begin to rise, as they must, we will not have the ability to even pay that.
Which direction at the end of four years are we going? Every summer for the last three years was a “summer of recovery” and never happened. In the last few months we hear that the economy is improving. The new estimate for GNP growth out this week was revised down from a dismal (est 1.7%) to 1.25%. That does not sound like we are improving. Obama says that he has created, what, 4.5 million jobs? But he conveniently does not take into account the total of jobs lost or the people that the government has termed “no longer looking for work”. We have a significant net job loss as most people know.
Putting aside all other considerations there comes a time when it is apparent the current leader has not and is not performing. In any business that person has to leave or the life of the business is in deep peril. The president of the U.S. runs the biggest and most important “business” in the world. Seems like he should be held to a high standard, not a lower one given his performance. The country is not moving forward.
Meanwhile our foreign affairs are in a shambles and many of our enemies think we are weak. And we seem to be laying the groundwork to hand over certain parts of our society to the United Nations. They are sending up trial balloons consistently. The last few months it is the effort to give the UN the power to outlaw our right to have guns. Today Obama made a comment that he can make the decision to send our military to fight somewhere without the consent of Congress as long as the UN gives its approval. Since when? An outrageous statement that somehow did not make it to the mainstream media outlets.
I am reminded of a statement by a great sportswriter in an article he wrote after the assault at the Olympic games in Germany in the 70’s. Actually it was the headline of the article. “Get Off Your Knees America”. He was referring to our timid approach to threats to this country. Showing weakness and an unwillingness to stand up simply invited more aggressiveness towards the U.S. It seems a little like what we are going through today. We have helped hand over Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood which is essentially Al Queda and affiliated groups. There was enough information around to know that this is what was going to happen. Nigeria, Sudan, Libya, Syria going in the same direction? A lot of strange things going on that are no good for this country.
Is this the kind of savings we can expect from Obamacare???
Health Premiums Up $3,000; Obama Vowed $2,500 Cut
By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 09/24/2012 06:43 PM ET
Email Print License Comment
inShare
The experience with state mandates show that they only tend to grow over time, and get more expensive. The Council for Affordable Health Insurance found more than 2,200 state benefit mandates, which add from 10% to 50% to the cost of coverage.
“One of the biggest cost drivers in our health care system is the steady proliferation of federal and state-based coverage mandates,” noted CAHI’s Victoria Craig Bunce.
Meanwhile, ObamaCare’s insurance reforms — guaranteed issue and community rating — will likely raise premiums, too.
State Experiments
States that have tried these reforms — which forbid insurers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions or charging the sick more — have seen insurance premiums spiral upward as healthy people leave the market, knowing they are guaranteed coverage when they get sick.
“Premium rates tended to increase, sometimes dramatically” in the eight states that tried these reforms, according to a study by Milliman, a health care consulting group.
The law’s backers claim the individual mandate will prevent these rate hikes, because it requires everyone to buy insur ance. But experts say millions will still refuse to buy coverage and pay the fine instead.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Gruber — who helped design ObamaCare — found that the law will hike individual market premiums in three states by as much as 30%. The Congressional Budget Office said ObamaCare would push them “about 10% to 13% higher in 2016.”
Supporters say people will be getting more generous coverage for those higher prices, and that tax subsidies will offset higher cost for many of these families. But that will be small comfort to those forced to pay more.
Perhaps the best evidence that ObamaCare won’t bring costs down is a report published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine and signed by nearly two dozen leading health economists and policy experts — some of whom worked for the Obama administration. The report warns that “health costs remain a major challenge” and calls for a “systematic approach” to get spending under control.
One thing that isn’t on their list of proposals: Scrapping ObamaCare and starting over.
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/092412-626848 … z27pEIbvc7
Is this the kind of savings we can expect from Obamacare???
Health Premiums Up $3,000; Obama Vowed $2,500 Cut
By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 09/24/2012 06:43 PM ET
Email Print License Comment
inShare
The experience with state mandates show that they only tend to grow over time, and get more expensive. The Council for Affordable Health Insurance found more than 2,200 state benefit mandates, which add from 10% to 50% to the cost of coverage.
“One of the biggest cost drivers in our health care system is the steady proliferation of federal and state-based coverage mandates,” noted CAHI’s Victoria Craig Bunce.
Meanwhile, ObamaCare’s insurance reforms — guaranteed issue and community rating — will likely raise premiums, too.
State Experiments
States that have tried these reforms — which forbid insurers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions or charging the sick more — have seen insurance premiums spiral upward as healthy people leave the market, knowing they are guaranteed coverage when they get sick.
“Premium rates tended to increase, sometimes dramatically” in the eight states that tried these reforms, according to a study by Milliman, a health care consulting group.
The law’s backers claim the individual mandate will prevent these rate hikes, because it requires everyone to buy insur ance. But experts say millions will still refuse to buy coverage and pay the fine instead.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Gruber — who helped design ObamaCare — found that the law will hike individual market premiums in three states by as much as 30%. The Congressional Budget Office said ObamaCare would push them “about 10% to 13% higher in 2016.”
Supporters say people will be getting more generous coverage for those higher prices, and that tax subsidies will offset higher cost for many of these families. But that will be small comfort to those forced to pay more.
Perhaps the best evidence that ObamaCare won’t bring costs down is a report published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine and signed by nearly two dozen leading health economists and policy experts — some of whom worked for the Obama administration. The report warns that “health costs remain a major challenge” and calls for a “systematic approach” to get spending under control.
One thing that isn’t on their list of proposals: Scrapping ObamaCare and starting over.
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/092412-626848 … z27pEIbvc7
And as far as Obamacare not affecting small business owners with fewer than 50 employees. On one hand how long does anyone think that standard would hold? These are politicians and that promise would not hold any longer than the promise that the income tax would be temporary and then it would be limited to a certain single digit percentage. On the other hand Obamacare is going to impact this economy so heavily that nobody and no business is going to escape its effects. When you suck as much money out of the people as this law will, everybody and every business will feel it.
Someone on the boards here said we need to get a clue and get informed. Here are a few clues I have discovered.
We are broke and we cannot even pay the interest on the debt so what are we doing here? What is the real plan? Is this incompetence or is it purposeful destruction?
And now the UN wants to tax us and everybody else in the world directly as they announced last week. Now I would think that an American president would stand up and reject this proposal. Since when does the UN have any authority to tax American citizens or prevent us from owning guns as our Constitution allows. Of course some people think that the higher goal is a one world government.
Things are broken and they are not getting fixed. Every year we have been told we are in a recovery. Has not happened. In every recovery in our history the rate of that recovery has been double digit. We are single digit at best. 1.25% GNP growth?
All these clues only lead me to one conclusion…which is an obvious one. In my mind I don’t care who is president but I really care that we get this country going again and there is no sign of it. Our current president has absolutely no business experience and the people he has around him mostly have no business experience. Give me the guy who does have business experience. Give me the guy who has been tremendously successful in business. If we are going to be a country in which almost 50% of the people pay no taxes and draw some kind of government help then we had better get the business side of things in gear or we are cooked. Lets get somebody who has demonstrated this ability already. Get the country going and then lets argue and debate political philosophy. We can no longer kick the can down the street or to the next generation. There are some very, very smart financial people who are warning us that the games have to stop or its over in this country. Some of them have already moved out of the U.S. to protect their assets. GE is moving plants to China. GM has said that they believe their future is in China and is building more facilities there. Now, with this new tax on medical devices, we are going to see those companies moving their facilities overseas. They cannot pay 50% of their earnings in taxes and remain competitive throughout the world so they have to move out of the country.
The study basically concludes that eliminating tax breaks to offset the impact of Mr. Romney’s rate cuts would inevitably hurt the middle class. It was done by scholars working with the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
RE:
Even assuming that tax breaks such as the charitable and mortgage interest deductions are eliminated for the wealthy first, and only then reduced as needed for other income groups, “the net effect of the plan would be a tax cut for high-income households coupled with a tax increase for middle-income households,” the study concludes.
The study makes an assumption that might or might not prove out when the legislation gets written – notably, that capital gains and dividend rates aren’t changed from the current 15% top rate for high earners. Holding the line on current investment tax rates is GOP orthodoxy right now. But when deal-making time arrives, it’s possible that GOP opposition will soften, if it’s necessary to get a broader deal with Democrats on lower rates.
First of all for a supposed non-partisan The Tax Policy Center does a good job of cherry picking the points it wishes to “expose” while ignoring others. Then, when the TPC cannot build the case it wishes to it develops assumptions about what Romney might do or about legislation that might be proposed or changed without any basis in fact. Contrast this with what we absolutely know Obama is going to do because most everything he intends to do has been explicitly expressed. No cherry picking or assumptions needed. He is raising taxes January 1st and we know what they are. He is going to begin implementing Obamacare and we know what that is going to cost us. We know he is going to cripple the medical devices industry in this country with an effective 50% income tax rate. These companies have already begun layoffs and cancelled new plants. Some say that their only choice to take production out of the United States if they wish to remain competitive in the world.