State of the Union

State of Chaos

Last night, in his State of the Union speech, obama spewed forth the sort of rhetoric we can anticipate hearing throughout the campaign. His disingenuous drive-by assault on personal wealth was merely just sleaze compared to his thinly veiled attempt at riding the coattails of the United States military's recent triumphs.

One can only hope that Warren Buffet's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, was only slightly mortified when obama willfully and wrongfully stated that she pays more in taxes than her boss. To be clear, when an investor lives off of Capital Gains, they pay around 15%, as has been popularized in recent days regarding the release of Mitt Romney's taxes for 2010 and 2011.  While Buffet paid an investor's slice of around 15%, Debbie Bosanek most likely payed an income tax rate around 30%, not on any investment, but on the paycheck she earns week-to-week.

Since obama has no accomplishments to tout at 75% of the way through his term, he can hang his hat on only a few things that most Americans feel are, indeed, good. Taking out Osama bin Laden was a high point, ten years in the making. May 1, 2011 was a great day for our nation. For obama, it was watching soldiers on TV. Granted, he gave the command that authorized the operation, but aside from Phil Donahue, who wouldn't? There was nothing brave or remarkable about what obama did, but we will all be forever indebted to those brave soldiers who actually did the work.

State of Denial

Ask any third grader if they could buy 1 piece of American chocolate for $1, or 10 pieces of foreign chocolate for that same dollar, which would they choose? How many kids would forego the extra sweets for the sake of calling themselves a patriot, because by spending on domestic chocolate, they support American labor unions?

So if American companies decide to make chocolate overseas, obama wants to tax them at a higher rate—a penalty for trying to compete in the free market. So, the message then is, don't expand, don't invest, don't headquarter here. instead, either consider the US a minor market, or find a way to dodge the tax. Last night, obama promised to companies that repatriate jobs that they would receive tax breaks. Imagine the sort of incentive it would take to woo Apple, who used to manufacture in the US, to go through the time, trouble and expense of bringing back the thousands of jobs lost to China. Does obama think the Chinese won't offer their own incentives to keep Apple? Where is the common sense?

State of Mindlessness

Raising taxes on the millionaires and billionaires—the richest one percent…yadda, yadda, yadda. There's another term for it: redistribution of wealth. It's akin to Communism. Take from those who have and give to those who have not…sounds "fair," right? Another campaign 2012 buzzword to listen for…"fair." If you could stomach the SOTU speech last night, you heard this word a few times. But let's take a look at this. Is it really taking from the rich and giving to the poor? No. It's taking from the "haves" and giving to the "wants." 

Mitt Romney may have "only" paid a tax rate of 15%, but how many people could afford to pay a $6,200,000.00 tax bill over two years? That's a lot of redistribution right there from one person—without the socialist in charge getting his way. Additionally, Mitt donated around $7,000,000.00 to charity. Now aside from removing the incentive to invest, by raising the Capital Gains rate to 30%, how many tax-paying millionaires and billionaires will simply shift those charitable donations into taxes. Okay, Romney is bound by his faith to tithe, but nevertheless, here's the simplest argument one can make. If his $13,200,000.00 we diverted to the government and zero went to charity, who would use that money more efficiently, the government, or private faith-based organizations. Think I'm wrong? Then answer this, who would you trust to get your package across the country overnight, the USPS, or FedEx? 

Lovin' the Spin You're In

I wanted give a blow-by-blow of Brian Williams, Andrea Mitchell (or as some know her, Mrs. Alan Greenspan), Chuck Todd, and the rest of the slobbering NBC team's critique of obama's speech, but frankly, it was so over the top, it makes me ill to even have to analyze it. At least NBC still has the common sense to keep Ann Curry away from debates and doing analysis of events like last night's.