I have written about this several times before the last three and a half years, warning all of my readers that the nation had been and continues to be in the throes of a worsening Great Depression; a depression the likes of which the nation has not seen before in its history. It is the first time, we see wide-scale state and local governments go bankrupt and unable to pay their employees, and in some cases – the best ones – several states have had to abandon the maintenance of its bridges, roads, and infrastructure, some of which have passed the red line in its scheduled maintenance.
WELCOME TO THE OBAMA DEPRESSION
And now we are in it, and the press cannot hide the fact, though there are still some within the government-media complex of alphabet soup channels that are editorializing this Depression into some kind of stalled economic recovery, when we have repeatedly seen the evidence to just the opposite. There is not a sector that is not impacted by this Depression, as housing, banking, private medium and small businesses; have failed one after the other all across the country.
All over the nation, the shuttered storefronts, empty malls, and abandoned factories are stark reminders that this Depression is in full swing, and almost every sector of our economy is feeling its icy death. Jobs reports, even skewed to appear more optimistic than they really are, continue to paint a bleak picture of millions of jobs lost, tens of millions of Americans without work, and businesses that are moving their operations overseas, with the loss of hundreds of thousands of more jobs every week. No matter how the media tries to spin it, this economy is dead; stone cold dead.
President Barack Obama has given a speech before a joint session of congress that is for all intents and purposes just a campaign stump speech; an opener to his bid to get reelected in 2012. Perhaps in his most transparent moment, he declared that he would take the same speech across the nation for the next several months until the elections. Was anyone surprises? Of course not. They got what they expected, a campaign speech that removed all responsibility for his policy failures to others, and a promise to do the same things he has done for three years; only better. Some who were listening may have been thinking, “Please spare US, no more of the same ole’ same ole’,” while only the most loyal sycophants applauded and cheered him on.
But “same ole’ same ole’ is what the public and the American electorate got. Obama promised that he would give a four thousand dollar tax break to every employer who would hire the long term unemployed, and those who would raise the wages of their employees would also receive a five thousand dollar tax credit. Same ole’ same ole,’ since it had been found in a Study that the Stimulus Funds were Primarily Used to Poach Workers, Not Hire the Unemployed. And while the president claimed his commitment to Social Security’s solvency, and that of the Medicare program, what he left unsaid about these two is the fact that it is not they that have brought the deficits up, inasmuch as it has been his repeated raiding of the Social Security Trust Fund, and his $500 billion cut in Medicare to fund Obamacare that has made both of these programs reach a critical mass.
But this fact has already been borne out by an excellent article last month in the Washington Examiner written by reporting editor Byron York, that Obama’s Spending, not entitlements, created huge deficit the nation is currently facing. If only conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, and Shawn Hannity and others would realize this, and not argue for cuts to these, but rather to cut wasteful pork barrel federal government deficit spending. The poor are the easiest targets of a lot of these people, and yet it is not the programs they live on, which most of the paid into all of their working lives that has created this deficit, but the $14 trillion spending Obama and the previous Democrat-controlled House and Senate that brought spending to this level. It’s deficit spending on boondoggles which the president claimed in his speech he would do without, NOT, that have been the hallmark of his presidency. Evidence of more of the same, is that the Senate quietly approved $500B increase in borrowing authority...
And what do you think this will be for? More of what the president requested. Where are they going to get the money to fund it? They don’t have it. Like the title says, they’re going to borrow another half a trillion dollars at tax payer expense, and the Federal Reserve will provide the liquidity to meet the demand by printing more. This will have a devastating effect on the already feeble economy with inflated costs for everything; food, energy, clothing, EVERYTHING. Did Obama tell you that he was going to do this to you? Of course not. He sugarcoated it by telling you that we must save the jobs of medical workers, of car manufacturers, and make sure that everything is made here in the USA and exported from here.
What he didn’t tell his audience was that for the last three years, he has worked with over three hundred CEO’s from different corporations, who’ve travelled overseas with him to India, China, Indonesia, and Brazil, to ease this government’s restrictions on outsourcing American jobs to those nations, and the result has been the steady exporting of over four million American jobs to the very same nations Obama and his corporate supporters have visited upon their return from those exotic and far distant places. The only thing Obama has been exporting from this country has been our jobs.
And while he has done this, his federal agencies have been working overtime in concert with fifty-two unelected bureaucrats implementing all sorts of restrictions on American small companies across the country. He’s raise their taxes, competes with the banks to crowd them out of much needed loans, and has created a climate of uncertainty as to the future of the nation and its economy that is being felt from the highest echelons of the business world right down to the dinner table in every home. The only people immune from all of this have been and will continue to be his corporate insiders, who’ve outsourced America’s jobs to India, China, Indonesia, Central and South America, and Brazil. What else does he need to do in order for his most loyal followers to realize he’s pressing his dagger deeper into their chest? Since taking office three years ago, President Obama has signed into law twenty-one new burdensome tax laws that have all but decimated the private sector. I include the list below this report for my readers to examine for themselves.
But this is what we’ve come to expect from the former junior senator from Illinois, tax and tax, and spend and spend other people’s money. Soak the rich with higher taxes, more stringent regulations, and increased encumbrances to job growth and investments. His federal agencies are making sure of that. While the IRS has ramped it up its pursuit of “tax cheats,” every other federal bureaucracy has used its police forces to break into small businesses all across the country in paramilitary fashion, closing one business after another for some infraction to the serpentine federal code they claim the business owner/s violated.
I have been accused by some, even some close friends of bias in my reporting on the president. I wish that this were true. I try to be true to what I write, and if I am incorrect in any part, I am the first to retract any mistake that I may have made, and apologize to my readers for misleading them, which was not my intent. But those who personally know me, know that what I write I first examine and look into thoroughly, and it is seldom where I have erred in my reporting, though there have been some cases, again, retracted, apologized for, and corrected for my readers. But, what I write to you today, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not making up. Like what I warned about three years, I now warn about as in the process of occurring. It appears that everything Obama wants, everything Obama gets. There is literally nothing that this president has not asked for that he has not received from his party or the Republicans. Last month’s fiasco between the House and Senate Republican leadership handing him virtually everything he asked with regards to the “debt ceiling” was typical. Boehner, McConnell, the Republicans gave Obama everything he wanted with nothing in return.
Wall Street realized this and the stock market crashed for an entire week. The same thing repeated itself today, a day after Obama gave his first official campaign speech. And now the nation awaits another downturn in the economy, as it braces itself for another jolt of stimulus spending; this time to the tune of have a trillion dollars. Unmistakably though, it is becoming increasingly evident to more and more people that the only antidote this foundering economy is that Barack Hussein Obama and both leaderships of both houses of congress are not given another opportunity to do more in 2012.
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Comprehensive List of Obama Tax Hikes
Which one of these tax hikes will destroy the most jobs?
http://www.atr.org/comprehensive-list-obama-tax-hikes-a6433
Since taking office, President Barack Obama has signed into law twenty-one new or higher taxes:
1. A 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco: On February 4, 2009, just sixteen days into his Administration, Obama signed into law a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack. The median income of smokers is just over $36,000 per year.
2. Obamacare Individual Mandate Excise Tax (takes effect in Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following
1 Adult 2 Adults 3+ Adults
2014 1% AGI/$95 1% AGI/$190 1% AGI/$285
2015 2% AGI/$325 2% AGI/$650 2% AGI/$975
2016 + 2.5% AGI/$695 2.5% AGI/$1390 2.5% AGI/$2085
Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS). Bill: PPACA; Page: 317-337
3. Obamacare Employer Mandate Tax (takes effect Jan. 2014): If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax of $2000 for all full-time employees. Applies to all employers with 50 or more employees. If any employee actually receives coverage through the exchange, the penalty on the employer for that employee rises to $3000. If the employer requires a waiting period to enroll in coverage of 30-60 days, there is a $400 tax per employee ($600 if the period is 60 days or longer). Bill: PPACA; Page: 345-346
Combined score of individual and employer mandate tax penalty: $65 billion/10 years
4. Obamacare Surtax on Investment Income (Tax hike of $123 billion/takes effect Jan. 2013): Creation of a new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income: Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 87-93
Capital Gains Dividends Other*
2011-2012 15% 15% 35%
2013+ (current law) 23.8% 43.4% 43.4%
2013+ (Obama budget) 23.8% 23.8% 43.4%
*Other unearned income includes (for surtax purposes) gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents, and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations. It does not include municipal bond interest or life insurance proceeds, since those do not add to gross income. It does not include active trade or business income, fair market value sales of ownership in pass-through entities, or distributions from retirement plans. The 3.8% surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens.
5. Obamacare Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans (Tax hike of $32 bil/takes effect Jan. 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family). Higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family) for early retirees and high-risk professions. CPI +1 percentage point indexed. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,941-1,956
6. Obamacare Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax (Tax hike of $86.8 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013): Current law and changes:
First $200,000
($250,000 Married)
Employer/Employee All Remaining Wages
Employer/Employee
Current Law 1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed 1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed
Obamacare Tax Hike 1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed 1.45%/2.35%
3.8% self-employed
Bill: PPACA, Reconciliation Act; Page: 2000-2003; 87-93
7. Obamacare Medicine Cabinet Tax (Tax hike of $5 bil/took effect Jan. 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin). Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957-1,959
8. Obamacare HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike (Tax hike of $1.4 bil/took effect Jan. 2011): Increases additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,959
9. Obamacare Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka “Special Needs Kids Tax” (Tax hike of $13 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013): Imposes cap on FSAs of $2500 (now unlimited). Indexed to inflation after 2013. There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,388-2,389
10. Obamacare Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers (Tax hike of $20 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exempts items retailing for <$100. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,980-1,986
11. Obamacare "Haircut" for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI (Tax hike of $15.2 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013): Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. Waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994-1,995
12. Obamacare Tax on Indoor Tanning Services (Tax hike of $2.7 billion/took effect July 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,397-2,399
13. Obamacare elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D (Tax hike of $4.5 bil/takes effect Jan. 2013) Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994
14. Obamacare Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike (Tax hike of $0.4 bil/took effect Jan. 1 2010): The special tax deduction in current law for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,004
15. Obamacare Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals (Min$/took effect immediately): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new "community health assessment needs," "financial assistance," and "billing and collection" rules set by HHS. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,961-1,971
16. Obamacare Tax on Innovator Drug Companies (Tax hike of $22.2 bil/took effect Jan. 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,971-1,980
17. Obamacare Tax on Health Insurers (Tax hike of $60.1 bil/takes effect Jan. 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year. Phases in gradually until 2018. Fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,986-1,993
18. Obamacare $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives (Tax hike of $0.6 bil/takes effect Jan 2013). Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,995-2,000
19. Obamacare Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 ($min/takes effect Jan. 2012): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957
20. Obamacare “Black liquor” tax hike (Tax hike of $23.6 billion/took effect immediately). This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 105
21. Obamacare Codification of the “economic substance doctrine” (Tax hike of $4.5 billion/took effect immediately). This provision allows the IRS to disallow completely-legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems that the action lacks “substance” and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 108-113
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