When asked what he thought a possible renewal of the last set of income tax cuts (for all Americans and not just the rich as the liberals claim) he said that he did not think they would or should be included in yet another “Stimulus” plan being proposed.  He went on to add, “I don’t believe they will have a negative effect on growth.”

Instead Geithner thinks that what should be done is that the cuts should be reworked and kept only for those making less than $200,000.  Yeah, because the “rich” do not deserve their money right?

Mr. Geithner goes home every night and repeats the same lies to himself while clenching his eyes tight and praying at his bed side.  The rich are evil.  The money they have they stole from the working class.  The rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes.  And so on and so on.

Maybe if Geithner spent less time believing in liberal fallacies used to promote class warfare and accepted delivery of the truth then he would be a happier man rather than the sad sack that he is today.  I am not rich and I do not make more than $200,000 per year by a long shot.  But class warfare rhetoric doesn’t work on me because I do not begrudge people their success.  That is also why I am not a liberal, just FYI.

In Geithner’s world of make believe only when government takes money from the rich and uses it “wisely” does any good happen.  And that is why he and liberals constantly fail.  They see our money as their money.

Now, anyone with a brain knows that if you raise taxes on the “rich” it impacts the not so rich.  Take a dollar out of their pockets and that is a dollar less for them to buy their next yacht, fancy sports car, big house and so on.  Who makes all these things?  Us “little people” that’s who.  But don’t worry.  When the rich don’t buy the products we make the government will step in with a nice welfare check to make up the difference.  Problem is that check will be for twice what they collected and our children will be saddled with the bill.

It is a pathetic ideology.  But it is the only ideology people like Tim Geithner know.

This as economic indicators from housing starts to durable goods continue to tell a different tale. For the week first time claims for unemployment rose 13,000 from last week to 472,000.

Yeah, things are really looking up huh? Consider this, before the liberal created housing bust typical new claims for unemployment were about 300,000 to 350,000. At the peak of the crisis we were flirting with 500,000+.

We are out of money and can no longer afford to pay for people not to work. So tell us again Mr. Obama how things are getting better please!

source

I notice that several other websites, I am sure you compete with them for audience, are begging me for donations to help keep their sites running. Some of them put up little posts on their sites and some have even emailed me and begged for donations in recent newsletters. Never once have I seen you ask for a dime. Why is that? I think it is pretty self-degrading for conservatives and their sites to beg for money.

Amy,

Because this site is part of an actual company that actually has a business plan that has revenue generation plans that are a little more thought out than, “please give me some money.” Lots of people start blogs and have no idea what to do to cover their expenses. Bandwidth isn’t cheap after all and with the economy struggling lots of people are not making ends meet and running in the black.

In case you haven’t noticed, my company, Land of the Free Studios, Inc., makes money by selling t-shirts, bumper stickers and other assorted paraphernalia to cover the costs associated with the sites we maintain. When you provide people with something that they want there really is not much need to beg.

So the summary is that as long as people keep buying the products we sell, these sites will keep right on keeping on doing what they do.

Going Galt, if you don’t know, refers to withholding one’s productivity in the face of looters who place demands upon it. It comes about as a reference to the character John Galt from the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and how he reacted to government as the United States stamped out private enterprise for some horrid hodgepodge of leftist, big government ideologies from corporatism to socialism and fascism. John Galt simply refused to participate in such a society and he and the productive class left the looters to wallow in their own filth.

It is very hard to go Galt as this novel portrays it in real life. You have to be quite wealthy and very adept at staying seven steps ahead of government attempts to confiscate your wealth in order to do it effectively. Most of us however cannot just simply up and withhold all of our genius from the world. We have to eat and our savings are usually quite meager, a side effect of government policies designed to keep us in such a state I might add.

But you can do what I am many others have done and that is pick a comfortable level and remain there not to increase your contributions and therefore making more money and also not feeding the liberal beast currently residing on the Potomac River. You can also simply cut back on what you buy which cuts back on local and state sales taxes. This also means you pay less embedded taxes which are the taxes companies pay to the federal government and which are passed on to you in the form of higher prices making you, the consumer, the ultimate payer of said taxes. I have also cut back on my own business making just enough keep it open and making enough profit for me to be comfortable but still much less than it could be making and thus giving less to government each year.

What many Americans are doing, my self included, is simply not giving government what it wants. What it wants is for us to go out and even in the face of their heavy handed jackbooted policies to continue to feed it as it grows and grows. But by refusing to accept this as our fates people like myself are picking that comfortable level and staying there thus denying our Washington Overlords as much of the revenues that would be collected from us as possible.

It takes patience. But you can do it if you want. And every dollar you keep out of the hands of the overlords wanting to do nothing but control you helps. Sometimes you have to be willing to starve the beast. It will wail in pain and plead for food but you must be strong and withhold.

The ponzi scheme of our government printing money it doesn’t have to keep afloat other people that don’t have enough money to meet their own obligations is laughable. Especially when it proves the point I and others have been making for years. States like Colorado are broke. They are so broke that they cannot even pay their unemployment claims and are borrowing money from the feds, who have no money, to cover these debts.

DENVER – The state’s Unemployment Trust Fund has run out of money forcing the Colorado Department of Labor to borrow more than $250 million in federal funds to keep paying thousands of people who are out of work.

Because of the swell of unemployment claims during the recession, the Colorado Department of Labor says its unemployment fund has reached insolvency.

As of May 11, the state has borrowed $254 million in federal funds to continue to pay benefits to people who are unemployed.

“Thankfully we’ve been able to give the same benefits going forward even though we are borrowing money,” Executive Director of the Department of Labor & Employment Don Mares said.

Now ask yourself this. If you have no money and your kid asks you for a loan what do you tell them? You have to tell them no and then perhaps explain why they cannot have something that you do not have because that something simply does not exist. You certainly don’t create magical money out of your own pocket and hand it to them because you cannot.

But that is what we are doing here in America. All the politicians in Washington are doing is trying to prop up a collapsed system of massive welfare entitlements from unemployment to Welfare to Medicaid to Social Security by issuing I.O.U.s. But how can you back the I.O.U. when there is nothing to back it with?

]]> http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/24/broke-and-broker/feed/ 0 http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/24/jim-cramer-increases-chance-of-double-dip-recession/ http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/24/jim-cramer-increases-chance-of-double-dip-recession/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 12:01:25 +0000 J.J. Jackson http://www.libertyreborn.com/?p=2182 25% to 35%. The problem with predicting this economy and the markets is that no one knows what it will do next because of the fickle people operating in it.]]> Jim Cramer, once bullish on Obama, is raising his prediction of a double dip recession. It is still not very likely however according to Cramer who upped to odds of such an occurrence from 25% to 35%. The problem with predicting this economy and the markets is that no one knows what it will do next because of the fickle people operating in it. You know, the same fickle people who three years ago were not worried by obscene government spending and debts, socialism forcing money to flow where no one with a brain in their head would put it and all sorts of other government screw-ups but now, miraculously are.

Many were raising alarm bells, myself included, but still investors and citizens ran around ignoring it in blissful ignorance. Then came the sub-prime meltdown which has exposed every flaw of every government entitlement and bureaucratic program in existence. Now people seem, at times at least, to actually be worried about the truth. But the worry is often fleeting.

All it takes is one piece of “good news” such as a publicly traded company announcing that it beat already reduced earnings or a one month improvement in some indicator (such as housing) despite months of bad news rather than waiting to see if the trend is real to bump the markets and the markets rocket upwards. Then the next day reality sets in that the “good news” is drowned by a sea of bad news and down they come again.

No, predicting where the economy will go next is a fool’s errand right now. But it wouldn’t have to be. It is made such by Washington who is taking far too much interest in our affairs and muddying the waters so that no one can see where we are going. The only things that can save us is if government realizes that they are in over their heads (which is unlikely) or those of us left with brains in our skulls to continue to outsmart the bureaucrats and stay one step ahead of their lunacy.

]]> http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/24/jim-cramer-increases-chance-of-double-dip-recession/feed/ 0 http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/21/up-the-river-without-a-brain/ http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/21/up-the-river-without-a-brain/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 02:50:46 +0000 J.J. Jackson http://www.libertyreborn.com/?p=2173 The citizenry of Greece should be grateful for one thing and that is that they are not useless to the new socialist world order. At least not yet. This status of still being at least somewhat useful to the ends of elitists who think they know best how to manage the lives of everyone else has earned the Greeks a bailout from their fellow socialists which will help to keep them afloat until such time as either a) they miraculously and wondrously figure out how to make a failed ideology that has never worked actually work through the application of pixie dust or some other mythical substance, b) give up on socialism or c) they are simply no longer useful.

Meanwhile those in Greece who have been fooled into thinking that government money spent can actually exceed government money collected are rioting and even killing in the name of socialism having not quite figured out that their options are limited to these few things. And they are really going to go ballistic when they figure out that only one of those options will actually save them from even a worse fate than having their mouths forcibly removed from the teat of government. It is comical to watch this dance being performed yet again as it has so many times in the past as socialism collapses on itself. Those that have hitched their cart to a one legged horse are bailed out by others who have hitched their carts to two and three legged ones. All involved are all cripples, just not as crippled. To save themselves, other countries with their own gimpy horses have rushed to prop up Greece rather than let that country fail, reap the rotten fruits of that failure and learn a hard lesson that will make tem stronger as they start over. This is, of course, because they know that if the failure of Greece is witnessed and allowed to happen as it should the people they rule over will start to question the health of the horse pulling each of their own carts.

To make things even harder on ourselves we have all taken our gimpy horses whether they have one, two or three legs along with carts attached to them and tossed the whole mess in to the river. It is as if to say that since the lame horses cannot pull us maybe if we turned the cart into a boat we would do better. Well, the horses are drowning, the carts are leaking and we have no paddles.

I don’t care how much the people say they aren’t for socialism. What is ultimately the proof of any such claim is who they send to represent them in government. One thing I have learned from watching people is that most people are for some level of socialism. Usually and at the very least they want socialism for their own needs but do not want to be shackled with paying for the socialism of others.

If they are poor they want food, clothing and housing provided for them but they decry the old man getting a government pension. If they are old they love their government pensions but are certain that it is the poor with their free food, clothing and housing that is bankrupting the budget. If they are a single mother they want health care for their child and day care paid for by the government largess and speak about how it is the elderly and the poor that are causing all the trouble and taking money away from their child who really, really needs it.

Really these people don’t want true socialism. They just want their own free lunch. But as time wears on the whole shebang becomes a tangled web of entitlements targeting selected groups and woven to bring as many flies as possible into the spider’s den. And the spider is licking the poison from its fangs at the sight of flesh to consume. Too many people have a free for me but not for thee attitude and eventually everyone at some point has at least part of their hands in the cookie jar whether they even want to or not or whether they even know it or not.

This is a huge fear, I think, as to why people are so unnerved by the thought of just weeding out all the socialist unconstitutional and just plain bad spending that goes on at all levels of our government. Our elected officials have thrown so many tax dollars at groups of people to buy their votes and even businesses to subsidize products that people either don’t want or that they at best only marginally want until the price is artificially lowered. It is easy to talk about eliminating these expenditures but hard to accept the consequences which might result in higher costs even though lower taxes would offset that pain at least among the tax paying middle and upper classes.

As the hours roll on and the horses give up struggling against the current the problems will become more prevalent. Welfare class will be pitted against welfare class as each fights for a dwindling supply of resources. They will fight so hard and so long that they will not notice as the water continue to flood the cart. First it will rise up to their ankles and then their knees. It will then surge to their hips and to on to their shoulders. Then as the water reaches their lips a moment of realization will strike when that next breath of air turns to a gulp of water.

Then, at that moment, we will all either become Greeks with the welfare classes fighting to see who will stand on whose shoulders and who will be sacrificed to drown to save the rest for a little while longer or become a people that will reject the failures of socialism at any level and live in freedom and drag our selves and our fellow countrymen out of the river and begin anew. I certainly hope that realization comes soon and the light bulbs in our collective brains light up soon. Much sooner, I hope, than the socialists decide we are no longer useful and do what they always do to those they deem undesirable.

]]> http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/21/up-the-river-without-a-brain/feed/ 0 http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/19/they%e2%80%99ve-got-friends-in-low-places/ http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/19/they%e2%80%99ve-got-friends-in-low-places/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 09:57:50 +0000 J.J. Jackson http://www.libertyreborn.com/?p=2160 marketwatch.com that profit was $865 million. GM has even put an marketing campaign together to tout how they have paid back all their loans and begging Americans not to be upset with them over taking government money.]]> The news Monday was all roses about GM making a profit in the first quarter of 2010. According to marketwatch.com that profit was $865 million. GM has even put an marketing campaign together to tout how they have paid back all their loans and begging Americans not to be upset with them over taking government money.

But did they really make that much? Or is this another book cooking scheme? Facts are that GM owes the government, us tax payers, a lot of money. And it is not just GM that owes money but Chrysler as well. The government, now lead by President Obama, however is feeling charitable and letting them walk away from the unconstitutional loans the government funneled to these companies.

Yes, while GM is reporting “profits” the facts are that the government is writing down massive losses from the auto bailouts and letting these companies skate without repaying their ill gotten gains. Reports the AP:

Treasury Department said Monday it will lose $1.6 billion on a loan made to Chrysler in early 2009.

Taxpayer losses from bailing out Chrysler and General Motors are expected to rise as high as $34 billion, congressional auditors have said.

Treasury said Monday that Chrysler repaid $1.9 billion of a $4 billion loan, which was extended before the company filed for Chapter 11. The government hopes to get another $500 million from the company that emerged from bankruptcy, Chrysler Group LLC.

So that “profit” from GM is really just a lie it seems. If Chrysler losses on the loans will be $1.6 billion and the total loss will be over $30 billion that sort of puts the lie to GM’s claims of having repaid their debts huh? There would be no “profit” if they were actually repaying their debts instead of leaving the citizens of this nation holding the bag. It sure must be nice to have friends in low places like the White House who will allow you to pocket money that should belong to the taxpayers even when that money should never have been given out in the first place.

Yet we will continue to hear the lie about how Democrats are all about the little people I suspect. Even as day after day we see that they are engaging in padding the pockets of their favored big businesses at the expense of every U.S. taxpayer. But that lie is so big that it will no doubt continue to live on.

I stand by my original calls to have let GM and Chrysler fail. It is the only way that they will learn that the tax payers will not be there to bail them. But as usual we have been dragged to the table kicking and scream by the ring in our nose placed there by liberals who want power over all they survey.

]]> http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/05/19/they%e2%80%99ve-got-friends-in-low-places/feed/ 0 http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/04/19/promises-promises/ http://www.libertyreborn.com/2010/04/19/promises-promises/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:17:45 +0000 J.J. Jackson http://www.libertyreborn.com/?p=2117 I have operated under quite a few rules in my life which has served me well. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal … and most importantly never believe anything a union tells you and don’t join one. I take a lot of heat from union loyalists for saying such things but the simple fact of the matter is that I have skills above and beyond those that are basic and that 90% of the American population either already have or can be taught within a few short month. Most people are in a similar boat; even those that have joined unions because they think that these groups afford them some sort of protection from the evil company that they work for. Really what most unions (and I admit there are some good ones and even the bad ones do good things every now and again) do however is pit Joe Hardhat against Joe Lunchbox who work within the same company.

They do this by demanding higher than market value wages and inflating compensation to a point where eventually some workers have to be let go in order to keep paying for the promises the unions make to the rest of them. Basic economics.

One of these often made promises are inflated promises of huge pension benefits that simply do not have any basis in reality based on what is being contributed or even what is earned on the money already contributed. Instead of having to be at the whim of the economic reality at the time these promises are often fixed and must be paid unless somehow a blue moon rises and the union agrees to allow less. Unlike your and my 401k which has benefits that rise and fall with reality, pensions often have fixed payouts meaning that if the market falls more money must magically be thrown into the pot to cover the difference.

This has lead to several big pensions being “underfunded”:

DETROIT — The pension plans at General Motors and Chrysler are underfunded by a total of $17 billion and could fail if the automakers do not return to profitability, according to a government report released Tuesday.

Both companies need to make large payments into the plans within the next five years — $12.3 billion by G.M. and $2.6 billion by Chrysler — to reach minimum funding levels, according to the report, prepared by the Government Accountability Office. Whether the companies will be able to make the payments is uncertain, the report concluded, though Treasury officials expect the automakers will become profitable enough to do so.

If either company’s plan must be terminated, the government would become liable for paying benefits to hundreds of thousands of retirees. The effect on the government’s pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, would be “unprecedented,” the report said. The agency manages plans with assets totaling $68.7 billion, less than the $84.5 billion in G.M.’s plan alone.

I am not exactly sure where in the Constitution our government is given the power to cover idiotic promises and force other Americans to cover the asses of people that believed them but I am sure liberals, as they often do, will find some words written in invisible ink in the margins to justify it. No, these pensions are not “underfunded.” They were “over promised.” And when it became clear many years ago that the promises were unsustainable the people in charge found a way to get the federal government to promise to cover their ass when the inevitability of realty struck.

How’s it feel America to be the crutch for others who bought into lies and still others that told those lies just so that they could gain a little power over someone else?

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