Bob Robbins just forwarded a link to Right Change's article about Senator Barack Obama's tax plan. According to Right Change, after Barack Obama's tax plan, the change in your pocket will be all that you have. Apparently that's what Senator Obama meant by "change"! Here is Right Change's list:
1. Small main street businesses would be forced to pay tax rates as high as 62.3% under Senator Obama’s tax proposals.1
2. Senator Obama’s tax plan would tax small businesses at a higher rate than Wal-Mart!
3. Taxes on retirement income and savings could increase by at least 33%, hitting millions of seniors when they need these resources the most.
4. 4 million workers over the age of 50 – those eagerly looking forward to retirement –would be hit with increased tax bills.
5. Millions of Americans would only keep 38 cents of every dollar that they earn.5
6. Senator Obama’s tax plan would reduce the after tax wages of millions of workers by 17.7%.
7. It will take 227 days per year, nearly 8 months, just to pay your tax bill!7
8. 97,065 carpenters, 110,908 police officers, 254,992 nurses, 208,562 postsecondary teachers and 237,000 dentists would see tax increases, if the earnings cap was successfully eliminated.8
9. 10.3 million workers would see an average of $5,650 taken from their paycheck and given to government programs.
10. Even YOU might be considered “Rich.”
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Contrairimairi on Barack Obama's Involvement in the Sub-Prime Crisis
Mitchell,
It occurred to me that we are missing the boat on just how bad BO's involvement in the fannie and freddie scandal really is.
Everyone keeps saying that Christopher Dodd received more money than BO, and he did. The point they are missing, Chris Dodd WAS in the Senate for all 20 of the years they investigated. Chris Dodd did NOT receive more money from fannie and freddie than BO did. BO attached himself so well to the "inside track" from these people, (maybe because he was tightening affiliations with Raines and Johnson for later) that in just three of the 20 years they counted, BO was so far over the top in funds from fannie and freddie, it almost makes one think there should be an investigation into what else was going on between him and freddie and fannie's higher ups! Wonder if the "papers" are missing. There must be some type of correspondence. Think BO put them away with all the rest of the papers he can't seem to find?
Despite his "protests" to the former CEO's receiving golden parachutes, can we tell if he even TRIED to stop it? My answer to that "smell test" would probably be a, "NO!" We have all seen how many times his mouth is saying one thing, but dealing under the table he is doing something entirely different.
I am having a very difficult time understanding how he made so much money from fannie and freddie in such a very short time. When things surrounding BO stink......they REALLY stink!
Mairi
It occurred to me that we are missing the boat on just how bad BO's involvement in the fannie and freddie scandal really is.
Everyone keeps saying that Christopher Dodd received more money than BO, and he did. The point they are missing, Chris Dodd WAS in the Senate for all 20 of the years they investigated. Chris Dodd did NOT receive more money from fannie and freddie than BO did. BO attached himself so well to the "inside track" from these people, (maybe because he was tightening affiliations with Raines and Johnson for later) that in just three of the 20 years they counted, BO was so far over the top in funds from fannie and freddie, it almost makes one think there should be an investigation into what else was going on between him and freddie and fannie's higher ups! Wonder if the "papers" are missing. There must be some type of correspondence. Think BO put them away with all the rest of the papers he can't seem to find?
Despite his "protests" to the former CEO's receiving golden parachutes, can we tell if he even TRIED to stop it? My answer to that "smell test" would probably be a, "NO!" We have all seen how many times his mouth is saying one thing, but dealing under the table he is doing something entirely different.
I am having a very difficult time understanding how he made so much money from fannie and freddie in such a very short time. When things surrounding BO stink......they REALLY stink!
Mairi
Schnorrers' Day on Wall Street
I blogged this back in March, but it is even more relevant today:
"Hooray for Chair Bernanke
The economic explorer
'Did someone call him 'schnorrer'"?
---Groucho Marx (Ben Bernanke), Animal Crackers
Groucho Marx was, of course singing about himself, Captain Spaulding, in Animal Crackers, but with a small modification or two the lines sing of Ben Bernanke. In case your Yiddish is rusty, "schnorrer" means beggar or sponger, according to Wikipedia. Is it fair that John Q. Public is subsidizing multi-million dollar Wall Street salaries for guys who can't figure out how to run a business?
Please review the entire song:
(All on Wall Street)
At last we are to meet him,
The famous Ben Bernanke.
From climates hot and cranky,
The Chairman has arrived.
Most heartily we'll greet him,
With plain and fancy cheering.
Until he's hard of hearing.
The Chairman has arrived.
At last - The Chairman has arrived.
(Butler)
Mr. Henry Paulson, Field Secretary to Chair Bernanke.
(Jamison/Zeppo/Henry Paulson)
I represent the Chairman who insists on my informing you of these conditions under which he camps here. In one thing he is very strict, he wants his women young and picked and as for Wall Street bankers, he won't have any tramps here.
(All on Wall Street)
As for bankers he won't have any tramps here,
There must be no tramps.
(Paulson)
The bankers must all be very old,
The women warm, the champagne cold.
It's under these conditions that he camps here.
(Voice off Screen)
I'm announcing Chairman Ben Bernanke
(All on Wall Street)
He's announcing Ben Bernanke
Oh dear, he is coming,
At last he's here.
(Chair Bernanke)
Hello, I must be going,
I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be printing.
I'm glad I came, but just the same I must be going.
La La.
(Mrs. Rittenhouse/Margaret Dumont)
For my sake you must stay.
If you should go away,
You'd spoil this party I am throwing.
(Chair Bernanke)
I'll stay a week or two,
I'll stay the summer through,
But I am telling you,
I must be printing.
(All on Wall Street)
Before you print,
Will you oblige us,
And tell us of your deeds so glowing?
(Bernanke)
I'll print as much as you say,
In fact I'll even stay!
I'll print dollars far and away!
(All on Wall Street)
Good!
(Bernanke)
But I must be going.
I must be printing.
(Paulson)
There's something that I'd like to say,
That he's too modest to relay.
The Chairman is a moral man.
Sometimes he finds it trying
To be printing and printing.
(Bernanke)
This fact I emphasize with stress,
I never print a buck unless - Somebody's buying.
I never print a buck unless - The public's paying.
(All on Wall Street)
The Chairman is a very moral man.
(Paulson)
If he hears of a high interest rate, He'll naturally repel it.
(Bernanke)
I hate a high interest rate I do.
(All on Wall Street)
The Chairman is a very moral man.
Hooray for Chair Bernanke, The economic explorer.
(Chair Bernanke)
Did someone call me Schnorrer?
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
(Paulson)
He went onto Wall Street where all the bankers pocket bucks.
(Chair Bernanke)
If I stay here I'll go nuts.
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
He put all his reliance, In courage and defiance,
And risked his life for economic science.
(Chair Bernanke)
Hey, hey.
(Mrs. Rittenhouse/Margaret Dumont)
You are the only Chairman to print money over every acre.
(Chair Bernanke)
I think I'll try and make her.
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
He put all his reliance, In courage and defiance,
And risked his life for economic science.
(Chair Bernanke)
Hey, hey.
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray for Chair Bernanke, The economic explorer.
He brought his name undying fame
And that is why we say, Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
(Chair Bernanke attempts to speak)
My friends, I am highly gratified at this magnificent display of effusion and I want
you to know.........
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray for Bernanke, The economic explorer.
He brought his name undying fame
And that is why we say, Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
(Chair Bernanke)
My friends, I am highly gratified at this magnificent display of effusion and I want
you to know.........
Hooray for Ben Bernanke, Wall Street's hero.....
Well, somebody's got to do it!
Hooray, hooray, hooray
"Hooray for Chair Bernanke
The economic explorer
'Did someone call him 'schnorrer'"?
---Groucho Marx (Ben Bernanke), Animal Crackers
Groucho Marx was, of course singing about himself, Captain Spaulding, in Animal Crackers, but with a small modification or two the lines sing of Ben Bernanke. In case your Yiddish is rusty, "schnorrer" means beggar or sponger, according to Wikipedia. Is it fair that John Q. Public is subsidizing multi-million dollar Wall Street salaries for guys who can't figure out how to run a business?
Please review the entire song:
(All on Wall Street)
At last we are to meet him,
The famous Ben Bernanke.
From climates hot and cranky,
The Chairman has arrived.
Most heartily we'll greet him,
With plain and fancy cheering.
Until he's hard of hearing.
The Chairman has arrived.
At last - The Chairman has arrived.
(Butler)
Mr. Henry Paulson, Field Secretary to Chair Bernanke.
(Jamison/Zeppo/Henry Paulson)
I represent the Chairman who insists on my informing you of these conditions under which he camps here. In one thing he is very strict, he wants his women young and picked and as for Wall Street bankers, he won't have any tramps here.
(All on Wall Street)
As for bankers he won't have any tramps here,
There must be no tramps.
(Paulson)
The bankers must all be very old,
The women warm, the champagne cold.
It's under these conditions that he camps here.
(Voice off Screen)
I'm announcing Chairman Ben Bernanke
(All on Wall Street)
He's announcing Ben Bernanke
Oh dear, he is coming,
At last he's here.
(Chair Bernanke)
Hello, I must be going,
I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be printing.
I'm glad I came, but just the same I must be going.
La La.
(Mrs. Rittenhouse/Margaret Dumont)
For my sake you must stay.
If you should go away,
You'd spoil this party I am throwing.
(Chair Bernanke)
I'll stay a week or two,
I'll stay the summer through,
But I am telling you,
I must be printing.
(All on Wall Street)
Before you print,
Will you oblige us,
And tell us of your deeds so glowing?
(Bernanke)
I'll print as much as you say,
In fact I'll even stay!
I'll print dollars far and away!
(All on Wall Street)
Good!
(Bernanke)
But I must be going.
I must be printing.
(Paulson)
There's something that I'd like to say,
That he's too modest to relay.
The Chairman is a moral man.
Sometimes he finds it trying
To be printing and printing.
(Bernanke)
This fact I emphasize with stress,
I never print a buck unless - Somebody's buying.
I never print a buck unless - The public's paying.
(All on Wall Street)
The Chairman is a very moral man.
(Paulson)
If he hears of a high interest rate, He'll naturally repel it.
(Bernanke)
I hate a high interest rate I do.
(All on Wall Street)
The Chairman is a very moral man.
Hooray for Chair Bernanke, The economic explorer.
(Chair Bernanke)
Did someone call me Schnorrer?
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
(Paulson)
He went onto Wall Street where all the bankers pocket bucks.
(Chair Bernanke)
If I stay here I'll go nuts.
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
He put all his reliance, In courage and defiance,
And risked his life for economic science.
(Chair Bernanke)
Hey, hey.
(Mrs. Rittenhouse/Margaret Dumont)
You are the only Chairman to print money over every acre.
(Chair Bernanke)
I think I'll try and make her.
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
He put all his reliance, In courage and defiance,
And risked his life for economic science.
(Chair Bernanke)
Hey, hey.
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray for Chair Bernanke, The economic explorer.
He brought his name undying fame
And that is why we say, Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
(Chair Bernanke attempts to speak)
My friends, I am highly gratified at this magnificent display of effusion and I want
you to know.........
(All on Wall Street)
Hooray for Bernanke, The economic explorer.
He brought his name undying fame
And that is why we say, Hooray, Hooray, Hooray.
(Chair Bernanke)
My friends, I am highly gratified at this magnificent display of effusion and I want
you to know.........
Hooray for Ben Bernanke, Wall Street's hero.....
Well, somebody's got to do it!
Hooray, hooray, hooray
Obama and Race
Yahoo! carries an AP piece on a Stanford University poll that found that 1/3 of Democrats harbor racial stereotypes. The pollers estimate that Obama loses 6% because of race. On the other hand, we Republicans are not opposed to Obama because of race but rather because of ideology. As well, Obama has virtually 100% support among blacks, which is also a racial preference-based phenomenon.
Overall, the poll gives a fair assessment. There is a percentage that will vote against Obama because of race, and six percent sounds too low. However, the article omits discussion of the possibility of cognitive dissonance. There are many people who are likely to vote for an African-American even though they are racist because confronting their own racism causes cognitive dissonance, which they resolve by voting for the candidate. Cognitive dissonance is a famous psychological cause of much unpredictable behavior. "Liberal guilt" may work as a kind of reverse racism.
Racism is an unfortunate phenomenon that goes back to the same tribal impulses on which feudalism, collectivism and socialism are based. Some variants of "international" socialism attempt to assert socialism without emphasis on race or nation although (a) nationalist socialism is the variant that has succeeded most often (to wit, the USSR's "socialism in one country" and Germany's "national socialism"); (b) in its post-modern form, socialism has tended to devolve into identity politics, which is inherently racist, and this includes Barack Obama's new left ideology (Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright and friend Rev. Michael Pfleger have made remarks that were racially distasteful, for example); and (c) by its own nature socialism assumes win-lose or distributive conflict, and one of the key categories through which this occurs is ethnic or racial, so despite claims of internationalism, internationalist socialism has often devolved into racism and anti-Semitism.
Candace de Russy did a great job of analyzing Barack Obama in National Review. There are many unanswered questions: the circumstances of his birth; his upbringing in Indonesia; his relationship to black liberation theology; his ongoing involvement with radical causes; the unusual support among Wall Street employees and his connection to George Soros and Warren Buffett; his George Bush socialist-style economic orientation; and his lack of understanding of elementary aspects of Middle Eastern issues.
I do believe that he is cut from the same cloth as George W. Bush, and Wall Street's enthusiasm for him is the same as its recent enthusiasm for bailouts and subsidies to Wall Street's incompetent schnorrers.
Overall, the poll gives a fair assessment. There is a percentage that will vote against Obama because of race, and six percent sounds too low. However, the article omits discussion of the possibility of cognitive dissonance. There are many people who are likely to vote for an African-American even though they are racist because confronting their own racism causes cognitive dissonance, which they resolve by voting for the candidate. Cognitive dissonance is a famous psychological cause of much unpredictable behavior. "Liberal guilt" may work as a kind of reverse racism.
Racism is an unfortunate phenomenon that goes back to the same tribal impulses on which feudalism, collectivism and socialism are based. Some variants of "international" socialism attempt to assert socialism without emphasis on race or nation although (a) nationalist socialism is the variant that has succeeded most often (to wit, the USSR's "socialism in one country" and Germany's "national socialism"); (b) in its post-modern form, socialism has tended to devolve into identity politics, which is inherently racist, and this includes Barack Obama's new left ideology (Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright and friend Rev. Michael Pfleger have made remarks that were racially distasteful, for example); and (c) by its own nature socialism assumes win-lose or distributive conflict, and one of the key categories through which this occurs is ethnic or racial, so despite claims of internationalism, internationalist socialism has often devolved into racism and anti-Semitism.
Candace de Russy did a great job of analyzing Barack Obama in National Review. There are many unanswered questions: the circumstances of his birth; his upbringing in Indonesia; his relationship to black liberation theology; his ongoing involvement with radical causes; the unusual support among Wall Street employees and his connection to George Soros and Warren Buffett; his George Bush socialist-style economic orientation; and his lack of understanding of elementary aspects of Middle Eastern issues.
I do believe that he is cut from the same cloth as George W. Bush, and Wall Street's enthusiasm for him is the same as its recent enthusiasm for bailouts and subsidies to Wall Street's incompetent schnorrers.
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