Wish I Could Do This

Two Obama Cabinet nominees did not pay all the taxes they owed until nominated to the Cabinet.

• Tom Daschle recently paid $101,943 in back taxes and interest for services received that he did not declare on his taxes in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
  
• Tim Geithner paid $25,970 in overdue taxes in late November, once he was nominated to be the new Treasury Secretary. His nomination has since been confirmed by the Senate.
  

Notice a pattern here?

Spending Spree - Perspective

Scare, then spend, seems to be the government motto in the past year. They tell us the world is falling apart, that only they can fix it, and by the way here's the tab. Let's just remember what happened in 2008:

Government Bailouts of various entities (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, AIG, Auto Industry, etc). totaled 1 Trillion 369.9 Billion of your tax dollars. Written out, that looks like $1,369,900,000,000. I can't even enter that number in my calculator!! Click Here for details.

It's working so well to fix the economy that they want to do more of it (see the $800-900 Billion Spending bill that the House passed this week -- details below). If the Stimulus (in reality, Spending) bill passes the Senate next week, we taxpayers are on the hook for spending of 2 Trillion, 269.9 Billion dollars. After all, the goverment's source of income is our tax dollars.

Not Everyone Thinks the "Stimulus" Bill Will Work

The President and the news media keep saying that everyone agrees on the need for the government to spend massive amounts of taxpayer money to "stimulate" the economy.

In fact, many economists and others disagree.

Hundreds of prominent economists have signed a statement to the effect that more government spending is not the answer. History buffs also note that government spending did not get us out of the Great Depression and did not help Japan with their economic woes in the 1990's.

"Stimulus" Package - Part 1

House Passes $819 Billion "Stimulus" Package

The House passed it's version on Wednesday. The Senate version is closer to $900 Billion, and will be debated and voted on next week. Both packages use a combination of government spending and "tax cuts". Roughly $550 Billion in spending and $275 Billion in "tax cuts".

Some of the spending "highlights" are:

$90 Billion - infrastructure projects
$125 Billion - education related items
$87 Billion - Medicaid to the states
$50 Billion - Renewable energy sources
$20 Billion - Health Care Information Technology updates

The Obama Administration is pushing for quick passage of this legislation. However, here is when the spending would actually occur:

2009 - $26 Billion
2010 - $110 Billion
2011 - $103 Billion
2012 - $53 Billion
2013+ - $63 Billion

Of course, these numbers change by the hour as the Congress works on them. And I have no doubt that if they put their mind to it, the politicians at both the federal and state levels (working closely with thier lobbyists ) will be able to spend it somewhat faster than projected.

Given the above, my question is "Why the Big Rush?"


Additional information

Glenn Beck website
click here

Washington Post
click here

An $800 Billion Mistake

By Martin Feldstein

Thursday, January 29, 2009; Page A19

Wall Street Journal
click here