The Debt Ceiling Debate and Paying Our Fair Share Of What Government Is Really Spending

I decided to have a terrible-for-my-body biscuits and gravy breakfast this morning at work. They ran out of biscuits, so I tried putting the gravy over a breakfast croissant that had egg and apple strips in it. Problem with that is that it's difficult to cut wet croissant into bites with a spudware knife on a paper plate. Plus the cinnamon coated apple slices weren't too sure about the gravy.

While eating breakfast, Obama's speech happened to be on TV, so I caught the last several minutes of it while eating my breakfast. Amazingly he didn't cause me to lose my appetite.

You know I'm a skeptic, but I have to admit he did a pretty good job on the speech of demanding the house & senate get busy and be leaders and make the tough choices.

Of course I kept wanting to shout "Don't act like you, and your party, aren't an integral part of why we have ginormous deficits. Dont act like every single thing government does is absolutely necessary when you talking about how do we choose what not to pay after Aug 2".

But he made a good point about how the programs were already put into place, it was having the family vacations already planned, the house already bought, Congress can't act like now it can play around on whether or not to pay the bills for all these things. Congress put them there, they can't play around with the commitment to pay for them.

And that is the real problem. There is no limit to the number of "good things" the government can, should, and will do if they (politicians in general) get their way. No limits... Well other than the enumerations in the constitutions, but the politician lawyers have done a good job of treating the constitution like an allegory rather than any kind of blueprint or non relativistic set of rules... So like I said, no real limits anymore, unless its something like the Supreme Court ruling children have a Constitutional free speech right to access to the most violent video games, that states can't enact any restriction about this...

Obama said politics is breeding too much short term thinking.

Obama said he was willing to make tough decisions that will give his base even more reason to complain about him.

Atta boy 'bama! You all need to be voted out anyhow, every last one of them. Lets hope they get voted out for making tough decisions that lessen the government drag on everyone.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/29/obama.news.conference/index.html

One of the linked stories has an especially scary graphic of what happens if the debt ceiling not raised:

That's utterly incredible and awful! http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/28/news/economy/debt_ceiling_fallout_bpc/?hpt=po_bn1

And do you know what is missing in the above? Anyone notice what I just noticed? How about payment on the interest on the debt already accumulated? The real picture is probably even worse than the above! And we didn't even include paying down the previously accrued debt.

We've been in default of the debt ceiling since May 16! A month and a half. Only by "extraordinary measures" has the federal government been able to continue to pay its bills.

Why didn't Obama mention that straight out???

I've heard a comparison of most of the arguing over the compromises on the debt ceiling recently has been the equivalent of a family who makes $1000 a month with an outgo of $2500 a month congratulating themselves and having a big party over cutting $93 dollars out of their monthly budget....

If those numbers above are really true, we need to all get used to the idea of having houses that have a couple of used wooden chairs a beat up table, and our taxes doubled, and a tariff on all we buy doubling the price of everything, just to get the budget in balance. And then we try to export one of those used chairs to china to burn for fuel, to make some money to pay down the debt.

And before you say, its the evil rich corporations that need to be taxed, not us, please realize something. Corporations dont print money. They only get money by selling things. Any profit they have came from charging someone more than what they paid to make what they sold. Any taxes a corporation paid came from someones pocket who bought their goods. If they need to make a certain amount of profit to survive, and their taxes are suddenly increased, guess what happens to the price of what they sell? They have to raise their prices to pay for the increased expense of increased tax burden. Or they have to cut their expenses, which is likely meaning cutting what they can pay their workers. Or they go out of business, and everyone loses their jobs, and those goods are no longer available on the market. Less competition for their competitors, prices can rise still further, as the remaining businesses now try to shoulder their increased tax load to pay more taxes to support those unemployed workers. Or the workers of the remaining taxes see their unemployment tax withholding rise, leaving them less money.

Ajax widgets are made in a factory somewhere, employing people whose wages are taxed. That factory pays fuel taxes, property taxes, and a hundred other taxes, which go into the price of the widgets. Food and manufactured goods of all kinds have the makers' taxes included in their prices. A loaf of bread bought in a grocery store or bakery has property taxes for the farmer, bakery, garage for the delivery trucks, oil refinery, truck factory, tire factory, and the factories for every single part in the truck, tractor, and various pieces of machinery that go into making and delivering the bread. There are taxes on the property and workers for the milling of the flour, egg producer, maker of yeast, milk, wrappers, slicers, ovens, and even the printers who print the wrappers, and ink that goes into them. All these factories, shippers, farmers, stores, etc. have labor and property taxes to pay as well as telephone, fuel, and a host of other taxes, all of which add to the cost of that single loaf of bread. One economist 30 years ago, said that a $1.00 loaf of bread had $.95 in taxes. Then, of course, you pay your own taxes of probably 75%-counting sales, Social Security, income, property, telephone, etc. Is a 75% taxation estimate too low? I think so! The National Taxpayer's Union says taxes have gone up 175,000% in the last 83 years. "Thou shall not steal." - Exodus 20:15 - King James Version Source: http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_01/stott021001.html

Only the government can print more money to pay its bills. And even then, more money chasing the same amount of goods, raises prices, putting those that have to earn money even farther behind.

In the end, we the people pay every dollar of any increased tax, no matter where the government chooses to hide the increased tax.

To pay these bills for all these government programs we've created, all of our houses and possessions need to look about as drab and sparse as the dingy place they found Bin Laden in.

Do the American people believe enough in these programs to make this kind of sacrifice?

Imagine this: Someone looks at the above numbers and says

• "Government is apparently only taking in 1/3rd of what they need to pay for everything."
• I'm going to do my share, and to make up the difference, obviously the government needs to collect three times as much, so I'm going to do my share, and send in treble my usual taxes to the feds. Since practically every state is nearly in the red too, every city and county is crying how they can't support their services like schools (even when schools throwing away hundreds of new unused math and english textbooks), I'll have to send in my share to all those other levels of government too.
• When he gets his paycheck, he looks at the amount deducted for various federal tax mandates, and immediately mails the Whitehouse a check for two times that amount.
• He mails his state a check for twice his state income tax.
• Ditto to his local city if they have a payroll tax.
• When he shops and pays sales tax, when he gets home he tallys the sales tax on the receipts, and sends a check for double the sales tax to the sales tax authority.
• He attempts to estimate the corporate tax rate of the companies he buys from, figure out how much of his purchase went out to pay for that companies taxes, and he sends the government a check for double that amount, too
• When he buys gas, he finds out how much the gasoline tax is, and he mails the government a check for twice that amount.
• When he pays a car registration, he mails the department of motor vehicles three times what they are asking for.
• If he gets a speeding ticket, or a parking ticket, he voluntarily pays triple the penalty.
• If he has a job that requires him to apply for permits to pursue his livelihood, he sends in triple the required fees
• He adds up the various taxes on his utility bills, and figures out who to mail a check for double those fees too.
• When he gets his dog licenses he pays triple the fee
• If he changes the water heater in his home, or does other work that requires a building permit, he pays triple the required building permit fee
• When he drinks a beer, or a bottle of wine, he sends the government a check for double the amount of tax on the alcohol.
• And if neither the smoke or the taxes kill him, he sends in a check for double the taxes on the cigarettes he buys
• If he gets married, he gladly pays double the marriage license fee
• If he meets his wife overseas, and brings her to the U.S., he gladly pays triple the immigration service fees (Bill Clinton doubled the INS fees during his tenure, claiming such an increase in fees would help stop illegal immigration.)
• If he goes through a toll booth, he argues with them and holds up traffic until they agree to accept triple the toll. He gets angry with the other impatient drivers who aren't willing to do their share by paying triple.
• If he rents a boat to go fishing, he makes sure he pays triple docking fees, and triple the watercraft registration tax too. And he sends in triple the fee for his fishing license.
• When he pays property tax, he sends in triple that amount to the county.
• He then tries, somehow, to live on what remains.

Here are some questions that need answers:

• Would this man have any money left in his pocket?
• If he does have any money left, what do you think his lifestyle would look like?
• Or would he have to go into debt each month just to pay his share to every level of government making a claim to his livelihood?

Since many economists estimate taxes and hidden taxes are taking over 50% of the average persons pay, this man working at a $40,000 a year job may need to borrow $40,000 a year if he dares to spend his take home pay. However many of the issues above wont be problems for this man, because he is unlikely to have any money to rent boats, or go fishing, or get married, or own a dog, after he pays triple the withholding (payments taken from his paycheck for taxes in advance of their due date) on his paycheck.

Would the media be willing to follow this man's story? Would the media interview him at his cousins dining room table (since he probably can't afford one of his own), filiming him as he sorts through his receipts, and explains how he calculates the checks he is sending in to pay his share of governments burden, and as he goes through life explaining to government administrators, and people collecting taxes on behalf of the government, the peril we are in and how he has decided to pay his share, and demanding that those tax collectors accept triple the usual taxes and fees.

Done right, it would be hilarious, in a we'll cry if we dont find some way to laugh about our fate, kind of way... Move over Borat.....

I challenge you to go through your receipts for the last year and figure out what your life would have been like if you did that for all of last year.

That's what we are all facing if the politicians don't get a grip on the reality the rest of us face in our daily lives and the burden and grave we are digging for ourselves.

The consequence of taxes being levied on everyone and everything, are that the average single wage earning family is rare, and almost extinct. We have become a virtual feudal society, with the boss man being the federal government. Mom has to work, as does Dad, just to survive. So many taxes are hidden and obscure, that most families actually believe both parents are working "to make ends meet," or to raise their standard of living, rather than what is really going on, and that is to pay the taxes. Taxes consume the entire second income, and most of the primary, if all the hidden taxes are included. Politicians perhaps never intended to cause marital breakups and both parents having to work…just to survive…but they have. The consequences of the current tax system and the myriad of hidden taxes, are that poverty is widespread, people can't seem to "get ahead," home ownership is impossible for many, marriages fail due to stress, and of course delinquency is common among those kids who do not come home to a mother, but may be classed as "latchkey" kids, or who may have to go to a daycare center. No one in his or her wildest dreams in 1913 could have envisioned what has happened to the size of government and the abuse poured on us by the IRS. "The hardest thing to understand is the income tax." - Albert Einstein [Source:http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_01/stott021001.html]

Look again at the chart above. It needs to get worse, much worse, for us to support the government programs already put in place.

Obama said he gets emails from people who show incredible resilience in the face of hardship, but are still losing homes and businesses. Many haven't seen a wage increase in 10 years. (Uh, Mr Oboma, why aren't they educating themselves on how to earn more money, or starting a side business to earn some extra money instead of being entertained? He didn't mention that, maybe because those extra hobby dollars might not contribute to the tax base if they aren't reported as income...)

What would Obama think of the story of the hypothetical man who decided to pay his fair share?

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said that by Aug. 2 he will no longer have enough money on hand every day to pay all the government's bills in full and on time. The government reached the legal borrowing limit on May 16 and has been taking "extraordinary measures" since to keep the country out of default. It's also impossible to say yet just how the government would prioritize payments. It's fair to assume, however, that picking who gets paid and who gets put off will be a mess technically and socially because it's never been done before. "The reality would be chaotic," states the report by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington founded by four former Democratic and Republican Senate majority leaders. The going assumption is that Geithner will do everything he canto pay bond investors, so the country doesn't go into a formal default. "The Treasury Secretary will squirrel away money like – well, a squirrel. He may have to delay some payments starting days or weeks early to prepare for big important payments later," said Joe Minarik, who served as the chief economist of the White House Budget Office in the Clinton administration. And as the BPC study noted, the whole event could cause a public uproar and market unrest, the outcomes of which is anyone's guess.

Could the Bible book of Revelation be correct? Are we about to see the time of trouble that will usher in the anti-Christ who will appear to solve the world's problems?

While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. - 1 Thessalonians 5:3, English Standard Version ((C) 2007)

There are many names for this leader,

• "the fierce king" (Dan 8:23),
• "abomination" (Matt. 24:15),
• "the man of sin" (2 Thess. 2:3),
• "the wicked one" (2 Thess. 2:8),
• "the beast" (Rev. 13.1)
  Most commonly referred to as the "the Antichrist", because he puts himself in the place of Christ.

Some other comments on this situation:

• No one seems to be putting two and two together. Take a look across the pond and it is like looking into a crystal ball. You don't have to be a prophet to see what our future holds. Greece is just a few months ahead of us and today Britain has started to show the first major social fractures of all this theft. All the money has been stolen or piissed away. What really ticks me off is that many have been warning of this for a very long time only to be ridiculed as tin foil loons. The sad thing is this collapse was planned and your future is sold to the man behind the curtain so to speak. Follow the money or the yellow brick road, it leads to the same place. Of course most of you can't read between the lines and will willingly yield your liberty in exchange for bondage just for the security of a stable currency. Selling your soul so to speak to the very criminals that put you in this situation to begin with. Obama is not the messiah, he's just the get away driver

Related links:

• "Explanation" of the Supreme Court ruling - http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/06/27/exp.arena.supreme.court.toobin.cnn?iref=allsearch
• How many different taxes do we pay