Update: You can find the AP story on this here. It begins as follows:
The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.
The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.
Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession’s impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.
The last time the government’s revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression.
At some point (in the near future), you might think someone will quit buying our debt (think China). So, the Fed will take IOU’s from Treasury and send over stacks of dollars. That’s how you fill the gap.
Remember how the housing market plunged when we woke up and realized those exploding house values were based on nothing?
Think the same thing just might happen to our dollar? Think about that.
It is utterly irresponsible for the government to be expanding its spending in bills which have already become law and the profligate further items now under consideration. If the stimulus bill had been in fact a carefully targeted economic stimulus package, that would have been one thing. The bill that was passed, and the “cap and trade” increase in energy costs, and the massive health care spending bill, are outrageous at any time but especially so in the current economic mess.
This is all eerily reminiscent of a recent episode of “The Color of War” on the Military Channel. This particular episode examined Germany in the early 1930s. I pray we do not continue to repeat this part of history. I’ll know the game is over if our President’s remark that we need a civilian internal security force becomes reality. Hopefully they will pick a shirt color other than brown.
Oh well, as they say in New Hampshire, “Live Free or Die” (honorable mention to Va. for sic semper tyrannis).
Seems to me that we already have “internal security forces.” They’re called police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and state police.
Well, if this does not cheer you up consider this:
[blockquote]Heaping more taxes on the wealthy to pay for entitlement programs overlooks one inconvenient fact: The top 1 percent of U.S. wage earners already pay more taxes than the entire bottom 95 percent, a Tax Foundation study reports.
The 1.4 million taxpayers in the top 1 percent pay about $450 billion in taxes annually, the study shows. That compares to $439 billion in taxes that the government collects each year from the 134 million persons in the bottom 95 percent.
The minimum annual income to reach the top 1 percent: About $410,000.[/blockquote]
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/tax_obama_top_one_percent/2009/08/04/243771.html
John Maynard Keynes purportedly said:
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
I was once adamantly opposed to “supply-side economics” (“Voodoo economics” as GHW Bush called it) and monetarism (they are different) – but I have to admit that the facts have a way of changing minds.
/begrudgingly.
We’re turning into 1970s Britain, complete with crippling taxation, mind-boggling spending and even our own version of British Leyland. This is the bold future of Obamism?
Welcome to your “Change”. Votes have consequences just like decisions.
If only the GOP had offered a conservative candidate! The cast of RINO liberals and the Maverick (loose cannon) failed to inspire the electorate. Why have Democrat-Lite when you can just vote for the real thing? If Republicans ever want to win national elections again, they will have to put forward someone that is really a conservative. I for one shall continue to refuse to support the liberal GOP and their coup against conservativism. Good riddence Arlen Specter and good riddence to the Gang of 14 ring leader!!!
#7 you’re right, where’s our Thatcher then? I see Palin in the distance.
I met Jack Kingston (R., GA) yesterday and he was not exactly enthusiastic about the House GOP Leadership. Ughh!
Sick & Tired of Nuance . . . . word.
Interesting to note that individual follows corporate by one year. This says two things:
1. Corporations are not generally the evil monsters they are amde out to be but rather hold onto employees too long in down cycles.
2. Next year is going to be a bummer for the working man and woman – and the children they support.
Don