He is running as if the last three years didn’t happen. Obama’s Surreal Campaign

He ran the first time with a record, now he runs without a record.

What he has done are things of which no one is proud! Who would be?

Obama’s Surreal Campaign - Victor Davis Hanson - National Review Online

3-14-12 By Victor Davis Hanson

As the election year heats up, we seem not to have noticed the surreal nature of the campaign. One would expect Barack Obama to run on his record from 2009 to 2012, and especially during 2009–10, when he had a solidly Democratic Congress and passed his signature Obamacare. But he is not. Instead, we are hearing only that the probable opposition nominee, Mitt Romney, will be embarrassed by the similarities between Obamacare and his own Romneycare in Massachusetts. Examine that logic: Supposedly landmark legislation is now defended not on its own merits or popularity, but by a sort of “He did it too”?
During the 2004 campaign, the Kerry camp derided 5.5 percent unemployment as proof of a “jobless recovery.” Today 8.3 percent is deemed a sign of a real rebound. In 2008, when George W. Bush had borrowed $4 trillion over eight years, the deficits were termed by candidate Obama as “unpatriotic”; trumping that total in just four years is now called much-needed “stimulus.”

The price of gasoline has more than doubled since January 2009, and the rise is not over yet. This summer might still see the price triple in less than four years. In the old days of Economics 101, supply and demand had, by general consensus, some effect on price. I think the president believes that still, since he is pondering another release from the strategic petroleum reserve. Why, then, is he asking us to believe that putting off limits vast areas of known oil and gas reserves in Alaska, offshore, in the West, and in the Gulf of Mexico will not have much effect on gasoline prices? Vast new production of natural gas on private lands has helped radically lower natural-gas prices. But drilling for new oil is again caricatured as it was in 2008 (when candidate Obama advised us instead to inflate our tires and tune up our cars; this time he is touting algae), as if newly pumped oil from a freshly discovered field were not as efficacious as previously pumped oil from a reserve. In an age when unemployment is high, the budget deficit obscene, and our trade deficit at near-record levels, more U.S.-produced oil — aside from lowering gasoline prices — would create jobs, enrich the Treasury, and curtail what we must borrow abroad.
-more at link-

Would you really expect the government to make good decisions for Americans? It can't make any good decisions today! The Perversion of Rights

"I used to think that the U.S. Constitution would prove more resilient than the less absolutist liberties of other Western nations. But the president has calculated that, with Obamacare, the First Amendment and much else will crumble before his will. And, given trends in U.S. jurisprudence, who’s to say he won’t get his way? That’s the point about all this “free” stuff: Ultimately, it’s not about your rights, but about his." Mark Steyn

Obama is the most perverse of all!

The Perversion of Rights - Mark Steyn - National Review Online

February 25, 2012

CNN’s John King did his best the other night, producing a question from one of his viewers:

“Since birth control is the latest hot topic, which candidate believes in birth control, and if not, why?”

To their credit, no Republican candidate was inclined to accept the premise of the question. King might have done better to put the issue to Danica Patrick. For some reason, Michelle Fields of the Daily Caller sought the views of the NASCAR driver and Sports Illustrated swimwear model about “the Obama administration’s dictate that religious employers provide health-care plans that cover contraceptives.” Miss Patrick, a practicing Catholic, gave the perfect citizen’s response for the Age of Obama:

“I leave it up to the government to make good decisions for Americans.”

That’s the real “hot topic” here — whether a majority of citizens, in America as elsewhere in the West, is willing to “leave it up to the government” to make decisions on everything that matters. On the face of it, the choice between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church should not be a tough one. On the one hand, we have the plain language of the First Amendment as stated in the U.S. Constitution since 1791: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

On the other, we have a regulation invented by executive order under the vast powers given to Kathleen Sebelius under a 2,500-page catalogue of statist enforcement passed into law by a government party that didn’t even bother to read it.

Commissar Sebelius says that she is trying to “strike the appropriate balance.” But these two things — a core, bedrock, constitutional principle, and Section 47(e)viii of Micro-Regulation Four Bazillion and One issued by Leviathan’s Bureau of Compliance — are not equal, and you can only “balance” them by massively increasing state power and massively diminishing the citizen’s. Or, to put it more benignly, by “leaving it up to the government to make good decisions.”

Some of us have been here before.

Small businesses threatened with 1099 tax form tyranny provision in health care bill

Small businesses threatened with 1099 tax form tyranny provision in health care bill

This is the most outrageous, waste of time and added expense for the satisfaction of bureaucratic intrusion and insinuation into all American Small Business. This was buried in Obamacare as an added means of extorting funds for Obama's Road to his Socialist Paradise!

May 24, 2010

Small businesses threatened with 1099 tax form tyranny provision in health care bill

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) According to a recent report from CNNMoney.com, the massive U.S. health care system overhaul includes more than just a transition to government-run medicine. A small section hidden away in the 2,409-page bill requires all businesses to send 1099 tax forms to every company or individual from which they purchased more than $600 in services and goods throughout the tax year, beginning on January 1, 2012.

As you'll see below, this new law threatens to cause a wave of paperwork chaos across the entire U.S. economy, stifling the operations of small businesses and driving more jobs overseas.

Here's why...

1099s required for virtually any expenditure

For those of you who aren't familiar with a 1099, this tax document is typically issued to independent contract workers who receive payments for work they've done. "Employees" of businesses are issued W-2 forms at the end of the tax year while independent contractors and other freelancers making money outside of the wage structure receive 1099 forms.

But the new change (conveniently slipped into the health care bill that nobody actually read prior to voting on it) drastically expands the scope of 1099s. Not only will contract workers be receiving them, but so will millions of individuals and companies that receive more than $600 in payments for services and products they provide throughout the tax year.

And if you're a small business owner, you will be required to issue a 1099 to every business from which you purchased more than $600 worth of goods or services.

If you buy a laptop at Best Buy, for example, you will be required by law to issue a 1099 form to Best Buy. If you purchase over $600 in internet services, you need to issue a 1099 to your broadband provider. If you get a car repair over $600, you have to issue a 1099 form for that, too.

This law might as well be called the "Accountant employment act of 2010" because it will drastically expand the mountain of tax paperwork needed to be filed by all U.S. small businesses and corporations.

How the changes will really impact small business

Remember: The new law will require 1099s to be issued to both individuals and corporations. This means that a musician who buys an expensive new guitar will have to send the retailer a 1099 at the end of the year for that purchase. A florist will have to send 1099s to each of her suppliers as well, including the flower growers, the ribbon company and even the place where she buys tape and scissors if those purchases exceeded $600 throughout the year.

In fact, the more sources businesses buy from, the more 1099s they will have to issue, which will likely cause many of them to consolidate their vendors.

Do you see where I'm going with this? These "small" changes are going to have a monumental impact on how business is run in America, particularly small businesses who are already strapped with heavy regulatory burdens. 1099s will be used for a lot more than just taxing compensation. They will be used to tax virtually all business expenses, driving up prices for everyone.

The changes are also going to create an "avalanche of [new] paperwork", according to Bill Rys, tax counsel for the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Business owners are going to have to spend a lot more time tracking purchases and saving receipts, which for many is going to be a logistical nightmare that could drive them right out of business.

Small businesses will go out of business, thanks to the IRS

Those of you that own or operate a small business already know how difficult it can be to stay afloat and compete in today's economy, especially during tough times. Besides the regular day-to-day operations, there are all kinds of fees, taxes and other regulatory burdens that make doing business a challenge.

Can you imagine having to track and tally every single business purchase you make throughout the year and send 1099 forms to all of them? How about having to collect names and taxpayer identification numbers from every vendor or payee that you dealt with? Can you imagine how long it would take on the phone with Wal-Mart customer service to try to obtain the company's tax ID? Multiply this by the other five hundred companies you do business with, and you start to get an idea of the new burden this is going to place on small businesses across America.

It's going to take a whole lot more time to comply with these rules, and many small businesses will probably have to hire someone full-time just to take care of it all. The additional expense will either further strain companies who can take the hit (which will just drive up prices for consumers) or force them out of business. But no matter how you look at it, it's a lose-lose situation for American businesses.

And what about all the companies on the receiving end? Imagine the flood of 1099 forms companies like Apple will receive at the end of the year from all the freelancers who bought new computers from them? Or Office Max for millions of dollars of office supplies? The burden will be tremendous not only on those who have to track and send all the 1099s, but also on everyone who receives them.

And it's not just the big guys that will bear the burden. There are plenty of small, family-owned suppliers who are going to have a tough time complying. Many of them will most likely be forced out of business because they won't be able to absorb the cost. Or businesses will choose instead to make purchases only from large "one-stop" shops because the paper trail will be a lot easier to manage.

Government greed and corruption is ruining America

The U.S. economy is already in shambles and many Americans are unemployed, but leave it to the American government (and the puppet masters who control them) to increase the burden on American business even more. Are these people out of their minds?

This small tax change is going to have huge ramifications once it kicks in starting in 2012. Small businesses will take the biggest hit, resulting in even more lost jobs and higher prices for goods and services. Many companies might decide to just pack up shop now and move to another country before it all kicks in, and that means more American jobs being exported to other countries.

The whole thing speaks volumes about how things are run in Washington where it's all about money and control. Bureaucrats are always looking for new ways to pass new laws that will bankroll their out-of-control spending programs. You know... the ones that get them reelected.

Fortunately, not all politicians are in on the game. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) recently introduced a bill called "The Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act, which would rescind the 1099 provisions from the health care bill.

It's a good start, but what about the rest of the politicians? Where is the outcry from the alleged "public servants" over tax changes that threaten to destroy American small businesses?

Small businesses are the primary drivers of our economy. They are the ones responsible for real job creation in America. Provisions like the 1099 mandate only work to destroy the very fabric that has held America's economy together. Any government that tries to destroy this crucial sector is only accelerating the country's financial demise.

It's time for people to wake up and take a stand against this paperwork tyranny. A nation drowning in tax forms can't get much of anything else done, and Washington, it seems, just can't help but heap another tax compliance paperwork nightmare upon the People.

That is has all been hidden inside the health care reform bill is yet another insult to the intelligence of us all. Who do these politicians think they are? How quickly they forget that Government derives its power from the People and not the other way around.{SubscribeHealthRangerBlock}

And why stop there?

Mileage Fees Over Gas Taxes?

Of course, governments could just use general revenues - exacerbating budget deficits - for road construction. But this wouldn't require drivers to pay for their road use. The most obvious substitute for fuel taxes is to charge drivers directly for vehicle miles traveled (VMT), enabling them to get the roads they are prepared to pay for.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in one of his first speeches on the job that he favored VMT fees, whereupon White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced that such a fee "is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration."

But the decline in fuel tax revenues is not going away, and individual states, such as Oregon, and countries, such as Germany, are experimenting with VMT charges.

Current fuel taxes, with 2008 collections of $36.4 billion, aren't yielding sufficient revenues for maintaining or improving the road network, according to the 2009 report of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, chaired by Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The report is the most comprehensive source of data on road finance.

Federal gasoline taxes, now 18.4 cents per gallon (24.3 cents for diesel), yield revenues equivalent to VMT charges of 0.9 cents per mile for cars and 5 cents for trucks. But the Commission estimated that to improve the road network between 2008 and 2035 would require gasoline taxes of 48.4 cents per gallon - or mileage charges of 2.3 cents per mile for cars and 13.2 cents for trucks.

Payment on the basis of VMT could cost more, or less, depending on the type of road and time of day. Charges for trucks could account for axle configurations, since, for the same weight, trucks with more axles do less road damage. Some drivers might prefer to pay more for a faster trip and a better-maintained road, just as many cell phone users prefer the more expensive iPhone.

Technology for VMT pricing now exists from numerous companies worldwide, such as Skymeter Corporation, Siemens, Continental Automotive Systems, Satellic, eROADS Technology, and Octo Telematics.

According to Mr. Grush, "Cars dominate our travel preference, vehicles are becoming more efficient, and we are beginning to electrify our automobiles. The migration from fuel tax to pay-by-use is fairer and likely inevitable. Whether we use odometers, GPS, cellular triangulation or swearing on a Bible is not the core issue. The key is uninterrupted funding to keep our transportation system running, safe, and expanding."

Olbermann Suggested Jail Time for Obamacare Evaders

Olbermann Suggested Jail Time for Obamacare Evaders

WeeklyStandard.com or in The Weekly Standard.

"[M]media coverage forced the Senate to include a specific provision in the bill unveiled October 19 that stipulated no one would go to jail for not buying insurance. So you could argue that after October 19, reporters should have acknowledged you probably wouldn't go to jail. But we really didn't know what the enforcement mechanism for the individual mandate would be until the final text of the bill was released in March.

If Fox News personalities are to blame for suggesting jail time for Obamacare evaders, so is Keith Olbermann. He said on December 16:

We must not buy federally-mandated insurance. [...]

I hereby pledge that I will not buy this perversion of health-care reform. Pass this at your peril, senators. And sign it at yours, Mr. President. I will not buy this insurance. Brand me a law-breaker if you choose. Fine me if you will. Jail me if you must.

Get ready for the insurance spiral of death -- if Republicans don't repeal Obamacare in time."

---

The Fix Is In by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal 22 March 2010

The Fix Is In by Theodore Dalrymple,

Fat Revenues and Little Healthcare, Britcare is the Model for Obamacare.
Why should we be surprised?
This time let's not compare government efficiency on the basis of the Post Office or the DMV.
These two places at least get you what you want, in most cases, eventually.
Go to your local Town Hall or City Hall (if you can find a safe, close place to park). After you go through the metal detectors for the protection of the government, not the governed,
ask something about zoning, or a building permit, or see if you can get your property taxes reduced.
After the person you need to speak with gets off the private phone call that has caused them to totally ignore you for twenty minutes, you will be sent to some other office to wait another twenty...You get the idea.
I go to these places on a regular basis, I get passed much of the rigmarole, but it is still a process of contempt and inefficiency designed to waste money, fully expend bloated current budgets for the purpose of getting next year's budget increases and, of course, control your meager existence.

There are exceptions, few and far between!

The American Spectator : Republicans Against Repeal

The American Spectator : Republicans Against Repeal

I grew up in a home with a "Wilkie Republican father and a (FDR) Roosevelt Democrat Mother.

It was hard to tell what side they stood on many times, if the stood anywhere at all. They loved Edward R. Murrow and Eric Sevaried, Murrow more for his sycophantic 'Person to Person' shows and 'This is London' radio broadcasts during the War, and Sevaried for his pompous vague, New York Times' safe opinions on what Americans SHOULD think.

My folks did have some contradictory strong opinions that were not too uncommon in the 1960's. As an FDR Democrat, mother was anti-civil rights. As a Wilkie 'One-World' Republican, father hated Ronald Reagan.

You see, I'm third generation Californian (grandma, dad & I were all born in Los Angeles County), and when the "actor" Ronald Reagan became Governor, he cut spending and raised tuition for the University of California and State Colleges from nearly free to just above free to attend higher education. One of my brothers went to UCLA and was planning to go to Greece for an archaeological dig as part of the campus program on the taxpayer. Reagan cancelled this type of program unless the student's contributed to the cost. Dad took that personally.

The point of this tale about my folk's politics is that too many of the sitting Republican Office Holders are the go-along-get-along Wilkie type Republicans (also known as County Club Republicans) who like to sit and complain over drinks on the veranda about how low the Democrats treat them, but they refuse to lead. Even under Newt Gingrich, the Democrats got their way. They use classic dialectical materialist tactics, two steps forward, one step back. Obama is a dancing-master of this step.

If you want to stand for something, then stand up first! Don't talk repeal of Obamacare...REPEAL IT!

It will take years, probably a new President, but we are now on the road to perdition of "where do I get my free healthcare?" Free healthcare will cost our freedom (what is left of it) and Obama knows it and wants it.

Pertinent reminders of Weenie Republicans-

"Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who chairs the committee responsible for getting GOP candidates elected to the Senate this fall. Cornyn initially unfurled the "repeal and replace" banner, only to quickly make an exception for the "non-controversial stuff," such as the ban on preexisting conditions which is unfortunately exactly what necessitates the "controversial stuff" like the individual mandate."

"Republicans against repeal have found an amen corner in the cooler heads among conservative commentators. One Oliver Garland evencounseled that repeal was fundamentally unconservative: "True conservatives are not radicals; they respect tradition and work for stable reform to fix institutions."

"There you have it: Repealing a bill that became law last month is radical. Acquiescing to a decades-long flurry of legislation that effectively repeals the Constitution's limits on federal power is conservative. Ronald Reagan should have raised taxes to conserve the Great Society and shouted, "Mr. Gorbachev, remember and reform that wall!""

Then again, this appears to be the working definition of conservatism embraced by most GOP politicians. Republicans campaign on canceling spending programs, shutting down government agencies, and overturning Roe v. Wade. But once safely in office, they tend to leave most liberal handiwork alone, failing to repeal even Bill Clinton's tax increases. Occasionally they add a few big-government flourishes of their own -- a new entitlement to enlarge Medicare's unfunded liabilities here, a record increase in federal education spending there."

On the other side, Joe Hicks in his HICKS FILE believes "We Can Repeal Obamacare."
Let's hope he's right!

Health care overhaul spawns mass confusion for public | McClatchy

Health care overhaul spawns mass confusion for public | McClatchy

Doesn't anyone listen? You can't get it until 2014! You pay NOW! SURPRISE!??!
And don't hold your breath for 'free' health care in 2014, 2015, 2016... But you will pay for it none the less. If you need health care, see a doctor, pay your doctor. The system is all botched up now.