No Tax Hike for People Earning Less Than $250,000?

I was shocked to read yesterday (Feb. 28, 2009)in the Times Herald Record, Middletown, NY that Senator Chuck Schumer supports Obama's budget proposal. This is what the author, Chris McKenna, quoting Schumer, said, in part:

"My view is that the very highest end should pay more taxes, and that's because
the median incomes are shrinking," he said. "The average, middle-class person,
in the last seven or eight years, has treaded water, at best."
Schumer declined to specify an income threshold for raising taxes.

"Declined to specify an income threshold."

You know what this means: hold on to your wallet!

Photo credit: Times Herald-Record/DOMINICK FIORILLE

Earmarks, or Don't You Just Trust These Guys Implicitly?

[the 2009 omnibus spending bill] also includes $208,000 to control a weed known as cogongrass in Mississippi; $1.2 million to control cormorants in Michigan, Mississippi, New York and Vermont; $1 million to control Mormon crickets in Utah; and $162,000 to control rodents in Hawaii.                                 

The above is in addition to nearly 9000 other earmarks, worth nearly $8,000,000,000.  This according to the New York Times, February 25 ,2009  (House Passes Spending Bill, and Critics Are Quick to Point Out Pork, by Robert Pear).   If the Times published it, the article probably underestimates the amount of pork.   I guess this is what the attendees at Obama's fiscal responsibility summit had in mind:   Take taxpayer money and use it to buy votes.  

CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA.   HALLELUJAH.

The photo of Iago and Othello is from the New York Times also.

F for Congress

The following article appeared in The Warwick Advertiser, a local newspaper in Orange County, New York, on Friday, February 20, 2009. I am going to grade the stimulus plan, much as a high school teacher might grade a homework assignment. The New York delegation, in particular, think they are very smart. Lets see how they did on this little project. For each answer, the grade will be “E” if it is something that is likely to stimulate the Economic growth by creation of jobs, or “G” if it likely to stimulate Government growth via expansion or creation of liberal social engineering programs. If there are more E’s than G’s, Congress gets an “A,” but if there are more G’s than E’s, Congress gets an “F.”


Early details for NY in stimulus package
By The Associated Press


According to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, the economic stimulus package, subject to final congressional approval, contains roughly $20 billion for New Yorkers over 27 months, including:


$8.6 billion of additional Medicaid money for the state, $2.8 billion for New York City, $929 million for upstate counties and $262 million for Long Island. G

$2.7 billion in stabilization funds for education G

$800 million for special education funding G

$1 billion Title 1 education funding G

$87.5 million for drinking water projects E

$439 million for sewage projects E

$1 billion for highway funding E

$1.3 billion for mass transit E

$403 million for weatherization E

$96 million for hiring extra police G

$390 million for the public housing capital fund in New York City G

$98 million for community development block grants for the state G

$142 million for homelessness prevention G

$251 million for governments and community groups to offer affordable housing and rental assistance to the poor G

College tuition tax benefit up to $2,500 per student for middle-class taxpayers G

Totals: 10 G’s, 5 E’s

Looks like Congress fails again. So its back to middle school for all of them, including Chuck Schumer. I think I was pretty generous with the E’s, too. Mass transit? An economic stimulus? Give me a break. It certainly will not help us in upstate New York. But I have to confess something: I am no Bobby Jindal. If they offer me a $2500. Tax break for my daughter’s college tuition, I am not going to refuse it.

Countrywidespread

According to David Espo, AP, President Obama said the following:

This historic step won't be the end of what we do to turn our economy
around, but rather the beginning. The problems that
led us into this crisis are deep and widespread, and our
response must be equal to the task.
[emphasis added]

Deep and widespread? I would say the problems that led us into the recession spread from Barney Frank's senate desk to Christopher Dodd's. Maybe with a via point at Senator Barack Obama's. Does the Obama forget how these democrats pushed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to guarantee bad mortgages? Does he forget the hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions he received from Fannie and Freddie? Does he forget the sweetheart mortgage rates Dodd was granted by Countrywide, and that Countrywide has already received big bailout bucks that all three of these phonies voted for?

The new era of openness, honesty, and transparency has begun. How come I feel like I am looking through frosted glass?