My View

Random ruminations from your resident curmudgeon...

Do you want to know the crux of the problems that we are facing in our country today? The real root cause? Here it is, dear readers, and once you focus on this, you will understand why our nation faces many of the problems we do today. In testimony before the House Small Business Committee on June 22nd, tax cheat and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) that  the United States must raise taxes on small businesses because there was "no alternative, because otherwise, you have to shrink the overall size of government programs, including federal education spending." There it is folks, the whole reason that you and I go to work and pay way too much in taxes- to keep growing the federal government. And this is a fundamental and philosophical viewpoint that eventually will lead to the demise of our great nation. We have a ruling class that believes that you and I work for them, that our income is to support them, and that government can never shrink. Forget that 65% of all jobs in this country are created by small businesses and entrepreneurs who face great risk to start new companies. Taxes must go up on those entities to support the federal government. Never mind that those higher taxes are job killers. The rapaciousness of our federal government is truly out of control, and it is time to shift the philosophical paradigm back to one where the government works for us, not the other way around.


I had amnesia once. Maybe twice.


President Obama signaled this week that he is going back to the liberal left's tried and true playbook of class warfare to try to get a compromise on the raising the federal debt ceiling. He wants to end the tax break fro corporate jet owners, which, if enacted, will add about $3 billion dollars in potential new taxes to the take the federal government gets annually. Obama mentioned owners of corporate jets, along with oil companies (why are oil companies always singled out?) as entities that should pay more corporate tax to benefit the recipients of college scholarships and medical research grants. That's all well and good, yet it was just last year that Obama championed a corporate tax break for jet owners to stimulate aircraft production in the U.S. and the accompanying jobs that it would generate. The fact that the current administration has an incoherent tax policy has something to do with the fact that few in this administration have any real world experience running a business. The fact that this administration reflexively is falling back on tired class warfare rhetoric shows that this administration has no new ideas.


The food Nazis are trying to tell you that red meat is bad for you. Take it from me, red meat is not bad for you. Fuzzy, green meat, however, is bad for you.


Here is the truth about the ethanol scam: ethanol, the E-10 you see on your gas pump when you fill up your vehicle, cuts the overall fuel economy and performance of your engine. Ethanol has only about 67% as much energy as regular gasoline, and since ethanol is now 10% of the gas we pump into our cars, our fuel economy and engine performance are sub-optimal. What's more, the Environmental Protection Agency has approved E-15 (85% gasoline and 15% ethanol) for use in vehicles from the model year 2001 and newer.  Oh yeah, ethanol is highly corrosive and reduces engine life. Folks, this is your federal government operating in your "best interest". The reality is that this is the federal government pandering to corn farmers and their powerful lobby. And tax cheat Time Geithner is worried about shrinking this monstrosity. Frankly, with a friend like the bureaucrats and legislators in Washington, I don't need any enemas, uh enemies.


My days start so much better since I put up the sign in my bedroom that says "socks first, THEN shoes".

And that, my friends, is my view.