My View

Random ruminations from your resident curmudgeon...


So Warren Buffet thinks the rich are "coddled" and should pay more in taxes. In his recent New York Times Op-Ed piece, Buffett wrote, in part,

"Our leaders have asked for shared sacrifice. But when they did the asking, they spared me.... While most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks...These and other blessings are showered upon us by our legislators in Washington..."

Readers of this column know that one of the first things I say to do is to always follow the money. Mr. Buffett feels that he has been coddled, eh? Tell me this, dear readers, if he is being coddled so much, why is his company, Berkshire Hathaway fighting with the IRS over a tax payment of over $1 BILLION dollars? According to the Berkshire Hathaway annual report, the company's auditors have mentioned in the footnotes that there is unrecognized tax benefits of this amount, meaning that the company will likely have to pay the taxes in this dispute. C'mon Warren, you don't want to be coddled anymore, so pony up the funds. Write the check immediately and stop wasting government (taxpayer) resources trying to collect the funds from your very own, coddled company.The hypocrisy of Buffett and his ilk is gag inducing. The next time someone trots out Buffett as an example of why the rich should pay more, stop and ask if he has paid the $1 billion tax bill that is owed by his company.

The other night, my wife asked me to whisper some dirty things in her ear. So I said "laundry, the bathroom, the kitchen floor."

In its simplest form, "crony capitalism" is the inter-relationship between a private company and government officials that innure special benefits to that company that are not available to other competitors. A company that has ties to high ranking government officials may have an inside advantage on landing government contracts or business. One of the persistent memes from the Left during the Bush adminsistration was that we invaded Iraq so that Haliburton, an integrated oil service company, could benefit. There was always an attempt by the Left and their accomplices in the main stream media to tie any wrongdoing with Haliburton to Dick Cheney and George Bush. Tell me this, how much have you heard from the MSM about Solyndra? Who is that, you ask? Solyndra is a failed "green energy" company that left tax payers with a $500 million dollar tab after it failed. No big deal, you say; companies fail all the time. This one was special, friends. Guaranties for the loan from the Department of Energy were rushed through by the White House. Furthermore, the largest shareholder in Solyndra, George Kaiser, was a prominent donor to the Democrats in the last election cycle and even hosted a fund raiser in his home for then candidate Obama. Now I don't know about you, but this certainly sounds like "crony capitalism" to me. As much as the MSM decried- and rightfully so- the instances, real or perceived, of crony capitalism in the Bush administration, they have been strangely silent on this blatant example of crony capitalism. Keep your eye on this, and be aware, there are some more instances that are coming to light that suggest that crony capitalism is very alive and well in the Obama administration, even if you will not hear it in the MSM.

You know what is awkward? When the zombies are coming for brains, and they just walk right past me.

If you go back to December of 2007, the U.S. economy was at "full employment" meaning that our unemployment rate was less than 4%. Of course, we know that in 2008, the financial crisis in this country came to full flower, and the result has been a very severe recession. Numerous jobs have been shed over the course of the nearly three years, so that now our real unemployment rate is approximately 17%. The coming elections in 2012, coupled with this dire employment picture, have focused our leaders in Washington on the fact that we have to create more jobs. How many jobs? I'm glad you asked. We will need to create 262,000 NEW jobs a month. For the next FIVE years. 16,200,00 new jobs. All to get back to the December 2007 employment levels. Currently, we are creating just over 100,000 new jobs a month. So the next time someone in Washington proposes a new tax, a new piece of legislation, or even a new "jobs" bill, ask yourself what this is really doing to help our country, our businesses, create new jobs. If you cannot simply and clearly answer that question, then know that it will not aid in creating the jobs we so desperately need.

I drive waaay too fast to worry about cholesterol.

And that my friends, is my view.