My View

Random ruminations from your resident curmudgeon...

In President Obama's proposal for a budget for fiscal year 2014 is a proposal to cap the amount that Americans can have in their retirement accounts at $3 million. That figure is derived from the fact that today, an IRA in the amount of $3 million would yield an annuity of $205,000 annually. A couple of thoughts about this proposal. It is breathtakingly audacious that the occupant of the White House, or anyone in Washington for that matter, presupposes to tell any of us what is "reasonable" for our retirement saving and income needs. Yet this is the mindset of most if not all the denizens of the bureaucratic and Congressional swamp that is Washington. Once again, the people who are productive, who forgo expenditures and save for their retirement are in the cross hairs of a ridiculous proposal such as this. Instead of a punitive approach to those that are willing to save, why not make it easier to save for retirement and encourage more people to set aside money for their financial well being in those retirement years? As a reader of this blog, you know that I have pointed out on numerous occasions that Social Security is bankrupt by any reasonable and legitimate accounting standard, so being able to be financially safe in retirement is going to rest on our shoulders, not what happens in Washington. And for that reason, we should save as much as possible for our retirement without constraints from Washington.

There is no sense in being a pessimist. It doesn't work anyway.

Speaking of the Obama budget, here are some important things to know: it will raise taxes by approximately $1.1 trillion. Now Obama and the Democrats will protest that it does no such thing, but when deductions are capped, estate taxes raised, and other limitations imposed under his proposal, the effect is a massive tax increase. Also the proposed budget severely under funds defense, failing to provide for adequate levels of training and maintenance. Think this is a wise decision given the unstable nature of the geopolitical environment today? Oh yeah, the proposal from the President doesn't balance. In fact, there was not even a feeble attempt to balance this monstrosity. Our nation needs leadership- desperately- yet there is none forthcoming from this administration. If we are going to move toward a reasonable solution to work out of this fiscal mess in which our country finds itself, we are going to have to have real leadership from the right and the left, and politics are going to have to be set aside so viable solutions can be crafted. Unfortunately, that leadership in Washington is lacking.

My wife is a lot like nature. She abhors a vacuum.

(Spotted) Al Gore re-emerged on the public stage once again touting his tired (and disproved) canard about global warming. Al must be running a little short of funds and looking to extract some more from the suckers that buy in to his scam. Now you may read that last sentence and think that I am just a Neanderthal that  is denying the "facts" of global warming. About those "facts"... According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the heat from the sun plays a larger role in temperature variation than previously thought. Quoting from the report,

"Results do suggest the possibility of a much larger impact of solar variations on the stratosphere than previously thought, and some studies suggest that this may lead to significant regional impacts on climate."

According to the IPCC study, over 25% of the 1.1 degree increase in the average temperature over the last 100 years has been caused by solar activity. Here is the reality of the global warming scam- the earth gets warmer and cooler and has since creation. The presumptuousness of Al Gore and others to take 100 years of data and state as fact that the earth is permanently warming because of human activity is nothing more than a charade designed to extract money from you, me, and every business. Let's recognize Al for the charlatan that he is and global warming for the hoax that is designed to line his pockets.

Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while, I was a suspect.

And that, my friends, is my view