Barry K Moritz

Despite a reputation for notoriously short memories, any American over the age of thirty (and probably many who are younger) knows these three words so well that they can complete the statement that began with them: “Read my lips! No new taxes!” The political statement ranks right up there with nuggets like “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” “Ich bin ein Berliner,” “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and “I didn’t inhale.”

It is interesting that those six words of George H.W. Bush live on, despite the fact that they became a lie a few months after they were spoken. Perhaps they are particularly interesting right now because, during the last election, We the People heard very similar words from candidate Obama: “I can make a firm pledge,” he said many times. “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”

Yet the largest increase in tobacco taxes – 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes (an increase of 151%) – took effect this year. Other tobacco products saw similar or even higher increases in the Federal tax.  As noted by Calvin Woodward of the Associated Press, “This is one tax that disproportionately affects the poor, who are more likely to smoke than the rich.” A moderate smoker, who consumes about a half pack a day, would pay an additional $115 in Federal taxes per year.

Obama’s broken promises do not stop there. Not too long after his inauguration, Lawrence Summers, the President’s chief economic adviser, reminded us of his boss’ pledge: “Let’s be very clear,” he exclaimed. “There are no, no tax increases next year.” As those words were spoken on March 31, 2009, it is assumed that they apply to the year 2010.

It is difficult to believe that Mr. Summers was unaware of  footnote 1 on page 127 of President Obama’s budget, which reads: “The estate tax is maintained at its 2009 parameters.” According to the Wall Street Journal, this means that the ‘death tax’ will not fall to zero next year as scheduled under current law. Estates in excess of $3.5 million will instead be taxed at up to 45 percent. No tax increases next year?  There is a bridge in Brooklyn I wish to sell….

Both of the above quoted statements that involve pledges not to increase taxes have become lies in the ignominious tradition of American politics. Either American’s memories are truly extraordinarily short (which might be occasionally questionable, as they do remember George H.W. Bush’s broken promise), or we are among the most gullible people to ever walk the face of the earth.

Hasn’t anybody considered the full consequences of these tax increases?  In the case of tobacco, it discourages US farmers from growing it.  This, in turn, lowers the amount of tobacco we are able to export, which is, in turn, detrimental to our international balance of trade.   The huge deficits in international trade we continue to rack up have changed us from a creditor nation to a debtor nation.  Our wealth is not just leaking overseas; the flow is massive.  Higher taxes on our products and businesses (which are already taxed at the second highest rate in the world, and which the President intends to further increase)  can do nothing except exacerbate the problem.

It is time to stop the spin, the broken promises, the misdirections, payoffs, kickbacks, and similar immoral activities by the politicians in office from the local level to the top of the Federal government. It is time to vote honest, intelligent, and educated people who know how to listen AFTER they get into office.  Furthermore, send the message that We the People will not tolerate dishonorable elected officials and their appointees who know in advance that they intend to break their word to us. To show those officials how serious we really are:

LET NO INCUMBENT RETURN!

Background:

It is a matter of record that the United States Congress, in 1980, decreed a moratorium on offshore drilling for oil and gas. As this prohibition was also mandated by a separate presidential directive issued by George H.W. Bush, the politicians were isolating the United States from potential sources of energy despite the fact that they were spending billions of dollars on the US Department of Energy every year – an agency with the mandate, at the time of its creation, to free the United States from dependence on foreign oil. This seemingly illogical behavior arose from an attempt to avoid more incidents of severe environmental damage from drilling operations – in particular the as-much-as 3 million gallon Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969.

Of course the technology to safely drill had already improved immensely, but a techno-illiterate Congress was more driven by fear than by fact. Over the 40 years since that incident, only 850 barrels of oil have been released into the marine environment from offshore drilling and pumping. As of today, natural (i.e., unrelated to human activity) seepage from the earth introduces more oil into the marine environment than human drilling and oil extraction.

As speculators sent the price of oil from the $40 per barrel range to more than $140 per barrel in 2008, and as the United States was importing 70% of the oil it used despite the documented mandate of the Department of Energy, the USA was sending up to $700 Billion a year to nations such as Saudi Arabia, which supports the terrorist organization Al Quaida; Venezuela, which supports FARQ terrorists in Columbia; and other ‘unfriendly nations’ such as Iran, which dirties its hands by sponsoring anti-Israel terrorist organizations such as Hamas . The price of gasoline quickly exceeded $4 per gallon, which immediately affected citizens’ disposable incomes and increased the cost of doing business. To add insult to injury, the President asked the oil-supplying nations (OPEC) to help ease the cost of oil by increasing production. They not only told us to pound salt, but they reduced their production! This combination promised a reduction of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and inflation at the same time.

Recognizing both the problem and the environmentally safe state of the art in drilling technology forty years after Santa Barbara, President George W. Bush decided he knew more than the eco-terrorists, and he bravely, at great political risk, rescinded his father’s presidential order. The price of crude oil immediately dropped by $10 per barrel, so the president then requested the democratic Congress to take similar action. A drilling bill, if passed by Congress, would likely have another benefit: the further reduction in the price of oil simply by introducing the element of risk to the out-of-control oil speculators.

Senselessness

Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi  allowed her ideology and hatred of George W. Bush to rule over rationality.  She forcefully rejected the President’s request – even as Barack Obama (ahead in the polls, but not yet officially president) said he might be open to some drilling.

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If there were ever a question of which Washington legislator most deserves to be deprived of another term, one who most deserves recall for manufacturing defects and for ignoring time-between-overhaul checkups on sanity, there can be only one answer to that question:

Madame Pelosi

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

This radioactive ‘madame’ of the Congress is one of the most deserving. She would be a toxic asset except for the fact that she is no asset at all. And to think that she stands third in line behind the glib but substance-less President and the bozo who has perpetual foot-in-mouth disease…. Read the rest of this entry »