Trash the EPA

Posted on 10/06/2009 by Grumpa Joe

If there was ever a reason to reduce the size of government it is the current debate about cow farts. The EPA wants to impose a tax on every cow in the country to reduce the amount of methane they produce. The argument is that methane contributes to global warming. Sun flares do too.  If you think I am kidding go to the cow fart tax website to learn more.

If the EPA had a gram of brain power they would have suggested a tax incentive for farmers that capture the methane. We are looking for alternative sources of energy why not cow farts? We capture methane from land fills, so it is totally rational to believe we could capture the gas escaping a cows ass. Instead of putting farmers out of business with this asinine proposal, the EPA would become the heroes of the energy world.

I think we could save more methane by eliminating the entire EPA. After all, their people fart too. Our congress is also a major gas producer. They regularly spew the most horrific stinking laws, and tax increases. They make a cow’s output more like perfume. The idea of the tax is enough to convince me that the EPA minds are in a state of decay. What I have left out of the equation however, is the input from POTUS.

Obama loves a good cow fart

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You Will Suffer Long and Hard

Posted on 26/05/2009 by Grumpa Joe
My Flag Flies Everyday

My Flag Flies Everyday

The Sunday May 24 edition of the Chicago Tribune ran an article titled, “Adding Up What CEOs Made.”  The piece includes a list of the 100 top companies in Chicago and Northern Indiana, and the total compensation package the CEOs receive. Even though the title says “Adding Up…” it doesn’t really add it up. They only list 100 salaries, but I went to the trouble to input them into a spreadsheet to get the sum. I was curious to see what the flap is about the outrageous salaries being used to demonize Capitalism. The media has been busy barraging us with huge bonuses and salaries being paid. They bark the  need for regulation. This is truly the output of a socialist mindset.

I was surprised by the total of the top 100 salaries,  by the rate at which the salaries drop. Granted there isn’t a poor guy on the list, and the money they make in a year is more than most of us will earn in a lifetime. These CEOs lead companies that are producing and selling billions of dollars in products and services. Why is there such a penis envy of these leaders for their compensation? Are we envious? Do we want to lead the same life style they do? Do we want to work 24/7  to the detriment of our families? Why do we resent high salaries? The left leaning individual resents it because he truly believes the CEO and the company has made that salary off the sweat of his brow. Most employees will work forty hours per week at some incremental position stocking shelves or answering phones, or taking orders, but they are paid commensurate with the requirements of the position. What that employee doesn’t seem to understand is that his job is a commodity. There is a supply and demand for workers. The salary he is paid  is competitive with other companies who need the same level of skill.

The liberal also argues that the wealth paid to  CEO’s must be redistributed to those who are less fortunate. This is the reason for my article today. If we were to take all the money paid to the top CEOs in the country what magnitude of social spending would it  pay for?

Here are some facts and assumptions:

1.) The accumulative  salary paid to the CEOs of the top 100 companies in Illinois, as stated in the Tribune article, is  $559,940,329.00. This is a little more than a half billion dollars.

2.) Assume that every state in the union has a list of 100 top companies whose CEOs are paid the same. For the sake of simplicity let me use round numbers (50 x $600,000,000) = 30 billion dollars.

3.) Assume that I am too low and I am off by a factor of 10, the number becomes $300 billion dollars.

Wow! that is a lot of money, but wait, the TARP cost over two times that much, the stimulus package cost over three times that much,  and the proposed Federal Budget will cost over five times that much.

Here is my argument. We have just taken away all the money made by the top 50,000 executives in the USA and given it to the government to pay for it’s super duper programs, and we have barely paid for 11.4 % of it. Where will the remaining 88.6% come from?

Liberals don’t give up easy. They will argue that the remainder will come from taxing the companies that these CEOs lead. Okay, how many of these CEOs will work their ass off for $1.00? Even a liberal would have to agree that a salary of $1.00 per year would make life hard. Most likely, none of them would. They will quit, or let the company be run by the worker bees who believe it is by the sweat of their balls that the big money is made. (It will be interesting to see if the UAW can run Chrysler and compete in the world market.)

Actually, what will happen, is that none of the above will play out. The CEOs will continue to work for big money because that is the market value of their skills, and the Government will tax the living hell out of everyone to make up the money needed to implement thier utopian schemes. In the end, they will destroy the greatest country on earth and the deny the liberty of each and every one of us.

All of you youngsters out there who voted for “Change We Can Believe In,” have fun. I am near the end of my life cycle, and will not live to see too much grief.  You are going to suffer long and hard for your decision to take the country into this devastating direction.

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Slavery to Slavery?

Posted on 21/02/2009 by Grumpa Joe
My Flag Flies Everyday

My Flag Flies Everyday

I got to thinking about those trillions the government is throwing at earmark projects called stimulus. I asked myself how many people could a trillion dollars really help?  I looked at three items that people spend money on: house, car, and college education.

Here is how it works out:

1. How many $200,000.00  houses can one buy for a trillion? A two hundred thousand dollar house is probably affordable for most of the population.

ans: Five million

2. How many cars valued at $25,000.00 each? Not a Lexus or Cadillac, but a Ford Focus will get you to where you need to go.

ans: Forty million.

3. How many students could spend $40,000.00 on college tuition?  This one assumes you spend three hundred dollars per credit hour and you require one hundred and thirty credits to get a degree, and live with your parents.

ans: Twenty five  million five hundred thousand.

A trillion dollars given away in this fashion would most likely stimulate the economy. Instead we will direct the money through a filter called “government.”  The end result will be that only a third will get to the consumer. The remainder will be lost in management fees. In big government management fees are more commonly referred to as GRAFT.

What BHO failed to tell the people of the USA is that his redistribution of wealth will make everyone in the country a slave. By robbing the rich to give to the poor, the result will make everyone poor.

The direction of the country toward “Change You Can Believe In,” will bankrupt the treasury. The end result is that the greatest country in the history of the earth will become  a slave to the countries who buy our debt.

Barack likes to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln. While Lincoln freed a small number of the population who were slaves, Barack will enslave the entire country. How will that happen?

We will borrow the money from China or other countries. In order for them to loan us the money, we will have to make it worth their while. We will have to pay higher interest. Higher interest will mean that the government has less money to pay for the programs that they have legislated into law. In other words if it takes a trillion dollars to run the country, we’ll now have to add the interest to that.  Where will the government get the extra money? They have two ways: 1. Pass the expense to the tax payer by increasing his contribution. 2. Print more money to cover the bill. This means that your money is worth less than it was before. I already have trouble making ends meet on my fixed income.

Here is what the interest payment looks like on a trillion dollars:

Interest rate-percent   interest payment
2   20,000,000,000.0
3   30,000,000,000.0
4   40,000,000,000.0
5   50,000,000,000.0
6   60,000,000,000.0
7   70,000,000,000.0
8   80,000,000,000.0
9   90,000,000,000.0
10   100,000,000,000.0

In case you have a problem reading all those zeros, they are billions.

Mark my words, this country is headed for another civil war with the rampant spending under this president. Isn’t civil war another issue that Lincoln had to deal with?

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Capital Gains What?

Posted on 21/10/2008 by Grumpa Joe
My Flag Flies Everyday

My Flag Flies Everyday

The rhetoric in this campaign could only be written by lawyers. We need to listen and understand every word, then read between the lines. I keep hearing that BO wants to limit his taxation to the “very rich.” He openly says there are many companies who are so rich they can afford to give some up for those at the bottom. I got to thinking about his words, and the concepts begin to sink in.

The folks who support BO and who have jobs seem to agree that their employers use them to make their fortunes. These workers have a mentality that somehow, their employer would not be rich if it were not for the sweat of their labor. They revel in the concept of taking it back from the rich. These people resent everything and everyone who has a nickle more than them. What they don’t understand is that the employer pays them a fair market wage for the the fruits of their effort. They also don’t realize that when they go home, the employer is still working to make things happen. Business is a 24/7 operation, and the owners take on a huge responsibility to make it a success.

How does the capital gains tax affect me and you? I fall into the “ninety five percent, or the middle class,” who are supposed to get a tax break in the BO program. I will get that tax break at the expense of a capital gains tax on the wealthiest of companies.  I don’t work anymore, and I live off my 401K, and Social Security. It took my deceased wife and me over forty two years to accumulate the nest egg. We gave up luxuries, spent judiciously, and saved. We invested in the market, and bought into many different companies. Many of my investments are designed for growth so the nest egg keeps up with inflation. When a company does well and expands, or grows, they transfer the growth to the share holders in the form of a capital gain distribution. It is not money, but shares of stock. This is a “capital gain.” At the end of the year, I have to pay a tax on that gain. There have been years, when I had capital gains, and paid a tax, however, the share price of the stock dropped making the value of the gain negative. Uncle Sam took the tax and ran. There was no sympathy toward the stock holder, Even though I was stuck with a stock that was lower in value than before the gain was declared. My 401K depends on capital gains to keep feeding me. I have to sell shares of the funds to get the  money I live on.

All of the people, who have been hypnotised into believing that BO will only tax the rich, are in for a rude awakening.  Any worker who is planning to retire on a 401K plan will be affected by the capital gains tax. Why? because you are investing in the companies that he will tax. All the “boomers” who want to retire and take advantage of their years of labor will be affected too. Companies who pay taxes, pay less dividend and have less money to invest in growth. It is as simple as that; more tax, less growth. More tax, less money in your 401K. More capital gains tax, and the more you pay; the less you have to live on. We are all affected by the capital gains tax, even those of us who are “middle class.” I don’t beleive for a minute that BO doesn’t see that he will burden the retiring baby boomers. He wants it all.

Barack and his liberal cronies love the concept of taking care of the little guy.  He doesn’t believe we are smart enough to care for ourselves.  If BO is really interested in taking care of us, he will abolish his ‘welfare,’ mentality. Karl Marx had a similar idea, and initiated a great ‘experiment” in Europe. Millions were slaughtered to make the idea work. Marxism took everything from the people. The government owned the wealth to take care of the people. The experiment was called “communism.”

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Where Is He Taking Us?

Posted on 20/10/2008 by Grumpa Joe
My Flag Flies Everyday

My Flag Flies Everyday

BO went on the defensive attacking John Mc Cain’s statement that BO is proposing Socialism. “Obama responded forcefully, called McCain’s tactics “the oldest trick in the book,” a scare tactic, and nothing more than name calling.”

I say, call a “spade a spade.”  Mc Cain must have touched a nerve.  BO went on to defend himself by asking why Warren Buffet would endorse him? Why would he? Maybe Warren plans to fund BO’s plans with his personal fortune. He is rich enough to make a dent. Then again, maybe Warren is smart enough to cozy up to BO so he will get preferential treatment.

Barack Obama studied socialism, his father was a socialist, his mother had socialist leanings, he associated with known communists, he has a socialist mentality, he has proposed a socialist program. He doesn’t see it as socialism, but his vision for America is one that is very different from yours and mine. He also knows that if this “truth’ becomes accepted by America, that his goose is cooked. He has to destroy the notion, just like he is trying to destroy Sarah Palin, and “Joe The Plumber.” By the way, after digging into every aspect of Joe Wurzelbacher’s life, the media has implied that “Joe The Plumber” should have been “vetted’ by the Mc Cain campaign before he used him as an example of taxing small business. What in the world are they thinking? BO has tried to destroy a U.S. citizen who asked him a straight forward question? Has BO, the DNC and the liberal media adopted a KGB mentality? Should we all be running scared to ask anything from the Messiah for fear of being investigated, and our lives ruined? 

Where in the world is he taking us?

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