At last count, Barry "Almighty" has now read three speeches from his, attached at the hip, teleprompter all praising what it is that his latest "jobs plan," laughingly referred to as the "American Jobs Act," will accomplish in getting Americans working again. The first speech came last Thursday before a joint session of Congress, then came one on Friday at the University of Richmond, and then Monday in the White House Rose Garden. He is expected to give similar speeches Tuesday (today) and Wednesday (tomorrow), for a total of five speeches in seven days. I'm sure we all remember all the grandiose speeches he gave back when he was trying to garner support for his outright seizure of our healthcare system via "Obamacare," and how well they worked to convince people that it was all for our own good. Try as he might to convince us that government bureaucrats know better than do "We the People," when it comes to our healthcare, he never quite succeeded in his endeavor. But did that matter to Barry "Almighty" and his merry cadre of "progressive" Democrats? Nope, not in the least. These folks were going to shove this thing through come Hell or high water. This had been the liberal wet dream for decades and there was no way that they were going to let this opportunity pass them by. No way, Jose.
Anyway, this newest version of a "Jobs" Act, which can best be described, and very accurately, as Barry's Stimulus II, will cost somewhere around $450 billion, or just a little more than half as much as Barry's first attempt at a "stimulus," which failed so miserably. White House Budget Director Jack Lew is the man who has now been charged with identifying how Barry plans on paying for this latest spending boondoggle of his. The answer will not surprise you, or, at least by this time, it shouldn't. Because, my friends, it's all about, what else but, tax hikes. Our buddy Mr. Lew, here, kicked off Monday's White House presser by saying that he wants to limit tax deductions for individuals making more than $200,000 a year (and families making more than $250,000 a year), raise taxes on capital gains, raise taxes on oil companies and slow down tax depreciation of corporate jets. If that sounds familiar, it's because it should, that is the exactly same list of tax hikes that Barry pushed Congress to include in its debt limit deal this summer. At that time, Barry was pushing these tax hikes as part of the "shared sacrifice" needed to reduce the debt. Now he's using these same provisions to pay for even higher deficit spending. Now wait a minute, I didn't just fall off the apple cart. But how's that possible, even for Barry "Almighty?"
Pressed to explain exactly how it is that Barry could use the same tax hikes to both meet the debt deal's deficit reduction targets and pay for his new stimulus plan, even Lew had to admit that Barry can't count the same tax increases for two separate purposes. Duh, ya think? Barry is notorious for trying to use the same pot of money to fund multiple programs that are both separate and distinct, remember one of the funding schemes for Obamacare that involved Medicare funds. This time around, at least according to this guy Lew, Barry plans on introducing a whole new slew of tax hikes next week, when he plans to give yet another deficit reduction speech. Imagine that, "a whole new slew of tax hikes" and yet another speech. Nothing new here, same old, same old. Shit that is! That's all this guy knows how to do! And while Barry may have, yet again, insisted on Monday that his second stimulus will be "fully paid for" he was more than a bit vague when it came to outlining exactly how that was going to be accomplished. This is problematic on several levels. If Stimulus II is fully paid for with immediate tax hikes, then it isn't the kind of deficit spending that Barry's Keynesian logic demands. If it is only paid for later, at the end of the 10-year horizon, then this amounts to nothing more than just another Barry budget gimmick, because Barry will be long gone from office by then.
So which is it, Barry? Is your Stimulus II really just another complicated wealth redistribution scheme accomplished through creative manipulation of the tax code? Or, does it do nothing more than to leave difficult tax hikes to be implemented by future presidents who may not have the same level of zeal for tax hikes that you seem to have? So as usual here, what Barry is effectively doing is to do nothing more than to once again simply dodge the bullet by voting "present?" Either he thinks that we are nothing more than a bunch of morons who can be very easily fooled, or he actually believes this stuff. And I'm sure which of these scenarios frightens me more. But regardless of whatever the answer, do not expect to hear it from Barry during his next round of stimulus speeches. And I know, I may be harping on this to the point where some may be getting sick of hearing about it, but this continuing mantra of "shared sacrifice" is driving me freakin crazy. At a time when you have nearly 50 percent of the population paying absolutely zero in income taxes and yet receiving massive tax "refunds" under that innocuous sounding program referred to as the "earned income tax credit," something seems to be a bit out of kilter here. If we're going to be talking about being fair and equitable, then everyone ought be required to pay something. No one should be getting something for nothing at the expense of the rest of us. And no one is entitled to a free ride. I'm getting extremely tired of subsidizing the reckless and idiotic behavior of those too lazy to pay their own way.
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