Gee's Budget Proposal 2011

Ok, so I haven't yet been able to find any links to the transcript of Obama's speech from last night, but I found some snippets that I cut and pasted together from various news articles and commentary pieces....and then re-worded to see how Obama's proposal sounds when it's addressed on an individual (or small family) scale.

I figure, if his "increase taxes and spend more to get out of debt" budget plan works at the government level, then surely it should work for my personal finances too.

Again... I don't have his whole speech, but I think the quotes I did find encapsulate Obama's plan pretty well:

My fellow Americans: 

My household faces serious economic troubles.  Even after our economy recovers, I will still be on track to spend more money than I take in throughout this decade and beyond.  That means I’ll have to keep borrowing more from companies like Capital One.  And that means more of my paycheck will go toward paying off the interest on all the loans I keep taking out.  By the end of this decade, the interest I owe on my debt could rise to nearly $1 trillion. Just the interest payments. 

Some people would have me reduce my credit card spending.  A 70 percent cut in fine dining, a 25 percent cut in Amazon.com purchases, a 30 percent cut in vacations…cuts in massages and hair products.  That’s their proposal.  These are the kinds of cuts that tell me I can’t afford the America that I believe in and, I think, you believe in. 

Therefore, my budget plan for 2011 includes maxing out my credit card and making minimum payments on the interest of my debt, because I shouldn’t have to choose between a future of spiraling debt and one where I forfeit investments in myself.

I believe that any other plan paints a vision of our future that is deeply pessimistic.  It’s a vision that says if my clothes tear and my high heels wear out, I can’t afford to fix them and buy more. If I am a bright young American who has the drive and the will but not the money to go to Disney World, I can’t afford to go. 

To meet my fiscal challenge, you will need to make reforms.  You will all need to make sacrifices. My employer will need to give me a raise.  But, rest assured, I do not have to sacrifice the America I believe in.  As long as I’m in charge of my finances, I won’t. 

Sure, I will make the tough cuts necessary to achieve these savings, including in purchases I care about, but I will not sacrifice the core investments I need to grow.  I’ll invest in Save the Whale campaigns and buy new energy-efficient appliances (even though the ones I have are less than 3 years old).  I’ll invest in a new car, better cable TV and broadband access.

I will do what I need to compete and I will win the future.  

~Gee

Expose George Soros - Sign the Petition

For several years, left-wing billionaire George Soros has called for a reorganization of the global economic system, claiming even back in 2009 in a Japanese op-ed article that "reorganizing the world order will need to extend beyond the financial system and involve the United Nations." 

While Soros financially backs groups like MoveOn.org, ACORN, and more than 1,200 other organizations in the hopes of destroying the American economy by creating a "global sheriff," the media continually turns a blind eye to one key factor:  the United States was founded on principles of liberty and sovereignty from other ruling nations. The United States is not and should never be the global socialist Utopia that Soros envisions.

However, unless the media stops laying the tracks for Soros' global plans, our nation will surely face the loss of liberty as we have never seen before.

In an effort to expose Soros' plans to destroy the American economy in favor of a overarching global regulator, The Media Research Center has a petition available for citizens demanding the media tells the truth about his plans.

From the MRC Action petition website:

George Soros is bad for America, and the media aren’t saying a word. That’s why the Media Research Center -- the nation’s foremost liberal media watchdog has launched its national “Demand the Media Tell the Truth About George Soros” petition -- alerting the public, and holding the liberal media accountable for their active participation in Soros’ anti-American plans in bringing our nation down.

Click here if you'd like to sign the petition!

~Gee

Election Day! (Finally, change We The People can believe in!)

This is perhaps one of the funniest summaries I've seen from the Stewart / Colbert rally...clearly this crowd hasn't heard of Keynesian economics.

Alas, the one guy who very nearly distinguished himself as the lone intellect amongst the group (by recognizing the interviewer's obvious linguistic play on the words "Keynesian" vs. "Kenyan") then stuck his foot in his mouth with his follow-up answer, acknowledging he didn't know anything about Obama's economic principles.  Yikes.

For the record, let's recap a few of Obama's economic principles:

        'equality of outcome' mentality

  +    gov't-run & publicly-owned health insurance, housing market, etc. 

  +    'mandatory volunteering' principles and social reform initiatives

  =    _________

Answer: 

    a.)  Keynesian theory

    b.)  Austrian school economics

    c.)  Free market democracy

    d.)  Socialism

P.S. - Your predictions are in!  Thank you for your November Nonsense submissions!  Don't forget to vote!

~Gee

Picture of the Week

Geithner-omics 101 (A Lesson on How to Economically Kill A Nation)

It's often said that the only things in life we can be certain of are death and taxes.  When it comes to Tim Geithner and the federal government, the only thing of which we can be certain is that Geithner's tax plan will certainly be the death of this great nation. 

In his latest arguments favoring the creation of more federal stimulus in an attempt to boost the economy, Tim Geithner’s general ineptitude and vast ignorance of basic economic principles has once again shown its true colors.  According to today’s article from the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Geithner is quoted as saying, “the U.S. can no longer rely on consumer spending, which has long powered the economy.” However, competitive free market economies succeed precisely because of supply and demand, and yes, consumer spending is one such measure of demand.

What exactly does Mr. Geithner think our economy will rely on to stay as prosperous as we are, if it’s not consumer spending?  What will fuel our economy if it’s not the purchase of tangible, necessary products procured by the general population? Happy thoughts? Fairy dust? Carbon credits?

Maybe we should backtrack and DEFINE consumer spending, to see what sort of consumer items Mr. Geithner thinks the U.S. can’t rely on anymore.  Consumer spending, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, is essentially is any type of public goods consumption that falls into one of approx. 60 categories, including:

·         Clothing

·         Hospitals

·         Physicians, Dentist, Other Medical Professionals

·         Higher Education

·         Nursery, Elementary and Secondary Education

·         Telephone and Telegraph

·         Books and Maps

·         Taxicab, Railway, Bus, and Other Travel Expenses

·         Electricity

·         Water and Other Sanitary Services

·         Furniture and Durable Household Equipment

·         Drug Preparations

·         Scholarships / Foster Children

If we can’t rely on our country to provide an adequate supply of the above-mentioned items to support the free market demand for these necessities, what alternatives do we have as a nation?  I wonder, which of these “luxury” consumer items must the U.S. sacrifice moving forward, according to Mr. Geithner’s vision of a prosperous U.S. nation.  

~Gee