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

Picture of the Week

Thank You, Mr. President

Dear President Obama,

Recently, you expressed your amusement at Tea Partiers, those of whom have been the primary organized vocalization of the people’s frustration at the out of control government spending and corruption. Mr. Obama, you even had the audacity to suggest that the American public should thank you for the current state of the tax system.

Well, considering that the taxpayers employ you and pay your salary, I’d say you should be thanking us.

Mr. Obama, you should be thanking the top 50% of the earners in this country (those making over $26,000), as they are responsible for about 95% of the government’s income, according to the IRS. 

You should especially be thanking those making $60,000 and above (the top 1/4 of the earners), since this “wealthy” group is responsible for paying 86% of the nation’s federal income tax, also according to the IRS.


Considering that 25% of the population contributes more than 4 out of every 5 dollars that the federal government collects, I don’t quite see why you think we need to “thank” you for this gross abuse of the tax system and blatant wealth redistribution structure.  Likewise, considering that bottom 50% of earners barely pay any federal income tax (if they pay ANY at all), exactly HOW can this group thank you for tax breaks?  After all, surely you aren’t implying you offer tax breaks to people who aren’t paying into the system in the first place, are you?


Regardless, we recognize that since your approval ratings sink to a new low with each new day, we thought we would appease your desperate need for a pat on the back by offering our thanks for a few other topics.

So without further ado: Mr. Obama, thank you.

Thank you for your conceited, false belief that you can solve the problems of the world.  Thank you for your bloated self-love of yourself and desperate need to remind yourself how "great" you think you are.

Thank you for pandering to the unions, Andy Stern, and the thugs at SEIU, who beat a conservative African-American man unconscious who was handing out flags which read "Don't Tread On Me" at a St. Louis town hall meeting.

Thank you for paying homage to Mao on the White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room.
  
Thank you for Anita Dunn, whose favorite political philosopher is mass-murderer Mao Zedong, and all the other admitted communist revolutionaries you have appointed within your cabinet and who helped elect you.

Thank you for Barney Frank, who not only paid $20,000 (unreported to the IRS) to Steve Gobi, a male prostitute who later became Frank’s personal aide but also later had a relationship with Herb Moses, a “mortgage guru” and high-level executive at Fannie May from 1991 until 1998, who helped develop many of the sub-prime lending programs that ultimately led to the collapse of the housing market.

Thank you for Charlie Rangle, who “forgot” to report $75,000 in income from a rental property in the Dominican Republic, a rental property that he charged at least $500 a night to rent.

Thank you for Ron Kirk, your nominee for U.S. Trade Representative who owed $10,000 to the government in back taxes. 

Thank you for 9-11 Truther Van Jones, who after "resigning" from his Green Jobs Czar position, has been forever divested of his power and influence in your administration as he sits on the board for the progressive think-tank known as the Center for American Progress.


Thank you for your hypocrisy: “The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m president of the United States.” – then, Sen. Barack Obama

Thank you for flying all the way across the globe to Copenhagen and making time out of your hectic schedule in attempts to restore honor and dignity to our much despised country and giving an enthusiastic pitch for the Chicago Olympics bid.

Thank you for earning winning   being given the first Nobel Peace Prize for participation.

Thank you for appointing Nancy Killefer as your "Chief Performance Officer" to monitor government waste, even with her failure to pay employment taxes on household help for 1.5+ years.

Thank you for Rahm Emanuel, your Chief of Staff.  Thank you for his failure to disclose +$100,000 in taxable income, and especially thank you for his “service” on Freddie Mac’s board of directors during which time that government-baked lender was accused of fraud for lying about their income back in 2000, 2001, and 2002.  Thank you for that generous contribution to 2008 stock market crash.

Thank you for Vincent Fumo, the former Pennsylvania Senator, who was convicted and found guilty for 137 counts of corruption, including defrauding the state Senate, etc. of +$3.5 million to pay for his private (lavish) lifestyle, in addition to racketeering, bribery, destroying evidence, and obstruction of justice... Not to mention his 1974 encounter with the law when he was the target of a 44-count indictment for mail fraud. 

Thank you for hosting dinner parties with ex-terrorist Bill Ayres.

Thank you for criticizing former President George Bush for playing golf during wartime, and thank you further for, in your first year and a half in office, managing to play more rounds of golf than did President Bush in his entire eight years in office.

Thank you for believing the American people are either too dim-witted or ignorant to either read or understand the health-care bill.  (Thank you for signing into law a health care bill that none of your Congressional supporters took the time to read before passing.)

Thank you for Charles W. Freeman Jr., your selected candidate to the National Intelligence Council, who had to withdraw his nomination because of questions about his questionable financial ties to China and Saudi Arabia.

Thank you for identifying Reverend Wright as your spiritual mentor.  His hate speech against our nation (and against white people) is an enlightening look at your “spiritual” philosophies.

Thank you for Monica Conyers, a Detroit City Council Member and wife of (D) Rep. John Conyers, who was involved in bribery.

Thank you for William Jefferson, who took more than $500,000 in bribes for business deals and was indicted on 16 counts of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and money laundering.

Thank you for Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, CA and your friend/ supporter during your campaign, who misused copious amounts of money from AmeriCorps, even though you fired Inspector General Walpin for obtaining proof of Mr. Johnson’s misuse, calling him “confused,” despite having personally co-sponsored a bill that should have protected Walpin from political retribution for his outstanding investigations.

Thank you for never thinking anything is outside of your reach or grasp - including the takeover of 1/6 of the American economy.

Thank you for your ties to ACORN, laughing when questioned if you knew about their brief month of de-funding, and lying bold-faced to the American people when you stated you were unaware that ACORN received federal funding.

Thank you for Cass Sunstein, head of the office of information and regulatory affairs, who has not only advocated bestowing legal rights on animals, but is now also championing the creation of fake websites and the employment of outside interest groups to act as independent supporters of government policy who would then infiltrate opposition (conservative) websites. 

Thank you for downplaying and failing to understand the threat of a nuclear Iran.




Thank you for having the most liberal voting record in the Senate. Our country might have actually believed your campaign lies about you being "moderate" and "bipartisan" had it not been for the proof available to us all via the internet.

Mr. President, thank you.

Thank you for opening our eyes as a nation. If it weren't for you, the public --your constituents-- might have allowed the long-standing precedent of fiscal irresponsibility and corruption to drag our country to a slow, painful end, but thanks to you, we're taking swift action to rectify the course of our great nation.


Most of all, we would like to thank you – thank YOU– for reminding us that our liberty and freedom comes from the Almighty God… and you, Sir, are not Him.