How Would You Spend YOUR Money?

Let's consider for a second the sheer size of the Debt Stimulus Bill, which purports to "stimulate the economy." At current, it is $939 Billion as compared with expected tax revenue of $2.7 Trillion which has already been appropriated for spending, and it doubles the amount we have already added to the deficit in 2009, in two quarters, each of which would have been a record deficit.

When one considers that the Debt Stimulus Bill would spend 1/3rd of all tax revenues and that only 1/2 of tax revenues are actually apparent on our pay stubs, we can more accurately identify what this means to your finances by looking at your 2008 W2.

This bill is nearly equal with ALL Social Security tax revenue, 1/2 of which is seen on your paystub. If you look at your paystub, double the amount withheld, that is your portion of the Debt Stimulus Bill.

It is also equivalent to more than 75% of all Federal Income Withholding taxes. Look at your paystub and imagine what you could do with that amount of money in your wallet. That is how much debt, Representative Gordon is voting to add to your bill.

Now, if you are going to go into debt by that much, do you want that money spent on dogparks, condoms, AmTrak, and a new power plant for Consolidated Edison in Illinois, or would you spend it on something that would be more beneficial to you.

And if 145 Million Americans had that much more money in their wallets to spend on what mattered most to them. That would certainly stimulate the economy and ease their financial woes. The US Congress has the power to put that money in your wallet by the end of the month. The US Congress could simply reduce all Federal payroll taxes by 75%, costing less money to the Federal Government while more positively effecting your bottom line and not paying all the bureacratic middlemen in the process.

If, on the other hand, they wished to collect the money and then redistribute it to you after paying those middlemen, look back at the W2, and imagine a check for 1/3rd of what you paid in last year, rather than 75% of it. Regardless of whether Congress spends your money on Condoms, Dog Parks, Bureaucrats, or simply doesn't collect if from you, it will cost you the same amount in debt, but it costs more for the monolithic monopoly to process that money than to "allow" you to keep it in the first place.

TNTaylor©2009, TennesseeTaylor, all rights reserved.

Stimulating the National Debt

It has been proven many times over that when one party controls both the Congress and the Executive that spending increases. Never in our history have we seen spending go so completely out of control so quickly as to prove this so quickly. The 111th Congress has moved quickly to establish its partisanship and Speaker Pelosi continues to whip the Beaten Blue Dogs into line.

The media has picked up on my analogy of Congress as College Kids spending on their parents credit cards. Without factoring in the Stimulus Plan, the deficit is already expected to break records in 2009. We're seeing the effects of the CEO Bailout, the UAW Bailout, combined with "run of the mill" out of control spending already:

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department said Monday it will need to borrow $493 billion in the first three months of this year, a record amount for the January-March period.
The Treasury Department figure comes on top of $569 billion the government borrowed from October through December, the all-time high for any quarter. AP 2009 Feb 02

To give you some perspective, we had to borrow money to force taxpayers to buy into banks we didn't want to pay those Billions in bonuses to the CEO's already. The $1.062 Trillion we will have borrowed in the first six months is already more than any other deficit in our Nation's History. And this does not include the stimulus package.

The Debt Stimulus package is approximately $5,600 PER taxpayer, all debt, all the time. Or about $2,730 PER American, including each of those new octuplets recently born, all debt, before interest.

Both the Stimulus Package and the CEO Bailout Bill are more than we spent in 5+ years of War in Iraq, by hundreds of billions EACH. Both are greater than the largest single budget item: Social Security which sits at $644 Billion. The Debt Stimulus package is 3.15 times what we pay in interest on the debt already accrued.

The Government estimates it will collect only $2.7 Trillion this year and has already approved spending $3.1 Trillion before the Stimulus and before the UAW Bailout and before the CEO Bailout. In fact, the 3 supplemental spending bills will be more than 3x what the deficit already was budgeted for in 2009. And we borrowed more in the first quarter of the fiscal year as was budgeted to borrow for the entire year. We will borrow more in the second quarter of the fiscal year than was budgeted for the entire year, before the Debt Stimulus package.

One is forced to wonder if The Party (DNC) is purposely attempting to bankrupt the Federal Government.

On the other hand, an economic stimulus package is needed, not an $819 Billion pork spending package. Increased spending on condoms should be left to individuals, not the Federal Government. We need to prioritize our spending but cutting the Military during a time of War is not the answer. Whether Murtha and Frank get their 25% or Obama cuts the DoD by 10%, this will cost jobs, not increase them. It will put more people on the unemployment rolls.

Obama promised to fully support the Troops in his first visit to the Pentagon and again in his Superbowl message to Troops:

“All of you who are serving in the U.S. armed forces are going to have my full
support, and one of my duties as president is going to be to make sure that you
have what you need to accomplish your missions,” he said.

That is not accomplished by cutting the DoD budget as he told the Joint Chiefs to plan for during the same visit. Politicians are paid to decide the ratio of spending on bullets to beans, but instead Our Congressmen are choosing to buy condoms. Somehow, I don't think Trojan is in trouble.

So long as Speaker Pelosi can keep the "moderates" in line, she has no need to cross the aisle. Sadly, Our Representative is toeing her line. The Party (DNC) has absolute power and she is expressing the CA Idealists ways.

Mike Huckabee noted on his new Fox Show that $1 Trillion dollars would buy Microsoft, Google, Apple, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi all and completely. Glen Beck showed us a chart that demonstrated the new Treasury Secretary's plan to print more money. I haven't found a source for his numbers, but if they are accurate, it would appear that soon everything will be worth half of what it currently is.

I fully expect that the Debt Stimulus Bill will pass and be signed by President Obama. It will have made it to his desk with Representative Gordon's vote, at least in the first round. There will likely be a second round after the Senate gets done with it but it's unlikely to have the fat trimmed off of it. The last time, the Senate merely increased the fat (CEO Bailout Bill).

And the UAW Bailout Bill saved no jobs either. The Auto Companies still cut back on parts orders and production, despite the $17 Billion. They did so, because Americans aren't buying their cars and padding the wages of the 70k/year UAW members only increases their ability to buy a new car on the backs of their customers who still can't afford their product.

Their pleas to save the jobs of waitresses paid in tips by auto parts supplier's workers were nothing more than marketing and advertising for their own overpaid salaries.

So, if the Debt Stimulus package passes, who will first see the recovery? Other than Trojan, construction companies. Not the homebuilders, the commercial and industrial companies. A portion of the bill is dedicated to infrastructure improvements and school construction. It will have an effect, but not the effect that should be expected by $819 Billion, because too much is dedicated to programs that have no business being included in "economic stimulus."

Perhaps it's time for our Congressmen to cut their own salaries back to the $1/year they have demanded of CEO's, until they can get their spending under control.

The Record is Written. Party Loyalty Trumps TN Common Sense

First, let me Congratulate Jim Cooper for having the spine to buck The Party. He was one of only 11 Democrats to vote against the "Stimulus" package which adds approximately 10% to the National Debt acquired over the last 200 years. The Porker Bill passed the House yesterday along strict party lines. Every Republican voted against Pelosi's Plan to save Condom Manufacturers.

As I said before, this spending bill started out in the right place, or at least close to it. But when The Party in Power got ahold of it, knowing there is insufficient opposition in Congress to vote it down, they porked it up. It will take days to get through the Special Interest pork payouts, but that is what we are paying our Representative to do. In this case, I must express disappointment that ours did not oppose it.

The Record:

Tennessee
Nay TN-1 Roe, David [R]
Nay TN-2 Duncan, John [R]
Nay TN-3 Wamp, Zach [R]
Yea TN-4 Davis, Lincoln [D]
Nay TN-5 Cooper, Jim [D]
Yea TN-6 Gordon, Barton [D]
Nay TN-7 Blackburn, Marsha [R]
Yea TN-8 Tanner, John [D]
Yea TN-9 Cohen, Steve [D]

While I congratulate Rep Cooper (and the Republicans) for his vote for Tennesseans rather than being whipped into line by Nancy Pelosi, I am not running against Rep. Cooper. He is not my Representative.

The 111th Congress is shaping up to be one of the biggest spenders ever, the most partisan ever, and this is likely to only get worse. There is literally nothing to stop Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Murtha, and Obama from doing anything they want. The Blue Dog Democrats are mostly falling in line with the New York Elitists, the California Dreamers, and Chicago Machine.

The only hope of rational thought and opposition to the far left was the Blue Dog Democrats and they are acting like dogs beaten by their Master, Speaker Pelosi. We may have voted against the "change" Obama promised, but we voted to send him a rubber stamp in the form of our Representative. And if the Blue Dog Democrats don't start opposing the whims and whips of the far left, we are in for some seriously rough times.

Representative Gordon, you're a good man from all I can tell, but if you can't withstand the orders of Speaker Pelosi, Representatives Frank and Murtha, you have the option of endorsing me as your replacement. For the good of the Nation, the good of Tennessee, and the good of the district, we need a Representative that will tell the far left of your party, "NO!"