Hail to the New Guy

Who’s the happiest guy on the face of the earth today? President Bush, probably. May he finally appreciate some peace and quiet.

So We’ve got this new guy in office, President Obama. Please allow me to voice my concerns about the new administration. I will immediately after aspire to act like a respectable adult and try to behave myself.


(1) No checks and balances. House of Representatives, Senate, and the White House all belong to the same party. This leaves an alarming lack of friction for any piece of legislation that is proposed. You certainly have gathered by now that I’m a political conservative. I bet Gridlock could make some noise as a viable 3rd party option.

(2) Spending. In my opinion this bailout business, call it what you will, that commenced under the Bush administration was a mistake. As difficult as it may be to accept, it may be best to let the irresponsible businesses bottom out and emaciate themselves away. Yes, that may be miserable to endure. Market forces. Supply and demand. This is too short an answer for what would take a 50-page essay to argue, but heck, who’s gonna read 50 pages. The point here? No more bailouts, please.

(3) Taxes. As tax thresholds rise more lower income households get a pass. This creates a society that is increasingly unaffected by taxes. As those who pay $0 in taxes gets larger, a larger segment of society becomes unscathed by tax increases. Finally, a majority will pay no taxes at all. At that point there’s no stopping any further tax increases because there won’t be enough No votes regardless of how ridiculous the tax.

Think of your Group Health plan. You probably have a deductible. That’s to keep you involved, in check to some extent. If it costs you $0, heck, you no longer care about cost, or more importantly, cost reduction.

(4) ‘Rich have to pay their fair share.’ I get really fed up with this pap because I believe strongly in fair share.

The richest 1% have 21% of earnings, but pay 39% in taxes
The richest 5% have 36% of earnings, but pay 54% of taxes

I’m not in those segments, but it looks like the rich are paying more than their fair share. (Statistics are from a 2007 Wall Street Journal article.)


But hey, I don’t want to get carried away. I just wanted to vent so that I may commence with the Obama administration with a clean slate effective tomorrow.

An honest note: The judge screwed up the pledge. Wasn’t President Obama’s fault, says this one. It’s really a shame that the sound bite is now befouled.

President Obama didn’t get my vote, but I wish him and his family health and good spirits. Hail to the New Guy.
-klem