Obama adviser David Axelrod is out there reminding Americans that Obama was reelected on a pledge to raise taxes on households earning over $250,000/year. Yep, President Obama was indeed reelected, but by no means was he reelected in any significant way. About 59 million Americans voted no on a second Obama term, while 63 million Americans voted yes. I don’t call that mini-gap significant. The Obama administration has spent the better part of four years spending, borrowing and debt boosting and now wants America’s small business owners (you know, the guys who create the jobs) to pick up the tab.
My two charts tell the sad story of Obama recklessness.
Obama did not inherit this spending and borrowing from George Bush. Nope the mess is Obama’s mess. And now the president has the audacity to inform successful Americans that they should fund the madness. House and Senate Republicans need to show some backbone here. The answer to the president with a tin cup in hand is no compromises, no deal—period. The way to slash spending and cut debt is to shrink government, and by a lot. That includes the nation building military. We do not have a Defense Department we have an Offense Department driven by the military/industrial complex. How many M1 tanks ever have been used to defend American soil? Zero. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, at any point, presented a security risk to America. We should not have spent a dime or lost an American life in either, with the exception of the short-lived and botched attempt to kill bin Laden in the Hindu Kush Mountains over a decade ago. Since then we have been involved in nation building. The military and politicians call it counterinsurgency.
Perhaps the Obama administration and the House and Senate could do a little homework and learn from Canada. Chris Edwards, Director of Fiscal Policy Studies, at the Cato Institute (Debbie and I are benefactors) wrote in the May/June Cato Policy Report.: “Two decades ago Canada suffered a deep recession and teetered on the brink of a debt crisis caused by rising government spending…. But Canada reversed course and cut spending, balanced its budget, and enacted various pro-market reforms. The economy boomed, unemployment plunged and the formerly weak Canadian dollar soared.” Sound like the Obama plan to you?
As Chris points out, Canada is expecting to collect 1.9 percent of GDP in federal corporate income taxes in 2012 with a 15 percent corporate tax rate. The U.S. is expecting to collect 1.6 percent of GDP at a 35 percent corporate tax rate. Are you getting any of this President Obama? How about you Mr. Axelrod and Mr. Boehner?
Mr. Edwards drives in the final stake. Even with no federal department of education, Canadian school kids routinely score higher on international comparison tests than do U.S. kids. Among Canada’s strengths is that it is a decentralized federation. Our Founders intended just such a course for America. President Obama has taken America in just the opposite direction following a Marxist script that somehow has gone over the heads of 63 million Americans.
