Roadmap to Recovery or Ruin?

Vice President Biden gave these remarks before a Cabinet meeting on Monday. Let’s take a look and dissect it.

Vice President Biden:

In a little more than a hundred days, I think your Cabinet has done a pretty good job, Mr. President, on the Recovery Act.

Pretty good? Just pretty good? I would take those words to be an insult, especially coming from Biden who is known for his sharp retorts.

I think we’ve put in place — or they’ve put in place a pretty strong platform upon which we can begin to build this new economy.

Did you catch that little “oops” moment? First he said “we’ve put in place” then corrected himself and said the Cabinet put in place. But we may have stumbled upon the truth that it’s all Obama’s pulling of the strings. Which isn’t that big a deal if things work.

95 percent of the families in America are now receiving a tax break, and they’re seeing it in their paycheck every month.

Once again, I must be part of that 5% that hasn’t been seeing that tax break in my paycheck and I have a low-paying job.

And, Mr. President, a couple of weeks ago — and you’ve authorized me, and I thank the Cabinet for doing this, to call a Cabinet meeting once a week.

Right here you see Joe Biden will run in eight years. He’s a power-hungry mogul.

The 10 most significant of those projects, Mr. President, we’ve put in this book that we’re going to give you — it’s called “Roadmap to Recovery” — here.

I’ll need to see a copy of that book.

in the next hundred days, Mr. President, we think we’re going to grow the jobs by another 600,000.

Keep track of that number.

And on a side note, do you see how Vice President Biden continues to say “Mr. President”? It’s like he thinks we’ll forget who he’s talking to. It’s like when the crazy Christians pray to God and say “Father, God” every other word. But that’s another rant for another time.

Here are some of the Roadmap’s projects:

the Cabinet members — they believe they’re going to be able to put 5,500 law enforcement officers on the street during this summer.

Doesn’t seem like a big number does it?

Health and Human Resources:

They’re going to enable us, the states, to create and build on 1,129 health care centers in eight states and eight territories, providing service to approximately 300,000 additional people.

Interior: 107 new park projects that are underway that are going to make a real difference. A lot them have to do with energy savings, Mr. President, using high-tech energy standards.

Veterans: 90 veterans’ medical centers across the country are going to see improvements in their facility. Access and caring for veterans is better and is going to begin this summer.

We’re going to start, in the Department of Agriculture, 200 new waste water and waste projects in rural America.

Transportation: We’re going to begin work and rehabilitation on 80 — 98 airports, 1,500 highway locations throughout the country.

And at EPA, Mr. President, we’re going to accelerate the clean-up on 21 super-fund sites that exist on the national priority list.

Education: 135,000 education-related jobs, including teachers, principals, administrators and staff support

We’re going to create, at Labor, 125,000 summer jobs

Are these government jobs? I’d like to see what these summer jobs look like.

the Defense Department, they’re going to initiate 2,300 construction and rehabilitation projects on 359 military facilities across the country.

There you go. Take another look at what’s going to happen during the summer and tell me what you think.

Saving Jobs and Taxes

You can read the full transcript here. Let’s take a look:

many[businesses] are aided and abetted by a broken tax system, written by well-connected lobbyists on behalf of well-heeled interests and individuals.

Let’s kick all the lobbyists out of Washington D.C. Let’s create a new law that forbids lobbyists from having face-to-face conversations with our lawmakers.

It’s a tax code full of corporate loopholes that makes it perfectly legal for companies to avoid paying their fair share.

This is where it gets tricky, see; please explain to me who determines what, “their fair share” looks like. I’m assuming President Obama will be the one who determines this.

It’s a tax code that makes it all too easy for a number — a small number of individuals and companies to abuse overseas tax havens to avoid paying any taxes at all.

A small number? What in the world does that look like in the eyes of a nation like The United States? I’m assuming he is talking about the incredibly lucrative businesses…name names Mr President!

I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world.  But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens.

I was taught to completely ignore what the person said before they said the word “but”.

I’m announcing a set of proposals to crack down on illegal overseas tax evasion, close loopholes, and make it more profitable for companies to create jobs here in the United States.

And we’re off:

We will stop letting American companies that create jobs overseas take deductions on their expenses when they do not pay any American taxes on their profits.  And we will use the savings to give tax cuts to companies that are investing in research and development here at home so that we can jump start job creation, foster innovation, and enhance America’s competitiveness.

In other words: “We’ll stick it to ‘em.”

And … this … will save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars — money that can be spent on reinvesting in America

In other words: money that can be spent on President Obama’s federal programs.

I’m asking Congress to pass some commonsense measures.

Let’s see how commonsense they really are.

let the IRS know how much income Americans are generating in overseas accounts by requiring overseas banks to provide 1099s for their American clients

Sound fair?

If financial institutions won’t cooperate with us, we will assume that they are sheltering money in tax havens, and act accordingly.

I can see it now, the IRS stomping into the Swiss banks.

We’re putting a middle class tax cut in the pockets of 95 percent of working families

What is this obsession with ninety-five percent? That’s all we heard during the campaign.

It’s a down payment on the larger tax reform we need to make our tax system simpler and fairer and more efficient for individuals and corporations.

Can’t wait to see what this “larger tax reform” will look like if this is only the down payment.

Weekly Address: Eliminate Waste

On Saturday, President Obama shared his plans to reform government waste. Let’s check it out:

Over the last three months, my Administration has taken aggressive action to confront an historic economic crisis.

Glad he cleared that up because I wasn’t quite sure what was going on.

We came into office facing a budget deficit of $1.3 trillion for this year alone, and the cost of confronting our economic crisis is high.

It’s interesting that he doesn’t share with us the actual cost of confronting the crisis. He tells us the deficit he must save us from. But not the numerical value of his cost.

That is why we have identified two trillion dollars in deficit-reductions over the next decade, while taking on the special interest spending that doesn’t advance the peoples’ interests.

I want to see a website dedicated to publishing every special interest spending and who it is that’s passing it. To steal from Senator McCain: I want their names!

Too often, the result is wasteful spending, bloated programs, and inefficient results.

It’s encouraging to see a liberal/big-government Democrat acknowledging that there are some bloated programs.

we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative.

This is where we may get nervous. There’s that word again, REFORM.

in the days and weeks ahead, we will continue going through the budget line by line, and we’ll identify more than 100 programs that will be cut or eliminated.

I have a better idea. Instead of choosing a number (more than 100), why not go through every program and make cuts?

Here are the steps the Obama Administration will take to help reform government spending:

First, we need to adhere to the basic principle that new tax or entitlement policies should be paid for.

He’s talking about PAYGO which basically means only spend from what you have. And this worked under the Clinton years. I’m excited about this passing and Congress actually abiding by it.

Second, we’ll create new incentives to reduce wasteful spending and to invest in what works.

Translation: Tax breaks for businesses who lighten their budgets.

Third, we’ll look for ideas from the bottom up.

Bring all ideas to the table. Even “the bottom” of the factory workers. How insensitive (tongue-in-cheek). Everyone has at least one idea.

And finally, we will reach beyond the halls of government.

They’re going to bring in business leaders to talk with political leaders on ideas. I hope they bring members from all over the political/business spectrum.

It’s Not Fair?

President Obama was in California talking to the average American about the issues. On the AIG fiasco, he said,

I know a lot of you are outraged about this. I’m outraged, too. It’s hard to understand that a company that is relying on extraordinary assistance from taxpayers to keep its doors open would be paying anyone lavish bonuses.  It goes against our most basic sense of what is fair and what is right. It offends our values.

It goes against our sense of what is fair? See, I thought our country works through Capitalism and in that form of economy, you want to make more money. I can understand people being “outraged” at AIG taking loans and using them for bonuses; but when else can we see this administration using the “it’s not fair” card?

Remember when, while running for President, Obama made a comment about “spreading the wealth around”? People started to get worried that their money was going to be taken away and given to those who didn’t deserve it OR they were excited that they might be getting chunks of cash from the government.

When we start talking about what’s fair and what’s not when it comes to who’s making the money, I get a little anxious.

The President continued,

So we are going to do everything we can to deal with these specific bonuses. But what’s just as important is that we make sure we don’t find ourselves in this situation again, where taxpayers are on the hook for losses in bad times and all the wealth generated in good times goes to those at the very top.

Someone please explain to me why the taxpayers are on the hook at all. I’ve noticed that our local banks aren’t hurting. Seems to be the major, global institutions that are in need of a “bail-out”.

Once again the President seems to be counter-Captialism. He doesn’t want wealth to go to the CEOs? Does he think there is another person wiser, who won’t make bad decisions? Is this the first hint that our new administration is going to put a salary cap on businesses that take the government’s money?

Seeing as he was in California, President Obama said,

One out of every ten Californians is out of work.

And that’s probably because the other nine are working in Hollywood!

You’ve got one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

Because the houses there are so insanely large! And some people simply shouldn’t have been able to afford the loan.

We are not only going to make it through this crisis, we are going to come out on the other side a stronger and more prosperous nation.

When I first read this I thought of all those Get-Rich-Quick schemes we see on television. “If you act now, you’ll have so much money, you won’t know what to do with it all…”

And finally, because of the new stimulus package -

a new hospital will be built at Camp Pendleton that will give our servicemen and women the care they deserve. Over in Inglewood, the police department is planning to expand its staff by thirty people. And Orange County is hoping to add a new lane on SR-91, creating about 2,000 jobs, and easing congestion in the process.

This is the part that is actually encouraging to hear.

Let’s hope we don’t hear “It’s not fair!!!!” from our President too often.

Obama’s Team

So far President Obama’s critical vetting process has allowed two tax evaders into high levels of office.

The truth of the matter is that everyone makes mistakes. But were these issues mistakes? I guess several people make mistakes on their taxes, do you?

And the lawmakers don’t raise much of a tiff.

Which raises another set of concerns:

President Obama is going around like he’s the bridge builder (sorta like President Bush did) and with his first task not one Republican sided with him. Heck eleven Democrats turned against him.

But with how Congress is built this session, President Obama can do whatever he desires.

Brian McLaren Supports Barack Obama

Brian McLaren has publicly supported Senator Obama in his blog. This is the first time I’ve seen/read a vocal Christian supporting the Senator from Illinois. It raises some interesting questions and water cooler jabber.

McLaren is part of a Federal Political Action Committee called The Matthew 25 Network. Their purpose is to elect Senator Obama. They are the reply to the Christian groups who support Senator McCain.

The Matthew 25 Network has also created a website designed to debunk the many false statements about Senator Obama. I’m sure you’ve read about, or at least heard about, the mass e-mails going out and him. You can find this website here.

You can begin to see the political winds change. This network is the anti-Religious Right. While the Religious Right may have had good intentions from the beginning, instilling positive morals in government, they have become corrupted by the idea of political power.

Now we’ll have to see what happens with this new, dare I say, liberal religious/political entity.

It will also be interesting to see how many of Brian McLaren’s readers follow him. Are there more Christian minds out there who are not happy with how the Republican Party has man-handled them?

On a seperate note, I was lead to a website that gives the breakdown of Senator McCain’s and Senator Obama’s tax policies. You can see that John McCain will offer substantial tax breaks to the top four or five incomes while Barack Obama will increase their taxes significantly while giving tax cuts on the lower three incomes.

I’m not in-the-know of how taxes work. But I was under the impression that those who make more money actually pay more in taxes. But then the other side says the rich find the loop holes to avoid paying them.

Does anyone know the facts?