Tax and Spend

If you go to a casino, gamble and win, the casino will inform the IRS of your winnings, and the IRS will tax you. If you lose, it's up to you to document your losses. This is because the IRS wants your winnings,  but it wants to make it hard on you to claim your losses.

The US government spent $2.5 billion it stole from us to send a glorified golf cart to Mars so it could play Will.i.am songs in the most expensive and pathetic publicity stunt ever staged. You might think such an extravagant publicity stunt would have played America the Beautiful or something patriotic. But no. Forget that this rolling boom box doesn't have a single experiment designed to detect either water or life, contrary to every government approved NASA press release for the last million years. This is a travesty. NASA is as travesty. Our government is a travesty. What a disgrace, and we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Romney has finally delivered a winning message.

"“We’re going to finally have to do something that Republicans have spoken about for a long time, and for a while we didn’t do it. When we had the lead, we let people down,” Romney told a roaring crowd in Ohio as House Speaker John Boehner, a longtime congressional leader, stood behind him. “We need to make sure we don’t let them down this time. I will cut the deficit and get us on track to a balanced budget.”"

While I doubt Romney is being honest, this is a winning message. For the first time, he's criticizing past Republican administrations for failing to cut deficits. Don't get me wrong, his comments have no real meaning, but they convey the message people have been starving to hear. Sure, he didn't promise to cut spending, but he's finally telling people something positive they want to hear. But Romney will neither cut spending nor the deficit. Every Republican promises to cut the deficit. Most promise to cut spending. They never do. Romney, the Massachusetts liberal won't either. He's a big-spending, big-taxing, big-money-printing Republican just like all the rest. If you can't get your wallet out of the country, hold on to it, because Romney is coming for it. The only difference between Romney and Obama is people won't resist Romney because he says all the right things.

Pat Buchanan seems a little out of his league with this article:

"Recall: In 1982, before the Reagan tax cuts began their healing work, Fed Chairman Paul Volcker's deep-root-canal economics – double-digit interest rates to scour inflation out of the economy – caused a loss of 26 Republican House seats. In early 1983, Reagan was widely viewed as a one-term president.
Should Romney and Ryan prevail in November, they would face a situation as dire as was Reagan's – with fewer policy options.
Consider the 20 percent income tax cuts Romney proposes. With present tax rates generating revenue only 15 to 16 percent of gross domestic product, a cut that size would explode a deficit that is already in excess of $1 trillion for the fourth straight year."

Comparing today's budget crisis to Reagan's is like comparing a couple of drops of rain to a hurricane. I don't think Buchanan understands the magnitude of our fiscal, and as a result, economic problems.

"Moreover, the principal beneficiaries of those tax cuts would be Americans in the 35 percent bracket, who would see their top rate fall to 28 percent. Someone earning $10 million a year in salary income could get a tax cut of around $700,000 – a nice piece of change. Romney suggests he will pay for tax cuts by cutting deductions."

Here Buchanan uses the language of Democrats - oops - I mean the establishment. He speaks as if the government already owns our property. It does not. It steals our property. As much as I respect Buchanan on many issues, including his knowledge of history, I reject his economic analysis.