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Too Much Spending Is The Problem

August 17, 2012 by  

Even taxing all their money won’t do it. The Administration of President Barack Obama plans to raise taxes on anyone making more than $250,000 a year, which will collect about $85 billion more revenue, a recent study concludes. But last year’s Federal deficit was $1.3 trillion. Even taxing every penny the “rich” make over $250,000 won’t close the gap. Clearly, the problem in Washington isn’t too little revenue; it’s too much spending.

Feed them all Chick-fil-A. I mentioned in last week’s column, The Beautiful Backlash From Chick-fil-A Bashing, that Mitt Romney made a mistake by refusing to comment on the Chick-fil-A controversy. Now, Newt Gingrich has come up with an interesting way to make amends: Serve Chick-fil-A meals at the Republican National Convention. That would be one heck of a take-out order, wouldn’t it?

The biggest little winner at the Olympics. Which country won the most medals at the London Olympics on a per capita basis? That honor goes to the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada, which has one medal for its 110,821 residents. India fared the worst. With a population of 1.2 billion people, the country won just six medals (two silver, four bronze, no gold), or one medal per about 207 million people.

Most poignant Olympic comment. My nominee is this one, from Chinese diver Qin Kai, who started training at the age of 6 and almost never gets any time off: “Sometimes, I get to see (my family) every other year. If the competition schedule is not that tight, maybe sometimes I can spend a whole week with my parents in a year.” Happily, the United States has proven that you can still produce champions without making participants robots of the state.

–Chip Wood  

Filed Under: Chip Shots, Conservative Politics
Chip Wood

is the geopolitical editor of PersonalLiberty.com. He is the founder of Soundview Publications, in Atlanta, where he was also the host of an award-winning radio talk show for many years. He was the publisher of several bestselling books, including Crisis Investing by Doug Casey, None Dare Call It Conspiracy by Gary Allen and Larry Abraham and The War on Gold by Anthony Sutton. Chip is well known on the investment conference circuit where he has served as Master of Ceremonies for FreedomFest, The New Orleans Investment Conference, Sovereign Society, and The Atlanta Investment Conference.

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  • Steve Knepp

    The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.

  • http://yahoo Randy C

    The only reason for taxation is to make you a slave, and you have been indoctrinated to think that if you pay your taxes you are a good citizen. Remember that if your property can be taken from you for not paying taxes what do you really own – or who owns you???

  • http://yahoo Randy C

    Taxes – the biggest ponzi scheme in American history and ought to be outlawed.

  • http://roypatterson.wordpress.com Roy Patterson

    Remember one thing, Corporations do really pay taxes, they just add them to the cost of the goods and services they sell. Example: if you raise corporate taxes by 10%, they will just raise the prices on their products. What you end up with is 10% inflation on the consumer that buys their products.

  • http://na Mike in NE

    Fred, I surely would like to think your remark is sarcasm?

  • Fred Brown

    75% of the national debt is owned by American people, companies and entities; 25% is owned by foreigners of which the British and Canadiens own the largest portion. China owns only 25% of the 25%. So, we owe ourselves most of the debt. We do so because we know our US bonds, Treasury bills and other instruments are a good investment for us personally and we are helping the nation, just as we did in WW11. Debt is a Republican boogeyman. The real problem is the loss of demand caused by the Bush depression’s unemployment. Put 4 million people back to work and the tax revenues will be much, much stronger. We need to invest in US infrastructure now.

    • Bill

      Fred,
      This is kind of like the Boy who cried Wolf. Obama said the same thing when he had full control of the house and Senate. He got 700 billion dollars to spend on our infrastructure and “stimulate” the economy. So, here we are, almost 4 years later and the money is gone, no infrastructure repairs and the economy is worse than when he started.

      So, either you are being sarcastic or you have your head up your butt. If it did not work before, why would you think it would work again. The dumbing down of America is alive and well

    • John Woodbury

      Fred Brown, While I must congratulate you on the use of a real name, you are so far from right it is impossible to correct your ideas. Just be happy you are one of the useful idiots that the left uses; however remember the useful idiots are some of the first to go.

  • Vicki

    Chip Wood (The OP) writes:
    “Too Much Spending Is The Problem

    Even taxing all their money won’t do it.”

    So very very true. Here is a painful but accurate analysis of the problem.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661pi6K-8WQ

    And as Bill says, “Now what?”

    • Bill

      Hi Vicki,
      A lot of us are old enough to see the same situation occur under Jimmy Carter. His recession left us with 10% unemployment, 15% inflation and 21% mortgage rates. But we also watched Ronald Reagan repair the damage and bring us to one of our largest peacetime economies. So, if it has been done before it can be done again.

      The current administration with their progressive friends in congress and the senate are anti business and they are over regulating business through the guise of global warming. Carl Marx and Frederick engles wrote in 1883 that the way to stop capitalism is through selling the public that capitalism promotes pollution. This has perpetuated itself into the global warming movement that we have today.

      Reagan brought us out of the Carter recession by being pro business. Reduced regulation and reduced taxes. Bacically he made it easier to start and run a business. We need to promote and reward the entepreneurial spirit. Which has created the great country that we have and all of the wealth that the progressives want to steal.

  • topolog61

    You guys don’t get it.
    The biggest predators in this country are the government people and state officials that are drawing big salaries and pensions and many other abuses.
    For example a very small city like Bell CA a city employee makes more than 2,000,000 salary a year and he is not the only one so you can imagine how much pension he or they will draw. Probably we have hundred of thousand of examples like these people from Bell that are abusing the system in addition the government is very bad in managing the tax money and resources and you are looking at the 1%. Fix all these problems including MediCare first and then go after 1% because they are earning the money (which means they are the champions that needs to be rewarded because they use the money to produce money and wealth while Obama wants to increase taxes to give the money to the unions which means salaries and pensions that are not producing) while probably 60% of the population are sucking blood out this country.
    I came from a socialist system like Obama is proposing or is pushing this country to and after spending about 26 years of my life in that system and traveling through most of the socialist countries during that perod I can rest assure you that this capitalist system is haven compared with the socialist one but it needs tuned up to make it better.

  • Norm

    Just because taxing the rich will not solve all problems doesn;t mean it a useless idea. It’s a step in the right direction and will help, along with cost cutting, to reduce deficits.

    • Bill

      Taxing the so called rich (anyone making more than you) is an idea that has been tested before and does not work to create prosperity. It is effective at stealing peoples money and pissing it away on another program to study the sex habits of the Austrailian swamp rat but it does not do anything to dig us out of the financial hole created by the elte progressives. Don’t fall for it, it is just a scam.

      If you want to build prosperity, look at something that works. We are currently taking in 180 billion dollars per month and spending 300 billion per month. DUHH, spend less. If you lower taxes on everyone, you create more jobs that create more tax payers which will increase revenues faster than taxing the “rich”.

      Hong Kong is one of the most prosperous economies in the world. They have two tax rates: business’s pay 17% on their net profits and individuals pay 15% on their wages. That is all of the taxes they have. No property taxes, no sales taxes etc. Their public sector is so effiecient that they refunded everyone one in Hong Kong a check for $6,000.

      If you are looking for solutions, look for ones that work

      • Mike in MI

        Bill –
        Trying to reason with Norm is a waste of time. Notice that he has no sense of basic right and wrong. He and his sort have no intent to do the honest and right thing which would be to pay back and discontinue our awful indebtedness. He (they) only talk of “reducing” the deficit.
        We can hardly afford to pay the annual interest payment on the principal. What will we do when we can’t afford to do that? And…they only want to reduce the DEFICIT? What happens if we have more and deeper business down turn or recessions and can’t pay this interest charge?
        With that attitude they seem to expect that whoever holds that note is going to allow us to declare bankruptcy and discharge it that way? That’s just dishonest theft. No one will ever trust us again if we duck out like that. But, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. We’d be required to operate on a real pay-as-you-go basis.

  • Dave67

    Too much spending on defense, oil and farm subsidies, bad trade policy, deregulation of the banks and wall street, too little taxes on the wealthy, too little spending on infrastructure and wrong emphasis on education.

    Then you have it right.

    • Mike Horn

      Oil and farm subsidies Would be alright if it was spent on U.S. instead of other countries.

    • Intellibronc

      Another professor of ignorance. Government is consuming this country, this is an irrefutable fact.

  • Doc Sarvis

    On Spending; Yes, the 99% of Americans are spending too much to prop up the top 1%.

    • Kevin

      You people are clueless. When you have a nation where about half pay no net taxes, and they are the same ones who use 85% of the services those taxes provide, don’t you think that is a problem. You see, those people aren’t paying their fair share. Thats the problem, we need to turn off the entitlements. Rail against the rish all you want, it just proves how clueless you really are and your lack of critical thinking.

      • Robert Smith

        We need to stop spending on corporate welfare.

        Rob

      • Doc Sarvis

        I think the clueless are those who think you can get blood from a turnip. Those who have next to nothing -the poor, can’t afford to contribute until they get back on their feet. With the wealth being concentrated more and more in the top 1% the little money in the middle class is stretched to its maximum and the lower class has practically nothing. The upper crust has been buying politicians and therefore policy to benefit themselves financially; i.e. the rich write the rules for themselves.

      • Mike in MI

        Kevin – Just so, Kev, the crafts berthing at this doc are ghost ships!
        If you don’t know, he and like minded human shells who visit here are notorious for priding themselves on their ability to tell us what the problems are. However, they are devoid of solutions – except more of the sort which have put us in the disastrous national conditions we are in. None of them seem capable of comprehending that everything is subject to operating principles or laws: physical, chemical, financial, economic, psychological, leadership, goal attainment or any fields of existence one can mention. They think anyone can dream up any crazy set of ideas they can concieve and make them effectual in operation – regardless of whatever laws they need to break in the process.
        They are liberals/progressives – whatever appelative you care to ascribe to it. The condition is the result of a genetic defect which produces variant mental processing, associations and reasoning. It’s been found to exist across cultures and geographic regions. You can see it in the Bible just by looking at the leaders of the Judaic demoninations who contended with and condemned Jesus Christ.
        The similariies of behavior, abberant perceptions, dysfunctional mental processing, inability to comprehend abstractions (Jesus’ parables) and tactics are really remarkable.
        Disputing with them is a waste of time if their liberality results from genetic mutation – not simply from indoctrination in youth. If their attitudes stem from indoctrination only, one can be reasoned with and, if one desires, comprehend.
        Have a good one.

      • Jon

        On this matter, I agree with what the Democrats say (not what they intend). Everyone should pay their fair share. That includes you, me, Bill Gates, Romney, Obama and the homeless guy down street. General Mills should pay the same share as Joe’s Auto Body shop down the street. But the fact of the matter is, almost everybody (rich, poor, and in-between) wants someone else to pay his share. That’s what is now defined as “fair”.

      • http://boblivingstonpl.wordpress.com Bob Livingston

        Dear Jon,

        You write: “Everyone should pay their fair share.” Tell me what is a “fair share” and who has the moral authority to decide what is “fair?” What if what you consider “fair,” I consider unfair?

        Best wishes,
        Bob

      • cawmun cents

        “Fair”,is where hogs compete for ribbons……so evidently are political campaigns.
        Cheers!
        -CC.

      • Smilee

        FAIR SHARE??? In income taxes as an example if ever household was given the exact same cost of living exemption (no other deductions allowed) in a set dollar amount subtracted from their total annual income and the tax then levied on the total balance of their annual income in an equatable proportionate amount. (That is the same percentage for everyone) thus each then would have paid their fair share of tax on their income. You know all pay the same percentage on sales taxes and this is by an large considered a fair method of that taxation albeit not all like this tax few would say that it is unfairly applied and the same principal applied to income taxes would result in the same thing. A true fair share for everyone!!!

    • Duhh

      Come on guys. The government prints the money, so they should be able to spend as much as the want.

      • cawmun cents

        That is their motive for taxing those who they deem the rich in the first place……so they can spend that money how they see fit….it has little to do with paying down any debt.
        You have seen the extravagant parties,the backing of doomed companies,the excess of traveling via military transport.
        Those transgressions are merely the tip of the iceberg.
        That is why they are suing those who are self made for their spending…so that they can do it under the auspices of paying down the debt.
        That is what we have seen,and there is no reason to believe that the tactic will change because they do it without consequences or fear of reprisal.
        But there is one who they cannot repay by bribery or false edict.
        When he collects,they will forefeit all…..

        Cheers!
        -CC.

    • Intellibronc

      You must be a professor of ignorance!

      • Doc Sarvis

        Insults are a semi-effective and temporary way to avoid the subject. They also reflect poorly on the one using the insult.

    • Gatlin2

      Rob, if you remove corporate welfare you cause the companies “cost basis” to increase and results in an increase in their prices to cover the profit impact this = higher consumer prices. So don’t get caught up in this political BS.

    • Bill

      You are right, the 99% are giving wat too much of their money to support the 1%. The 1% I am referring to is the elite progressives that are destroying this country. Their dream is for poverty today to save the world for tomorrow. And if you do not go along you are a selfish rascist bastard. Without their fascist policies we could have 2$ gas, electric bills 1/3 of what they are, sensible laws and more jobs than we can handle.

      Now after 42 consecutive months of unemployment over 8% ( the true underemployment is over 20%), the longest stretch since WW2, the GDP barely pushing 1.5%, the elite progressives are truley the 1% that are stealing our money, livelyhoods and freedoms.

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