Obamaconomy

So far as I can tell, no one has ever figured out how to simultaneously grow an economy and reduce the gap between rich and poor. When economies grow, the poor get richer and the rich get richer, but the rich get richer faster because they make more investments. When economies shrink the opposite happens: the poor get poorer, but the rich get poorer faster as they watch their investments shrivel.

So if a President wanted to, say, "spread the wealth around" or "redistribute the wealth" he'd find himself faced with a stark choice. Is he prepared to cause a recession, or even a depression, in order to achieve this goal?

Because I believe that's the only way to achieve it.

How does this impact our current Presidential contest?

Barack Obama has proposed to do two things that will give us an idea as to which way he wants to go on the question of whether to grow the economy or spread the wealth.

He has proposed a "tax-the-rich and give 95% of us a tax rebate" policy. Anyone paying attention already knows that 40% of the country doesn't pay any Federal Income tax, so they would get a government hand-out. A check in the mail. A "rebate" for taxes they never paid and never would have paid. A chicken in every pot.

If it sounds like the promise of a politician unconcerned with the truth that's because it is.

Obama has also proposed to let the Bush tax cuts of 2001 expire. He hasn't said it as many times as he has promised not to raise taxes on 95% of the country, but it remains part of his written platform. If this happens taxes will rise for 100% of all Americans who pay taxes. Some people who didn't earn enough to pay taxes in 2008 will suddenly find themselves bearing some of the burden again.

Meanwhile, the poorest people will still get their welfare *cough* I mean "rebate" check.

Why is it Obama can say with a straight face that he will cut taxes for 95% when he'll actually raise taxes for 100%? Because the Bush tax cuts were enacted by a Republican administration. That's why. To the Democratic Party leadership, they lack legitimacy. They don't count as something that really happened. And when they expire, it just means things are returning to normal. The dark days are over, and we get to start over from where the Democrats left off under the Clinton Administration.

Ergo, raising your taxes doesn't actually count as raising your taxes.

What will happen when taxes go up? Obama will turn a recession into a depression that might last 3 years, until somebody gets elected to rescue the country from him.

Will the Democratic Party see a recession, or a depression, as a bad thing? Not if their goal is to "spread the wealth around". A recession or a depression will result in a reduction of the gap between rich and poor. They will have achieved their objective, and in the process they can press forward on their agenda to de-legitimize not only the last 8 years of the Bush presidency, but to de-legitimize all economy policy begun since the time of Ronald Reagan.

Take us back to the days of malaise under Jimmy Carter.

I kid you not. This is where we're going if Obama gets elected.

Unless he's smarter than he looks(which is possible since he looks like a complete inbred moron), and "spreading the wealth around" is as much of a lie as giving 95% of us a tax break is. If he really wants the economy to grow, all he has to do is leave the Bush tax cuts alone. Recognize that Republican presidents are legitimate, and their policies aren't perpetually and permanently harmful.

Is that so hard for a Democrat to do? Yes it is.

Embarrass "The One" and Face the Consquences

For a frightening preview of the consequences of questioning Barack Obama consider the case of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber.

While the ACLU, shrieking right to privacy, chastises the government for legally tapping a person's phone in the interests of protecting its citizens, they have been strangely silent about the numerous Ohio government workers who plumbed the state's computers seeking personal information on dangerous private citizen Joe the Plumber after he had the sheer audacity to question the Democratic presidential nominee. Little Green Footballs has a round up of a couple of these illegal searches on Plumber Joe.

Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

She said there were no political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture through the Support Enforcement Tracking System. (snip) Amid questions from the media and others about “Joe the Plumber,” Jones-Kelley said she approved a check to determine if he was current on any ordered child-support payments. Such information was not and cannot be publicly shared, she said.

Sure. Right.

Oh, and by a totally amazing coincidence. Helen Jones-Kelly also happens to be a maximum $2300 contributor to the Barack Obama campaign.

Proving their abilities to spot the country's real enemies and investigate and out them

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner admitted yesterday that a member of the media made the request of the Toledo Police Department for Joe ‘the Plumber’ Wurzelbacher’s records, NewsTalk 1370 WSPD is reporting.

The police clerk who so willingly complied with the media is now being charged with Gross Misconduct. The cowardly media person who was so willing to violate Wurzelbacher's privacy for some juicy non scoop has not been identified--probably claiming the right to privacy.

You Don't Say..Obama Supporters Break Privacy Laws Using Government Computers??

Stopping at nothing to slime an ordinary citizen who only asked a question of Obama, some media outlets apparently used information available only from government computers - private, protected information on Joe the Plumber - in their attempts to smear him:

"Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.

Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.

It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.

Paul Lindsay, Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign, attempted to portray the inquiries as politically motivated. "It's outrageous to see how quickly Barack Obama's allies would abuse government power in an attempt to smear a private citizen who dared to ask a legitimate question," he said."

The Obama campaign denies they were involved.

There is no doubt in my mind that they were involved. However, the media was the workhorse in this effort to dig up as much dirt on Joe that they could find. Many reporters have their own sources in these departments who, either for free or a small fee, will access the information requested. The trick for the reporter is not to directly divulge where they got the information thus protecting their source as well as giving themselves plausible deniability if their editor asks. The journalists will usually use the information as background and to generate leads on where to look for other, legally obtainable information.

But this is usually done to do stories on criminals or people accused of a crime. Employing these tactics on an ordinary citizen is outrageous abuse and smacks of police state tactics. Any journalist - or Obama partisan - who accessed these records should be tracked down and arrested.

The case of Joe the Plumber brings to mind Reagan-era Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan's famous words after being acquitted on trumped up charges by Democrats:

"Where do I go to get my reputation back?"

Given how the press has gone after Joe, no doubt he will be asking the same question.