Clinton wants rich to pay more taxes, but she took all her deductions

By Kay B. Day

The majestic Iguazu Falls on the Argentine-Brazil border. The falls are part of a nearly virgin jungle ecosystem surrounded by national parks on both sides of the cascades. Beautiful country, Brazil, where the murder rate is more than 4 times that of the US, a fact US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton overlooked recently. [Photo from CIA World Fact Book]Sec. of State Hillary Clinton recently talked to an audience about national security at the Brookings Institute in Washington.

But instead of sticking with national security, she ventured into the realm of taxation. Clinton said the rich in America aren’t paying their “fair share”—she actually applied that statement to any country “facing the kind of employment issues” we’re seeing in the US. And then she praised Brazil for  “growing like crazy” despite the fact Brazil has the “highest tax to GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere.”

Clinton not only is guilty of supplying insufficient information about a country she's praising. She's also guilty of hypocrisy when it comes to taxes.

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Spending Limit Amendment would build ‘fence line’ around government

By Kay B. Day

During a phone conference with bloggers on Thursday, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) started his remarks with what at first glance might seem an acceptance of defeat. Hensarling briefed bloggers about the new Spending Limit Amendment he worked on with Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) The amendment would limit federal spending to levels equaling one-fifth of the US economy, the average for actual spending since World War II. Hensarling acknowledged the challenges in pushing the amendment through—historically more than 5,000 have been offered but only 27 have actually been enacted.

But the fiscal situation is critical. The Texas congressman said Congress was already headed towards the cliff on spending. “Now Pelosi and Obama are pressing on the accelerator.”

Graph shows spending as a percentage of GDP. The red line shows where our current course of federal spending will take us. [From backgrounder on Spending Limit Amendment.]

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have set records for federal spending.

The challenge isn’t the language of the Spending Limit Amendment—it’s pretty straightforward and allows some flexibility for times of war or circumstances agreed to by a two-thirds vote in Congress.

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Is Democratic Party pushing economy meltdown for political gain?

If the economic news is blowing your mind, rest easy. We’re electing a new president and one candidate’s main focus is the economy. It’s the election, stupid. 

If you didn’t catch Uri Dadush, director of the Economic Dept. of the World Bank this morning on CSPAN, go watch the video right now. Advance it to around 24 minutes and listen—Dadush said a best case scenario for the US economy is a “relatively mild slowdown.”  Dadush also noted the stock market is a balance between “greed and fear.” Right now, courtesy of 24/7 news cycles and media’s love affair with a charismatic Democratic candidate, all you’re hearing about is fear. Dadush backed his statement up with facts.

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