Aussie paper: Geithner a ‘gigantic fool’

A former Australian prime minister believes Geithner is far less than the wonder boy the US president believes him to be. [White House photo]If you blame former president George W. Bush alone for the economic conflagration, there’s no way you can ignore the meltdown former president Bill Clinton left behind.

U.S. newspapers, on learning Tim Geithner was headed to oversee the Obama administration’s Treasury Dept., focused on Geithner’s tax dodging and employment of illegal domestic help in vetting the new president’s pick. Media mentioned these infractions after praising Geithner as a boy wonder who orchestrated solutions for the Asian financial meltdown during the 1990s when Bill Clinton was president. But The Sydney Morning Herald said former Australian prime minister Paul Keating “gave a starkly different account of Geithner's record in handling the Asian crisis...”

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Omnibus 2009: Federal greed and skewed foreign policy

by Roger King

H.R. 1105, better known as the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, contains a total of 9 appropriations bills with a price tag of $410 billion. Investor's Business Daily said this amounts to an increase of 8% over last year, making it the largest discretionary spending increase since Jimmy Carter. The Democrats waited nearly 5 months to finish writing this bill, knowing that President Bush would refuse to sign it with the provisions they wanted.

This bill passed the House, 245 to 178, and by a 62 to 35 vote in the Senate on a mostly partisan vote. Spending as a percentage of the GDP has increased dramatically this year. Few Americans are aware of the level of spending the bill contained; even fewer are aware of what is on the budget for the future.

Chart from ‘A New Era of Responsibility’ aka the 'Obese Federal Budget' containing even more dollars for one of the biggest money pits in American history—the US Dept.of Education. You could zero out that department and you would not see a single loss in educational quality in public schools. Legislators and the president are clueless on public schools—their kids usually go to private schools.Click the photo to read the budget at the US government website.

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Somebody tell Larry Summers: it’s the tax refunds, stupid

IRS has a special website to promote the Earned Income Tax Credit. EITC is a credit for people who do not earn high incomes. EITC can reduce your taxes, and result in a refund. In simple terms, workers keep more of what they earn.Larry Summers, the Obama administration’s director of the National Economic Council, addressed a forum Mar. 13 and he said consumer spending in the U.S. appears to have stabilized. It would be a good thing if the administration’s economic whizzes stabilized. Summers’ remarks indicate a complete disconnect with real people. Here’s why. It’s mid-March, right? And if you’re in a lucky tax bracket, what do you do? You file your tax return early because you will probably get a refund if you’ve withheld more than you owe. I hate that word ‘refund,’ by the way. They should call it a tax overpayment. Somebody should tell Summers, “It’s the tax refunds, stupid.” Take a look at what IRS said today.

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Earmarks: Obama, GOPers and Dems guilty as charged

I almost dropped my coffee cup this morning when I heard a pundit say Democrats and President Barack Obama are blaming President George W. Bush for overt costs in the massive Omnibus Spending bill. The Democrats have controlled Congress for almost 3 years, and Bush is probably enjoying his leisure time, glad to be done with what is probably the hardest job in the nation for any person. Obama can chide earmarks all he wants to. But if he’s truthful, he will own up to his own astounding earmarks success during one extremely brief tenure in the U.S. Senate.

Conservative and liberal media ignored questionable earmarks, one of which went to a defrocked priest whose organization helped the “most vulnerable” including children. Another earmark, $3 million strong, went for dance movement therapy. And drumroll, please for an earmark Obama co-sponsored: $30 MILLION bucks for the National Writing Project. I’m a writer and I can say that is the biggest waste of $30 million taxpayer bucks I’ve seen yet. We already pay teachers to teach kids to write. You can read about the president’s earmarks at the Barack Obama website. And now for the loaded question: are earmarks constitutional?

The lucky duckies at The National Writing Project are laughing all the way to the bank, $33 MILLION of your taxpayer dollars in hand thanks to President Barack Obama and his earmark co-sponsors.
Look to the Citizens Against Government Waste website for facts on earmarks and how various administrations have justified them. In my opinion, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lied when he said earmarks have been around since George Washington. And two Republicans clouded the truth big-time as well. CAGW said, “[Former] Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) have argued that eliminating earmarks would equate to an unconstitutional delegation of spending discretion to the executive branch.”

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Obama can't justify limiting deductions for groups that get no return on federal dollars already

The document that lives in infamy.As though the business sector needed another reason to wring hands all ‘round, President Barack Obama’s tax assault on the “rich” is just another nail in the coffin for an already overtaxed upper middle class. Obama not only has the wrong idea on who is really "rich," he's clueless at the raw deal the real taxpayers are already getting.

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Jim Cramer takes on White House; latest casualty in pundit wars

Jim Cramer wrote, "[I] was on my hackles when I heard White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' answer to a question about my pointed criticism of the president on multiple venues, including the Today Show." Visit mainstreet.com by clicking the photo. [Photo from mainstreet.com.]There’s delicious irony when a leftie Democrat is attacked by a leftie administration. The latest casualty in the White House pundit wars, Jim Cramer, has responded to White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs’ veiled criticism and to liberal comics’ rants. His column is posted at Main Street and he sounds a bit flabbergasted at the fact he’s been defended by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk icon who has also been verbally assaulted by numerous personalities and politicos on the left. What are we to make of all this?

I could say I told you so, but I’m getting tired of doing that. Just read the columns I wrote during the campaign season. Here’s the new old deal.

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Tax experts show who really pays as union president asks ‘rich’ to pay more

by Kay B. Day

Class warfare is in full swing in The Big Apple.

Organized labor and groups like ACORN gathered supporters in lower Manhattan Thursday to protest New York spending cuts and to ask for “fair tax reform.” WCBS TV said approximately 50,000 people showed up; we have no way of verifying that number. Protestors want what they call "fair tax reform"—increasing state taxes for New Yorkers making $250,000 or more, the same economic class the Obama administration is targeting. In a rather stunning illustration of the entitlement mentality proponents of collectivism embrace, United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten advised, "For those of you who prosper during boom time, we ask them pay a little bit more. Pay a little more so New York can avoid cutting the services that our most vulnerable need." “Vulnerable” is the new politically savvy buzz word in our era of “change.”

So who really funds all those federal programs both political parties love to nurture? Tax experts have done us a favor.

I was in New York for a conference and shot this photo from the Empire State Building. I couldn't wait to return to the wide open spaces and manners in the South.

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