Spinning the Federal Budget

The NYTimes declare’s, “Obama Unveils New Budget Cuts.“

That’s a headline that would appeal to the vast majority of Americans who favor small government, if only he had actually cut the budget to government.  He has not done so, despite his own spin:

“We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter and waste is not our problem.”

As the Heritage Foundation points out, Obama is completely spending as if deficits do not matter.  The money “saved” by cutting military spending has gone back into a general fund for use on other projects, already approved as part of the largest federal budget in the country’s existence.  The deficit has grown tremendously, and none of the “cuts” have gone towards debt payment:

The President already proposed a specific discretionary spending level, and Congress has already approved a budget that would spend $1,086 billion on regular discretionary spending in FY 2010. The discretionary savings proposals affect only the composition of such spending. Thus, even if the entire $12.5 billion in discretionary spending cuts are enacted, the savings would automatically be plowed into other programs to maintain discretionary spending at that level. So this exercise is about reorganizing-not reducing-government.

Even on the entitlement side, $3.6 billion of the $4.6 billion in 2010 savings comes from phasing out the subsidized student loan program, with all savings redirected into expanded Pell grants. There is virtually no deficit reduction from these reforms.

Let’s be totally clear: Obama has increased the federal budget immensely.  He’s shuffled around some funds around so that he can have a public-relations victory and at the same time rewards some new special interest groups.  But the amount of money reallocated is so minuscule, the only newsworthy item here is how alarmingly desensitized Americans are to talk of large federal budgets (or perhaps how large the federal budget has become in comparison).

I made a graphic to show what each American household’s tax obligation is in 2010 (excluding the vast amount of stimulus money and monetized debt from the Federal Reserve) versus the savings Obama is bragging over.  Draw your own conclusions:

FY2010 Federal Budget Obligations Per Household

I think the graph speaks for itself.  Obama will spend nearly $23,000 on the median average household next year, but he’s holding a press conference (and the media is running with it) over a measly $144 worth of reallocation within that budget.

Tax Day Thoughts

Congratulations to all of those who made a genuine effort to protest the size and scope of the Federal Government during the tax day protests.  I applaud your efforts and I sincerely hope that it will do some lasting good.

 

Personally, I’ve been fairly skeptical that these protests would have any effect.  Not because I don’t believe the people protesting or the organizers are genuine, but rather I felt that the size and magnitude of the protests would be hidden by a media that is just an extension of the Democratic Party.  In the case of mass rallies, a tree that falls in a forest does not actually fall if there is nobody to hear it. 

 

So how did the media do?  Well, the AP covered the story by covering a tiny protest in Vermont where the protestors clamored for MORE taxes. 

Calling itself S.O.S., or Save Our State, the group held a small pro-tax protest in Montpelier, the national income tax-filing deadline, to drive home that taxes pay for needed programs and state employees perform necessary duties.

 

The NY Times put the tax day protests on page 16.  Both the Wall St Journal and the USA Today coverage was on page 3.

 

What about the White House?  Well, the White House claimed the president knew nothing about the tax protests on the day of the event!  Really?  Either he is the most shielded human being alive, or he is lying through his teeth. 

 

How did the other major news networks perform?  Here is an excerpt from CNN:

It’s hard to talk when you’re tea bagging

 

The other news networks did not perform any better.  What about our elected representatives?

Dem Leaders are passing around a document accusing the Tax Day Tea Party Protesters as “Neo-Nazis, Militias, Secessionists and Racists.”

 

Or the timely release of a DHS document which stresses the radicalization of right wingers. 

 

Remember when dissent was the highest form of patriotism, when paid democratic agitators burned Bush in effigy and soldiers overseas were labeled monsters?  Oh right, that was so 6 months ago.  Now, people protesting large government, excessive debt, and high taxes are the “Racists.”  Everything coming out of any news network not named Fox denigrated and marginalized the hundreds of thousands of people who came together to clamor for smaller government.  Elected representatives shamefully slandered these people in order to stifle their message.

 

Folks, the lines have been drawn.  “Progressives” play for keeps and the narrative in the media changes to suit their purpose.   You cannot win by fighting a traditional media battle because the game is stacked heavily against you.  The media and the democrats will use their power to discredit and marginalize anyone who does not toe the party line, if they decide to cover your cause at all.  While many of us conservatives warned about this before the election, many voters chose to believe the democratic media talking points that those we elected were really moderates who masqueraded as liberals for the primaries.  Well folks, is their any question now that those in power are leftist radicals, shielded and protected from scrutiny by their media operatives?

 

What do we do about it?  There is no easy answer here, no giant reset button that would instantly take us back to a true constitutional republic.  The road is difficult, and may even be barricaded when the current administration adds 20 million illegal aliens to the voting roles and lets Rahm Emanuel interpret the census which will be conducted by ACORN.  Our plight is not helped by the incompetent, leaderless ship that is the republican party which seems to spend more time pissing off its natural allies than in fighting for our causes.  What about a third party?  Well, building a coalition to form a third party would take decades and would cement one party democratic rule in the meantime as resources are plied away from the republicans.  Does anyone believe that the country would last 20 years under this current leadership, while we patiently build a foundation for a third party? 

 

In my option, the best near-term glimmer of hope lies in the states rights movement.  Conservatives and libertarians need to push for actual adherence to the 10^th Amendment at the state and local level using both the local media and the court system.  This will naturally increase tension between the state and federal governments, which will inevitably lead to federal pushback.  The key here is to drum-up as much anger and resentment to this pushback as humanly possible to increase the loyalty of the citizens to the state at the expense of the federal government.  The idea is to make Texans think of themselves as Texans first and Americans second, so that it is natural for the citizens to support the state over the federal government in the ensuing tug of war for power.

 

The second push that we need to make is for a Constitutional Amendment mandating a flat tax at the federal level.  No exemptions, no tax “credits”.  When 40% of the population pays zero income tax, you have a dangerous situation where they can clamor for more programs because it will never cost them a dime.  They are voting to have you pay for their programs.  If everyone is taxes at exactly the same rate, then a call for raised taxes and increased spending falls on everyone evenly.  What could be more fair than that?

 

The third push is to add a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.  This Amendment would allow the US government to run deficit spending only when a time of war exists, which would have to be ratified by 2/3 of  the states annually for the duration of the war.  The states vote is designed to prevent the Federal government from simply declaring a “war on obesity” and getting around the Amendment by clever use of language.

 

The little secrete here is, in the history of the world, I don’t know of a single civilization that descended into the tyranny that we now face from the federal government, and recovered without massive bloodshed.  It just doesn’t happen.  Once the elites gain control and find that they can wield the mob against their opponents, the flicker of liberty dies and the balkanization of a society begins.  Are we likely to follow the same course?  Probably.  Does that mean we shouldn’t at least attempt to slowly undo the damage being done to our civilization?  Absolutely not. 

 

The lines have been drawn, what side are you on?

 

 

Tax Day Tea Party: No Permission to Protest in DC

Protesters in Washington, DC were told today that they could not protest in front of the Treasury, even though they had the necessary permit:

[The event organizers] were told they had two permits. One before the Treasury Department so folks could speak directly towards the nice Secretary who need not pay taxes like the rest of us. The second at Lafayette Park.  When people showed up Obama’s secret service overrode the DC promised permit and claimed jurisdiction over Treasury, but not evidently over Lafayette.   We have never had a problem like this with previous white Houses… The organizers were told all was okay and then White House changed the rules.   Why this happened this year and not the previous 20?  Dunno.

The secret service, much like the Department of Homeland Security, must earnestly believe the attendees were dangerous right-wing extremists.  But violent?  No more so than Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, John Adams, and other Founding Fathers- these were the clear idols of attendees.  The crowd- both protesters and speakers- seemed happy with the label and felt in good company among the country’s early history.  If a speaker wasn’t poking fun of the DHS report, the crowd would do it for him or her.

“Civil disobedience?  No, Constitutional obedience,” said one of the early speakers, Mike Church.  He got the crowd yelling in support with each reference to the US Constitution.

But that wasn’t the only major last-minute roadblock put up by the leaders in DC:

According to national tax day event organizers, a donation of one million tea bags didn’t make it in time to be included on the event’s permit. So after the tea was delivered police officers made organizers load the tea bags back onto a delivery truck and take them away.

Is this not a perfect example what the people were protesting?!  No permission to hold tea?  How over-regulated is our society that one needs permission to have tea?

Despite these two setbacks, 3700 people attended the event.  All of them were crowded around the small ancillary stage in Lafayette Park which was originally intended to be an open mic.  It wasn’t as crude as a bullhorn and a soap box, but it seemed that way among the large crowd of umbrellas and signs.  The grassy park became deep mud as the heavy rain began right on queue with the first speaker.  From a distance, all one could see is mass of umbrellas and posters, and you would never know there was a stage in its center if not for the crowd quieting to listen between cheers.

Laura Ingraham drew a lot of applause, while some less famous speakers got the crowd thinking.  Grover Norquist (Americans for Tax Reform), Rachell Hoff (Young Republicans), and Tom Shatz (Citizens Against Government Waste) all made good points.  My favorite speaker may have been Ed Hudgins of the Atlas Society, who talked about the different types of failed socialism the world has already seen.  A portion of his speech on what “Going Galt” means- and yes, there were lots of signs referring to John Galt- can be found online here.

The event organizers, who have now formed Smart Girl Politics, looked like vanilla soccer-moms.  Clearly this was a grassroots movement, and the event had a rather non-partisan feel.  Everyone was unified on the subject of freedom; liberty is very popular!  Some speakers and attendees identified themselves as conservatives, but the overwhelming message of the event was support for the Constitution (as interpreted by the Founding Fathers).  The Constitution is not partisan.

This was just one of over 700 similar protests happening in cities around the United States (and even a few in Europe).  An estimated one million people attended a tea party today.

Bias in Media: So what does the NY Times say about today’s event?  It isolate the movement by calling it a partisan event “largely created by the clamor of cable news and fueled by the financial and political support of current and former Republican leaders.”

The only organization in Boston re-enacting the original tea party — the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender group — was not associated with the partisan movement.

And their coverage quickly became a reprint of Obama’s teleprompter, reminding America that the president claims to have, “Passed tax cuts that will help our economy grow.”  In a second article, the smear coverage continued to show woman with tea bags on her head.

Happy Tax Freedom Day!

Today is Tax Freedom Day, the day in which the average American taxpayer begins keeping the fruits of his labor for the year.  Until today, the average American worker was working merely to pay their share of the government’s budget (note: excluding discretionary spending).  To the responsible individuals out there who wish to pay down their share of government-created debt, you’ve still a while to go.

This year the holiday falls on the 103rd day of the calendar year, or 28% into the year.  Fed up? It will be more than a year before this holiday occurs again.