Herman Cain did an extensive interview with the Wall Street Journal, and his comment about the Occupy Wall Street protesters has the left-wing media literally peeing themselves. The fact that a Presidential candidate might actually pull the “personal responsibility” card? Wow…they can’t wait to bash him over the head with this. (Skip ahead to about 9:40 for the big stuff)
I actually agree with what he said, to a degree. I think there are people out there who certainly lost their job through no fault of their own. The recession has claimed many victims. But on the whole, our circumstances are the sum total of the decisions we make in life. Freedom means loving it when the decisions pay off, and toughing it out when they don’t. I’ve been in both positions personally, and I’m sure I’ll be there again.
This probably will be Democrat soundbite gold for the next few weeks, and it may even fuel the fire of the OWS movement for a bit. But in the end, I give Herman Cain points for being straight forward, honest, and decidedly NOT PC…check out the whole vid for a wide ranging interview that gives a good overall sense of the candidate.
The “Occupy Wall Street Protests are spreading, and they’ve reached Lexington. Hundreds of people across the country have been gathering in front of banks and financial centers to protest…er, um, something. That’s the problem; no one really knows exactly what they are protesting. Even the Associated Press profiled them and came to the conclusion that they don’t really know what it is they are angry about – just that they are angry.
I stopped by the protest in Lexington on its first day. I talked to four different people and none of them could articulate exactly what they wanted to see accomplished. One told me to look it up on twitter or their Facebook page.
When you find the organizers of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, they will tell you that their enemy is Capitalism. They hate it. They seem to think that a government command and control economy will work better. Little do they know what they are asking for?
The problem is that their anger is misdirected. While many on Wall Street did benefit from government bailouts, it would do us well to remember who gave it to them. I call it crony capitalism, and it has ruined real Capitalism.
As I tried explaining to some of the protestors here in Lexington, Capitalism was never supposed to be in partnership with government – that’s how it got screwed up. The problem isn’t Capitalism, its Government meddling. Their eyes glazed over, they went back to beating their bongo drums and one of them called me a “typical Republican.”
They seemed blissfully unaware of the fact that GE, who’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, sits on Obama’s jobs advisory board, made $14 billion dollars in profits last year and paid nearly zero taxes while shipping jobs to China. They were completely ignorant of the fact that Solyndra, the failed California Solar Panel company which received $535 million dollars in stimulus money, was packed with high level Obama fund raising bundlers. They had no idea that the Obama administration pushed for approval of the loan despite warnings that the company was not on solid ground.
The list of green companies and financial companies tied to the Obama administration that received bailout or stimulus cash is endless, yet if you ask one of these protestors to pinpoint their anger they will start mumbling something about the Bush administration.
To be fair, Republicans do deserve a great deal of the blame. In some ways, they paved the road that President Obama is driving on. I’ll never forget the chill that went up my spine when President Bush stood before the cameras after the TARP bailouts and said “I’ve given up on my free market principles to save the free market.”
Capitalism is not rocket science. It’s simply the free exchange of goods among willing parties. Profit is the goal, jobs and economic growth is the guaranteed byproduct.
Capitalism isn’t greed. It’s not an emotion. It is the economic system that has improved more lives around the world than any other in history. It relies solely on initiative, ingenuity and individuals. Only when government – Republican or Democrat – tries to control it, to adapt it, or re-engineer it, does it get messed up.
If only the “Occupy Wall Street” protestors knew that the system of government they are advocating doesn’t trust them and doesn’t think they are capable of managing their own lives. If only they knew that it’s the very system that led to the problems they are angry about.
Capitalism on the other hand, believe it or not, believes in them and their individual potential. It knows what they could achieve if they put their mind to it. And it’s waiting for them and for all of us, to bring us wealth and prosperity again – if we let it.
Last week, President Obama decided to make an aging bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio the poster child for his second stimulus package. With all of the pomposity that typically accompanies an Obama campaign event, he proclaimed himself a “warrior for the middle class” while standing in front of the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati. Pounding his fist on the podium, for what felt like the thousandth time he declared, “Tell congress to pass this bill!”
The Bill he was referring to is the “American Jobs Act,” which ironically his own party doesn’t even want to touch with a ten foot pole. That’s because it’s basically “Stimulus 2.0,” a half priced version of the first failed stimulus program.
The hilarious part about all of this political theatre is that the bridge, upon which the President was standing, wouldn’t actually benefit from the “American Jobs Act.” It’s actually in good repair and the Ohio Department of Transportation is estimating that it will remain in operation for at least another 20 years.
The problem with the Brent Spence Bridge isn’t that it’s falling apart; it’s that it isn’t big enough to handle the traffic flow – it was designed to handle 80,000 cars daily but is now handling about 120,000. A project is already on the books, slated to start in 2013, that will build an entirely new bridge to help with the extra traffic capacity while leaving the Brent Spence in operation. But no real job creation will actually take place until 2015.
Claiming the need to “put people to work right away,” Obama is using a bridge that is not in disrepair, to tout a spending package that won’t fund the project that won’t start until 2013.
The real question the American people should be asking President Obama and every other politician that is rambling on about our “ailing infrastructure,” is what has happened to the 18.5 cents a gallon in federal gas taxes that we pay? That money is supposed to be specifically allocated to the construction and upkeep of our federal transportation system. The fact that they are coming to us now asking for more money should make us righteously indignant.
President Obama has his priorities wrong. He’s travelling the country, deliberately trying to create a class war with a plan that will do absolutely nothing to help those he claims to be fighting for.
Americans need jobs. Jobs are a happy byproduct of commerce. Commerce has slowed to a crawl because the President has embarked upon the most anti-business agenda in modern history.
His administration has enacted over 400 new regulations that are strangling businesses of every size and costing the economy billions of dollars. That’s not counting the number of would-be startups that are simply not bothering. Combine that with the fact that America currently has the second highest corporate tax rate in the developed world while the President wants to make it the highest and it is no wonder that our economy is poised on the brink of the abyss.
Why would any business want to invest in a climate like this? Any sign of profit will get you demonized, regulated or investigated right out of business. Just ask an oil rig worker or the Gibson Guitar company.
The President’s response to our current employment crisis is to demonize the job creators and demand more government spending. If the first stimulus package worked so well, why would we need another one so soon? And if it didn’t work, then why would we try it again?
Obama is more focused on creating his entitlement utopia than seriously dealing with the economy.
After blasting Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman for a couple of hours on my show yesterday, it appears the part of my program that garnered the most significant interest was when I was critical of some of Ron Paul’s positions on foriegn policy.
For the record, I have deep respect for Ron Paul and agree with him on about 90% of his platform. I’m glad he’s been in the race but that doesn’t mean I have to agree with everything he says. But I’ll let you be the judge. Follow the link to the original story to see video and hear audio links. I believe I’ve been extraordinarily fair with all of the candidates, judging them equally harshly when I disagree and praising them when I agree. Did I cross the line?
Yesterday I was in the car listening to Leland Conway, and he was discussing the debate. Getting off work I only heard the last half hour or so, so I don’t know how the treatment was of the other candidates; however, sadly his treatment of Ron Paul was typical. He started off praising and giving accolades to Paul for his performance in the debate, I thought good, too good to be true, I knew there was a “but” and boy was it a big one. The show ended with Leland pretty much telling everyone that Ron Paul wants to apologize to the Islamic World for America, that he is naive and wears a tin foil hat when it comes to Al-Qaeda and the “War on Terror” (a tactic by the way, how do you declare war on a tactic…oh wait we have not even done that) and at one point informed us that Paul categorically lied. Thus all the praise for Paul was undone all in the name of I am sure appearing to be “Fair and Balanced.”
So let’s examine the last segment in his show. Here is the link to Leland’s 3rd hour (the 5PM Hour) starting at about the 35:35 mark. This is where he makes his tin foil hat comment, then later eludes after he actually agrees some more with him, that Ron Paul thinks we should apologize to the Islamic world for our actions, when in fact he says nothing of the sort. He actually says we need to have wisdom about how our foreign policy affects things, which Leland then agrees with still. In fact Ron Paul consistently votes against those feel good apology resolutions that the Libs in D.C. think up. So commentary not reflecting the reality of what happened, what was said or what Ron Paul believes.
Then at the 39:10 mark Leland says that Ron Paul misunderstands Al-Qaeda’s purpose. So what is Al-Qaeda’s purpose? Well it seems that there are several reasons: The sanctions against Iraq, troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, and the United States support for Israel. You don’t have to believe these things are right or wrong necessarily to see that they were definite issues that drew the ire of the Islamic world. Ron Paul also mentions that Al-Qaeda wanted to draw us out into a prolonged conflict over there in the worthless sandlot that is Afghanistan (where the British and Soviet Empires met their ends)
This article here also backs this claim up and below is a quote from the article.
“In The Looming Tower, the Pulitzer-winning history of al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11, author Lawrence Wright lays out how Osama bin Laden’s motivation for the attacks that he planned in the 1990s, and then the September 11 attacks, was to draw the U.S. and the West into a prolonged war—an actual war in Afghanistan, and a broader global war with Islam.
Osama got both. And we gave him a prolonged war in Iraq to boot. By the end of Obama’s first term, we’ll probably top 6,000 dead U.S. troops in those two wars, along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans. The cost for both wars is also now well over $1 trillion.”
Yet Leland goes on to claim that it is just the expansion of radical Islam. Question, why can’t both be right, in fact Ron Paul has said many times that our current foreign Policy fuels radical Islam. The CIA even coined the term Blowback for the consequences of our foreign policy.
At the 40:20 mark “Mr. Theocracy” Rick Santorum of course is given the chance to chime in as he has in the past few debates as if this whole thing is scripted anyway being critical of Paul for what was posted on his website on 9/11. So let’s take a look at this ill advised post shall we.
Leland agrees that Santorum was correct in his assessment. I would too, as well as Paul. We have to stop seeing in black and white in this colored world to understand all aspects and deal with it wisely. I think Paul does that, Paul does not condemn all of the Middle East or Islam for the actions of radicals nor does he condone their actions. What he does do is point out their own stated motives, (yes in a letter) they do all kinds of horrible things, but they do explain it in writings and videos, you don’t have to agree with it, you don’t have to like it, it does not even have to makes sense, but you had best recognize it and give it some consideration. When one commits a murder we try and find out the motive, just because we find the motive out does not mean we acquit them but convict them (little more complicated than that but you get my point); however, at the same time the punishment must fit the crime. Are 2 wars almost 10 years long, and several others under way in an entire region of the world at the cost of many lives, resources, and liberties worth it; especially when it is there goal to have us languish there until bankruptcy and sacrificing liberty at home. I say not.
Now to what I consider the most egregious comment of the show, I can handle the tin foil stuff, that is old “hat” if you will, but to assert that Ron Paul told a lie, thus making him a liar is beyond the pale, especially when by many he is considered the most honest man in D.C. and American politics in general despite whatever political affiliation one may have or agreement or disagreement people have with him.
Ron Paul asserted around the 42:45 mark that we have killed 100’s of thousands of innocent Iraqi’s for 10 years (not tens of years Leland) which is about how long the Iraq war has been going on, so pardon the rounding. Also pardon the rounding on Paul’s death count too if that makes him a liar, but for the totals check out the links below.
For this Leland, you call him a liar, thus attempting to unravel and discredit the most likely 85% of which you agree with Ron Paul on all for the sake of this one issue. It’s also naive to think they only attack us because we are free and not because of our foreign policy, especially given their own words. The way I see it both angles are correct but one is not being understood, most likely because we like to live in willful ignorant bliss.
BTW The troops don’t seem to mind his ideas as in 2008 and now in 2012 Ron Paul gets the most donations from the troops. I figured they would be the best gauge of where this country needs to be going in terms of military conflict and Paul is the easiest candidate to gauge on his stances as he is consistent in them. Follow the Constitution!
For the Best of Ron Paul’s answers during the debate, check out this clip
If President Obama’s first stimulus package worked so well, why do we need another one so soon? And if it didn’t work, why should we try it all over again? If you are scratching your head, looking for logic in President Obama’s jobs plan, you will be looking for a while.
The President introduced a plan to jump start the economy with a price tag of $457 billion, or roughly half the final price of “Stimulus 1.0.” Obama plans to pay for it by asking the “Congressional Super Committee on Deficit Reduction” to try to find more cuts or raise taxes.
Essentially, we’re going to spend another half trillion we don’t have, and to pay for it we’re going to ask a politically deadlocked committee of career politicians to “try a little harder” to find some place to cut?
What would a real jobs plan look like?
Here’s what I would propose if I were in a position to offer some ideas.
Lower taxes, broaden the tax base and simplify the tax code. Roughly 48% of Americans pay no income taxes at all. At the same time, there are loopholes that have resulted in ridiculous inequities in the tax system for major corporations. For example, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE and top advisor to Obama on jobs presided over a company that made $14 billion in profit, but paid nearly nothing in taxes last year.
The tax base must be broadened. But the existence of the loopholes is proof that without relief, the current rates are unsustainable. I propose a three tiered income tax bracket with zero loopholes – 15%, 12.5% and 10%. (I am a fair, or consumption tax supporter and believe we should work toward eliminating the income tax altogether, but in the spirit of compromise and with the understanding that a fair tax isn’t politically feasible at this time, let’s start here and move on.)
Corporate taxes should be slashed from 35% to 15%. We currently have the second highest corporate tax rate in the developed world (See reason for loopholes.) There is no excuse for this, lowering our corporate tax rate will makes us competitive. Let the hiring begin.
To encourage investment, we should eliminate the capital gains tax. Profits from investments should simply be counted as regular income and taxed accordingly based on the tax bracket the individual earner falls into.
Deregulate and wind down the EPA’s powers immediately. I’m not against all regulations. I am for the rule of law and common sense regulations that level the playing field. But most regulations simply create new bureaucracies that need to be maintained and slow the process of business. I would suggest focusing on recent EPA regulations that will drive up the cost of energy by closing power plants and restricting our access to our own natural resources. The EPA’s power should be reduced to simply enforcing basic environmental rules, not writing law outside the confines of Congress.
Abandon Obamacare in favor of market based reforms. The single biggest hamper to the American economy right now is the uncertainty surrounding Obamacare and its 500+ new regulations and costs. No one is hiring because they are unsure of the cost to maintain their current workforce – let alone new workers. Obamacare is an unconstitutional mill stone around the neck of our economy and must be cut loose and thrown overboard immediately.
If Obama were serious about getting the economy going again, he’s be pushing government out of the way. Had Obama suggested just 3 of these five points, I’d be applauding him today. Instead, he called a joint session of congress to try and sell the American people a retread economic plan that has already failed. There will be no recovery so long as President Obama is unwilling to change direction.
***Update – a reader brought to our attention today that this post had dissappeared from the site. Since we’re not quite sure what happened, we’re going with the “inadvertant keystroke” excuse. Oh well – its something that we thought was important enought to say twice anyway.***
Grant County will be giving a 75% property tax break to the “Ark Encounter” theme park which will soon be built there. This is in addition to the approximately $47 million dollar tax exemption granted by the state. While, as a Christian I support this venture and see it as a viable business idea, I see no reason to grant them an exception over other businesses in the tax code.
The claim is that the Ark Encounter will create jobs so the tax break will feed back into the community, therefore everyone benefits and thus the tax exemption is justified. But what about businesses in other areas of the state, who pay full taxes and will not benefit from the Ark Park’s existence?
The time has come to end the government’s ability to pick winners and losers.
We hear a lot of talk from pundits about “paying our fair share.” Yet no one can really articulate exactly what “share” is “fair.”
The description of fair varies from individual to individual. Hollywood actor and activist Matt Damon thinks we should take 50% of every dollar earned by people making over $1 million per year. Liberal film maker Michael Moore says that the government should be able to “take” an untold amount of the cash that rich people are sitting on because that “cash belongs to us, it’s a national resource.” President Obama thinks that “at some point, you’ve made enough money,” whatever that means.
While many are decrying the rich for allegedly not paying their fair share, they fail to see the real inequities in the American tax system. Why is it ok that General Electric made nearly $14 billion in profits last year and paid almost no taxes? Yet when oil companies make the same profit, they are derided as evil, greedy owners of “corporate jets.” Could it be that some have subjectively decided that GE is good because their CEO Jeffry Immelt sits on Obama’s economic advisory board? Does it matter to them that GE just shipped thousands of jobs to China?
The problem with the left’s position on taxes is that they can’t seem to define the words they use to describe their own ideology. They seem to think that the government owns all of our income and that it’s only ok for us to keep that which government benevolently allows us to have – based on our abilities and needs of course.
Enter the millions of confusing and overlapping tax deductions, loopholes and exemptions. Our tax code is so inscrutable, that it may actually be impossible to determine what is fair and what is not.
But why wouldn’t it be fair to allow all businesses and individuals to compete in the market place on a level playing field?
Again the left attempts to define a level playing field as, one in which positive outcomes are ensured for all by a benevolent government. Such a policy can no more successfully be enforced than an NFL football game can be fairly played if referees were allowed to make rule changes on the fly. No team in their right mind would set foot in a stadium without first being assured that the rules are concrete, apply to every player and are written and enforced – thus ensuring that the best team wins. Why should the economy be any different?
Some of my friends have told me that if the Ark Park didn’t get this exemption an opportunity to create jobs would be missed. This is not a sufficient argument for giving some a favorable tax rate over others, but rather a stronger argument that our overall taxes are too high. How many more businesses would locate in Kentucky if we assured them of friendlier and fairer tax environment?
President Obama and the Democrats in Washington have placed a ticking economic time bomb in the economy of almost every state. Unfortunately for us, thanks to inept political leadership, the one in our state is about to explode.
While the decision to extend unemployment benefits was made in Washington, the states are stuck with the bill. Almost none of them would have the surplus funds to cover the added cost.
Not to worry though. Once the dirty deed was done, President “Hope-n-Change” came around offering federal loans to states to pay for the benefits, promising that his stimulus package would soon work a miracle on our crashing economy and brighter days were indeed ahead.
Now that the stimulus has been found to be entirely non-stimulating, many states, including our own, are stuck with the consequences. We now have to find a way to pay back a $1 billion dollar loan from Uncle Sam with interest.
The problem is that we don’t even have enough money to make the payment on the interest, let alone the principle. Making matters worse, Governor Beshear failed to warn the legislature until it was too late. The interest payment is due at the end of September. We need $28 million dollars, but the account from which it must be paid has only $8 million in it. Woops.
What happens if we don’t make the payment? Kentucky’s employers will lose a valuable federal tax credit. For every Kentucky business, unemployment insurance payments will go from $63 to around $400 per employee. That’s about $600 million dollars taken out of our state’s economy almost immediately. You can imagine the effect this will have on job creation and retention.
What does Governor Beshear plan to do about this? As of this weekend inexplicably, absolutely nothing.
Meanwhile, just last week, Governor Beshear was bragging about putting $144 million dollars in increased tax receipts into the state’s rainy day fund. If you own a business and are facing this huge penalty, ask yourself, does this qualify as a rainy day? If you are an employee, you should keep in mind that the cost to keep you employed just went up significantly.
In order for money from the rainy day fund to be used, a special session of the legislature will have to be called to make the allocation, which will cost the tax payers money. But it may be the only way.
Our current leadership’s complete lack of foresight has once again put Kentucky’s economic future in peril. Not only have we missed an opportunity to take the lead on tax reform, but we have apparently shot ourselves in the foot with our own gun. This whole mess kind of reminds me of Barney Fife misfiring while instructing his deputies on firearm safety.
I’m not sure how this will work out, but either way the tax payers are already on the hook for more than we should be. Unemployment insurance may be a safety net for someone who loses their job and needs a few weeks to find another, but nearly two years of benefits is neither necessary, nor affordable. There is indisputable evidence that such policy only leads people to put off an earnest search for a new job.
It’s a shame that so many American’s have been duped by President Obama’s bill of “hope and change” goods, and it’s even worse that Governor Beshear has not only endorsed Obama’s policies, but appears to have the same lack of regard and forethought in his approach to governing.
Kentucky ranks poorly on many lists. An article from Forbes last year listed Kentucky as the worst-run state in the country. The Institute for Truth in Accounting calls Kentucky a ‘Bottom 5 Sinkhole State’ due to nearly $30 billion in unfunded debt and obligations, largely from the state pension system. Every dollar of debt is pressure for future tax increases, and $30 billion is equivalent to $23,800 for every Kentucky taxpayer.
Every year, the Kentucky Club for Growth compiles a scorecard ranking our legislature according to how they have voted to address Kentucky’s challenges and protect Kentucky’s taxpayers. In the history of our scorecard, no Senator has opposed unnecessary spending and held the line against tax increases more often than Damon Thayer.
A few years ago in an article about our rankings, Sen. Damon Thayer noted that after receiving a low ranking in our initial scorecard in 2007, he “rededicated [him]self to fiscal conservatism.”
While Thayer ranked 25th in the Senate in 2007, he has become a leader for fiscal conservatives since. His ranking rose to 2nd in 2008, and he received the top ranking in the Senate in 2009 and 2010.
But votes don’t tell the whole story. Thayer has also become a dependable sponsor and champion of legislation to protect the Kentucky taxpayer.
He has sponsored legislation to eliminate the unnecessary office of State Treasurer and written bills to exempt school construction projects from artificial prevailing wage requirements.
When he discovered that citizens and businesses were paying storm water taxes to a storm water system that didn’t serve them, he introduced legislation to correct the problem. He also crafted legislation that would close property tax loopholes and require all taxing authorities to adhere to the 4% property tax cap.
This year, he was lead sponsor on SB 2, a bill that would address Kentucky’s largest financial challenge. SB 2 would reform the state retirement system and reduce the state’s $30 billion unfunded liability.
For years, Thayer has introduced legislation to require the government to post spending online. This year SB 7 finally passed and Kentucky taxpayers will have a resource to find out exactly how state government is spending our tax dollars.
He created new accountability for regional sanitation commissions – like SD1 in Northern Kentucky – by requiring them to post expenses online and requiring rate increases to be approved by fiscal courts that are accountable to the voting ratepayers.
His record isn’t perfect, but his commitment to government transparency, low taxes and controlled spending is unmatched in the Senate.
Andy Hightower is the Executive Director of the Kentucky Club for Growth, a bipartisan advocacy organization dedicated to economic freedom, limited government, lower taxes and less regulation. To find out more about the scorecard and the Club, please visit our website at www.kyclubforgrowth.org, or email andy@kyclubforgrowth.org.
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Oct 5, 2011 
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