THE TAXMAGEDDON RANT

     Taxmageddon?  Taxamageddon!?!  I hadn’t heard that term until relatively recently.  Now, of course, it seems I can’t avoid hearing and reading about it.  It seems to be following me around, perhaps even stalking me.  It’s funny how that seems to happen so frequently.  We move along from day to day, week after week totally oblivious to a concept, a word, or a thing and then it seemingly explodes onto our consciousness, grabs you, and simply won’t let go.  You ever have that happen to you?  Apparently, it’s a fairly common phenomenon.  The word intrigued me because of its obvious relation to the term Armageddon which most of us are thoroughly familiar with whether we adhere to its precepts or not.  According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, Armageddon refers to, “the last, decisive battle between the forces of good and evil.”  Similarly, The Oxford Dictionary of Current English explains that the term means, “the last battle between good and evil before the day of Judgment,” or, “a catastrophic conflict.”  Most of us also know the upshot of that final struggle:  massive, cataclysmic death, destruction, madness, and mayhem.  The truly faithful will survive and experience a bliss in Paradise so beautiful as to defy all description or definition.

     Taxmageddon, however, has no upside whatsoever.  It has no redeeming features or qualities.  It has no saving graces or ameliorating properties unless you wish to see the utter destruction and devastation of the entire American way of life as envisioned by our Founders and presently constituted. It is a purposeful, well thought out strategy designed to tear this nation down, destroy its institutions, traditions, and values and institute full-blown Socialism here in America.  It is being foisted upon us by the usual suspects:  those on the Far Left.  They are led by a core cadre whom I refer to as the LFE (Liberal Fucking Elite) who unabashedly and unapologetically despise the United States of America.

 

     The current leader of that Mob is, of course, none other than the Socialist-in-Chief President Barry-Boy Obama.  In my view, this damned Poltroon stands at the helm of this nation’s worst presidency bar none and that includes the Georgia Peanut Farmer’s back in the mid and late 1970’s.  The man is an utter Fucking Disaster in every possible way and by any possible measure or yardstick.  He is busy on a daily basis destroying our magnificent Free Market Capitalist system and introducing Socialism with every new policy and regulation he forces upon us.  He desperately does not desire to see our citizens enjoy more prosperity, opportunity, or progress but fosters the growth of ever more government dependence at the expense of our individual liberties and freedoms.  He imperiously refuses to “permit” us to develop our own vast natural resources especially as it relates to oil and gas and thus actively promotes energy dependence on foreign sources many of whom view us as the Great Satan and Evil Personified!

     He doesn’t want to encourage more employment but actively destroys it thus creating even greater government dependence.  He wants to destroy the finest health and health care system the world has ever witnessed and “Obamacare” is a tribute to that desire ( see the Obamacare Rationing Rant of 4/15/12) and in so doing has literally socialized fully one-sixth of our nation’s economy!  He has purposely set out to destroy the entire private insurance industry as it relates to health and health care.  He has crippled our once proud automobile industry and has vowed to personally destroy America’s coal producers.  All of this is part of his overall scheme to destroy our country and bring it to its knees!  From this point of view, then, his first term in his own mind and to those of his lemming-like, unthinking, sycophants and toadies has been wildly successful and if given one more chance he will succeed in completely destroying our nation!

     Additionally, to further his cause he must never allow our taxes to come down to what might be termed at least reasonable rates but must forever jack them up to unheard of and unprecedented levels.  He simply can’t allow us poor slobs out here, we unenlightened boobies, to keep and control more of the wealth we earn for this would diminish dependency on government and no true and faithful Socialist can or will allow such an eventuality!  Thus we face the prospect of Taxmageddon.  Alrighty then, exactly what is this thing anyway?  Simply put, it is the highest, most crippling, most dangerous tax hike ever seen in the United States of America!  Yeah, yeah – I know.  Ho Hum, Yawn, Been There – Done That.  There is nothing new in the prospect or concept of our government stealing ever larger chunks of our income and wasting it on useless, undeserving, destructive, and nonsensical projects, entitlements, and boondoggles.  We have become so used to this type of behavior from government regardless of which party is in power that we view it as normal and mundane.

     Well, just because we’ve grown accustomed to something doesn’t mean that it’s not dangerous.  To constantly and increasingly tax and spend in true Keynsian fashion is beyond merely dangerous but is, in fact, deadly.  As more and more of the nation’s wealth is ripped away from the private sector and given over to our already bloated, fat, and horribly wasteful public sector the Free Market Capitalist economic system which made America the wealthiest society ever known to man is further eroded and destroyed.  Without it, the America we know and love can’t survive but rather faces certain doom!  There can be no other outcome – it’s just not possible.  In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. . . To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. . . We must make our choice between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude(please note that all references to our past presidents are taken from The Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution by Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin).”  Well, El Destructo has certainly made his choice and it’s taking this country straight to Hell!

     I’m sure you’ve heard that old parable about putting a frog in a pot of water and very, very gradually  - incrementally if you will – turning up the heat.  That frog will not notice the rise in temperature until it kills him.  He became so used to it and the fact that his environment had turned deadly that by the time the warning bells sounded, it was too late.  Kermit got cooked!  We and our country are, in fact, that frog.  Our taxes along with government spending and waste have been gradually escalating for at least fifty to sixty years and the boiling point has finally been reached.  If the temperature is not precipitously lowered this nation is over, kaput, finished, through.  We have allowed ourselves to be “taxed and spent” into full-blown, out and out, and massively destructive Socialism!  That particular philosophy always and invariably destroys freedom, opportunity, choice, and liberty.  It never misses.  Just look around the globe where it exists and the results are the same.  This is exactly and precisely where the Far Left is taking America for that is where they want it to go!  Every word uttered by the Anointed One, every policy announced is designed to further that nefarious and destructive end.

     The author of an article entitled, “Taxmageddon in One Table (www.washingtonpost.com),” explains that, “I call it the dual-trigger nightmare.  Hill staff call it taxmageddon.  Ben Bernanke calls it the fiscal cliff. Whatever you call it, at the end of 2012, we’re scheduled to see $7.5 trillion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts happen automatically.”  Writer Ezra Klein notes that this, “would, on the one hand, solve our deficit problem.  It would also trash our recovery.”  We now see the “T” word being casually tossed around like it’s no big deal.  We never used to speak in terms of trillions for virtually none of us can truly comprehend these numbers.  Hell, most of us have difficulty with the concept and consequences of billions.  We simply can’t conceive of what things like “Billions” let alone “Trillions” actually mean in the real world.  It’s literally mind-boggling.  It’s overwhelming and it’s numbing.  What the Hell do you do with something like trillions?  When government officials, economists, and pundits start throwing numbers like these around, my eyes begin to glaze over, my brain seizes up like a car engine without any oil, and I just can’t put together a cogent thought.  I do know, however, that when we’re talking trillions worth of debt-deficits my kids, grandkids, and great, great, great, great grandkids ad infinitum are not free people and will have no chance whatsoever of living in the America I grew up in and can’t possibly experience anything even remotely resembling freedom, independence, opportunity, choice, or hope.  They will have become slaves not in the chattel sense but definitely in the economic sense.  Economic slavery is easily one of the most cruel manifestations of that particular scourge and this is exactly where I see my nation going!  President Jefferson spoke cogently to this point when he said, “I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing.”  Jefferson wrote this prophetic warning back in 1799 and we’re still not listening.  Just ask any member of the LFE, and they’ll adamantly insist that those long dead white guys are no longer relevant to our times.  Oh, really?

     The same article details the, “Fiscal Impact of Policies That Expire or Activate in or After 2012,” and it constitutes but a partial list.  Under the heading, “2001/2003/2010 Tax cuts,” we note:  the expiration of the American Opportunity Tax Credit which is a long way of saying that the college tax credit is no more.  We also note that the Child Care Credit is cut in half; expiration of EITC expansion; elimination of the 10% bracket; increase in rates from 25/28/33/35 to 28/31/36/39.6; expiration in reductions in marriage penalties; increase in capital gains taxes from 15% to 20% and dividends taxes from 15% to be taxed as ordinary income.  The hated Death Tax rises from 35% to 55%.  The list is much longer than this but it points to only one possible conclusion.  Whatever you earn, whatever is left to you by others is not really yours but rather belongs to the government run by the “elites” who are convinced that only they know best how to spend what you’ve worked so hard and long for.  Only these condescending, arrogant, and hubristic Far Leftists can make decisions for us low-life working stiffs who are not fit for anything more than quietly and passively rubber-stamping their plans to bring this country to a grinding and sickening halt!

     An outfit known as, “The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget” put out a white paper entitled, “Between a Mountain of Debt and a Fiscal Cliff (crfb.org/@budgethawks).”  This group informs us that at, “the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, many major fiscal events are set to occur all at once.  They include the expiration of the 2001/03/10 tax cuts, the winding down of certain jobs provisions, the activation of the $1.2 trillion across-the-board sequester, an immediate and steep reduction in Medicare physician payments, the end of current AMT patches, and the need to once again raise the country’s debt ceiling.”  When all of this and much more occurs simultaneously it constitutes what Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke refers to as a “fiscal cliff.”  The report notes that policies, “set to take effect at the end of the year could seriously harm the short-term economy without making the changes necessary to address the drivers of our debt or strengthen the economy over the long-term.”  This will lead to a loss of confidence in our leaders, “ability to govern that could set off a dangerous chain reaction in markets.”  In fact, statements “from major credit rating agencies, especially Moody’s, have indicated that such actions could result in downgrades of our debt.  Downgrades aside, extending the policies currently in place would put our debt on an upward and ultimately unsustainable path.”

     I submit that we are already well down that unsustainable path created by our Liberal Elites and I maintain that this is what they want and have planned for decades.  The chaos, both economic and social, will further aid them in their rush to destroy the United States as the world’s beacon of freedom, opportunity, and independence.  The problem here is that too many Americans still cannot accept the fact that an American President and so many of our fellow citizens eagerly await this outcome.  It is beyond the ken of most of us to even comprehend such a phenomenon and yet the Bamster’s first victory in 2008 should have come as at least a rude awakening that something has gone radically wrong in this Republic.  Should he be granted yet another term, then we have no one but ourselves to blame and we will deserve whatever we get!

     The same source cited above insists that, “these policies . . . would increase the debt in 2022 by almost $7.5 trillion above current law.  This means that debt would rise from 70 percent of GDP today to 88% by 2022 if lawmakers continued current policies compared to current law where debt is scheduled to fall to 61%.”  Read that last just one more time.  We’re headed toward a debt that just about equals the entire value of our whole economy!  That’s not merely Orwellian but is absolutely suicidal!  Can you imagine if you ran up your own debt to 88% of your annual income?  You’d end up homeless, on the street with a tin cup and a sign!  The report goes on to insist that failure, “to make the hard but necessary choice now on our own terms will lead to much harder and more severe choices later to control rising debt.  In the meantime, the strength of the economy could begin to suffer, as well as confidence in the economy’s future and the ability of elected officials to address it.”

     The LFE amongst us are delighted at the coming crisis of confidence that they single-handedly and purposely created.  A lack of confidence in our economic system, in our cherished values, traditions, and institutions exactly suits their template, their premise that America is a blight upon the world and must be defeated and overwhelmed by Liberalism with its attendant command and control economy, a lack of choice, opportunity, and freedom.  A lack of confidence creates a sense of doubt and doubt breeds both fear and failure and we simply cannot afford to fail.  That is not an option.  This nation has become not only the world’s last best hope but, in fact, we are the world’s ONLY hope left!  No other nation in planetary history has done or given so much to the rest of humanity as has the United States of America!  Can you imagine a world without this great nation as envisioned by the Founders and currently constituted?  I know I wouldn’t even want to contemplate such a dire scenario but the Far Left sees that as their ultimate Utopian Dream, their absolute Nirvana on earth!  If this Imposter-in-Chief, this enemy of America is granted a second term, we’re looking at a future for our nation and our citizens that I know I don’t want to live long enough to experience!

     A piece entitled, “Taming Taxmageddon (www.washingtontimes.com),” states that, “Americans will see taxes go up $494 billion, starting at the beginning of 2013,” and that’s just for one year.  The piece goes on to report it, “all breaks down to one of the most sizable tax bills in history.  Every household in America would face an average tax increase of $3,800 – in a single year.”  That’s every single household!  Whatever happened to the Exalted One’s solemn promise made in the most somber and serious of tones that no household earning less than $250,000 per annum would ever see any increases in their Federal income taxes – not one red cent!  Once again, the Dissembler-in-Chief flat out lied!  He did not merely misspeak nor did his tongue just slip and he certainly wasn’t experiencing anything like a “senior moment.”  He’s an out and out unapologetic, chronic liar.  It’s one of his signature characteristics and like all congenital liars he can’t help himself.  It’s really worse than the almost four thousand dollars noted above.  We know that fully 50% of Americans pay no federal taxes whatsoever.  That obviously means that those of us who still do must pick up the slack for those who don’t or won’t.  As a rule of thumb, expect exactly the opposite of what he says, proclaims, and promises.  If this Jackass-in-Chief (apologies to all of you jackasses out there) tells me it’s dark outside, I’m goin’ to the window and have a peek.  If he tells me it’s bright and sunny, I’m going to have yet another look.  The man is not to be trusted!  That’d be akin to trusting one William Jefferson Clinton to treat your twenty-five year old daughter with even a modicum of honor, respect, or decency.  It just ain’t gonna happen.  That dog don’t hunt and that damned mule just don’t plow and like leopards, liars just can’t change their spots.

     Author Ed Feulner goes on to state that it’s, “a near perfect storm – occurring just after a major national election, no less.”  Among the tax breaks that are expiring:  the Bush tax cuts implemented in 2001 and 2003, the payroll tax cut and the tax cut from the 2009 stimulus.  Of course, it doesn’t end there – not by a long shot for the, “estate tax, known more accurately as the death tax, rises to 55 percent.  The 100 percent exemption for business investment goes away.  Also among the soon-to-be missing:  the patch that lawmakers passed to ensure that the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) doesn’t snare more and more middle-income earners (instead of the super-rich it was originally designed for).”

     The Super-Rich, by the way, are particularly hated by our Far Left Liberal Elites.  They are despised, loathed, and constantly maligned, castigated, and insulted by the Far Left and their mindless minions.  The class envy here is palpable, unmistakable, and all too real for who are the Super-Rich?  You got it, they are our ultimate – no, make that penultimate – success stories.  They epitomize the American success story coupled with realizing the fabled but very real American Dream.  They are the real live Horatio Algers among us.  They are huge risk-takers who have availed themselves of every opportunity, freedom, and possibility that this greatest of nations provides.  They are not afraid of failure nor do they fear success.  They are the achievers, the entrepreneurs, and the innovators and ask for nothing from nobody except the level playing field that government is supposed to maintain.  They are the best that Free Market Capitalism has to offer and represent the very epitome of what America promises to anyone who is born here or who comes from far away places.

     They are therefore hated, vilified, and crucified by those on the Far Left and the Socialists amongst us.  They must be torn down, criticized, and castigated at every turn and opportunity and are accused of amassing their great wealth on the backs of the poor.  That old and tired accusation is demonstrably ignorant, wrong, and just plain stupid!  How can anyone get rich on the backs of the poor who by definition have nary two pennies to rub together nor the proverbial pot to piss in?!?  Logic, reason, and common sense have never prevented our Liberal Elites from espousing nothing more than massive amounts of verbal diarrhea, class warfare, envy, jealousy, and vitriol!!  Those on the Far Left delight in punishing success and rewarding failure and they do it under the fake, phony banner of compassion.  The more successful one becomes, the more one is punished.  These subversives take so much of what we make away from us that there is very little incentive to go out there and produce.

     Why take the risks entailed in developing an idea or product at tremendous cost when the government stands poised to take most of it away from you?  The fewer the rewards, the fewer will be the entrepreneurs amongst us and thus a certain decline in creativity, ingenuity, inventiveness, and progress.  Just think about all of the life saving and extending progress this nation has achieved in the field of medicine.  Do you think that government came up with things like intricate heart surgery or drugs that can help maintain blood pressure and cholesterol at healthy levels?  Do you think Big Brother had anything at all to do with the amazing progress we have achieved in fighting devastating diseases like cancer?  Of course not.  This and so much more are only made possible through the private sector and our Free Market Capitalist system.

     Risk takers will no longer be willing to take those risks if the potential rewards all but disappear and there is absolutely nothing at all wrong or unfair about this.  Do you think folks like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, Carnegie, or Rockefeller would have done what they did and accomplished so much if the prospect of great rewards were not at least possible?  No way in Hell!  The so-called Super Rich among us and anyone else who succeeds at any level should be applauded and emulated.  They are American heroes and should serve as examples to the rest of us that our ingenious system works like nothing else the world has ever seen.  What people can accomplish in America can be rivaled no where else on the planet and no other political-economic system approximates even a close second!  Well, the Far Left wants to destroy all of that and more.  If they are even marginally successful the United States will no longer be recognizable in any meaningful shape, manner, or form.  If these Liberal Sonsabitches succeed we as a people will lose our freedoms – all of them – right along with any sense of optimism, hope, or progress.  We will experience the same collectivist Dark Ages that most of the planet has had to endure for thousands upon thousands of years right down to and including the present day.  Just look around the planet and be afraid – be very afraid!  If the Cretin-in-Chief is once again elected because too many of our fellow citizens have broken that crucial bond that has linked us to our proud and glorious past then this nation is indeed over !!

     A piece entitled, “Marching Toward Taxmgeddon (http://spectator.org),” places the entire issue of taxation into a perspective that most of us can readily appreciate and easily relate to.  The author begins that, “Americans effectively stop paying for government on Tax Freedom Day,” and notes that this, “year Tax Freedom Day falls on April17.  That is four days later than last year, primarily due to higher federal income and corporate tax collections.”  In fact, “Americans will work 107 days into the year from January 1 to April 17, to earn enough money to pay this year’s combined 29.2 percent federal, state, and local tax bill.”   I have even read that Tax Freedom Day actually extends from January through June because it does not include the massive and overbearing costs of paying for all those thoroughly destructive government regulations forced upon us and author Doug Bandow recognizes that, “Regulations act as a huge de facto tax.”

     So depending on how you look at it those of us who still pay taxes are working anywhere from three to six months just to cover the cost of our bloated, fat, and wasteful government.  Even with all of that, we still face something like a 17 trillion dollar short-fall because our leaders on both sides of the aisle keep spending our money like it belongs to them!  It’s a sickening and revolting thought when we realize that our Founding Fathers wisely created an extremely limited government with only a very short list of delegated or enumerated powers.  They purposely and specifically included the Bill of Rights in our Constitution that stated uncatagorically what our government must NEVER do to us.  They, of course, were thoroughly familiar with exactly how dangerous and destructive of liberty an all-powerful, highly centralized government always becomes.  Government by its very nature always garners more and more power unto itself invariably at the expense of the citizen with a concomitant loss of individual freedom and rights.  This they determined must never happen to the United States of America.  If they could but see what has happened to their creation they would have no choice but to insist on staging yet a second American Revolution because the one they fought through has been effectively nullified and voided.  It’s just a tad ironic that the British all those years ago with the finest and most powerful armed forces in the world couldn’t defeat us but our own citizens and leaders might!  Thomas Paine got it right when he said that, “It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from his government.”  His words were true during his time and are even more so today.  Ah, but I forget that he is just one more of those irrelevant, long dead white guys!

     The piece referenced above goes on to note that tax collections, “represent a sizable amount by any measure.  The total is even more in comparison with other expenditures.  Americans devote less time working to buy what almost everyone considers to be necessities – clothing, food, housing – than to pay taxes.  And the value we get from the former is far greater than most of what we get from the decisions of irresponsible and spendthrift public officials.”  Talk about stating the obvious – well, I guess!  Mr. Bandow comes up with an interesting way to summarize just how badly we are being raped – uh, I mean taxed.  He explains that a, “month, 32 days goes for the income tax.  Federal Social insurance levies – that is Social Security and Medicare taxes – account for 23 days.  State and local sales and excise taxes consume 12 days.”  Tell me, just how does it feel to be a de facto employee of the Federal Government when you are in fact paying your employer instead of the other way around?

     Additionally, we note that state and local property taxes take up yet another dozen days while the, “federal corporate income tax fills nine days.  State and local income taxes come in at eight days.”  I’ll bet you had no idea just how much of your time and effort are devoted to satiating the rapacious beast that is our damned government!  The litany goes on.  The piece informs us that other, “state and local exactions consume four days.  Other federal taxes hit three days.  Federal sales and excise levies run two days.  State and local corporate taxes consume a day.  It’s an imposing list.”  Imposing is not quite the word I’d have chosen to describe what’s going on here but I’m sure you get the point.  We are literally being enslaved by a tax structure that punishes industriousness, hard work, and perseverance while at the same time rewards laziness, sloth, and irresponsible behavior.  The whole damned system is ass backwards, topsey-turvey, and just damned wrong!  Ronald Reagan got it right when he commented that, “Government is like a baby.  An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”  Seems about right to me.

     The author of a piece entitled, “Taxmageddon Cometh (www.lawson4house.com),”  maintains that, “it is my opinion that we would be patently unwise to assume the federal government is poised  - or even motivated to – rescue us from this pending national financial disaster.  What they will most certainly do is make political hay out of it.”  Anyone who doesn’t agree here is either remarkably naïve or is not a keen observer of what’s been taking place in our nation for far too long.  It seems to be the case, unfortunately, that our leaders be they Republicans or Democrats place party before country and the only goal is winning the next election in order to hold on to whatever power they have managed to amass.  What’s good for the country, what benefits our citizens have become at best mere afterthoughts.  The concept of patriotism is no longer taken seriously by our elected representatives but is merely dragged out and dredged up every election cycle to be employed in vacuous and self-serving “stump” speeches so the sound-bytes keep coming.

     Our Founders’ vision of “public service” was that an individual who is granted the high honor and sacred duty of elected office would go to our nation’s capitol for one or two terms and that was it!  They never envisioned statesmen becoming mere political hacks who held their sinecures for ten, twenty, thirty, and forty years!  It was assumed that one would do his civic duty faithfully and honestly and then return to the real world and resume their chosen professions and vocations.  Elected office was never intended to be a life long proposition for those men knew the utter truth of that old axiom that power does indeed corrupt.  That much power is indeed a heady thing and politicians are famous for getting drunk on it.

     The writer of the piece correctly insists that our, “leaders on both sides of the aisle have seldom risen to the occasion on our behalf if there is another alternative action, like doing nothing.”  He goes on to ask, “So what are we to do?”  Given what’s coming at us on January 1, 2013, that’s a particularly germane and relevant question and we’ve got to find ways with which to effectively answer it.  He further queries, “Shall we wait for taxes and inflation to destroy what little savings we have left?  Shall we emulate what our national leaders have historically done and do nothing until we cannot pay our bills or feed our families?”  How did we let conditions get to the point of absolute crisis?  How did we get so close to the precipice of complete financial ruin that there is exactly no more room for error.  One more misstep will send us hurtling over the cliff and into the abyss!

     The writer notes that for, “creating this mess we can thank a long list of current and past presidents, appointees and czars, congressional representatives, senators, lobbyists, and union/non-union civil service employees since 1913.”  The piece goes on to insist that, “pretending to care for the environment has taken precedence over maintaining a stable economy and morally pure youth.”  Ominously, this “has not been accidental but according to well executed plans meant to jealously destroy our God-given freedoms.”  It is utterly crucial that we never lose sight of that ever so important point.  What is happening to the United States is part of the Far Left’s grand strategy to destroy America and transform it into something it was never intended to be.

     Gradually, over time the LFE amongst us has eroded and so corrupted our core values and principles to the point where they are effectively moribund.  There are those of us out here who seriously question if we can ever return to the nation we so love, cherish, and revere or have we reached the point of no return?  The piece concludes that we, “let our kids be brainwashed with collectivism groupthink.  Easy grant money has skewed the education system toward worshipping the environment and created a willing audience for costly green projects that contribute nothing to our productivity.  Conjured up crises de jour siphon precious time, money, and talent from other matters of higher priority from a government that is supposedly of the people and for the people.”  The author says no for, “this is too serious to leave to those who care more about their political careers than saving the greatest country the world has ever known.”  Amen, Brother!

     As the author suggests, all of this coming mayhem can be directly attributed to members and leaders of both political parties and there is plenty of blame to go around.  Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, the so-called Independents – pick your target for they’re all guilty and there are no innocent bystanders.  As a died-in-the-wool Conservative, I blame Liberalism while the Liberals blame “flat earthers” like me.  The “Dems” blame the mindless and heartless Republican cave dwellers, while the Republicans blame those whose party is appropriately symbolized by a jackass.  The blame game is in full force and nothing gets Fucking Done!  Folks, it’s time for a little introspection here, a little soul searching, and a giant dose of honesty and reality.  As Pogo famously quipped, “we have met the enemy and he is us!”  That’s exactly right for in the final analysis we have no one to blame but ourselves and absolutely no one else!

     We let it happen. We stopped cherishing and guarding our precious freedoms and hard fought for rights.  Instead of displaying constant and steadfast vigilance we have become horrifyingly slothful, lazy and ungrateful.  We take for granted what others have bled and died to give us and we simply stopped honoring their sacrifice.  As we are now finding out, we do so at our own peril.  For example, it is demonstrably true and undeniable that fewer and fewer citizens even bother to go to the polls when election time rolls around.  Fewer and fewer Americans are even engaged in the debate as to the direction our nation has taken and what must be done to keep our great country from following in the footsteps of all the others that came before us.  Our apathy as a people has become one of our defining characteristics and that constitutes a death knell for a representative republic like ours.

     The Founders knew full well that for our system and nation to survive and prosper we need an engaged, interested, and educated populace with strong moral underpinnings.  We have let our system of education come under the control of Leftists, Socialists, and anti-Americans who have brainwashed our young into believing the worst about our country.  Our virtues and amazing accomplishments are no longer taught in our schools at any level.  Patriotism is no longer taught and celebrated in our homes and then reinforced in our educational institutions and the proud American Flag is seen adorning fewer and fewer American abodes.  Our Founding Fathers knew that democracy is fragile and fleeting and must be taught and reinforced from generation to generation as must be pride in country and nationalism.  This, sadly and tragically, is no longer the case. At the Constitutional Convention all those years ago, Benjamin Franklin had apparently left the hall to take some air.  A woman approached and asked him what form or type of government they would give us.  Franklin famously replied, “a republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”  Well Ben Old Buddy I’m sorry to say that outcome is in serious and grave doubt in the 21^st Century!

     We have allowed ourselves to be literally taxed and spent to death.  A representative republic cannot survive when those elected to lead govern against the will and consent of the governed.  It’s an impossibility.  Overwhelming numbers of citizens were absolutely opposed to Obamacare, yet it was rammed down our throats anyway.  The same can be said of those failed bail-outs and stimulus packages as well as Quantitative Easing 1 or 2.  Our citizens did not want them, knew how dangerous they would be, and the horrifically negative impact they would have on our economy, prosperity, and future.  The vast majority of us knew the dangers of living beyond our means and amassing such unimaginable debts and deficits.  We knew and so did those elected to guide America through perilous and uncertain times but once again, these things were forced upon us by a government that has become at best imperious and at worst tyrannical!

     A piece entitled, “Are You Ready for Taxmageddon (www.askheritage.org),” states, “Here’s why you should be worried.  For starters, remember that this is the same President who in 2009 promised, ‘if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime.’  That’s a vow he’s broken, and in 2013, things are going to get even worse if this year Obama doesn’t lead and Congress doesn’t act.”  Well, Obama’s leading all right – he’s leading us straight to Hell in a hand basket and it seems that Congress is nothing but one bad farcical act!  The piece reiterates that almost, “34 percent of the tax increase from Taxmageddon come from the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.  These cuts are best known for reducing marginal income tax rates, but they also reduced the marriage penalty, increased the Child Tax Credit and the adoption credit, and increased tax breaks for education costs and dependent care costs.”

     Obama has killed all that. Furthermore, another “25 percent of Taxmageddon comes from the expiration of the once temporary payroll tax cut, the expiration of the patch on the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) – which would raise the income threshold over which families qualify for the AMT to prevent middle-income families from paying this tax that is only supposed to impact the rich – accounts for 24 percent of the total 2013 tax increase.”  Finally, the “balance of the tax hikes comes from in part new taxes under Obamacare, the expiration of tax cuts in the 2009 stimulus, the expiration of a group of policies known as tax extenders, changes in the current policy on the death tax (in 2013, it will rise from 35 percent to 55 percent and the exemption will fall from $5 million to $3.5 million), and the expiration of business’ ability to fully expense new capital investments.”

     The damage that our Cluster Fuck-in-Chief is purposefully inflicting upon America is virtually incalculable.  It is so staggering as to be absolutely unfathomable.  The Heritage piece goes on to correctly explain that while, “Americans must plan for tomorrow, the tremendous uncertainty about tax policy makes the future much more uncertain, thus discouraging the investments and other actions needed to spur the economy to create jobs faster today.”  This uncertainty is, “slowing job creation and stopping many of the millions of unemployed from going back to work.”  Hey, you guys at the Heritage Foundation – what do you mean uncertainty?  Under this Socialist Scum Dog America is most certainly and totally FUCKED!  There is no doubt or uncertainty about it.

     Unless America wakes up in one big damned hurry and throws that venal, America-Hating Son of a Bitch out of office in November, we are looking at the absolute death, the total demise of this once great and peerless nation!  Perhaps John Adams said it best when he admonished us to remember that, “Democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.  There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”  That’s right, folks, we’ve done it to ourselves!

Much Luv Y’all and Have a Great Day!

The Fifth Horseman

(Dr. David M. Rich, Ph.D.)