Charles Sykes – A Nation of Moochers (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Charles, then Charlie, was the morning news guy on a rock station that hired me at the beginning of my career behind a microphone. While I was just getting started, he was moving toward the next phase of his career which would eventually find him becoming a conservative talk show host and author.

To say that Sykes is an opinionated, well researched and hard hitting is an understatement. As a recovering talk show host myself, it’s been my thought that if you want to gage just how effective a host is is in delivering his message, then measure him by his critics. Sykes foes spiral quickly down the familiar path of name calling, ad hominem personal attacks and those that claim he is a full throated liar, but can’t seem to manage to cite any examples.

Sykes latest literary effort, A Nation of Moochers, out now in paperback, details his case that the United States has gone through a shift in character and become, as the title suggests, a nation of moochers. While the left takes that as an attack on the 47 percent-ers, Sykes doesn’t spare many when he makes his case. He includes corporate/Wall Street bailouts, questionable tax exemptions, and other entitlement costs that cross all classes under the banner of MOOCHER. His “Moocher Checklist” is a wildly sweeping and detailed airing of moocher laundry.

Sykes laments the seeming passing of character traits like self-reliance and personal responsibility and the upshot of the scrambling for a handout mindset. It’s pretty easy to see his point when you consider that our parents and grandparents were embarrassed to be on the dole for even a short time while today we have folks decrying the lack of fairness that unemployment benefits run dry after a staggering 99 weeks! Amazingly much of the gnashing of teeth seems to be coming from our so-called “leaders” like Nancy Pelosi; who famously tried to sell us the bullshit that the fastest way to grow the economy was more public benefits!

I’d like to give Sykes credit for driving so many liberals to the brink of their sanity with his well-researched points, but for the very ludicrous nature of their stance had them on the edge from the start.  

 

Betsy McCaughey – Beating Obamacare: Your Handbook for Surviving the New Healthcare Law (Regnery Publishing)

During the debate over the Affordable Care Act, which better known as Obamacare, then Speaker of the House and well known MENSA member Nancy Pelosi famously proclaimed “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.” Unlike the genius Pelosi and I would safely bet a preponderance of the then members of the House and Senate who voted for this legislation, former New York Lt. Governor and health policy advocate Betsy McCaughey has actually read the 2572 pages of this convoluted law in its entirety.

McCaughey was a tireless campaigner against the passage of this mess and as now delivered a concise rendering of what the law actually says and does to the American people and the U.S. healthcare system in Beating Obamacare: Your Handbook for Surviving the New Healthcare Law.

While the chatter leading up to the passage of the law painted a wonderful picture full of all of the tremendous benefits that the American people would reap under this new approach to healthcare. But like so much that comes out of Washington, the American people were sold a bill of goods and the promised savings and improvements to healthcare delivery have already been proven to be an outright lie even before much of the law takes full effect.

McCaughey spells out the reality of the healthcare law including;

• The implementation of the largest tax increase in the last 20 years

• The tremendous cuts to payments that doctors, hospitals, and many other healthcare providers will receive for care delivered to the elderly.

• Why a massive number of employers who currently provide healthcare insurance are considering dropping those plans or cutting down the number of folks who participate in the benefit by slashing workforce or the number of hours workers currently work.

• If you’re wondering about the huge growth in the number of IRS employees being added to the federal payroll that is the mechanism that will be used for reporting and tracking if you receive employer provided healthcare and how much employers contribute to the cost of those plans.

 McCaughey spell out the cold, hard, reality of Obamacare in direct, easy to understand language that arms readers with the truth about what’s actually in the law. Beating Obamacare: Your Handbook for Surviving the New Healthcare Law, should be required reading for so-called best and the brightest on Capitol Hill who foisted this 20 pound legislative turd onto the American people. I would hope that Ms. McCaughey would also be kind enough to send a personally signed copy over to Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts whose misguided vote allowed this nightmare to continue.

Things That Drive Me Crazy

Has we approach Election Day and the political season starts to boil, there are a huge number of things that drive me absolutely crazy! Stupid politicians, even more ignorant members of the media and generally stupid voters truly push me over the edge.

So I decided to run just a hand full down and try to explain the stupidity-

Stupidity- I just love when politicians, generally liberal, Democrat politicians say that “tax cuts cost too much” or we “we can’t afford tax cuts.”

Reality- Tax cuts do not cost the government anything. Think about it. How does the government allowing you to keep more of your money, “cost” them anything? It’s not like you give them the money, they take possession of it, then they give it back! They never have/had it. Let me explain it in simple terms, even liberals should be able to understand; this would be like me saying to you, “hey you owe me $20.” You never loaned me $20. I never did any work or gave you anything that is valued at $20. When you don’t pay me; I go around and say that you cost me $20. Much like the government in the tax cut example, I assumed that you owed me $20 so it was just like me having that money; mystical, government thinking at best!

Stupidity – “Mitt Romney wants to give tax breaks to his big business cronies.”

Reality – Let me say this as clearly and simply as possible: BUSINESSES DO NOT PAY TAXES. Yes, you read that right…BUSINESSES DO NOT PAY TAXES. If you are a business owner, yes you built that! And if you want to keep it, you know that you have to price your products and/or services to include the amount of taxes that you will have to pay to the layers of government. I don’t care if you’re making widgets, creating web pages, or selling me breakfast, you know how much the raw materials cost, the cost of the staff to make it, turning the lights on and other equipment, heck even the cost of that equipment over time, and you price your stuff accordingly, including the taxes and some margin for profit. Those costs get passed through to your customers so at the end of the day, businesses don’t pay taxes! So when politicians talking about raising taxes, adding regulations, and things like raising the minimum wage, businesses aren’t going to pay the additional costs out of their profits, they will simply re-price everything to cover those increases and pass it along to the end consumer. If they are in an extremely competitive business, they may have to absorb some or all of those costs, then they may have to dip into that profit margin and that will have an impact on things like adding staff, growing product lines or locations and salary/benefit increases. 

Stupidity – when it comes to taxes; “The rich need to pay their fair share”

Reality – I am not sure what the definition of “fair” is; given that nearly 50% of U.S. workers pay NO FEDERAL INCOME TAXES. The top 10% of earners currently pay 70% of the total tax nut! What do you think is fair? I have always been a big believer in the mile/inch example. If liberals had their way the tax base would be an inch wide and the taxes would go a mile deep. I believe that fairness calls for the opposite; that the tax base should be a mile wide and that taxes should go an inch deep. Get it? We put more people into the work force to grow that base; in the process we spread the burden over a wider range of people. That way everybody pays something and the burden isn’t left with the few.

Stupidity – As Vice President Joe Biden scoffed and snickered his way through the VP debate he chuckled that the proposed tax increase would “impact only 2.5% of small businesses.”

Reality – while the chuckleheads in the Obama administration will tell you that the 2.5% is “small potatoes” they won’t tell you that that equates to 894,000 businesses! They definitely won’t tell you that if these increases take place, based on the current economic system most businesses project that they will cut 2-4 workers to absorb the impact of the tax increase…see businesses don’t pay taxes above. Do some basic math, cutting 2-4 employees would range from 1,788,000 to 3,576,000 more of your fellow Americans on the un-employment line. Small potatoes…right? Proving once again what a dumbass Biden is.

Stupidity – “The economy is better positioned to handle higher gas prices”

Reality – While driving one day, I heard that gem escape the lips of some member of the genius media class…unfortunately, I didn’t catch who dropped that pearl of wisdom. But it got me thinking; A- Does anybody really think that the fragile (and even that term is generous) U.S. economy is in any position to “handle” higher prices at the pump? B- Where are the Liberal, Democrat members of Congress who were soooooo apoplectic about blaming “oilmen” Bush and Cheney for the high price of gas? Then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi  and the Dems held a price conference at a gas station with the price of $3.19 a gallon as the back drop, today a photo of that same station with a price of $4.45 per gallon.

 

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) issued a release that day, July 12, 2006 stating; “Oil companies are tipping American families upside down and shaking money out of their pockets and guess who is helping them? The Bush Administration and this GOP Congress. Last week, a gallon of regular gasoline averaged $2.93 nationally, which represents a $0.71 increase over prices at the same time last year, and a whopping $1.66 increase over the $1.26 charged for a gallon of regular gasoline when Bush took office.”

Yet today they only thing coming from Liberal Democrats is…the sounds of silence…insert the sound of crickets here. Seriously…the price of gas has more than doubled since Obama took office (then $1.84 or $1.79 per gallon depending on the survey you read) and has remained consistently high and yet there is not talk about investigations or protest from Democrats. The solution is simple; start to tap into the resources available in this country. While Obama continues to lie about his record on domestic oil production claiming it’s increased, the reality is he has put a road block in front of new production that isn’t taking place on private lands; the only increase is coming on private lands, like the shale oil  in North Dakota and the Marcellus Shale right here in PA. Gee wonder why North Dakota has a 3% unemployment rate and a growing economy? It’s really not brain surgery.

 

I thought Obamacare was about “free” healthcare for everyone? Apparently I misunderstood…because based on their recent comments the Democrat party is now, suddenly concerned about the transfer of wealth and the Obamacare bill was really about government forcing personal responsibility.

Here is a small sampling of the new look, Democrat leadership’s comments to the media:

“This is a penalty on free riders,” said Senator Chuck Schummer (D-NY)

It’s not a tax on the American people,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “It’s a penalty for free riders.”

 “This penalty says you cannot be a free-rider,” White House chief of staff Jack Lew told Fox News.

“[W]e shouldn’t have free riders in the system who drive up everyone’s healthcare [costs],” Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

"When it came to championing the health care legislation, President Obama made sure that although everybody -- the vast majority of Americans have health insurance coverage, we want to make sure that if you're a free rider, if you roll the dice and get sick and use the emergency room as your primary access point for health care. Those health care costs are going to get shifted to all of us. And if you choose not to carry health insurance, this legislation says you're going to pay a small penalty so that we don't have to pay for you rolling the dice," DNC chair and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said on MSNBC today.

“The massive so-called tax increase they’re talking about is the freeloader penalty,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said on CBS’ “Face The Nation, “which would affect at most 1-2 percent of people that could afford health care and instead want to be freeloaders on the rest of us with uncompensated care.”

Apparently Gov. O’Malley didn’t quite understand his talking points fax…it’s FREE RIDER…not FREE LOADER!

Seriously…do these asshats really think that anyone is buying this? This is the best they can concoct to try to defend our clueless President who arrived in office by proclaiming that no one earning $200,000 or less would be subject to a tax increase? How does this TAX increase, help to reduce the cost of healthcare?

Here’s a hint…IT DOESN’T!! These drooling morons don’t quite grasp the fact that people who can afford health insurance, but choose not to buy it aren’t what’s driving up the cost of healthcare! Those people will receive a bill from their hospital or physician and here’s a unique concept, they will be expected to pay for the service they receive!

It’s those people that Obama and his ilk claim they are “helping” with this flawed legislation, those who don’t have or can’t afford health insurance that jack up the costs! And how does this TAX increase do anything to prevent these folks from being FREE RIDERS on other people’s dime?! "This is a penalty on free riders," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.This is a penalty on free riders," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.This is a penalty on free riders," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Can Anyone Really Be This Stupid?

At the daily press gaggle at the White House, Obama’s mouth piece Jay Carney got into it with a Wall Street Journal reporter and had this to say about unemployment checks
“It is one of the most direct ways to infuse money directly into the economy because people who are unemployed and obviously aren’t running a paycheck are going to spend the money that they get. They’re not going to save it, they’re going to spend it. And with unemployment insurance, that way, the money goes directly back into the economy, dollar for dollar virtually.”

Following this twisted logic; given all of the people who have been collecting unemployment checks during the Obama presidency, if unemployment checks really did create jobs, then wouldn’t our unemployment rate be below 5% rather than hanging where it’s been for months, above 9%?!

Can anyone really be this stupid?

Oh…wait a minute…then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said this of unemployment benefits back in July of 2010… “It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.”

I guess the short answer is…yes…Democrats really can be that stupid!

If unemployment checks really created jobs…then why work? Don’t you want to help the economy?