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Examining Barak Obama’s Economic Agenda


The Federal government has actually set up a website for “The President Elect”, at http://www.change.gov/ It contains an “Economic Agenda”, that is very specific and detailed. Below is a cursory analysis of parts of that document. http://www.change.gov/agenda/economy_agenda/  

http://change.gov/agenda/economy/
 

Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Plan

Jumpstart the Economy

  • Enact a Windfall Profits Tax to Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families:Barack Obama and Joe Biden will enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give American families an immediate $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay rising bills. This relief would be a down payment on the Obama-Biden long-term plan to provide middle-class families with at least $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief.
[This is very bad. How could they not have learned from Carter and Nixon doing the same thing? Windfall profit taxes punish the oil companies for something out of their control…BUYERS set the price in oil futures auctions, not oil companies…meanwhile, the tax prevents expanded oil exploration, and reduces incentive to refine, so that we will end up with long gas lines and shortages, just as we did in the 70s. Those were NEVER from an oil shortage, but from the windfall profit tax and other price controlsAnd, as with Bush, the “stimulus” handout does almost nothing to help the economy. In order to have a Reaganesque economic boost, you have to flatten taxes and leave the money in the hands of the consumers to start with, not tax it away and then send it back in semi-annual, middle class welfare checks like these “rebates”]   

  • Provide $50 billion to Jumpstart the Economy and Prevent 1 Million Americans from Losing Their Jobs: This relief would include a $25 billion State Growth Fund to prevent state and local cuts in health, education, housing, and heating assistance or counterproductive increases in property taxes, tolls or fees. The Obama-Biden relief plan will also include $25 billion in a Jobs and Growth Fund to prevent cutbacks in road and bridge maintenance and fund school re pair – all to save more than 1 million jobs in danger of being cut.
[Every penny the government spends to “help” the economy actually harms it, because that is money taken from private hands, where it could have done more good. The more money Obama spends, the worse the economy will get, just as happened under Hoover/FDR.]
Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families: Obama and Biden will restore fairness to the tax code and provide 150 million workers the tax relief they need. Obama and Biden will create a new “Making Work Pay” tax credit of up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per working family. The “Making Work Pay” tax credit will completely eliminate income taxes for 10 million Americans.
[Since the government will not proportionately cut spending, this means they are increasing the tax burden on the “wealthy”…the very people who create jobs. This will increase unemployment…and it won’t actually be paid by the wealthy, anyway.
This is Trickle Down Taxation: The socialists raise taxes “on the rich”, who then raise their own salaries, raise prices, cut pay to their employees, lay people off…generally, they just pass the tax on to poorer people. The poorer you are, the less you’re able to avoid the punishment of the taxes “on the rich”. This is why the super-rich don’t MIND the high taxes. They just pass them on to you.]
  • Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making Less than $50,000: Barack Obama will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This proposal will eliminate income taxes for 7 million seniors and provide these seniors with an average savings of $1,400 each year. Under the Obama-Biden plan, 27 million American seniors will also not need to file an income tax return.
[Old people are the wealthiest age group of Americans. They should not be getting better treatment than younger Americans of the same income bracket. They tend to have a larger savings, own their own home (that is paid off), have better cars, et cetera. This is why Socialist Security is one of the most evil forms of redistribution of wealth.]
Simplify Tax Filings for Middle Class Americans: Obama and Biden will dramatically simplify tax filings so that millions of Americans will be able to do their taxes in less than five minutes. Obama and Biden will ensure that the IRS uses the information it already gets from banks and employers to give taxpayers the option of pre-filled tax forms to verify, sign and return. Experts estimate that the Obama-Biden proposal will save Americans up to 200 million total hours of work and aggravation and up to $2 billion in tax preparer fees.
[If they did this, it’d be the first GOOD thing on this list. Bush’s feeble “tax cuts” actually increased tax compliance costs more than they “reduced” taxes, so that they were a burden, not a help…aside from mostly not being cuts at all, but welfare hidden as “rebates” and “tax credits”. Tax credits ARE welfare, don’t mistake that.]
  • Improve Transition Assistance: To help all workers adapt to a rapidly changing economy, Obama and Biden will update the existing system of Trade Adjustment Assistance by extending it to service industries, creating flexible education accounts to help workers retrain, and providing retraining assistance for workers in sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation before they lose their jobs.
[This is actually disastrous. The reason america suffers these insane cycles of nurse shortages, then nurse gluts, causing both patients and nurses to suffer, is that governments try to control the supply of nurses by training them. Whenever the government tries to regulate labor, by training people, it creates far more harm than good…same as trying to educate children, or feed people, or build cars]
  • Reward Companies that Support American Workers: Barack Obama introduced the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 with Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to reward companies that create good jobs with good benefits for American workers. The legislation would provide a tax credit to companies that maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to those outside the US; maintain their corporate headquarters in America if it has ever been in America; pay decent wages; prepare workers for retirement; provide health insurance; and support employees who serve in the military.
[Again, horrible for Americans. When a company moves production overseas, it’s because this is cheaper FOR AMERICANS. Keeping a job here by force turns that job into a fake, makework job. It is nothing but the ugliest kind of welfare handout…forcing Americans to suffer a lower standard of living, paying more for their life needs just so a few people can have imaginary jobs.]

Invest in the Manufacturing Sector and Create 5 Million New Green Jobs

  • Invest in our Next Generation Innovators and Job Creators: Obama and Biden will create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to identify and invest in the most compelling advanced manufacturing strategies. The Fund will have a peer-review selection and award process based on the Michigan 21st Century Jobs Fund, a state-level initiative that has awarded over $125 million to Michigan businesses with the most innovative proposals to create new products and new jobs in the state.
[Nothing cripples advancement in an industry like having Big Brotherment try to “invest in” it. We lack useful solar power, and a cure for cancer, because the government decided to try to “identify and invest in” those things. Meanwhile, again, makework jobs are bad, not good.]
  • Invest In A Clean Energy Economy And Create 5 Million New Green Jobs: Obama and Biden will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, invest in low emissions coal plants, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid. The plan will also invest in America’s highly-skilled manufacturing workforce and manufacturing centers to ensure that American workers have the skills and tools they need to pioneer the first wave of green technologies that will be in high demand throughout the world.
[Biofuels are not only bad for the economy, but bad for the ENVIRONMENT. They have a larger carbon footprint than fossil fuels, and steal food from the mouths of the hungry by stealing away cropland that would otherwise go to producing food. Less foot means higher prices…more hungry people, more food stamps, more poverty caused by the money the government steals to make food stamps…and endless cycle]

Support Small Business

  • Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Up Companies: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will eliminate all capital gains taxes on start-up and small businesses to encourage innovation and job creation. Obama and Biden will also support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in America. Self-employed small business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the payroll tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double taxation.
[This would be good…if they weren’t also planning to INCREASE capital gains taxes on everyone else. ALL capital gains taxes are harmful. Eliminating that one tax, even if all other taxes remained the same, would have a tremendous boosting effect on the economy. No other tax harms capitalism as much.]
Ensure Freedom to Unionize: Obama and Biden believe that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers. Obama cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to organize. He will continue to fight for EFCA’s passage and sign it into law.
[What they mean by this is “violate the private property rights of employers, and make it easier for workers to be FORCED into unions.
Remember that unions are BAD for workers.]
  • Protect Striking Workers: Obama and Biden support the right of workers to bargain collectively and strike if necessary. They will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.
[Perhaps they should also ban shoppers from avoiding stores that raise their prices. This is a violation of the owner’s right to choose who to hire, and what to pay them. It is bad for everyone.]
  • Raise the Minimum Wage: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs.
[The minimum wage traps forces young people into poverty, and traps poor people there for a lifetime. It helps nobody, in any way.]

Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to Protect Consumers: Obama and Biden will create a Credit Card Bill of Rights to protect consumers. The Obama-Biden plan will:

  • Ban Unilateral Changes
  • Apply Interest Rate Increases Only to Future Debt
  • Prohibit Interest on Fees
  • Prohibit “Universal Defaults”
  • Require Prompt and Fair Crediting of Cardholder Payments
[All of this will harm consumers, not protect them. It robs consumers of the power to CHOOSE what kind of credit to get. They are already capable of refusing to deal with any creditor who does those things. Meanwhile, this will force creditors to be more strict with their lending in the first place, blocking people from getting credit, who could have worked their way up to having good credit, otherwise]
Reform Bankruptcy Laws

Obama and Biden will reform our bankruptcy laws to protect working people, ban executive bonuses for bankrupt companies, and require disclosure of all pension investments.

[Bonuses for CEOs of bankrupt companies SAVE companies from bankrupcy. The best CEOs will refuse to work for a struggling company…the kind of company that needs them most…unless there is some guarantee that, if it fails anyway, the damage to their reputation is paid for. The best executives will cease to be willing to rescue struggling companies, resulting in MORE failures, and more job loss.]

 

           

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November 9, 2008 Posted by | Economy | Leave a comment

   

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