A Thread from a Linked-In Discussion

James:

2009 and a New President

Hello All,

How do you think the new year and new administration will effect either the industry you are in or your company indirect or directly?

Personally, I am in the banking industry, I am unsure what all this means for the banking industry.

Me:

DECLINES in personal liberties, national security, free enterprise, free markets, the benefits of capitalism and the value of the U.S. dollar.

INCREASES in taxes, federal regulations, socialist policies, fascist polices and risks to U.S. interests abroad.

James:

I am interested in hearing where this has all been stated. Is this a generalization or factual based statements on the new president. Also, I do see that the opposite of what your stating has not work over the past 8 years, so are you proposing what needs to happen?

Me:

Well, the previous administration inherited a recession, was afflicted by the economic outfall of 9/11/2001, and still managed to bring us 24 (or was it 26?) consecutive quarters of sustained growth with almost no inflation.

The new administration intends to takeover 15% of the U.S. economy via a federal health care program, which will INCREASE taxes; INCREASE federal regulation of the health care industry; REDUCE our individual liberty to choose our own path to health care; REDUCE the free market and free enterprise incentives to health care excellence in the U.S.; and emulate the socialist policies of other nations that have government-run health care. (That's just one example.)

Furthermore, the current economic stimulus package -- falsely so-called -- is nothing more than a virtual fire hose of money thrown at special interests and public works, and accompanied by "tax incentives" -- most of which are nothing more than the redistribution of wealth, since they are giving the so-called incentives mostly to those who DO NOT pay federal income taxes at all.

If the federal government intends to CONFISCATE THE MONIES of the wealth-producing populace through its foolish tax policies, at least DO NOT also insult our intelligence by telling us that the politicians are now going to HELP US by returning to us some small portion of what they have taken!

Yes, my statements are based on FACT -- historical facts. NOWHERE IN HISTORY has an economy been "stimulated" by confiscatory tax policies. NOWHERE IN HISTORY has socialism or fascism been demonstrated to improve the economy of any nation. Socialism, as instituted under the Soviet regime, managed to make the world's largest wheat EXPORTER (Russia) into the world's largest wheat IMPORTER (U.S.S.R.) in a matter of a few short years. (Were it NOT for the grace and supply of the U.S. government and the productivity of American agriculture, the Soviet government could not have survived for the 70 years that it did without major wars of aggression to seize new lands that it could pilfer and destroy.)

Show me any nation on earth where BIG GOVERNMENT has led to MORE personal liberty? Despite what President Obama said in his inaugural address, the SIZE OF GOVERNMENT DOES MATTER. The fact that a larger government, by its nature, results in or feeds upon more regulation is de facto evidence that BIG GOVERNMENT leads to a reduction in personal liberties.

Are we all looking forward to the day when the government's intervention in the auto industry gives us the grand selection of automobiles that was available to the typical citizen of the Soviet Union, and we, like the Soviet citizen, must "apply for" a vehicle and wait a year or two to take delivery of it?

Are we all looking forward to the day when the government's meddling in markets and confiscatory tax policies remove all incentives to excellence amongst our manufacturers? Then, perhaps, one day we will be just like the U.S.S.R. where the most common cause for house fires was -- of all things -- exploding television sets!

Are we all looking forward to the day when the government's ill-conceived "green" policies drive the price of gasoline to $5.00 a gallon or higher? Meanwhile, our food prices skyrocket because we've made our machines competitors for our food supply through government subsidized ethanol programs.

I wish -- even HOPE -- that I am wrong in my assessment. Meanwhile, I have grave concerns that I am not.