Kumbaya, Congress & "Taxes."

KUMBAYA; Obama doesn’t have to wait until he takes office to find out the results of his naivete in dealing with our enemies. Although he may be willing to meet with Iran “without pre-conditions,” Iran has already put us on notice that it does have pre-conditions, namely, total US withdrawal from the Middle East and cessation of US support for Israel. So much for the Kumbaya theory of foreign policy.

CONGRESS; Recent polls show this Democrat-controlled Congress with an approval rating of between 9 and 12%. Yet, other polls indicate that the Dems are almost assured of substantially increasing their numbers in both Houses. Do most voters not know that the Dems control Congress or is this more evidence of the well-known paradox that they think Congress is a bunch of crooks but their representative is great?

And if they don’t trust Congress, why would they want to give it more power by electing a President of the same party who is unlikely to use the veto power? Beats me.

OBAMA’S MIDDLE CLASS TAX; I think the reason that Obama is doing so well is that too many Americans are ignorant when it comes to economics. If people don’t understand how the economy works, then it is easy for politicians to deceive them.

Take corporate and business taxes. Many people don’t understand that living standards are directly tied to worker productivity. Capital investment in better machines and technology makes workers more productive. The more productive they are, the more they earn. As FedEx founder and CEO, Fred Smith, said in an interview in today’s WSJ, “the only way to make a blue collar worker earn more is to invest in capital, training and infrastructure. So the more you tax capital, the more you hurt workers.”

Next look at energy and environmental policies. You think everybody understands supply and demand? Apparently not. You’d think that when the Dems talk about severely restricting drilling people would realize that decreasing the supply of energy will increase prices, not just for fuel, but for just about everything they buy.

The there’s “cap and trade.” Under this scheme the government would sell rights to emit carbon dioxide. This is nothing more than another tax on energy and manufacturing. The result will be higher prices on energy and on many products that Americans buy and use every day.

This is why an Obama presidency with large Democrat majorities in Congress will mean higher prices (same as higher taxes) and a lower standard of living, not only for “the rich,” but for all Americans.