PrintApril 29, 2011
Obama's Brand of 'Greatness' for America
Obama's budget reminds me of the joke where the wife asks her husband, "Should I get a bikini or an all-in-one?" The husband replies, "Better get a bikini...you'll never get it all in one."
The budget is out of control because of the thing that Obama says makes America great: entitlements. Who knew that giving money to the shiftless and lazy is the way we are supposed to measure ourselves?
Apparently America is at the pinnacle of its greatness, because we are giving it all away. According to this report, 50% of Americans are receiving entitlements, and more shocking is this report that shows that as many as 62% of illegal immigrants are receiving them. I can understand 10% of Americans receiving entitlements, because conservatives are sensitive to the plight of the underprivileged, despite the lies from the lunatic left. But 50% just helps me understand how many lazy leftoids there are -- you know, people who believe that they are entitled to our money.
Like the 40% who don't represent the relatively small group of Americans who actually need help, illegal aliens are entitled to nothing except to be thrown out of the bar. We've all seen the movies where the bouncers escort the troublemaker out of the trendy bar full of gorgeous hotties and then toss him onto the sidewalk. Well, America is the trendy bar full of gorgeous hotties called conservatives. We value our club, and we won't let just anybody in. You have to dress right and "know somebody," or you are entitled to meet the pavement.
A New York Times columnist disagrees with me, saying Republicans are trying to make "entitlement" a dirty word. It really sucks that we are still only "trying." "Entitlement" is a dirty word. Life entitles you to nothing except to die, and even that doesn't have to be pretty.
These days, the left wants to give out free residences, food, cars, cell phones, TVs, video games, and about everything else. It's quite frankly ridiculous. It would be different if the government provided basics, leaving incentive to work for an Xbox. But the government will give you the Xbox, too, and free games -- confiscated from the kids of hardworking conservatives, of course.
When did it become a source of pride to receive entitlements? Further, those who are best at getting them are respected in their communities, even looked upon as policy gurus. They teach clinics while at their stylists, and again when getting their manicures and pedicures. They even enlighten while shopping for DVDs and wardrobes.
In the old days, people hid the fact that they needed government assistance, and they worked hard to get off the system. Not anymore, Rip Van Winkle. To remove the stigma of being a freeloader, the government has gone to the welfare credit card. And in California you can now buy liquor and cigarettes on your welfare credit card, not to mention the gambling and Hawaiian vacations people were taking with them last year. One would guess that the Golden State is saying, "Screw it; things are so bad here, we might as well let you smoke and/or drink yourselves to death!" You never know with the left. These entitlements have gotten us the worst credit rating in the modern era. However, they did one good thing, and that is to expose just how inept at economics Obama is.
The national debt adds $1M every twenty seconds. Imagine the national lottery we could have if we had no debt! We could create a millionaire every twenty seconds, or roughly 4,300 millionaires every day. How's that for stimulus?
Despite our little debt problem, Obama wants to keep printing money, keep spending money, and raise the debt ceiling. Why bother calling it a ceiling, since the debt ceiling has already been raised three times in The Time of O? Let's just call it a moving target.
So what if we hit the debt ceiling? It's not like the lights will go off in America. Will Lockheed stop building that next missile system, or will they just say, "Well, looks like our number-one client is gonna be late for a bit?" Given Standard and Poor's put our rating on warning, I suspect our creditors already know what's happening.
Yet government credit cards are not being cut. Nobody's threatening to repossess Air Force One, and Obama is not hiding the presidential limos at a storage locker in D.C. or having Secret Service run interference from creditors. No, Obama is still living large, likely planning his next taxpayer-funded vacation.
The only thing we have done that is more stupid than allowing the Geri-curl and plus-sized spandex is the election of Obama. The New Black Panthers know it, Louis Farrakhan knows it, and Oprah knows it. Deal with it, liberal America, because you know it, too.
In the midst of a financial meltdown that cost the American taxpayers $1.4T, Obama and Geithner said to the Wall Street Journal that they are optimistic about the budget deficit. Seriously, how can you be optimistic about the budget deficit? That's like being optimistic about being three months behind on your mortgage. Surpluses make you happy, not deficits.
Obama's solution is to attack the most productive people in America: the conservative rich. The liberal rich are the morons, but conservative rich people work for a living and create jobs. They also create opportunity, the thing that people used to come to America to find -- and not at the welfare office.
There is certainly enough history on the subject of tax increases that you would think Obama wouldn't even consider -- correction: re-consider -- such an inane notion. But as Obama said in 2008 about raising the Capital Gains Tax, he would do it "for fairness purposes." Fair to whom?
When Maryland passed a higher tax rate on people earning $1 million a year or more, the number of millionaires living in Maryland fell from nearly 8,000 to fewer than 6,000. Maryland counted on $106 million in increase revenue, but instead, revenues fell by $257 million. Oops.
Enough is enough, America. "Entitlement" is a dirty word. If you haven't contributed to the system, you are entitled to nothing.
Kevin Jackson is author of The BIG Black Lie and The Black Sphere blog.
