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Sunday, July 4, 2010

Flashback: "I repeat: not one single dime."

It’s 11:00 p.m., Kirby Park is slowly, that’s slowly emptying out, and I want to be the first to call for this to be the last year that the City of Wilkes-Barre sponsors an Independence Day fireworks display.

Both the police and fire departments have been pushed to the brink for hours now. With the dry conditions, we’ve had brush fires and structure fires for most of the day. And now that the drunks are at it with reckless abandon, the calls are now flowing in to 911 for domestics, drunken idiocy and assaults and all of that good aggravated assault type stuff.

With municipal budgets already strained to the point of breaking into the Sargasso Sea of red ink, this public safety madness bordering on chaos needs to stop this year. Why spend ungodly amounts of overtime on an hours-long display of idiocy? No more.

Sez me.

From NPR.org:Tanning Salons Burned By New Health Law

The excerpt:
It's the first controversial element of the new health law to take effect: Starting Thursday, people who partake of indoor tanning services will pay a 10 percent tax to help underwrite the costs of the rest of the new law.

Tanning salon owners are outraged. They say the new tax is the last thing they need in a struggling economy. But dermatologists hope the new tax will deter indoor tanning — which they say is every bit as dangerous as baking in the sun — the same way tobacco taxes have helped cut down on smoking.

"The tax could hit an estimated 18,000 small businesses nationwide, jeopardizing thousands of jobs and unfairly hitting working women and college students, who comprise the majority of indoor tanning customers," said a joint statement from the Indoor Tanning Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Federation of Independent Business.

So Ba-roke Oblahblah has broken his oft-repeated campaign promise – a “firm pledge” that Americans earning less than $250,000 would not see “any form of tax increase.” He first broke this pledge sixteen days into his presidency when he signed a 156% increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco.

And dig this…this so-called Obamacare contains 21 certifiable, undeniable tax increases.

Our minds drift back to…

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”--Candidate Barack Obama, Sept. 12, 2008

“If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”--President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009

“The statement didn’t come with caveats.”--Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, April 15, 2009, when asked if the pledge applies to healthcare

In 2001 and 2003, the ‘evil’ GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. All of which expire on January 1, 2011.

What was it? The economy created 36,000 jobs in June, a measly average of 260 jobs per state? So much for that promised “laser-like focus.”

Uncertainty, baby. No smart entrepreneur of either the large or small variety invests in anything of any great importance when uncertainty rules the day, as well as rules the immediate future and beyond.

Read his lips: No new taxes.

G’nite

15 comments:

Joe said...

I could well do without the traditional fireworks display at Kirby Park to free the police up to do something about all the illegal fireworks going off well into the wee hours of the morning. If Martz still sponsors the event, let them bring in security goons to handle the park and surrounding vicinity. The filthy drunks ruined it for my family years ago and we've not gone to the fireworks for years since because of their uncontrolled vulgarity.

Anonymous said...

I go to tanning places in the winter. I am aware that I may put a drain on the health care system in the future, I don't mind paying the tax. I am okay with consumption taxes, it allows ME to decide if I choose to pay. Let's rail against income tax. You know, the one where they fine us for earning money.

Anonymous said...

Why spend the money on fireworks? well let me ask you this... did you actually see the show this year. It was THE best firework show I've or anyone I talked to has ever seen. If you didn't see them, did you happen to hear the crowd? They didn't stop screaming the entire show. Everyone came together for one day and enjoyed a beautiful show. So f*ck off. Some things are more important then a few tax pennys.

Tom Borthwick said...

His tax referenced income, not tobacco. You know that. Cheap shot!

zorcong said...

Cheap shot?

Um, was it an increase or not? Are cigarettes somehow cheaper all of a sudden?

As far as cheap shots go, perhaps you should revisit some of your older posts in which you come off as NEPA's resident name caller.

zorcong said...

"Everyone came together for one day and enjoyed a beautiful show."

I rolled the Hummer through the park at 4 am and the park looked like a freaking landfill. Sure didn't come together and clean up after yourselves.

No, a few more pennies on July 5th took care of all of that. Overtime pennies, that is.

zorcong said...

I'm good with consumption-based taxes as well.

Just don't fall for that claptrap about how anything such as tanning may be driving up health care costs.

Case in point: smokers.

How do smokers drive up the cost of care? By dying prematurely?

How about the non-smokers who live to be 90 or 100? I'd dare say they require more care than does a smoker who drops off well before that.

Anonymous said...

No Marc, actually a group of volunteer libertarians came out on the 5th to clean up the park. And wow, at 4AM the park was still littered with debris? Great observation. Do you expect people to be out there all night with flashlights cleaning up garbage? As soon as day broke volunteers and the pyro crew returned to clean the area. The "volunteer" pyro crew that is, who did not accept one single dime for that show. Saving your precious budget.

zorcong said...

Did I say that? Nope. I was the one with the flashlight.

Actually, by that time, all of the drunks, idiots and easily-amused either crawled home or were taken into custody.

You sure do talk a lot of smack for an anonymous pussy. Doesn't that bother you, being afraid?

PIZZA PAUL PYROTECHNICS said...

no you didn't say that. Your OPINION seems to lead on to that. not that I should care what some blog happy roach collector thinks anyway. Oh and by the way Mark.... you'll be seeing that show for a long time to come. We're not going anywhere. Sorry Buddy

Anonymous said...

Actually treating smoking related diseases drive up health care costs. Most non smokers who live past 70 years old health care costs is 43% of a smoker who dies prior to age 70.
Same as obesity related, which is actually causing more of a drain on health care dollars than smoking. But Obama keeps appointed fatties, including the surgeon general, to his administration. I guess that is lead my example.

zorcong said...

Roach collector?

Ah, the belittling of my chosen industry. Gee, we haven't heard that gibberish before. You get zero points for originality.

Truth is, I ain't seen a roach in years.

Show? What show? What in Allah's name are you going on about now?

Do you have a point other than fighting over a stupid fireworks display?

Tom Borthwick said...

Whether or not I name-call (which is your calling card, anyway) is irrelevant, you're taking one statement Obama made about taxing income, and redefining income. Taxing tobacco products isn't an income tax. That's very simple.

Tom Borthwick said...

"Words mean what I say they mean," said the Red Queen to Alice. And Mark Cour to Tom Borthwick.

zorcong said...

Cute.

I think you guys made your vapid point a long while back: criticism of the once-vaunted, but now fast-fading clueless wonder will not be tolerated.

I can take a hint. And I can also ignore said hint.

Then again, when last we voted for a prez, it was not I who made the aggregious error in judgement.