Obamanomics: I'll see y'all at the Salvation Army thrift store

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson

Kiddies, the 234-year-long party is just about over.

Obama threatens to follow in FDR's economic missteps

Excerpt time: What about the third factor, the entrepreneurial environment? The Obama administration places a premium on action. When it comes to spending, the idea seems to be that any spending is better than none. Big new laws -- financial reform -- are put forward to inspire confidence.

But change that is too arbitrary and too frequent petrifies firms, especially before their rules have been tested in the courts. As Verizon Communications chief executive Ivan Seidenberg noted recently in a Business Roundtable speech: "By reaching into virtually every sector of economic life, government is injecting uncertainty into the marketplace and making it harder to raise capital and create new businesses."

This analysis echoes those of Depression-era entrepreneurs. In 1938 Lammot du Pont, head of the eponymous chemical concern, spoke of a "fog of uncertainty" slowing business and noted in the company's annual report that arbitrary government always slowed business down: "by land and sea the universal practice under conditions of fog is to slacken speed."

Uncertainty? No sh*t! No kidding!

And where have we heard that U-word mentioned before?

The full text: "We see a host of laws, regulations and other policies being enacted that impose a government prescription of how individual industries ought to be structured, rather than produce an environment in which the private sector can innovate, invest and create jobs in this modern global economy.

In our judgment, we have reached a point where the negative effects of these policies are simply too significant to ignore. In the search for short-term revenue fixes, we're doing long-term damage to growth. By reaching into virtually every sector of economic life, government is injecting uncertainty into the marketplace and making it harder to raise capital and create new businesses." - Verizon CEO and Business Roundtable Chairman Ivan Seidenberg speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, June 22, 2010

And get ready for the latest from Community Organizer Central, prepare to Google search the “Financial Transaction Tax.”

Yikes!

And then we have the latest, distressing news such as…

*California is $19.1 billion in the red and the legislature has gone home without passing a budget. Governor Schwarzenegger has said he will cut the wages of state employees to the federal minimum of $7.25/hour, at least for those employees whose unions are not willing to negotiate new contracts.

*In Illinois the Comptroller has stopped paying bills because the state is $12 billion in deficit. The cash balance for the state is minus $5 billion and it is taking nearly 250 days to pay bills that are due.- In Oregon they tried raising taxes on "the rich." The state passed a referendum in January to substantially raise taxes on those making over $125,000 per year and on corporations, but the hoped-for revenues never materialized, so Governor Kulongoski is calling for a 9 percent across-the-board cut in state spending.

*Indiana has balanced its budget by not relying on federal funds. Governor Mitch Daniels said, "It would have never entered our mind to put funny money like that into the budget."

*In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie managed to cut spending by 8.8 percent from last year and refused demands to raise taxes on "millionaires." Now he has called for a special session of the legislature to limit property tax hikes to no more than 2.5 percent per year.

You know, despite what Ba-roke Oblahblah says, this ain’t fu*king rocket science. At least, not for anyone born and raised in America. Here’s the tried-and-true fix:

1. Downsize government.

2. Reduce the deficit.

3. Decrease the level of taxation.

4. Regulate, don't suffocate.

5. Tell the partisan union brotherhoods to deal with reality.

And don’t give me any Keynesian nonsense.

A dollar drained by force from the private sector does not produce a return and then some, as the Harvard shut-ins might have you believe. A dollar confiscated from the private sector is a dollar that returns no real dividend back to the private sector. That lost dollar goes to pay for the bureaucracy, it pays for those wanting a government handout and it pays for votes. Done.

Whatever.

I’ll see y’all at the Salvation Army thrift store.

Oh, and by the way, Afghanistan is all but lost in any practical sense. Pull the ground troops back, get the boots off of the mountainsides and allow the CIA to turn that 4th-century country into it's private, high-tech playground. No more blood spilled by America's kids.

Drone, baby, drone.

Nite