Saturday, February 27, 2010

Will BIG Brother Steal Our Retirement Income?

It sounds crazy, doesn't it? The very thought that the government may be quietly laying the groundwork to seize your retirement assets is enough to make you shudder and think, "no way! This can't be happening. Not in America. My IRA and 401k are safe."

REMEMBER that we talking about the Obama Administration and the IRS.
This is the same administration who:

--used the recent economic chaos to seize control of the American mortgage market,
--used loans to GM and Chrysler to take control of those companies. Initially they secured those loans with preferred stocks, which they quickly converted to Common Stocks so they could gain a controlling vote.
--has recently taken over the student loan business
--has appointed radical leftist "Czars" to oversee and transform ever-larger portions of our economy against the will of the people and their representatives in Congress
--has presided over a quadrupling of the budget deficit in the course of 1 year

In short, they haven't "wasted a good crisis" since taking office.

The list of Obama Administration trespasses against our freedom-based way of life is long indeed. Given their track record, is there any reason to think that they wouldn't try to get their hands on 3 TRILLION dollar$ of our retirement funds? Do you think they would be opposed to this heist on principle? REALLY?!

The following opinion piece, THE GOVERNMENT WANTS YOUR RETIREMENT, is from Neal Boortz. As you read this it's important to remember that Neal didn't pull this "possibility" from his nether regions. He read an IRS document contained at zerohedge.com.

http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/02/the-government-wants-your-reti.html

Boortz: "I've been telling you about this for a while now. This, to me, is one of the most dangerous schemes currently slithering through the crevices and dark spots of the Imperial Federal Government in Washington. What am I talking about? What I believe to be plans by the Obama administration to, in effect, seize your retirement funds and use them to finance their deficit spending. Remember ... there are more than $3 trillion dollars sitting out there in individual retirement, IRA and 401K plans. Politicians just cant stand the idea of this much money sitting out there in private investments ... out of the grasp of politicians. So .... Something needs to be done. And sure enough, something is going to be done. The Treasury Department and the Department of Labor were going to start taking comments on ways to promote the idea converting 401(k) savings and IRAs into annuities or other steady payment streams. Well you can finally take a look at this document for yourself:

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/2010-02028_PI.pdf

Here, I'll post a little to get you started: (from the IRS document)

The Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury (the "Agencies") are currently reviewing the rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the plan qualification rules under the Internal Revenue Code (Code) to determine whether, and, if so, how, the Agencies could or should enhance, by regulation or otherwise, the retirement security of participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans and in individual retirement arrangements (IRAs) by facilitating access to, and use of, lifetime income or other arrangements designed to provide a lifetime stream of income after retirement. The purpose of this request for information is to solicit views, suggestions and comments from plan participants, employers and other plan sponsors, plan service providers, and members of the financial community, as well as the general public, on this important issue.

Boortz: "That's a lot of government-speak. Can you read between the lines? What is the real plan here? Behind this nonsense about "lifetime stream of income after retirement" language is a lovely little plan to force you to finance the Democrat's deficit spending. The plan is to play into the current economic fears. "Never let a good crisis go to waste." Remember the words of Rahm? The Democrats want you to question whether or not Wall Street is the right place to invest your money. Wouldn't you be safer if the government kept it for you? The government wants you to believe that it can do a better job of investing and managing your retirement than you can. And for a lot of people who believe that government is the answer, they may fine with this. (click link to continue)

http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/02/the-government-wants-your-reti.html

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Some Thoughts on Class Warfare.

There is a plague of economic populism emanating from the political left these days. More than ever we are seeing class warfare used as a weapon to pit the "Haves" against the "Have-Nots", the "rich" vs. the "poor" and the middle class. Democrats are the main practitioners of this ugly art, but Republicans aren't totally immune to it's allure. Florida Governor Charlie Crist has "taken on big insurers" as part of his platform because he's "The People's Governor."

This strategy is nothing more than the political equivalent of the Divide and Conquer strategy for waging war, which has been variously attributed to Julius Caesar and Sun Tzu. By pitting the majority middle class and poor (collectively referred to as "working people") against the so-called "wealthy", the political left seeks to cause a seething resentment against those same wealthy people. This resentment is then used to increase taxes and enact legislation that "levels the playing field."

A typical class warfare practitioner wrote this at the jax.com opinion board yesterday:

"The taxpayer gets very little return on investment for money spent on the wealthy. While a small amount might accidently trickle back into the local economy, the majority goes into wall-street and banking games."

Note how he refers to a tax cut as "money spent on the wealthy"? That assumes that the money NOT seized by the government is only lent to the person who actually earned it. In other words, a tax cut equals government spending. This turns property rights as we know it on it's head. The ongoing attempt is to delegitimize the wealthy person's claim to their own money.

A high percentage of my customers are very wealthy people. Oftentimes my company isn't the only one doing work at a customer's home. There are painters, crews who pave driveways and decks with paving stones, pool cleaners, insurance salesman, irrigation guys, personal trainers, tanning bed vendors, carpenters, roofers, and the list gets very long.

The companies and the crews who are employed at these wealthy homes then spend their money at stores of all sorts, pay their bills and maybe even manage to save for their children's education. In turn their customers also do well. In case you're wondering, this is true economic activity. This is the "return on investment" the class warrior attempted to diminish.

What happens when the class warrior is successful in his mantra, "the rich aren't paying their fair share" or "greedy corporations are pilfering the Treasury"?

We get a tax hike on the wealthy. Social justice, right? Not so fast! The chances are better than even that the class warrior hasn't thought through the unintended consequences of his divisive rhetoric and poisonous name calling.

The wealthy family or individual will pay more in income taxes and they receive a clear message from the rest of America; "We want your money, and we'll use the government as an instrument of plunder to make it happen."

If that "rich" guy is a small businessman, as I suspect most of them are, they'll look to trim the fat from their budget asap. They will wonder: Who are my most expendable workers? Which ones can I spare without hurting profitability? Those workers will get the axe because they were probably a detriment anyways. What's the result?

Unemployment goes up, which is usually the first unintended consequence of successful class warfare and it's resultant tax increases.

If that "rich" guy is a former business owner who is semi-retired and living off investments and/or part time income, he may prioritize expenses in different ways. He may offload a car or two (in addition to the guy who details his cars), he may decide that his total relandscaping project can wait until his investments tick up again to offset his bigger tax bill. He may only want his windows cleaned every 18 months instead of every 9 months. He may decide against that new paint job or decide that the new inground pool can wait, or ALL OF THE ABOVE!

The simple and unavoidable truth is that when you seize the wealth of the rich, they take a hit for sure. Their annual income may go from 1.3 million dollars to 1.1 million, or from 980 thousand dollars to 860 thousand. So what says the class warrior defiantly, "He still has 860 THOUSAND dollars!"

And tens of thousands--if not HUNDREDS of thousands--of "working class" people are left holding their bills and wondering, "where did my job go?"

Thank your local class warrior! That's hope and change he can believe in.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Cloward-Piven, A Strategy For Economic DESTRUCTION!

Have you recently asked yourself, "just what the HELL are these people in Washington DC doing?!" They spend TRILLIONS of dollars on "stimulus" bills and TARP plans that are really nothing more than cleverly conceived and disguised political slush funds for the re-election of Democrat incumbents. If they weren't political slush funds they would have spent that money up front rather than back-loading the majority of the funds to be spent in election year 2010. They have recently proposed ANOTHER "stimulus" bill ("Son of Stimulus"), because of course the first one hasn't worked as promised.

If this fiscal insanity weren't enough, the Democrats and Obama want to spend a trillion dollars or more on "health care reform" and another trillion or more on a ruinous Cap and Trade bill which is ostensibly intended to mitigate the supposed ill effects of Global Warming--aka Psuedoscience on steroids. These two programs will soon grow even more out of control. Adding gasoline to the fire, new spending for dozens of brand new welfare programs is buried in every appropriations bill. Just yesterday President Obama unveiled his record $3.8 TRILLION budget for the new year.

All of this fiscal insanity leads us back to the original head-scratcher, "just what the HELL are these people in Washington DC doing?!"

There are those who say that the Democrat "Progressives" are spending like lunatics to buy votes, and haven't even considered the consequences. That opinion assumes far too much stupidity from where I sit. Others say that this is an orchestrated attempt to crash the financial system and remake America as a far poorer socialist state. To date, it's gone by the name of "Hope and Change we can believe in." In truth this is a strategy, and it already has a name.

Welcome to the Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis. In a nutshell, the aim of Cloward-Piven is to bring America to her knees and force political change by overwhelming us with debt and a colossal welfare state. This is malevolent and 100% purposeful, and it must be STOPPED if we are to survive as a free people.
The following link explains this evil plan:

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6967

Glenn Beck also explains Cloward-Piven in a frightening five part video series. Grab your favorite alcoholic beverage and the blood pressure medicine. Believe me, you'll need both.

http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/06/the-lefts-architects-of-disaster/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newsrealblogfb+%28NewsReal+Blog%29

The fantastic and talented conservatives at Axis of Right (highly recommended) explain how we arrived at 14.3 trillion dollars of debt:

http://axisofright.com/2010/01/28/new-debt-limit-14-5-trillion/

-In 2001 when Bush took office, the debt was roughly 1/3 of what it is today, at $5.6 trillion.
-In 2006, the Congress voted to raise the debt limit by $784 billion to $9 trillion.
-In 2007, Congress voted to raise the debt limit by $850 billion, to $9.85 trillion.
-In 2008, Congress voted to raise the debt limit by another $800 billion, to $10.6 trillion.
-In late 2008, Congress voted again (as part of TARP) to raise the debt limit by $700 billion, to -$11.3 trillion.
-In early 2009, Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling (as part of the Porkulus bill) by $800 billion to $12.1 trillion.
-Just last month in December of 2009, Congress, running out of money, raised the debt ceiling by just under $300 billion, to $12.4 trillion.
-Now, Congress is raising the debt limit by a whopping $1.9 trillion. That’s more than the last three debt ceiling raises combined.
-The total of debt ceiling increases passed during the first year of the Obama administration now nearly equal to the increases passed in the first six years of Bush’s presidency.

Or, to look at it another way:

-Total debt ceiling increases under Bush and Republican Congress (6 years): $3.4 trillion
-Total debt ceiling increases under Bush and Democrat Congress (2 years): $2.35 trillion
-Total debt ceiling increases under Obama and Democrat Congress (1 year): $3. trillion
------------------------- -------------------------- -------------------------

Let's look at the big picture. We have out-of-control spending at a time when tax receipts are at a low point due to an economy in recession. To add economic (and moral) insult to injury, the Democrats have dramatically expanded the welfare rolls, and pushed for huge new taxes using class warfare rhetoric, Cap and Trade legislation, and a complete step by step takover of the American health care system. The result of these huge new taxes will be more economic stagnation and debt.

This is beyond mere stupidity, it's PURPOSEFUL DESTRUCTION!

It's Cloward-Piven. Sharpen your pitchforks folks, you may just need them soon....