Sen. Paul Delivers State of the Union Response – Jan. 24, 2012

Uploaded by SenatorRandPaul on Jan 24, 2012

President Obama’s state of the union speech Jan 24, 2012

President Obama c/o The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I know that you receive 20,000 letters a day and that you actually read 10 of them every day. I really do respect you for trying to get a pulse on what is going on out here.

A Redistributive State of the Union

by Michael D. Tanner

This article appeared in National Review (Online) on January 25, 2012.

Shortly after President Obama was elected, NBC News interviewed a young woman from Detroit named Peggy Joseph. She explained that she was excited about Obama’s election because “I won’t have to worry about putting the gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage.”

In the three years since, President Obama may not have actually paid her mortgage or filled up her tank, but judging from last night’s State of the Union address, he’s still trying.

The president’s address — more campaign speech than policy platform — was long on calls for “fairness” and “opportunity,” but it really boiled down to the president’s vision of a society where government does everything for everyone — financed, of course, by higher taxes on “the rich,” who need to pay “their fair share.”

The president’s argument ignores the fact that the rich already pay a disproportionate share of federal income taxes. In fact, the much-reviled 1 percent earns 16 percent of all income in this country, but pays 36.7 percent of all federal income taxes. One might conclude that this group is already paying its fair share.

[W]e know that the best way to create wealth is not through government action, but through the power of the free market.

Take, for example, the president’s renewed push for a so-called “Buffett rule,” based on the idea, in Obama’s oft-cited formulation, that investors such as Warren Buffett should not pay a lower effective tax rate than their secretaries. He even had Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, sitting in the presidential box.

Buffett makes most of his money from investment income (capital gains and interest), and he pays a capital-gains tax rate on that money. That tax rate could theoretically be lower than the tax rate that Ms. Bosanek pays on her wage-based income, although only if Ms. Bosanek’s income is fairly high and she took few deductions. However, the president’s narrative ignores the fact that Buffett’s income had already been taxed at the corporate level. When the effect of both taxes is combined, the real effective tax rate is closer to 45 percent. That is quite a high rate on an inherently risky activity — investing — that our tax code should encourage.

And significantly, note that the president’s solution to this supposed problem is not to reduce taxes on Ms. Bosanek, but to raise them on Mr. Buffett.

That is because the president sees the Buffett rule and his complaints about other tax loopholes as simply a tactic, the camel’s nose under the tent, in his desire for more money for the federal government. That is why his actual tax proposals, hidden behind rhetoric about “millionaires and billionaires” and the “wealthiest 1 percent,” would actually raise taxes on people earning as little as $200,000 per year, as well as many small businesses. And many of his proposals will probably hit people with incomes even lower.

And he wants that money so that he can spend it.

The president might have given lip service to the need to reduce deficits and the debt, but most of his speech was a laundry list of government programs to spend more money doing more things for more people. From health care to housing, from worker education to industrial policy, from “green energy” to college loans, the president sees the government as both the engine of our prosperity and the guarantor of fairness.

The president’s vision of the state of the union is a zero-sum one in which, if some people get rich, it must make other people poor. If Warren Buffett makes money, then Peggy Joseph won’t have gas for her car. The only alternative is for the government to step in and make Mr. Buffett pay for Ms. Joseph’s gas.

Of course there is another option.

We all seek a society in which every American can reach his or her full potential, in which as few people as possible live in poverty, and in which no one must go without the basic necessities of life. More important, we want a society in which every person can live a fulfilling life. But the evidence is now inescapable that the best way to achieve that goal is not through welfare-state redistribution of wealth, but through the creation of more wealth. We should judge the success of our efforts not by how much charity we provide to the poor, but by how few people need such charity.

Would it not be a better America if we could make it possible for Ms. Joseph to get a better job so that she could afford her mortgage and her gas? For that matter, wouldn’t we like a country where she could afford a bigger house and a second car? Nothing that the president has proposed would help bring that about.

Poverty, after all, is the natural condition of man. Indeed, throughout most of human history, man has existed in the most meager of conditions. Prosperity, on the other hand, is something that is created. And we know that the best way to create wealth is not through government action, but through the power of the free market. Last night, President Obama said, “This nation is great because we worked as a team [and] have each other’s backs.” Others might suggest that this nation is great because we are free.

We will probably spend the next year debating these two visions. Last night’s speech was the start.

_____________________

Economic freedom is the key and your answers of excessive government spending and taking over the healthcare system takes away a lot of our freedoms.

Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is. I also appreciate the fine family that you have and your committment as a father and a husband.

Sincerely,

Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733, lowcostsqueegees@yahoo.com

Leader Cantor On CNN Responding To President Obama’s State of the Union Address

Uploaded by EricCantor on Jan 25, 2012

President Obama’s state of the union speech Jan 24, 2012

President Obama c/o The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I know that you receive 20,000 letters a day and that you actually read 10 of them every day. I really do respect you for trying to get a pulse on what is going on out here.

The Heritage Foundation website (www.heritage.org ) has lots of good articles and one that caught my attention was concerning your State of Union Speech on January 24, 2012 and here is a short portion of that article:

The Truth About the Economic Ladder – Bill Beach

One of the best analysts of economic mobility and the income distribution in Washington today, Scott Winship at the liberal Brookings Institution, found little evidence to support the argument that changes in the income distribution has hurt the ability of Americans to move up the economic ladder. The President made this argument several times over the past several weeks and tonight in the State of the Union speech.

Rather, this wonderful country is nearly as mobile today as it was two generations ago when our fathers were working. True, we’re challenged today by a rapidly changing economic world…one that’s much more global and service based that in Dad’s days. And, true: the future of economic mobility is greatly threatened by growing debt that shows no sign of decreasing. Even so, the promise of American life remains alive for nearly everyone who lives and works here.

“Routine Business”? How About Passing A Budget? – Emily Goff

The President called on Congress to change the way it does its business, making mention of how difficult it is to conduct “routine business” in the Senate. Passing a budgeting comes to mind as something that should be routine. Yet in the past 1,000 days, the Senate has failed to pass a single budget.

A Failure to Understand Fundamental Rights – Hans von Spakovsky

President Obama showed once again that he does not understand the First Amendment or understand his obligation as the executive to help protect the rights of Americans to engage in political activity and political speech, as well as to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” i.e., lobby the government.  In his state of the union speech, Obama proposed that “people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress” should be barred from lobbying Congress and vice versa.  This would be a restriction of fundamental political rights that could not be implemented by Congress without a constitutional amendment.  It is shameful that the President, who swears an oath to defend the Constitution, has chosen to attack First Amendment rights for a second consecutive State of the Union address.

Do Teacher Pay Recommendations Make Sense? – Jason Richwine

Deciding how much to pay teachers is properly a matter for state and local governments, not Congress. But federalism issues aside, do the president’s recommendations on teacher pay make sense? He calls for rewarding the best teachers with higher pay and for removing ineffective teachers from the classroom. This kind of merit-based system would be ideal, but the president also says that teacher pay is currently “modest,” and he implies that schools do not have the resources to reward high-quality teachers.

Public school teachers are, in fact, very well compensated. They receive more compensation, particularly in the form of pension and health benefits, than they would receive in the private sector. Before increasing spending on teacher salaries, public school districts should use their existing resources more efficiently. Unfortunately, union rules often severely limit payroll flexibility-stipulating, among other senseless things, that gym teachers must be on the same pay scale as math teachers.

The president also repeats a misleading argument about job security for teachers. He notes that thousands have recently been laid off, but he does not mention that the unemployment rate for public school teachers has been considerably lower than that of comparable white collar occupations.

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Slinging Arrows at Non-Bank Businesses – Diane Katz

In a single sentence, the president dismissed as corrupt an entire industry of financial services that serves tens of millions of people annually. While the CFPB has yet to undertake a single examination of the non-bank industry, and its director has pledged to give the industry a fair hearing, the administration obviously has concluded that all nonbank businesses can’t be trusted and  consumers are too stupid to decide for themselves what types of services suit their needs. What consumers really ought to be worried about is the absence of accountability that marks the administration’s new consumer bureau. To the extent the bureau excessively constrains financial services, consumers will be the big losers.

______________________

The economic ladder is still alive and well in the USA. The answer is the free market and not more government spending. You need to check out the film series “Free to Choose” by Milton Friedman. The first episode is the best.

Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is. I also appreciate the fine family that you have and your committment as a father and a husband.

Sincerely,

Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733, lowcostsqueegees@yahoo.com