What the Government Giveth, the Government Taketh Away

In February, the Democrat-controlled Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This past week, insurance giant AIG used $165 million of that money to give bonuses to employees. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to tax those bonuses at 90%.

Understand that I share the outrage that a huge majority of Americans feel over bailout money being used to hand out millions of dollars in employee bonuses. The purpose of this post is not to suggest that the bonuses were an appropriate use of tax money. I will say, however, that this 90% tax should be a warning to all. It shows very clearly that when government is involved in handing out money, government is in control of that money, and government can take it away at any time.

Here's an idea: instead of handouts, to businesses or individuals, how about simply lowering taxes on businesses and individuals. Let private business and private citizens keep and control more of their own money, and let them run their own businesses and their own lives. Let the American people stimulate the economy. Let the government work for the people once again, not the other way around.

Change We Can Count On

Remember presidential candidate Barack Obama’s repeated promise to “go through the federal budget, line-by-line, ending programs that we don’t need…”?

Remember President-elect Barack Obama’s promise to “go through our federal budget -– page by page, line by line –- eliminating those programs we don't need…”?

So are we now to believe that President Barack Obama believes that we need $1.8 million to research pig odor and manure management in Iowa?

Does he really believe that the Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate is so important that we need to spend $5.8 million on it right now? How about $150,000 for Maine lobster research, or $657,000 for Brown Tree Snake Management in Guam? Does he believe it's absolutely essential that we spend $1.7 million for "Honey Bee lab" research, $1.5 million to study seals, or $215,000 to teach scientists how to communicate with the press?

Evidently Barack Obama believes that all of this is necessary. Either that or he believes that it’s just not politically expedient to actually do what he said he would do, because all of this and more - much, much more – is included in the $410 billion spending bill he signed yesterday.

Change We Can Count On? Better make that "Spending We Can Count On!"