Obama's Tax Guru

Seventy-five percent of the candidates for elementary teacher positions in Massachusetts failed mathematics in the entrance exam. Now here is a surprise. The academic establishment (read teachers union) blamed the test. The examination probably asked questions that involved numbers.

It’s difficult to conjure up the mental agility of a college graduate unprepared to teach arithmetic to a grade school pupil. It makes one wonder what they learned in four years. Let’s hope they didn’t go into debt for an education that they obviously didn’t receive.

They won’t qualify for one other government job in Massachusetts. Failing arithmetic pretty much disqualifies them from raking in $75,000 a year as a toll taker. Making change is obviously out of their league. But they shouldn’t be discouraged.

There is plenty of room for the arithmetically challenged in the budget offices of the state and towns. The state legislature automatically increases taxes to cover any revenue shortages, which negates the need to understand annual budgets. Besides, budgets are filled with near endless rows of numbers; so who really cares?

No one can remember if the state or any town in Massachusetts ever actually had a surplus, so the budget bureaucrats only need a rudimentary knowledge of subtraction.

Here is the exam question for the state treasurer. If the state collects $10 and spends $13 how much more revenue is needed to balance the budget? The answer would appear to be that $3 in additional taxes would cover the shortfall (For the recent college graduates: $13 - $10 = $3).

But we are talking about Massachusetts.

The calculation necessitates adding a minimum of 30% for graft and corruption, and at least 10% more for friends and family kickbacks. And then the traditional piling-on begins. For the politicians this is the prime season to sweeten the pot.

A couple of rounds of pay raises are always in order. And they never forget to fatten their retirement programs. And pay increases for teachers, police and firemen protect their careers.

This part of the equation makes taxpayers a bit testy, so the final costs are always underestimated for political reasons. They know that they can come back for more next year. This year the Massachusetts state legislature plans to increase the highway tolls, the state sales tax and taxes on gasoline and beer.

Rumor has it that Mr. Obama asked his good friend, Governor Deval Patrick, not to raise the state income tax as Obama wants these potential revenues reserved for the federal government. As a quid pro quo, Obama promised to start the printing presses to bailout Massachusetts’ extravagant welfare schemes.

Governor Patrick had to accept this deal. Every time Massachusetts increases the taxes on alcohol, gas and the state sales tax, more of its citizens head to New Hampshire to do their shopping. Governor Patrick figured it was about time the residents of New Hampshire started supporting Massachusetts. He is a big advocate of shared responsibility.

In addition, Governor Patrick’s lawsuit to force New Hampshire businesses to collect and forward sales taxes on purchases made by Massachusetts citizens is already winding its way through the courts.

And you were wondering from whom Obama, Barney Frank and Geithner got their tax and spend ideas.

Hello President Obama, Goodbye America

Election 2008 ended with President Obama the designated leader of our nation. We have already had a peek into America’s future. Massachusetts offers a microcosm of America’s prospects. This Blue State portends the future of America under the leadership of President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid.

Ninety percent of Massachusetts’ state representatives and eighty-seven percent of its state senators are Democrats. Governor Deval Patrick and the state bureaucrats have ironclad control over the budget. With only 21 elected conservatives among the 200 politicians sitting in the state legislature, there are no worthy advocates for accountability.

The state is a liberal bastion. One statistic defines its depravity. Ninety-five percent of the taxes collected for highway and road maintenance supports the bureaucracy. Only five percent is actually spent on improving the roadways. Welcome to share the wealth socialism.

Over 70% of Massachusetts’s citizens confirmed the state government’s right to pillage the wealthy. They defeated the abolition of the state’s income tax on the 2008 ballot. These are the same voters who welcome illegal aliens into their midst, and encourage them to teach in the public schools.

These are the same voters whose judges found the right of gays to marry in a 200 year old state constitution. These are the same voters who blessed the right of Representative Barney Frank to lie about the health of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You are right. He’s the one who didn’t know his partner was running a gay brothel in his home.

This is the same state that offers public assistance to our future president’s aunt, who was ordered deported four years ago. Yes, she has a part time government job. Only a mean spirited, selfish, unpatriotic taxpayer could scorn such inclusiveness.

Now you may ask why anyone outside of Massachusetts should complain if the citizens of Massachusetts are happy living in a socialist state? That’s a fair question.

There is a dirty little secret that the Massachusetts socialists are keeping under wraps. Despite the flood of illegal aliens overrunning the state, its population isn’t growing. The companies and affluent, who are hammered by the taxation, are voting with their feet.

That’s right; they are leaving. The state blames this emigration on the lack of affordable housing. Of course, that’s not true. These folks sell their unaffordable homes prior to escaping.

In effect, each year the tax base shrinks in Massachusetts. To compensate for this depletion of funds, the state and local governments raise taxes every year. This in turn encourages more of the productive segment of society to pull up stakes.

This cycle cannot be supported indefinitely. The bureaucrats and welfare recipients will wake up with a bankrupt system which will collapse under its own weight. This is the path that President Obama wants the nation to follow. And his agenda will be enforced with censorship and a federal police force he plans to create.

Of course, when the national economy is socialized, there will be no safe place for the productive members of the nation to protect their wealth within the US borders. America’s wealth will find homes in friendlier nations. Ditto for US corporations.

The decline of America’s prosperity will officially begin on January 20, 2009. Hello Obama; Goodbye America.