Obama's Budget Is a Loaded Weapon Aimed at You

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:12:08 +0000 – By Glenn BeckHost, "Glenn Beck"

Hello America,

If you had any doubt that we were on "The Road to Socialism," President Obama's just released budget should clear up that confusion. In fact, we're soon The Road to Socialism that Barack Obama's budget reads like he went to MapQuest and printed out turn-by-turn directions to get us to socialism as quickly as possible. So far, President Obama is really making a big scary mess of things and this budget is a giant step in the wrong direction.

Believe me--I understand that I'm not the only one who feels this way. But there have been lots of times in my career when I felt like I was all alone in my thinking (and that's exactly why I'm having my "We Surround Them" event on March 13th...so you know that you'renot alone --click here for more details). So it's always comforting for me when I hear others saying the same thing. Just this past weekend on "FOX News Sunday," host Chris Wallace asked Arizona's Republican Senator Jon Kyl, "How big a change in direction does the Obama budget represent in the relationship between government and the American people?" Without missing a beat, Senator Kyl quoted The Wall Street Journal by saying, "The budget represents a historical shift in the ideological direction of U.S. economic policy." No mincing words there. Then he reminded everyone that The Wall Street Journal also stated in an editorial that President Obama is attempting to expand the role of government to such a dominant position that its power can never be rolled back. A respected United States Senator and The Wall Street Journal--oh, I like that company. (Too bad we're all agreeing on how bad things are getting.)

Here are some of the budget's broad strokes:

• Obama's budget takes the size of our government to the largest it's been since World War II.
• It's got a $1.4 trillion tax increase in it (and oh yeah--we're in the middle of a recession).
• It doubles the debt in eight years.
• It never balances the budget and proposes that, for the next 10 years, our deficits are at a record high.

Hmmm. Usually I like to frame things in a "good news / bad news" context. That just won't work here, but I don't want to be a big downer. So let me put on a happy face and say that all the above was merely the regular, garden-variety bad news! Now here comes the super awful reallybad news:

• Like a loaded weapon, this budget is aimed directly at you.

Is there a quicker way to end a honeymoon period for a new president than to propose a bunch of new taxes? It's going to take a lot of serenading from Beyonce to make people forget about having less money...especially in this economy. See, not only is there a proposed huge tax increase for the energy and manufacturing sectors (and those get passed on to everyone), but overall tax rates are going up. All this is a real gut shot for small business. What too many people fail to remember is that small business is big businessin America--over 70% of all American business is done by a small business. That means it's likely that you either own or work for one, so President Obama wants more of your money (and I'm guessing it's not like you have a whole lot extra lying around these days.)

And then there's Obama's suggestion of a "long-term investment in the economy." That's a fancy way of saying "increased spending." (You don't exactly need a decoder ring to figure that one out.) Another $30 billion for AIG...afterthey paid out six and seven figure bonuses and recorded the highest quarterly loss ever--over $60 billion--in U.S. history? How deep can our pockets be expected to be? Remember--every dollar the government"invests" in failing businesses is one of yourdollars. If you had a stock broker who made the kind of crappy investments Washington has been making (and wants to make more of), you'd have fired them long ago.

This really isn't that new a story--Democrats have a reputation of taxing and spending because, well...they always tax and spend. President Obama tries to soften his budget's blow by stating that the tax increases don't kick in until 2011. Um, Mr. President? It's not exactly like 2011 is off in the sci-fi future where we'll all have flying cars and live the life of George Jetson. Just like you need to plan ahead for re-election, small business owners need to do the same thing--plan for their future. So congratulations--now they're doing that by bracing themselves for the tax avalanche coming their way in just a little over a year and a half from now. So instead of fueling the economy now--when we need it--business will tighten its belt and lower today's bottom line in preparation for tomorrow's new taxes. That lowerstax receipts! Instead of getting better, things get worse. Even I get that, and I'm the alcoholic rodeo clown..

Is it Election Day, 2012 yet?