Was Jesus a Socialist?

I recently responded to a post linked in Presbyweb  which implied, I think, that Jesus was a socialist.  I pointed out that the Scriptures he referred to in fact taught just the opposite of what he asserted and added:

"As for your statement that “the poor have hurt no one” (I am assuming you are talking as a class and on average, not that no poor person has ever hurt anyone. I respond in the same way without implying that every poor person has hurt himself or others.), they have hurt themselves and their families first and most, but they have also hurt all of society. When a person drops out of school, joins a gang, commits a crime, takes drugs, gives up trying to support himself, has a child before marriage, etc. that person increases his or her own likelihood of being poor (which would otherwise be nearly zero), ending up in jail or on welfare, and having children who are also poor. But that person, by his or her choices, has also increased society’s costs in law enforcement, welfare, etc. without contributing anything to the overall wealth or well being of society.

"That does not mean that Christians, as individuals, are exempted from their duty to help the poor, but for it to be charity it must be voluntary and not coerced by government “redistribution.” And it should concentrate on those programs that show the most promise of ending people’s dependence, and on people who are willing to try."

Send Us a Plan IV

The Democrat controlled Senate Budget Committee just released the linked summary of the President's Jobs/Deficit plan showing that the plan involves, even assuming the plan will work out as advertised, no net spending reductions.  The new stimulus is 110% paid for by new taxes.  The plan also includes no entitlement reforms - other than reducing payments to doctors and hospitals which will only mean shortages of both for medicare and medicaid patients.  Indeed, he has threatened to veto any bill that actually reforms entitlements unless he gets his big tax increases.  No mention of the free trade agreements which he wants passed but has not sent to the Hill.  No mention of the regulatory stranglehold on business.  No mention, indeed, of anything that might actually help.

This is the most unhelpful hodgepodge of a proposal I can remember.  Even from a Keynsian perspective it makes no sense whatsoever since it amounts to a net deficit decrease.  It seems cobbled together from a bunch of policies that either poll well or are favorites of the base.

We know nobody with influence over at the White House has ever run a business.  But one wonders, after hearing this, whether anyone over there even took an Econ 101 course.

And, of course, the "plan" is still not real legislation that can be scored by the CBO or taken up by Congress.

November 2012 cannot come soon enough.

Howard Dean Admits Companies will Drop Health Coverage Under ObamaCare

Former Democratic Chairman Howard Dean has admitted that, as studies have shown and Republicans predicted, small businesses, and maybe large ones, will "go out of the health care business" by dropping coverage once ObamaCare comes into full effect.  This is because it will be much less expensive for businesses to pay the penalty for not covering their employees than for them to buy the insurance.  And for the same reason, ObamaCare will be vastly more costly to the taxpayer than predicted by the Administration. 

And of course anyone with half a brain who thought about this for more than 30 seconds would see that (1) the penalty is less than the cost of insurance and (2) every rational business would chose the less expensive option.  And I simply cannot believe that everyone in the Administration is devoid of the second half-brain, or that they did not think about this during the year ObamaCare was being debated.  The conclusion is therefor inescable that the Obamanaughts lied to us, over and over, to impose their unpopular plan on an American people that did not want it. 

And what is most galling is the way they lied in such a self-rightous and morally superior way accusing anyone who told the truth about this of being an obstructionist, as if they knew better than the people, and as if they are entitled by their claimed moral superiority to override the wishes of the rest of us.

That is what arrogant tyrants do.  True democrats do not.

Is it a Ponzi scheme?

See Ed Driscoll's article which notes that Rick Perry is not the first to call Social Security a Ponzi scheme.

Shikha Dalmia also points out that in many ways calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme is an insult to Charles Ponzi.

Rhetoric aside, we need to reform Social Security for the long run to:
1) Make sure that, even if there is some "redistribution" among citizens of the same age, overall each generation receives back in benefits only what it paid in to the system, plus interest.
2) Prevent the federal government from using social security contributions to fund other government programs.
3) Encourage savings and investment by all Americans.

Send us a Plan III

The President's "jobs plan" is really just another speech.  It's short on details, contains no specifics that could be "scored" by the CBO, is not in the form of legislation that could actually be passed, or even taken up, by Congress, is alleged to be "fully paid for" but contains no offsets to pay for it.  So it's really no plan at all.  And instead of staying in town to work on it with Congress, to actually write some legislation, get it scored, identify offsets and get it passed, he is out on the campaign trail excoriating Congress for not passing it.  It's the same as complaining that Congress has not passed the free trade agreements when he has not even bothered to send them to the Hill to be voted on.  And I haven't even addressed the substance of the "plan" which is only warmed-over Stimulus II.  How stupid does he think we are?

And it is reported that the offsets, if and when they are finally proposed, will be in the form of tax increases.  How exactly do we get any benefit from cutting some taxes and raising others, particularly when the taxes to be raised are the ones which decrease the expected profit from, and thus the incentives for, business investment, expansion and formation?

Send us a Plan II

This is the President's Plan?

Obama the Anti-Exceptionalist

Shelby Steele, one of my favorite writers on matters of race and culture has an excellent article in Thursday's Wall Street Journal explaining the President's antipathy toward the concept of American Exceptionalism which is, I think, more than the bad economy, the reason the President no longer resonates with the American people.