Biblical Conservatism Week in Review (Week of 12/3/12)

Biblical Conservatism returned from a month long break after Election 2012 and began our new biweekly format. In addition to this new format, Biblical Conservatism will be publishing a "Week in Review" post every Saturday, giving both posts together.  

This week, our focus was the Fiscal Cliff debate.

Monday, December 3, 2012 - Obama Fiscal Cliff Plan: Ignore the Real Problem

Today, we're going to talk real math on the President's Fiscal Cliff solution...raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year. Yep, that's basically the entire stated plan. Sure, he's used cliches like "balanced approach" but really the only stated thing he has said he would do was raise taxes.

So, how much would this plan really raise, exactly? I'm so glad you asked. The number being repeated is $850 Billion. That number does sound very serious, doesn't it? Sure, until someone tells you that's the TEN YEAR PROJECTION. So that means the annual increase in revenue is only $85 billion.

Let's compare that to the last federal budget, 2012, passed under President Obama's tenure, shall we? In 2012, the deficit was $1.327 TRILLION on a $3.796 Trillion budget. The math on that is this: about 35% of the budget was borrowed. Quick math tells us that this "increase in revenue" raises only 6.4% of the actual deficit.

Let me give you a real world example, shall we? Let's take an American family with a household income of $60,000 per year. That family spends above and beyond the money they have in line with what the Federal Government does, which means they spend $81,000 per year, every year. But hey, good news! The boss is giving you a small raise this year! That's right, a 2.24% raise (which is what the new taxes the President wants equals in tax receipts). So now, instead of having $60,000 per year incoming, this family has $61,334. Yahoo! That's totally going to make up for the fact that the family is spending $21,000 more than they have...oh wait, no it doesn't. It's a drop in the bucket.

Actually, to cover the deficit that family has, they would need a raise incoming. revenue 35% JUST TO COVER THEIR CURRENT EXPENSES. 

Friends, in America there is no way to raise that much revenue without flat out confiscating every cent earned over $250,000. That will work precisely ONE TIME, because after that, nobody will work one second harder than it would take to earn $250,000 per year. It also would equal a massive depression because businesses would stop hiring people. It simply wouldn't be worth the risk.

As I've said for years now, our real problem isn't that we don't have enough revenue. The problem is we spend far, far too much money. We will not solve our problem without dealing with our spending. Period. However, I believe we can expect no such logical approach.

America, in it's infinite foolishness, saw fit to re-elect the petulant child President Barack Obama. He is now emboldened. Friends, I fear for America. I believe we are headed the way of Greece. The fact that Obama was re-elected means we are in trouble, fiscally speaking, America. Katy, bar the door. We're in trouble.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_federal_budget

What Does the Fiscal Cliff Show Us About the Democrat Party

Simply put, it shows us that they care only about their political agenda, and not solving problems.

Consider this, friends: Harry Reid signaled last week that Entitlements were "off the table" in these negotiations, and continue to press to be able to raise taxes on the top 2% of wage earners.

Earlier this week, we showed how little of a difference Obama's tax increases would make. Specifically, it would run the government for eight days. As of right now, we have to borrow money to cover 127 days worth of spending each year (35% of our budget is borrowed).  If the Republican party gives in and gives the President his tax hikes, you know how many days we're borrowing for NOW? 119 days. A full 119 days of spending each year STILL has to be borrowed.

Translation: This tax increase doesn't make a mouse's fart worth of a difference in solving our REAL problem.

Yet the Democrats and the Drive-By Media keep pushing this idea that "if the Republicans would just agree to let taxes be raised on the rich, we could solve this Fiscal Cliff problem!" That's not what's happening. The Democrats are insisting on a foolish non-solution and if we don't give in to their tantrum, they're taking their ball and going home.

I'll give you a comparison. As some of you know, I love the New York Mets. The Mets recently signed their best player, David Wright, to a long term contract extension.

Now imagine during the negotiations there were two issues in the contract negotiations. Problem one is the fact that David Wright wanted his contract to be eight years long and worth about $140 million, and the Mets want the contract to be seven years long and $120 million. Problem two is that the Mets wanted to write into the contract that Wright has to wear a multicolored beanie with a propeller in the Mets clubhouse for five minutes, once a month, every month during the baseball season for the duration of his contract because, darn it all, Mets owner Fred Wilpon thinks it would be simply hilarious.

Now let's pretend Fred Wilpon was going to the New York sports media and saying "If David would JUST agree to wear this beanie for FIVE MEASLY MINUTES every month, WE COULD GET THIS DEAL SIGNED!" That'd be highly inaccurate, yes? My friends, this is exactly what Democrats are doing with their story about "just let us raise taxes on the rich." They are focusing on one tiny aspect of the issue, ignoring the big one, and blaming the multicolored beanie and not the $20 million gap in contract negotiations.

(Thankfully, all this is moot, and David Wright signed an eight year extension. To my knowledge, a beanie was not part of the discussion.)

It turns out, as has been shown so many times before, this tax increase will not solve the problem. At all. So one must ask why does the Democrat party have such a massive desire to raise taxes?

At best, it's all about their PR. At worst, it's an attempt by the Democrat Party to continue to pretend the problem is we don't tax enough. If they do that, they can continue the facade a little longer (until America is so bankrupt that we can't even afford to borrow more money). Not only is it the height of dishonesty to keep focusing on the multicolored beanie, it shows a complete disregard for solving the real problem. Further, they have stated they are willing to take us over the fiscal cliff just so they can make us wear that stupid beanie. Who isn't looking out for America, friends?

America, this is who you elected. I hope you're paying attention.  Because this is EXACTLY what you wished for, whether or not you knew it. This is who the Democrat Party has been for decades and continues to be.