The Emperor Has No Clothes

**WARNING! Long-winded political rant ahead!**

It’s starting to look like we will soon have a President Obama ::shudders at the sound of that:: and a Vice President Biden. I have to admit that, when Obama first started running, I gave serious thought to voting for him— he’s young, exciting, and gives a helluva smooth talkin' PERFORMANCE in his speeches. Besides, the Republicans weren’t offering up anyone that seemed any more competent, so why not give a younger version of incompetence a try?

So why am I voting for McCain/Palin instead? Well, technically I’m NOT voting FOR them, I’m voting AGAINST Obama/Biden and the words that send chills up my spine— “redistribution of wealth”. You know... that socialist concept that Comrades Obama and Biden consider “Fair” and “Patriotic”?

Phrases like that may pay lip service and hold zealous appeal to the lowest common denominator of the voting (and hopefully non-voting) public who are apparently unable to see that “the emperor has no clothes”. But let me tell you how it is for the REAL “rich fat cats” that will be affected the worst when the Obama/Biden socialist policies meet up with the worth-less-than-nothing Democratic Congress (hereafter referred to as the Porkers).

First of all, note my sarcasm when I use the term “rich fat cats”. Obama tosses that term around when he wants his “redistribution of wealth” rhetoric to fire up the masses into a revolution against “Corporate Greed”. Yeah, he’s talking about the Exxons and AIGs, but you know who else is going to be effected? The backbone of this country-- the thousands (millions) of small and medium business owners; the people who, through years of hard work, not only have made their own lives better, but also the lives of their employees.

Just to give some background on my POV, let me say that I was not raised with money—barely lower middle class in fact. The only reason I was able to go to college back in 1975 was that my father made so little that everything from tuition to dorm to books was paid for by state and federal grants and living expenses were paid through a work-study program.

After college, I steadily advanced in my career, but after I had my twins back in 1986, it quickly became apparent that I could not physically handle a 90 minute round trip commute, 9 hours of work, caring for two babies, and only a couple of hours sleep a night. So I had to quit, which meant that we had to live on my husband’s small salary, which also meant we were using credit cards to pay for necessities like diapers, formula, and baby food.

In 1990 we bought my father-in-law's hardware store (more on the death of family businesses later), which was, quite frankly, doing piss-poor because my father-in-law had lost interest in it. Over the years, largely because of my husband’s work ethic, the store has become successful. We paid off our debt, we went from six of us in a cramped house to a house we built where we now have some room to each have our own space, and we are also able to send our kids to the colleges of their choice.

I do NOT consider us “rich fat cats” AT ALL. Are we comfortable? Yes, absolutely. But we WORKED HARD to get there, dammit. And now Obama/Biden DARE to tell us that the payoff for working hard, for living the American Dream that this country was built on, is to have it taken away from us?! So those who don’t want to work hard are rewarded by a “redistribution of wealth” from those that DO work hard? Fuck that shit! When did we become a country of people that feel they are ENTITLED to everything? When did work ethics give way to careers of milking the system for all it’s worth?

Do you think those are extreme statements? They aren’t. Here’s how things are from a different standpoint, i.e. someone who doesn’t think that Uncle Sam owes them a living.

Let’s start with minimum wage increases. Now, keep in mind that I live in Ohio (the we-don’t-want-your-stinking-business state) which compounds the problem because we’re gifted with automatic C.O.L.A. increases above and beyond the federal minimum wage. Every time minimum wage increases, employers have to make some decisions— A)- raise prices, which means that all those people that are now earning more, don’t have any more purchasing power, and ARE NO BETTER OFF THAN THEY WERE BEFORE THEIR WAGE INCREASE; B)- place a freeze on new hires, or to put it another way- NO NEW JOBS; C)- layoff employees to lower costs, as in PEOPLE LOSE THEIR JOBS; or D)- all of the above, particularly when minimum wage gets bumped up high enough that it starts meeting the higher wages employers pay their more experienced employees, who will then expect a raise also.

And thus it cycles around again—prices go up, so the Democrats raise the minimum wage; which makes prices go up, which means another minimum wage increase is needed and so on, and so on, spiraling down into an economic cluster-fuck.

Think I’m exaggerating? Yesterday morning, a cup of coffee cost my husband $1.35 at McDonalds. Then it was announced that minimum wage would increase to $7.40 an hour in January. This morning, McDonalds had raised their coffee price to $1.45 per cup. Coincidence?

Now here’s an idea—what if people worked hard and EARNED higher wages? What if they cared enough, showed enough initiative to actually contribute to the success of their employer, who would then reward them for their hard work? WOW! What a concept! Sounds vaguely familiar though, doesn’t it? Hmmmm... let me think.... oh, yeah, that’s how things functioned before we ditched capitalism and embraced socialism. You know, back in the days when you started out with a low paying job until you proved your worth, gained some experience, and then were able to start your own advancement towards the American Dream.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe there are those truly in need that deserve help. I also believe there are just as many, if not more, people that, instead of using the system as a helping hand until they get on their feet, see the system as a permanent career choice, who see work as something that the system, in a half-assed attempt to proclaim its reformation, FORCES them to do... and it shows. Believe me, as an employer, I can tell you that I’ve yet to see one single person who is in the system actually strive to get off the system.

Now, here are a few other REAL WORLD examples of what happens when the Porkers try to stick it to the “fat cats” and make them pay their “fair” and “patriotic” share. First of all, I don’t agree with Obama that anyone making over $250,000 a year is wealthy. VERY well off, yes. But in this day and age, that’s not even CLOSE to wealthy. Nonetheless, let’s go with his definition for a second. He says that his “redistribution of wealth” will only effect the wealthy that make over $250k per year. I cry BULLSHIT! Complete and utter bullshit- every single American will be affected by his naïve, idealistic, and downright FRIGHTENING plans!

Are you aware that family businesses can NOT be passed on to the next generation? Nope. If you do well and your business is successful, then you can SELL it to your kids at fair market value. Of course, all that success you earned as the business grew was taxed, taxed, and taxed some more, and now, you get to pay CAPITAL GAINS TAX on that success when you sell it to your child(ren). At only 15% or even 20% capital gains tax rate, selling isn’t all that unattractive, and you’d probably begrudgingly pay it.

Or, you can leave the kid(s) your business in your will. Under current law, the first $2 million of your estate is not subject to inheritance taxes, so the kids would only have to pay taxes on any portion above that limit. After all, as I pointed out above, you’ve been paying taxes out the wazoo on that success as you’ve earned it, so it doesn’t seem fair to have it heavily taxed again. And btw, yes, a company worth $2 million should most certainly still be considered a small business.

But wait! We now have Obama, Biden and the Porkers making plans for a new society! Assuming your kid(s) can get a business loan to even buy the business in this economic climate, your choices have changed under their proposed new national policy of penalizing those who achieve success through hard work (i.e. not members of Congress). You can choose to pay capital gains tax of 25, 35, or who knows what percent on your already over-taxed success. Or, once the lifetime exemption is lowered or abolished since it only benefits the “wealthy”, your kid(s) can pay inheritance tax on the full value of your already overtaxed business.

You know what? I think a whole lot of family business owners will be saying “I’ll be choosing option C- Close the business and sell off the assets for whatever I can get. And, oh yeah, to those 12 or 17 or 25 employees that are now out of work? Don’t sweat it. You can now join the millions of other people who are entitled to live off of Obama and the Porkers’ great socialism plans.” So, yeah, Obama, explain to me again how your version of socialism doesn’t effect anyone but the “wealthy fat cats”.

So, under Obama, Biden and the Porkers, what will I do with the proceeds from that sale and any other investments I have? Well, I will transfer them into my kids’ names a little at a time until I have no assets left in my name, that’s what. Then I can proudly hold my hand out for all that I’m entitled to from the United Socialists of America. After all, anything I make off my investments would now also be taxed at the higher capital gains rate, so why bother keeping it when I can live for free courtesy of President Obama? ::shudders because those two words should never be together:: Now that's MY plan for a patriotic and fair “redistribution of wealth”!

Let’s next discuss the social security tax. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter if a worker has contributed the minimum over their lifetime, or 10,000 times the minimum., because, once we’re fully funded, we all get the same amount back every month. And every year the cap goes up. So instead of say the first $82,000 of earnings being subject to SS taxes, the next year it went up, and the year after that, etc. I think it’s at $102k right now. But if Obama has his way, that cap will disappear. Which means that, no matter how much is earned, it will still be subject to Social Security taxes.

So, WOW, maybe I should have flunked math class because it seems to me that $107k is middle class and MUCH less than the $250K that Obama swears would be the minimum income brackets affected by his socialistic policies! So would that be yet ANOTHER instance of people other than the “wealthy fat cats” whose money is being “redistributed”? And to my obviously math-challenged mind, it sure seems like another instance of people already paying MORE than their fair share.

But then again, Obama has waffled on this issue and obviously never thought it through completely. I believe at one point, it was pointed out that he would be adding middle class taxes, so he backed off a bit and said that only “wealthy” people would pay (and pay and pay) more. Gee, Obama, you couldn’t be bothered to think this through before you shot your mouth off about it? What happened, did you realize that SOME of the masses might be smarter than you gave them credit for and hadn't been assimilated into the Collective? The pods haven't gotten to all of us yet and we're still able to see through your cloud of noxious bullshit? Here you were counting on our political ignorance and apathy and a few of us had the nerve to actually THINK about what you were saying!

Either way, if you own a business, you get screwed twice and not kissed once. Social security taxes are deducted from paychecks, but then the employer has to match that amount for each employee. So own your own business and every increase in Social Security taxes, every raise in the cap, increases the SS tax that both you personally AND your business pay. But, again, according to Obama, that’s not fair enough, not patriotic enough.

So, after paying all that, we still only get the same amount back that someone that contributed a fraction of our contributions gets. Uh, yeah, Obama, you’re right... we’re NOT paying our fair share are we? Yeah, I think the idea of gradually transferring all our assets to our kids and living off the system, courtesy of Obama, Biden, and the Porkers, makes a lot of sense. I mean really, why bother trying to get ahead?

Speaking of paying more than our fair share, someone explain to me how we’re not doing that NOW on our income tax returns. If I have an income of $200,000 per year and I’m taxed at 33%, I’m required to pay roughly $66,000 dollars in taxes (yes, that’s an over simplification, and no, that’s not my actual income), whereas someone else earning $30,000, taxed at the 15% rate, will only pay $4500. So in what universe is 33%/$66k NOT more than 15%/$4.5k?!

And let’s not forget that I get to pay college tuitions in full out of my own pocket (currently between $150-200k per child for four years at the average private college) with no tax breaks, while the person who only paid $4500 in taxes could qualify for financial aid for their children. I also don’t qualify for tax breaks such as IRAs, and we’d have to have a pretty devastating illness in order to meet the criteria for deducting medical expenses. And all those “loopholes” that the “wealthy fat cats” use to avoid paying taxes? Somebody point ‘em out to me, okay? No, really, PLEASE point them out because damned if I can find any of them!

And to further complicate matters, there’s a whole ‘nuther set of plans to force businesses to be “patriotic” and “fair”. Hell, every time someone wants to finance just about ANYTHING in this country, the standard cry is “Let the greedy corporations pay for it”. Uh, yeah, go back and read what happens when the minimum wage is increased, because every time someone decides that the businesses in this country- small, medium, and large- need to pay for yet another of society’s problems, we create that spiraling out of control economic cluster fuck again. I don’t know what the solution for health care reform is. Hell, I'm paying outrageous premiums even with a $10k deductible! Oh, I have a few suggestions, but there’s one thing I absolutely know for sure— demand mandatory employer paid health care coverage without extreme control over costs, and this country will not exist as we know it today. Epic. cluster. fuck.

You know, as an American, it’s beyond frustrating that the McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden tickets are the best leaders this country could offer us. While I DO tend to vote Republican, I do not consider myself Republican because there are too many issues, such as abortion and stem-cell research, that I disagree with them on. On the flip side, those are just about the only two issues that I CAN agree with the Democratic Party about.

So, while the McCain/Palin ticket hardly inspires confidence, and the current Republican administration hasn't worked so well these past few years, at least there’s a chance that they won’t fuck up this country so completely that it cannot recover. The Obama/Biden ticket, however, through their apparent ignorance of the Real World, seems to have made that result their goal. Under their leadership, the motivations and incentives to achieve the American Dream will be snuffed out.

Which is why I'll be voting AGAINST an Obama/Biden administration and AGAINST giving the Democrats free rein to "redistribute the wealth" of hard working Americans.