As we have reported before, Barack Obama believes in the Marxist-Socialist principle of redistribution of wealth. On Sunday, Obama told Joe Wurzelbacher — a plumber in Toledo, Ohio, who is working 10 and 12 hour days to buy the plumbing company he works for — that he believes that spreading the wealth around “is a good thing.”
Mr. Wurzelbacher represents many people in America, and in many respects he represents the American Dream: to be successful, to own a company, and to build something great. “Joe the Plumber” doesn’t have to be Mr. Wurzelbacher… it can be anyone in this country who wants to buy a company, put his name on the side of a truck, and run his business without government interference. “Joe the Plumber” has a vision of how a good company should run, and his goal is to build that company, hire more workers, and get more trucks out on the road because he believes that he can do it better. In his success, “Joe the Plumber” creates jobs because to realize his vision, he needs to hire more people. He stimulates the economy because he needs to buy more trucks and supplies, business cards, maybe some radio or print ads or a website, and let’s not forget he needs to put gas in those trucks. By Joe’s success, other people succeed. Maybe some of them look at Joe and are inspired to start their own business because “If Joe can do it, so can I.” Maybe they work for Joe and think they can do it better, so they do what Joe’s doing and work 10 and 12 hour days to raise the money to start their own business. It’s the American way. It’s the American Dream. And Barack Obama wants to tax it.
In stark contrast of Joe the Plumber, Barack Obama believes that he can do a better job of creating jobs (government jobs, of course) and do a better job of redistributing the wealth of Joe the Plumber than Joe can. In Mr. Obama’s eyes, Joe is “rich”, and believes as running mate Senator Biden does, that “paying taxes is patriotic.”
In a phone interview with ABC News, Mr. Wurzelbacher said:
To be honest with you, that infuriates me,” plumber Joe Wurzelbacher told Nightline’s Terry Moran. “It’s not right for someone to decide you made too much—that you’ve done too good and now we’re going to take some of it back.”
“That’s just completely wrong,” he added.
[...]
“I don’t like it,” said Wurzelbacher. “You know, me or — you know, Bill Gates, I don’t care who you are. If you worked for it, if it was your idea, and you implemented it, it’s not right for someone to decide you made too much.”
The demonization of business and the “rich” began with FDR. President Roosevelt was the first to believe in special interest group politics, and set the course of the Democrat party for the next 80 years. He decided to buy votes by giving government goodies to farmers, labor unions, and the poor under the pretense of “raising up the working class.” Like a lever, to raise one group up, you need to push another group down, so rich people and greedy corporations became his target. Many New Deal policies penalized businesses for engaging in business.
And like every Democrat since FDR, Mr. Obama is picking an arbitrary number to determine who is “rich”, when there is no true definition of how much money defines “rich.” In Barack Obama’s world, he decides who is rich. He decides who is poor. He decides how much money is too much. He decides how much is too little. He decides how to redistribute the wealth. He sees himself as Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, and all the townsfolk love and adore him for it.
There’s only one problem with Obama’s Robin Hood vision of spreading around the wealth:
Robin Hood stole from the Sheriff on Nottingham, because the Sheriff was taxing the people too much. Robin Hood stole from the government and returned the money to the people.
Mr. Obama, Robin Hood, you are not. But a socialist you certainly are.
why were you against the bailout? I definitely think it’s going to create major problems in the long run, but has our government ever looked down the road? Not usually. They look for the quick fix, then leave the mess for the next generation to clean up.
Last night, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass the $700 billion bailout bill. After reading the 400+ pages that were crammed with enough pork to make Jimmy Dean look like a vegetarian, they decided to go ahead and sell American freedom to such important interests as Wool Research (Section 325), Auto Race Tracks (Section 317), TV and Film Production (Section 502), and Wooden Arrows Designed for Use by Children (Section 503). Tonight, the House of Representatives will vote on the pork-laiden bill.
The stock market is showing us how it feels about the bill: before Monday’s Senate vote, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 100 points in the first hour, and 300 points by 1:30, ending the day around 700 points down from the previous close. The House killed the bill, and the next day the markets started to recover. After the Senate approved the bill last night, Wall Street reacted by shedding another 300+ points as of this writing. Wall Street is voting with their wallets: they are afraid of the economic impact of the bill, and the stock prices show it. Hardest hit are luxury goods manufacturers like Apple (-8%), gas & oil exploration companies like EOG Resources (-12%), and raw goods companies like BHP Billiton (metal mining, -10%) and Nucor (steel recycling, -11%). The message from Wall Street is that as the economy slows, people won’t be buying iPods, the demand for gasoline will go down as people lose their jobs or just drive less to save money, and since people are consuming less, the need for metals to make new goods goes down as well.
Rather than allow the bad companies to fail and allow the market to correct itself, Washington has decided to get involved under the pretense of “saving the economy.” As has become typical in Washington, they are doing it by spending money. Taxpayer money. Our money. And, like every other form of government “assistance” — welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security — it has only served to make those problems worse, rather than better.
The passage of this bailout bill will pave the way toward centralization of the banks and industry. This is one of the key tenants of Marxism: Karl Marx’s Proposal Number Five argued for the “centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.” After this bailout, what’s next? Bailing out troubled farms? Automakers? Seizure of the energy industry?
All of these bailouts serve not to help the cause of the people, but instead to strip liberties away from us.
What you can do:
- Use The Mailbox to find out the name and contact information of your Representative in the House. Call and tell them to vote “NO”. If the line is busy, you can also fax them. (Be sure to include your name, address, and phone number on the fax.)
- Check the list of Senators who voted “NO” on the bailout bill. Then call your Senator. Thank them if they did vote no. Tell them how you feel about them selling our liberties in exchange for pork if they voted yes.
- All indicators point toward a massive recession or full-blown depression. Take necessary steps with your 401k, IRA, and savings accounts. If possible, move your savings to a credit union rather than a bank. Most people qualify to belong to at least one credit union. The easiest way to find one is to do a Google search for “credit union near 12345″ where you replace 12345 with your zip code. Credit unions are much safer than banks, and typically offer better interest rates.
- As we learned in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, don’t panic. If you need money, by all means take it out of the bank. But if you have money in savings or a Certificate of Deposit, leave the money where it’s at. Without bogging you down with the details, just trust us that this is essential for the future health of the economy. The Great Depression was started by a run on the banks: everyone went to the banks and took their money out, and stuffed it under their mattresses. As a result, banks closed and neither businesses nor people could borrow money, and the economy imploded.
- Put together a series of plans. Sit down with your family and go over the “what if” scenarios. Know in advance what you’re going to do if you lose your job, your spouse loses theirs, or if you both lose your jobs. Decide things such as what unnecessary things get cut (i.e. cable TV, cell phones) and what takes priority. Having plans means less panic if the unthinkable happens.
- Get your financial house in order. Pay down debt, put off unnecessary purchases, and close revolving credit card accounts.
- Stock up. Once your financial house is in order, buy things you know you’ll need — clothes and food — but don’t need right now. This is especially important if you have children who will outgrow their existing clothes.
- Prepare The Fifth Box. Uncertain times are ahead, and it’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.