Obama holds us all hostage. And the ransom is $80 billion

Unless you're living on the dark side of Saturn's moon, Titan - you must know that unless the President and congress agree to a new tax and revenue plan before the end of the year, all of our taxes will go up on January 1st. The President has laid out his plan. It calls for $1.6 trillion in tax increases, $80 billion in new stimulus spending in 2013, $600 billion in new spending programs and a clever budget gimmick that allows the administration to claim money NOT budgeted and NOT spent on the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan to be counted as "savings". In addition, the Emperor er, uh President wants congress to give up their constitutional power to authorize a debt ceiling limit, so he may spend monies above what congress authorizes. Constitution? He don't need no stinking Constitution. I'll say this for the guy - he's got balls.

The big sticking point for Obama appears to be on the tax hike for the top 2%. He wants to take their top tax rate up from 35% to 39%. Since nobody feels sorry for rich people who pay the majority of federal taxes, it hard to garner any sympathy for them. The top 1% pay 37% of the fed's tax bill. The top 5% pay 51%. Still, it's not enough for Barack. If their rates are returned to 39%, it would generate an extra $80 billion a year in federal taxes - roughly enough money to fund the federal government for a week. Hardly seems worth sending us over the cliff for a lousy $80 billion. But Barry says he'll do it. So we're all in jeopardy of having our taxes go up over a stinkin' $80 billion. So what's that all about anyway?

Well, Mr. Obama knows that increasing taxes on the rich wont have any beneficial effect on the country's balance sheet. In fact, it will probably hurt employment opportunities, costing companies revenue. But he's all about "fairness". If I had a dollar for every time I heard him say the word fairness when describing taxes, I could afford to pay the budget deficit myself. He was re-elected on the "fairness platform" and now he's got to reward his legions by following through on that class warfare promise. In exchange for increasing taxes on he job creators, Obama has promised Republicans that he will maybe, probably, perhaps and most possibly make $400 billion in unspecified cuts somewhere down the road...perhaps. All while not addressing entitlement programs that currently have $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities - in other words, money that is promised to people alive today for Social Security and Medicare and other entitlement benefits. News flash: We don't have $60 trillion and neither do the top 2%. It's so bad that if the government confiscated ALL the wealth of people making over $250,000 a year, it would only fund government expenditures for 4 months. Perhaps now you can see how raising taxes on the top 1% or even the top 52% wont solve our financial problems.

The GOP wants to keep the middle class tax rates intact as well as the top 2%. They also want to eliminate numerous tax exemptions and loop holes in exchange for keeping the top rates where their at. In addition, they want to address the entitlement mess by raising Social Security & Medicare eligibility ages for future retirees - just like the President's bipartisan Bowles-Simpson plan suggested. The Republicans also want to lower benefits for the wealthy and possibly employ means testing for the rich in an effort to extend the viability of those programs. You'd think Obama would embrace an offer like that, seeing how he hates the well-to-do so much. But no. He's got his sights on that not-so-massive $80 billion in extra revenue.

This tax situation has exposed Barack Obama to all those who are willing to open their eyes. He has no plan to preserve Social Security and Medicare for future retirees. No new ideas on how to resurrect a stagnant economy unless you like wasting more borrowed money for stimulus. Demonize the rich and play to the poor. Tax more. Spend even more. If this is what you voted for last month - you're an idiot. Sorry. Your class warfare plans won an election but cannot salvage a national fiscal nightmare. Maybe electing a guy who actually had a successful history in business would have been a better choice after all. Even though he was rich.