I want massive regulations on whatever industry I’m in because my big business can absorb it and just raise prices, but it will drive the little guy out of business. It’s simple math – if the government requires every widget manufacturer to spend $50,000 on a widget disgronifier, a small widget company that only grosses a few hundred thousand dollars a year will be put out of business, but I can buy it without batting an eye. Then once the small guy is out of business, I’ll double prices and blame (rolls the dice) an earthquake in Asia or (rolls the dice) the South American stock market.

I want the government to raise taxes on all income over $1 million such that an accumulation of wealth is impossible. I’ve made my billions and don’t need any more income. I’m one of the richest (and therefore most powerful) people in the country and so I want to slam the door behind me. My power will never be challenged if it is impossible to ever accumulate as much money as I have.

I want capital gains taxes raised through the roof. If small startups can’t get venture capital money, then I never need to worry about someone competing with me.

And all the while, I get to propose these things and sound compassionate because I’m somehow on the side of the little guy. So keep on voting for Democrats and confiscatory taxes on the upper middle class – I’ll just stay uber-wealthy. If you’re a member of occupy this that, and the other, and you want higher taxes and bigger government, you’re doing nothing but giving the people you hate exactly what they want.

Photo credit: Tracy Olson

Rule #2: See rule #1.

Some sample FAQs to help you determine if the forwarded email is true:

Q: It sounds really bad, so it must be true, right?
A: It’s not true.

Q: It sounds just like the kind of thing those evil people in the political party I disagree with would do, so it’s probably true, right?
A: It’s not true.

Q: One of the guys who sent it said that he’s a doctor, lawyer, or friend of Bill Gates, so it’s true, right?
A: It’s not true.

Q: It was sent to me by a really smart person, so it’s true, right?
A: It’s not true.

Q: But it says that if I don’t forward it out, that I hate America, puppies, Christmas, and sick little kids?
A: It’s not true.

Q: But … but … but …
A: It’s not true.

A single person who makes $17725 (which equates to $8375 after deductions) will see their federal income taxes go from $837 to $1256. That’s a 50% tax increase on a person who is not exactly wealthy. A single person who makes $60K after deductions (equivalent to about $69350 if they take the standard deduction) will see their taxes go from $11181 to $12380. Do you really have an extra $1200 on hand to pay in taxes when we’re already in tough times?

Turbo Tax has a good summary of coming changes.  There are a lot of other tax increases coming that may affect you – like reducing the child tax credit and reducing the tuition tax credit. Capital gains and dividends taxes will also go up, further discouraging investment.

In terms of dollars, an ABC blog from last year said that these tax increases would represent $989 billion over ten years.  Do we really want to suck $100 billion out of the economy right now? Nancy Pelosi has the strange idea that unemployment benefits are a great stimulus to the economy.  It’s funny to hear Democrats argue that unemployment benefits stimulate growth, while tax cuts do not.  Rather, unemployment benefits discourage recipients from earnestly seeking a job and encourage those who are near retirement or otherwise looking to exit the labor force to instead pretend to look for a job just to collect a check.  When unemployment benefits ran out in June, the labor force actually shrunk by 652,000.  Those were 652,000 people who were looking for a job for the purposes of receiving unemployment, but once the check stopped, they stopped pretending to look.  The New York Times – not exactly a rightwing rag – had a blog entry about this in March.  The New York Times gets it, but Nancy Pelosi does not.

The President assures us that if we hadn’t spent trillions of dollars on pork projects for Democrat districts stimulus spending, we would have been even worse off.  Well, if this stimulus was so essential, it’s even more essential that we don’t rip hundreds or thousands of dollars out of the hands of ordinary Americans.  Again, we’re not talking about tax increases on those evil rich people the media loves to demonize – we’re talking about tax increases on everyone – including the poor and middle class.  Really, it’s a disproportional increase.  If you make some arbitrarily large amount of money ($1 billion) your effective tax rate goes from 35% (well, 34.999%) to 39.6%.  That’s an increase of 13%.  If you make $17725 – less than 200% of poverty – your income taxes go up 50%.

(If you’re curious how much your income taxes will go up, you can look at this site for the current marginal rates.  For 2011, the 10% rate goes away, the 15% rate stays the same, 25% goes to 28%, 28% goes to 31%, 33% goes to 36%, and 35% goes to 39.6%.  The cutoffs for each bracket will probably not change significantly – they are inflation-indexed and there isn’t any inflation right now.  Obviously, this does not include tax changes not tied to the income tax rate.)

Our current fiscal path is unsustainable.  Raising taxes during a recession is insanity.  We need a congress that doesn’t believe the lie that the government can tax and spend the country into prosperity.  I hate to say I told you so about Obama, but, well, I told you so.  We’re on an unsustainable path, but that can be changed.  I have no particular love for the Republican party – I don’t think anyone can deny that one-party rule in the 2000s was a disaster.  But one-party rule on the other side is an even bigger disaster.  I hope and pray that it’s not too late to reverse our path.

“MVP Level” donors received a commemorative “100th year of Scouting” football, which Coach autographed on the spot.

TIDEWATER COUNCIL

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 7:15 AM

Virginia Beach Convention Center
1000 19th Street, Virginia Beach, VA

Featuring:
FRANK BEAMER
Head Football Coach of Virginia Tech
Emceeing the event is WVEC-TV 13 Sports Director Scott Cash

The Breakfast of Champions is a fundraising event designed to honor and support the efforts of over 4,000 adult volunteers who provide a quality year-round Scouting program to more than 9,000 Hampton Roads youth.

All proceeds benefit the Tidewater Council, Boy Scouts of America.

IT’S FOOTBALL TIME IN HAMPTON ROADS

THE THROW…

March 23, 2010 marks the 10th Annual Tidewater Council, Boy Scouts of America’s Breakfast of Champions. Game day starts with breakfast at 7:15 AM leading up to this year’s featured speaker, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer!

THE TOUCHDOWN…

The Breakfast of Champions is a unique fundraising event in that there is no ticket price for attendance. Rather, attendees come to the breakfast, hear a brief story of Scouting and enjoy the morning with featured speaker Frank Beamer. Attendees are asked to make a contribution to Scouting of whatever they feel comfortable giving. Because most people wait until the day of the breakfast to make their donation, a Player’s Scorecard (Donation Form) is available at each place setting. There are several suggested giving levels provided on this form, the bottom line request being $167, the cost to support one youth in Scouting for one year. As a special recognition, anyone contributing $365 or more will receive a football to be autographed by Coach Beamer at the event. The minimum contribution to attend the breakfast should be $50.00 to cover the cost of the event per person.

TEAM STATS

As you probably know, the mission of the Tidewater Council is to provide a quality year-round Scouting program to our over 9,000 youth, their parents and over 4,000 adult volunteers throughout Hampton Roads. What you may not know is that donations from the community are the Tidewater Council’s primary funding source for operations. In short, this mission cannot survive without each of you!

For further information

• For more about the event, including how to become a STAR PLAYER, please see the Star Players Handbook
• To make your gift to support the work of the Boy Scouts, please see the Donation form
• Please contact Danielle Hughes at 757-534-8500 or danielle.hughes@scouting.org for more information

Different people are of different opinions about whether or not we are better off, if we lose to GT, with playing the opening round game.  I’m of the opinion we are not – we are going to get little, if any credit from the NCAA for beating the last place team and a loss would absolutely ensure we make a third straight NIT trip.

My personal opinion is that with a win over GT, we’re in and with a loss, we would need to make it to the finals in the ACC tournament.

Below, for anyone who really cares, are all of the scenarios:

Scenario #1: VT over GT and Miami over FSU

If Virginia Tech wins @Georgia Tech this weekend, and Florida State LOSES @Miami, we will finish third.  After our first round bye, we will play the winner of the 6-11 game.  In this scenario, North Carolina would most likely finish #11 and Wake Forest would finish #6.  So we would get the winner of that game.

Scenario #2: VT over GT and FSU over Miami

In this scenario, we would finish fourth and would play the winner of the 5-12 game.  The 12-seed is going to be Miami in this scenario and the 5-seed would be the winner of Saturday night’s game between Clemson and Wake Forest.

Scenario #3: GT over VT, Miami over FSU, and WFU over Clemson

In a four-way tie among VT, GT, FSU, and Clemson, Tech would finish fourth in the conference and again, play the winner of the 5-12 game.  Florida State, who beat Virginia Tech in the only meeting of the two teams this year, would be our opponent.  Either North Carolina State or Miami would be the 12-seed.

Scenario #4: GT over VT, Clemson over WFU

Regardless of the outcome of FSU’s game with Miami we would finish fifth.  Our opening round game would be against either by the NCSU or Miami and if we win this opening round game, we would get a rematch with FSU.

Scenario #5: GT over VT, FSU over Miami, WFU over Clemson

Tech would finish in a three-way tie for fourth with Clemson and Wake, having beaten both teams earlier in the season.  Tech would get the 4-seed and would face the winner of #5 Wake Forest or #12 NCSU or Miami.

According to Wikipedia, WordPress is used on 202 million websites. And, as we all know, millions of anonymous teenage kids slouching towards an encyclopedia are never wrong.  So what’s one more?  202 million of us out there think we have something worth saying.  Make that 202 million and one.