Riddle Me This

Why is it that people seem to think it's o.k. to "tax the rich"? What is "rich"? And how did Mr O come to decided that families/people making $250k + are rich? What if you've worked years and years, struggling, scraping, bumping your hump (or in some folks case, humping your bump) to get to that "rich" point of $250k and now, guess what, your fellow Americans and Mr O want to take it away from you. Penalize you. Take from you. TAKE. TAKE. TAKE. Think people. Think.

For those not versed in Economics*:

Lesson 1: That 95% who WON'T be taxed and why this is a big fat lie:
Who Pays for the Cap and Trade? Hint: They were promised a tax cut during the Obama campaign.

Politicians love cap and trade because they can claim to be taxing "polluters," not workers. Hardly. Once the government creates a scarce new commodity -- in this case the right to emit carbon -- and then mandates that businesses buy it, the costs would inevitably be passed on to all consumers in the form of higher prices. Stating the obvious, Peter Orszag -- now Mr. Obama's budget director -- told Congress last year that "Those price increases are essential to the success of a cap-and-trade program."

Hit hardest would be the "95% of working families" Mr. Obama keeps mentioning, usually omitting that his no-new-taxes pledge comes with the caveat "unless you use energy." Putting a price on carbon is regressive by definition because poor and middle-income households spend more of their paychecks on things like gas to drive to work, groceries or home heating.

Lesson 2: For all non-economists: FDR did NOT bring us out of the depression. The NEW DEAL extended it. “Government intervention,” says Amity Shlaes , “helped make the Great Depression great.”

Speaking of greatness...Sayeth Mark Steyn:

National Greatness: FDR put the "Great" in the "Great Depression". Lots of other places - from Britain to Australia - took a hit in 1929 but, alas, they lacked an FDR to keep it going till the end of the Thirties. That's why in other countries they refer to it as "the Depression", but only in the US is it "Great".

(I'm confident President Obama will be able to bring us the world's first Totally Awesome Depression.)

History and facts are important folks if we're going to get out of this deepening crisis. And it IS getting worse. If you are getting ready to retire and hope to pull from your 401k, I am sorry, there is nothing there for you. You are YO-YO.

*note: I was an Economics major.