OBAMA UNDONE (Published in the Independent Coast Observer)

During the 2008 campaign, Barrack Obama stated his goal as President would be to “transform America.” In fairness to those Independents and even many Republicans who helped vote this inexperienced and minimally competent person into office, Obama did not provide details on what he meant by that. Now, almost four years later most of us understand exactly what he meant, and we’re appalled. Here are but a few of the highlights:

1. Waste the Democrats’ super majority in Congress by running up almost 5 trillion dollars in new debt in less than 4 years by passing ObamaCare and other programs detrimental to our country’s future.
2. Whine constantly about the difficult economy he inherited and then proceed to make it much, much worse. (See Dodd-Franks, the Keystone Pipeline decision, etc.)
3. Blame all his problems on his predecessors and never take responsibility or provide meaningful leadership.
4. Divide the country along class lines and constantly harangue our most productive citizens.
5. Practice a “crony” capitalism that sends huge amounts of government largesse to favored “green energy” companies, while demonizing anyone who disagrees with his decisions.
6. Minimize in speeches and actions the importance of America’s role in the world and diminish our standing with other countries.
7. Announce out of one side of his mouth the importance of victory in Afghanistan, then out of the other side state arbitrary deadlines and rules of engagement that make such a victory almost impossible.

During my absence the past few weeks, many bitter words have been written in the ICO by Obama supporters against the Republican candidates. The truth is that virtually every one of those candidates would better serve the country than this abysmally inept individual we now have in office. Mitt Romney believes this election is about the “soul of America.” A majority of voters may well agree.

Jim Littlejohn

Concerned Coastal Voters

Gualala, CA

Hopey Dopey

Editor

I thought Obama's "hopey, changey" mode was as dead as his failed programs of the past three years. Certainly the anemic 1.7% growth in GDP in 2011, and persistent high unemployment, should be enough to make him try Plan B.

But then came his State of the Union address, and it was the same-old, same old. Just another big grab bag of promises to take our minds off failed past promises. His speech was full of Occupy items, even as Occupy dies a lingering death. The only place Occupy persists is in Oakland, where it is draining an already empty budget. 

Of course Democrat class envy still rules, even with an expiring Occupy movement. The latest numbers show Mitt Romney paid 42% of his income to taxes and charities. Vice President Biden paid $326 to charity, which put him on par with other Democrat stalwarts such as Al Gore and Bill "tax deduction for used underwear" Clinton. Most of Romney's taxes are paid as capital gains at the 15% rate, the same as other wealthy folk like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. To  pay a higher rate discourages investment, since in inflationary times a significant portion of capital gains are inflation, and corporate profits are double taxed, once as corporate income, and then as dividend income.

Mitt Romney chooses to pick where he wants his charitable donations to go, rather than turning his money over to the government to waste. Democrats have an aversion to letting people choose how to spend their own money, because they always think they know where other peoples' money should be spent. Like on Solyndra, and on "Enron1" as Joe Biden called it, a company that was going to make batteries for electric cars that just announced filing for bankruptcy after blowing $100 million of our taxes. And there are a lot more of these government-supported companies heading down the same hole. There's no hope, and small change, for them.

Mike Combs

Gualala

Fool's Paradise for Democrats

Editor

Democrats are always challenging Republicans for their budget plan, even though in California a Republican budget has no chance of ever being considered, let alone being passed. If I were asked to fill in this blank, I would say the plan is to don’t spend money you don’t have. When California was relatively in good shape financially, as recently as 2005, the legislature found many ways to spend the “excess” when in reality there was none. The Democrats just studiously avoided noticing that they had created an overgrown, expensive bureaucracy that generated an enormous and rapidly growing unfunded public employee pension liability. While overlooking this liability, Democrats “balanced” the budget with gimmickry such as taking on long-term debt to cover current operating costs.

California cities and counties did the same. Oakland, for example, used redevelopment fund revenue to pay for their bloated city payroll. For Oakland, a city job was just another form of welfare. It’s ironic that this practice, which apparently was undertaken while Jerry Brown was Oakland’s mayor, will make Oakland fire several hundred city employees now that Governor Brown has killed redevelopment agencies.

California Democrats continue living in a fool’s paradise, where pretending to not notice that soon the costs of the unfunded pension liabilities will not only eat up everything they thought they could “invest” in tax-payer subsidized luxuries such as high-speed rail (from Fresno to Bakersfield), but also engulf education, law enforcement, and all the bread-and-butter governmental responsibilities.

The lucky Californians will be the ones who can move to the better managed states, such as Texas. They will feel right at home there, since many of their neighbors will be retired California legislators and public employees who will be living there to escape the ruinous high taxes and rapidly deteriorating services of California.

Mike Combs

Gualala