posted June 29, 2010 09:03 AM         

"Here's something that could make for some awkward exchanges at the cash register this summer.

Americans for Tax Reform, which rarely met a tax it likes, has put out an "Obama Tax Hike Exemption Card," which (in theory) exempts "Americans making less than $250,000 from any form of tax increase signed into law by President Barack Obama."

"This card a tangible reminder that Obama has deliberately broken his central campaign promise not to raise any form of taxes on Americans earning less than $250,000," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, in a release. "The last President to break his tax pledge - Bush 41 -served only one term."

If you'd like to give one of these cards a test run, here's how it works: If you make under $250,000 and find yourself facing any of the new taxes highlighted by ATR ("Tax on Indoor Tanning Services," "Medicine Cabinet Tax," "Special Needs Kids Tax," etc.), you present the card and, if challenged "politely ask, 'Excuse me, but are you calling President Obama a liar?'"

No guarantees, of course."

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1006/a_special_tool_for_fakebakers.html

"Please use the form below to get your Obama Tax Hike Exemption Card

You may have noticed that President Obama has broken his central campaign promise – a “firm pledge” that Americans making less than $250,000 would not see “any form of tax increase.” He first broke this pledge sixteen days into his presidency when he signed a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco. And Obamacare contains 21 tax increases – several of which violate his “firm pledge”.

To protect you from these tax hikes, Americans for Tax Reform presents the “Obama Tax Hike Exemption Card”. The card fits neatly in your wallet and contains a list of the tax hikes signed into law by President Obama that violate his tax pledge, as well as a few other taxes that have been threatened: a European-style Value-Added Tax, Cap and Trade taxes, and even a federal soda tax.

Fill out the form below to get your Obama Tax Hike Exemption Card

How to use the card:

Step 1: Present the card to merchants, employers, and tax authorities.

Step 2: If challenged, pleasantly ask: “Are you calling President Obama a liar?”

Click here to find out of your member of Congress voted for these taxes http://www.atr.org/member-congress-vote-obama-tax-hike-a5143

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

--Candidate Barack Obama, Sept. 12, 2008

“If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.”

--President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009

“The statement didn’t come with caveats.”

--Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, April 15, 2009, when asked if the pledge applies to healthcare

posted July 04, 2010 09:51 AM         

quote:

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Obama is by far the worst president in American history.

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posted July 04, 2010 11:23 AM         

as to the gulf, whatever is going on there is also the result of years of corruption in the regulation agencies, not obama's policies...and despite the publicity there have been worse incidents in the past and some of them only time could fix.

there were tax CUTS last year that no one seems to want to mention.

i suppose it is also obama's fault that earthquakes are happening around the world at a rate i have never noticed before. not just chile, where a whole town MOVED - last week in baja california another town moved sideways and DOWN.

certainly this is because of the president!! i mean, this man bows to his equals he must be crackers.

posted July 04, 2010 02:03 PM         

though it is true he has not only not brought the troops home from iraq in the 16 months slated, but he has gone along with the "better choice" war in afghanistan, a place NO ONE has ever succeeded in dominating. good luck with that. HOWEVER, anyone who watched him in debate with mccain should remember him saying he was going to do this!! the fact that he appeared uncomfortable with it - possibly because he had been instructed it was necessary - doesn't change the fact that he did warn us.

perhaps it is time for an organized tax revolt? it would have to include huge numbers to keep people safe from worse retribution and to make an impact. is there any hope of that kind of unity in this country at this time?

i heard a story told by a russian emigrant about the breakup of the soviet union. there was NO money for most people for quite awhile since the state had been paying wages and was completely disarrayed...people were used to working together, consdering the WHOLE above the individual, so they just continued to do their jobs and kept things going WITHOUT MONEY! imagine.

posted July 04, 2010 08:54 PM         

In the U.S. is he seen as worse than Bush (generally speaking)?

posted July 04, 2010 09:24 PM         

no offense to randall but i think time will tell. i wonder what his game is myself at times but - worse than bush? let's hope not!!

like i said, anybody taking on this mess is going to have a rough time of it. and i really think the rumour mill (aka fox news and also some of the lefties on the air) is over the top out of control these days. in fact it was in response to that that i first came to GU!!

i remember sean hannity predicting that if obama got in HE and his brethren would have to "go underground" because free speech would surely be stifled. hannity is looking richer and chubbier (and more on-the-take) with each passing month...

posted July 06, 2010 11:07 AM         

i think voting for president has its good and bad points...at the moment the republicans are acting as a party while the democrats span a wide range of political leanings.

posted July 06, 2010 01:37 PM         

As former President Ronald Reagan might have said, "Obama, there you go again."

The current occupant of the White House claims to know how to create jobs. He claims jobs have been created. But so far the score is Great Obama Depression 2.2 million lost jobs, Obama 0 -- a blowout.

Obama is as hopeless, helpless, clueless and bankrupt of good ideas as the manager of the Chicago Cubs in late September. This "community organizer" knows as much about private-sector jobs as Pamela Anderson knows about nuclear physics.

It's time to call Obama what he is: The Great Jobs Killer. With his massive spending and tax hikes -- rewarding big government and big unions, while punishing taxpayers and business owners -- Obama has killed jobs, he has killed motivation to create new jobs, he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses, or expand old ones. With all this killing, Obama should be given the top spot on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

Meanwhile, he has kept the union workers of GM and Chrysler employed (with taxpayer money). He has made sure that most government employee union members got their annual raises for sleeping on the job (with taxpayer money). He made sure that his voters got handouts mislabeled as "tax cuts" even though they never paid taxes (with taxpayer money). And he made sure that major campaign contributors collected billions off government stimulus (with taxpayer money).

As far as the taxpayers -- the people who actually take risks with our own money to create small businesses and jobs and pay most of the taxes -- we require protection under the Endangered Species Act.

You won't find proof of the damage Obama is doing on Wall Street, but rather on Main Street. My friends are all part of the economic engine of America: Small business. Small business creates 75 percent of new jobs (and a majority of all jobs). I called one friend who was a wealthy restaurant owner. He says business is off by 60 percent. He's drowning in debt. He won't last much longer. His wealth is gone.

I called another friend in the business of home improvement. He says business is off 90 percent from two years ago. My contractor just filed personal bankruptcy. She won't be building any more homes. The hair salon where I've had my hair cut for years closed earlier this year. Bankrupt. But here's the clincher -- ESPN Zone just closed all their restaurants across the country. If they can't make it selling cheap food and overpriced beer with 100 big screens blaring every sporting event on the planet to a sports-crazed society, we are all in deep, deep trouble.

I've polled all my friends who own small businesses -- many of them in the Internet and high-tech fields. They all agree that in this new Obama world of high business taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, and workers compensation taxes, the key to success is to avoid employees. The only way to survive as a business owner today is by keeping the payroll very low and by hiring only independent contractors or part-time employees provided by temp agencies.

The days of jobs in the private sector with big salaries, full benefits, and pensions are over. We've all seen where those kinds of jobs get you as a business owner -- in Bankruptcy Court or surviving on government welfare like GM and Chrysler. Or in the case of government itself -- completely insolvent, but surviving by ripping off taxpayers and fraudulently running printing presses at the Fed all day and night to print money by the trillions.

Unfortunately, small businesses don't have the power to impose taxes or print money. So unlike government, we'll just have to cut employees and run lean and mean.

It has now become clear that, outside of the burgeoning field of Census takers, there will be no major increase in new jobs for years to come. Outside government, Obama has created a wasteland of economic ruin and depression that looks much like the landscape of Mel Gibson's first movie "Mad Max." Without a printing press in Obama's world, you're just plain out of luck.

The days of believing the Obama propaganda about a jobs recovery are over. The trillion-dollar corporate handouts (neatly named "stimulus") may have kept big business in the money for the past 18 months, and artificially propped up the stock market, but small business is the real canary in the coal mine.

My small business-owning friends aren't creating one job. Not one. They are shedding jobs. They are learning to do more with fewer employees. They are creating high-tech businesses that don't need employees. And many business owners are making plans to leave the country. In a high-tech world where businesses can be run from anywhere, Obama has a problem. His one-trick pony -- raise taxes, raise taxes, raising taxes -- is chasing away the business owners he desperately needs to pay his bills.

So who is going to pay Obama's taxes? Not his voters. They want government to pay them. Who is going to create Obama's jobs? Not his voters -- they've never created a job in their lives.

So what is Obama going to do? Maybe he can get Pamela Anderson on the line.

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/barack-obama--the-great-jobs-killer-97758294.html

posted July 06, 2010 02:05 PM         

and we need illegal aliens to keep the rich in the money, who else will work for pennies an hour? isn't that why ronnie gave them amnesty way back when? or was it because govt was the problem (ie govt didn't want to waste any money on real issues).

there is very little wrong with this country that hasn't been built by the REPUBLICANS of the last 30 years. i don't approve of the corporate handouts either, but don't tell me that is a leftist ploy.

there were actually quite a few tax CUTS this last year. which taxes were raised please, apart from the cigarette tax?

the fact that everyone and his uncle has grown accustomed to having the world on tap, you know, fresh (if gmo) corn on the cob year round, 80 thousand channels on tv, and all the gas you can guzzle for a few dollars, hs NOTHING to do with the situation we're in, for sure. the fact that big corps underpricing everyone else has run umpteen businesses out of town is not because of taxes. they don't pay any, remember?

posted July 06, 2010 03:44 PM         

"but jwhop wealth trickles down, i've heard you say so a million times"

You've never heard or seen me say any such thing even once...let alone a million times.

posted July 06, 2010 09:24 PM         

I never said the rich put dinner on our tables.