Thursday, December 13, 2012

Private Charity 150% More Efficient Than Government Welfare

People love to claim that if you don’t support their brand of socialism, then you hate poor people, are racist, are sexist, and are the general embodiment of everything wrong with society. The truth, of course, is the exact opposite. The best thing possible for the poor is for us to shift money from welfare to charity, because the poor get far more through private charity.

When you account for all of the political corruption, the government waste, the over-sized government salaries, the redundancy, the paperwork, the special interests, and other factors, only 30% of government “welfare” spending goes to the needy. Private charity is the opposite, with over 70% going to the needy. So much for “hating the poor”.

That means private charity is 150% more efficient than the welfare state. If you account for all of the government spending that is pure waste with nothing to do with the poor, you begin to see exactly why we hate the massive federal government. The government is making people poorer, not helping them to the middle class.

I honestly have no doubt that many people will claim that we secretly hate the poor, even if the facts prove the opposite. But the facts stand on their own. As Christmas is nearing, the left will likely be screaming louder and louder in favor of more government so that the feds will become a million-man Santa army.

But this wouldn’t be the best for those who need it. The best thing for them are people like you and I taking personal interest, donating our money and time, and making sure the right people get the money. That means responsibility — not forcing someone else to “take care” of the problem.

I think, deep down, most people know this. That’s why people give to private charity during the holiday season, and don’t give extra money to the IRS. We know what’s necessary to help those who need it — we just have to have the guts to stand up for them — and private charity — when it counts. And that means fighting the welfare state.

If you want to learn more about how broken our welfare state is, just read 3 insane facts about welfare in America. It’ll give you heartburn.


http://www.capitalisminstitute.org/private-charity-infographic/ 

http://mises.org/journals/jls/21_2/21_2_1.pdf 

Monday, December 10, 2012

Rural America Becoming Less Relevant



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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has some harsh words for rural America: It's "becoming less and less relevant," he says.

A month after an election that Democrats won even as rural parts of the country voted overwhelmingly Republican, the former Democratic governor of Iowa told farm belt leaders this past week that he's frustrated with their internecine squabbles and says they need to be more strategic in picking their political fights.

"It's time for us to have an adult conversation with folks in rural America," Vilsack said in a speech at a forum sponsored by the Farm Journal. "It's time for a different thought process here, in my view."

He said rural America's biggest assets - the food supply, recreational areas and energy, for example - can be overlooked by people elsewhere as the U.S. population shifts more to cities, their suburbs and exurbs.

"Why is it that we don't have a farm bill?" said Vilsack. "It isn't just the differences of policy. It's the fact that rural America with a shrinking population is becoming less and less relevant to the politics of this country, and we had better recognize that and we better begin to reverse it."

For the first time in recent memory, farm-state lawmakers were not able to push a farm bill through Congress in an election year, evidence of lost clout in farm states.

The Agriculture Department says about 50 percent of rural counties have lost population in the past four years and poverty rates are higher there than in metropolitan areas, despite the booming agricultural economy.

Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks found that rural voters accounted for just 14 percent of the turnout in last month's election, with 61 percent of them supporting Republican Mitt Romney and 37 percent backing President Barack Obama. Two-thirds of those rural voters said the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.

Vilsack criticized farmers who have embraced wedge issues such as regulation, citing the uproar over the idea that the Environmental Protection Agency was going to start regulating farm dust after the Obama administration said repeatedly it had no so such intention.

In his Washington speech, he also cited criticism of a proposed Labor Department regulation, later dropped, that was intended to keep younger children away from the most dangerous farm jobs, and criticism of egg producers for dealing with the Humane Society on increasing the space that hens have in their coops. Livestock producers fearing they will be the next target of animal rights advocates have tried to undo that agreement.

"We need a proactive message, not a reactive message," Vilsack said. "How are you going to encourage young people to want to be involved in rural America or farming if you don't have a proactive message? Because you are competing against the world now."

John Weber, a pork producer in Dysart, Iowa, said Friday that farmers have to defend their industries against policies they see as unfair. He said there is great concern among pork producers that animal welfare groups are using unfair tactics and may hurt their business.

"Our role is to defend our producers and our industry in what we feel are issues important to us," he said.

Weber agreed, though, that rural America is declining in influence. He said he is concerned that there are not enough lawmakers from rural areas and complained that Congress doesn't understand farm issues. He added that the farm industry needs to communicate better with consumers.

"There's a huge communication gap" between farmers and the food-eating public, he said.

Vilsack, who has made the revitalization of rural America a priority, encouraged farmers to embrace new kinds of markets, work to promote global exports and replace a "preservation mindset with a growth mindset." He said they also need to embrace diversity because it is an issue important to young people who are leaving rural areas.

"We've got something to market here," he said. "We've got something to be proactive about. Let's spend our time and our resources and our energy doing that and I think if we do we're going to have a lot of young people who want to be part of that future."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_VILSACK_RURAL_AMERICA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-12-08-08-24-10 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_VILSACK_RURAL_AMERICA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-12-08-08-24-10

Friday, December 07, 2012

Fiscal Cliff Proposals Assault Charitable Giving

by: Bryan Baumgart - 12/7/2012

As I described in my post on "The Role of Government", if we truly wish to take care of America's poor and needy, it must be done through charity. 
Progressive taxation aimed at redistributing wealth to the needy is well intentioned, but eventually succeeds only in destroying wealth and creating poverty.

Economic policies that lead to wealth creation and encouraging charitable giving through tax credits not only result in more effective social assistance, but guarantee the sustainability of that assistance.
Characterized as "loopholes", tax credits for charitable giving now find themselves on the chopping block in the infamous fiscal cliff negotiations.

Because the majority of charitable giving is made by wealthy Americans, the Democrat's tax hike proposal is sure to have a negative affect on charitable giving.  The Republican's counter proposal isn't any brighter for charities. In the past, it was President Obama pushing for reduced tax credits for charitable giving, but now we find the GOP putting forth a plan calling for the same.

Their proposals would not only negatively affect charities, but colleges, universities and hospitals as well. Donations are the primary source of income for most charities and because these donations are encouraged through resulting tax credits, removing this incentive would likely be devastating to charities and non-profits who often receive a third to half of their annual donations in the month of December as people begin to think about income taxes and the need for deductions.

Colleges received just over $30 billion in donations in 2011, and the largest gifts most colleges receive are typically made with awareness of tax benefits.
“There’s just no question that it will hurt charitable giving.” - Charles Phlegar, vice president for alumni affairs and development at Cornell University
The deduction for charitable giving costs about $52 billion in tax revenue per year, but the assistance it provides to America's poor and needy is immeasurable!!!

Tell your representatives to leave the charitable giving tax credit alone!!! 

Monday, December 03, 2012

Two Ways to Increase Revenue

by Bryan Baumgart

December 3, 2012

I’ve always hated the phrase, “increasing revenue”. From a business perspective, increasing revenue is a good thing. From a governmental perspective, “increasing revenue” usually means “increasing taxe rates”, which to the American taxpayers is NEVER a good thing. I will always call it what it is…”increased taxes”.

There is another way to “increase revenue”; however, without increasing tax rates. It involves creating wealth in the private sector which increases the pool of taxpayers. THIS is the type of increased revenue we should be pursuing.

Spending cuts (and tax rate increases) won’t begin to solve the problem. Spending cuts only involve cuts in the amount of increase in spending planned, not actual spending cuts. And asking more from the wealthy is only a drop in the bucket, it get’s us nowhere.

As Warren Buffett admitted, the plan to ask more from the wealthy is nothing more than a morale boost to the poor (aka: a big screw you to the wealthy). This meaningless class warfare gets us nowhere. If we don’t pursue policies of increasing revenue through wealth creation (including slashing corporate and income tax rates) and deregulation…we will never get out from behind the eight-ball.

If the only bill that will be on the table in these "fiscal cliff" talks, is a bill that involves “increased revenue” through increased taxes rates, then I don’t think the Republicans should have any part of it. We currently have guaranteed cuts in spending (through sequestration) coming already. Let the democrats own the tax rate increases just as they own obamacare (which is equating to large middle-class tax increases, premium increases, job loss, price inflation, along with the diminishing of the quality of healthcare in this country).

If Republicans cave and become complicit in these tax increases, the dems will surely (and I hope they do) use those votes against the Republicans when they run for re-election. I will too!!!

We got ourselves into a huge mess here, and just as I would be forced to make some painful sacrifices to get out from under huge credit card debt I wa responsible for running up…Americans will have to make some painful sacrifices to get out of this debt we ran up. We lived beyond our means and now it is time to pay the price. Everyone is pointing to everyone else to make those sacrifices.

“Ask more from the wealthy”

“I don’t want to lose my entitlements”

Bottom line…we are all in this together (both Republicans and Democrats ran up the debt this past decade) and it will take sacrifice from ALL of us to get out!!! EVERYTHING has to be on the table. Defense, entitlements, and even Obamacare (a massive espense). And we need to increase revenue by seeking wealth creation in our private sector.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Government Eyeing Private Retirement Plans

 
by Bryan Baumgart - 11/29/2012


The Plot

As
explained in a recent NY Times editorial, Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of economics at the New School originally testified before the House Committee on Education & Labor in 2008.  Her plan explained below has begun picking up traction among lawmakers. Under Ghilarducci's plan, tax free contributions to private retirement accounts would be eliminated and money currently located in private 401(k)s would be seized by federal edict and used to establish government run pensions she refers to as Guarantee Retirement Accounts (GRA's). The funds would be placed with the terribly mismanaged Social Security Administration. You would then be required to surrender 5% of your pay into the GRA's until you retire. If you die before collecting the money, it goes to Washington rather than your heirs, even if you worked hard and did a fantastic job of saving and investing your hard earned money. Failure to comply would be punishable by fines and jail time. Ghilarducci's congressional testimony can be seen here.


The Problem

Many Americans have chosen or have not been able to contribute enough money to private retirement accounts. Couple that with unfunded public pensions, a failing social security fund, and devastating effects of the economic downturn on 401(k)s, and we are left with  a large number of Americans nearing retirement without any way to fund it.


Class Warfare

Liberals have derided the fact that only
half of Americans own and actively manage their 401(k)s. Of that 50%, very few are able to contribute the maximum 17% allowing them to take full advantage of the tax breaks. They claim private retirement accounts favor the wealthy and demand seizure of 401(k)s in the name of economic justice!


Why Now?

The government has found itself underwater and the leg cramps are beginning to set in. Realizing Washington is missing out on an
estimated $50 - $70 billion dollars worth of tax revenue each year; officials have introduced plans to end those tax credits, initially offered to encourage savings by individuals. (*Note: Many liberals will claim a higher estimate, intentionally assuming that all 401(k) money is invested in bonds when in reality, two thirds of 401(k) assets are invested in equities where gains are taxed only when realized and both dividends and gains are taxed at a preferential rate of at most 15 percent.)

Realizing that $50 - $70 billion dollars is only a drop in the bucket of our $1 trillion dollar + annual deficit, officials are considering extending their plot to include seizing private 401(k)s to purchase government bonds in order to cushion the government's spending problem.


The Cold Hard Truth
"The government is making a play to suck the last bit of capital from capitalism." - Rush Limbaugh
There is no arguing that America faces a looming crisis as the 401(k) generation nears a significantly underfunded retirement. The question is what should be done about it?  Does a government that promised tax free contributions have a right to renege on that promise?  Does a government that encouraged private savings have a right to turn around and seize the fruits of one's labor to help alleviate the problem they created?  Does anyone really believe that the government would do a better job looking out for your retirement than you would?  The government has already spent and bankrupted our saving in the social security trust fund?

Should reform start by addressing WHY American's have not been willing or able to contribute to their 401(k)s?

There is no question that reform is necessary! The question is...how should that reform look?

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Reaganomics Vs. Obamanomics: Facts And Figures

Peter Ferrara

In February 2009 I wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal entitled “Reaganomics v Obamanomics,” which argued that the emerging outlines of President Obama’s economic policies were following in close detail exactly the opposite of President Reagan’s economic policies.  As a result, I predicted that Obamanomics would have the opposite results of Reaganomics.  That prediction seems to be on track.

When President Reagan entered office in 1981, he faced actually much worse economic problems than President Obama faced in 2009.  Three worsening recessions starting in 1969 were about to culminate in the worst of all in 1981-1982, with unemployment soaring into double digits at a peak of 10.8%.  At the same time America suffered roaring double-digit inflation, with the CPI registering at 11.3% in 1979 and 13.5% in 1980 (25% in two years).  The Washington establishment at the time argued that this inflation was now endemic to the American economy, and could not be stopped, at least not without a calamitous economic collapse.

All of the above was accompanied by double -igit interest rates, with the prime rate peaking at 21.5% in 1980.  The poverty rate started increasing in 1978, eventually climbing by an astounding 33%, from 11.4% to 15.2%.  A fall in real median family income that began in 1978 snowballed to a decline of almost 10% by 1982.  In addition, from 1968 to 1982, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 70% of its real value, reflecting an overall collapse of stocks.

President Reagan campaigned on an explicitly articulated, four-point economic program to reverse this slow motion collapse of the American economy:

1.  Cut tax rates to restore incentives for economic growth, which was implemented first with a reduction in the top income tax rate of 70% down to 50%, and then a 25% across-the-board reduction in income tax rates for everyone.  The 1986 tax reform then reduced tax rates further, leaving just two rates, 28% and 15%.

2.  Spending reductions, including a $31 billion cut in spending in 1981, close to 5% of the federal budget then, or the equivalent of about $175 billion in spending cuts for the year today.  In constant dollars, nondefense discretionary spending declined by 14.4% from 1981 to 1982, and by 16.8% from 1981 to 1983.  Moreover, in constant dollars, this nondefense discretionary spending never returned to its 1981 level for the rest of Reagan’s two terms!  Even with the Reagan defense buildup, which won the Cold War without firing a shot, total federal spending declined from a high of 23.5% of GDP in 1983 to 21.3% in 1988 and 21.2% in 1989.  That’s a real reduction in the size of government relative to the economy of 10%.

3.  Anti-inflation monetary policy restraining money supply growth compared to demand, to maintain a stronger, more stable dollar value.

4.  Deregulation, which saved consumers an estimated $100 billion per year in lower prices.  Reagan’s first executive order, in fact, eliminated price controls on oil and natural gas.  Production soared, and aided by a strong dollar the price of oil declined by more than 50%.

These economic policies amounted to the most successful economic experiment in world history.  The Reagan recovery started in official records in November 1982, and lasted 92 months without a recession until July 1990, when the tax increases of the 1990 budget deal killed it.  This set a new record for the longest peacetime expansion ever, the previous high in peacetime being 58 months.

During this seven-year recovery, the economy grew by almost one-third, the equivalent of adding the entire economy of West Germany, the third-largest in the world at the time, to the U.S. economy.  In 1984 alone real economic growth boomed by 6.8%, the highest in 50 years.  Nearly 20 million new jobs were created during the recovery, increasing U.S. civilian employment by almost 20%.  Unemployment fell to 5.3% by 1989.

The shocking rise in inflation during the Nixon and Carter years was reversed.  Astoundingly, inflation from 1980 was reduced by more than half by 1982, to 6.2%.  It was cut in half again for 1983, to 3.2%, never to be heard from again until recently.  The contractionary, tight-money policies needed to kill this inflation inexorably created the steep recession of 1981 to 1982, which is why Reagan did not suffer politically catastrophic blame for that recession.

Real per-capita disposable income increased by 18% from 1982 to 1989, meaning the American standard of living increased by almost 20% in just seven years.  The poverty rate declined every year from 1984 to 1989, dropping by one-sixth from its peak.  The stock market more than tripled in value from 1980 to 1990, a larger increase than in any previous decade.

In The End of Prosperity, supply side guru Art Laffer and Wall Street Journal chief financial writer Steve Moore point out that this Reagan recovery grew into a 25-year boom, with just slight interruptions by shallow, short recessions in 1990 and 2001.  They wrote:
We call this period, 1982-2007, the twenty-five year boom–the greatest period of wealth creation in the history of the planet.  In 1980, the net worth–assets minus liabilities–of all U.S. households and business … was $25 trillion in today’s dollars.  By 2007, … net worth was just shy of $57 trillion.  Adjusting for inflation, more wealth was created in America in the twenty-five year boom than in the previous two hundred years.
What is so striking about Obamanomics is how it so doggedly pursues the opposite of every one of these planks of Reaganomics.  Instead of reducing tax rates, President Obama is committed to raising the top tax rates of virtually every major federal tax.  As already enacted into current law, in 2013 the top two income tax rates will rise by nearly 20%, counting as well Obama’s proposed deduction phase-outs.

The capital gains tax rate will soar by nearly 60%, counting the new Obamacare taxes going into effect that year.  The total tax rate on corporate dividends would increase by nearly three times.  The Medicare payroll tax would increase by 62% for the nation’s job creators and investors.  The death tax rate would go back up to 55%.  In his 2012 budget and his recent national budget speech, President Obama proposes still more tax increases.

Instead of coming into office with spending cuts, President Obama’s first act was a nearly $1 trillion stimulus bill.  In his first two years in office he has already increased federal spending by 28%, and his 2012 budget proposes to increase federal spending by another 57% by 2021.

His monetary policy is just the opposite as well.  Instead of restraining the money supply to match money demand for a stable dollar, slaying an historic inflation, we have QE1 and QE2 and a steadily collapsing dollar, arguably creating a historic reflation.

And instead of deregulation we have across-the-board re-regulation, from health care to finance to energy, and elsewhere.  While Reagan used to say that his energy policy was to “unleash the private sector,” Obama’s energy policy can be described as precisely to leash the private sector in service to Obama’s central planning “green energy” dictates.

As a result, while the Reagan recovery averaged 7.1% economic growth over the first seven quarters, the Obama recovery has produced less than half that at 2.8%, with the last quarter at a dismal 1.8%.  After seven quarters of the Reagan recovery, unemployment had fallen 3.3 percentage points from its peak to 7.5%, with only 18% unemployed long-term for 27 weeks or more.  After seven quarters of the Obama recovery, unemployment has fallen only 1.3 percentage points from its peak, with a postwar record 45% long-term unemployed.

Previously the average recession since World War II lasted 10 months, with the longest at 16 months.  Yet today, 40 months after the last recession started, unemployment is still 8.8%, with America suffering the longest period of unemployment that high since the Great Depression.  Based on the historic precedents America should be enjoying the second year of a roaring economic recovery by now, especially since, historically, the worse the downturn, the stronger the recovery.  Yet while in the Reagan recovery the economy soared past the previous GDP peak after six months, in the Obama recovery that didn’t happen for three years.  Last year the Census Bureau reported that the total number of Americans in poverty was the highest in the 51 years that Census has been recording the data.

Moreover, the Reagan recovery was achieved while taming a historic inflation, for a period that continued for more than 25 years.  By contrast, the less-than-half-hearted Obama recovery seems to be recreating inflation, with the latest Producer Price Index data showing double-digit inflation again, and the latest CPI growing already half as much.

These are the reasons why economist John Lott has rightly said, “For the last couple of years, President Obama keeps claiming that the recession was the worst economy since the Great Depression.  But this is not correct.  This is the worst “recovery” since the Great Depression.”

However, the Reagan Recovery took off once the tax rate cuts were fully phased in.  Similarly, the full results of Obamanomics won’t be in until his historic, comprehensive tax rate increases of 2013 become effective.  While the Reagan Recovery kicked off a historic 25-year economic boom, will the opposite policies of Obamanomics, once fully phased in, kick off 25 years of economic stagnation, unless reversed?

Peter Ferrara is director of policy for the Carleson Center for Public Policy and senior fellow for entitlement and budget policy at the Heartland Institute.  He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as associate deputy attorney general of the United States under President George H. W. Bush.  He is the author of America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb, forthcoming from HarperCollins.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Red State Revenge - Starve the Beast!!!


 
Election Cycle political donations, as reported by the Center for Responsive Politics:


Shopping
Price Club/Costco donated $225K, 99% went to Democrats
Rite Aid donated $517K, 60% went to Democrats
Magla Products (Stanley tools, Mr. Clean) donated $22K, 100% went to Democrats
Warnaco (undergarments) donated $55K, 73% went to Democrats
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia donated $153K, 99% went to Democrats
Estee Lauder donated $448K, 95% went to Democrats
Guess, Inc. Donated $145K, 98% went to Democrats
Calvin Klein donated $78K, 100% went to Democrats
Liz Claiborne, Inc. Donated $34K, 97% went to Democrats
Levi Straus donated $26K, 97% went to Democrats
Olan Mills donated $175K, 99% went to Democrats
WalMart donated $467K, 97% went to Republicans
K-Mart donated $524K, 86% went to Republicans
Home Depot donated $298K, 89% went to Republicans
Target donated $226K, 70% went to Republicans
Circuit City Stores donated $261K, 95% went to Republicans
3M Co. Donated $281K, 87% went to Republicans
Hallmark Cards donated $319K, 92% went to Republicans
Amway donated $391K, 100% Republicans
Kohler Co. (plumbing fixtures) donated $283K, 100% Republicans
B.F. Goodrich (tires) donated $215K, 97% went to Republicans
Proctor & Gamble donated $243K, 79% went to Republicans

Spirits
Southern Wine & Spirits donated $213K, 73% went to Democrats
Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons (incl. Beverage Business and considerable media interests) donated $2M+, 67% went to Democrats
Gallo Winery donated $337K, 95% went to Democrats
Coors & Budweiser donated $174K, 92% went to Republicans
Brown-Forman Corp. (Southern Comfort, Jack Daniels, Bushmills, Korbel Wines, Lenox China , Dansk and Gorham Silver) donated $644 K -- 80% went to Republicans

Restaurants
Sonic Corporation donated $83K, 98% went to Democrats
Triarc Companies (Arby's, T.J. Cinnamon's, Pasta Connections) donated $112K, 96% went to Democrats
Pilgrim's Pride Corp. (chicken) donated $366K, 100% went to Republicans
Outback Steakhouse donated $641K, 95% went to Republicans
Tricon Global Restaurants (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell) donated $133K, 87% went to Republicans
Brinker International (Maggiano's, Brinker Cafe, Chili's, On the Border, Macaroni Grill, Crazymel's, Corner Baker, EatZis) donated $242K, 83% went to Republicans
Waffle House donated $279K, 100% went to Republicans
McDonald's Corp. Donated $197K, 86% went to Republicans
Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Smokey Bones, Bahama Breeze) donated $121K, 89% went to Republicans
Heinz Republicans $64,000 Democrats $21,300! John Kerry's wife's company!!!

Hotels
Hyatt Corporation donated $187K of which 80% went to Democrats
Marriott International $323K, 81% went to Republicans
Holiday Inns donated $38K, 71% went to Republicans