Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Obama then, Obama now

Will the real Obama please stand up? Is it the guy on the campaign trail without the teleprompter, or the one who spoke to us last night looking at the words on a giant TV screen (who is the guy at the keyboard behind the screen telling him what to say)? On the campaign trail, he promised to spike our energy costs, promised to destroy Ohio's coal industry by making "retrofitting" so expensive no one would stay in the business. Then last night, he says the "new energy prices" can't be a shock to the consumer. It's called a tax, whether you think it's that or not. Oh yeah!
    “These undisputed, audio-taped remarks, which include comments from Senator Obama like ‘I haven’t been some coal booster’ and ‘if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them’ are extraordinarily misguided.

    “It’s evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state’s voters.

    “Senator Obama has revealed himself to be nothing more than a short-sighted, inexperienced politician willing to say anything to get a vote. But today, the nation’s coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to ‘bankrupt’ our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.

    “In addition to providing an affordable, reliable source of low-cost electricity, domestic coal holds the key to our nation’s long-term energy security - a goal that cannot be overlooked during this time of international instability and economic uncertainty.

    “Few policy areas are more important to our economic future than energy issues. As voters head to the polls tomorrow, it is essential they remember that access to reliable, affordable, domestic energy supplies is essential to economic growth and stability.” Mike Carey
Is the real Obama the guy who claimed to be a Christian on the campaign trail, and is now going to punish those who make the majority of charitable contributions in this country? Liberals outnumber Conservatives, but they are pikers at the collection plate. Look at Biden's record. Look at Obama's before he decided to run for President and one of his savvy aides noticed he was a cheapskate.


Biden's charitable donations by % of income. Of course, they didn't mind accepting money from AIG for their campaigns.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, attempts to reduce charitable donations would seem to go along with O's plan for a socialist country -- anything to make the helpless dependent on government instead of family and friends and religious organizations. Of course, as Norma pointed out, this won't affect Democrats too much, since it's well-known that they always depend on conservatives to support charities (why else would their charitable contribution #'s always be so much lower? If you have another reason for them being consistently less charitable with their own funds & property, please enlighten.)

As an interesting side note: if Democrats donated as much blood as Republicans did, the nat'l blood supply would increase by 45%. Having just typed that, now I'm wondering if they're going to start charging people to donate blood?

Norma said...

This is just one more tax on religion and on conservatives and on the "rich," those households that itemize deductions. The very Congress that writes the tax code now calls deducations "loopholes."

I heard that Christopher Dodd's wife worked for AIG off shore. Wonder which tax loophole that comes under.

Norma said...

Kelli--I see you work for a library (couldn't figure out your comment requirements). Is it safe for you to show your face on a conservative site? Jobs are hard to get these days.

Anonymous said...

I did my taxes for calendar year 2008 a short time ago. I use TurboTax as my firm pays for it (but I get taxed on the imputed income) - unlike I SecTreas I do know the difference between a W2 and a 1099 so I pay all of my taxes.

Last year I donated, using TurboTax's calculator $4652 to charities, with some going to my local library, some going to the library where I worked and the rest to the MS Society, The Leukemia&Lymphoma Society, Humane Society of my county, and another local animal shelter where I got my cat. Of course there was a donation to my church (53 actaully 1 a week and an annual campaign). Another ~100 to 200 went to small contributions to kids collecting for things like a picnic for the local association for retarted citizens (ARC) or a few bucks to the K of C for food at the local homeless shelter and a few bucks for the Salvation Army annual thanksgiving dinner for the poor thing, and a few bucks in the Fireman's boot at the red light for a burn camp for kids.

I have started to place a sticker on solicitations from very worthy organizations to whom I would like to donate, but the way my retirement savings have shrunk 48% and the taxes I am facing in the next few yers, will not permit me.

It reads:
I am sorry but I have stopped giving to private charities. President Obama will be sharing the wealth, perhaps you can look to the federal government for funding. Please remove me from your mailing list to save postage.

I don't have any more to spare. I am sure I won'g give as much this year either in cash or in tangible property (I donate most of the books I buy to the library as soon as I am done with them, I had over $800 of book donations at 6.50 per good condition hardback as the tax program allows. I am just not buying the books to donate. I usually buy best sellers with holds because I don't want to wait for them at the library - 2 birds one stone sort of thing when I donate it after I read it so someone who has it on reserve can get it.

I don't think I will give to MS, or Leukemia - not that I don't want to but I don't know how much more of my income I will have to save to catch back up with my retirement goals when this nightmare ends. I will volunteer more time to the animal shelters than I will give cash. Time I have cash I may not.

I'll probably leave the window rolled up or toss some change in when the fireman holds out his boot, and the K of C homeless pantry won't get much if anything this year.

I want to give, but I have to put myself, my family, and saving for my retirement first.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Norma,

I don't know if it's safe to show my face or not; I do know that I haven't -- and won't -- tell the people I work with about my webpage.

The really funny part is that libraries always portray themselves as "wanting to get all information out to all people", yet they have successfully cowed their conservative employees into keeping silent for fear of reprisal.

(I'll have to figure out how people can leave a message thing at my site.)

Norma said...

Kelli--our profession is more liberal than the ACLU, than Hollywood, than Obama. That's what many people don't realize when their suggestions for purchase are denied, when there may be 10 copies of a liberal title on the shelves. It's the #1 way to ban a book--just don't buy it.