Ever since President Obama (then candidate Obama) made his infamous statement to Samuel (Joe The Plumber) Wurzelbacher about spreading the wealth, while on the campaign trail, I have been deeply concerned as to what exactly he meant by that.
Well, apparently, we are starting to see some of this come to fruition…and recently, President Obama appointed a Pay Czar named Kenneth Feinberg, who will have authority over compensation for senior executives… Wait! A what? What is a Czar? Well, let’s see, according to Dictionary.com, a Czar is a noun, meaning one of these four things…
1. An emperor or king. 2. The former emperor of Russia. 3. An autocratic ruler or leader. 4. Any person exercising great authority or power in a particular field: a czar of industry.That makes twenty-some odd Czars appointed thus far by President Obama. Oh yes, by the way, has each one of these so-called Czars been approved by The Senate Mr. President? After all, there is this document called The United States Constitution (Article 2, Section 2 ), that happens to mention alittle something about this…
– He (The President) shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the “Advice“ and “Consent“ of “the Senate“, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and “all other Officers“ of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but “the Congress may“ by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, “as they think proper“, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. – Regulating Salaries… After some thought, I realized that regulating salaries may not be such a bad idea, however, I think it would be a great idea if we started by regulating the salaries of all members of the federal government that are paid via tax payer dollars; after all, aren’t we (and our tax dollars) paying them? In fact, don’t they work for us? Therefore, as a member of The (American Citizens) Board of Directors, I think that we should receive a detailed report on all federal employee salaries, and by consensus of The (American Citizens) Board of Directors, we can come up with a pay scale that we (the people) feel would be conducive to a prudent government; and adjust accordingly for the fiscally out of control federal government that we currently have today. Spreading The Wealth… My other thought was in regards to this doctrine of spreading the wealth; after some thought, I said to myself, this may not be a bad idea after all. However, I think that we should start by taking every person that has lost their job, over the last year, and give them every penny that they have been forced to pay into the unemployment fund, throughout their “entire” working lives. Then, after that, I think it would be a great idea to give every person that has been forced to pay federal income tax, at least six months of tax rebates; then beyond that, I think that complete tax holidays, in three to six month increments, would also be a fantastic idea, and may even help stimulate the economy. Interestingly enough, the above is absolute evidence that by challenging yourself, and with a little introspection, you can start to (philosophically) see eye to eye with the incumbent administration. Mark
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Friday, June 12th, 2009 (url)
My goal with the above post was basically to demonstrate the double standard that has become so apparent with certain members of our federal government. Therefore, if they want to preach such things to us, I am calling on them to start leading by example.
Friday, June 12th, 2009 (url)
I heard a great idea that would suggest that we adjust the salaries of The federal government in direct proposition to the amount of national debt that they have accumulated for our country. That would certainly be one way to reign in their spending, and stop treating the tax payers money as if it is Monopoly money.
Not only as a nation, but our personal prosperity is also in the balance when there are national debts of this size. For example, that so-called Stimulus Bill was 787 Billion dollars…with interest, it is estimated to be 1.14 trillion dollars. Rough estimates say, if you were to divide that by The total American households, then each household would be in for roughly $30,000.
And that is only one bill, and part of the national (and proposed) debt that our federal government has, and is attempting to lay on us, and our future generations.
Therefore, why should they be rewarded for perpetual failure when so many of us are losing everything, part and partial to their failed monetary policies.
Friday, June 12th, 2009 (url)
Amen…that sounds like it would work..we pay their salaries, why shouldn’t we know how much it is? and why shouldn’t the thought of taking their salaries down a notch cross their minds, as the amount people who are being taxed from their income definitely puts a strain on people and their well being. It certainly is frustrating that we can realize what would help, and what could be tried, but our leaders have no clue..or do they? hmm
Leigh
Friday, June 12th, 2009 (url)
Hi Leigh,
Yes, it is more then frustrating at times…
I think that a few fiscally responsible people in the federal government get it, but apparently not enough to make the necessary changes.
And if Barack Obama wants to spread the wealth, then start giving it back to it’s rightful owners; that is the tax payers that have paid these large federal tax burdens (rich and poor) over the years.
There is a bigger problem still….beyond destroying our economy worse, with this spending, and burying future generations in debt, they are also setting us up for a national security problem…
Consider this… when we no longer have economic leverage, then we have lost some major bargaining power; inversely, do our leaders now have to pander, and make concessions to China and other countries every time “they” decide that “we” need more money? The federal government needs to start cutting back “big time” and “now”; otherwise, as a nation, we could be in very serious trouble.
Do you know, back in February, Congress voted to give themselves $93,000 more in petty cash? And that is on top of the 1.5 million that they already get. This is while many of us (myself included) are out of work, and thousands were loosing their homes, businesses are folding like lawn chairs. etc. etc.
And yes, they should be bringing federal spending “way” down, at every level. Instead of Barack Obama appointing more federal employees, he should be cutting positions, as other companies are forced to do.
I wonder how he plans on paying all these so-called Czars, when the tax revenues are dropping less and less each day.
Do you think they are a bit out of touch?
Friday, August 14th, 2009 (url)
All of the below firms have received money from the (tax-payers) government, which came from the so-called (TARP) Troubled Asset Relief Program.
American International Group Inc.
Bank of America Corp.
Citigroup Inc.
General Motors Corp.
GMAC LLC
Chrysler LLC
Chrysler Financial
Friday, August 14th, 2009 (url)
I should also add, President Obama is now up to approximately 40 czars. It is unbelievable, and inconceivable that Congress is allowing that to continue!