« February 2010 | WILLisms.com | April 2010 »

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 769 -- Tax Freedom Day.

Americans Already Spend More On Taxes Than Food, Clothing, & Shelter Combined, Before Obamacare-

Tax Freedom Day in America in April 9 this year, but if you add in federal deficits (which eventually have to be paid back) it is much later, into May:

The problem I have always had with this Tax Freedom Day is that it fluctuates with recessions and booms. In recessions, even if tax burdens are basically flat, the Tax Freedom Day is much earlier, because fewer people are employed, and those who are employed are making less and are therefore paying lower levels of taxes.

I like including the full picture, too. Taking on additional debt? Include it. Or, perhaps, project it out into the future.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Who Will Cut Your Taxes? Not Obama.

Posted by Will Franklin · 31 March 2010 10:56 AM · Comments (149)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 768 -- Who Will Cut Your Taxes?

Republicans Are For Lower Taxes, Democrats For Higher Taxes-

In recent years, Democrats have often scored better than Republicans in surveys asking people which party is more likely to cut taxes. There was even some widely-publicized exit polling in 2008 showing that more people believed Obama would cut their taxes than McCain.

How did that ever happen? The Republican Party may have lost its way on spending and pork and even ethics, leading to big losses in 2006 and 2008, but since when has the Republican Party wavered on taxes?

That tide is swinging back strongly in the other direction:

How would anyone ever give Democrats credit on who will lower your taxes? They are the tax hike party.

I guess some people fall for the "if you're not rich, you'll not see a tax hike" charade. A lot of middle income/asset folks are learning for the first time that they are "rich." Over the next couple of years, many more tens of millions of people will discover they are "rich" and therefore required to pay a lot more in taxes.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Texas Media Are Liberal & Biased.

Posted by Will Franklin · 30 March 2010 09:45 AM · Comments (605)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 767 -- Texas Media Are Liberal & Biased.

The Texas Press Corps Should Be Ashamed Of Its Blatantly Slanted Coverage In Favor Of Liberal Trial Lawyer & Former Democratic Party Chair Bill White-

Since winning the primary fairly easily against Farouk "is on fire" Shami, Bill White-- the former Clinton administration official who won't release his tax returns-- has been receiving glowing press coverage from the Texas press corps. 4 of 5 stories mentioning Bill White are positive:

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White than for incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry.

For the week ending Sunday, March 28, 2010, 79.5% of the media mentions for White were positive, and only 20.5% were negative.

For Perry, during the same time frame, the coverage was far more mixed: 45.6% of the media mentions were positive, and 54.4% were negative.

If you want to see all 20% of the negative mentions of Bill White, they're all on this video about how he failed to report income to the Texas Ethics Commission:

Bill White is facing serious ethics violations and he is far too liberal for Texas, and yet he gets overwhelmingly positive coverage from the liberal Texas press corps. They won't press him on his support for Obamacare. They won't ask him about how he left Houston in a debt-ridden fiscal mess. They won't press him on his statement that cap and trade doesn't go far enough. They're giving Bill White a free ride.

Yeah, but they are objective professionals. :rolleyes:

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Social Security, Negatory.

Posted by Will Franklin · 29 March 2010 10:07 AM · Comments (2)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 766 -- Social Security, Negatory.

Social Security Already Paying More Than It Brings In-

In 2005, we were told "there is no crisis" in Social Security. It would be fine. Any problems were far away.

Five years later, Social Security is already paying out more than it brings in, well ahead of schedule. In 2005, that projected date was typically 2017. Yeah. We're in trouble.

The New York Times, of all publications, is illuminating the problems with Social Security:

Projected-

New projections-

Although Social Security is often said to have a “trust fund,” the term really serves as an accounting device, to track the pay-as-you-go program’s revenue and outlays over time. Its so-called balance is, in fact, a history of its vast cash flows: the sum of all of its revenue in the past, minus all of its outlays. The balance is currently about $2.5 trillion because after the early 1980s the program had surplus revenue, year after year.

The thing about that 2.5 trillion is that it is mythical. It hasn't been invested. It hasn't been socked away. It's been spent, which has masked trillions worth of government spending beyond our means over the years.

One year of Obama has exacerbated our nation's fiscal crisis, and four years of this will make it even more difficult for our nation to recover, even if we do find the next Ronald Reagan.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: America's Fastest Growing Cities.

Posted by Will Franklin · 26 March 2010 01:30 PM · Comments (2)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 765 -- America's Fastest Growing Cities.

Red Counties, Mostly-

The Texas Tribune notes that 7 of the top 30 fastest growing counties in America are in Texas:

Nearly all of these are Republican counties, in Republican states. Imagine that.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Unions.

Posted by Will Franklin · 25 March 2010 10:32 AM · Comments (1)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 764 -- Unions.

America's Future-

Unions wield far too much power in government, and they drive up labor costs for government employees:

Unionized public sector workers have much higher average wages and benefits than nonunionized public sector workers. Bureau of Labor Statistics data in Table 2 show that union members have a 31-percent advantage in wages and a 68-percent advantage in benefits.

Unionized government employees cause labor costs to rise beyond market levels, they cause greater inefficiencies, and they lead to a self-perpetuating system of growth in government.

Some states are in a better position than others:

Previous Trivia Tidbit: American Decline.

Posted by Will Franklin · 24 March 2010 10:51 AM · Comments (0)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 763 -- Declinism.

America's Future-

There are a lot of reasons to believe in American declinism, especially on a week when Obamacare passed and we look like we're set on a course for socialism despite what happens in the next two elections.

America can still turn back Obamacare, and we have some other things working for us:

Of course the percentage of childless women is rising here as elsewhere, but compared to other advanced countries, America still boasts the highest fertility rate: 50 percent higher than Russia, Germany or Japan, and well above that of China, Italy, Singapore, Korea and virtually all of eastern Europe.

As a result, while the U.S. population is growing, Europe and Japan are seeing their populations stagnate -- and are seemingly destined to eventually decline. Russia's population could be less than a third of the U.S. by 2050, driven down by low birth and high mortality rates.

....

Even more remarkably, America will expand its population in the midst of a global demographic slowdown. Global population growth rates of 2 percent in the 1960s have dropped to less than half that rate today, and this downward trend is likely to continue -- falling to less than 0.8 percent by 2025 -- largely due to an unanticipated drop in birthrates in developing countries such as Mexico and Iran. These declines are in part the result of increased urbanization, the education of women and higher property prices. The world's population, according to some estimates, could peak as early as 2050 and begin to fall by the end of the century.

....

Within the next four decades, most of the developed countries in both Europe and East Asia will become veritable old-age homes: a third or more of their populations will be older than 65, compared with only a fifth in the U.S. By 2050, roughly 30 percent of China's population will be older than 60, according to the United Nations.

Of course, a lot of these are just predictions and projections, and radical pieces of legislation like Obamacare could change our society and put us on a more European course of declinism, but assuming we can turn back the government takeover of the economy, we will continue our 20th Century American exceptionalism deep into the 21st Century and beyond.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Government Health Care.

Posted by Will Franklin · 23 March 2010 10:15 AM · Comments (9)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 762 -- Medicare's Runaway Growth.

Government Already Runs Too Much Of Our Health Care System-

So, yeah... this Obamacare thing. Not good.

Medicare, even before Obamacare gets added to America's public burden, is already in serious trouble:

Throughout the time period examined, the portion of Medicare that is funded by our tax dollars is slated to remain roughly constant at 40%. As a percentage of GDP, these general revenue transfers are projected to increase from 1.3% in 2010 to 3.6% in 2050. In addition, growing deficits in the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will need to be proactively addressed by new legislation to avoid a future interruption of service. Medicare funding must be cut; these cuts must be deliberate, not due to a legislative loophole.

We have too much government in our health care system already, not too little. Medicare's fiscal mismanagement and ever-expanding debt bubble offers a glimpse into Obamacare's future.

Our country will look very different in a generation, and it won't look pretty.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Where Are Jobs Being Created.

Posted by Will Franklin · 22 March 2010 01:07 PM · Comments (10)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 761 -- Ten Year Job Growth, Or Lack Thereof.

Ideas Matter-

Much has been made about America's lack of net job growth over the past decade. Some places have added jobs, though. Others, not so much:

The first decade of this century was a dud for job creation nationwide. With a weak recovery from the 2001 recession followed by the Great Recession, the nation as a whole gained almost no jobs during the decade (actually, there was a 0.3 percent increase). That made the aughts the first decade since the Great Depression without any substantial job growth.

But as with so many national statistics, this national average hides enormous regional variation. And since, for most people, job markets are regional, this regional variation really matters for working people. The map below shows what happened to employment in each of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas from the end of 1999 to the end of 2009.

Ideas matter.

There is no reason cities like Cleveland can't turn it around. They just need to throw off the big government, big union dogmas that are dragging them down:

When cities like Cleveland and Detroit are doing well again, it will absolutely benefit cities that currently seem to be benefiting from their decline. Houston, Dallas, Austin, and other red state cities are eventually going to be bled dry by the failure of cities in the Midwest, California, and Northeast. There is no doubt that under Obama and the Democrats, successful cities and states-- conservative, for the most part-- will have to subsidize the failure in those left-leaning places. It doesn't have to be that way. States competing is a good thing. Right now, our national policy seems to be to eliminate competition, subsidize failure, and redistribute wealth. That can't last in any society, even one as strong as American society.

We won't fully pull ourselves out of this recession until we get that Washington-centric economic tinkering problem resolved.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Unpopular Obama.

Posted by Will Franklin · 19 March 2010 11:34 AM · Comments (15)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 760 -- Obama's Unpopularity.

Americans Just Don't Want Government Taking Over Health Care-

A year ago, if you would have gone on television and predicted that Barack Obama would be incredibly unpopular in one year, you'd probably be mocked, ridiculed, hectored, derided, marginalized, laughed at, and otherwise scoffed at by others.

Obama was supposed to be transcendent. He was supposed to be a different kind of politician.

He turned out to be just as far left, just as "business as usual," and just as indecisive and poor at leadership as we said he would be.

Barack Obama has increased America's national debt by $2 trillion in just 421 days in office. He is pressing on with an increasingly unpopular government health care takeover.

No wonder he is so unpopular:

Melt those phone lines, folks. We can still stop Obamacare if enough members of Congress understand just how mad people on both sides of the aisle are about this bill.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Conservative Ideas Work.

Posted by Will Franklin · 18 March 2010 02:42 PM · Comments (8)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 759 -- Conservative Ideas Produce Healthy Economic Growth.

Texas Leads-

It is no secret that the United States is in one of its toughest economic situations in quite some time, and the recession has taken its toll on every corner of the country. That being said, there are places that entered the recession earlier, are feeling the pain much deeper, and will probably not leave the recession until much later. There are other places where the recession has been much later to come, far more shallow, and will end sooner than elsewhere.

Look at which cities are performing relatively well, according to the Brookings Institution, not exactly a right-wing, red state-loving kind of organization:

In terms of overall performance, every Texas city, other than Bill White's Houston, are among the strongest 20 in the nation.

Texas has the top three metro areas for jobs: San Antonio, Austin, and McAllen. Liberal Democrat Bill White's Houston is the only Texas city that is not in the top 20 in the country.

This stuff doesn't just happen by accident. California is a beautiful place, well-situated for global commerce, with abundant natural resources and fantastic weather. It is also dysfunctional fiscally and economically. California offers us a glimpse of things to come for America if we continue down the path the Obama administration is taking us.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Biggest GOP Lead Yet.

Posted by Will Franklin · 17 March 2010 11:17 AM · Comments (742)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 758 -- Biggest GOP Lead Yet.

Generic Congressional Ballot-

Rasmussen:

Throughout the fall and winter of 2008, support for Democratic congressional candidates ranged from 42% to 47%. Republican support ranged from 37% to 41%. When President Obama was inaugurated, Democrats enjoyed a seven-point advantage on the Generic Ballot.

The two parties were very close on the Generic Ballot throughout the spring of 2009, but in late June – around the same time Democrats began their campaign for health care reform -- Republicans pulled ahead for good.

Let's have a good year in 2010, shall we?

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Government Dependency.

Posted by Will Franklin · 16 March 2010 02:02 PM · Comments (1)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 757 -- Government Dependency.

Rise Of The Nanny State-

Dependency on the government is on the rise:

* The Index now stands at 240, based on data through the calendar year ending in 2008. That is up three points from its value of 237 in 2007;
* The Index has grown by 31.2 percent since 2001, when it stood at 183. In other words, nearly a third of its increase since 1980 (the base year of the Index when it stood at 100) has occurred in just the last eight years; and
* This rapid growth of the Index has been accompanied by a rapid increase in the percentage of tax filers who pay no taxes. That percentage jumped from 21.3 percent in 1980 to 34 percent in 2008. In 1980, 20 million tax filers paid no taxes; in 2008, 48 million paid nothing.

And here come the Baby Boomers.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Climbing The Debt Mountain Under Obama.

Posted by Will Franklin · 15 March 2010 11:22 AM · Comments (2)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 756 -- Obama's New Budget.

Loads Of Debt-

Obama's new proposed debt ups the ante in a huge way:

President Obama has harshly criticized the $3.3 trillion in budget deficits accumulated in eight years under President Bush. Yet President Obama is now proposing to borrow $7.6 trillion during what would be his own eight years in the White House. In fact, President Obama would add more to the national debt than every other President in American history from George Washington through George W. Bush combined.

Obama. One-termer. Drag on Democrats in 2010. Hope. Change. Failure. Now we just need good candidates to rise to the challenge and return America to our limited government roots that propelled our nation to exceptional greatness in the first place.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: The Great Recession.

Posted by Will Franklin · 12 March 2010 05:08 PM · Comments (2)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 756 -- The Great Recession

Unemployment-

Some in America are faring far worse than others under Obama, and ironically, many of his most ardent and loyal supporters are the hardest hit:

In last year's election, 96 percent of black Americans voted for President Obama. Since then, they have suffered immeasurable harm, harm that could have been eased by these and other conservative policies.

Republicans have a great case to make. Can or will we make it properly?

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Where The Green Homes Are.

Posted by Will Franklin · 10 March 2010 10:53 AM · Comments (73)

Trivia Tidbit of the Day: Part 755 -- Texas Number One For Green Homes.

Consumer-Driven Environmentally-Friendly Beats Regulation-Driven Environmentally-Friendly-

Texas is the number one wind energy producing state in the nation. Texas is one of the few states that has successfully limited the growth of carbon dioxide emissions in the past decade. Texas is also number one in the nation for green homes:

Texas did not achieve these things through an aggressive California-style (or Washington, D.C.-style) regulatory scheme or draconian cap & trade style mandates.

Economic vitality and growth, plus a relatively free market and fair regulatory system, led Texas to environmental success, even as the traditional oil and gas industry continues to thrive and produce energy and chemicals for the rest of the country. Texas produces a fifth of the nation's crude oil, a fourth of the nation's fuel supply, a fourth of the nation's natural gas, roughly 60% of the nation's chemicals.

Since 2000, the population in Texas has grown by nearly 3.5 million people. Yet, statewide ozone levels have fallen 22% and nitrogen oxide levels have fallen 46%.

Not surprisingly, all four major Texas metropolitan areas are among the top ten cities where the recession is easing up already.

The Democrats, even many Congressional Democrats from Texas, want to change all that. Whether it's cap and trade, or EPA rulings that amount to the same impact as cap and trade, Obama's Washington is aiming for Texas. The Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Attorney General, and Governor are fighting back against the EPA in court, as are Alabama and Virginia.

We don't need a one-size-fits-all environmental scheme in this country. We also don't need a Governor in Texas such as liberal Democrat Bill White who disagrees with Texas' EPA court challenge and agrees with Obama and the Democrats in Washington, D.C. on environmental over-regulation.

Previous Trivia Tidbit: Taxpayers' Friends.

Posted by Will Franklin · 9 March 2010 10:27 AM · Comments (4)

Thanks.

To everyone who reads WILLisms.com who helped Governor Perry win last night, thanks. Bigtime thanks.

Regularly scheduled blogging will resume next Tuesday.

Posted by Will Franklin · 3 March 2010 12:09 PM · Comments (261)

Texans: Vote Perry Tuesday, March 2.

Get out and vote for Governor Rick Perry on March 2.

Do it for America.

Posted by Will Franklin · 1 March 2010 06:03 PM · Comments (1)