Thursday, October 14, 2004


There's no two ways about it: this election is going to be ugly. By ugly I don't mean close and hard fought, I mean unscrupulous and disgraceful. The Democrats have already sowed the the seeds of voter disenfranchisement. Teams of lawyers are in place around the country that will spring into action in all the battleground states that show a margin in Bush's favor. I do not think we will know who the president is going to be the day after the election, and possibly for a long time after that.

For a group of people who seem to be obsessed with what the rest of the world thinks of us, you'd expect behavior that wouldn't create one of the biggest national embarrassments in history. What will it tell the rest of the world when we can't seem to hold an election without getting our courts involved? Last time was bad enough, but these clowns don't see that as their fault. To them, Bush stole the last election, and therefore anything they do this time around is fair game, including illegal activity.

If Bush manages to win despite widespread media bias and the DNC's scare tactics, I will be totally convinced that The Democratic party is doomed. If you can't win with such a stacked deck, you are hopelessly out of touch with the electorate.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

OK, debate #3 is tonight. I actually think the pressure is on Kerry in this one. The low expectations set by the Democrats in terms of Bush's performance make it so that all the president has to do is hold his own and it will look like he won. After all, shouldn't John Kerry, the more intelligent, sophisticated, and well trained debater be able to destroy this simpleton president? I also think that John Kerry's voting record is going to really hang over him tonight. He got a pass in the first debate, but in the second Bush brought up several issues about Kerry's record that Kerry had no answer for. Tonight, Bush will come at him with everything.

Still, I think this format favors Kerry, so my prediction is a draw. The liberal press will spin it as victory # 3 for Kerry, while conservatives will think Bush won. The polls will return to about where they were before the conventions, with Bush with a slight lead going into the election. Don't think so? Well, what's your prediction?
Hopefully this will help convince the government to take our porous southern border a bit more seriously.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

The Folly of Kerry's tax plan

We've heard the presidential candidates go back and fourth over their respective tax plans. I have been paying close attention to this topic since I own a small business, and I pay a larger percentage of my income back to the government than otherwise employed citizens do. I wanted to point out a few simple facts about John Kerry's plan that have not really gotten enough attention up until now.

First of all, John Kerry is going to raise taxes. He doesn't like to say it like that but the fact is that the total amount of taxes paid under John Kerry's plan will be far greater than those paid under Bush's plan, assuming identical GDP, etc. Kerry likes to talk about how he's going to cut taxes, but all he's really doing is shifting the tax burden onto people (and small businesses; more on that later) making over $200,000 a year. Now, many people believe that "the rich" deserve to pay more taxes. These people get their wish under Kerry's plan, because not only is Kerry going to raise taxes on "the rich," he's also going to raise spending! That's right, the guy who is riding the President over the budget deficit is promising to spend MORE money than the president currently is. This means that "the rich" not only have to make up for the tax cut on those making under $200K a year, they have to also shoulder the burden for Kerry's increased spending and his deficit reduction plan. In short, "the rich" are going to get clobbered by the John Kerry plan.

Now about those rich folks. John Kerry thinks that everyone who makes over $200,000 a year is rich, and needs to take on a much larger tax burden. That's easy for a guy who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and only pays 12% of that in taxes. (For the record, the Bush family paid 28% and I my family paid about 38%.) What a lot of people aren't realizing, despite the president mentioning this in the debates, is that 900,000 small businesses in this country, including mine, pay taxes as if they were individuals. In other words, if you own a business that does $500,000 worth of business in one year, the government taxes you as if you are an individual with a $500,000 salary. This probably sounds fine to the class warfare folks, but if you look a little deeper you see the rub. Just because your business does takes in $500K in revenue does not mean that your income is even close to that. It would be very easy to own a convenience store that does $200,000 in business, and only take home $40K a year for yourself. To the government, you are wealthy and are taxed as such. To John Kerry, not only are you wealthy, but you need to pay even more of your "fair share." Aside from the obvious unfairness and lack of logic in this plan, the Kerry folks are also forgetting another major issue: Small business accounts for about 75% of the total jobs in this country, and between 60% and 80% of the new jobs in this country. So, what Kerry is effectively doing is putting the majority of the nation's tax burden onto the people who are providing most of the jobs in the country. This will torpedo that nation's job creating engine for sure. My wife and I have been discussing me hiring an assistant soon because I've been so busy. Guess what? Under Kerry's plan, the extra taxes I would have to pay roughly equal the total cost of a new employee. So, the government would be getting extra money from me, but there would be one fewer job out there. It does not take an economist to see the folly of this ridiculous plan.

In closing, I would encourage everyone to look into both candidates' plans in detail, and to really think about the impact it would have on them, as well as their employers and the industries they work in. If you're among those who think it's about time "the rich" pay their fair share, be careful what you wish for. They may be paying the their fair share with the money that used to be your salary.