California Libertarian Alliance

“The idea that President Barack Obama is a socialist is popular among many conservatives; all of us have seen automobiles sporting the bumper sticker reading, Don’t Blame Me; I Didn’t Vote For the Socialist — obviously referring to Obama. Not so fast, says, of all people, Ron Paul (R-Texas). ”

“Addressing the Southern Republican Leadership Conference during its third day, Dr. Paul told the audience, “The question has been raised about whether or not our president is a socialist….  I am sure there are some people here who believe it. But in the technical sense, in the economic definition of a what a socialist is, no, he’s not a socialist.”

Dr. Paul continued, “He’s a corporatist. And unfortunately we have corporatists inside the Republican party and that means you take care of corporations and corporations take over and run the country.”

Steven Yates takes an in-depth look at Corporatism and who loves it @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/commentary-mainmenu-43/3303-ron-paul-obama-is-another-corporatist-not-a-socialist

“For decades, the “Tobin Tax” — a proposed global tax on currency transactions — has remained far from economic mainstream thought, being primarily the hobby horse of left-wing academics and advocates of world government, such as the World Federalists, or communist dictators, such as Fidel Castro. The past few years, however, have seen a host of Tobin-type proposals coming from more establishment sources. ”

“In the past few months, it has been boosted by liberal-left economists Paul Krugman and Robert Kuttner, as well as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Council, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou  (who is also president of the Socialist International) and the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Adair Turner.”

“Advocates of the Tobin tax, named for the late Yale economics professor and Nobel laureate James Tobin, suggest a tax on foreign currency transactions would engender international currency stability by discouraging speculation. Some politicians, like Gordon Brown and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, have pushed for Tobin taxes at the national level. However, as the British journal The Economist noted,  “Unless a Tobin tax were implemented worldwide, trading would move out of any country that enforced it.” ”

William F. Jasper exposes the push for a new  tax on financial transactions @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/2901-qtobin-taxq-and-un-global-taxman-making-a-comeback

“If President Obama is serious about controlling spending, he can’t exempt the Pentagon. In announcing a three-year spending freeze, he exempted all security-related funding. This exemption applies to the budgets of the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, foreign aid and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Because the budgets of these agencies, particularly that of the Pentagon, are responsible for a large and increasing share of the discretionary portion of the federal budget, the president’s spending freeze will have a marginal effect. ”

“Rather than exclude these accounts from the freeze for fear of appearing weak on defense, the president should mandate that the baseline defense budget also be frozen.”

Lawrence Korb makes the case for a military spending freeze @ http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/27/spending-defense-freeze/

“Last year I tried to compile a list of all the taxes President Obama and his allies were maneuvering to impose. But each week brings new ideas. Just recently we’ve heard about a bank tax, applying the Medicare tax to capital gains and other “passive” or “unearned” income, raising the Medicare tax rate, raising or broadening the capital gains tax, an income tax “surtax,” a tax on tanning – and of course the tax on private health insurance to pay for the expansion of government insurance has moved to the top of the list…”

David Boaz at The Cato Institute looks at new taxes being considered  @ http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/01/18/democrats-voracious-search-for-new-tax-revenue/

“The temporary increase in the national debt ceiling approved this month — combined with the prospect of a huge trillion-dollar-plus increase early next year — has once again prompted criticisms of President Obama for runaway spending and record deficits.”

“All this borrowing is only necessary, we are told, because Obama ran up $1.4 trillion of debt in his first year.”

“It’s true that the White House is pushing big spending items, not least of which is his multitrillion-dollar scheme for government-run health care. But many critics, either out of ignorance or malice, are blaming Obama for deficits that are not his fault.”

Daniel J. Mitchell of The Cato Institute aportions the blame @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11094

Some Republicans, for instance, complain that Obama tripled the budget deficit in his first year. This assertion is understandable,

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will know within a month whether a $1.1 billion drop in revenue collections is part of a growing budget shortfall or an isolated event, his budget spokesman said.

Revenue in the three months ended Sept. 30 was 5.3 percent less than assumed in the $85 billion annual budget, state controller John Chiang reported yesterday. Income tax receipts led the gap, as unemployment reached 12.2 percent in August.

Full report from Bloomberg @ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahpLpu9sKLyY

“The $700 billion bailout will ultimately cost taxpayers billions of dollars, but the government stands to lose much more than the money it’s pouring into companies. ”

“Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for Treasury’s financial sector rescue, wrote in a report released Wednesday that the bailout has several hidden costs.”

“One is the hard cost of borrowing money to fund the rescues of banks and other companies. The others are, according to Barofsky, less tangible but no less important: The danger that comes with rewarding companies that took excessive risk, and the loss of the government’s credibility with taxpayers.”

Full Report from Cable News Network @ http://tinyurl.com/yfe3z6v

The real number of unemployed in the United States is far more than the federal government’s official count and the recovery could be long and tenuous, a Federal Reserve official told the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Area Chamber of Commerce last week in a speech that received some media attention.

“If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking — so-called discouraged workers — and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent,” explained the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Dennis Lockhart.

Full article by Alex Newman @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/sectors-mainmenu-46/1784