Some Untenable Positions

Receipts coming into the Federal government slipped eighteen percent while expenditures are expanding in an unprecedented way. This is not the recipe for national prosperity but the path to endless deficit, devalued US currency, and possibly hyperinflation. The CARS program (aka Cash for Clunkers) was supposed to be paid for through November with a billion dollar appropriation but ran out of money in one week. Now, two billion additional dollars may be squandered to continue the program as we are paying ourselves for vehicles in the cases of Chrysler and GM which the taxpayer has already bought and paid for with the bailout. This CARS scheme is largely a sop to our union masters in the UAW. Other car companies are foreign-owned, so we are sending subsidies abroad when a clunker owner selects a fuel-efficient Toyota, Honda, or Hyundai to replace the heap being traded. Finally, if the automobile is being traded in because it is no longer functional or the owner intended to trade-up for a new car, we are giving away tax-confiscated dollars for a transaction that was going to happen anyway (although I will concede that the choice of new ride might change and a new instead of used or more fuel-efficient automobile may be sold). All in all, the CARS scheme offers little benefit to taxpayers. This is one example of Obama's vast new spending which the Democrats who control Congress are rubber stamping. Revenue flowing into Federal coffers was down by the largest percentage since 1940 and down for only the second time since 1932, yet spending is soaring. Money pouring out while tax revenue is trickling in is unsustainable. We were warned this weekend on the Sunday policy wonk shows by administration economic gurus that the President's no new tax pledge for under quarter a million dollar earners may have to go out the window in spite of brisk denials later by Presidential mouthpiece Robert Gibbs. Raising taxes in recession will only make the situation worse. The gang running the country now can not talk or shoot straight.