The Cynical Economist

How Mitt Romney’s Campaign Put A Damper On Obama’s Big Day

Romney Deputy Press Secretary Ryan Williams was in the audience at the OSU rally, and tweeted a picture of the empty seats — which instantly got picked up by conservative blogs. After Obama’s remarks he was swarmed by local reporters, and after giving them a standard response to the speech, he commented on the empty seats.

OBAMA LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN IN EMPTY ARENA

Barack Obama launched his campaign in unspectacular fashion today at Ohio State University, the largest college in the crucial swing state.  A photo posted to twitter by Mitt Romney’s campaign spokesman Ryan Williams reveals sparse attendance.  The above image, according to Williams, was taken during the President’s first official campaign speech.

MSNBC Host Calls Half-Full Stadium For Obama Rally “Filled Stadium” - video after the jump

MSNBC host Alex Wagner, who once said she would like to get rid of the Second Amendment, claimed that Obama gave a speech in a full stadium in Ohio this past weekend WHILE an image of the not-so-full stadium was displayed on the screen. “We have talked about attendance rates at campaign events. Mitt Romney also had a speech in Detroit at an unfilled stadium. Now this is OSU, a filled stadium. Although it was a capacity 18,300, the president had 14,000 folks out there,” Wagner said.

The awful April jobs report: Is the ‘real’ unemployment rate 11.1%?

Forward

The Obama Promise: Five Million New Green Jobs - That is a post from 2008

• “We’ll create 5 million new, high-wage jobs by investing in the renewable sources of energy that will eliminate the oil we currently import from the Middle East in 10 years, and we’ll create 2 million jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, schools, and bridges.”
• “It is time to protect the jobs we have and to create the jobs of tomorrow by unlocking the drive, and ingenuity, and innovation of the American people. And we should fast-track the loan guarantees we passed for our auto industry and provide more as needed so that they can build the energy-efficient cars America needs to end our dependence on foreign oil.”
• “I won’t pretend this will be easy or come without cost. We’ll have to set priorities as never before, and stick to them. That means pursuing investments in areas such as energy, education, and healthcare that bear directly on our economic future, while deferring other things we can afford to do without.”

Source: Red Green & Blue (http://s.tt/12A0w)

Obama campaign inflates job numbers by 40 percent for pricey electric car - That is the reality in 2012 

President Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager got her facts wrong while she was trying to support the administration’s $193 million subsidy for a luxury automaker.

“Hi, I’m Stephanie Cutter, I’m the deputy campaign manager here at Obama for America, and I wanted to arm you with the facts about the latest attack from ‘Big Oil,’” Cutter said in her May 2 video. “Let’s get the facts out, because it is important that you guys know the truth.”

Cutter’s speech appears to have been aimed at a new attack ad by Americans for Prosperity (AFP) that dinged Obama for sending “half a billion [dollars] to an electric car company that created hundreds of jobs … in Finland.“

That company is Fisker, whose auto-factory in Anaheim, Calif. produces a trickle of $102,000 Karma electric autos. Those autos are quite popular among Hollywood stars and other wealthy Democratic donors. The car made headlines in March when its sports car died on a Connecticut runway during a 65 mile per hour Consumer Reports test

America’s costliest disease

The United States is rushing toward a health and economic catastrophe, with significant repercussions on our global competitiveness and national security. The emerging obesity epidemic has no real parallel with any other health crisis in our history. In the past, we have met the challenges of epidemics and other serious diseases and emerged with new knowledge, new technologies and superior tools to better our nation’s health. We need to take the same approach with obesity, coming up with tested and reasonable programs that both address the problem and help inspire new life-saving and wealth-creating technologies.

Obesity could affect 42% of Americans by 2030

 A new forecast on obesity in America has health experts fearing a dramatic jump in health care costs if nothing is done to bring it under control.

The projection, released Monday, warns that 42% of Americans may end up obese by 2030 (up from 36% in 2010), and 11% could be severely obese, roughly 100 or more pounds over a healthy weight (vs. 6% in 2010).

U.S. health care spending ‘dwarfs’ that of other countries

The United States spends more on health care than 12 other industrialized countries, a new Commonwealth Fund study finds – but that doesn’t mean this country’s care is any better.

The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person for health care services in 2009, the study found, confirming that “health care spending in the U.S. dwarfs that found in any other industrialized country.

Americans Paying More in Taxes than for Food, Clothing, and Shelter

In 2012, Americans will pay approximately $4.041 trillion in taxes, which is $152 billion, or 3.9 percent, more than they will spend on housing, food, and clothing

Millions of illegal immigrants are getting a bigger tax refund than you - THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!

One of the workers, who was interviewed at his home in southern Indiana, admitted his address was used this year to file tax returns by four other undocumented workers who don’t even live there. Those four workers claimed 20 children live inside the one residence and, as a result, the IRS sent the illegal immigrants tax refunds totaling $29,608.

13 Investigates saw only one little girl who lives at that address (a small mobile home). We wondered about the 20 kids claimed as tax deductions?

“They don’t live here,” said the undocumented worker. “The other kids are in their country of origin, which is Mexico.”

High taxes burden working people

This year, Americans had to work from Jan. 1 until today just to earn enough to pay their total annual tax bill. Starting tomorrow, you can start working for yourself.

That we must work 107 days out of the year just to finance government spending is not right. But adding insult to injury is the reckless way government manages our money.

Americans are willing to pay to support vital services like national defense, roads, fire and police protection, education and a safety net for the elderly and the poor. What is intolerable is the hundreds of billions of dollars of our hard-earned money that is wasted on unnecessary programs, duplication, red tape, fraud, abuse and mismanagement. Over the past decade, the federal government has made hundreds of billions of dollars in improper payments…..

The Laffer Curve Shows that Tax Increases Are a Very Bad Idea – even if They Generate More Tax Revenue

The Laffer Curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between tax rates, tax revenue, and taxable income. It is frequently cited by people who want to explain the common-sense notion that punitive tax rates may not generate much additional revenue if people respond in ways that result in less taxable income.

Unfortunately, some people misinterpret the insights of the Laffer Curve. Politicians, for instance, tend to either pretend it doesn’t exist, or they embrace it with excessive zeal and assume all tax cuts “pay for themselves.”

Another problem is that people assume that tax rates should be set at the revenue-maximizing level. I explained back in 2010 that this was wrong. Policy makers should strive to set tax rates at the growth-maximizing level. But since a growth-generating tax is about as common as a unicorn, what this really means is that tax rates should be set to produce enough revenue to finance the growth-maximizing level of government – as illustrated by the Rahn Curve.

 Chart of the Week: The Tax Burden on American Households

Large tax increases are just months away. Jan. 1, 2013, is already being dubbed Taxmaggedon. Seven existing tax policies will end and 18 new taxes from Obamacare will begin, leading to a $494 billion tax increase at the start of next year. Heritage tax expert Curtis Dubay warned about the consequences:

Although these tax increases will not start raising new revenue until next year, they are having a negative impact on the economy today. Families, businesses, and investors need to know how much tax they will pay in the future before making important economic decisions. The uncertainty caused by Taxmageddon means they are stuck in neutral while they wait for President Obama and Congress to act. This is slowing job creation and stopping many of the millions of unemployed Americans from going back to work.

Taxes—Who Really Is Paying Up

Some multimillionaires do pay a lower effective income-tax rate than some middle-income taxpayers; receiving a chunk of your income via long-term capital gains rather than a paycheck is just one reason that happens. But the top 20% of income earners paid 70% of federal taxes in 2007, according to the most recent data available from the Congressional Budget Office.

That group also pulled in 60% of total pretax income, according to the CBO.

Meanwhile, 46% of taxpayers don’t pay any federal income tax, but they often pay a hefty portion of their income to levies at the federal, state and local level.

Those include payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare; state and local sales taxes on groceries, clothing and other purchases; and federal and state excise taxes on things such as gas, cigarettes, alcohol and airline tickets.

Americans Making Over $50,000 a Year Paid 93.3 Percent of All Taxes in 2010

Americans making over $50,000 paid most of the federal taxes that were paid in the U.S. in 2010.

According to statistics compiled from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by the Tax Foundation, those people making above $50,000 had an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent, and carried 93.3 percent of the total tax burden.

In contrast, Americans making less than $50,000 had an effective tax rate of 3.5 percent and their total share of the tax burden was just 6.7 percent.

Americans making more than $250,000 had an effective tax rate of 23.4 percent and their total share of the tax burden was 45.7 percent.

Out of the 143 million tax returns that were filed with the IRS in 2010, 58 million – or 41 percent – of those filers were non-payers.

Special Report: Tax time pushes some Americans to take a hike

Last year, almost 1,800 people, renounced their U.S. citizenship or handing in their Green Cards. That’s a record number since the Internal Revenue Service began publishing a list of those who renounced in 1998. It’s also almost eight times more than the number of citizens who renounced in 2008, and more than the total for 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.

But not everyone’s motivations are as lofty as Superman’s. Many say they parted ways with America for tax reasons.

The United States is one of the only countries to tax its citizens on income earned while they’re living abroad.

Media Misinformation Campaign Succeeds: ‘Most Americans Say Tax System Favors Wealthy’

As procrastinators rush to file their 2011 tax returns by the Tuesday deadline, a new poll shows more than two-thirds of Americans believe the revenue system benefits the wealthy while being unfair to average workers.

As this IRS table clearly shows, people making $200,000 and up most definitely pay a higher federal income tax rate than those making less:

Be sure to watch to the end. Explains in part why we are in such a mess now.

The crooks and liars got legit one way or another…The rest of the American people… well sucks to be us.

It seems, that the majority of our society is already dumbed down way too much to figure out how to stop their reign over us.

Yep, we let all the politicians, crony capitalists, banksters, the “exceptional intellectuals”, and corrupted bureaucrats to control and screw our and our kids lives.

BTW after watching the video just think of who is going to pay for the “mistake” of underestimating the cost of Obamacare with almost a TRILLION DOLLARS.

And who is going to be held accountable for such a HUGE number? For sure not the a$$#@!*s who passed that thing into law…

And since when a project that the government handles cost as much as it was planned?

NEVER!

The CBO would have done a better estimation by multiplying everything by factor of at least  X5

Who had interest of passing that law? The common man? Um hum…

Or are they the same people who had interest of installing the naked scanners at the airports, or got the bank bailouts because they were sure they knew what they were doing BETTING billions of dollars, or start green businesses so they were to get millions in grants, or the politicians that deliberately made us debt slaves by giving to their friends our money?

Or all of the above?

Step by step the elite and their puppets are legitimizing their crimes against the rest of us.

Ehhhhhhhhhh, what do they care….. After them …the deluge…

Obama’s Top Campaign Bundlers Among State Dinner Guests (after the jump there is a list with names and companies)

The list include Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, media mogul Fred Eychaner, Pfizer executive Sally Susman, Stoneyfield Farms president and CEO Gary Hirschberg,  and Microsoft executives Suzi Levine and John Frank.  Several have each raised more than half a million dollars for 2012, according to estimates provided by Obama’s campaign.

Be sure to watch those 3 videos carefully, very carefully, to their end…

THE VOTE PUMP

A GUIDE TO AMERICAN FEDERAL DEBT MADE EASY

LOSING IT ON AIR

From The Tax Foundation

by David S. Logan

In 2009, the top 1 percent of taxpayers—1,379,822 of them—paid more than the bottom 90% combined.  Geographically, this is equivalent to a city the size of San Antonio, TX paying more in income taxes thanevery person living west of the Mississippi.

Likewise, the top 0.1 percent—138,000 taxpayers—paid a greater share than the bottom 75%.  In other words, a city the size of Dayton, OH would have paid more than a country the size of Germany.

Would Dayton San Antonio be agreeable to such a reality?

Doubtful.

Follow David S. Logan on Twitter @Loganomix

Marc Faber to Reuters- You dont need the fed to tell you something is wrong

Ex-labor chief’s 1-day rehire nets $158,000 city pension – Dennis Gannon, former president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, was able to take a long leave from a city job to work for a union and then receive a city pension based on a high union salary. That arrangement is allowed under a state law signed by Gov. Jim Thompson on his last day in office in 1991, according to an investigation by the Tribune and WGN-TV.

The change has enabled a couple dozen labor leaders to become potential millionaires.

What is different in Gannon’s case is that he became eligible for the especially lucrative pension deal only because the city rehired the former Streets and Sanitation Department worker for one day in 1994, before granting him an indefinite leave of absence, according to the investigation. He retired from the city job in 2004 at age 50.

Obama Takes Aim at Tax ‘Targets,’ Fires Blanks - Broad-based reform is not Obama’s style. He sees the size of the pie as finite — and his job as slicer-in-chief.

Pensions, Ponzis and pyramids – The retired are always supported by their children… Ooppsie- Now days there are not enough people (children) working to support their retired parents pension plans…

Has America Lost the Future? Ask a College Grad - “We were told to figure out  what we wanted to do, get good grades in college and we would get great jobs.” LOL LOL LOL

Global economy alarm bells ring – The recession alarm bells were ringing across the globe Thursday, spooking investors and economists alike.

The latest monthly readings released Thursday on manufacturing in the eurozone, the U.K. and China all were weaker than they had been, as was a report on the service sector in Europe.

Ho- ho -ho No one has money ….

Credit card debt on the rise, again - Consumers are racking up credit card debt like it’s 2008.

From the Fed to Europe to Obamanomics, It’s Ugly – It’s not 2008. Not by a long shot. But it’s not a pretty picture either.

GM deal moves electric car development to China — a ‘shakedown’? – General Motors agreed in Shanghai today to develop an electric vehicle platform with longtime Chinese partner SAIC. It effectively moves GM’s future electric vehicle development to China.

Peter Schiff Testimony Before Congress On Jobs Committee – At 4:20 he says how he had to pay a fine for hiring too many people. Look also at 12:30 when he asks Dr Bushey what she thinks it is fair to tax him….You never get a straight answer on that question, but liberals think all your money belong to government…

Over $760,000 Stimulus Funds Go To Interactive Visual Dance – According to Recovery.gov, the website that tracks the money spent under the Recovery Act, The University of North Carolina is receiving a $762,372 grant for it’s ‘Dance.Draw’ project.

IMF: World economy enters ‘dangerous new phase’ – The world economy has entered a “dangerous new phase,” according to the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the international lending organization has sharply downgraded its economic outlook for the United States and Europe through the end of next year.

Stealth Wealth Tax - The stealth wealth tax may be the single-largest tax ever imposed on the American people, yet virtually no one knows about it. What is particularly unconscionable about this tax is that it has been imposed upon the most responsible citizens and the elderly in a most disproportionate way, and the real tax rate on American savers has soared to record levels.

Taxpayers foot the bill for Justice Department’s $16 muffins – Report hits ‘extravagant’ costs

Is the US Department of Labor About To Develop Hit Lists of Individuals To Be Targeted By Unions? - Whether or not the union bosses intend for intimidation, retaliation, or even violence to occur is unknown. However, that the Department of Labor seems to be heading toward making a hit list for union bosses seems abundantly clear.

Warren Buffett’s Tax Story Is Bogus - For years, Warren Buffett has been claiming that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Recently, President Obama has taken that claim and run with it. I don’t know Mr. Buffett’s particular tax situation, but I do know that his claim as a general matter is bogus.

Delay on Pension Oversight - The Labor Department plans to push off until 2012 the adoption of a set of rules that would expand its oversight of pension plans, 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts.

Great Recession yields a lost generation of workers - New 2010 census data show wrenching impact of economic downturn on young adults

From Jamie Dupree’s Washington blog

The headlines on the President’s new deficit plan are all about taxes on the wealthy and all kinds of budget savings. But the real news is buried in an 80 page document from the White House that lists dozens of changes that will impact a variety of industries.

Knowing that most of you won’t read through the whole document from the Obama Administration, I thought I would list all the areas where savings are proposed by the President