Tag: Bill Barber

End Fannie and Freddie’s Insistence on Functioning

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Home Ownership is Not a Right of Citizenship
Authored by:  William Robert Barber

Since the Age of Reason political philosophers, elected, appointed, and to some limited degree, those who claimed the power of Divine Right; danced with the notion that government was directly responsible for the social welfare of its constituency. The concept of empowering the state with responsibilities that heretofore was set aside to churches, synagogues, other religious entities, charities, or private contributions has evolved into a constituency-acceptance; indeed, an often contractual understanding that the government is responsible for social obligations.Read More »

Congress’s Practice of Unintended Consequences – The Joy of Homeownership for All!

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High School Reunion
Authored by:  William Robert Barber

Recently, I attended a 45-year high school reunion. My classmates have lived long enough to have married, remarried, have grandchildren, and retired. We drank, ate, drank a little more and conversed on a multitude of topics.  Some were Democrats, some Republicans, a few did not declare and the rest really did not give a damn. The commonality of interest was our shared interest in community, family, and the general state of present affairs. Our opinions differed, but though out the differing there prevailed a standard of tolerance and a consistency of extending outward for understanding.Read More »

Illusive Truth in Politics

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Voir Dire
Authored by William Robert Barber

There are numerous methods and means of persuasion. The act of persuading via the use of logical deduction, reasonableness, and evidentiary discloser is revered as a respected form of expression. One would believe that the truth of an argument does exist; thus, a search, utilizing reason, sensibility, and logical deduction would extract the truth so all competing views could agree on the truthfulness of the heretofore contested. After all are not all Americans, one peoples, under law, and committed to explicit righteousness? We do pride ourselves in the values sustained by our republic; a republic founded on representative government, a constitution, and the inherent virtue of the individual.Read More »

Global Trade – Profitable Resale Not Transfer of Wealth

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Authored by:  William Robert Barber

I have a real tough time understanding the newest battle cry over the concept of energy independence; wherein, the creditable ones confidently declare, to a willing community of listeners and readers that: Never in America’s history has an annual $700 billion dollars been paid out of this country to foreign nations. These geniuses, who include, T. Boone Pickens, go on to note that this is the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.Read More »

When Does Redistribution of Wealth Become Highway Robbery?

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When Is Enough-Enough?
Authored by:  William Robert Barber

I have a small business; the business employees less than 30-people. My business is highly regulated and subject to scheduled audits by my sponsoring banks, as well as, VISA and MasterCard. Naturally, like every other business in America I am required to risk capital and resources so to meet current obligations; it is understood that if I do not create cash flow and profits I will loose my capital. I understood going into the investment that there are no guarantees issued by the US Government to insure my investment; I also understood, that if I did produce a GAAP measure of profit those profits were subject to a federal tax of 35%. Additionally, if the business issued a dividend to the shareholder that dividend was taxed at 15% and depending on my tax bracket I could be taxed once again on my personal income tax obligation at 35%.Read More »

A Nation of Whiners

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Authored by:  William Robert Barber

Former Senator Phil Gramm a leading supporter of McCain has given the Democrats another gift of ridicule; nevertheless, the able senator has given to the American people the truth of the matter. We have become a nation of whiners. McCain immediately distanced himself from the comment by doing a little whining himself; pointing out that an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent in May is real and that the worker who has lost his or her job is simply out of work and not a whiner. Well, that maybe, I have the answer for the unemployed worker-stop even thinking about whining; go secure another job. I have no reason to doubt the unemployment percentage in Michigan but that does mean 91.5 percent of the citizens of Michigan are working. And for Michigan here is some advice: Cut your state wide taxes in half and stop electing Democrats.

The judicious Seneca, the Roman stoic philosopher knew that life was full of difficulties and that even when a man could not control these difficulties, he can, “choose not to whine or fret or do evil.”

The Why’s of Hillary’s Loss

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Clintons Are Dead All Hail Obama
Authored by:  William Robert Barber

The post-contest pundits have a number of reasons as to the whys of Hillary’s loss to a politically far left, untried, multiracial contester who considers himself a member of the black community; most of these reasons are obvious all of them covered under the umbrella of strategic and tactical mistakes.

Nevertheless, what stood out (at least for me) from these obvious campaign mistakes was the most willing, almost gleeful, abandonment of Clinton by the purple toga elements of the traditional Democratic Party. Even more outstanding, many of the once Clinton faithful, who in fact, directly, owe their present political positioning to a Clinton era anointment, dropped Clinton in favor of Obama with willful disdain and abrupt disregard. For these former members of the Clinton political family it was if they were under some form of extortion or parental abuse and finally the kidnapped family member was freed or the children had grown up.

Now there could be another reason for the failure of the Clinton political machine falling short on achieving their party’s nomination. The reason has ample historical reference and fits tightly into the Democratic primaries actual; possibly, the core leadership of the party decided they could control and manipulate an Obama administration much better than they could manage a Hillary Clinton.

After all, the entrenched Democratic leadership is interested in their personal preservation of preeminence; one should not minimize the grand November election opportunity: To control congress and the presidency. Once in place with a probable veto proof majority the Democrats will have the ultimate weapon of political utility. Their first offensive will be to chastise the chosen corporate belligerents via the statutorily monetarism of private interest into public power. The Clintons have too many friends within the corporate hierarchy to allow the kind of change the Obama faithful would straightforwardly implement. Interestingly; and somewhat contradictory, all of the Democratic leaders are multimillionaires, Ivy League members of the patrician class whose ethos of elites’ belief prompts the ideal that their wise benevolent consul of paternal superintendence would be cheerfully received by a President Obama.  It is their reckoning that a President Obama would surrender, (for less consideration then a President Clinton) the governing prerogatives, as long as; he is appointed the Prince of the Canaille and permitted to speak to their salubrious need for communitarian socialism paid for by a tax policy of ultra progressive implication resulting in a meaningful redistribution of wealth.

Bread and beer to the multitude and power to the multimillionaires of the Democratic purple toga; Obama the uncommon politician who will change Washington as it has never been changed before is a beckoning reality.

Alien Terrorist Given Constitutional Rights of an American

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The bad-guys must be laughing up a storm
Authored by: William Robert Barber

Court says detainees have rights, bucking Bush

By a narrow decision the Supreme Court of the land has equated the constitutional rights of alien dangerous terrorist, captured on the battlefield, who are not even on American soil, to that of an American citizen. Thirty of these aliens incarcerated in Guantanamo have in the past been set free; they, in response to their liberation have rejoined the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.  I do wonder if those in the majority have any clue as to the long-tail liability incurred to their fellow Americans fighting the war against terrorist. The bad-guys must be laughing up a storm; imagine these jurists have extended to Jihads what was not extended to Nazis. 

This Election, More Than Any Other, There is Little Room for Error.

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Thoughts of My Mother
Authored By:  William Robert Barber

A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with my mentally alert and physically spry eight-eight year old mother; I posed a question as to who she thought should be the next President of the United States. She responded with no hesitation: “Obama!” I follow up with why? She said, “well, I think he will take care of the poor people, you know the common folk.” I paused for a moment and continued my inquiry. I said, “Mother, who is the poor and common people?” She laughed and said; “People who have no money, you know Bill, the manual laborers, people with little formal education, we have many poor people that need taken care of.”

I found my mother’s response provoking and reminiscent of ideas formed as a child; ideas that bind conviction, but ideas, with little or no evidence to substantiate their worthiness. But then my dear mother was far from a child; by sight and hearing, she was influenced to conclude Obama would be the best choice for president. As she stated, he would help the poor people; she gave little thought as to who were the poor people or how the poor people would be helped; she simply believed that Obama over the other candidates would be the best choice because he would take care of the poor people.  There are many ideas proposed by Obama to criticize him about but one that stands out and has great implications is the Global Poverty Act Obama supports.

There is always the possibility that unfounded ideas molded into conviction and executed into action could prompt disastrous results. The belief that Obama, unlike any other candidate, would do something special for poor people (whatever that means) is one such idea. Firstly, defining the poor, as defining ‘middle class’ in this country is a chore in its self; I am going to take a stab at it and conclude that poor people are those peoples making $36,000 per year or less.  I justify this gross income number founded on the amount of federal income tax these peoples pay.

Now these ‘poor people’ have an income supplement that is not taken into account by the number crunchers in the treasury, the budget office, and the IRS. It would be fair to suggest that these ‘poor people’ are and should include the blackjack dealers, valets, service persons, waiters, bartenders, and the people who wash one’s car etc., these are also the peoples who make their money from tips; yes, and of course they declare their tips according to an IRS induced formula, nevertheless, they retain a significant portion of residual undeclared monies that feed into America’s undeclared income. This undeclared ‘cash’ discretionary income is very important to the overall American economy because it greases the wheels of a free wheeling economic machine. This undeclared (free of income tax) money feeds the coffers of state and federal ‘use tax’ or the pay as one goes tax which would include the taxes associated with any sale.

I wonder if these are the ‘poor people’ Obama pledges to uplift? Are these the people Obama speaks of when he accuses the Bush administration of ‘full employment’ but at a lower than market wage?

My mother did mention that people with little formal education are ‘poor people’; implying that if one has less than a college degree one is domed to making less money in ones lifetime; a conclusion that If one would exclude lawyer, certified public accountant, some licensed professions including medical doctor, is not factual. From a financial measurement prospective, the electrician, plumber, builder, craftsperson, salesperson, and the many practitioners within the service sector contribute significantly to the tax base of their federal, state, and city governments. Now that is a fact.

The idea that a college level education is essential to financial success has no basis of fact. An uncontestable test of the myth would be to utilize personal tax statements as a reference such a test would definitively corroborate voluminous amounts of evidence to the contrary. That of course begs the question. Why does the general public believe a college education is the bridge to financial success? The answer: Because it services the interest of an ever growing public funded college level bureaucracy, a bureaucracy that directly feeds off of a conceptual idea that a college education is essential to financial success. The fact is that a college education does feed the coffers of the academic community; a community, wholly dedicated to its self service via the surety of tax supported higher education institutions. As if motivated by some unquestionable noble idea, a sense of sacrifice, a moral quest, these within the academic community pedants seek employment though the perpetuation of an idea founded on a false premise.

Those within the profession of facilitating the ‘false premise’ have amazing influence on our society; in the interest of perpetuating their agenda of endorsing the merits of a higher education they validate inwardly and outwardly the idea that higher education is the bridge to financial success. For example, an applicant for federal, county, or city employment at any mid management or senior level must have a college degree. Any college degree will do…the academic community has instituted a discriminatory benchmark, an impediment to career advancement on the assumption that a college degree is essential to implementing every specific job description.

There is an old Marine Corps saying, “That assumption and presumption will get you killed in combat.” I noticed that the Harvard, Yale, and Princeton graduates of Enron ended in jail; hell what was the sense of sending them to school in the first place?

Anyway back to my dear mother; I asked my mother to seek differing even contrary sources of information when deciding on whom should be President of the Untied States, I gently cautioned her to never allow the influence of the extraneous and collateral to inhibit the exercise of good sense principles, I pleaded with her to get pass visual distortions, seek out the objective substance of the issues espoused by the office seeker. Emphasizing that a decision as important as the highest office in the land should not be summed on the youthful dynamic appearance of the candidate nor should one be mesmerized by the myth that white hair is synonymous with wisdom; this is a decision of such magnitude it warrants empirical evidence and deductive logic; I stressed to my dear mother, that in this next election, more than any other, there is little room for error.

The Government’s Power to Tax and their Right to Control

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Authored by: William Robert Barber

I believe there is a relationship to an increasingly burdensome federal, state, and city tax policy and the abatement of individual liberties. The right to tax is the right to control; the disbursement of tax dollars once harvested from the people innately empowers the disburser of the tax harvest over the recipients of the disbursement.

When I travel I am searched and investigated, the treasury department is alerted if I transfer $10,000 more dollars because I maybe suspected of laundering money, I fill out forms to leave the country and to return, I am subjected to having my name on federal data banks, the law of the land is so complex I can no longer represent myself if sued, I as well as most do not understand the tax laws I am subjected to, lawyers are licensed by the state as privateers seeking plunder from class action suits or hell any lawsuit; they are although operating within the statutory gauntlet destroying the function of enterprise within this nation state. Congress is made up in the majority by lawyers; judges are lawyers of past performance.

Between politicians trying to retain power and politicians trying to attain power there is little done in Congress; naturally, in an election year the little done gets down to none. Withstanding, they do have time to grandstand and debate the mostly nonsensical. They cannot address the entitlement issues, Medicare, social security, and the rising cost of oil and medical services. This country has a very high corporate tax rate, the regulation of public companies via the insanity of Sarbanes-Oxley is apparent but no one has the fortitude to act; nevertheless, government does have the time and money to investigate baseball.

But government ingress into the privy of private enterprise is much more then simply regulating or taxing; with tax revenue funds, government has established a heavy handed investment into venues that at one time was the very definition of gangster-hood ; indeed, government is now directly operating a gaming business, blatantly and shamelessly espousing, by smartly dressed marketing ploys, suggesting, (to its citizens) that one can get something for nothing, if one would only purchase a government owed lottery ticket. Naturally, private enterprise cannot compete with the government in this endeavor. Government has decided that instead of taxing the revenue it will keep all of the revenue and at the same time utilizes its enormous power to eliminate any and all competition.

Of course all of this government intrusion is for the benefit of the common good. It is said by those elected to represent the interest of the unwashed; that these monies are needed for education. Interesting declaration; is it not true that an educated person knows better than to put one’s money in a game that one cannot win? Or is it that the government with a slight of hand is condoning stupid as merely harmless entertainment that happens to service the interest of the common good. How interestingly Fabian of these elected officials, I can only assume, on-line betting, prostitution, marijuana, cocaine, and public execution for a fee is an inevitable feeder to the insatiable designs of an ever more powerful government.

It is not gaming or lottery that I am disturbed by; it is my government’s culpability and outright participation that is so upsetting. If private enterprise was engaged instead of the government I would not solicit or participate; however, properly, regulated with intense oversight, I would not be against a private company’s investment in this endeavor. But allowing the government to entrap its citizens by utilizing the righteousness that is intrinsic to the peoples’ governing body to directly own a gaming concern is a living breathing contradiction of a government’s moral a priori, principle of righteousness and virtuous character.

There is acquiescence, a submission by the common to the power of an omnipotent governing bureaucracy; the people have been divided by the slickness of various persuasions, be it the media, academic soothsayers, or pundits who hold truth on the tip of their tongue; additionally, the legislators’ purposeful ambiguity of the nation’s laws prompted by those who profit from such ambiguity and the abatement of general morality rounds up the public’s befuddlement and confusion.

The issue of individual rights and the government’s power to tax is an ancient contest. There is no winning; there is only the contesting. Presently, the people are over taxed and the government is apathetic and compliant to its design of growth in scope and power. There is an election on the horizon that determines the winner of the contest for the foreseeable future. More freedom and liberty or more taxes; a question and a battle cry; I do fear the outcome.