I caught myself dozing off a few minutes ago, which is bad since I’m supposed to be working. I glanced up and discovered why I was suddenly so drowsy – Harry Reid, the VoteVet-supported draft dodger, was talking to the Senate just prior to their vote on the “debt deal”. That droning, monotonous voice always puts me to sleep.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I listened to him blame former President Bush for our current financial difficulties and tell us how there was a $7 trillion surplus under Clinton. Funny, but the Democrats controlled the Senate for the first two years of the Bush Administration and both houses for the last two years. I don’t remember them doing anything to cut spending during those years. <\/p>\n
In fact, I remember Bush and McCain trying to rein in Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac while those two organizations were enabling people to buy homes they couldn’t afford before the housing crisis. In fact, I sat out the housing boom in a tiny apartment while everyone was telling me how I needed to buy a house and get in on it. Everyone including the Democrats.<\/p>\n
I have one simple rule when it comes to my money and investments – if everyone else is doing what I’m doing, I need to stop doing it.<\/p>\n
So after the housing bust, I bought a house and the only money I borrowed was from myself. Now I’m not especially smart, but if people are selling me a long-term loan and their sole selling point is “Rates have never been lower”, I’m pretty certain that rates are going to go up sooner than they’ll go down further or remain the same.<\/p>\n
But that’s the deal Democrats are trying to sell to the American people…again. They’re upset that they didn’t get to tax the rich, but that doesn’t mean that tax revenues aren’t going to go up. When Bush cut taxes, revenues exceeded the Clinton years revenues two years after the tax cuts took effect and every year afterwards.<\/p>\n
But somehow, it’s appealing to Democrats to “tax the rich” and as we discovered after the Clinton tax hikes, everyone who has a job is rich – even retirees on fixed incomes.<\/p>\n
But Reid was doing what he’s always done best – take the easy way out – blame the guy who hasn’t been in office for more than two years and complain that he can’t increase taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"