On second thought, don't do anything!

How many of you are begging our nations leaders to do something about the deficit and the debt and the sequester?  How many of you actually prayed that our leaders would, well, lead?  

As it turns out, we elected a President and a Congress who never learned how to negotiate. They make bold public statements about their position and invoke "my way or the high way" negotiation rules. Both sides publicly argue back and forth vehemently over their positions.  No one budges because their ego is tied to their well publicized positions and therefore provides little opportunity for them to "save face" by negotiation back from their original stance.  As a result, our country is denied legitimate and beneficial solutions to our debt, deficit and spending problems.

The opening positions of all our "leaders" has been so extreme and polarizing, I find it hard to believe that anyone will allow an agreement to take place.  The President and Congress are now engaged in a battle of will thus putting a win-win-win solution out of grasp.

To me, the biggest violation in these negotiations occurred when the President re-opened negotiations on the tax increase issue that was already settled upon with Congress. It makes it very hard for the other side to hold any trust in their negotiation partner going forward.  If you can't trust the person you are negotiating with, it lowers the likely hood of a deal.

 If I had two minutes with the president, I would say to him

 "Mr. President, you are not negotiating fairly. The Republicans already negotiated a deal with you on the tax increases. It is now your turn to negotiate in good faith and make a real proposal on entitlement spending cuts. Tax negotiation time is over. Any research on good and fair negotiating reveals what you are doing is disingenuous and lessens the possibility for a real win-win situation to be reached. It also makes it hard for the educated people in this country to fall in line with your lead. Sure you can continue to dupe the uneducated but that will not propel our country to greatness. Please do the right thing. " 

 As we approach the sequester deadline, we are starting to hear all sorts of fun and exciting stories of how the country will come to a screeching halt, planes will fall out of the sky and dragons will reign fire and brimstone down upon our populace.  The fact is that this sequester actually doesn't cut spending, but rather reduces the amount of growth.

Of course, this country needs to stop spending and we need to stop fast. There is only one fat cat getting rich around here these days. It's the US Government. And guess where that rich fat cat gets his money from? The US taxpayer... every single one of us. The more money the government spends, the more it needs from us to keep it going. This country must stop supporting our congress men and women and presidents who continue feeding our rich fat cat government.

Having said that, the worst thing that can happen now is a poorly thought out, mistake ridden, ill-conceived, short sighted last minute deal. So maybe it is time to let the sequester happen. As it slowly unfolds, perhaps congress can then fix those things that really broke as a result and in the meant time, tell congress, "on second thought, DON'T DO ANYTHING!"

Beware: Today's Nice Gesture is Tomorrow's Entitlement

How many of you have had a similar experience this week?

As I looked at my first paycheck of the year last week, I noticed that my paycheck was noticeably lower than the prior one.  I thought, "hmmm, that is odd. I should not have had a tax increase".  I wondered what was behind Uncle Sam taking more money form me.  Let me tell you what happened.

  First, let me assure you I do not qualify for the much publicized and highly debated tax increase for those making over $400,000 annually.  I don't come close to that threshold. No, apparently my paycheck was victim to tax increases that went into effect on Jan. 1st. A tax increase that EVERY  American on payroll was subjected to. This payroll tax increase was completely ignored by both political parties. 

Always remember, today's nice gesture is tomorrow's entitlement.  Two years ago, the current administration cut the payroll tax by roughly 30%.  This tax cut took funding away from social security and medicare. 

At the time the tax cut was proposed, it seemed like a bad idea to cut funding to social security because it was and still is so under funded.  However, the short sighted vision of our leaders and our collective constituency lobbied for the cuts and they were signed into law.  After two years, the extra money became more than a temporary bonus but became expected.

Now that they are taking the tax break away, America is up in arms. The payroll tax is increasing by almost 50% (from 4.2% to 6.2%). A household making $50,000 will most likely see an increase of $1,000 in their tax bill. Illustrating my claim that yesterday's nice gesture became today's entitlement.

In an unnoticed irony, Barack Obama campaigned on not raising taxes on the middle class.  By allowing his tax cut to expire, he raised taxes on EVERY SINGLE American who earns a paycheck.