How President Obama Shrank America’s Consumer Dollar
President
Obama’s great stimulus spending and QE programs saw disposable income
of average Americans reverse historic trends and stagnate or actually decline.
There has been a huge increase in the taxes they have to pay for
everything from gasoline to cell phones and property taxes. And since
government is responsible for these taxes and the big states are all run
by Democrats with liberal news media, these facts are seldom reported.
A December 2015 study
of the American middle class done by the Pew Research center found that
for the first time in over forty years the middle class no longer
includes the majority of Americans. The plain fact is, after the
largest so-called stimulus government spending program in world history,
conducted by President Obama and his Democratic Party, both the number
of persons in the middle class and the proportion of the population
shrank.
The Pew Hispanic Center May 2016 Study
found that at the end of President Obama’s second term, the middle
class had been shrinking in the vast majority of metropolitan areas of
the US. The importance of the metropolitan areas is that 1) 76% of all
Americans live in metro areas, 2) metro areas are the areas where most
jobs are located, and 3) illegal immigration is promoted in metro areas
all across the nation.
While
the shrinking middle class proves that government cannot raise the
incomes of middle class persons in the US through stimulus spending, at
the same time it shows that the increasing tax burden on the middle
class eats away at their disposable income and their lack of spending
hurts the local economies.
The
biggest flaw in traditional measures of taxation is that the great
majority of studies, including those done by the Census Bureau,
primarily record state and Federal income tax burdens. They usually do
not account for such things as property taxes, motor fuel taxes,
alcohol taxes, cigarette taxes, and sales taxes. These taxes have
increased at rates faster than the rates of income taxes, proving that
local and state governments are placing a great demand on the incomes of
local residents throughout the US.
The Tax Foundation has compiled state tax burdens
per capita. In 2016 the highest tax burden state was NJ, followed by
CT, VT, NY, and IL. The states that are dominated by the Democratic
Party have the highest property taxes. Similarly, the states with the
highest per capita tax burden were such states as CT, NJ, NY. In New
York, for example, each person paid an average of $6,993 in state-local taxes. A family of five paid close to $35,000.
Wireless phone tax burdens
have increased as consumers are making less money. The three highest
tax rates are, naturally, found in IL, WA, and NY, since these states
care the most about economic justice and the middle class. As monthly
subscription rates have slowly dropped due to increased cell phone
provider competition, the states need to make it up by charging more.
The
demand of government upon the middle-class wallet increases by the
day. The state of Illinois, which has the largest unfunded pension
liability of a state, at $251 billion,
and the lowest credit rating, also has not paid state vendors about $15
billion. The interest alone on these unpaid bills amounts to $20
million per day. And Illinois is the home of both Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama created more debt for the middle class
than any president in US history, and also had the only huge QE
programs: $4.2 Trillion.
Chicago
illustrates how rising public pensions impact disposable income. Today
100% of the property taxes in the city go to pensions. If these public
pensioners, the great majority of whom earn higher salaries than
residents, had 401K programs; the property tax revenue would only go to
pay for public services. This reveals an easy way to put a number on
the amount: the property tax revenues are then equal to the extra
disposable income people would have if the pensioners had 401Ks. Since
sales and other taxes are increased to fund the public services (to
replace revenues that go to pensions) then this amount is equal to the
loss in disposable income. More money would be available for small and
medium size businesses and the city would grow. Today Chicago is collapsing.
These
debts not only constrain government spending but reduce the disposable
incomes of American workers now and for the foreseeable future.
The great demand upon middle-class incomes comes from government. In California, there are over 40 public servants who have salaries from
one to $2.4 million per year. And many hundreds take over $500,000 a
year. They expect comparable money to be given to them when they
retire. It’s difficult for the average working American who expects a
Social Security annual retirement of $17,000 a year to understand how
public workers in California can get pensions over $1,400,000 a
year, and in Illinois pensions over $500,000 a year. If working middle
class residents of these states are expected to have a 401K, so should
the one-percenter public servants.
The Tax Foundation also looked at the sources of state and local taxes
and published a study in June 2017. While property taxes remain the
single greatest source of tax revenues, the idea that the property tax
goes solely to fund public services such as police, water and sewer
maintenance, street lighting, etc. is now a lie in many areas. The
Illinois Policy Institute audited all the cities of Illinois and found
that in 10 of the cities including Chicago, all of the property taxes
collected go only to pay public sector pensions. This leaves a huge gap
in the funding of local public services, which is why Chicago has the
highest sales tax, some of the highest taxes on tobacco products,
alcoholic beverages, etc.
OXFAM reported
that during Obama’s terms, 95% of the wealth created went to the top 1%
of the world’s wealthy. This can be interpreted as proof that stimulus
programs don’t work or, as I have argued, that the spending was never
intended to stimulate the economy: only to bolster the equities values
of public sector union pension plans, since they are the largest
contributors to the Democratic Party’s national machine in all fifty
states. We are losing our incomes because we’ve been forced to
subsidize Obama’s political party. The debt, Fed balance sheet, and
financial instability indicate there’s no end in sight.
Obama’s great stimulus spending and QE programs saw disposable income
of average Americans reverse historic trends and stagnate or actually decline.
There has been a huge increase in the taxes they have to pay for
everything from gasoline to cell phones and property taxes. And since
government is responsible for these taxes and the big states are all run
by Democrats with liberal news media, these facts are seldom reported.
A December 2015 study
of the American middle class done by the Pew Research center found that
for the first time in over forty years the middle class no longer
includes the majority of Americans. The plain fact is, after the
largest so-called stimulus government spending program in world history,
conducted by President Obama and his Democratic Party, both the number
of persons in the middle class and the proportion of the population
shrank.
The Pew Hispanic Center May 2016 Study
found that at the end of President Obama’s second term, the middle
class had been shrinking in the vast majority of metropolitan areas of
the US. The importance of the metropolitan areas is that 1) 76% of all
Americans live in metro areas, 2) metro areas are the areas where most
jobs are located, and 3) illegal immigration is promoted in metro areas
all across the nation.
While
the shrinking middle class proves that government cannot raise the
incomes of middle class persons in the US through stimulus spending, at
the same time it shows that the increasing tax burden on the middle
class eats away at their disposable income and their lack of spending
hurts the local economies.
The
biggest flaw in traditional measures of taxation is that the great
majority of studies, including those done by the Census Bureau,
primarily record state and Federal income tax burdens. They usually do
not account for such things as property taxes, motor fuel taxes,
alcohol taxes, cigarette taxes, and sales taxes. These taxes have
increased at rates faster than the rates of income taxes, proving that
local and state governments are placing a great demand on the incomes of
local residents throughout the US.
The Tax Foundation has compiled state tax burdens
per capita. In 2016 the highest tax burden state was NJ, followed by
CT, VT, NY, and IL. The states that are dominated by the Democratic
Party have the highest property taxes. Similarly, the states with the
highest per capita tax burden were such states as CT, NJ, NY. In New
York, for example, each person paid an average of $6,993 in state-local taxes. A family of five paid close to $35,000.
Wireless phone tax burdens
have increased as consumers are making less money. The three highest
tax rates are, naturally, found in IL, WA, and NY, since these states
care the most about economic justice and the middle class. As monthly
subscription rates have slowly dropped due to increased cell phone
provider competition, the states need to make it up by charging more.
The
demand of government upon the middle-class wallet increases by the
day. The state of Illinois, which has the largest unfunded pension
liability of a state, at $251 billion,
and the lowest credit rating, also has not paid state vendors about $15
billion. The interest alone on these unpaid bills amounts to $20
million per day. And Illinois is the home of both Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama created more debt for the middle class
than any president in US history, and also had the only huge QE
programs: $4.2 Trillion.
Chicago
illustrates how rising public pensions impact disposable income. Today
100% of the property taxes in the city go to pensions. If these public
pensioners, the great majority of whom earn higher salaries than
residents, had 401K programs; the property tax revenue would only go to
pay for public services. This reveals an easy way to put a number on
the amount: the property tax revenues are then equal to the extra
disposable income people would have if the pensioners had 401Ks. Since
sales and other taxes are increased to fund the public services (to
replace revenues that go to pensions) then this amount is equal to the
loss in disposable income. More money would be available for small and
medium size businesses and the city would grow. Today Chicago is collapsing.
These
debts not only constrain government spending but reduce the disposable
incomes of American workers now and for the foreseeable future.
The great demand upon middle-class incomes comes from government. In California, there are over 40 public servants who have salaries from
one to $2.4 million per year. And many hundreds take over $500,000 a
year. They expect comparable money to be given to them when they
retire. It’s difficult for the average working American who expects a
Social Security annual retirement of $17,000 a year to understand how
public workers in California can get pensions over $1,400,000 a
year, and in Illinois pensions over $500,000 a year. If working middle
class residents of these states are expected to have a 401K, so should
the one-percenter public servants.
The Tax Foundation also looked at the sources of state and local taxes
and published a study in June 2017. While property taxes remain the
single greatest source of tax revenues, the idea that the property tax
goes solely to fund public services such as police, water and sewer
maintenance, street lighting, etc. is now a lie in many areas. The
Illinois Policy Institute audited all the cities of Illinois and found
that in 10 of the cities including Chicago, all of the property taxes
collected go only to pay public sector pensions. This leaves a huge gap
in the funding of local public services, which is why Chicago has the
highest sales tax, some of the highest taxes on tobacco products,
alcoholic beverages, etc.
OXFAM reported
that during Obama’s terms, 95% of the wealth created went to the top 1%
of the world’s wealthy. This can be interpreted as proof that stimulus
programs don’t work or, as I have argued, that the spending was never
intended to stimulate the economy: only to bolster the equities values
of public sector union pension plans, since they are the largest
contributors to the Democratic Party’s national machine in all fifty
states. We are losing our incomes because we’ve been forced to
subsidize Obama’s political party. The debt, Fed balance sheet, and
financial instability indicate there’s no end in sight.
