Turn your volume down. This gets a little loud.

On second thought, turn the volume up so your neighbor can hear it too!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Are you involved yet? Have you helped out a campaign with your time, your talents or your money? Have you decided to grow a backbone and stand up instead of running scared? A lot of people have already, but they would welcome your help too. Join a tea party, volunteer to work for a candidate, call your friends and tell them how you feel, email this video to everyone you know, or just send them to www.TeaPartyConnect.com! We’ll get them educated and fired up!

Good job Michael Berry! Keep it up!

An excerpt from an interview with Phil Donahue in 1979.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Protective Headgear: $195.00
• Big Boy Pants: $55.00
• Girls Trail Bike: $175.00
• Athletic Shoes: $85.00
• Letting Putin Make You Look Nerdy: PRICELESS!

Oh, Snap! I can’t get the song below out of my head now that I’ve seen the photos above.

Click here to view the embedded video.

AP Photo: Barack Obama

The Birthplace Issue has been percolating since before the 2008 election and in that time, it has bubbled just at the surface for many citizens. For just how many citizens has never been measured until recently when 60 Minutes teamed up with Vanity Fair to poll 1,000 Americans. What they found was astounding because 24% of the respondents said Barack Obama was either not born in the United States  or they didn’t know where he was born. Additionally, the Pew Research Center recently published the results of a poll showing that 18% of Americans believe Obama is Muslim.

Brian Williams interviewed the President while in New Orleans to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the issue erupted at the highest level. An annoyed Obama lashed out at “a mechanism, a network of misinformation” churning out there in the “new media”. Clearly referring to the Internet, talk radio and FOX, Obama sought to downplay and discount the questions:

“It’s not surprising that someone like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of [the American people]. … That’s been true throughout our history,” he said.

Obama doubled down on his support for a mosque and community center planned for a site two blocks north of ground zero in lower Manhattan – and denied reports that he tried to back away from backing the controversial project.

“I didn’t walk it back it all,” he said. “I was very specific with my team… The core value and principle that every American is treated the same doesn’t change… At [a White House Ramadan celebration], I had Muslim Americans who had been in uniform fighting in Iraq… How can you say to them that their religious faith is less worthy of respect?… That’s something that I feel very strongly about.”

He added, “I respect the feelings on the other side.”

So, why doesn’t a significant portion of American’s believe him?

Particularly a portion of Americans highly likely to vote? There have been plenty of bloggers and Internet news sources out there carrying water for The President and defending his birth and religion. Still the questions linger. Search Google for “is obama a citizen” and you’ll get about 22 Million results and for every site claiming Obama is not a citizen there is a site defending Obama’s birthplace.

While the idea of Obama being foreign born abounds on conspiracy theory websites, it is not isolated to the paranoid or disillusioned. In fact, the idea finds its way onto mainstream websites almost as much. The faith question is even more widely distributed. It seems that at least for a quarter of the population, there is a disconnect between Obama’s protestations and the American public’s opinions. Is the disconnect merely a question of mis-communication?

Try this test. Ask yourself if you believe Obama when he says, “I respect the feelings on the other side.”

If you are like me, perhaps you wondered why, after a long verbal defense of Muslims wishing to express their Religious Freedom, he reduced the families of the victims of 9-11 to “the other side”.  Is it possible that Obama is simply tone-deaf? Is it possible that many Americans simply believe that this tone-deafness stems from the fact that Obama isn’t like the rest of us? Did he cry along with the rest of America on the day terrorism struck? Now ask yourself one more question, “Whether you liked George Bush or not, did you ever doubt whether George Bush cried on 9-11?”

Perhaps, part of the answer lies in Obama’s apparent inability to answer a straight question with a straight answer. After all, the question Brian Williams asked The President was “why so many people were uncertain about something so fundamental as his faith?” Obama’s response began with ““I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead,” and then he went on to blame Glenn Beck for stirring up a certain part of the population. It seems to me that Mr. Williams didn’t ask about his birth certificate, so why did Obama bring it up?

Could it be that in spite of all the denials to the contrary, the American people simply do not feel that Obama is being honest with them? Or could it be that answers he gives just do not balance with his actions?

It is my belief that the answer is even more fundamental. Since this issue has been festering for over 18 months, perhaps the American public is just fed up with the fact that Barack Obama hasn’t been willing to directly address the situation openly and honestly. He’s avoided the subject and actively called those who disbelieve his bona fides names such as “birthers” or “right-wing conspiracy theorists” when the solution is staring him right in the face.

Show the real documents.

Release the real birth certificate and college transcripts. Take the gag order off the Hawaii officials. Open up and let the truth come out. If all is as he says it is, then what’s the problem? He could make all of the confusion and conflict vanish overnight. What purpose does it serve to continue allowing this simmering pot continue to simmer? Senator McCain was called to the Hill to testify about his birth before the election and there were fewer questions about his birth than Obama’s.What’s up with that?

I believe that the increase in citizens who do not believe Obama’s answers may very well be a case of a population becoming increasingly tired of all the questions and the lack of forthcoming answers. A population who probably has wondered from time to time even if only for a moment, “What if those birther nuts are right?” A population who can’t understand why it’s such a big deal? A population beginning to ask other questions about the actions of their President which speak much louder than his words.

Perhaps we are reaching a tipping point where more and more Americans are becoming tired of being lectured and are thinking to themselves, “Why doesn’t he just show the documents?”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), one of the chief authors of the healthcare law, suggested Tuesday he did not read the entire piece of legislation.

Speaking at a forum in his home state, Baucus and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were asked by an audience member if they had read the whole bill and “if not, that is the most despicable, irresponsible thing.”

“I don’t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the healthcare bill,” Baucus said, according to the Flathead Beacon. “You know why? It’s statutory language. … We hire experts.”

First, she reminds each of us that We, The People give Congress the power to levy and collect taxes. However:

There’s nothing in there about carving out special exemptions for certain individuals or groups; about using tax credits to achieve socially desirable outcomes, such as getting married and having children; or about doling out earmarks in an implicit exchange for campaign contributions.

How can we get Congress out of the tax-favor business?

We need new rules (a constitutional amendment), a new framework (independent commissions) or a new crop of lawmakers with the political will to look beyond the next election and solve the country’s fiscal problems.

She goes on to explain why previous tax simplification efforts have failed:

Efforts at tax simplification, such as the implementation of two flat rates (14 percent and 28 percent) and the elimination of many loopholes in 1986, tend to be short-lived.

Why? For the simple reason that Congress likes using the tax code to dispense favors. Lawmakers may disagree over whether political spending by corporations constitutes free speech (the Supreme Court says it does), but they let money speak to them loud and clear. We must stop them before they kill (the economy) again.

She then offers up at least three alternative ways the change we really need could be achieved.

• Constitutional Amendment Via Congress
  • Very hard and unlikely given Congress’s preference to use tax code to grant favors to preferred constituents.
• Constitutional Amendment Via State Legislatures
  • Still difficult, but not impossible given that the National Taxpayers Union only came up two states short of the required number to pass a balanced budget amendment.
• Privatization Of Tax Policy
  • Again, very difficult since it would require Congress to relinquish their Constitutional authority to set and levy taxes, but it could turn out to work well since it would probably immediately bring some uniformity to the tax code which is currently riddled with loopholes.

In the end, none of the possibilities Caroline Baum or anyone else has proposed amount to a hill of beans without one critical component: The Will Of The People. Without a loud and clear statement from the people about the direction they want to proceed and without action on the part of the people to remove the obsticles (read: Congressmen and women who are against the new ideas), nothing will be done. Nature abhors a vacuum and without clear leadership on the part of the people to guide elected officials, nothing will be done to change the current system and the current system will continue to be unfair and get worse over time.

As Baum says:

It took a Tea Party in Boston in 1773 to put the British on notice. Maybe it will take the modern day equivalent to get Washington’s attention.

Backstory: Todd Starnes reported:

A Tennessee middle school football coach said he got fired after he wrote a song that criticized President Obama.

Bryan Glover, an assistant coach at Grassland Middle School near Nashville, co-wrote the country music song, “When You’re Holding a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail.”

It was co-written by a parent who has a child on the team. Glover, 26, said he emailed a copy of the song to friends, family members and player’s parents through his personal email account.

And that’s when all the trouble started for the self-described independent conservative.

“The coach called me and said parents were upset – that I was being politically incorrect and the song had racial overtones,” Glover told FOX News Radio. “An hour and a half later I was told I was being terminated.”

Personally, I didn’t find any racial overtones in this song. I just heard a pretty good song. You can purchase the song for your MP3 player here: http://holdingahammer.com

Hat Tips to Left Coast Rebel and Lonely Conservative

The Virginia Bill of Religious Freedom is powerful and short. Its preamble is in the style of the Declaration and worth reading. I have provided a link or check out this short but powerful prose.
The letter declining an invitation to attend a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is also very powerful. This phrase about the 4th is something we should all remember each year: “For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.” For full text of the letter to Roger Weightman.

Be sure watch or DVR this show when it comes again on the History Channel. In the mean time checkout some the material the History Channel has pulled together on our most thoughtful Founder.

- The Professor

You have now been in office long enough to know that the honeymoon was over months ago. You are also an adult and have lived long enough to know that at some point we are all judged by our actions and our performance. We teach our kids that the people they hang out with affects their character and that as responsible adults, they must be willing to stand and face the consequences of their actions.

Reuters reported that you attacked Bush’s “disastrous” economic policies again and this time in President Bush’s home State of Texas. Just so you know, this type of behavior is not flattering to you and it falls far beneath the Office of The President. Here’s just a little bit of the story to refresh your memory:

At a fund-raising event for Democrats in Dallas, where Bush now lives, Obama said the former president’s “disastrous” policies had driven the U.S. economy into the ground and turned budget surpluses into deficits.

Obama defended his repeated references to Bush’s policies, saying they were necessary to remind Americans of the weak economy he inherited from Bush in January 2009.

“The policies that crashed the economy, that undercut the middle class, that mortgaged our future, do we really want to go back to that, or do we keep moving our country forward?” Obama said at another fund-raising event in Austin, referring to Bush’s eight years as president.

I thought that I should write you this letter and give you a head’s up on what this looks like to regular folks because obviously your speechwriters are juvenile and you aren’t proof-reading your remarks. First of all, Bush’s policies while perhaps a bit distracted at the end did not injury me and my family directly nor could they be called disasterous. During Bush’s two terms in office, we lived within our means and paid our taxes happily and enjoyed the fruits of our labors within our small business. We worried about another terrorist attack, but we knew that the best and brightest of our young men were in the fight defending us and doing everything they could to protect us. We cried when those coffins came home and we wished it didn’t have to be that way, but we also remembered 3,000 who died on one single day in New York and we trusted Mr. Bush when he said that the terrorists would pay.

Were we completely happy with Mr. Bush? Probably not. There are always things that we as citizens wished could be different. For instance, when all your liberal friends lied about Bush’s politics or his beliefs or his motivations, we would have preferred him to stand up for himself and challenge your allegations. Even Karl Rove regrets not letting Bush defend himself more. Was the “Mission Accomplished” statement premature? Probably, but I suspect that excitement had overwhelmed him because I hear flying in one of those jets and landing on a carrier can be an awesome moment. Was the TARP bill a bad bill to sign? Absolutely. Do I regret that he signed it? Absolutely. Do I hold him responsible in part for what we are experiencing now? Absolutely. But not for the reason you think.

I hold Former President George W. Bush responsible for where we are now because in the end, W quit listening to his gut and started listening to experts. Experts get it wrong every day, but in deciding to listen to them instead of his gut, W lost his way in the last six months of his Presidency. Unfortunately, in doing so, he paved the way for your election. However, even until the end, George W. Bush, the man, never lost my respect. I disagreed with him on several issues, but I always respected him as a man.

You see, Mr. President, you have a credibility problem and you have a respect problem. Speaking just for myself, you’ve never earned my respect which for me directly affects your credibility. From where I sit, you’ve lied and cheated to get where you are and it doesn’t seem to bother you. You’d rather point the finger of blame at someone else than to “man-up” and take the hit for the team. It used to be that the “buck stopped” at the President’s desk, but it appears that will never happen in your administration.

You’ve loaded your administration with scapegoats and expendables. You enjoy the good life while many Americans live in economic pain. Unlike George Bush, I believe you’ve always thought deep down that it was all about you. You’ve created a mental image of the perfect you and anything that doesn’t fit that mental image of yourself must be blamed on someone else. At least when I saw President Bush stand beside someone less fortunate than himself, I really believed that he understood their pain and that he wished fervently that he could fix all their problems.

Mr. President, you are in so many ways like the only child who breaks a vase while his parents are not looking and then says, “It’s not my fault!”

You can blame everyone else all you want, but the economic numbers do not lie. You can try to shift ownership onto a President who hasn’t been in office in 18 months, but the unemployment numbers do not lie. You can blame previous administrations or even people within your administration, but your approval ratings do not lie. You read snarky speeches off your teleprompters all you want, but your actions do not lie.

I hate to say this, Mr. President, but you are a bully. You have felt slighted all your life and you’ve worked very hard to gain the position of power you now hold. But you did it all for the wrong reason. You did it to hold power over those whom you perceive have wronged you in the past and unfortunately, you cannot hide it. During the election your charisma and the emotion of the moment swayed many people to ignore these shortcomings. But when you won the election and was sworn in the Office Of The President Of The United States, you didn’t believe you had to represent ALL citizens and you have done everything you can to alienate more than half of the citizens of this great Country.

You’ve told us our beliefs are wrong. You’ve told us that our Country is no longer the great Nation that we all believe it is. You’ve told us that we must tolerate those who have actively participated in trying to kill as many of us as possible. You’ve told us you know more than us and that we don’t understand the bigger picture. You’ve told us that what was up was down and what was down was up.

Ultimately, the reason you have a credibility gap with most Average Americans is that what you say doesn’t match what we feel or believe in our hearts. If you ever figure this out, you might reconsider some of the positions you’ve taken in the past. Perhaps, you might even take responsibility for some of the things that have gone wrong.

Unfortunately, I’ve never see a man with “little man’s disease” outgrow his limitations and I seriously doubt you’ll outgrow yours.

Sincerely,

An American Citizen

P.S. See you in November!

It’s not going to work.  The next two elections are vitally important, and we remain focused.  I hope we’ll also remember the lesson that all elections are important.  Today’s crisis is the output of many generations of error.

We are not “distracted” by debates such as the Ground Zero mosque.  Expressing opposition to this project is not a mind-melting exercise.  Islam is still infused with too much of the bloody darkness that terrorized the aisles of United 93, United 175, American 11, and American 77 with box-cutters gripped in its tendrils.  The organizers of the Cordoba House project have been unwilling to denounce that darkness without qualification.  “Outreach” and “tolerance” are vitally needed in the Muslim world, not the streets of Manhattan.  This only seems complicated to those who willfully blindfold themselves with ideology, or subordinate common sense to political calculation.

We are not intimidated by sneering accusations of racism.  We will remember those who made those accusations when we vote.  We will consider the weakness of a philosophy that approaches debate by convincing itself there is no legitimate opposition to its views, and no honorable dissent from its leaders.

We do not view every issue through the prism of Barack Obama.  Only the rapidly shrinking Left continues to see him as a Rorschach inkblot for the American soul.  Suggesting that an issue like the Ground Zero mosque is really “about” Obama, as Dave Weigel does, is laughable.  Obama could not be less significant in this debate.  After quickly backpedaling from his first widely-ignored statements, he folded in on himself and disappeared.  This doesn’t provide some kind of clever excuse for Democrats to save themselves by turning our national discussion away from the economy.  Not even a seven-story mosque could hide such monumental failure.

We don’t have “unrealistic” expectations about “oversold” government programs.  We don’t have any more expectations about Big Government at all.  That’s why we’re going to tear it down, and reclaim what it has taken from us.  We aren’t expecting the government to work miracles with our tax dollars.  We expect it to return them.  We’ll handle the miracles.

We are not a nation of cretins, too simple-minded to appreciate the magnificence of our august rulers.  We have watched the designs of our “elite” fail comprehensively, at every level.  We will not accept their substandard performance as the new boundaries of our lives, or their weary projections of debt and stagnation as the new limits of possibility.  We will not live in the grey watercolor they have painted for us.  We demand a future where risk may be taken with careful calculation, and answered with reward.  We will restore the role of fair taxes as the mechanism for funding the limited duties of a lawful government, rather than serving as a method of reward and punishment to ensure compliance with the ideology of the ruling class.  Let them find willing test subjects for their pet theories.  Let their ideas compete in the arena of persuasion, without the heavy iron of compulsion.

We are not helpless pawns, to be shoved through history by the irresistible forces of precedent and dependency.  We will not resign ourselves to an inescapable future of indenture, where every dollar of this bloated government is sacred, and trillions more are demanded… where every benefit is the untouchable property of an angry constituency, and the only question is how much of our time we should be allowed to keep, after working to satisfy their demands.  Each new, eternal government program is a slice of our freedom we are told we can never have back.  We don’t believe that any more.  The destiny of our children will not be decided by corrupt politicians looking to stitch winning constituencies together with golden thread from our Treasury.

We no longer accept the illusion of government as a vast temple of mystery, which all but a wealthy clergy are forbidden to enter.  We will no longer deposit our tithe on the steps of that temple and back away quietly.  We demand accountability, and consequence.  No more trillion-dollar “stimulus” theft.  No more billions appropriated with hysterical cries of alarm, then packed away into slush funds, while taxpayers cough up hundreds of millions in interest.  What is more obscene than the notion of deficit spending to fill a politician’s wallet?

We will not dismiss the corruption of our ruling class with a nervous laugh, and a few jokes about how they’re all crooks.  We are sickened by parties and fundraisers thrown for the likes of Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters.  Most of us won’t get a chance to vote them out directly… but we can rinse their party out of Washington, and demand justice from those who replace them.  We expect a lot of Democrats to begin answering questions under oath in 2011.  We’re not worried about “paralyzing” Washington.  We’re going to hold it down while we cut out the tumors.  It would be best if it kept still until we’re finished.

The monster State is finished.  We can take it apart now, or be crushed beneath its weight when it collapses.  I think those shocking generic-candidate polls, and the vast shift in the electorate they describe, are due to the growing awareness of those alternatives.

The gathering thunder of a revolution is always a little scary.  We will not falter.

The “hope and change” promised last time was a lie.  There was no “change,” just a heavy foot on the gas pedal of a very old machine that was already coming apart at the seams.  Now that all its tires are blown, and we’re headed for a cliff… surprise!  The very same people instruct us that the correct attitude is hopelessness.  Well, “hope” is a prayer for rescue, offered by the powerless.  Only faith in ourselves can give us the courage to welcome an uncontrolled future, as the canvas where we will paint our achievements.  It also provides armor against distraction, and intimidation, which is why the Left is wasting its time by trying to rewrite the story of November 2010 in advance.

Cross-posted at Hot Air.

Doctor Zero: Year One now available from Amazon.com!

A staggering sum of money, so let’s try to make this number a little more understandable.

According to the 2009 IRS Data Book, there were 144,103,000 tax returns filed in 2009, but according to Scott A. Hodge of The Tax Foundation, 36% of those filing returns owed no taxes or received more money back in tax refunds than they actually paid into the system. This leaves 92,225,920 households in the U.S. to carry the tax burden PLUS pay for all of the credits that went to those with a negative tax liability.

Therefore, in 2009, only 92,225,920 households in this country actually can be considered taxpaying households. In order to pay off the current National Debt owed by the U.S., each tax paying household would need to write a check for $144,323.62.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that in 2009 there were 113,567,967 households in the U.S. of which 36% or 21,342,047 households pay no taxes or receive payments from the Federal Government through the tax code. This report also indicates that each household represents 2.54 individuals. Therefore, each member of tax paying households would have to pay $56,820.32 in a lump sum to pay off the Current National Debt. Once.

However, the U.S. Federal Budget Deficit now grows by at least $1,437,231,000,000.00 annually and at this rate each of the individuals who paid the $56,820.32 to clear the old debt would have to continue writing a check each year for an additional $6,135.36 just for the U.S. break even.

Scared yet?

Turns out these calculations are extremely conservative when compared to USDebtClock.org’s calculations. According to their chart, each citizen (taxpaying or otherwise) owes $43,061.00 and each taxpayer owes $120,379.00.

I suspect that the variation comes from differences in figuring out exactly who is a taxpayer. My calculations include dependent children and I’m guessing their calculations do not.

But, I think it is instructive to realize that if you are a husband and wife who gave birth to a child today, your child entered this world owing at least $56,820.32.

Sobering isn’t it?

The definition of insanity is to continue doing the same old things hoping for different results.

November 2nd is coming.

Are you ready to try some new ideas?

Click here to view the embedded video.

H/T: Breitbart.tv

I know that at the time I write this Barack Obama is backtracking from his comments as fast as he can. But the fact is, it is perfect clear to me that he believes what he said originally.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I believe his comments stand on their own and I probably do not need to add any additional comments, but I will make one observation:

Doesn’t it seem ironic that the man who has basically ripped The Constitution to shreds and has stepped on it every chance he’s gotten is now pointing to the Freedom of Religion found therein and the Founding Fathers who wrote it to back up his assertion that the mosque should be allowed to be built upon the hallowed ground where America lost 3,000 of their citizens?

I think everyone agrees that Muslims should be allowed to build mosques where they can worship however they want. But decency and respect for those who lost loved ones on that terrible day, should guide Muslims in choosing non-offensive locations for their houses of worship. Muslims claim that the mosque is in honor of those who died and a sign of friendship. Pardon me if I don’t believe in fairy tales.

I wonder what would happen if an American Church purchased property somewhere in Mecca to build a church? Would Muslims argue that Freedom of Religion should prevail?

If and when that ever happened, I might consider changing my mind about a mosque near Ground Zero.

But somehow, I don’t think I’ll ever have to.

The story continued:

…he warned of reliving a dreadful past, saying Republicans want voters “to be afraid of the future.”

“The worst thing we could do is to go back to the very same policies that created this mess in the first place,” Obama said at a fundraiser in Wisconsin. “In November, you’re going to have that choice.”

Sometimes, I just can’t fathom how stupid Obama must think the American people really are.

I found his words today remarkably hollow and ironic since he was the architect of change and hope in 2008, but look where we are now. With deficit spending at a record high, unemployment continuing to rise and a Democratic controlled House AND Senate, exactly who does he think we will really blame when we ask ourselves, “Are we better off now?”

Since most of the explosion of spending and crazy regulation has come at his hands and without Republican support, doesn’t that mean he’s in charge? I’ve known for a long time now that the buck didn’t stop at Obama and if there’s anyway possible for him to do so, he’ll blame Bush. He should consider legally changing his name to Barack “Blame Bush” Obama so that everytime they print his name in the history books, his name will reinforce the Blame Bush meme.

Here’s more of the story:

In Milwaukee, Obama spoke at a basketball arena to raise money for the state Democratic Party and for Tom Barrett, the city mayor who is running for governor in a competitive race. Campaign officials refused to say how much Obama raised. Lunch tickets cost $250, but getting a photo with the president could be had for $10,000 donation.

By nightfall, Obama was to be in Los Angeles for a glitzy fundraiser for Democratic congressional candidates at the home of television producer John Wells, whose hits include “The West Wing.” The event, which also features House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plus such Hollywood figures as Steven Spielberg, included ticket packages that cost $30,400 per couple.

The president is also raising money over the next two days for Sen. Patty Murray of Washington; Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio; and the Florida Democratic Party. By pairing official events each day with political ones, the White House can bill taxpayers for most of the cost of the trip, a tradition that predates Obama and one he plans to continue aggressively.

They wonder why we (the tea party members) are fed up with politicians in general, but the reason is clear. Look at the previous paragraph and you know that regardless of the words they say, access to the political elite is always gauged in terms of how much money you can put up. All over this country, campaigns are being run on shoestring budgets and real grassroots support. Quietly these campaigns are gaining ground because the people who are most able and willing to vote are working to make a stand in November and I do not believe the political elites even realize the depth of our anger and our resentment. They still don’t get us and they never will.

Obviously, campaign season has started, and as much as Obama continues to spout off about change, his actions appear to be the same old tripe we’ve been getting from politicians for far too long. This administration is off-the-tracks as far as the majority of Americans are concerned and no one wants to point out the elephant in the room. Obama is in over his head and his policies do not and will not work. They didn’t work for FDR and they won’t work for Obama. He may have packaged socialism in a bright wrapping paper and big red bow, but tape holding it all together is slowly coming undone.

Between now and November, Tea Parties all over this country will be ripping that wrapping paper off in shreds leaving the unvarnished truth in plain sight for everyone to see. The truth has a way of getting out no matter how hard you try to cover it up; a fact that Obama hasn’t learned yet.

The problem with the quote, “Don’t give in to fear, Let’s reach for hope” is that it doesn’t actually mean what Obama intended.

The truth is, Liberals are the real fearmongers and Conservatives are the only ones who can actually offer hope.

Check it out here: http://www.mytaxburden.org

Although this is just a tax estimator, it purports to show how you will fare under the three potential scenarios described above.

The mission of The Tax Foundation is to educate taxpayers about sound tax policy and the size of the tax burden borne by Americans at all levels of government. From its founding in 1937, the Tax Foundation has been grounded in the belief that the dissemination of basic information about government finance is the foundation of sound policy in a free society.

I do not know if this is an accurate source or not since I haven’t seen any real commentary on them from conservative bloggers, so perhaps we should do some testing of our own. I was tipped off to this tax calculator by the Mississippi Center for Public Policy and I suspect since their focus is on limited government, free markets and strong traditional families that the MCPP is at least fairly conservative in nature. 

So with that in mind, I went to the calculator and answered the few questions the calculator presented to me and ran the numbers. According to the results, if the Bush Tax Cuts are allowed to expire completely, my estimated tax burden would go up by about $1,200. However, according to the calculator if the budget proposed by Obama goes into effect which leaves some Bush tax cuts in place and drops others, my current taxes would go down by about $1,200.

Which for some reason leaves me feeling somewhat uneasy about the accuracy of the calculator. Isn’t it strange that the difference between the three scenarios is almost exactly $1,200 dollars in either direction? Why do I not feel more confident that Obama’s plan will cost me less money than Bush’s plan? Could it be that with Congress planning to spend almost $2 Trillion dollars to fund Health Care Reform, additional bail-outs, and covering the mortgage fiasco, I’m just a bit skittish about believing anything that sounds too good to be true from the current crop of legislators?

Go and try the calculator yourself and then come back and post your results in the comments section. Don’t post exact numbers, but try some different earnings scenarios and report on how your results vary.

I’m very curious to know how your situation fares and whether you have high confidence in this tax burden calculator.