Disincentives

Chris Banescu

President Obama has pledged more of your money to protect the unions and secure their vote. The administration demanded and got $26 billion taxpayer dollars to spare 300,000 teachers and other public workers from the unemployment lines.

The hundreds of billions of taxpayer money already spent by Obama and the Democrats since 2009 to pay off their union supporters was apparently not enough. Despite giving $100 billion in new funding to the Department of Education (DOE), courtesy of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, in addition to the $25 billion bailout that saved the GM and Chrysler auto union workers, more is needed to thank them for their continuing support and unquestioning loyalty.

The Senate passed the $26 billion bailout measure last week and the House approved it on Tuesday with overwhelimg Democrat support. Obama is expected to sign it quickly. The additional spending is partially paid for by reducing food stamps benefits to the poor.

The $26,000,000,000 required to protect 300,000 union jobs, works out to roughly $86,666 per job. This is an amazingly generous payoff to union workers, considering the average $56,100 yearly salaries of Americans working in the private sector.

Meanwhile the US economy continues to slow down, with the "official" unemployment rate holding steady at 9.5% and the underemployment rate (which includes part-time workers and those who have given up looking for a job) hovering around 17%.

More misery and uncertainty is in store for 15 million unemployed Americans. But government employees and union workers are experiencing unprecedented prosperity and job security under the protection of Obama's socialist policies.

Chris Banescu blogs at chrisbanescu.com.

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I never made $86,666 in any year in my entire working career, not even when I was concurrently a salaried "Advanced Systems Engineer" in civilian life and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

Last April, I paid my taxes as always, with visions of my money being used to patch cracks in the national highway system, find a cure for cancer, buy bullets to kill taliban. Instead, I've seen my money used to buy votes, buy influence, buy five star vacations, build mosques for the taliban.

This presents me with a very strong disincentive to pay any taxes next April. I don't particularly care to go to jail, although I would be willing to do that on principle and to cause the government the trouble and expense of providing me with food and healthcare. What I have been doing is disposing of chunks of my available cash by donating it to "Soldier's Angels" and the "Semper Fi Fund."

These two charitable organizations provide assistance and support to wounded GIs when they are medevaced out of Iraq or Afghanistan to Germany and then back to the U.S. You can contribute to help Soldiers or Marines or both. I spent some time in a big military hospital right after the Tet 1968 campaign. It was full of young Soldiers and Marines. These young people coming out of the desert are facing a life that's going to be significantly different than they had planned. Any help will be welcomed.