hugo chavez

Dear Presidente Chavez,

While it may be hard for you to believe,the greatest country in human history just beat your pathetically incompetant country in a contest based upon the U.S. National pastime.

Given the utter, and total, failure of your country in said game, why don't you submit to the United States and save us money while you're at it?

Sincerely,

Adam Cahn,

Austin, TX, US of Motherfucking A

Since none of our so-called leaders are going to present an alternative economic recovery package, I'll do it myself.  Items are in no particular order except the order in which they came to me.

1) Slash the Corporate Income Tax Rate to 15% - The United States currently has the Second Highest Corporate Tax Rate in the World.  This puts our companies at a gigantic competitive disadvantage internationally and retards both job growth and the stock market here at home.  Cutting corporate taxes will spur a business led investment boom in the United States.

2) Make Bush Reductions in Capital Gains and Dividends Permanent - While I would love to slash these grossly counterproductive rates further, that's not feasible politically at the moment.  The next best thing would be to send a permanent signal to financial markets.

3) Abolish the Employer Half of the Payroll Tax - As liberals frequently point out, 80% of taxpayers pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes.  They deserve a big tax cut.  This will also act as a major job creation mechanism.

4) Pass Colombia, South Korea, and Panama Free Trade Agreements - This move is more symbolic than substative, however, it is crucially important.  Passing these agreements would signal to our trading partners that the United States will not turn protectionist like we did in the 1930's.

Passing the Colombia agreement would also weaken an increasingly despotic Hugo Chavez.

5) Establish a 15% flat rate on All Income - This will leave Americans with more money to spend, invest, or do whatever the heck they want to do with it.  It will also do away with the deadweight loss from tax code complexity.  Many other Countries have done this successfully.

Should this prove politically unfeasable, we should still strive to do this for everyone except the top income tax bracket.

6) Create A National Market for Medical Insurance - Rising Medical Costs have been a major economic drag for the past decade.  While the reasons for this are worthy of their own blog post, creating a national market for Medical Insurance instead of 50 separate state markets is the easiest way to lower costs.

7) Drill, Baby, Drill - In addition to harming those nice guys in Tehran, Moscow, and Caracas, increased energy production at home will create oodles of jobs.  It might even make the auto bailout a moot point.

8) Immeadiate Expensing for Business Investment - This will also create a boom in business investment.

9) Boost Defense Spending - This is a policy I support for other reasons.  That said, defense spending has a higher Keynesian Multiplier than anything President Elect Obama is proposing.

10) Abolish the Alternative Maximum Tax - This wildly unfair tax should just be abolished.  I don't care about the rationale.

11) Abolish Sarbanes/Oxley - This onerous regulation, passed during the Enron panic, drives capital and businesses overseas without preventing fraud at home.  Repeal of SarBox would ignite a stock market boom!

12) Abolish Mark to Market - This obscure accounting rule forces companies unnecessarily to lower the value of their assets relative to what they could be sold for.  This was a major factor in the credit freeze.

13) Abolish the Death Tax - Any change in tax policy that both antagonizes liberals and hurts Warren Buffet must be a good idea.

Has finally caught up with the American Left. They've been cut off by Hugo Chavez

Citgo, the Venezuelan government’s Texas-based oil subsidiary, has suspended its free heating oil program for the poor in the United States, citing falling oil prices and the world economic crisis.The joint effort by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Citizens Energy Chairman Joseph Kennedy — the eldest son of late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — is a controversial program that provides fuel assistance to 400,000 households in 23 states.Connecticut was among the states the program delivered to last year, according to Citizens Energy.

Started in 2005 with Kennedy’s Citizens Energy, a Boston-based nonprofit aimed at reducing home heating costs for low-income and elderly residents, the program sent 100 gallons of free oil a year to eligible households, but drew fire from critics who said it was just a ploy by Chavez to undermine the Bush administration. 

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/01/06/business/c1-_citgo6.txt

New Haven's Mayor, lefter than left John DeStefano,  signed his city up for this program in 2006.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. --Low-income residents in the New Haven area are about to benefit from a reduced cost -- and politically contentious -- heating oil program intended to help defray skyrocketing fuel costs.

Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said Sunday that his office, with the Citizens Energy Corp. in Boston, has secured 4.8 million gallons of oil through the Venezuela-CITGO Heating Oil Program.

The program will provide discounted heating oil to New Haven residents whose eligibility is determined by low-income and heating assistance programs.

Discounted fuel from Venezuela, which is used in New York City and several Northeastern states, is seen by critics as a way to embarrass President Bush by Venezuela's leftist leader Hugo Chavez, who has frequently denounced Bush and U.S.-style capitalism.

Of course, please excuse me for thinking this really wasn;t about helping the less fortunate.

DeStefano, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, hopes to extend the program statewide. He wrote to Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Friday, informing her that Citizens Energy Corp. is seeking to work with Connecticut's network of 12 community action agencies that administer the state energy assistance program.

DeStefano's gubernatorial bid did not end well. Now his city is in dire straits.  And now he will have to let the state handle the energy assistance program with the normal federal dollars.

Maybe he should have lined up his oil supplies from someone a bit more reliable