Neal and Kermit

Royal and Kermit

The government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year.

Borrowing implies that it will one day be paid back. With interest. Actually, it has to be paid off. Much of that debt is owned by foreign governments. That debt will have to be repaid. Some of the debt is held by Americans ... and the government can easily just ignore that. After all ... the government owns us. We work at the pleasure and for the pleasure of the political class. Whatever wealth we produce, they own. In their infinite wisdom they'll allow you to keep just enough of your wealth to encourage you to keep working so that you can keep funding them. It will be the same for your children and your grandchildren. There's a huge multi-trillion debt to be paid ... thank goodness the government has the assets to cover that debt. Your children.

George Will had another excellent column over the weekend, and a listener brought this paragraph of that column to my attention.

In "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville anticipated people being governed by "an immense, tutelary power" determined to take "sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate." It would be a power "absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident and gentle," aiming for our happiness but wanting "to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness." It would, Tocqueville said, provide people security, anticipate their needs, direct their industries and divide their inheritances. It would envelop society in "a network of petty regulations -- complicated, minute and uniform." But softly: "It does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them" until people resemble "a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

Read it a couple of times. When you fully understand what de Tocqueville wrote find a government-educated friend and try to explain it to them. If you REALLY want a challenge find someone who voted for Obama - and has not come to regret that vote - and see if you can explain it to them.

Barack Obama announced yesterday that he wants to see 5,000 failing government schools closed and reopened with new principals and teachers. A few questions immediately come to mind.

Since Obama doesn't have the authority to do this, how exactly is he going to see that local school districts follow suit? Or will he expand his role as president to make sure this happens ... wouldn't shock me. Maybe he'll just withhold federal funding. That seems to work.

What the heck are these schools going to do with these teachers and principals in the meantime? Will they get paid not to work? Will they be fired? Will they be transferred? Fired? Did I say fired? No way. There will be some other government job for them somewhere. You don't expect them to survive in the private sector, do you?

That leads to the next, giant question ...

How long will it be before the teachers unions throw a fit? Unless their jobs are guaranteed ... I would give them minutes rather than hours to blow a union gasket.

My last question would have been how much money is the going to cost the taxpayers? But I managed to find the answer ... about a million dollars per school. Yep, Obama's budget sets aside up to $5 billion to facilitate this type of school turnarounds for failing government schools.

Here's an idea, Obama ... ever heard of a voucher or a private school? Rather than spending $5 billion to build more government schools, why not use that money to give students vouchers to attend the schools of their choice. That's what you and the First Lady did? Or here's another idea .. why not allow that money to be used by private companies or individuals or churches or what-have-you to build and run private schools. Just because you build a brand-new school doesn't mean that the education is going to be any better .. especially when you are dealing with government.

Unions rule in the education world, my friends. They're doing to the government schools what they did to our auto industry. We're just going to stand by and let them get away with it.

Have you heard about the standoff between California and the Obama administration? California's governor's office says that a politically powerful union has an inappropriate influence over the Obama administration. Why is that? Because the Obama administration decided to withhold billion of dollars in federal stimulus money until California reverses a wage cut for labor group workers. Now this wage cut between the California government and the home health care worker's union was negotiated. Both sides agreed. But the Service Employees International Union didn't like the idea of any union negotiating for a lower wage ... so they went to DC and complained to the government. Obama steps in and tells California that he is going to withhold $7 billion in federal funds unless the negotiated agreement is cancelled and the home health care workers get their money.

Governments run by unions. Change you can believe in.

As expected, the Obama administration revealed more changes to the tax code yesterday. Remember that it had to find ways to come up with more tax revenue because it miscalculated how expensive it is going to be for the government to bring healthcare to the people! One of the many ways the government plans to get more of your money is by closing tax loopholes for all those evil rich people ....

A senior administration official says, The proposals "take on what we believe are a series of unjustifiable loopholes, unjustifiable tax breaks that we simply cannot afford."

That who cannot afford? The imperial federal government? Is it entitled to this money that is earned by you, the taxpayers? What they are really saying is that this money belongs to us .. and we just can't afford to let the people who earned it keep it. We'll let them keep just enough to keep them working. Are you starting to "get it" folks?

Some Dallas, Texas schools are going to give students time off for performing well on tests. Looks like there's going to be a scarcity of Asian faces around these schools on some days.

Uh oh. That was racist, wasn't it?

The Mercatus Center of George Mason University has released a study ranking the states compared to their level of personal freedom. The results? Some of the most liberal US states rank the lowest when it comes to personal freedom. Lordy, what a surprise? The study says that it is the "first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres."

Here are some of its findings:

• The freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending -- and middling levels of regulation and paternalism.
• New York is the least overall free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland.
• When weighing personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear.
• As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall -- while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom.

In the age of Obama these disparities simply cannot be allowed to exist.

Here are the latest details on how the Obama administration plans to get its hands on the money you've sent overseas to escape our confiscatory taxation.

Just in case you weren't aware .. the US may have high budget deficits, but it is not Barack Obama's fault!

Politicians in Washington are hashing out the details of this new credit-card consumer bill of rights. Jury is still out for me on this.

When it comes to probes into the Bush interrogation techniques, the GOP now has something to throw in the Democrats' faces: Nancy Pelosi. What a hag.

Have you been following the back and forth right now over whether or not the country is more or less safe with Obama as president?

John McCain says that Obama does not have the authority to use TARP money intended for banks in order to bailout the auto industry.

The White House still believes that its stimulus plan is going to create 3.5 million jobs by 2011. Some economists beg to differ.

Is Washington going to bailout the newspaper industry? Kevin Hassett says that failed liberal newspapers should be allowed to fail.

Read this article about how your stimulus dollars are being spent, and then tell my why on earth you want government in charge of anything in your life.

The Justice Department has sounded the warning for corporate America that the government is going to "aggressively" investigate big firms that improperly dominate markets.

An upcoming war funding bill is set to include money to relocate inmates from Guantanamo Bay. Now the question is .. where are they going to go?

Florida Governor Charlie Christ is going to run for the Senate seat opening up due to the retirement of Mel Martinez.

Maybe this will explain a thing or two about why Congress is going to get away with this ridiculous cap-and-trade scheme ... only 24% of voters know what cap-and-trade actually is. What a surprise.

Here's a real shocker .. in the Arab world, Barack Obama is more popular than the United States.

White House officials want you to know that Wanda Sykes' joke about Rush Limbaugh was not funny. Got it?

Australia is worried about a potential sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and it is looking to the United States to learn from its mistakes.

Greece has barred Google Street View from taking any more images.

This is what some thug in Florida believes it takes to be a rapper. Gotta love that Hip Hop culture.

A Saudi judge has determined that a husband has the right to slap his wife for spending too much money.

The government wants to make sure that you know that attending a "swine flu party" is a bad idea. Just in case you couldn't figure that one out for yourself.