You didn’t think that state governments would rack up all of this debt without eventually coming after your money, did you? In 2011, dozens of U.S. states are either implementing tax increases that have already been passed or are debating new tax increases that have recently been proposed. In most states, the actual state income tax is not being raised. State politicians have learned that voters really tend to get angry when that happens. Rather, our politicians on the state level are looking for taxes and fees that won’t be “noticed” that they can raise. For example, cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, gas taxes, carbonated beverage taxes and phone taxes get raised a lot because the voters do not pay them directly to the government and typically they do not get noticed as much. Another huge area where state politicians love to raise money is through various “fees”. For instance, millions of Americans have noticed that car registration fees and license fees have absolutely soared in recent years. Instead of our politicians coming at us with one big, huge tax increase that we would surely notice, they are hitting us with dozens of smaller tax hikes and fee increases that they are hoping we will not get upset about. The truth is that the average American pays literally dozens of different kinds of taxes each year, and it still isn’t nearly enough to cover the horrific debts that our politicians have piled up. (Read More...)
8 Conspiracy Theories About Health That The Mainstream Media Has Been Forced To Admit Are Actually True
Who knows more about health – the mainstream media or those that believe in “conspiracy theories”? Well, the truth is that time after time after time those in the “alternative media” and those who believe in “conspiracy theories” have been proven to be far ahead of those in the mainstream media when it comes to matters of health. Sadly, the mainstream media receives so much funding and so many advertising dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, the medical industry, the big chemical companies and the health insurance industry that they are extremely cautious to report any information that would be harmful to any of them. So for years, the mainstream media generally refused to talk about the dangers posed by things such as fluoride, aspartame, prescription drugs, genetically modified crops and cell phones. But now the alternative media has been making so much noise about many of these health issues for so long that the mainstream media has been forced to acknowledge that some of these “conspiracy theories” about health are actually true. (Read More...)
For Millions Of Senior Citizens The Only Future They Have To Look Forward To Is One Filled With Debt And Poverty
In America today, millions upon millions of senior citizens are very deep in debt. In fact, more elderly Americans than ever before are going bankrupt. Millions of others are living in extreme poverty or are just barely getting by on meager fixed incomes. Meanwhile, the price of food is going up, the price of gasoline is going up, the cost of heating homes is going up and health insurance premiums are absolutely soaring. Millions of our senior citizens suddenly find themselves financially squeezed more than they ever have been in their entire lives. Unfortunately, at the same time all of this is happening, our government officials are realizing that they simply don’t have the money to keep the financial promises that they have been making to our retirees. Sadly, what this all means is that for millions of our senior citizens, the only future they have to look forward to is one filled with debt, poverty and financial pain. (Read More...)
Unfortunately, Obamacare Is Not Going To Be Repealed In 2010, It Is Not Going To Be Repealed In 2011 And There Is A Good Chance That It May Never Be Repealed
Right now the mainstream media is paying a lot of attention to the effort by Republicans in the House of Representatives to repeal the health care reform law that Barack Obama and the Democrats crammed down the throats of the American people during the last session of Congress. House Republicans are calling their legislation the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act”, and the House of Representatives is expected to pass the legislation on January 12th. However, there are two huge problems. One is that Democrats control the U.S. Senate and they have declared that there is not a chance in the world that a repeal of the health care reform law will get through them. Secondly, even if a repeal of the health care law did somehow magically get to Barack Obama’s desk, he has sworn that he would veto it. So unfortunately, Obamacare is not going to be repealed any time soon. (Read More...)
The American Dream: You Have GOT To See This Short Documentary About The Federal Reserve
Have you ever wondered how in the world you can explain complicated topics such as the Federal Reserve, fractional reserve banking and the creation of money in a way that your family and friends will actually understand? Well, the other day I was made aware of an amazing new 30 minute animated documentary entitled The American Dream. Considering the fact that this column is called “The American Dream”, that definitely got my attention, and when I sat down and watched the documentary I was absolutely amazed. What Tad Lumpkin and Harold Uhl have done is that they have created a very funny, very entertaining 30 minute cartoon that does an excellent job of explaining how our financial system really works and why the Federal Reserve is bad for America. (Read More...)
The Debt Ceiling Debate Really Doesn’t Matter – Either Way U.S. Government Finances Are Going To Crash
Congratulations America, you are now 14 trillion dollars in debt. The U.S. national debt is now more than 14 times larger than it was just 30 short years ago. The federal government is literally drowning in debt. Now some members of Congress are actually debating whether we should raise the debt ceiling again. At the moment, the U.S. government debt ceiling is is set at $14.294 trillion, and considering the fact that the U.S. government is borrowing approximately 2.63 million more dollars every single minute, that cap will be reached very quickly. The U.S. Congress has raised the federal debt ceiling six times in just the past three years, so you would think that raising it again would not be that big of a deal for our debt-addicted politicians. But this past November a significant number of Tea Party candidates were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and they are eager to prove that they are serious about fiscal responsibility. (Read More...)
Is The New Madrid Fault Earthquake Zone Coming To Life?
What in the world is happening in the middle of the United States right now? Thousands of birds are falling dead from the skies, tens of thousands of fish are washing up on shore dead, earthquakes are popping up in weird and unexpected places and people are starting to get really freaked out about all of this. Well, one theory is that the New Madrid fault zone is coming to life. The New Madrid fault zone is six times bigger than the San Andreas fault zone in California and it covers portions of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. The biggest earthquakes in the history of the United States were caused by the New Madrid fault. Now there are fears that the New Madrid fault zone could be coming to life again, and if a “killer earthquake” does strike it could change all of our lives forever. (Read More...)
30 Reasons Why 2011 Is Going To Be Another Crappy Year For America’s Middle Class
Do you think that 2011 will be a good year for America’s middle class? Well, you might not be so optimistic after you read the 30 statistics posted below. The truth is that 2011 is going to be another crappy year for America’s middle class, and there is not a whole lot that you or I can do about it. Sadly, what we are facing as a nation is not just a short-term economic downturn. Rather, there are some very serious long-term economic trends that are absolutely ripping apart the U.S. middle class. For example, did you know that even though our population has been growing at a brisk pace we have lost about ten percent of our middle class jobs over the past decade? The vast majority of jobs that have been created have been low paying service jobs. We now have hordes of highly educated young people that are waiting tables and that are welcoming customers to Wal-Mart. Without good paying jobs there is no middle class, but today American corporations are actually creating more jobs overseas than they are inside the United States. This has helped pad the profits of the big corporate fatcats, but it has been devastating for middle class communities across the United States. Every time a factory gets closed down in America and gets set up in some other country instead, it means that the U.S. middle class is shrinking just a little bit more. The new “global economy” has been good for the bottom line of the largest U.S. corporations, it has been great for countries like China and India, but it is absolutely wiping out the U.S. middle class. (Read More...)