Our President spoke today. I’ve reviewed the transcript. I count 45 lies, 7 misleading statements and 3 revelations of his hidden agenda. His speech today, as are most of his speeches, was a comprehensive attempt to mislead the American People. Here’s my take on it:

The President of the United States of America speaks: THE PRESIDENT: “Good afternoon, everybody. I just concluded a productive discussion with the leaders of both parties in Congress.” (One lie. One misleading statement)
REETZALITY: It was not a productive session. The president failed to set forth a single productive result from the meeting.
PRESIDENT: This was one of a series of regular meetings that I called for in the State of the Union because I think it’s important for us to come together and speak frankly about the challenges we face and to work through areas where we don’t agree; hopefully find some areas where we do. (Three lies)
REETZALITY: The President does not believe in coming together and he certainly doesn’t have the capability to speak frankly. If he did, he would reveal his agenda to socialize our nation and fundamentally transform us into something we are not. And Mr. President, “find some areas where we do” agree? Couldn’t you just have each side set forth their agenda and check for over-lap? Our president doesn’t believe in “reaching across the aisle” and for that I give him some credit. I wish some Republicans would act likewise like McCain, Graham, Snow, Collins and Brown. You don’t compromise on principles folks.
PRESIDENT: “Our conversation today focused on an issue that’s being discussed every day at kitchen tables across this country — and that’s how do we create jobs that people need to support their families.” (One misleading statement)

REETZALITY: Mr. President, you don’t create jobs, the private sector does. And just because you might loosen the noose strangling free enterprise doesn’t give you the right to take credit for what occurs with the limited freedom you’ve allowed. PRESIDENT: “I believe that starts with doing everything we can to support small businesses. These are the stores, the restaurants, the start-ups and other companies that create two out of every three new jobs in this country — and that grow into the big businesses that transform industries, here in America and around the world.” (One big lie)
REETZALITY: “Everything we can to support small business?” Really, you shoved your health care down our throats hurting small business. You passed financial reform, hurting small business. You are pushing cap and trade, hurting small business. You are running up debt to the extent that a drunken sailor now seems like a fiscal conservative, hurting small business. You love unions and card check, hurting small business. Thus, you are not doing “everything we can” to support small business.
PRESIDENT: But we know that many of these businesses still can’t get the loans and the capital they need to keep their doors open and hire new workers. (One misleading statement)
REETZALITY: But a lot of small businesses can get the capital, they just don’t want the risk of increased debt given the ominous uncertainty of your agenda. Also Mr. President, unlike your perception of how things work, small businesses not only require capital, they also require opportunity and incentive. The uncertain and ominous cloak of your agenda is killing opportunity and incentive.
PRESIDENT: “That’s why we’ve proposed steps to get them that help — eliminating capital gains taxes on investments, making it easier for small lenders to support small businesses, expanding successful SBA programs to help these businesses access the capital that they need.” (One misleading statement)
REETZALITY: Mr. President, American small business doesn’t want help, it wants liberty from excessive regulation, taxation, unionization, and government control. It is not so simple as just throwing money at the problem. I’ll give you a pass on this one Mr. President since you’ve yet to run a lemonade stand or make any sort of bottom line.
PRESIDENT: “This is how we create jobs — by investing in the innovators and entrepreneurs that have always driven our prosperity.” (Two misleading statements)
REETZALITY: Mr. President our prosperity is not driven by government, it is hindered by government. And for the second time, you don’t create jobs, the private sector does when it is inspired to produce. What inspires production? Profits, and your going to tax them big time. You are killing the inspiration. And do you even know any innovators and entrepreneurs? Didn’t think so, well unless count the Weather Underground and SDS folks as being entrepreneurial and innovative in their anti-Americanism.
PRESIDENT: “These are the kind of common-sense steps that folks from both parties have supported in the past — steps to cut taxes and spur private sector growth and investment. And I hope that in the coming days, we’ll once again find common ground and get this legislation passed. We shouldn’t let America’s small businesses be held hostage to partisan politics — and certainly not at this critical time.” (Three lies. One misleading statement)
REETZALITY: You just said “cut taxes” while your treasury secretary said, two days ago, that you were going to let the Bush tax cuts expire, thus raise taxes. Small business held hostage to partisan politics? Really, so if you all reach across the aisle and decide your “bi-partisan” expansion will be good for business, it will be? Keep dreaming Mr. President.
PRESIDENT: “We also talked about the need to move forward on energy reform. The Senate is now poised to act before the August recess, advancing legislation to respond to the BP oil spill and create new clean energy jobs.” (One agenda revelation)
REETZALITY: Great Mr. President. Rush through a bill that will be swarmed in earmarks and hidden agenda items before the August recess and that will help business? Wrong Mr. President.
PRESIDENT: “That legislation is an important step in the right direction. But I want to emphasize it’s only the first step. And I intend to keep pushing for broader reform, including climate legislation, because if we’ve learned anything from the tragedy in the Gulf, it’s that our current energy policy is unsustainable.” (Two lies)
REETZALITY: It is not an important step in the right direction. It is an awful step in the wrong direction. Cap and Trade, energy reform, what ever faux title you chose Mr. President, has proven every time it is implemented that it hinders free enterprise. As to learning from the Gulf Oil spill, what we have learned is that the government is incompetent in dealing with disasters, even incompetent in exploiting them for self interested nefarious political gain. Ostensibly, the government’s dealing with the Gulf Oil Spill demonstrated that the government can’t even get it right when it’s in their progressive agenda. Also, I don’t think you learned anything from the Gulf Oil Spill other than possibly refined your ability to exploit disaster in order to push your progressive agenda.
PRESIDENT: “And we can’t afford to stand by as our dependence on foreign oil deepens, as we keep on pumping out the deadly pollutants that threaten our air and our water and the lives and livelihoods of our people. And we can’t stand by as we let China race ahead to create the clean energy jobs and industries of the future. We should be developing those renewable energy sources, and creating those high-wage, high-skill jobs right here in the United States of America.” (Eleven lies)
REETZALITY: So Mr. President, then why are you proposing a moratorium on off shore drilling if you are so adverse to dependence on foreign oil? Why isn’t ANWAR opened for drilling? And Mr. President, this China Challenge, unbelievable. China is the world’s biggest polluter and they will continue to be so even when they do produce your mandated green products due to the shroud your policies have placed upon American free enterprise. What high wage, high skill jobs? Please tell me Mr. President. Just asking?
PRESIDENT: “That’s what comprehensive energy and climate reform would do. And that’s why I intend to keep pushing this issue forward.” (One global lie. One agenda revelation)
REETZALITY: No it’s not Mr. President. And let us be, to use your word, “Frank,” You have no idea or concern what comprehensive energy and climate reform would do other than this: It would further destroy American enterprise, increase government control, hurt freedom, and after that, again let’s be “Frank,” you don’t care.
PRESIDENT: “I also urged the House leaders to pass the necessary funding to support our efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I know much has been written about this in recent days as a result of the substantial leak of documents from Afghanistan covering a period from 2004 to 2009.”

REETZALITY: I can only decipher your desire to continue to nation build in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan by presuming your desire to bankrupt this country in order to create more need for your progressive government trumps your aversion to waging war against Muslims.
PRESIDENT: “While I’m concerned about the disclosure of sensitive information from the battlefield that could potentially jeopardize individuals or operations, the fact is these documents don’t reveal any issues that haven’t already informed our public debate on Afghanistan; indeed, they point to the same challenges that led me to conduct an extensive review of our policy last fall.” (Two lies-he hasn’t read the leaked documents)
REETZALITY: Am I getting this right Mr. President, near 100,000 documents and it’s no big deal?
PRESIDENT: “So let me underscore what I’ve said many times: For seven years, we failed to implement a strategy adequate to the challenge in this region, the region from which the 9/11 attacks were waged and other attacks against the United States and our friends and allies have been planned.” (One lie)
REETZALITY: O.K. Finally, the Bush bashing. Actually, we did get rid of the Taliban for a while, but we didn’t kill enough of them. And Mr. President, your rules of engagement are going to get more Americans killed. And what is your strategy? Counter-insurgency? Oh, I’m sure that’s going to work with a bunch of goat shepherds who grow a ton of opium on the side? Co-exist right? Another question, how do we have a viable strategy when you won’t even properly identify the enemy? You know, forgive me for saying such a reprehensible term, “radical Islamists.
PRESIDENT: “That’s why we’ve substantially increased our commitment there, insisted upon greater accountability from our partners in Afghanistan and Pakistan, developed a new strategy that can work, and put in place a team, including one of our finest generals, to execute that plan. Now we have to see that strategy through.” (Three lies)
REETZALITY: A couple of things here. You haven’t substantially increased our commitment, you actually low balled the request for troops. Last month 56 Americans were killed in Afghanistan. I hope you don’t consider that working. And again, some more “frank” speak, you don’t know if it will work.

PRESIDENT: “And as I told the leaders, I hope the House will act today to join the Senate, which voted unanimously in favor of this funding, to ensure that our troops have the resources they need and that we’re able to do what’s necessary for our national security.” (One lie)

REETZALITY: Her Mr. President, speaking of national security, how about closing the borders? Sorry, I thought you mentioned National Security.
PRESIDENT: “Finally, during our meeting today, I urged Senator McConnell and others in the Senate to work with us to fill the vacancies that continue to plague our judiciary. Right now, we’ve got nominees who’ve been waiting up to eight months to be confirmed as judges. Most of these folks were voted out of committee unanimously, or nearly unanimously, by both Democrats and Republicans. Both Democrats and Republicans agreed that they were qualified to serve. Nevertheless, some in the minority have used parliamentary procedures time and again to deny them a vote in the full Senate.” (One agenda revelation-install judges who are not deferential to the constitution)
REETZALITY: Mr. President, why don’t you try appointing folks who actually like and respect our constitution? I suspect this might be the hold up that is irritating you.
PRESIDENT: “If we want our judicial system to work — if we want to deliver justice in our courts — then we need judges on our benches. And I hope that in the coming months, we’ll be able to work together to ensure a timelier process in the Senate.” (One lie)
REETZALITY: Again Mr. President, appoint folks who adhere to constitutional principles and your problems will be solved.
PRESIDENT: “Now, we don’t have many days left before Congress is out for the year. And everyone understands that we’re less than 100 days from an election. It’s during this time that the noise and the chatter about who’s up in the polls and which party is ahead threatens to drown out just about everything else. But the folks we serve — who sent us here to serve, they sent us here for a reason. They sent us here to listen to their voices. They sent us here to represent their interests — not our own. They sent us here to lead. And I hope that in the coming months, we’ll do everything in our power to live up to that responsibility. Thanks very much. (Eight lies when he claims to want to live up to the responsibility)
REETZALITY: A great finale Mr. President. First, the noise and the chatter you are hearing is contempt for your policies. Secondly, You don’t listen to folks’ voices unless they agree with your radical agenda. Did you know Mr. President that the majority of Americans were against your health care bill, your financial reform, cap and trade, and your law suit against Arizona? Sure you do, but it doesn’t stop you from pushing your progressive agenda.
So folks, that’s my take on today’s propaganda from the Commander of Propoganda and that’s my Reetzality (2nd) for the day.
Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

The Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, H.R. 3590, also known as Obama Care, has a provision that requires all purchases from corporations over $600.00 to require a 1099 form to be issued by the purchaser, delivered to the seller, and provided to the government. On the most basic level, that’s three forms for every $600.00 transaction with a corporation. Here’s what Neil deMause, writing at CNN Money, said:

“The massive expansion of requirements for businesses to file 1099 tax forms that was hidden in the 2,409-page health reform bill took many by surprise when it came to light last month. But it’s just one piece of a years-long legislative stealth campaign to create ways for the federal government to track down unreported income. The result: A blizzard of new tax forms that the Internal Revenue Service will begin rolling out next year.

Starting in 2012, that changes. All business payments or purchases that exceed $600 in a calendar year will need to be accompanied by a 1099 filing. That means obtaining the taxpayer ID number of the individual or corporation you’re making the payment to, even if it’s a giant retailer like Staples or Best Buy, at the time of the transaction, or else facing IRS penalties.”

Tom Henschke, president of the Pennsylvania-based SMC Business Councils explains the extent of this new burden upon small businesses: “Just with business travel it would include hotels, rental cars. Phone service: 1099. Computer service: 1099. Whoever does your postage meter: 1099. You do a little advertising, Yellow Pages: 1099. Your landlord: 1099. You might as well just keep them in your pocket and hand them out as you go around every day.”

Boy this is great! Good work congress. Good work Mr. President. Just what the economy needs is more burdensome unprofitable paperwork to stimulate it. Of course the one business that will profit from this is government. It will need to grow and that is how government judges its profitability, it’s success, by its size and growth rate.

But it gets worse. Here’s the Reetzality: I predict this is the first step in installing a value added tax. The Obama governmetn wants to get the folks used to reporting transactions whether they be profitable or not, just report the transaction to the government thank you very much. Don’t worry, right? Apparently, generally accepted accounting principles aren’t sufficiently penetrable by Obama’s government to maximize its taking power. Why would the government care, if it’s only taxing profits? Why would the government care what a company purchases if the company isn’t making a taxable profit? One would think the government would not care. Are they going to advise us on our purchases? I think not. Are they going to regulate our purchases? Probably. In fact this provision does begin to regulate our purchases by cloaking purchases with government forms and bureaucracy.

But here’s the big concern: This Obama government is taking the first step to impose the value added tax. They are getting the folks used to viewing each and every transaction over $600.00 as a potentially taxable event by requiring a tax form, a 1099, to be submitted to the Internal Revenue Service. And then, when the time is right, when our government has imputed what it views as the adequate amount of desperation into our economy, when they have the right quantity of folks on the dole thanks to the government’s attack on our economy, it will suggest, “hey, why not impose a sort of value added tax to help pay for the folks our policies have unemployed? I mean, we’ve already got folks filing 1099’s when they make purchases? Let’s have them throw a little cabbage in the envelope when they send it in.”

Of course, they won’t call it a value added tax. That is too unmarketable a title. Maybe they’ll call it the “Deferred Internal Revenue Enhancer.” DIRE for short. Also of course, don’t bet on the $600.00 threshold holding firm.

This is what I’m predicting. This is what I’m betting on. This is why such a ridiculously burdensome provision is in Obama Care. Folks, get smart on the stealth attack on our country from within, because it’s coming on strong. This is more evidence of this fact.

That’s my Reetzality for the day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Is there anything our President likes about America other than leisurely destroying it? I’m searching for an answer, trying to find something that our President not only says he likes, but something he acts like he likes. Let’s run a list. Here goes.

Free Enterprise: No way does our President likes free enterprise. He says he does but his actions betray his words. He bailed out the banks, the auto industry, AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He wants hyper control over our financial system. He is drooling over the possibility of shutting down the oil industry. He is in favor of the redistribution of wealth. He actually believes the Constitution is flawed because it does not address “redistributive justice,” his words. He is in favor of Cap and Trade which will be a monumental shroud on free enterprise, and freedom itself in that Cap and Trades’ tendrils will reach right down to a persons domicile. Nope, our President is not an advocate of free enterprise.

Border Control and Security: Our President does not want our borders controlled. He says he does but refuses to act until we get “comprehensive” immigration policy. Unfortunately, “comprehensive,” to him, means amnesty for thirteen million illegal aliens and probably a lot more. He still hasn’t made good on his promise to Arizona to send 1200 National Guardsmen to the border, actually breaking his promise of doing so within two weeks after the meeting with the Arizona Governor. Let’s face it folks, our President does not even view the very land we occupy as worthy of protection. As to National Security, he nixed the missile defense system in Eastern Europe. He has done nothing to keep Iran non-nuclear. He’s cutting defense spending. He wants to treat foreign terrorists as common criminals, trying them in criminal courts rather than military tribunals. He won’t even use the phrase “Islamic Extremist.” You know those guys who are willing to die to destroy us.

Self Reliance: Our President does not respect self-reliance. Redistributive Justice does not co-exist with self-reliance. His health care bill does not co-exist with self-reliance. He believes it is the government’s job and duty to provide and not the individual’s responsibility. He believes it’s government’s fault if you don’t own a house, have a job, have health care, can’t afford education, don’t have insurance, not the individual’s fault.

American Exceptionalism: Our President does not believe we are exceptional. Actually, we’re just human, but we’ve been blessed with a nation that was founded on freedom and liberty which allowed us to actualize and be exceptional. But does our President praise this truth? No. He apologizes to the world for our behavior. He ignores our principles and wants us to be more like other nations, that Mr. President, in case you haven’t watched the news of late, are failing. He does not like the idea of a nation with our principles dominating the world, or even leading it for that matter. And that says a lot about the man because if you don’t like us leading with our principles, then you don’t understand the magnificence of our principles.

Environment: The Gulf Oil Spill reveals that our President doesn’t care too much about the environment. He views the Gulf Oil Spill as an opportunity to impose his priorities of more regulation, less freedom (pass Cap and Trade) and less free enterprise rather than a dire call to action to save the environment. He views the Gulf Oil Spill as a “fat pitch” to further attack free enterprise, all the while, actually thwarting the efforts to thwart the environmental impact of the spill. He took two weeks to respond to Louisiana’s request to build barrier islands. He turned down offers of help to deal with the oil spill from thirteen nations. Under his rule, the coast guard moth balled skimmers in order to make sure they met government regulations, further delaying remedial measures to save the environment. His only non-urban activity is golf and that’s not saying much. Cap and Trade won’t fix the environment. China and India aren’t signing on and even if they did, Cap and Trade only imposes more government. Scientifically, there is no evidence that it will do anything for the environment.

State’s Rights: He is suing Arizona for exercising their state’s rights. He does not like State’s rights, the very right that is set forth to create a sort of governmental competition. The very right that allows state’s to innovate in their policies in an attempt to improve life. He doesn’t agree with a state’s right to ban abortion.

Free Speech: He doesn’t like it. He attacks free expression regularly, even going so far as to say that free expression gets in the way of progress. He appointed Justice Kagen who is no fan of the First Amendment, who believes that there should be a redistribution of free expression which means government control. He is in favor of the Fairness Doctrine which in classic Ayn Randian style, has nothing to do with fairness but rather equality of points of view which means, government control of speech. He is in favor of net neutrality, meaning more government control, less free speech.

The Right to Bear Arms: He does not believe in the Second Amendment. His votes in the Illinois Legislature prove this.

What’s left? Does it even matter? By having contempt for the principles stated above, does one even need to go further? It’s akin to saying, “I like Nuclear Reactors, I’m just not fond of the nuclear reaction that goes on inside.” You cannot love America and what it stands for if you don’t stand for the American Principles. And our President does not stand for the American Principles. It’s as plain as day. He says it. He acts upon his words. He has contempt for those who disagree. We have enough information to finalize the diagnosis.

Folks, his rhetoric sounded good during the campaign. But now, at this critical time, it is imperative to realize and act upon the truth that it was just rhetoric, nothing more. He doesn’t like our country and if you don’t join him in his effort to destroy that which made us great, he doesn’t like you. And folks, here’s the kicker: He not only doesn’t like America, what he really doesn’t like is our freedom to save it. Freedom is his nemesis. Freedom is the stalking horse that threatens his skewed un-American vision. Freedom is what he really despises.

On a psychological note, a note based upon my observations and education, if a child is raised by an abusive parent, it is likely that the child will be grow up to be an abusive parent as well. This is particularly true with sexual abuse. It is called the Cycle of Sexual Abuse. Here’s the reach. Our President views his history, whether it is the cultural African American history or his history personally, as abusive and unfair. Is there a possibility that he is metaphorically the abused child playing his role in the cycle of abuse? To him, America wasn’t that good to him. (Rather amazing, he became President) He had a broken home. He was raised by a cacophony of anti-American mentors. He was bounced around from place to place, home to home. And now he’s an adult, repeating the anti-American mantra through his words, but more so through his actions. Is this the case? It sure seems like it, but I’m just asking.

So, going back to the premise of this piece, what is it that our President likes about this country? I come up with not a single fundamental American thing. I am not saying that he isn’t enjoying the fruits of our Nation’s labor. He is, but the fruits, the opulence he enjoys is not an American Principle. All dictators live opulent lives by the way. Opulence has nothing to do with American Principles. Opulence is a by-product but not a fundamental of Americanism. So please don’t argue that he loves America because he appreciates the opulence it has bestowed upon him. To love America is to love its principles. And he does not. And that is the dire dilemma that faces us today.

That’s my Reetzality for the Day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, said Moscow was bidding to help lead efforts to build a new world economic order after the old system collapsed in the global financial crisis. Mr Medvedev said the renewed interest in Russia this year was a sign of a changing world in which the institutions of the western-dominated world order had had their day amid thousands of corporate defaults and the threat of sovereign defaults.
Medvedev said, “What had seemed untouchable has collapsed. The bubbles that created the illusion of flourishing economies have burst. And we should use it to build a modern, flourishing and strong Russia … which will be a co-founder of the new world economic order and a full participant in the collective political leadership of the post-crisis world.”
That’s just great. Russia is now vying to lead the world economy. Now, I’m not faulting Dmitry. I don’t fault ambition, ever. But I am going to do some “faulting” here. Here’s what I’m going to fault. Western Government, that’s what.

Two points to consider Dmitry. One, the free market didn’t fail. Two, Western Government failed. Yes, we are in a global recession. Yes, times have been tough.

But mind you Dmitry, the vast, vast, vast majority of failures have been directly tied to government. Let’s check it out. AIG? Credit default swaps unregulated by government, thank you Lindsey Grahm and President Clinton. Financial Crisis on Wall Street? Community Redevelopment Act, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, are the root causes. The auto industry? Government imposed café standards and unions. Steel Industry? Unions and regulation caused its demise. Real estate market crash? Again, Community Redevelopment Act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Outlandish corporate risks gone bad? Enabled by government bail outs.

But the biggest failure? Government? Which one? Pick. U.S., Greece, Spain, Portugal, U.K., Ireland, Japan. Every one of them simply spent more than they took in and bankrupted themselves, except they don’t have to go bankrupt, they can tax. The problem is that when they tax they kill the host that their parasitic nature depends on. They kill the private sector which when you look at the portion of the private sector that is not tethered, buoyed or inflated by government, that portion is doing all right, even in these disastrous times. But even the portion of the private sector that isn’t attached to the wet teet of government will be crushed if government takes much more of the productivity.

And that’s the plan, to take more, to redistribute more, to further slash liberty to the bare. Every nation, every leader needs a kick in the head. They need to be forced to objectively review history and admit that they are wrong in their pursuits. They need to accept the fact that government, more often than not, is not the solution, it’s the problem. Government is unaccountable and suffers little consequence, thus they routinely fail as they are now. This isn’t new. This is the same old story.

Come on readers. How’s our government doing on the Gulf Oil Spill? How is our government doing on the illegal alien problem? Our government couldn’t even run Arlington National Cemetery correctly. If you didn’t see the news today, they found a pile of head stones in a creek bed and were recently found to be burying veterans on top of other veterans. It is rather ironic that our government can’t even manage to run a burial appropriately while at the same time, pushing us in a direction where it’s going to need it’s own burial. There’s more. Social Security? Bankrupt. Medicare? Bankrupt. Medicaid? Bankrupt. Our future, bankrupt. (If we don’t act fast). We have 113 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities crashing down on us. If we don’t change, we are dooming ourselves and our children and our children’s children. Shame on us.

Yet, I’ll give Dmitry this: He’s on the right track. He said this too: “Russia needs a real investment boom”, in order to achieve its modernization goals, he said. To stimulate that, Mr Medvedev announced Moscow would introduce zero taxation on capital gains for companies working on long-term investments starting from January next year and said Russia was improving the legal system to provide better protection for businesses against the long arm of bureaucracy.

Wow, we won the cold war only to be out libertied by the Ruskies! Now that’s down right embarrassing.

Wake up folks. Government is the problem. It’s a cancer, and it’s killing us. We need to get it under control. We need to shrink the tumor or learn to speak Russian or maybe Chinese.

That’s my Reetzality for the day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Obama is still playing the metaphorical role of the parent who spoils, enables, and ultimately ruins his children. The metaphor is this; the parent is the President, the children are Americans. On Saturday, Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid “massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters” and to support the still-fragile economic recovery. Rahm Emanuel said,”While some people say you have to spend and some people say you have to cut, the president wants to talk about both cuts and investing,” There’s some of the old audacity, characterizing “spending” as “investing.” (Government spending has a negative multiplier effect which means the economy shrinks by more than a dollar when the government spends a dollar.)

The federal government needs to stop borrowing money, mostly from China, and start existing within its means. The Federal Government has a monumental cash flow problem meaning the money coming in is less than the money going out. Yet, the current administration could care less. The stimulus did not stop a free fall. It protected government workers who make substantially more than the private sector.

As reported in the USA TODAY by Dennis Cauchon on March 8th, 2010, “Federal employees earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers in more than eight out of 10 occupations, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds. Accountants, nurses, chemists, surveyors, cooks, clerks and janitors are among the wide range of jobs that get paid more on average in the federal government than in the private sector. Overall, federal workers earned an average salary of $67,691 in 2008 for occupations that exist both in government and the private sector, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The average pay for the same mix of jobs in the private sector was $60,046 in 2008, the most recent data available. These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.”

Here’s some Reetzality: According to the USA TODAY analysis, the over-all cost, what “public servants” earn, of a public sector job including benefits is $38,548.00 more than an equivalent private sector job. Well not entirely equivalent. Public sector employees don’t work as hard, aren’t as accountable, and don’t get fired as easily as private sector workers. Glenn Beck is encouraging us to read the Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek which is an influential exposition of classical liberalism. I looked up the word Serf for the literal definition. It is, according to Webster’s, “1. A person in a condition of feudal servitude, required to render services to a lord, commonly attached to the lord’s land and transferred with it from one owner to another. 2. A slave.” Sadly, I think we’re nearing the end of this particular road. We are required to render. Our burden to render is passed from one political class to another. Do we really own our land? Just stop paying the king, I mean the government and see how long you can call home, home. And the kings’ men, I mean the public sector employees, are getting compensated more than the private sector. They are receiving more wealth than the folks actually producing the wealth. And isn’t being forced to pay near fifty percent of a person’s productivity in taxes, whether state, federal, local, property, sales, fuel, personal property, license fees, etc., effectively a partial violation of the Thirteenth Amendment? Doesn’t that make a person half a slave? Well maybe not. We don’t have to work. We can go Surfing. Maybe it’s only share cropper status government is imposing.

Back to serious. The private sector is still collapsing under the present weight of government and the fear of the future increased weight of government and Obama wants to bail out government. Hey President, how about cutting government. How about doing what any private sector enterprise would do when faced with a budget crisis, across the board cuts in wages? Or if your minions in your teachers unions, police and fire fighter unions and the AEIU don’t like it, lay some of them off. Trust me Mr. President, we in the private sector will survive. Further more, these are state entities you are bailing out. Why not allow the States to resolve their own problems? Why continue to enable a failing and likely soon to actually fail top heavy government bloated system that continues to usurp the people’s liberties, principles, perseverance, ingenuity, and optimism? Here’s why. Obama is a bad President, behaving just like a bad parent. He is the parent who keeps saying, “This is the last warning! This is the last time. If you ______________ (fill in the blank with any adolescent transgression) one more time, I will ______________ (fill in the blank with any punishment).” Then, when the bad parent’s child once again commits a transgression, he again enables the child by not imposing consequences. Consider this: Wage cuts in government are almost historically non-existent. Thus, now when we need them, when our future depends on a smaller government (or learning Chinese), government workers will have no part of it. Government workers will behave just like a spoiled child who is facing the imposition of a rarely, if ever, imposed consequence. They will throw a tantrum. And the parent, our President, will come to their aid, blame others, probably George Bush, and do anything he can to commandeer the wet teet into their mouths, further damaging the future.

In fact, this is exactly what he is doing right now. He said so yesterday. I am not making a prognosis here. I am making a diagnosis. Sticking with the parenthood comparison, my experience is that when a parent spoils, enables, and comprehensively fails to raise a child of much merit, eventually, notwithstanding the contempt for the child’s behavior, the parent is held to be responsible. The parent is the bad guy. The children are the ones who suffer. Obama is the parent. Americans are the children. Maybe Obama needs to read some Dr. Spock. It seems like he’s reading Dr. Seuss.

That’s my Reetzality for the day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

June 4 (Bloomberg) – President Barack Obama is poised to increase the U.S. debt to a level that exceeds the value of the nation’s annual economic output, a step toward what Bill Gross called a “debt super cycle.” Bill Gross is the co-chief investment officer and manager of the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. said yesterday the unemployment rate may rise to 10 percent within the next several months with job growth “anemic.” “Over the long term, interest rates on government debt will likely have to rise to attract investors,” said Hiroki Shimaru, a market economist in Tokyo at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc., a unit of Japan’s third-largest publicly traded bank. “That will be a big burden on the government and the people.” (U.S.’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP: Chart of Day, by Garfield Reynolds and Wes Goodman, Bloomberg)

“The market was assuming that the private sector was coming back, but obviously we’ve seen none of that,” Gross said in a radio interview on Bloomberg Surveillance with Tom Keene.
Geithner also singled out Europe as a region needing to push forward with financial regulation reform. “Further progress on financial repair is critical to global economic recovery,” he wrote. “This requires, particularly in parts of Europe, further efforts to restructure and recapitalize the banking system.” In the U.S., where personal savings is increasing and Congress is close to passing legislation overhauling financial rules, “we are meeting our responsibility,” Geithner told reporters in Washington June 2.

The savings rate in the U.S. climbed to 3.6 percent in April, the highest level since January, from 3.1 percent in March as incomes increased and purchases cooled, according to Commerce Department figures released May 29.

June 7 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. economy may be headed for a slowdown reminiscent of the one it suffered in 2002 as the sovereign-debt crisis in Europe, fading government support and persistently high Joblessness weigh on expansion in the second half of the year.
Economists have begun to lower their forecasts for the first time since the recovery began in the middle of 2009. Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics, and Michael Moran chief economist at Daiwa Capital Markets America in New York, said they now see annualized growth of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent in July-December, down from around 3 percent previously. “The risks to the recovery are growing,” the New York- based Sinai said. “We’ve raised the odds of a double-dip recession to one in four from one in 20.”
“Markets had excessively bought into the possibility of a V-shaped rebound driven by a self-sustaining private-sector recovery,” Mohamed El-Erian chief executive officer of Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., manager of the world’s largest bond fund, said in an e-mail. That view “is starting to be visibly and increasingly challenged by the multiplying facts and realities on the ground.” The latest came on June 4, when the Labor Department reported that private-sector employers added 41,000 jobs to their payrolls in May, down from 218,000 in April and well below the 180,000 median forecast by 35 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. While the unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent, it’s remained above 9 percent. (U.S. Rebound Seen Slowing Most Since 2002 on Europe Debt Woes by Rich Miller, Bloomberg)

O.K., ON TO REETZALITY. There’s the financial news of the day. The European Union is on the brink of failure, Greece has failed, Hungary is facing default, said Viktor Orban who then changed his tune when Hungary’s currency, the Forint fell 4.8% in two days, destroying his credibility. Portugal, Spain, England, Ireland and the United States are “coming on strong” in the race to fail. Things are not looking good folks no matter what President Obama says about the recent job growth which only included 41,000 private sector jobs which barely keeps up with population growth. (Either an amazing lie or an amazing ignorance on his part. New jobs are compared to increased population; thus true job growth requires an increase in the percentage of employed persons to the actual population to increase.) We are in trouble, big time.

Here’s why we are in trouble: Insane government policies of redistribution of wealth! Governments throughout the world have made endless commitments to take care of people and industries, addicting its masses to the government teet. In doing so, governments have thwarted individuals’ ability to take care of themselves. Governments have reared generations of dependents rather than independents. They have done so through liberal policies of government handouts to individuals, corporations and unions. They have taxed people, either directly or indirectly (see license fees, excessive regulation, hidden taxes, value added taxes, Obama care, etc.) and threaten to tax and regulate more (see EU meetings and listen to President Obama). They have taxed us to the point that we are now partial metaphorical slaves, handing over in some cases more than fifty percent of our productivity to government so they can redistribute it, take our earnings, our wealth, and giving it to somebody else. Now, the true private sector, the corporations not in bed with government, the traditional family, the small business, these entities are doing what they should be doing, and rightfully so; they are preparing for the worst part of the storm. Folks are saving more. Folks are not spending as much. Companies are not hiring. Folks will be leaving the equities market or hedging against the predicted and ominous free fall. The world economy is faultering. It is on the brink of disaster. Let me rephrase the last sentence. We are on the brink of accepting the reality that we are in a disaster. The disaster started a long time ago.

We will begin to see government pensions fail. As reported by David Cho, a Washington Post staff writer, October 11, 2009, “The financial crisis has blown a hole in the rosy forecasts of pension funds that cover teachers, police officers and other government employees, casting into doubt as never before whether these public systems will be able to keep their promises to future generations of retirees.” See also http://www.pensiontsunami.com/. The fact is, financially government pensions have already failed. They are broke because the governments that run them, federal, state and local, have not only taxed the private sector to pay for them, but then, in a way, double dipped and took, they call it borrowed, the pension reserves to again redistribute the wealth, the same actual wealth, a second time.

Government has anesthetized the private sector which is not the best metaphor because although the private sector is hunkering down, hibernating, it is doing so consciously as a defensive measure to governments’ reckless spend and tax policies.

Here’s more Reetzality, a prediction in part and also an observation. The private sector is going to decouple from the public sector. Decoupling is a financial term. Decoupling is a situation in which returns on two assets or asset classes that normally move together move separately. For example, oil and natural gas prices usually move together: when one goes up, so does the other, and vice versa. Likewise, stocks and corporate bonds usually behave the same way. Decoupling in both cases occurs when oil moves in one direction while natural gas moves in the opposite, or when stocks’ and corporate bonds’ returns diverge.

Unfortunately, but it’s the Reetzality for the day, the public and private sector are not asset classes in the literal sense. Therefore, I am opining on a more ominous decoupling. The private sector has lost all faith in the public sector. The true private sector, the portion that is not in bed with government, unlike Wall Street, the auto industry, unions, etc., is decoupling itself from the government. Folks are sheltering their productivity, not spending when the government attempts to get them to spend through faux stimulus plans, saving more, getting out of the market, working for cash, trading goods and services to avoid taxes and generally as stated previously, hunkering down for the worst of the storm. The private sector is decoupling.

Here’s the problem with that: As the governments’ reckless, disastrous and wrongful policies manifest in failure, as government workers (see Greece) protest the bankruptcy of their employers, the governments, governments will come for the private sectors money. Governments will hijack even more of the private sectors’ productivity. I’m not certain that the private sector will tolerate this ominous Reetzality. I am not suggesting that there will be an actual revolution. I am suggesting that the private sector will say that it has had enough and will civilly revolt through the vote, through increased frugality and through government avoidance policies. The private sector will say, “No thank you government, we’ve helped enough. Time for you to accept responsibility for yourself. Be sure to tell your people.”

And let me tell you this, the government will not like this one bit. The government will blame the private sector. The government will refuse to acknowledge the real crisis which is not financial, not health care, not energy, not private debt, not education, not hunger, not anything other than a single crisis that has a redundant history, a Government Crisis. (See Rome, Greece, U.S.S.R.) Until our “leaders” accept responsibility for their policies and turn to the dependents they’ve been spoiling for generations and tell their dependents that they can’t afford it anymore, times they are a changing, things won’t get better. And if they don’t? Well then my readers, history will repeat itself and we will have a comprehensive collapse of the world economy.

God save our Children.

That’s my Reetzality for the day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Note: Thank you Bloomberg for your resources. You are an honest news source indeed.

The Obama administration wants to build infrastructure. They say that infrastructure is our problem. We need, bridges, public works, high speed internet, high speed rail, and if we get these things, bingo, the economy will get great, it will rebound. That’s what they say. The problem is that they are supporting the wrong infrastructure. Let me ask this question; can you point to a foundering economy that is foundering because it doesn’t have a bridge, a new public works project, high speed internet, or high speed rail? Nope. Well that’s revealing if not ridiculous. These Obamafites think that if we spend more money on their infrastructure, then things will get better. Wrong. Here’s the problem. They are betting on the wrong infrastructure.

The infrastructure we need is not material. It is not a bridge or a damn or a high speed internet, it is fundamental, it is our principles. That’s the infrastructure that needs rebuilding because right now, it’s broken. Given the current political leadership, values and traits like honesty, responsibility, consequence, and more, are broken. They are almost non-existent. American Business wants a rebuilding of the infrastructure, but not the false infrastructure the Obama administration tenders, the real infrastructure, the values. American business wants the fundamental principles that made our country great returned.

Nobody cares about a bridge or a rail or high speed internet, they care about principles. I.E. If I take a risk and make some money, will Obama take it away from me? Will my success be punished? Those are the true infrastructure questions. And Obama doesn’t get it, he doesn’t respect it, he has contempt for it, because Obama loves Government. That is his environment. His environment is not a place where there is accountability, responsibility, consequence. He has never so much as run a lemonade stand. And yet he is in charge.

And he doesn’t understand that the true efficacious infrastructure that we as Americans are longing for is liberty, the ability to succeed and keep our spoils and the ability to fail and pay the consequences. He is intent on building the wrong infrastructure. Come on guys, spirit, ingenuity, liberty and drive built the Hoover damn, not some government program. Spirit, ingenuity, liberty and drive built Microsoft. Not some bridge, not some government program. Individual spirit built it all. And yet, this administration is warped and stupid enough to believe that productivity is an offspring of government.

We need infrastructure rebuilding but not the one that Obama is pushing. It isn’t even infrastructure that he’s pushing, it’s suppression. What we need is to rebuild (re-vibrate) is the true infrastructure in this nation which is opportunity, hope, ingenuity, profit, success, responsibility and more. Not bridges, not government programs, not anything inspired by government other than government going into the back room and leaving us alone. Then we will again have prosperity. Like Rush Limbaugh, I pray Obama fails, just like you’d pray a mass murderer intent on killing your family would fail. What is the saying? Death by a thousand cuts? We’re there. Time to fight back.

That’s my Reetzality for the day. I’m all for infrastructure, just the right infrastructure. (Not Obama’s)

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

President Obama, during Thursday’s (May 27, 2010) press conference, said that every morning when he’s shaving, his daughter comes in and asks, “Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?” It is reported that Glenn Beck hit a new low by mocking this asserted inquiry of Malia, President Obama’s daughter. I disagree. Here are my thoughts as to why I do not think Glenn Beck was mocking Malia Obama:

1. I do not believe the question was asked by Malia Obama. In order for her to ask the question, President Obama would have to be posing the problem of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico as his responsibility. He would have to have been telling his daughter, literally and only, “I have to plug a hole.” It is inconsistent with President Obama to ever leave any doubt laying around that something might be his fault. He would have tagged his mission to “plug the hole” with some blame gaming.

2. It is inconsistent with President Obama to take responsibility for anything without first blaming somebody else. If you have to bet on the “somebody else,” put your money on George Bush. So, if acting in character, and if actually consulting with his daughter Malia, he would have said, something akin to “I have to plug the hole George Bush caused,” or “I have to plug the hole the Oil industry caused.” Thus, his daughter would have asked, “Did you plug the hole George Bush caused, Daddy?” Or maybe, “Did you plug the hole the oil industry caused, Daddy?” Or “Did you plug the hole Republicans caused, Daddy?” Or even, “Did you plug the hole that unregulated free enterprise caused, Daddy?” Now if these were the question his daughter asked, I’d believe the story.

3. Consistent with President Obama’s inability to accept responsibility on steps one and two of crisis management (Step one: What happened and who is at fault? Step two: What is the solution and who’s going to be responsible for the solution?) and President Obama’s narcissistic inability not to take credit for the third step, the actual solution, there is no way he would allow his daughter to surmise that if he didn’t “plug the hole,” it would be his fault. Nothing is his fault according to him. I’ve wracked my brain and I can’t come up with a single example of him taking the blame for anything. On the other hand, and in the opposite, he does have an inclination to take credit for most everything, regardless of two important points of consideration. POINT 1. Did he actually do anything allowing him to take credit? POINT 2. Is there anything for which he can take credit? As an example, see the economy. Notwithstanding the Stimulus Package’s failure to keep unemployment at 8%, President Obama is taking credit for an improved economy that is not improved.

4. Even if his daughter did ask such a question, and if President Obama told the entire story of the routine morning dialogue with Malia, he would have told us of his response, which if the story is to be believed, would have been, “What hole are you referring to Malia?”

Because, and this is a transitional paragraph, President Obama has a lot of holes to plug. He has the economy hole which is going down the drain due primarily to the tangible fear of business of Obama’s policies. He has the national debt hole. It is almost literally off the charts. He has the foreign policy hole. His apology tour didn’t work. North and South Korea are no longer hugging. Iran is going nuclear. Israel is miffed at us. He has the war hole. No end in sight. He has the immigration hole. Huge numbers of illegals are leaking in. And he has the Joe Sestak hole, the primary point of my commentary today. Here goes:

Here’s the news: Former President Bill Clinton was tasked by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to make an approach to Rep. Joe Sestak — allegedly offering him an unpaid advisory role on an intelligence board in exchange for getting him to drop his primary bid against Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.). Rep. Joe Sestak says he declined the offer. This stinks of tripe in so many ways. No way. Here’s why it is nothing more than a cheap charade.

QUESTION NUMBER ONE: Who would go to a candidate in a senatorial race and offer him an unpaid job in exchange for pulling out of a race?

ANSWER NUMBER ONE: Nobody.

QUESTION NUMBER TWO: Why would Joe Sestak state that he was offered a “job” when, if you believe the White House, it was an unpaid position?

ANSWER NUMBER TWO: He wouldn’t.

QUESTION NUMBER THREE: If it was so legal, innocent (and worthless) a proposal, why wouldn’t Joe Sestak reveal its details?

ANSWER NUMBER THREE: Because it wasn’t so legal, innocent and worthless a proposal?

QUESTION NUMBER FOUR: If it was so legal, innocent (and worthless) a proposal, why wouldn’t the White House reveal the details?

ANSWER NUMBER FOUR: Because it wasn’t so legal, innocent and worthless a proposal?

QUESTION NUMBER FIVE: If it was so innocent (and worthless) a proposal, why did the White House employ Bill Clinton as a go between to make the offer?

ANSWER NUMBER FIVE: Because it wasn’t so legal, innocent and worthless a proposal?

QUESTION NUMBER SIX: Given the merits of the alleged proposal, give up your costly senate race and the White House will give you an unpaid position, would Bill Clinton actually go to Joe Sestak and make such a proposal?

ANSWER NUMBER SIX: No way. He would have laughed in their face and said, (think Bill Clinton’s voice after he laughs) “No way in hell he’s going to take that deal! What if we offered him women?” (The second sentence in Bill Clinton’s predicted response is a joke.)

QUESTION NUMBER SEVEN: If it was so legal, innocent (and worthless) a proposal, why did the White House and Joe Sestak employ so much delay in their response to repeated inquiries of the media?

ANSWER NUMBER SEVEN: Because it wasn’t so legal, innocent and worthless a proposal?

Come on folks. These guys are lying. If a five year old answered a poignant and imperative question with so much delay, distraction, ambiguity, and illogical response, you would never believe the child. You would know that something was amiss. And there is something amiss. The White House and President Obama are lying to us. This truth is right there in their false, taunting, demeaning, insulting, arrogant and audacious words and actions. They are betting on Americans being stupid. A bad bet Mr. President, a real bad bet.

Here’s a recap. President Obama is lying about his morning father-daughter dialogue, just like he is lying about “nothing improper occurring” with Joe Sestak and just like he is lying about not knowing the circumstances of the director of the U.S. Minerals Management Service, Elizabeth Birnhaum’s departure, (he had to know or he has to be inept, pick).

It was not Malia Obama that Glenn Beck mocked, it was President Obama. I believe he brought this on himself when he exploited his daughter for political gain and to massage his disturbing and troublesome ego. I also believe it was low brow to use his daughter in the way he did.

That’s my Reetzality for the Day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Note One: It has been learned that the “Top Kill” attempt to “plug the hole” was stopped and was in a holding strategy well prior to the press conference. Thus, and equally nefarious, President Obama could have been aware of this and, metaphorically, bet on a horse that had already won the race when he held his press conference. Another way put, he could have been demonstrating faux bravado and faux responsibility for the task of “plugging the hole” that had already been plugged by somebody else.

Note Two: I once used reference to my daughter in a closing argument. I was remanded by the District Attorney and the Judge. They were right and my reference to my daughter to make a point was improper in all respects.

Note Three: I looked up the definition of the word “mock.” By definition, if Glenn Beck was imitating Malia, regardless of whether the morning father-daughter conversation occurred, then he was “literally” mocking her. However, his obvious intent was to mock her father. I’m sure Mr. Beck feels bad about this. President Obama should feel worse.