02 Dec The Waste of Tax Dollars Never Ends

– Items of Interest –

December 2, 2009

By Tom DeWeese

The Obama Phone

The nation is collapsing under the federal deficit and Washington can’t find a dime to cut from the budget. Here’s an idea. Stop the Obama phone. What’s the Obama phone, you ask? Well then, that tells me something important about you – you aren’t on welfare – you are just a stupid tax payer. Because everybody on the dole knows about the Obama phone.

It’s a government program called “Lifeline Benefits” that provides free telephone service to “income-eligible consumers.” Don’t you actually have to buy something to be a “consumer?” Apparently not in the era of “Change.”

So, in short, through this taxpayer-paid boondoggle, welfare recipients get; (1) a FREE new phone; (2) approximately 70 FREE minutes EVERY MONTH. The website states, “you will receive free cellular service, a free SafeLink Wireless cell phone and the assurance that you will get no bills and no contracts EVER!”

I wonder how many drug deals are being made over the Obama phones? Oh, to ask such a question would be profiling – and that would be wrong.

To see if you qualify for your very own Obama phone, (as a tax payer you actually paid for it) just go to the website www.safelinkwireless.com/enrollmentpublic/homes.aspx.

Don’t hold your breath until your new free phone arrives. Taxpayers just pay, silly.

Here’s something else you paid for….

But you will never get to use it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s shiny new jet. Yep, it’s a USAF C-32 Boeing 757 – just for Madam Speaker. She uses it to commute back and forth between Capitol Hill and her home in California.

She had a small C-20 jet, but was angered because that had to stop to be refueled, so she ordered a big 200-seat C-32. Nancy flies back and forth to California every week and she is only on the job about three days a week.

It costs taxpayers about $60,000 for fuel and crew – one way. But we have to bring her back so double that every week. That comes to $480,000 every month – and$5,760.000 every year. That’s just for her commute. If she decides to take a junket somewhere the price skyrockets ever higher.

Keep in mind, when Nancy is back in DC – working for us – she is busy carving out legislation to force you and me to “reduce our carbon footprint” with Cap and Trade legislation that will destroy our standard of living. Make our homes cold with government-controlled thermostats and small cars the family won’t fit into. And she does it all because she “has compassion for the working men and women in this nation.”

One more…. Clunker Math

This past Fall, turning in our clunkers for cash was all the rage. Obama even took credit for “stimulating” the auto industry back to health. Well, here’s the real financial result of the program.

If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you get $4500 off the purchase of a new car, for an apparent “savings” of $1000. However, here’s a little known secret I bet the auto dealer didn’t mention – you have to pay taxes on the $4500 as income. If you are in the 30% tax bracket you will pay $1350 on that $4500. So, rather than save $1000, you actually pay an extra $350 to the feds.

In addition, now you probably have a car payment that will cost you for the next 4 – 5 years. But it gets even better. It appears than many of the car dealers actually raised the prices of the cars. Just before the Cash for Clunkers program began, LA Ford dealers were selling Ford Focus for about $12,500. During the program they stopped discounting them, instead selling for the list price of $15,500. Other dealers, from Chevy to Toyota did the same.

So here is the finally tally:

You traded a car worth: $3500

You got a discount of:    $4500

——–

Net so far                      $1000

But you pay taxes:         $1350

——–

Net so far:                   -$  350

And you paid                $3000 – more than the car was selling for a month earlier

——–

Net                              -$3350

There is also sales tax and interest on the car for the next five years.

Obama and crew convinced consumers that they were getting $4500 of government money. In reality you were giving away your own car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege.

Now – on to FREE health care.

Tom DeWeese is the President of the American Policy Center and the Editor of The DeWeese Report. TThe DeWeese Report is now available online, for more information click here.