SGMurphy.com

This will be short, but as this is my blog I feel the need to post.

Scott: Congrats on not smoking, although I give you a hard time with my belief that this is a temporary hiatus rather than quitting, I do know you are at least capable of quitting. ;-) I am against the government outlawing smoking, but if they have to tax something (and they do in our current climate) it should be our vices. I am all for the legalization of on-line gambling followed by taxing the crap out of it.

Daniel: You have a point with the bailouts, but an exaggerated point. I hate the idea of bailouts, but I accept that they may be a necessary to keep people employed. Desperate times call for, well, you know. I am not versed enough on the economy to say for sure if they are a good idea or not. Obama probably isn't either, but some action must be taken.

First, I'd like to go out on a limb and thank President Obama for raising the Cigarette Tax. As a smoker for the last 8 years, and as someone making under $45k, I feel that the Cigarette Tax was exactly what I needed to convince me to stop buying Cigs. I mean, come on, Camel Lights (of which I smoked 1 pack a day on average) went from around 3.75 a pack to a little over 6.00 a pack, and thinking about that, that is almost $200 a month that I would spend smoking. Then I'm going to start looking at the side effects of quiting: I have more energy, I feel more confident, I breath better, and I'm saving over to $2000 a year. That is money that I can invest into an economy that is showing early signs of recovery. Seeing as GDP is probably going to grow about 7% in the year of recovery (thanks in large part to your Stimulus Package, for which you will actually be using as an investment tool that will work towards paying off the debt), I feel that the return on my savings could be close to $4000 even after Capital Gains is factored in. And seeing as CG is going to be raised, I don't need to worry nearly as much about short-selling, which tends to over inflate the economy and leave the long term investors holding the bill. I will probably invest using either bank of america or citi group because, lets be honest, I know that I will either get my money back from the govn't (b/c in the Stimulus Bill, Obama raised the limit on FDIC protection), or I will see a higher return based on incentives offered by these banks because they are looking to retain their customers, thanks in large part to the government loans that Obama/Bush provided. I would also like to thank him for increasing unemployment benefits, because without them, I would not be able to pay my bills, due to the fact that all LOCAL school budgets have been cut back due to the current recession. I would also like to thank him for not accepting the TARP money from the good banks, b/c if he had, the stock market would instantly know which banks are insoluble and the Government would instantly have to nationalize those bad banks, b/c they wouldn't be worth a damn to the street. Now that I'm done thanking him for that, let me get on to thanking him for things he is going to do, for instance, all the new infrastructure projects that are being put out in the stimulus bill. Because of the money designated for education, I can actually look forward to going back to work here shortly. I should also thank him for the fact that his energy plan will keep me from spending all the money that I saved from not smoking cigs in gasoline that funds terrorist activities. And thank you thank you thank you for finally putting together a health care package that gives me the option to go with the govn't at a lower price that I can afford, rather than blowing up my personal budget with an expensive health care package that 1) I can't afford and 2) that the company I work for can afford to give me. Hopefully with this freed up income that the company now no longer has to pay for, along with the lowering payroll tax that Obama provided for in the Stimulus Bill, the company will either give all of it's good employees a raise, or expand and hire more people. So far, President Obama, I will give you nothing short of a B+ in grading your affect on my life in your first 100 days. Now to just get involved with your Education Reform Program, and I will have taken advantage of every piece of legeslation that you will put forward during your first term.

1. Spending bills: We have to get a few things straight here. Whenever the government spends money that is not surplus on something that does not contribute to the advancement of freedom, it is a step back from freedom. So every single bill that Obama has signed into law that spends ridiculous amounts of money on absurdly useless projects it is an attack on freedom. This is so because we, the people must pay the bill for this and the borrower is always slave to the lender. Eventually our taxes must be increased, or the reserve will have to print huge quantities of money, thus increasing inflation by huge percentages and making our hard earned savings worthless. It's not that it's directly removing a freedom from our hands, it's limiting our freedom by removing any opportunity for prosperity. So, again the point is: Obama's massive spending bills and bail outs will severely reduce freedom for future americans, when they must pay that bill. What good is having freedom on paper if the government taxes you 100%? You have no freedom because you have to have at least some amount of money to pursue your desires and goals. Increasing taxes decreases freedom.

2. Bailouts: For every company that gets a bailout they are now slaves to the government. For again, the borrower is slave to the lender. There is even a bank right now that pleaded with Obama's administration to pay back their bailout money with interest and regain their independence but the Obama administration refused to take the money. You see, Obama would take control of every corporation in America if he could so that all business could be overseen and controlled by the government. And with tax payer funding, the government can run those businesses and eliminate any competition with their huge assets thus creating a monopoly and complete government control over business. This is already the way we live in our semi-fascist society but Obama is trying very hard to make it fully fascist by forcing bailouts as often as possible and speeding the Government takover of private business across America.

3. Cigarette tax: Obama just passed a huge increase on cigarette taxes. So much for not taxing those with income <$250k The average smoker makes less than $30k per year and now they must pay nearly double for a product which they are addicted to. At least we know now that Obama is both a liar and has no heart whatsoever for the poorest Americans. This reduces freedom because again: Having to spend more money for something you enjoy reduces the opportunities and choices you have in your life. It is also an assault on the freedom of the Cigarette companies, who should have the right to not be taxed more than any other corporation, and pursue making a profit as they please.


It will be hard to keep track of all the freedom's lost due to Obama's win of the Presidency. I foresee many losses due to his appointees, most of whom are virulently anti-constitution, anti-freedom, socialists or fascists. So I would have to watch all their actions too to keep account. But that's all for now. I'm certain I'll be back here again with more to say.
Your thoughts? Do any of these actions by Obama perpetuate freedom in your eyes?

Well, Obama just made his first move against freedom by signing the stimulus bill. There's at least one anti-freedom mark in it but I need to do a lot of research on this. It appears they made it 1100 pages long so they could sneak all sorts of things into it without the public being aware. This is a new tactic against freedom that I never expected: Hide it amongst thousands of pages of other legislation. So we may have lost freedoms of which we are not even aware until one day we go to exercise that freedom and are fined, denied,imprisoned... But I'll be back in a bit with a full report of freedoms lost by the signing of this bill. I'm already aware of a few, there may be many, many more. Let's hope not.

Thanks for making this page. I hope I never have anything to say on it.