Neighborhood Ministries

The Estate Tax- Kamala Harris wants to push our estate tax to the highest in the world to heavily tax the rich.  That sounds good. Some States also have estate taxes of their own. They say those who oppose it are rich and are trying to get rid of it. Such rhetoric stems from a basic misunderstanding of what it is. The estate tax is a tax on the estate of someone who dies. The assumption is that only the rich pay the tax. However, those who have a large business generally are not affected by the estate tax because they usually incorporate the business and include their children in the business. As a result, the children don’t have to pay any estate tax because the business assets belong to the business and are not considered part of the assets.  The tax hurts family farms and family businesses the most. A farmer may own 1000 acres and leaves it to his children when he dies. His children often have to sell the farm to pay the tax since the farmer probably doesn’t have the savings to pay the tax.  All his money is tied up in land, buildings, and equipment. Not only does the family lose the income from the father (the breadwinner) who dies, they also lose the means to continue earning a living (the farm). The same goes for a man who owns a small business, like a grocery store in a small town. Communities also suffer because many of those businesses in small towns close because they cannot find a buyer. It may be the only grocery store, barber shop, or other business of its kind in the town forcing residents to drive to nearby cities for those services. It also leaves those who work for the business out of work.  Those who are retired generally have most of their assets in money producing stocks which the family has to sell to pay the tax so their children also lose the income.

President Biden is pushing for a crypto currency. Such a currency would allow the government to know how much money you have, where it is kept, and how you spend it. Every transaction you do would be recorded and could be monitored. They could control what you purchased and who you supported. While many say that the American people would never accept an economic  system like is recorded in the book of Revelations, liberal politicians in Washington are pushing for exactly that. The system he proposes would eliminate all paper money and coins and would give the government complete control of all money transactions. While nothing is being said about a computer chip to handle transactions, once it is in place, the government could require it and there would be no alternative to it. You either get the chip or lose the ability to access your funds. The Obamacare bill included a provision for a computer chip to be inserted with medical information to allow access to government health care once private insurance was eliminated.  The medical chip would include an ID number similar to the Social Security number but that would be required of everyone accessing medical treatment, that could than be expanded to include financial transactions in the same way that the Social Security number was. The original Social Security card said it was not to be used for anything but Social Security, but is now utilized by almost all major financial transactions. Once it is in place, they could simply remove your number and you would be unable to buy or sell anything. They could easily eliminate anyone they felt posed a threat or refused to cooperate with them. The federal reserve is already testing it and major banks are expected to join in soon.

Kamala Harris claims that she will institute price ceilings to stop the price gouging of big corporations. She refuses to admit that the price raises are the result of out of control government spending which has fueled inflation and increased regulations and taxes on corporations  which have driven up production costs forcing companies to recoup the increased costs from the consumer. Price ceilings have never worked. They limit how much a company can charge for its product but do not limit the costs of producing the product. When companies can no longer charge enough to pay for producing goods, they stop producing them. The result is that the product is no longer available and the workers who produced them are laid off. It sounds good to stick it to corporations but people forget that corporations have to make enough to pay their expenses in order to stay in business. When they can no longer meet expenses, they go out of business. President Trump recognized that. He cut government spending and the rate of inflation dropped. He also cut taxes and regulations and businesses expanded, the economy flourished, and unemployment dropped.  President Obama and President Biden expanded government spending and increased taxes and business regulations. As a result, inflation increased and businesses cut back production and laid off workers. President Biden even went beyond President Obama in wasteful government spending and in expanding welfare benefits which led many people to go on government benefits rather than go to work. The result is less job openings, but far fewer people looking for work so there are a lot of jobs available but people don’t want to work because they can make more in government benefits.

Democrats are telling people that Republicans don’t care about people because they are turning down continuing funds to extended unemployment and Medicaid benefits but the fact is Republicans are turning them down because people have become lazy and don’t want to go back to work because they are making more on unemployment. The funds were supposed to be temporary to help the States get over the bump of unemployment due to Covid. That has long passed  but many people refuse to go back to work and many industries and businesses are desperately seeking workers but very few people want to work. It is forcing wages up to try to attract workers and that is continuing to fuel inflation. Democrats want to continue the programs so they can get those people to vote for them. We need to get people back to work to get the economy going again but we also need to get them to work because we cannot sustain an economy with a large portion of able-bodied people living off the people who are working. It isn’t fair to those who are working to have to support a lot of people who don’t want to work.  Democrats are pushing for a socialist society where the government collects everything and doles out to everyone equally and that has failed wherever it is tried. If people cannot gain anything from working over the minimum, they will work the minimum and if they can get the same from not working as they would from working, they would rather not work.  Even communist countries like China and Russia have had to allow a small amount of private enterprise to keep their country’s economies afloat.

President Biden has authorized more student loan forgiveness. It makes no sense. He has already authorized 600 Billion dollars in loan forgiveness in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional because all government expenditures have to be authorized by Congress and Congress has not authorized any of it. That is more than all that the government pays for education in K-12 grades. In addition, it will lead many people to go to college with the idea that the government will pay off their loans and there is no guarantee of that. We already have a lot of kids going to college without a clear goal of what they are going to do and many of them are eventually choosing career paths that do not require a college degree.  College has been billed as a necessity to get a good paying job but while some jobs like doctors and lawyers are high paying, many jobs requiring a college degree are falling behind many jobs that do not require a degree, such as jobs in business and the trades. It is drawing many students into college under the impression that they can get loans for it and push paying it off down the road. If they think they can get away with not having to pay it off at all, it will encourage even more to go when it isn’t needed for what they want to do. That leaves them heavily in debt for something they don’t need, with no clear way to pay it off.

President Biden is at it again. He just forgave the student debts of more young people, in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court ruled that he  did not have the authority to do so. He continues to work hard to drum up votes for his failing administration. Young voters are particularly vulnerable to bribery. Anyone would be a fool to vote against someone who just forgave you of a couple hundred thousand dollars in debt.. President Biden is not really forgiving the debt, he is merely transferring the debt to the American taxpayers. You and I are paying for encouraging young people to vote for President Biden. The administration has been consistently handing out “free” money and other benefits to various groups to get them to vote for him and then claim that Republicans are against them because they oppose such giveaways. In addition, Democrats have been very vocal in claiming that  Republicans are planning on canceling Social Security and welfare benefits to get those people to vote for him. Social programs once designed to help people in need are being used to influence the election and it is being paid for by all of us, even those who do not support him. While they had to pull back on welfare because it was becoming multigenerational as children growing up realized they didn’t have to work but could stay home and collect welfare, other programs continue to discourage working. The free flow of money during the Covid crisis has resulted in millions of people who refuse to work because it would interrupt their benefits. While student debts are becoming a serious problem, simply paying them off is not the solution. My  wife and I paid off our college debts as did millions of other students. My wife and I both had to interrupt our schooling mid-way and pay off the accumulated debt before going back and finishing, but we did it because we felt it was worth it to get better jobs. When I taught college, I found many students who were on welfare scholarships often put in very little effort while expecting  to get credit for the course. We often value things more if we have to work for them than if we just get them for free, but many kids today are growing up with the feeling that the world owes them a living.