Leisure Engagement Passion

What Changes will you make?

I made it a point not to go to my J.O.B. today so that I could watch the Obama Inauguration coverage live on TV and I’m glad I did.  I know I could have just watched videos of the Inauguration online over the next couple of days, however I just don’t think it would have been the same.  History was made the day Obama won the Presidential election in November, but this too was History in the making.  I personally never thought I’d see the day the American people would elect a non-white President.  But, things are a changin’.

I’ve been reflecting throughout the day on President Obama’s speech and how his words will affect my life and blogging this short message I can see that it already has.  I watched Our President take his Oath to LEAD our Country and it gives me hope that I too can LEAD.  His commitment to all of us is enormous and will be full of challenges and every day he will make decisions large and small to keep the United States safe and prosperous.

My Oath to LEAD.  It maybe not the same as the Presidents Oath, but nevertheless it’s a commitment to my business with United First Financial and those families and individuals that I have recently touched.  A commitment to continue to show as many people as possible how easy it is to truly live a debt free life and to focus only on that goal.  “Keeping up with the Jones’” can no longer be our motto considering it has only gotten our entire country in debt.

As President Obama takes the helm and begins his first term with an economy that he, WE, must turn around, I take my pledge here and now to be a part of positive progress and teach others how they too can make simple and small steps in the right direction and dig out of the hole we are currently burried in.

With that said, I WANT YOU if you want an opportunity to be a part of the crusade!  Let us help President Obama LEAD this Country out of debt.  I’ll do it one at a time, but we can do it faster together as a Team.

p.s.  I have a J.O.B. because I am a slave to a paycheck, but this is not how I want to live my life.  I am making changes right now with United First Financial because it’s a system that works based on just math.  It’s the education we should have gotten in school, but as they say “better late than never”.

An email I received from the CAGW.

With the likelihood of a $1 trillion deficit in the current fiscal year and massive new taxes and spending on the way, I want to urge you in the strongest terms possible to please take a few minutes now to complete our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY.  CAGW needs to hear your views today.

Here’s why your survey answers are so important right now.
While we hope that President-elect Barack Obama’s vision of “change” includes changing Washington’s carefree attitude toward wasting tax dollars, many members of Congress, by their own admission, have “pent-up demand” for new spending and taxes.  Some of the proposed tax and spending increases are staggering.

Let me share with you just a few of the most dangerous proposals under serious consideration in Washington right now.

First, as Congress and the new Administration try to decide who is going to qualify for their “share the wealth” tax increases very early next year (those making $250,000 or $200,000 or $150,000 or even $125,000 or less), the general consensus is that the tax hike on this group will total 25 percent, including higher tax rates and phasing out exemptions and itemized deductions.  The fact that history has shown that you can’t tax your way out of a recession may not stop this misguided proposal from going forward.

But I must warn you it is not just the so-called “rich” that the new Congress and Administration will be coming after.

What will be particularly difficult for many retirees is that the big spenders are working toward a 33 percent increase in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains.  They’re also advocating reinstatement of the death tax at a whopping 45 percent rate, and a new payroll tax on employers that is estimated at 7 percent to help pay for the Obama government-run healthcare plan.

And if reducing Americans’ income at a time when many are struggling to make ends meet is not enough to push the economy into a deep and prolonged recession, the big spenders are proposing to increase corporate taxes by 25 percent even though American businesses already face the second-highest marginal tax rate in the industrialized world.  All Americans will pay dearly for these corporate taxes through higher prices, more lost jobs, and an even more stagnant economy.

To make matters worse, President-elect Obama and his allies in Congress have promised $1.3 trillion in “tax cuts” over the next 10 years to lower- and middle-income Americans, many of whom don’t pay federal income taxes at all!  Some 47 million filers, or 33 percent, don’t pay taxes today.  That number would rise by 16 million, to 44 percent, under the Obama plan.

Mark my words, if this unprecedented giveaway goes forward, it will push America toward bankruptcy!

These proposals are made more dangerous when you add them to the fact that we are facing a deepening economic recession and a budget deficit in 2009 that very likely will reach an all-time record of $1 trillion.  And this deficit may very quickly get $300 billion, $500 billion, or even $700 billion higher as Congress considers an ill-conceived, quick-fix, giveaway stimulus program.  This stimulus package will simply increase the deficit and, in all likelihood, will be as much of a waste as the $100 billion in stimulus checks that President Bush sent out.

To help fight the massive taxes and record amounts of deficit-producing, wasteful spending being proposed and, at the same time, help CAGW pick our battles over the coming weeks and months, I urgently need you to participate in our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY.  Your survey answers will arm us with the evidence of public opposition we need to derail many of the worst tax and spending plans.

Completing our survey is the most powerful way you can show your anger over the skyrocketing deficit while delivering an urgent demand to stop the most reckless and radical spending and tax proposals.

In addition, your survey answers will help set CAGW’s agenda and direct our most critical efforts in the months ahead.  This is your opportunity to help decide which upcoming battles CAGW should wage.

As I have said before, I may be CAGW’s president, but CAGW is your organization.  CAGW’s success or failure rests in your hands, so please give us your survey answers today.

The results of our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY will be publicized to the news media and key opinion leaders here in Washington and across the country and included in an upcoming edition of “E-News.”  What’s more, we will use your survey answers to focus a media spotlight on the financial dangers posed by a $1 trillion deficit and demonstrate that there is growing public opposition to the proposed massive expansion of failed big-government policies.

I assure you, the #1 way CAGW can help stop wasteful, deficit spending and economy-stagnating tax increases is by producing solid evidence of overwhelming public support for spending cuts, deficit reduction, and preserving the Bush tax cuts.

If you want to see Congress stop the wasteful spending, halt the drive for higher taxes, reject the pork-barrel projects that are hollowing out our nation’s defenses and other vital programs, and revise the proposal for government-run healthcare so that it is focused on the needy and won’t bankrupt America, I urge you to take part in our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY today.

And when you do, I also need to ask you to make a year-end donation today to help CAGW act on the recommendations you have made.

Oh my gosh, I just finished watching the “roast” at the Alfred E Smith charity dinner. Now that was funny.

I think more people would have watched the debates if our two Presidential Candidates, Senator Obama and Senator McCain, were able to go at each other the way they did. Not only did they make fun of one another but also of themselves. It was hilarious and if you have a chance, Google it, I’m sure it’s on YouTube. Although the purpose was to be funny and it was meant to be funny, some of it was pretty sharp and this setting was probably the only setting that either one of them could have gotten away with the punches. Both of their writers did a great job.

I listened to the last debate last night and basically it was more of the same from both candidates. Senator McCain appeared, to me, to be angry that he wasn’t being heard. I was watching the debate on CNN and you could actually hear Senator McCain sighing into the microphone. Whether the Senator was aware of his sighing or not, his facial expressions also gave into his anger. As far as Joe the Plumber, and making a case for Senator McCain, I think it would have made a better impact if he didn’t keep repeating his case. The rebuttal by Senator Obama made sense, but enough already. Anyway, I’m glad the debates are finally over; I’ll still watch CNN and MSNBC and hear the candidates on the campaign trail and as far as Joe the Plumber, keep your head above water…better, maybe go have a cold one with Joe Six pack.