Even though this bill taxed smokers in order to fund a children’s health program, President Barack Obama received both criticism and support for signing this act.
Now figure a tax rate for smoker’s.

Sanders’ five points seem pretty reasonable though.

Hold the presses. Obama is taking a vacation!

For millions of Americans, the reaction is, “Must be nice.”

Obama is heading to Hawaii from December 17 to January 2. He is spending his days at a beachfront house that costs $3500 a day to rent. Obama is allegedly paying that out of his own pocket.

Unfortunately, the rest of the trip is costing Americans millions. There is the cost of Air Force One to carry him out there. There are the costs for protecting Obama. There are the costs of moving the huge number of staffers out to Hawaii and to house them at hotels that often run hundreds of dollars a night, per room.

When we conservatives mention Obama and his frequent vacations, liberals will pipe up with, “Well you didn’t complain when George Bush took vacations.

You know, we did not complain when George Bush took vacations. When he took his vacations, he generally returned to his ranch in Crawford Texas.

But the real issue is, when George Bush was taking his vacations down to Crawford, unemployment was below 5%. When George Bush was taking his vacations, the economy was growing new jobs at a record pace. When George Bush took his vacations the country was prospering.

All Barack Obama wants to do is complain. The economic policies of Obama, Pelosi and Reid have wrecked the economy. Of course, that was their goal to begin with.

Today, millions are out of work. Millions more are underemployed. The unemployment figures for last month went down. They did not go down because more people were working. They went down because more people have given up on finding work. The economy is in what can only be called the Great Obama Depression.

Obama feels entitled to take vacations on our dime. He took an 11-day vacation to Martha’s Vineyard earlier this year. Because it was inconvenient, he and Michelle took separate planes to their vacation hotspot. The cost, picked up by the taxpayers. Then there was the African safari Michelle and her daughters went on, with the tab picked up by the taxpayer. Don’t forget their high end, girls’ getaway to Spain last year.

Thanks to the Obama economy, not only are millions of Americans out of work, millions more can only dream of a vacation.

Obama is not a leader. Leaders lead by example.

If Obama had any sympathy for real Americans, he would not go to Hawaii for his vacation. He would get on TV and announce in this time of a terrible economy, in order to save the country money, he would stay at the White House for Christmas. That move would save Americans millions of dollars.

But Obama does not care about Americans. He is your typical arrogant liberal politician who believes Americans exist only to pay taxes so he cannot only be reelected but so he can do what he wants.

The good news here is that a year from now, Obama will be taking his final vacation from the White House.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this…

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh would pay $7
The eighth would pay $12
The ninth would pay $18
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59

So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20″. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men ? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got $10!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!”

“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics.