Obama News April 30, 2012, Economics 101 companies do not pay taxes, Consumers pay in higher prices job cuts and reduced pay, US economy slowdown caused by Obama taxes and policies

“What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.”…Barack Obama

“…and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”…Margaret Thatcher

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

Citizen Wells has been writing for some time about the impact of high gas prices and taxation on the economy. One of the most important ideas presented here is the fact that companies do not pay taxes, consumers do.

From Citizen Wells April 3, 2012.

“First, the corporate tax rate in the US is near or at the top in the world.

US oil companies pay enormous amounts of taxes. How does this compare to one of Obama’s pay to play buddies GE? Check this out for yourself.

Here is the really important point about raising taxes on oil companies and other companies.

Companies (corporations, LLC’s, partnerships, sole proprietors) do not pay taxes!

Consumers pay for the tax increases.

Taxes are part of the cost of doing business.

A tax increase to a company results in some combination of the following:

Product and service price increases.

Employee and hours cutbacks.

Reduced hiring.

Does any of this sound familiar?”

http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/obama-lies-on-oil-companies-taxes-profits-and-impact-on-consumers-obama-energy-policy-based-on-chicago-pay-to-play-politics-truth-team-notification/

Here is another example.

From McClatchy News April 27, 2012.

“Weak growth of U.S. economy in first quarter renews fears of stalled recovery”

“The U.S. economy’s weaker-than-expected growth in the first three months of this year renewed concerns Friday that the nation’s fragile recovery might stall. ”
“The real disappointment in Friday’s report was a drop in business fixed investment of 2.1 percent and in spending on business structures of a whopping 12 percent. Spending on equipment was up by only a weak 1.7 percent, which partly reflects the end of a tax break for business investment last year.”

““I think what it says is consumers are coming back a bit, but firms are still holding back. They don’t feel confident enough in the recovery to start adding to capacity” and expanding, said Bill Craighead, an economics professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. Consumers appear to be making up for cautious spending in recent years, more confident that the worst is over, he suggested.

The same can’t be said for American businesses.

“Given corporate profits, you might have hoped for more investment growth,” Craighead said. The economy continues to “hit the snooze button. … It’s acceptable growth in the normal economy, but given how many people are unemployed it is disappointing.””

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/27/146970/us-economy-slows-to-22-percent.html

From McClatchy News April 23, 2012.

“U.S. economy faces likely slowdown, big year-end decisions”

“The U.S. economy is expected to slow later this year, dragged down by slowing global growth, rising anxiety about the elections and the specter of gridlock in Washington over urgent tax, spending and debt deadlines. The Bush-era tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and the payroll tax cut of the past two years expire at year’s end, when last year’s debt deal also will force across-the-board cuts in federal spending unless Congress and the president strike new deals, but there’s no consensus on that.

A spate of recent indicators punctuated fears that the economy is stalling. March delivered only 120,000 new jobs, and the latest manufacturing and real estate data softened. Some economists say the economy’s strong six-month run through March might not be sustainable.

“If we’re right and growth was overstated in the first quarter and we see payback in the second and third quarters of this year, then it’s going to raise a lot of questions of just how much progress we’ve made over the past few years,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C.”

“Recent U.S. data have been discouraging for what remains the world’s largest economy.

In the two weeks after the April 6 release of the weak March employment numbers, first-time jobless claims rose. The Labor Department said last Thursday that the four-week average for unemployment claims stood at 374,750 _ the highest since January.

Additionally, the job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported earlier this month that employers announced 9.4 percent more layoffs in the first three months of this year than the same period last year. Last year’s numbers, however, were the smallest number of layoffs since 1995.

It all points to slower hiring.

“Were we on the verge of a breakout? I think the answer is no,” said Kevin Logan, the chief U.S. economist for the global bank HSBC.

Noting that the economy is adding jobs in a monthly range of 100,000 to 200,000, Logan expects hiring to bump along the bottom. “The next few months, we’ll fall back into this slower pattern,” he said, adding that several drivers of the U.S. economy remain impaired.

Chief among them is the moribund housing market, which remains mired in a foreclosure crisis. What little housing is moving in many major U.S. cities is foreclosure sales and short-sales, dragging down home prices and erasing the potential wealth of neighbors.”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/23/v-print/146393/us-economy-faces-likely-slowdown.html