Don't spend that $13 per week yet...Obama has a plan -- to spend it

In case you haven't been able to read (or stomach the idea of reading) Obama's 2010 Federal budget, it's important for you to know that America as you knew it is now officially over. For people not making over $200K or married jointly making $250K, you pretty much get a pass this round...until it is determined that this group of folks can't foot Obama's spending habit. If you're just under this threshold, you'll be identified as the sucker -- err...I mean SOURCE of tax revenues in the 2011 Federal budget.

But for anyone wondering what to do with that $13 per week you were going to get, you can stop wondering. It's been decided for you. You see, in this budget Obama plans to aggressively pursue the overhaul of America's electric and gas producers by forcing them to pay penalties under a cap-and-trade system (like I warned you about!). I now realize that when he talks about "green" energy...he's not talking about leafy trees...he's talking greenbacks, because what these companies are going to turn around and pass the cost onto US...the little guys. And Obama knows this, and that is why in his budget he plans to use a lot of the money generated penalizing the emission producers, and supposedly give it back to everyday Joes through their paychecks like the $13 thing.

Except that what is likely to happen is that the "concept" or the "promise" or the "hope" -- whatever you want to call it -- is going to get lost in translation as the years go by and people forget how we got into this mess in the first place. Money that is supposed to go back to everyday people because of this inevitable increase, will likely be diverted by Congress to pay for other things, not unlike the way state lotteries were supposed to go towards improving schools (school budgets are now based solely on those lottery revenues and so if people stop playing, Johnny's school has to lay off teachers, etc.).

The fact that he's setting up a complex scheme to actually dedicate very little to actual green energy development, and using most of the planned revenues to reimburse consumers is illustrative of how dumb this idea is...not to mention disingenuous:

The sale of those permits, beginning in 2012, would reap $646 billion through 2019. Of those revenues, $525.7 billion would be devoted to extending Mr. Obama's signature "Making Work Pay" $800 tax credit for working couples. Another $120 billion would go to clean energy technology.

So while we all get a "whopping" $13 per week back in payroll taxes, the electric company and the gas stations are going to take us for much more than that each and every week. The $13 will be a mere pittance for what we're going to get hosed for. So don't start your automatic debit to Starbucks just yet (since you can't do much else with $13).

Of course this all has yet to be debated and passed in Congress. While some may hope that a lot changes between now and then, history tells us that a president and majority Congress from the same party affords such a president little opposition. This will once again be the case. The only ones who have a chance to save the country are those Blue Dog Democrats, they hold a unique, favorable position in all of this.

I don't even recognize our country anymore...does anyone know any countries with an open immigration policy? I only half-jest...