Faith in God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, freedom, and free enterprise are the pillars of a strong, safe, prosperous society. When these principles are protected, America succeeds; and when they are undermined, America fails. But the Left (Socialists/Communists) has a different belief. The Left believes that most people are not capable of pursuing happiness, and that a strong centralized government is best able to provide for them. While claiming compassion for humanity, the Left’s policies are destructive to the human beings subject to them – as we have had to learn painfully again and again.
The Left’s self-serving solution to every crisis or otherwise, and many of their own doing, is always the same: inflict higher taxes on Americans to create more government programs with more rules and regulations that result in less freedom, less innovation, less safety, and less prosperity. Example: Put into ObamaCare is a 3.8% tax on the sale of your home.
The problem with the Left’s one solution is that it doesn’t work. It’s never worked in Socialized countries, and it never will work. The history of poverty in Communist countries has proved it. But what the record also shows is that when power and freedom are returned to the people, when people are rewarded for work, and when government holds the line on spending, individuals and opportunity thrive. One can see that in Texas.
Upon taking office, Obama repeatedly said that he was open to ideas on health care policy and on reversing the economic crisis. He only looked to his fellow Socialists for answers. But he had to look no further than Texas to see ideas and policies that work.
Texas has NO state income tax, no capital gains tax, and no tax on corporate dividends. In contrast, California taxes all three. It has the highest state income tax rates in the nation, with a top rate of 10.3 percent and with most income earners paying 9.3 percent. The California sales tax stands at 8.25 percent. In Texas, the state sales tax rate is 6.25 percent. With both the highest personal income tax and the highest state sales tax in the nation, California also has the largest budget deficit of any state.
Texas has economically outperformed California by any measure. Since 1998, economic growth in Texas has been nearly 20 percent higher than it is in California. Since the end of the tech boom, the rate of real economic growth in Texas has been 48.5 percent higher than in California. From 1998 to 2007, personal income in Texas grew 21 percent faster than in California. Since 2002, real personal income has grown 46 percent faster in Texas. From 2000 to 2007, California lost a net of 1.2 million residents. Texas, over the same period, gained more than half a million in interstate migration, the third highest in the country.
Prior to 2003, Texas was losing doctors at an alarming rate due to predatory practices of trial lawyers who were driving up the cost of malpractice insurance. In 2003, the Texas legislature passed a measure to limit medical liability. In that same year, a state constitutional amendment was approved by voters to cap noneconomic damages awarded by juries. These two proposals reversed the trend and improved care, accessibility, and the overall economy by making Texas a more attractive place to live, work, and own a business. Malpractice claims dropped, and physician recruitment and retention went up. Doctors saved more than $50 million on insurance premiums, and hospitals’ insurance rates went down.
People in Texas, like anyone living in any state, have a choice. They can vote with their hands or feet. Many in California simply become fed up with their state’s high taxes and regulations. Many who moved out moved to Texas, where on average they are safer, freer, and more prosperous. Competition among the states is a powerful incentive for states to keep taxes and the cost of doing business low. And as this California verses Texas example shows, conservative economic policies work and SOCIALIST policies don’t!!!
Yet, both the Obama administration and the Pelosi-Reid Congress continue to ignore success stories like Texas. They, as Socialists, are going in the opposite direction, passing a massive government takeover of heath care while planning similarly massive tax increases to pay for it and the rest of their job-killing agenda.
This nation’s only hope is a return to Jesus of the Bible, return power to the states and the people. Without God “factored in,” we will be a has-been nation!