http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040703116.html

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Wednesday that Americans may have to accept higher taxes or changes in cherished entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security if the nation is to avoid staggering budget deficits that threaten to choke off economic growth.

"These choices are difficult, and it always seems easier to put them off — until the day they cannot be put off anymore," Bernanke said in a speech. "But unless we as a nation demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, in the longer run we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth."

His primary responsibility in life is to make sure that the United States continues to pay interest on its debt. He and his banking cabal will be cheerleaders for higher taxes as long as the interest payments keep rolling in.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6355N520100406

(Reuters) – The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday.

Volcker, answering a question from the audience at a New York Historical Society event, said the value-added tax "was not as toxic an idea" as it has been in the past and also said a carbon or other energy-related tax may become necessary.

Though he acknowledged that both were still unpopular ideas, he said getting entitlement costs and the U.S. budget deficit under control may require such moves. "If at the end of the day we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes," he said.

Two weeks after passing a new entitlement into law, Obama’s economic advisor says we need to raise taxes to get entitlement costs under control.

The solution to big government is always more government.

AT&T takes a billion dollar hit from health care

NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. will take a $1 billion non-cash accounting charge in the first quarter because of the health care overhaul and may cut benefits it offers to current and retired workers.

The charge is the largest disclosed so far. Earlier this week, AK Steel Corp., Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co. and Valero Energy announced similar accounting charges, saying the health care law that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday will raise their expenses. On Friday, 3M Co. said it will also take a charge of $85 million to $90 million.

All five are smaller than AT&T, and their combined charges are less than half of the $1 billion that AT&T is planning. The $1 billion is a third of AT&T’s most recent quarterly earnings. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the company earned $3 billion on revenue of $30.9 billion.

AT&T said Friday that the charge reflects changes to how Medicare subsidies are taxed. Companies say the health care overhaul will require them to start paying taxes next year on a subsidy they receive for retiree drug coverage.

You might think this is one of those unintended consequences you hear about from massive government debacles. I submit that driving up the cost of providing health care, which in turn causes private organizations to reduce benefits, is exactly what Obama wants.

See, the stage has been set here. The whole plan all along was to set up a real-life single-payer, government-run universal health care system. Obama and his bootlickers weren’t able to sell that one, so they implemented the worst health care bill possible in order to make private-sector-provided health care so unwieldy and expensive (not to mention make it so expensive for the states) that people would eventually beg for the feds to step in and provide a nationwide universal system.

That’s the next step.

AT&T also said Friday that it is looking into changing the health care benefits it offers because of the new law. Analysts say retirees could lose the prescription drug coverage provided by their former employers as a result of the overhaul.

AT&T rival Verizon Communications Inc. was among 10 companies that sent a letter to congressional leaders in December warning that their costs would increase with the health care changes. Verizon spokesman Peter Thonis said the company had no comment.

Drive up prices, drive people out. When retirees and employees have their benefits cut or dropped, they’re going to turn to the federal government because Americans are suckers for a free lunch. It’s all part of the plan. However…

Also on Friday, Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said they are asking the CEOs of Caterpillar, Verizon, Deere and others to testify at an April 21 House subcommittee hearing on claims that the health care law could hurt their ability to provide health insurance to workers.

This would appear that they’re trying to close the barn door after the horses escaped. It’s all about image, though, and the attention whore Waxman and the hopeless abortion sellout Stupak won’t pass up an opportunity to drag some hapless corporate weenies in and yell at them from their raised platforms and drag their names and their companies through the mud in order to make them look like heartless, greedy bastards for trying to make a profit.

It’s all so transparently cynical. Why there are still people who think the government is on their side is beyond understanding. We’re completely hosed.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-20/bernanke-says-bailouts-of-banks-unconscionable-update1-.html

March 20 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said government bailouts of large financial firms are “unconscionable” and must be ended as part of a regulatory overhaul following the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

“It is unconscionable that the fate of the world economy should be so closely tied to the fortunes of a relatively small number of giant financial firms,” Bernanke said today in a speech in Orlando, Florida. “If we achieve nothing else in the wake of the crisis, we must ensure that we never again face such a situation.”

The whole purpose of the Federal Reserve’s existence is to enable a small number of giant financial firms to control the world economy. This man is evil.

79% Say U.S. Economy Could Collapse

Most American voters believe it’s possible the nation’s economy could collapse, and majorities don’t think elected officials in Washington have ideas for fixing it.

The latest Fox News poll finds that 79 percent of voters think it’s possible the economy could collapse, including large majorities of Democrats (72 percent), Republicans (84 percent) and independents (80 percent).

Just 18 percent think the economy is "so big and strong it could never collapse."

Moreover, 78 percent of voters believe the federal government is "larger and more costly" than it has ever been before, and by nearly three-to-one more voters think the national debt (65 percent) is a greater potential threat to the country’s future than terrorism (23 percent).

I wonder how many people are thinking about what to do if it happens compared to how many just plan to eat the neighbor’s cat. Or their neighbor.