http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAKluP7yIwJY

June 3 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.

“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

I don’t expect to see fewer Obama-Biden Hopey-Changey bumper stickers around Redmond, even though Taxy Taxerbama is directly threatening our livelihood.

Oh well, at least his bullcrap stimulus plan is helping Ballmer build an overpass.

If you make big bucks — or enjoy alcohol, cigarettes and Coke — the government might hit you up to pay for fixing the nation’s health care system.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee peeked into vending machines and liquor stores, company payrolls and health savings accounts, looking for a mix of tax increases and spending cuts as a way to pay for a health overhaul — which could cost more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

The article does not question whether we should have an Obama-style health care overhaul.  It just talks about how the statists propose to pay for it.  Raising taxes on alcohol, tobacco and soda.

Oh, and also by taxing health care benefits provided by employers.

People who like the tax-free status of their company health benefits could be asked to ante up. Money in the pot: more than $700 billion over 10 years.

The added bonus would be that it would weaken the private health care industry, forcing more employers to reduce benefits, and ultimately driving more people into Government ObamaCare.  Also:

Treasure the tax benefits from your health savings account? Some experts say the accounts encourage “excess consumption” of health services — and committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) agreed they’re worth a look. Money in the pot: $60 billion over 10 years.

Weaken another pillar of private health care.  Statists don’t like the idea of you using tax-free dollars to “consume” health care services.  The whole point of Government ObamaCare is to ration health care services, and it’s impossible to do that when you’re out there acting selfishly by spending your own money to get the care you need.

“The proposals that we have discussed,” Baucus said, “will not come easily. The reforms that we are planning are not cheap. … Finding money that we can all agree on will not be easy.”

Baucus gave one of the clearest signals yet that limiting the tax-free status on employer-based insurance remains a serious option. Obama opposed it during the campaign and repeatedly went after Republican John McCain for making it the centerpiece of his health care plan. Labor unions are also against it.

Yet the idea is attractive because of the money it could generate: $250 billion annually if the deduction was lifted altogether. Baucus insisted a full repeal was not under consideration, but he said lawmakers must look at the deduction.

“I know that there is some controversy around doing so,” Baucus said. “But the current tax exclusion is not perfect. It is regressive. It often leads people to buy more health coverage than they need.”

That’s right.  A POLITICIAN (Democrat) just said that the coverage employers are offering their employees is TOO GOOD, and people don’t need that much coverage, and the result is that the government isn’t taking in as much money as it could.  And it needs more money in order to reform the system into one where a bureaucracy will decide what health care services you get to “consume” and what’s a reasonable amount to pay for such services.

If this doesn’t scare the shit out of you and fire up alarm bells in every corner of your mind, you must be brain dead.  Our health care system needs some reform, yes, but the proposal is not to make it less expensive or to increase the resources available in system.  The proposal is to expand government control and LIMIT ACCESS to health care.

The big news a couple days ago was that Obama was saving the government OMG SO MUCH MONEY because he found $17 billion to cut from his budget.  That’s fantastic, except for two things.

First, his budget his $800 billion more than last year’s budget.  That’s a 2% “cut” of the amount he’s grown the budget.  Snort.

Second, let’s see some of what he’s cutting:

1.  Obama budget nixes aid for jailing illegal immigrants

So he’s “saving” money by making sure states don’t get federal support for putting criminal illegal aliens in prison.  It’s federal policy to leave the border unsecured, and now it’s federal policy to let the states pay for the consequences of federal policy.  What an awesome, awesome man.

2.  Obama Slashes Union Enforcement Budget

Then, he cuts the budget of the federal agency that ensures labor unions aren’t corrupt and aren’t behaving illegally.  In the last 8 years, there have been 929 convictions as a result of this agency’s investigations.  Labor unions are partisan organizations that overwhelmingly favor Democrats.  This is clearly a payback, and clearly a sign that the Obama administration intends to turn a blind eye to whatever underhanded bullcrap unions intend to pull.

During the campaign, Obama said he was going to take a “scalpel” to the budget and trim or eliminate programs that weren’t working.  He’s certainly using his scalpel by cutting the slightest amount of fat from the federal budget as possible.  But I’m not sure this is the kind of “change” a lot of hope-a-dope Obama voters were expecting.  People paying attention and understanding the kind of person Obama was could have seen this kind of thing coming a mile a way.