An unbridled Obama-Pelosi-Reid triumvirate will render the Republicans essentially useless, at the same time they render most Americans helpless. The more liberal legislators on the Republican side of the aisle (such as John “Democrat-lite” McCain) will no doubt cross that aisle to cooperate on legislation that appears to them to be only semi-socialist. The conservative Republicans (that is, the real Republicans) will vote “Nay” and spend their spare time writing books about the America that once was.

Whatever Obama wants he may very well get. In fact, he may likely get a few things from Pelosi and Reid he hadn’t dreamt up on his own, but it’s a safe bet that he’ll be unlikely to turn them down, regardless of how unwise they may be. Obama can also safely start taking calls again from William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and Khalid al-Mansour. But he probably won’t invite Larry Sinclair to the White House for a reunion.

It will be a long two years before the November, 2010 mid-term elections, the earliest point at which the American people will get a chance to throw out any or all of their beloved Congressmen and one-third of their esteemed Senators. The likelihood of significant Democrat losses in 2010 is high - unless of course one believes the Obama plan to raise income and business taxes is a good antidote for an economy that hasn’t been as bad since the esteemed peanut farmer blessed Washington, D.C. with his corn cob grin and ignorance of all things involving proper governing.

I am not a veteran soothsayer, but I have seen and dispensed more than enough sooth in my day to feel comfortable sharing my predictions with the masses – at least the masses with the wisdom to seek out advice on how to survive the next few years of an Obama regime. Let us begin without any undue haste, as the countdown clock to Armageddon is ticking.

Jimmy Carter Redux and the Misery Index

Because the term is likely to resurface during the Obama years, Americans should be reminded that the “misery index” is the combination of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. Former President Carter takes high honors in this category, taking it to the level of 20.76 in 1980. It’s no wonder Ronald Reagan beat Carter in the 1980 election; his chimpanzee co-star from “Bedtime for Bonzo” could likely have received the necessary 270 electoral votes in a contest with Billy Carter’s sober brother from Plains, Georgia.

For the record, the misery index averaged 7.80 under Bill Clinton. It averaged 7.89 under George W. Bush. Also for the record, it’s certainly going up. If Obama manages to get most of his proposed legislation passed into law, the misery index will go way up. Jimmy Carter may have to be content with only a second place plaque for his Presidential Library.

The Federal Reserve Board has done a handsome job of keeping the inflation rate low. The Fed’s continued insistence on low interest rates has, however, contributed to the sub-prime mortgage mess that caused the Wall Street melt-down of 2008. Had rates been higher, a fair number of those ill-advised loans of the last few years would not have been made. So hold down the cheers for Andrea Mitchell’s bedmate and his equally professorial successor, Ben Bernanke (his successor at the Federal Reserve Board and not, as far as we now, in his bed).

The federal printing presses must now be set to high speed, to come up with the hundreds of billions of dollars needed for the Wall Street “bail out” that was pawned off as a “Main Street” bail out. (Apparently the truth in advertising laws need not be followed by the government.) The more money that is printed, the higher the inflation. That is inescapable.

Obama is planning on generating more federal revenue through the following:

• Raising the top individual income tax bracket to 39.6%.
• Raising the capital gains tax from 15% to as much as 28%.
• Raising the dividends tax from 15% to 39.6%.
• Requiring businesses to either provide their employees with health insurance, or charge them a fee to enroll them in a federal insurance system.
• Eliminating the wage cap on Social Security withholding taxes. (This is and additional 15.3% tax on all income over $97,000, and would be the largest tax increase in American history.)
• Possibly adding a 2-to-4% Social Security “surtax” on the top wage earners. (Aw, what the Hell, they can afford it.)
• Raising import tariffs on selected products to “protect” American businesses. (But don’t worry, other countries probably won’t retaliate with their own tariff increases, right?)
• Imposing an “anti-global poverty tax,” based on taxes on the rental value of land and natural resources, a royalty on energy production, fees for the commercial use of the oceans, fees for the airplane use of the skies, fees for the use of the electromagnetic spectrum, fees on foreign exchange transactions, and a tax on the carbon content of fuels. (And who says Obama didn’t learn anything from Chicago’s mayor, Richie Daley?)
• Windfall profits tax on oil companies.
• Quite a few more taxes and fees, but you’ve probably heard enough already.

It is unclear exactly what these taxes will add up to, but it will certainly be in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Still, it won’t be enough to fund all of Obama’s new spending programs, but he has to start somewhere.

Where the additional tax burden falls on individuals, it will mean that much less money spent in the American economy. Taking an extra $200 billion from paychecks, for example, will mean having $200 billion less to spend on “stuff.” Businesses will be selling $200 billion less “stuff.” Businesses will then have a pronounced excess of employees, and many of them will get the axe – primarily because Obama is barely willing to use a scalpel (his words) on the federal budget, while McCain offered to use a hatchet.

Where the additional tax burden falls on businesses, it will certainly mean higher prices on goods and services. (Businesses can’t print money, at the last time anyone checked.) Businesses will do their best to hold the line on price increases as long as they can, because their competitors will all be trying to do the same, but at some point there is no room to absorb more costs without going out of business. When that point is reached, prices will be increased. If businesses have to come up with $500 billion in taxes and fees, for example, they will raise prices by $500 billion (or lay off enough employees to save that amount).

Something’s got to give. And when the rich fat guy with the cigar spends $60,000 on taxes instead of a new Cadillac, it’s the guys who make and sell and fix the Cadillacs who lose their jobs – not the cigar-smoking fat guy. (He’ll probably still buy cigars, so some workers may be safe.)

It is inordinately clear that an Obama Administration will mean higher prices, higher inflation, business failures, and job losses. How bad will it get? That’s anybody’s guess, but no one should be surprised if tar and feathers are seen near the White House by the end of 2009.

So, what’s a person to do? Here is some advice, which you are free to follow or ignore, as you see fit:

Stay in a safe place on election night

Yes, that’s right, find a safe place for the evening of November 4. It is a safe bet that there will be some “civil unrest” on election night. If Obama wins, some entrepreneurs will take it upon themselves to get a head start on Obama’s pledge to “redistribute wealth,” likely by breaking store windows and helping themselves to some “hope and change” (aka big-screen plasma TVs). If Obama loses - after 18 months of uninterrupted cheerleading by a suck-up leftist mass media – there will be a lot of unhappy campers. They may want much more than plasma TVs - they may want revenge on those who they think “stole” yet another election from them.

Stay away from Detroit, Chicago, East L.A., Oakland, Compton, Newark - and any neighborhoods where the “haves” live dangerously close to the “have nots.”

Ask for a pay cut

If your combined husband and wife income exceeds $250,000 per year by a small amount and you aren’t too eager to get into a 39.6 per cent tax bracket, you may want to ask for a pay cut.  What you lose in income you may save in taxes. (Are you unmarried? Your taxes go up to 39.6 per cent at $150,000 under the Obama plans. Ask for a pay cut.)

Depending on how much flexibility you have with your employer, you may be able to compensate for a pay cut by negotiating some non-taxable “perks,” like more vacation days. Do what you can. Be creative.

The 95% tax cut lie

Obama can’t give a tax cut to 95 per cent of working families because more than 30 per cent of them (over 40 million people) already pay zero income taxes – thanks to the Bush tax cuts (which Obama will allow to expire, thereby raising your taxes to the Clinton levels). Obama can’t cut zero. Or can he?

Obama’s tax “cut” of $1,000 per family ($500 for single tax filers) is actually a tax “credit.” Currently, if your income is low enough to make your federal income tax zero, you pay nothing and get nothing. Obama’s tax credit will now give each of those zero-tax families a check for $1,000 – every April 15 when they file a tax return. Every year.

That isn’t a tax cut, it’s a welfare check. It’s a “stealth slavery reparations” program… a way for Obama to take money from working whites to give to poor blacks as “restitution” for slavery. “Won’t wealthier blacks pay higher taxes and won’t poor whites get the checks also?” Yes, but that’s a small price for Obama to pay for getting the scheme going.

Expect Obama to “up the ante” and raise the $1,000 amount just in time for the 2010 mid-term elections, and again in time for his 2012 re-election campaign. Once he has 40 million people getting those checks, they certainly won’t vote for someone who will stop sending them.

What can you do about this scheme? Don’t let him get elected. Don’t give him 60 Democrat Senators to stop Republican filibusters. Have you got a lazy brother-in-law who works part-time only when he feels like it? You’ll be paying for his $1,000 check every April. Make him pay you back. Does your neighbor have a kid in college who works part-time only during the summer? That child will get a $500 check from Uncle Barack, at the expense of the taxpayers, even if his parents earn a lot more money than you. Make the kid mow your lawn.

Taxes on your 401(k)?

House Democrats have been considering eliminating most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks for 401(k) accounts.  Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, and House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) have been studying how to change the country’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, to eliminate investor tax breaks and force workers' money into obligatory retirement accounts. (And where was the question about that in the Presidential debates?)

Prepare for the Social Security Tax Hike

Obama plans on eliminating the income cap for Social Security and Medicare taxes. That cap is currently set at $97,000, which means that if you earn more than $97,000 your employer stops taking out Social Security taxes at that point. If you make $200,000, for example, your net pay goes up in July because the Social Security taxes stop.

For those of you who make less than $97,000 and think those better-paid folks are getting a terrific deal, realize that the high-income earners are simply paying their taxes earlier in the year than you. If you earn $33,000 per year, all 52 of your weekly pay checks reflect Social Security tax withholding. The person who earns $200,000 pays three times what you pay in Social Security taxes, but it’s all withheld during the first six months of the year. The person who earns $5 million per year pays the same Social Security tax total as the person who earns only $97,000 – but they both get the same amount in their eventual Social Security checks. You don’t get a bigger retirement check for having earned more than $97,000.

The generous-with-other-people’s-money Obama will end that $97,000 cap. That means an additional 15.3 per cent in taxes on all income over $97,000. Half of that is paid by your employer, but if you’re self-employed you’ll pay the full 15.3 per cent. Note that Obama is raising that tax cap without applying that extra tax to future retirement checks. Every extra dollar in taxes paid does nothing for future benefits. You’ll be paying more in taxes and not getting a larger Social Security check. Nice, huh? For paying 15.3 per cent of all income over $97,000, you get nothing in return. (Don’t forget, if you’re in the top bracket, that 15.3 per cent in Social Security and Medicare taxes is in addition to your 39.6 per cent in federal income taxes. Add in state income taxes where mandated, and you may lose 60 per cent of your paycheck to taxes right off the top. That’s what Obama refers to as “restoring fairness to the tax system.”

But that’s not quite enough, because Obama is also considering adding a 2-4 per cent surcharge to the Social Security tax to help keep the system solvent. That would be on top of the 15.3 per cent of income over $97,000. Are you paying attention? Are you following along closely?

How can you escape the elimination of the tax cap? You can’t. What can you do about it? Nothing, once Obama is in the White House – except write your Congressman and Senators and tell them if they support his plan, you’ll vote them out of office.

You may have realized that $97,000 is considerably less than $250,000? Obama’s pledge to raise taxes only on those who earn over $250,000 is therefore a lie – unless you only consider income taxes to be taxes and don’t think of Social Security taxes as taxes. (Obama likes to play word games like that. Remember, he’s very smart – so smart that his tricks even escape the close scrutiny of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Katie Couric!)

Increased taxes on working Seniors

Obama will increase taxes on senior citizens who continue to work after retirement – not just those who earn more than $250,000 per year.

Expect union power abuses when secret ballots are eliminated

Obama promised the unions he would support a law allowing them to eliminate secret ballots in organizing drives.  (Well, he had to give them something for the tens of millions in campaign donations they gave him, didn’t he?) Under existing law, when a union tries to organize a new company, it passes out “cards” to employees at a targeted business. The employees sign the cards and indicate on them whether they may be interested in union membership. If enough cards say yes, a secret ballot is then held. If the union wins the vote, it’s in power. If it loses, it packs up its brass-knuckled thugs and attempts to organize another company.

Obama, who owes the big unions big favors, will sign a law allowing them to take control of a company’s employees as soon as a majority of the signed cards are in their favor. There would be no secret ballot!  Does that sound like a good idea? Question: Could an employee be intimidated by co-workers and 300-pound “union organizers” looking over his shoulder as he fills out and signs the card?

After this business-busting rule takes effect, the unions will be able to successfully organize thousands of companies across the country. What will stop them? And what will incredibly more powerful unions mean? You guessed it, incredibly higher prices – assuming the companies are able to stay in business, when they have higher operating costs than their non-union competitors. Some companies will ship their jobs overseas, rather than deal with unions that Obama has overpowered.

You would never guess what Congress is calling this law: the “Employee Free Choice Act.” It was sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy, and co-sponsored by 46 of his fellow Democrats – a few of them must have been out of the room at the time.

What can you do about this? Write your Congressman and Senators. Tell them “If you vote for the EFCA you will lose my vote at the next election.” Then take your threat seriously. Buy a 2010 calendar and mark election day with, “Vote against Congressman X and Senator Y.”

Note that the Republicans can stop this bill from being passed only if there are enough of them in the Senate. If the Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate, they can pass anything they want and no one can stop them. (You might want to keep that in mind in November 4.)

The loss of right-to-work laws

Obama will support legislation outlawing state right-to-work laws. If those laws are invalidated, if a union has organized the company where you work, you must join the union – even if you don’t want to. If the union wants to use some of your forced union dues to donate to liberal Democrats, it will. What can you do about it? Not much – except vote against the legislators who voted to repeal right-to-work laws.

A law against hiring new employees to replace workers on strike

Yes, you read that correctly. Obama will sign a law making it illegal for a company to hire new workers to replace striking workers. If the union members go on strike to demand $25 per hours and you are willing to work at that company for $22 per hour, tough luck. The employer can’t hire you. Obama will prohibit you from taking that job – even if you and the employer agree to the deal.

Such a law means that the unions will have unstoppable power, and the employers will have none. If an employer is not allowed to hire new workers to replace those who are on strike, it has only two options: give in to the union’s demands, or go out of business. (This is what Obama means when he uses the words “hope and change.” Hope your business will be able to survive, or change to another line of work.)

What can you do about this? Stage a demonstration. Get hundreds of potential new workers to march with you. Demand that Obama rescind the law. Make posters. Get on television. Make sure all of America understands that Obama gave the unions enormous power in exchange for campaign contributions.

You may, of course, have the last laugh – because the union’s demands will drive the company out of business, and those who went on strike will be unemployed. (They will learn that being unemployed at $25 per hour is not as good as being employed at $22 per hour.)

Again, some companies will move their jobs overseas rather than deal with these restrictions. There is only so much a business can take – everything has a limit, and Obama appears more than willing to test those limits.

Union “wage insurance”

Obama has proposed a “wage insurance” program, so that a union worker who loses his job can receive a subsidy from the federal government to remain at his old union income level - even though his new job pays less. In other words, if union workers price themselves out of the market with unreasonable wage demands, America's non-union workers will foot the bill to compensate them for their poor collective bargaining decisions. Imagine working for $15.00 per hour, right next to a new employee who is getting $24.00 per hour after he helped drive his former employer out of business.

Advice on how to deal with such a law? Use your imagination. If that lunacy doesn’t drive Americans to protest and complain and write their Congressman and Senators, then nothing will.

Same-day voter registration

Obama will support legislation requiring same-day voter registration and voting, which would allow the local governments no time to confirm the applicant’s eligibility. Can you spell “big time vote fraud?”

Voting rights for felons

Obama will push to grant nationwide voting rights for felons, as Democrats have, with the help of the ACLU, already successfully done in some areas of the country.

More liberal judges

Obama will have the opportunity to appoint many life-term federal judges, and one or two Supreme Court Justices. All will most certainly be liberal, and some may likely be far to the left, with no hesitation to decide for the rest of the country what they believe is best, rather than what the U.S. Constitution requires.

Lost jobs

Obama plans on raising U.S. corporate taxes – which are already the second highest in the world. Higher corporate taxes will prompt more businesses to ship more of their jobs overseas; some will move completely to other countries. At the very least, businesses will delay expansion plans or lay off workers. This will not be companies “being mean,” it will be companies trying to survive.

What can you do about this? Not much. But always remember that the boss will fire you before he fires himself. (Somehow that logic escapes the Harvard-educated Obama.)

Illegal immigrants becoming citizens

Obama will readily agree to legislation granting amnesty to illegal immigrants and making it easier for them to become citizens – all eager to vote Democrat in exchange for benefits like free health care. Obama also supports drivers licenses for illegal immigrants.

What can you do about this? Probably not much. (Regrettably, John McCain would also provide a “pathway to citizenship.”) Of course, there already is a pathway to citizenship: enter the country legally, fill out the forms, learn English, get a job, and wait your turn like everybody else before you has done.

Remember that if the liberals can get 10-20 million new Hispanics instantly turned into citizens and registered to vote Democrat (with the generous assistance of ACORN), you may never again see a conservative in the White House, and the Senate may continually have the 60 Democrat votes required to prevent Republicans from stopping any legislation, no matter how unreasonable it may be. For most of the last 60 years the Democrats have controlled Congress - don’t make it any easier for them to extend that record. Insist that your Congressman and Senators vote against any amnesty or “pathway to citizenship” bill.

Eliminate photo I.D. for voting

Obama believes requiring a photo I.D. to vote is “discrimination,” so he will prohibit the states from imposing such requirements. Expect vote fraud to skyrocket. Expect liberals to win more elections. Expect to get harassed at your polling place if you make a fuss about a young man claiming he is a 75-year old lady trying to vote.

“Comparable worth” schemes

Obama supports what is called a “comparable worth” plan to “eliminate pay discrimination.” Under the plan (legislation has already been proposed in Congress, but has not been voted on because Bush or McCain would veto it), the government would define the “worth” of every job classification in the United States. A first-grade teacher might, for example, be “worth” 82.3 per cent of a long-haul truck driver, while that truck driver might be “worth” 75.4 per cent of an electrical engineer. The “idea” is that all businesses would be required to follow the scheme, eliminating pay discrimination for sex or race (or any other criteria). In practice, this would be a tremendous mess, requiring an enormous bureaucracy, and lawsuits would be filed by the millions. Obama’s lawyer buddies would love it. (No word yet on what the lawyers would be “worth” under the plan – but they’d probably be somewhere between Bill Gates and Oprah if they write the legislation.)

If put into effect, such a ludicrous scheme would cause incredible price increases nationwide, because employers would be forced to increase salaries to satisfy the regulations. Many companies will simply go out of business, unable to afford the increases and the federal paperwork. Certainly very few people would be wiling to start a new business; so much for creating new jobs.

You may have the feeling that this idea is incredibly stupid. That’s because it is incredibly stupid. The lunacy of the idea has nevertheless not kept Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin from sponsoring the bill. (Obama is a proud co-sponsor.)

Why should a politician in Washington decide how much a kindergarten teacher in Indiana is paid? Why should a bureaucrat behind a desk decide the value of a high-rise steel worker who risks his life building skyscrapers? Who decides how much Oprah gets paid? Who decides the pay level of the bureaucrats who will work in that federal comparable worth department?

Would you rather negotiate your salary with your prospective employer, or have some Washington bureaucrat decide what your salary should be? (Obama votes for the bureaucrat.)

Expect a 51st and 52nd State

Get ready for a new U.S. flag with 52 stars, one for the District of Columbia and one for Puerto Rico. That will give the Democrats four additional Senators and seven new Congressmen in the House of Representatives, as well as seven additional electoral votes in every Presidential election.

Retire early

If you can afford to do so, retire early. Yes, your income will drop, but you won’t have to pay for transportation to and from the job, and you can save money in other ways too. The less you make, the less you pay in taxes. Why give Obama more ammunition to destroy the American way of life? Retire at 62, don’t wait for age 66 or 67. (You can’t get full Social Security benefits at age 65 anymore; Jimmy Carter signed that change into law decades ago.)

If you can’t afford to retire just yet, hang in there. (You might get laid off anyway if Obama gets all his proposals signed into law.) Try to save as much as you can so that you can retire earlier than you may have originally planned. You can find ways to cut costs. Will it be easy? No. Does it beat giving Uncle Sam your money so it can give to someone who stays home and watches Oprah? Probably.

Avoid capital gains taxes

When you sell stocks (or property or other assets), you pay capital gains taxes. Obama is going to raise that tax dramatically (possibly from its current 15 per cent up to 28 per cent). How do you avoid paying capital gains taxes? Don’t sell any stocks that made a profit. If there is no sale, there is no tax. Obama can’t tax it if you don’t sell it. Stall the sale until the eventual point at which the tax is again lowered. (It will be lowered again, because raising it will destroy investment in the new businesses that are needed to create new jobs.)

Of course, considering the stock market’s present state, you’re likely to have a loss, rather than a gain on a stock sale now. But that’s an even better reason to hold on to your stocks. The old adage is “buy low, sell high” – not the other way around.

Increasing the capital gains tax will, of course, destroy the chances of America starting much-needed new businesses, because people with money will not want to invest it in them. Starting a new business involves financial risk (many new businesses fail), so investors expect a big gain in exchange for their investment. If Obama taxes their gains at very high levels, they will simply put their money elsewhere.

“Let’s see, if I invest $100,000 in a new business and the business fails, I’m out $100,000. If I invest $100,000 and I make $50,000, Obama will take 28 per cent of my $50,000 gain. So Obama gets $14,000 for my hard work and my risk. What do I get from him if I lose my $100,000?” Nothing.

If the capital gains tax is raised, money for new businesses will dry up. If money is not invested in new businesses, there will be no new jobs.

Dividends tax increases

You’re stuck here. Obama plans on raising the taxes on dividends (from 15 to 39.6 per cent). If you’re a retiree who depends on dividend payments, you’ll be paying more in taxes (regardless of whether your income exceeds $250,000) You can’t get around those taxes, except by dying – at which point your heirs will pay the estate tax, which is scheduled to expire in 2010 but which Obama plans to reinstate.

Barter, don’t buy

Income is taxable. Things you trade are not. If you’re a dentist who needs some plumbing work, fix your plumber’s teeth for free, as a favor. Then, as a favor, he can fix your plumbing. No reported income, no taxes. (But follow the law, please.)

Keep the old car

If you have an older car that runs well but is paid for, keep it. A new car may get better gas mileage, but even if your gas costs are $150 per month higher with the old car than with a new car, the old car doesn’t have a $600 car payment. Do the math. Going from 23 to 33 miles per gallon probably won’t justify the cost of the new car. Keep your old car. If you can afford $600 per month for a new car, put that $600 into your retirement savings instead – or pay off credit cards. Reduced debt is better than a new car. If you lose your job in a worsening economy, money in the bank and an old car will look a lot better than a new car on which you still owe $20,000.

Buy only what you have to

If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. If millions of people follow that advice, the economy will worsen. Obama, Pelosi, and Reid will get the blame and will then be easier to beat in the 2010 and 2012 elections, and you will have saved some money.

Price hike signs

If you have a business and must raise prices because of Obama’s new taxes and regulations, make sure your customers understand why. Don’t raise prices and simply let people blame you and “evil capitalism.” Refuse to hide the blame. Hang prominent signs in your store that read, “OBAMA PRICE INCREASE!” Let everyone know who is to blame for the increases – not you, but Obama. (Feel free to post signs blaming Pelosi, Reid, and Democrats in general, as appropriate.)

Lay-offs

If you have a business and have to lay off or fire workers because of new Obama taxes or regulations, make sure they know why you are doing so. Put the details in a final letter to them. Make sure they know it isn’t your fault – it’s the fault of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. Put it in writing, so they can show the letter to their friends and relatives. Let them direct their anger where it is deserved, damn it!

Take advantage of “free” health care

If Obama gets a national health care plan passed by Congress, take advantage of it. Bring it to its knees. Make it fail. It will fail in the long run, but the sooner it fails the sooner it can be rescinded. Once it is entrenched in American society, it will be too late to remove it. Got a headache? Go to an Obama emergency treatment center. Bring along 50 friends who have headaches. (Make sure at least one of those friends has a relative who is a television reporter who may be interested in the situation.)

This “overload the system” tactic is one long-used by “community organizers” like Obama. Give him a taste of his own medicine.

Be warned. A national health plan will cause doctor shortages. The plan will cost more than Obama anticipates. (Obama says his plan will cover more people than Hillary Clinton’s plan, yet he estimates costs of roughly one-half of her estimates. Is Obama twice as smart as Clinton, who no doubt learned a few things when she tried to establish such a plan when Bill Clinton was President?) To save costs, Obama will crack down on fees paid to physicians and surgeons. That, in turn, will prompt many doctors to quit the profession or retire early. It will also discourage young students from going into medicine – they will instead become lawyers (going where the money is). The cure for cancer may be delayed because Obama’s health plan will drive people out of the medical profession.

Take advantage of “affirmative action” programs

Obama will not eliminate, and will likely expand, “affirmative action” programs (also known as “minority quotas”). Are you in a minority? If you look far enough into your ancestry you probably are. Do you have even a tiny bit of Native American in your past? Have you got a slave-owner in your past? Well, maybe you are part black yourself! List yourself as that on any form you fill out. Where there are school or business quotas to fill, see if you can be one of the “fillers.” Play their games, make them do a little extra work. Make them prove your great-great grandfather wasn’t a slave or a Jamaican.

Ready for a gay marriage?

Does your state allow gay marriages? Why not go down to your local county clerk’s office with two of your best friends and ask for a marriage license for the three of you? Why not? Who’s to say what is right or wrong anymore? Make sure your favorite television reporter is present to record the situation, and make sure you ask, on camera, “If Obama supports gay marriage, what about three-way marriages? Don’t we “thrays” (“three-ways”) have rights too?” Start a new “thray rights” movement! Demand to be recognized! Heck, if Rosie O’Donnell can have what she wants, what about the thrays?

Church schools forced to hire gays

Expect the federal government, with the help of the ACLU, to force religious schools to hire gays. And if your church refuses to marry gay couples, expect a lawsuit from the ACLU or a visit from the federal government.

Faith-based groups that accept federal funds will not be allowed to take religious beliefs or sexual orientation into consideration when hiring employees. This policy could force Christian organizations accepting federal grants to hire non-Christians or homosexuals, even if that violates their Christian standards and goals

Expect “hate crime” legislation to be passed which will prohibit your minister, priest, or rabbi from criticizing homosexual behavior.

Free day care and universal preschool

Obama has proposed free child care and universal preschool; no cost estimates or details have been released. Families without children will thus be paying higher taxes for the care of young children of other families, and this taxpayer-funded “freebie” is likely to encourage some poor families to have even more children.

What can you do? Well, assuming you don’t want your toddlers looked after by lesbian leftists eager to indoctrinate them in the ways of Obamaism, you certainly don’t want to drop off your kids at those centers. But you can always ask city health inspectors to check out the premises and have them shut down if they don’t follow the letter of the law. (An occasional mouse might be sufficient.) And you and your friends can also enroll your many fictitious children - kind of like an ACORN voter registration drive - and then never show up with toddlers in hand. Mire them in paperwork. Just for fun. Just like Obama’s “community organizers” did to banks that wouldn’t give mortgages to people with no ability to pay them off.

Energy and “global warming” taxes

Obama has big plans to tax energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. (No word on whether he would tax your breathing – which also results in carbon dioxide “emissions.”) Obama plans on forcing utility companies to use a certain percentage of alternate “green” methods for creating electricity, or face stiff fines. Because they won’t be able to do so (the technology doesn’t exist yet), they will pay those fines – and pass them on to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills.

What can you do? Not much, except use less electricity – or stop believing the global warming alarmists and stop electing those who are pushing their agenda.

Alternatively, it might be best to crank up the air conditioners as often as you can. A few black-outs would give Obama a chance to explain how he’d solve the crisis without building new nuclear, coal, or gas-fired power plants.

Increased minimum wage

Obama has proposed raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour. That’s great if you make $8 per hour. That’s not so great if your employer lays you off because he doesn’t think you’re worth $10 per hour. The least skilled Americans will suffer from this increase, because businesses won’t want to pay $10 per hour for unskilled labor. Companies will simply not hire people at the low end of the scale, and will make existing workers do more in order to take up the slack.

The person making $9 per hour will get increased to $10. But the person who was making $10 will then want an increase to $11, and so on. After a while, wages across the country will, on average, go up. At the same time, of course, prices will also go up everywhere. If McDonald’s has to pay its workers $10 per hour, don’t think the price of a hamburger won’t go up. (McDonald’s may also lay off some workers, who will be hard-pressed to find work anywhere else in an Obama economy.)

Eventually, after wages and prices go up, pretty much everybody will be right back where they started – except that you may be in a higher tax bracket.

Gas price increases

Obama will not allow drilling or oil in Alaska’s ANWR reserves. He now says he will allow drilling offshore, but will likely revert to his earlier opposition once safely in the White House. He will not be able to eliminate America’s dependence on Middle East oil – unless we rely more on Mexican, Canadian, and Russian oil.

Millions of American products are made with petroleum: plastics, waterproofing, synthetics, fertilizers, and on and on. Look around you. If you see plastic, you’ll see why America needs oil. Obama can’t make plastic with windmills. Gas prices will go up, and Obama’s actions will make the situation worse.

What can you do? Not much. Demand more nuclear power plants. Demand that legislators make it more difficult for the extreme environmentalists to halt drilling and refinery construction with frivolous lawsuits.

Education

If your local public school is good, consider yourself fortunate. If your school is not good, do everything in your power to send your children to private school. Public schools will not improve simply because Obama wants to give the bad teachers more money. Let the worst schools fail. Get your kids out before it’s too late. Give them a chance at succeeding, no matter how difficult it may be for you to afford the private school. Your children are worth it. We cannot afford a nation of youths indoctrinated in leftist ideology – that’s where Obama came from, after all.

Push for voucher systems. Attend school meetings and complain to the school board. Complain when they eliminate Christmas programs but start teaching Islam. Complain when they don’t teach about the Holocaust but teach about Muslim history. Complain when they teach recycling but ignore basic economics. Complain, complain, complain. Get as many parents as you can to join you in your protests. Demand that the worst teachers be fired. Fight the unions. Get the bad teachers fired. If you can’t g et them fired, make them so miserable that they’ll want to quit.

Pelosi’s “fairness doctrine”

Obama would sign into law “Fairness Doctrine” legislation planned by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.  This would force radio stations to provide equal time for liberals who oppose conservative broadcasts, essentially knocking conservatives off the air - because the stations cannot afford to also air the liberal programs that few people listen to and which advertisers won't support. The Pelosi legislation would "…clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation's spectrum." That’s lawyer talk for “Get Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin off the air any way you can.”

Fight this legislation with every ounce of energy. If it passes, you will no longer be able to listen to any conservative who dares to criticize Obama and Pelosi. Even if you dislike or disagree with conservative talk show hosts, you cannot let them be silenced. If the government can silence some critics now, who’s to say you won’t be next? (If Obama and Pelosi get their “fairness doctrine” passed, expect them to go after political content on the Internet.)

If the law passes, complain to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and your Senators and Congressman every time you hear a liberal argument on the radio or on television that is not immediately followed by a conservative counterpoint. That will happen often, so prepare a form letter or fax or e-mail for filling in the blanks every time you need to protest. The FCC will get bombarded with millions of complaints each week, bogging it down in paperwork.

Note that Pelosi’s proposed legislation would apply only to radio broadcast – she apparently thinks television and newspapers are already fair (that is, liberal) enough.

Unrestricted abortion

Obama will sign legislation outlawing all state laws that limit abortions. Late-term abortions will be legal in all states. Partial birth abortions will be legal in all states. Minors will be able to get abortions without parental notification.  Expect federal funding for abortions and taxpayer money being used to finance abortion clinics.

What can you do? Protest, protest, protest. Picket, carry signs, get television coverage, write your Congressman and Senators. Make a stink. Vote against any legislator who supports Obama.

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

If Obama is elected, he will attempt to accomplish all the goals listed above, and then some. If he is successful, he will try for more. He will keep going until he is stopped. But AMERICANS CAN STOP HIM.

Contact your Congressman and Senators. Telephone, write, e-mail, fax. Tell them in no uncertain terms that if they support these Obama plans you will not only vote against them, you will work very hard to ensure that everyone you know does the same.

We need to “Stop Obama Any way Possible.” If you engage in protest demonstrations, carry signs that say “Clean House with S.O.A.P.” and “Stop Obama Any way Possible!” Use your imagination! But always be civil, polite, and respect the law. Do not hurt the cause with irresponsible behavior that works against the efforts. The media must focus on the message, not the tactics of a few who get carried away.

Good luck!

Don Fredrick

October 23, 2008

Copyright 2008, Don Fredrick

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