Neal Boortz
Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001

This doesn't mean that I'm going to make things up – it means that you should take some responsibility to verify information for yourself.

Yesterday many of you thought I was making up that story about the angel on the Christmas tree at the VA Medical Center at Bay Pines, near St. Petersburg, Fla.

Well, I didn't make it up.

On the very same day they put a white angel on the top of the hospital Christmas tree, several black employees complained to the hospital's EEO office. They were protesting the use of a white angel. It just didn't reflect diversity.

The angel was immediately removed and placed in a cabinet.

Let's turn the clock back about 40 years … to the heat of the civil rights movement. This was when black Americans were demanding that they be treated equally under the laws of the United States. Could you have ever imagined that this movement carried forward by Dr. Martin Luther King III would degenerate into complaints and arguments over the color of an angel at the top of a Christmas tree?

For those of you who thought I was putting you on – here's the link to the St. Petersburg Times story that appeared on Dec. 6.

http://www.sptimes.com/News/120601/TampaBay/Angel_creates_uproar_.shtml

Quote of the Day

Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival. – W. Edwards Deming

Do We Get the Videotape Today?

We're not sure yet, but word is that the White House is going to release that video of Osama bin Laden celebrating the attacks on the World Trade Center. Evidently there are bin Laden statements on that tape which clearly implicate the Evil One as being responsible for the attacks.

You know what? This isn't going to change anything. Those who felt that bin Laden was responsible will have their feelings reinforced. Those who defend bin Laden will brand the tape a fraud.

Daschle's Plan

Daschle's Plan: Simple: Deny tax cuts to people who pay taxes and give tax cuts to people who don't pay taxes.

Again … we probably don't need a stimulus bill to bring about economic growth. Such a bill would speed things up, though.

Let's take a little look at what they're discussing in D.C.

First – we have another rollover by George Bush. Up until now he has been proposing an acceleration of the tax cuts passed earlier this year. This would mean that people in all tax brackets would get to keep more of the money that they work for sooner rather than later.

Democrats don't like this idea. More particularly, they don't like the part of the deal that allows evil rich people – the ones who carry the majority of the income tax load – to keep any more of the money they earn.

Well, they needn't worry. Bush has caved. He's now amended his plan so as to eliminate the accelerated tax cuts for the highest tax bracket.

Now those accelerated cuts will only apply to the 25 percent bracket and lower. No relief for the wicked wealthy. Democratic class warfare wins again.

The accelerated tax cuts will go to the people more likely to vote Democratic. Republican voters get screwed.

To stimulate the economy you stimulate the stimulators. The stimulators are not the lower wage earners who will use an extra few hundred bucks to put running boards on their pickups or new skirts around their trailers.

The potential stimulators are the business owners, the investors, the higher wage earners who would use the money from a tax cut to broaden their investments, expand their business activities, or purchase larger and more expensive consumer items.

Here's the little secret that Democrats earnestly hope the voters never really come to understand. This is the secret that, if widely understood, could destroy the Democrats' class-warfare, vote-buying schemes forever.

Over the past 100 years of this nation's history, major tax cuts have ALWAYS resulted in increases in federal government revenue. The increased economic activity that results from relieving the tax burden on the higher achievers actually brings more money to the federal treasury.

The Tax Holiday Fraud

Daschle's class warriors continue to promote the idea of a one-month tax holiday. One month where their constituents won't have to pay Social Security taxes.

First – let's make it clear that this tax holiday idea will not stimulate the economy. It does absolutely nothing to change anyone's economic behavior, other than giving people a one-time infusion of some pocket change they can use to pay down a credit card bill.

This idea of a tax holiday is a fraud. It is not an "across the board" cut in taxes. The only people who will pay less in Social Security taxes will be those people who earn under the current maximum Social Security tax threshold.

Here's how it works. Let's say you usually reach the $88,000 or so maximum wage limit and finish paying your Social Security taxes at the end of August. If this Daschle-approved scheme becomes part of a stimulus bill, you will not have to pay any Social Security taxes in, let's say, January.

So, what happens then? If you earn above the earnings threshold, the government will just collect that money on the back end. Instead of finishing with your Social Security tax payments in August, you'll finish at the end of September. In other words, the money they "give" you in January, they'll take back in September.

But what of those people who make under the wage threshold? They get the tax holiday in January … but never have to make it up!!!

So, what we have here is a tax cut for lower-income Americans … and an interest-free nine-month loan for high-achievers. The low-income earners – the ones who tend to vote Democratic – get to keep some more of their own money. The higher-income earners – the ones who tend to vote Republican – get nothing.

What you are seeing here is yet another example of how Democrats (and Republicans) like to use the hideous Social Security system as a vote-buying and income-redistribution scheme. Most Americans will be fooled by this scheme. Now YOU won't be.

Our Fat Little Kids

The Journal of the American Medical Association is publishing a report on the ever-increasing bulk of American kids. Over 22 percent of black children are overweight. For white kids the figure is 12 percent. It seems that our rug-rats are really stacking on the pounds.

JAMA places part of the blame on video games, television, computers and fast food. Wrong. The blame is on lazy, over-indulgent parents.

Is This a Boortz 'I Told You So'?

A top adviser to the incoming Afghan leader Hamid Karzai said yesterday that Osama bin Laden should be brought before an international tribunal, but since Mullah Omar is Afghan, he should be tried by Afghans.

Now, while my gut says that the U.S. should have them both in a military tribunal, the Omar trial by Afghans could possibly be good. If he's found guilty, he would be subject to Islamic law. Under that law his punishment would be the involuntary separation of his head from his body. I can live with that.

Osama tried by an international court? That means the United Nations. Two words. No freaking way. If that plan goes forward, Osama can start taking lessons and reserve some tee times with O.J.

Sounds Like We Got Their Attention

ABC News reported last night that after U.S. forces dropped a "daisy cutter" bomb on suspected al-Qaeda positions, a flurry of "panicked radio and satellite-phone calls" ensued. American intelligence monitored those calls and discovered that Osama bin Laden was near the blast and is now on the run (presumably stopping first to clean out his underwear).

One report said the remaining fighters have split into two groups and that surveillance is following the movements of both. These vicious warriors who vowed to "fight to the death" radioed to the alliance leaders, "Please don't fight us, we want to surrender."

That could be a trick or a stalling tactic, but things don't look good for the bin Laden team. They're on their own 5-yard line with two seconds left in the game and they're out of time outs ... oh, and they're down by two TDs.

Yet again, one scary thing in the report : The alliance leader who was quoted suggests the al-Qaeda fighters will be turned over to the U.N. (Refer to the "I told you so" story above.)

By the way … those Daisy Cutter bombs are made by Boeing. The Defense Department has placed an emergency order for hundreds more – as fast as they can be built.

I wonder what one of those puppies would do to the presidential palace in Baghdad?

All Hail Queen Mary Frances Berry!

I recently told you about Mary Frances Berry refusing to acknowledge George Bush's appointment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, in a blatant attempt to keep her dictatorial power over the panel.

When the Bush appointee showed up for the meeting, Berry (who has contributed $19,000 to the Democratic Party in the past decade) made him sit in the audience and when he tried to talk she announced that the committee didn't take comments from the audience.

Well, now comes part deux. The six-year term of another Republican member of the commission, Russell Redenbaugh, was up yesterday. While not the law, the tradition is that congressional appointments to the commission alternate between the parties. It is the Republicans' turn and they would likely reappoint Redenbaugh.

But it appears that Daschle will break the tradition and appoint another Democrat. It also appears that Trent Lott is going to lie down and let it happen.

I've said this before ... Trent Lott may or may not be a good senator for Mississippi (I don't know), but he is a pathetic leader for Senate Republicans. He presents a good front as far as showing anger at the Democrats' actions, but in the end he almost always wimps out.

Perhaps he is picking his fights carefully ... but it would be nice if he would just pick a fight PERIOD!

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was created in 1957 as a "bipartisan, objective body." Currently it has a staff of 75 and a budget of $9 million (I wonder how much of your obese tax bill goes to fund it).

It basically has no power and has become such a joke under the dictatorship of Berry that there is absolutely no reason to continue its existence. But it undoubtedly will continue, because any calls for its end will be deemed as "racist." No professional politician will dare go near that hill.

An Interesting Question: What if He's Right?

Reports out of Afghanistan say that Johnny (bin Laden) Walker has told American questioners that Phase II of the al-Qaeda attacks will take place in a matter of days and involve biological weapons. He says those attacks will come at the end of Ramadan, which ends this Sunday.

He also claims Phase III will result in "the destruction of the entire country." (John, could you be a little more vague?)

Good information? Not likely. Sources say that Johnny Taliban was so low in the Taliban pecking order that he would not be privy to information of this type. He's probably just trying to curry favor with U.S. officials.

By the way, it appears that reporters are now adding his paternal last name, Lindh. Someone told me this week that guilty criminals seem to have a penchant for three-part names. We have, for instance, John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, Orenthal James Simpson, William Jefferson Clinton, and now John Walker Lindh.

Neal Boortz is the hugely popular nationally syndicated radio host.