First Things First

President Obama promised "hope and change" in his campaign. How well he's delivered on the "hope" is a matter of debate, what with endless bailouts, trillion-dollar budget deficits as far as the eye can see, unemployment struggling to stay below 10%, and such. (And I'm unimpressed with hand-waving about Bush's spending and deficits. Check out this graph of the comparison between Bush's and Obama's deficits, and then we'll talk.)

Some real "change" is coming to your tax return, though. Remember Obama's promises that Americans who earn less than $250,000 would not see their taxes increased? He pledged this numerous times:

Candidate Barack Obama, Sept. 12, 2008:
"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009:
"In order to save our children from a future of debt, we will also end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. But let me perfectly clear, because I know you'll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime."

Well, guess what? Obama lied. He lied big-time. The bailouts, the "stimulus," the nationalization of much of the American auto industry as well as the student-loan program, and the endless new spending -- it's all gotta be financed somehow. And starting on January 1, 2011, we'll all pay. And that includes you.

Investors Business Daily has the grim details. And if you think only "the rich" are gonna get hit, you're in for some very rude surprises.

The lowest bracket for the personal income tax, for instance, moves up 50% — to 15% from 10%. The next lowest bracket — 25% — will rise to 28%, and the old 28% bracket will be 31%. At the higher end, the 33% bracket is pushed to 36% and the 35% bracket becomes 39.6%.

Are you married filing jointly?

The marriage penalty also makes a comeback...

Are you a teacher? Or a student? Got a student loan?

The deduction for tuition and fees will no longer be available and there will be limits placed on education tax credits. Teachers won't be able to deduct their classroom expenses and employer-provided educational aid will be restricted. Thousands of families will no longer be allowed to deduct student loan interest.

Do you own, or plan to sell, stock? Sorry, rich guy:

The capital gains tax will jump 33% — to 20% from 15%. The tax on dividends will go all the way from 15% to 39.6% — a 164% increase.

And here's a real doozy:

But as of midnight Dec. 31, the death tax returns — at a rate of 55% on estates of $1 million or more. The effect this will have on hospital life-support systems is already a matter of conjecture.

Read that again. Slowly. As far as I know, an "estate" includes real estate. Even with today's somewhat-deflated real-estate values, that's gonna hit a lot of people.

How's that hope and change working for ya?

Had to buy a new PC; the old one just sorta got old. Parts wore out. A cooling fan (one of about twelve, I think) went; had a helluva time finding a replacement. Replaced the DVD drive. Then the hard drive started to go, so replaced that. Then, one day, it began to BSOD after a while; the only fix was to turn it off. Overheated, I guess -- some sort of imminent component failure.

After a while, the "after a while" got shorter. I do, of course, back up essential files (as do you, right? Right?), but I figured the time had come for a full mirror backup. And a wise decision that was.

So, I bit the proverbial bullet. The old homebuilt box is over there. Maybe I'll take another whack at getting it live. Over here is a spankin' new Gateway. Fistful of processors; gigs of RAM; more gigs of hard drive; super-fast; yadda yadda yadda. Fast enough to let me edit video if I wish. In fact, it does everything! Er, except configure itself.

What a pain in the ass! No, I couldn't restore the mirror -- the old box is XP Pro, and this one is Windows 7 Home Pro. (Thought seriously about another XP box, but hey, it's time to move on. Besides, the kids both have Vista, and I never could network them with XP to my satisfaction.) Yeah, could've used Windows' built-in transfer util, which would have done some of the work... but BSOD, remember? So: the hard way. It's coming along. Of Win7, I will say that I like it.

Anyway. PITA. Download, install, register. Times a zillion. How come Lileks never mentions this part when he brags about his new toys? At least I have all my serial numbers and reg codes handy.

But really -- if someone comes up with a better way, they'll get rich. I'll be first in line.

From American Glob, is amused by leftists -- such as Mark Lilla of the NY Review of Books -- who simply can't understand why America doesn't want Big, Strong Government to do their thinking for them:

Many Americans, a vocal and varied segment of the public at large, have now convinced themselves that educated elites — politicians, bureaucrats, reporters, but also doctors, scientists, even schoolteachers — are controlling our lives. And they want them to stop. They say they are tired of being told what counts as news or what they should think about global warming; tired of being told what their children should be taught, how much of their paychecks they get to keep, whether to insure themselves, which medicines they can have, where they can build their homes, which guns they can buy, when they have to wear seatbelts and helmets, whether they can talk on the phone while driving, which foods they can eat, how much soda they can drink…the list is long.

Apparently, by Lilla's estimation, Americans should not be allowed to decide these things for themselves. Don't you cave men know that your social betters know what's in your best interest?

McCain -- no, The Other McCain -- gets in a jab of his own by quoting more of Lilla's, um, insight:

A million and a half students in the United States are now being taught by their parents at home, nearly double the number a decade ago, and representing about fifteen students for every public school in the country. There is nothing remarkable about wanting to escape unsafe schools and incompetent teachers, or to make sure your children are raised within your religious tradition. What’s remarkable is American parents’ confidence that they can do better themselves.

Remarkable, perhaps, but not mistaken. What almost every beginning home-schooling parent quickly discovers — by accident — is how much that goes on in the modern public education system is simply wasted time. Mom at the kitchen table can generally accomplish more with three hours of direct instruction as a public elementary school does in an entire day.

What few critics (or even advocates) of home-schooling fail to grasp is the extent to which its popularity reflects the democratization of education. More Americans are college-educated than ever before. Why should a mother with an Ivy League MBA suppose that she is less capable of teaching her children arithmetic than a state-school graduate with a BS Ed.? (As a proud alumnus of Jacksonville State University, I don’t intend this as a put-down of state-school graduates.)

Studies indicate that home-schooling parents generally have higher-than-average levels of education, and might therefore presumably are qualified to judge the adequacy of the education provided by public schools. If these parents reject the public system as inferior to what they can provide their own children at home, why should Lilla presume them incompetent to make that decision?

...you sense the source of liberal Lilla's frustration. What was the point of the Left's "long march through the institutions" if, having captured those institutions, they can't use them to tell everybody else what to do?

Hat tip: Instapundit