A Condo Story

Suppose you owned a condominium in a first-class, high rise building. Every month you paid the maintenance for your apartment, just like all the other folks in the building. Now suppose that the board of the condominium hired five doormen, seven porters and a batch of other maintenance workers. Suppose the board also decided to have fresh cut flowers put on a table by the elevator on each floor every day. Suppose that the board also decided to hire five personal trainers to man the small gym in the building. Then suppose that the board decided to oust the convenience store that had rented space from the building on the ground floor because it brought too much traffic into the building. Then, suppose that a batch of condo owners were having trouble making the maintenance payments, so the condo board decided to use the funds of the condominium to pay for their late payments. Lastly, suppose that the board decided to give every unit owner a $150 rebate at the end of the year, even though the condo did not have the funds to make this payment. As a result, the condo board kept raising the mortgage on the building until the bank finally said that it would lend nothing further.

At this point, suppose one of the board members who had opposed many of these plans started campaigning for support in the building to reduce expenditures. Do away with the five trainers; no one uses them anyway. Stop putting fresh flowers out every day; once a week is sufficient. Stop the rebates that the building cannot afford. Would you call this board member a right wing ideologue? I don't think so. But when the same thing happens on a national scale, that is exactly what the Obamacrats do. Paul Ryan who has explained for years why the Obamacrats were spending America into oblivion gets selected as the nominee for vice president and he is denounced immediately by David Axelrod and the other Obamacrats as a right wing ideologue. It is just sheer idiocy.

But back to the condo for a moment. Suppose someone came forward and told the condo owners that his plan was to raise the maintenance on all three bedroom units. By doing that, those big units would pay their fair share of the expenses. Of course, even after raising the rates for three bedroom apartments, the condo could only last one more month before going broke. Would any rational unit owner vote for a one month stop gap move instead of the restoration of fiscal reality to the building? I doubt it since to do so would mean the bankruptcy of the condo and the loss of everyone's home. But that is the plan that the Obamacrats are pushing. Tax the rich, they scream, even if it will not solve the problem. Tax the rich, they scream, even if it will reduce economic growth and destroy the jobs of millions. That plan makes no sense in a condo, and it also makes no sense for America.