Democrats Downplay What They Once Assured Us
Dec 22, 2008 Political
In the run up to the 2006 midterm elections the Democrats told us they had the solutions to the problems facing America. Vote for them, they said, because they can lower gas prices and fix the ailing economy (that wasn’t exactly ailing at the time). They were unable to accomplish this and they needed more power to right the ship of state. In 2008 they won even more seats and America elected a man whose citizenship is in question, all on the promise of hope and change.
Well, gas prices are the lowest they have been in years but they had to cause a complete financial meltdown to accomplish that little task. The Democrats set the table for the financial meltdown when people like Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, and Barack Obama were on the payroll of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Despite at least 17 warnings by the Bush administration, these people continued to insist that all was well. It was, if you were one of their friends making millions of dollars working for Fannie and Freddie.
Now though, the Democrats actually won and they will have to make good on the promises that they can fix it all. They will have to live up to promises that they can fix the economy and get people back to work. But, in true Democratic fashion, they are now lowering the bar. Once self assured in their ability to repair what is broken, the Democrats are now saying that things will take a long time to mend and that the 800 BILLION dollar stimulus package they are working on might not exactly do much.
Well who would have known? The first stimulus did not work. The bailout did not work and there is no indication that throwing more money, money we don’t have I might add, at the problem will actually fix it. The Democrats realize that they fooled millions of people into voting for them and those people will expect results. The same Democrats who wanted something done NOW are saying it might take a while.
I never had any doubt it would take a while and I also knew that stimulus packages and bailouts would not solve any problems. The end result of all the spending is that we don’t know where the money went, how much was actually spent (and what the final tally will be), or where we will find the resources to pay it back.
During the Great Depression the government threw money around and tried creating jobs. This, among other things, prolonged the depression and made things much worse.
The free market system will work out problems but it has to be a free market. We cannot have the government making rules that run contrary to the principle of a free market. We cannot allow people who do not have the means to buy a home to actually buy one. We cannot make credit rules so lax that college kids can apply for credit cards and be approved even though they are saddled with debt and have little or no income. George Bush said he is abandoning free market principles in order to save the economy but abandoning those principles is what got us in this mess in the first place.
Democrats in Washington are still subscribing to the idea that they can intervene in a free market and make things right but they are also realizing that this tact is having little effect. Thus, they are pulling back from those things they once assured us rather than admit they knew not what they were talking about in the first place.
Someone once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
It would appear that the Democrats are insane.
Source:
Wall Street Journal
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Tags: bailout, Democrats, expectation, insanity, stimulus package
Congress Gives Itself A Raise
Dec 20, 2008 Political
Technically that is not exactly correct since the Congress gets the raise automatically unless it votes to stop it. They made it that way some years ago because people complained that the deadbeats were always voting themselves raises that they did not deserve. The cowards changed it so that they had to vote to stop it and that way they would be telling the truth when they said they did not vote for a pay raise.
Looks like the Congress has done it again. They failed to vote so the raise will take place. The do nothing Congress that has ruined the economy will be getting paid more money for its failures. This is the same Congress that bullies the leaders of the Big Three auto companies for wasteful practices and running their businesses into the ground. The big difference is that Congress has run our country into the ground and can confiscate taxpayer money as a reward without all the begging the automakers must go through.
I don’t believe the auto makers should get taxpayer money and I don’t believe Congress deserves a pay raise. This Congress has spent and spent until we have a huge deficit. Congress has set the conditions and fostered the environment where people with no money can buy houses and receive credit. This caused the collapse of the housing market and led to the financial disaster on Wall Street. The ripple effect is a direct result of the actions of Congress. The members were too busy taking huge donations from those they should have been watching. They were too busy allowing a few of their friends to get very rich at the expense of others and they were too busy running this country into the ground to keep focused.
What do they all get for their failed efforts? They get a raise of nearly $5000, all paid for by the very taxpayers they put the screws to.
Members of Congress work very few days during the year. They would like you to believe that it is a hard job that involves so much effort but the reality is they keep running for office because they can get rich once they are entrenched. Look at how many wealthy people run for office and how many more got wealthy once in office. They do it because they can be part of the elite and not have to work very hard. They do it for the prestige and they do it because it is easy money (that most of them do not need).
None of these jackasses work a full year. We are lucky if they put 100 days in. They spend the rest of the time on a vacation that they label “district days.” It is time they fly off to other countries on the taxpayer dime (or on the dime of a lobbyist) and they spend little time actually working.
The Congress loves when it has leaders of business begging for money. Then it can sit there and chide them for their excesses. How dare you fly in a corporate jet or make millions of dollars a year when the economy is bad and your employees are being laid off? How hypocritical can they be? They are taking a pay raise when the economy is tanking and people are losing their jobs. It is wrong and the practice needs to end.
We need a system where taxpayers decide whether their representatives get a raise or not and how much it should be. Members of Congress and the Sainted One have stated that the CEOs of the auto companies need to go as part of a deal. They ran the business into the ground and they need to go.
The Congress has done much worse for this country than the automakers have done for their businesses.
We need to demand that they change this automatic pay raise to one that requires a vote so we can hold them accountable.
Cowards…
Source:
The Hill
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Tags: auto makers, bailout, Congress, cowards, pay raise, worthless
Abandoning The Free Market Will Not Fix It
Dec 17, 2008 Political
The economic tough times we are going through are the result of many things. But one thing is certain and that is the tough times are not the result of free market principles. The free market takes care of issues unless there is intervention from outside influences. In this case, the socialistic practices and greed of past administrations and American businesses have combined to cause the problem.
The idea that we need to give people loans for houses they cannot afford is not a free market principle. Forcing companies to pay a minimum wage that government sets based on some arbitrary target rather than the supply and demand of a workforce is not free market. Allowing businesses to hire illegals for well under the market price for a job is not part of the free market. Developing gimmicky investment vehicles in order to turn a quick buck at the expense of others is unethical and not free market. Too much government intervention is not part of the free market and it stifles growth. Combine this with politicians lining their pockets at our expense and we have a recipe for disaster. These are the reasons we got into trouble.
However, President Bush and the Congress failed to see all this and they decided that the best way to fix things was to interfere even more in the free market so that it could go further into chaos. The financial bailout was an intervention that should never have happened. The economic collapse should not have happened but politicians decided that everyone needed a home and investors decided that they needed get rich quick schemes. Then, when it all went south the government got more involved and infused taxpayer money into the mess. The 700 billion dollars has morphed into trillions of dollars in bailouts and there is no end in sight. None of it has helped the economy because the infusion of money only prolongs the pain and delays the inevitable.
President Bush says that he abandoned free market principles to save the economy. He is only partly right. Free market principles were abandoned a long time ago. He is only doing more of the same of what has been going on and it will not help one bit. George Bush is using Socialism to try and fix a free market system when Socialism caused the problem.
Businesses should make it or fail on their own. Bankers and Wall Street tycoons should be left to fail. When they made billions of dollars they did not rush to DC to give money to the government and they did not hand it out to the taxpayer. When they got in trouble they had their hands in taxpayer pockets for help. They should fail. There will always be another ready to step in and take their place. This goes for the Big Three auto makers as well. If they are unable to make it then they should go under and someone can take over and buy them out or they can cease to be.
George Bush saying that he abandoned free market principles to save the economy is like a priest saying he abandoned religion to save people’s souls. It is like saying that we abandon morality to make people more moral. It is ridiculous and it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
We need to get BACK to free market principles and let the situation influence the outcome. Employers can pay what the market will bear not what politicians dictate. People who cannot afford their homes can lose them and learn from the experience. Auto makers can file for bankruptcy and renegotiate the contracts with the UAW or they can go under and the union workers can be unemployed.
The reality is, we need to use the free market to get out of this mess and stop creating bigger problems by throwing more and more money down a hole. More money will not help and it will certainly make things worse because we do not have the money and must borrow it. We are going deeper and deeper in debt in a scheme that will not work.
We need to get government out of our business and let the market dictate what business survives and what does not. Darwin had that part right.
George Bush cannot abandon the free market and expect things to change. They will not get better and things will certainly get worse. We only need to look at the Great Depression to see that government intervention allowed it to go on much longer than it should have.
Mr. President, one does not fix the free market by abandoning the free market. One allows it to correct itself as it has done time and again when politicians were not screwing things up.
Sacrificing free market principles is what caused this mess in the first place.
Source:
Breitbart
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Tags: bailout, Bush, free market, socialism, wall street
Out Of Touch RINO; It is Not Your Money
Nov 20, 2008 Political
The problem with the Republican party is not that it has too many low brow Christians as claimed by Kathleen Parker . The problem is that the Republican party has too many people in it who are Republicans In Name Only (RINO). These are the people who are registered as Republicans and say they are conservative but then support issues that are not in any way, shape, or form, conservative. This is true especially true for elected Republicans.
The left and its propaganda wing in the media would have us believe that the last election shows that conservatism is dying but this is a mistaken belief based on a false assumption. They say conservatism is dying because McCain lost but McCain is no conservative. If the party had run a true conservative Obama would be in the Senate trying to bail out the auto makers instead of killing business in Chicago.
The problem with RINOs is that they have most of the beliefs of liberals but they are registered and elected as Republicans. Case in point is Republican Representative Joe Knollenberg of Michigan. He has this misguided belief that the money the government has actually belongs to the government. While discussing the bailout of the auto industry with Neil Cavuto this RINO said that the money belongs to Congress and they will do with it what they want.
I have stated this before but it is worth mentioning again. Government does not earn money, it does not have its “own” money and the only way it gets any money is to forcefully take it from the people who actually earn it. The money in question (in fact, all the money) belongs to the US taxpayer and not to the Congress or any other government entity. The people who earn that money expect the people they elect to be good stewards of that money and to spend it wisely and in accordance with the Constitution. Knollenberg is the type of Republican that needs to be removed from office. We need to get rid of all of them who think like liberals. We might suffer in the short term with larger Democratic majorities but in the long run it will be best for the party and the country.
Knollenberg naturally wants to help the auto industry because he is from Michigan and he is entitled to have the opinion that we need to help them. However, he needs to remember that the money he is talking about also belongs to people from the other 49 states and they have a right to say how it is spent.
I believe that the auto makers should file for bankruptcy and let the chips fall where they might. The companies have been poorly run and hijacked by union thugs. They put out inferior products that people do not want and now they want the people to foot the bill for their ineptitude.
If the federal government spends OUR money bailing out the auto industry then it will set a precedent that allows other industries that make bad decisions to run to DC with their hands out. Government does not belong in the private sector.
If the government spends our money on the people who flew corporate jets to DC to beg for cash then I will NEVER buy another product made by any of the recipients of the extortion scheme. I urge all readers to consider this as well. If they get our money then you should consider one of their competitors when it comes time to replace your vehicle. Why reward their incompetence. If they get the money then we can use the power of our purse to put them out of business.
It might seem harsh and it will suck for the employees but the time for playing games is over. Let the market handle things and if they cannot compete then they will be forced to change or they will disappear.
NEW TAX FORM
Line 1: Amount you earned last year ______________
Line 2: Send the amount on line 1 to the government.
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Tags: auto makers, bailout, Congress, constitution, money, RINO
A Little Test For The Big Three
Nov 18, 2008 Political
The Big Three American automobile makers are in dire straights and they are begging for a taxpayer provided bailout to cover their inept business practices. There is no way that taxpayers should be paying to bailout businesses that are not well run and that will never be profitable as long as executives make huge salaries (have to keep those private jets flying) and union thugs extort more from a well that has long run dry.
The news today indicated that the bailout would not take place because of Republican resistance. NOW the Republicans get conservative…
Anyway, the Republicans are on the right side of this issue but that won’t last very long. In a few short months the Democrats will have a president and a majority in the Congress. They will essentially be able to pass what they want because a few spineless Republicans will join them. Barack Obama favors a bailout of the automakers because he is beholden to the unions and that is probably one of the biggest in the country.
It does not matter that these companies make inferior products, they pay inflated salaries for jobs that require little education or skill and they have benefits packages that unions have negotiated through the stratosphere. The fact is, the executives want their big salaries, the strong back weak minded union members want their union jobs and the unions want payback for supporting Democrats. Therefore, the Democrats will kill to get the Big Three some of your money.
Oh, the test. If the companies want us to believe that they provide such a great product then we need to conduct a little test. Someone should go to the parking lots of each of the Big Three and count how many foreign (or non Big Three) cars are on the lot. I am willing to bet that a large number of those vehicles will not be made by the company for whom the driver works.
If the people who make the cars do not trust the company (or their own craftsmanship) enough to buy its products, why should we trust the company or the workers enough to bail them out?
Government does not belong in private business. If we end up bailing these companies out we will only be rewarding them for their failures (and encouraging unions to continue their extortion). We will also only be delaying the inevitable because it is unlikely that a taxpayers bailing them out of the mess they created will suddenly cause them to do things differently.
It will be more of the same but this time it will be with our money…
Related:
My Way
Tags: bailout, big three, extortion, failure, thugs, unions, us automakers