Health Care - A Government Agency

While the Stimulus, TARP, bailouts and all other recent government attempts at fixing the United States economic mess have failed, the government doesn't take a step back and start to think perhaps they're going in the wrong direction. Instead, they decide to tackle health care. Yep, when you're batting zero you may as well swing for the fences and ruin more lives.

We've all heard the argument before. When sensible people think about government run health care, they think about the efficiency of the post office and the DMV and wonder "if the health of my family or myself is at risk, do I want a bureaucrat deciding if I get the right treatment?" Then of course there's the politics behind it. If lung cancer has a better lobbyist group in one election year than breast cancer, guess what cancer is getting more money?

Now let's talk about employer mandates. The administration wants to require all small businesses to carry health care for employees. As a small business owner, that makes me want to close my doors and get a government job - maybe at the DMV. I'm in business to make money, and I'll hire as many people as I need to in order to succeed. If I don't offer good compensation, health care, and/or other benefits than employment at my company is less attractive than working elsewhere. Forcing employers to pay health care puts an enormous burden on businesses, preventing them from being able to invest in their growth. When it's hard for businesses to grow, many shut down. When businesses shut down, less people are employed. When less people are employed, less taxes get paid. When less taxes get paid, more money gets printed. And the cycle continues.

When will they get it? Government is the source of all of these problems, not the solution.

Homeland Security Definitions under the Obama Administration

Please take note of the following terms now used under the Obama administration. We were promised change, and we certainly got it:

When you are referring to shoe bombs, dirty bombs, suicide bombs, and commercial airlines being flown into buildings make sure you do not use the outdated word terrorism. The T-word is too inflammatory. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose office was created for the purpose of combating the T-word, now uses the term Man-Caused Disasters.

Please do not reference illegal immigration as reasons for favoring border security. Secretary Napolitano has made a very compelling case for border security by referencing how the 9-11 hijackers snuck into the United States through the Canadian border.

Although the administration is working so hard on moving us from the politics of fear, there are of course exceptions: They include Republicans, Conservatives, Libertarians, opponents to illegal immigration, opponents to an oversized federal government, opponents to bailouts, the pro-life movement, veterans returning from combat, and anyone who has attended a Tea Party. These deviants are known as right wing extremists. Feel free to also call them terrorists.

100 days ago, Islamic Jihadists and Somali pirates were the enemy. Today, I'm on Homeland Security's watch list.

Let's Negotiate with Criminals

So the Obama administration is going around making sure the Somali pirates are being classified as criminals, because the word "terrorist" has been completely eliminated from Washington the day our President was inaugurated. Unfortunately, only the word went went away.

But fine, if you want to call these guys criminals rather than terrorists, let's just pay them 2 million, and get the captain the hell out of there. We don't negotiate with terrorists, but we surely negotiate with criminals. Just look at how Congress has been meeting with Wall Street. We have criminals negotiating with criminals all the time.

Once we get him back, shoot them out of the water. In fact, why aren't we fitting all of our cargo ships, cruise ships, and other non military water transportation with machine gun turrets and a trained security force to prevent this from happening?

Even if we don't shoot them out of the water, what's 2 million? We're just printing it anyway.

Prediction: Geithner Gone by April 1st

I can be wrong, but I want to be on record with this prediction.

Wednesday 3/19: Senator Chris Dodd blames the White House for changes to the executive pay restrictions in the recent stimulus plan, which allowed for the AIG bonuses. Dodd claimed to have no knowledge of the bonuses.

It wouldn't be terribly difficult for the White House to point the finger at Chris Dodd, due to his past record of unbelievable mortage deals from Countrywide, and receiving more political contributions from AIG in 2008 than EITHER presidential candidate.

But instead Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admits to specifically asking for a loophole allowing for the bonuses to go through, claiming he was afraid the government would get sued otherwise. As if the government has never been sued. Heck, AIG has already sued the US Government over a tax dispute; talk about biting the hand that's holding the I.V.

It seems pretty clear that the administration has asked Geithner to fall on his sword for this one. He's not particularly popular, nor is he seen as competent. This presents a perfect opportunity for the President to identify a scapegoat while throwing a weak link under the bus.

I will refrain from saying anything too negative against Secretary Geithner, because I know people who have met the man and have had only good things to say about him as a person and his intelligence. Besides, the problem will not go away with him, nor will it until we are able to put a stop to the reckless government intervention that is taking a recession - a natural economic phenomena - and using it as an opportunity to transform the economic landscape of the wealthiest and freest nation in the world.

This AIG nonsense is just a ruse to distract us and channel our anger somewhere other than the government. Where's the outrage over Nancy Pelosi refusing to hold a vote over abolishing automatic annual Congressional pay raises? They've done such a great job too, shouldn't their pay increases be done away with?

But I digress. How about Jamie Dimon as the new Treasury Secretary? Nevermind the fact that's he's too smart to take such a job.

Congress says "Tax AIG Bonuses"

There should be no argument from anyone that it's pretty disgusting to see AIG take taxpayer money from you and me, and uses it to reward failure by giving out more bonuses. These guys should never have gotten a dime from the government. This systemic failure is total nonsense; if a company fails let them fail. As a small business owner, I know that if I can't keep my doors open I'm not getting any free money.

HOWEVER - Don't start cheering when Chris Dodd and Nancy Pelosi start talking about taxing these bonuses at such a high rate rate that they get all the money back. Or Barnie Frank saying "We should start exercising our ownership rights." or that "We should take over the company."

The government was stupid enough to give these losers money - no strings attached. You can't change the rules after the fact. And by supporting the government into doing targeted taxing, you're walking down ANOTHER slippery slope. How long before they decide that other companies or industries should also be taxed extra, for whatever reason they see fit? What happens when they go after you?

Next time, let them fail. You can't expect a failed company to take money from the government and be successful. How many success stories are there of people who took welfare money and started a successful business with it?

Incidentally:
Chris Dodd and Barack Obama Top Recipients of AIG Contributions
Will they get taxed excessively on this too?

Churchill not Welcome in the White House

Why are we trying to buddy up with Russia and Iran while snubbing the UK?

I know this sounds like the start of a joke, but this a true story from earlier this week.

Barack Obama and Gordon Brown recently met and exchanged gifts. Mr. Brown gives the President "a pen holder carved from the timbers of the sister ship of the one the White House desk is made from and a first edition of a seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill"

Pretty thoughtful.

Obama's gift: 25 DVD's of classic American movies selected by the American Film Institute (AFI).

Don't get me wrong, I like old movies. But all I could find on Amazon and eBay was AFI's top 100 movies. What happened to the other 75? If I had to guess: The movies with Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston were removed. After that went any movies that made capitalism look good.

But then again, what did Gordon Brown expect? A few weeks ago the President removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, loaned to the US from the UK after 9/11. It was another thoughtful gesture; a symbol of a man that stood for freedom and opposition to tyranny during some of the darkest days the free world has ever experienced.

Let's hope the Karl Marx bust hasn't yet arrived.

Kerry Angry over Bank's Extravagent Spending

Sen Kerry targets bailout bank over golf soiree

"I'm sick and tired of picking up the newspaper and reading about another idiotic abuse of taxpayer money, while our country is on the brink," Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement released to Reuters.

The hypocrisy and irony! A Massachusetts Democrat who voted for the most massive increase in government spending, that's due to wreck not only the economy, but the economy for our next generation is sick and tired about some bank's abuse of taxpayer money?

Reading this makes me harken back to this anti-drug commercial from the 1980's:



Kerry: Who taught you how to waste money like that?
Banker: I learned it by watching you, Senator!

Nationalizing Troubled Banks - not such a bad idea?

At first glance, the thought of nationalizing troubled banks (namely BankofAmerica and CitiGroup) sounds ludicrous, but after some careful consideration, that may be exactly what we need to do, to get rid of them for good, nice and fast.

We have all been to the DMV before, perhaps interfaced with the IRS and other govt agencies and services. We are all accustomed to the "govt service" that we are forced to deal with, when interfacing with govt entities and services. Everything from the long lines, extremely slow and poor service makes us all cringe anytime we have to deal with them. Picture for a moment, the same style service and operation at your nearest bank, something you deal with daily, weekly or monthly.

You are probably saying to yourself, " no way! I would immediately withdraw my money and place it someplace else.. non govt owned." Multiply that logic x 100, x 1000 x 1,000,000 people in the exact same position you are in.

That's precisely what would happen, if the govt were to nationalize the troubled banks. A bank is only as good as the deposits it holds. Without any deposits, the bank is worthless. A nationalized bank, would literally cause a run on the bank, turning that bad bank into a non-bank and wiping them out for good. Together, the govt, their decision to nationalize the bank and the useless management struture that is still in place would give us exactly what we have been waiting for. It would do away with these troubled, worthless banks in a much more effective way.

We all know the govt is not capable of running anything. We saw what happened with the "GSE's" Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. They couldn't even run a profitable company.. and we are to expect them to turnaround a bad bank and make it profitable? I'm sure you are laughing just as I am.

I think that's what we really need. Bad bank nationalization. Sure, it wipes out the common stock holders, perhaps even the preferred and bond holders.. but it sure beats pouring trillions more into the system, realizing it didn't work, and wiping out the tax payers in the process.

Inflation Up - This is a Surprise?

Wholesale Inflation Takes Biggest Jump in 6 Months

To those of us with common sense - meaning us peasants not living in DC - this was a long time coming and it's just the beginning. The headline states inflation is at its 6 month high. Well, what did we start doing about six months ago? Here's a hint: it involved the Federal Reserve and a giant printer. Yes! We started printing money like it was going out of style.

The primary cause for inflation occurs when the government prints an excess supply of money. Just like anything else, when you have an excess of anything it becomes less valuable. That's why diamonds are so precious and dirt is dirt. When there's excess money, prices shoot up. This phenomena that many of us learned in college (or even high school) economics is called a demand-pull.

According to the article: "Despite the big jump in wholesale prices in January, economists do not believe inflation is on the verge of becoming a problem, given the country's deep recession."

Oh really? These must be the same economists who thought credit default swaps and sub-prime mortgages were a great idea. Inflation is up a little as a result of a few hundred billion dollars printed over the Summer, how will inflation react to the trillions of dollars in bailouts, stimulus, and "Fed injections" that have been pumped out since then? All of these programs have a ripple effect, and if we continue down this dangerous path of irresponsible government nanny-ing, we're going to see 2008 and 2009 as the good old days, when if we saw a dollar bill on the street we'd actually bother to pick it up.

Keep it up Congress, we'll start stocking up on toilet paper; a more valuable currency.

Chuck Schumer - The Poster Boy for Term Limits

Watch this 16 second clip, and you'll see a senator who's so out of touch with his constituency you have to wonder how this guy manages to get re-elected term after term.

Busy Signal On Capitol Hill

If you've been trying to contact your Congressman or Congresswoman to tell them how bad of an idea this Stimulus Bill is - and I most certainly hope you are - then you may have noticed that you're getting a busy signal more often than you're getting anything else.

Somehow, I don't think people are swarming the phones telling Congress how great of a bill this is. America is making it loud and clear that this bill is a disaster waiting to happen.

If you haven't contacted your Senator yet, please do so. If you're even half as mad as I am, then you have to make your voice heard.

Since the phones are all tied up, try email or fax. You can find those numbers in my previous post. I didn't bother to write to Senator Chuck Schumer, who believes the bigger the bill the better. However, I did send a fax to New York's new senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Democratic Senator Gillibrand voted against the bailout as a New York state representative; which shows more guts and sense than many of her male Republican counterparts.

Unfortunately, I don't believe she'll be breaking ranks on this one, which is a terrible disappointment for what appeared to be an otherwise very positive looking Senator.

My fax is below in case you wish to use any part of it:

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
531 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
District of Columbia 20510-3204
Fax: (202) 228-0282

Dear Senator Gillibrand:

Upon hearing of your nomination, I read your record and was pleased to see how you voted steadfast against the Bailout. As a New Yorker and an American, I am proud to have such a fiscally responsible Senator.

However, this Stimulus Bill is of great concern to me and many others who I speak to. The people mistrust their government. There is a tremendous record of irresponsibility and overspending, and I believe the government is now overreaching like never before. No other entity in the United States of America but the Federal Government would dare think that you can spend and spend your way out of your problems.

Please consider past results: TARP was passed, and no one knows where the money went and how it was used. The government can use words such as oversight, but even with the best of intentions it simply does not happen. The government's record on responsible spending does not exist. Trusting the government with another trillion in spending would be equivalent to letting an alcoholic run a liquor store or a drug addict run a pharmacy.

I also see many prominent people, including our President saying how bleak our circumstances are, and we must act now. Rash action without thinking things through does not work. I see these calls for immediate action as scare tactics, or when one watches an infomercial, where if we "act now" we get additional junk.

I hope you once again can see the responsible side, and choose to say no. Without a doubt we are going through hard times, but burdening our children with trillions of dollars of debt so we can supposedly avoid hard times is not only selfish, but doomed to fail.

This is being sent by facsimile since your web site does not post an email, nor can I reach your office by telephone. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Say NO to 780,000,000,000.00

The battle lines have been drawn between sanity and insanity. No one else in the United States of America but the Federal Government would ever dare spend so much money without any idea how to pay for it. How do you stimulate an economy by borrowing an astronomical amount from China and/or by printing it in the basement? You can't.

The number is a "compromised" 780,000,000,000.00. Not 780 billion, or 780b. 780,000,000,000.00. Take a good look at that number. If the idea of government spending its way into prosperity worked, why didn't we spend this much when times were good?

Isn't anyone looking at past results? We passed this idiotic TARP bill and the government doesn't even know where the money went. Can you trust the government with a reputation for irresponsible spending with that kind of money? Would you let an alcoholic run a liquor store or a drug addict a pharmacy?

And what's with our President? Every day he gets on the mike and says how bleak our circumstances are. What happened to his campaign of hope, and optimism? I call what he's doing right now scare tactics. He's trying to scare us into supporting this stimulus bill as our only hope of recovery.

I hope you're with me when you say you don't believe it. You don't believe the government is more capable of spending your tax dollars than you are. You don't believe that shouldering generations of Americans with massive debt is an appropriate response for difficult times. You don't believe that these congressman and congresswomen (who just voted themselves in a pay increase THREE TIMES the annual norm) have our best interests at heart, and/or know what they're doing.

If so, it's not enough to sit back and complain. We really need to make our voices heard.
Write Your Representative
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Or just call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senators and your representative. Tell them what you think. Tell your friends/family/enemies to do the same. This is more than just another stupid bill in Congress - this is our future.

Executive Pay: A Decent Day for Free Market Capitalism

President Obama now says that senior executive compensation will be capped at $500,000 for those companies receiving "exceptional assistance" from the government. Be happy about this, but not because we want to punish those big bad Wall Street executives.

This is good. Anyone watching CNBC and/or Fox Business when Congress passed TARP or approved a bailout for AIG, Citi, or any other bankruptcy deserving company/industry. Everyone on the trading floor was cheering and patting each other on the back. The DOW went up. Those jerks were thrilled about receiving welfare. As a business owner, the last thing I want is the government getting involved in any way, shape or form in my business.

Sorry Wall Street, most of us learned a long time ago there's no free lunch. These guys are worse than the people who take a "free vacation", not realizing that they need to sit through a very high pressure time share sales pitch.

Let the government put more regulations on these bailouts. Make them so unattractive that no company has any interest in taking them. The government has no idea how to run these companies. Look at the SEC. People were reporting this Madoff scam for years, and the SEC looked the other way. These are the guys who want to run Wall Street and health care.

On the other hand, don't be fooled. President Obama started his talk by explaining the urgency of this so-called Stimulus Plan, and then cleverly switched over to executive pay. Popularity for the Stimulus Plan is dropping like an anchor, as it should. The President is trying to tie executive pay together with the nonsense of the Stimulus Plan. They have nothing to do with each other.

Blagojevich and Madoff - Wrongly Singled Out?

Governor Rod Blagojevich is being impeached for allegedly auctioning off a US Senate seat to the highest bidder. Bernard Madoff is going on trial for an alleged ponzi scheme, where money is brought in, and returns on investment on paid with the money of other contributors, rather than the merits of the investment.

Why are these guys being singled out? Most Congressman vote on bills not for the bill's merit, but by the amount of pork that gets fed into a bill that has nothing to do with the bill. That's how the bailout passed. The first bailout was voted down. Then it was voted in because congressmen were promised money in their district for various programs that had nothing to do with the bailout. Isn't that selling your vote? How does that differ from Blagojevich? How is it wrong wrong to sell the job, but OK to act that way once you have the job.

As for a 50 billion dollar ponzi scheme: How many trillions of dollars have gone into Social Security, where we pay into a system that transfer the money to someone else? The scheme has been going on longer than Madoff's and is tremendously larger, but one of these days that scam is going to run out of money too. I doubt anyone is going to stand trial for that one.

Reaction to the President's Farewell

A quick observation:

Over President Bush's 8 years, I've noticed that whenever he cites people's actions in his speeches, it's always people who are indisputable heroes. Tonight was no exception. For example: the staff sergeant who charged into an ambush in Iraq to save three of his fellow marines. The 60 year old surgeon who enlisted in the Navy medical corps to honor his fallen son. These people are the finest examples of courage, heroism, and resolve.

When I listened to President Elect Obama during his campaign, he was citing people who can't pay their bills, don't have medical insurance, are unemployed and/or have had their homes foreclosed upon. These people are the clearest examples of pain and suffering.

Both types exist. Draw your own conclusions as to why they choose the people they choose in their speeches.

Lastly, a few quotable quotes from a President who has strengths, but public speaking is often not one of them:

We must resists complacency.
We must keep our resolve.
And we must never let down our guard.

If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led.

We Don't Need Government to the Rescue

Today, President George W Bush said "And I readily conceded that I chucked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisers that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression".

Mr. President: I've argued for you when it was very unpopular to do so. You can take responsibility for recognizing we were at war when the rest of the so called civilized world just wanted to chant bumper sticker slogans. But today, I'm beyond dissappointed. First, whoever told you things could be worse than the Great Depression either lied or is an idiot. We're nowhere near breadlines and 25% unemployment. And anyone who believes this ridiculous TARP program that's trying to keep failed companies afloat has staved off an economic disaster can call me because I have a bridge to sell them. Try reading some memoirs of the Great Depression before making such ridiculous comparisons.

Next, nice to know you chucked aside your free market principles because things were looking bad. It's easy to have principles when things look good; try standing by them when things get tough. You certainly did that by sticking it out in Iraq and the Surge when the rest of the world said we lost. Obviously, there were no free market principles.

Now onto our incoming President-Elect. Recently, he told us that only government can get us out of the mess. Well, that's a slap in the face to every entrepreneur and hard working independent Americans. Most of us don't want government helping us, and we most certainly don't need the government to get us out of this. When there's adversity, there's opportunity. Has everyone in the government forgotten this? I hope none of you have.

Get ready for the biggest power grab you have ever seen on American soil. If Barack Obama and Congress get what they want, we're looking at a massive transfer of economic power from the private sector to the government. And we all know what a great job the government has done with managing the DMV, Social Security, etc.

This isn't Republican vs. Democrat. There aren't enough voices on either side of the aisle with any common sense. Everyone is afraid, everyone is going to vote for this economic takeover, and whenever things turn around, they just want to take credit for it. But things are going to be made much worse from this intervention, prolonging the misery. You can't avoid recessions, they're part of the free market.

This is still a democracy. When the time comes for the Great American Bailout Plan, where trillions of dollars of money we don't have gets proposed in the name of "saving the economy" - I hope you're ready for battle. Make sure you call your Congressmen and Congresswomen, and let them know this is not what we want. They don't listen to us because they represent us; they listen to us because we can vote them out if we have half a brain. I hope we do.

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