Three weeks ago I bought a car. For all kinds of reasons, it wasn’t a new car but it was new to me and it was a good deal and it lacked only the new-car smell. Nor was it an American built car and there would have been a time and a place when I would have felt guilty about that but not any longer.
Perhaps, the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a while was the arrival at National Airport in Washington DC of several company aircraft. And they weren’t Cessna 210s. No, they were Gulfstream Vs, the top of the line of the “bizjet” business. And out strode top executives of the big 3 auto makers from Detroit. They wore their Armani suits and they had their aides, walking a few paces behind them carrying their designer brief cases. If, at this point, it seems that I have resorted to “class envy”, trust me I haven’t. Just stay with me. Then this same bunch are whisked away in limos to go to Capitol Hill where the aides opened the designer brief cases and retrieved their boss’es begging bowls.
Now, I know beggars. I worked for decades in downtown San Francisco and so I’ve been worked on by experts. These guys from Detroit were pathetic. They hadn’t a clue. All they knew was that the UAW was all over their case and they were scared to death.
They should have had some coaching from Henrietta Hughes and nineteen-year old Julio Osequeda. Remember them? They were the two losers in Fort Myers, Florida. She wanted a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and a car. He, on the other hand wanted either a new job that paid better. Don’t we all? Or he wanted the federal government to pick up the slack. But they were good; they were so convincing at least as far as the drive-by media was concerned. They were the faces of America in recession. One talking head on MSNBC even called them that .........
But were they?
According to well-documented sources from government agencies in Florida, Ms. Hughes has been living off the common teat since the 1980s. Did she ask Clinton for a house with a kitchen and bathroom and a car? No such question has been reported.
And, as for Julio, when I was in school at his age, I worked 2 jobs while I carried a full load of classes. Then on weekends, I’d work 24 hours. And, guess what Julio, none of those hours were above minimum wage rates and none of my bosses provided benefits. Welcome to the real world Julio. Suck it up. You think it’s tough now? Stick around.
Oh, one final irony; Ms. Hughes did get a house but it wasn’t provided by Obama but by a Florida Republican. This, before I return to Detroit, brings up one more issue. In spite of the fact that Obama presumably feels he is the President of all 57 states, do you want to guess where most charitable money stems?
Out of the top 26 states in terms of charity, 24 are red. So much for “caring for the little people”.
Back to Motown and a new request today for another 30 billion dollars for General Motors which lost almost 100 billion dollars in 2008 alone. Hello; has anybody heard the truism about throwing good money after bad?
No company can survive with costs such as these:-
From the profit on every car GM sells, $1800 is earmarked for retiree benefits.
No employee of GM who is also a member of the UAW has been laid off in 10 years. Instead, they go into a “job pool”, which pays them until such time that a vacancy opens up, maybe years down the road, if ever.
Now all this might have been OK unless you are competing with others not burdened by that overhead and, it may also help, if your product is demonstrably better. Neither seems to apply.
So, what should be done? It seems to me and even to others who hail from Michigan that more bailouts are unlikely to do better than past bailouts.
Only a controlled bankruptcy can force a change from the union strangleholds and management stupidity. Sometimes bankruptcy isn’t just the only thing, it’s the best thing.
And, “Yes, I did I get a loan for my new car”. There is money there; you just have to show you’ll pay it back.
But thank heavens, we may have a health czar on the way in but we’re not going to get a car czar. Instead we’re going to get a committee.
Never forget that a camel is a horse designed by a committee!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
It does not take a majority to prevail ......
Somebody asked me last Friday if I’d seen what was happening on Wall Street as far as the Dow was concerned. As it happened I hadn’t but from the tone of the question and the person’s expression I knew that the bears were on the prowl. Again!
Instead of answering the question directly, I asked one back. “Why does the market go up when unemployment is high?”
Now the person I asked is very bright but also very liberal although she protests otherwise but is, unashamedly, very Obama. Even so, I saw a flash of “the deer caught in the head lights”. She’s a very nice person and so I offered that which I believe to be the answer.
Wall Street does not look at now. It looks at the future. This, when you think about it, explains a lot. Let’s say you have a favorite stock and the yearly results are due today. You wait breathlessly and the company did so well and they report just that. But, you then check the ticker and their stock went down. How can that be? Well, Wall Street assumes that next time it won’t be so good.
Sometime last May, it was likely that Obama would be the Democratic candidate and his platform was well known, even trumpeted from sets worthy of MGM at their most flamboyant. And it was equally obvious that McCain would not prevail. Obama wowed the Left with promises of “Change”. And “Change we can believe in”. The Dow was at 14,000.
But many on Wall Street do not like change even though many heads of those same companies were big time contributors to the Obama band wagon. They are very nervous of an administration which promises to “spread the wealth”. So when they hear about limits on profits, increased business taxation such as higher corporate tax and/or payroll tax they react accordingly and so do private or institutional investors. That is why the Dow on Friday stood at a little above 7300 and why it has lost almost 2000 since Obama’s inauguration.
Is it possible that much of this crisis is being engineered by the very people who purport to fix it? Let’s take a look. A people who are fearful about their future, scared of losing their jobs and who are seeing their investments in their home and their retirement accounts being whittled away are much more likely to turn to the government than would a people who are confident about the road ahead.
As Rahm Emanuel (Obama’s Chief of Staff) put it in recent television interview, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste because it gives an administration the opportunity to do things that ordinarily it could not do”. How much plainer could that be? Obama is a Socialist and so are many of his followers both in the administration and outside it. Now, I’m not saying he’s a Marxist because I don’t know one way or the other. But he is at least a Socialist in the manner of most of the western European nations.
I lived with that mentality for years and I can tell you the law of unintended consequences reigns supreme. Socialized medicine leads to healthcare rationing. Womb to tomb welfare leads to a permanent unemployed class which leads to absence of motivation which leads to crime. Unchecked immigration leads to a permanent underclass simmering all the time and coming to boiling point at others. And there seems to be a malaise of indifference, a lack of direction, a lack of purpose and not just for individuals but for the nation as a whole. And with that comes a dependence on the state for more and more aspects of life.
I am convinced that this dependence is what Obama and his administration seeks. It’s not what Obama says but as we are starting to learn every Obama statement should have an expiration date. And, as Samuel Adams put it, “It does not take a majority to prevail”.
Instead of answering the question directly, I asked one back. “Why does the market go up when unemployment is high?”
Now the person I asked is very bright but also very liberal although she protests otherwise but is, unashamedly, very Obama. Even so, I saw a flash of “the deer caught in the head lights”. She’s a very nice person and so I offered that which I believe to be the answer.
Wall Street does not look at now. It looks at the future. This, when you think about it, explains a lot. Let’s say you have a favorite stock and the yearly results are due today. You wait breathlessly and the company did so well and they report just that. But, you then check the ticker and their stock went down. How can that be? Well, Wall Street assumes that next time it won’t be so good.
Sometime last May, it was likely that Obama would be the Democratic candidate and his platform was well known, even trumpeted from sets worthy of MGM at their most flamboyant. And it was equally obvious that McCain would not prevail. Obama wowed the Left with promises of “Change”. And “Change we can believe in”. The Dow was at 14,000.
But many on Wall Street do not like change even though many heads of those same companies were big time contributors to the Obama band wagon. They are very nervous of an administration which promises to “spread the wealth”. So when they hear about limits on profits, increased business taxation such as higher corporate tax and/or payroll tax they react accordingly and so do private or institutional investors. That is why the Dow on Friday stood at a little above 7300 and why it has lost almost 2000 since Obama’s inauguration.
Is it possible that much of this crisis is being engineered by the very people who purport to fix it? Let’s take a look. A people who are fearful about their future, scared of losing their jobs and who are seeing their investments in their home and their retirement accounts being whittled away are much more likely to turn to the government than would a people who are confident about the road ahead.
As Rahm Emanuel (Obama’s Chief of Staff) put it in recent television interview, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste because it gives an administration the opportunity to do things that ordinarily it could not do”. How much plainer could that be? Obama is a Socialist and so are many of his followers both in the administration and outside it. Now, I’m not saying he’s a Marxist because I don’t know one way or the other. But he is at least a Socialist in the manner of most of the western European nations.
I lived with that mentality for years and I can tell you the law of unintended consequences reigns supreme. Socialized medicine leads to healthcare rationing. Womb to tomb welfare leads to a permanent unemployed class which leads to absence of motivation which leads to crime. Unchecked immigration leads to a permanent underclass simmering all the time and coming to boiling point at others. And there seems to be a malaise of indifference, a lack of direction, a lack of purpose and not just for individuals but for the nation as a whole. And with that comes a dependence on the state for more and more aspects of life.
I am convinced that this dependence is what Obama and his administration seeks. It’s not what Obama says but as we are starting to learn every Obama statement should have an expiration date. And, as Samuel Adams put it, “It does not take a majority to prevail”.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Follow the Money!
How did all this stuff start? Just how did a “naked Emperor” gain the ultimate prize? One question has a complicated answer while the other is much easier.
So, because many people are happier with a short response, I’ll try that first.
John McCain lost because he was the wrong candidate at the wrong time and he compounded those “felonies" by promoting the wrong issues.
But, when all was said and done, the country demanded “Change”. It is much less clear just what it was they wanted changed but now they’ve got it. I doubt they will like it but as the Reverend Wright so eloquently put it, “America’s chickens are coming home to roost”.
Here’s the first flutter;
Tim Geithner, the smartest man in the world and the tax cheat who wasn’t quite so smart was paraded by Obama at a press conference a couple of weeks ago. Remember him? He’s the one that’s bright enough to dig us out of our financial mess.
One brave soul, who probably won’t get to ask another, questioned Obama about his plan to solve the financial mess but, completely in character, Obama refused to give details. Probably because he didn’t know them and, if he did, he certainly didn’t understand them. Anyway he promised that the very next day Turbo Tim would reveal all in excruciating and brilliantly insightful detail.
Now, fast-forward 1 day and here comes Mr. Geithner to confront an eager press corps. His preamble said it all when he announced so proudly that he was not going to present any details.
No wonder the market that day plunged 400 points.
But, I digress. To know how all this began; we must go back to 1977. Carter was in the White House wearing the ugliest sweater ever sold by Sears. And Capitol Hill was swamped with a majority of the left and with unbridled alacrity Carter signed the “Community Reinvestment Act”.
Some of its provisions lay dormant through the Reagan boom years and it wasn’t until Clinton’s Attorney General, Janet Reno, decided it was politically smart to start strong-arming the lending institutions into “easing” their log-held criteria.
Most CEOs, and those heading up banks are no exception, know that their first duty is to protect the investment of those who anted up the money to start with. And so, they resisted. Reno was pissed and hauled in the CEOs of the biggest lenders to meetings at the Department of Justice. Even to the pig-headed Reno, it was obvious that they were not going to yield and so, instead of the stick, she decided that she needed a carrot. Well, I’m no gambler but I could be tempted into a casino if I knew I couldn’t lose,
The way it worked with the lenders was that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae would buy the dubious loans. And, “Whoopee”, said the heads of those quasi-Government agencies because their annual bonuses were directly linked to the amount of business they undertook. They in turn “packaged” the loans into products known collectively as “derivatives” which eventually were sold to mutual fund companies and other investment bodies.
Many of the loans made by the banks had a fixed rate of interest for a finite period only and all was well until that ended and the rates were adjusted upwards some by an alarming amount. Now, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to these people to actually read what they signing up for but they signed anyway. Perhaps, there were two kinds of people caught in this trap. There were those who struggle to this day to fulfill their obligation but there were those who signed up knowing full well that not only could they not afford to repay, they also had no intention of paying. So, when the price tag went up many of these folks decided that their way out was to sell, grab the quick profit inherent in all real estate transactions and run.
Wrong, there so many houses on the market that prices had been driven down to the point that the owners owed more than the property was worth. So, many simply walked away, the lenders turned to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and demanded that their losses be covered. Another big problem, because any insurance company can only continue to exist so long as not every policy holder claims at the same time.
So, what had Government been doing while all this was building? After, all Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are quasi-government agencies and supposedly are subject to Capitol Hill oversight and scrutiny. Despite warnings from the White House and from several Republican politicians like John McCain, the committees in the House and Senate responsible for such oversight were now chaired by Democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd as a result of the 2006 elections and they flatly refused to believe that anything was amiss and protested until less than a year ago that Freddie and Fannie were doing just fine.
Why they did so is a matter for conjecture but it’s probably a combination of several factors. Politically, the Democratic Party is dedicated to spreading the American dream of home ownership as widely as possible. Secondly it is doubtful if Dodd or Frank really understood the parts of the economy they were overseeing. And, the top people at Freddie and Fannie “cooked the books”.
It was a disaster waiting to happen and it did.
Yesterday, Obama announced his housing “bailout program” and newspaper headlines this morning proclaimed that “Obama Won”. But did the American people?
So, because many people are happier with a short response, I’ll try that first.
John McCain lost because he was the wrong candidate at the wrong time and he compounded those “felonies" by promoting the wrong issues.
But, when all was said and done, the country demanded “Change”. It is much less clear just what it was they wanted changed but now they’ve got it. I doubt they will like it but as the Reverend Wright so eloquently put it, “America’s chickens are coming home to roost”.
Here’s the first flutter;
Tim Geithner, the smartest man in the world and the tax cheat who wasn’t quite so smart was paraded by Obama at a press conference a couple of weeks ago. Remember him? He’s the one that’s bright enough to dig us out of our financial mess.
One brave soul, who probably won’t get to ask another, questioned Obama about his plan to solve the financial mess but, completely in character, Obama refused to give details. Probably because he didn’t know them and, if he did, he certainly didn’t understand them. Anyway he promised that the very next day Turbo Tim would reveal all in excruciating and brilliantly insightful detail.
Now, fast-forward 1 day and here comes Mr. Geithner to confront an eager press corps. His preamble said it all when he announced so proudly that he was not going to present any details.
No wonder the market that day plunged 400 points.
But, I digress. To know how all this began; we must go back to 1977. Carter was in the White House wearing the ugliest sweater ever sold by Sears. And Capitol Hill was swamped with a majority of the left and with unbridled alacrity Carter signed the “Community Reinvestment Act”.
Some of its provisions lay dormant through the Reagan boom years and it wasn’t until Clinton’s Attorney General, Janet Reno, decided it was politically smart to start strong-arming the lending institutions into “easing” their log-held criteria.
Most CEOs, and those heading up banks are no exception, know that their first duty is to protect the investment of those who anted up the money to start with. And so, they resisted. Reno was pissed and hauled in the CEOs of the biggest lenders to meetings at the Department of Justice. Even to the pig-headed Reno, it was obvious that they were not going to yield and so, instead of the stick, she decided that she needed a carrot. Well, I’m no gambler but I could be tempted into a casino if I knew I couldn’t lose,
The way it worked with the lenders was that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae would buy the dubious loans. And, “Whoopee”, said the heads of those quasi-Government agencies because their annual bonuses were directly linked to the amount of business they undertook. They in turn “packaged” the loans into products known collectively as “derivatives” which eventually were sold to mutual fund companies and other investment bodies.
Many of the loans made by the banks had a fixed rate of interest for a finite period only and all was well until that ended and the rates were adjusted upwards some by an alarming amount. Now, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to these people to actually read what they signing up for but they signed anyway. Perhaps, there were two kinds of people caught in this trap. There were those who struggle to this day to fulfill their obligation but there were those who signed up knowing full well that not only could they not afford to repay, they also had no intention of paying. So, when the price tag went up many of these folks decided that their way out was to sell, grab the quick profit inherent in all real estate transactions and run.
Wrong, there so many houses on the market that prices had been driven down to the point that the owners owed more than the property was worth. So, many simply walked away, the lenders turned to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and demanded that their losses be covered. Another big problem, because any insurance company can only continue to exist so long as not every policy holder claims at the same time.
So, what had Government been doing while all this was building? After, all Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are quasi-government agencies and supposedly are subject to Capitol Hill oversight and scrutiny. Despite warnings from the White House and from several Republican politicians like John McCain, the committees in the House and Senate responsible for such oversight were now chaired by Democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd as a result of the 2006 elections and they flatly refused to believe that anything was amiss and protested until less than a year ago that Freddie and Fannie were doing just fine.
Why they did so is a matter for conjecture but it’s probably a combination of several factors. Politically, the Democratic Party is dedicated to spreading the American dream of home ownership as widely as possible. Secondly it is doubtful if Dodd or Frank really understood the parts of the economy they were overseeing. And, the top people at Freddie and Fannie “cooked the books”.
It was a disaster waiting to happen and it did.
Yesterday, Obama announced his housing “bailout program” and newspaper headlines this morning proclaimed that “Obama Won”. But did the American people?
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Unholy Trinity
Obama’s popularity has started to erode and actually, erosion is an understatement. On Inauguration Day the “Presidential Approval Poll” showed a + 30 score. Last week that number was down to 11. And the numbers from other polls such as Rasmussen are showing even greater declines.
And this in spite of the passage of the biggest parcel of spending ever seen. The problem with it is that most Americans are smarter than that and even the drive-by media could find only 1 poll out of 7 that showed approval and even that one showed an approval majority of only 4%.
Governments only get money in 3 ways. They can raise taxes or they can print it or they can borrow it. All 3 have one thing in common; the American people pay the price in higher taxes or increased prices due to inevitable inflation or in interest payments on the loans. This is “The Unholy Trinity” of fiscal reality.
The bottom line that Obama and his cabal on Capitol Hill do not seem to get is that the American people see that this bill is nothing more than a sham and a payback to their liberal sympathizers.
We were promised by Obama in person that the bill would be posted on a government website for 48 hours in order that the public could read it and provide comment to their representatives. It was not.
We were promised that a massive infusion of cash would be included to create jobs and provide much-needed attention to America’s infrastructure of roads, bridges, water systems etc. In fact, less than 4% of the total is earmarked for this and even so not until 2010 which just happens to be an election year. Oh, Harry Reid got his billion dollar railroad between Disneyland and Las Vegas but someone needs to point out that the “Environmental Impact Report” studies will take at least 5 years which means very little to the employment prospects of the guys with the shovels and the earthmovers.
And, while we’re on that subject, how can we forget the Caterpillar saga when Obama announced in person that the CEO had promised to rehire many of the 20,000 planned layoffs if the package was passed. Well not according to the CEO who said that more layoffs were in the works. So either Obama doesn’t listen or he lies.
But this darned package does include such gems as 30 million dollars in order to protect the habitat of the Salt Marsh Harvest mouse which just happens to be in Nancy Pelosi's district. And let's not forget funding for a study of Sexually Transmitted Disease so that makes up for a lot. This brings me to another provision which is the establishment of a “Health Tsar”. Really, this is the precursor to socialized medicine in this country and among the duties will be a mechanism to allow or disallow treatments to specific individuals based upon their “worth” to Society. Now remember, I’m an ex-Brit and I’ve seen this abomination up close and personal in the National Health Service (NHS) where bureaucrats not physicians control who gets what and when.
A Brave New World Indeed!!
And this in spite of the passage of the biggest parcel of spending ever seen. The problem with it is that most Americans are smarter than that and even the drive-by media could find only 1 poll out of 7 that showed approval and even that one showed an approval majority of only 4%.
Governments only get money in 3 ways. They can raise taxes or they can print it or they can borrow it. All 3 have one thing in common; the American people pay the price in higher taxes or increased prices due to inevitable inflation or in interest payments on the loans. This is “The Unholy Trinity” of fiscal reality.
The bottom line that Obama and his cabal on Capitol Hill do not seem to get is that the American people see that this bill is nothing more than a sham and a payback to their liberal sympathizers.
We were promised by Obama in person that the bill would be posted on a government website for 48 hours in order that the public could read it and provide comment to their representatives. It was not.
We were promised that a massive infusion of cash would be included to create jobs and provide much-needed attention to America’s infrastructure of roads, bridges, water systems etc. In fact, less than 4% of the total is earmarked for this and even so not until 2010 which just happens to be an election year. Oh, Harry Reid got his billion dollar railroad between Disneyland and Las Vegas but someone needs to point out that the “Environmental Impact Report” studies will take at least 5 years which means very little to the employment prospects of the guys with the shovels and the earthmovers.
And, while we’re on that subject, how can we forget the Caterpillar saga when Obama announced in person that the CEO had promised to rehire many of the 20,000 planned layoffs if the package was passed. Well not according to the CEO who said that more layoffs were in the works. So either Obama doesn’t listen or he lies.
But this darned package does include such gems as 30 million dollars in order to protect the habitat of the Salt Marsh Harvest mouse which just happens to be in Nancy Pelosi's district. And let's not forget funding for a study of Sexually Transmitted Disease so that makes up for a lot. This brings me to another provision which is the establishment of a “Health Tsar”. Really, this is the precursor to socialized medicine in this country and among the duties will be a mechanism to allow or disallow treatments to specific individuals based upon their “worth” to Society. Now remember, I’m an ex-Brit and I’ve seen this abomination up close and personal in the National Health Service (NHS) where bureaucrats not physicians control who gets what and when.
A Brave New World Indeed!!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
Well the Senate passed their fatuous "Stimulus" package last night which will stimulate very little if anything as far as the American economy is concerned however, it did stimulate me to point out a few things about it.
Remember how Obama crisscrossed the country during the election cycle visiting all "57" states according to him? Seems he confused his civics lessons with a bottle of Heinz ketchup and their 57 varieties. But hey, if you find yourself without a teleprompter, perhaps you repeat the last ideas you read.
Anyway, one of his more common stump themes, apart that is from the banalities about "Change", was his promise to cut taxes for everyone who made less than $200,000 per year. Actually, the specific amount varied depending on which of the 57 varieties he was in at the time but $200K was the most common. Well guess what emerged in last night's package? Now the magic number is down to $75K and those lucky taxpayers will get the princely sum of $13 per week from June 2009 until January 2010 when it is reduced to $8 per week.
I recall Michelle Obama on the stump as well discussing the stimulus pushed through by President Bush. Her punch line was that $600 wouldn't even buy a decent pair of ear rings. Now though, it seems that $8 per week will pay for all kinds of goodies even the First Lady's ear rings. It seems that the Obamas' mathematics is matched only by their civics knowledge.
Now according to analysis done by both the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Heritage Foundation, the actual cost over the years to come of yesterday's "effort" is more than 3 trillion dollars when you factor in such detail as accrued interest.
That, in itself, begs a question which is what does a trillion dollars look like? Well, if you remember your high school mathematics you know it's 10 raised to the 12th power but here's a couple of ways for mere mortals like me to envision it.
Suppose you are sitting at a table which is piled high with $1 bills and you start counting them at the rate of one per second. How long does it take to get to a trillion dollars? Because I'm a compassionate conservative, I'll spare you the effort of doing the math. More than 31,700 years is the answer and I'll leave you to multiply it by 3 to reach the CBO's number.
Or, try this as well or instead. Add up the cost of the Revolutionary War, the war of 1812, our Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Iraq, and Afghanistan and the total is less than 1 trillion dollars.
Feel better now, do you? Or, are you just a tad queasy?
So, just what's in this "package" that will absolutely do nothing to "stimulate" our economy? Well we already talked about the much vaunted tax cut for whatever that's worth but, hey, looky, here is a few million dollars to improve benefits for Filipino veterans of World War II. A laudable cause I'm sure but just how will that create one new job in Muskegon, Michigan?
Also, in this deal, are billions of dollars to support ACORN and other community activist groups. You know, the ones who have been shown to be guilty of massive voter registration fraud in the runup to 2008. Why, wasn't Obama a "Community Organizer" and didn't he represent ACORN at some point in his dubious and undistinguished legal career?
Here comes the Kool-Aid brigade again. "That's not true and if it is, it's pure coincidence, and if it's coincidental, it can't be true". Yada! Yada! Yada!
But, let's not have partisan politics. It's time "to reach out across the aisle!"
That's the new dogma from the left but I remember a different world and not from too far back; about 4 or 5 years I think. At that point, President Bush was in the White House and the GOP was in a majority on the Hill. All the left did, both in Washington and on the "drive-by media", was to attack, attack, attack. Because in those days, it was the duty of a "loyal Opposition" to expose the failures and the shortcomings of the Administration but now, because it's Obama, it's different? We, on the right have an implied obligation to remain silent? Well, not this commentator and not the American people for much longer.
Remember how Obama crisscrossed the country during the election cycle visiting all "57" states according to him? Seems he confused his civics lessons with a bottle of Heinz ketchup and their 57 varieties. But hey, if you find yourself without a teleprompter, perhaps you repeat the last ideas you read.
Anyway, one of his more common stump themes, apart that is from the banalities about "Change", was his promise to cut taxes for everyone who made less than $200,000 per year. Actually, the specific amount varied depending on which of the 57 varieties he was in at the time but $200K was the most common. Well guess what emerged in last night's package? Now the magic number is down to $75K and those lucky taxpayers will get the princely sum of $13 per week from June 2009 until January 2010 when it is reduced to $8 per week.
I recall Michelle Obama on the stump as well discussing the stimulus pushed through by President Bush. Her punch line was that $600 wouldn't even buy a decent pair of ear rings. Now though, it seems that $8 per week will pay for all kinds of goodies even the First Lady's ear rings. It seems that the Obamas' mathematics is matched only by their civics knowledge.
Now according to analysis done by both the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Heritage Foundation, the actual cost over the years to come of yesterday's "effort" is more than 3 trillion dollars when you factor in such detail as accrued interest.
That, in itself, begs a question which is what does a trillion dollars look like? Well, if you remember your high school mathematics you know it's 10 raised to the 12th power but here's a couple of ways for mere mortals like me to envision it.
Suppose you are sitting at a table which is piled high with $1 bills and you start counting them at the rate of one per second. How long does it take to get to a trillion dollars? Because I'm a compassionate conservative, I'll spare you the effort of doing the math. More than 31,700 years is the answer and I'll leave you to multiply it by 3 to reach the CBO's number.
Or, try this as well or instead. Add up the cost of the Revolutionary War, the war of 1812, our Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Iraq, and Afghanistan and the total is less than 1 trillion dollars.
Feel better now, do you? Or, are you just a tad queasy?
So, just what's in this "package" that will absolutely do nothing to "stimulate" our economy? Well we already talked about the much vaunted tax cut for whatever that's worth but, hey, looky, here is a few million dollars to improve benefits for Filipino veterans of World War II. A laudable cause I'm sure but just how will that create one new job in Muskegon, Michigan?
Also, in this deal, are billions of dollars to support ACORN and other community activist groups. You know, the ones who have been shown to be guilty of massive voter registration fraud in the runup to 2008. Why, wasn't Obama a "Community Organizer" and didn't he represent ACORN at some point in his dubious and undistinguished legal career?
Here comes the Kool-Aid brigade again. "That's not true and if it is, it's pure coincidence, and if it's coincidental, it can't be true". Yada! Yada! Yada!
But, let's not have partisan politics. It's time "to reach out across the aisle!"
That's the new dogma from the left but I remember a different world and not from too far back; about 4 or 5 years I think. At that point, President Bush was in the White House and the GOP was in a majority on the Hill. All the left did, both in Washington and on the "drive-by media", was to attack, attack, attack. Because in those days, it was the duty of a "loyal Opposition" to expose the failures and the shortcomings of the Administration but now, because it's Obama, it's different? We, on the right have an implied obligation to remain silent? Well, not this commentator and not the American people for much longer.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Saint Hillary?
I can be relentless about some stuff. Or maybe, I'm just a pain in the ass. Countless heads are nodding in agreement at this point. And so I kept asking my same old questions but, at least now, I was starting to get different answers. Not from the Kool-Aid brigade of course but I didn't expect that.
From the others though, a new mantra was emerging and it went something like this. "It doesn't matter if he's never managed anything nor do we care that he's never done anything. But he knows what has to be done and he'll choose the right people to do it. Trust him."
Really?
Let's take a look!
First, there was Bill Richardson (Democrat) of New Mexico who was tapped to join the Obama disciples but, Oops, a problem when he withdrew because of Federal inquiries into "improper business dealings".
Nancy Killefer was next and she withdrew her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government. In a brief letter to Obama, Killefer, the 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., wrote that she had "come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay" that must be avoided in responding to urgent economic problems. When her selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a more than $900 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. And so she disappeared back into the weeds.
Enter Tim Geithner destined to be Treasury Secretary whose job includes the oversight of the IRS.
At the Senate confirmation hearings, it was revealed through documentary evidence that Geithner had not paid $35,000 in self-employment taxes for several years, even though he had acknowledged his obligation to do so, and had filed a request for, and received, a payment for half the taxes owed. The failure to pay self-employment taxes was noted during a 2006 audit by the Internal Revenue Service, in which Geithner was assessed additional taxes of $14,847 for the 2003 and 2004 tax years. Geithner failed to pay, or to admit his failure to pay, the self-employment taxes for the 2001 and 2002 tax years until after President Obama expressed his intent to nominate Geithner to be Secretary of Treasury. He also deducted the cost of his children's sleep-away camp as a dependent care expense, when only expenses for day care are eligible for the deduction. Geithner subsequently paid the IRS the additional taxes owed, and was charged interest of $15,000, but was not fined for late payment. In addition, his housekeeper's work authorization lapsed during the last three months she worked for him.
Geithner's employer at the time, the International Monetary Fund, gives its American employees the employer's half of the payroll taxes, expecting that the employees will deposit the money with the Internal Revenue Service. The IMF does not withhold money for U.S. taxes, but it adds the approximate amount to the employee's pay. The employee should forward tax payments to the IRS, according to the papers released by the Senate. During his time with the IMF, Geithner was required to pay both Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself as both employer and employee. It appears that Geithner forwarded some tax payments but not others. For instance, he owed Social Security tax to the U.S. government. He did forward the employee portion to the IRS, but did not send the portion normally paid by the employer, although he was required to do so.A report from the Senate Finance Committee documented Geithner's errors. While working for IMF, Geithner signed a tax worksheet stating his "obligation of the U.S. Social Security tax, which I will pay on my fund income" and another annual worksheet stating "I wish to apply for tax allowance of U.S. federal and state income taxes and the difference between the 'self-employed' and 'employed' obligation of the U.S. Social Security tax which I will pay on my Fund income."In a statement to the Senate panel considering his nomination, Geithner called the tax issues "careless", "avoidable", and "unintentional" errors, and he said he wanted to "apologize to the committee for putting you in the position of having to spend so much time on these issues."
Geithner said at the hearing that he was always under the impression that he was an employee, not a self-employed contractor, while he served as director of the Policy Development and Review Department of IMF. However, despite all this he was confirmed by the Senate ostensibly because he possessed a "brilliant mind and was the only person capable of steering the failing US economy back into calmer waters." We'll see more about that assertion later.
And the beat continued with Tom Daschle's bid to join the Obama cabinet. On January 30, 2009, it was reported that Daschle's friendship and business partnership with businessman Leo Hindery could cause problems for Daschle's Senate confirmation.
Daschle has been a paid consultant and advisor to Hindery's InterMedia Partners since 2005, during which time he received from Hindery access to a limousine and chauffeur. Daschle reportedly did not declare this service on his annual tax forms as required by law.
A spokeswoman for Daschle said that he "simply and probably naively" considered the use of the car and driver "a generous offer" from Hindery, "a longtime friend". Daschle told the Senate Finance Committee that in June 2008 -- just as he was letting the press know he would like to be HHS secretary in an Obama administration -- that "something made him think that the car service might be taxable" and he began seeking to remedy the situation.Daschle reportedly also did not pay taxes on an additional $83,333 that he earned as a consultant to InterMedia Partners in 2007; this was discovered by Senator Daschle's accountant in December 2008. According to ABC News, Daschle also took tax deductions for $14,963 in donations that he made between 2005 and 2007 to charitable organizations that did not meet the requirements for being tax deductible.The former Senator paid the three years of owed taxes and interest -- an amount totaling $140,167 -- in January 2009, but still reportedly owed Medicare taxes equal to 2.9 percent" of the value of the car service he received, amounting to "thousands of dollars in additional unpaid taxes.
On Tuesday, February 3, 2009, Daschle withdrew his nomination, saying that he did not wish to be a "distraction" to the Obama agenda. He was forced to withdraw because, even though he had a sufficient number of Democratic votes for nomination, he became an untenable political liability for the President. Many news sources reported that the controversy had begun to undercut President Obama's promise to run a more ethical, responsible and special interest-free administration.
The pattern is so starkly clear and is highlighted by the case of Charlie Rangel who has been mired in tax controversies for years and who, earlier this week was reconfirmed by the House Ways and Means Committee as its Chairman. This committee just happens to the body to recommend confirmation of Geithner.
So, now we know why Democratic politicians don't object to higher taxes. It's because they don't pay them!
I never thought the day would dawn when Hillary Clinton would seem to be the most ethical of the Obama regime.
From the others though, a new mantra was emerging and it went something like this. "It doesn't matter if he's never managed anything nor do we care that he's never done anything. But he knows what has to be done and he'll choose the right people to do it. Trust him."
Really?
Let's take a look!
First, there was Bill Richardson (Democrat) of New Mexico who was tapped to join the Obama disciples but, Oops, a problem when he withdrew because of Federal inquiries into "improper business dealings".
Nancy Killefer was next and she withdrew her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government. In a brief letter to Obama, Killefer, the 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., wrote that she had "come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay" that must be avoided in responding to urgent economic problems. When her selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a more than $900 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. And so she disappeared back into the weeds.
Enter Tim Geithner destined to be Treasury Secretary whose job includes the oversight of the IRS.
At the Senate confirmation hearings, it was revealed through documentary evidence that Geithner had not paid $35,000 in self-employment taxes for several years, even though he had acknowledged his obligation to do so, and had filed a request for, and received, a payment for half the taxes owed. The failure to pay self-employment taxes was noted during a 2006 audit by the Internal Revenue Service, in which Geithner was assessed additional taxes of $14,847 for the 2003 and 2004 tax years. Geithner failed to pay, or to admit his failure to pay, the self-employment taxes for the 2001 and 2002 tax years until after President Obama expressed his intent to nominate Geithner to be Secretary of Treasury. He also deducted the cost of his children's sleep-away camp as a dependent care expense, when only expenses for day care are eligible for the deduction. Geithner subsequently paid the IRS the additional taxes owed, and was charged interest of $15,000, but was not fined for late payment. In addition, his housekeeper's work authorization lapsed during the last three months she worked for him.
Geithner's employer at the time, the International Monetary Fund, gives its American employees the employer's half of the payroll taxes, expecting that the employees will deposit the money with the Internal Revenue Service. The IMF does not withhold money for U.S. taxes, but it adds the approximate amount to the employee's pay. The employee should forward tax payments to the IRS, according to the papers released by the Senate. During his time with the IMF, Geithner was required to pay both Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself as both employer and employee. It appears that Geithner forwarded some tax payments but not others. For instance, he owed Social Security tax to the U.S. government. He did forward the employee portion to the IRS, but did not send the portion normally paid by the employer, although he was required to do so.A report from the Senate Finance Committee documented Geithner's errors. While working for IMF, Geithner signed a tax worksheet stating his "obligation of the U.S. Social Security tax, which I will pay on my fund income" and another annual worksheet stating "I wish to apply for tax allowance of U.S. federal and state income taxes and the difference between the 'self-employed' and 'employed' obligation of the U.S. Social Security tax which I will pay on my Fund income."In a statement to the Senate panel considering his nomination, Geithner called the tax issues "careless", "avoidable", and "unintentional" errors, and he said he wanted to "apologize to the committee for putting you in the position of having to spend so much time on these issues."
Geithner said at the hearing that he was always under the impression that he was an employee, not a self-employed contractor, while he served as director of the Policy Development and Review Department of IMF. However, despite all this he was confirmed by the Senate ostensibly because he possessed a "brilliant mind and was the only person capable of steering the failing US economy back into calmer waters." We'll see more about that assertion later.
And the beat continued with Tom Daschle's bid to join the Obama cabinet. On January 30, 2009, it was reported that Daschle's friendship and business partnership with businessman Leo Hindery could cause problems for Daschle's Senate confirmation.
Daschle has been a paid consultant and advisor to Hindery's InterMedia Partners since 2005, during which time he received from Hindery access to a limousine and chauffeur. Daschle reportedly did not declare this service on his annual tax forms as required by law.
A spokeswoman for Daschle said that he "simply and probably naively" considered the use of the car and driver "a generous offer" from Hindery, "a longtime friend". Daschle told the Senate Finance Committee that in June 2008 -- just as he was letting the press know he would like to be HHS secretary in an Obama administration -- that "something made him think that the car service might be taxable" and he began seeking to remedy the situation.Daschle reportedly also did not pay taxes on an additional $83,333 that he earned as a consultant to InterMedia Partners in 2007; this was discovered by Senator Daschle's accountant in December 2008. According to ABC News, Daschle also took tax deductions for $14,963 in donations that he made between 2005 and 2007 to charitable organizations that did not meet the requirements for being tax deductible.The former Senator paid the three years of owed taxes and interest -- an amount totaling $140,167 -- in January 2009, but still reportedly owed Medicare taxes equal to 2.9 percent" of the value of the car service he received, amounting to "thousands of dollars in additional unpaid taxes.
On Tuesday, February 3, 2009, Daschle withdrew his nomination, saying that he did not wish to be a "distraction" to the Obama agenda. He was forced to withdraw because, even though he had a sufficient number of Democratic votes for nomination, he became an untenable political liability for the President. Many news sources reported that the controversy had begun to undercut President Obama's promise to run a more ethical, responsible and special interest-free administration.
The pattern is so starkly clear and is highlighted by the case of Charlie Rangel who has been mired in tax controversies for years and who, earlier this week was reconfirmed by the House Ways and Means Committee as its Chairman. This committee just happens to the body to recommend confirmation of Geithner.
So, now we know why Democratic politicians don't object to higher taxes. It's because they don't pay them!
I never thought the day would dawn when Hillary Clinton would seem to be the most ethical of the Obama regime.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Inauguration Day and a peek at things to come .....
How many of us could have guessed just how accurately Inauguration Day was going to portray Obama's tenure?
Because, guess what, the live recital by that famous string quartet wasn't. Well it was a quartet and they were famous and there were strings and it was a recital but it wasn't live. Now, I don't criticize the musicians reluctance to avoid frostbite. But there was the Messiah turning round in his seat with a blissful gaze of admiration on his face. And it was fake, it was prerecorded. It was all image and no substance. Could it be ..........?
Because, guess what, the live recital by that famous string quartet wasn't. Well it was a quartet and they were famous and there were strings and it was a recital but it wasn't live. Now, I don't criticize the musicians reluctance to avoid frostbite. But there was the Messiah turning round in his seat with a blissful gaze of admiration on his face. And it was fake, it was prerecorded. It was all image and no substance. Could it be ..........?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Some of the rest of the story ......
Well, I can be trained. Perhaps! So I read the website. After all I'm old. Seventy next, so can dementia be too far away?
On the website, there was no there there. I read it once and then I read it again. Wow, I thought, I must be losing it. Truly the Emperor is naked. There are no clothes. Now, some believe he's a good looking guy. Some writers from the New York Times it seems fantasize about having sex with the man However, they did not state if they would prefer the Lincoln bedroom or that notorious little space two steps away from the Oval Office.
On the website, there was no there there. I read it once and then I read it again. Wow, I thought, I must be losing it. Truly the Emperor is naked. There are no clothes. Now, some believe he's a good looking guy. Some writers from the New York Times it seems fantasize about having sex with the man However, they did not state if they would prefer the Lincoln bedroom or that notorious little space two steps away from the Oval Office.
The Election Cycle and After ............
I lost count during the last election cycle just how many times I asked Obama supporters, "So tell me what has he actually done?"
Two reactions were commonplace. From the true cult members, the disciples, the ones with a limitless supply of Kool-Aid, I would get a shocked silence as if to say, "How can you be so crass? Don't you understand that it doesn't matter what he's done even if it's nothing? It's what he is and what he's going to do that matters. Change we can believe in". So then I asked what it was he was going to do? "Change things", they said. "Change everything. The world will love us again". It was usually at this point that I gave up.
The other reaction from less conditioned individuals was often a panicked "deer caught in the headlights" look as they searched feverishly for an answer and when a solution eluded them, I was enjoined to read his website.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Someone has to do it ..........
Well somebody has to start and, since this was mainly my idea, I suppose it should be me.
I must confess that I don't follow the "thug" politics of Illinois in general nor that of Chicago in particular. And, before someone comes unglued about the adjective, know that it was that darling of the liberal left, William Jefferson Clinton and the "first Black President", who coined it.
Anyway, I'd never heard of Barack Hussein Obama until about three years ago. And, when I did I wasn't terribly impressed.
He was a lawyer: Strike 1
He was a politician: Strike 2
He was a Community Organizer, whatever that is: Strike 3
Really, the first thing I knew was that somehow he had leap-frogged himself into pole position to be the junior senator from the state of Illinois by methods questionable to anybody who isn't a lawyer and/or immunized to the inherent corruption of that State's politics.
Anyway he won to no one's surprise and then he embarked on a short career in the US Senate where he distinguished himself by proposing no legislation whatsoever. However, that record was at least consistent with his history in the Illinois Senate where, in perfect accord, he achieved nothing. Unless you count voting "Present", as some kind of plus.
I've publicized this blog to the full extent of my address book and I've asked every recipient to do the same.
I commit this. I will not edit nor delete any entry or post even if that post is obscene or threatening. The lunatic fringe of the liberal left needs to be exposed for what it is.
So now, perhaps it's time for other views to be heard!
Jack
I must confess that I don't follow the "thug" politics of Illinois in general nor that of Chicago in particular. And, before someone comes unglued about the adjective, know that it was that darling of the liberal left, William Jefferson Clinton and the "first Black President", who coined it.
Anyway, I'd never heard of Barack Hussein Obama until about three years ago. And, when I did I wasn't terribly impressed.
He was a lawyer: Strike 1
He was a politician: Strike 2
He was a Community Organizer, whatever that is: Strike 3
Really, the first thing I knew was that somehow he had leap-frogged himself into pole position to be the junior senator from the state of Illinois by methods questionable to anybody who isn't a lawyer and/or immunized to the inherent corruption of that State's politics.
Anyway he won to no one's surprise and then he embarked on a short career in the US Senate where he distinguished himself by proposing no legislation whatsoever. However, that record was at least consistent with his history in the Illinois Senate where, in perfect accord, he achieved nothing. Unless you count voting "Present", as some kind of plus.
I've publicized this blog to the full extent of my address book and I've asked every recipient to do the same.
I commit this. I will not edit nor delete any entry or post even if that post is obscene or threatening. The lunatic fringe of the liberal left needs to be exposed for what it is.
So now, perhaps it's time for other views to be heard!
Jack
The Emperor's New Clothes!
Most people, and all kids, have heard the story about the Emperor's new clothes.
It, of course, ends with the glee of the one kid who didn't get the memo that the Emperor was really naked.
I must declare my allegiance at this point. I am a conservative; probably a Libertarian if you insist on attaching a label. However, I'm also a realist and so I am a registered Republican. Again, though, I will not and did not toe that party's line. And, in the interests of full disclosure, I didn't vote for either candidate. So who did I vote for? Because if you don't vote you can't bitch and I intend to do a lot of bitching. So I did a write-in for Mitt Romney and, before I'm challenged about that, I'm from Arizona not Utah and I'm Jewish not Mormon.
So, why the title of the blog? Well as I see it, Obama is an "empty suit" at best but more likely he will be seen to be naked. And I will do my best to strip away one veil after another. My ultimate aim is to see he serves only one term. I can't do that alone but you can .............
And, who's the gleeful kid? Well, me of course but I doubt I'm alone right now and I know that I won't be soon.
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