THE ENTERPRISE--NOTHING GOOD COMES EASY
AS WE APPROACH THE FIRST OF THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT ELECTIONS SINCE 1980, THE REALITY WILL SOON SET IN
The problems in our state and federal government are gargantuan. Many of the politicians are locked into an old mindset and partially obsolete ideologies. The old far left is wrong. So is the far right. Politicians are often ill-equipped to devise the solutions. This is why we (I use the term "we" to describe a large subset of individuals who spent years struggling with budgets that didn't fit, and problems that seems insoluble.) We need to help. But the politicians we elect need to want the help and then "listen" and internalize how to position and "sell" it. After all, getting legislation through any body is a big marketing and sales job at its most basic.
A DANGEROUS "RATIONING BOARD"--HEAR A DOCTOR'S ASSESSMENT
If you don't think the current administration is dangerous, watch and listen to this Doctor's statement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnkxIh62dQ
This is why the next Congress must block/repeal these misguided Obama government takeovers of your lives! Fines for Doctors of $100,000 (first offense) and JAIL (second offense).
FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW--ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE GETTING UP THERE IN AGE! (Like me!)
WE'VE BEEN IN THIS MESS AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE
Here is a video clip of a TV Ad that will bring you back to how, and with whose leaderships we climbed back out of the mess.
Morning in America (1984 Ad) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-IBF8nwSY
HOW'D WE GET HERE, AND WHY IS IT SUCH A MESS?
George W. Bush started the "spending spree" when he didn't rein in (veto) spending during his second term. While fighting a war (or two), he should have slowed the spending especially after Reid-Pelosi took over Congress in 2007. Bad mistake! Then Obama, the Democratic Congress and his Keynesian advisors opened the spending spigot wide open, surpassing even Bush's wildest sprees. In fact, it turns out that one of Bush's widely criticized moves--TARP--continued by Obama is not going to be a bad investment at all--and it saves a financial panic from breaking out worse than it did.
TAKE OFF THE SPEED LIMITS
Meanwhile, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans repealed the Glass-Steagall act in 1999. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (alternatively known as Gramm Leach Bliley),
allowed banks to merge with insurance companies and investment houses. This dramatically increased the risk and leverage that could be used--a dangerous act sort of like taking speed limits off highways entirely. To compound this error in financial legislation, come Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Charles Schumer, all of whom not only permit, but encourage Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make home mortgage loans to just about anyone. WhY? Because every American deserves to own a house! WRONG! Only if they can afford to own one.
OPEN THE FLOODGATES FOR LOUSY LOANS, TO LOUSY BORROWERS
The newly released financial institutions saw this as opening the floodgates of new prospective loan customers--regardless of their creditworthiness. And lend, they did, like CRAZY. Then the investment side of these new freer banks bundled these awful loans into groups, obscuring just how bad they were by throwing in a few good ones. The ratings agencies "closed their eyes" and rated these bundles of mortgages flagrantly and irresponsibly too high--as a good investment--which they were NOT! What follows was known as the "sub-prime" crisis, or the "mortgage lending crisis," because calling it the STUPID LENDERS AND BORROWERS CRISIS was not spiffy enough, even though it is accurate and descriptive. As loan bundles are sold all over the world, they begin to "stink" because so many of them were with people who cannot pay.
BUILD AND FLIP MORE AND MORE HOUSES UNTIL THE MARKET IS GLUTTED
Worse yet, the construction and speculative flipping of new houses in "hot markets" caused an overbuilding of housing units too. When things are going up like crazy, no one stops to ask if that makes sense. It didn't. They peaked and the bubble burst, dumping over priced houses, lousy loans and bankrupt people and companies in its wake. Of course, being America, we have a solution: The government rides in to the rescue throwing taxpayer "good" dollars at the problem being caused by "bad" loans and worse practices. Not only did Bush and then Obama, and Congress spend like "drunken Congress members" they started "bailouts." Good money thrown after bad, does not solve a problem. It just leaves us all deeper in debt.
A GOOD EXPLANATION OF WHY GOVERNMENT STIMULUS DOESN'T CREATE ECONOMIC GROWTH--PAUL KRUGMAN & BARACK OBAMA & CONGRESS ARE ALL WRONG!
Download Government Stimulus--Fact or Fantasy
SPENDING IS THE ONLY SOLUTION UNDERSTOOD IN THE OBAMA/DEMOCRATIC CONTROLLED ERA--AND IT DOESN'T GET THE JOB DONE
But now, with the spending spigots wide open, bailouts in vogue and the deficit soaring, the choices are all Draconian. Raise taxes (don't let the Bush tax cuts expire) and risk crushing what is already a slow, fragile recovery, or clamp down on spending (especially government spending) which will dump hundreds of thousands of people into the unemployed labor force which has not yet shown the capacity to even absorb new entrants, let alone another bunch of people. The private sector is watching and listening to the anti-business President and are paralyzed with fear and uncertainty and doubt (FUD), so they are loathe to invest in growth. Thus, no jobs. And since consumers have no jobs, they won't spend anyway. The circular dilemma continues.
IT'S EASIER TO FIX SOCIAL SECURITY THAN TO BALANCE THE BUDGET
None of the solutions to fix such huge problems are "good" ones--neither easy nor painless and devilishly hard to agree on in a polarized government. It is actually easier to imagine the 4 simple steps to "fix Social Security": 1) Raise retirement age to 70, and peg it to X years below life expectancy, 2) extend the ceiling on contributions (or eliminate it entirely), 3) change COLA to cost--based vs. wage based, and 4) apply means testing and limit payments for the very rich. That's much easier to figure out than how to bring the budget back into some semblance of balance.
THERE ARE ONLY TWO STEPS TO BALANCE ANY BUDGET--MORE INCOME AND LESS SPENDING--NEITHER OF WHICH HAS PLEASANT CONSEQUENCES
Across the board spending cuts seem to be essential, but then many programs and people will get cut--and not be happy. Defense spending--big weapons programs, redundancies, etc.,--is a great candidate to cut, along with a decision/rationale for an orderly exit from Afghanistan (and let the corrupt government work it out for themselves) Leave with a warning, that if we come back it will be because they fall back into their old ways of harboring terrorists, and we will do it with "hell fire and destruction." Medicare is one budget item that everybody says needs fixing and NOBODY really knows how to fix it. First step is to open up the files that have been sealed for so long, to show where the graft and corruption is worse. The clean it out. Wringing out waste and corruption will help, but demographics are destiny and the avalanche of boomers is coming. Funding Medicare will be an ongoing challenge unless we can get our economy back on its feet, and government off the backs of our small businesses!
QUOTES OF THE WEEK: Just yesterday, Speaker Pelosi complained: "We haven't really gotten the CREDIT for what we have done, but we will take it to the voters..."
I'll trust most of the voters to realize who's to blame for the mess we are in. (Hint: Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd, Schumer, et. al. and Strickland's gang in OH, )
Joy Behar the tasteless and awful TV "personality, after her irate walk-off due to Bill O'Reilly saying Muslims flew planes into the twin towers (he didn't say "Muslim extremists!), has now made herself worthy of being removed by ABC after calling Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R, NV) a "...Bitch... who is going to Hell."
If NPR fired Juan Williams for saying Muslims in full garb made him nervous when boarding an airplane, shouldn't ABC get rid of this terrible woman? I never see her antics, because her face on my TV screen means "change the channel--immediately" (Bill Maher is now in that league too!)
HERE IS YOUR CALL TO ACTION: "American Hero" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLlF5YMf7Yc Watch it...take the few minutes to reflect. Then take action--and if you have already voted, stay in contact with those you voted for that win their elections. It is OUR Country!
THAT'S IT FOR THIS WEEK. PLEASE VOTE NEXT TUESDAY. IT'S "STEP ONE" OF "TAKING BACK AMERICA."
BEST, JOHN
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TO ILLUSTRATE HOW HARD IT IS TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE IN OUR GOVERNMENT, READ THIS BLOG:
12 Polls That Prove That The American People Are Really, Really Pissed Off As Election Day 2010 Approaches
The American people are mad. No, check that, they are steaming mad. In the weeks leading up to the election, poll after poll after poll has shown that the American people are angrier at government than at any other point in modern U.S. history. American voters have been angry before, but this time it is different. Instead of being mad at just one political party, the American people are now clearly disgusted with both political parties. Neither major party has a positive approval rating.
People are sick and tired of the economy being in the tank, they are sick and tired of not being able to get good jobs and they are sick and tired of the nonsense that has been going on in Washington. Both political parties are busy pointing fingers at each other, but what all the major polls in the weeks leading up to the election clearly show is that the American people are placing the blame on both the Republicans and the Democrats.
In fact, as you will see below, a clear majority of the American people now wish that they could throw every member of Congress out of office and a clear majority of the American people now wish that they had a third political party to vote for. We have arrived at a point where both political parties have lost the faith of the American people, and where we go from here is anyone's guess.
Not that the American people have a clear idea of what they actually want. The truth is that the citizens of the United States are deeply, deeply divided on a whole host of issues. But the one thing that American voters can agree on is that they are hopping mad.
The following are 12 recent polls that prove that the American people are really, really pissed off as election day approaches....
#1 According to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll, only about one in four Americans is satisfied with the way that the country is being governed.
#2 The latest ABC News/Yahoo poll found that faith in the U.S. system of government is at a 36 year low.
#3 The newest New York Times/CBS News survey discovered that about 60 percent of American voters believe that their own members of Congress do not deserve to be re-elected.
#4 According to Gallup, Barack Obama had an average approval rating of just 44.7% during the seventh quarter of his presidency, which was a new low. Obama's average approval rating has fallen substantially every single quarter since he took office.
#5 A Bloomberg National Poll conducted a couple of weeks ago found that more than 40 percent of likely voters who once considered themselves to be Obama supporters are now either less supportive of Obama or do not support him at all at this point.
#6 An absolutely stunning Gallup poll released last month revealed that a whopping 58 percent of the American people believe that a third political party is needed because the Republicans and the Democrats are doing such a bad job of representing the American people.
#7 A new study by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University discovered that more than 40 percent of the American people would give the government either a D or an F.
#8 CNBC recently conducted a survey which found that 92 percent of Americans rate the U.S. economy as either "fair" or "poor".
#9 A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey revealed that 69 percent of Americans believe that free trade agreements have cost the United States jobs. Only 18 percent of the survey respondents said that they believed that free trade agreements have created more American jobs than they have lost.
#10 A Politico/George Washington University Battleground Poll released late last month found that 63 percent of the American people believe that the nation is on the wrong track.
#11 A recent Gallup poll discovered that 46% of Americans believe that the U.S. federal government "poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens."
#12 A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey that was just completed found that 65% of likely U.S. voters say that if they had the option, they would vote out every member of Congress and start all over.
So will all of this anger result in major change happening in Washington D.C. after the election?
No.
There are 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the very most, about 100 of those seats are actually "in play" - meaning that they have a chance to change hands. So that means that we are going to see at least 335 of the exact same faces when the U.S. House of Representatives begins a new session.
The cold, hard reality is that our current system greatly, greatly, greatly favors incumbents. Over the past five elections, incumbents have been re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at an average rate of 96 percent. Wouldn't you like to have a 96 percent chance of winning?
Sure, in 2010 things will be a little different, but we will still likely see incumbents winning at least 80 percent of their matchups.
So much for "change", eh?
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The Cynically Ruthless Barney Frank, Enabler Of The Mortgage Meltdown
By THOMAS SOWELL
Posted 10/19/2010 06:11 PM ET
Among longtime politicians who are being seriously challenged for the first time this election year, Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts best epitomizes the cynical ruthlessness that hides behind their lofty rhetoric. Having been a key figure in promoting the risky mortgage lending practices imposed by the federal government on lenders, and on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy these risky mortgages from the lenders, Frank blamed the resulting collapse of financial markets and the economy on everybody except Barney Frank.
In February 2009, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Frank summoned the heads of some of the biggest banks in the country before his committee. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, these bankers "endured hours of hectoring" by "indignant lawmakers" on that committee. These bankers were in no position to talk back to members of this committee, much less point out how committee members — including Chairman Frank — had themselves promoted laws and policies responsible for the current economic disaster.
This is a committee with the power to promote legislation detrimental to this heavily regulated industry. That in turn gives the committee the power to force others to sit there and take it, when they are demonized on nationwide TV. Congressman Frank has never hesitated to use his power ruthlessly. On one occasion, he threatened bankers with summoning them before his committee and forcing them to reveal their home addresses — which would of course put their spouses and children at the mercy of any kooks that might come along.
Meanwhile, Congressman Frank could piously invoke "social justice" in defense of similarly ruthless community activist groups like Acorn or National People's Action, which had in fact besieged the homes not only of bankers but also of public officials who dared to oppose their agendas. In Frank's words, these groups were simply people who "cared about equity" and who were just "trying very hard to preserve some equity and some social justice." But the harassment and shakedown activities of such groups were perhaps best captured by the words of a leader of one of these groups, who addressed her followers by saying: "We want it. They've got it. Let's go get it."
These were not just idle words. The dirty little secret that few in the media seem to want to discuss is that community activists, including Jesse Jackson, have over the years extracted literally billions of dollars from financial institutions, as the price of peace and of not challenging these institutions in hearings before federal regulators, as these groups are empowered to do under the Community Reinvestment Act. Much of this money has been extracted in the form of risky mortgage loans of the sort that have been at the
center of the housing boom and bust, and its repercussions in financial markets and in the economy as a whole. Among others who have been at the heart of the risky lending behind the financial meltdown are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whom Congressman Frank has also championed and protected. ...
.... When Congressman Jim Leach tried to get stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back in 1992, and when President George W. Bush did so in 2004, Frank opposed them.
A reining in of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be a reining in of Barney Frank's power. But he can't stop the voters from reining in his power, unless he can once more get by this election year with pious rhetoric to conceal his cynical actions.
Sowell provided this column as a bonus to the article he wrote on Rep. Frank that ran in the "On The Right" column Tuesday.
© 2010 Investor's Business Daily, Inc. All rights reserved. Investor's Business Daily, IBD and CAN SLIM and their corresponding logos are registered trademarks of Data Analysis Inc.
John L. Mariotti, President & CEO, The Enterprise Group, Phone 614-840-0959 http://www.mariotti.net http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/
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