Continuing the Bailout – Bad for America

1) American Express wants a bailout to write off delinquent credit card debt. (I have an idea do not give credit cards to people who can’t pay the bill.) The Government should tell AMEX, NO. Please someone stop the insanity. Does this mean the people who have not paid their bill do not have to? Where is the responsibility, why do the taxpayers have to cover a businesses losses for loaning people money who will not pay the loan back.

2) Barney Franks want to give the auto companies $25 Billion but only is the government can take ownership of preferred stock. I guess I was wrong, I thought the democrats would be more subtle than just basically saying, OK we will buy your failing business and run it ourselves. Can anyone stop the government from taking over the auto companies? I hope someone rescues America from itself.

3) http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2008/11/want-some-gover.html
Hank Paulson now admits the bank bailout (TARP) has not worked and he is changing tactics. He says he knew before the law was passed and signed that everything he told congress was no longer true and that the bank bailout would not work but he took 4 to 5 weeks and about 1/2 the money gone to make this public, nice. Since this man knowing did not correct the now false statements he made to congress before they voted to hand him a check for $700 Billion dollars with no rules or oversight can he be prosecuted for misleading congress and the American people. I guess this is more of the ends justifying the means.

4) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axpH4Qil0NT8&refer=worldwide
The Fed has given $2 Trillion dollars of American taxpayer money to who knows for no know real assets. This is on top of the $700 Billion congressional approved bailout. What do you expect when you give 2 men the ability to write check with no oversight due to needing to do things fast.
Bernanke and Paulson make the most dishonest used car salesman and ambulance chasing lawyers look like honorable and honest citizens.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PLEASE STOP LYING TO YOUR EMPLOYER (ME THE VOTER).

I do not care if Paulson will be gone after Jan 20th, he should be asked to resign now and Bush and congress should demand Bernanke resign. They have both knowingly lied to the American people and should no longer be trusted with our money.

A blue America?

Depends on which map one looks at? State or County

Electoral College by State

2008 Election by County

source = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008

Reaganism and the growing number of poor – fake MSM retoric

Based on exit polls from 1992 to 2008 the number of poor, working poor have all decreased.

Everyone in the country has gotten richer. The number of people in the 50K to 75K range has stayed fairly constant and the number below 50K is shrinking and the number above is growing.

The amount of people make more money has grown significantly, this is all a result of the Reagan revolution of the 80s.  Conservatives do not need to change their message, they just need to get the real truth out.

Exit Polls				Year
% of Voter By Income	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008
Less Than $15,000	11	11	7	8	6
$15-30,000	23	23	16	15	12
$30-50,000	27	27	24	22	19
$50-75,000	21	21	25	23	21
$75-100,000	9	9	13	14	15
Over $100,000	9	9	15	18	26

Sources are exit polls on CNN.COM and Wikipedia.

The information is readily available, to bad the MSM is so biased

2008 Election massive turnout myth

The media stating that 2008 had a massive new total voters in this election cycle is a myth.

2008 – 126 Mil Voters

2004 – 122 Mil Voters

2000 – 105 Mil Voters

1996 – 96 Mil Voters

1992 – 104 Mil Voters

1988 – 92 Mil Voters

1984 – 93 Mil Voters

1980 – 87 Mil Voters

The increase in the number of voters between 88 and 92 (+8 Million) (Clinton, Bush 1 re-election and Perot). Perot had a larger impact on the increase in the number of voters turned out than Obama.

The increase in the number of voters from 2000 to 2004 (+17 Mil) (Bush re-election & Kerry) was much greater than Obama.

Nice to see the honest main stream media is alive and well and reporting facts.

Search wikipeda if you do not believe my numbers

Just Say No to Automaker Bail out

The US auto makers due to poor management, excessive production costs and over regulation are failing.  The best thing that can happen for the automakers is to all them go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy which will allow for massive restructuring of their business model.

Only with a massive change to their business model will the auto companies thrive and be prepared for the long term world wide competition.

It is a difficult choice but any bailout to prevent bankruptcy will just be moving the time line out for the inevitable bankruptcy and massive systemic business model restructuring which is a must for the American auto makers to survive the 21st century.

more news on AIG bailouts – our money at work,ha

Early Monday Morning or late Sunday night the Bush Administration and AIG agreed to replace the original 85 billion plus the 2nd wave of 38 billion (123 billion total) with a new total of 150 billion dollars of Taxpayer money.

I guess this will allow them to rearrange more assets until there is nothing of value left except for the loans the taxpayers have given them and at that time the federal government will just have to take over the business.

Since AIG insures airlines, oil tankers, refined oil product pipelines, homes and auto there is nothing to worry about since the federal government already has ownership of a majority of the mortgages (thanks freddie and fannie bailout) they might as well own the insurance company who is insuring the house they own that has someone not paying their mortgages. What are the odds that someone who is not paying their mortgage is paying their home insurance bill?

When the federal government takes over AIG they will be able to tell airlines which routes to fly since they will only insure those routes. This will make airlines regulated without having to pass any laws or regulations, service will go down, costs will go up and the federal government will need to nationalize all of the US airlines since they just can’t seem to make a profit anymore so the American people have low cost government run airlines.

They will also decided how much oil can get shipped around the world since if the tankers and pipelines do not have insurance they can’t move oil due to not having insurance. I guess that would be one way the US can control the price of oil since the government will not allow us to drill for our own, we can prevent other countries for being able to ship their oil. We can control the supply of oil. This will cause shortages which will raise the prices and since the government will be able to control supply they will decide what companies get oil to refine and who does not, what areas of the country “need” oil and which ones do not.

I can see the campaign now, the mean big businesses are not playing nice and causing the shortages so their is a need to nationalize the oil refiners so that government can fix the oil distribution problems that private business just can’t seem to do.

Socialism is already here and it is now on the fast track.

The terrible results of the terrible bailout

The financial bailouts of the last 9 months ago is just fast tracking the end of capitalism and Freedom in America.

The big government Bush administration has now given the democratic party cover for taking over the insurance, banking and mortgage industries of America. This group of big government republicans has now purchased using tax payers money 85% of the largest insurance company in the world (AIG) a significant portions of the banking industry and a the federal government now is the paper holder of more than 50% of all mortgages in America.

What is the American taxpayer going to get with the trillion plus dollars.

10 % of $700 billion bailout to go to bonuses
http://www.247wallst.com/2008/10/ten-percent-of.html

AIG would be better off going into bankruptcy than taking the federal loans
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/02/AR2008110202150.html

The House fiscal conservatives were right when they voted against the bill the 1st time around.

Examples:

GOP Rep. Gresham Barrett commends the House Republican leadership for trying to improve the bill, but he cannot support it. “Taxpayers must not become the insurance policy for everyone’s bad financial decisions.”

GOP Rep. Jeb Hensarling, defending core conservative principles:
“In my heart and in my mind, I believe that this plan is fraught with unintended consequences, would force generations of taxpayers to pick up the tab for Wall Street losses, and could permanently and fundamentally change the role of government in the American free enterprise system. Once the government socializes losses, it will soon socialize profits. If we lose our ability to fail, we will soon lose our ability to succeed. If we bail out risky behavior, we will soon see even riskier behavior. “

An additional thought on the bail out and the effect on the presidential election.
One reason McCain lost the election and showed him to be a normal hypocritical RINO:

McCain suspended his campaign and went to Washington to get the house republicans a “seat at the table”. He did that but then sold out the house conservative principals and voted for a pork barrel ladened bill which will be seen in history references to be one of the nails in the coffin of American Capitalism.

He then had the gual to campaign about vetoing every bill with any pork barrel spending.
If he really believed in no pork barrel spending he would have required a clean bill or he should have voted against it.

McCain lost lots of points with conservatives that day, using his comment about the Iraq war that it is more important to win the war than this election can be applied to this vote. It should have been more important to get a good bill than a fast bill.

The bill did not need his vote to pass and he should have stood on his principals. I do not know how many votes this cost him but it showed he was no different that Obama on one of the big issue of the day

How Conservatives should change the Republican Party

1st- Only closed (registered republicans only) primaries are allowed to be held more than 30 days before the start of the Republican convention.

Consequences to the state republican party for violating this rule.
1) The national party will not be allowed to spend any money for supporting of any republican candidate at any level during the election year which the rule is broken.
2) The violating state delegation will be allowed to attend the convention but will not have the right to vote on the party platform or any nominating process for any candidate or party official.

The reasoning behind this is that in 2008 non-republicans decided the republican party nominee. New Hampshire and Florida dramatically narrowed the field of republican candidates and republicans were a minority or slight majority of the people to vote in each of those two republican primaries.

It should not come as a shock when the democrat party is allowed to pick both major party candidates for president that when the election takes place the democrat wins.

2nd- A 2nd Contract with America, items to include

• Term limits will be created for congress, both house and senate. These limits will be not have a grandfathering. 12 years maximum total in congress (3 terms in the house and 1 in the senate or 2 in the senate terms, 6 terms in the house). If you are beyond these years now, you can’t run for re-election.
• Removal of all post government service benefits for elected officials. No lifetime heath insurance, no lifetime pensions. The member of congress was voted out of office because your bosses (the voter) fired you. Why should you continue to collect paychecks and benefits after you are fired? Talk about golden parachutes, a CEO does not have a parachute as good as members on congress.
• Federal budget (spending) will be required to decline by 1% of GDP per year until the budget is 15% of GDP. All spending must be on budget, no off budget spending. Taxes shall be limited to 1% of GDP greater than the budget until the federal debt is $0. The budget is then required to be balanced on an annual basis.
• A constitutional amendment which removes the ability to collect income taxes will be sent to the states for ratification in the 1st congress which the republican party has a majority in the house and senate.
• A 2nd amendment which implements a consumption based tax system which is capped at 22%. The federal government will not be allowed to collect taxes in any way other than the consumption tax. There is one standard deduction for all American citizens which is 3 times the current poverty level. Citizens can apply on a quarterly or yearly basis for the refund of the taxes. Non-citizens (legal visitors to America) can apply for 50% of the consumption tax that is collect to be refunded with 30 days of exiting the country.

3rd – There is lots of discussion going on now about how the Republican party needs to be re-branded, marketed different, become more centrist. These are knee jerk reactions because the real cure will remove the current leaders of the republican part who are currently in power.

The conservatives in the republican party need to take back the party by discussing the ideals of the conservatism. If the current center-left leaders of the republican party do not see that the reason the party has lost in 2006 and 2008 is that the conservative principles have been abandoned then the conservatives need to leave the republican party.

Join and vote for the libertarian party, the conservative party or the constitution party they all have positives and negatives in their party platform. Conservatives need to take a long term view about the future of America and stop voting for the “lesser of two evils”.

Change the tone, do not discuss a issue on a false or incorrect premise, change the premise. Make people think.

Take a stand, conservative principals of a small, limited federal government and strong states rights is the basis of the Constitution and America.

It worked in the 80’s under Reagan, the 90’s behind Newt and can again in the 20teens behind any one of the smart young energetic conservative governors. (Pawlenty, Jindel, Palin) Take back our state and local governements over the next 4 years and then vote a true fiscal conservative as the Republican nominee in 2012.

Why republicans lost in 2006 and 2008

The republicans lost in 2006 and 2008 because the party has become a big central government and big spending party.

The lesson to learn is that the republicans won the house in 1994 with the Contract with America. The one part of the Contract with America that was not passed (term limits) is the one part which has resulted in the party failing.

The Federal government was meant to be a short term job by the founding fathers. The concept of Career Politician was a foreign concept to them.

The failure to instill term limits on the congress has resulted in the republican party getting corrupted by the concept of getting re-elected and not doing what is right for the long term of the country. Elected officials are meant to serve for a short term in public office and returning to the private sector. Going to a lobbying firm, the speech circuit or becoming a TV analyst is not the private sector. Get out of the spot light and DC, go back to the home district, get a job, start a business do anything but be in the public spotlight.

There was fiscal discipline (growing government at a slow pace) in 1995 t0 2000 which gave way to expansive growth of the federal government and higher spending as the republican party had control of congress and the presidency. This was done to try and gain re-election by growing the federal government at a huge rate instead of staying true to the principles that got them elected in the first place.

From 1995 to 2000 federal spending was between 18% and 19% of GDP. The federal government has grown to 23.5% of GDP between 2001 and 2006 under the Republican controlled federal government.

In 2001 the federal budget was $1.86 Trillion, in 2006 it was $2.65 Trillion.
Federal taxes collected in 2001 were $1.99 Trillion, in 2006 there was $2.47 Trillion collected.
source http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104753.html

The republican party is now the party of big spending.

America has been punishing the Republican party in 2006 and 2008 for failing to live up to its promises of the late 90s. Despite what the media and politicians think we do have long memories.

If the federal budget could have been kept at 18.5% GDP during the years of 2001 to 2006 the federal government would have spent $2.36 trillion less than it actually did. The debt would have gone down by $0.81 trillion dollars instead of increasing by $1.54 trillion.

I do not think most Americans know the realities of these numbers but we are unhappy with the federal government. We do not know why, we just know something is not right in our collective gut.

We just know that the government is not being responsible with our money and might as well give the democrats a chance.

This is the message of the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Hello world!

I am a conservative upstate (Rochester Area) New Yorker. I have voted for the republican party candidates in every election since 1996 when I turned 18 because of the influence Ronald Reagan had on me during my high school years in the 80’s. His logic was (is) just common sense.

I grew up in Rochester and spent 3 years living and working in Maryland after college and then returned to the Rochester area in 1994 for work.

I am a electrical engineer by trade and an amateur political junkie.

I am married to a wonderful woman who supports and encourages me.

My plan is to just publish my thoughts and ideas on politics in America.

The reason I have decided to throw my hat into the blogger ring is that what I read (blogs, newspapers, magazines) and hear through radio and TV mostly come at a topic with a similar point of view. I hope to bring a different view that will make people think.

This blog will try to be about challenging people to think about topics in a different way.

The United States of America is a country of laws based on the Constitution. The Constitution is the greatest non-religious document written by humans in the history of humans.

I hope you enjoy this blog and return often,

Don