TEAM OBAMA ONE YEAR AGO!

How soon they forget:

"OBAMA, BIDEN DECLARE “RECOVERY SUMMER”: Vice President Biden today will kick off “Recovery Summer,” a six-week-long push designed to highlight the jobs accompanying a surge in stimulus-funded projects to improve highways, parks, drinking water and other public works. Biden will present President Obama with a report laying out a spike in stimulus activity this summer, and how it will contribute to a steady climb to a total of 3.5 million Recovery Act jobs by the end of the year. Biden, Obama and other administration officials will travel to more than two dozen Recovery Act project sites in coming weeks. Tomorrow, the president will travel to Columbus, Ohio, to mark the groundbreaking of the 10,000th Recovery Act road project, around Nationwide Children’s Hospital. On Monday, Biden will travel to Midland, Mich., for the groundbreaking of the new Dow Kokam advanced battery manufacturing facility."- POLITICO

OBAMA'S FORECLOSURE FOLLIES! OUR TAX DOLLARS!

Hello fellow sucker taxpayers! Remember Stanley Johnson?



Well President Obama is going to help him and millions of others using about 75 billion of our taxpayer dollars to bailout the lenders and borrowers who made and got loans that should have never been made in the first place. And guess who is going to help pay for this foreclosure bailout plan. Yes you and me the responsible tax payers!

Here is what President Obama said:
" We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford."

Oh yeah Mr. President? The Associated Press has Ben Bernanke telling us something completly different:

"AP, Feb. 25: Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it's important to save those who made bad calls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed. "I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed."

No Mr. Bernanke the person who is smoking in bed deserves to get burned. You don't just toss the cigarette to us taxpayers who just happen to live next door and think everything will be fine.

Then there is this ends justify the means rational from Sheila Bair:

"I think it's just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans," she told NPR.

Wait a minute! You don't think it's practical to look at these loans. Isn't that how the banks got into this mess in the first place? But, there's more to this idiotic logic.

And, Bair added, it's in the "collective economic interest" to not have more foreclosed homes on the market. "To try to punish all of those parties now by foreclosing on more homes, putting more families on the street, putting more houses onto the inventory, creating more downward pressure on home prices when you have so much inventory on the market right now. Is that in our collective economic interest to do that? I just don't think that it is."

That's the problem with people like this in the Obama administration they don't think! While foreclosure is certainly bad for the reckless borrowers and the banks who gave out the loans. Having us responsible taxpayers bail this bad behavior is not the answer. Let the foreclosures happen and then there will be opportunities for more responsible people to get into these homes. People like:

Lynn Powers, 39, a Bethesda, Md., resident who describes herself as a “liberal Democrat” who has been hardworking, prudent and responsible — and now feels “like a fool."“We were in the market,” she says. “We put out eight bids and got outbid every time. It was very upsetting for us. I want to see some accountability and responsibility across the board. The only way for me to have an affordable home, and I’m not looking for a McMansion at all, is if we let the chips fall, in a sense. This is still the bubble — the prices have to come down. You can’t just subsidize some of the people. I don’t know how you deleverage. It is going to be painful, but this is also hurting the people who behaved responsibly.”
What does she mean by “responsibly”?

“People who didn’t overbuy. Who stuck to their guns. Who read their contracts,” she says. She and her husband wound up buying a 600-square-foot studio and moved to a rental when they had their daughter, now 18 months old.

“My husband and I paid for our cars in cash,” she says. “We have no credit card debt. We have no student loans. I don’t buy Starbucks, but that’s because they’re non-fair trade, nonenvironmental.”

When they tried to buy a house, she said, “We just felt outgunned.” And now, she says, “I feel very outgunned as a citizen.”

And she should feel out gunned. Her government is subsidizing the people who out bid her on some of those houses. Now when she and her husband might be able to grab a foreclosed property at a reasonable price the Obama administration is rigging the market. This chart from a TIME magazine article shows what has been happening due to the foreclosures.

The chart shows home prices approaching a more normal average so that responsible people like Lynn Powers and her husband can get another shot at being a homeowner. But, Obama's plan is to stop the foreclosures and so keep house prices artificially high.

I think this woman from Maryland pretty much sums up the feeling of many of us responsible taxpayers to Obama's misguided plan:

“I am an Obama supporter, campaigned for him, baked cookies for him; my husband and I are Democrats all the way, but this is the issue that gets our goat.”
Echoing Santelli’s complaint, a Silver Spring, Md., mom who did not want her name used adds: “I’m not sure why we should work and pay for someone else to have a granite countertop or an extra bathroom.” When asked about people who hadn’t overreached but had lost their down-?payment money when the value of their homes had dropped, she replies, “We put money in a 401(k), and we lost that money, and no one is going to give it back.”-Politico

Taking advice from Bush and Obama?

So after playing the fear card to get the Nancy Pelosi money Stimulus giveaway package passed. President Obama is now telling people to buy stocks. Nothing has changed in Washington. George W. Bush told us to go shopping after 9/11 and now Obama is telling us to buy stocks. Both spent money we don't have with their fiscal irresponsibility.

THE TARP PLAN ILLUSTRATED

They say one picture is worth a thousand words. It takes a few more to illustrate the Toxic Asset Reduction Plan or as I call it the Turd Asset Reduction Plan:
The TARP, in Pictures

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Humor Creative Writing tarp

Krazy Krugman/Washington economics

We are hearing a lot about how the Obama Administration and congress is going to an "economic stimulus" program. Which sounds all well and good considering how screwed up the economy is thanks to the sub prime debacle. Of course there are some detractors saying it is too expensive and is not worth it. I have not been following the details too closely what little there are. But, New York Times columnist/economist Paul Krugman tries to explain the costs and why it's worth it. He may have won a Nobel Prize in Economics but I am not impressed. here are the money quotes:

"First, there’s the bogus talking point that the Obama plan will cost $275,000 per job created. Why is it bogus? Because it involves taking the cost of a plan that will extend over several years, creating millions of jobs each year, and dividing it by the jobs created in just one of those years."

Okay so far. Of course opponents will try an exaggerate the cost of the program. So liberal Krugman has a point here. But, he then goes on:

"The true cost per job of the Obama plan will probably be closer to $100,000 than $275,000 — and the net cost will be as little as $60,000 once you take into account the fact that a stronger economy means higher tax receipts."

The true cost is closer to $100,000 per job? Even at a cost of $60,000 it's still an outrageous cost per job! He can't be serious can he? How about the government give say $10.000 to U.S. citizens who have owned our homes for x number of years. We'll create jobs by putting on new roofs, windows etc.. on our houses. I need to mount some solar panels on my roof that are currently taking up space in my living room. I'll spend money buying some solar frames to do that. That would be a better way to stimulate the economy than to spend $100,000 to create a $50,000 dollar job. Only in Washington D.C. and in the mind of a liberal economist does spending this kind of money make sense.

Signs the economy is getting hot.

But, not in a good way. From today's Washington Post:

"Last year, Alexandria residents Yesenia Gomez and her husband, Jose Reyes, fell behind on payments on their 2007 Dodge Caravan. According to prosecutors, a middle school pal of Gomez's, Daybin Rodriguez, told Gomez that he'd burned a car in the past and could do so again.
Gomez decreased the minivan policy's deductible, and a week later the vehicle was found torched in Mason Neck State Park in Lorton, prosecutors said. She and Rodriguez have since entered pleas to destruction of property charges. Charges against Reyes were dropped.

Recession? What Recession?

I spent a few days in New York City last week and the restaurants were packed. No sign of recession there. But as blogger Deeply Imbedded points out that is not the view from the rest of the country. That is the great disconnect with most of the rest of the country on many issues like the recession and illegal immigration. Those in Washington and New York have to look hard to see it.

What does this mean?

"President Bush and congressional leaders moved closer to agreeing on a compromise economic rescue package yesterday, fending off fresh protests from both the right and the left as they rushed to respond to a cascading series of economic troubles and to head off a potential recession." -Washington Post

I was boarding the Amtrak train at Union Station in Washington yesterday. When I looked up and saw a rainbow in the late afternoon sun. Is it just a coincidence that this rainbow appears after the Federal Reserve lowers the interest rates. Speaking of pots of money at the end of the rainbow. Here is another money quote:
" As markets roiled from a sharp sell-off around the world and the Federal Reserve cut interest rates at home, Bush met with House and Senate leaders to work out a package of tax breaks for consumers and businesses. In an important concession to Democrats, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. signaled that he is open to including breaks even for those who pay little to no income taxes. "
I just hope that the Democrats and Bush mean that they will make sure that this money they want to give to people "who pay little of no income tax" will be Americans and not illegal immigrants who will send this money off to Mexico and other countries instead of it being spent here in the United States for our economy.

Pelosi's stimulus plan?

While we wait for the outcome of negations for the stimulus plan to help the U.S. economy. Which thanks to the bonehead bankers and mortgage companies who found out that maybe giving out $650,000 mortgages to illegal immigrants who only make $18,000 a year may not be a good business model after all.
We now wait for those other boneheads namely the pols in Washington to come up with their "stimulis plan". Here is one of the money quotes:"Pelosi and Boehner have both stressed the need for an immediate, targeted infusion of federal funds into the economy, likely in the form of a small tax rebate coupled with some slight investment incentives for small businesses and a modest dose of social welfare spending for the lowest-income families."
My message to Pelosi and the Democrats is that if you are going to increase social welfare spending to the "lowest income families". you had better make DAMN SURE that those families are not in this country illegally.

Fear, greed and tears

"The Federal Reserve cut a short-term interest rate yesterday to try to keep problems in the housing and mortgage markets from dragging the nation into recession, but Wall Street judged the move as too timid and financial markets tanked. "-Washington Post

Only on Wall Street can good news be looked on as bad news because greed seems to know no bounds. Meanwhile:

"The chief executives for two of the nation's dominant mortgage-finance companies traveled to Wall Street yesterday and delivered competing words of regret for having to take painful steps to shore up their businesses.
The two government-chartered firms recently cut the dividends they pay shareholders and borrowed billions of dollars of relatively costly capital to stay in compliance with regulatory requirements and ride out the turmoil in the housing market.
"We wanted to dilute the common shareholders like we wanted to shoot ourselves in the head with a gun," Richard F. Syron, Freddie Mac chairman and chief executive, told a gathering of investment analysts.
"I wanted to cut off both my arms, and both my legs, and my head and my kidney," Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd said later in the day. "

TRANSLATION: We felt bad all the way to our second homes.

Bernake & Schumer's B.S. solution

From the Washington Post:


"The economy is likely to slow through the first half of 2008, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday, as members of Congress called on him to take aggressive action to prevent a worsening mortgage crisis."

I have to dissagree. Like rewarding illegal immigrants with driver's licenses you do not correct bad behavior by bailing out the banks and those who got sub prime loans with a bailout as Washington seems intent on doing. Here is exhibit A:

"Among other steps, Schumer said, Bernanke should move quickly on a series of regulatory policy changes to prevent banks from making irresponsible mortgage loans and use his stature to convince the Bush administration to provide federal money for nonprofit organizations that help people with mortgage problems."

Schumer is wrong in following in the footsteps of George Bush by trying to funnel taxpayer money to these "non profit organizations". Anytime taxpayer money money gets further away from the government there is less oversight and is more open to abuse no matter how noble the idea is.

Thank you Democrats. May I have another...

As part of their campaign to soothe an anxious middle class, congressional Democrats are preparing legislation that would significantly expand federal aid to the most obvious victims of the global economy: workers whose jobs move offshore or are lost to foreign imports.
Under a Senate bill to be introduced today, computer programmers, call-center staffers and other service-sector workers who make up the vast majority of the nation's workforce would for the first time be eligible for a generous package of income, health and retraining benefits currently reserved for manufacturing workers who lose their jobs to international trade.-Washington Post

It seems the Democrats are offering an oxygen mask to the middle class workers who get kicked in the ass and to the side by globalization. That is until the air tank runs out. Then what? These workers will still have school taxes to pay. While the Democrats can pat themselves on the back for this limited form of life support. Meanwhile they continue to harm the middle class taxpayers by siding with George Bush and allowing rampant illegal immigration to continue in middle class communities. By not protecting our borders and enforcing current immigration laws the costs of illegal immigration will continue to be subsidized by these same middle class taxpayers that the Democrats are pretending to help. There is a train wreck coming and it looks like well intentioned though misguided Democrats are at the controls.

Ford layoffs and the dying Middle Class.

With the Ford Motor Company annoucment that it will layoff 25% of it's workforce one has to wonder what will happen to many of these workers. While some will get and take buyout offers others will be called into the office and just be told to get out. It may be a slow process or a very quick one. These laid off workers I think will find it to be harder this time then in previous layoffs. Having been laid off a few times myself it seems I was always able to find a temporary job to carry me through until another higher paying position opened up. I pumped gasoline for a few months during one dry period many years ago. Today, even those temporary jobs may be harder to find. Thanks to the failure of the Federal Government to protect the borders the result of which has allowed millions of Illegal Immigrants into the country doing many of the jobs that would have helped some of the blue collar assembly line workers bridge the time between jobs. They will not be able to compete with the low wages the illegals are paid (and who get food and shelter from groups like Catholic Charities using U.S. taxpayer dollars) while the Ford workers will have a house and family to support. Even more bleak is the fact that there may not be any future jobs available that will pay as well as the jobs they were laid off from. Some of them will start the slow spiral downward and leave the middle class lifestyle that they have enjoyed and that is a tragedy for all of us.