DEMOCRATS PASS OBAMA'S $3.5 TRILLION BUDGET

"Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama's ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday, endorsing a $3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities."- Washington Post

I thought the Republicans spent too much when they were in power. I guess I forget how much worse things could be when the Democrats are in charge.

BREAKING NEWS!: My girlfriend got some extra money in her paycheck from the last Democrats/Obama money spending scheme aka "The Stimulus Bill" I hope she does not spend the $17.00 all in one place!

ANYONE FOR A TEA PARTY?

BAILOUT: The taxpayer view

Clear as Mudd

In reading the commentary today's Washington Post by Fannie Mae chief Daniel Mudd all I can say is Hola Suckers. His attempt to use this taxpayer backed organization to help banks in the disguise of helping clear the current economic mess is pathetic. But of course it's not what he says it's how he says it. Here are some of the money quotes:

"Fannie Mae is not exempt from the housing cleanup. We have spent three years and billions of dollars repairing our accounting and our governance. We are taking our lumps along with the industry, but are now prepared to be part of the solution."

"Repairing your accounting and governance"? Don't you mean Mr. Mudd: waste fraud and abuse? Or is it just corruption and incompetence? And by the way where did the billions of dollars come from to make these "repairs"?

"New Americans in particular face a tortuous path to homeownership. Over the past 10 years, the Internal Revenue Service has issued more than 8 million tax identification numbers to immigrants. People who pay taxes and reside here legally deserve a chance to own a home. Some lenders use these numbers to verify identity and provide loans; others do not because there is no clear standard. We need one."


Why don't all lenders use tax identification numbers to verify identity Mr. Mudd? Because just about anyone can get a tax payer identification number. Yes, even illegal immigrants! Giving loans out to people like illegal immigrants who already show a proclivity to break U.S. laws is not a good business model as the sub prime debacle has already shown. Your lack of knowledge regarding taxpayer identification and the law does not give me much hope that this sub prime mess will get better soon.

Earmarks: Meet the new boss same as the old boss

"Even as House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer has joined in steps to clean up pork-barrel spending, the Maryland congressman has tucked $96 million worth of pet projects into next year's federal budget, including $450,000 for a campaign donor's foundation. "

It seems Democrat Hoyer is now one of the top ten earmark providers in Congress. So much for change now that the Democrats are in power. What kind of important projects is Hoyer funding with his ear marks?

"Consider the $450,000 that Hoyer inserted into a 2008 education spending bill for the California-based InTune Foundation Group, whose Web site describes it as a music-education nonprofit group.
In 2005, InTune got a previous earmark for nearly $500,000 to develop lesson plans on funk music and Nobel Peace laureates. Asked recently how effective that program had been, Education Department officials said they didn't know. InTune hadn't turned in a report on what it did, officials said. "

I think Leslie K. Paige of the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste says it best: "Don't we deserve to know where this money is going and who these people are?"

Sub prime suckers!

As the Washington Post reports today the other shoe is about to drop on the sub prime loan debacle and as I predicted it is going to fall on us taxpayers. In a cryptic speech yesterday Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced a "plan" to help bailout the sub prime loan borrowers and lenders. Details of which are supposed to be announce "later this week". Let's hope it is not in the dark of night here are some of the money quotes:

"Municipal housing authorities now offer mortgages at lower-than-average rates to credit-worthy, first-time buyers whose earnings are at or below the average household income levels, which vary by region. Cities and states can provide such advantageous loans because they sell tax-exempt bonds backing the mortgages to investors at lower rates, passing on the savings to homeowners. "

Translation: The loan risk will be slid off the banks portfolio and onto the taxpayers, Hola suckers taxpayers!

"The lack of details has made it hard to know how many homeowners the plan would help. In the past two years, about 2 million credit-challenged, or sub prime borrowers bought houses with mortgages that typically had interest rates of 7 to 8 percent. "

Credit challenged? What type of politically correct nonsense is this? The banks and lenders gave these loans out to these people. They are the ones responsible but, there is a slight of hand going on here and these "credit challenged" homeowners are about to become the problem of us taxpayers and not the lenders and banks who gave them the loans.

"Paulson's plan also faces a daunting task of figuring out who is eligible for mortgage relief, because many loans have little documentation of a homeowners income, said Douglas W. Elmendorf, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution"

You can just smell the lawsuits beginning from those who don't get relief. I'm not even going to go into the number of illegal immigrants who have gotten sub prime loans which is the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room that no one wants to talk about.

" Whatever plan Paulson presents, "they are going to need the nonprofit community," said Kenneth D. Wade, chief executive of NeighborWorks America, who spoke at the housing forum yesterday. "

Oh yeah this is a good one. Let the "non profits" run the show. You can see the corruption beginning. The banks will be off the hook and by the time anyone realizes how much money was ripped off from the taxpayers who are subsidizing this bailout it will be too late. Get ready to open your wallets sucker taxpayers!

Small's big expenses at the Smithsonian

We U.S. taxpayers help support national institutions like the Smithsonian. There was the secret sweetheart deal the institution made with Showtime Networks and now comes the revelations of expenses and the money that it doled out to it's chief officer. Both deserve some scrutiny.

"Internal Smithsonian documents offer a glimpse into what one senator called the "Dom Perignon" lifestyle of the taxpayer-supported institution's chief official, who turned in a $15,000 receipt for the replacement of French doors at his home and spent $48,000 for two chairs, a conference table and upholstery for his office suite."-Washington Post

Congress needs to start digging to see how these deals came to be.