How?...

Obama's tax plan involves a supposed tax cut for 95% of Americans. He is also going to give healthcare to all Americans. The liberals have also asked for $1 Trillion in spending. Obama has already demonstrated that he agrees with about $900 billion of that. Add all of that to the $700 billion bail out, and I am just wondering how he intends on paying for all of this? Bill Clinton ran on a platform of lowering taxes for the middle class, but raised them as soon as he got into office. Barney Frank stated on CNBC yesterday that taxes should be raised at a point down the road, and that there are "plenty of rich people we can tax." When I look at this, and Obama's statement about "spreading the wealth," I see big problems in the making.

Furthermore, Biden stated that because of Obama's inexperience, he would be tested with an "international crisis." Now why would any person want to vote for someone who, if elected, is "mark (his) my words," will get tested? We are not in a situation where we can handle a "generated crisis." So putting all of these factors together, coupled with his socialist views, his associations, and inexperience, I can't see why anyone would vote for him. The People of this country need to wake up.

Below is the St. Obama votive candle found in the streets of San Francisco

First say it was your idea, then say its his bad idea...

The Obama campaign sent out an email on Tuesday after the debate stating that “McCain today said he had a new plan to allow the Treasury to purchase and restructure mortgages. The truth is that this is not a new proposal and is already part of the rescue plan that was signed into law. It was Obama, not McCain who called for this move two weeks ago.”

So as we have seen from the Obama campaign in the past, he takes credit for everything. He was against the Iraq War, even though he was not a Senator, he wrote a letter warning about sub prime mortgages yet that letter has never been released.

Then, in a turn of events, when I guess no one believed that it was his idea they decided to change their strategy. Obama's economic advisor, Jason Furman, came out and stated the following: “Since this (sic) beginning of this crisis, Barack Obama has demanded that any rescue plan must protect taxpayers and ensure that they share in any profit once the economy recovers, and he worked to include that principle in the plan that passed Congress. John McCain’s plan to overpay for bad mortgages by handing taxpayer dollars over to big financial institutions is erratic policy making at its worst, and it’s not the change we need to strengthen our economy, create new jobs and keep Americans in their homes.”

What is funny is that this is a horrible plan, one that was already included in the $700 Billion bailout. The one they both voted for. The one true conservatives have spoken out against. It is not Obama's plan, it is Henry Paulson and Bush's plan. I find it so interesting that Obama can shift positions so quickly and frequently just to appease someone. It goes to show that he is not a candidate of change, he is a typical politician.

Chuckie Schumer...

Senator Chuck Schumer stated that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has turned into an extension of the right wing. He attributed this to a pattern of contributions from the organization. While not necessarily true, I think this is a very bad time for Sen. Schumer to say this. For if we use Senator Schumer's logic Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would then be extensions of the left wing, due to their obvious contributions to the Democrats, in large amounts. And due to that, the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can be blamed on the party they are an extension of. The liberals are always yapping, and their brains, unfortunately work a little slower than their mouths.

Congratulations America!!!

The Federal Government is now the biggest landlord in the world! And the DOW dropped by 260 points as the news comes out. It is barely in the green now.

The Housing Bill Passed which was approved by the Senate

With two candidates, one for so called "Change," and the other a supposed Maverick, I expected to see at least one them come out against this bill, but they both voted for it. It would have been a great time for McCain to have stepped up and said "This bill does not do anything for the American People, and quite honestly might not even fix the economy." Nobody is sure, but the free market COULD HAVE corrected itself, and if the House passes the bill, then I guess we will never know. Companies that still have Capital are acquiring other companies and growing, so the economy as a whole has not stopped, and nor will it. McCain has spoken out against earmarks and pork barrel spending, and Obama loved those two things until he announced he was running for President. In a way, Obama lives up to his, well, ears, when it comes to earmarks.

I skimmed through the entire 451 Bailout plan, which from my understanding started off at 3 pages some time last week. This bill will pretty much make the U.S. the biggest landlord in the world. The bill itself mentions that the Federal Government will, hold, control or own the mortgages. If they own the mortgage, then they pretty much own the house until it is paid off, this is scary. Within the contents of the bill were, some items which I honestly am not quite sure how they would help the economy. I have listed these interesting bits below:

-The FDIC Insurance does go up, this helps out the people more psychologically than anything else, but only through 12/31/2009. I thought the whole reason for the increase was to account for inflation since the coverage has been $100K since the 1970's.

-There are tons of Energy Tax Credits, but really nothing about drilling or our energy Independence, so it is just a waste of time and pages.

-They extended the FUTA Surtax for two years, this is a surtax that costs employers roughly $14 per year, per employee. Aren't we trying to create jobs here? (Sec. 404)

-The "Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund Tax" was increased, don't we have a "energy crisis?" They raised the tax by 3 cents per barrel through 2016, and 4 cents after that. I mean it is only pennies, but doesn't every penny count? (Sec. 405)

-The extended an Economic Development Credit for American Samoa. I don't even know what to say. (Sec. 309)

-They extended the tax credit for mine rescue team training and the election to expense advanced mine safety equipment. I am all for safety, but why is this inserted into this bill? (Sec. 310 &311)

-There is a section on railroad track maintenance which is not too specific, but again I have no idea why this is in this bill. (Sec. 316)

Now it starts to get interesting:

-Seven year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility. Seriously? Someone decided they had to appeal to their Nascar fan constituents? (Sec. 317)

-(By far my favorite) Extension and Modification of Duty Suspension on Wool Products, and Wool Duty Refunds. This also helps the Wool Research Trust Fund. This one is priceless. I was not aware that wool products and their research had a trust fund. Everyone run and get your wool sweaters, now Duty Free! (Sec. 325)

-I wonder which party put this in the bill? (Please note the sarcasm) They have tax deductions for film and television productions. I did not know that liberal hollywood and the media was hurting. (Sec. 502)

-Another good one. There is an excise tax exemption, and this is how it is worded, "for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children." This applies to the shaft only, and they cannot be larger than 5/16 of inch in diameter. (Sec. 503)

-There is also a section regarding taxpayers who receive qualified settlements from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It states that when they pay taxes, the income source "shall be treated as engaged in a fishing business." (Sec. 504)

-There are 57 pages on Natural Disaster Relief and funding for Special Projects on Federal Land, which honestly I did not read because, again it was 451 pages.

-The last item I noticed bothered me, it was 34 pages, these 34 pages were titled the "Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008." I see the importance of a bill like this (Relating more to the mental health than to the addiction aspect of it). According to this insertion into the bailout plan, health care insurances must treat mental health and addictions equal to regular medical care. They cannot make payments higher and cannot offer stricter treatment limitations than to ordinary medical coverage. This does not belong in this bill, this is something that they knew would not be passed on it's own, therefore they shoved it into the bailout. So health care costs will now rise, because of addicts, that is how I see it.

We were in such "dire need" to pass this bill quickly otherwise we would go into a depression, this according to Congress and the President. Well they have taken a week longer than expected and nothing, we are still here. The bill passed the Senate, and the Dow is still down close to 300 points. Both Republicans and Democrats are wrong on passing this bill, and the pork shoved into it goes to show you, that maybe these are the wrong people to oversee and control the economy. These are the same people who got us into this mess. Chris Dodd and Barnie Frank are front and center on this bailout, yet they were the two leading the economy on this downward spiral. How can we expect THEM to fix this?

Update: I guess I missed one earlier, there is also a tax brake for people who ride their bicycles to work.

The Rescue Package (Bailout)

Other than the blogs that I have published with who is to blame, and the videos on who is to blame, I have not really put my opinion out on this rescue package. I have heard countless so called "experts" say that it is needed, some say that it is not, I have heard some economists come out and say that it is needed, but we still might go into a recession, and others saying that we will be fine without it. So where could one stand on this, when in reality nobody has a clue if it will work or not? I have taken a few days to really think about this, and how we got here, and that is how I arrived at my decision.

I do not know of any large scale government program that has succeeded. It seems that the larger Washington is, and the more power they have, the more things get screwed up. Just look at Fannie and Freddie, Social Security, Welfare, Medicare and Medicaid, all of them pretty much bankrupt. The IRS was set up as a temporary organization, well it is still here. Why is the IRS still here? Because when the People simply give government the authority to have broader powers, even if only temporarily, they will never relinquish it. Roosevelt's New Deal, was a huge waste of money, and although some attribute us getting out of the Depression Era because of it, it was really World War II that got us out.

The market lost $777 yesterday, the biggest single day dollar amount loss, but it was the 17Th overall percentage loss (more importantly). Today the market has rebounded, and private citizens and enterprises are acquiring stock and companies at a bargain. The free market kind of corrects itself, without the real need for government intervention. The Treasury has already put so much money into the market, and banking institutions, is an additional trillion really necessary?

One thing that bugs me, if this was this big crisis that needed to be passed immediately, then how was Congress able to take 2 days off? It is all a matter of politics. Proof of it lies in the fact, as previously mentioned, that Pelosi told Democrats up for reelection that they did not have to vote in favor of the bill. She knows that the People do not want this. It is all political and the reason why Congress has a 9% approval rating.

Bailout

The bailout as it stood was not acceptable. It was filled with items that taxpayers should not foot the bill for. The President is wrong on this, after all though, he has not been fiscally conservative. This is a typical Democrat bill, which they along with the Democrat Henry Paulson, who should resign, crafted. The democrats did not allow the Republicans any input on this bill, yet they expected the Republicans to vote for it. The American people did not agree with that bailout, and that is why the House voted the way it did. Barney Frank though, the same Barney Frank in this blog's video heard saying that Fannie and Freddie did not have any problems, is blaming the Republicans and Nancy Pelosi is praising him. Well let us look at how the House voted: The vote ended with 205 in favor, and 228 oppose to the bill, 140 Democrats and 65 Republicans voted for the bill, 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans voted against it. Why are they not blaming the Democrats? Their own party, they could have single handily passed this bill, but they did not. Nancy Pelosi told 16 Freshman Democrats that they could vote against it in order to not risk their reelection. You see with the Democrats, it is all about power, they could care less about you or I. The Democrats put us in this mess, and were unable to get THEIR bill passed, and they blame us for everything.

The Economy

Last Thursday I posted a blog regarding the government bail out, and how this entire issue could have been averted had the Democrats who were protecting Fannie and Freddie, in part because they would receive so much money from them, voted for Bill S. 190 which John McCain cosponsored in 2006. Bloomberg has a great article which describes the entire mess we are in, and how the Democrats got us into it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=aSKSoiNbnQY0

Interesting enough, the article speaks about Franklin Raines, the ex-Fannie Chief who cooked the books, much like the Enron scandal. Unlike Ken Lay though, he does not go to jail, he gets to become Barack Obama's Head Economic Advisers. A storyline like this I could not make up.