econarchy

Cars that nobody wants, unsustainable labor costs…. Detroit is doomed and it is downright foolish for the taxpayers to keep it alive. Today we heard that the Unions are talking with GM again after closing down discussions over the weekend. The Unions are a joke. The very fact that we let any group collude to fix wages is absolute insanity, but we do. The US auto companies have had no choice but to cave to the extortion tactics of the Unions for the past 50 years, and they have been suffering ever since. Nobody in their right mind would suggest that the US auto makers are on par with the Imports, and the Unions are largely the reason why. Bailing them out now is just a band aid on a severed artery. Without finding workers that are willing to work for the actual value of unskilled labor, say $10 an hour, the US auto makers have no chance. They also need to invest heavily in automation - something the Unions have prevented for decades.

Unions are the kryptonite to productivity and efficiency, and that is a FACT. Nothing would make me happier than to see Detroit and all it’s Unions flushed down the crapper. Illiterate, uneducated auto workers earning $100k+ per year….. sickening.

So why let Detroit fail, but bail out the banks? The reason is simple - we don’t need American cars, but we need the American banking system. Banks keep EVERY buisiness afloat. They keep the entire economy afloat. Banks need bailed out and, as much as I hate to admit it, banks should probably be Nationalized. Or at the very least, much more seriously regulated.

Even fastidious Conservatives like me understand that certain things need to be managed by the Government. Things like the Military, police, fire departments and yes, Banks, are probably best managed as a public good.

However, unlike all those other public goods I mentioned, we need competition in the banking industry. Therefore the answer is probably much more highly-controlled Government oversight. We all agree that banks cannot act without any rules, because when they do we see people acting only for their own best interests and that is what got us here to begin with. Since we all rely on the banks for the very fundamental stability of the government we need to be able to have confidence in them. And they cannot act with such a high level of risk as they did over the last decade.

So let Detroit fall straight into the pot, but save the banks. But save them with a whole lot of strings attached. No more 25 yr old MBAs with 3 months of work experience sitting on Wall Street earning $2 Million a year to take stupid bets. Regulate the banks and flip off Detroit.

Apparently Obama’s weekend is more important than the Economic Stimulus that he rushed through the House. Nobody had time to read the 1,100 page bill because Obama insisted it be passed immediately. But he hasn’t signed it yet because his weekend plans are more important. While he is eating at Table Fifty-Two in Chicago, the Americans he supposedly cares about (ha!) suffer another weekend without his magical economic stimulus gifts from heaven.

“After pushing Congress for weeks to hurry up and pass the massive $787 billion stimulus bill, President Obama promptly took off for a three-day holiday getaway.

Obama arrived at his home in Chicago on Friday, and treated wife Michelle to a Valentine’s Day dinner downtown last night. The couple was spotted leaving upscale Table Fifty-Two, which specializes in Southern cuisine, with the first lady toting what appeared to be a doggie bag.

The president plans to spend the Presidents’ Day weekend in the Windy City, and is not expected to sign the bill until Tuesday, when he travels to Denver to discuss his economic plan.

Both the House and Senate passed the bill Friday night.

The push to get the bill through before the holiday weekend was so frantic, members of Congress didn’t have a chance to read all 1,071 pages of the document before they could vote.”

Read More…

Hope? Try Hopelessness. Transparency? Try total secrecy and threats. Leadership? How about caving in to politics as usual. Obama is a failed President. Already. Yes, I said it. I mean, I know we are still giving the guy on-the-job training since he has less work experience than the lady helping you find the pooper scoopers at your local Wal-Mart, but Obama is nothing but a mouthpiece for rhetoric. Now he is touring the nation giving his stump speeches, probably because that is all he knows how to do. Hey Obama, the campaign is over! How about rather than travel around giving speaches you get to the Hill and tell Pelosi it may be wise to postpone her little junked to Rome to, you know, DO YOUR JOB!!!!

But that takes leadership, and Obama is an empty bag of hot air. This piece from the WSJ Editorial sums it up quite nicely.

“President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.

AP

In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today’s economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.

This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don’t come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That’s a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost — fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.”

Hmmm…. I always thought that the Democrat’s campaigned against using Fear to pursuade people and win support. So much for that idea. “Do as I say, or else!” seems to be Obama’s new slogan.

This is from CNN. There is really nothing to say. Just look at the Winners and Losers and it really speaks for itself. And keep in mind, this is from CNN… Not exactly a “right wing” spin here….

Winners

High-speed and inner-city rail: Went from $300 million in House bill to $2.25 billion in Senate to $8 billion in final version. There also is a $6.9 billion provision for public transit.

Amtrak: Picked up $500 million from both House and Senate versions to total $1.3 billion. The bill stipulates that no more than 60 percent can go to the Northeast Corridor.

National Institutes of Health: Ends up with $10 billion in the final bill. The House proposed $3.5 billion and the Senate wanted $10 billion — $8.2 billion goes to the NIH director for his discretion.

Government oversight: Board to oversee stimulus bill spending will get $84 million to do the job. House bill allocated $14 million while the Senate bill called for $7 million. There is also more than $100 million more for various inspectors general in different agencies.

NASA: Banked just more than $2 billion, including $400,000 for science/global-warming research. Watch congressional comments on the stimulus bill »

Losers

• Veterans: Nearly all items for Veterans Affairs were reduced and the $2 billion the Senate wanted for VA construction was wiped out altogether. The VA did get one thing: $1 billion for medical facilities renovation and retooling.
• Military construction: Cut and put into a general pot, a change from targeted money for each branch of the services. Army construction alone went from $600 million in the Senate and $900 million in the House to $180 million in the final bill. But negotiators compromised over a general military construction fund — the House wanted $3.75 billion while the Senate allocated $118 million and settled on $1.45 billion for all services.
• FBI: Senate had allocated $475 million but all was cut out of final bill.

Right…… So Veterans, the Military, and the FBI are the “Losers” and NASA’s global warming research, government oversight (whatever the @#%# that means) and trains are the big “Winners.” Says a lot about the liberals doesn’t it?

Oh yea, one more thing. Can someone tell me again how exactly this BS is going to save our economy? Trains? Global Warming research? Government oversight? Boy, these intellectuals really pulled out their A-game to save us, didn’t they!

If this does not shock and outrage you, you do not belong in this country. The House has passed the Economic Stimulus package - which is nothing more than a massive increase in the size and power of Government - without even READING THE BILL. Think about it; 1,100 pages of text with less than 24 hours to analyze. Yet they passed it anyway.

YouTube Video

And now Pelosi is on her way to Rome. She had to make sure the bill got passed before going overseas, so screw reading the thing! Just pass it!

The liberals are a sick and disgusting bunch of Marxist pigs. Shoving legislation down our throats that will bankrupt this country without even bothering to read it.

This is the “Audacity of Hopelessness”.

Oh man, I first read about this on HotAir. Obama is going around lying (surprise, surprise) about Caterpillar offering to hire people back if the Stimulus package passes. Apparently Obama forgot that CEOs usually have, you know, like TVs and the Internets and stuff. Now the CEO is setting the story straight.

EAST PEORIA, ILL. — President Obama today repeated the claim we asked about yesterday at the press briefing that Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., “said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.”

Caterpillar announced 22,000 layoffs last month.

But after the president left the event, Owens said the exact opposite.

If you are up for a good laugh, check out the CEO clearing the air.

For all of the “change” that was promised, it is politics as usual in Washington. The liberals are using our bad economy to spread fear and threaten us into believing that we have to accept their massive increase in Government spending, or else. Don’t be fooled, this is no “economic stimulus”. This is a massive expansion of government. This is the New Deal, Part 2.

I have said it before, but it is worth repeating. Liberals love a bad economy because nothing is guaranteed to usher in more government spending than a bad economy. Talk about a conflict of interest….

Just in case you aren’t convinced this unprecedented expansion of our Federal government is anything but that, here is just a partial list of the pork and earmarks in this “economic stimulus” bill.

• $2 billion earmark for FutureGen near zero emissions powerplant in Mattoon, IL
• $39 billion slush fund for “state fiscal stabilization” bailout
• $5.5 billion for making federal buildings “green” (including $448 million for DHS HQ)
• $200 million for workplace safety in USDA facilities
• $275 million for flood prevention
• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
• $650 million for the DTV transition coupon program
• $307 million for constructing NIST office buildings
• $1 billion for administrative costs and construction of NOAA office buildings
• $100 million for constructing U.S. Marshalls office buildings
• $300 million for constructing FBI office buildings
• $800 million for constructing Federal Prison System buildings and facilities
• $10 million to fight Mexican gunrunners
• $1.3 billion for NASA (including $450 million for “science” at NASA)
• $100 million to clean up sites used in early U.S. atomic energy program
• $10 million for urban canals
• $2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars
• $1.5 billion for carbon capture projects under sec. 703 of P.L. 110-140 (though section only authorizes $1 billion for five years)
• $300 million for hybrid and electric cars for federal employees
• $198 million to design and furnish the DHS headquarters
• $255 million for “priority procurements” at Coast Guard (polar ice breaker)
• $500 million for State and local fire stations
• $180 million for construction of Bureau of Land Management facilities
• $500 million for wildland fire management
• $110 million for construction for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• $522 million for construction for the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• $650 million for abandoned mine sites
• $75 million for the Smithsonian Institution
• $1.2 billion for summer jobs for youth
• $412 million for CDC headquarters
• $500 million earmark for NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
• $160 million for “volunteers” at the Corp. for National and Community Service
• $750 earmark for the National Computer Center in MD
• $224 million for International Boundary and Water Commission – U.S. and Mexico
• $850 million for Amtrak
• $100 million for lead paint hazard reduction

The List

Great job, Obama. Not even a month on the job and you have already checked out and handed the reigns over to the old-school washington Beaurocrats that you were supposed to “change”.  Not surprisingly, they are doing what they do best -spending our money on crap.

And the Douche Bag of the Day Award goes to….. liberal nut job Chuck Schumer for this little foot-in-mouth idiocy:

“And let me say this, to all of the chattering class, that so much focuses on those little, tiny — yes, porky — amendments: The American people really don’t care.”

Really?

New highways… new school buildings for districts that don’t need them… a whopping$13 extra dollars per week on the paychecks of middle-class workers and no real breaks for the upper class workers. Oh, and pork and earmarks out the you-know-what.

This is their plan?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown101_stimulus_plan_2

I don’t know where Obama found his Cabinet members (besides the “Golden Parachute” club on Wall Street). One thing is for sure, we now know why Liberals don’t mind raising taxes - because they don’t pay them! Daschle, Geithner, and the rest are tax dodging cheats. Don’t be fooled; they get away with stuff that you and I would pay dearly for.

This guy Geithner is a fraud and a joke. He has zero credibility and, like his boss, has no qualifications for his job. That was proven today when he layed out his THREE TRILLION DOLLAR plan for the Fed to rescue banks.  The market responded appropriately - by dropping almost 400 points. You see, our stock market is a function of Free Market Capitalism, and Obama’s entire administration are the trojan horse of full-blown Marxism.

You can call it “hope”, you can call it “being responsible”, you can call it “helping those in need”, but the simple fact is that this Liberal administration is ushering in an era of Marxism the likes of which we have never seen. They desire to turn the US into France, Germany, or worse (if such a thing is possible). In the late 90’s under Newt, Conservatives helped lower the government spending to just over 18% of GDP. If Obama and Pelosi and the rest of the Liberals have their way, government spending will represent 40% of GDP. That puts us right in line with the most Socialistic and Marxist nations on earth. And that is what Liberals want.

When you hear about all of this, an intelligent and logical thinker can only come to one conclusion - Liberals benefit from a bad economy. Does that scare you? It should. Talk about a conflict of interest…. It is very true. Liberals want big government, and we are seeing now that nothing stimulates government expansion like a bad economy. The worse the economy, the more government expansion. Liberals have always held the belief that more government is the solution to any economic problem, and they are really putting that into practice now.

“Economic Stimulus”? Please. This is pure, unadulturated government spending. It is pork. It is earmarks.  It is classic, old-school Washington at work. Is this the “change” we were promised? Hardly. Obama keeps claiming, repeatedly, that this “Economic Stimulus” bill has no pork and no earmarks? Really? Well then what about all of the pork and earmarks? Even the AP is calling Obama out on his lies. Obama, in addition to all of his other fatal flaws, is also a pathological liar. He thinks his constituents are dumb, and lucky for him, a lot of them are. Really, really dumb.

Growing up, I was taught that taking money from someone else to keep for yourself or give to someone else was STEALING. When you create a narrowly-defined group that represents only a small percentage of the population (i.e. a “minority group”) and force that group to pay for every fleeting desire of the majority of the population, that is theft. Pure and simple. That isn’t “patriotism”. Even calling it Socialism is being nice. It is STEALING. Period. And it is unfair, unjust, and un-Constitutional to make a few people pay for the needs of the many. For shame on the liberals and the greedy, selfish and ignorant sheep that voted them into power.