Those Who Don't Learn From History .... Oh Boy ...

The New Deal
Obama keeps talking about the New Deal as if it was such a great period of prosperity, but the truth is, all that government spending back in the 30's just led to a lot of instability in the financial markets. Instability led to higher interest rates, which then led to the suffocating of the private sector.
Andrew Wilson wrote in the Wall Street Journal,

" the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations -- in disregarding market signals at every turn -- were jointly responsible for turning a (short term) panic into the worst depression of modern times. As late as 1938, after almost a decade of governmental "pump priming," almost one out of five workers remained unemployed. What the government gave with one hand, through increased spending, it took away with the other, through increased taxation. But that was not an even trade-off. As the root cause of a great deal of mismanagement and inefficiency, government was responsible for a lost decade of economic growth"

That doesn't sound to me like the fantastic Economic Boom I learned about in my history class? They made it sound like it was all bubble gum and lollipops.
Think about this for a moment. When was the last time you went to get a Driver's license office or to the Court house, the Social Security Administration or ANY government run facility and thought to yourself, "Wow, this is a really efficient operation. Everything makes so much sense!" All of us know, instinctively that Government is inefficient and does things in irrational and crazy ways, but now we're going to hand them Trillions of OUR dollars to spend when historically, we know that this has never, ever worked? It's because of this that I support the "Personal Responsibility Act of No Socialism" Our solution to the financial crisis. Call me a dreamer, but who knows. It could happen!
Of course, there's a lot of nay sayers out there that say that us on the "Right Wing" are revisionist trying to re-write history. That we somehow want to besmirch the gains made by the New Deal, however, the government's own statistics, you can find the series in Historical Statistics of the United States here (big PDF) . This isn't "made up stuff, this is government statistics. Historical FACT.
Truth is the "New Deal" didn't pull this country out of the Depression, World War II Did. At the time the war had broken out, we still had fantastic levels of unemployment in this country, so why on earth would we NOT learn from our history and repeat the same exact mistakes of the past?

Japan's Lost Decade
The President spoke last night in his speech about Japan and the "Lost Decade" where he believes the Government didn't act, and that's why they ended up in the situation that they are still in to this day. Let's take a trip down memory lane, so we can see the differences between what the U.S. did during the last financial crisis, and what Japan did that led to their "Lost Decade".
For those of you you may remember, we had a massive stock market crash in 1987, that was very similar to what happened in 2008. Back then, the DOW plunged by 22.6% in a SINGLE Day! Keep in mind that the "Biggest one day point loss ever" of 778 Points on Sept. 29th 2008 AND the "Second Biggest one day point loss ever" of 733 points on Oct. 15th COMBINED was LESS than 20%!
With this in mind, back then most world economists said that we would end up in the next 5 years with a period similar to the Great Depression. Luckily for us, Reagan didn't listen to all this fear mongering and kept a steady hand, did nothing but lower interest rates to maintain liquidity and tighten some regulations on banks. Unsound companies were allowed to fail because stinking rotting corpses of companies that can't survive were NOT propped up. Within a year, the economy was back on track and growing again.
Japan, instead chose a different path. A path that included nearly nationalizing banks. A path that included the Government pumping Trillions of Yen into the Markets. A path that included "Propping up" Dead companies that only prolonged the pain. Here's a great article (reprinted from the WSJ) that highlights 6 lessons that we learned from Japan's "Lost Decade" and unfortunately, it looks like we're set to repeat those same mistakes with this bill. Especially of Interest is Lesson's 4 & 5.

• Lesson Four: Fiscal policy isn't effective: Japanese government repeated trying to rescue the economy by "emergency fiscal stimulus", which resulted only as the vast amount of government deficit, 180% of GDP. As many banks and companies were insolvent, the money supplied by the government was used to make up zombie banks and companies who looked alive but in fact dead.
  
  
• Lesson Five: Until the focus of disease is removed by surgery, no macroeconomic medicine will be effective. In 2002, an economist Heizo Takenaka became the Minister in charge of Economy and Finance. He changed the "soft landing policy" of predecessors and said "I don't think there are too big banks to fail" in an interview with Newsweek. It aroused a panic among bankers, so they stopped postponing the disposal of bad loans.

Yet Lesson 4, is EXACTLY what this stimulus bill is all about, and Lesson 5, well that's the good ol' TARP program right? Some banks are just "Too Big to Fail".

There is a reason that after FDR died, the constitution was amended to not allow anyone to perpetually run for the office of the presidency. Congress knew that FDR was a disaster, but nostalgia from the "War Days" didn't allow a really fair look at his entire administration. Circumstances from that era prevented any kind of opposition, it almost looked un-American to oppose FDR. The insiders knew though, and that is why they passed that law so something like this would never happen again.

It's time to Act. Do your part to stop this MASSIVE Pork bill from happening. It's not too late!

Do Your Part to Stop this MASSIVE Pork Bill

I saw this over at NoStimulus.com and thought it would be worthwhile to share it with my readers. Please make sure you click to sign the petition!!!

Fight Special Interests that Want to Take Your Money

FOX
News coverage of the first 69,000 of your petitions being delivered to the
United States Senate this past Friday [Left]. Senators Jim DeMint (SC), Jim
Inhofe (OK), Jeff Sessions (AL), Michael Enzi (WY) and David Vitter (LA)
receive the petitions on the steps of the Senate [Right]. We will be
delivering all the new petitions this week!

This Fight Is Not Over

We still have two chances to win in the House or Senate!

The Senate mustered 61 votes to squeak through the Collins/Nelson
amendment, better known as the “compromise” stimulus plan.

If you listen to the mainstream media, this means the fight is over, Nancy
Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama win, and it’s time to move on. Not so
fast!

The bill will go to a conference committee to work out differences between
the House and Senate versions. The conference committee will be a brand-new
feeding frenzy of wasteful pork projects.

Whatever comes out of conference committee will be another very tough vote
in both the House and Senate.

If we keep the pressure on, we can win!

What Does the So-Called “Stimulus Package” Mean For You?

It means you pay.

You pay for more bailouts, more giveaways, more wasteful spending...and
your children and grandchildren pay for trillions of dollars of debt.

But you can fight back right now. By signing the
petition, you can join
the thousands of Americans who are saying NO!

NO to more taxpayer-funded bailouts and
giveaways to special interests!

NO to using economic hardship as an
excuse for Big Government power grabs!

NO to heaving trillions of dollars in
new debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren!

NO to this no-stimulus scam!

Follow the links on the right to contact your elected officials, learn how
you can tell your friends and family why this new scheme will hurt taxpayers,
and invest in the movement that is fighting back!

FOX
News coverage of the first 69,000 of your petitions being delivered to the
United States Senate this past Friday [Left]. Senators Jim DeMint (SC), Jim
Inhofe (OK), Jeff Sessions (AL), Michael Enzi (WY) and David Vitter (LA)
receive the petitions on the steps of the Senate [Right]. We will be
delivering all the new petitions this week!

This Fight Is Not Over

We still have two chances to win in the House or Senate!

The Senate mustered 61 votes to squeak through the Collins/Nelson
amendment, better known as the compromise stimulus plan.

If you listen to the mainstream media, this means the fight is over, Nancy
Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama win, and its time to move on. Not so
fast!

The bill will go to a conference committee to work out differences between
the House and Senate versions. The conference committee will be a brand-new
feeding frenzy of wasteful pork projects.

Whatever comes out of conference committee will be another very tough vote
in both the House and Senate.

If we keep the pressure on, we can win!

What Does the So-Called Stimulus Package Mean For You?

It means you pay.

You pay for more bailouts, more giveaways, more wasteful spending...and
your children and grandchildren pay for trillions of dollars of debt.

But you can fight back right now. By signing the
petition, you can join
the thousands of Americans who are saying NO!

NO to more taxpayer-funded bailouts and
giveaways to special interests!

NO to using economic hardship as an
excuse for Big Government power grabs!

NO to heaving trillions of dollars in
new debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren!

NO to this no-stimulus scam!

Follow the links to contact your elected officials, learn how
you can tell your friends and family why this new scheme will hurt taxpayers,
and invest in the movement that is fighting back!

Obama Fails the 'Katrina' Test

If you remember the criticisms of the Federal response to Katrina, one of the biggest things was the claims that the Federal Government (President Bush) was "Slow" to respond to the disaster, as thousands of people were living without power and proper living conditions. It seems that there must be a double standard in the main stream media when it comes to the coverage of this kind of news. When it's poor blacks who are the victims, it's national headlines. When it's just plain old regular white Americans, well I guess no one cares. President Bush signed a $10.5 billion relief package within four days of the hurricane. Within 1-2 days of the hurricane, National Guard Troops arrived with relief of food, water, and medicine, and participated in security and rescue operations.

Let's see now that Obama is in charge? A week (Feb 2nd) after the Ice Storm hit the Midwest, particularly Kentucky, is barely getting any federal help. 55 people dead, where was the federal response? As of Friday (Feb. 6th), FEMA says that they are "Coordinating efforts".
Don't get me wrong, I'm not really critisizing Obama, I am however, critisizing the mainstream Media. It seems that when the subject is something that they want to make a big deal of, like the Nations Poor, they will find a way to do it and in a way "generate" their own story. I remember down here in Florida, when Hurricane Andrew hit, it was 5 days before we saw the National Guard, vs in Luisianna it was only 3 days. Weeks had passed before the feds came in with any real help, whereas in Luisiana Bush signed a bill within just 4 days. Jack Kelly wrote a great article about the Federal response to Katrina, where he highlights:

... "The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world histor." ....

He goes on to point out:

Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

A better question -- which few journalists ask -- is why weren't the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?

Truth is, the local mostly Democrat government was much more to blame than Bush was, yet this was never really pointed out by the Agenda driven media.

If Obama had been measured by the same yardstick used to measure Bush, he would have definitely have failed the "Katrina Test".

Titan - Socialist in Space

I was checking out the History Channel's Universe series when they started talking about Titan, and how it has an atmosphere 1.5X thicker than earth's, how it has rivers of Methane and Natural Gas (our new gas pump?). At any rate, figured I'd check out some articles across the internet to see what others had written about Titan and I come accross this very well written article that I've copied below. The article itself was fantastic but some of the responses this guy got was just absolutely HILARIOUS!

One of the posters said we should build windmills over there for energy. On a planet that a lake twice as large as Lake superior of pure Liquid Natural Gas! A planet where it rains methane, We should build inefficient windmills! Another poster claimed that we should leave Titan alone, as a nice preserve. Of course the fact that we're the ONLY creatures in the universe that we know of that can actually appreciate a preserve, this fact simply eluded him. Truth is, even if we did colonize Titan, we're talking about a moon that's 50% larger than our own, with half the gravity. Not a place we could necessarily put millions of people on.

Even if we could engineer a microbe that would eat the methane and exhale Oxygen (which is what many scientist thing happened on this planet), we'd still have to deal with the Nitrogen Cyanide in the Atmosphere, of which even tiny amounts could kill us. Either way, all attempts should be made to colonize other planets, just so we have a "Backup Place" to go to if we see a killer asteroid heading to earth.

Personally if I could somehow terraform these planets to make them habitable for humans, I would not care if it destroyed the Desolate Lifeless environments that are already there. Who cares, if this planet is destroyed, there would be no one left to appreciate any planets or moons that we've "preserved" for the future.

Here's the story.

Colonization of Titan-- The Future Persian Gulf?

(Note: this is a continuation of the The Space Colonization Series)
In terms of potential locations in the outer solar system, Saturn's moon Titan is usually mentioned right off the bat. It is a prime location for human survival in the outer regions because of its great abundance of all the necessary organic materials. The atmosphere contains large amounts of methane and nitrogen and it is believed that both liquid water and liquid ammonia are locked under the surface and occasionally pushed out through volcanic activity. Water and methane could be used as both propellants for a rocket and for a colony's power supply. Nitrogen, methane, and ammonia could be used as a source of fertilizer for growing food. The water could also obviously be used for drinking and for oxygen.

Now, looking in an even more speculative nature, Titan would be a major target for a future fusion based economy. We will soon run out of oil on Earth and we will inevitably need to find another source of power. If we ever make a break through on fusion power we know we will need two things that aren't readily available on Earth: helium-3 and deuterium. Saturn has a relatively high amount of these resources available and Titan would be an ideal spot to mine and collect from.

True color image of Titan taken by Cassini. More images of Titan from NASA.

The Cold, Hard Facts

True color image of Titan Surface taken by Huygens. More information from NASA.
Titan is cold. Really, really cold. The temperature is about -180 degrees Celsius. This type of cold also isn't quite as easy to deal with as the cold we would encounter in space or on the Moon. No, Titan's thick atmosphere makes this very difficult. Thermo-insulation becomes a much bigger problem. Fortunately, this problem could potentially be solved be building a protective layer around a habitat. By evacuating a space in between an outer shell and the inner habitat heat loss could be lowered to a more manageable level akin to a lunar habitat's requirements for thermal insulation.

The thick atmosphere does provide some advantages, however. At about 1.47 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth--equivalent to 5 meters under water on Earth--the atmosphere would protect inhabitants from potentially deadly doses of radiation that would be of concern on outposts on Mars, the Moon, or the asteroids. The quality of Titan's atmosphere also greatly decreases the engineering complexity of any aerobraking and landing techniques.

At least one more advantage exists for its atmosphere when combined with Titan's relatively low gravity of 0.14 g's. This unique combination makes flying much easier. So much easier, in fact, that a human could simply strap on some wings and take flight (with a pressurized suit on of course). Other than for human enjoyment and recreation, easier flight requirements could be taken advantage of for more near-term, exploratory missions like sending probes that float around the atmosphere in blimps, hot air balloons, or autonomous planes. Alas, like the atmosphere of Titan, the low gravity also has its disadvantages. Namely the health problems associated with low-g environments.

Personally, I believe Titan will never be more than a mining or research outpost but who knows? Perhaps it could some day be terraformed and become a bastion for thousands or even millions of colonists in the future. It does, after all, contain an abundant amount of the necessary organic materials needed for life as we know it. What do you think? Could you see Titan in our future?

Something to think About

A friend of mine just emailed me this and I thought it would make a nice addition to my blog:

Every once in a while, someone puts together some interesting, yet true thoughts.


To Whom It May Concern

Who ever this boss is he has it nailed down perfectly........read his entire message and the last 3 paragraphs will make total sense to you....and if you are a left leaning socialistic democrat this type of thinking just may get you to re-evaluate your sense of direction for this country. Cuba is a prime example of where we could be if we keep heading towards thinking that the government can provide for our every need.........but first get clear in your head "WHAT AND WHO IS THE GOVERNMENT'....just what does the government produce, plant and harvest, and sell to earn the money that they so freely give to those that could but do not produce and contribute to the productivity of this country. Don't remember where it came from...BUT...once! everyone is in the wagon there will be no one left to pull it.

A letter from the Boss:

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy doesn't pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.
However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a Back Story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You've seen my big home at last years Christmas party. I'm sure; all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don't see is the BACK STORY :

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn't have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business -- hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the discount store extracting any clothing item that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9 am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5 pm, I don't. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden -- the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations... you never realize the Back Story and the sacrifices I've made.

Now, the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don't pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my "stimulus" check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit and you wouldn't work here. I mean, why should you? That's nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don't understand ... to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It's quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child's future. Frankly, it isn't my problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

So, if you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about....

Signed, THE BOSS

God Bless America & God Bless Our Troops

------ End of Forwarded Message

Bush says sacrificed free-market principles to save economy

US President George W. Bush said in an interview Tuesday he was, "forced to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from collapse".
That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life. We are going to implement socialism to save free market principles. That borders on absolutes stupidity and shows just how much most Republicans have sacrificed their Conservative principals.
Conservative Republicans who were in charge of Congress during the Clinton years put party politics aside and worked with the Administration to eliminate the Federal Deficit, it's been the only time in recent history that we actually had surpluses every year from our government.
Bush, along with his Liberal Republicans in congress have taken the last 4 years of ROCK solid growth and turned it into more deficits, more government spending and more complete and utter disregard for the Conservative principals that are the foundation of the Republican party. This is the main reason why McCain didn't win, because he just like Bush is a wishy washy conservative that doesn't really believe in conservative principals. It's the reason he wasn't against this whole bailout and the Keynesian theology surrounding it.

read more | digg story

Americans Watch the Auto Industry in Disgust

Like most Americans, I'm disgusted by what's going on with our Government and Big Business. First we give a massive bailout to those fat cats on wall street as they bitch and moan about not getting their Multi Million dollar bonuses. Like a Cancer that's been given a new lifeline, these companies are out there fleecing consumers, corporations and government alike, because they've been deemed "Too Big to Fail". Stupidity and short sightedness are now being actively rewarded by our federal government and by proxy by all of us. I remember several years ago when a friend of mine in the Mortgage business told me that there were new products available to where he could give an investor, mind you not a person who was going to live in the home, but an investor a loan for 100% financing, and to top it off, they only needed a 580 credit score! Who's the Rocket scientist that allowed that program to come to the market? It didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that maybe, just maybe these were very, very bad investments of company money. They didn't care though, the corrupt Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac, with their Government cohorts were buying, and they were buying everything and anything.

Now we have the Big Three. Keep in mind that your average Joe line worker in GM gets 3X what the average Joe everywhere else makes in Salaries and Benefits. They claim that hey, they've made concessions, the new guys being hired today are hired at just 14 bucks an hour, AS IF THEY'RE HIRING!!! Those are not concessions, it's passing the buck to the next generation. Let's put this all in perspective. What if your neighbor down the street made 3X your salary and to top it off his boss made 1000X your salary. All of a sudden his boss finds that he can't pay him anymore so his boss comes to your house and asks you (who makes 1000X less than him and 3X less than his employees) to bail them out. How would you feel.

That my friends is exactly what is happening now with the Automakers. The big bosses are flying around in Corporate jets, which in case you didn't know, cost around $1400 to $8,000.00 per hour. The line workers are pulling down twice what most of us are and get about as much in benefits as most of us make. But WE are the ones who have to bail THEM out? Why?

I spent last night discussing with my wife that we're going to have to cut back on my son's ABA therapy for autism, because we simply can't afford the $800.00 a month cost anymore and we're supposed to help them out? Most of us are having hard times right now and most of us are doing what we can to mitigate those circumstances, without resorting to some sort of government bailout so why should we give them one? Let them do what Sears, K-Mart, Delta Air lines and so many other companies have done. File for bankruptcy, re-work your contracts to more favorable terms, cut out the waste and get back to business.




STOP THE SCARE TACTICS!

Do they think we're a bunch of Morons, that they're simply going to liquidate all the auto companies and fire 3 Million employees? GIVE ME A BREAK. You know and I know that will never happen. There's WAY too much money to be made in the Auto industry for them to simply give up. Consider this, GM and Toyota both sold about the same number of cars last year, and yet while GM lost over 38 Billion Dollars, Toyota's PROFIT was around 17 Billion. Maybe the government should give them some tickets to Japan to find out how to run their business.

Obama to Bankrupt the Coal Industry

Recently we heard in the news that the Glaciers in Alaska were growing for the first time in 250 years. Additionally, most of Antarctica is now known to have been cooling for the past 35 years. The news doesn't end there, for the Global Warming enthusiast, there's an entire list of 23 GlaciersSki Resorts were cheering as North America had the largest levels of snowfall since 1966! Around the world that have begun (or have been) expanding, mostly in just the last couple of years. The fact is, most are not tracked or measured so who knows how many of them are really growing. What we do know is that last winter, Let's face it folks, as we've said here before, Global Warming has officially ended.

In light of these latest developments however, what does our fearless "leader to be" think we should do? Bankrupt the Coal Industry!

Obama's inexperience is once again shining though. Obviously, someone forgot to give him the memo that half of all electricity in the U.S. right now comes from Coal. Additionally, Americans are now breathing a sigh of relief as gas prices have plunged to nearly half the price they were just a few months ago, but of course, without coal those prices would surely skyrocket back up.
The U.S. has some of the cleanest coal operations in the world, this isn't China where they don't bother to filter out harmful particles and where they don't bother to put sulfur scrubbers into place. The United States has the cleanest heavy industries in the world and when we do things, we do them in an environmentally responsible way. Obviously, with the news reports that we've seen so far, the science on this issue is NOT settled and we can't let fear and loathing bring this country to the point of Bankruptcy that will cost massive losses of jobs over something that we don't even know if it exists.

The Personal Responsibility Act

Watching this administration and Congress trying to deal with the financial crisis is like watching a fireman trying to put out a fire with Gasoline. He keeps spreading it around and destroying everything in sight and wondering why the flames keep spreading!

What's interesting to me is the fact that none of this is new, we've all played this game before. If you strip Fascism of it's hatred and racism, one of the core beliefs of Fascism was a philosophy called "Corporatism". It was a system where profits could be private, but losses were public. It was a system employed by the Nazi's to have a sort of "guiding hand" of the government in all aspects of major corporations and to a lesser extent it was employed by FDR in the "New Deal". What most people don't realize is that while other countries had a depression for a few years, FDR's "New Deal" helped destroy the U.S. economy to the point to where it became not just a depression, but a GREAT depression. The only thing that saved FDR (and our economy) was WWII.

Let's get to the point, over 99.99% of all companies in the U.S. have in one way or another simply ceased to exist. It happened with Enron, MCI, Numerous Railroads, Auto companies, Computer Companies, Banks, Candlestick Makers, Blubber Producers, Whalers, Semiconductor Manufacturers and many, many, many other institutions. It didn't cause the "ruin" of the U.S. Economy, sure there were some affected and millions have lost their jobs, but for the most part they found jobs in either their own start-ups, others start-ups or other companies.

This notion that somehow if all these banks failed, or if we don't insure deposits over 100K, somehow it would plunge us into another Depression or destroy the economy is absolute BS. Candidates talk about "fairness" all the time, how is it fair to take money out of my pocket, and give it to some fat cat on Wall Street? Or to someone who foolishly left more than 100K in a single bank, knowing full well he was only insured for 100K? This whole mess happened because of Washington
politics and their accomplices on Wall Street and so now middle America has to pay the price? What happened to Personal Responsibility? I guess just like Capitalism, that's simply out of vogue. It's no longer cool to be a "Cowboy",
these days it equates to being arrogant. We here at "NoSocialism" know the answers and it's for people to take responsibility for their own actions, for their own lives and STOP asking government to do more and more and more for us. Here's how I would handle this mess.

The Personal Responsibility Act.

1. Burn all 60,000 pages of the Tax Code. It's a tax code that was designed specifically to give members of Congress powers to bestow upon special interests in an attempt to keep them in power. Eliminate all taxes, including Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment, Death Taxes, Import Taxes and so forth. Eliminate all Payroll Taxes. The only responsibility that Employers have is to keep their business in business. While providing jobs is a nice side effect, it's not their responsibility to provide for things like Retirement, Health care, Unemployment Insurance and so forth. These are things that should be purchased by employees, and they should be fully aware of the full cost of such benefits.
2. Replace current revenue with a 10% Sales Tax on ALL Goods and Services except for Cash Transfers (such as Bank Deposits) and a 10% Import tax with ZERO Exemptions. The U.S. Economy is currently running at around 13 Trillion and we import about 1.5 Trillion in goods alone. Current income taxes collect 1.1 Trillion and current Duties (Import Taxes) collect 26 Billion. This new model would collect 1.3 Trillion (assuming zero growth) in Sales taxes and 150 Billion in Import Taxes, almost 6X more than current levels (again assuming zero growth).
3. Give Employees their FULL pay. Now that the Employer no longer has to pay all these taxes, he should go ahead and give that money directly to the employees. On average an employer spends approximately 10% on Social Security, Medicare and unemployment taxes and an additional 15% on Health Insurance. Your typical family salary is currently around $51,000.00, but once you take out all the Taxes and Social Security, that family only takes home about $39,000.00, not including their share of 401K's and Insurances, which on average reduces it another $3300.00 a year, but let's just keep the Original $39000.00 since not everyone has insurance today. This typical family would now see their take home pay increase to $63,750, a 61% increase without costing the employer a dime. He simply shifted the money he was ALREADY spending on Taxes and Insurance back to the employee.
   Think about this for a moment, what kind of life would your family have if you had a 61% increase in your level of income. All of a sudden, things like Health insurance is affordable. Retirement Savings isn't an issue. Heck you could even get by without the Government paying for your kids lunch!
4. Double the current Minimum Wage. Now that employers no longer have to comply with a crushing level of government mandates, he can afford to pay his employees more. He should pass on the savings to his employees.
5. Give Employees a choice, but make retirement mandatory. Now that employees are flush with cash, the only responsibility that Employers now have is to offer an SS401K, (Social Security 401K) where they must put a minimum of 10% of their pay into. In addition, employers need to offer insurance, but all insurance premiums would be fully deducted from the employee's pay, again so he knows the FULL cost of these products.
   Let's cover the SS401K's first. These special SS401K's will be Government certified to only invest into Grade A Commercial Paper, Midcap to Largecap growth companies and Home loans (NOT SubPrime Garbage). Every year employees must update the year they plan to retire, and at least half of their account must be moved out of the stock market no later than 5 years from retirement to reduce exposure to volatility.
6. Issue Bonds to pay for the current crop of Social Security recipients. Currently, the U.S. will have to pay about 17 Trillion over the next 30 years to the people who are currently enrolled in Social Security and Medicare. The U.S. should monetize this obligation and place it in each tax payers SS401K plan on a pro-rated basis, dependent upon how much they've paid into Social Security so far, in the form of U.S. Interest Bearing Bonds (instead of the non interest bearing type they're currently filling Social Security with). Chile has already set a precedence for this and their average retirees are actually worth more than your average retiree here in the richest country in the world. These bonds will require an additional 5% sales tax, but the good news is that once they're paid off (in about 30 years) that extra 5% drag on the economy will be gone.
7. Make Employees take responsibility for their Health Care. Pre-existing conditions clauses would be eliminated. Age indexing would be eliminated, all policy holders will pay the same price, regardless of age, sex or condition. While you would think that this would cause rates to rise, in reality it won't because it will balance out with healthy people that currently choose NOT to buy insurance injecting cash into the system. HMO Type policies will also be eliminated because they mask true costs of health care from the general populace, which is why the health care industry is able to get away with increase that are usually 2 or 3X the level of inflation. All employees will have the choice of going with one of 3 policies, a modified Medical Savings Account which has a $5000.00 Cash allotment to be used for medical expenses on a special Credit Card), after which the company pays for all expenses (This would be the closest thing to an HMO, but at least the employee is AWARE of the TRUE cost of services). The second type of policy will be a Catastrophic policy that only pays after a $5000.00 deductible (this will be the cheapest, probably around 2 to $400.00 a month). The third option will be a standard indemnity policy with around a $250.00 deductible and 80/20 coverage, where you file paperwork with the insurance company and they reimburse you 80% of what you paid (usually to 5 or 10K then it covers 100%). All policies will have to cover up to 2 Million. Since Doctors and hospitals will no longer have to hire battalions of Billing Specialist to fight the HMO's for reimbursement, all Doctors that currently take insurance (yeah some don't) will be required to reduce their current prices by 25%. This price control will be in effect for 5 years to give the market time to adjust to the new realities.
8. All those who chose to ignore the law (such as illegal Immigrants and the self employed who didn't buy policies) will be transferred to special Government run hospitals if they end up needing care, where they can receive Canadian Style wait for years to get treatment service. This way Hospitals can't use the uninsured as an excuse to charge us $100.00 for a Tylenol.
   
9. Make Employees take responsibility for Mishaps. Mishaps happen, unemployment happens and so employees will have to take responsibility and buy their own unemployment insurance and Accident insurance. Policies like AFLAC pay a certain amount of CASH for every day that someone is in the hospital so they can pay their bills. Unemployment insurance should be offered by private companies with the risk rating relative to how many times someone has applied for unemployment. As an employer, I was keenly aware of employees who would work the minimum of 6 months to qualify for unemployment, they would then get themselves fired and then applied and "took 3 months off". Then went back to work for the next stooge.
   Employees that show this pattern of behavior should be charged more for their unemployment insurance. Again, people will be required to buy these kinds of policies, but they shouldn't consume any more than about 1 to 3% of their pay. All of These insurance Policies, Retirement accounts and even savings accounts should be offered as a direct deduction to employees, but none of it should be subsidized by the employer. If the employer wishes to subsidize something, they should simply pay the employee more money and let the employee decide what to do with the cash.
10. Move more responsibility towards the States. Things like Welfare and other social programs should be administered by the States. With their constituents flush with cash, they will see a MASSIVE increase in sales tax revenue. Remember, even though the average person has to pay 15% more for their products (between the 10% sales Tax and the 5% special Assessment for Social Security Bonds) they will still have between 25 to 61% more money to spend. The average family won't be spending any more than about 15% to 25% of their pay on Retirement and Insurance, so that should leave PLENTY of extra cash for buying more stuff. The states can use this revenue to increase their
    responsibility.
11. Reap the rewards. Small Business owners who inherited the business from their parents will no longer have to pay crushing death taxes and sell off parts of the business. With Oil imports permanently costing 10% more than the home grown variety, companies will have more incentives to both drill at home and develop alternatives, such as Wind and Solar. This alone will help to provide Millions of new jobs. The same goes for a variety of other businesses where imports are only marginally lower than the home grown variety. Businesses that relocated to other parts of the world will be flocking back to the U.S. totake advantage of the elimination of the Capital Gains tax. EVERY Multinational Company in the world will relocate their headquarters to the U.S. With 100% of Profits (instead of 65% under the old system) being reinvested in companies, the U.S. will see the most powerful boom in economic activity since the start of WWII, far eclipsing and surpassing any economic boom that we've ever had.
    

The only reason I feel that this plan will not work, is because it would never be implemented. The current congress would have way too much power to lose if the tax code were eliminated, and special interest groups would no longer have a need for them. Congressmen would lose MILLIONS in donations. The only way something like this would happen is if the people demanded it, and so here's thefirst voice, demanding that we do this.

Sorry Guys, I've changed my Comment Engine, if you'd like to post a comment on this article, you can go to an updated version I have here.

Bailout Strikes the Heart of America with Wooden Arrows

Who the hell are we trying to bail out here? The first draft of the Bailout proposal gave 20% of the profits to ACORN!!? A group known for falsifying election registrations, where they've literally started taking the Phone book and just registering people across the board. I guess it makes sense though, since Obama has called ACORN 'family', so I guess he's just trying to take care of his family.
So now we have the new and improved Senate version that weighs in at 453 pages, we have a whole slew of new bits of pork in it, such as provisions benefiting film and television studios, litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, railroad track maintenance, wool research and le peice de resistance, toy wooden arrow-makers.

COME ON GUYS!!!! Saving America isn't enough? Does EVERYTHING need to be politicized? This is the reason why the government MUST not get involved in this, they will only screw things up and overspend to the point to where they will destroy the Dollar and make things MUCH worse. When the Dollar goes down we all end up paying more for Oil imports and energy and end up with even higher prices, and less money to spend in the economy. This is a terrible idea and I guarantee you even more pork will be added to this thing before it even comes up for a vote in Congress.

How about this congress, give us the 700 Billion, give us a 700 Billion Dollar Tax cut. Cut the Capital Gains tax in half for the next 4 years. THAT would pump REAL money back into the economy, create jobs, get people buying homes again and solve this entire Crisis. There's a reason why Buffet is going around investing in these companies, it's because he knows that the overall fundamentals of our economy are strong. One way or another we will get out of this, just like we've gotten out of every other downturn in the economy that we've been through, without government help.