Swindled in America

On a daily basis I am surprised at how easy it is to swindle Americans out of their money and a vote.

In the 1960’s JFK made a speech that implored you to ask not what your country can do for you, instead, ask what you can do for your country. For two years Obama campaigned the exact opposite, and spent your campaign dollars telling you what he will do for you. As history now shows, you bought it.

How could this have happened? Could it have been a simple case of lack of education and the structure of our own government? Could it have been just a great Hollywood performance? Could it be that you wanted to hear certain words like “change” (be it for good or bad), and “united”?

We have Joe Public who goes down to a car dealer to buy a new car. He saw an advertisement on TV that told him he would get a $5000 off deal, or a $5000 trade in allowance, or some BS gimmick whre there is no savings at all of any kind let alone $5000 worth. Joe Public ends up buying a car for 3 times its actual value. Why? because the car makers have to pay union wages which are 3 times the cost of non-union wages and they car makers have to offset this with the price of the car to still make a profit. As Joe public drives off the car lot with a car he paid three times what its worth, he understands the value of the car is just got cut in half by simply driving off the lot with it. This is OK with Joe, because the key word “New” is still in his head and in his nostrils. He got swindled out of his hard earned money, but is it new.

Now Joe Public sees on TV that the Big 3 have gone to congress to ask for “more” of his hard earned money he paid in taxes. They got it. Now Joe is feeling even more swindled. Then Joe realizes, this isn’t the only time. Other privately owned companies have gone to congress, as if congress were a bank, and asks for more of his money.

Meanwhile, Joe finds out that he is losing his mortgage and is facing a layoff at work. How can this be? In his depression, Joe mutters profanities at the President of the United States, not realizing that this blame is misplaced. See, Joe Public didn’t get a great education so he doesn’t understand the “limited powers” of the executive branch of the government, in fact didn’t even know there was a branch. Joe also doesn’t realize that the true power to approve or disapprove where his tax money is spent lies within congress, not the office of the president.

Joe Public is very depressed now as he turns on C-Span and watches where his tax dollars (33% of his income) is being spent and wonders “why did I vote for a powerless president? I don’t even see him sitting in congress.” Then it hits him as Joe recognizes the people he voted for, sitting in congress, giving away his money to the people he just gave money to for a new car, gave even more money to for his house and other companies getting a load of his money.

Joe says to himself, “I should have put more importance on who I hired into congress, than on voting for a President that can’t really do anything for me. I’m supposed to be doing something for my country to make it a better place, not relying on a double talking president to do it for me.”

As Joe hears in the background that another $800 billion and another $350 billion behind that are going to be used to “stimulate” the economy, a thought occurs to him. There are roughly 300 millions people in America, 7% (21 million) illegal immigrants, 150 million under the age of 18, (2.5 kids per household) 6 – 11% unemployed or on welfare (18 to 33 million) which leaves about 100 million employed working Americans. If I were a congressmen I could save a lot of the tax payers dollars by giving it back to them to stimulate the econmy, instead of giving it to these failing private companies. Yes, if I gave everyone $1000 back to the  100 million working Americans that would only be $100 billion. I could tell car companies to shut down their plants overseas and put that saved money into operations here at home. I could reverse NAFTA so that Dupont and Hershey and other major companies brought jobs back to America. I could take the unemployed and train them up to be border patrol agents with the hundrds of billions of dollars in tax payers money I saved from not giving it to failing companies. I could randomly drug test welfare recipients every month and for everyone that fails the drug test, they are permanently denied welfare which would save billions more dollars that can be given back to hard working Americans.

Joe Public starts to light up as all these simple solutions that he never heard utterd by “Both Ways Obama” in the entire two years of his campaign.  Joe beams even more as he realizes he can “fire” [with a vote] these crooks in congress with the real power, handling his tax dollars, just as easily as he “hired” them. Afterall, they aren’t performing to the level of expectations and job requirements, and someone who can do the job are waiting to be hired. Why have we been paying Ted Kenndy all these years? Yes, I do want change, I want these crooks and criminals in congress FIRED!

Big 3 Auto Makers Charged With Extortion

del.icio.us Tags: Big 3,GM,Ford,Daimler,Bailout,Extortion,Economy,Bank,Mortgage,Fanny Mae,Freddie Mac,AIG

If anyone else had gone to Washington and gave Congress an ultimatum that if they didn’t give $25 billion to bail their company out of hot water or one to three million people would lose their jobs and throw America into economic ruin, they would be going to prison on charges or extortion. But this is the Big 3, so people will be looking the other way.

You wont be seeing those headlines because General Motors (GM), Ford, and Daimler feel they are above the law and the main stream media doesn’t recognize extortion since they don’t even recognize that they committed treason many times over while reporting on military matters based on the fact that it was news and it’s freedom of the press (which is a different story for another time).

President Bush felt it was necessary to “help out” the economy even though it isn’t his responsibility to bail out businesses who fail at being a profitable business, by offering a $700 billion safety net. The House of Representatives were smart enough to vote it down. However, the Senate wasn’t so bright, and they passed the measure.

At that time, I stated it was a huge mistake and it would set a trend that this country doesn’t need to start. Company after company have gotten in line for tax payers money to save their failed mortgage companies, banks, and so on. Remember Bear and Stearns, one of the largest global investment banks and securities trading and brokerage firms, got a huge handout of tax payers dollars. Blew that wad, and then sold out to JPMorgan Chase.

Having contributed a combined $1,842,297 to federal candidates, according to data gathered by the Center for Responsive Politics, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stepped up to the line asking for handouts. AIG is on the rescue list. This trend should never have started but at least these failing companies only “asked” for help. The big 3 went over the line and is attempting to extort the government and the American citizens.

I’m afraid I have to say two things, let them fail and arrest the big 3. But wont that kill the economy? Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm answers questions during a news conference in Troy, Mich., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. Granholm said that “the crisis in the auto industry is urgent”, arguing that “the national economy rests on this”. However this can not be farther from the truth. The Japanese’s own Big 3- Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and other prominent foreign car manufacturers are ready and waiting to fill the production capacity and demand vacuum left by the Big 3’s failure to continue dominating the North American market.

Another cause for this failing business, unions. Union workers get on average double to triple the wages of a non-union worker. If union workers are laid off, the big 3 are required by contract to pay 95% of their base pay during the time they are laid off. These among other costs not mentioned have to be absorbed by the companies which ultimately go into the sale of the vehicle.

So what do we have here: Car companies who charge us 3 times what they should be for the sale of a vehicle, Car companies who would rather (according to their bean counters) pay out on lawsuits for wrongful death caused by their malfunctioning vehicles rather than fix the defects because its “more cost effective” to pay the lawsuits than recall vehicles, Car companies who have fought for years not to produce more and more fuel efficient vehicles because there isn’t a big enough profit in the effort, (and the list goes on) and now they want our tax dollars to bail them out of their failing business?!?!

LET THEM FAIL! The answer here is simply that they need to file bankruptcy like every other failing business which isn’t an honorable thing to do when you fail, but it is the right thing to do in this situation. Suck it up and file.

My Fellow Americans, Call your Senators and tell them to STOP the trend. Its going to have a lasting ill-effect for the next 30+ years and our children will be paying the price.