Stop the insanity

This was emailed to me by a friend. I thought it very appropriate. Author unknown…

This cartoon was in the Chicago Tribune in 1934. Look carefully at the plan of action in the lower left corner.

Remember the adage:
“Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”

What is a Trillion Dollars $$$

With all the money being spent by the political class at all levels of government I recently sat down, did some research and gave serious thought to exactly how much a trillion is. I googled it and came up with this.

A million seconds is 12 days, a billion seconds is 31 years and a trillion seconds is a whopping 31,688 years. A trillion dollars is a million dollars multiplied one million times, a 1 with 12 zeros behind it (1,000,000,000,000.) It is actually easier to type the word than to type the number! It won’t even fit on most simple calculators! If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills! One trillion one dollar bills would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion one dollar bills. Simply put that’s a lot!

But what would a trillion dollars purchase? It could buy an additional 11 weeks of vacation time for EVERY American worker. It is the ENTIRE MARKET VALUE of all stocks traded on the Toronto stock exchange. It could pay the rent for EVERY renter in the U.S. for 3 years or the mortgages of EVERY homeowner for 14 months. But it will ONLY run the U.S. government for 103 days! WHY?

According to the United States governments own debt clock found at http://www.usdebtclock.org/, the total U.S. debt is 54,049,643,821,509. That number as I type this is now inaccurate as the debt is growing by over a thousand dollars per second and I really can’t type that fast! Who has to repay that debt? We do!!! It is our debt! It has gone way past the point of Absurdity!

While we were busy watching Lucy and Ricky on the tube, trusting that the people’s work was being done, our “esteemed elected leaders” were very busy, insuring not only us, but our kids and in all probability their kids will be burdened with this irresponsible use of our nations credit card. They are well over their limit and way late on the payment. Who’s fault is it? Bush? Obama? Nostradamus? Bambi?

No, look in the mirror, we are responsible. We didn’t do our research and homework prior to exercising the largest responsibility and right we have as U.S. citizens. Yes, we may have read the voter pamphlets, but that is far from being informed. Yep, we failed at the ballot box! We elected people who were far less than qualified for the position we elected them to, no longer deserve to be in office due to lack of poor performance or simply lacked the character and integrity to be trusted to do the job. We voted for bills, levies, bond issues, tax increases etc etc etc, when we should have voted against them and insist instead on fiscal responsibility from elected office holders. Some of us don’t even bother to vote?! A great example of that showing  it’s ugly face in the Hoquiam EMS levy early in the year. (In making this point, the passing or failing of said levy is irrelevant.) The levy lost by one vote! Geez, mmm, I guess my vote just might make a difference after all.

So as a letter to the editor published March 6th, 2010 stated, yes We The People are pissed! Perhaps it began as concern,  turned to fear or denial and soon became anger. The next step and the only way to stop the insanity is to take action. Educate yourself, your family, your neighbor! The world is such that, (particularly in local government), party Ds and Rs no longer matter nor does tenure or time in office. We need to elect people from the business world who can direct, manage and adhere to a budget, make sound business decisions and be good custodians of our tax dollars. That respect the office they hold as well as respect and represent the voters who put them there.  No more career politicians, who increasingly have shown that they are easily bought by special as well as self interests and become corrupt rather quickly.

Now is the time to start, November 2 will be here soon!

“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” Abraham Lincoln

General Motors pays back bailout loan?

As I read and listen to the recent news (through many sources) concerning the Automobile Industry and the repayment of the bailout money (TARP), I wonder who’s eyes the government appointed GM CEO and the cigar smokers in DC are trying to pull the wool over! The Wall Street Journal 4-21-2010 reported “The GM Bailout: Paid Back in Full” the first paragraph reads “Today, General Motors is announcing that it has made a payment of $5.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada. We’re paying back—in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule—loans made to help fund the new GM.”
Well, Here they go again, GM actually received 49 billion dollars in TARP funds. GM paid back 5.8 Billion, but they withdrew the money from another TARP fund account, they did not get it from profits made by car sales. Let’s see mmm 49 – 5.8 = 43.2 Nope they didn’t pay it back at all. Just put it on another one of our credit cards and spun it off to the press as paid in full hoping we’d buy it.
While the “big three” in Detroit, save Ford, who is doing quite well and even showing a profit without the use of “bailout money”, were being chastised by many, including myself, for holding out the tin cup asking for federal funds and then accepting them, the Federal Government was gobbling up private sector industries by aggressively granting bailouts. The “little imports” were quietly accepting some federal, but mostly state and local “incentives” to locate new manufacturing plants in the highest bidders locale. These were not loans, these were gifts, free money, right from the pockets of the Taxpayer. So where’s the outrage?
So one might ask what’s wrong with that? Some say nothing I say a lot. First off, are the folks who are outraged at the bailouts in Detroit also outraged at the subsidies given to the imports to locate plants where the incentives are the highest? Not so much. Perhaps the fact that Taxpayer money has been used to subsidize U.S. Auto Industry competitors has been going on behind the magic curtain of Federal, State and local government for years and has only been reported on locally and quietly. Secondly, all these incentives are after all assets of the people, OUR tax dollars. The incentive money and bailout money comes from the same place, right out of our wallets and purses. It is again bloviating politicians claiming to know how to spend our money better than we do. Oh yea, the new factories probably do help local economies, like this one, “$300 million for a “Toyota plant in Blue Springs, Miss.”, last year.” Link at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/28/desperate-for-work-miss-town-awaits-toyota-plant/ But that plant was put on hold after construction started and now sits idle waiting for the economy to “turn around”. So, real good use of Taxpayer money! I am not against a local government lobbying a manufacturer to locate in their county or city, that is their job. I just don’t think it’s a good use of tax revenue to “bribe” one to locate somewhere. There are other ways to sell a community to a prospective manufacturer. Toyota Blue Springs is a great example of why.
I guess what really irks me is the double standard. I doubt that you would have the Japanese government incentivizing a Ford or General Motors to locate in their country. So for the life of me I can’t figure why elected representatives choose do it in this country? Unless, it’s when money and a politician meet, there is usually a propensity to abuse power. Which usually leads to corruption. Or it’s maybe they are just addicted to spending other peoples money (ours). Here are several more examples of subsidies or incentives, or what ever you want to call them, for import auto manufacturers and media sources for each one.
$577 million this year for a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. http://www.wkrn.com/global/Story.asp?s=8924406
$400 million for a Kia plant in West Point, Ga., in 2006.

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2006/10/23/story12.html

$295 million for a Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., in 2000.

http://www.siteselection.com/ssinsider/bbdeal/bd001113.htm

This is only four examples, for the whole list, go to

http://clawback.org/2008/12/15/foreign-auto-plants-have-received-36-billion/

The total money in direct incentives or subsidies spent to assist competitors of OUR Automobile industry is 3.6 Billion, dating back as far as 1980.
I say this is just one more example of why we need change at all levels of government.
November 2 2010 is not far off, be ready and be informed then go to the polls and cast an informed vote.

Who voted for health care

It’s my understanding, Senator Patty Murray, of Washington State has admitted to the press he/she voted for the health-care bill out of loyalty to the Democrat party and out of admiration for Barack Obama.