The imperial president Obama was inaugurated four months ago.
The question: Am I better off today than I was four months ago?
NO!
Another question: Is there any hope that I will be better off a year from now than I am today?
HELL NO!
On Tuesday, Andrew Martin, the New York Times, warned that Obama's credit card plan would punish responsible card users.
Credit cards have long been a very good deal for people who pay their bills on time and in full. Even as card companies imposed punitive fees and penalties on those late with their payments, the best customers racked up cash-back rewards, frequent-flier miles and other perks in recent years.
Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.
Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.
“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”
Whether it's mortgages or credit cards or whatever, I'm sick of being PUNISHED for being responsible and having my act together.
I believe in being charitable. My household is not stingy with donations. Our total dramatically exceeds what Joe Biden and his wife give to charity, and what the Obamas gave before they had their eyes on the White House.
When it comes to spreading our wealth around, I want control. I don't want the government to determine my charitable giving.
But here we go again.
I have to bail out people that are irresponsible and living beyond their means.
I'm getting screwed.
...People who routinely pay off their credit card balances have been enjoying the equivalent of a free ride, he said, because many have not had to pay an annual fee even as they collect points for air travel and other perks.
“Despite all the terrible things that have been said, you’re making out like a bandit,” he said. “That’s a third of credit card customers, 50 million people who have gotten a great deal.”
Robert Hammer, an industry consultant, said the legislation might have the broad effect of encouraging card issuers to become ever more reliant on fees from marginal customers as well as creditworthy cardholders — “deadbeats” in industry parlance, because they generate scant fee revenue.
“They aren’t charities. They have shareholders to report to,” he said, referring to banks and credit card companies. “Whatever is left in the model to work from, they will start to maneuver.”
I played by the rules, yet I'm going to be punished.
I have to pay because other people don't have the self-control and discipline to manage their spending.
I'm sick of being tapped to clean up others' messes. I'm sick of the Obama government planning ways to seize more and more of my money, taking away my freedoms, and generally messing with my life.
Today, Ron Lieber, the New York Times, is putting a happy face on the Obama plan to screw me.
At first glance, the sweeping credit card legislation that passed the Senate on Tuesday looks like a huge victory for consumers. The bill, after all, contains relief from penalty fees and certain interest rate spikes.
But for people who pay off their bills each month, and milk the card rewards programs for everything they’re worth, there is some cause for concern.
For months now, the card companies have been threatening to cut rewards programs sharply to make up for revenue lost because of the new restrictions.
My guess, however, is that this talk is just so much saber-rattling.
Card companies want to make money, and big spenders help them do it, even if those cardholders do not go into debt.
First, let’s lay out the things we know will change because of the new legislation. The bill is chock-full of new rules, which will take effect at various points in the year after President Obama signs the final legislation.
Lieber discusses eight of the changed rules, ones that don't really impact responsible card users.
Then, he delivers the good news!
...So will credit card companies kill reward programs or drastically scale most of them back? Of course not.
“If you strip away the reward component of a credit card, it’s essentially a commodity,” said Rick Ferguson, editorial director at the loyalty marketing company LoyaltyOne. “The reward is what gives it its personality. It works from a branding perspective as well as a mechanism to influence customer behavior and consolidate spending on a particular card.”
That last part is crucial. People who spend a ton generate fees galore from merchants, and that money helps the card company stay in business. So you may soon see card companies giving away more goodies or lowering annual fees for people who hit certain spending thresholds each year. American Express already does this on a number of cards.
The NYT has done an about-face. Only the day before, Martin spread the doom and gloom message.
Now, Lieber is spreading the word that responsible card users WILL NOT have to carry the burden of those who made irresponsible choices with their credit cards.
In fact, people like me "may see card companies giving away more goodies."
This has the scent of pure propaganda.
Lieber concludes his column with another turnaround.
Also, keep in mind that you may have more control over what the card companies do to you than you may think.
If you don’t like the new fees and other things that banks will soon be testing as they grapple with their new economic reality, then make some noise. Send a note to me at rlieber@nytimes.com, so I can write about the latest foolishness — or consumer-friendly twist. At the very least, all of our complaints to the higher-ups at the banks may help persuade the companies to head in another direction.
“Work your way up the chain,” said Dennis C. Moroney, research director for bank cards at TowerGroup, a MasterCard-owned financial services consultant. After all, it may cost less to appease you than it would to replace you.
All of a sudden, Lieber talks about "new fees and other things that banks will soon be testing." Huh?
Everything was rosy. Don't worry, be happy. Then, POW. He does a 180, back to reality. Forget Lieber's heavy duty sugarcoating.
He wants aggravated people to send him their complaints so he can try to persuade the credit card "companies to head in another direction." Sure.
Send in those complaints to Lieber. That will help.
The fact is, once again, responsible people will have to bail out the irresponsible. We will be punished because we did the right thing. We will have to carry the irresponsible on our backs.
Here's a thought: Why not hold the irresponsible responsible for their own choices?
I use credit cards as a convenience. If it costs me, I'll stop using the cards if necessary.
Kiss this customer goodbye.
The solution on the credit card matter is simple for me, but it's still disturbing to have the out of control Dems and imperial president Obama screwing up my life.
May 20, 2009
L.A. Times Demanding Torture Photos Be Released
Oh, this is rich!The LA Times demanded this week that President Obama release the detainee torture photos:The Times insisted, "The truth must come out."Of course, this is the same outfit that hid a video of Barack Obama attending a Jew-bash and toasting a former PLO operative Rashid Khalidi before the election.Rashid Khalidi and Bill Ayers were practically best friends.And, both Ayers and Obama signed the commemorative book given to Khalidi at his going away party.But the LA Times would not release the video.In case they forgot... There was even a "Free the Tape" protest outside their building before the election:Mere Rhetoric has more photos and video.Oh, the irony.
May 19, 2009
Taxpayers To Shell Out Money To Chinese Hookers
Via Redstate:
Chinese hookers have a drinking problem. Obama has the answer: U.S. Tax money. So it appears that the President of “change” seems to be The One that drunken Chinese prostitutes “have been waiting for.”
Our informative friends at CNSNews.com discovered that the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse (NIAA) has been awarded $2.6 million U.S. tax dollars to help train Chinese prostitutes to “drink responsibly on the job.” Yes, I said Chinese prostitutes… in China. One wonders if the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse missed the salient fact that they have the word National in their moniker? Or perhaps the NIAA just missed that the nation in their title is supposed to be our nation, not China’s?
I guess it’s heartwarming that the NIAA cares so deeply about China’s FSWs (that is university speak for whores — Female Sex Workers), and all, but what of American prostitutes? Are they unworthy of the attention of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse? Don’t our oh, so intellectual university pinheads care about our own home-grown drunken whores?hereGuess not.
I wonder what we could have done with that money here in the States. How about investing in small business! What a novel idea. It is unbelievable how inept our government is.
For the full story click here
Chinese hookers have a drinking problem. Obama has the answer: U.S. Tax money. So it appears that the President of “change” seems to be The One that drunken Chinese prostitutes “have been waiting for.”
Our informative friends at CNSNews.com discovered that the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse (NIAA) has been awarded $2.6 million U.S. tax dollars to help train Chinese prostitutes to “drink responsibly on the job.” Yes, I said Chinese prostitutes… in China. One wonders if the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse missed the salient fact that they have the word National in their moniker? Or perhaps the NIAA just missed that the nation in their title is supposed to be our nation, not China’s?
I guess it’s heartwarming that the NIAA cares so deeply about China’s FSWs (that is university speak for whores — Female Sex Workers), and all, but what of American prostitutes? Are they unworthy of the attention of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse? Don’t our oh, so intellectual university pinheads care about our own home-grown drunken whores?hereGuess not.
I wonder what we could have done with that money here in the States. How about investing in small business! What a novel idea. It is unbelievable how inept our government is.
For the full story click here
President Orwell
It was George Orwell who gave us the phrase “Double Speak” in his famous novel, “1984”, an allegory of totalitarian dictatorship and a warning against the threat of Communism embodied in the then Soviet Union. The Russians and the people in the captive Soviet satellite nations all knew they were being lied to by the leadership and their media.
The glow is beginning to dim around President Obama. It hasn’t taken long because of an intense flow of legislation and appointments, virtually all of which has been dubious, if not directly harmful to the nation’s economy and security.
That said, he was warmly greeted by the many students and others attending the commencement at Notre Dame. It wasn’t merely that he is President, but that the students in that audience were simply too young, too naïve, too unschooled in the history of our nation and the world to recognize a great deceiver like Obama.
Obama’s ability to impose crushing outlays of billions from the public treasury and then warn against the dangers of those same actions were captured recently in a Bloomberg News article that began, “President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending ‘unsustainable’, warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.”
In his first hundred days, with the complicity of the Congress, President Obama has saddled more debt on U.S. citizens than all of the combined Presidents that preceded him. The debt we’ve had has always been sustained by borrowing from other nations; in more recent years, China and Japan.
It is utterly and completely duplicitous to create such debt and than warn against it.
It is Orwellian. It is pure evil.
It is illegal by the terms of the U.S. Constitution to tap into public funds, the U.S. treasury, to give billions in bailouts to private industry and to financial firms such as banks and insurance companies.
It is a crime to dismiss the sanctity of contract law by turning over ownership of an automobile company to the union that brought it to ruin and to ignore the legal rights of those who loaned billions to it under terms guaranteeing they would be the first to be repaid in the event of bankruptcy.
It is the worst folly to claim that rich people, no matter how one defines “rich”, do not have a right to the money they have earned.
President Orwell…er, President Obama is engaging in the familiar and wicked practice of class warfare, the essence of socialism and communism. It seeks to divide Americans from each other and to play on the worst emotions of envy, ignoring the abundance of opportunity our society and economic system has always offered everyone.
The ultimate goal is to impoverish every one. To destroy or drive out leading industries in America, to deny the growth of the energy industries and sources needed to power America.
In January, President Obama said, “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity prices would necessarily skyrocket. . . . Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, natural gas—you name it—whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”
So, beyond the soothing calls to be open to opposing points of view lies the implacable agenda of President Obama and his administration to do terrible harm to the United States of America.
It is Orwellian. It is pure evil.
The glow is beginning to dim around President Obama. It hasn’t taken long because of an intense flow of legislation and appointments, virtually all of which has been dubious, if not directly harmful to the nation’s economy and security.
That said, he was warmly greeted by the many students and others attending the commencement at Notre Dame. It wasn’t merely that he is President, but that the students in that audience were simply too young, too naïve, too unschooled in the history of our nation and the world to recognize a great deceiver like Obama.
Obama’s ability to impose crushing outlays of billions from the public treasury and then warn against the dangers of those same actions were captured recently in a Bloomberg News article that began, “President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending ‘unsustainable’, warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.”
In his first hundred days, with the complicity of the Congress, President Obama has saddled more debt on U.S. citizens than all of the combined Presidents that preceded him. The debt we’ve had has always been sustained by borrowing from other nations; in more recent years, China and Japan.
It is utterly and completely duplicitous to create such debt and than warn against it.
It is Orwellian. It is pure evil.
It is illegal by the terms of the U.S. Constitution to tap into public funds, the U.S. treasury, to give billions in bailouts to private industry and to financial firms such as banks and insurance companies.
It is a crime to dismiss the sanctity of contract law by turning over ownership of an automobile company to the union that brought it to ruin and to ignore the legal rights of those who loaned billions to it under terms guaranteeing they would be the first to be repaid in the event of bankruptcy.
It is the worst folly to claim that rich people, no matter how one defines “rich”, do not have a right to the money they have earned.
President Orwell…er, President Obama is engaging in the familiar and wicked practice of class warfare, the essence of socialism and communism. It seeks to divide Americans from each other and to play on the worst emotions of envy, ignoring the abundance of opportunity our society and economic system has always offered everyone.
The ultimate goal is to impoverish every one. To destroy or drive out leading industries in America, to deny the growth of the energy industries and sources needed to power America.
In January, President Obama said, “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity prices would necessarily skyrocket. . . . Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, natural gas—you name it—whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”
So, beyond the soothing calls to be open to opposing points of view lies the implacable agenda of President Obama and his administration to do terrible harm to the United States of America.
It is Orwellian. It is pure evil.
Libtards Are Just Downright Miserable
It's funny when what one knows to be true is verified by a study. The Pew Research Center released a study that shows that Republicans are happier than Democrats. No kidding. We work, live life, and enjoy the fruits of our labor (when they're not taxed to feed the parasites by liberals) and basically chase our dream. In fact, the Gunny was on the road this weekend and had the pleasure of meeting a right-wing extremist worth almost a billion dollars. He started with ONE DUMP TRUCK and worked 70-80 hours A WEEK and now owns quarries, paving companies, construction companies, etc. He is, as he put it, "chasing his dream." Appears he caught it as well. The REAL Abraham Lincoln (not the wannabe in the White house today) stated: "Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be." We as Conservatives are far happier than the libstain moonbats who wake up angry, live angry, go to sleep angry, and die angry (but not soon enough for the Gunny). Just compare our Tea Party's to the liberal moonbats screeching hate fests, a number of them recorded on film by Zombie. http://zombietime.com/hall_of_shame/ EXCERPT: Overall happiness among U.S. residents has not changed much over the years, according to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center that finds 34 percent of adults are very happy. Among 3,014 telephone respondents, half reported being pretty happy, and 15 percent said they are not too happy. The survey, released this week, points out several disparities based on lifestyle, beliefs and political persuasion:
1. Republicans are happier than Democrats.
2. People who worship frequently are happier than those who don't.
3. Married people are happier than the unmarried.
About 45 percent of Republicans said they were very happy, compared with 30 percent of Democrats. Republicans have been happier in surveys going back to 1972, the Pew study notes. The reason might seem obvious, since "Republicans tend to have more money than Democrats, and—as we've already discovered—people who have more money tend to be happier," the report states. But even after adjusting for income, poor Republicans are happier than poor Democrats, and rich Republicans are happier than rich Democrats. What about religion? Forty-three percent of people who attend religious services weekly or more say they're very happy, compared to 26 percent of those who go seldom or never. The Pew analysis does not answer the question of how religion, Republicanism and happiness might be related, however.
Maybe what the real deal is, is that we on the Right follow what is PROVEN to be right, and that is: Life, Liberty, and the Pusuit of HAPPINESS! Something our Founding Fathers bequeathed to us and wrote it into the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. Why we're more happy than liberal drones seems to be that WE dn't count on the government for everything as they do. For example, the Obama economy sucks and it's getting worse but there are opportunities to invest and take risks that may pay off in the long run. We take those risks, libs don't. They'll take a welfare check in a NY nanosecond but buying a home to fix up and rent out? Nope. Buying stock in a company that may perform? Nope. Opening one's own business? Nope. We seek independence to use our talents (on loan from God as Rush says) to pursue our dreams, libs want everything handed to them. When we fail, we drop back ten yards and think about our avenues of approach. Stressful? HELL YES! Rewarding in the end? HELL YES! Liberals want to suck on the government teat from the cradle to the grave and when the t*tty runs dry, they start whining.
In the study, Easterbrook writes: "Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes." EXACTLY! WHO can't claim that Conservatves are more generous, more forgiving, more grateful for what we have (we're more religious), and that we're more optimistic about the future. They don't call the Democrat Nazi Party the party of doom and gloom for nothing. In fact, listen to the pablum spewed by the Mystical Magical Negro (LA Times) in the year PRIOR to the election and ever since the clown was sworn-in, on the bad economy, the evil capitalists, the impending doom of gloBULL warming, now gloBULL cooling, etc, etc, ad nauseum.Perhaps the most important part of the stusy is that it SHOWS Conservatives/Republicans to better able to cope with difficulties. When WE encounter a problem, WE think of a solution. When the libvermin encounter a problem as a child they run to Mommy. As an adult, they run to the government. Indeed, since the libstains seized power in the Congress in Jan 2007, they have done NOTHING but pass law after law trying to take every bump out of the road for their whiners. Typical libgirls.
It appears that Freud, theorized that unhappiness is a default condition because it takes less effort to be unhappy than to be happy. Again we see that the inherent LAZINESS of liberals keeps them oppressed and holds them back. Again, we WORK, LIVE LIFE, and are happy. Maybe the Gunny should pen a children's reading primer, "the big brown dog p*ssed on the lazy liberal!" haha. Or even better, "See the Lazy Liberals Live in Misery" and provide examples to the kiddies on how liberals suck, how to spot them, and better still, how to effectively taunt them and savor their Schadenfreude! haha.
"If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it. It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don't make the steps to make their life more fulfilling one." Easterbrook.So as we can see, the whiners, parasites, crybabies, sissies, metrosexuals, dolts, drones, idiots, and malingerers all gravitate to the the Democrat Nazi Party, which is comprised, the Gunny should relate, of 100% LAWYERS! The very vermin who exist simply to feed off of others and to make OUR lives more difficult as they twist the law to suit their purposes. SO right-wingers, BE HAPPY for who you are and what you are and REVEL in the fact that our enemies are miserable creatures living a p*ss-poor life full of hate and discontent. We'll win by OUTLIVING the self-aborting vermin! haha. SUCK ON THAT LIBERALS!
1. Republicans are happier than Democrats.
2. People who worship frequently are happier than those who don't.
3. Married people are happier than the unmarried.
About 45 percent of Republicans said they were very happy, compared with 30 percent of Democrats. Republicans have been happier in surveys going back to 1972, the Pew study notes. The reason might seem obvious, since "Republicans tend to have more money than Democrats, and—as we've already discovered—people who have more money tend to be happier," the report states. But even after adjusting for income, poor Republicans are happier than poor Democrats, and rich Republicans are happier than rich Democrats. What about religion? Forty-three percent of people who attend religious services weekly or more say they're very happy, compared to 26 percent of those who go seldom or never. The Pew analysis does not answer the question of how religion, Republicanism and happiness might be related, however.
Maybe what the real deal is, is that we on the Right follow what is PROVEN to be right, and that is: Life, Liberty, and the Pusuit of HAPPINESS! Something our Founding Fathers bequeathed to us and wrote it into the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. Why we're more happy than liberal drones seems to be that WE dn't count on the government for everything as they do. For example, the Obama economy sucks and it's getting worse but there are opportunities to invest and take risks that may pay off in the long run. We take those risks, libs don't. They'll take a welfare check in a NY nanosecond but buying a home to fix up and rent out? Nope. Buying stock in a company that may perform? Nope. Opening one's own business? Nope. We seek independence to use our talents (on loan from God as Rush says) to pursue our dreams, libs want everything handed to them. When we fail, we drop back ten yards and think about our avenues of approach. Stressful? HELL YES! Rewarding in the end? HELL YES! Liberals want to suck on the government teat from the cradle to the grave and when the t*tty runs dry, they start whining.
In the study, Easterbrook writes: "Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes." EXACTLY! WHO can't claim that Conservatves are more generous, more forgiving, more grateful for what we have (we're more religious), and that we're more optimistic about the future. They don't call the Democrat Nazi Party the party of doom and gloom for nothing. In fact, listen to the pablum spewed by the Mystical Magical Negro (LA Times) in the year PRIOR to the election and ever since the clown was sworn-in, on the bad economy, the evil capitalists, the impending doom of gloBULL warming, now gloBULL cooling, etc, etc, ad nauseum.Perhaps the most important part of the stusy is that it SHOWS Conservatives/Republicans to better able to cope with difficulties. When WE encounter a problem, WE think of a solution. When the libvermin encounter a problem as a child they run to Mommy. As an adult, they run to the government. Indeed, since the libstains seized power in the Congress in Jan 2007, they have done NOTHING but pass law after law trying to take every bump out of the road for their whiners. Typical libgirls.
It appears that Freud, theorized that unhappiness is a default condition because it takes less effort to be unhappy than to be happy. Again we see that the inherent LAZINESS of liberals keeps them oppressed and holds them back. Again, we WORK, LIVE LIFE, and are happy. Maybe the Gunny should pen a children's reading primer, "the big brown dog p*ssed on the lazy liberal!" haha. Or even better, "See the Lazy Liberals Live in Misery" and provide examples to the kiddies on how liberals suck, how to spot them, and better still, how to effectively taunt them and savor their Schadenfreude! haha.
"If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it. It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don't make the steps to make their life more fulfilling one." Easterbrook.So as we can see, the whiners, parasites, crybabies, sissies, metrosexuals, dolts, drones, idiots, and malingerers all gravitate to the the Democrat Nazi Party, which is comprised, the Gunny should relate, of 100% LAWYERS! The very vermin who exist simply to feed off of others and to make OUR lives more difficult as they twist the law to suit their purposes. SO right-wingers, BE HAPPY for who you are and what you are and REVEL in the fact that our enemies are miserable creatures living a p*ss-poor life full of hate and discontent. We'll win by OUTLIVING the self-aborting vermin! haha. SUCK ON THAT LIBERALS!
Spending Into Nowhere
"But the long-term deficit and debt that we have accumulated is unsustainable. We can't keep on just borrowing from China, or borrowing from other countries — (applause) — because part of it is, we have to pay for— we have to pay interest on that debt. And that means that we're mortgaging our children's future with more and more debt, but what's also true is that at some point they're just going to get tired of buying our debt. And when that happens, we will really have to raise interest rates to be able to borrow, and that will raise interest rates for everybody — on your auto loan, on your mortgage, on — so it will have a dampening effect on the economy." Mystical Magical Negro (LA Times)
Well, no SH*T Sherlock, what was your first clue? You know, being right ALL OF THE TIME SUCKS! The Gunny called it 18 MONTHS AGO that this guy is a flaming IDIOT and could not pour p*ss out of a boot with the instructions on the heel! He had ZERO executive level experience and IT SHOWS! So really what the idiot was saying above was that we're ALL going to enjoy higher taxes, as per the norm, under liberal rule.
"From 2010 to 2019, Obama projects annual deficits totaling $7.1 trillion; that's atop the $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009. By 2019, the ratio of publicly held federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP, or the economy) would reach 70 percent, up from 41 percent in 2008. That would be the highest since 1950 (80 percent). The Congressional Budget Office, using less optimistic economic forecasts, raises these estimates. The 2010-19 deficits would total $9.3 trillion; the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019 would be 82 percent." Robert J. Samuelson
Here is the real deal. But UNDERFUNDING these progerams NOW, Comrade Zero can say they cose LESS than they really WILL! FDR did it with his various entitlement programs, LBJ did that with his failed War on Poverty, Carter just sucked, and now the Nitwit-in-Chief is doing it with his sprint to Marxism. For example, Comrade Zero bleats that his health plan will cost ONLY $1.2 trillion over a decade and then budgets $635 billion. Thus, the huge deficits occur and then the liberals can blame them on the Republican who gets elected in 2012 to replace this moron. And as USUAL, a review of Maobama's budget shows a SQUEEZE of defense spending and from 2008 to 2019, the libertards raise Federal spending by a whopping SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT while DoD spending increases by 17 percent. A return to the Carterism of 1977, just as the Gunny said it would. Of course, our enemies are digging it.
Well, no SH*T Sherlock, what was your first clue? You know, being right ALL OF THE TIME SUCKS! The Gunny called it 18 MONTHS AGO that this guy is a flaming IDIOT and could not pour p*ss out of a boot with the instructions on the heel! He had ZERO executive level experience and IT SHOWS! So really what the idiot was saying above was that we're ALL going to enjoy higher taxes, as per the norm, under liberal rule.
"From 2010 to 2019, Obama projects annual deficits totaling $7.1 trillion; that's atop the $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009. By 2019, the ratio of publicly held federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP, or the economy) would reach 70 percent, up from 41 percent in 2008. That would be the highest since 1950 (80 percent). The Congressional Budget Office, using less optimistic economic forecasts, raises these estimates. The 2010-19 deficits would total $9.3 trillion; the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019 would be 82 percent." Robert J. Samuelson
Here is the real deal. But UNDERFUNDING these progerams NOW, Comrade Zero can say they cose LESS than they really WILL! FDR did it with his various entitlement programs, LBJ did that with his failed War on Poverty, Carter just sucked, and now the Nitwit-in-Chief is doing it with his sprint to Marxism. For example, Comrade Zero bleats that his health plan will cost ONLY $1.2 trillion over a decade and then budgets $635 billion. Thus, the huge deficits occur and then the liberals can blame them on the Republican who gets elected in 2012 to replace this moron. And as USUAL, a review of Maobama's budget shows a SQUEEZE of defense spending and from 2008 to 2019, the libertards raise Federal spending by a whopping SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT while DoD spending increases by 17 percent. A return to the Carterism of 1977, just as the Gunny said it would. Of course, our enemies are digging it.
May 15, 2009
Cracks In The Facade.. Pt 2
We have a rendezvous with hyperinflation, or perhaps stagflation, in that all at once we will see high interest, high inflation, low growth, and nagging unemployment as we finagle ways to service a $15 to 20 trillion debt. Expect not just high taxes, but higher Social Security retirement ages, means-testing, higher FICA taxes, rationed Medicare, and still all that will not be enough…
4) Security. Very schizophrenic. WE keep FISA, Patriot Act, rendition, military tribunals (Gitmo for now?), Predator attacks, Iraq and Afghanistan, while we trash their Bush origins, apologize abroad, and try to out CIA memos to embarrass the country between 2001-8.
At some point, Putin, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Kim Song Il, Assad, and others will conclude that Obama is either not serious or confused — and therefore ready to be tested. Right now hostility towards the U.S. garners attention and apology; loyalty and alliance win neglect and complacence: better to be an enemy than a friend of America. If we get hit again at home, then the Obama administration is effectively over as a successful governing experiment. If we are tested abroad, Obama will almost have to overreact to restore squandered deterrence. Not good. For 24 months Obama ignited the left to slur the Bush protocols as krypto-fascism, then found (1) they worked, (2) they were not fascist at all, (3) and now he cannot muzzle the left wing multi-headed Cerberus he unleashed.
5). Civil Discord. In just three months Obama has caused more disunity than most presidents in recent memory. Why and how? He has chosen to demonize as greedy (cf. the Super bowl quips, the “speculators” jab, the “fair share” and “spread the wealth” slips, etc.) capitalists en masse. Why laugh as Ms. Sykes wished for Limbaugh to die of kidney failure, which set a new low for presidential uncouthness. He treats the media with contempt as all earls do with obsequious court jesters. There is a mood of ‘them/us’ and ‘time is running out’, as the Obama administration used the panic over the autumn 2008 financial meltdown to steamroll through a statist, postmodern economic and social agenda before the people woke up. They embrace the term “100 days”; do they realize its genesis is 1815 and Napoleon’s return from Elba? (they should: it ended at Waterloo). The cynicism is now such that anytime Obama offers a grand assurance (most ethical administration, no interest in government take-overs of autos and finance, unwavering support of Israel, no desire to look backward at the Bush administration, etc.), in Pavlovian fashion we expect the very opposite to follow.
6). Race relations. Here I am worried. Far from bringing us together, I think Obama’s serial emphasis on race may achieve the unintended opposite of polarization. He should have learned in the campaign (Rev. Wright, Trinity Church, typical white person, clingers, call for reparations, his grandmother — the purported prejudicial stereotyper, etc.), the perils of seeing the world through skin color. Yet to establish his own diplomatic fides abroad, he immediately evokes race at the South American summit. His interview with al Arabiya highlights his race and family’s religion. Race appears in presidential jokes. He distances himself from America prior to his coming of age.
Stranger still, Obama’s heritage is unlike that of a Clarence Thomas, Tom Sowell, or Bill Cosby, who all knew real prejudice in 1950s America. He matured at a different time, was of African, rather than African-American, heritage, went from prep school to Occidental without the sting of experiencing the underbelly of American working class life, and yet has showcased (here I refer to his book Dreams From My Father) racial difference and knows its emphasis is a proven route to professional success. Again, there is too much disingenuousness for such racial identification to turn out well.
Missed opportunity? Obama could have had a one-time stimulus, then vowed to balance the budget. He might have praised wind and solar as he asked the carbon industry to ‘get us through.’ He could have politely disagreed with Bush, but framing differences in the tragic notion of no good choices. He might have cooled the overseas apologies, savvy that other nations have more to apologize for than his own. Obama should have established zero-tolerance for tax avoidance at a time of record tax increases. He could have remonstrated with Wall Street, and sought to rein in excess without Europeanizing the financial sector. He could have proactively reformed entitlements with bipartisan support, rather than, as will happen, drastically address them in the 11th hour. But then to do all that would be to assume he never went to Trinity Church, knew no Rev. Wright, Ayers, Khalidi, etc., did not run mysterious campaigns that eliminated opponents before the elections, was not the most partisan Senator in Congress, and avoided rather crude social and racial stereotyping while campaigning. Most who read this will not agree, given the mesmerizing effect of the Obama charisma. But in time, unless there are radical changes, I think the nation will come to learn that such talent was not put in service to our collective welfare.
4) Security. Very schizophrenic. WE keep FISA, Patriot Act, rendition, military tribunals (Gitmo for now?), Predator attacks, Iraq and Afghanistan, while we trash their Bush origins, apologize abroad, and try to out CIA memos to embarrass the country between 2001-8.
At some point, Putin, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, Kim Song Il, Assad, and others will conclude that Obama is either not serious or confused — and therefore ready to be tested. Right now hostility towards the U.S. garners attention and apology; loyalty and alliance win neglect and complacence: better to be an enemy than a friend of America. If we get hit again at home, then the Obama administration is effectively over as a successful governing experiment. If we are tested abroad, Obama will almost have to overreact to restore squandered deterrence. Not good. For 24 months Obama ignited the left to slur the Bush protocols as krypto-fascism, then found (1) they worked, (2) they were not fascist at all, (3) and now he cannot muzzle the left wing multi-headed Cerberus he unleashed.
5). Civil Discord. In just three months Obama has caused more disunity than most presidents in recent memory. Why and how? He has chosen to demonize as greedy (cf. the Super bowl quips, the “speculators” jab, the “fair share” and “spread the wealth” slips, etc.) capitalists en masse. Why laugh as Ms. Sykes wished for Limbaugh to die of kidney failure, which set a new low for presidential uncouthness. He treats the media with contempt as all earls do with obsequious court jesters. There is a mood of ‘them/us’ and ‘time is running out’, as the Obama administration used the panic over the autumn 2008 financial meltdown to steamroll through a statist, postmodern economic and social agenda before the people woke up. They embrace the term “100 days”; do they realize its genesis is 1815 and Napoleon’s return from Elba? (they should: it ended at Waterloo). The cynicism is now such that anytime Obama offers a grand assurance (most ethical administration, no interest in government take-overs of autos and finance, unwavering support of Israel, no desire to look backward at the Bush administration, etc.), in Pavlovian fashion we expect the very opposite to follow.
6). Race relations. Here I am worried. Far from bringing us together, I think Obama’s serial emphasis on race may achieve the unintended opposite of polarization. He should have learned in the campaign (Rev. Wright, Trinity Church, typical white person, clingers, call for reparations, his grandmother — the purported prejudicial stereotyper, etc.), the perils of seeing the world through skin color. Yet to establish his own diplomatic fides abroad, he immediately evokes race at the South American summit. His interview with al Arabiya highlights his race and family’s religion. Race appears in presidential jokes. He distances himself from America prior to his coming of age.
Stranger still, Obama’s heritage is unlike that of a Clarence Thomas, Tom Sowell, or Bill Cosby, who all knew real prejudice in 1950s America. He matured at a different time, was of African, rather than African-American, heritage, went from prep school to Occidental without the sting of experiencing the underbelly of American working class life, and yet has showcased (here I refer to his book Dreams From My Father) racial difference and knows its emphasis is a proven route to professional success. Again, there is too much disingenuousness for such racial identification to turn out well.
Missed opportunity? Obama could have had a one-time stimulus, then vowed to balance the budget. He might have praised wind and solar as he asked the carbon industry to ‘get us through.’ He could have politely disagreed with Bush, but framing differences in the tragic notion of no good choices. He might have cooled the overseas apologies, savvy that other nations have more to apologize for than his own. Obama should have established zero-tolerance for tax avoidance at a time of record tax increases. He could have remonstrated with Wall Street, and sought to rein in excess without Europeanizing the financial sector. He could have proactively reformed entitlements with bipartisan support, rather than, as will happen, drastically address them in the 11th hour. But then to do all that would be to assume he never went to Trinity Church, knew no Rev. Wright, Ayers, Khalidi, etc., did not run mysterious campaigns that eliminated opponents before the elections, was not the most partisan Senator in Congress, and avoided rather crude social and racial stereotyping while campaigning. Most who read this will not agree, given the mesmerizing effect of the Obama charisma. But in time, unless there are radical changes, I think the nation will come to learn that such talent was not put in service to our collective welfare.
Cracks In The Facade..Pt. 1
Oh, I know that President Obama’s approval ratings are still around 62%. But I also remember that George Bush’s at the end of 2001 got even higher — and stayed at or above 60% through most of 2002, explaining why he increased his congressional majority in the midterm elections.
Nevertheless, I think we are beginning — after less than four months — to see fissures in Obama’s Pentelic statuary. And the cracks will widen, because in about six areas he has taken on human nature itself, age-old logic, and common sense-opponents that even a Harvard Law degree and Chicago organizing are no match for.
1) The Rule of Law. We are on dangerous ground here with the reordering of the bankruptcy statutes with Chrysler and the UAW; with the strong-arming of stimulus money for California predicated on the protection of unions; with the serial disdain for paying taxes on the part of Geithner, Solis, Daschle and others; and with the selective release of CIA memos, to denigrate those out of office as veritable torturers (they should reread the transcript of Eric Holder’s 2002 CNN interview with Paula Zahn in which he grandly denies that the Gitmo detainees have any recourse to the Geneva Convention accords and can be held there for as long as we think the war lasts). What separates the U.S. from Mexico, Cuba, or Haiti is the rule of law, the protection of capital and property, the evenhanded treatment of investment, and the faith in a fair media to uncover abuse. I think that is now all in question, as the Utopian ends justify the tawdry means.
2) Energy. We are finding more natural gas than ever. There are billions of barrels of U.S. oil in Alaska, offshore, and in shale. Yet rigs sit idle and government leases are constricting rather than expanding — and for reasons other than the economy. Logic dictated a simple course: expand exploration, increase production, use the revenue to pay down the deficit, and, along with conservation, ready ourselves for the next round of inflationary energy hikes, petro politics, and Middle East petro-bribery by transitioning to alternate energies. In other words, the rare carbon bounty of the U.S. was vital in providing a window of survival, until technology solves wind, solar, and bio-fuel by making them more competitive and plentiful.
No to all that common sense. Instead, Obama is ignoring the potential of coal, nuclear, gas, and oil, intent on cap-and-trade, and pie-in-the-sky present-day Gore-ish wind and solar. The result will be that our energy bills will skyrocket. Our vulnerability will increase. Our overt enemies will gain leverage, and covert ones will keep using coal and nuclear for economic advantage. This is a disastrous energy policy and apparently has been outsourced to the Al Gore cadres. We have a rendezvous with real trouble when the global economy rebounds and demands more oil and gas. Al Gore will keep his yacht, jet on private planes, and tinker with his various contraptions at his estate; the rest of us will be in gas lines.
3) Debt. Obama has somehow already used the tax last resort. That is, his figures assume taking off FICA caps, watching the states increase their own tax rates, upping the federal rate to 40%, curbing deductions, and effectively increasing the total state and federal bite to above 65% on top incomes.
Fine. But the deficits still go up, adding an aggregate $8-9 more trillion to the debt. The magnitude of borrowing is so staggering that there is almost no conceivable way that we can ever balance the budget without simply confiscating incomes in toto, or taxing our very sneezes. This will blow up in the administration’s face as well. The taxes will discourage and dishearten entrepreneurship as the spending increases unproductive sectors of the now federalized economy, as in turn a larger fossilized constituency demands ever more entitlement and more taxes for “them.”
I do not know what is worse, the mega-interest to come on the debt; the stifling of economic initiative and the rise of barter, off the books income, tax avoidance, or simple slowdowns; or the creation of vast new dependent classes who vote in exchange for entitlement.
Nevertheless, I think we are beginning — after less than four months — to see fissures in Obama’s Pentelic statuary. And the cracks will widen, because in about six areas he has taken on human nature itself, age-old logic, and common sense-opponents that even a Harvard Law degree and Chicago organizing are no match for.
1) The Rule of Law. We are on dangerous ground here with the reordering of the bankruptcy statutes with Chrysler and the UAW; with the strong-arming of stimulus money for California predicated on the protection of unions; with the serial disdain for paying taxes on the part of Geithner, Solis, Daschle and others; and with the selective release of CIA memos, to denigrate those out of office as veritable torturers (they should reread the transcript of Eric Holder’s 2002 CNN interview with Paula Zahn in which he grandly denies that the Gitmo detainees have any recourse to the Geneva Convention accords and can be held there for as long as we think the war lasts). What separates the U.S. from Mexico, Cuba, or Haiti is the rule of law, the protection of capital and property, the evenhanded treatment of investment, and the faith in a fair media to uncover abuse. I think that is now all in question, as the Utopian ends justify the tawdry means.
2) Energy. We are finding more natural gas than ever. There are billions of barrels of U.S. oil in Alaska, offshore, and in shale. Yet rigs sit idle and government leases are constricting rather than expanding — and for reasons other than the economy. Logic dictated a simple course: expand exploration, increase production, use the revenue to pay down the deficit, and, along with conservation, ready ourselves for the next round of inflationary energy hikes, petro politics, and Middle East petro-bribery by transitioning to alternate energies. In other words, the rare carbon bounty of the U.S. was vital in providing a window of survival, until technology solves wind, solar, and bio-fuel by making them more competitive and plentiful.
No to all that common sense. Instead, Obama is ignoring the potential of coal, nuclear, gas, and oil, intent on cap-and-trade, and pie-in-the-sky present-day Gore-ish wind and solar. The result will be that our energy bills will skyrocket. Our vulnerability will increase. Our overt enemies will gain leverage, and covert ones will keep using coal and nuclear for economic advantage. This is a disastrous energy policy and apparently has been outsourced to the Al Gore cadres. We have a rendezvous with real trouble when the global economy rebounds and demands more oil and gas. Al Gore will keep his yacht, jet on private planes, and tinker with his various contraptions at his estate; the rest of us will be in gas lines.
3) Debt. Obama has somehow already used the tax last resort. That is, his figures assume taking off FICA caps, watching the states increase their own tax rates, upping the federal rate to 40%, curbing deductions, and effectively increasing the total state and federal bite to above 65% on top incomes.
Fine. But the deficits still go up, adding an aggregate $8-9 more trillion to the debt. The magnitude of borrowing is so staggering that there is almost no conceivable way that we can ever balance the budget without simply confiscating incomes in toto, or taxing our very sneezes. This will blow up in the administration’s face as well. The taxes will discourage and dishearten entrepreneurship as the spending increases unproductive sectors of the now federalized economy, as in turn a larger fossilized constituency demands ever more entitlement and more taxes for “them.”
I do not know what is worse, the mega-interest to come on the debt; the stifling of economic initiative and the rise of barter, off the books income, tax avoidance, or simple slowdowns; or the creation of vast new dependent classes who vote in exchange for entitlement.
U.S. To Repudiate Debt
President Barack Obama today used certain words that ought to make the entire planet shudder. He said "The long-term deficit and debt that we have accumulated is unsustainable."(Here)Do you have any clue at all what that means? It means "prepare yourselves, the USA is going to repudiate its national debt." It is the first hint to the world that the USA has reached a point where we can no longer service our debt. It means our country will announce it cannot repay its debts and therefore, it will not.
Death Of Healthcare
When all of America’s top health insurers and providers met at the White House this week and pledged to save $2 trillion over the next decade in health costs, they were pledging to sabotage our medical care. The blunt truth, which everybody agreed to keep quiet, is that the only way to reduce these costs is to ration healthcare, thereby destroying our system.Here’s why:• Essential to any cost reduction is a cut in doctors’ fees. Congress is trying to cut Medicare fees by 21 percent. But cuts in fees and doctors’ incomes will just discourage people from entering the profession and those already in it from practicing. The limited number of doctors and nurses in the United States is the key constraint on the availability of healthcare. Our national inventory of 800,000 doctors is growing at only about 1 percent a year (18,000 med school graduates annually minus retirements), while the nurse population is stagnant at 1.4 million. To stretch these limited resources so that they can treat 50 million more people is possible only through the most severe kind of rationing.• As in Canada, the best way to cut medical costs is to refrain from using the best drugs to treat cancer and other illnesses, thereby economizing at the expense of patients’ lives. Forty-four percent of the drugs approved by the Canadian health authorities for use in their country are not allowed by the healthcare system due to their high cost. As a result, death rates from cancer are 16 percent higher in Canada than in the United States. We will pay for the attempt to save $2 trillion with our lives. (And remember, one cannot opt out of the Canadian system and pay for the medications out of pocket.)• The only real way to save money on the scale projected is to ration healthcare services. Optimists say that this can be achieved by increased use of preventive care. But the Canadian experience indicates that when government — or its satellite private insurance providers — ration healthcare, they cut preventive care first. In Canada, colonoscopies are so rationed that the colon cancer rate is 25 percent higher than in the U.S. (even though Canada has a much smaller proportion of poor people, whose frequently bad diets make them more prone to the disease).Obama’s pretension that nobody will find changes in his or her current health insurance plans except for a magical reduction in their cost by $2,500 a year is a fool’s proposition. Private health insurers will be no more private than TARP-funded banks or government-subsidized car companies are in Obama’s America. They will be controlled by government healthcare planners who will approve treatments, limit drug use, hold down medical incomes and bring their cost-cutting programs to bear. Inevitably, their ax will fall on the oldest and the sickest among us, those least “deserving” of our newly limited and, under Obama’s program, diminishing healthcare resources.The other radical changes Obama is bringing about in our nation can always be reversed. New taxes can be repealed or lowered. That which was nationalized can be privatized. Government which has grown can be cut. But once the healthcare system is extended to cover everyone, with no commensurate increase in the resources available, the change will be forever. The vicious cycle of cuts in medical resources and in the number of doctors and nurses will doom healthcare in this country. This wanton destruction will not be reversible by any bill or program. A crucial part of our quality of life — the best healthcare in the world — will be gone forever.Politically, voters will feel the impact of these “reforms” very quickly. When they face rejection or limitation at the hands of the bureaucrats, they will quickly understand that the their options have become limited. Just as in the 1990s, when HMOs first became universal, the patient outrage will create a political force all its own and those who foisted this brave new world on the American people will be in their crosshairs.
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