Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Read it or suffer the alternative

Rep. John Conyers gets quite a kick out of the novel idea of actually reading a bill that he votes on.He muses about what is the point of reading a 1,000 bill without 2 days and 2 lawyers present to understand what he just read.

I have an idea.If you can't understand the language in these bills,just step aside gracefully and let someone have the job who can actually perform it.

What you probably meant to say was that you think it should be criminal when an elected representative votes on our behalf without bothering to even find out what they are voting on.To actually believe that you should cast a vote on the behalf of all of the constituents you represent without knowing how it will affect them 100% is unthinkable.How do you people sleep at night?

I propose a remedy.We will give our elected officials a choice.They must read the bill in it's entirety and understand how it will affect the voters in their district completely and insure that the vote they cast best represents the concerns of the majority of their constituents or they must sit thru every minute of every Detroit Lions practice,preseason and game this season.Seems like an easy choice to me.More to come...

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Evil health care reform chart

The Dems are blocking the Republicans from releasing this health care reform chart to their constituents.Thought I would do my part to spread the word.

http://www.rollcall.com/pdfs/healthchart072309.pdf

More to come...

New Democratic party?

OK,the Government has overseen one of the primary reasons for the recession and the high cost of healthcare according to Obama.Medicare and Medicaid to be exact.Government run programs.And the Government will now take over the healthcare industry and make it better?

I wonder what our life expectancy will now drop to with the Obama plan to cut life short?

Congress won't participate in the fun.They will keep their own private option.We are told it's because the Federal plan is actually the Cadillac plan and too expensive.I have to wonder if we pooled the purchasing power of 300 million Americans together if the price might come down?

I propose we allow the Libs to go off into their own little world.Announcing the National Democrat Socialist Club.All registered Democrats are required to participate.It's simple.
-give your entire paycheck to the Government
-you will receive vouchers for housing,food,transportation and clothing.The exact same amount for every member.Fairness will reign supreme as a one class society insures equality.
-all entitlement programs,save the ______ programs,healthcare,climate change,etc. will come out first,so the vouchers will simply be the net divided by the total members.This may be a negative number based on how many causes the Democrats decide are crucially important.

Ta da!A real chance for the Dems to put their money where their mouth is.Oh wait,they wanted to use your money,not theirs.Back to the drawing board.More to come...

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Next bust imminent?

Moody's just released their latest report tracking commercial real estate and it's unprecedented.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/category/topicarticle.aspx?feed=Bcom&Date=20090721&ID=10162273&topic=TOPIC_HOT&isub=2

Every property type being tracked is negative with 4 categories never lower since tracking began.The downturn is 100% guaranteed.If I could tell you exactly when,I'd make my millions as a forecaster.

Do yourself a favor.Don't get caught again when the stock market plunges.Everyone paying attention has known that the commercial real estate market crash was coming.Hard data backs this up,it's not speculation.Just as the residential market will bottom again next year or maybe 2011 as all those ARM's reset.Unsecured credit is still a monster looming.

If you watch CNBC,they have a vested interest in promoting Bernanke's green shoots.They always trend bull market.They have to be positive.Having a positive attitude is a good thing.Backing it up with legitimate reasoning is wiser.Those of us who put that outlook in check aren't doing because we always have a negative outlook.We simply want logic to back it up.More to come...

Jobs!Jobs!Jobs!

Day 45 update!Yes,already 45 days have flown by since Obama proclaimed 600,000 new jobs this summer.As of today we should have created 270,000 new jobs thanks to the stimulus which is on track and working according to Obama.That being the case,I see no reason to doubt the legitimacy of this number.

Unfortunately,we are still shedding jobs.467,000 more in June alone.Yet the stimulus is working and creating jobs as advertised?I have to wonder if Obama was referring to the United States when he made that claim.Maybe he meant those jobs were being created overseas as companies continue to move offshore and manufacturing moves away.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Healthcare industry has a prize Obama wants

The news is saturated with the healthcare debate.The pricetag.A public health option.Insuring everyone including illegal immigrants.The surtax on the rich.Much to talk about and discuss.

What I don't hear much of is one of the main prizes of the Government nationalizing the healthcare system.The insurance companies all carry a liquid reserve fund for paying out claims.These amounts are vastly different depending on the size of the company and types of coverage extended.

This amount is certain to be in the trillions industry wide.If Obama succeeds in implementing the public health option,we can easily see the path.Private health companies will be put out of business unable to compete with a Government option with virtually unlimited finances and no profit requirement.

Just as a sidenote,I recall when I used to manage a small car audio business years ago,we carried the Pioneer line of products.We were located in Lapeer and our closest Pioneer competitor was ABC warehouse in Flint.ABC used to sell the entry level radios cheaper than I could buy them.We tried to compete with a exceptional service level and hoped to generate add-on sales to make up the difference.At the end of the day,it was fruitless as people shopping for the lowest price only aren't concerned with that approach.The analogy is similar in that you can't compete with the big boys on certain levels.Now,we did just fine on the higher end units and made money as a business,but we couldn't compete across the board.

Using the Obama mythical numbers of close to 50 million uninsured,these are people who want just a basic level of health insurance.The cheapest possible option due to their financial situation.Which plan do you think they and most small businesses will choose when cost is of primary concern?

This is why the private industry will be run out of town.When Obama accomplishes this,he will then control the pursestrings to the reserve funds.No different than the SS and Medicare trustfunds which were stripped of all their money.As with any Obama agenda item,it's all about the control and the power.If Government rather than private healthcare companies control the money,they have all the power.Quite simple.

Most comparisons of the effectiveness of nationalized healthcare compare it to the Europe or Canadien models.We need look no further than the failed Massachusetts state model to see that it doesn't work.Their costs are the highest in the country.100% still aren't insured.And the quality of service and wait times fail miserably in the polls taken.More to come...

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Is the stimulus money a political payoff?

Fox News issued this report showing a major slant in stimulus funding to the states that need it the least.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,533841,00.html?test=latestnews

Obama did his promotional tour and his appearances heavily favored blue states.The distribution down to the county level also is tilted toward the Democratic vote.

If you remember,the auto dealers who were terminated were also subject to the Obama bias as the vast majority were Republican donors.Hardly surprising.More to come...

We need a p.s.i. gauge

Fool me once,fool me twice...Don't pay attention to history and you're doomed to repeat it...We've all heard these handy little sayings and know all to well how accurate they are.

Apparently our President has misplaced his guide book as well.We are now full steam ahead on repeating the events that led to the recession.

You've seen the doomsday clock.The national debt counter.I propose a new nifty little gadget called the bubble pressure gauge.This would track how overinflated the economy is based on the usual contributors like the deficit and over-regulation.I would let somebody much smarter than me decide what factors help to inflate it and at what point it bursts.

The Federal Reserve is once again acting in lockstep with Goldman Sachs to get these bubbles re-inflated.The WSJ calls them Goldie Mac quite appropriately and they will make billions on the way back-up and then on the next crash as well as they always have.

What's disconcerting about the whole process is where the public's focus is.Remember that the majority still only watch the big 3 networks for their news.Newspapers were,of course,even bigger but many have now ceased daily publication.Internet news is growing but too much of the truth is only presented to those that seek it out.

Politicians are more aware of this than anybody as evidenced by Obamas' popularity despite his disastrous policies.They are the masters of sleight of hand because most people watch the outstretched hand and ignore the hand behind their back.

I am a firm believer that Obama has no intention of a 2nd term.Never did.His ideology and the implementation of his agenda supercede everything else.It explains why the urgency to ramrod all of his agenda items in the first year.Once the majority catch onto his game,the party is over.

I used to wonder why he made no logical attempt at economic recovery.We all spend so much time dissecting the stimulus and TARP and all of the other programs.One would ponder why he didn't at least make an attempt to resurrect the economy which would further increase his approval ratings if he pulled it off.

Because restoring our economy and implementing a sound fiscal policy doesn't do anything to further his ideology.Only thru crisis can policy be altered that will literally change the landscape of our country.He cannot be bogged down by standard Congressional debate and the compromises required to pass legislation.

You don't have to get caught up in any New World Order conspiracy theory to see this.He really does believe in his ideology and wants to mold the country in his vision of how it should be.To those who say they don't know where he is trying to take the country simply aren't paying attention to his upbringing and the path he has followed.

So when you try to decipher events in a logical manner,it doesn't fit because his goals are not the same as most people.It's like trying to understand a child molester.You don't even have that gene in your DNA so you can't understand how anyone could possibly do such a thing.

When you keep your eye on the prize,it makes comprehending the movements Obama makes much easier.Whether it's cap and trade,health care reform,amnesty,etc. it all fits into his vision even when it seems senseless for us.You must understand your enemy's ambitions to defeat him.More to come...

Friday, July 17, 2009

Evolving terminology

One must really be tuned in to stay on top of what things are called these days.Global warming has gone the way of the dodo bird and evolved into climate change.No one in the carbon emissions tax collection department had the foresight to realize that temperature cycles do occur naturally and to keep fooling the people long-term they would have to account for this.

Amnesty for aliens breaking Federal law by entering the country illegally to shore up the Democrat voting block didn't sell so well,so they transformed that into immigration reform.

Socialized healthcare isn't very palatable either.Especially when it's designed to eliminate the private health care industry and use the Government program to force the wealthy half to provide health insurance for the less fortunate half.So we now have health care reform.

Today we are learning that the stimulus plan wasn't ever designed to stimulate.Instead it has become the downturn cushion plan.Yes,the largest spending program ever devised was only put in place to keep things from getting really bad.I mean,unemployment could actually exceed 8% nationally without it.Err,I mean 9%.Or maybe 10%.Whatever.We are now 40 days into the Obama proclamation of creating 600,000 jobs in 100 days this summer.Meaning we have created 240,000 to date,right?That's right,it was "save or create",so we would have had another 240,000 lost without the stimulus that isn't a stimulus.

Then,of course,there is Biden.The genius of galactical proportions has determined that we must spend more money to keep from going bankrupt.That's right,he came up with that one all by himself.Spend money to make money.Now,that theory works in Vegas where you can't win if you don't play.How about if we extrapolate his theory to some other areas?

Tell your boss that you're not working as hard to become more efficient.

Tell your mortgage company you're skipping your payments because your home value is dropping anyway.

Tell your wife you're staying out with your buddies at the strip club all night because absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Start eating triple decker bacon cheese instant artery clogging burgers for all 3 meals daily to lose weight.

Why don't you try a few of these and see how that works out for you.More to come...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Why can't some people get it?

The Obama freak parade continues on.Now he is opposing the idea of restoring the dealers forced to close on the grounds that it would be bad to intercede at this point.Huh?After his administration illegally negotiated the bankruptcy to begin with which rewarded his union cronies and left the other stakeholders holding the bag?

This issue has been covered in detail,but apparently some people still don't get it.Here is the link for the story.http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aioxPp9w.vzM

To start with,the auto companies should have been allowed to completely fail last fall bailout free.The good parts would remain under new ownership and all of the old good buddy network would have been eliminated.The bankruptcies that Obama negotiated were simply for political payoffs for getting him elected.

The car dealers seem to be viewed improperly.Each one is a separate business or part of a dealer group.GM and Chrysler do not own a single car dealership.So the theory that closing a few thousand will somehow help to streamline operations is hogwash.You are simply forcing private companies to break their dealer agreement without merit.Some will go out of business and some will sell used cars or possibly go foreign,but that is beside the point.The "secret" process for selecting the dealers is very controversial and for good reason.It's not based on economics.It's another casualty of the political process.

The manufacturers will save some money indeed by no longer providing training,marketing,auditing and other types of support to these closed dealers.This exact number is unknown but rather insignificant in the big picture.Let's not forget this will also cause the workers who were providing these functions to also lose their jobs.

The largest point is can anyone provide any rational explanation for why having your product available in fewer markets will help you sell more product?The "less is more" motto is fine for certain things that you wish to increase demand for.Overexposure is bad for some things such as a celebrity.But when it comes to selling cars,you want it available to as many people as possible around the globe.You want your service network to be convenient and accessible for your car owners to utilize.No one wants an hour drive or more to have their car serviced.

If you believe that oversaturation of car dealers is an issue,ask yourself why these dealers haven't gone out of business already due to slow sales.Remember,they are not subsidized by the manufacturer,they must show a profit like any other business or they go under.

So,what do we have?No sound financial reason for this action.No legal authority for ignoring bankruptcy law and forcing bondholders to go to the back of the line.The Executive branch of our Government directly negotiating a bankruptcy proceeding.Binding,legal dealership agreements being torn up.Private companies being forced out of business.Political payoffs.The CEO's being forced out,but the UAW president remaining.

Looks like your standard criminal mob activity courtesy of our President.More to come...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Tax raises disguised as reform

The Tax Foundation has studied the new Obama health care tax and released it's study.Remember,this is being advertised as health care reform which in theory will save money.

The new top tax rate in Michigan is 51.59%.This combines the average local income tax rate of .44%,state income tax rate of 4.35%,federal income tax rate of 39.6%,medicare tax rate of 2.9% and the new health care surtax of 5.4%.They are already discussing raising it in 2013.

This new health care surtax would kick in at $800,000 for singles and $1,000,000 for couples.There are 2 lower tiers as well starting at $280,000.

These are targeted squarely at our small business owners.Those earning less than $280,000 are not significant employers even though they qualify as small business owners.

Add on the carbon emissions tax and the only people who can pull Michigan out of the economic depression get a double hit.Let's not forget the VAT tax that hasn't been imposed yet.Tack on the tightened credit lending practices and the stage is set for a very prolonged depression here.More to come...

Idle thoughts

I was listening to Obama again reversing course and state that the stimulus is working,is on course,and that he wouldn't change it at all if he could.Whatever story serves the purpose of the moment.I again heard someone saying that they didn't vote for him,but he was still their President.So I wondered what we have in common since he is my President anyway.

We both have an ideology.He was educated by Saul Alinsky and it shows.I believe in the principles this country was founded upon,not what I may think they should have been.

We both want change.He wants Government to expand dramatically and be the central point in our lives.I want it to shrink dramatically and operate within the Constitution.

We both want health care reform.He wants a single payer government provided system with small businesses picking up the tab.I want reduced costs and taxpayer supported systems to be eliminated.

We both want clean air,water and soil.He wants the cap and trade hidden tax route to handicap American businesses against global competitors.I believe that any attempt to reduce pollution should actually reduce it rather that simply apply fines (hidden taxes),should be promoted as pollution legislation and taken to the taxpayers as a new tax should they approve it,and should have consensus science to back it up.

Those are a few areas of many I found that we agreed upon.However,we unanimously disagree on how to achieve them.I think the majority of us have a great many common areas of concern.Unfortunately,we have vastly different solutions generally due to our political ambitions.More to come...

Friday, July 10, 2009

U.S. financial woes solved-read on!

As the country steams along toward financial destruction,I think I really do see a green shoot.No,for real.We are already bankrupt,of course,because we owe more than we're worth.Deficits and spending are unprecedented,unemployment is up,credit remains tight,equity is dropping across the board,investors have lost trillions.All bad news to be sure.Seems to be only a matter of time before China pulls the plug on us and our entire financial sector collapses.

This is where the green shoot becomes evident.Once we default and the dollar becomes worthless,this is where the Obama bankruptcy team that just arranged the auto bankruptcies steps in.Remember,even though it's illegal,the Obama team decided not to pay off the bondholders and instead reward the UAW/CAW for their campaign support.All the plaintiffs with various litigation against the automakers-sorry,you got left out as well.The dealers who were successful and making money-sorry,you're out too.

Why not just let this team handle the bankruptcy proceedings and we can simply pay China,Japan and the other major debt holders to take 10 cents on the dollar?We can create a good U.S. and a bad U.S. just like GM.The good U.S. will be free of all debt and all future unfunded entitlement programs like S.S. and Medicare and health care reform and the carbon tax.We'll put all that in the bad U.S. side.In fact,since the Democrats own everything right now,why not let them pass everything they have ever wanted right before we file so all those obligations can go to the bad U.S..This will of course crush the economies around the globe and we can be the big dog on the porch again.So easy.More to come...

Mr. Prez-a little advice







Obama apparently hasn't been married long enough or he would have known to utilize this valuable tool when checking out the landscape.Especially when they're underage.Just another example of an amateur.More to come...


Stimulus futility

Time for an exercise in futility.Develop a realistic alternative to the upcoming 2nd Obama stimulus.Now,coming up with the plan isn't hard.Getting Congress to implement anything actually geared toward helping the economy is the futility.

We have over 27 million small businesses in the U.S. which have generated an average of between 60-80% of all new jobs annually over the last decade.Yet this is the area of the economy left out in the Obama stimulus.Small businesses generally account for roughly half of all private sector employees.Of course,once they become successful enough,they grow into a large business and are no longer included in this category.Over 99% of small businesses have less than 500 employees.

This is without question the key to any economic recovery.Private sector,small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy.Big corporations play an important role,no doubt,but they are small potatoes in the overall economy.As are Government jobs at least for now.If Obama has his way,they will dominate our economy eventually.

There are endless breakdowns and analysis of who pays the most taxes.Only Liberals live in denial that the top few percent of wealthy Americans pay the bulk of all income taxes.These same people own and operate these small businesses.Thus,a tax break for them translates into growing small businesses,additional hiring,more investments,etc.

An across the board tax cut,ala Reagan,is the proven method to economic recovery.However,the increased tax revenue created by reducing tax rates creates the problem.Congress will have at their disposal all of this additional money and to complete the cycle need to exercise great restraint and not spend it on growing Government.How do you pull that off with the hacks running Congress today?

At the end of the day,an effective stimulus is virtually impossible because of this.There are also massive attempts to expand regulation at all levels of Government as a lack of it is being blamed for the recession.This 1-2 punch will stunt any recovery.Throw in the Federal Reserve and Obama's social agenda and there's no chance.Our economy has proven amazingly resilient over time and able to bounce back from recessions without any intervention whatsoever.It would have in this case as well.

The only solution is to remove the anchors holding back recovery.The first opportunity is the mid-term elections.Step two is to make Obama a one term President.Only then can any real attempt at recovery begin.How far will we have fallen by then?Can we afford to wait several years to even start repairing the damage?I vote for a revolution right now!More to come...

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Is the TSA effective?

More reports coming out today about the failures of the TSA and Federal Bldg. bomb screening.A baby was sent thru an airport x-ray machine.The Government auditors also smuggled bomb making materials thru several Federal buildings.A security agent was caught sleeping on the job.What's the problem?Obama has essentially declared the war on terror over in his efforts to appease the terrorists and be politically correct so who cares,right?

Just wanted to weigh in with my 2 cents.As a former TSA screener,I have seen firsthand how things are run.That's why I quit several years ago.As a veteran serving in the Air Force in the 80's,I thought I could continue my service to the country in the Dept. of Homeland Security.

It didn't take me long to realize that the TSA was simply an economic agency.It was created after 911 to give the appearance of real security and get people flying again.They had to give the aura of safety to provide confidence for passengers.This is not to say that there are no good people in the agency,as there were plenty who had the same mindset as myself.

We had several questionable scenarios arise over the 2 years I was there.The one that put me over the edge was a bomb alert.A contractor came thru the bag screening area with a large bag of tools and power equipment.The bag alerted and I followed all the protocols in place to determine the source.We could not clear the bag nor determine what was the source.The supervisor on duty in conjunction with the police put the guy on the plane anyway so as not to make him miss his flight.Obviously,nothing happened as in most cases,but had he disguised a bomb inside one of those power tools,we would have had a disaster.

That was it for me.If it had been an isolated incident,that would be different.But it was a pattern and I could not in good conscience continue the charade.I'm not posting this to deter people from flying.Nothing short of what is done in Israel and other middle east countries would be adequate and I'm a believer that you can just as easily get hit by a car.So carry on.Just be aware that the Dept. of Homeland Security is simply another taxpayer boondoggle fraught with waste.More to come...

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Layoff all Republican Congressman?

Biden says we underestimated the severity of the economic crisis.Joe,your nose is getting longer.Everybody and their brother told you how bad it was and that your stimulus wouldn't work.You and Obama have selective hearing of course and were only concerned with implementing your agenda.

Now it suits your purpose to "come clean" and confess that you underestimated because you are laying the groundwork for phase 2 of the stimulus.We will hear that we didn't do enough the first time and that we'll get it right this time.Hope that nose doesn't get so big your glasses don't fit.

I had a thought on how to save money.With the Franken "hiring" in the Senate,the Republicans are now officially irrelevant in Congress.The minority party in the House and they play no role in forming legislation with the Pelosi rules in play.The minority in the Senate with the Democrats now achieving their filibuster proof headcount.Obama calls on them for window dressing to give the appearance of bi-partisanship.

Why not just layoff all the Republican members of Congress?Look at the money taxpayers could save.Do the opposition votes on the Obama laundry list of social legislation really matter?They will push thru anything they want between now and 2010 anyway.I know that's not how our democracy works and this is a silly premise,but it's not that far out at the end of the day.More to come...

Friday, July 3, 2009

June unemployment - 16.8%

The June unemployment numbers are out.The National rate is 9.5% up from 9.4% in June.

I question the validity of the "official" unemployment rate.Check out Table A-12,the Alternative Measure of Labor Underutilization on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.

The U-6 measure is 16.8%.This incorporates several additional scenarios and may be more appropriate.More to come...

Thursday, July 2, 2009

300,000 jobs saved by stimulus!

Another update on the Obama claim of June 8th when he stated we would "save or create" 600,000 jobs over 100 days this summer.

Today is July 2nd,day 25 since he made the claim.At 6,000 jobs per day,we should have now "saved or created" 150,000 jobs.And that's on top of the original 150,000 jobs he claimed to have saved prior to June 8th.Awesome!300,000 jobs saved!

With todays updated National unemployment rate at 9.5% and another 467,000 jobs lost,obviously he will use his ace up the sleeve "saved" claim again.

It would have been 617,000 jobs lost in June were it not for his stimulus package.Sure glad we went in debt for the $787 billion well spent tax dollars.Except that it will of course be more than that and talk is ramping up of the guaranteed 2nd stimulus.

Just a sidenote.We swapped Marian Hossa for Ben Gordon.Sort of.Who's better off-Wings,Pistons,Blackhawks,Bulls?We know for sure Hossa can't deliver in the clutch.Can Gordon?More to come...