Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

[brucefan]

Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 07:32 AM

Obama loves bailouts. They are the best thing that ever happened to the radical leftist/socialist cause. When capitalism worked (meaning all of the past 200+ years), radical leftist politicians like Obama couldn't tell Wall Street or banks or developers or auto companies or Fortune 500 CEO's what to do. When CEO's were actually making money, they could (and did) tell the government, government bureaucrats and politicians like Obama to shove off. Money equals independence and individualism. No government bureaucrat could ever boss the captains of capitalism around- not as long as capitalism worked.

But here's the problem- the last year has been the worst year in the history of American big business (as reported in Fortune only days ago). Banks are failing. Public companies are failing. Previously perfect Wall Street stock firms and investment banks are failing. The Big 3 automakers are failing. Big insurance companies (like AIG) are failing. Media companies- from newspapers to television networks- are failing. This was just the opening the socialists needed to not just destroy capitalism, but to literally highjack and take control of American big business. Obama now has virtually the entire business community (and national media) by the balls. If you want his bailout money, you have to play by his rules. Dissent is silenced. Obama is the bosses of bosses, "the capo di tutti capi." Obama now orders CEO's around like the new White House puppy Bo.

If you run an auto company, you either use the bailout money to prop up bloated union contracts that destroyed your company in the first place; and limit the salaries of every top executive; and scrap all your SUV's (even if they are your most profitable and popular product- case in point: the Jeep Cherokee): and build only ?green cars?- or you get fired, or the bailout money is withheld and your company fails. Either way you do what Obama says, or you lose your job (and income as CEO). The CEO's of the top automakers have been neutered like Bo.

If you run a bank, you either loan to friends of Obama in politically correct or green industries; give out mortgages to low income applicants (the very fraud that bankrupted the entire banking and credit industries); and limit the salaries of every top executive- or you get fired, or bailout money is withheld and your bank fails. Powerful bankers have been neutered like Bo.

If you are a major real estate developer, you either build ?green buildings? or partner with Obama's friends (or both)- or bailout money is withheld and you fail. Real Estate tycoons have been neutered
like Bo.

If you are CEO of a media company, like Jeffrey Immelt at GE (who owns NBC), or Jeffrey Zucker of NBC, you either show deference and bias to Obama's socialist agenda on your television network, or your bailout money is withheld and your television network fails (GE and NBC are currently bleeding losses). The kings of media have been neutered like Bo.

Ditto to the NY Times and liberal newspapers in big cities across the USA who are literally begging Obama for a newspaper bailout. To get the bailout, they'll have to write only supportive and positive editorials about Obama and his political agenda. To keep the bailout (without government pulling the rug out from under them), they'll have to do the same. The publishers will have to order their journalists to report on Obama's Weapons of Mass Distraction- his Tonight Show appearances and Town Hall meetings and March Madness picks and of course, his new puppy Bo. Anything but the truth- that with each Obama decision- the deficit grows bigger, the debt grows more unmanageable, the economy falls further into the abyss, and capitalism grows weaker by the minute.

Obama now controls freedom of the press. It has been widely reported that NBC CEO Jeffrey Zucker called a dinner for top CNBC executives and asked his on-air anchors and hosts to tone down their criticism of Obama. Worse, on MSNBC (also owned by GE and NBC), a radical leftist Hollywood celebrity (is there any other kind?) Janeane Garofalo slandered Tax Day Tea Party protestors by calling them all "white racist rednecks? who hate a black man (Obama) and don't understand a thing about taxes or the Boston Tea Party." In other words everyone at those Tea Parties (including me) is ignorant and hates Obama only because he is black. The MSNBC host interviewing her (Keith Olbermann) said nothing. Not a word of protest, debate, or disagreement. Can you imagine a fiscal conservative capitalist going on NBC or CNBC or MSNBC and calling Obama a racist who hates wealthy white businessmen, and not being viciously attacked, denounced and hounded into an apology or clarification by the host?

Yet anti-tax protestors can be slandered as racists with nary a word of disagreement by hosts at networks owned by GE- who happens to get billion dollar bailouts from Obama. Why? Because Obama now has GE (the parent company of NBC) squeezed by the private parts. The CEO is Obama's personal pet. Forget those wonderful images of the new White House puppy Bo. If the media was honest, they'd show Obama taking GE CEO Jefrrey Immelt and NBC CEO Zucker for a walk on the White House lawn.

Obama has now got Immelt housebroken like Bo. Can't you hear him talking to Jeffrey, ?Be a good boy Jeffrey, support my agenda, or I will withhold your bailout money.? But if Jeffrey Immelt is a nice well-behaved puppy, he gets to sit at the feet of his master at the head table. Immelt was such a good puppy, Obama recently rewarded him with an appointment to his Economic Recovery Team. Recovery? Immelt has presided over the destruction of GE. What does he know about recovery? Since Immelt took over as CEO, GE's stock has dropped in value by as much as 80%. Only to someone with zero business experience like Obama, can Immelt look like an economic heavyweight. The guy is more like a paperweight. He has weighed down GE for years now.

But despite NBC's failing ratings and dramatically falling revenues, Immelt and Zucker serve their purpose. They do the dirty work of Obama like the nice little pets they are. Zucker hires radical leftist TV hosts like Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC (the host who nodded enthusiastically as all Tea Party protestors were called ?racist rednecks?). Hosts like Maddow and Olbermann simply support every word uttered by Obama like ?company men.? Zucker makes sure NBC Sports (yes I said sports) has ?green nights? where they turn the lights off at the pregame football studio (while on the air). Yes, NBC hosts shows in the dark to show their support for the war against global warming. Zucker makes sure that the NBC Evening News reports (without bias, of course) positively on green technology. And guests on NBC-owned television networks are able to call all Tea Party tax protestors ?ignorant racist rednecks? without nary a question or comment from the radical leftist hosts.

Yes sir, Obama owns 'em all.

The question I have is pretty simple: how come we're letting Obama abandon capitalism after only two bad years (1929 and 2008) in the last century? Yet we're putting government in charge, when government has never in history EVER had one single good year. Not one.

Government loses money every second of every day. Every department of government bleeds loses every year. Government has never heard of a profit. Government simply spends and loses trillions of dollars every year of its existence, then raises taxes next year, and somehow still manages to run a huge deficit. Government only survives because it asks capitalism and capitalists to bail out its losses, waste, corruption and inefficiency every single year (with the power of taxation). Name one year that government has ever succeeded in making a profit?

Government hasn't ever actually make one dollar. It just spends and taxes, then the following year always spends and taxes more (somehow running up an even bigger deficit). Can you imagine how good you or I could do if we had the power to tax? I could just wake up tomorrow and spend a trillion dollars, then demand a trillion dollars in taxes from businesses and individuals. And if I feel like spending $2 trillion next year, I could just raise the taxes by complaining that I don't have enough money. What a racket. The mafia has nothing on government. Bernie Madoff has nothing on government. It's one big ponzi scheme run by Obama, a guy who knows nothing about running even a bodega or a pet store.

Just remember before you willingly hand the keys over to Obama and big government, neither of them has ever in their entire lives earned a profit in business. Not once. Not one penny. Not one year. This is the guy now ordering CEO's around like hired help. This is the guy neutering CEO's like Bo the White House puppy. Didn't you hear Obama in the halls of NBC last week, ?Hey Jeffrey, take out the trash.?


Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate. His new book will be released by John Wiley & Sons this Spring entitled, ?The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts.? The book is available for pre-sale at Amazon.com. For more of Wayne's views, commentaries, or to watch his many media interviews, please visit his web site at: www.ROOTforAmerica.com
:cheers

 

[brucefan]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

OBAMA NOW A MARKETING MAJOR, WHAT COUNTRY IS THIS AGAIN??



Obama Halves Chrysler's Planned Marketing Budget

Task Force Agrees Automaker Needs Advertising -- Just Not $134 Million Worth

By Jean Halliday

Published: May 11, 2009
DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it's expected to be in bankruptcy -- the U.S. Treasury's auto-industry task force gave it half that.
So if GM, which is wrestling with the possibility of a Chapter 11 filing itself, is wondering how much influence the task force will have over marketing, the answer is: plenty. However, transcripts from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York, where the Chrysler case is being heard, proved for the first time that the task force at least understands that advertising is a necessary expense -- even if it doesn't think Chrysler needs $134 million for nine weeks of car ads.
Robert Manzo, executive director of Capstone Advisory Group and a consultant to Chrysler, testified at a May 4 hearing that the task force "believed that it was not feasible to not spend anything on marketing and advertising for fear of eroding the image of the brand," during the company's planned nine weeks in bankruptcy. However, Mr. Manzo also testified that this "hotly discussed" matter resulted in the task force basically slashing in half the amount Chrysler wanted for advertising in the period.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur Gonzalez then asked the witness: "Idle plants, why market?" referring to Chrysler's shutdown of its factories for nine weeks. "The belief on all sides was that it was essential for Chrysler not to lose its brand image in the marketplace," Mr. Manzo testified. "Advertising and marketing dollars are critical to make sure the right message is out there about Chrysler, what's happening to Chrysler during this interim period and why Chrysler will be a brand going forward that is one that a consumer should continue to look at as one of their purchase opportunities."
Indeed, that's what the automaker is attempting with a national TV campaign from BBDO, Detroit, that's running in prime time on ABC, NBC and Fox to try to calm consumers' fears about the future of its Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler vehicles. The first of two 30-second spots is dubbed "Bright Future," and it refers to Chrysler's reorganization and alliance with Fiat that will build a "meaner and leaner" company for the future. The push is a departure for Chrysler, which earlier this year cut network broadcast out of its budget in favor of more inexpensively priced local TV.
Outcry
Steven Landry, Chrysler exec VP-sales and marketing, said in a statement that the effort "gives us the opportunity to reinforce that it's business as usual and demonstrate a bright future ahead for Chrysler." That sentiment, however, struck a discordant note with some Ad Age readers after a story on the campaign was published on AdAge.com. "Business as usual? Isn't that what got American car companies in trouble in the first place? Business as usual gave us cars no one wanted to buy, zero innovation, outdated labor practices and a lot of taxpayer money thrown in to keep a sinking ship from going under," commented Jeff from Boston. "How about some unusual business -- like a successful American car company?"
Consideration for Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles on Edmunds.com did jump 15% in the days after the company filed for bankruptcy April 30, the auto site reported. But news of the filing attracted buyers looking for rock-bottom sticker prices; dealers said customers made "outrageously low offers" for Chrysler vehicles expecting them to take any price, Edmunds said. The consideration boom lasted only five days and is now back to previous levels in spite of Chrysler's new incentive program, which can add up to $6,000 per new vehicle purchased through June 1.
While Chrysler's filing lists BBDO as its second-largest unsecured creditor, owed $58.1 million, one executive close to the matter said the agency will be paid. The executive said the auto task force agreed to Chrysler's plan to give the ad agency "critical supplier" status, which moves it up the payment list. A Chrysler spokeswoman refused to confirm that information; an auto-task-force representative did not respond to calls for comment by press time.
As Chrysler prepares to spend the $67 million the task force approved, GM is cutting back as it tries to slim down to satisfy a June 1 deadline set by the Treasury's auto task force. Few, however, believe GM can avoid following Chrysler into bankruptcy court.
Reduced spending
GM reduced ad spending "some" in the first quarter, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young revealed last week in a conference call about the company's $6 billion global loss in the period. He noted in the call that GM is closely following Chrysler's procedures "in case we have to go through it."
Charts GM shared on its investor website during the call show $300 million of the $3.1 billion in spending it cut globally in the first quarter was in advertising. Although the figure was worldwide, most of the slicing likely happened in North America, since the region accounted for nearly half GM's total loss. And the auto giant told Uncle Sam it will trim $800 million from advertising this year.
A GM spokeswoman declined to comment. GM's chief financial officer said talk of bankruptcy has already had "a lot of impact" on the market, although he was unable to quantify how much of GM's first-quarter market-share loss was directly tied to that (GM said its North American share fell to 17.9% from 21.7% a year ago). "We just need to get out of the front page of the newspaper every day, and get this thing behind us," he said.



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[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

ol⋅i⋅gar⋅chy

 <script language="javascript">AC_FL_RunContent = 0;</script><script src="http://cache.lexico.com/js/AC_RunActiveContent.js" language="javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">var interfaceflash = new LEXICOFlashObject ( "http://cache.lexico.com/d/g/speaker.swf", "speaker", "17", "15", "<img src=\"http://cache.lexico.com/g/d/speaker.gif\" border=\"0\" />", "6");interfaceflash.addParam("loop", "false");interfaceflash.addParam("quality", "high");interfaceflash.addParam("menu", "false");interfaceflash.addParam("salign", "t");interfaceflash.addParam("FlashVars", "soundUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.lexico.com%2Fdictionary%2Faudio%2Fluna%2FO00%2FO0081400.mp3"); interfaceflash.addParam('wmode','transparent');interfaceflash.write();</script><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://cache.lexico.com/d/g/speaker.swf" id="speaker" quality="high" loop="false" menu="false" salign="t" flashvars="soundUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.lexico.com%2Fdictionary%2Faudio%2Fluna%2FO00%2FO0081400.mp3" wmode="transparent" width="17" align="texttop" height="15"><noscript></noscript> /ˈɒl ɪˌgɑr ki/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ol-i-gahr-kee] Show IPA –noun, plural -chies. <table class="luna-Ent"> <tbody><tr> <td class="dnindex" width="35">1.</td> <td>a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="luna-Ent"> <tbody><tr> <td class="dnindex" width="35">2.</td> <td>a state or organization so ruled.</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="luna-Ent"><tbody><tr><td class="dnindex" width="35">3.</td> <td>the persons or class so ruling.</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

[johnny bench]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

I miss those SCANDAL FREE DAYS when Bush was running this country into the ground financially .....

 

[ACCC]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

I would like to see the evidence that pro-corporate policies have "worked for all of the past 200+ years." This country has the some of the highest levels of inequality, healthcare problems, and greedy corporate/political elite who have continued to destroy the country.

The article also doesn't properly address the negatives of the bailout, especially that it transfers more money to the corporate elite rather than being a punishment.

 

[brucefan]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Will: Obama's economic lawlessness

posted by Donny Ferguson on May 15, 2009


?We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama ? $60.7 million to be exact ? and we?re proud of it,? Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, bragged in the May 10 Las Vegas Sun.
And as George Will points out in Thursday's Washington Post, they're getting their money's worth -- and at taxpayer expense -- thanks to a corrupt, lawless Obama administration. He also delves into Obama's corrupt bullying of Chrysler's secured creditors, cowing them into accepting pennies on the dollar while the labor unions who spent millions to elect Obama got better deals despite being lesser creditors.
Click here to read Will's full column, or if it's offered in your area, pick up a copy of The Washington Post. Will writes, in part:

Anyone, said T.S. Eliot, could carve a goose, were it not for the bones. And anyone could govern as boldly as his whims decreed, were it not for the skeletal structure that keeps civil society civil -- the rule of law. The Obama administration is bold. It also is careless regarding constitutional values and is acquiring a tincture of lawlessness.
In February, California's Democratic-controlled Legislature, faced with a $42 billion budget deficit, trimmed $74 million (1.4 percent) from one of the state's fastest-growing programs, which provides care for low-income and incapacitated elderly people and which cost the state $5.42 billion last year. The Los Angeles Times report that "loose oversight and bureaucratic inertia have allowed fraud to fester."
But the Service Employees International Union collects nearly $5 million a month from 223,000 caregivers who are members. And the Obama administration has told California that unless the $74 million in cuts are rescinded, it will deny the state $6.8 billion in stimulus money.
Such a federal ukase (the word derives from czarist Russia; how appropriate) to a state legislature is a sign of the administration's dependency agenda -- maximizing the number of people and institutions dependent on the federal government. For the first time, neither sales nor property nor income taxes are the largest source of money for state and local governments. The federal government is. ...
...The Obama administration's agenda of maximizing dependency involves political favoritism cloaked in the raiment of "economic planning" and "social justice" that somehow produce results superior to what markets produce when freedom allows merit to manifest itself, and incompetence to fail. The administration's central activity -- the political allocation of wealth and opportunity -- is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption.


http://www.lp.org/blogs/donny-ferguson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051303014.html

The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. Our vision is for a world in which all individuals can freely exercise the natural right of sole dominion over their own lives, liberty and property by building a political party that elects Libertarians to public office, and moving public policy in a libertarian direction
​

 

[brucefan]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

GM, Amtrak and an Increasingly Fascist America by Ron Paul

Posted June 8th, 2009 by JeffD http://www.house.gov/htbi...
Last week, General Motors finally declared bankruptcy. Many in government thought $20 billion in taxpayer dollars would save the company, but as predicted, it only postponed the inevitable. The government will dump another $30 billion into GM and take a 60 percent controlling interest for it. Public officials are now involving themselves in tactical business decisions such as where GM?s headquarters should move and what kind of cars it will build.
The promise that this is temporary and will eventually be profitable is supposed to ease the American people into accepting this arrangement, but it is of little comfort to those who remember similar promises when the American taxpayers bought Amtrak. After three years, government was supposed to be out of the passenger rail business. 40 years and billions of dollars later, the government is still operating Amtrak at a loss, despite the fact that they have created a monopoly by making it illegal to compete with Amtrak. Imagine what they can now do to what is left of the great American auto industry!
In a truly free market, GM would get your money one way and one way only ? by selling you a car you want, at a price you are willing to pay. Instead, the government is giving public money to a private company in spite of the market signals it has been sending. Throwing money at GM does not stop it from being an engine of wealth destruction; on the contrary, it simply gives it more wealth to destroy.
Had it been allowed to fail naturally, the profitable pieces of GM would have been bought up and put to good use by now. The laid off employees would likely have found new jobs and all that capital would be in private hands, reinvested in companies that produce products demanded by consumers. Instead, we are all poorer now.
Political pressure, rather than the rule of law, is deciding how to divide up the remains of GM. The bondholders had billions in retirement savings invested in the company, and though they were entitled to nearly three times as much as the United Auto Workers, the bondholders were left with just a 10 percent stake compared to the union?s 17.5 percent stake. For their 60 percent stake, taxpayers have a future of constant bailouts to look forward to.
Comingling public control of private business is known as fascism. While today?s politicians may feel emboldened with all their new power, history will only repeat itself as all this collapses on itself. It is the height of hubris for bureaucrats and politicians to attempt to control the market and the freewill of the American people. In the end, the market always wins out. Maybe one day future generations will wise up and allow free markets to function and thrive without the albatross of government around its neck. For now, it looks like those in charge have not learned the lessons of the past, and have doomed us to repeat those mistakes once again.

 

[brucefan]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

June 12, 2009

<TABLE width="95%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=left width="80%">Property Rights Take a Hit
</TD><TD align=right></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
?Crony capitalism? is a term often applied to foreign nations where government interference circumvents market forces. The practice is widely associated with tin-pot dictators and second-rate economies. In such a system, support for the ruling regime is the best and only path to economic success. Who you know supersedes what you know, and favoritism trumps the rule of law. Unfortunately, this week?s events demonstrate that the phrase now more aptly describes our own country.

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Chrysler?s secured creditors based on the government?s argument that the needs of other stakeholders outweighed those of a few creditors. In this case, the Administration concluded the interests of the United Auto Workers outweighed the interests of the Indiana teachers and firemen whose pension fund sued to block the restructuring. Given the enormous financial support that the UAW poured into the Obama campaign, such partiality is hardly surprising.

When making their investment in Chrysler just a few months ago, the Indiana pension fund agreed to commit capital because of the specific assurances received from the company. In allowing this sham bankruptcy to be crammed through the courts, we have shredded the vital principal of the rule of law, and have become a nation of men, rather than one of laws.

The risk that legal contracts can now be arbitrarily set aside will make investors think twice before committing capital to distressed corporations. Oftentimes enforcing contracts imposes hardships. That?s precisely why we have contracts.

Without absolute faith that deals will be honored, it will be extremely difficult for U.S. companies to borrow money. This will be particularly true for those companies already struggling with too much debt. Without the ability to issue secured debt, how will such companies access the necessary capital to turn around? If secured creditors cannot count on the courts to enforce their claims, they will not put their capital at risk. What good is being a secured creditor if courts can allow the assets securing your claim to be sold for the benefit of others?

Another problem with the government imposing losses on secured Chrysler creditors is that in its bailouts of financial companies (like Citigroup and AIG), the government took steps to specifically pay back creditors, even when those creditors should have been wiped out. This inconsistency and lack of equal protection further undermines faith in our economy.

The message here is clear: loan money to financial entities with friends in Washington and no matter how risky the loan, taxpayers will bail you out if it goes bad. However, loan money to a unionized manufacturer, even if prudently secured by real assets, and you have as much chance of getting your money back as finding Jimmy Hoffa?s body.

As if this wasn?t bad enough, testimony on Thursday from former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis revealed a concerted effort on the part of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to pressure Lewis into hiding relevant financial information regarding Merrill Lynch losses from B of A shareholders. Recently released e-mails make it clear that the government threatened to remove corporate leaders if they failed to go through with the merger and keep quiet about the losses.

Again, the justification for the interference seemed to be the ?greater economic good? the merger would serve. The right of B of A shareholders to be informed that their company was about to buy a financial black hole was clearly considered to be an acceptable sacrifice.

More importantly, the fact that two of the highest-ranking government officials can conspire to violate both securities laws and private property rights is abhorrent to everything America supposedly stands for. If they get away with it, which I believe they will, the precedent and the message will be chilling.

As a broker who specializes in foreign investments, I am always wary of political risk. I must consider how the threat of arbitrary government action could undermine the value of my investments. However, recent events show that political risk is now greater here than abroad, and U.S. assets, which have historically traded at premium valuations based on faith in our legal system, will soon trade at discounts to reflect this new threat. The fear of having contracts abrogated or property rights violated when doing so serves some contrived greater good will substantially raise our cost of capital and further reduce our competitiveness.

For a more in depth analysis of our financial problems and the inherent dangers they pose for the U.S. economy and U.S. dollar denominated investments, read Peter Schiff?s book "Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse".

 

[brucefan]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

?WE?RE NOT GIVING YOU ANOTHER CENT, UNTIL YOU TELL US WHERE THE MONEY WENT!?
Monday, October 5, 2009, 08:53 AM
They Really Do All Lie!

Proof That Politicians and Government Bureaucrats Lie to Us Everyday- Inspector General Finds that Paulsen and Bernanke Lied to Americans About Bailouts and Health of Banks.

By Wayne Allyn Root, Author
The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts

Just last week I wrote a commentary entitled, ?They ALL Lie.? It referred to the controversy surrounding Congressman Joe Wilson screaming out ?You Lie? to President Obama. I said that Congressman Wilson was only partially right. The fact is they all lie. Politicians of all political parties have been lying to us for many decades and we?ve accepted this. The result is a $100 trillion national debt and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The result is an American economy teetering on the verge of collapse. The result is the bankruptcy and insolvency of our nation. The result is that our children and grandchildren will be enslaved to debt and high taxes for generations to come, to pay for it all.

I said in my commentary of last week that it was time to stop being so civil, humble and well mannered. It?s time for all of us to call them liars and take back our country. It?s time to V.E.T.O. the entire U.S. Congress (Vote Everyone of Them Out). It?s time to throw all the bums out. It?s time to put term limits on all incumbent politicians- whether they approve or not. It?s time to demand accountability. It?s time to find out what government is doing with our money. It?s time to shout to our politicians, ?We?re not giving you another cent, until you tell us where all the money went!?

Well I was proven right just this morning. U.S. Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky reported today that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen and Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke lied to us when they announced at a press conference last October that the nine giant banks receiving the first round of bailouts were financially healthy. This was a blatant lie. So was Treasury Secretary Paulsen?s explanation about where the emergency money was going- it turns out that the billions of dollars of taxpayer money was not used to buy up toxic assets. That program is just starting now- a year later. So where did the money go? Who has it? Why did those particular banks get the money?

So let me get this straight- Our own government lied to us about the health of our banks?.about where the money was going?and we still don?t know the specific details of who got the bailout trillions?or how much they got?or what it was used for. The excuse used to justify the outright lies by Treasury officials this morning was ?the extraordinary circumstances? of last Fall?s financial meltdown.

That?s the ?excuse of the day? for this particular lie. But what about all the other lies told to taxpayers about all the other programs for the past century? What?s the excuse for those blatant lies? Or how about the lies Obama, Reid and Pelosi tell us every day about government-run universal healthcare, or cap and trade, or card check, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? There?s always a new lie or rationalization to explain every government decision to spend our taxpayer money.

The lies never end. The reasons are always the same: ?We know what?s best for you.? ?It was extraordinary circumstances.? ?It was necessary to protect you, or the country, or the economy.? ?Government knows best.? Really? So how come we are $100 trillion in debt? I guess we could have survived without those programs. Perhaps we?d be in much better financial shape without those programs?without those lies?without those politicians. Perhaps the politicians are the problem, not the solution. Perhaps government is the problem, not the solution. Perhaps government doesn?t know best. Perhaps if they lie to us under ?extraordinary circumstance,? they?ll lie under ordinary circumstances too. It?s time to stop accepting the lies and excuses and rationalizations. It?s time to stop trusting that ?government knows best.? We?re $100 trillion in debt- almost two times world GDP (all the money earned in the world each year). We couldn?t possibly have done any worse.

Yet nothing changes. Just days ago Congress voted down a bill that would have demanded that all bills before Congress be published online for 48 hours before a vote- so the American people had a chance to actually read them before they are voted on. What a concept. I?m sure this made Congress laugh. Why on earth would the American people read the bills, when Congress doesn?t ever read them?

No wonder we are $100 trillion in debt. We have liars, thieves and conmen running the government. We have czars running the government- unaccountable to the peasants (ie the people). We have a Federal Reserve running the economy and printing dollars, without authority or accountability. And politicians lying to us, because they think they know best.

Well it?s our money. It belongs to the taxpayers- not the politicians. Don?t count on us being docile, or quiet, or ignorant anymore. From this day forward, we are demanding an accounting of where our money goes, who gets it, and exactly what they?re using it for. The days of lies and secrecy are over. It?s time to throw civility and manners to the curb. It?s time to shout with rage and passion:

?WE?RE NOT GIVING YOU ANOTHER CENT, UNTIL YOU TELL US WHERE THE MONEY WENT.?



Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate

 

[brucefan]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

The Obama/Goldman Sachs Small Business Scam?
Monday, November 23, 2009, 01:12 PM
Was Goldman Sachs Forced to Make a Half Billion Dollar Payoff to the Minority Community as a (legal) Bribe to Obama?

Small Business Faces an Economic Armageddon, While Obama Plays ?the Race Card.?

By Wayne Allyn Root, Author
The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts


Did you see the announcement late last week that Goldman Sachs is giving a half billion dollars to small businesses. Or are they? Why are they suddenly concerned with small business? They've certainly never cared about small business before. Could this sudden interest by Goldman Sachs be because it pays to do favors for Obama's friends? And for Obama everything- including business- is about race. You see Goldman claimed they are concerned with small business. But the reality is they are only concerned with one tiny segment of small business- MINORITY OWNED SMALL BUSINESSES. More specifically- minority businesses in minority neighborhoods. Even more specifically, those loans to minority businesses in minority neighborhoods will only be disbursed through ?community organizations.?

Do you speak in legal-ese designed by Obama administration lawyers? If not, you probably missed the bleeding heart liberal code words in this announcement by Goldman Sachs. They didn't state clearly that the half billion dollars was for minority loans only. They said, ?Goldman will spend $200 million on education and training programs, while funneling $300 million to so-called community-development financial institutions, which largely serve historically disadvantaged communities that have had trouble accessing capital.? Then they added in the announcement that the loans would be only for businesses in ?underserved areas.?

Notice the code words used by liberals to cover up reverse racism- ?historically disadvantaged communities,? ?underserved areas,? ?community-development financial institutions.? By the way- what the heck is a ?community-development financial institution?? Isn't a financial institution, just a financial institution? Well obviously not in Obama's race-charged world. Some institutions are better than others?more deserving than others?more ?fair? than others in Obama's world. Obviously Goldman Sachs has chosen to become part of Obama's world.

Has Goldman Sachs decided to play the ?race card? to win favor (and perhaps avoid criminal prosecution for alleged crimes committed in their deep foray into the sub-prime mortgage market) from the Obama administration? That half billion dollar legal bribe is certainly the kind of thing you do when you want to avoid possible criminal charges for selling securities short, while you allegedly dump those same securities on unsuspecting investors.

?Disadvantaged? and ?underserved? and ?community-development? are all code words in Obama's community activist world for ?minorities only need apply for government money.? It kind of reminds you of ?Whites Only? signs outside playgrounds or water fountains in the 1950's. Or job openings for ?whites only.? Or schools segregated for ?whites only.? Or how about this oldie: ?Blacks ride in the back of the bus.? Do these descriptions sound ugly? Well they are. They represent one of the most embarrassing and troubling eras in American history. They were disgraceful, biased and racist then. And they still are today- except the roles have changed. My mother used to say that ?two wrongs don't make a right.? Well racism that favors minorities and discriminates against whites, is no better than the other way around. And when this prejudice, bias and racism is perpetrated by government (or a Wall Street firm acting under pressure from government), it's even more disgraceful.

Obama campaigned as a man who would end racism. He made it clear that race should no longer matter. But the opposite is true- under President Obama it matters more than ever. Under President Obama it's fine to help people based on the color of their skin- as long as he chooses the color. It's back of the bus time again- only this time it's millions of small business owners who happened to be born white that get to ride in the back. Obama is telling small business owners who don't happen to have the right color skin to pound sand.

We are not in a recession. We are in a depression. The worst since 1929- and getting worse every day. Everyone is in trouble. We are all in it together. We will all need to get out of it together too. But Obama cares nothing about small business- even though small business has created virtually every job in the USA since the Reagan economic miracle. No wonder there are no new jobs in this supposed recovery- only small business can lead us out of this mess. Jobs come from small business, not big government, big unions, or big business.

Yet Obama's policies do nothing but punish small business with higher taxes, bigger penalties, more onerous rules and regulations. Small businesses continue to go out of business at a record pace. The expiration of the Bush income tax cuts will result in the biggest tax increase in history on small business. Add on universal healthcare taxes, cap & trade taxes, medicare tax increases for the wealthy, health surcharges for the wealthy, a raise in the FICA cap, a VAT tax, a raise in capital gains taxes, and the latest proposed tax- a Afghanistan war tax on the wealthy. It all adds up to Socialism?and a CATASTROPHE for small business owners.

Yet Obama's only bone thrown to small business is encouraging (ie forcing) Goldman Sachs to give away $500 million to small businesses owned only by minorities, serving only minority neighborhoods, and with money doled out only by Obama's friends (and campaign contributors) at community activist organizations like ACORN. According to Obama, the rest of us just don't count. Get used to the new reality of America under Obama- where everything is based on race and the redistribution of income. And two wrongs obviously do make a right.

 

[scrimmage]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

I would like to see the evidence that pro-corporate policies have "worked for all of the past 200+ years." This country has the some of the highest levels of inequality, healthcare problems, and greedy corporate/political elite who have continued to destroy the country.

The article also doesn't properly address the negatives of the bailout, especially that it transfers more money to the corporate elite rather than being a punishment.

Unlike others who've posted in this thread,ACCC grasps the fact that the tail wags the resident dog of the moment.
Obama hasn't trained anyone in big business,instead he had been properly vetted,certified,and housebroken from his political puppyhood,to faithfully serve those who placed him in such a high office,when it was deemed he had reached the maturity level required to perform dirty tricks.
​

Cartoon comments below from:
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/beautiful_steamer_20091122/

Beautiful Steamer
Posted on Nov 23, 2009
By Mr. Fish

By Virginia777, November 24 at 5:02 pm
this is yet another outrageous Obama-bashing cartoon from Mr. Fish.
Who is more dangerous, Bush or Obama?? its beneath the dignity of anyone familiar with the truth, to even answer this question.

By Russian Paul, November 24 at 5:54 pm
Virginia, Obama is clearly more dangerous. His foreign policies are exactly the same, but because so many people like yourself like the man, it stifles opposition and protest. The corporations run this country and under Obama, business runs more smoothly for them.

<!-- END comment-footer -->
By samosamo, November 24 at 8:03 pm
As the silhouettes signify, there is no real face to put a blame but after a new president comes in and does NOT undo what the previous president has done, then he becomes the one responsible and he becomes the most dangerous and from what I have seen from "O", he has still yet to convince me he is really trying to get this country back on its feet and hold those responsible for their actionaccountable in court.

But it all smacks of the agendas that came from all those neocon think tanks that cranked up during nixon?s terms and still continue to subvert everything to that good ole white boy club of crooks, thieves and criminals.
And we, the people,STILL keep them in office with Joe Lieberwoman as the official poster wad on this.

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Unlike others who've posted in this thread,ACCC grasps the fact that the tail wags the resident dog of the moment.
Obama hasn't trained anyone in big business,instead he had been properly vetted,certified,and housebroken from his political puppyhood,to faithfully serve those who placed him in such a high office,when it was deemed he had reached the maturity level required to perform dirty tricks.
​

Cartoon comments below from:
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/beautiful_steamer_20091122/

Beautiful Steamer
Posted on Nov 23, 2009
By Mr. Fish

By Virginia777, November 24 at 5:02 pm
this is yet another outrageous Obama-bashing cartoon from Mr. Fish.
Who is more dangerous, Bush or Obama?? its beneath the dignity of anyone familiar with the truth, to even answer this question.

By Russian Paul, November 24 at 5:54 pm
Virginia, Obama is clearly more dangerous. His foreign policies are exactly the same, but because so many people like yourself like the man, it stifles opposition and protest. The corporations run this country and under Obama, business runs more smoothly for them.

<!-- END comment-footer -->
By samosamo, November 24 at 8:03 pm
As the silhouettes signify, there is no real face to put a blame but after a new president comes in and does NOT undo what the previous president has done, then he becomes the one responsible and he becomes the most dangerous and from what I have seen from "O", he has still yet to convince me he is really trying to get this country back on its feet and hold those responsible for their actionaccountable in court.

But it all smacks of the agendas that came from all those neocon think tanks that cranked up during nixon?s terms and still continue to subvert everything to that good ole white boy club of crooks, thieves and criminals.
And we, the people,STILL keep them in office with Joe Lieberwoman as the official poster wad on this.

Big business has run this country for years.I agree that it is the other way and they have Obama trained to do their bidding for them.How anyone can think that the President runs the corporations is very naive.See who benefits from all the trade agreements that are signed.

 

[brucefan]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Universal Healthcare: The Great Bait and Switch Con Job.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 08:48 AM
Why the Heroes- ?Moderate? Senators- are Actually the Villians Who Have Betrayed Our Trust and Bankrupted our Nation.

The Greatest Taxpayer Rip-Off in U.S. History.

By Wayne Allyn Root, Author
The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gambling & Tax Cuts



My understanding of human nature, negotiating, and deal making skills have taken me from being an S.O.B. (son of a butcher) to a successful small businessman and Vice Presidential nominee of America's Third Party. For months I've predicted on TV and radio appearances exactly how universal healthcare would be proposed, debated, negotiated and passed- against the wishes of the American people.

As I've predicted, here is how Obama and his minions are pulling off the greatest bait and switch, taxpayer rip-off in American political history. They started by asking for something so big, so absurd, so unrealistic that it set the tone for the entire negotiation knowing it was nothing more than a ?bait and switch?. Then, after much arguing and debating that they would never do the deal without that absurd demand, they ?compromise? and accept something smaller, but still totally absurd. Everyone smiles, shakes hands, pats each other on the back and feels they've walked away a winner. But only one party won big, and the other lost big. They just don't realize it, all because of the art of negotiation and the use of ?bait and switch.? The American taxpayer is the big loser in this deal.

Let's use the example of an agent representing a star athlete. Assume you?re the agent. You ask for $15 million per year for 10 years for your client- a $150,000,000 contract- knowing that other similar athletes get only $5 million per year for 5 years- a $25 million contract. By asking for a long-term contract worth six times more than other athletes are getting you create a distraction. Then, for good measure and additional distraction you throw in one more demand that irritates everyone -- a demand your client flies free on the ballclub's private jet up to 20 times a year for the next 10 years. At $40,000 per private jet flight, that's an $8,000,000 perk (over 10 years). And just for good measure you also ask for a $5 million condo to be thrown into the deal for free.

Now you negotiate for months, all the time refusing to come off either the $15 million per year salary demand, or the 10 year term. But it's the dual distractions of the private jet and the multi-million condo that stick in everyone's craw. You refuse to drop any of those terms- all the while screaming that you will never do the deal without those perks. You do all this knowing that your client couldn't care less about the private jet or the condo. Even your client thinks the demands are absurd. But you assure your client that the distraction will take everyone's mind off the $15 million and the 10 year term.

You are so convincing in your refusal to ever compromise that the ballclub hires an expensive team of lawyers to negotiate a compromise with you. These lawyers are ?master negotiators.? After the big guns sit at the table, suddenly there is a breakthrough. You give up the private jet, even though you claim that your client will never forgive you. Soon you give up the $5 million condo. Everyone quickly agrees on a 7-year deal for $10 million per year. The ballclub feels victorious and they are thrilled to pay $2 million to the lawyer-negotiators for negotiating such a ?favorable deal.?

What's the reality? Your client only deserved 5 years for $5 million per year, for a total of $25 million. You would have been THRILLED to win the negotiation by getting him 5 years for $10 million= $50 million. But you actually got him 7 years for $10 million per year= $70 million. You hit a grand slam home run! You gained $20 million more than your wildest imagination. All because you started with an absurd number you were never serious about getting in the first place, and added in two giant distractions that you never wanted in the first place.

That is exactly how Universal Healthcare is being negotiated. AND IT WAS THE PLAN FROM THE BEGINNING. Ask for over a trillion dollars of new spending and demand a ?public option.? Liberal Democratic Senators and Congressman have screamed, day and night, from coast to coast, about how they would never vote for any plan that doesn't include a ?public option? for months now. They called it a ?deal killer.? But they never expected to pass a ?public option.? That was the distraction from day one. Once they convinced the public they would never give up the ?public option? they controlled the negotiation. The words ?public option? became the bogey-man. All the media talked about day and night for months was the dreaded ?public option.? But Democrats knew they'd never get a ?public option.? It was merely a distraction so moderate Democrat Senators like Joe Liebermann, Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln would look like heroes riding to the rescue of the public...and liberal Democrats would look like fair men and women looking to compromise on the best deal possible to ?save? our healthcare system.

Lieberman, Nelson and Lincoln put on world-class Hollywood acting performances. They promised to never vote for a ?public option.? They stood tall. They were unmovable. They would protect us (Actually what we need protecting from is THEM). And, of course, they promised to fight tooth and nail to bring the costs below the magic figure of $1 trillion. What heroes!!! And once they won both those fights, they'd provide cover for moderate Republican turncoats like Senators Collins and Snowe of Maine. Then these ?moderates? would all get to stand in front of the cameras, bathed in TV lights, looking like heroes, Hollywood stars, and friends of taxpayers, to announce a much less expensive and less onerous deal to save the American healthcare system. Lucky us!

One slight problem with all of this: It's all a sham! One big fraud. A ?bait and switch? con job on the American public. A blatant, planned rip off of taxpayers. Everyone in the Beltway clique knew from day one what the actual plan was. They never ever for one minute expected to pass a trillion dollar bill containing a ?public option.? All they ever wanted was a $800 billion to $900 billion bill without a ?public option.? The words public option were the bogeyman, the distraction. What liberals really wanted all along was another big spending program- just like Medicare, Medicaid, or the war on poverty. The words ?public option? are meaningless and immaterial. Whether it's one trillion dollars or less to start is also meaningless. The price doesn't matter- and they knew that all along. The Congress will now pass a trillion dollars in new spending (that in reality will become several trillion very quickly). That will allow them to raise taxes and buy more Democrat votes by redistributing even more income from taxpayers and small business owners to Democratic voters and contributors.

It's all a Liberal Democrat's wildest dream come true -- a new entitlement program bigger than anything they've imagined in decades. An opportunity for gigantic government expansion. An opportunity to hire hundreds of thousands of new government employees (union members who will vote reliably Democrat for decades to come). An opportunity to raise taxes and redistribute more income (to their voters) under the guise of ?healthcare? and helping sick people. An opportunity to ?addict? Americans to bigger government, and associate their health with a benevolent government ruler. An opportunity to pass more rules, regulations and mandates that put government in charge of your life - the very definition of Socialism, but with a kinder, gentler name and face.

But, most of all this is an opportunity to force the healthcare industry (17% of the U.S. economy) to pay large legal bribes (campaign contributions) to Obama and the Democratic Congress in order to get special treatment when it comes to how the rules and regulations are implemented by their bureaucratic flunkies. Once the door is opened, the cost overruns and goodies for special interests hike the bill to stratospheric heights never imagined by the American public. A trillion dollar program grows to $10 trillion within a decade, then to $50 trillion in 20 years, and finally to $100 trillion. It's a monster- and once let out of the cage, it can never be stopped.

Just remember - this was the plan all along. And it isn't just the liberals and Socialists we have to blame. It is also the ?moderates? who played along with their game- knowing all along where this would lead. This is a disaster with or without a ?public option.? It's a trillion dollars of new spending and new taxes in the middle of a depression. It's one of the great lies of all time- convincing us that they are spending a trillion new dollars in order to ?save? money. It's more incompetent government control over our lives. It's the creation of trillions in new debt for a bankrupt country that reminds me more and more of the Roman Empire in its final stages. And it's all thanks to the ?moderate? heroes. They will now vote ?YES? and claim they saved us. They are the turncoats who betrayed us- AGAIN. Next November we must pay them back by throwing out the entire United States Congress. Make everyone of them pay. THROW ALL THE BUMS OUT.

:cheers:cheers:cheers:cheers

 

[ACCC]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

When there is anything about spending money for healthcare or domestic improvements (not that I believe Obama is serious about either), the whole right wing suddenly becomes so disturbed.

I don't see the same outrage when trillions have been wasted on the Iraq war and corporate bailouts.

 

[brucefan]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Wayne Root gets it, and not afraid to tell it like it is :houra

THE OBAMA DEATH PANELS: UNIONS!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 09:03 PM
Obama Will Choose to Save Unions, and Destroy Small Business.


Obama: The First President Owned by Unions.


Obama Models USA after Michigan and California- Government Employee Unions Gone Wild.



By Wayne Allyn Root, 2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential Nominee



There was never going to be a heavy tax on high value ?Cadillac? health insurance policies. That was just a smokescreen. That was just a ?placeholder? until Obama could come up with taxes on business owners to replace it. Under Obama, it is always the ?rich? who will pay. Whether it?s a surcharge on income, or a huge increase in Medicare taxes, or an expansion of Medicare taxes to include profits on investment income?you can bet your bottom dollar that it is ?the rich? who will pay for universal healthcare.


The problem is this category that Democrats call ?the rich? is primarily small business owners -- the same small business owners that create 80% of all new jobs. Without small business participating?and motivated?there can be no increase in jobs. There can be no increase in taxes revenues. There can be no money to fund Obama?s bailouts, or nonstop stimulus packages, or his gigantic expansion of government.


Unfortunately, Obama is owned lock, stock and barrel ? bought and paid for by the unions. Without union contributions and groundwork, Democrat politicians couldn?t win an election. So Obama wants more unions, and more power for unions (see Card Check). That?s why he used stimulus funds primarily to hire more federal government union employees; to keep state government employee union members employed; and in many cases to actually give them raises!(Over 50% of all union workers are government employees!) That?s why he used bailouts to save auto union jobs- even though it is their obscene compensation, pensions and free healthcare that bankrupted the automakers in the first place. Let?s call it socialist logic- reward the very people that destroy jobs and wreck the economy.


Obama and his cohorts in Congress, Pelosi and Reid, are turning all of America into one big Michigan (the most unionized state) and California (a state controlled by state employee unions). There?s one problem- these states are models of miserable failure. Michigan has the nation?s worst economy; the highest unemployment; and the most moving vans headed out of state. As a result of union domination, Detroit is becoming a ghost town with its population cut in half. Detroit?s non-union citizens are running for their lives. Detroit is the first city to ever experience auctions for private homes for $100- AND FIND NO TAKERS. This is Obama?s vision for America ? is it yours?


But wait, union-heavy California is even worse (if that?s possible). California is the best example of what happens when too many of a state?s residents work for government. California has the most government employees in the nation?as well as the highest paid government employees in the nation. What a deadly combination! The results? California had the biggest budget deficit ever, the lowest bond ratings, and is rated as the worst state in America to do business. They ?solved? their budget deficit with band-aids, spit, mirrors and glue? for a few weeks. Now, it?s magically back? $20 billion and growing. California is only being kept alive by respirator and stimulus money from your pocket and mine.

The people of California pay massive taxes and don?t understand how this happened. The fact is the state of California?s economy is wrecked because its structure is fatally flawed due to the unions- even billions of dollars in bailouts from the federal government cannot save it. California is like a patient with terminal illness facing Obama and Pelosi?s death panels- it must be let go. California must declare bankruptcy and default on its debt. Then it must break all government employee union contracts in bankruptcy court. And start over.


Mr. Obama, here are some solutions to slaying the government employee union monster that destroys all it touches. End the conflict of interest allowing politicians, elected by the unions to negotiate union contracts. Limit government employee compensation (including benefits and pensions) to no more than that of the private sector. End government employee rip-offs like ?step up? salary increases. No one gets these pay boosts in the private sector. Why should government employees get raises in the middle of a depression? End the fraud of defined benefit pension plans allowing government employees to use raises and overtime in their last 3 years on the job to determine pension pay for the rest of their lives. Make retirement benefits based on the value of contributions made during employment that are actually set aside each month and protected from government theft. Make future retirees pay for their own healthcare in retirement or survive on Medicare ? just like the rest of us! Most important of all is to make sure government employee raises are based only on performance and they can be fired for poor performance- just like the rest of us, the taxpayers who pay their salaries.


Oh, one more solution...and it?s a BIG ONE. Effective immediately all government employees must work until age 65 just like the rest of us. No more retiring at age 45 or 50?and then collecting 40 years of a $90,000 pension. How outrageous. How ridiculous. How obscene. When I want to be paid, I work. If I don?t work, I don?t get paid. Why should government employees be treated differently? The days of $90,000 pensions for NOT working for the next 40 years are over. The world has changed- forever. Union contracts are poisonous to the survival of our economy.


Now those are the revolutionary ideas that Obama should be considering. In the midst of economic Armageddon all of the old rules are suspended. From this day forward, those groups who eat up the revenues of government and taxpayers (unions) should be reined in, and those groups who create the jobs and tax revenues (taxpayers) should be rewarded. Instead under Obama, Pelosi and Reid, everything is reversed. No wonder the economy is getting worse. No wonder the job picture is bleak- and getting bleaker. We have people running government who have never created a job. The only thing they know about business or jobs- is what they?ve read in a book. And the only books they?ve read are authored by Karl Marx.


We have a President who thinks his hero Abraham Lincoln saved the unions. No, Obama, you?ve got it wrong. The ?union? he saved was America. If Obama wants to save America, it isn?t the unions he needs to save, it?s the private sector. He needs to reward the small business owners and investors who risk their life savings to create jobs and build businesses.


Instead I predict that Obama will cave to the unions, reduce or eliminate the Cadillac insurance policy tax?and punish the taxpayers and job creators who own the small businesses of America. Anyone want to take my bet?


But I have a surprise for Obama: You?ve killed the goose that laid the golden egg. You?ve chosen the wrong side. Unions can?t help you save the economy or your Presidency. To the contrary, they can only drag the U.S. economy down- and your Presidency with it. You?ve rewarded the wrong group. Your decision will end your political future. Just like the states of Michigan and California, your political career?and the careers of every Democrat that votes for universal healthcare?are now effectively over. You don?t know it yet. You will soon. It turns out there are death panels afterall- they are called UNIONS.

:cheers:+excited-91023i2ndw;l

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Bruce you think California is wrecked because of unions??Here is a simple fact...they only get .80 back for every dollar they send to Washington.Add up how much money they are short and then figure in what they would have if they got back a dollar for every dollar they send in?Would they be broke??

Compare the bailout money for Wall Street and how much GM got and tell me those union workers on Wall Street are the problem again.It is corporate shills like you and Root that want to blame someone other than themselves . How much do the corporations pay into the tax system??Do you know in most cases it is not even over 8%???
Locally their is a car plant close to me and in order to get that plant the state gave them a sweetheart deal where they did not have to pay any taxes for 15 years.15 years they do not pay taxes!!!But you want to blame the union workers there for the shortfall???What about Alabama where BMW got the same deal????Who do you blame for that shortfall???

How many union workers work at plants that have less than 150 employees????You know the businesses that create over 80 % of the jobs??Get back to me on this so we can debunk another one of you and Root's fallacies.

Let's use Root's model though on Wal Mart though to see how it compares.They pay their employees minimum wage and have no health care.We the taxpayers pay for it when they go on state aid while Wal Mart walks away not paying a dime??Who is to blame for this??Let me guess the unions right??Makes a lot of sense to corporate shills like you huh??
I cannot believe that people are stupid enough to think that unions that make up less than 10% of the working population are to blame for the shortfalls.Sounds like Wayne is just jealous like the rest of the uninformed sheep that buy up this crap??Maybe he can come up with a way to scam people like sports betting advice and then run that into the ground. Hey wait a minute here....

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Bruce you think California is wrecked because of unions??

How the Teachers’ Unions Wrecked California

July 23rd, 2009 at 5:18 pm by Paul Craft | 2 Comments |

As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California legislatures finally cobble together a workable budget, what lessons can be drawn from the state’s seemingly intractable woes?

Perhaps, most fundamentally, the Golden State’s most recent budget crisis shows loud and clear that Proposition 98 is more trouble than it is worth.

The proposition, originally passed in 1988 by California voters, created a generous constitutional mandate for education spending. Funding levels for K-14 (the last two years being community colleges) are either tied to per-capita personal income growth in California (usually used in years of strong growth) or general fund revenue (used in years of weaker growth).

In practice, this translates to a guarantee that around 40% of the state budget is devoted to K-14 education.

The proposition was a response to 1978’s famous Proposition 13, which greatly restricted property taxes and erected the need for a two-thirds legislative majority to raise state taxes, thereby limiting Sacramento’s ability to tax-and-spend.

Over the decades, however, Prop 98 has been an enormous budgetary headache. The law allows little room for the shifting fiscal constraints of a struggling economy. In moments of crisis – such as this year – the proposition becomes an albatross around Sacramento’s neck. Periodically, then, legislators lighten their load by suspending the law, as they did in the recession of the early 1990’s and the aftermath of the dot-com bubble.

This year, however, this move was basically politically infeasible. A few weeks ago, as California stared into the budgetary abyss, and the abyss stared back, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger merely floated the idea of suspending Proposition 98. Instantly, teachers’ unions – those humorless guardians of school coffers – were up in arms. In a fit of rage, for example, the California Teacher’s Association sent 10,000 postcards to the San Diego office of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Around that same time, you could turn on any local station in California and you would eventually see an ad decrying the initiative’s possible suspension.

Teachers’ unions are the crux of the political problem. Prop 98 is a leaden monument to the influence of California’s teachers’ unions. In the late 1980’s, these unions couldn’t get the legislature to do what they wanted, so they mobilized to sway California’s voters. Their efforts, clearly, paid off. Teachers’ unions are one of the most organized and politically effective special interest groups in the Golden State. (For a good take on the distorted influence of teachers’ unions, read this op-ed by Stanford professor Terry Moe.) Prop 98 ensures that the union gets what it wants regardless of the state’s other concerns.

Finally, Proposition 98 is a testament to circus that is California’s ballot initiative system. It is a terrible system: out of brief, shameless, political spectacles emerge laws that shape policy for decades. The overall ballot initiative system- and Proposition 98 in particular- makes H.L. Mencken’s famous quip ring true: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Good to see our envious fry cook from the north has found another corporate shill to do his bidding.
So let me get this straight.The unions forced the voters to vote this in and it is all the unions fault.:LMAODo they put guns to their heads or just send out the goons??That is the way it works in the NBA,NFL and MLB right?:LMAOThose sports are bankrupt with the unions too right??
It is funny you never heard anyone crying about GM when they was making profit , but as soon as the recession hits and they start losing money all the envious wannabees come out of the woodwork.
I know Joe...as soon as everyone is making minimum wage like you are, you will be happy but you will also be the first one crying about not having enough high tax bracket people paying in:shoot:Makes so much sense to have more people paying less in taxes with lower paying jobs like it is now. It is working rather well right??:shoot:

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Good to see our envious fry cook from the north has found another corporate shill to do his bidding.
So let me get this straight.The unions forced the voters to vote this in and it is all the unions fault.:LMAODo they put guns to their heads or just send out the goons??That is the way it works in the NBA,NFL and MLB right?:LMAOThose sports are bankrupt with the unions too right??
It is funny you never heard anyone crying about GM when they was making profit , but as soon as the recession hits and they start losing money all the envious wannabees come out of the woodwork.
I know Joe...as soon as everyone is making minimum wage like you are, you will be happy but you will also be the first one crying about not having enough high tax bracket people paying in:shoot:Makes so much sense to have more people paying less in taxes with lower paying jobs like it is now. It is working rather well right??:shoot:

Man, that was a weak, lame response. NBA, NFL, MLB? :doh1

Unions and their loony tune lefty allies turned Detroit into a ghetto:

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The fact these union thugs can trespass private property without being arrested clearly illustrates they have been given too much power, courtesy of the avg. clueless zero-liability Democrat voter.

California and Detroit is what happens when your state is run by unions and loony left special interests. 2938u4ji23

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Man, that was a weak, lame response. NBA, NFL, MLB? :doh1

Unions and their loony tune lefty allies turned Detroit into a ghetto too:

<object width="560" height="340">


<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1hhJ_49leBw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></object>

The fact these union thugs can trespass private property without being arrested clearly illustrates they have been given too much power, courtesy of the avg. clueless zero-liability Democrat voter.

California and Detroit is what happens when your state is run by unions and special interests. 2938u4ji23

In other words you cannot refute the facts again.Using your logic those sports should be bankrupt because of the unions but they are not so why don't you try again? Another deflect and evade post from Joe. What a shock!!Maybe Munchkin will help you explain why they are not bankrupt??

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

In other words you cannot refute the facts again.Using your logic those sports should be bankrupt because of the unions but they are not so why don't you try again? Another deflect and evade post from Joe. What a shock!!Maybe Munchkin will help you explain why they are not bankrupt??

:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO
(vintage tank response)

FACT: California teachers unions have run the state into the ground.

FACT: UAW has turned the "Motor City" into a wasteland.

This is hardly a shocker because unions care about one thing and one thing only: UNIONS!!

It's not rocket science.

Every time a union thug trespasses private property he should be arrested. If he's not arrested, then the notion of private property as the Founders envisioned DOES NOT EXIST!!!!

Communist Manifesto Plank #1:

Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.

Communist Manifesto Plank #8:

Equal liability of all to labor.

And you union sheep wonder why the commies are surpassing us in auto production? http://www.purchasing.com/article/226680-China_surpasses_U_S_in_auto_production.php

We are losing America because of parasite Marxists who don't understand/abide by the principles and values this country was founded on.

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO
(vintage tank response)

FACT: California teachers unions have run the state into the ground.

FACT: UAW has turned the "Motor City" into a wasteland.

This is hardly a shocker because unions care about one thing and one thing only: UNIONS!!

It's not rocket science.

Every time a union thug trespasses private property he should be a arrested. If he's not arrested, then the notion of private property as the Founders envisioned does not exist -- PRECISELY THE PROBLEM.



And you union sheep wonder why the commies are surpassing us in auto production? http://www.purchasing.com/article/226680-China_surpasses_U_S_in_auto_production.php

We are losing America because of parasite Marxists who don't understand/abide by the principles and values this country was founded on.

FACT;California only get's .80 cents back for every dollar they send to Washington.
FACT;California VOTERS are the ones who voted in Prop 98.
Fact;Japan and Germany subsides their autoworkers putting American autoworkers at a $2000 disadvantage for every car made.

Just curious Joe?Who do you blame when non union companies go bankrupt??Why will you not answer the question about why sport franchises are so profitable with the union there?
Try answering these without your usual blah, blah , blah I'm envious of union workers because I'm a minimum wage fry cook.

And yes unions do care about themselves and are willing to stand up and fight for what they believe in , while cowards like you sit back and bad mouth them while you accept what the ''man'' shoves down your throat.And then when your envy hits you go back to step one.Blah, blah, blah...

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

tank, as always, you suffer from constipation of the brain...

....now pay attention because I'm the laxative. :thumbsup

FACT;California only get's .80 cents back for every dollar they send to Washington.

What does this have to do with unions and leftist policies sucking the state dry?

• California’s state expenditures grew from $104 billion in 2003 to $145 billion in 2008.
• California has the worst credit rating in the nation.
• California has the fourth highest unemployment rate in the nation, 9.3 percent -- higher even than the car manufacturing state of Michigan.
• California has the second highest home foreclosure rate.
• California’s tax-paying middle class is leaving the state. California’s net loss last year in state-to-state migration exceeded every other state's. New York, another Left-run state, was second.
• Since 2000, California’s job growth rate -- which in the late 1970s was many times higher than the national average -- has lagged behind the national average by almost 20 percent.
• California has lost 25 percent of its industrial work force since 2001.

FACT;California VOTERS are the ones who voted in Prop 98.

FACT: California VOTERS were LIED to by powerful special interest unions blowing sunshine up their asses. Kinda like "hopeandchange" -- 'voters' drank that Kool-Aid too. :doh1

Fact;Japan and Germany subsides their autoworkers putting American autoworkers at a $2000 disadvantage for every car made.

That's nice.

:finger004Fuck off and move there, you socialist mooch! :finger004

Japan and Germany are further down the destructive socialist path than we are.

Just curious Joe?Who do you blame when non union companies go bankrupt??

The company who builds the better mousetrap -- survival of the fittest.

If Honda makes a faster, better, cheaper car than GM, GM deserves to go broke. That's capitalism and true democracy -- consumers voluntarily voting with their pocket books.

However if Toyota pays it's floor workers a market rate of $17 an hour, while GM is forced/bullied into paying it's workers $130,000 year (including benefits), the left has too much power -- unconstitutional power at that.

Why will you not answer the question about why sport franchises are so profitable with the union there?

Sports franchises?!?!?!?!??!

Try answering these without your usual blah, blah , blah I'm envious of union workers because I'm a minimum wage fry cook.

Try rebutting just ONE point without trying to sound like you need the government to wipe your ass!

And yes unions do care about themselves and are willing to stand up and fight for what they believe in...

With fantabulous results, I may add. 2938u4ji23

while cowards like you sit back and bad mouth them while you accept what the ''man'' shoves down your throat.And then when your envy hits you go back to step one.Blah, blah, blah...

"Cowards" like me understand and espouse free market economics.

Dunderheads like you eat, breathe and shit Marxism: Kenyan Kool-Aid. 2938u4ji23

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

tank, as always, you suffer from constipation of the brain...

....now pay attention because I'm the laxative. :thumbsup



What does this have to do with unions and leftist policies sucking the state dry?

• California?s state expenditures grew from $104 billion in 2003 to $145 billion in 2008.
• California has the worst credit rating in the nation.
• California has the fourth highest unemployment rate in the nation, 9.3 percent -- higher even than the car manufacturing state of Michigan.
• California has the second highest home foreclosure rate.
• California?s tax-paying middle class is leaving the state. California?s net loss last year in state-to-state migration exceeded every other state's. New York, another Left-run state, was second.
• Since 2000, California?s job growth rate -- which in the late 1970s was many times higher than the national average -- has lagged behind the national average by almost 20 percent.
• California has lost 25 percent of its industrial work force since 2001.

FACT: California VOTERS were LIED to by powerful special interest unions blowing sunshine up their asses. Kinda like "hopeandchange" -- 'voters' drank that Kool-Aid too. :doh1



That's nice.

:finger004Fuck off and move there, you socialist mooch! :finger004

Japan and Germany are further down the destructive socialist path than we are.



Better companies -- survival of the fittest.

If Honda makes a faster, better, cheaper car than GM, GM deserves to go broke. That's capitalism and true democracy -- consumers voluntarily voting with their pocket books.

However if Toyota pays it's floor workers a market rate of $17 an hour, while GM is forced/bullied into paying it's workers $130,000 year (including benefits), the left has too much power -- unconstitutional power at that.



Sports franchises?!?!?!?!??!



Try rebutting just ONE point without trying to sound like you need the government to wipe your ass!



With fantabulous results, I may add. 2938u4ji23





"Cowards" like me understand and espouse free market economics.

Dunderheads like you eat, breathe and shit Marxism: Kenyan Kool-Aid. 2938u4ji23

And all these expenditures were from the union???Get real dipshit!!Now they was lied too??:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO:LMAOYou could just use your usual blame game and say the union goons forced them to vote it in. Same blah, blah from you.
Why would I want to move to Germany when I am a proud American that will fight for what I believe in while a phony cowardly Canadian like you pretends to be something they are not??See a pattern here??Everyone else does coward!!
As I have explained but you are too stupid to grasp it..when foreign govt. subsidies their workers then we are going to be at a disadvantage.$2000 advantage per vehicle.Does this sink in now??
How about we just go to mexico's standard of living then since you think we should lower our wages like Toyota's.Proud Americans will fight for a better wage and living but since you are a Canadian Fraud you would not know anything about that would you coward??
Tell me about this ''free market''The one with subsidies and tax credits??

Yes sports franchises??You are the one that claims the union bankrupt everything but they are profitable ?How can that be with the union there??You see I am exposing your fairytales and lies !Also quit skipping the question about why non union companies go bankrupt??Who do you blame then??Answer that!!!

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Hi my name is tank and I'm a union hack.

Unions are great!

The avg floor scrub in GM earns $130,000 a year, but this has nothing to do with GM not being able to compete and tanking, if you'll pardon the pun.

Nope, nothing whatsoever.

It's about those phantom "foreign subsidies" that poor GM couldn't compete with.

Oh, and never mind that Toyota, BMW, Honda and other car companies weren't stupid enough to set up shop in a heavily unionized states, they just flocked to all the right-to-work states by accident -- a complete coinkidink!

I'm tank, the EOG's proud union hack, and I approve this message.

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Public Sector Unions Are Killing California

Posted December 29th, 2009 at 1:01pm in Enterprise and Free Markets with 41 comments Print This Post

<!-- .title --> William Voegeli writes in City Journal:

Before 1990, [California and Texas] grew much faster than the rest of the country. Since then, only Texas has continued to do so. While its share of the nation’s population has steadily increased, from 6.8 percent in 1990 to 7.9 percent in 2007, California’s has barely budged, from 12 percent to 12.1 percent.

Unpacking the numbers is even more revealing—and, for California, disturbing. The biggest contrast between the two states shows up in “net internal migration,” the demographer’s term for the difference between the number of Americans who move into a state from another and the number who move out of it to another. Between April 1, 2000, and June 30, 2007, an average of 3,247 more Americans moved out of California than into it every week, according to the Census Bureau. Over the same period, Texas saw a net gain, in an average week, of 1,544 people.​

So why are Americans, predominantly middle class Americans, fleeing California?

The biggest factor accounting for California’s loss of population to the other 49 states, bond ratings that would embarrass Chrysler or GM, and state politics contentious and feckless enough to shame a banana republic, has to be its public sector’s diminishing willingness and capacity to fulfill its promises to taxpayers.
…
According to a report issued earlier this year by McKinsey & Company, Texas students “are, on average, one to two years of learning ahead of California students of the same age,” though expenditures per public school student are 12 percent higher in California.
​

And why is the public sector so inefficient in California? Voegeli again, this time in the Claremont Review of Books:

Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee says California’s “public employee unions wield immense—even hegemonic—influence” over the Democratic majorities in the state legislature. … No other political entity comes close to the unions’ ability to produce effective, sophisticated get-out-the-vote campaigns with hundreds of experienced workers. According to the Los Angeles Times, the California Teachers Association, the state affiliate of the National Education Association, “has deep pockets, a militia of more than 300,000 members to call on and a track record of making or breaking political careers.”
​

And once compliant politicians are in office, what do public sector unions lobby for?

It’s neither a coincidence nor a surprise, then, that California’s government employees receive higher compensation than those in any other state. The Census Bureau’s latest figures cover the year 2006, and show that California’s local government employees were paid at an average annual rate of $60,780, 33% above the national average. … California’s public workers receive more, often significantly more, than government employees in other states with high living costs. Californians who work for local governments were paid 7.7%, 9.1%, 11.5%, and 21.4% more than their counterparts in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts respectively.
​

Overall government spending also skyrockets when public sector unions are in control:

Adjusted for inflation, California’s per-capita outlays increased by 21.7% between 1992 and 2006; the increase for the other 49 states and the District of Columbia was 18.2%. What’s striking is that California is an exception to the pattern we were told to expect in Statistics 101, the regression to the mean. The states where inflation-adjusted, per-capita government outlays grew the fastest between 1992 and 2006 were, generally speaking, ones where those outlays were among the lowest to begin with. Conversely, of the ten states that had the highest per-capita public expenditures in 1991-92, California and Wyoming are the only two that saw those expenditures, adjusted for inflation, grow faster than the national average over the next 14 years.
​

Back to Voegeli’s City Journal piece:

James Madison would have to revise—or possibly burn—Federalist No. 10 if he were forced to account for the new phenomenon of the government itself becoming the faction decisively shaping its own policy and conduct. This faction dominates because it’s playing a much longer game than the politicians who come and go, not to mention the citizens who rarely read the enormous owner’s manual for the Rube Goldberg machine they feed with their dollars. They rarely stay outraged long enough to make a difference.
​

The public sector union takeover of government is not confined to California. As Heritage fellow James Sherk reported earlier this year, for the first time in history most union members work for the government, not the private sector. The days when “union member” meant an American working in a steel plant, or coal mine, or auto factory are gone. Today, unions are dependent on government, not the private sector, for their livelihood. Therefore, unions have little interest in private sector job growth. Private sector jobs don’t help fund political campaigns. But government jobs do. The change in incentives has been devastating to American taxpayers. Manhattan Institute senior fellow Steven Malanga explains why:

In the private sector … employers who are too generous with pay and benefits will be punished. In the public sector, however, more union members means more voters. And more voters means more dollars for political campaigns to elect sympathetic politicians who will enact higher taxes to foot the bill for the upward arc of government spending on workers.
​

This is why you see big labor supporting Obamacare and cap and trade taxes. Private sector job growth does nothing to increase union dues … only the further expansion of government does. The result in California has been high taxes, poor services, and a disappearing middle class. But at least Californians can still move to Texas. After the Obama administration is done with our country, we’ll have no place left to move to.

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Hi my name is tank and I'm a union hack.

Unions are great!

The avg floor scrub in GM earns $130,000 a year, but this has nothing to do with GM not being able to compete and tanking, if you'll pardon the pun.

Nope, nothing whatsoever.

It's about those phantom "foreign subsidies" that poor GM couldn't compete with.

Oh, and never mind that Toyota, BMW, Honda and other car companies weren't stupid enough to set up shop in a heavily unionized states, they just flocked to all the right-to-work states by accident -- a complete coinkidink!

I'm tank, the EOG's proud union hack, and I approve this message.

Still clueless!!PST Joe...Toyota and Honda workers are union too in Japan:LMAO
PST Joe..all union workers starting at GM start off at $14 an hour with no health insurance.
PST Joe do you know what those right to work states had to do to get them plant's??No taxes for 10 to 15 years so now maybe it will dawn on you why those welfare states get the most money from the Federal govt. while paying in the least.Is this the ''free market'' you are talking about where we subsidies those welfare states??

Oh BTW most janitor jobs were outsourced years ago and they make on average $10 an hour but don't let them facts get in the way of your next stupid rant.
Can't wait to see what idiotic comments our Canadian fry cook can muster up next while pretending to be an American.

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Can't wait to see what idiotic comments our Canadian fry cook can muster up next while pretending to be an American.

This about sums up the idiocy of your Mannyesque 'arguments'.

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

So since you continue to not answer the question about why non union companies or Wall Street go bankrupt I will just assume you will continue to evade and deflect that with no answer other than posting blogs from corporate shills that are more envious than you.
Tell me again how the unions bankrupted Wall Street again??Their has to be a corporate shill out there with a blog that you can use .:houra

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Another "corporate shill" says California is beyond repair because of parasitical unions.



:handjob:

*****************************************************************
Steven Greenhut: What's keeping state in sorry shape

By STEVEN GREENHUT
2010-01-15 14:18:38

SACRAMENTO Technically speaking, it's not hard to figure out how to solve California's permanent fiscal crisis ? if you just ignore the political mountains that would have to be moved to implement the fixes. A few good starting points: imposing a strict spending limit on legislators, reducing pension benefits for new public employees, cutting back on the regulations that squelch business expansion and reducing government restrictions on water use so that the agricultural industry can flourish again.

But good luck with any of that without taking on the most powerful interests in the state and dealing with the deep-seated political attitudes that have led to the current morass. Knowing what to do is one thing, but putting together a plan that might work is another. My task today is identifying the main obstacles to success. They might be obvious, but it's best to clearly identify any problem before attempting to fix it, as any psychologist would tell you. Given that Sacramento is a glorified loony bin, this isn't the worst analogy.

Look for the union label 2938u4ji23

You've read my rants over the years (and maybe you've even read my latest book on this subject) about how government-employee unions control this state and have used their clout to amass outrageous salaries and pension benefits that are difficult to believe and impossible to sustain. They've also built up special protections that have made it impossible for legislators to reform public services. Consider how difficult it is to fire incompetent teachers, thanks to the muscle of the California Teachers Association. This has resulted in debt, unfunded retirement promises and poorly provided public services. But don't believe me. Listen to former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, the dean of California liberalism, in a recent San Francisco Chronicle column:

"The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private-sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life. But we politicians ? pushed by our friends in labor ? gradually expanded pay and benefits ... while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages. ... This is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide ... but at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact."

The time for honesty is now ? or else forget about reform.

Democratic 'regressives'

Another core obstacle to reform is what author Joel Kotkin calls Democratic "regressives" ? so-called liberals, or progressives, who are mainly interested in protecting their quality of life by knocking various rungs off the economic ladder for the state's working class and growing minority communities. He refers to the wealthy liberal elites who live predominantly in high-end coastal communities and who fight economic growth, impose absurd restrictions on land use and whose excessive environmental sensibilities are regulating businesses out of existence.

Kotkin writes, "California's high-tech greens may talk a liberal streak in terms of diversity and social justice, but their prescriptions offer little for those who would like to build a career and raise a family in 21st century California. Their policies in terms of land-use regulation and greenhouse gas emissions will make it even harder for existing factories, warehouses, homebuilders and other traditional employers of the middle or working class."

Given that the Democratic union constituency is part of a predominantly public-sector union movement (private-sector unions are problematic, but support construction and economic growth), there are few voices within the state's dominant political party pushing pro-growth policies. It is those policies that provide jobs and opportunity for the lower and middle classes. This political dynamic and "we got ours" mindset routinely blocks economic reform.

Republican ineffectiveness

As a minority party in the Capitol, California's Republicans can only do so much. But between the moderates, who are always cutting deals with Democrats, the current Republican administration, which is downright schizophrenic (one day it talks about serious reforms, then the next day it proposes new regulations) and conservatives, who seem to prefer fighting divisive social issues than dealing with economic reform, it's hard to consider the GOP a solution to anything, and it often is an obstacle to reform. That's especially true when one considers that Republicans often have supported some of the costliest expansions in government thanks to their blind law-and-order philosophy. Note the growth in the prisons budget and in the cost of pensions for public safety officers and the inability to achieve substantial common-sense reforms of drug laws.

Nonsensical voters

It's hard to blame "voters" for anything in particular, given that the mass of voting Californians is so large that it's silly to try to discern what this group is saying at any given time. But at some point it's fair to look at ourselves when we consider the mess this state has become. Someone put these self-seeking, government-expanding charlatans into office. A wise voting populace might have, say, elected Tom McClintock as governor rather than Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003 during its historic chance to pull back from the brink. We all know that a large group of voters voted for Arnold because he is a really cool movie actor.

California also has the most advanced ? if advanced is the right word ? form of direct democracy in the country, if not the world. How many California voters bemoan the state's ongoing fiscal emergency yet supported multibillion-dollar bond proposals and budget-box-balloting measures that have helped cause the current crisis? I know people who, on one hand, oppose tax increases yet at the same time cry and scream when tuition goes up a slight amount and who believe all the sky-is-falling nonsense about severe cutbacks in state programs?

For the record, I oppose all tax increases, because the government bandits don't deserve any more of our hard-earned money, but running up debt simply is another form of tax increase. We need to keep taxes low and keep government small, but California voters seem to want to keep taxes low and let government get even bigger. Something has to give.

I understand the economic concept of rational ignorance. It doesn't pay for any voter in particular to learn much about candidates and issues because that person's one vote can't possibly change the outcome of an election. But surely it's rational for people to start paying a little more attention to the process given the real-world results of uncontrolled government spending and regulating.

So, yes, in a sense we're all obstacles to reform in California. Until union power is broken, Democratic dominance is diminished, Republicans get a backbone, and voters learn how to say no, we're in trouble. I wish I could be more encouraging, but it is going to take a paradigm shift ? or an even bigger budget crisis ? to save us.

Steven Greenhut is director of the Pacific Research Institute's journalism center (www.calwatchdog.com) in Sacramento.

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Nothing makes my day more than seeing the envious fry cook cry about the unions and try to blame them for fighting for fair wages and a good standard of living.Not only does it show who is envious but who is also a coward and takes the corporate weenie up the ass and enjoys it.Congratulations Joe!1:cheers
P.S Do you have the day off paid tomorrow??:cheers

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Pacific Research Institute :LMAO:LMAO:LMAO

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pacific_Research_Institute#cite_note-0</sup> The Pacific Research Institute has associated with other think-tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute.


The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is an extremely influential, pro-business, conservative think tank founded in 1943 by Lewis H. Brown. It promotes the advancement of free enterprise capitalism<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference">[1]</sup>, and succeeds in placing its people in influential governmental positions. It is the center base for many neo-conservatives.

Many neo conservatives:LMAO:LMAO:LMAO

Golly Joe why does this guy bad mouth the unions again???
Tell me what is the difference between the union and these guys??
Your not smart enough to figure it out since you are already at the bottom and too much of a coward to do anything about it except take the corporate weenie up the ass with a smile like you will always do.

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

...fighting for fair wages and a good standard of living...

Allow me to translate:

"I want mine...fuck everyone else!"

Thank you very much for crystallizing why this country is so far down the proverbial crapper and Washington is crawling with corrupt self-serving Marxists! 2938u4ji23

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

Allow me to translate:

"I want mine...fuck everyone else!"

Thank you so much for crystallizing why this country is so far down the proverbial crapper and Washington is crawling with corrupt self-serving Marxists! 2938u4ji23

How are we fucking everyone else??If the company can afford it they pay it. If they cannot they won't.That is why I was mentioning the sports franchises.They get million dollar contracts because the team can afford to pay it.When GM was making billions in profit you never heard anyone crying about the unions until the recession hit.Now you have Fox and all the other neo con mouth pieces talking people down for wanting a good paying job. I never thought I would see that in America but as long as envious sheep like you buy it and stay cowards then they get their way.

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

BTW Joe I should be honest with you.I took a management job in November and got out of the union.I was banned for another year from union meetings since I ask questions they do not want to hear or answer.That is the second time in the last 25 months that it happened.I was only a core member at the end anyway so I said the hell with them. Unions in principle are not a bad thing and I know what they have done for me but, at the same time I have seen their stupidity.I do not like being at the mercy of the corporations but I had to do what was best for me and since the union never had my back at the end I really had no choice.

 

[Joe Contrarian]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

So you don't think the unions in California and in the auto industry are out of control? You don't think they've wrecked entire sectors of the economy?

You're crazy.

To be fair, not all unions are bad -- for example, police and firefighter unions are necessary -- but a lot of them are.

 

[tank]

Re: Why Obama Now Has Big Business Trained like the New White House Puppy Bo!

So you don't think the unions in California and in the auto industry are out of control? You don't think they've wrecked entire sectors of the economy?

You're crazy.

To be fair, not all unions are bad -- for example, police and firefighter unions are necessary -- but a lot of them are.

When it is mandated that 40% of your states budget has to go to education then you are screwed no matter what.When GM was making tons of money no one cared. But now that the recession hit it took them down.They are like social security in that they have to many retired people and granted that the pension fund is separate ,GM still has to fund that with a percentage which is getting higher every year.They had to go to a two tier wage system with no pension for new hires.Our company did that 15 years ago otherwise we would probably be in the same boat.I still feel like their is a need for unions but only with smart leadership and I know our local has none.