I am against the large amount of money that is being spent on bailouts and the proposed additional monies. The government is spending money like there is no tomorrow. In fact, there may be no tomorrow with the huge amount of money that is in the works. We cannot continue to dump money into companies and organizations because of poor management and greed.
We got into this mess because of greed in the housing market from the real estate company, the buyer, builders and the mortgage lenders. As of a result of their behavior we have seen the ripple effect throughout the economy. This is not entirely the President's fault, although that is what Congress and the news media wants the public to believe. Congress lack of oversight and ignoring allegations that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack were potential problems way back in 2005 shows they deserve most of the responsibility. That goes for both political parties. But, all we see is the blame game for political expediency. It is time Congress grew up and stopped acting like a bunch of little children.
The auto industry continued to produce gas-guzzlers and vehicles that had a reputation of poor quality. Now we know that many vehicles had customer satisfaction, but still could not compete with the reputation of Toyota, Honda etc. As the price of gas increased, Detroit kept producing gas eaters that many customers turned away from in favor of keeping their present vehicle or purchasing a foreign vehicle that would get better mileage. Detroit dug themselves a hole that is and will be difficult to dig out from unless they can streamline their operation and increase production of more fuel-efficient vehicles. They also need cooperation from the UAW to renegotiate labor contracts to be more in line with the foreign manufacturers that are producing vehicles in this country. This does not seem to be the case. Instead we see the union maneuvering to avoid any givebacks. Since incompetent management created this problem, these same mangers will have to resolve the problem they created without me financing this endeavor of sinking good money into badly run operations. We live in a democracy and not a Socialist/Communist form of government. And as history has shown, these governments all fail over time. But we can be assured that management will make sure they get their large bonuses from the money allocated to them. The 15 billion allocated so far is not going to resolve the issues in Detroit and we knew it when this money was appropriated and we know it now. Incompetency should not be rewarded. We all know that Detroit auto manufacturers will not go under except maybe for Chrysler. But what the public has not been made aware of is that 80% of Chrysler is owned by a private corporation. They bought Chrysler as an investment and I do not want my money going to help their investors.
As previously mentioned, all this can be traced back to the housing market and greed if an honest assessment is done rather than resort to the blame game. Because if we want to go that route, then President Clinton deserves much of the blame by his executive order directing banks and other lending institutions start lending money without down payments and not resorting to the 28% of income that was used by banks as an instrument for determining whether a buyer could afford a house and payments. Buying a house with no down payment encouraged owners to walk away from the house, since the payments were just like paying rent and they really had nothing to lose. A down payment may have altered this thinking. As a result, I believe the latest stats on foreclosure for the year 2008 was up 81%.
However, if Congress and President elect Obama want to pursue this course of action, then I have better idea in improving the economy without dumping good money into bad. My suggesting is for giving me and others $20,000 to purchase a new automobile, that must be from an American company and that must cost more than $20,000. We all could then purchase a vehicle, get financing to cover the additional cost. This will provide income for the automobile dealer, the salesperson, manufacturer and others in the food chain, in addition to the suppliers of parts and other services. All will have money to spend which can give a jolt to shopping for groceries, restaurants, housing and other necessary shopping. Money would be flowing through the system. And we see the vacant house being purchased as the people see economy picking up. This is a much better idea because it puts money into the hands of the buyer and not the manufacturer. Remember what AIG did with their influx of money by going out and having luxurious conferences at the citizen’s expense. After all, this is in essence, this country’s money and for the next 100 years we will be trying to get back to balancing the budget that appears never to happen again. We are heading down a path that the future does not seem to have an opening to get our budget in balance. Besides, where is this money coming from? Who has the billions, trillions or zillions of dollars that is being shoved out there as a solution? The individual is the solution not government. Government cannot resolve this problem, but the individual can if given the tools. If Government could resolve problems, we would not be in this position.
Another item I would like discuss is the income of retirees. Those that are solely on Social Security and/ or a pension where there total income is below $50,000 should not have to pay Federal taxes for at least the next 5 years. This would provide a double benefit by helping the senior retirees as well as them putting money into circulation by purchasing items. We have learned that reducing taxes actually has increased income to the Treasury. President Regan and Bush #2 have demonstrated this with their tax cuts. It is just that we must reduce spending at the same time. Getting money into the hands of the citizens will resolve our current economic problems. This must not be done through handouts or stimulus checks, but a reduction in all taxes from income to Corporate and Capital Gains. In fact, a total revision of our tax policy is in order. Who can read and understand a tax code that has more than 66,000 pages if not more. What we need is a sales tax for all items purchased. This way, everyone who purchases anything in this country whether a foreigner or citizens provides income to the Treasury. This is fair and ends class warfare that President elect Obama talked about during his campaign for the office of President. If the rich purchase an item, they will pay more. Buy a $50,000 vehicle you will pay more than the one who buys a $25,000 vehicle and so on for all purchases. Bailouts will not work. When was the last time a tax increase hurt a rich person. People with money always propose this course so you know they will not be hurt.
I would like to add by two cents on drilling for oil in this country. Now I know President elect Obama has nominated Carol Browner for the EPA. A position we will regret she will be in, especially with her background with socialist groups. Hopefully, she will not be approved. With nearly 700 billion dollars leaving this country to purchase oil to meet our needs, it is imperative, considering our economical situation, we explore and drill for oil in this country as quickly as possible. If all that 700 billion dollars stayed in this country, we would resolve the question where are all the handouts coming from. Oh! I mean welfare stimulus checks that are totally unnecessary if we start drilling for oil. We should have offshore drilling to begin as soon as possible. The oil companies have indicated that within 2 years, they may be able to get some of this oil to market. Drill now should be our model as former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich has been pushing for. We all would like to see alternative sources here and now, but reality indicates that even 50% of alternative use is almost 30 years away. We cannot wait that long and see billions of dollars go oversees to those that want to destroy us. It is about time we woke up to that reality. Keep our money here. Just think how many jobs that would be created in this country and not just the oil platform personnel. This is what Congress should be pushing. Of course, we know Congress does not act unless there is benefit to themselves, their party and their friends and then our country. Our live as a country depends on it. In today’s technology, there is very little chance of an oil spill or an oil spill that cannot be contained. This is the way to go in today’s global climate while providing the needed jobs to generate the bounce back of our economy. What better way to spend the taxpayer’s money. Independence from foreign oil is a move that may also have the additional benefit of reducing conflict involving our military in the Middle East where a cutoff of oil could be more devastating than the current atmosphere.
We got into this mess because of greed in the housing market from the real estate company, the buyer, builders and the mortgage lenders. As of a result of their behavior we have seen the ripple effect throughout the economy. This is not entirely the President's fault, although that is what Congress and the news media wants the public to believe. Congress lack of oversight and ignoring allegations that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack were potential problems way back in 2005 shows they deserve most of the responsibility. That goes for both political parties. But, all we see is the blame game for political expediency. It is time Congress grew up and stopped acting like a bunch of little children.
The auto industry continued to produce gas-guzzlers and vehicles that had a reputation of poor quality. Now we know that many vehicles had customer satisfaction, but still could not compete with the reputation of Toyota, Honda etc. As the price of gas increased, Detroit kept producing gas eaters that many customers turned away from in favor of keeping their present vehicle or purchasing a foreign vehicle that would get better mileage. Detroit dug themselves a hole that is and will be difficult to dig out from unless they can streamline their operation and increase production of more fuel-efficient vehicles. They also need cooperation from the UAW to renegotiate labor contracts to be more in line with the foreign manufacturers that are producing vehicles in this country. This does not seem to be the case. Instead we see the union maneuvering to avoid any givebacks. Since incompetent management created this problem, these same mangers will have to resolve the problem they created without me financing this endeavor of sinking good money into badly run operations. We live in a democracy and not a Socialist/Communist form of government. And as history has shown, these governments all fail over time. But we can be assured that management will make sure they get their large bonuses from the money allocated to them. The 15 billion allocated so far is not going to resolve the issues in Detroit and we knew it when this money was appropriated and we know it now. Incompetency should not be rewarded. We all know that Detroit auto manufacturers will not go under except maybe for Chrysler. But what the public has not been made aware of is that 80% of Chrysler is owned by a private corporation. They bought Chrysler as an investment and I do not want my money going to help their investors.
As previously mentioned, all this can be traced back to the housing market and greed if an honest assessment is done rather than resort to the blame game. Because if we want to go that route, then President Clinton deserves much of the blame by his executive order directing banks and other lending institutions start lending money without down payments and not resorting to the 28% of income that was used by banks as an instrument for determining whether a buyer could afford a house and payments. Buying a house with no down payment encouraged owners to walk away from the house, since the payments were just like paying rent and they really had nothing to lose. A down payment may have altered this thinking. As a result, I believe the latest stats on foreclosure for the year 2008 was up 81%.
However, if Congress and President elect Obama want to pursue this course of action, then I have better idea in improving the economy without dumping good money into bad. My suggesting is for giving me and others $20,000 to purchase a new automobile, that must be from an American company and that must cost more than $20,000. We all could then purchase a vehicle, get financing to cover the additional cost. This will provide income for the automobile dealer, the salesperson, manufacturer and others in the food chain, in addition to the suppliers of parts and other services. All will have money to spend which can give a jolt to shopping for groceries, restaurants, housing and other necessary shopping. Money would be flowing through the system. And we see the vacant house being purchased as the people see economy picking up. This is a much better idea because it puts money into the hands of the buyer and not the manufacturer. Remember what AIG did with their influx of money by going out and having luxurious conferences at the citizen’s expense. After all, this is in essence, this country’s money and for the next 100 years we will be trying to get back to balancing the budget that appears never to happen again. We are heading down a path that the future does not seem to have an opening to get our budget in balance. Besides, where is this money coming from? Who has the billions, trillions or zillions of dollars that is being shoved out there as a solution? The individual is the solution not government. Government cannot resolve this problem, but the individual can if given the tools. If Government could resolve problems, we would not be in this position.
Another item I would like discuss is the income of retirees. Those that are solely on Social Security and/ or a pension where there total income is below $50,000 should not have to pay Federal taxes for at least the next 5 years. This would provide a double benefit by helping the senior retirees as well as them putting money into circulation by purchasing items. We have learned that reducing taxes actually has increased income to the Treasury. President Regan and Bush #2 have demonstrated this with their tax cuts. It is just that we must reduce spending at the same time. Getting money into the hands of the citizens will resolve our current economic problems. This must not be done through handouts or stimulus checks, but a reduction in all taxes from income to Corporate and Capital Gains. In fact, a total revision of our tax policy is in order. Who can read and understand a tax code that has more than 66,000 pages if not more. What we need is a sales tax for all items purchased. This way, everyone who purchases anything in this country whether a foreigner or citizens provides income to the Treasury. This is fair and ends class warfare that President elect Obama talked about during his campaign for the office of President. If the rich purchase an item, they will pay more. Buy a $50,000 vehicle you will pay more than the one who buys a $25,000 vehicle and so on for all purchases. Bailouts will not work. When was the last time a tax increase hurt a rich person. People with money always propose this course so you know they will not be hurt.
I would like to add by two cents on drilling for oil in this country. Now I know President elect Obama has nominated Carol Browner for the EPA. A position we will regret she will be in, especially with her background with socialist groups. Hopefully, she will not be approved. With nearly 700 billion dollars leaving this country to purchase oil to meet our needs, it is imperative, considering our economical situation, we explore and drill for oil in this country as quickly as possible. If all that 700 billion dollars stayed in this country, we would resolve the question where are all the handouts coming from. Oh! I mean welfare stimulus checks that are totally unnecessary if we start drilling for oil. We should have offshore drilling to begin as soon as possible. The oil companies have indicated that within 2 years, they may be able to get some of this oil to market. Drill now should be our model as former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich has been pushing for. We all would like to see alternative sources here and now, but reality indicates that even 50% of alternative use is almost 30 years away. We cannot wait that long and see billions of dollars go oversees to those that want to destroy us. It is about time we woke up to that reality. Keep our money here. Just think how many jobs that would be created in this country and not just the oil platform personnel. This is what Congress should be pushing. Of course, we know Congress does not act unless there is benefit to themselves, their party and their friends and then our country. Our live as a country depends on it. In today’s technology, there is very little chance of an oil spill or an oil spill that cannot be contained. This is the way to go in today’s global climate while providing the needed jobs to generate the bounce back of our economy. What better way to spend the taxpayer’s money. Independence from foreign oil is a move that may also have the additional benefit of reducing conflict involving our military in the Middle East where a cutoff of oil could be more devastating than the current atmosphere.
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