Too much stimulus; too little reform

The first rule in examining government is that one must expect the lie and then dissect the lie.  In dissecting the lie, the old adage of “follow the money,” will lead one to the correct answer; of course, assuming that one can sort through the maze of subterfuge. The previous and current administrations, as well as congress have been continuously lying about the need for stimulus spending.  We have had three stimulus bills within the last year. Should not we be stimulated by now?  It has not worked because it can not work.  Excessive spending, credit and debt, combined with financial machinations and basic greed and gluttony was and is the problem.  How can the solution be the same as the problem? 

 

Only in the bizarre world of government that must always pretend to solve problems even when government officials admit that they do not know how to solve the problem.  So, they do what they do best, spend taxpayer’s money.  President Obama is not guaranteeing that this stimulus will work, because he doesn’t care if it works as long as he and Congress can keep bribing the American people with more pork-laden “stimulus” bills funded by borrowing and printing money, while dangerously inflating the money supply.  Because he has been anointed as our savior, by himself and others, he has been able to deceive us more easily.  It was fairly obvious that trickery and lies would rule the day when his tax-cheat treasury selection, Mr. Geithner, supported wholeheartedly by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate, evidently, because Geithner is the only person intelligent enough to rescue us from our financial morass. 

 

Well, it is pretty clear to me, not that it was not before, that all the talk about hope and change is a smokescreen for more of the same.  The only change occurring is the temporary (hopefully) reestablishment of the Democratic Party’s power; instead of change that would eliminate our corrupt, nonsensical borrow and spend economy.  President Obama is continuing to follow and expand on the previous policies of the last several decades that will eventually lead to the economic collapse of this country. We will continue to borrow and spend, import cheap illegal labor (assured without the extension of E-verify) and export jobs, causing a continued devolution of the country’s economy to the lowest common global denominator.  We will end up being no more than a second-rate country, if we are lucky, with the majority of citizens being dependent sycophants.  Yes, our country will be an Abomination unless we realize that the Emperor has no clothes!

 

The Chamber of Commerce of ?

Well, it is really interesting that the Chamber of Commerce thinks that it would be too burdensome for employers to follow the law and ensure only citizens or those non-citizens with authorized work permits are hired.  It appears that the Chamber would rather have the residents of Indiana and citizens of the United States of America to continue to be burdened by illegal alien workers.  These illegal alien workers were encouraged to come here to work in the false economy that expanded to its unsustainable limit until it crashed under the weight of the massive debt powering it.  The illegal alien workers recruited by unethical, criminal employers were the fuel powering this false economy that unfortunately is trying to be resurrected by President Obama and the phony stimulus package proffered by the silly men and women of Congress. The Chamber of Commerce should realize that the Legislature is actually empowering employers by requiring them to use E-Verify to reestablish a real economy instead of continuing to pretend that illegal aliens were, are or will be a necessary part of our economy.  If we do not understand that all of the gains made in the last six years were essentially a mirage, we will never understand that without the labor of the illegal aliens, our national Ponzi scheme would have not been possible.  Let’s not let the few who profited from this Ponzi scheme try to refuel it with illegal alien labor to the long-term detriment of us all.

California Love!

Many of the laws do need to be fixed because our legal immigration process has been bastardized into a plethora of special favors that do not constitute a lucid policy. But first, I reject the premise that illegal immigrants were, are or will ever be needed for the economy; now they may have been desired, by some, for the false economies that have been constructed and expanded (and destroyed) over the last two decades, but they were not necessary for steady appropriate growth. Our existing immigration process, with modifications, if appropriately staffed and enforced would easily accommodate any of our economic or general societal needs, if necessary. Now, since I don't trust our government to follow through on anything they say (other than invading sovereign countries under false pretenses), I will not accept any sort of comprehensive immigration reform proposal until the legal immigration system is reformed in a manner that clearly indicates to immigrants and citizens that the United States is serious about immigration standards and penalties for noncompliance. Twenty years ago, despite the problems related to illegal immigration, I came to love California, particularly Belmont Shores in Long Beach (despite the gang signs flashed at me by a supermarket worker because I drove around the block twice and made eye contact), because of the diversity (a term I don't use to describe anywhere today because of how it has been co-opted by namby-pamby multi-culturists). During my most recent visit (to Oakland of all places), that same feeling of contentment swept over me as I renewed my love affair because of my interactions with the diverse peoples of California. But I would submit that California's pluses are due to legal immigration and its many minuses are mainly due to illegal immigration. Illegal immigration creates economic mercenaries who are only here for the money and not for the love of the U.S. and what it represents. If we do allow people to flood into our country as economic mercenaries, we will reap what we sow.

Ilegal is illegal

Just because government abdicated its responsibility doesn't mean that behavior that violated the law should be forgiven. People get cited for violating the law all the time regardless of how long their illegal activity has occurred. It is patently unfair to American citizens to force them to accept that people of all types, including some of the most virulent criminals will become legal citizens and a permanent scourge on our society. I for one don't engage in criminal behavior just because government turns a blind eye to it or doesn't have the resources to enforce these laws. Frankly, I have no sympathy for citizens who married illegal aliens and had children with them. As far as I am concerned the entire family can all take a hike across the border. No one made them marry an illegal alien. And Congress could clarify that an illegal alien child is an illegal alien and not a citizen. Clearly the children of foreign diplomats who enter the country legally are not citizens, so how in the hell are children of illegal aliens citizens. It makes no sense. There is no other country that interprets or includes in its constitution a provision for citizenship for anyone who happens to fall across the border. Furthermore, when the need for these workers was based on the illegitimate, fraudulent economy of the last two decades, the last thing this country needs is the permanent legalization of poorly educated illegal aliens in addition to the existing mass of the those wholly uninterested in improving themselves. When many of these illegal aliens have children who go to schools in environments that are not conducive to learning, resulting in an unnecessary expansion of the underclass, you have a recipe for disaster. A party that panders to Whites, Hispanics, Blacks or Gays, etc. is not a party that interests me. Only a party that relies on real conservative principles instead of phony symbolism will draw my interest.

Iraq War

Although, I am not familiar with some of the particulars included in the letter written by Mary J. Callahan, published on October 10, 2008, I totally agree with its general theme. Regardless of the obscene reason(s) this administration had for invading Iraq, the fact remains that over 4,000 of our young men and women have died, with many more thousands being severely injured and maimed. This is a tragedy that never should have occurred. Meanwhile, from the very beginning, besides providing lip service, it does not appear that any real effort was made (or is being made) to catch Osama Bin Laden, supposedly Public Enemy Number One. And for some reason we have tolerated this behavior as we take partisan sides and react to fear-mongering. Meanwhile, we happily went shopping (until recently) as if nothing has happened. At a minimum, Bush should have been impeached for his lies, and in some way everyone involved should have to pay for their horrendous crimes against the people of this country.

War

War is a failure of humanity to achieve its goals by other means.

Sage of Omaha

Despite all of the love showered on the Sage from Omaha by the media etc., he manipulates federal, state and local regulations and officials for his benefit. Of course, he is not alone. Despite all of the blather about fair and free markets, no such animal exists, and most extreme riches have resulted from immoral and unethical behavior if not downright fraud and thievery. Don't get me wrong, intelligence and hard work is involved, as it takes a lot of effort to continuously engage in this type of behavior every day of one's life.

Stop taxing interest income

Instead of a socialist bailout of the banking, consumer and Wall Street hedonists, the Congress should have taken small steps in restoring a sound, functional economy instead of trying to patch, like a blown tire, a public and private economy based on spending, borrowing and massive debt.

 

One small measure that could have been taken would have included the elimination of taxation on all types of interest income.  Saving should not be discouraged, just as excessive debt should not be encouraged.  However, excessive debt has been encouraged and arguably even celebrated over the last 40 years since the Federal Reserve began tracking credit card debt, with the lone exception being the elimination of consumer loan interest deductions in 1986.  But, not to worry consumerists, that deduction was soon replaced by a rapid increase in home equity loans, whose interest is generally deductible, by the deliberate public and private policies and strategies to inflate housing prices and promote debt over the last two decades. 

 

Why should someone who strives to save $20,000 for a down payment for a $100,000 house ($80,000 mortgage) be penalized by taxation, while someone else who saves nothing for a $100,000 house ($100,000 mortgage) can theoretically deduct all of their interest expense from their taxes?  Isn’t it about time we reverse strategies and encourage saving and thrift and discourage excessive debt and rampant consumerism?

 

 

Support restrictions on employers of illegal aliens

Our government is a nightmare. Despite the fact that are borrow and spend economy and dysfunctional regulatory scheme created a false, unsustainable economy, our so-called leaders persist in creating more public debt and encouraging more of the same ridiculous private spending and borrowing. The last thing we need is a tax credit to buy houses or to encourage the construction of more houses. The housing industry does not need to be revived. It needs to rest until the existing inventory can be absorbed. But that takes patience. Yes, the government should extend unemployment benefits, etc. But anything beyond that, including the current past and future stimulus bills are recipes for disaster. We naively believe that we can't go the way of Argentina, but with the current entitlement mindset, it is not a matter of if, but when.