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March 11, 2009 –
President Barack Obama is handing hundreds of billions to banks who
chose to lend recklessly. He is handing billions to people he
calls "homeowners," but who aren't homeowners at all but rather just
people who chose to take out loans they couldn't afford - if they
owned the homes, there wouldn't be a problem.
But on top of the immorality and wrong-headedness of
handing lots of cash to people simply because they were massively
irresponsible, the stark reality that no one is addressing yet is
that, with trillions that don' t actually exist being thrown around,
and with those who buy our debt around the world suffering from this
economic collapse as well, this debt will simply not be sustainable.
Soon, like the banks are now doing to the American consumer, the
lenders around the world will do to the American government and make
insane demands in return for debt purchases. The dollar, being
overprinted into complete devaluation, will finally collapse.
In short, what seems bad, with banks and many Americans hurting
financially, will in retrospect seem like the good old days as the
American dollar's value goes to the way of the ruble.
And of course, add to this the fact that the debt
will be much worse than is currently being accounted for, as tax
revenue is about to dry up like never before, as all sources -
income from sales taxes, fees, and income taxes - evaporate as
people stop spending and lose their jobs and businesses show
anything but profits.
President Obama made many statements during his campaign about
things that could actually address the current issues. He
talked about moving toward alternative energy as if it was the space
race, about fixing this credit card situation, about allowing people
to take from their 401K's to pay down debt or get by without
penalty. But now in office, his main focus is spending and
spending money America doesn't have to purely pointless ends.
To turn America around, the following must be done
immediately:
1) Put together a military style operation to
immediately build enough solar towers in the deserts of America to
make America fully energy independent within two years. As we
can mobilize to invade the desert of Iraq, we can set up barracks in
the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, establish
training facilities to ready civilians - many of whom are in need of
jobs - to undertake this endeavor. The solar tower technology
already exists - I've been writing about it on this site for five
years. This is not fiction or hope or something that needs to
wait. It is simply something that requires the will - and
leadership.
Rather than throwing a trillion dollars at nothing
and but a few billion toward alternative energy, a President who has
made clear he realizes this is America's number one issue should act
like it, to be frank. Spending billions is easy, not helpful,
not new, and requires no leadership. And, it only helps to
finish America off. We need to get off the couch, stop writing
bills and spending money, and do the hard work that can save the
nation. Military style, in short order, we can stave off the
coming collapse.
2) Let every mortgage that was taken out
irresponsibly collapse. This will reset the housing market,
and once again prices will return to a level that will allow
Americans to begin buying homes again. Bankrupting the nation
to keep prices artificially high is among the most misguided and
self-destructive policies a nation has ever undertaken.
3) Immediately withdraw from all free trade
agreements. We knew GATT and NAFTA would send all of our jobs
overseas. They have. If we want our jobs back, we have
to immediately change these things. Factories in China and
Mexico would instantly shut down and be replaced by ones in America
if we slapped massive tariffs up. This is one of the most
important steps which must be taken to restore America's economy.
Barack talked about this during the election. He hasn't
stopped handing out cash we don't have for long enough to even
broach the topic since being elected.
4) Immediately stop all unjustified credit card
rate increases - and rollback those that have just taken place,
especially those done by companies that have received bailout funds.
5) Immediately take back all bailout funds
handed to the banks and criminally charge all bank personnel - not
just high level, but street level sales people as well - who partook
of shady practices. They have pocketed the bonuses and perks
for the past half decade and won't ever have to give those back.
They now should pay the price. And, this is the only way to
stop this from recurring going forward.
For example, executives from one of the worst
offenders, Countrywide - a company who led the way with disastrously
irresponsible mortgage lending - are now back in business profiting
off of people's needs to re-fi. If you don't put these people
in jail, it will occur again not just with them, but set an example
for the future that will cause the same to occur again and again.
6) Immediately repeal the Bush tax cuts.
Again and again Barack Obama pledged to do this. Now, putting
politics ahead of the nation, he is deferring to 2011, when he will
let them 'expire.' The only point of this is to avoid the
charge that he raised taxes, instead being able to say he let them
expire; or, that he really doesn't understand why it is important to
actually have some funds in the nation's coffers to back up his
desire to spend and spend.
And let's stop for a minute on that point.
There is only one thing Barack Obama has ever shown that he is good
at - and that is being popular. There exists the very serious
question of does he actually understand policy, economics, etc.
During the election he didn't have any plans that were outside the
general accepted opinions of the Democratic elite. In short,
as George W. Bush did eight years before, Barack sounded more like
an echoer of the party structure's wishes than someone who deeply
thought out, understood, and took specific leadership with regard
to policy.
This exchange during his
February 9th Press Conference makes clear that, in fact, Barack
Obama has no idea what is actually occurring with the economy:
Question:
Thank you, Mr. President. In your opening remarks, you talked
about that, if your plan works the way you want it to work, it's
going to increase consumer spending. But isn't consumer spending,
or overspending, how we got into this mess? And if people get
money back into their pockets, do you not want them saving it or
paying down debt first before they start spending money into the
economy?
Obama:
Well, first of all, I don't think it's accurate to say that
consumer spending got us into this mess. What got us into this
mess initially were banks taking exorbitant, wild risks with other
people's monies based on shaky assets and because of the enormous
leverage, where they had one dollar's worth of assets and they
were betting thirty dollars on that one dollar, what we had was a
crisis in the financial system.
That led to a contraction of credit, which, in
turn, meant businesses couldn't make payroll or make inventories,
which meant that everybody became uncertain about the future of
the economy, so people started making decisions accordingly,
reducing investment, initiating layoffs, which, in turn, made
things worse.
Yes, President Obama thinks it is actually the
mortgage problem. He thinks that is all that is affecting the
economy. And so it makes sense that he simply wants to bailout
people with mortgages, hand the banks lots of money, put out a
stimulus package. If you thought all that was happening was
banks being silly for a couple years with mortgages - if you do not
get, as the reporter laid out, that it has been "consumer spending,
overspending" that has built a bubble the size of the entire
economy, and that, even without the mortgage issue the economy would
be collapsing - if you, as with Barack Obama, didn't get what is
actually occurring, you might be doing all these short term,
off-the-mark things as well.
This would also explain putting off reversing Bush's
tax cuts. Going more slowly with regard to alternative energy.
Not pushing forward the rollout of credit card reform. Leave
the tax rollback to 2011, the credit card fix to 2010, alternative
energy for the next decade.
We already know America is in a lot of trouble.
But the unfortunate reality seems to be that, just as the old one
didn't, the new President doesn't get it. America needs
massive change, not massive spending - or tax cuts, as the other
side says. We need to restructure everything so all of the
cash isn't in the hands of just a few, so that all of the jobs
aren't off in some other country, so that the average American
family can actually afford what it needs - with cash.
In 1970, Americans bought cars - yes, actually bought
them, with cash. Credit cards didn't exist. Salaries and
prices were in line.
America needs to return to that point. It needs
a leader who understands what the issues are. It needs a
leader who actually knows what leadership means. It doesn't
mean being popular. It doesn't mean being bi-partisan or
bringing different sides together. It means understanding what
the issues that face the nation are, knowing what solutions must be
implemented to correct the situation, and moving boldly forward to
take the necessary actions regardless of whether or not it will be
easy or leave you unpopular.
For years, I've tried writing and reasoning.
But there comes a point at which you realize you can't sit around
and ask other people to do the job. If there is an important
job to be done, and others aren't doing it, you need to get up, take
the wrench in your own hand, and get it done.
Does America really have a place for a true Moderate
Independent? Maybe so, maybe not. But it seems like it
may be about time to find out.
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