Posted on 12/23/2008 3:51:47 AM PST by IbJensen
Enough Already: Give Baliout Money Back to Taxpayers
Can anything be done to stop these politicians from handing your hard-earned money over to fat-cat corporations?
The legendary figure Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor.Ironically, Uncle Sam seems to be doing the reverse.
First they told us that without an immediate injection of $700 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars, the economy would go into a tail-spin!
Then Congress, ignoring the objections of the American people, passed a massive $700 billion wealth re-distribution BAILOUT program.
And NOW - after giving away $350 billion of the $700 billion - the economy is still hurting, the so-called credit crunch has not been reversed as banks are still not lending, and you and I are sufferring.
But to make matters worse...Now every fat-cat corporation and Big Labor want a piece of the action.
The big three automakers came to Washington, hat-in-hand, and thankfully, conservatives in the Senate, finally said "No."
But the Administration said "yes... we'll accommodate" and they're using your $700 billion.
When is the madness going to stop? Who’s next to pick the pockets of hard-working American taxpayers?
Is it possibly time to admit that the $700 billion was a bad idea?
Is it time to give up the ghost and go back to the drawing board?
Is it possibly time, finally, to try some free market solutions to our problems and give Capitalism a shot?
Tell Congress that giving $700 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars was a bad idea... a mistake. Tell them that it is time to give up the ghost. Tell them that now is the time to try some free market solutions to stimulate the economy. Most importantly, tell them not to spend the $350 billion that remains from the $700 billion economic relief package that Congress passed last month.
What Should We Do With The Remaining $350 Billion?
For starters, it SHOULD NOT get spent until we come up with a better solution to our problems and admittedly, some creative thinking is in order.
As an example, Congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas, is calling for a two-month federal tax holiday.
It works something like this:
Since the federal government collects approximately $167 billion per month in taxes and entitlements, the remaining $350 billion can be used instead to cover two months of tax revenues and taxpayers could reap the benefits of a two-month tax holiday.
Imagine that!
The American people would pay ZERO in federal income and FICA taxes for a full two months.
Typically, any form of income redistribution is a bad idea.
But since Congress has already given the Treasury Department a blank check... the money HAS TO GO SOMEWHERE... it may has well go back to the taxpayers.
And who knows?
What would happen if people actually saw the money the federal government withholds from their paychecks for two months and then the government started taking it back again?
Taxpayer Revolt?
Tell them that giving $700 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars was a bad idea... a mistake. Tell them that it is time to give up the ghost. Tell them that now is the time to try some free market solutions to stimulate the economy. Most importantly, tell them not to spend the $350 billion that remains from the $700 billion economic relief package that Congress passed last month.
Who Is To Blame?
The answer is Congress.
More specifically, liberals on both sides of the aisle.
Instituting more of the problem is NOT the solution!
And yet, it is this same Big-Government Gang that is calling today for yet more government intrusions into our already battered free-market.
Here’s how it went down the first time.
In 1977 - with liberal Democrats in control of Congress and Jimmy Carter in the White House – the federal government instituted the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to encourage low-income folks to buy houses.
With this well-intentioned legislation, the stage was set for catastrophe.
Then, in 1995, President Bill Clinton - with the help of liberals in Congress - gave CRA some real teeth and added massive new provisions that forced banks to issue $1 trillion dollars in bad loans!
Didn’t anyone see the looming economic disaster?
Sure, plenty of folks sounded the alarm!
Among them... Howard Husock of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Many years ago, he predicted the current crisis in an article: entitled "The Trillion-Dollar Bank Shakedown That Bodes Ill for Cities."
Yes... the Big Government crowd knew the consequences of such policies and messed with the Free Market anyway.
And to add insult to injury, they want to mess with the Free Market YET AGAIN.
If we let them, we could end up a nation of bicycle riders on the fast track to Scandinavian socialism.
Tell Congress that giving $700 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars was a bad idea... a mistake. Tell them that it is time to give up the ghost. Tell them that now is the time to try some free market solutions to stimulate the economy. Most importantly, tell them not to spend the $350 billion that remains from the $700 billion economic relief package that Congress passed last month.
Are We Simply Funding A Radical Agenda?
But it wasn’t just Big Government that Husock warned against. He also predicted that the radical Left would drive the lending industry to the brink of bankruptcy.
Among other things, he deplored the empowerment of radical ideologues.
Case in point, ACORN (you remember them), literally extorted lenders into making billions in questionable loans.
Here’s what Husock wrote about that:
"Crucially, the new CRA regulations also instructed bank examiners to take into account how well banks responded to complaints… [F]or advocacy groups that were in the complaint business, the Clinton administration regulations offered a formal invitation. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a foundation-funded umbrella group for community activist groups that profit from the CRA, issued a clarion call to its members in a leaflet entitled 'The New CRA Regulations: How Community Groups Can Get Involved.' 'Timely comments,' the NCRC observed with a certain understatement, 'can have a strong influence on a bank's CRA rating.'"
In other words, here’s how it works:
The government offers a new source of funding for banks. But in order to tap this source, they have to please far-left organizations like ACORN, whose job it is to promote revolution. These organizations push the banks to fund every loan applicant who walks through the door. If the banks don’t capitulate, the organizations tattle to the examiners. And Presto! No more CRA funds!
Husock again:
"'To avoid the possibility of a denied or delayed application,' advises the NCRC in its deadpan tone, 'lending institutions have an incentive to make formal agreements with community organizations.' By intervening, even just threatening to intervene, in the CRA review process, left-wing nonprofit groups have been able to gain control over eye-popping pools of bank capital, which they in turn parcel out to individual low-income mortgage seekers. A radical group called ACORN Housing has a $760 million commitment from the Bank of New York; the Boston-based Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America has a $3-billion agreement with the Bank of America; a coalition of groups headed by New Jersey Citizen Action has a five-year, $13-billion agreement with First Union Corporation. Similar deals operate in almost every major U.S. city. Observes Tom Callahan, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, which has $220 million in bank mortgage money to parcel out, "CRA is the backbone of everything we do."
So, who is at fault?
Use the hyperlink below to send your personalized and urgent Blast Faxes to President Bush and each and every Member of the Leadership of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.
Tell them that giving $700 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars was a bad idea... a mistake. Tell them that it is time to give up the ghost. Tell them that now is the time to try some free market solutions to stimulate the economy. Most importantly, tell them not to spend the $350 billion that remains from the $700 billion economic relief package that Congress passed last month.
Congress sold out America to the radical Left.
Liberals in Congress forced financial institutions to make bad loans and fund radical organizations like ACORN, groups dedicated to the destruction of our free enterprise system.
A liberal Congress empowered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy those bad loans. In fact, for a while, the more loans Fannie and Freddie bought, the more money they made.
So Fannie and Freddie leaned on financial institutions to make even more bad loans.
Lenders in turn – with the Free Market hopelessly compromised - engaged in risky speculation. And liberals in Congress - pockets stuffed with contributions from nervous lending institutions - turned a blind eye.
It was a sweet gravy train while it lasted.
Then, when the bubble burst, critics of this subversive deal said “I told you so!”
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey:
"It was not the free market, but a government-distorted market that caused this. It was politicians, fat cat corrupt CEOs and special interest lobbyists for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other firms that created the perfect storm that led to the housing market collapse."
Economist Thomas Sowell agreed:
"Among the Congressional 'leaders' invited to the White House to devise a... 'solution' are the very people who have for years created the risks that have now come home to roost."
Former Congressman Bob Barr puts it even more plainly:
"Congress needs to get out of the way."
But they won’t, will they?
Look at it this way:
If a surgeon removed one of your kidneys by mistake, would you let him operate on your other kidney?
Our economy is now functioning on one kidney – and here comes Congress with a rusty scalpel.
Only the American people can prevent this continued suicide
Tell Congress that giving $700 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars was a bad idea... a mistake. Tell them that it is time to give up the ghost. Tell them that now is the time to try some free market solutions to stimulate the economy. Most importantly, tell them not to spend the $350 billion that remains from the $700 billion economic relief package that Congress passed last month.
It ceases to be 'our' money when the central government mugs us during the calendar year and on April 15 and takes it away from us.
“It ceases to be ‘our’ money when the central government mugs us during the calendar year and on April 15 and takes it away from us.”
If my car is stolen, it’s still mine, but in the hands of a thief. Same with this “taxpayer’s” money. It’s mine, but in the hands of a thief.
ROBBING HOODS:
Guilty of stealing $8 Trillion dollars from the working middle class and giving it to the wealthy elite.
George Bush
Henry Paulson
Ben Bernanke
Harry Reid
Nancy Pelosi
Best analogy.
dodd and franks should top that list.
LLS
Christopher Dudd, Little Dick Gephart, Patrick Leahy, and a host of thousands if we count the staffers.
Let's wish them all a Merry Christmas for all the headaches and heartaches they've caused us. They've done about as much damage to us, our families and our friends as WWIII.
Crats and Pubs will never give any money they get back. The next bad deal for us will be a gas tax. Now that the price is down where it should be the Taxocrats will be jam on for gas tax increases. The Pubs will voice a few feeble objections then the RINOS will join the taxocrats to screw us again.
It is our money they stole.
He should not distort the Robin Hood legend, Robin stole from the tax collector and have the money back to those who were taxed.
And Tom Stinking Coburn!!
The $700b bailout wasn’t a bad idea, it just should have been redistributed among the taxpayers. Everybody would have bought new cars, got a new house, travel, invest, etc. That would have bailed everybody out.
Say I buy a new "American-made" car for $25,000, give me a tax credit of $2000 or $3000 in each of the next two, three or four years. I could, over a period of time, receive anywhere from $4000 to $12,000 in tax credits. Even in this economy, people are still going to need/want a new car. Right now, they are afraid to purchase from the Big 3. They need an incentive to make them consider one of their products. Taking a large lump off your tax bill every year for a while is a good start.
This would also create stimulus at the dealership level, trickling up thru the ranks. If the car companies choose to benefit from the "gift" they have been given, good for them. If they continue down the same old path to oblivion, they deserve to die!
And don't go off at me about no bailout idea being a good idea. The automakers (UAW) HAVE GOTTEN their money and they will get plenty more. So why not give it to us first and then it would go to them through our purchases. With the current bailout the money goes straight to the top and to the UAW retirees. All over America, car lots continue to be overflowing with cars that no one wants to buy.
“The $700b bailout wasn’t a bad idea, it just should have been redistributed among the taxpayers. Everybody would have bought new cars, got a new house, travel, invest, etc. That would have bailed everybody out.”
Good grief. How about NOT stealing it from us in the first place instead of “redistributing” to other people?
All these BAILOUTS are UNCONSTITUTIONAL on their face. Has anyone filed suit to challenge?
1) Welfare Clause, Scalia has been prolific on this subject, welfare SHALL benefit all, NEVER A FEW.
2)The Commerce Clause has limits.
3) Article 1, Sect 7, all appropriations SHALL begin in the house and NOT deligated(Paulson)
4) most obviously the Equal protection Clause.
There are plenty of conservative Judges around to unwind this fiasco.
If this stands, Bush has given Obozo the ability to flip his pen to feed his buddies without any oversight.
As I said, don’t go off on me about the uselessness of tax credits. I hate them too. But they are done and they will continue to be given to a hopeless industry. I am simply offering a better structure than just handing it to them for nothing.
As I said, don’t go off on me about the uselessness of tax credits bailouts. I hate them too. But they are done and they will continue to be given to a hopeless industry. I am simply offering a better structure than just handing it to them for nothing.
Oh dear, please don’t take it personal... I was not going off on you.. I agreed to the point you gave regarding the tax credit. I just decribed why I don’t like credits or bailouts of any kind.
What a sweet reply! No offense, more frustration. I have posted the idea a few times and I always get bashed as if I am a supporter of bailouts. Once it was even implied that I just wanted a new car and was trying to get the taxpayers to pay for half of it. I just don’t think the bailouts have given the automakers any real incentive to change the way they do business. I never hear anyone suggest that the UAW retirees take cuts in their health care plan, which I believe is the real culprit in this whole mess. The UAW has 780,000 retirees (plus their dependents) getting gold plated health care for the rest of their lives. No Medicare at 65 for them. They get medical, prescription, dental, hearing and vision coverage, again, FOR LIFE! Most of us sure don’t have that! As long as GM or Chrysler or Ford wanted to pay for that kind of ridiculous plan, I didn’t care. But now they are using my money to pay for it and IT ISN”T OK!
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