From Three Pages to 102 Pages

In the below story, reported by the AP, it shows the typical work our government is capable of producing.   There are now 102 reason why our government needs to sty out of this fiasco that they created.

This is just more of the same.  I can’t wait to hear about this on the Sunday morning talk shows.

By The Associated Press Fri Sep 26, 6:15 PM ET

A week ago, it totaled just three pages — the White House’s request for $700 billion to rescue tottering financial institutions by buying their devalued mortgage-related assets

By Monday, after an intense weekend of negotiations, the draft of the bailout legislation before Congress had swelled to 42 pages.

By Friday, after almost a week of marathon talks between Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and key lawmakers in both parties, the working version was up to 102 pages

It likely will grow even longer as negotiators continue to tweak the proposal this weekend, adding and subtracting key elements.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the House Financial Services Committee’s chairman, was optimistic Friday that a final agreement could be reached by Sunday.

A Crook is a Crook!

These words come from a dear friend of mine.

This country is in the midst of a financial fiasco at this time and I have been doing a little digging.

The Government is currently scrambling to come up with solutions to this problem, but do not be naive enough to think that they haven’t had a hand in this process from the start. State and local governments are equally at fault.

In this area, the local governments were increasing property assessments (tied to property taxes) on the basis that these homes were selling at such high rates and big $$$. The lending institutions were issuing “interest only loans”, “paper free loans” and “sub-prime” loans” because “EVERYBODY DESERVES A HOUSE”…even if they couldn’t pay.

The State and local governments became “fat” because of the increased property tax revenue and the lending institutions were just passing this loans around as commodities like they weren’t real. Everyone was “fat and happy because they were just “kicking the can down the road”, but this money wasn’t real.

The Government LOVED the tax revenue, the banks loved the “assets” they could show on their books (and the bonuses that came along with them) and the people who could actually afford to own a home, now had a mortgage. Don’t be fooled…these programs aren’t just for the poor. Depending on the area, these loans could be purchased up to $417,000.

Most of this happened under the guise of these two quasi-government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They were government sponsored enterprises, but publicly traded companies, and as of today the U.S Government is under control of a $6,000,000,000,000 piece (50%) of the U.S. Housing market. Fannie Mae was stated in the 1930’s under FDR “New Deal” that has handcuffed us with the antiquated Social Security System (which should be ready to fail soon) and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which helped WATCH this whole financial crisis happen.

On September 17, 2004, The government reports of gross accounting abuses in 2004 at Fannie Mae.

The referenced 121 page report outlined the culture of behavior that was an issue over four years ago at Fannie Mae.

• Management’s desire to portray Fannie Mae as a consistent generator of stable and growing earnings;
• A dysfunctional and ineffective process for developing accounting policies;
• An operating environment that tolerated weak or non-existent controls;
• Key person dependencies and poor segregation of duties;
• Incomplete and ineffective reviews by the Office of Auditing;
• An inordinate concentration of responsibility vested in the Chief Financial Officer; and
• AN EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION STRUCTURE THAT REWARDED MANAGEMENT FOR MEETING GOALS TIED TO EARNINGS PER SHARE, A METRIC SUBJECT TO MANIPULATION BY MANAGEMENT.

Read that last one again. The company lied about profits to increase the management bonuses in the government sponsored enterprise.

Fannie Mae is was the largest purchaser of Countrywide Financial Corporation loans.

Countrywide was by Bank of America almost two weeks ago.

Countrywide was one of the institutions that obtained these sub-prime loans. Since Countrywide didn’t want to have these bad sub-prime loans on their books, they passed them off to Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac.

Countrywide, according to the linked article, gave favorable loans to the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Chris Dodd and the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee Kent Conrad among others.

In a “completely unrelated” turn of events. Senator Dodd was one of the sponsors for a $300 Billion measure that would enable these same loans initiated by Countywide (and other institutions) to be insured from loss and foreclosure. These two Senators are currently under ethics investigation (by other Senators who are a part of the same broken system.)

This June Wall Street Journal article outlines a couple of additional interested parties (James A. Johnson and Franklin Raines) who had received “favorable” loans from Country Wide. These people are current advisers on one of our Presidential candidate’s political staffs.

James A. Johnson was, from 1991 to 1996, the CEO of Fannie Mae after a five year stint at Lehmen Brothers (now bankrupt). He was the head of one candidates VP search committee and is currently a bundler of donations for the same candidate.

Franklin Raines held the same position with Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2004, before “accepting early retirement”. They have been under investigation since that time of overstating Fannie Mac’s earnings by thirty percent… or $3,000,000,000 ($3 billion) in 2004. He has since agreed to pay over $40 million in fines, penalties and stock options according to this April NY Times article. Raines worked for Fannie Mae previously and even served for one Presidential Administration as Director of the U.S Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is tasked with giving expert advice to senior White House officials on a range of topics relating to federal policy, management, legislative, regulatory, and budgetary issues.

Mr. Raines is also a financial adviser for the same Presidential candidate as Mr. Johnson.

I am not saying the other guy is as clean as a whistle and I have tried to keep partisanship out of this by mentioning political parties. But I know that this post, if you do some research, is going to be bashing one of them and ignoring the other.

The other party is just as guilty for doing nothing all of the years that this has been happening.

This is where our Government has put us. They knew this was coming and no one had the “balls” to say NO!

I encourage you to research this stuff yourself…it is all there. There was even a Senate Bill in 2005 that could have stopped this over three years ago…but it never made it out of committee.

To stop lending money they didn’t have to people who wouldn’t ever be able to pay it back.

They just kicked the can down the road.

Watch how much power and control you give the Government because it doesn’t know what to do with it. The premise that everyone “deserves” a house is much different that having the “opportunity” to earn one.

I want to know who is really going to change the style of business in Washington.

This is bigger than one President can handle. We have to look at our Congressmen and Senators (along with the President and the Cabinet) and get them out of there. Washington D.C. has turned into a place of lobbying and special interest groups when the writers of the Constitution envisioned a government “for the people and by the people.”

These people “representing” us are either a cause or a solution to the issues we have in front of us. Look at each one of them and ask yourself, “Cause…or Solution?”

No partisanship.

A crook is a crook.

Democrat or Republicans.

We are the people to institute change by holding public officials accountable.

The pot calling the Kettle black

House Speaker Pelosi calls Bush ‘a total failure’

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – President Bush has been a “total failure” in everything from the economy to the war to energy policy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. In an interview on CNN, the California Democrat was asked to respond to video of the president criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for heading into the final 26 days of the legislative session without having passed a single government spending bill.

Pelosi shot back in unusually personal terms.

“You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject,” Pelosi replied. She then tsk-tsked Bush for “challenging Congress when we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again.”

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defended Bush.

“What the president said is a fact — this is the longest a Congress has gone in 20 years without passing a single spending bill, so it’s clear that the speaker is feeling some frustration at their inability to do so.”

Pelosi’s outburst was a departure. Her usual practice in public has been to call Bush’s policies a failure — not his presidency or him, personally. Pelosi’s remarks are the latest evidence of the Democrats’ throw-caution-to-the-wind approach to Bush in the waning days of a presidency weighed down by an unpopular war and soaring gasoline prices.

Election Day, after all, is just over four months away; Bush’s successor takes his seat on Jan. 20.

Pelosi’s counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, long ago took off the rhetorical gloves. Last month, he ridiculed Republicans who sided with Bush on a Medicare bill.

“Who would be afraid of him?” Reid, D-Nev., said as many senators looked on. “He’s got a 29 percent approval rating.”

The public’s view of Congress is even worse. Its approval rating has hit a new low of just 18 percent, down from 23 percent last month, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. Bush’s approval is at 28 percent, about even with the 29 percent rating last month.

Only 16 percent of those surveyed thought the country was moving in the right direction, a new low as well, although statistically the same as last month’s 17 percent.

Last week Reid and other Democrats dropped any pretense of trying to fight the president on battles they were likely to lose — even on the most important part of their jobs, which is passing spending bills that keep the government running.

Of the 12 annual appropriations bills, Congress is likely to pass one or two and send Bush a temporary spending fix for the rest. That would have to suffice until a new president takes office, Reid told reporters.

Privately, Democrats have said that either candidate for president — Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain — would be easier to make laws with than Bush. But Reid made clear which he’d prefer.

“I would hope that before we would leave here this year that we would do a continuing resolution that would get us (through) until after Senator Obama becomes president,” he said.

My words now…

Don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that our current Commander in Chief doesn’t have a part to blame regarding the current state of affairs, but the audacity of any member of Congress to try to skirt blame is ridiculous.

Rights vs. Responsibilities

As Americans, we have be blessed with a number of rights.

These rights may be listed in the Constitution or they have have been established by the individual states or the federal government.

Most of us a familiar with the rights established by the Constitution.    We are also familiar with the rights each of us have in the workplace, the rights guaranteed to those with disabilities and the civil liberties rights granted to each person.

Prisoners of War and even those incarcerated have rights.

All of these rights have one thing in common.

For every right we have, there is a RESPONSIBILITY to establish a way and means of enforcement.

These rights also have one thing other thing in common…They establish the RESPONSIBILITY of the “collective” to ensure the right is granted.

The rights to vote, speak (this list is long and can be found in the Constitution) are pretty much agreed upon and most Americans don’t have an issue “picking up the tab” for these and having the RESPONSIBILITY of making sure each of us have these rights.

In this country, every person has the right to have as many children as they want to have.    This is a freedom of the individual as long as they can provide for their family and these children.   By providing for their own family, the individual has the responsibility to care for them.

When a person, or family, keeps having children and the government (collective) has to provide for their welfare, this is where the individual has the right to have unprotected intercourse and procreate, but not have the responsibility of ensuring for the care of the result of these actions.

In a situations like this, we (the collective), are assuming the responsibility for the actions of the individual.

Welfare is just the example used here.  There are many others.

This example can be used for just about any freedom we have and the question should be asked for all of them as the size of our Government grows.

Each and every day the Government is assuming more and more of the RESPONSIBILITY for our “individual” freedoms.  We, the collective, are assuming the RESPONSIBILITY for the rights of the individual.

When individual wants the right to have unprotected intercourse, abuse substances (alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs and medications) and not assume the responsibility (unwanted  children, AIDS, dependency), we (the collective) are forced to do so.

Is it right for you to expect your neighbor to give you money (welfare, food, daycare, etc…) to care for your children?

It would be nice, but by requiring them do so infringes on their rights as an individual.

Is it right for you to expect your neighbor to pay the bill for your alcohol or drug rehab?

It would be nice, but by requiring them do so infringes on their rights as an individual.

With all RIGHTS come RESPONSIBILITIES.

Candidate to limit freedoms?

One of glorious Presidential candidates came up with this gem over the weekend…

“We can’t drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we’re living in the desert or we’re living in the tundra, and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world’s energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us. That’s not leadership.”

Who is he to tell us how to live?

What is next? A sq. ft. allowance for each person?

We can’t have a family of four living in a 3,000 4,500 sq ft house. It is wasteful to heat a cool a place of that size.

Maybe that hits a little too close to home?

Another $770 million down the drain

Bush calls for approval of $770 million in food aid

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – President Bush urged Congress Thursday to approve $770 million to help alleviate dramatically escalating food prices that threaten widespread hunger and increasing social unrest around the world.

In a surprise midafternoon appearance at the White House, Bush announced he is asking lawmakers to approve the additional funds for global food aid and development programs. The money — to be directed primarily at needy African nations — is being included in a broader $70 billion Iraq war funding measure for 2009 that the White House sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday.

“In some of the world’s poorest nations, rising prices can mean the difference between getting a daily meal and going without food,” Bush said. “The American people are generous people and they’re a compassionate people. We believe in the timeless truth `to whom much is given, much is expected.’”

The new money comes on top of $200 million Bush ordered released two weeks ago for emergency food aid. It also is in addition to a pending $350 million request for emergengy food aid funds. Because the new funds are part of a 2009 budget, they wouldn’t be available for distribution until the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, even if they are approved sooner.

Even so, Bush called it “just the beginning” of the U.S. effort to help. He said the United States would spend a total of $5 billion this year and next on food aid and related programs.

“America’s in the lead, we’ll stay in the lead and we expect others to participate along with us,” he said.

The new funds are aimed at meeting immediate needs with direct shipments of food aid, and the White House said they would allow for millions more people to get help. Emergency aid accounts for $620 million of the request, said Steve McMillin, deputy director of the president’s Office of Management and Budget.

The funds also have long-term aims, with $150 million aimed at boosting U.S. programs to help farmers in developing countries increase productivity and make cash purchases of local crops, so communities are less in need of emergency help in the first place.

The issue has become more urgent recently because of food shortages and rising prices that, combined with high gas costs and rising home foreclosures, are putting a huge squeeze on families at home and abroad. What has been termed the first global food crisis since World War II has resulted in cries for help from United Nations officials and raised questions about how Bush will respond.

Some have blamed the food crisis in part on Bush-backed policies that push food-based biofuels such as ethanol as alternative energy sources. Bush says diverting corn and soybeans into fuel is still a smart approach, though he favors increasing funding for research into eventually using wood chips or switchgrass rather than food crops.

Bush’s top economic adviser, Edward Lazear, said ethanol made from corn is responsible for just 2-3 percent of the overall increase in global food prices, which are 43 percent up this year over last year.

Bush’s announcement drew praise from several quarters.

“Millions of people around the world may be saved from starvation if we can quickly move forward with the president’s request,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “Global aid is not only the right thing to do; it’s the smart and safe thing to do. I commend the president for his leadership.”

The United States is the world’s largest provider of food aid, delivering more than $2.1 billion to 78 developing countries last year.

Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)

This was a neat thing I found in the review of the USAid Budget this weekend.

The Government has its’ own corporation that links up businesses with U.S. overseas interests and it is administered under the oversight of the U.S. State Department through USAid.

It is the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and it describes itself as being…”established as an agency of the U.S. government in 1971. OPIC helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, complements the private sector in managing risks associated with foreign direct investment, and supports U.S. foreign policy. Because OPIC charges market-based fees for its products, it operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to taxpayers.”

Additionally…”The initiative is the culmination of OPIC consultations with interested stakeholders, including members of Congress and the nongovernmental community.”

This SELF-SUSTAINING CORPORATION is only costing U.S. taxpayer’s $76,500,000.00 this fiscal year.

Typical government efficiency.

Keep your eyes open and see where you tax dollars are really going.    I am sure this is what the framers of the Constitution has in mind for the government “of the people, for the people and by the people”.

What is shocking to me is that we are letting this happen right under our noses!

USAid-Fleecing of America

Foreign Aid is Big Business these days.  This year the cost is $36,200,000,000.00, PLUS $10,000,000,000 for overruns from last year.  There are approximately 117 million taxpayers in the United States.   The math totals about $400.00 per taxpayer goes to foreign assistance.

Under the careful watch of the U.S. State Department this government is not only throwing money at our problems at an alarming rate, but we are doing it overseas also.

The United States Agency for International Development (or USAID) is the United States federal government organization responsible for most non-military foreign aid. An independent federal agency, it receives overall foreign policy guidance from the United States Secretary of State and seeks to “extend a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, recover from a disaster or striving to live in a free and democratic country…”

USAID advances U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting economic growth, agriculture and trade; health; democracy, conflict prevention, and humanitarian assistance. It provides assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia and the Near East, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Eurasia. USAID is also organized around four main pillars: Global Development Alliance; Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade; Global Health; Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance.

The actual USAid 2008 highlighted budget and summary.  There are a couple of PDF links there that give detailed breakdown of where the $$$ is headed.

Highlight of this years USAid budget.

• Africa-with this year’s requested 54% increase, aid to Africa will have nearly quadrupled under this Administration, from $1.1 billion to $4.4 billion, focused on addressing the crippling effects of disease and poverty.
• Near East-a 6% increase for vital investments in winning the Global War on Terror and empowering the people of this key region.
• Western Hemisphere-with this request, aid to the region has doubled under this Administration, from $862 million to $1.6 billion, and is focused on continued economic growth and strengthening democratic institutions.
• Peace and Security-$6.88 billion for counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics activities and programs to secure necessary conditions for further political, economic, and social progress.
• Governing Justly and Democratically-$1.45 billion to promote effective, accountable, democratic governance, a vital foundation for sustainable progress.
• Investing in People-$6.95 billion to support human capacity development and address poverty and disease, including, $4.5 billion to meet the treatment and prevention goals of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, $388 million for the President’s Malaria Initiative, and $535 million to support equitable access and improved quality of basic education around the world-the largest request ever by this Administration.
• Economic Growth-$2.37 billion to support economic progress and poverty reduction as critical underpinnings of sustainable development.
• Humanitarian Assistance-$2.12 billion to maintain the United States’ long-standing commitment to alleviate human suffering and respond to destabilizing humanitarian disasters

The reason I bring this to everyone’s attention is that we have no say on how this $36 Billion is spent, let alone the authority for our government to give our tax dollars away.  There are some very noble health, food and security issues handled under the watch of USAid, but since the government is involved, we also are providing assistance for the INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NEW VARIETIES OF PLANTS.

We all know how efficient the Federal Governments is a the use of our tax dollars.  Because of their excellent reputation, I am not even going to entertain the possibility of ANY Fraud, Waste of Abuse.

Fairness in taxation

This whole tax system has got me stumped.

I fall into the $42,650-$110,100 group.  This means I get taxed at $5,837.50 plus 25% of anything over $42,650.

So If I make $70,000. I would pay $5,837.50 + $6837.50  (($70,000-$42,650) * .25) = $12,675 in taxes on my income.  This turns out to be 18% of my income.

If someone makes $500,000 they pay $98,355.50 plus 35% of the amount over 349,700.

They pay $98,355.50 + $52,605  (($500,000- $349,700) *.35) = $150,960.50 in taxes on their income.  It would turn out to be 30.1% of their income.

Is someone makes $1,000,000 they pay $98,355.50 plus 35% of the amount over 349,700.

They pay  $98,355.50 + $227,605  (($1,000,000- $349,700) *.35) = $325,960.50 in taxes on their income.  It would turn out to be 32.6% of their income.

The popular argument is that the top earners should pay more in taxes and they surely do.  They also buy more vehicles, televisions, more valuable property and pay taxes on those items also.

So, this push to get taxes increases for the wealthy is just a push by our government to get their hands on even more money.

Don’t fall for the tricks.

Department of Education Organization Act?

On May 4, 1980 The Department of Education Organization Act was passed by Congress.

I was nine years old.  Can someone who was of voting age at that time tell me how this happened?

The established mission of this “organization” is as follows…

• Strengthen the Federal commitment to assuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual;
• Supplement and complement the efforts of states, the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the states, the private sector, public and private nonprofit educational research institutions, community-based organizations, parents, and students to improve the quality of education;
• Encourage the increased involvement of the public, parents, and students in Federal education programs;
• Promote improvements in the quality and usefulness of education through Federally supported research, evaluation, and sharing of information;
• Improve the coordination of Federal education programs;
• Improve the management of Federal education activities; and
• Increase the accountability of Federal education programs to the President, the Congress, and the public.

Nowhere in my research (I am just a common man), did I find the authorization for the federal government to put its’ nose into the states educational system.   What the federal government is currently doing is collecting our tax dollars on a national level, and then redistributing them back to the states as carrots in order to get them to line up and educate our children by some national standards (like NCLB among MANY others).  I am using Article 1, section 8 as my reference point for the items that the Congress is authorized to make laws about.  To make things worse this is even a Cabinet Position in the executive branch of government.

This organization has an annual budget of about $60 billion and since its’ inception, the quality of our educational systems has steadily declined.   This could be a coincidence and my thinking could be wrong, but what I can tell you is that it surely hasn’t improved and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.  The Department of Education holds between 9-12% of a schools educational budget “hostage” and if the school is in non-compliance with the standards and regulations set by these unelected “officials” this money is withheld from the school.   Not only does this not seem fair, there is no basis for this organization to even exist.

These funds could stay at the state level and be used and controlled by the state legislatures and governors, who are regularly elected and an be held accountable for their decisions.  The DOE can run amok with this $60 billion and not even be accountable for its’ use.

We had a promise or two from a President and another candidate in the 80’s to disband this organization, but it never happened.

I really wish we had a State/Commonwealth that had enough gumption to challenge the constitutionality of the Department of Education and take it to the Supreme Court and return the complete control of the education of our children to where it belongs…at the state level.