Time For New

Question: How did the nation get where it is economically, socially and otherwise? Who allowed the current state of the union to become what it is?

Answer: Politicians. All politicians. The current state of our economy is not George Bush’s fault. It is not the current President’s fault. Collectively, the blame should be shared by the politicians who have guided us along the path we are on.

Question: How do we the people exact the change needed to change the course we are on and start making progress toward  greater opportunity and restoring freedom.

Answer: Elect new leadership. From the halls of congress to the Whitehouse, we need new leadership otherwise nothing will change in the right direction.

Question: If your company was in trouble financially and your future and jobs depended on new leadership to guide it through the tough economic times, would you support the idea of hiring a new CEO with no experience at running anything let alone a large corporation with thousands of employees.  What if the proposed new leader wanted to fundamentally change everything the company does to something new that has never been tested.  If he wanted to stop production of the company’s  products that have an established market and demand is predictable only to replace them with untested products for which there is no market and the cost to produce is unsustainable, would you support that? I think not.

This scenario would not give you much hope for your future.  Yet that is exactly what we did in 2008 when we elected the current President. At a time when experience was most critical with regard to economic matters, we elected the least experienced of any candidate ever.  We cannot afford to make that mistake again.

Answer:  America, we need new leadership at nearly every segment of the government machine. We have the power to do this and our future depends on it. In November, Vote new.

Time For Constitutional Convention

The Amendment should read: Congress shall not create any law for which it exempts any member of Congress whether it be the House of Representative or the Senate. Likewise, Congress shall not create any law respecting itself without making the same to benefit all citizens of the United States.

Furthermore, any law made previously that is contrary to this Amendment shall be repealed.

Who's Really Doing Nothing?

There are a number of ways to cut spending in this country without hurting to most disadvantaged. Here are a few ideas which have already been proposed or passed by the current House of Representatives.  Some of those cuts are: 

* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.

* Save America's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.

* International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.

* Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.

* National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.

* National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.

* Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.

* Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.

* Eliminate duplicative education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3        billion annually.

* U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.

* Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.

* Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.

* John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.

* Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.

* Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.

* Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings (I would ground most of the political air force and save at least $10 billion)

* Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings. (I would trim another     20% here and save $1.2 billion)

* Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.

* Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.

* Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings.

* Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.

* Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.

* New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.

* Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings.

* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.

* Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.

* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings. (Not sure about this one.)

* Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings. (obviously dysfunctional)

* Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.

* Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.

* Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings.

* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.

* Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.

* U.S. Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.

* General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.

* Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.

* Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.

* No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings. (Building are vacant now.)

* End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.

* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually. (Result here would be more work completed and less spent)

* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.

* Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings.

* Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.

* Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.

* Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.

* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.

* Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings

* Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.

* USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.

* Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.

* Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.

* Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.

* Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings.

* HUD Ph.D. Program.

* Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.

* TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years

This is a good start from a so called “do nothing congress”. It appears that one side of the capital is doing something. Perhaps we have a do nothing Senate.  We need to change our world in November. Let’s get rid of those who put us where we are. Vote new.

The Great Success?

One of the successes pointed to by government officials and often certain media is the US Government’s savior of the auto industry. Much is promoted about recent profits of GM and Chrysler and the fact that jobs were saved because taxpayers bailed them out.

I suspect they would have survived anyway if normal and customary bankruptcy laws were followed and reorganization would necessarily have taken place as the laws were intended.  Instead, government stepped in and circumvented the law to the benefit of certain interest groups to the detriment of others. For example: secured creditors were forced to take far less than would be normal while unsecured creditors received unprecedented standing that resulted in them receiving a much better deal than any of the secured creditors. Not supposed to happen, but in this day of political influence effecting every segment of our lives, it does happen.

The real reason these companies got into financial trouble have not been fully addressed and the likelihood that they will again be in trouble in the future remains uncertain.  To put simple, auto manufactures simply allowed their cost to get so high that the products they produce became too expensive for the consumer and sales began to suffer as a result.

While the above mentioned bankruptcy proceedings resulted in lower cost, fewer jobs, and creditors having to accept up to 70% loss on the money loaned to these companies, auto prices appear to be near the same for consumers. Did no one consider the consumer when restructuring took place. Not only did taxpayers pick up the tab for the bailouts, they are also expected to pay the same overpriced amounts for cars and trucks as they did before the crisis.

So where is the benefit for consumers? How is this a model for success when the root cause has not been addressed? Why is nearly every car dealer in the nation building new showrooms and how will that impact comsumer prices? How can the current system continue to function without more government stimulus. The answer is, it won’t.