Gone Snorkeling....

We are headed out on vacation....Keep an eye on Congress and the 2010 budget for us!!!

A Couple of Quick Items

Earth Hour
Don't forget, tonight is the night of "Earth Hour". If you believe in global warming, you are supposed to turn off your lights for one hour starting at 8:30 pm.

On the other hand, if you haven't drunk the kool-aid yet... you might want to consider turning on every light in the house (grin).

GIVE/SAVE ACT
The GIVE/SAVE act (HR 1388) was passed with the language about MANDATORY service removed. HOWEVER, there is an alternative bill being floated (HR 1444) that has the language back in it. Keep an eye on that one.

Universal Health Coverage
Looks like the House voted that this legislation (part of the 2010 budget process) can be "fast tracked". That means that the Senate can pass it with only 51 votes (not the customary 60). Oh well....

Tea Parties

Here's the website that can help you find any of the April 15 Tea Parties that are being planned. We'll be going. I encourage you to go, and take a friend!

Just When You Thought Government Couldn't Get More Involved in Your Life

California is thinking about banning dark-colored cars, because it takes more energy to cool them via their air conditioning.

The California Air Resources Board has proposed regulations requiring that paint and glazing (on windows and sunroofs) reflect certain amounts of energy, and there is no black paint that will meet these requirements. It's not clear if other dark colors could be made more reflective in order to meet the requirement.

Unfortunately, what California does often affects other states because they are such a huge market.

What Will Happen to GITMO Detainees?

At a press conference on Thursday, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair talked about releasing some of the detainees at Guantanamo into the U.S. as free men, and also potentially giving them money and/or support to help them out.

During his news conference, Blair also said the Obama administration is still wrestling with what to do with the remaining 240 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which the president has ordered closed.

Some of the detainees, deemed non-threatening, may be released into the United States as free men, Blair confirmed.

That would happen when they can't be returned to their home countries, because the governments either won't take them or the U.S. fears they will be abused or tortured. That is the case with 17 Uighers (WEE'-gurz), Chinese Muslim separatists who were cleared for release from the jail long ago. The U.S. can't find a country willing to take them, and it will not turn them over to China.

Blair said the former prisoners would have get some sort of assistance to start their new lives in the United States.

"We can't put them out on the street," he said.

Your tax dollars at work.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Attorney General Eric Holder has issued an e-mail and flyer inviting employees to attend a speech given by Donna Brazile, a Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Not only are our tax dollars paying her speaker's fee, but Holder's flying encourages all supervisors to grant official time to employees to attend the event (so we get to pay their salaries while they go and listen).

Glad to see the Justice Department is non-political and concerned about spending our money wisely.

Mandatory Volunteerism?

From the American Thinker Blog:

The “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act” (GIVE act). HR 1388 has already passed the House and is on its way to the Senate.

You can read the final version of the House bill here. The legislation is a long string of amendments to existing laws that make it almost impossible to understand. (Really. This legislation is incomprehensible. I challenge you to click on this link and try to read the bill.)

There appears to be little volunteerism and almost no education in the bill. But there are a lot of make-work government jobs for doing God only knows what.

Part of it sounds like the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps from the 1930's) and part of it sounds like socialism. Read the whole thing, and if you don't like it, call your Senator.

401(k) Plans

From Instapundit:

BECAUSE THE STOCK MARKET IS DOWN, people are saying the 401(k) has “failed.”

But the question is, “compared to what?” Public pensions are woefully underfunded — they’re promising defined benefits, but may not be able to deliver. Defined-benefit private pensions are dragging companies like GM, Ford and Chrysler toward bankruptcy. And Social Security is on an unsustainable trajectory, which the political system knows but which politicians can’t bear to confront. At least when 401(k) balances go down, the whole system isn’t rendered insolvent.

Employee Free Choice Act (a.k.a. Card Check) - UPDATE

Today, Senator Arlen Specter (R - PA) announced during a speech in the Senate that he will NOT support this legislation (at this time). Actually, what he said was that he will not vote to stop an expected Republican filibuster. This would have the same effect, as 60 votes are needed to pass the bill.

This comes after reports of activity over the weekend by Starbucks, Costco and Whole Foods to offer a compromise version, which has received a "luke-warm" reception at best.

With the announcement by the Senator, this would be a moot point.

We'll keep an eye on this, and see what happens next.

Prior Post

Bailout for Newspapers?

A bill has been introduced into the U.S. Senate which would allow newspapers to restructure themselves as nonprofit entities, with special tax breaks. They could still run ads, and any money they get from ads would be tax free. Also, they would still charge subscriptions, and that money would also be tax free.

Basically, if this law passes, they would do what they do now, but not pay any taxes.

Wish I could do that....

U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms

From the Washington Post (emphasis added):

The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.

The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process.

New Treasury Plan for Banks

Yesterday Treasury Secretary Geithner unveiled the Administration's plan to deal with all of the "toxic" or bad assets held by some banks.

The program intends to use $100 Billion of TARP funds, plus financial guarantees from the FDIC and Federal Reserve, to buy up bad loans and real estate related securities from troubled banks.

In order to succeed, the plan will need to attract private investors to buy the debt, and those private investors will have to accept the U.S. government as a 50-50 partner. Private investors may be leery of the participating, given recent Congressional moves to retroactively change the law and the current bashing of profits and capitalism in Congress and the Administration.

The way it's supposed to work is that the Federal Government and a private investor would jointly buy a "bad loan", thus allowing the bank to get that off of their books. Both the Government and the investor would be taking a risk - if the loan ends up getting paid off, they will profit, but if it does not, then both will lose the money. The hope is that this can help banks rebuild their balance sheets and maybe allow something to be salvaged from the bad loans.

Culture of Corruption

All too often, Congressmen accept donations from those organizations whom they are supposed to regulate. Here is one example - Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who is also being investigated for getting sweetheart mortgage deals from Countrywide Financial.....this is from a Connecticut newspaper:

Let's take our own U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd as a prime example. As a ranking member of the all-important U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs between 2003 and 2008, Dodd accepted donations from the nearly defunct insurance giant American International Group totaling nearly $225,000. In 2008, while we looked to him to represent our best interests, he received $157,194 from a now-quasi-nationalized Citigroup Inc., part of his total annual take of $854,200 from all TARP recipients, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. (emphasis added)

How can he truly represent his constituents' best interests when he is accepting vast sums of money from organizations that the government has assisted through the infusion of federal tax dollars? While legal, an objective observer should question the judgment and ethics of our state's senior senator.

Read the whole thing for more troubling activities by Dodd.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

I guess the laws are for you and me, not them....

Two Congressmen (Pete Stark, D-CA and Eliot Engel, D-NY) have been claiming Maryland real estate as their primary residences so that they can get a tax break. Aren't they supposed to have residency in the state where they are Congressmen?

California congressman Pete Stark has improperly claimed a Maryland lakefront home (assessed at $1.7 million) as his primary residence in order to qualify for a special real estate tax break...

Earlier this month, Congressmen Eliot Engel, a lifelong resident of the Bronx, was outed for claiming the Maryland real estate tax break on his Maryland home (formerly owned by ABC's Ted Koppel and Wonder Woman Lynda Carter) assessed at $938,000.

TARP Recipients Make Donations to Congress

TARP is the $700 Billion program started last fall and continued under the Obama Administration to help with the banking and credit crisis. Companies who have received TARP funds are continuing to give donations to members of Congress.

While a few big firms, such as Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, have curtailed their campaign giving, others are quietly doling out cash to select members of Congress, particularly those who serve on committees that oversee TARP...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Financial Services chair Rep. Barney Frank both said recently they won't take donations from TARP recipients. But House Democratic fundraisers have quietly passed the word that the party's campaign committee will resume accepting them—but down the road, not right now.

Weekend "Tea Parties"

Several more taxpayer protests, dubbed "Tea Parties" after the Boston Tea Party, were held this weekend. Ironically, the 40 people who protested the AIG bonuses got national coverage (journalists outnumbered protestors by more than 2 to 1), while the Tea Parties did not.

Orlando, Florida 4,000 people
Raleigh, NC 300-400
Ridgefield, Conn. 200-300
Lexington, KY 1,200 - 1,500
Solomons Island, Maryland 300

Obama Budget Deficits

The budget proposed by President Obama for 2010 and beyond will average $1 Trillion in deficits each year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The Congressional Budget Office figures, obtained by The Associated Press Friday, predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the White House predicted in its budget.

Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.

It took us 40 years to get to a national debt of $11 Trillion. If these plans are adopted, it will take only 9 more years to get to $20 Trillion.

Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced that it would pump an extra $1 Trillion into the economy by buying Treasury bonds and mortgage securities.

"The action makes the Fed a buyer of long-term government bonds rather than the short-term debt that it typically buys and sells to help control the money supply."

Why do we care? There is a risk that these actions could dilute the value of the dollar (which dropped sharply upon this news) and cause inflation in the future.

This is in addition to an "unprecedented expansion of lending by the Fed."

"In effect, the central bank has been lending money to a wider and wider array of borrowers, and it has financed that lending by using its authority to create new money at will..." (emphasis added).

"Since last September, the Fed’s lending programs have roughly doubled the size of its balance sheet, to about $1.8 trillion, from $900 billion. The actions announced on Wednesday are likely to expand that to well over $3 trillion over the next year...The Fed’s action is an expansion of its effort to bypass the private banking system and act as a lender in its own right."

By adding more money to the system, the Fed hopes to head off deflation, but runs the risk of setting off inflation.

This is a complicated issue that many of us don't understand fully.

To start you thinking, try this video (hat tip Anchoress):




Then, for a good basic description of a market economy and how we got to where we are, read this article: The Money Meltdown.

AIG Bonuses - Opinion

Yesterday, Congress passed a bill to tax 90% of the AIG bonuses that were given out last week.

This is the same Congress that passed the Stimulus Bill with the amendment specifically allowing those bonuses a few weeks earlier.

Senator Dodd (D-Conn.) is taking fire for putting the amendment in the bill. Senator Dodd is saying that the Administration and Treasury Department told him to put the bonus language in the amendment. C-SPAN video shows that both Congress and Treasury knew about the bonus amounts by March 3rd.

So, the people responsible for allowing the bonuses are the ones yelling the loudest about them, and now they have passed a law that sets precedent for future laws taxing particular people or industries just because Congress doesn't like how they are acting. That's hypocrisy (and not good leadership).

By the way, regardless of how you feel about the AIG bonuses, the stirring up of a mob mentality (complete with death threats) and Congressmen wanting to release the names of people who received bonuses so people could go to their houses and "protest" is just plain dangerous.

St Patricks Day Milestone

In case you didn't notice, while we were eating corned beef and cabbage and washing it down with green beer the National Debt rolled pass the $11,000,000,000,000 ($11 TRILLION) mark.

Current Debt Level

Your Tax Dollars at Work

470 firms have received taxpayer bailouts. A House Committee has checked the records of 23 of them, and found that 13 of the 23 had unpaid federal taxes of over $220 million.

"Banks and other firms receiving federal money were required to sign contracts stating they had no unpaid taxes...But he said the Treasury Department did not ask them to turn over their tax records."

If the companies knowingly signed a contract with false information, they can be prosecuted for fraud.