My mother works at a local McDonald's, and my stars are they an exploiter of immigrants. They supposedly have papers, but everyone knows that 90% of them aren't legit. On top of that, the local franchisee knows this and leverages it to the hilt.
I've been blogging over at grist.org about the importance of manufacturing for a country. You should know that according to the WTO, fully 80% of global interregional trade is in merchandise goods, and only 20% of trade is in services. That means that manufacturing is not simply one part of an economy, it is the single most important part of an economy. A big country simply cannot trade services for goods. The dollar will have to collapse in order for that to take place at this point.
That means that we are entering an emergency situation, one that has been building for decades (my intellectual mentor, the late Professor Seymour Melman [www.seymourmelman.com] warned about this for decades). As you point out, there is a veritable ecosystem of firms surrounding the auto companies; but over the decades this ecosystem has been clearcut. In order to rebuild the manufacturing system, I'm afraid, the government is going to have to step in big-time, and the best way to do that is to try to rebuild the infrastructure, which will offer a huge market for a regrowth of an industrial ecosystem.
Another problem is that the entire automobile industry is in trouble, because of the precarious nature of global oil supply. It is imperative that we move, not only towards electric cars, but also retool the automobile industry so that it starts to produce trains of various sorts -- high-speed rail, subways (there are no domestic subway firms in the US), light rail, freight rail -- all of these could easily replace the employment and industrial suppliers that are now part of the automobile industry. I've done my best to blog about high-speed and other kinds of rail -- which doesn't seem to get the kind of interest you would think it would from environmentalists -- and I think this will be a critical part of future economic policy.
The GMAc porfolio is about $60 billion. Plenty of junk and bad loans there but plenty of good assets. If sold to banks and the Fed,there is plenty to go around for the whole Auto industry rescue.
Syndication of loans is key. The Fed could buy the loans. Then resell or collect. Not many auto loans go Repo but the repo business is picking up.
You say the banks don't want to buy auto loans? Think again.
I really like that idea, truly because we do need to mold our investment. That's the issue for me, if we let the same management run them after a bail out, it will assuredly be more of the same.
I posted in the Instapopulist how current the deal is the "same as the financial bail out" which probably means same executives, no conditions, no real oversight and maybe a very empty token amendments that reporters can misreport as doing something beyond show..
(Ali Velshi anyone?)
So, the grand debate in the Senate is next week and I hope all are letting their ideas be known to their Senators.
Note how the real corporate bills start in the Senate these days even though all bills are supposed to originate in the House?
I have believed for some time that a solution for industries who are the worst immigration Offenders - construction, landscaping, agriculture and hospitality - are the best candidates for unionization. I mean enforced unionization as a condition for entry to the U.S.
The idea is that
Union Matriculation = Border Control, for the 4 industries.
This could be the basis of a political compromise on immigration. The trick is to explain to employers that they would get rid of ICE the raids, and get a stable supply of labor. If collective bargaining is based on enforceable arbitration, employers would have little to lose. Wages would rise slowly. Cesar Chavez foresaw this long before me in agriculture.
Democrats have promised card-check registration. Maybe they could merge the drive to unionize with a different approach on immigration.
Burton Leed
... of long haul trucking is "don't do that". Electrify the rail grid and take the majority of the trucks off the road.
However, for the short haul freight task that will remain for trucking, either biodiesel or ammonia or (as seems likeliest) both would be far more secure than reliance on petrodiesel.
They endorsed comprehensive immigration reform which was so loaded, positively loaded with guest worker Visas and had a huge target against Professional labor for global arbitrage. I mean the entire thing was about repressing wages amoung the best middle class job categories through manipulation of the immigration system and they endorsed it.
The AFL-CIO on the other hand opposed it (and yes the AFL-CIO is for "amnesty") which really exposes who was really standing up for workers across the board and who was not.
I couldn't believe they endorsed that bill, helped write it, pushed for it because their "Z" Visa well, those people, due to the "merit" restrictions on a green card would have never gotten citizenship but every damn person on the globe who would claim a college degree sure could have. What a nightmare that would have been for US labor if it had passed.
I really don't trust the SEIU for that one and I note they are not alone, there is real discord in their membership as well.
one of the things that I would like to see is the transitioning of the commercial trucking and agriculture sectors to the use of ammonia as a fuel. Stranded wind has a nice piece up about how it's possible to create fuel for engines using windpower.
Stranded wind is a great project, and it's a real winner. My hometown just got a new factory that will produce gearboxes for wind turbines. There is a huge potential for wind power on the Great Lakes, and this is heart of American manufacturing.
Something along the lines of the TVA that would involve the government in the creation of a wind energy sector through using the government as an investor in wind power projects would create a new basis for growth in American industry.
Switching the commercial trucking and ag sectors to the use of wind produced ammonia would allow for economic continuity if there were to be a major supply disruption.
We need both the ability to feed ourselves, and to move things around this country if we are going to have an effective economy. Ammonia is one path to that, and pulling commercial trucking and ag off of petroleum would cut our use substantially. As well, because there is a much lower number of retail outlets that service them, the transaction cost of building the new infrastructure would be much lower than for the broader auto sector.
Unions. Unions built along the line of SEIU not the sellout fat slobs of the UAW.
The SEIU is not a model for unions to look to. It has a number of democratic deficiencies, they foremost being the use of trusteeship in order for the national union to replace people who've risen through the ranks to leadership with college educated organizers with not work experience.
The UAW is a democratic union that works from the bottom up. Black Lake offers a number of opportunities for people who work on the line to go through courses so they can run for, and become, leaders in their locals.
Big difference. And this isn't just me yapping. A few years back their was a great article about this. I suggest that you read it before you praise the SEIU.
I really believe that we must preserve the economic miracle that has given our citizens one of the highest living standards in the world. This economic miracle has not been due to the efforts of Wall Street MBA's, Stock Market Gamblers, Real Estate Speculators, Economists, Insurance Salesmen, Junk Bond Salesmen, etc. It has been due to the Agricultural and Industrial Base that produced the food, goods, services and other items that we consumed, plus an excess of these goods & services that were produced and then sold to other foreign countries in order to accumulate our gold reserves through a positive balance of trade surplus payments. Our gold reserves are the basis of the value or buying power of our currency. This was (is) true of all of the currencies in the world.
The U S Medical Expertise has customers from all over the world coming to the USA and paying U S Medical Personnel for medical treatment, and this is helping the US Balance of payments. Visit the Texas Medical Center and witness the percentage of women wearing Burkas to get a clue as to the percentage of foreign medical service income is received at the Texas Medical Center.
Our computer programming technology and expertise (Microsoft and Others) has helped our balance of payments considerably in the past, but the lack of technical education in this country today will soon destroy this export capability when foreign countries become better than the USA at creating new computer software programs.
The Stock Markets are just gambling Venues for the public to make gambling wagers (investments) in ownership of publicly traded companies, securities, loans, and other investment vehicles. Investors just lost some of value of their investments, and there is nothing wrong with this loss since the value was speculation over and above the Balance sheet value of the companies. The investors should not have believed anything that their brokers told them about those or any other investments. If you review almost any of the SEC filings (on the EDGAR database) you will find almost all of the sworn information filed with the SEC is extremely false, most especially when you get away from the "Blue Chip" stocks. Lawyers must prosecute all of the Wall Street Criminals in order to create an environment where the value of investments is transparent, honest, and truthful. The Federal Government must exact criminal penalties when Sworn Lies, Sworn False Statements, and/or any other Sworn Fraudulent or Misleading Information is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as legally required reports. We must create an atmosphere where investors can have confidence in the honesty of our banking and securities systems as enforced by the SEC.
Many people got loans for houses they could not afford, and these people should lose their houses in foreclosure. The Federal Government pressured the Mortgage Markets to give mortgages to people with bad credit histories. Financial Managers combined multiple numbers of these low quality loans into packages (of low quality loans) and sold them to investors at (almost) face value. These Financial Managers got multi-million dollar (non-refundable) bonuses for their efforts. As more and more of these sub-prime non-credit worthy mortgagees defaulted, the value of these packages of multiple mortgages diminished drastically. The Taxpayer is now being asked to pay for these financial mistakes. Why?
The US Automakers do not need a taxpayer bailout to prevent their demise caused by their mad management and bad union contracts. If the Big 3 disappear, then others will start-up new manufacturing plants and/or the better-managed Toyota and Honda manufacturers will fill this gap.
The California real estate values will plummet to a fraction of their present sales prices. The $500,000.00 South LA crack house with a $495,000.00 mortgage, roof leaks, no air conditioning, and no plumbing owned by an unemployed person (crack cocaine supplier) might now sale for $5,000.00 and that might be closer to the actual retail sale value. No more "flipping Houses". No more real estate financial geniuses. No more get-rich-quick real estate seminars.
Wall Street does not need a bailout. Those that invested in these sub-prime securities should lose most or all of their money. This will be an incentive for these and other future investors to become more cautious of what they buy mortgages. This will cause the investors to become more skeptical concerning anything that the financial experts have to say (lies). We need for this penalty to happen. This will cause investors to be wary of and question anything that any stockbroker of other financial genius has to say.
As this country increases the import of all of the things that we consume and at the same time we destroy our industrial base that was previously used to manufacture those items that we consume, we will have to pay the working people in those foreign countries with our dollars for these items that we import. Our dollars are no longer backed by and redeemable in gold, but are now backed up by the full faith and credit of the United States of America (aka Junk Bonds).
As the government cranks up the presses to print more and more dollars, T-Bills, bonds, and similar securities to pay for all of the government payrolls, imports, entitlements, benefits, wars, welfare schemes, Wall Street Bailouts, and other things that cost money; the value and buying power of the U. S. dollar diminishes rapidly. As the industrial manufacturing countries, Oil Producing countries, other foreign governments, and various foreign citizens amass large values dollars, bonds, T-Bills and other government issued securities realize that the value (buying Power) of these items is diminishing quite rapidly; they will look for other places to place their U S dollars. These foreigners realize that the buying power of each dollar they hold is diminishing daily, so they are now coming to this country and purchase our real estate, refineries, petro-chemical industries, hotels, agri-business, breweries, remaining product manufacturing facilities, casinos, and other similar investments with those securities that they cannot redeem for gold. Our Government encourages these foreign purchases as "Investing in America". Several years ago these foreigners realized that these investments do not lose value as quickly as the dollars and other government securities lose value, but actually gain in value. We are selling the future of this country in order to borrow money to continue our high spending, high consuming, and non-producing life style with borrowed money, and our children and grandchildren will have to work really hard to pay for our lifestyles, if the USA is not a third world economy with no job possibilities.
Our political and economic leaders seem to have decided that we can continue our economic miracle by becoming a service oriented society cooking hamburgers for each other using imported beef, imported vegetables, etc.; suing each other, and selling insurance & junk bonds to each other, but definitely not manufacturing or creating anything that we consume. We are paying for our imported items by borrowing more money and/or issuing U.S Bonds (junk bonds) to redeem the dollars paid to foreign individuals and foreign governments for our imports.
We need to re-industrialize and manufacture the things that we consume. This stupidity will eventually change this country into a third world country when foreign countries discover that we will not repay (redeem the bonds) the money that they are lending us. Foreign Governments and their rulers are not stupid. They will continue buy the real estate, industries, and financial institutions located in the USA with the decreasing value bonds that we gave to them (to pay for the things that we wanted by way of imports rather than us working to manufacture these items) in lieu of gold for their dollars. The US will then be third world employees or slaves to the foreign countries that will own everything in the USA. Our children and grandchildren might also have to change to the religion of the business owner if they want a job. Future nationalization (ala Mexico) of foreign owned assets is another discussion topic for another day.
There is nothing more saddening or devastating than mass unemployment such as exists in countries such as Mexico or India. Crime, family abandonment, divorce, and other bad things increase during these periods. Our basic industries such as steel, computer chip manufacturing, petrochemical refining, appliance manufacturing, tire manufacturing, automobile parts manufacturing, aircraft manufacturing, textiles, and etc. have been decimated and/or totally eliminated from this country by OSHA and the EPA. The North American Free Trade Agreement has almost eliminated the remainder of the basic industrial manufacturing jobs from the USA. The OSHA and the EPA are the major causes of the de-industrialization of the USA. The USA must re-industrialize. Even if OSHA and the EPA were eliminated today, it would take many years to re-create the manufacturing and industrial production bases that they destroyed. New jobs created by the EPA are nice, but they are about as economically useful to our balance of payments and our industrial base as paying people for raking leaves, digging holes and re-filling the same holes, since they do not produce anything economically useful that we can consume or export. Disband OSHA and the EPA in total and fire all of those government employees. Be decisive, not timid or partial.
Our Productive Industrial Base could not exist with foreign invasion, rampant crime, protection rackets, corruption, foreign invasion, sabotage, etc., so a portion of the money earned by this industrial base has always been taken by taxation by all civilizations to pay for federal, state, and local governments to prevent these occurrences. We must tax the population base to pay for National Security, Crime Prevention, and other items that are necessary to assist and protected their industrial production base. Maybe we can no longer afford to spend taxes on social entitlements, welfare, education, medicine, housing, humanities, etc.
Our U S Government is now spending these taxes and our remaining gold reserves on entitlement schemes in order to buy votes from non-productive citizens that do not contribute to, help, or support our industrial base. There is a limit to how many non-productive people that the productive people within our industrial economic productive base can support by producing enough wealth (gold) to support these non-productive people. When our gold reserves became diminished, we then continued to expand these entitlements by borrowing money from foreign banks and foreign governments by pledging the "Full Faith & Credit of the United States of America" (aka Junk Bonds) in lieu of government security re-payment in gold. We also decided that we could allow OSHA and the EPA to close down the industrial bases that originally created these vast gold reserves that were the basis of the value of our currency. The federal gold reserve that was created by our positive balance of trade has allowed the USA to expend this gold to provide social experiments, foreign aid, wars, and other functions that would not be possible without the gold reserves created by our industrial bases. The Federal monetary system, the foreign trade deficit (or surplus), and the national debt are interrelated in this way and control our standard of living. We must educate our students and the public to this fact. If we continue to import more and more of the things that we consume, and continue to pay for these items by borrowing money (aka Selling U S Government issued Bonds) since our gold reserves are essentially gone, we could very soon end up being a third world country like Mexico, Somalia or Ethiopia with no jobs for our population. We cannot continue to ignore our balance of trade deficit. We need to be willing to do anything that will replenish our gold reserves. This can be done by exporting more dollar value of goods and services than we import, and then getting the gold from the other countries that buy more of our goods & services than they sell to us. We must improve our balance of trade situation so that we are importing gold (including cash, bonds & other securities) instead of exporting gold from our gold reserves to redeem our dollars held by the manufacturing countries. We must again begin to manufacture and/or create the things that we consume, and/or produce goods that we can export to pay for the things that we import. We can enjoy free trade if we produce enough value of products that we sell to the foreign nations that will pay us enough for those products that we export to them.
We are borrowing money (aka Selling Junk Bonds and T-Bills) from foreign countries to operate our Federal Government. These countries will soon realize that we have destroyed our industrial base and are borrowing money to purchase the things that we are consuming instead of manufacturing these items. The citizens of the exporting countries realize that their U. S. issued bonds are becoming of less and less value every day, but that they can purchase USA real estate, financial organizations, office buildings, apartments, refineries, and our remaining industries in the U.S. using their U. S. issued bonds as payment, and this prevents the devaluation of the purchasing power of their U.S. issued bonds that they obtained in exchange for the items that they exported to the U.S. for our consumption and maintaining our quality of life.
If we do not balance the federal budget and if we continue to borrow money from foreign banks and nations (aka Selling Junk Bonds and T-Bills) to pay for our social entitlements, social experiments, wars, and our balance of trade, what are we going to do when foreign banks and other nations refuse to lend us more money? Will already just crank up the printing presses like Mexico? It is not fair for us to live high on the hog with borrowed money that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back to foreign banks and foreign governments. The November 2008 federal debt of 10.57 Trillion dollars divided by 250 million citizens equals about $34,652 per person, or many times that for each productive worker that contributes to our balance of trade. We must reduce our federal government expenditures.
Our Student loan program that gives student loans to students that want to become MBA's, lawyers, artists, poets, historians, political scientists, plus all sorts of other degrees that generally do not contribute anything to our balance of trade should be eliminated. Student loans should be available for only those fields such as science, engineering, and medicine that do contribute to our industrial base and help our international trade balance. Student loans should not be available for prospective MBAs, historians, English majors, accountants, lawyers, artists, poets, theologians, actors, or any other activities that do not contribute to our industrial base or improve our balance of trade situation. Let the people that enjoy art, poetry, gambling, playing stocks, and etc. pay to support those activities.
I believe that there is very little economic future in engineering. I believe that most students today want to study business and/or economics to become Enron type Master Criminals, or like some of the other extremely wealthy master criminals of today. No person in his or her right mind would major in science or engineering since the pay scale has eroded so much (due to the import of foreign engineers who will work for just slightly above minimum wages and a Green Card). The Foreign Engineers might only be 20% as productive as US educated engineers, but they are willing to work for only 10% or 15% of the pay that US educated engineers are paid, or used to be paid, then it is twice as economically effective to employ foreign educated engineers when compared to U.S. educated engineers, except for the liability of the additional design failures.
1. What are the REQUIRED functions of a U S Federal Government?
1.1. Military - To protect us from foreign invasion and allow our industrial activities to provide products to both consume and export to thus create a positive effect on our balance of trade.
1.2. Coast Guard - To collect import tariffs, Patrol Coastlines, intercept and deport illegal aliens.
1.3. Courts & FBI - To investigate crimes and to enforce domestic laws that keep an organized economy operating with minimal disturbances due to criminal activities.
1.4. Treasury - To coin money, regulate Banking, etc.
1.5. Postal Service - To process mail - This is a terrible situation - Not as efficient as FEX, UPS, and other non-government mail services. Make it non-union and non-civil service so that postal employees will have to work to keep their jobs.
1.6. Immigration & Naturalization Service - Keep illegal immigrants out of this country and deport illegal immigrants. Reduce this agency in size by making it illegal for citizens to hire non-citizens.
1.7. DOE - We need nuclear bombs, nuclear energy, and nuclear R&D. The next time we want to make war, use Nuclear Bombs and not troops.
1.8. The tidal wave of immigration and high birth-rate of immigrants will eventually allow the immigrants to rule this country. When the Latin Americans (or Africans) take over this country, do you believe that it will be different from any other country run by Latin Americans (or Africans)? Civil and Human Rights go out the window when this happens (Washington DC, Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, etc.). Stop all immigration into this country, except those with technical educations that will contribute to the re-industrialization of the USA economy.
1.9. We need vigorous enforcement and prosecution of the people who benefited from the S&L looting. This includes getting the Keating 5 Representatives into prison. This includes asking how Bill & Hillary paid for their shares of the Whitewater land speculation. Even if you cannot get these people into prison, apply pressure to totally disgrace these people. We need to be more concerned about these white collar crimes.
2. There are some Federal Government functions that benefit the entire nation and can more easily be accomplished on a national level:
2.1. Agriculture - But eliminate the capability of this agency to distribute cash tax funds to farmers and agro-businesses. Distribute only advice and opinions to farmers. Conduct scientific agricultural research for the benefit of farmers.
2.2. FDA - To certify the quality and safety of food & drugs - This is indeed a national problem.
2.3. Health - To advise and protect us from national medical problems and concerns. To test and certify the safety of medical products and drugs. Expenditures should be limited to R&D only for the benefit of the total population. The medical expenditures in 1950 was less than 1/2 of 1% of the GNP. Today it is 16% of the GNP and rising rapidly. Maybe we should have National free health, since only the middle class pays for their health care. Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, recipients plus Illegal Immigrants get their healthcare paid for by the taxpayers anyway.
2.4. Interstate Highway - make it self supporting with fuel taxes. Trucks damage the pavement with their heavier axle weights very much more than automobiles, and should pay the most taxes. Taxes should be based exponentially upon axle weight limits so that those who damage the paving the most will pay their proportional share. Talk to the Texas Highway Department engineers in addition to the DOT.
2.5. Federal Aviation System - This system benefits the air transportation system, including private pilots (like myself). The entire cost of this system should be paid for by the air transportation system, the air passengers, the users, and not the taxpayers. Aviation fuel taxes might be the proper way to finance the total cost of the FAA.
2.6. Inter Coastal Canal System - The nation's waterways benefits the barge transportation system. The entire cost of this system should be paid for by the barge transportation system that benefits from this system, and not the taxpayers. Maritime diesel fuel taxes used by the barge system might be the proper way to finance the Inter Coastal Canal System.
2.7. NASA - This is a national ego thing - we could do without this, some R&D benefits are realized. It is not a large expenditure compared to welfare and other entitlements, but this is not a necessary expenditure. This Expenditure does give the USA some prestige & propaganda to the world that is of some small benefit.
2.8. National Parks Service - Maintain our Parks for the use of all, but increase park use fees in order to make the park users (campers) pay for all of the National Parks Service operation & maintenance cost.
2.9. Education - The local education systems have served this country well. Eliminate all of the federal education expenditures. The problems are with the local teachers that do not know the subjects that they teach. Eliminate education courses and education degrees from colleges, make the teachers learn the subjects that they want to teach. The students need to learn science to benefit the nation. Pay science teachers (that have science degrees) more than other teachers. In Texas, the state is trying to make the students study creationism. We need a constitutional amendment to prohibit the teaching or the consideration of any religious, superstition, supernatural, or other false based and/or falsely influenced theory as a legitimate science.
2.10. Banking Regulation - Have a National record of Loans made by financial institutions so that loan documentation will not be lost or destroyed by unscrupulous parties (like the Whitewater Scandal where the Clinton's loan documentation could not be found after the S&L loan files were stored at Hillary's Law firm). The banks need to be aggressively monitored and audited. Banking white collar criminals should be punished severely. These people are modern-day Willie Suttons. You should create a National registry of Loans made by financial institutions to individuals and other institutions so that loan documentation will not be lost or destroyed by unscrupulous parties such as the whitewater loans. Ken Lay was probably the most successful master criminal of all times, even though he was convicted.
2.11. Social Security - Why not limit individual benefits to the amount deposited by that individual?
2.12. DOT - Why should everyone pay for metropolitan subway systems that benefit only a few people in a particular city or region.
3. There are some Federal Government functions that should be completely eliminated:
3.1. EPA - If not disbanded, re-organize with orders not to hamper any re-industrialization of the USA - If the EPA had been created in 1865, the USA would be a third world country today, and/or part of Germany or Japan.
3.2. WELFARE - Billions of Tax Dollars for multi-generation welfare recipients should be eliminated. Taking funds from workers to pay lazy people not to work should be a crime. Paying People to watch TV and have multiple babies is not right. Referring to these un-married whores and prostitutes as single parents is an insult to the hard working single parents that do support themselves and their offspring. I am also ready to eliminate the AFDC program. What percentage of the AFDC funds are spent on crack cocaine and other drugs rather than children? What percentage of our prison population benefited from AFDC as children? We should build dormitories with large open bay sleeping quarters for the children under 18 that cannot be supported by their parents. Any parent could check their children into these facilities, and only visit their children on weekends. Minimum lengths of stay according to the school semester system could be mandated along with other rules & regulations. We need to take care of our children, but not give AFDC money to the children's parents to purchase illegal drugs. AFDC money is the only reason that many drug addicted parents and/or prostitutes want custody of their children.
3.3. Unemployment Payments - These payments just postpone relocation of people to where jobs still exist. What are we going to do after the EPA and OSHA have destroyed most or all of our industrial and manufacturing jobs entirely? There will not be any jobs anywhere in the U.S. anyway.
3.4. SSI - Free money paid to the unemployed, drunks, beggars and drug addicts? Why?
3.5. World Bank Support - This is another giveaway of U. S. Taxpayer Money to the leaders of third world governments that their leaders siphon off funds to their personal Swiss Bank Accounts. The USA should not continue to loan money to the World Bank. This will not change in the near future, or probably will never change. Generally, they will never pay the U.S. back in total.
3.6. FARM MONEY - Billions of Tax Dollars for farm price supports makes some farmers millionaires. This is welfare for farmers. Eliminate the price control part of this department and limit the expenditures to Agricultural R&D. Fire all of the other employees. Disband the Farmers Home Loan Program, and eliminate all cash payments to farmers. The family farm cannot economically compete with corporate "Agribusiness".
3.7. Social Security - Is it fair for people to pay a total of $100,000 into the system, and then draw out $200,000 retirement plus another $100,000 in Medicare benefits during retirement? Change the social Security benefits to be equal to or proportional to the amount paid into the system by each individual. Illegal Immigrants will no longer enter this country, pay $15,000 into the system during 7 quarters of employment, and then withdraw as much retirement as a person who paid into the system for 50 years plus hundreds of thousands of dollars for Medical Care. I have heard that many of these Illegal Aliens have several Different Social Security Accounts under different names, and draw several retirement checks under these under different names. Maybe we cannot afford Social Security as it is currently structured. Make maximum individual personal benefits equal the total individual contributions. Raise the retirement age, let the benefits float to control costs to match the funds that might be available. Eliminate Medicare. Medicare is Welfare for the Medical Profession. As an alternate, create a socialized medical system, since only the middle class working people pay for their own family medical care.
3.8. HOUSING - Stop spending billions of tax dollars for Housing Projects, Mass Transit, Dams, and other projects that only benefit certain people. Stop promising Park Barrel projects to each and every city in order to get votes. The people that benefit should pay for the cost of the things that only benefit those few people. Why is housing a national problem and not a local problem? Why do federally funded housing projects turn into drug and crime areas? Disband the Department of Housing and fire all of the employees.
3.9. EPA - The Environmentalists & Sierra Club want to close all industries that emit any pollution. They want polluting industrial plants must close down and relocate the jobs to foreign countries. The Companies will then fire the USA workers and hire foreign workers in the relocated plants. These industrial plants and jobs have been generally lost forever. The Environmentalists have created conditions so that the continental USA is not even considered as a site for any type of new plant or industry that would create any jobs for USA citizens. Jobs that do not produce the food, shelter and clothing that we consume are useless make-work jobs like raking leaves and/or performing environmental clean-up. If the EPA had been created in 1865, the USA would be a third world country today.
3.10. TAXES - Why not have a National Retail Sales Tax instead of an income tax. Those purchasing the most probably make the most income and/or do not work and then have the large income from some trust account. We could then fire most of the IRS personnel. You could exempt grocery store food (and maybe residential rents) to help low income people.
3.11. NEA - Disband the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and fire all of the employees. Taxpayers should not have to pay for these useless activities. The taxpayers should not have to support and pay for monuments to Lawrence Welk, pornographic photographs, bridges to nowhere, etc. Let those that enjoy the pornography & any other types of art funded by this agency pay for it. The public does not need to pay for any art. It is a small expenditure, but it represents disrespect for and is an insult to the Hardworking Citizen Taxpayer when public tax funds are expended for pornographic art, like photographs of crucifixes in bottles of the artist's urine. I wonder how much the government employees paid for that photograph. The average citizen probably does not approve or even care for anything that the "Art Experts" have done with public fund expenditures. How did this silly agency ever get started?
3.12. The textile and clothing manufacturing jobs were relatively low paying, low skill, labor intensive jobs. This industry could be easily re-created if we wanted it by prohibiting clothing imports. Un-employment due to Labor costs are the prime factor in the loss of these industries. If unemployment of our un-educated and un-skilled citizens persists, trade barriers might need to be re-erected to re-create this type industry. We also need high technology jobs that require education. This is one of the few industries that the EPA did not destroy. Foreign labor availability and lower labor costs will probably destroy the jobs in the high technology industries in the USA.
3.13. The Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act has made millionaires of many lawyers, released many murderers and other criminals that subsequently committed additional murders and other violent crimes from prison. This has made crime an attractive career for younger people to emulate. This act has removed the deterrence factor from our criminal law system. Repeal this act. This act has transformed our penal system from a place of punishment to a place of Relaxation, Body Building, Weight Lifting, and watching Cable TV for the convicted prisoners.
3.14. NEH - Let those who want to study the humanities do it at their own expense. The citizens cannot afford any of this expense. There is no benefit to the nation for any of these expenditures.
3.15. Mental Health - Let those who want to have mental health treatment do it at their own expense. Why enrich the psychiatrists and psychologists at taxpayer expense? Most of the recent mass murderers have been under the care of psychiatrists and psychologists anyway.
3.16. HUD - Building of new high rise slums where crime enforcement is not possible (unless the tenants become armed) has been a huge waste of funds.
3.17. Foreign Aid - Why should we give taxpayer money to governments that bribe our U.S. government employees to sell them our U.S. national asset type secrets?
Many countries are losing confidence in the use of the dollar as the benchmark for world trade and currency value. The Euro and other currencies are now being talked about as a replacement for the US Dollar as the Benchmark for international Currency Values.
Sincerely Yours,
Gerald Spencer
3759 Drake
Houston, Texas 77005
office (713) 621-2482;
Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote a letter to GM and the big three auto executives asking why they were not first and foremost cutting their own executive pay and compensation packages while coming to Congress begging.
I would like to see a whole host of conditions to bail out the big 3 auto makers. From hiring US citizens to beefing up alternative energy cars to making them some sort of contractor to retrofit all 18 wheeler trucks to natural gas....
but just handing them the money with no conditions seems like the bail out for the financial sector, and seemingly this is throwing US taxpayer money down the drain.
have been trashed through the mud and in some cases, considering how absurdly bureaucratic K12 is, I can understand it but in most cases, they are the last stand against total middle class wipe out.
What's the percentage of professional occupations unionized? White collar, professional careers areas have been under major attack and I think this is part there is no unionization, countervailing forces to fight back.
Unions are the only force left creating a middle class and they are not the cause of what is happening today. Case in point when the US was the strongest, unions were also the strongest, 1950's.
I have listened to Kaptur in several hearings and she, along with DeLauro, are among the only voices representing sanity. Kaptur keeps putting supporting documentation on the record, not just hot air.
....out here in CA we have virulent form of 'ReThug' who thinks raising the sales tax is the thing to do as opposed to closing the yacht sales exclusion, no sales tax on yacht sales, they are continually yammering about 'no taxes...'.
That's not corruption. That's shear unadulterated stupidity.
As far as corruption goes I feel you'd be hard pressed to name a dozen Republican, or 'Democrat', Congressmen who are not on the take. Pure and simple.
Republicans earned their nickname, 'Rethug', with hard work and a real effort to 'win' no matter what. Boehner is an idiot like the most of 'em. Any one more adult than a two year old knows how the Bush Crime Family plays the game. Grab the money and run. What is the 'Bailout' other than Bush's parting shot at the nation. He's already dispersed funds to his pals outside the Treasury conduit.
It's not partisanship. It's cronyism and corruption. How did Miss PeLousy end up in a $25 million dollar house? Why was DiFi almost investigated by the FBI last year?
They are all corrupt in my eyes until proven otherwise. But it just seems that Republicans are more in your face about it.
My mother works at a local McDonald's, and my stars are they an exploiter of immigrants. They supposedly have papers, but everyone knows that 90% of them aren't legit. On top of that, the local franchisee knows this and leverages it to the hilt.
I've been blogging over at grist.org about the importance of manufacturing for a country. You should know that according to the WTO, fully 80% of global interregional trade is in merchandise goods, and only 20% of trade is in services. That means that manufacturing is not simply one part of an economy, it is the single most important part of an economy. A big country simply cannot trade services for goods. The dollar will have to collapse in order for that to take place at this point.
That means that we are entering an emergency situation, one that has been building for decades (my intellectual mentor, the late Professor Seymour Melman [www.seymourmelman.com] warned about this for decades). As you point out, there is a veritable ecosystem of firms surrounding the auto companies; but over the decades this ecosystem has been clearcut. In order to rebuild the manufacturing system, I'm afraid, the government is going to have to step in big-time, and the best way to do that is to try to rebuild the infrastructure, which will offer a huge market for a regrowth of an industrial ecosystem.
Another problem is that the entire automobile industry is in trouble, because of the precarious nature of global oil supply. It is imperative that we move, not only towards electric cars, but also retool the automobile industry so that it starts to produce trains of various sorts -- high-speed rail, subways (there are no domestic subway firms in the US), light rail, freight rail -- all of these could easily replace the employment and industrial suppliers that are now part of the automobile industry. I've done my best to blog about high-speed and other kinds of rail -- which doesn't seem to get the kind of interest you would think it would from environmentalists -- and I think this will be a critical part of future economic policy.
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The GMAc porfolio is about $60 billion. Plenty of junk and bad loans there but plenty of good assets. If sold to banks and the Fed,there is plenty to go around for the whole Auto industry rescue.
Syndication of loans is key. The Fed could buy the loans. Then resell or collect. Not many auto loans go Repo but the repo business is picking up.
You say the banks don't want to buy auto loans? Think again.
Burton Leed
I really like that idea, truly because we do need to mold our investment. That's the issue for me, if we let the same management run them after a bail out, it will assuredly be more of the same.
I posted in the Instapopulist how current the deal is the "same as the financial bail out" which probably means same executives, no conditions, no real oversight and maybe a very empty token amendments that reporters can misreport as doing something beyond show..
(Ali Velshi anyone?)
So, the grand debate in the Senate is next week and I hope all are letting their ideas be known to their Senators.
Note how the real corporate bills start in the Senate these days even though all bills are supposed to originate in the House?
I have believed for some time that a solution for industries who are the worst immigration Offenders - construction, landscaping, agriculture and hospitality - are the best candidates for unionization. I mean enforced unionization as a condition for entry to the U.S.
The idea is that
Union Matriculation = Border Control, for the 4 industries.
This could be the basis of a political compromise on immigration. The trick is to explain to employers that they would get rid of ICE the raids, and get a stable supply of labor. If collective bargaining is based on enforceable arbitration, employers would have little to lose. Wages would rise slowly. Cesar Chavez foresaw this long before me in agriculture.
Democrats have promised card-check registration. Maybe they could merge the drive to unionize with a different approach on immigration.
Burton Leed
... of long haul trucking is "don't do that". Electrify the rail grid and take the majority of the trucks off the road.
However, for the short haul freight task that will remain for trucking, either biodiesel or ammonia or (as seems likeliest) both would be far more secure than reliance on petrodiesel.
Oh big fucking surprise there. Maybe if we said he could have another trade deal he'd go for it. God that man is such a piece of shit!
They endorsed comprehensive immigration reform which was so loaded, positively loaded with guest worker Visas and had a huge target against Professional labor for global arbitrage. I mean the entire thing was about repressing wages amoung the best middle class job categories through manipulation of the immigration system and they endorsed it.
The AFL-CIO on the other hand opposed it (and yes the AFL-CIO is for "amnesty") which really exposes who was really standing up for workers across the board and who was not.
I couldn't believe they endorsed that bill, helped write it, pushed for it because their "Z" Visa well, those people, due to the "merit" restrictions on a green card would have never gotten citizenship but every damn person on the globe who would claim a college degree sure could have. What a nightmare that would have been for US labor if it had passed.
I really don't trust the SEIU for that one and I note they are not alone, there is real discord in their membership as well.
one of the things that I would like to see is the transitioning of the commercial trucking and agriculture sectors to the use of ammonia as a fuel. Stranded wind has a nice piece up about how it's possible to create fuel for engines using windpower.
Stranded wind is a great project, and it's a real winner. My hometown just got a new factory that will produce gearboxes for wind turbines. There is a huge potential for wind power on the Great Lakes, and this is heart of American manufacturing.
Something along the lines of the TVA that would involve the government in the creation of a wind energy sector through using the government as an investor in wind power projects would create a new basis for growth in American industry.
Switching the commercial trucking and ag sectors to the use of wind produced ammonia would allow for economic continuity if there were to be a major supply disruption.
We need both the ability to feed ourselves, and to move things around this country if we are going to have an effective economy. Ammonia is one path to that, and pulling commercial trucking and ag off of petroleum would cut our use substantially. As well, because there is a much lower number of retail outlets that service them, the transaction cost of building the new infrastructure would be much lower than for the broader auto sector.
The SEIU is not a model for unions to look to. It has a number of democratic deficiencies, they foremost being the use of trusteeship in order for the national union to replace people who've risen through the ranks to leadership with college educated organizers with not work experience.
The UAW is a democratic union that works from the bottom up. Black Lake offers a number of opportunities for people who work on the line to go through courses so they can run for, and become, leaders in their locals.
Big difference. And this isn't just me yapping. A few years back their was a great article about this. I suggest that you read it before you praise the SEIU.
...agree.
I really believe that we must preserve the economic miracle that has given our citizens one of the highest living standards in the world. This economic miracle has not been due to the efforts of Wall Street MBA's, Stock Market Gamblers, Real Estate Speculators, Economists, Insurance Salesmen, Junk Bond Salesmen, etc. It has been due to the Agricultural and Industrial Base that produced the food, goods, services and other items that we consumed, plus an excess of these goods & services that were produced and then sold to other foreign countries in order to accumulate our gold reserves through a positive balance of trade surplus payments. Our gold reserves are the basis of the value or buying power of our currency. This was (is) true of all of the currencies in the world.
The U S Medical Expertise has customers from all over the world coming to the USA and paying U S Medical Personnel for medical treatment, and this is helping the US Balance of payments. Visit the Texas Medical Center and witness the percentage of women wearing Burkas to get a clue as to the percentage of foreign medical service income is received at the Texas Medical Center.
Our computer programming technology and expertise (Microsoft and Others) has helped our balance of payments considerably in the past, but the lack of technical education in this country today will soon destroy this export capability when foreign countries become better than the USA at creating new computer software programs.
The Stock Markets are just gambling Venues for the public to make gambling wagers (investments) in ownership of publicly traded companies, securities, loans, and other investment vehicles. Investors just lost some of value of their investments, and there is nothing wrong with this loss since the value was speculation over and above the Balance sheet value of the companies. The investors should not have believed anything that their brokers told them about those or any other investments. If you review almost any of the SEC filings (on the EDGAR database) you will find almost all of the sworn information filed with the SEC is extremely false, most especially when you get away from the "Blue Chip" stocks. Lawyers must prosecute all of the Wall Street Criminals in order to create an environment where the value of investments is transparent, honest, and truthful. The Federal Government must exact criminal penalties when Sworn Lies, Sworn False Statements, and/or any other Sworn Fraudulent or Misleading Information is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as legally required reports. We must create an atmosphere where investors can have confidence in the honesty of our banking and securities systems as enforced by the SEC.
Many people got loans for houses they could not afford, and these people should lose their houses in foreclosure. The Federal Government pressured the Mortgage Markets to give mortgages to people with bad credit histories. Financial Managers combined multiple numbers of these low quality loans into packages (of low quality loans) and sold them to investors at (almost) face value. These Financial Managers got multi-million dollar (non-refundable) bonuses for their efforts. As more and more of these sub-prime non-credit worthy mortgagees defaulted, the value of these packages of multiple mortgages diminished drastically. The Taxpayer is now being asked to pay for these financial mistakes. Why?
The US Automakers do not need a taxpayer bailout to prevent their demise caused by their mad management and bad union contracts. If the Big 3 disappear, then others will start-up new manufacturing plants and/or the better-managed Toyota and Honda manufacturers will fill this gap.
The California real estate values will plummet to a fraction of their present sales prices. The $500,000.00 South LA crack house with a $495,000.00 mortgage, roof leaks, no air conditioning, and no plumbing owned by an unemployed person (crack cocaine supplier) might now sale for $5,000.00 and that might be closer to the actual retail sale value. No more "flipping Houses". No more real estate financial geniuses. No more get-rich-quick real estate seminars.
Wall Street does not need a bailout. Those that invested in these sub-prime securities should lose most or all of their money. This will be an incentive for these and other future investors to become more cautious of what they buy mortgages. This will cause the investors to become more skeptical concerning anything that the financial experts have to say (lies). We need for this penalty to happen. This will cause investors to be wary of and question anything that any stockbroker of other financial genius has to say.
As this country increases the import of all of the things that we consume and at the same time we destroy our industrial base that was previously used to manufacture those items that we consume, we will have to pay the working people in those foreign countries with our dollars for these items that we import. Our dollars are no longer backed by and redeemable in gold, but are now backed up by the full faith and credit of the United States of America (aka Junk Bonds).
As the government cranks up the presses to print more and more dollars, T-Bills, bonds, and similar securities to pay for all of the government payrolls, imports, entitlements, benefits, wars, welfare schemes, Wall Street Bailouts, and other things that cost money; the value and buying power of the U. S. dollar diminishes rapidly. As the industrial manufacturing countries, Oil Producing countries, other foreign governments, and various foreign citizens amass large values dollars, bonds, T-Bills and other government issued securities realize that the value (buying Power) of these items is diminishing quite rapidly; they will look for other places to place their U S dollars. These foreigners realize that the buying power of each dollar they hold is diminishing daily, so they are now coming to this country and purchase our real estate, refineries, petro-chemical industries, hotels, agri-business, breweries, remaining product manufacturing facilities, casinos, and other similar investments with those securities that they cannot redeem for gold. Our Government encourages these foreign purchases as "Investing in America". Several years ago these foreigners realized that these investments do not lose value as quickly as the dollars and other government securities lose value, but actually gain in value. We are selling the future of this country in order to borrow money to continue our high spending, high consuming, and non-producing life style with borrowed money, and our children and grandchildren will have to work really hard to pay for our lifestyles, if the USA is not a third world economy with no job possibilities.
Our political and economic leaders seem to have decided that we can continue our economic miracle by becoming a service oriented society cooking hamburgers for each other using imported beef, imported vegetables, etc.; suing each other, and selling insurance & junk bonds to each other, but definitely not manufacturing or creating anything that we consume. We are paying for our imported items by borrowing more money and/or issuing U.S Bonds (junk bonds) to redeem the dollars paid to foreign individuals and foreign governments for our imports.
We need to re-industrialize and manufacture the things that we consume. This stupidity will eventually change this country into a third world country when foreign countries discover that we will not repay (redeem the bonds) the money that they are lending us. Foreign Governments and their rulers are not stupid. They will continue buy the real estate, industries, and financial institutions located in the USA with the decreasing value bonds that we gave to them (to pay for the things that we wanted by way of imports rather than us working to manufacture these items) in lieu of gold for their dollars. The US will then be third world employees or slaves to the foreign countries that will own everything in the USA. Our children and grandchildren might also have to change to the religion of the business owner if they want a job. Future nationalization (ala Mexico) of foreign owned assets is another discussion topic for another day.
There is nothing more saddening or devastating than mass unemployment such as exists in countries such as Mexico or India. Crime, family abandonment, divorce, and other bad things increase during these periods. Our basic industries such as steel, computer chip manufacturing, petrochemical refining, appliance manufacturing, tire manufacturing, automobile parts manufacturing, aircraft manufacturing, textiles, and etc. have been decimated and/or totally eliminated from this country by OSHA and the EPA. The North American Free Trade Agreement has almost eliminated the remainder of the basic industrial manufacturing jobs from the USA. The OSHA and the EPA are the major causes of the de-industrialization of the USA. The USA must re-industrialize. Even if OSHA and the EPA were eliminated today, it would take many years to re-create the manufacturing and industrial production bases that they destroyed. New jobs created by the EPA are nice, but they are about as economically useful to our balance of payments and our industrial base as paying people for raking leaves, digging holes and re-filling the same holes, since they do not produce anything economically useful that we can consume or export. Disband OSHA and the EPA in total and fire all of those government employees. Be decisive, not timid or partial.
Our Productive Industrial Base could not exist with foreign invasion, rampant crime, protection rackets, corruption, foreign invasion, sabotage, etc., so a portion of the money earned by this industrial base has always been taken by taxation by all civilizations to pay for federal, state, and local governments to prevent these occurrences. We must tax the population base to pay for National Security, Crime Prevention, and other items that are necessary to assist and protected their industrial production base. Maybe we can no longer afford to spend taxes on social entitlements, welfare, education, medicine, housing, humanities, etc.
Our U S Government is now spending these taxes and our remaining gold reserves on entitlement schemes in order to buy votes from non-productive citizens that do not contribute to, help, or support our industrial base. There is a limit to how many non-productive people that the productive people within our industrial economic productive base can support by producing enough wealth (gold) to support these non-productive people. When our gold reserves became diminished, we then continued to expand these entitlements by borrowing money from foreign banks and foreign governments by pledging the "Full Faith & Credit of the United States of America" (aka Junk Bonds) in lieu of government security re-payment in gold. We also decided that we could allow OSHA and the EPA to close down the industrial bases that originally created these vast gold reserves that were the basis of the value of our currency. The federal gold reserve that was created by our positive balance of trade has allowed the USA to expend this gold to provide social experiments, foreign aid, wars, and other functions that would not be possible without the gold reserves created by our industrial bases. The Federal monetary system, the foreign trade deficit (or surplus), and the national debt are interrelated in this way and control our standard of living. We must educate our students and the public to this fact. If we continue to import more and more of the things that we consume, and continue to pay for these items by borrowing money (aka Selling U S Government issued Bonds) since our gold reserves are essentially gone, we could very soon end up being a third world country like Mexico, Somalia or Ethiopia with no jobs for our population. We cannot continue to ignore our balance of trade deficit. We need to be willing to do anything that will replenish our gold reserves. This can be done by exporting more dollar value of goods and services than we import, and then getting the gold from the other countries that buy more of our goods & services than they sell to us. We must improve our balance of trade situation so that we are importing gold (including cash, bonds & other securities) instead of exporting gold from our gold reserves to redeem our dollars held by the manufacturing countries. We must again begin to manufacture and/or create the things that we consume, and/or produce goods that we can export to pay for the things that we import. We can enjoy free trade if we produce enough value of products that we sell to the foreign nations that will pay us enough for those products that we export to them.
We are borrowing money (aka Selling Junk Bonds and T-Bills) from foreign countries to operate our Federal Government. These countries will soon realize that we have destroyed our industrial base and are borrowing money to purchase the things that we are consuming instead of manufacturing these items. The citizens of the exporting countries realize that their U. S. issued bonds are becoming of less and less value every day, but that they can purchase USA real estate, financial organizations, office buildings, apartments, refineries, and our remaining industries in the U.S. using their U. S. issued bonds as payment, and this prevents the devaluation of the purchasing power of their U.S. issued bonds that they obtained in exchange for the items that they exported to the U.S. for our consumption and maintaining our quality of life.
If we do not balance the federal budget and if we continue to borrow money from foreign banks and nations (aka Selling Junk Bonds and T-Bills) to pay for our social entitlements, social experiments, wars, and our balance of trade, what are we going to do when foreign banks and other nations refuse to lend us more money? Will already just crank up the printing presses like Mexico? It is not fair for us to live high on the hog with borrowed money that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back to foreign banks and foreign governments. The November 2008 federal debt of 10.57 Trillion dollars divided by 250 million citizens equals about $34,652 per person, or many times that for each productive worker that contributes to our balance of trade. We must reduce our federal government expenditures.
Our Student loan program that gives student loans to students that want to become MBA's, lawyers, artists, poets, historians, political scientists, plus all sorts of other degrees that generally do not contribute anything to our balance of trade should be eliminated. Student loans should be available for only those fields such as science, engineering, and medicine that do contribute to our industrial base and help our international trade balance. Student loans should not be available for prospective MBAs, historians, English majors, accountants, lawyers, artists, poets, theologians, actors, or any other activities that do not contribute to our industrial base or improve our balance of trade situation. Let the people that enjoy art, poetry, gambling, playing stocks, and etc. pay to support those activities.
I believe that there is very little economic future in engineering. I believe that most students today want to study business and/or economics to become Enron type Master Criminals, or like some of the other extremely wealthy master criminals of today. No person in his or her right mind would major in science or engineering since the pay scale has eroded so much (due to the import of foreign engineers who will work for just slightly above minimum wages and a Green Card). The Foreign Engineers might only be 20% as productive as US educated engineers, but they are willing to work for only 10% or 15% of the pay that US educated engineers are paid, or used to be paid, then it is twice as economically effective to employ foreign educated engineers when compared to U.S. educated engineers, except for the liability of the additional design failures.
1. What are the REQUIRED functions of a U S Federal Government?
1.1. Military - To protect us from foreign invasion and allow our industrial activities to provide products to both consume and export to thus create a positive effect on our balance of trade.
1.2. Coast Guard - To collect import tariffs, Patrol Coastlines, intercept and deport illegal aliens.
1.3. Courts & FBI - To investigate crimes and to enforce domestic laws that keep an organized economy operating with minimal disturbances due to criminal activities.
1.4. Treasury - To coin money, regulate Banking, etc.
1.5. Postal Service - To process mail - This is a terrible situation - Not as efficient as FEX, UPS, and other non-government mail services. Make it non-union and non-civil service so that postal employees will have to work to keep their jobs.
1.6. Immigration & Naturalization Service - Keep illegal immigrants out of this country and deport illegal immigrants. Reduce this agency in size by making it illegal for citizens to hire non-citizens.
1.7. DOE - We need nuclear bombs, nuclear energy, and nuclear R&D. The next time we want to make war, use Nuclear Bombs and not troops.
1.8. The tidal wave of immigration and high birth-rate of immigrants will eventually allow the immigrants to rule this country. When the Latin Americans (or Africans) take over this country, do you believe that it will be different from any other country run by Latin Americans (or Africans)? Civil and Human Rights go out the window when this happens (Washington DC, Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, etc.). Stop all immigration into this country, except those with technical educations that will contribute to the re-industrialization of the USA economy.
1.9. We need vigorous enforcement and prosecution of the people who benefited from the S&L looting. This includes getting the Keating 5 Representatives into prison. This includes asking how Bill & Hillary paid for their shares of the Whitewater land speculation. Even if you cannot get these people into prison, apply pressure to totally disgrace these people. We need to be more concerned about these white collar crimes.
2. There are some Federal Government functions that benefit the entire nation and can more easily be accomplished on a national level:
2.1. Agriculture - But eliminate the capability of this agency to distribute cash tax funds to farmers and agro-businesses. Distribute only advice and opinions to farmers. Conduct scientific agricultural research for the benefit of farmers.
2.2. FDA - To certify the quality and safety of food & drugs - This is indeed a national problem.
2.3. Health - To advise and protect us from national medical problems and concerns. To test and certify the safety of medical products and drugs. Expenditures should be limited to R&D only for the benefit of the total population. The medical expenditures in 1950 was less than 1/2 of 1% of the GNP. Today it is 16% of the GNP and rising rapidly. Maybe we should have National free health, since only the middle class pays for their health care. Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, recipients plus Illegal Immigrants get their healthcare paid for by the taxpayers anyway.
2.4. Interstate Highway - make it self supporting with fuel taxes. Trucks damage the pavement with their heavier axle weights very much more than automobiles, and should pay the most taxes. Taxes should be based exponentially upon axle weight limits so that those who damage the paving the most will pay their proportional share. Talk to the Texas Highway Department engineers in addition to the DOT.
2.5. Federal Aviation System - This system benefits the air transportation system, including private pilots (like myself). The entire cost of this system should be paid for by the air transportation system, the air passengers, the users, and not the taxpayers. Aviation fuel taxes might be the proper way to finance the total cost of the FAA.
2.6. Inter Coastal Canal System - The nation's waterways benefits the barge transportation system. The entire cost of this system should be paid for by the barge transportation system that benefits from this system, and not the taxpayers. Maritime diesel fuel taxes used by the barge system might be the proper way to finance the Inter Coastal Canal System.
2.7. NASA - This is a national ego thing - we could do without this, some R&D benefits are realized. It is not a large expenditure compared to welfare and other entitlements, but this is not a necessary expenditure. This Expenditure does give the USA some prestige & propaganda to the world that is of some small benefit.
2.8. National Parks Service - Maintain our Parks for the use of all, but increase park use fees in order to make the park users (campers) pay for all of the National Parks Service operation & maintenance cost.
2.9. Education - The local education systems have served this country well. Eliminate all of the federal education expenditures. The problems are with the local teachers that do not know the subjects that they teach. Eliminate education courses and education degrees from colleges, make the teachers learn the subjects that they want to teach. The students need to learn science to benefit the nation. Pay science teachers (that have science degrees) more than other teachers. In Texas, the state is trying to make the students study creationism. We need a constitutional amendment to prohibit the teaching or the consideration of any religious, superstition, supernatural, or other false based and/or falsely influenced theory as a legitimate science.
2.10. Banking Regulation - Have a National record of Loans made by financial institutions so that loan documentation will not be lost or destroyed by unscrupulous parties (like the Whitewater Scandal where the Clinton's loan documentation could not be found after the S&L loan files were stored at Hillary's Law firm). The banks need to be aggressively monitored and audited. Banking white collar criminals should be punished severely. These people are modern-day Willie Suttons. You should create a National registry of Loans made by financial institutions to individuals and other institutions so that loan documentation will not be lost or destroyed by unscrupulous parties such as the whitewater loans. Ken Lay was probably the most successful master criminal of all times, even though he was convicted.
2.11. Social Security - Why not limit individual benefits to the amount deposited by that individual?
2.12. DOT - Why should everyone pay for metropolitan subway systems that benefit only a few people in a particular city or region.
3. There are some Federal Government functions that should be completely eliminated:
3.1. EPA - If not disbanded, re-organize with orders not to hamper any re-industrialization of the USA - If the EPA had been created in 1865, the USA would be a third world country today, and/or part of Germany or Japan.
3.2. WELFARE - Billions of Tax Dollars for multi-generation welfare recipients should be eliminated. Taking funds from workers to pay lazy people not to work should be a crime. Paying People to watch TV and have multiple babies is not right. Referring to these un-married whores and prostitutes as single parents is an insult to the hard working single parents that do support themselves and their offspring. I am also ready to eliminate the AFDC program. What percentage of the AFDC funds are spent on crack cocaine and other drugs rather than children? What percentage of our prison population benefited from AFDC as children? We should build dormitories with large open bay sleeping quarters for the children under 18 that cannot be supported by their parents. Any parent could check their children into these facilities, and only visit their children on weekends. Minimum lengths of stay according to the school semester system could be mandated along with other rules & regulations. We need to take care of our children, but not give AFDC money to the children's parents to purchase illegal drugs. AFDC money is the only reason that many drug addicted parents and/or prostitutes want custody of their children.
3.3. Unemployment Payments - These payments just postpone relocation of people to where jobs still exist. What are we going to do after the EPA and OSHA have destroyed most or all of our industrial and manufacturing jobs entirely? There will not be any jobs anywhere in the U.S. anyway.
3.4. SSI - Free money paid to the unemployed, drunks, beggars and drug addicts? Why?
3.5. World Bank Support - This is another giveaway of U. S. Taxpayer Money to the leaders of third world governments that their leaders siphon off funds to their personal Swiss Bank Accounts. The USA should not continue to loan money to the World Bank. This will not change in the near future, or probably will never change. Generally, they will never pay the U.S. back in total.
3.6. FARM MONEY - Billions of Tax Dollars for farm price supports makes some farmers millionaires. This is welfare for farmers. Eliminate the price control part of this department and limit the expenditures to Agricultural R&D. Fire all of the other employees. Disband the Farmers Home Loan Program, and eliminate all cash payments to farmers. The family farm cannot economically compete with corporate "Agribusiness".
3.7. Social Security - Is it fair for people to pay a total of $100,000 into the system, and then draw out $200,000 retirement plus another $100,000 in Medicare benefits during retirement? Change the social Security benefits to be equal to or proportional to the amount paid into the system by each individual. Illegal Immigrants will no longer enter this country, pay $15,000 into the system during 7 quarters of employment, and then withdraw as much retirement as a person who paid into the system for 50 years plus hundreds of thousands of dollars for Medical Care. I have heard that many of these Illegal Aliens have several Different Social Security Accounts under different names, and draw several retirement checks under these under different names. Maybe we cannot afford Social Security as it is currently structured. Make maximum individual personal benefits equal the total individual contributions. Raise the retirement age, let the benefits float to control costs to match the funds that might be available. Eliminate Medicare. Medicare is Welfare for the Medical Profession. As an alternate, create a socialized medical system, since only the middle class working people pay for their own family medical care.
3.8. HOUSING - Stop spending billions of tax dollars for Housing Projects, Mass Transit, Dams, and other projects that only benefit certain people. Stop promising Park Barrel projects to each and every city in order to get votes. The people that benefit should pay for the cost of the things that only benefit those few people. Why is housing a national problem and not a local problem? Why do federally funded housing projects turn into drug and crime areas? Disband the Department of Housing and fire all of the employees.
3.9. EPA - The Environmentalists & Sierra Club want to close all industries that emit any pollution. They want polluting industrial plants must close down and relocate the jobs to foreign countries. The Companies will then fire the USA workers and hire foreign workers in the relocated plants. These industrial plants and jobs have been generally lost forever. The Environmentalists have created conditions so that the continental USA is not even considered as a site for any type of new plant or industry that would create any jobs for USA citizens. Jobs that do not produce the food, shelter and clothing that we consume are useless make-work jobs like raking leaves and/or performing environmental clean-up. If the EPA had been created in 1865, the USA would be a third world country today.
3.10. TAXES - Why not have a National Retail Sales Tax instead of an income tax. Those purchasing the most probably make the most income and/or do not work and then have the large income from some trust account. We could then fire most of the IRS personnel. You could exempt grocery store food (and maybe residential rents) to help low income people.
3.11. NEA - Disband the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and fire all of the employees. Taxpayers should not have to pay for these useless activities. The taxpayers should not have to support and pay for monuments to Lawrence Welk, pornographic photographs, bridges to nowhere, etc. Let those that enjoy the pornography & any other types of art funded by this agency pay for it. The public does not need to pay for any art. It is a small expenditure, but it represents disrespect for and is an insult to the Hardworking Citizen Taxpayer when public tax funds are expended for pornographic art, like photographs of crucifixes in bottles of the artist's urine. I wonder how much the government employees paid for that photograph. The average citizen probably does not approve or even care for anything that the "Art Experts" have done with public fund expenditures. How did this silly agency ever get started?
3.12. The textile and clothing manufacturing jobs were relatively low paying, low skill, labor intensive jobs. This industry could be easily re-created if we wanted it by prohibiting clothing imports. Un-employment due to Labor costs are the prime factor in the loss of these industries. If unemployment of our un-educated and un-skilled citizens persists, trade barriers might need to be re-erected to re-create this type industry. We also need high technology jobs that require education. This is one of the few industries that the EPA did not destroy. Foreign labor availability and lower labor costs will probably destroy the jobs in the high technology industries in the USA.
3.13. The Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act has made millionaires of many lawyers, released many murderers and other criminals that subsequently committed additional murders and other violent crimes from prison. This has made crime an attractive career for younger people to emulate. This act has removed the deterrence factor from our criminal law system. Repeal this act. This act has transformed our penal system from a place of punishment to a place of Relaxation, Body Building, Weight Lifting, and watching Cable TV for the convicted prisoners.
3.14. NEH - Let those who want to study the humanities do it at their own expense. The citizens cannot afford any of this expense. There is no benefit to the nation for any of these expenditures.
3.15. Mental Health - Let those who want to have mental health treatment do it at their own expense. Why enrich the psychiatrists and psychologists at taxpayer expense? Most of the recent mass murderers have been under the care of psychiatrists and psychologists anyway.
3.16. HUD - Building of new high rise slums where crime enforcement is not possible (unless the tenants become armed) has been a huge waste of funds.
3.17. Foreign Aid - Why should we give taxpayer money to governments that bribe our U.S. government employees to sell them our U.S. national asset type secrets?
Many countries are losing confidence in the use of the dollar as the benchmark for world trade and currency value. The Euro and other currencies are now being talked about as a replacement for the US Dollar as the Benchmark for international Currency Values.
Sincerely Yours,
Gerald Spencer
3759 Drake
Houston, Texas 77005
office (713) 621-2482;
Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote a letter to GM and the big three auto executives asking why they were not first and foremost cutting their own executive pay and compensation packages while coming to Congress begging.
I would like to see a whole host of conditions to bail out the big 3 auto makers. From hiring US citizens to beefing up alternative energy cars to making them some sort of contractor to retrofit all 18 wheeler trucks to natural gas....
but just handing them the money with no conditions seems like the bail out for the financial sector, and seemingly this is throwing US taxpayer money down the drain.
If auto sales have dropped through the floor, how long before we see deflation actually affecting their prices?
And just who are the surplus liquidators who will need to step in?
I'll give them a hint: Do a conversion to an all-electric drivetrain on a hummer, and I might consider it.
have been trashed through the mud and in some cases, considering how absurdly bureaucratic K12 is, I can understand it but in most cases, they are the last stand against total middle class wipe out.
What's the percentage of professional occupations unionized? White collar, professional careers areas have been under major attack and I think this is part there is no unionization, countervailing forces to fight back.
Have a union working for them. To me, that's part of the problem- if everybody had a union working for them, then prices would balance to pay for it.
Unions are the only force left creating a middle class and they are not the cause of what is happening today. Case in point when the US was the strongest, unions were also the strongest, 1950's.
I have listened to Kaptur in several hearings and she, along with DeLauro, are among the only voices representing sanity. Kaptur keeps putting supporting documentation on the record, not just hot air.
GLOBALIZATION IS A LIE!
....out here in CA we have virulent form of 'ReThug' who thinks raising the sales tax is the thing to do as opposed to closing the yacht sales exclusion, no sales tax on yacht sales, they are continually yammering about 'no taxes...'.
That's not corruption. That's shear unadulterated stupidity.
As far as corruption goes I feel you'd be hard pressed to name a dozen Republican, or 'Democrat', Congressmen who are not on the take. Pure and simple.
Republicans earned their nickname, 'Rethug', with hard work and a real effort to 'win' no matter what. Boehner is an idiot like the most of 'em. Any one more adult than a two year old knows how the Bush Crime Family plays the game. Grab the money and run. What is the 'Bailout' other than Bush's parting shot at the nation. He's already dispersed funds to his pals outside the Treasury conduit.
It's not partisanship. It's cronyism and corruption. How did Miss PeLousy end up in a $25 million dollar house? Why was DiFi almost investigated by the FBI last year?
They are all corrupt in my eyes until proven otherwise. But it just seems that Republicans are more in your face about it.
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