TightyRighty.net

I started reading Ayn Rand’s magnum opus Atlas Shrugged a couple of weeks ago and after a weekend of heavy reading, I am now about 80% thru this 1160 page tome. I was inspired to read this book after seeing where the Obama administration was headed with spreading the wealth, taxing the “rich”, etc.

I am amazed at how prescient Ms. Rand was 52 years ago when this book was first published. Her concept of society’s producers going on strike has come true in NY, where at least one of the “rich” (Rush Limbaugh) has very vocally voted no to higher taxes with his feet and left the state. How many more will it take before the definition of rich is significantly reduced or the rich are so overtaxed they all leave?

The whole “Tax the Rich” and unlimited entitlements to the poor is sounding eerily similar to “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

I just don’t understand how anyone can think that raising taxes on the folks who are the engine behind our economy is not going to damage the economy and cause people’s behaviors to change.  Even mellow (very) funny man Dennis Miller says 50% is the limit at which time he will scale back his work ouput. The WSJ ran an interesting column – The 2% Illusion, which calculated that even if all the folks making over $75K per year are taxed 100%, that will barely cover the enormous budgets put forth by President Obama.

This just leads me to wonder – Who is John Galt?

I have pondered over the last several months whether our President is just corrupt or essentially evil based on his stands with regards to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, forcing taxpayers (including me) to pay for abortions which we believe are murder of the unborn, and championing the cause of “science” over life regarding stem cell research.  Last week’s speech at Georgetown was just another log on the fire for me to contemplate.

Last week President Obama gave a speech on the U.S. economy at Georgetown University, America’s oldest Roman Catholic university. Prior to his speech, the White House asked Georgetown to cover up visible symbols of its Catholic heritage, and they complied!! (BTW – Does anyone wonder why the Catholic Church is in a shambles when Notre Dame and Georgetown are welcoming with open arms this anti-life President who stands against the Church in arguably the biggest issue facing the Church? (besides salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ))

After asking the Catholic symbols be covered, he then has the gall to refer to the parable of the two builders (Matthew 7:24-27) Jesus told at the Sermon on the Mount!  Unsurprisingly, he did not mention Jesus.

However, it is President Obama’s bastardization of this story that has me wondering whether his man is evil.  In the parable, Jesus contrasted two builders, one of whom built his house of a foundation of sand, and one who built his house upon rock.  When the storm came, the house built on the foundation of sand collapsed, “and it fell with a great crash.”  The house built on the rock stood firm.  We know the house built on the rock is the life whose foundation is Jesus.

However, the rock foundation of Barak Obama’s economic house is the government.

“It’s a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation; new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive; new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. That is the new foundation we must build. That must be our future – and my Administration’s policies are designed to achieve that future. “

Keep in mind that when the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus regarding government vs God, Jesus clearly delineated the difference – “And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17)

So Jesus states He is the rock foundation upon which we should build our house and Barak Obama states the government is the rock foundation.  Whom do you think is correct on this matter?

Congress has shown its true face(s) on this AIG matter.

First, AIG was “too important to fail” so Congress threw $150 billion + at it to keep it afloat.

Then, Congress royally screwed the folks who kept AIG afloat during this period.

Witness Jake Desantis, executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit.  You probably saw or heard about his resignation letter to AIG CEO Edward Liddy, reprinted on the Op-Ed page of the NY Times.

Here is a guy who is a very high ranking executive in a profitable unit of AIG.  As the company gets in very serious trouble, it comes to him and asks him to do the following things in exchange for a retention bonus:

• Take a salary cut to $1.  I don’t know what he was making before, but I would guess he had a $350K+ base salary so this is a pretty substantial salary reduction.
• Don’t quit – stay with the company so it remains viable and can be restructured, components sold, etc.
• Work your ass off in a very dysfunctional environment where the company is under the microscope, is on  the verge of failing, and is trying to recover from some very complicated and very bad transactions previously entered in a different division than Mr. Desantis’.

Mr. Desantis does all these things and what does he get?  Screwed by AIG (Gee, can you please repay the bonus since I have to go talk to Congress in a few hours and it’s going to look bad? –  Edward Liddy).  Screwed by Congress (Yes, I added the provision to the stimulus package which would allow payment of these bonuses, but that was before I knew how unpopular these bonusses would be and how bad I would look. – Sen. Chris Dodd).  Screwed by the state (I want to know how much each of these AIG people make so I can publicly shame them for making so much money at the taxpayers expense. – Andrew Coumo).

This is an outrage!  This guy did everything he was asked and in return he gets pilloried in the public square.  Congress, in its infinite wisdom and pure spite, passes a law to tax this bonus at 90%.  Keep in mind that some portion of the “bonus” is actually the salary he had foregone in order to help the company!  And it would be taxed at 90%.

This proves how out of touch Congress is with the real world.  When Excel Communications was known to be on the block, I was one of a number of executives deemed important to the company’s viability so I was paid retention pay until a buyer was found and a deal completed.  This is the way business gets done. 

I would venture that had AIG not established a similar retention program, it would have been Katy bar the exit door and the company “too important to fail” would have folded like a cheap tent without any leadership.  Then we would have nothing to show for all the taxpayer dollars invested in the company and if it truly was “too important to fail” then our financial mess would be much worse.

p.s. In an interesting aside, the NY Times has over 900 comments on this op-ed.  The editors have highlighted 32 as the Editor’s Choice (“most interesting and thoughtful comments that represent a range of views”).  Of the 32, I’ll bet 28 are vehemently against these bonuses because this is so much more than the average American makes, once AIG ate at the government trough contracts don’t matter, etc.  This is about the “range of views” I would expect from the old gray lady.  What a hag she has become.

There is an excellent article by Gary Halbert at Investorinsight.com from which I copied the title of this note.  He details the following items and how they are killing investor investor enthusiasm for stocks and therefore killing the market:

1. The Economy Continues To Slump Badly
2. US Stock Markets Continue To Plunge
3. Obama’s Multi-Trillion Dollar Spending Spree
4. Obama’s Budget – The First $2 TRILLION Deficit?
5. Obama’s Plan To Nationalize Health Care This Year
6. Obama’s “Cap-and-Trade” Environmental Proposal
7. Conclusions – Why The Stock Markets Are Collapsing

Unfortunately, some of this reads like our administration is the Keystone Kops, but that is the government we voted in.  As someone once said, we get the government we deserve.

I never thought I would be rallying around the Clinton war cry, but I guess I am.

While our 401Ks burn and unemployment climbs, what is the President focused on – Healthcare, Energy Policy and Education.  In the meantime, we have no plan to resolve the banking crisis put forward from Secretary Geitner (the one who brought so much expertise to this position we needed to overlook his ability to file an accurate tax return.)  Until the credit markets are freed up, we will continue to see companies and citizens hold back on spending and the economic pain will continue.

BTW – How does the President plan to reform energy policy?  By a cap and trade system under under which “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket”.  That will certainly help the economy and will definitely put-off a lot of voters who thought they were electing a centrist who would bring about change we can believe in.

I guess the upside is that if the economy doesn’t recover, we are looking at a one-term president.  The question then becomes how long does it take to reverse the slide to socialism we are currently on.

Ben Smith at Politico.com has written an interesting doom and gloom piece about the current turmoil in the Republican party you can see here.  I have a little different view of the situation.

Hey Rush,

You are right on, dude!!  As much as I would love to see the economy humming and the Dow back at 14,000, if it comes at the expense of the US becoming a Euro-style socialist nanny state, COUNT ME OUT!  I hope the policies put forth by our President fail and fail miserably!

A couple of my (least) favorites to point out:

What happened to “no one who makes less than $250,000 per year will have their taxes raised”?  It now appears that two earner couples who cross this threshhold together will see tax increases.  I guess that when you file a joint return you have cleaved together and become one.

What has been the biggest financial boon to the middle class in the last 6 months?  Clearly the decline in oil prices and the drop in gas from $4 to less than $2.  Do you know the President’s budget eliminates certain incentives for oil exploration and drilling?  It may not be a tax but it will hurt just as bad when oil prices go back up because of this short sighted policy.

On all the college campuses we have visited lately, nary a building we have entered was not named for some one.  Undoubtedly, for a signifcant contributor to the school.  These universities and most charitable organizations are dependent on contributions and frankly, it is much more efficient to obtain few large donations from wealthy benefactors than many small donations.  So why does our President want to make it less attractive for the wealthy folks to make these contributions?  I guess he would prefer those wealthy folks be more patriotic by paying more taxes.

What about health care?  You think that waiting in line to renew your driver license sucks, try waiting in line for treatment when you are in pain.  Bummer!!  No wonder sick Canadians come to the US for treatment and a key part of executive compensation in the UK is private health insurance.

I could go on but I think you get my drift. 

Candidate Obama said he was going to “transform America”.  Millions were so blinded by his message of “hope and change” they didn’t look at his far left voting record or consider his lack of experience running ANYTHING. Now we have what we voted for – a socialist who doesn’t have the experience or skills to address the problems we face as a country.  It appears all he know how to do is throw trillions of dollars at the problem and see what sticks.

Unfortunatley for our 401K plans, the market is not buying it.  The stock market represents a leading indicator of what is going to happen financially.  Based on the nearly 3,000 points the market has lost since “the one” was elected, there is little faith in his ability to turn this around. 

Let’s hope and pray that our elected representatives, both republicans and blue dog democrats, have the spine to turn down these egregious spending plans.  Let’s also hope our economy is much more resilient than President Obama believes (otherwise, why would he throw trillions at it?) and the economy improves in spite of his policies.

As I get ready to head down to the parking garage and peel the McCain-Palin bumper sticker off my car, I think it is appropriate to take a minute to say thank you to our now departed President Bush for 2688 days of keeping Americans safe since 9/11/01. (I hope in 4 years to be able to thank President Obama for 1,461 days of keeping America safe as he leaves the White House.)

I haven’t always agreed with President Bush, particularly on matters like immigration and federal spending, but I believe he is an honorable man who has stuck by his principles. He made tough decisions based on what was best for the country without regard for his approval ratings, and for that I say “Thank You”. Being the president is not an easy job, particularly when much of congress and all the mainstream media is aligned against you. He served with honor and dignity and I believe history will reflect kindly on how he has managed the war on terror.

God Bless You Mr. President!

Obviously this is a hot topic being debated around the country and world.  From what I hear, citizens (US only – the others don’t matter) are strongly opposed to this bailout. 

I think this reaction is due to the framework of the discussion.  It is being discussed as a bailout of companies (Merrill Lynch, Lehman Bros, etc) vs a bailout of the system.  Most folks are thinking that these companies got themselves into this mess, let them get themselves out (without gov’t intervention).  This makes sense and is easy to understand.

However, the crux of this issue is the overall impact it is having on credit markets, and the very real ripple effect it is and will have on the economy at all levels (I am loathe to say “both Wall Street and Main Street”).

That said, I think that this deal needs to get done.  However, it should be done right – focused strictly on the credit markets with no pork.  The deal also needs to maximize bailee cost and minimize taxpayer cost.  I think the price of participation should be sufficiently high so as to make companies think hard about whether they desire to eat at the Taxpayer/Gov’t trough.  How about 20-25% ownership in your company if you want to participate?  That would make companies think twice and would give the gov’t enough equity clout to manage the great bogeyman in this issue – executive compensation.

Regarding pork – there should be absolutley none.  So the House needs to do some work to make the Senate bill work.  I am a cyclist – you can tell that from my web site.  However, it pisses me off that the Senate bill includes a provision related to reimbursement of bicycle commuting expenses.  How the hell does this relate to a bailout plan for the credit markets??  No wonder congress has single digit approval ratings!

I finished the David Freddoso book this week – “The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise …,” and highly recommend it for anyone who wants to know the truth behind the Dems candidate. This book is very well documented and footnoted and paints a picture of an incredibly ambitious (and arrogant) guy who is good at only one thing – running for higher offices. Since entering public life, he has no other accomplishments of any note – NONE.

As for “change we can believe in”, Obama is a big government, Chicago political machine crony who is not only a typical politician, he is the worst of what we hate in politicians. Obama won his first nomination to the Illinois State State Senate after he had all his Democrat opponents thrown off the ballot because his operatives were able to invalidate enough signatures on his opponent’s petitions to run for office. (Remember the howl from the left in 2000 about the Florida voters who were “disenfranchised” because the voting machines could not interpret their incorrectly prepared ballots? We needed a hand count so the “intent” of the voter could be determined from the dimple or hanging chad. How do you think they would have felt about a registered woman voter’s signature on a petition being disqualified because she signed her married name but was registered under her maiden name? Where’s the inclusiveness in that?)

Now Obama has come out with a new ad which is untrue on several fronts. The ad distorts his own record on the Born Alive Protection Act – it claims these were “taken out of context”. I can understand quotes taken out of context, but votes? These bills were not part of some “omnibus budget act” or some other such legislative BS, they stand on their own – there is no “context” here.

The Born Alive Protection Act declares any child with a beating heart or muscle movement outside the womb as ‘born alive” and therefore entitled to normal consitutional protections. How could anyone be against that? Obama was, 4 times. This ties in exactly with his “above my paygrade” comment at the Saddleback Civil Forum to the question regarding when human rights accrue to babies. If he says at birth, then babies who survive abortions would be entitled to human rights (like medical care). Hence, the dodge.

He also calls “John McCain’s attacks, the sleaziest ads ever”. Nice try Mr. Change – you would hate to miss an opportunity to slime the competition, even for something they didn’t do. The ads he is referring to were placed by BornAliveTruth.org, an independent organization presenting the truth on Obama’s voting record against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. Their ad properly states Obama’s record on the Born Alive Infant Protection act – he has voted against it 4 times. The 4th time the wording was exactly the same as the Federal version which passed the Senate 98-0 and was even supported by NARAL. He has said he would have voted for the bill if it matched the Federal version, but when given the chance, he did not. Obama is so deep in the pocket of Planned Parenthood, it borders on evil.

Finally, the quotes listed in Obama’s ad were published days before the Born Alive ads ran and referred to ads McCain ran about an entirely different subject. Obama claims his votes were taken out of context, then he uses quotes about different ads run by McCain to describe the BornAliveTruth.org ads. This is dishonesty in its purest form.

How can this be “Change” we can believe in when its the same old dirty politics and the source is untrustworthy? Not much change and not very believable if you ask me.