Corporate Freeloaders Act
Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced their own “American Jobs Act” – even though a more apt name for their bill would be the “Corporate Freeloaders Act.” Congressman Louie Gohmert – famous for his fear mongering over “terror babies” and bestiality – introduced the Republican version of President Obama’s jobs plan – and it includes only one provision. No infrastructure spending – no payroll tax cuts – no assistance to states to hire more teachers and police officers – nothing – except for…reducing the corporate tax rate down to zero.
That’s right – the Republicans’ idea for job creation is letting multi-billion dollar transnational corporations – many of which already pay no American taxes – off the hook from paying any American taxes. They use our roads, our bridges, our schools, our police forces, our courts – but Congressman Gohmert thinks they don’t need to pay for any of that stuff – instead, he wants you and me to pay it all. Republicans think if these corporations just had a little more cash – then they’d turn into job creating fairies and save our economy.
But as we know – they’re already sitting on $2 trillion worth of cash and not hiring anyone – at least not in America. This isn’t a jobs bill – it’s a classic Republican handout to Gohmert’s top corporate donors.
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Solyndra,General Motors, and Wall Street: Obama Crony Socialism on Parade.
by Seaton Motley
There has been news aplenty about the Solyndra solar power company.
The chock-full-of-Barack-Obama-Administration-cronies-and-donors corporation that received more than half a billion dollars in government-guaranteed loans to build the alleged future of energy.
Which President Obama hailed as such after the government-backed checks had cleared.
Which turned out to be totally untrue, and Solyndra’s solar folly an abject failure. In fact, a bankrupt one.
Which anyone who knows anything at all about “green” energy knew would be the result long before it was even a glint in Obama’s Crony Socialist eye.
(This is Crony Socialism. It has very little to do with – and is even less successful than – Crony Capitalism.)
And as it turns out, the those-in-the-know included the Obama Administration. Who were repeatedly warned that the company was in hay-yuge trouble before the first check was cut, but pushed through the loan guarantees anyway.
And now the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has raided the joint, walking out with boxes and boxes of documents. (We don’t yet know if this is the beginnings of a real inquiry, or a Clinton-esque move where the paperwork vanishes, only to turn up years from now in the White House residence wing.)
Was the Administration so hurriedly adamant – despite all the evidence screaming “Stop” – because of the company’s Obama cronies and their campaign cash?
Was it because the Administration is so ideologically blinded by and wedded to “green” non-energy energy they couldn’t help themselves?
Or was it both?
The Obama Administration is in this criminally stupid – and/or simply criminal.
And those lessons never learned – they just this week guaranteed $1.2 billion in loans to…Abengoa Solar Inc. (Warning: The website is in Spanish.)
Gluttons for punishment – of We the People.
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This Administration is often driven to clueless extremes when it comes to paying off those who’ve paid them off – and to tilting at Leftist ideological windmills.
There is Government – I mean General Motors (GM).
The $50 billion bailout recipient whose stock price is lower now than it was at its post-bankruptcy Initial Public Offering (IPO).
A bankruptcy we were told the bailout would preclude.
GM stock is trading more than thirty points below the taxpayer break even price.
The bailout, President Obama first told us, would make us money. Seven months later, the Administration admitted we’d lose between $11 and $14 billion – and dishonestly claimed the loss they had said would be a profit was “less than the(y) originally expected.”
The company is led by ex-Carlyle Group, DC-Wall Street nexus, Administration cardboard cut-out CEO Dan Akerson.
Who says the bailout “shouldn’t be measured on did it sell for $43 or $53 (a share) or did they lose a couple billion dollars.”
Who wants to “slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas.”
—–
Want GM enviro-absurdity?
GM is now neck-deep in “green” non-energy energy. Of the oh-so-successful Solyndra sort.
They last year received more clean (non-energy) energy patents than any other organization.
They are dramatically ramping up production of the unprofitable and unselling hybrid Chevy Volt. And creating a like-model for Cadillac.
They have fitted an (again, unprofitable) Volt plant so as to be solar-powered. Which cost $3 million – but only saves them $15,000 a year in electricity.
Want GM Crony Socialism?
President Obama has exempted GM for years from federal taxes.
He eviscerated bankruptcy law – throwing bond holders over the side to the benefit and illegal betterment of his union allies.
He strip mined Delphi non-union pensions, but fully maintained United Auto Worker union pensions.
And he recess-appointed a Delphi pension fall-out profiteer to head-up – the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).
So as to circumvent the months-long hold placed on the appointment by…Democrat Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. Who said “we owe it to Delphi retirees to take all steps possible to secure their pensions. That’s why I’m urging the Obama administration to encourage General Motors to meet its obligations to Delphi retirees.”
The Obama Administration apparently disagrees.
—–
This wide array of abject failure would lead any normal person to run at warp speed away. This Administration is not made up of normal people.
President Obama has decided to make GM a reelection visual aide for what “successful” government intervention in the private sector looks like.
And the Crony Socialists stick together.
Bailout recipient Morgan Stanley has made the pitiful lump of a company that is Government Motors their #1 auto stock pick.
And ranked bailout-refusing Ford sixth.
—–
So what have we learned here?
“Green” energy doesn’t work. Government bailouts don’t work. And government bailouts of “green” energy don’t work.
And that Crony Socialism is as corrupt as it is utterly, dismally unsuccessful.
By “we,” I obviously do not mean the Obama Administration.
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Social Security a Ponzi Scheme? 'Do the Math,' Says Obama's 'Fiscal Responsibility' Co-ChairSocial Security a Ponzi Scheme? 'Do the Math,' Says Obama's 'Fiscal Responsibility' Co-ChairBy Christopher GoinsSeptember 13, 2011Subscribe to Christopher Goins's posts
(CNSNews.com) – Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), when asked whether he agreed with GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, told CNSNews.com: “All you have to do is do the math, and you can make the judgment yourself.”
At a news conference at the National Press Club Monday, CNSNews.com asked Simpson: “According to some estimates, Social Security has $20 trillion in unfunded liabilities. On the same note, Gov. Rick Perry said that ‘it is a Ponzi scheme to tell’ twenty somethings they’re ‘paying into a program that’s going to be there.’ Do you agree with his statement and do you think that Social Security is run like a Ponzi scheme?”
“All you have to do is do math and you can make the judgment yourself,” Simpson told CNSNews.com. “All that you need to know is that by the year 2036, you’re going to waddle up to the window and get a check for 23 percent less. A year ago that was 2037, and 22 percent less. That’s just one year-and-a-half they’ve kicked that up. And that’s all you need to know. And if you can’t raise the retirement age to 68 by the year 2050, because people might be confused, we ain’t got a prayer anyway.”
Simpson has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme -- the name for an investment fraud in which current investors are paid dividends that come only from future investors.
On May 6, 2011, at a meeting hosted by the Investment Company Institute, Simpson said Social Security was a “Ponzi” scheme, and “not a retirement program,” and argued that it was originally intended more as a welfare program.
"It was never intended as a retirement program. It was set up in '37 and '38 to take care of people who were in distress -- ditch diggers, wage earners -- it was to give them 43 percent of the replacement rate of their wages. The [life expectancy] was 63. That's why they set retirement age at 65” for Social Security, he said.
Simpson and former Clinton administration official Erskine Bowles were co-chairs of President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in 2010.
They spoke at the National Press Club on Monday on behalf of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan group committed to educating the public about issues that have significant fiscal policy impact -- such as Social Security and national defense spending.
CNSNews.com also queried Simpson and Bowles about GOP candidate Herman Cain's reform proposal for Social Security: “In that same debate, Herman Cain said that the U.S. should follow the Chilean model, which uses personal retirement accounts, to fix Social Security. Do you think that would be a good idea as well?”
The duo shot down Cain’s suggestion, citing the differences in demographics between the United States and Chile and the lateness of the suggestion. Had the suggestion come when the U.S. Social Security system ran a surplus, the suggestion would have been more credible and plausible, they said.
But under current conditions, the two said, switching to personal retirement accounts would be impossible. Bowles added that Social Security is annually running $45 billion "cash negative" — and that’s before the reduction in the payroll tax that is now being used for the stimulus.
Simpson said: “Well I can tell you it wouldn’t fit the economy, the demographics—it makes no sense. I’ve heard that one for 20 years—that if we did what Chile did we’d be okay. Forget it. That couldn’t possibly function.”
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget President Maya MacGuineas said that the Social Security issue provides the perfect example why the earlier you make changes to a program, the more time you have to phase them in, and the more gradual the changes can be.
“Ten years ago or fifteen years ago when people were talking about private accounts for social security, there could have been a real discussion on it because there were surpluses in the program. There aren’t cash surpluses anymore,” MacGuineas said.
The committee’s Sept. 7 report“What We Hope to See from the Super Committee” suggested several deficit-reducing policies including raising the retirement age of Social Security beneficiaries and changing the benefit structure. The report does not mention privatization as an option.
The committee also sent a letter to the Super Committee on Tuesday urging them to “go big” and beyond the $1.5 trillion deficit reduction goal that the committee has been charged with. Instead, they recommend making $4 trillion cut in ten years.
Several signatories included former Comptroller General of the United States David M. Walker, the former chairwoman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer and former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin.
For what it's worth, time is a collection of lessons. We choose to learn from our past or we choose to forget it. Our collective amnesia as a country has lead us down a vicious cycle of political corruption and corporate greed unmatched in Americna history.
"They use our roads, our bridges, our schools, our police forces, our courts – "
They also use innocent youth and most of the Treasury to fight their bloody wars.
I can not understand how the Republicans can act as if their unfunded wars did not add a dime to our debt. And that all the jobs bills that they blocked did nothing to keep this nation down, and pert near out. They act as if they can completely wash the slate clean the minute they get voted out of office. I hope the Democrates start reminding them of their part of the mess, and keep it up until we re-elect the current man into office in 2012. And hopefully that will break the back of the Republican party once and forever. Then perhaps this nation can get back to being a nation of the people, and for the people.
its not rocket science...my daily 2 "sense"
Raise wage base on social security to match that of medicare. limit the mortgage interest deduction, limit cash contribution deduction, disallow cap loss carryovers (treat it same as gambling), raise cap gain tax to rate of us shlubs, bump medicare to 1.60%. inact a per trade tax on all stock movement (this by the way would be say a % of a cent?, have not done the math research on this one yet), eliminate the earned income credit and any of the other credits that help low wage earners (yes i did say that! if I'm going to strip the rich I'm going to strip the poor too,. has to be fair) get rid of making work pay credit or stream line it such that i don't run a return and find out some one who made no money still gets it!). disallow investment expense deductions, level an automatic flat tax, say $100-$200 on all schedule C and E filers, level a national 1% sales tax. inact a bill allowing responsible home owners to borrow from thier own retirement accounts (up to 50%) to pay off balances on home. By the way don't be fooled by the so called tax savings due to interest mortgage deduction see because when you think about it while you may save 1 or 2G on your taxes you've still paid out the nose to the bank that is holding you hostage! quantified over life of mortgae? so anyway let me borrow from my retirement and pay myself back at 1.5% with same ramifications if I default ( full penalization and taxation absolutely no debt forgivness) conduct an audit of all non-profs and find out who in fact actually has validity to be exempt. (my research shows me that there are quite few that seemingly contribute scarce little to society not to mention just drum up dissension and hate?). hmm what else was i day dreaming today. oh yeah...for the number of small businesses across the country impliment a hire act that not only gets people back to work but lend incentive to the small business owners, say like, give them the 4.2% break as well but better yet? allow the govrnment to start funding the loans and crdit at a fractional amount compared to the banks. hey as long as we're at it? why don't we nationalise the bank. you know? a bank owned by the public for the public?....huh all i wanted was a lousey 15% pay bump. what a drag....
Well now, the problem is obvious: we progressives have simply not given Congressman Louie Gohmert enough bribes- excuse me, I mean campaign contributions. Come on now, everyone who reads this should pony up a few million dollars and send it to Louie Louie, and be sure to explain that the millions of dollars you're giving him (in cash, in small, non-sequential bills) is just this week's installment, and that we will all continue to pay him millions of dollars every week to "help" him see his way clear to vote in favor of humanity.
i like very much!
The problems, that exists are obvious to those of us who are aware. The problems associated with a corporate royalty controlling government is so broad and corrupt and overwhelmingly challenging it is creating apathy among the progressive street fighters. With Republicans owned by Corporate interests and the like of the Koch Brothers and their compadres fostering a mediaeval philosophy in our colleges and universities and taking a tax deduction from that which they call charitable giving , our system is doomed to corporate lies, extortions, and manipulations of the constitution. No wonder the future looks bleak to most of us who keep our eyes and ears open. There will never be any change until campaign
contributions and lobbying (with cash rewards, gifts, or favors) are severely restricted. It is imperative that these back room deals end, are declared illegal, and violators severely punished. We need to declare a war on corporate corruption. How is that for a war that trumps the war on drugs ? Big money will never be satisfied until they have us all as slaves. They never are because they don't see with democratic eyes, and they don't feel with democratic hearts. They are imperialistic dictators who view citizens of this nation as cattle and themselves managers of the mass herds of cattle. This my friends has got to come to an end and possibly a bloody end. When citizens are so suppressed with the daily challenges of financial survival, and are under educated to analyze and
challenge authority, and frightened about their future, you get a TEA PARTY. And a TEA PARTY will sell the rest of us out for their own selfish sake. Ultimately they will become victims of their own selfish agenda. It is doomed to fail. Anyone who thinks government has less power over them because of the Republicans are kidding themselves.
How many times must it be repeated before it sinks in, CORPORATIONS ARE TAX COLLECTORS not TAXPAYERS. Why isn't it being made clear that taxes a corporation pays is paid for by it's largest source of money, it's customers?
I hope the American people wake up and pay attention. The economic disaster in our nation started with the Reagan administration in 1980 with tax cuts for the wealthy and reduced regulation for corporations, banks, stock brokers, and all other forms of business which represent capitalism at it's worst. When George Bush took office in 2001, the United States had a balanced budget. After his two terms our country is buried under a mountain of debt, two shooting wars, untold secret operations, and the loss of tens of millions of American jobs.
I don't like the way President Obama has handled his time in office at all. However, given the continued attack upon the United States and the American people by the Republican party, I will vote for Mr. Obama in 2012. He has not been a strong president, but there is no other option left.
We are a great nation and anyone who believes we have to settle for a continuous economic disaster is selling the American people short. I believe my fellow citizens will look at what is actually happening right now to them and their families, rather than listen to the politics of hate by which Republicans intend to divide and conquer us from within. I truly believe the Republicans in Congress are traitors.
its no longer JUST about Obama
we LOST the HOUSE from complacency and misinformation
if we DONT regain the house in 2012 ..Obama cant get done what , i think and hope, he really
wants to get done.
So, while he cannt really ask to over turn the house balance ... we have to
" take back the house " to take back our country from the corporations ...
that should be our motto ...
and if the house and senate are split again ...its four mor eyears of the same
we cant afford that ....
joseph a
Famous for fear mongering over "terror babies" and bestiality, WOW!, that's really messed up! Louie world must be a pretty scary place. His "Corporate Freeloaders Act" is just as crazy, I guess this all makes him a top notch representative of the republican party.
People really vote for these guys??????..... Way to go Fox!
" Politics of hate by which Republicans intend to divide and conquer us from within......" , is exactly what these scoundrels are doing with groups like the Tea- Party. "Pit the needy against the needy to benefit the greedy." The mass media is the real weapon being used to facilitate all this treachery.
I will also vote for Pres. Obama in 2012 with hope he gets the house of reps. back. I heard he came to his senses on Soc.Sec., a good sign.
Obama appears to have began to comprehend what a mistake it was to continually cave to the Republicans on debt ceiling and Bush tax cuts. Die has been cast now. REpublicans will not help him on anything. They appear to be winning the battle of convincing Americans they had absoulutely nothing to do with creation of the deficit problem, George W. Bush was a Saint, and Obama alone is the problem. The problem in this country is that it is heavily populated with dumb asses who believe FOX news is the news and Republicans are incapable of lying. I have fought the fight to try to educate friends and neighbors but I'm growing weary. Sometimes people need to get exactly what they ask for. The only problem is it will not only be them that will experience the second Great Depression and the destruction of our way of life. I'm inclined to walk away but the cost simply would be too great. The Democratic Party is in serious need of culling. It is our job of doing this. In the future it is you are in are you are out. It is time to go to war and the only chance of winning is to wake up the minorities and younger voters who stayed at home in 2010. If we don't take our govt. back from Corporate America in 2012 the average American has no futute. The Democratic Party will be no help. It remains to be seen if Obama has learned he has been his own enemy. The press and news media won't help. We must do it.
Thom,
I keep hearing these Republicans talk about the "job-creators". Can we just have an accounting of the number of jobs these "job creators" have created over the last thirty years?...compared to how many jobs they've eliminated...or sent overseas?...and how much money they've stashed in their pockets from the tax cuts and benefits they've been given over the same time-span?
C'mon Democrats! Start talking about this!!!!
GOP schemes never change from Reaganomics onward . Same old push for corp tax cuts , loopholes & Oil subsides, more deregulation. The very wealth favoring policies that led to Bush Cheney crash / Paulson TARP scam on taxpayers, 2 very long failed wars, wasting lives & 3 trillion, huge unfunded debt, lies, greed and trying to starve the Beast ( SS / Medicare .) Call their bluff Vote Dem 2 yrs 8 months is NOT enough time to undo 28 yrs of GOP toxic policies...
I think an important difference between Wisconsin and all the other states with horrible Republican governors is that Wisconsin had Democratic heroes to rally around--the 14 Democratic state senators that left the state to prevent passage of the budget. There's no one like that in Michigan or Florida.
Repubs not so much for less government in my opinion as they claim to be, if they truly were they wouldn't be so insistant on garnering/maintaining the control over all faculties of this countries government offices at ANY cost both federal and state levels. Cause for alarm, total control looms in the distance? Current circumstances reminds me of saying from a friend years ago when times were tough and I needed a push to get moving "When you decided you've suffered enough, you'll get up and do something about it" --- (Yep, I'm there made that decision to do something about it, now it's time to see just what I CAN DO/WE CAN DO (any other takers?) to help get some assemblence of order back to OUR HOUSES and COUNTRY. Time to organize I do believe and let the Tea Party know that their Party is OVER...But are welcome to join in on the discussions to fix OUR problems in this country at the NEW OPEN HOUSE PARTY OF THE UNITED "NOT" DEVIDED STATES GOVERNMENT come next election, just hope we can hang on that long... Proud of Obama for stepping up the other day!
Very Well Said! If only the Democrats were as good at staying on message as the Republicans. I'm Facebook posting that right now, and I hope everyone does!
about oil speculation, I think that the comodities market is a pipeline with the potential of allowing a small group of wealthy investors to create a short term monopoly. we as a people are dependant on oil and gas. The demand rises and falls with the expansion or contraction of the economy, but the price is determined more by what we can afford to pay. When the population recieves a sudden rise in income there is a formula that will determine how much we can afford. So if a major investor can by up enough supply to effect prices ,that is what they are going to do. If you give the publlc a a raise in income through tax cuts in this time of computer technology then wall street will find a way tap into it without expanding the economy. On the other hand if we let the Bush tax cuts expire then wall street speculators will pay back some of the easy money and the price of gas and oil will drop with our ability to afford it. This will counter the effect the sudden loss of income .And/Or we put a progressive tax on profits from market speculation of essential commodities and use that money to support alternitive energy sources. Any taxes recieved from food product speculaion should be used to maintain stability in the farming industry. My point , if you give the public a tax cut without measures to minimize the predictable effects of commodity speculation, then you may be doing more harm then good.
if you are in a demografic with a longer then average life expectancy and you have other sufficient income resources then it would be fair and equitable to forgo colas in social security and if one has the desire and ability to work later in life, then ther must be incentives that would allow that and save the system money.
Unless the President grows a pair and liberally uses his veto the republican version will probably prevail. If it does how long will it be before we see an 'American Spring' with rioting in the streets and police and National Guard shooting Americans in the streets?
~;^}>
Superstition is harmful to Children and other living things
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2012 slogan for Obama: ----------------------
Thom, as you noted, in 1992, Clinton's campaign slogan was "It's the economy, stupid", addressing public frustration over the economy.
President Obama can't use that same slogan again since this is "his" economy, so for 2012, I recommend:
"It's the OBSTRUCTION, stupid."
Not only would it... as in '92... harness the public's frustration in his favor, but would help promote the idea of electing DEMOCRATS to help end that very obstruction.