"Sooner or later, socialists always run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher
“Just Desserts” Policy Will Save
CA, NY, CT and MI
More Importantly Save the Nation
(Our first six paragraphs will give you a panorama of our vicious-circle economic situation and the scope of the problems. Then we’ll show you why “just desserts” <letting the irresponsible “Failed-Four” states go bankrupt> is actually the very best that could happen to them and more importantly the very best that can happen to the other 46 states and to the federal government.)
Just six weeks ago it appeared America had found its “Greece” in big taxing, big spending, union- and Democrat-dominated California. With, as well, a predominance of “Sanctuary Cities” also teetering upon bankruptcy within her borders, the “Golden State” seemed the perfect bad-example of what happens when progressivism is allowed to open the throttle to full speed ahead. Greece’s bankruptcy and riots and the obscenity of corrupt government, thank God was, however blessedly only confined to one ridiculous state. Now, however, it’s obvious that New York, Connecticut and Michigan have also been imitating California’s Greek tendencies . . . red ink has become the progressive fashion of the day not only in these “Failed Four” states but in every state dominated by big government and unions, not to mention those with unionized government employees.
Recently, Obama-Pelosi-Reid made another end run around the American people by passing yet another bailout, Cash-for-Flunkers if you will a $26 Billion bailout, aimed ostensibly at shoring up jobs for teachers, firefighters, etc. which actually is aimed at A. Raising an extra $40 million for union coffers which can be donated to Democratic campaign funds before November’s elections B. Entrapping over 40 of the states into the “Let’s-be-like Greece” web of irresponsibility so that C. Current problems are NOT faced, but rather, glossed over long enough so that Barack Obama can win re-election in 2012.
Yes, the $26 Billion bailout appears to save necessary jobs, what isn’t being said, is that 1. The cost in private sector jobs will be about 2.2/1 in lost jobs for every government sector “saved job” 2. The bill is also a band-aid which keeps states from eliminating waste, fraud and unnecessary programs. As an example of what that means . . . consider a municipal example, Oakland, California, the poster boy for irresponsibility. Oakland has the nation’s highest crime rate, yet they’re cutting a vast number of police jobs, NICE. Meanwhile, Oakland is a proud sanctuary city for illegal aliens that’s being bankrupted by a huge presence of undocumenteds plus violence and drug and associated crime problems, overcrowding of schools and hospitals. Oakland also has a lot of green programs, and arts programs and a huge pension program for city retirees. Rajjpuut has never been a “pile on the rich” advocate; however when it comes to museums, opera, arts programs not to mention fiscally-irresponsible and stupidly designed pension funds standing up against police in a crime-ridden city, do you doubt that Rajjpuut’s vote would go against the opera lovers and the privileged unions?
The real Obama flim-flam, however, lies in the broadness and wording of the new law. All the states mentioned and a huge amount of states that do not need federal money, especially “swing-voting” states are unnecessarily included in the law. Why? Because there’s a provision of the bill that requires any state that accepts the federal money from reducing its budget for three or more years. In other words the money-accepting states will be legally prohibited from acting fiscally responsible – making more of them likely to join the “Failed Four Bankruptcy Club” with California, New York, Michigan and Connecticut.
Just yesterday, China surpassed Japan to become the second largest economy in the world. Depending upon who is asked the lead time before China surpasses the United States varies between a dozen years and thirty years with most knowledgeable commenters opting between 25 – 30 years. Since China doesn’t have Barack Obama and we do, Rajjpuut more wisely puts the number between 12-15 years. Meanwhile, the #12 economy (1. USA 2. China 3. Japan 4. Germany 5. France 6. England 7. Russia 8. Brazil) India seems to be out-doing China and in thirty-five years might pass the United States and China as well as all the other well-known economies now ahead of her.
Our policies in outsourcing jobs to India and in allowing many China-like trade advantages to India are even more shortsighted than we’ve allowed China. Imagine this, if a Chinese company wants to flood our country with their goods, no problem. If a U.S. high-tech company wants to sell in China, we must, the Chinese say, set up the business in China and reveal our technology to them for free. On another front, Chinese "pirates" copy our books, movies, dvds, cds etc. at will and spread them all over the world as pirate goods without Chinese officials doing more than giving a wink and a nod. China wantonly violates U.S. patents as well and meanwhile our impotent federal government says and does nothing. If the whole country goes Greek, blame it upon Obama and the shortsighted diplomats who have sent up and continue to allow today’s present trade and fairness imbalances. The problem is -- as always -- OPM, other people’s money. While there seems to be no direct connection to the emergence of China and India and the decadence of our own economy on the one hand with, on the other hand, the Greecification of California, Michigan, Connecticut and New York . . . they are two intimately related symptoms of fiscal irresponsibility and the anti-business stance that has brought our once proud nation down, down, down. The solution for both problems begins with informing the citizenry and then the citizens of the other 46 states protesting vociferously on their states’ capitol grounds against their states accepting the new bailouts funs to their states and the fiscal handcuffs that go with them.
Let’s get to it! How doe we eradicate this wild mess of economic woes? More of Obamanomics will NOT cure our ills, but rather send us from a Great Recession to a double-dip recession to another Great Depression. The most generous light on the “Cash for Flunkers” $26 Billion bailout is that it’s a band-aid on the arterial bleeding of the four states involved . . . repeat, the most generous light . . . .
This is a complex problem, one of the first things required is to get Mr. Obama and the federal government out of the way. Mr. Obama, who could greatly help these four states by the simple expedient of slamming the southern border shut to illegal aliens thus beginning to eliminate an escalating problem in all four states, insists only “comprehensive immigration “reform” can take care of the border problem – practically guaranteeing us another 4,000 page bill, now for the first time finds himself facing an actually complex problem. You see, the problems he’s decided to face so far were simple, even though he did not handle them that way.
For example our economy’s overall difficulties are best and most simply ended by dramatically reducing A. national debt B. taxes C. government spending and D. the size of government as Harding and Coolidge showed us in making the “Invisible Depression” earn its name by carrying out ABCD without further ado as soon as Harding was elected. The illegal immigration problem mentioned above is handled by considering our immigration laws sufficient right now and securing the borders and cracking down on employers of illegals -- later we can add 60 pages of immigration reform to settle the overall picture. Our rising health care cost problem should have been addressed effectively with the 45-pages of real reform the Republicans asked for instead of 2500 pages of mumbo-jumbo that created 390 brand new government agencies (FDR’s four terms only saw the creation of 40 new agencies). Our auto industry problems were best handled by keeping government out of the picture, but instead a huge bailout, stealing rightful creditors’ money and handing it off to the union that supports Obama’s policies 100% was the preferred solution . . . those all were simple problems requiring a scalpel instead of the artillery canister barrage of voluminous laws Obama’s chosen. Now that barrage is a great deal of the problem. Business cannot operate under Obamanomics. But there are other considerations as well.
Look to New Jersey, there’s where the answer lies. The people of the third-most liberal Democratic state in the union, voted a conservative Republican into office. State bankruptcy loomed on the horizon just as it does for Michigan, Connecticut and New York and already plagued California. Fundamental restructuring of state and local finances and facing up to the unions (labor relations for 60 years in New Jersey have consisted in kissing up to the union demands without appropriate concessions), cutting taxes, cutting spending, cutting government and yes, cutting pay for state union jobs is aiming New Jersey toward fiscal solvency.
In nearby New York and Connecticut, the union-plague is leading to bankruptcy as sure as a cartoon banana means a disastrous slip is coming. In Connecticut for the current fiscal year a one-shot $2 billion federal subsidies drop (13.3 % of its $15 Billion state budget) has saved the day. Barack Obama has provided such grants to other states making up, surprise! Some 330 electoral college votes. Not only is this federal largesse of questionable ethics, it just doesn’t work. The same night last November that New Jersey elected Chris Christie, Virgina’s new governer was chosen – another conservative named Bob McDonnell. Virginia also is now fighting its way out of the red ink and into the black. Mc Donnell has slashed state spending to pre-2006 levels and, just like Christie, he’s refused to raise taxes. This model of responsibility is also evident in Indiana, which next to Michigan and Nevada was among the very hardest hit of our states.
With even more roadblocks facing him and his state than either New Jersey or Virginia faced, governor Mitch Daniels has quietly moved his state into the solid prosperous solvency area that only Texas previously enjoyed. How did he do it? Easy, everything that Barack Obama stands for, Daniels did the opposite in spades. The same business-friendly atmosphere and commonsense fiscal conservativism found in New Jersey and Virginia is in evidence everywhere in Indiana. Daniels has just had a much longer time to put his ideas into practice, five years and seven months in office so far. Indiana is a heavily union state that didn’t get much help from Obama as its auto plants shut down, indeed, Obama in orchestrating the bankruptcy of Chrysler personally robbed three large Indiana pension funds (teachers, police and municipal employees) of the money they were owed in the auto bailouts and instead gave that money to the United Auto Workers mostly in Michigan. So successful has Daniels been that some cry for “Daniels for President** 2012” has arisen. Daniels says he’s got enough work to do in Indiana.
So Obama wants to subsidize the key states and to force them to avoid fiscal responsibility and thus protect his unions and his big government approach. What happens IF the new congress refuses to go along with the Obama bailout-the-states agenda?
Expect the “Oakland Response” from the Failed Four and other profligate states such as Nevada, Illinois, and Massachusetts. In Oakland they’re extorting and shaking down the citizens and the nation by adding alligators to their cesspool. Instead of eliminating the “sanctuary cities” label and supporting their police, Oakland is blackmailing its people and the state and federal government. Perhaps Oakland ought to get out of the mural-painting and museums and opera and art and sanctuary-city businesses and return to the basics . . . but that makes too much sense.
Expect likewise the Failed Four and others to threaten to cut essential jobs and avoid dealing with their union war lords and their out-of-control pension problems. Just as the country has a China problem with lent money, many states have horrific bond problems. If they cannot get money loaned to them, many will dry up and go de facto bankrupt. If the federal government stays out of the mix, the only way they can borrow more will be at exorbitant rates as their state bonds are seen as much more risky. As bond rates jump from 4-5-6% non-taxable to 9-10-11% non-taxable, the crushing weight of the compounding of that debt will force the state citizens to finally understand what’s going on and to boot out the progressive politicians in the state house and in congress and force a return to simple fiduciary integrity. That’s step #1. Step #2 will be a forced restructuring of the unions, of the pensions of state employees and of unnecessary spending in general. This beneficial process can be abetted if the new congress decides to amend the federal bankruptcy laws so that states can declare bankruptcy (they are NOT too big to fail and should NOT be treated as such); and then the bankrupt states can renegotiate the killing contracts that big spending politicians voted upon the taxpayers. Government would return to the people. As Dick Morris has reminded us, the Reagan boom began when Ronald Reagan refused to knuckle under to the air-traffic controllers’ union and ran them out of the government – couldn’t we use another 20 million jobs now?
Ya’ll live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
** despite his incredible success, the otherwise reasonable and far-seeing conservative Mike Huckabee has attacked Daniels’ approach to politics. Daniels says that right now conservativism can save our state and our country – fiscal conservativism. Daniels' TEA Party-like approach has riled up Huckabee who says Republicans (not all of them are conservatives, mind you) must stand up for a “socially-conservative agenda.” Unlike the three conservative Republicans mentioned above (Christie, McDonnell and Daniels) Huckabee wants to reignite the abortion, anti-gay,^^ creationism taught in public school science classes agenda that has doomed Republican conservatives from taking their rightful leadership position since Barry Goldwater in 1964. Daniels is exactly right, we’re locked in a Constitutional and Fiscal crisis courtesy of Barack Obama and the progressives of both parties and that is were intelligent emphasis must lie . . . social issues, in any case, need to be treated mostly on a live and let live basis.
^^ Let homosexuals WED in “gay-unions.” Do not allow homosexual adoptions but keep that as a province of “real marriage” only . . . Americans believe that is fair and responsible. Forget about abortion, creationism, singing Christmas carols in public schools and more intolerant treatment of gays . . . the American people won’t stand for that agenda. Vouchers for private schools, yeah! But vouchers for religious private schools, why? Religions already have a monstrous tax break given them. Let the churches semi-subsidize their own religious schools and parents so inclined can pay for the rest.
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