One of the responses I received mentioned that it would take some time to correct the problems that Bush created. While I love and respect very much the one who responded with that, I feel some obligation to make sure that my opinion is completely clear, and not to be viewed as the “sore-loser” that the political left would like to say that I am.
The problems that Bush "created" were really just problems that he ignored, created by previous Presidents, Congresses, and an extended period of judicial activism. I am certainly not defending President Bush, as I don't see how he is completely innocent in the matter, either.
If they really are Bush's problems, though, then he was a lot more powerful in the mid 1990s than we gave him credit for. That's when the Congress of the United States MANDATED that financial institutions provide mortgages and other loans to people who could not afford them. This was under the guise of eliminating “red lining” – the practice of rejecting a loan application based on the neighborhood. There is a lot of really good historical information out there on this subject. Do a Google search on “Community Reinvestment Act” and do the full historical background.
The sub-prime mortgage industry started really heating up in 1998 (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1998/03/subprime.shtm) . Bush was elected in 2000. Bush's problem was that by the time he was made aware by his advisors, it was too late, and then he did nothing meaningful to stop it. That doesn't make him much better than Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge.
Obama espouses Socialist-Marxist ideas. The US government now owns significant stakes in several companies that have received TARP (bailout) money. He has attempted to strong-arm bondholders of Chrysler into basically forfeiting any value of the bonds they hold so that the UAW can gain majority stockholder status (55%) through its health-care fund. What you get there is a healthcare organization that sells cars to support its habit and the UAW controls how much money to pay the ... UAW? Boy I wish I could get a gig like that.
The Federal Government has proven to us time and again that they are incapable of achieving efficiency in business, so why do we want them meddling in it now? How many times has Congress considered shutting down Amtrak because it can't sustain itself? Check out this September 2007 posting by the Heritage Foundation (a conservative organization for those of you in Rio Linda) Congress Should Link Amtrak's Generous Subsidy to Improved Performance.
And here’s a story about another government subsidiary from just yesterday:
Wed May 6, 11:19 am ET
Post office has $1.9 billion loss in
quarter
WASHINGTON – The post office was $1.9 billion in the red for the
second quarter of the fiscal year and continues to face the possibility of
running out of money before year's end. (Source: AP)
$1.9 Billion in a QUARTER. Not a Year. A Quarter. Compare that with American Airlines’ $375 million 2009FQ1 quarterly loss reported just a few days ago. Stocks in the airline industry haven’t been really good ones to own for quite some time. But LOOK at the USPS! Good grief.
Here’s an excerpt from another source on the same story:
Since it was reorganized in 1971, the postal service has accumulated a deficit
of almost $7 billion. At the end of its most recent fiscal year in September,
that total deficit was only $4.7 billion.
Email and fast, aggressive competitors like FedEx (NYSE: FDX) and UPS (NYSE: UPS) have bitten into what were once protected business preserves for the postal service. Unlike its counterparts in other countries such as Japan, the USPS isn’t allowed to do any other kind of service, like banking, or even handle electronic mail for its customers.
Good thing the USPS isn’t allowed to do banking services. What kind of shape would the financial industry be in if it were?
Instead of bailing them out, why not let GM, Chrysler, AIG - and whoever else - file for bankruptcy? Because they're too big to fail? What? How many times has Delta Airlines filed for bankruptcy. What about American Airlines? You know why they do that? To gain an advantage in renegotiating their union contracts – which in the case of the automakers, the UAW has the industry by the you know what.
When it comes to executive compensation and the railroading going on there, if the stockholders of a company are dumb enough to allow that, then they deserve to lose their shorts. Again -- not a Bush creation.
For "Healthcare reform," a clever disguise for socialized medicine, we already have a working example of how that would work. It's called the Veterans Administration. And it is a shining example of efficiency. Bush didn't create that either. It was created in 1930 and Bush wasn't born until 1946.
In the world that Obama wants, Congress would have to pass a law every time a 3 year old goes to the pediatrician for a well-child checkup. With the speed at which laws get passed, the kid would be 25 before the pediatrician ever saw any payment for his or her services. For $200 bucks. Come on. Would you want to be a pediatrician under those circumstances?
Obama's problem is he's an amateur. He's a puppet to the liberal elite, undisciplined, and dangerous. No experience whatsoever. He's all image and no substance. But he got elected because he was "charismatic,” "polished," “enthusiastic,” and “captivating” while the other guy was a stiff old man who wasn't even the best candidate the party had to offer.
Americans bought it because they don't pay attention. A college friend from a Central American country told me a long time ago that we as Americans don't really know how good we have it. Some countries in the world have so much political turmoil that citizens pick up the newspaper each morning - if they have the liberty to learn how to read - just to see who happens to be the political leader du jour. But we in America have the - dare I say - luxury (or is it Audacity) of reading the news just for the sports section.
We're going to wake up some time in the very near future and have an elected dictator. Just like Cuba elected Fidel Castro. Just like Venezuela elected Hugo Chavez. And (yikes) just like Germany elected Hitler and Italy elected Mussolini. Obama has a blank check with Congress for the next 2 years and that is just enough time to completely wreck the United States as we know it.
