Debt For Clunkers

You have probably heard a lot about the so-called "Cash For Clunkers" program on the news, how it's so helpful and so popular, and going to do so much good for so many people, and for the economy, and so on and so forth. I have a different take. I think that this program is so idiotic that it's hard to know where to begin.

First, pitching the idea as "free money" toward the purchase of a new car, if you are turning in a qualifying car, with sufficiently poor gas mileage, which quite a few Americans do own, and then setting aside only a Billion Dollars for the program. I know, you're thinking, only a Billion? A billion is a ton of money, and you're right, it is, it's a ridiculous amount of money in fact, but bear with me. One billion dollars, at $4,500 a pop only goes as far as 222,222.2 cars. When people think they are getting "free money" you will have a lot more takers than that. So, thinking that they may have run out of money, although they don't know because they can't even process the claims that have been made so far, Congress has thrown in another Two Billion dollars, just to be on the safe side I guess, bringing the total amount of Cars that could be turned in to 666,666.6, but with no idea if even that will be enough.

Besides this, as I mentioned previously, the claims aren't being processed. The way the program works is that a person takes their "clunker" to a dealership, and the dealer determines, according to Government guidelines, if the "clunker" qualifies for the program, and if so, goes ahead and makes the deal, taking the $4,500 off of the price of the new car, and then submitting the paperwork for the deal to the Government, which, in turn, is supposed to cut the dealer a check for the $4,500. The problem is that while dealers are making deals and turning them in to the Government, the claims aren't being processed and the checks aren't being cut, so the dealers, already operating on the edge, are being forced to absorb a $4,500 hit on each car they sell on this program, at least in the short term.

Another problem is the simple fact that the Federal Government (quickly becoming a National Government, but I'll have to address that separately) is out of money. Even with no increase in spending, but just continuing the programs in place now, and leaving tax rates as they are today, we would continue going deeper in the hole. Of course, they are looking to increase spending by trillions of dollars over the coming years, and by comparison, three Billion dollars doesn't seem like much, but we are at the point were every single penny the Government spends is just more debt. So this program is yet another three billion dollars in debt, and that doesn't include the cost of processing all the claims, which will be significant because the Government never does anything efficiently.

Now we come to the claim that this program will have some positive impact on the environment. This is simply not true in the least. For starters a study has shown that supposed savings in gas, if in fact they were to be as claimed, would only amount to shutting down energy production in this Country for one hour per year. But that doesn't take a lot of other things into account. For starters, if paying less for gas, or getting better gas mileage, people will drive more, this is a studied and proven fact. Besides that, all of the cars that are turned in under this program will be destroyed, and therefore will need to be disposed of, which will have a negative environmental impact. Then there is a production cost (both monetarily and environmentally) of all the cars that will initially be produced to make up for the false bubble of demand for new cars over the short run, and transporting them to the dealerships. On top of that is the fact that some of these cars that are being destroyed would otherwise have been traded in and auctioned off to some junkyard or something, where people would have been able to pull spare parts off to use for their own vehicles that they are still driving, now those spare parts will not be available, causing new parts to be produced, having a higher environmental impact, as well costing the operators of the vehicles who need the parts considerably more than they would have paid otherwise.

Next we need to ask if this program is a good deal for people who participate in it. For the most part, people who participate will be purchasing new cars, the cost of which $4,500 will scarcely put a dent in, meaning that they will be taking out huge car loans to make up the difference. So, the great deal that they are getting means that they are trading in a car that they can afford in order to take $4,500 off of the price of a car that they can't even come close to affording, even with the discount, in order to save a couple of bucks a month in gas (remember they will also drive it more) giving them a huge pile of car debt, meaning that this "great deal" will be a net loss to their monthly disposable income. I suspect (and this is just me, I don't have a study on this) that a large share of these people will default on these loans (wow, what a blessing that will be to them). And besides, just a simple look at the math tells you how stupid this is. You take a car that qualifies as a Clunker under the program, which we will assume for the sake of this discussion is paid off (if it's not, things are even worse) and turn it in for the $4,500 discount on a new car. People are being encouraged to get Hybrid cars, because they get the best gas mileage. A new Toyota Prius starts at $22,000, but let's face it, most people won't go for the most basic model, so let's assume that they are somewhat reasonable and choose a model that is around $25,000, so they will be forced to finance around $20,500. They probably don't have triple A credit, and so, won't get the best interest rate, so, over the life of the loan, they are going to be paying back, on the conservative side, around $25,000. Even if we assume that gas goes up to $5.00 a gallon, roughly twice today's price, that $25,000 would have put 5,000 gallons of gas in their old clunker. Even at 15 miles per gallon, that would have taken them 75,000 miles. Now in their new Prius they will get roughly 50 miles per gallon (according to toyota.com/prius) an improvement of 35 miles per gallon, so that same 5,000 gallons of gas will take them 250,000 miles, but they still bought that 5,000 gallons, plus they spent $25,000 paying off the new car. To go the same 75,000 miles that the 5,000 gallons would have taken them in the old clunker would cost $7,500, so, apples to apples, to go the same distance, they will have paid $7,500 more with the new car. Adding that amount means that the old car would have taken them 97,500 miles for the same amount of money. So, they will have to drive this new car for 97,500 miles just to break even on the deal. Most people don't even keep a car that long, but assuming they do, let's remember that to this point they have not saved one single penny, that's just the break even point, assuming they haven't had to put any new parts on the car, which they would have and which would be considerably more expensive than on their old car, and service costs more also, so they'd have to drive a few thousand more miles to make up for that, but after they they should be to the good, right? Well, sure, but if they want to make back all of the money that the spent on this "great deal" they will have to drive that Prius for an additional 1,625,000 miles, and that doesn't include the increased cost given that they will drive more because they are getting better gas mileage. Some deal huh?

Worse still is what this will do to the new car market in the US. First, it will create a bubble in auto sales while the program runs it's course, followed by a collapse when people who would have bought a car later on now don't need one, and people who would have bought used cars can't because they have all been destroyed by Uncle Sam. Far from stimulating the economy, this program will be devastating.

So, what we get is a net negative environmental impact, significantly more debt, both for the nation, and for the suckers... I mean people... who participate in the program, and a significant net negative economic impact over the long term, especially as these people start to default on the car loans that they can't afford on cars that they could never afford and should not have purchased.

But that's not the worst part. As bad as all that is, it is nothing compared to this. The same morons who came up with this dud of a deal want to run your health care.

A Very Old Argument

When he was on the campaign trail, then candidate, Obama talked a lot about change, and said that it was time for new, fresh ideas. However, as soon as he became President, he bought into the same old arguments for Government intrusion into the Economy and American life. Something always seemed really off to me about the whole "too big to fail" argument. And as for Obama himself, he likes to say that he really doesn't want to take over companies and such, but he just has to, because of the economy. Basically saying that, while having the Government take over everything would be bad, the economy would just collapse if he doesn't do it.

Aside from the fact that all of the things that he has done will not do anything to fix the economy (Yes, I know Bush started some of this stuff, but Obama has started quite a bit more, and has ramped up all the stuff that Bush started), there was something else that I couldn't quite nail down. Then it finally hit me. This is an argument so old that no one alive today actually heard it first hand. However, if you've studied American History in depth at all, you have heard this argument before, it went something like this, "Well, personally I don't think we should have Slavery in the United States, but if we get rid of it, the economy will collapse, so we just have to accept Slavery." In that case the truth was that the people making that argument were either cowards, unwilling to stand up for what was right and take some risks, or, more likely, they were really pro Slavery and looking for an excuse to continue the practice. In the current case we are looking at people, from Obama on down, who really do want to install a Marxist Government, and are using the excuse of the economy to do it.

While personal Slavery is certainly a worse form of Slavery than Marxist enslavement, under the Marxist system it is the entire populace that is enslaved.

It really is remarkable to me that the very same argument that was used by the pro Slavery crowd 150 years go, is now being used by another group whose interest lies in enslaving us all.

A Truly Sad Day

Michael Jackson died yesterday, but that's not why I'm saying that it's a truly sad day. I understand that it is sad news for a lot of people who are his fans, and especially for his family and close friends, and I do feel for those people. But what is truly sad about all of this is the media coverage.

The passing of a celebrity of Jackson's stature is certainly newsworthy, and is going to be a big story, no question about it, and when there is something new to report, or something important to add to a previous report, that is a legitimate thing for the media to engage in. If that was the nature of the reporting of this story, I would have no problem with it at all. Unfortunately, that is not what I have seen. I have seen very little real news regarding the singers death, and virtually nonstop coverage of his life and all the times that he's been in the news in the past, and the seemingly endless line of Celebrities who think that they must put out a statement regarding his death.

I would have sighed and shrugged all of this off if it had been a slow news day, but therein lies the problem, it wasn't.

As I sit here, the Islamo-Nazi regime that runs Iran is brutally murdering their own people in the streets, shooting them, chasing them down and beating them with fists and with clubs, and kicking them to death, and, even more horrifyingly, in some cases, slaughtering them with axes! All because they had the courage to stand up and demand that the elections be honest! And the strongest response from our President so far is to tell them that they aren't welcome for hotdogs on July 4th after all. What he should be telling them is to stop it now, that we will not stand for it, and that if it continues they face a serious risk of the United States Marines knocking on their door and kicking their sorry butts all over the country! Maybe he could leave off the threat, but certainly he needs to be saying the other part.

Also today, the US House Of Representatives is debating the so-called "Cap and Trade" energy bill, which is much better defined, as Mark Levin calls it, "Tax and Kill." What it amounts to is a new tax scheme, so massive that it will kill jobs and brutalize an already strained economy, with absolutely zero impact on pollution and so called "climate change." The fact is that it will probably make pollution worse on a global scale, because companies won't be able to afford to continue doing business in the US and will go to places that will allow them to operate. Places like China, where they don't have anywhere near the pollution controls and standards that we have in the US.

And furthermore, the debate of the Healthcare still rages on, and other than a few hosts on Fox News, there has yet to be a serious story in the media explaining the facts of what the Democrat proposals on that front would really mean to our nation.

There are only three things, all of which are far more weighty and pressing matters than the death of Michael Jackson. As I said, I feel for his family, I really do, and am sad for them, and agree that this is a big story, but it is by no means the biggest or the most important story of the day.

If this is what we have come to, it is a truly sad day indeed.

Sticky Fingers

Millions of people have bought into pre-paid state college funds in order to lock in today's price for college, even if it's 18 years or so until their child will, hopefully, be attending college. I had looked at these at one point, as there are some sure benefits to them, but the thing that held me back was very simple, I would have to entrust that money to a Government overseen account, and trust politicians to keep their grubby hands off of it. For very good reasons, this was not something I felt I could do.

Now, with 8.8 Billion Dollars in the pre-paid college trust fund here in Florida, and a budget shortfall looming, the State Legislature is drooling over that money. These politicians seem unfazed by the fact that this isn't their money to mess around with. It is there for one purpose, and one purpose only, to pay for college for the kids whose parents have put the money into this system. Oh sure, they say they will pay it back, but how will they do that? Where will the money come from the pay it back? If they are such terrible money managers that they can't balance the State Budget now, how the heck are they going to balance the budget and pay this money back down the road? Of course they can't. They will either have to raise taxes at that point, or turn this into another Government run Ponzi scheme where there is only the illusion of security in the system.

What the Florida Legislature is considering here amounts to theft. Think about it. If I sneak into my neighbors house and take a thousand dollars from under his mattress (I'm not claiming my neighbor keeps money under his mattress, I have no idea) no matter how much I swear I'll pay it back in time for him to use it, I would be a thief. What we are talking about is really that simple. Because the State Government, like most Governments, is out of control and can't effectively manage what they have, they intend to steal from others, with the empty promise that they will stand good for it. Well, dummy, if you can stand good for it down the road, how come you can't pay your bills now?

The answer is simple of course, if you don't have the money for something, do without it, don't steal from people so that you can have whatever you want, just learn to live on less than you make.

I Hope He Fails Too

I know that I've addressed this once before, but there sure do seem to be a lot of people out there who just aren't getting it, so I'm going to take another crack at it.

Rush Limbaugh has taken a lot of heat for saying that the hopes that President Obama fails, and has tried to explain what he means by that. Of course, his problems is that most people don't care what he means. They are the drones who just want to go along with Obama and support everything he does, no matter how destructive to our nation.

Of course, Rush has one other problem. I don't think that he, or most of his defenders, have done a particularly good job of explaining what he meant.

Barack Obama is an admitted Marxist, oh, not is so many words, but again, as I've said before, if you understand Marx, and you listen to what Obama is saying, and what he is pushing, you will see that it can hardly be described by other names. Many would say Socialism, and I've used that word before, because it is accurate, but Marxism is a particular brand of Socialism, so it's a less broad definition.

It is a fact that Socialism has been tried many times over, in many different forms, including Marxism specifically, the world over, and it has never worked. It is a flawed and failed system, and Obama and his administration are trying to put it in place here in the United States. Being that we know that this will be a colossal failure and do horrific damage to our nation, we hope that he fails in that plan.

For President Obama, success means instituting socialism in the the United States of America. Therefore, yes, I hope he fails!

Great Depression?

Are you, like me, sick of hearing that our current Economic "Crisis" is the worst thing our Nation as been through since the Great Depression. However, the chart above proves the lie in that oft repeated statement. Clearly, what we are going through right now is not nearly as bad as the recession of the early 80's. And what did we do to get out of that recession? Ronald Reagan cut taxes, increased military spending and cut spending in many other areas. This led to the roaring economy of the 1990's and, with the exception of the blip after September 11th, 2001, has just now crashed nearly 20 years after the fact. And now we are being told that the only thing that we can do is to go into hyper spending mode, raise taxes on the "rich" and cut military spending, in the middle of a war. Is anyone out there waking up yet?

Funding Terrorists

Compared to the Trillions of dollars that our Government is throwing around in an obvious attempt to increase the size and power of itself the amount seems fairly small, a paltry $900 Million. That's how much the Obama administration is planning to send to the Middle East to rebuild the Palestinian territories after Israel "invaded" the West Bank. Of course Israel took action against the Palestinian territories after the terrorists living there used them as cover to attack Israel and kill Israeli people and Soldiers.

We are told not to worry, that the money will not reach the hands of the terrorists, which is a bunch of bull. If the money goes to that part of the world, it will get into the hands of terrorists because the entire region, outside of Israel itself, is controlled by terrorist organizations, which is what led to these problems in the first place. Then they tell us that the money will have to be distributed through the UN... right, because they have such a great record of doing things right. I guess we can take solace in that though, because at least less money will reach the terrorists because as it moves through the various departments of the United Nations most of it will be pilfered off and never reach the intended recipients anyway.

In short, this is just more of our money being thrown away by our own incompetent Government, except that this time it will be used to attack one of our greatest allies on the World stage. This is a sad day indeed.

Pigs On No-Doze

Economic Stimulus, Rescue and Recovery Package, Bailout, Reinvestment, or Massive Pork Barrel Spending. To paraphrase Shakespeare, what we call pork, by any other name, would still be pork. And that's what the Obama administration is pushing through Congress, a massive Pork Barrel bill that will do nothing to boost our economy in any way. In fact, what they are trying to do will be a massive drain on our economy. You simply cannot spend your way out of a recession. In a recession revenues drop off, which means that you have less money to spend, so, when in a recession, if you wish to spend, there are only two options, you must a) increase taxes, which history has proven over and over again is an economy killer, and/or b) you must borrow that money from somewhere which is also an economic killer, if not now, then down the road.

There was a Liberal Democrat on Hannity last night (and I forget her name) who kept repeating over and over again, the same line we here from Democrat politicians, "But we have to do something." As I have said many times in the past, and will continue to say, doing the wrong thing is worse than doing nothing.

Many times we have heard Democrats, from President Obama on down, talk about setting up "New Deal" like projects, because they worked so well for FDR. The fact of the matter is that they didn't work so well for FDR. When FDR took office the unemployment rate was 17.4%, after five years of his "shovel ready projects" and economic policy, and massive pork barrel spending to stimulate the economy and create jobs, the unemployment rate was 17.4%. FDR was a complete failure when it came to dealing with the depression. It was our entry into WWII that finally got our economy going again. Obama wants to go down the FDR road, does that mean that he wants to start another Global War? Or is he after something else?

The answer is quite simple, he's after something else. Social change. Like most other liberal democrats, Obama cares only for furthering the cause of the far left, which is Socialism, in some form or another. From listening to Obama, he personally favors Marxism. Now I know that most people don't want to hear such talk, but the fact is that either you listen, get motivated and get involved, or one of these days you wake up in a Country that you don't recognize at all. You're liberties will be gone, the Constitution will be no more, and it will be too late. So wake up, start to listen, start to read, don't just accept what you are told by the media, do your own thinking. Read the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, read the Communist Manifesto, and look at the raw facts of History. Don't be a drone, be an American.

Such A Centrist

I just wanted to take some time to talk to all the idiots who kept proclaiming that Obama is really a centrist, and he won't be as bad as everyone was thinking. Let's take a look at all the "Centrist" things he's done so far.

He appointed far left ideologue Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Now I know, lots of people want to say that she's a centrist to, but that's also crap, she's as big a liberal democrat as they come.

He appointed another big lib, one who fought hard to get pardons for Terrorists under President Clinton, because he's a favorite of the far left.

He appointed another favorite of the far left for the Treasury department, and who cares if the man who will be running the IRS couldn't be bothered paying his own taxes until after he was caught. And it clearly wasn't an honest mistake, the guy is a liar and a deliberate tax cheat, but let's assume for a moment that I'm wrong, and he really did make a mistake, do we really think that someone who is so stupid that they can't do what millions of regular folks do every year is really the one to take over Treasury?

He signed an order to close Club Gitmo (as Rush Limbaugh calls it accurately) where no one has ever been tortured, defining torture as 1/1000 of what the terrorists themselves do to innocent people every day, we didn't even come close. But since we were keeping the terrorists locked up where they couldn't kill us, it had to be shut down, you know, in the interest of getting them back on the battle field where they can start killing Americans again.

Despite the fact that last years "stimulus" package did nothing to help the economy, and the emergency bailouts of the past couple of months have been total disasters, he and the other dems are pushing hard to do both of these things again.

Despite the fact that socialized medicine has failed horribly everywhere on earth that it has been tried, and despite the fact that anyone with any common sense knows that what it really amounts to is rationing of medical care, and not care for everyone that needs it as it has been pitched, he is still pushing hard to have it imposed on the American people.

Barack Obama has been President for less than a week and he's already the most Marxist President in the history of our great nation, this is not good, and it certainly is not centrist.

Some Leader

President Elect Barack Hussein Obama (it's OK, he's now decided that he likes his middle name) has stated that we are just going to have to accept that we will run Trillion Dollar per year deficits for the next several years. So, out grossly irresponsible Government has put us in a deep hole, and very, very deeply in debt, and he's telling us that the answer to this problem is going to be to dig this hole so much deeper that we will never be able to get out of it. Wonderful, just wonderful.

He also stated that this problem is so big that only the Government can solve it. Of course he fails to mention that the problems we are facing as a nation are primarily Government caused. This would be akin to a builder who did such a poor job of constructing a building that it was on the verge of collapsing on a school and a nursing home and the builder saying, yes I know we screwed this up, but this problem is so big that only I can fix it... and I'm going to fix it by putting massive weights on top and blowing out the foundation!

No, Government is not the solution, and we don't have to accept Trillion dollar deficits (that means debt people, with interest) for years to come. We need lower taxes, lower spending, and for the Government to get the heck out of the way of the American people and the free market. And please don't give me that nonsense about the free market having caused this crisis, Government interference in the free market caused this crisis, and more Government interference will only make it worse.

Not Proportional

I am really sick and tired of hearing people saying that yes, Israel has been attacked a little, but their response has not been proportional. Well, that statement is half true, while being completely false. Let me explain.

To say that Israel has been attacked a little is a horribly gross understatement. In the last 6 months the terrorists who reside in Gaza have fired over 6,500 rockets into Israel, destroying property and killing innocent people. Besides that, these attacks have been going on for many, many years.

As for the second part of the statement, that they have not engaged in a proportional response, well, that is true, but not the way these morons mean it. Since these terrorist cowards fire their rockets and then hide behind their women and children, and manufacture these rockets in schools and orphanage basements, Israel has been stunningly restrained and careful about their response, trying to keep civilian deaths to a minimum, but at the same time realizing that they have no choice but to take action to stop the attacks on their civilians.

All of these people who support the terrorists in this conflict should be very thankful that Israel has not engaged in a proportional response, because to respond proportionally to what they have been subjected to would mean the complete and utter destruction of all the peoples in Gaza and the West Bank. I have stated before, and I still hold this position, that it would be impossible for Israel to over react, given what they have been put through, not only since the official formation of their nation in the modern age, but also over the past 5,000 years of their history. I can't imagine that I would show such amazing restraint in the face of such attacks. The Israel haters should be really happy that I'm not in charge of the IDF, because there would be nothing left of the terrorists by now.

American Royalty?

With Hillary Clinton looking to be Secretary of State, the unelected Governor of New York is looking for someone to appoint to fill her remaining Senate term. Of course, we don't know all of the names that he is considering, but we do know one person that seems to be high up on the list, and that is Caroline Kennedy Schlosberg. Of course, she can't go by her married name, Schlosberg, because that would take away her fame, and that may well be all that she has. Of course, she also has absolutely zero qualifications for the job, she is simply trading on her name, and because of that, she feels that she deserves the office. Being elected with no qualifications is one thing, then at least the people are the ones making the really bad decision, but for a Governor to appoint someone who has no qualifications is really beyond reprehensible.

The media are also treating her as if she is some kind of Royalty, even though we once fought a war to remove ourselves from such a system, they act as though she really does deserve the position, based only on the history of her family, not even anything that she has ever done herself. These are the same people who were screaming that Governor Palin wasn't qualified to be Vice President, even though she is a sitting Governor, has served on Government boards, been a Mayor, a city councilwoman, and run a small business, besides being a wife and mother, but none of that was good enough for them. Of course, Mrs. Schlosberg is also a wife and mother, but other than that has never held a job. The media says that she has worked for New York City in the education department, but that only involves some fund raising, never "working" more that just a very few hours a week. Not only does she have no experience in Government service, she has also never held an actual full time job of any kind at any point in her privileged life.

This is part of a letter written to a newspaper in New York State regarding this issue:
"Say no to Kennedy

"In response to Ellen Goodman's Dec. 23 commentary on Caroline Kennedy, and the headline, "JFK's daughter shows reawakening to public service": To be reawakened, you must have been awake in the past. The term "public service" usually means elected official - not just fundraising. What public service has Caroline ever done to be reawakened to?

"I was angered to read about her "coming home to the family business". The Kennedy's don't own the government. We, the people, own it. Senators, even presidents, are our employees.

"If Paterson is so interested in her "draw" that he gives her the seat, I'll offer to perform any upcoming surgery he might need. After all, I'm qualified because my father was a surgeon, my grandfather was a surgeon, my uncle was a dentist, my mother was an operating room nurse, my two sisters are nurses. Even though I have no medical training or experience, I must be qualified. Medicine is my family business!"


This was a great letter, and I hope that Patterson will understand that Schlosberg is not a Princess, is not heir to this Senate seat, and should not be appointed to it. We don't have royalty in America, people do not come to power based on their parents having been in power. Our system is not based on having an aristocracy, or an oligarchy, that's just not how things are done here.

Auto Bailout--Prolonging Death

It's time once again for the people to speak out, to stand up and tell our elected officials that we are sick and tired of them doing the wrong thing at every turn. The auto company bailout is just one more example of money going right down the drain, and will do nothing in the long run to fix what is actually wrong. Let me explain.

The auto industry is hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate. This is due to a great many things. Most people only want to talk about the lavish salaries of upper management, and that is, in fact, part of it, but it's not the largest part. If the companies were flush with capital, I wouldn't care about lavish salaries, but I certainly don't think that I should have to pay them.

A much larger part of the picture is the UAW. The Union contracts are killing the American auto makers. Just a few examples, $57.00 an hour for assembly line workers, talk about unsustainable! Then you have huge benefit packages. And a huge part is those who have retired after 25 to 30 years in the job, and continue to get paid something akin to their full salary for the rest of their lives, which could potentially be longer than their productive careers with the companies. Some Union contracts actually force the auto manufacturers to pay people that they have no work for to sit home and not work. On top of that, Union contracts won't allow them to make multiple models of car in one plant, so many things have to be duplicated which really shouldn't be, and more importantly, that they can't afford for them to be. And they are duplicated many times for all the many many types of cars that they make.

The sheer number of types of cars that they make is part of the problem too, they would be much better off with a more streamlined product lineup.

But let's also be aware of the Governments role. Once again, we are talking about an industry which is very heavily regulated by the Government. With mileage requirements, and other regulations which are constantly changing, forcing the companies to constantly make expensive changes to their assembly lines in order to keep up. Also, the Government regulations force them to make certain cars, rather than others, without regard to what people are looking to buy, which means they have to put a lot of money into something that they are not going to be able to sell at a profit.

Even if we give them the $25 Billion that they are begging for, all of these things will still exist, meaning that the money continues to flow out far faster than any is coming in, and very soon, the bailout money will be gone, and we will be out the money, and the Auto makers will be right back in the same boat that they are in now. So a bailout is clearly not the answer, at all.

So what is the answer? Bankruptcy. This does not mean that they would go out of business, but it would allow them to reorganize, and to shed some of the Union contracts that are killing them, and to cut back on the lavish salaries and benefits of upper management, and to shed some of their unprofitable products. They could come up with a much more workable and sustainable business model. About the only thing they couldn't do anything about is all the Government regulation, but, hey, one problem instead of several, at least that's something they can work around, but they can't work around it all.

Yes, I understand that some people would lose their jobs, but better a few than everyone. I also understand that some benefits will have to be cut, but again, they will still be able to provide good benefits, just without the gold plating. I understand that Auto workers would have to take a pay cut, but again, better that than no job at all. And I understand that some retirees would lose their pensions, but if a 60 year old has to go get a job, I'm not devastated. The contracts were designed in such a way as to make them ultimately untenable in the long run, so they must be gotten rid off. That is what bankruptcy exists for.

Honestly, is there anyone who can say that they think that the Average American taxpayer should be forced to pay the salaries of people who make several times the amount that the Average Taxpayer makes? Does this make any sense at all?

Let them take the hit. They will come back stronger for it. And let's face it, if they didn't, someone would step in to take their place. In any event, a $25 Billion bailout (which even Congressman Barney Frank has admitted would only be the beginning, and not the total) is not the answer.

They Will Do Anything, Won't They?

It was reported, by NASA, earlier this month that this October was the hottest one on record, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Fortunately, not everyone just blindly accepted the data at face value, as the NASA people apparently did, and it was quickly discovered that only in Siberia were temperatures showing to be 10 degree's hotter than last October, while the rest of the world showed a modest decline in temperature. A little closer look revealed that the temperature readings recorded for October had not been taken in October at all, but were rather carried over from September, and when the real readings were entered, they were much more in line those of the rest of the world, showing October 2008 to be the 70th hottest October in 114 years, hardly worth getting worked up about.

This is only part of it though. The data now shows that there has been no warming since 1998, and not only that, but also the Earth has been cooling slightly ever since 1998, and that cooling has accelerated somewhat over the last 2 years. The evidence on this is clear, so why do some refuse to admit it? When the Earth was heating up, people like me readily admitted what the data showed, but we were skeptical of the cause, not seeing evidence that Human activity was the cause of the warming. For this position we have been ridiculed, compared to Holocaust deniers, and called all sorts of crude names simply because we wanted solid evidence, not just politically motivated nonsense. Now that the Earth is clearly cooling, those who called us so many names refuse to even admit the fact that the Earth is cooling.

The facts also are not even slowing down the Politicians who want to put all kinds of regulations in place, specifically to combat global warming, regardless of how damaging they would be to our already struggling economy. They want to put these things in place, not because they want to protect the Planet, but because they want to expand the size, scope and authority of Government, thus increasing their own power.

I'm Hopping Mad

A few weeks ago in an interview with a local talk radio host, the Democratic Candidate for the Florida Senate was asked if he would consider a State income tax. He basically replied that, while he didn't think that an income tax was a good idea, he tries to listen to all ideas that people bring to him, and doesn't ever want to say that he wouldn't hear someone out, no matter what they are presenting to him. OK, I would have preferred him to say, "No, Never, not on my watch," but clearly he said that he does not like the idea of a State Income tax.

So, I get home from work this morning, and there is a campaign brochure sitting on the table trying to get people to send in a signed petition card to tell the candidate that we don't want an income tax, and saying that he is pushing for a State Income tax. This is a flat out lie! It's disgusting.

Maybe it's a bias, but I tend to expect things like this from Democrats, but when it's the Republicans lying, and on top of that, they want people to waste stamps on this lie! It's an outrage! His opponent is one Republican that I will never vote for, for any office, anywhere. If he's willing to lie so blatantly during the campaign, how could I ever trust anything he ever says.

Not to mention how stupid he must feel we all are not to catch onto such an obvious lie. I'm truly disgusted.