Freedom of BLEEP

Earlier this week, we discussed how president-elect Obama has played a central role in bringing the U.S. economy to its knees. Now let’s consider how his actions since the election have worsened the situation.

1.) For the incoming administration, economic advisers will be among the most consequential appointments. Yet even the New York Times disagrees with Mr. Obama’s decision, stating that two of his key advisers “have played central roles in policies that helped provoke today’s financial crisis. [...] unless they recognize their past mistakes, there is little hope that they can provide the sound judgment and leadership that the country needs to dig out of this desperate mess.”

2.) Obama has promised to raise capital gains taxes. Investing is risky - especially in today’s volatile market - and individuals will have less incentive to invest money if they are taxed more on their investments. This isn’t rocket science. Still, the president-elect has refused to say whether he will wait for the economy to improve before imposing his tax hike.

3.) Obama has promised to raise taxes on large corporations. Of course, the net result will be lower profit margins for the Fortune 500 and falling stock indexes. Again, Obama refuses to indicate whether he will delay the tax hike until conditions improve, which has created a great deal of unease among investors.

4.) Obama has promised more regulation for big business. Investors don’t get excited when they hear companies will have more hoops to jump through and additional regulatory penalties which can prevent businesses from expanding. 

5.) Obama endorses the Check Card bill, which will make it easier for unions to bully large and small businesses. This bill will eliminate the secret ballot, thus enabling union leaders to intimidate and coerce workers. Anyone who has taken American History is aware how overly-powerful unions can have an adverse effect on American business. Just look at what unions have done to the auto industry.

6.) Obama has promised to raise taxes on small businesses - the largest job producing segment of our economy. Sure, 95% of small businesses will fall below the tax threshold, but it’s the top 5% where a majority of new jobs are being created. Why would investors want to jump into the market when successful and growing companies are going to be punished?

On September 17, 2007 at NASDAQ, Mr. Obama said that “Subprime lending started off as a good idea.” He went on to claim the condition of the real-estate market could be pinned solely on the corruption of financial institutions.

But wait a second. Since when was subprime lending a good idea?

The very definition of subprime lending states that there is a heightened risk of default, meaning these borrowers have a history of loan delinquency or default, a recorded bankruptcy, or limited debt experience. Does it sound like “a good idea” to give these people mortgages?

So why did Obama say that subprime lending was a good idea? Because he himself pressured financial institutions to make these bad loans. While working with ACORN in 1994, Obama sued Citibank because they were NOT making risky loans to unqualified individuals.

That’s right. Obama and ACORN worked together forcing financial institutions to make extremely high-risk loans. During his presidential campaign he denied all ties to ACORN, but this clearly contradicts a published statement by Chicago ACORN Leader, Toni Foulkes:

“We have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office. Thus it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for State Senate [...]. By the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends.”

Obama provided legal training to ACORN workers so they could intimidate banks into granting risky loans to people with low income and bad credit. Check out this video to learn more about ACORN tactics.

So how did this all come about? How can the government force banks to make bad loans? This excerpt from a CNS News Analysis sums up the answer to that question:

According to Sheldon Richman, editor of The Freeman and an economist with the Foundation for Economic Education, government policy is to blame.

Under the Clinton administration, federal regulators began using the [Community Reinvestment Act] to combat ‘red-lining,’ a practice by which banks loaned money to some communities but not to others, based on economic status. “No loan is exempt, no bank is immune,” warned then-Attorney General Janet Reno. “For those who thumb their nose at us, I promise vigorous enforcement.”

The Clinton-Reno threat of ‘vigorous enforcement’ pushed banks to make the now infamous loans that many blame for the current meltdown, Richman said. “Banks, in order to not get in trouble with the regulators, had to make loans to people who shouldn’t have been getting mortgage loans.”

Stay tuned for more Obamanomics…

In her conquest to nationalize every corporation in America, Nazi Pelosi is now pushing a massive bailout for General Motors.

Here’s a news flash: GM stock has been dropping for more than 10 years!

This company is not a victim of an economic crisis; GM is a failing enterprise that has proven it can’t compete with the market. Okay, so they had a huge loss this quarter. It’s not the first time. What about the $21 billion loss in first quarter 1992? What about the $10 billion loss in 2005? What about the $4.8 billion loss in forth quarter 2006? What about the $39 billion loss in the third quarter last year? Did the government consider buying them out then?

Let’s consider why GM consistently performs poorly in the market. A huge contributing factor is the outrageous healthcare and benefits package they offer to employees, which hikes up the price of their vehicles. GM is a company that spends more than $17 million on erectile-dysfunction drugs such as Viagra and Cialis every year. This is just a small part of their $5.8 billion dollar a year luxury healthcare plan. There are plenty of other reasons why GM is nose diving, but I’ll let you look into that on your own. This company doesn’t need a bailout… They need to get their act together!

But why is the government even considering this bailout when labor unions contracts have not been revised? There is no reason that American tax dollars should pay for Viagra. It’s pretty obvious that the union organizers just want to screw us.

“GM has many hard workers.”

It’s no secret that Social Security is in trouble – the funds are completely exhausted and the program will soon go into deficit as baby boomers begin to retire in masses. In order to remedy this situation, many Democrats favor confiscating your 401(k)s and IRAs. They want to nationalize your earnings so the government can run guaranteed retirement accounts, thus “saving” you from the volatile stock market.

What’s the bottom line? People who never bothered to save a dime will be entitled to YOUR money that YOU have worked hard for over the course of your entire life.

It’s hard to believe that such an absurdity has been considered seriously, but this idea is gaining traction according to numerous news sources (ABC News, Carolina Journal, Market Watch, US News & World Report). And considering that a 15% tax on all retirement funds nearly became enacted under Clinton, losing our 401(k)s to a broken welfare program will be a very real possibility when our government is controlled by liberal radicals in January.

Saving redistribution of wealth and the evils of communism for another discussion, let’s talk about how the government is already ripping you off through the Social Security program. To put it quite simply, the government prints money thus causing inflation (4.1 percent last year), while only meagerly adjusting social security pensions (2.3 percent last year). Compound your losses for 40-50 years and your pensions will be a pittance. If that sounds bad, look into how the government under reports the CPI in order to artificially keep COLA adjustments low and discover that the situation is much worse than it appears. 

Social Security is a failing government program. Do you really think they will do any better with the money from your 401(k)?

As the economic crisis worsened, Obama stood before a crowd in Dayton, Ohio, and pointed to the “greed and irresponsibility that stretched from Wall Street to Washington.”

Mr. Obama should eat his words after recruiting a former investment banker and current Washington insider as the highest ranking member of his staff. Emanuel not only made millions on Wall Street, he was also appointed by Clinton to the board of Freddie Mac where he received a generous salary for attending “quarterly meetings.” During Emanuel’s tenure, Freddie mistated its earnings by over $5 billion in an attempt to defaud investors, and was fined $50 million by the SEC. Freddie also received a $3.8 million slap on the wrist after providing illegal campaign contributions, many of which went to representatives who sat on none-other-than the House Financial Services Committee. After Emanuel’s stint as a director, Freddie graciously supplied his campaign with another generous donation - even earning a spot as the third highest contributor in his first run for the House. Now that’s some change we can count on.

In order to drown our sorrows after this disappointing election, we encourge everyone to go out and buy some delicious imported beer in order to counteract the poor sales. Save the industry!

On election night, Mr. Obama proclaimed, “Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.” His selection for Chief of Staff, however, suggests that his campaign cornerstone of “reaching across the aisle” is on par with the pitch of a used car salesman.

Here are some examples of how Rahm Emanuel, future Chief of Staff, has demonstrated his commitment to reaching across the aisle:

“Republicans can go fuck themselves!”

-Rahm Emanuel, standing on his desk after Democrats take back the House in 2006. (Slate)

Emanual has voted with the Democrats 96% of the time over the past 5 years. (The Atlantic)

Emanuel once mailed a large decomposing fish to Alan Secrest after he accurately reported a democratic candidate was behind in the polls. (New York Times)

During Emanual’s most infamous display of partisanship, he repeatedly slammed his knife into the dinner table, issuing death threats to individuals who did not swear allegiance Clinton. (Time Magazine)

This is who will be heading up the White House operations. This is Mr. Obama’s notion of unity.

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