Clipmarks | mklosinski's 'government' clips

Mortgage Crisis

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:43:59 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Congress Created the problem, and now they are going to fix it. Yeah, right. Leave no incumbent in office.

Clip Source: www.cnsnews.com

Many politicians and pundits claim that the credit crunch and high mortgage foreclosure rate is an example of market failure

These financial problems are not market failures but government failure. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 is a federal law that intimidated lenders into offering credit throughout their entire market and discouraged them from restricting their credit services to low-risk markets, a practice sometimes called redlining.

The credit crunch and foreclosure problems are failures of government policy. In fact, what we see now is a market correction to foolhardy government policy. Congress’ move to bailout lenders and borrowers who made poor decisions will simply create incentives for people to make unwise decisions in the future.

Tags: congress, mortgage

Big Government Gets Bigger

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:16:42 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Mr. Obama's sparse legislative record suggests that he is at the very least a high-tax, big-spending liberal.

Thus, a united president and Congress can, as a practical matter, do all or any of the following (plus much more): take your money and give it to someone else; tell businesses what to produce and sell, who to hire and what wages to pay; set all commodity, wholesale and retail prices; control all energy supplies, communication networks and financial markets; replace all private health-care with a government system; prescribe the curriculum for all schools; determine which students get a slot in elite universities; diminish political and other speech; and enroll all citizens above the age of 17 either in the military or in civilian corps for periodic instruction and service.

Obama or no Obama, alarm bells about the size and scope of government should have been going off for years, but weren't. They may yet, in November -- after it is too late.

Tags: obama, democrats

23 Pillars of Change

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:28:57 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Let's me see, we don't have enough government spending, or enough government programs. And taxes, raising taxes lowers tax revenues. Lowering taxes raises revenues. But Barack Hussen Obama will magically raise revenues by raising taxes.

Clip Source: www.cnsnews.com

(CNSNews.com) – A review of four of the 23 pillars of “change” outlined in Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) “Blueprint for Change,” posted on the candidate’s campaign Web site, reveals nearly 100 objectives Obama has set for the federal government if he wins the election this fall.

“It [the Blueprint for Change] is a laundry list of new government programs,” Nachama Soloveichik, communications director for the conservative Club for Growth, told CNSNews.com. “It’s just a huge list. I am pretty sure that everything is going to cost even more than he says it will, and he has already promised to raise taxes.”

“I am sure we can’t afford it,” said Soloveichik. “Obama wants to pay for it by raising taxes, but there’s a real problem of affordability. I don’t know how much taxes would have to go up to pay for, but it would certainly be a lot.”

Tags: taxes, spending, obama

Social Security and Medicare

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:32:19 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski

Clip Source: www.cnsnews.com

Washington (CNSNews.com) – The future costs of maintaining Social Security and Medicare will be a “disaster” for younger generations, Dr. Walter Williams, the conservative economist and syndicated columnist, told CNSNews.com Tuesday.

The report said that for Social Security and Medicare combined, the government would “need approximately $41 trillion invested today to deliver on the currently promised benefits not covered by earmarked revenues for the next 75 years.”

“A lot of people say it’s between $60 and 70 trillion [dollars],” he said. “And the unfunded liability means that in order to pay for all of the problems, Congress needs to put in the bank $60 trillion, and keep in mind our GDP (gross domestic product) is only 15 or 14 [trillion dollars].”

“The only way that government can give one American citizen one dollar, is to first – through intimidation, threat and coercion – confiscate that one dollar from another American,” he said.

Tags: social security, medicare

I'm Speakless . . .

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:34:02 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: These clown are nuckin' futs. They can't run Social Security, Medicare is a mess. And now they think they can run an oil business.

Leave no incumbent in office.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

House Democrats responded to President's Bush's call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.

Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply.

They also reasserted that the reason the Appropriations Committee markup (where the vote on the amendment to lift the ban) was cancelled so they could focus on preparing the supplemental Iraq spending bill for tomorrow.

We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.

What we do has to be in the interest of the American people. Not major corporations.

Tags: democrats, oil

California and Homeschooling

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:50:48 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Parents in California don't have a right to homeschool their children. And what is the alternative, government schools. These people are acting like sending your children to government schools is a good thing. How far from reality can you get if you live in California?

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the provisions of these laws."

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.

"We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting."

"California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home," he said in a statement.

Tags: schools, home school

The Subprime Mortgage Mess

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:55:22 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Hillary has been quoted as saying the Free Market system has failed. It is not the free market but the government that has failed us. As the media and congress paints the current picture, it is the nasty evil greedy mortgage companies that got us into this mess. Memories are short term. It is government that got us into this mess. Now we want government to get us out?

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

As with most economic problems, we find the hand of government. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, whose provisions were strengthened during the Clinton administration, is a federal law that mandates lenders to offer credit throughout their entire market and discourages them from restricting their credit services to high-income markets, a practice known as redlining. In other words, the Community Reinvestment Act encourages banks and thrifts to make loans to riskier customers.

Government policy got us into the subprime mess and government's measure to fix the mess is going to create more mess. As such I'm reminded of Marcus Cook Connelly's spiritual play, "Green Pastures," where God laments to the Angel Gabriel, "Every time Ah passes a miracle, Ah has to pass fo' or five mo' to ketch up wid it," adding, "Even bein' God ain't no bed of roses." That's something the president and congressmen should think about and leave the miracle business up to God.

Tags: subprime, hillary, mortgage

President Hillary

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:59:48 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: This article gives the exact reason's why this woman or anybody else with this philosophy should not be president. It is the individual, the drive and the desires of the individual, the effort of the individual that make this country great. Not the incompetence of Government.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said that if she became president, the federal government would take a more active role in the economy to address what she called the excesses of the market and of the Bush administration.

She said that economic excesses — including executive-pay packages she characterized as often “offensive” and “wrong” and a tax code that had become “so far out of whack” in favoring the wealthy — were holding down middle-class living standards.

“If you go back and look at our history, we were most successful when we had that balance between an effective, vigorous government and a dynamic, appropriately regulated market,” Mrs. Clinton said. “And we have systematically diminished the role and the responsibility of our government, and we have watched our market become imbalanced.”

Tags: president, hillary clinton, hillary, government

Hillary Care

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:21:20 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: This is what your healthcare will be like, served up by Hillary.

Clip Source: www.news1130.com

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - A Surrey woman's holiday in California has turned into a healthcare nightmare. The 68-year old needed emergency surgery after her appendix burst, but now she can't come home due to a lack of hospital beds.

Stephen Harris with the South Fraser Health Region says the issue is a shortage of ventilated intensive care unit beds, which are highly specialized. He says over the holidays, it's not surprising to see those beds filled up.

NDP Health Critic Adrian Dix says the issue is one that's continued to plague the Lower Mainland and he's blaming Liberal government cuts to acute care beds. "The number of acute care beds in British Columbia was reduced by 1,300 in the first mandate of the government, and some of the new facilities being opened won't be adding to that number."

Tags: hillary, clinton, health care

Our Government

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:32:35 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Maybe the politicians in Washington should work one day a week.

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

Santa Claus may turn out to be the real front-runner in the primaries, judging by the way candidates are vying with one another to give away government goodies to the voters.

We now have a bipartisan tradition of the government stepping in to rescue people who engaged in risky behavior -- whether by locating in the known paths of hurricanes in Florida or in areas repeatedly hit by wildfires over the years in California or by doing things that increase the probability of catching AIDS.

To this day, there are people who believe that the market economy failed when the stock market crashed in 1929 and that the Great Depression of the 1930s that followed required government intervention.

In reality, the stock market crashed by almost exactly the same amount on almost the same day in 1987 -- and 20 years of prosperity, low inflation and low unemployment followed.

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

1987, President Ronald Reagan decided to do nothing -- despite bitter criticisms in the media -- and the economy recovered on its own

Tags: entitilements, depression, elections

John Kerry and the NFL

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 22:07:11 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Kerry is out of line. This issue has nothing to do with government. This is a private issue between the NFL and broadcasting companies.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who represents New England Patriots' home turf in Boston, is threatening to hold a Senate hearing if the NFL refuses to allow national broadcasting of the Patriots-New York Giants game on Sunday night.

Kerry wrote NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday to request the game be seen by the wider football-watching audience..

"I remain deeply troubled that today as many as 250,000 Massachusetts households, and millions of Patriots fans nationwide, may be denied access to this historic sporting event," Kerry wrote.

The Democratic senator also raised the threat of hearings should the NFL not fall on his side.

Tags: kerry, government regulation

The Energy Bill

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:13:57 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Ayn Rand is absolutely amazing for foretelling this type of governmental intervention.

Clip Source: www.tennessean.com

I was reminded of Rand's classic as President Bush and members of Congress recently gathered for the signing of the new energy bill. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is less about energy and more about control. The most ambitious projections by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy predict it will cut our energy consumption by a whopping 7 percent by 2030.

Ayn Rand could not possibly have known how prophetic her novel, Atlas Shrugged, would be when it was published 50 years ago. Or, could she?

This landmark piece of literature foretold a United States where an ever-intrusive and expanding government begins to smother productivity and shutter the doors of entrepreneurship. Innovators, creators and producers are driven to destroy their own works rather than turn them over to the vultures who have taken over the government.

Tags: global warming, government, energy bill

Huckabee and the Fair Tax

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 17:29:00 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: I find this to be the real PLUS for Mike Huckabee. If you don't know about the Fair Tax and want to learn more, read the book the Fair Tax by Boortz and Linder.

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

WASHINGTON -- Mike Huckabee, one of the most conservative Republicans in the 2008 presidential race, has embraced one of the most radical ideas on the campaign trail: a plan to abolish all federal income and payroll taxes and replace them with a single 23% national sales tax.

Still, the proposal inspires grass-roots passion, in large part because it would replace or abolish the Internal Revenue Service, one of the most hated federal agencies and a symbol of intrusive government in some conservative circles.

Proponents of a national sales tax say it would be an improvement over the current system because it would increase the incentive to save, by taxing money spent instead of money earned.

Also, the proposal would rid the tax code of its myriad loopholes and would free taxpayers and businesses from the time-consuming, often costly task of preparing annual tax returns.

Tags: huckabee, fair tax, government

Government and Subprime Morgages

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:56:51 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski

Clip Source: www.townhall.com

Now after individuals enter into these voluntary arrangements, what happens if the government swoops in and invalidates them? There will be short term winners and losers, naturally. And most Americans have no problem with this, because it seems fair to help struggling homeowners at the expense of Wall Street fat cats.

No, lenders will rationally respond to the new environment, by being much pickier in giving new loans. After all, it becomes much riskier to grant a mortgage to a young couple with little job experience, if the government will shield them from the consequences of default on the loan. Many people say that “the American dream” involves homeownership, yet this will be harder to achieve if the government introduces yet another uncertainty for lenders.

Tags: government, loans, morgages

Chew on This

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:01:18 GMT

clipped by: mklosinski
clipper's remarks: Thompson gets it right.

Clip Source: politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

Standing about 15 feet away from a mouth-watering steam tray buffet loaded with fried chicken, creamed corn and macaroni and cheese at Wade's Southern Cooking in Spartanburg, Thompson dismissed the idea that preventative care and wellness education should be central features of a government's health care system.

"I'm telling you, I don’t think that it’s the primary responsibility of the federal government to tell you what to eat," Thompson said to applause when asked if his health care plan included any details on preventative care, a priority for Democratic candidates.

"We shouldn’t be looking at the federal government in Washington first and working our way down, it ought to be just the other way around. With that, or whether you're talking about education, there's some things the federal government can't do," said Thompson.

Tags: thompson, government, food