Archive for the 'Bailout or Handout' Category

because of crap like this:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the health-care reform bill now pending in Congress would garner very few votes if lawmakers actually had to read the entire bill before voting on it.

“If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com at his regular weekly news conference.

Hoyer was responding to a question from CNSNews.com on whether he supported a pledge that asks members of the Congress to read the entire bill before voting on it and also make the full text of the bill available to the public for 72 hours before a vote.

In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said.

Wonderful. Representatives no longer read the bills that they then vote on but are dependent on “staffers” to spoon feed them the Cliffs Notes version. What exactly do we play these no-talent a-clowns for again? The same reason there is no real “filibuster” anymore with everyone sitting there listening to one dude read the phone book, because our Representatives are lazy, money-grubbing politicians bent on their own selfish desires, or so it seems by their collective, single-minded behavior.
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Only in America do we have tax payer funded JOBS. Yep. And in Massachusetts, they’re using federal stimulus money to pay kids $8.00/hr for jobs that will be given to them, so long as they behave badly.

Criminal offenders, teen moms, dropouts, runaways and other wayward youths will score summer jobs with federal stimulus cash as most Bay State kids desperately scramble to land coveted seasonal gigs in a tight economy.

This is a WTF moment if I ever saw one.

The state Department of Transitional Assistance will be using some of Massachusetts’ $1.3 million in Obama administration cash for jobs for clients’ children ages 14 to 24 who meet specific criteria, including:

• Lacking basic skills.

• Pregnant or parenting.

• School dropout.

• Homeless or runaway.

• Court-involved or an “offender.”

• An English as a Second Language learner or an immigrant.

So to all parents of kids in MA: Teach your kids to be naughty, self righteous little brats and make sure they grow up to be miserable teenage shits who misbehave, disrespect the law and otherwise prove to be potential five star liberal class citizens. Your kids will be rewarded for such wonderful traits.

The DTA-coordinated jobs pay a minimum of $8 per hour and earnings won’t count toward a family’s eligibility for other taxpayer-funded subsidies, including food stamps, heating assistance or health insurance, according to an agency memo.

No need to worry about the kids’ income being held “against” a families’ eligibility for welfare either!

Does it piss anyone off that federal TAX dollars are going into this “program”????? Does it piss anyone off that kids who want to work, who do the right things like attend school, get decent grades, stay away from crime and who don’t mess around without protection (sex) are being left out of the jobs now???

Shit. Let’s just stop trying to be decent people. Let’s all go liberal and live a life with no boundaries or rules and expectations. Let’s all become “AT RISK” citizens just so we can cash in on the these goldmines.

Oh boy. I’d hate to be a UAW member reading this right about now.

The latest twist in Detroit’s do-over has General Motors becoming the first automaker to import Chinese-built cars into the United States, according to Automotive News.

Citing a leaked document shown to lawmakers who are overseeing the restructuring of the auto giant, the newspaper reports that GM is planning to market made in China cars to American consumers as early as 2011, the same year the company’s heralded Chevrolet Volt electric car goes on sale.

And, another reason for Americans to SHUN GM vehicles. The quality will be cheap and we all know it. First they outsourced all the toys; then clothes- now vehicles. What next?? And who do we thank for this really? The unions? The current administration? The American people who lived to high above their means? Just damn.

Ouch, ouch ouch Obama. How will you handle this most delicate situation? All eyes on are you Anointed One. Especially the eyes of all those GM workers about to get laid off.

The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company’s new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.

According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double.

The proportion of GM cars sold domestically and manufactured in those low-wage countries will rise from 15 percent to 23 percent over the next five years, according to the figures contained in a 12-page presentation offered to lawmakers in response to their questions about overseas production.

As a result, the long-simmering arguments over U.S. manufacturers expanding production overseas — normally arising between unions and private companies — is about to engage the Obama administration.

I shall keep on top of this…via Google alerts and similar sources. I am quite curious what direction the current administration in DC will go on this…stay tuned.

Our/Your Stimulus tax money at work:

…the stimulus will create about 400 construction jobs annually over the next three years, and that tax cuts will support as many as 2,300 jobs.
[...]
…New Hampshire is slated to receive $920 million in direct stimulus funding, plus $564 million in personal tax breaks.

$920 MILLION for 400 jobs??? Why are we accepting this bribe from the federal government? Obama administration?

Raven has given us a whole bunch (or two) of news bits during the past two days, but still I managed to run across a few more.

Alternative energy NIMBYism from Senator Feinstein: Keep those solar panels out of the Mojave. The land being considered belongs to the Bureau of Land Management, and was purchased from the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads.

The federal government of Venezuela has seized airports and seaports in several states, mostly with governors opposed to President Chavez.

Bankers on both sides of the Atlantic react to the taxes levied executive bonuses. Meanwhile, some of that bailout money is finding its way back our congresscritters – as campaign donations.

The “stimulus” leads to the purchase of yet one more product made overseas, potentionally putting more Americans out of work.

I have previously noted that Barry’s teleprompter has its own blog. As it turns out, so does the teleprompter’s wife.

Forget global warming. This blogger thinks we’re headed for a new ice age. Some researchers agree.

Americans have organized “Tea Parties” to protest the spending and bailouts that have come from the Obama administration, with a whole bunch more planned for April 15. Singer Lloyd Marcus has come out with his own Tea Party Anthem. (H/T Snooper Report)

What, exactly is the NYT advocating here?

Thoughts on Walking Away From Your Home Loan
If you’re among the millions of people who will not qualify for the Obama administration’s program to help troubled homeowners, you’re probably wondering what you’re supposed to do now.

Perhaps you no longer have enough income to pay your loans. Or you can afford the payments but don’t qualify for refinancing under the new plan because the value of your home is too far below the balance of the loan. If you’re far enough underwater, you’re probably questioning the wisdom of writing a monthly check on a place that may take 10 or 15 years to get back to the value it had two or three years ago.
[...]
In an economic environment like this one, however, the consequences of giving up on your mortgage may not be as painful as they were a few years ago. Yes, it’s almost always preferable to negotiate a better deal on your existing mortgage than to walk away. But if you can’t work things out with your lender, you probably won’t be sued. You shouldn’t receive a major tax bill either. And the damage to your credit will not be permanent or insurmountable.

I get the feeling the Old Gray Hag is opining that it’s ok to ditch your personal responsibilities; and I suspect the Hag believes if enough folks do this, the feds will HAVE NO CHOICE but to step in to SAVE us all. Which I am sure will be the subject of yet another editorial this leftist mouthpiece paper produces.

A sign of the times?

People complaining about the New Housing Rescue plan….

Roxanne Gates owns a condo in Northern Virginia that is under water by more than $100,000. She rented it out so she could move to Europe for a job. Then she got laid off. Because she doesn’t live in the home, she doesn’t qualify. She has $2,000 left to her name. “It’s rather annoying that I can’t get help,” she said. Foreclosure, and possibly bankruptcy, are looming.

And:

Cherie Turner, a mortgage banker in St. Petersburg, qualifies for help, but her income has fallen so far and so fast that she thinks her loan would have to be reduced basically to zero for her to keep her house. “I’m supposed to be able to own my own home,” she said. “I don’t want to be owned by it.” She is filing for bankruptcy.

Since when are we entitled to home ownership? Since when did we decide that it’s “annoying” not to get help from the government? In the past five years people have come to expect their government to bail them out when times are tough. And it’s more and more common to see people take the easy way out- filing for bankruptcy vs getting a couple jobs, working hard, making lots of personal sacrifices. We’re becoming a nation of butter soft citizens who cannot fend for ourselves. This will come back to haunt us in many ways.

Quote:

…earmarks are not pork, but are nourishment…

Source

Living off of savings and severance packages is all fine and dandy. We all need to save a good 6 months to a years’ worth of income to cover times of unemployment.

Using UNEMPLOYMENT benefits to live a life with perks is unacceptable however. What is this? Making the best? How about being lazy? How about taking advantage of those of us who have managed to keep our jobs? How convenient it is to use to bad economy as an excuse to visit museums and to pick up new or old hobbies…and since the government has expanded unemployment benefits to last 26 weeks now, how SWEET it must be.

Yesterday I asked, Why Bother Being Responsible? My question was based upon an article in the Boston Globe.

Today, the Globe gives us an example of people who aren’t even trying to be responsible, self sufficient citizens.

A few days after David Adler’s wife decided to leave her law firm in December, he was laid off from his job designing software at Brightcove.

It was shocking. And scary.

Until it wasn’t. Adler has quickly learned to appreciate some aspects of his unexpected unemployment.

The 42-year-old spends his days doting on his 6-month-old daughter, visiting museums with his family, and preparing for a possible exhibit of his photos at a local coffee shop in Dedham. Living off savings, unemployment, and severance packages, Adler knows he has to get a job eventually and has started the search. But for now, he’s cherishing every moment. “It’s our first child and I love watching her grow,” Adler said. “And it’s nice to have time off and get in touch with my old hobbies.”

As the ranks of the nation’s unemployed grows, more Americans are facing the reality of life without work. Despite the grim task of making ends meet (firing the nanny, bailing on Whole Foods, applying for unemployment), there is a newly forming society of people who are making the best of being laid off. They are rediscovering hobbies. They are greeting kids at the school bus. They are remembering what daylight actually looks like.

It’s too bad some have to fire the nannies and shop at Wal Marts, or God forbid, stand in a line at the state welfare-for-the-unemployed offices. A newly formed group of people making up a new society: UNEMPLOYMENT WELFARE WHORES.

And we can thank our government for this.

John Stephen Dwyer so far isn’t missing his job or former office overlooking Chinatown. The 41-year-old Boston native was laid off in November from his $40,000-a-year job as education coordinator for the Clinical Research Graduate Program of Tufts University Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences. And he hasn’t started seriously looking for new work.

Don’t get Dwyer wrong – times aren’t exactly easy. He has applied for unemployment and now takes the subway instead of taxis. But he has started doing things he enjoys: taking a class in history and ethics of biotechnology at the Harvard Extension School; cooking food for the homeless; and attending weekday Mass at churches around Boston.

Damn! Taxi rides were so…cool!

I always thought the money we save for just these times, would be ALL we used. But no. Obviously there are a great number of people who have and who will take “benefits” along with their own cash.

Fucking losers. Every one of them.