The Dawning of Obamunism… GM is Officially Government Motors

Stalin would be so proud!  The Donkey’s are controlling the cars:

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There should be no question as to why the auto industry accepting the new CAFE standards today…

General Motors Corp’s (GM.N) plan for a bankruptcy filing involves a quick sale of the company’s healthy assets to a new company initially owned by the U.S. government, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

The source, who would not be named because he was not cleared to speak with the media, did not specify a purchase price. The new company is expected to honor the claims of secured lenders, possibly in full, according to the source.

The remaining assets of GM would stay in bankruptcy protection to satisfy other outstanding claims.

GM has about $6 billion in secured debt, including a secured revolving credit and bank debt.

The government’s plans include giving stakes in the new company to GM’s union and bondholders, although the ownership structure of the company is still being negotiated, said the source who is familiar with the company’s plans.

In addition, the government would extend a credit line to the new company and forgive the bulk of the $15.4 billion in emergency loans that the U.S. has already provided to GM, the source said.

As I have been stating… we will never see our taxpayer dollars for any of this bailout nonsense.  These bankruptcies were inevitable and they just threw money down a black hole!

The government has given GM until June 1 to restructure its operations to lower its debt burden and employee costs.

Not ‘gonna happen!

If those talks failed, the company has said it would follow rival Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy.

My father mentioned yesterday, on his birthday, that he would be finding out whether or not he would have a job today… GM will follow Chrysler, the question is when and how soon this summer?

Setting up a new company to buy the healthy assets is aimed at reassuring consumers who might not be willing to make a major purchase from a bankrupt company, fearing it would not honor warranties or provide service.

The board of the new company would be established with the tacit approval of the government. Fritz Henderson, who took the helm of GM earlier this year after the government pushed out Rick Wagoner, would likely head the new company, the source said.

GM could not be immediately reached for comment.

GM shares were up about 9 percent at $1.29. (Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

George Soros – stop buying up GM shares for yourself!

Captain Obvious Moment of the Day: Debt Unsustainable, We Must Stop Borrowing From China

Thank you Captain Obvious… err… I mean Obama!

Captain Obvious

Ironically enough the debt and the borrowing that Obama is concerned about will mostly come from his irresponsible spending habits within his first 100 days.  When Dick Morris mentioned that Obama’s first 100 days would come back to haunt him, he was right!

President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”

That calls for a big “DUH!” but that is simple common sense, something that is much like an endangered species in the halls of D.C.

The amusing part of all of this is the fact that Obama is just simply unwilling to look in the mirror and realize that he has quadrupled the debt and increased our deficit more than any other president in history.  He has spent more in his first 100 days than all presidents throughout history combined – and that includes Bush to all you liberals.

Obama continuously uses the blame Bush rhetoric for having to take “drastic” measures, but as any intelligent human being should realize, when the government and politicians make things out to be a crisis, yet you don’t really feel that way (unlike a physical attack against your country), you should be incredibly wary.  Politicians lie, they lie to pass an agenda, and Obama is a genius when it comes to manipulation, deceit, and drama.

Earlier this week, the Obama administration revised its own budget estimates and raised the projected deficit for this year to a record $1.84 trillion, up 5 percent from the February estimate. The revision for the 2010 fiscal year estimated the deficit at $1.26 trillion, up 7.4 percent from the February figure. The White House Office of Management and Budget also projected next year’s budget will end up at $3.59 trillion, compared with the $3.55 trillion it estimated previously.

Two weeks ago, the president proposed $17 billion in budget cuts, with plans to eliminate or reduce 121 federal programs. Republicans ridiculed the amount, saying that it represented one-half of 1 percent of the entire budget. They noted that Obama is seeking an $81 billion increase in other spending.

We are now learning that the supplemental spending for war funding and emergency funding that is sitting in the House and Senate are both over $90 billion at this point.  There will most likely be a compromise of some sort between the House and Senate but I believe that the real amount of additional appropriations will most likely stay above the $90 billion threshold.

Let’s not forget that under the Obama administration and this radical left Congress that government is growing and the private sector is shrinking.  Entitlement programs are growing because liberals know that the more you can put your thumb over people and oppress them by getting them “hooked” on entitlements and the government, the more they will win votes… that’s just cruel.

The issue is that we are going to go bankrupt quicker by upping the ante on entitlements.  Entitlements themselves are already unsustainable.

Baby boomers — that 70-million-strong population lump — begin officially retiring this year. That means the government’s bill for retirees’ pensions and health care has no where to go but up, for decades to come.

Everyone knew this day would come. And virtually every economist and actuary who had run the numbers could tell you, within a few years’ certainty, the system was going bankrupt.

But all this seemed to happen in the distant future. Last year, both political parties virtually ignored the topic during their presidential campaigns. It became a non-issue issue.

Well, thanks to a profligate federal government, which will double the national debt to $11.5 trillion in just four years, and a recession that has weakened federal tax revenues, we can no longer ignore the problem. The day of reckoning is at hand.

The Social Security Board of Trustees reported Tuesday that costs will exceed revenues in 2016 — a full year sooner than expected just last year. And total assets — including more than 70 years of “surpluses” built up in the “trust fund” — will be completely gone by 2037 — four years earlier than in last year’s report.

The deficit over the next 50 years is expected to be about 2% of taxable payrolls — up from 1.7% last year. By the way, changes in the last year alone have added $5.3 trillion in costs to the program.

Long-term, unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare top $53 trillion — about four times the size of current GDP. Taxes must either rise or benefits shrink by that amount to close that gap.

Maybe we could try to work on some issues that really matter, those that could possibly destroy people’s lives?  Instead of criticizing private social security accounts, maybe we should revisit the idea and work from there.  Many economists argue that private accounts of some sort would be more cost effective and better for everyone.

We also cannot forget that Obama and his lefty contemporaries want to reform health care and create a possible single payer system.  Many do not believe that the single payer legislation will get passed, but something that makes the private sector compete with the public sector by providing a choice.  The issue that I have/see with this “competition” is how the government can become so forceful and, as it has done in the past, force out of business anything competing with it.  Either way, any additional programs provided by the government must come out of taxpayers’ pockets, so medical care will never technically be free – it will only be free to those who don’t work or pay taxes.  This is the crux of the problem.  Health care provided by the government will just increase our debt to China even more…

Obama is concerned with China?  He’s concerned with owing the Chinese more and more?  Well, maybe if we took a look at the recent auto industry news regarding GM it would be evident that all we do is take China’s money, give China jobs, and all in all are in the pocket of China.

As thousands of General Motors workers await word on more U.S. plant closures, reports that the company plans to import Chinese-made vehicles to the U.S. have created a political problem for the automaker and the White House.

The reports, which GM will neither confirm nor deny, could mean trouble because GM is supported by $15.4 billion in U.S. government loans, largely due to the Obama administration’s desire to preserve the company’s 90,000 U.S. jobs.

The United Auto Workers charged last week that the Detroit automaker intends to almost double over the next five years the number of vehicles it imports to the U.S. from Mexico, South Korea, China and Japan.

“GM should not be taking taxpayers’ money simply to finance the outsourcing of jobs to other countries,” Alan Reuther, the union’s Washington lobbyist, wrote in a letter to U.S. lawmakers.

Maybe if the Unions were not allowed to lobby on Capitol Hill to force the hands of Democrats and completely crush the auto industry, this would not have been a problem and the outsourcing of jobs would not have been so enticing to the ailing auto giants.  But why would Democrats ever put the good of the country or an industry over that of a big donor?

I have an idea for all who read this – let’s attempt to elect someone who is for the people, by the people – not bought and paid for.  Let’s elect somebody who is honest and integrity means more to them than politics and agenda… Stop electing these corrupt, pathological liars and maybe we can get our country back on track.

Bigger Than Watergate!? Bank of America and Government Scandal

I don’t know what to make of this but it seems like a pretty big deal.  Will it be pushed under the rug or become a thorn in the side of those involved?  You be the judge.

Whether the story is bigger than Watergate or not, it is definitely a scandal of huge proportions.
To sum it up, on April 23, 2009, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Chris Dodd; Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank; SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro; and Chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel Elizabeth Warren.
The letter outlined how former Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke forced Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch – even though Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and the board of directors tried to pull the plug on the deal after it turned out that Merrill Lynch was far deeper in debt than it had admitted.
In the words of Attorney General Cuomo himself:

Immediately after learning on December 14, 2008 of what Lewis described as the “staggering amount of deterioration” at Merrill Lynch, Lewis conferred with counsel to determine if Bank of America had grounds to rescind the merger agreement by using a clause that allowed Bank of America to exit the deal if a material adverse event (“MAC”) occurred. After a series of internal consultations and consultations with counsel, on December 17, 2008, Lewis informed then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that Bank of America was seriously considering invoking the MAC clause. Paulson asked Lewis to come to Washington that evening to discuss the matter.

Bank of America’s attempt to exit the merger came to a halt on December 21, 2008. That day, Lewis informed Secretary Paulson that Bank of America still wanted to exit the merger agreement. According to Lewis, Secretary Paulson then advised Lewis that, if Bank of America invoked the MAC, its management and Board would be replaced.

Meanwhile Ken Lewis has been sacked as chairman of the board at Bank of America… even though he might well have been the only conscientious and honest player in this scheme. And now the sharks have started to turn on each other: according to Cuomo, Paulson “largely corroborated Lewis’s account” and informed the attorney general’s office that he “made the threat at the request of Chairman Bernanke.” The latter has so far chosen to keep his mouth shut.
The key factor here is not that the Devious Duo forced Bank of America into a merger it didn’t want to commit to. Granted, that’s an unheard-of interference of government in the free market, but we’re quite sure that the Powers-That-Be could sweep it under the rug by invoking the “greater good.”
No, the part of the story that could really break ‘Al’ Paulson and ‘Don’ Bernanke’s necks is the failure to inform the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as Bank of America’s shareholders, of the extent of toxic waste Bank of America was forced to accept. That’s fraud, pure and simple.

Taxpayers Track the Stimulus Money (Obama and Congress Won’t – Not uhhh…ummm… Until October errr…?)

So just who’s tracking that $787 billion in taxpayer money that President Obama and the Democrat-led Congress are doling out? You are. Or you’re supposed to be, anyway.

“We are, in essence, deputizing the entire American citizenry to help with the oversight of this program,” said Rep. Brad Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology’s subcommittee on investigations and oversight.

So, too, said Earl Devaney, the ex-cop who’s now chairman of the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board, charged with tracking the torrent of cash now pouring out of federal coffers.

“I’m going to have millions of citizens to help me,” he said, comparing run-of-the-mill Americans to inspectors general, the high-ranking officials charged with ferreting out waste and abuse in federal agencies.

“I’m going to have a million little IGs running around,” the chairman said Tuesday after his testimony before the subcommittee.

The most appalling spectacle was the size of the meeting!  Apparently oversight of taxpayer money is not a priority of the government.  (Not that it ever was, but still!)

And perhaps that’s just as well, given the turnout of the panel tasked with keeping track of thousands of millions of dollars. Just three of the 10 members bothered to show up for the subcommittee’s second meeting, dramatically titled “Follow the Money Part II.”

While Mr. Miller and the panel’s top Republican were there, only Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, Pennsylvania Democrats, came to the hearing. Absent were Democratic Reps. Steven R. Rothman of New Jersey, Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, Charles A. Wilson of Ohio, Alan Grayson of Florida and Bart Gordon of Tennessee. Republican Rep. Ralph M. Hall of Texas also skipped the session, while Rep. Brian P. Bilbray of California dropped by for the final hour of the nearly three-hour hearing.

Still, to a sparse crowd, Mr. Miller got right to the point. “President Obama promised a level of transparency, through the Internet, Recovery.gov. … How do you intend to provide that level of transparency, to see how – who actually got the contract to pour asphalt?”

Interestingly enough, redstate.com had an article that spoke to this very point.  There is a website that has been created to replicate what the government should have been doing at this point already.  It’s called www.recovery.org and it tracks where the stimulus funds are going.

Does Congress really expect the American Idol audience to have an attention span that lasts longer than an hour and proactively research where stimulus funds are going?  We would have a completely different result of the past election if anyone dared watch C-Span on a regular basis!

This is the change and hope we can believe in during this new administration.  All that transparency that Obama talked about was a big, fat lie.

Quite frankly, this entire process of getting the recovery.gov website up and running to track the money will be stalled.  It will be delayed until just the right time when the important funds that were issued as Democrat payoffs will be paid and won’t be found.

Money Still Growing on Trees in Congress; Obama and House Request More Money – Stock Market Rally Does Not = Recovery

Typical government growth.  Print money, act like a savior, don’t produce, take to give, create absolutely no value in distributing money.

Take for example the fact that for the first time in history, the highest revenue for states has been federal aid.  This is unsustainable growth and will redefine the role the federal government plays.  This means that the growth of government is imminent and there will be less freedoms for state constituents.  I also see this as irrational and illogical spending practices;  how can you spend money that comes from taxpayers’ pockets (the federal government) which will go back into the pockets of taxpayers (the states and its citizens) this doesn’t make sense to me – it just seems so circular and redundant.  It will actually take more money from the pockets of those forgotten men and women paying for this spending bonanza, since many of those payments will be in the form of welfare checks or redistribution, to those who don’t pay taxes to begin with.

In a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as the biggest source of revenue for state and local governments.

The shift shows how deeply the recession is cutting. Federal stimulus money aimed at reviving the economy and a sharp drop in tax collections have altered, at least temporarily, the traditional balance of how states, cities, counties and schools pay for their operations.

The Democrats on Capitol Hill can’t get enough of their spending habits.  They are trigger happy at the printing presses and believe that doling out more “Benjamin’s” will solve all the ails of the volatile U.S. economy.  The sad fact is that this spending, which will require repayment somehow, by future generations, will only further drive down the economy in the long run.  This is Jimmy Carter redux and we will see a public sector that is out of control, squashing the private sector and stagnating our economic growth (those things that actually do produce and retain value).  Our GDP is estimated to grow at one of the slowest rates worldwide, much like Japan in the 90′s and we could see ourselves sitting at a DOW max of only 9K for years to come.  This also doesn’t take into account the inflation that will ensue due to this irresponsible lending of taxpayer money.  My guess is we will be waiting in gas lines miles long and will see interest rates close to 17% in the next couple of years…

Lie #1. “The financial crisis is behind us.”
Lie #2. “The government is fixing it.”
Lie #3. “Big banks are too big to fail.”
Lie #4. “Your insurance is safe and guaranteed.”
Lie #5. “The economy is starting to recover.”
Lie #6. “Your stocks will come back.”

We’ve just seen the biggest bogus stock market rally in our lifetime, built on the most blatant pack of lies we’ve ever heard:

Wall Street and Washington say the financial crisis is behind us. But the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just trashed that theory faster than a high-speed paper shredder.

They say big banks can’t fail. But behind the headlines, key Fed officials are now admitting that the “too big to fail” doctrine is, itself, failing.

I interject here to point out that Minneapolis Fed’s Gary Stern actually sounded the alarm long before “too big to fail” became “too much to handle.” But since when does the Fed listen? Even amongst itself? Pathetic.

The reality here is that the Fed does not and cannot have a handle on the very economic unraveling it created. It’s impossible. Meanwhile, the respective PR campaigns of the White House, the Treasury, and the Fed are hard at work convincing you otherwise. Everything is OK. We’re fine. The stock market is on a roll. Hey, don’t look over there, check out Susan Boyle!

It doesn’t matter whether they tell us the truth or not (I think we know they’re full of it anyway) because we’re still suffering. That should be proof enough that this rally is a lie, this recovery line is a lie, and all these rainbows and unicorns are manufactured to keep “crowd control” from becoming a national security concern.

Could you imagine what would happen if America collectively woke up one morning and realized that their “wealth” was really just worthless paper?

The more the Fed and the government prints the more worthless that paper becomes.  We are experiencing a bear market rally based on voodoo economics, lies, and spin.  You can only cover something up for so long until reality and the truth shines through.

So here are some examples of some additional spending by the government:

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives will seek passage in coming weeks of $94.2 billion in emergency money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other programs, including $2 billion more to prepare for an influenza pandemic.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, outlining the legislation for reporters, also said the legislation would include $2.2 billion to fund some C-17 airplanes for the Pentagon. But it will not address future purchases of a refueling tanker airplane sought by the Air Force.

I thought liberals were for peace and  against war?  What were all those “coexist” bumper stickers about?  I guess war is ok if it’s a liberal president.

The Obama administration wants the United States to spend $63 billion over the next six years to fight global diseases and provide more aid for prenatal and postnatal care, children’s health and fighting tropical diseases.

“We cannot fix every problem,” Obama said in a written statement Tuesday. “But we have a responsibility to protect the health of our people, while saving lives, reducing suffering, and supporting the health and dignity of people everywhere. America can make a significant difference in meeting these challenges and that is why my administration is committed to act.”

How about we worry about our own country while Americans are suffering and are jobless before spending more money abroad for other things that will not stimulate our economy.

The initiative, announced by Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew, continues an effort begun under President George W. Bush to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

But I thought Obama was going to be the anti-Bush?  I guess some of what he did wasn’t all that bad eh?  Bush is very well liked and respected in Africa – as a world leader, he has provided the most aid to that continent.  I believe he spent too much money, so I do disagree with some of it, but I think that it was a nobel cause and he did it for the right reasons.

We also continue to pay for and subsidize banks, who are continuing to ask for more money this week.  Bank of America is doing so poorly, there is a chance that it may be dropped from the S&P 500 index.  The subsidizing is unsustainable.

The results of the government’s stress tests on banks, to be released in a few days, will not mark the beginning of the end of the financial crisis. If we are to believe the leaks, the results will show that there might be a few problems at some of the regional banks and Citigroup and Bank of America may need some more capital if things get worse. But the overall message is that the sector is in pretty good shape.

This would be good news if it were credible. But the International Monetary Fund has just released a study of estimated losses on U.S. loans and securities. It was very bleak — $2.7 trillion, double the estimated losses of six months ago. Our estimates at RGE Monitor are even higher, at $3.6 trillion, implying that the financial system is currently near insolvency in the aggregate. With the U.S. banks and broker-dealers accounting for more than half these losses there is a huge disconnect between these estimated losses and the regulators’ conclusions.

More voodoo economics and lies to the American people – this is the biggest ponzi scheme our nation has ever witnessed!

Democrats aren’t the party of Wall Street?

The Fed has also announced that it will buy up more U.S. Treasuries – what on earth is going on?  Do we even live on earth anymore?

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