For years now the talk of special interest groups drew ire and bile from the public at large. It started with Big Tobacco and has moved onto Big Oil, Big Pharma and will likely lead toward Big Food (McDonalds) and Big Retail (Wal-Mart). In a nutshell we have sequestered these groups into scary categories so we can have a public enemy. Someone or something to blame for whatever ails us.
Big Oil is the one talked about because of last year's spiking gas prices and record profits. Pols lined up on both sides of the aisle and talked of "windfall" profit taxes and demanded congressional inquiries on price gauging. Not shockingly no one was showed outrage 10 years ago when oil was $10 a barrel and the industry was in a tailspin.
So we're in the business of naming scary categories and in order to roll with the cool club let's please show we are objective and add Big Labor the lexicon. When they are not busy blaming everyone but themselves for out of control cost structures in the auto industry they are black balling the President to close successful charter school's in Washington DC.
For whatever reason we romanticize the teacher's and labor union. We see them portrayed as the "little guy" fighting to educate and keep America producing. While that may have been true at one point, today it is simply not. Today's labor is nothing more than a legion of hacks more interested in protecting the weak performers in their rank and dragging down standards to non-competitive levels. The next step in this continual downward slide will be when "card check" comes online in the next two years. This is Big Labor's big move. Card check will eliminate secret ballots and require only someone to check a box in order to join a union. While labor claims it will make it easier to organize (duh) what they neglect to state is that it will proliferate corruption and intimidation. There continuing exploits only make America less of a great place.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Barney Frank...DC's Most Dangerous Man
It's easy to take potshots at the AIG situation. Giving bonuses to executives(especially retention bonus's - why retain people who've led you into this mess, but I digress) from the once proud American titan seems ridiculous. However, it's has led to high degree of nauseating public statements from both the right and the left who are shocked, shocked by this display of greed.
Of course, left out in this debate is the fact the government knew about the bonus program when they took the company over. They had to and if they didn't it is still more proof they have no business running a business period. The reality is that the bonus program amounts to a tenth of a percent of the overall haul we have given Hank Greenberg's former company. In the scheme of it all it's a sum that is not even worth debating.
What is worth debating is the unsteady hand of Barney Frank. The man who force fed horrible lending programs under good names (E.G., Fairness in Lending Act and Community Reinvestment Act) and used tactical race baiting and the lap dog Washington press to get his way has led us into a major part of the problems we are facing today.
Barney wanted more expansion of home owners (even those that were clearly not qualified) and did it by forcing banks to lend to people who didn't even have to prove their income and deftly quieting their lobby by making Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the official garbage collector of these bad loans. They then sliced up the loans and exported the garbage into the marketplace at large.
There's plenty of blame to go around with the mess that is going on and there is not one person that deserves to take the fall. However, I personally am tired of listening to Barney scream into the microphone about greedy corporations ruining America when he in fact has a hand in this as much as any slimy ivy league Wall Streeter. Without his Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crusade things would have been markedly different. He needs to shoulder responsibility for his ham handed leadership since the Lexus Liberals of Boston don't have the werewithal to do it at the polls.
Barney, I'm tired of your socialist leadership and willingness to ignore your role in our current crisis. You're the most dangerous man in government right now and you need to be stopped. America, wake up to the fraud of this man.
Of course, left out in this debate is the fact the government knew about the bonus program when they took the company over. They had to and if they didn't it is still more proof they have no business running a business period. The reality is that the bonus program amounts to a tenth of a percent of the overall haul we have given Hank Greenberg's former company. In the scheme of it all it's a sum that is not even worth debating.
What is worth debating is the unsteady hand of Barney Frank. The man who force fed horrible lending programs under good names (E.G., Fairness in Lending Act and Community Reinvestment Act) and used tactical race baiting and the lap dog Washington press to get his way has led us into a major part of the problems we are facing today.
Barney wanted more expansion of home owners (even those that were clearly not qualified) and did it by forcing banks to lend to people who didn't even have to prove their income and deftly quieting their lobby by making Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the official garbage collector of these bad loans. They then sliced up the loans and exported the garbage into the marketplace at large.
There's plenty of blame to go around with the mess that is going on and there is not one person that deserves to take the fall. However, I personally am tired of listening to Barney scream into the microphone about greedy corporations ruining America when he in fact has a hand in this as much as any slimy ivy league Wall Streeter. Without his Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crusade things would have been markedly different. He needs to shoulder responsibility for his ham handed leadership since the Lexus Liberals of Boston don't have the werewithal to do it at the polls.
Barney, I'm tired of your socialist leadership and willingness to ignore your role in our current crisis. You're the most dangerous man in government right now and you need to be stopped. America, wake up to the fraud of this man.
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