Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 03/22/2009 8:59:48 AM PDT by grey_whiskers
There are two major initiatives currently being persued by the crop of liberals in power. One is the ongoing set of bailouts of various groups of voters, and financial institutions, being advocated by those officially in power in DC, and the other, the "green movement" being pushed by powerful special interests, with backing from DC (and the UN, and Brussels, and...). While I applaud their good intentions, and their skill in paving, I'm not particularly impressed with the destination. Let's take a brief look at each of these trends, and see if we can't come up with a counterproposal.
First, for the bailouts. Nothing much needs to be done here but a count of the numbers. The original "Troubled Assets Relief Program" bill, long ago, before the TOTUS(*) was elected, was some $700 billion dollars. Remember when people were debating the cost of this, comparing it to the extravagant $400 billion annual deficits run under President Bush? He was a piker. Here are some of the other numbers being thrown around.
And people are beginning to figure it out.
The Asia Times notes that China is positioning itself for inflation in the US:
There is also mounting evidence that China's increasingly energetic new campaign of capitalizing on the global crisis by making resource buys across the globe may be (1) helping its central bank to decrease exposure to the dollar, while (2) simultaneously positioning China to make much greater profit on its investment of its reserves into hard assets whose prices are now greatly beaten down, while (3) also affording it greatly increased control of strategic resources and the geopolitical clout that goes with it. This is turning out to be a win-win-win situation for China as it capitalizes upon the important opportunities afforded it by the present global crisis.
The New York Post writes:
If you don't understand the profound importance of the Federal Reserve's decision this week to purchase $300 million of US long-term debt, consider the words of savvy Wall Streeter Ben King: It's the "nuclear option . . . commence the Weimar Watch."
And United States Senator Greg Craig says (on CNN!!?) says the United States is heading for bankruptcy.
So we have the threat of heading not towards Jimmy Carter, but Mugabe or the Weimar Republic.
Now let's take a look at the other agenda, the green movement.
It is based primarily on Al Gore's hoax of anthropogenic global warming. But there are other elements to it. The push to drive the United States to "green" energies such as solar power (although some top Democrats don't seem to want solar power in the Desert Southwest?); wind power, as championed by T. Boone Pickens during the days of $4.00 / gallon gasoline; and of course, the ever-popular cap and trade, with its attendant talk of "Carbon footprints". The Wall Street Journal, by the way, states that China wants US importers to pay for the carbon footprint for its factories.
Curiously enough, these will also have the side effect of stifling our economy.
So the two of these together -- high or hyperinflation, coupled with a green stifling of industry -- clearly is a threat to our currency, to the primacy of America, and to our way of life.
We must not let this stand!
Therefore, I propose a new program which will combine the best of both of these worlds, with the goal of preserving, protecting, and defending the American way of life.
Since the government is already dangerously indebted, and this threatens the extinction of the middle class, and of small businesses, we must work NOW in order to save them. And since the problem with government spending is that it will wreck the fiat currency, I propose to call my measure "The Endangered Specie Act". Under this act, *any and all* government activity is to be rated concerning the amount of deficit spending it will require. And it should be evaluated in terms of its likely effect on the endangered captialist populations.
In order to acheive these goals, all government activities will be required to submit a "Tax Footprint" -- a good-faith estimate, allowing for bloat, corruption, and future baseline budgeting -- of the five- and ten-year impact of the activities on the deficit, and on the growth of the private-sector economy. Only those initiatives whose impact is eco[nomy]-friendly will be allowed to proceed. However, there will be one exception. A strict schedule of spending will be set; government entities wishing to spend beyond their allocated limits must purchase Tax-Offset credits from government agencies which have been shown to help the private economy. In this way, the impact of unchecked government growth on freedom can be curtailed.
Smart Government. It's the way to go.
(*) Teleprompter of the United States
Cheers!
Clever title.
In order to acheive these goals, all government activities will be required to submit a "Tax Footprint" -- a good-faith estimate, allowing for bloat, corruption, and future baseline budgeting -- of the five- and ten-year impact of the activities on the deficit, and on the growth of the private-sector economy.
Good idea, g_w. In other words, it will not be implemented.
We're so screwed...
Forget the bonuses to AIG: they were contractually obligated long ago, and the people taking the flak now agreed to come in to come in to clean up the mess. Besides, $169 million? That's a rounding error. That's even less than Rush Limbaugh's 10-year radio contract. And people are beginning to figure it out. The Asia Times notes that China is positioning itself for inflation in the US...Thanks grey_whiskers. :')
Either I was channeling the teleprompter, or I was in a hurry to get out the door to church this morning.
I've *got* to hire a proofreader.
Cheers!
Relax, you just had a Foghorn Leghorn moment. ;’)
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