Posted on 03/30/2009 7:10:08 AM PDT by Born Conservative
U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski thinks the nation’s financial crisis could use victory gardens.
After sitting through three major hearings on the crisis the last two weeks, Kanjorski sees progress in dealing with it, but less in unifying the public behind an ultimate solution.
Enter the victory gardens — Kanjorski’s metaphor for convincing a skeptical public to support further drastic action proposed to solve the crisis.
During World War II, Americans grew gardens of fruits and vegetables to lessen the need for store-bought food. Known as victory gardens, they made people feel connected to war effort.
At this stage of the financial crisis, Kanjorski worries about a dangerous possibility: the granting of such sweeping powers to the Federal Reserve Board or some other agency that Congress’ approval of further bailouts becomes unnecessary.
Kanjorski wants Congress to maintain its constitutionally granted control of federal spending. But if members of Congress are too comfortable authorizing further bailout help, Americans will have to believe that’s in their best interests, he said.
“We have to get the American people to understand what the challenge is, that we have a role for them to play, and one of the supports they can give is to get behind the constitutional method to accomplish the end,” Kanjorski said. “And then the president provides us with some of the ideas and leadership to carry us through, and the Congress supports that and suddenly we’re all together on the same team … We need to have victory gardens, and we’ve got to tell people why we’re growing victory gardens.”
Kanjorski expressed general approval of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s desire for sweeping new federal powers to take over troubled institutions whose failure could topple the financial system, and to raise money to buy so-called “toxic assets” from them.
In the current crisis, the “toxic assets” are generally investments in packages of loans whose borrowers can’t repay them.
Geithner testified on his plans before the House Financial Services Committee last week. Kanjorski is a committee member and chairman of its Capital Markets, Insurance and Government-Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee.
“I think they have plans and some of the plans are starting to put meat on the skeleton if you will, and that’s very good,” Kanjorski said. “But I don’t think we’re out of the wilderness and we still have potential serious reversals that could occur. Our system is still at risk.”
Specifically, Kanjorski cited testimony by Edward Liddy, chief executive officer of troubled American International Group, which insured billions of failing investments broadly known as derivatives. Derivatives make up many of the “toxic assets.”
Liddy fretted about $1.7 trillion in derivatives that could require federal backing.
Left unaddressed, a meltdown of the world economy will again be possible, Kanjorski said.
Geithner’s plan entails the federal government buying up the toxic assets. With toxic assets cleared from their books, lenders could lend again, boosting economic growth, Kanjorski said.
He favors the proposal for a clearinghouse that approves future new derivatives so investors know what they’re getting and the system isn’t put at risk again.
“We’ve got to know what’s out there,” he said.
It is clear new regulation would help restore faith in the financial system, he said.
“We don’t want this wild west shootout phase,” Kanjorski said. “Those days are over. They put our system in jeopardy. … We’ve got to make people know that our system is safe and it’s going to work, and that we’re all committed to the same direction to get that done. And then in a reasonable period of time, the safety level and the confidence level will rise, and that’s when we’ll start to see the system come back.”
Kanjorski, who was upset about AIG paying $165 million in bonuses while accepting $180 billion in bailout money, said the hearing with Liddy allowed a public “catharsis.”
“But we don’t need therapeutic catharsis. What we need is reliability and understanding and doing things that people believe are right,” he said.
Kanjorski ping.
That's because we know what Obama's ultimate solution is and we don't want it. Not that we are going to stop it ... it's coming and we might as well face it. Nothing short of a full scale revolt will change the inevitable.
Translation: Kanjorski (and probably a lot of Dims) are terrified what’s going to happen to them in 2010...
Letter to GM
Dear Employees & Suppliers,
Congress and the current Administration will soon determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation’s history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis......................As an employee or supplier, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard.
Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.
Troy Clarke
President General Motors North America
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Response from: Gregory Knox, Pres. Knox Machinery Company Franklin, Ohio
Gentlemen:
In response to your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clark, President of General Motors North America.
Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new “messiah”, Pres-elect Obama, to wave his magic wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep “living the dream”... Believe me folks, The dream is over!
This dream where we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded “laborers” without paying the price for these atrocities...this dream where you still think the masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever.
Don’t even think about telling me I’m wrong. Don’t accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM’s throughout the Midwest during the past 30 years and what I’ve seen over those years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.
Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: “There is widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management which it certainly is not.”
You’re right Mr. Clarke, it’s not JUST management...how about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass...so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time...for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work week. How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics...for putting out too many parts on a shift...and for being too productive (We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?)
Do you folks really not know about this stuff?!? How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke’s sad plea: “over the last few years ...we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors.” What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!? Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? What a joke!
We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. It’s time to pay for your sins, Detroit.
I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research, surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of “bailout money”. “Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems,” but despite what people like politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day... and the following very important thing would happen...where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up...that is how a free market system works...it does work...if we would only let it work...”
But for some nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn’t work - that we need the government to step in and “save us”...Save us my ass, Hell - we’re nationalizing...and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation’s citizens don’t even have a clue that this is what is really happening...But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams...yeah - THAT’S really important, isn’t it...
Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the “competition” has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country?... How can that be??? Let’s see... Fuel efficient... Listening to customers... Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul...
Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr. W. Edwards Deming four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent planning... Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like “the enemy”... Efficient front and back offices... Non union environment...
Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn’t be telling anyone anything they really don’t already know down deep in their hearts.
I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into - my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did when I was their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) - I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work through it. Radical concept, huh... Am I there for them in the wings? Of course - but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults..
I don’t want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins. Bad news people - it’s coming whether we like it or not. The newly elected Messiah really doesn’t have a magic wand big enough to “make it all go away.” I laughed as I heard Obama “reeling it back in” almost immediately after the final vote count was tallied...”we really might not do it in a year...or in four...” Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office.
Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks ... That house in Florida really isn’t worth $750,000... People who jump across a border really don’t deserve free health care benefits... That job driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn’t worth $85,000 a year... We really shouldn’t allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe...
That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn’t be living in that $485,000 home... Let the market correct itself folks - it will. Yes it will be painful, but it’s gonna’ be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it has...and doesn’t live beyond its means...and gets back to basics...and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world...and probably turns back to God.
Sorry - don’t cut my head off, I’m just the messenger sharing with you the “bad news”. I hope you take it to heart.
Gregory J. Knox, President Knox Machinery, Inc. Franklin, Ohio 45005
Bullcr@p!
The gardens were necessary because of RATIONING.
How the hell is the American public NOT involved?
Have we not sacrificed (or perhaps more accurately, had wrested from us) half our retirement funds for the sake of Wall Street bankers?
And AIG and GM etc;?
And you want more...?
And what is to be the fix when each of the states raise taxes and fees upon middle-class Americans to plug the gaping holes intheir individual budgets?
And you want more...?
Isn’t the American public involved when our standard of living is destined to seriously deteriorate over the coming years while (some) banksters escape the system with tens of millions in booty....paid for by us?
And you want more...?
What about $13 billion paid to GS out of TARP funds?
Tell me again how the American public is not involved.
And you want more...?
Then go STFU.
What????
“We have to get the American people to understand what the challenge is, that we have a role for them to play, and one of the supports they can give is to get behind the constitutional method to accomplish the end,” Kanjorski said. “And then the president provides us with some of the ideas and leadership to carry us through, and the Congress supports that and suddenly we’re all together on the same team … We need to have victory gardens, and we’ve got to tell people why we’re growing victory gardens.”
Sounds more like a robotic cheerleading section than a victory garden.
This disjointed nonsense might just be a response to George Will's Washington Post column challenging the Constitutionality of the TARP. Does the fact that Congress has surrendered its legislative powers to the executive -- in allowing the President and his minions to make the decisions as to how, when and why money is dispersed -- make Kanjorski nervous? It should.
Post 7 nails it, we have sacrificed and we need to tell the skunks in D.C. that their “stimulus fix” is the same as giving a drug addict his “fix” and calling it treatment. The real cure is cold turkey and stop the spend, tax and regulate form of government that both political parties have been doing to us.
My “victory garden” is me keeping my 47 year old VW running, I dont need no stinking big new GM, nor will I ever buy one after this bail out, I pray GM goes belly up, they are unfit to live. the begging at the pig pen of congress was sick, they desevere nothing from me except my unending hate and disgust for GM and the politians that gave them that bailout.
Die GM die!!!!!
I’m in favor of a garden if one wants it, but trying to gin up the populace to raise food, will serve to bankrupt the already struggling grocery businesses. Everything these clowns do is designed to bankrupt America.
Kanjorski is ESPECIALLY worried, because he was just reelected by the skin of his teeth.
so you rather have the individual, actually bankrupted by government dept, subsidize the grocery stores by NOT growing their own food?
growing your own food can save you money, make you more self supporting, and would be great for food stamp folks.
That is not what I said. I said that gardens are a good thing for those who are able to grow one. The unintended consequence will be the demise of grocery stores. We’re already almost down to Wa;-Mart. Look, you are talking to one who lived through the Great Depression and WWII. We lived in town and grew our whole back yard in garden, and raised rabbits as well for meat. I lived through the unintended consequences of FDR’s big government “remedies”.
Thanks very much for the ping on this pig (apologies to pigs). Thanks to every poster on this thread.
Your welcome.
Kanjo is still apparently still very worried about re-election...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.