All of us who worried that Barack Obama was a socialist were crazy… right?
Let’s see. The government controls much of the banking/finance/insurance industries. The government effectively controls the auto industry. The government just fired GM’s CEO. The government is forcing the sale of a private American company (Chrysler) to a foreign corporation (Fiat). The government wants to control what kind of car your drive and know how and when you drive it. The government is working on controlling your health care, choosing what medical services you get and when you get them. The government is working on a Cap & Tax plan that will add new control and taxes, along with a smart grid system where the government can actually control the thermostat in your house. The current tax plan and policies are admittedly designed to be a “redistribution” from one wealth class to another. And the Treasury Secretary is asking for greater powers over corporations and companies, regardless of whether or not they received any tax payer dollars.
Doesn’t sound like the march to socialism at all, does it?
What is the government not doing? Stepping in to replace union bosses or work on union contracts. I wonder why.
Great! I was looking forward to not thinking for myself anymore. Too much work.
What’s really interesting is that even some of the Congressional Democrats are now starting to think that he’s a little too far to the left!
Are you an idiot… hes not socializing anything he’s just giving trillions of our kids tax dollars to CEOs and rich shareholders… learn the semantics behind the words you throw around.
I’m an idiot huh? Well, genius… what do you think the definition of socialism is???
Princeton University (you liberals out to love them) defines socialism as:
“a political theory advocating state ownership of industry” or “an economic system based on state ownership of capital”
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=socialism
So let’s see. The government owns controlling interest in AIG. They control General Motors to the point that the Obama Administration fired the CEO and removed the board. They have large stakes in most of the of the other major financial companies to the point they are regulating pay and business decisions. The government wants to control the health care industry. They want to have financial control over energy via Cap & Trade. And they want to confiscate more of our capital to do so.
Oh, and the great Treasury Secretary actually wants to be able to remove or control other companies that pose a so-called “systemic” risk to our economy, even if the government doesn’t actually have any investment in those companies.
So you tell me, since I’m the “idiot”… how does that *not* sound like Princeton University’s definition of socialism??
I understand the English language and the words I use just fine. Do you?
By the way, COWARD, next time you want to blabber your idiotic propaganda here and call me names… try leaving a real e-mail address. Or are you too afraid of the truth?
Not sure who you tried to email but it wasnt me, the address is real.Your semantics are still false.
Owns a controlling interest in… no, took a note of equity as collateral for loans that will never be repaid because assets are a fraction of, ie bought debt obligations for dollars on the penny. That goes for AIG, BearStearns and the rest. It is not socialism but Obama allowing fat cats to walk away from the craps table with the money they just lost still in their pockets. He is just aiding and abetting the crime of the century that was perpetuated by wall street, the insurance companies and the last administration by its deregulation and brash denial to enforce what little was left.
Cap and trade to control energy… read a little more please, they just believe that global warming is real and want to curb pollution emission… but dont want to trust an unregulated “free market” like wall street to run the trading of allowed emissions.
The “wants to be able to remove or control other companies that pose a so-called “systemic” risk to our economy”, he already has that power from laws enacted after the s & l scandal but refuses to use it though he should for some of these companies. They should be made insolvent, why should we should pay to keep “capitalistic” businesses that failed in business. Thats not socialism, its welfare.
Health coverage… why not socialize it, he alluded to wanting to do that when running for election, there is no surprise there. We have the most expensive health care in the world and not even near the best… capitalism is not supplying the best product for the best price. Government control is required for absolute necessities. The laws of supply and demand for price fixing says that for something you cant live without, a basically infinite price could be charged and still paid. And so the industry does get away with extreme gouging. whats worse is that the bulk of the drug development, which is the excuse for the gouging prices demanded by big pharma, is done by the government under the guise of basic research funded by the NIH and the NSF. We already pay to develop the drugs but dont share in the exorbitant profits.
You are a melodramatic alarmist by overstating the level of “control” that they are pining for in these things.
I’m not the idiot buddy… your recycling of liberal talking points on the other hand…
I was in the financial industry for over a decade. Please don’t tell me that the problems with the whole economic crisis and mortgage meltdown was deregulation and the last administration. Look to the Community Reinvestment Act, government mandates to open housing to those that couldn’t afford it, etc. The last administration tried to curb the problems with Fannie/Freddie and prevent this crisis as early as 2001. But the “fat cats” in Washington (i.e. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Maxine Waters, etc) wouldn’t have anything to do with it. They were too busy patting Franklin Raines, their friends and lovers on the back with one hand while taking campaign contributions with the other.
Of course I’ll be the first to admit that the last administration sold us down the river with TARP… but the economic/mortgage collapse ship had already sailed by then. Bush was wrong with TARP, and Obama was wrong with his stimulus plan and that ridiculous budget.
I understand Cap & Trade quite well, and it has eerie similarities to the problems that caused the mortgage meltdown… The government created a market that didn’t exist and then regulating that market, while friends of the government control/regulate/ or have significant financial interest in it. I don’t just object to the government trading mythical energy credits… I would object to the free market doing it too. If the Free Market was allowed to operate in the financial industry, we would have private companies drilling here and off our coast for oil without leftist groups stopping them every step of the way. We would have more nuclear plants, clean coal, and more wind farms. The result would be cheaper energy and would greatly reduce or eliminate the dependence on foreign oil. But there is no free market in energy since liberals won’t allow nuclear plants, oil drilling, or wind farms that might obstruct some view or kill some bird… so they create some financial system out of thin air (Cap & Trade) and claim that somehow it will return free market principles to a hijacked industry.
We shouldn’t pay to keep failed businesses in business. I never suggested that and never would. Failed businesses need to fail. All of them. The only way for new ideas, innovation, and the cream to rise to the top is for failing companies to be allowed to fail. It is not nor has it ever been our federal government’s job to prop up companies because they are worried too many people will get laid off.
Why not socialize health care? Really? You want the government to tell you when to go to the doctor or run a price-benefit analysis to determine whether your dying mother deserves care? If so, move to Canada, the UK or a number of other countries and when you are waiting 6 months in line for life-saving treatment, don’t come back here because you can get better surgery faster here. Your arguments in regards to health care show a complete lack of understanding of market forces even though you claim capitalism is at fault. Capitalism no longer applies to health care because health insurance is not sold on the open market free from outside influence. Want to fix the health care system… get rid of the third-party payer system. End the tax incentives for companies to pay health care for their employees. End the government’s lofty health care program that Washington fat cats receive. Make everyone buy their family or individual plans on the open market, forcing the insurance companies to consider the individual as their customer instead of large corporations. Almost overnight you’ll find costs go down and service goes up.
Sir, I am not being melodramatic or alarmist. I’m being a realist who understands our Constitution and what’s really going on. You want to live your life with your head buried in the sand, that’s your choice. Just don’t come here spewing your crap calling me names because I follow more than leftist talking points.
Talk about talking points, thats all you are or you really are an idiot… if you were in the biz then you know about ninja loans. the government said “make something available to these people” not “loan someone who makes $25k-a-year $300k”. No company not doing illicit business says “here’s money, I dont care how much you earn”. The Industry could have stuck to restricting people to rational lending limits but deregulation and no oversight allowed for mortgage backed securities to soak up all that shit you were peddling. You knew they were defaults waiting to happen and didnt care, just took your fat commission and passed the risk along… to someone else who passed the risk along while not caring about it… to someone else who passed the risk along while lying about it. All the while, if this were a casino they would have been put out of business for running a shell game. For you to say you were in the biz and didnt see this coming, you are highly immoral or simply calling yourself an idiot.
You didn’t answer anything I said, you just resorted to unfounded personal attacks. Why? Because you can’t answer any of it. You don’t understand the mortgage business or what happened any more than you understand the rest of what’s going on in our country.
The government didn’t just say “make something available to these people” they said do it or else. And then groups like ACORN and race pimps like Jesse Jackson went in and threatened banks to create loans for people who couldn’t afford them. And the Federal Government through Fannie, Freddie and FHA created the market for risky loans and encouraged the securitization and bulk-packaging of them… which caused the valuation problems we now face.
No loan officer, mortgage broker, lender or bank gave out a loan that they thought would go into foreclosure, because guess what… they are the ones who lose when it happens. As a mortgage company owner I had to sign agreements promising to buy back loans that went into early default. Why would I give out a knowingly bad loan if I had to buy it back? Lenders risk even more and lose thousands every time someone defaults. Why would they risk it when the margins on loans after 2000 started getting so slim?
The idea that someone walked in, said give me a loan, and walked out with a house without any consideration to the value of the home or their ability to repay is a farce created by the liberal media and apologists like yourself.
But I never said I didn’t see this coming… I’ve been talking about it for years. Maybe you are the idiot for putting words in my mouth? I didn’t think it would be this bad… and its much more complicated than you let on. The problem got a lot worse when legislators went nuts a few years ago and started restricting loan programs taking refinance options off the table for people who need it the most. But we knew something would happen, and I advised my customers accordingly. No one in my office got a loan without careful consideration for their ability to repay or counseling on the consequences of adjustable rates and economic changes. No one in my office got a $300k loan making $25k a year.
But guess what, if someone came to me, qualified for a readily available loan, and still wanted it after I counseled them away from it…. if I didn’t give them what they qualified for then some liberal like you or government bureaucrat would fine me or take my license for not giving the customer what they wanted and qualified for. Its a consequence of liberals like yourself thinking they understand something that they don’t and legislating accordingly. And ultimately its a result of people like you forgiving people of their personal responsibility and assuming all the customers are idiots who were taken advantage of. Customers knew what they were signing… and its not some loan officers fault if some customer lost his job or ran up his credit cards and could no longer afford his mortgage.
The mortgage industry was and still is one of the most regulated businesses in the world… claiming deregulation caused this is a joke. There were no less than four federal agencies and a state agency whose regulations and oversight impacted every mortgage loan. Applied for a home loan in the last decade? Did you notice the 30 pages of disclosures from every government agency under the sun? Did you you notice your loan officer’s license or his bosses license on the wall? Did you inquire about their surety bond, background checks, continuing education, and mandated audits that they constantly go through?
You know nothing about the mortgage industry. Try researching something yourself instead of spitting out nonsense. It might work with other head-in-the-sand liberals like yourself. But it doesn’t work here.
Thank God I don’t need some leftist like you for personal validation. You can think I’m an idiot all you want, but your continued name-calling while avoiding facts and what’s really going on only proves who the real idiot is.
Maybe you are just upset because you are sitting in your foreclosed house waiting for some hardworking taxpayer like me to bail you out and prop you up.
We’re done here. Go spread your crap somewhere else.