My Two Cents....

Well now it has been awhile since I have written for my blog. There has been a lot going on in our country the past few months. I figured I would just throw my two cents in there for now.This blog may be all over the place and not organized very well, but I'm just letting my fingers do the typing as the thoughts come out of my head. So sit back, strap yourself in, and hold on!

When President Obama was campaigning he promised to bring "change" to Washington. How can someone bring change when all they do is hire advisors and career politicians that were part of other administrations? There is no change in Washington! It is still the same old rhetoric coming from the mouths of OUR elected officials.

For example, let us take a look at Senator Chris Dodd (Democrat from Connecticut). He denied "having anything to do with crafting language in the stimulus bill that allowed bailed-out insurance giant American International Group to keep its bonuses, Sen. Christopher Dodd admitted that he and the Treasury Department were responsible for the loophole."(Chris Dodd)

As it turns out Sen. Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, crafted the loophole (with the help of a Treasury Official) that allowed the executives at AIG to receive bonuses totaling $165 MILLION. How are we to trust our elected officials when they blatantly lie to the American people on one day and then turn around and say "oh yeah that was me." The fact of the matter is the Obama administration alongside the Treasury Department wanted this loophole in the stimulus package.

Just take a look at the article in the link above. Chris Dodd states that his comments were "misconstrued" when he said he had nothing to do with the language in the stimulus package.

What kind of values are we teaching our future leaders when current officials are able to lie right in the face of the American people. This goes far beyond any party alliances. I do not care if you are Democrat or Republican. If you are an American then you should be ashamed of these elected officials that we put into office.

The entire stimulus package is a complete joke. I am not an economist by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know a little bit about capitalism.

Capitalism: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

Last time I checked in a capitalistic society the government did not interfere in how the companies were run. I understand that we had companies fail due to the deregulation of the banking industry. The fact that some of these companies failed was detrimental to the economy and to everyone that lost their jobs. However, that is the beauty of capitalism. If you run the company the right way you may not "break the bank", but you will still have a chance to be successful.

One of the main reasons of the financial collapse is because Bill Clinton signed into law the "(Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) on November 12, 1999. This repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which "prohibited a bank from offering investment, commercial banking, and insurance services."(Glass-Steagall Act)

If these companies fail then so be it. Do you think if you owned a business and had losses in every single quarter for a year that the government would bail you out? They would more than likely laugh at you and tell you that you should of run your business better. The fact that we lived in the "lap of luxury" for so many years as the stock market kept on climbing and then one day we wake up and our 401 K has taken a nose dive is why we are upset. Did you think this could continue? There was no way a market can sustain that growth for that long. As of right now the market is trying to correct itself from all of the crap that these crooks did. Bernie Madoff anyone? (Don't get me started on him...SEC new about him back in the 90's and did NOTHING!)

Do I think that government should regulate corporations? To an extent yes they should. The sad part is a good portion of the politicians have a vested interest in many of these companies. So when the companies were doing very well they turned a blind eye their way and said continue on. Now that it is affecting millions of Americans the politicians want to pretend they have our best interest at heart. I call BULLSHIT! 

The only way that we will be able to bring change to Washington is if we got rid of EVERY SINGLE politician that is in office right now. We should not allow "career politicians" such as Dick Cheney. Every politician no matter what they tell us has their own agenda. Take a long look at Obama's administration. Take a look at George W. Bush's administration...Hell take a look at every president's administration going back to Ronald Reagan. They all have held positions in different administrations implementing their agendas at their will.(This calls for a completely new blog that I will need to get to at a later date.)

I will leave you with a quote by one of the greatest presidents of our country:

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)

3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

-Spiral Out!