Oil Spills

We need oil at least until the alternative sources come on line. It is important that we do not rely upon people who want to blow us up to provide the oil. There are many places we can drill for oil that do not involve 5000 feet of water. If these places were to be utilized they would be less likely to have problems and if there was to be a problem it could be fixed - mainly because the wellhead would not be 5000 feet underwater! The issue that should be investigated is: why are we drilling in the place that is most likely to have a problem? If this well was on land it would have been fixed in a day – if it happened in the first place. Which groups forced drilling into the place that is most inaccessible, the most expensive, the hardest to fix if something goes wrong? Why do we continue to listen to them? Congress continues to ask the wrong questions.

Who did this stuff before?

One of the prime issues provide by the people supporting amnesty for illegal aliens is that they perform jobs that American citizens don’t want. If that is true, who was performing those jobs before the flood of illegals showed up? There were restaurants then and they had workers; there were lawns then and they got mowed and there were other jobs that supposedly citizens don’t want and they got done too. The unemployment rate is 10% - even higher for those with limited skills and experience – and the pro-amnesty people are still pushing this line. Who are they to say someone with no income wouldn’t take a job?

Illegal?

Arizona ’s new law makes an existing federal crime into also being a state crime. There are a lot of complaints about the law but the complaints are about what might happen if the law (federal or state) were actually to be enforced. This is a different issue than whether being an illegal alien is actually – you know – illegal. There are laws against illegal conduct. The problem here is that the federal law is not being enforced. Clearly, doing anything illegal is illegal.

Politics is local

San Francisco’s city attorney and Chicago want to boycott Arizona. San Francisco based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals added to their history of bad law and certified a bogus class action suit against Wal-Mart. Chicago has big anti-Arizona marches. Pelosi represents San Francisco; Obama is from Chicago. See a pattern?

Solutions

The really good thing about the health care bill is that it has created the means to resolve all of the countries economic problems. Having determined that the Constitution contains the right to health care and the power mandate everyone to exercise that right, it only remains for Congress to discover a few other rights in the Constitution and mandate their enforcement. Clearly the rights to buy another house, to buy another car and to get really cool stuff are in the same clause as the right to health care. So, all Congress has to do is:
Mandate that everyone buy another house. This would immediately put all the construction workers and trade guys back to work. It would also increase housing prices and resolve the problem of people being underwater on their mortgage.
Mandate that everyone buy another car – an electric one. This would get all the UAW guys back to work and reduce oil imports.
Mandate everyone buy a flat screen TV, get new green appliances, get a new wardrobe and redecorate all their houses. The increase in consumer spending would complete the economic rebound.
The last mandate (maybe this should be first) is to mandate that the minimum wage be raised to over $250,000 per year. This would mean the end of welfare (again) and all the other entitlements would no longer be necessary. The budget problems would be eliminated and everyone would have to pay taxes to pay for the health care bill.
This would also be a self perpetuating system. Congress could periodically declare it found the Constitutional right to a bigger house, bigger car, bigger TV, etc.
What could go wrong?

Redistribution

Some day people will understand that every single thing that the current President is doing is designed to redistribute income:

Cash for Clunkers – you had to have a car worth less than $4,500 for it to be worth doing.

Aid to “underwater” mortgages – if you bought a house you could actually afford, saved money for a down payment, didn’t borrow 100% of the value, were bright enough to know that adjustable rate loans actually – you know – adjusted, have had a home for 5 years or more, you are probably not underwater (maybe close but not underwater) and not eligible for government assistance. But, if you never saved a nickel, made no down payment, and took a loan you could never repay, you are underwater. So, you are then eligible for government money. They reduce your loan and when the value goes up, you have equity. Democratic wealth creation at its finest! And if you get a nutty judge, the Bank has to give you a cash payment for your “pain and suffereing”.

Health care - There is nothing in the bill that addresses the constant increases in health care costs. Nothing. If you were covered before you (defined as working and paying taxes) are still covered but it will cost you and your employer more. This was no effort to control health care costs – no effort to help the recently unemployed. It is an expanded entitlement to “those who need it most”.

Student Loans – increased in Pell grants is directed toward the “neediest students”. The people who actually pay taxes get nothing. The bogus beauty schools will again cause massive defaults. Colleges will continue to lower standards to let more people in to get more money for not educating people. Does anyone really believe that college graduates are better educated now than 30 years ago?

He campaigned to do it and he is coming through. It isn't helping most people but he is doing it anyway.

Pensions

The basic factors of the municipal pension system were that in return for lesser pay than private industry, there was a guaranteed job. This original deal has been lost. Municipal salaries are higher than most positions with similar qualifications in private industry. Raises are automatic; there are COLA adjustments that no one counts as a raise; pensions are better; lifetime medical coverage is better. Most workers in private industry have seen their raises disappear in the last 2 years while their taxes increase to meet municipal workers needs.
For municipal workers to claim that they are being singled out is absurd. They are the only ones who have not been impacted.