The Texas 18th District Blog

When was the last time a poor person offered you a job?

Engineer2

American Voters know which politicians failed us in the Mortgage Meltdown!

Changes We Can Believe In – American Voters Hit List #1 – Barney Frank D-Massachusetts

Voters will be voting many members out of Congress that have failed us this year. I sincerely hope that these are among top priorities for American voters across the nation this election year

Barney Frank
Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee

Barney Frank has clearly let America down in a position which should have been instrumental in providing financial governance for our free market system. His inattention to primary fudiciary responsibilities in his position has caused All Americans a great deal of grief, yet he is not and will continue to not recognize his own failure:

O’Reilly Blasts Barney Frank On Fannie Mae Mess!!

From the Earl Henry Sholley for Congress Website:

Chairman Barney Frank blames the Republicans and the lack of regulation for the financial meltdown. He refuses to accept any culpability for the current crisis, and keeps making excuses for his role. He loudly denies any involvement in the mess, and even says that he tried to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Here is Barney Frank’s tax and spend mentality/solution:

“There are a lot of very Rich People to Tax down the road and recover some of this money.”:

Shame on Massachusetts voters if they don’t come out in droves and fire this pompous illiterate financial zombie who was supposed to be a primary gatekeeper for our financial systems!!!

Voters in Massachusetts should be ashamed to reelect Barney Frank to office.

Most of the rest of the Nation hopes that Massachusetts will support our best interests by firing Barney Frank and electing Sholley to Congress.

“I believe in less government, fewer taxes, term limits, and public service, not personal enrichment. I will only serve two terms. We have many serious problems that must be solved quickly such as high energy prices, illegal immigration, loss of jobs, the banking crisis, inflation, judicial activism, and protecting our citizens from those who would do us harm. Congress is not doing the Peoples’ will. This is not a time for humor, smart quips, or petty partisan politics. I believe in getting the job done. We need common sense and deliberate action. Where there is a will, there is a way. I want to get America moving again.”

Earl Henry Sholley

Barney Frank took $42,350 from Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae. 

Engineer2

American Voters know which politicians failed us in the Mortgage Meltdown!

A Perfect Storm

 by Thomas Sowell

Some elections are routine, some are important and some are historic. If Senator John McCain wins this election, it will probably go down in history as routine. But if Senator Barack Obama wins, it is more likely to be historic– and catastrophic.

Once the election is over, the glittering generalities of rhetoric and style will mean nothing. Everything will depend on performance in facing huge challenges, domestic and foreign.

Performance is where Barack Obama has nothing to show for his political career, either in Illinois or in Washington.

***

Sheila Jackson Lee and Ties to Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) link here

Our law enforcement agencies and the FBI have been torn by this failure to define an ideological enemy. At the same time that the FBI is testifying at the Holy Land Foundation trial as to how the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic supremacist goals, other parts of the FBI have been told to invite CAIR to provide training for the FBI on their views of Islam. CAIR also has provided “training” and guidance to DHS, TSA, Customs, and other law enforcement agencies. CAIR also attends meetings with an influential advisory panel on homeland security. The Investigative Project of Terrorism reports that “several members of Congress maintain close ties with CAIR” (Jim McDermott, Keith Ellison, Sheila Jackson Lee, Bill Pascrell, Dennis Kucinich). Such congressional representatives have no concerns about CAIR’s founder and Executive Director Nihad Awad as a documented supporter of the Hamas Islamic supremacist terrorist group. The American mainstream media frequently contacts CAIR to provide comments on news stories without providing context as to who and what they are - providing further public legitimacy for them. America has similar challenges with other groups associated with Islamic supremacism such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). CAIR and ISNA are unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terror finance trial. The President of ISNA not only spoke at a national political party’s presidential convention, she also is on the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project team calling for engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood.

American Voters know which politicians failed us in the Mortgage Meltdown!

“If It Redistributes Like a Duck…”:

Friday, October 31, 2008

By: David Harsanyi

Obama is first ever presidential candidate to call for redistribution.

Barack Obama is going to fix the economy by “spreading the wealth around”?

Now, I’m not attempting to demonize Obama, God forbid. It’s just that, as we all know, that’s what Obama told Joe the Plumber.

Obama laughs off the charge of socialist behavior — and to be fair, socialism isn’t the precise term to affix to his ideas. It’s more like Robin Hood economics. On a recent campaign stop, Obama joked that by the end of the week, McCain would be accusing him “of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten.”

A funny line. But of course, Obama’s lofty intellect must comprehend the fundamental difference between sharing your GI Joe with a friend and having a bully snatch your GI Joe for the collective prepubescent good. It’s the difference between coercion and free association and trade. In practical terms, it’s the difference between government cheese and a meal at Ruth’s Chris.

Now, I’m not suggesting Obama intends to transform this nation into 1950s-era Soviet tyranny or that he will possess the power to do so. I’m suggesting Obama is praising and mainstreaming an economic philosophy that has failed to produce a scintilla of fairness or prosperity anywhere on earth, ever.

If It Quacks Like a Duck, it’s a Duck… Read the rest here, originally published by RealClearPolitics.com:

If It Redistributes Like a Duck…

Ken

American Voters know which politicians failed us in the Mortgage Meltdown!

Here we are (The American Taxpayer) being run over again by an antiquated 2 party political system in an election year. Many of us are going to cast our votes in opposition instead of for the candidate we’d really like to see in office. Blame goes out in all directions… we just don’t have a mature electoral system allowing multiple choices like Japan and other Countries!

Who would have ever thought we’d see the Governor of New York (Eliot Spitzer) predicting a $47 Billion Dollar Budget Deficit for New York over the next 4 years or “California’s Terminator” (Arnold Schwarzenegger) setting on the side of the road with a tin cup?

Over the last year Dallas home prices have dropped just a little over 2%  where San Francisco and LA home prices have dropped over 10x as much.

Americans need to take note that Republican States like Texas aren’t having near the problem Democrat States are in this down economy right now and ask themselves if they really want to extend these failed “spread the wealth” political philosophies to the entire country.

Anyone with open eyes can see that the Socialistic push by the Democrat Party not only will not work for America, but that it isn’t already.

Texas has no problems, but we are Republican.

Texan taxpayers don’t need or want to pay for Democrat mistakes in other states and we definitely don’t want to see the country so desperate for change that we are drug down into your mire this election year!

California - you need to repeal Proposition 13 and start excising realistic property taxes!

New York – you should have been in on the forefront of governance, safeguarding the nation against abject free market plundering.

We are truly sorry for your 165,000 projected job losses on Wall Street, but they “screwed” the rest of us, and now you not only want the “Nation’s Taxpayer’s Mercy”, but you want us to play the same pathetic Democrat game you are playing this election year?

My best advise: Look at and remodel your State’s Economy after what we’ve done in Texas… as Republicans!

Engineer2

Houston Mortgage Problems – 10 years in the making. Where was Sheila Jackson Lee?

I’m a Mad Voter. I’m mad as hell, and I don’t know who to believe any more!

Like many of of us, I am not particularly happy with two choices or voting for the lesser of two evils.

We have ACORN indiscretions and Presidential Candidates shoveling us all kinds of garbage…

All I really know for sure is that Sheila Jackson Lee in 14 years hasn’t served Houston, Texas or Americans. 

Sheila Jackson Lee never came forward to stop this bloody mess!

John Faulk would have.

Vote John Faulk when you enter the voting booth. Let’s do our best as Texans & Americans to replace ineffective lawyers with established economists and accountants this year! I hope the rest of the nation will follow our lead.

More than ever we need Congress people representing us with backgrounds in economics and finance rather than law.

Note that Sheila Jackson Lee turned her back on the American public, Texas, the Congressional Black Caucus and Houston when she turned about and voted for this atrocious Senate Economic Bailout Plan, stuffed with obscene “pork”.

We don’t need lawyers in Congress, like Sheila Jackson Lee, we need someone like John Faulk with a strong background in economics representing us right now!

Let’s elect John Faulk to Congress this year!

Engineer2

Help us put John Faulk in office. We need to elect members of Congress with strong financial backgrounds.

It appears the central issue in the presidential campaign is taxing and spending.  The democrats just can’t resist promising everything to everyone.  Jimmy Carter taxed and spent and I am still paying for it.  Because he spent so much he had to create money to pay for it.  The government has the ability to pass an appropriation bill which authorizes the expenditure.  Then they fund it by allocating funds in the budget.  The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury have the job of coming up with the money to pay for it and they must because they are at that point required by law. If they literally print money it inflates the money supply.  If they borrow from foreign sources by selling government bonds we suffer inflation and pay interest. 

The government hires employees or contractors to perform whatever the appropriation was for: build a ship, build a road, build another federal building so it can have a politicians name on it.  More people are now getting paid by the government.  Those people now have more money than they did before the project.  You don’t.  When the car dealer or grocery chain sees that they can raise prices and the goods get purchased they keep the prices at the new, higher level.  If the goods aren’t purchased they put them on sale or sell them at a discount.  They usually don’t lower the price because they want to keep the option of a higher price available.  You are still being paid the same wage as before so you can only buy fewer items.

The economists call it more dollars chasing the same amount of goods.

Jimmy Carter spent like a drunken sailor.  Of course he did this by letting congress pass without a veto a lot of spending bills.  Inflation was rampant.  In order to buy groceries and clothing and car repairs at the new higher prices the public had to borrow.  Hence the deluge of credit cards.  I remember conversations at work that were like the weekend sports but about credit cards.  “Did you hear about Bank such and such, their offering a 14% rate”.  The prime rate was 21%.  That rate is what banks typically charge their most credit worthy borrowers. Inflation was in the teens, 14%.  To try to stop people from borrowing the Federal Reserve kept raising interest rates to make borrowing more expensive.  We had no choice but to borrow.  Prices were going up by 14% or so, salaries were going up by 2 to 4% per year depending upon whether your employer liked you.

I am still paying down debt from the Carter era.  Obama wants to do the same thing.  Give everybody something to make them “happy”.  

I was in Europe this summer to visit family.  I was amazed that everything was so expensive the tax is built into the price as the goods are manufactured so you don’t see a sales tax at time of purchase.  The locals take their vacations in Spain or any other place where prices are relatively lower.  Many Europeans come here to Disney World or Los Angeles because believe it or not prices are cheaper.  Government giving everybody something to make them “happy” is very expensive.

I have to confess I voted for Jimmy Carter because I was disgusted by Washington as usual.  We were recovering from the Watergate scandal (which turned out to be a fizzle).  I am still paying for my mistake.

Obama repeatedly said McCain voted along with Bush therefore he is another Bush.  Bush doesn’t vote.  He is not a member of congress.  If Bush wants to buy food and ammunition for the troops he is forced to sign into law a bill laden with pork.  A military spending bill with an appropriation to study woodpeckers or build tennis courts for civilians in some congressperson’s home town.

Jumping to another subject.  The mess on Wall St.  What we haven’t heard recently is criticism of the people charged with overseeing corporations, Boards of Directors of those Corporations including banks.  The Board Members get paid more than a year’s salary for most workers to oversee the CEOs.  It’s a tragicomedy.  It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.  Great job overseeing.  The Board Members determine the CEO’s compensation!  They approve the golden parachutes.  Golden parachute is severance pay to the CEOs who ran their companies into the ground.

Obama said last night that he would love to only talk about economics for the next 3 weeks.  What is stopping him?  He can talk about whatever he wants.  No one sets his agenda or tells him what to do.  I suggest the only thing preventing him from talking about economics is his lack of knowledge.

 He also referred to the surplus that George Bush inherited from Clinton and how it turned into a trillion dollar deficit.  Remember, that surplus arose from you the taxpayers electing a Republican congress in 1994 to stop Clinton’s taxing and spending.  With controlled spending the federal revenues caught up and produced first a balanced budget and then revenues exceeded spending and gave birth to a surplus.  Remember our lesson a few posts back about the constitution and how all spending bills originate in the House of Representatives.  Oh by the way (btw as the computer junkies say) who is our Representative?

Congress spends, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury pay.  We provide the dollars or we suffer the inflation tax.  Ronald Reagan said it all, every time the government gives someone a dollar, it takes it from somebody else.

Help us make America strong again. We need to elect members of Congress with financial backgrounds instead of lawyers.

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three step Common Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE

a. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

b. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:

1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.

a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.

b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.

c. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

II. MARK TO MARKET

a. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.

b. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.

III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX

a. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

b. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down.

This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

I just heard Neil Cavuto state that people are skeptical, to put it mildly, that John McCain and Governor Palin actually could balance the budget.  My answer is YES.  After Clinton campaigned on reducing federal spending and reducing taxes accordingly, he reneged.  The election was in 1992.  He took office in 1993.  The first thing he did was raise taxes.  The American people immediately reacted by electing a Republican congress for the first time since the early 1950’s.  They would no longer pass bills that contained Clinton tax increases and spending increases.  In fact Clinton actually reduced social spending with the workfare program.

I’ll grant that the Republicans  got giddy when Bush was elected and started spending on their own like democrats (their reasoning was that since the 1950’s they were only able to get crumbs for their constituents and now was their opportunity for some benefits).  We conservatives within the Republican Party were furious.  We wanted Bush to veto the spending bills and veto increased budgets.  But he didn’t. 

So my points are a president can veto bills that increase spending, also congress can control spending on its own just as they reigned Clinton in.  What about overriding vetos?

When re-election time comes every congressperson and senator wants to take home braggadocio (talking about loot) about what he/she did for constituents.  If they go home to campaign with nothing to show for their term their voters are not happy.  So the best thing they can do for themselves is cooperate with a strong president,  pass bills that accomplish the governments job but do not spend unnecessarily or increase taxes to cover increased spending.

A courageous president can just keep vetoing bills until congress gets it right.  Reagan tried this and congress outfoxed him by  shutting down the government and blaming it on Reagan.  Well the Republican politicians failed, I repeat failed, to back up their president.  The republican leadership are wimps.  Is McCain a wimp?  I don’t believe so.  As a matter of fact his one major contraint in this campaign is reigning in his boldness (temper).  He will do the right thing even if he makes enemies.  He is tough, Palin is tough.

Conservatives want a balanced budget and if republicans don’t go along they lose the conservative vote and they know it.  McCain learned a few months ago that he needs conservatives.  Republicans and conservatives are not synonyms.  We are annoyed with Bush, we didn’t support McCain in the primary and we won’t stop pushing for a conservative approach to government. Balanced budgets, only spending that is necessary to operate our government, obey the constitution (not re-interpret it or twist it into an unrecognizable shape), incarcerate criminals, work for a living, save part of your paycheck, actions have consequences, personal responsibility, look ahead to tomorrow, take care of the kids you bring into the world to name a few conservative principles.

It doesn’t take superior wisdom to balance a budget it takes a strong, stubborn leader.

Tax collection statistics (go down the page a little)

Summary of Collections before Refunds by Type of Return, Fiscal Year 2006:

During Fiscal Year (FY) 2006, the IRS collected more than $2.2 trillion in tax net of refunds, about 44 percent of which was attributable to the individual income tax. This is partially due to the nature of the individual income tax category; containing taxes collected from working class, small business, self employed, and capital gains. Of the Individual Income Tax, the top 5% of income earners pay 60% of this amount.

Look at the Top Brackets Column

As You Go Down the Right Hand Column You See What Groups It Takes to Collect Enough Taxes Now

Who Pays Income Taxes? See Who Pays What

For Tax Year 2006

The very top chart shows $2.5 billion collections (2006), this graph shows expeditures of about $410 billion and $425 billion (2005). I had to use different years because that’s what I could find on the internet. Government expenses increases every year so the gap is probably smaller.

It has been a well known fact for many years that the middle class must be taxed at significant levels.

I tried to bring together these charts to explain and clarify why the government needs more than taxes from just the rich. Larry Elder came along and did a great job in just a few words. Here is his column. Be mindful of what I said before. When you increase tax rates on the rich they reduce their taxable income by not selling stocks, by investing in tax free municipal bonds and investing in other countries. High income earners mainly senior executives also have a tax law provision that lets them defer income until later years when they either need it or tax rates are lower. This is why in the tax rate chart above you see the rates coming down. When the rates are lower they take income and pay the taxes on it.

What Larry Elder Wrote

Cutting the Federal Budget – Let’s Start With the Post Office

The US Postal Department continues to bleed red ink but no Federal Institution wants to lay employees off.

None of us really need Saturday delivery. If we eliminated Saturday delivery it could effectively cut 16-20% out of a $75-$80 Billion/yr budget, tomorrow.

I am not sure how much taxpayer money would be saved since the USPO is partially self supporting, but they are bleeding “red ink” due to competition by the Internet and competitive couriers.

John McCain is right though, we are going to have to look at and cut every government expense possible from the federal level down.

Engineer2

Let’s work together to put John Faulk in office. We need to elect members of Congress with financial backgrounds.

A Tin Cup for the Terminator

Arnold, it doesn’t set well with the rest of the nation, especially Texans to see you jump 1st in line asking for a $7 Billion taxpayer handout to bail out California when you haven’t even taken action to repeal Proposition 13.

Who would have ever thought they’d see the “Terminator” setting on the street corner extending a tin cup?

California is on the “street corner” begging for Americans everywhere to donate to their ridiculous defeciet situation partially brought on by their own liberal property tax exclusions.

It seems that everywhere I look America’s financial problems have been brought on by liberal policies.

Taxpayers in Texas and most of the rest of the nation can’t hear you until you take action to clear up your own mess there. Surely the “Kennedy Pillow Talk” isn’t obfuscating sound judgment at your age!

You are not going anywhere until those $600 sq/ft houses drop down to a realistic price. Those million dollar mansions are partially artificially value inflated by the fact that you are not collecting realistic property taxes on them.

It will be OK, there are plenty of investors waiting on the sideline there in cash positions. I know that as fact because I have a brother who moved just down the road from Google headquarters a few years ago. He is setting there “chomping at the bits” waiting for an opportunity to buy with a substantial cash position himself.

And you want us to pay for what????

That $7 Billion you are asking the nations taxpayers for is backward looking. What are you going to do about next year’s $20-30 Billion Deficit, if you don’t act now?

The “Terminator” better “buck up” and move to repeal Prop 13 now! Most of the rest of the nation pays “realistic” property taxes. There is no reason Californians should be exempt, nor is there any reason the rest of the nation should pick up your slack.

We are all going to have to make difficult choices in this economic downturn. You’d better get to “terminating” a large portion of California’s budget now!

You’re not the only “municipality” stuck short, and everybody in charge better get to slashing. There’s a pretty good chance that most municipalities at local, city and state levels are going to be stuck severely short this year and probably for several years. All you can do is slash and cut services, that’s where we’re all at, so pull the bottle out of your mouth and get to work. 

Any resolution of debt with taxpayer funds afforded to any entity must come with core problem solutions or there is no reason to dole it out.

Engineer2

Let’s work together to put John Faulk in office. We need to elect members of Congress with strong financial backgrounds.