A Case For Term Limits

    I remember receiving offers in the mail in the early 2000's for loans of $150,000 that said they were pre-approved, "no credit check".  I wondered then who was going to be hurt when these types of loans failed because of the  lack of "due diligence". My answer was...the banks. And I was right. If I could see it coming, how could all of those MBA's in the finance industry not see it coming? The answer was, they saw it quite well. But it was one of those "inconvenient facts" that would be addressed later by others.
    Now we know what happened. The "Too Big To Fail", totally unaccountable banking system is full of those no better than drunken used car salesmen. AIG, Citi, and the rest of the "Too Big To Fail" money giants will continue to ignore common sense and need taxpayer support. The idea of us moving toward Socialism has escaped me until now, written off in my head as Right Wing propaganda...but Federal Government support of these big banks IS Socialism and it is a little scary...Fannie Mae being the example. Jim Johnson, Franklin Raines and Hank Paulson, Countrywide and Fremont people...all should have their days in court. It doesn't look like they ever will be. Virtually all of those bankers who made billions buying up toxic loans and selling them to unsuspecting pension funds and others...they are still lurking...unashamed,  waiting until their time to strike again comes around.  Point: "Too Big To Fail" cannot happen in this country. "Too Big To Fail" means "unaccountable for their actions" and hence, "taxpayer supported". In the finance industry it also means "Capable of bringing the country to it's knees" as we have seen. Break them up. Glass-Heatley would be a good start.
    What are they doing?  Pelosi's brother's company just secured a government guaranted loan are securing their fair share of benefits throwing around stimulus loan guarantees to family...provided by the Obama administration and trying to push the 400 Billion dollar "Obama to nowhere" stimulus.
   We are going around and around and around...around the wrong way, again and again. Some of us blame Bush. Some, Obama. Some blame our intelligent elected officials who, for no understandable reason, act like idiots like Barney Frank and Dodd.
   The system is broken. It has been corrupted with the constant need to raise  money and maintain support for re-election. Decisions made by lawmakers should be based on honest appraisals of problems, priorities and available resources...NOT by how much political capital and "money" interest" is involved. Until we fix that our system will remain broken. Maybe it is time we take up the cause for term limits and push it through. Something like the TLC...Term Limit Coalition. Pull the rug out from under the thousands of lobbyists in Washington and set our elected officials on the path to what we sent them there to do in the first place...be responsible lawmakers...responsible for this country's and the world's present and future concerns.
      

Buy American

   If you can do it, please buy American. It makes sense and it's important.

US Cannot Afford Not To Use Yucca Mountain

   Gregory Jaczko and Harry Reid have stopped the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project after taxpayers have invested 15 billion dollars in it to secure safe storage. Our nuclear wastes are being stored in 104 sites around the country at a high cost that is unnecessary and wasteful. Upkeep of these sites coupled with security of each is what Reid and Jaczko have for us. This is a glaring example of how things are going wrong in this country. Common sense is sidetracked in order to preserve political interests. It is one of many examples of how the good of the whole is compromised for the good of a few...this one being the reelection of Harry Reid. Too much power in the hands of too few. That's Congress. That is congress without term limits.
   The same thing happened with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. There wasn't an MBA on Wall Street that didn't know the consequences of the toxic mortgage orgy that has brought this economy to it's knees. But Fannie Mae and the likes of James Johnson used political favors to sway our "political leadership" to do just that.
   Using the Social Security Trust Fund to fund government programs is another example of politics leading us to blindly dance and spend ourselves into financial bankruptcy.
   Mitt Romney says that all federal programs must be evaluated in terms of whether the outlays are important enough to borrow the money from China to pay for them. This is a flame of common sense where that fire has long been absent. I am hopeful that Romney's approach will be repeated and expanded on. This country must use common sense with healthy fundamentals. If we fail to change the way our government does business, borrowing alomost half of every dollar we spend from foriegn governments, we will find ourselves without a place to call home. 
   Getting the Yucca Mountain project back on track is one of the things we must do. Refunding the Social Security Trust fund and walling off it's funds from being used for federal programs is another even more important goal we must accomplish. Romney's evaluation of all spending according to a new set of financially sane national priorities will lead us toward financial strength. Only then can we get  back on the road to growing our economy and providing opportunities for the now unemployed. Currently, our political system is so mired in personal agenda that our leaders are unable to address those problems, as has been seen over and over again of late.  America is drifting toward the waterfall of insolvency. Romney offers a fresh direction, one from which we never should have veered in the first place. It is high time someone stood up and said it.