Banking Bailout vs Homeowner Bailout

I ranted last night about the newest bailout Mr. Obama is shoving down our throats (can you tell it wasn't a positive rant?). Rick Santelli's comments has started a taxpayer rally that is spreading like wildfire and I am on the bandwagon!

Someone left a comment on my post asking where I was when the government wanted to bailout the banks.

I was right here, same place. I was calling my elected officials telling the NO, NO, NO.

I have no idea where Rick Santelli was or what he thought about it.

I know that when all of this first started most of us were stunned. I don't know about you guys, but I didn't see the magnitude. My way of handling it would never have been to throw money at the problem.

Our government knew the problem started with housing, yet they chose to throw money at banks first? TARP is and was a fiasco. I will say however, that I do not agree with putting caps on salaries. I think it's fine to give the money and say that it can ONLY be used to give out loans to businesses and individuals, but I am NOT for nationalizing our banks.

Many point fingers at President Bush. Yep, he was right in there with Congress saying we have to do something. But you know what? They split the money and left it up to the Obama administration to decide whether to hand out the rest.

They did, and they mortgaged our kids future to add even more money that doesn't exist to the pile.

Then they heaped even more on with this irresponsible reward program for people who shouldn't be in the houses they're losing in the first place.

They are busily growing government at a clip that should scare the average person.

Rick Santelli's unscripted, from-the-heart rant has given ALL of us a voice. We've been out here yelling and screaming, writing and complaining. We've been calling our elected officials. We've been trying but no one has been listening. They're ignoring us.

The housing bailout for deadbeats (and yes, some who lost jobs and tried honestly and valiantly) may just be the straw that broke the camels back. The last crack in the dam.

I hope that video is on every blog in America by the end of the day. I hope everyone who's been frustrated with what's been going on stands up and yells loud and clear.

There is no difference between this bailout, the trillion dollar spending bill or TARP. They are ALL wrong.

Go Rick, Go! Kudos to Rick Santelli

Rick Santelli said what most of us have been thinking on CNBC - namely that this bailout of irresponsible people who bought more house than they can afford stinks to high heaven.

Sure, there are some that lost their jobs and they're struggling. But many of us who are managing to pay our house payments are struggling, too. The government pushed people who couldn't afford a house into mortgages they were never going to be able to handle. All because they wanted to make sure everyone, whether they were responsible or capable, could own a house.

Well, I have news for the President. Not everyone can handle a house payment. Not everyone "deserves" a house. It's a responsibility.

I rented for years while I scraped together the money to buy a house. A catastrophe happened and I had to use that money for an emergency regarding my son. I had a nice rental house, was happy as I could be in it. Sure, I wanted to own, but it didn't happen for many, many years.

When I bought, I figured out what I could afford. I factored in house maintenance, emergencies, and other things. When I went to buy my house as a single mom, I was told I could buy much more house than I had decided I could handle.

I said thanks, but no thanks.

Many people didn't.

Now, because they got in over their heads I am supposed to bail them out?

It's bad enough that we're going to be stuck with the future-killing stimulus bill.

Rick Santelli is my hero. He said what I'd be saying if I had a platform to say it that would reach millions. We need more Santelli's. We need a nation-wide tea party.



Take the poll: Would You Join Santelli's "Chicago Tea Party?"
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29283701

- ab

Good info re: what's in the stimulus package

While things have changed some since this article was written on Thursday, there's still a lot of good info on the ridiculous items included in the stimulus bill. If they wanted to stimulate the economy, they could just do a jobs package. Some tax relief and some help for the housing industry. Period. All this other stuff has nothing to do with stimulating the economy. It's simply a mechanism to consolidate power under the Democrats. We will regret this bill.

50 De-Stimulating Facts
Chapter and verse on a bad bill.
By Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson
Senate Democrats acknowledged Wednesday that they do not have the votes to pass the stimulus bill in its current form. This is unexpected good news. The House passed the stimulus package with zero Republican votes (and even a few Democratic defections), but few expected Senate Republicans (of whom there are only 41) to present a unified front. A few moderate Democrats have reportedly joined them.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjcyODIyZGM2MGU1ZDdkNDgxZDc3OTNjYjM4ZDY1ODI=

StimulusWatch.org

Want to see where the money's going? The site doesn't appear to track it all, but it's very interesting. You can vote on the projects and leave comments. I just took a quick look so will need to look a bit closer to see later in the day when I have more time, but wanted to share. Thanks to Moms for Sarah Palin (http://moms4sarahpalin.blogspot.com) for sharing this link in her blog. Here's some info from the site:

Congress and the President are getting ready to spend billions of dollars to try to stimulate the economy. As a result, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has responded by releasing a list of "shovel-ready" projects in cities around the country that the mayors would like to see funded.

President Obama, however, has promised to spend stimulus dollars only on critical projects.

"What we need to do is examine what are the projects where we're going to get the most bang for the buck [and] how are we going to make sure taxpayers are protected," he has said. "You know, the days of just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy, those days are over."

StimulusWatch.org was built to to help the new administration keep its pledge and to hold public officials to account. We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects.

The project was started by Jerry Brito after Eileen Norcross pointed out to him the opportunity the mayor's report presented. Jerry herded cats on the project and contributed the graphic design. The development of the site was lead by Peter Snyder, who coded the site in PHP and MySQL and implemented the MediaWiki integration. Peter was assisted by Kevin Dwyer, who helped scrape and format the report data.

Its creators are:

Jerry Brito, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His research has focused on government transparency and accountability, specifically how the internet can be harnessed to crowdsource the task of keeping officials accountable. You can read his paper on the subject, "Hack, Mash, and Peer: Crowdsourcing Government Transparency," (PDF) pubilshed by the Columbia Science & Technology Law Review. His personal site is jerrybrito.org.

Kevin Dwyer, Senior Computer Scientist at White Oak Technologies, Free Software contributor, and GNU/Linux zealot. Also a Pythonista, Kevin writes about the science of computers and beer at http://squareone.pheared.net.

Eileen Norcross, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her research has focused on state and local budgets, economic development, and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. For more information, you can read her paper, "The Community Development Block Grant: Does it Work?"

Peter Snyder, contract programming. He specializes in Web 2.0 projects and Cocoa programming in Chicago, IL. He can be contacted about projects or comments at snyderp@gmail.com, or at his website www.peteresnyder.com. You can read is daily thoughts at snyderp.tumblr.com.

Again, this is an independent website that is not affiliated or connected to any organization including the developers' employers.

Trillion TV ad; Slams Reid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqtjYf6M4gU

Stop the Stimulus

From Read My Lipstick Network:

I don't normally send out group emails, but this one is SO critical. Let's make this viral! We only have TWO days left to stop the stimulus. Visit www.readthestimulus.org for details on the bill then be sure to go to www.nostimulus.com and sign the petition. Don't stop there, call Congress, write letters, post blogs, send emails, send faxes! If enough people call and voice their opinion we CAN stop the stimulus.

Join me in taking a stand in the first major policy battle of President Obama's Administration.

You've seen the coverage of the approximately $1 trillion debt scheme pushed by Speaker Pelosi and President Obama that's being called the "Stimulus Package."

Sadly, many politicians in Washington, DC really believe that driving our nation even deeper into debt and using our money for wasteful government spending boondoggles is the way to get us out of the current recession.

These political leaders don't realize that massive deficits, higher taxes, wasteful spending and heavy-handed regulation are primary reasons for the current recession.

You can fight back today by visiting www.NoStimulus.com and joining the growing army of taxpayers saying NO by signing Americans for Prosperity’s petition to stop this disastrous trillion-dollar debt scheme, known as the “Stimulus Package.”

It is critical that we send a loud and clear message to DC politicians that ordinary citizens simply cannot afford the crushing burden and devastating consequences of this initiative.

Please act now to make your voice heard -- and encourage your friends and family to do the same -- by signing AFP’s petition at www.NoStimulus.com.