Buffalo Boy's Blog
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Surprise, Surprise, Misused Funds
The US 1996 tobbaco settlement netted the US $61.5 billion between 2000 and 2006, gee guess who controlled both houses (senate and congress) and the presidency in that span?
They misused that money that went to the states. One of those expenditures was on a golf course in Niagara County. Other misuse of the funds included a museum in Alaska of all places. Imagine if all that money had gone where it was supposed to go. To say, I don't know, HEALTHCARE. It was supposed to go to healthcare programs, anti smoking programs and other health related programs but instead only 30% found its true purpose. The other 70% was squandered by a republican controlled Washington. Why does this kind of thing not surprise me. That is something that has gone relatively unnoticed but should have been a warning sign before we gave George W. and Hank Paulson $700 billion to play with at their discretion. Another question is this, instead of settling with tobacco companies why are we not just putting them out of business. Why are we still legalizing smoking/chewing tobacco in this country or anywhere. Its already to the point where pretty much the only place you can smoke legally is in your own home or backyard and thats if you don't have kids, which lets face it, if you smoke around your kids in an enclosed setting you should pretty much go to jail in my book. This country is so backwards. We sue big tobacco for billions, then we don't use it for healthcare and the use it was intended for. We ban it everywhere but we don't make it totally illegal. We tax the living shit out of it yet its still legal. That $61.5 billion could have gone a long way towards paying medicaid and even setting up universal healthcare, instead, our politicians use every excuse to misuse it on bullshit. And the republicans wonder why they were voted out. Im not saying that its not a bipartisan problem but lets face it, 2000-2006, they were in control of everything. Just think of the savings this country would experience if we banned smoking altogether. Just ended all sales of ciggarettes and made them totally illegal. The cancer rates in this country would plummet.Category: Politics | healthcare | money
Barack Obama and Joe
Barack Obama took 6 minutes to answer Joe "The Plumber's" question about taxes. He clearly states that he is restoring taxes to those making more than $250,000 (a very comfortable lifestyle) to Clinton rates from 36% to 39%. Thats 3 cents on the dollar. Last time I checked, during the Clinton years, things were going pretty well at the higher tax rate for the rich. Other case he made, if the folks below Mr. $250,000+ a year guy will have more to spend and therefore more to hire Mr. Small Business/$250,000 a year guy. So, because of the money that I save through reduced taxes, I can afford to go out and hire the small business guy who therefore gets more business and grows to a $500,000 a year guy. Well I specifically heard in there that Obama would then eliminate the capital gains tax. Also, for Mr. Small Business guy (and gal, want to be gender correct here), he would have a 50% tax credit on healthcare paid out to his/her employees. So, case in point, you might be paying 3% more in income tax, but you will be getting 50% back on healthcare costs and no more capital gains tax, doesn't sound so bad now does it?More For The Greedy Rich
What the hell is our Federal Government doing? AIG last month got $85 billion. Today, they get another $37 billion because as they say it will help them secure funds on an "as needed basis". Whats the matter, can't do that with the first $85 BILLION? Seriously? The killer is this news just goes right under the radar of the average American who if they knew would be outraged about this. This $700 billion deal is getting worse all the time. They got their money and they keep asking for and getting more. Eventually, you have to pry the baby away from the tit and let them go down in flames. They showed how irresponsible the were with money by having a $440,000 spa retreat for their executives which is really just obscene that they could do that and not expect people to be paying attention. McCain meanwhile last night if you caught it said we need $300 BILLION dollars to go towards buy bad debt and foreclosed homes and re-negotiate the deals.........at which point my jaw dropped and wondered again, what was that $700 billion for? McCain, we just gave the who thing $700 billion, why another $300 billion? The bailout was to secure the bad debt was it not? All at the same time he said that we needed a spending freeze, well what way are you going? Spending freeze or $300 billion? These people are as bad as Dr. Evil asking for money. They are evil in real life too for running this country into the ground.Obama Speaks, McCain Votes and Runs
Okay republican peoples, your highly regarded candidate who has been stating throughout this campaign that he is totally against pork barrel spending voted on this "bailout" that was loaded with all kinds of extras EXCEPT HELP FOR THE HOMEOWNERS WHO ARE GOING UNDER WITH THIS THING!!!!!!
Take a look at the list of "extras" that were attached to this thing:
- Economic incentives for American Samoan businesses
-$10,000 tax credit for training of mine rescue worker teams (suggesting that maybe those rescue teams aren't trained very well or at all to begin with)
- 50% immediate expensing for extra underground mine safety equipment (the republicans voted this down a while back after those workers were trapped, so much for supporting the worker)
- Tax credit for businesses with employees from an Indian reservation
- Accelerated depreciation for property used mostly on an Indian reservation
- 50% tax credit for some expenditures on maintaining railroad tracks. (I'd like to know which ones the next time I'm on a train.)
- 7-year recovery period for motorsports racetrack property (That is NASCAR pork! Could only be republican)
- Expensing of cleanup for brownfield contaminated sites (I would have to look this one up but if the Superfund bill was fully funded, which it is not because of the environmentally irresponsible administration in power, this would be not only funded already but paid for by companies that leave these sites in that state)
- Enhanced deductions for businesses donating computers and books to schools, and for food donations (This is good pork and much needed in inner city schools lacking resources)
- Reduction of import duties on some imported wool fabrics, transfers and other duties to Wool Trust Fund to promote competitiveness of American wool........(Sorry, but what the fuck where these guys doing the last two or three days?)
- Special expensing rules for film and TV productions (Huh?)
- deduction for income from domestic production in Puerto Rico (again WTF?)
- Increasing cover of rum excise tax revenues to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (This might be the wierdest and most meaningless of the bunch and who the hell thought of this one?)
- Making it easier for film and TV companies to use deduction for domestic production.
-Exempting children's wooden arrows from excise tax.......(Okay I lied, this one is the wierdest one, was Palin and Quayle sitting in on this? Where did this shit come from? Where does this type of thing even warrant enough attention to even be talked about by any Senator or Congressman? Prior to reading this, I haven't seen a wooden arrow, well, I have never seen a wooden arrow and what parent in their right mind would let their kids play with arrows?)
-Income averaging for Exxon Valdez litigants for tax purposes.
Okay, there is a huge problem with this, not just because of the ridiculous crap that our lawmakers, and there is NO debating, both Republican AND Democrats had their hand on this, but while we are being told that this country is facing an economic meltdown these heartless, gutless, overpaid, lying politicians are sitting on Capital Hill coming up with shit so meaningless to attach it to a bill of this magnitude!
We should be outraged! Total crap, we were told when this thing first came down the pipe that last MONDAY if they didn't get this $700 billion that the economy would certainly crash, so far SO GOOD!
These stupid additions cost this thing an additional $150 billion dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That brings the price tag to $850 billion of our money. 8 out of 10 congressmen don't have economic educational backgrounds. Thats shameful, these guys voting on this don't have the background to understand the problem.
I have a lot of republican readers and Im sure democrats would agree, this is totally irresponsible. Notice that nothing of what was in the above and nothing in any of the other add ons addressed the middle class of this country and nothing addressed the root of the problem. I have a great idea, let the American taxpayers vote on this thing on November 4th, and in the process of us voting for it, VOTE THEM ALL OUT, EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WHO SUPPORTED THIS PIECE OF CRAP!
Senate Passes Bailout Without One Vote From You and I
How bad is this, not just $700 billion, $810 billion including tax breaks to businesses and middle class families. They voted on it and passed this "bailout" in the Senate, citing that they were doing it for the "American people".
Really? I don;t remember getting the chance to vote on whether or not I wanted my politicians, the ones that are supposed to be acting on our behalf when they spend our money, to actually spend that money on a bailout.
They voted on it without asking us, the American people first. This bill and bailout is bullshit and they know it, I know it and if the people of this country don't think so then they are blind to what has been going on.
Its a sad night and we can only hope that congress acts like they did on Monday and vote it down again. This bailout is fraudulant and they are spending our money without our consensus. Its the biggest robbery in the history of this country and its been done by the people we elect.
There's only one thing left to do, vote each and every single incumbent out of there. All of them. Everyone I have talked to over the last several days feels this bailout is wrong. I can't see that attitude being any different amongst the vast majority of this country.
Bush's Economy
Here is the data on the Bush Economy, Every essentially down. Take a look at the NASDAQ and the dollar against the Euro. This isn't the Clinton era at all. This is under Bush. Clinton left office January 19th, 2001. So again, 6 years of a Republican controlled White House, Senate and House, and the last two years, Bush has vetoed everything from the Democrats.
January 19, 2001: 10,587.59
September 29, 2008: 10,365.45
NASDAQ Jan 19, 2001 = 2770.38
NASDAQ September 29, 2008 = 1983.73
CPI, January 19, 2001: 175
CPI, September 29, 2008: 219
Dollar exchange with Euro, January 19, 2001: 1.068
Dollar exchange with Euro, September 29, 2008: .695
Category: Miscellaneous | money
Just Remember On November 4th
THIS GUY, THIS PATHETIC POWER HUNGRY JACK OFF, HIS ADMINISTRATION AND PARTY HAD THE SINGLE BIGGEST HAND IN THIS MESS.
Once again, evidence that this guy is the single worst president in the history of this country. Why we are not as citizens on the White House lawn protesting this and calling for the immediate impeachment of this administration is beyond me.
The democrats are in a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation. If they pass this thing and it still goes wrong or there is not enough help for "mainstreet" then they look bad, if its not passed then the market crashes.
Don't let McCain fool you either by saying that he tried to save this thing. It was republican votes not democrat votes that killed this bailout so McCain has absolutely no influence in his own party. That and the genius he has as his running mate has no clue what she is getting into.
McCain said he was rushing to Washington, cancelling appearances and ends up staying in New York City over night and left the following afternoon! Then gets there and doesn't say a word!
This thing is ugly but more so on the Republican side, there is no doubting that. They put us here with their deregulation of the markets and then the markets abused the lack of oversight this administration provided them.
This thing is screaming for an independent party to emerge, someone who is honest with the people, they need a third guy on that stage in the next two debates. This is where we throw out the two party system and get a third party involved in this thing. Because as much as I am a democrat and liberal at heart, I don't trust either side, especially the Republicans.
The republicans voted this thing down because they are scared to death of voting for it and then seeing that the followed another failed Bush policy. They have been following him for the last 8 years and its finally starting to come to a head.
Back In July I Posted This
Back in July I posted these Youtube audio files of the Michael Herzong show America Awakening. He was talking about the secret congressional hearings back in March that discussed the possible failing of this economy in or around September of 2008. Well here we are, and guess what, I didn't get too many comments on it, probably because everyone thought it was liberal BS....but again here we are.
If you didn't listen to this when I posted back in July, take a listen:
Pre-emptive Financial War on US
Wow, this is so interesting. I said it last week, this $700 billion dollar bailout will not and should not happen without regulatory guarantees to the American taxpayers.
These institutions are not federally insured like a bank. These institutions that failed are failing on their own accord, on deregulation that they wanted and this Administration granted knowing this was going to be the result. Now as Randi Rhodes points out today on her web site and during her radio show on AM 1520.
Its really refreshing to hear a voice on the radio that knows what they are talking about, this was her response today to the whole mess of last week:"Bush and Cheney allowed everything and anything in Financial Markets to occur and then after the heist do they have to return the money? Hell no. YOU put the money back into their failed businesses. Yep. This has been the greatest con job, bank heist, rip off, robbery, raping of the US Treasury in the History of the World. Even if you don't think it was grand theft, bailing out broke Financial Institutions who failed to safeguard their money makes sense to NO ONE.
The crisis isn't really a crisis either. This is PRE EMPTIVE.
One solution would be to simply negotiate with you. Too simple, and who makes money that way?
The newspapers were screaming there is worthless paper out there being sold and resold to Financial Institutions. This can't work. And then it didn't. It wasn't just houses, it was OIL too. Fake value was put on a barrel of crude by speculators. The President did nothing. The cost of everything sky rocketed. Then speculators bet the price would go down and it did. But the price at the pump stayed the same. That's because there was no relationship between the price of crude and the price at the pump. It was all just manipulation.
Now in the middle of the night, over a weekend THE BAILOUT "plan" appears. There are no new regulations attached to receiving the Bail Out money so this could happen all over again, and there are no "people" to sort through these loans so we have to "contract out" that job on top of it.
This is THE PATRIOT ACT ALL OVER AGAIN. Anything Congress RUSHES through will be THE WRONG RESPONSE and take from you all that you have. Freedom, privacy, money, credit, all of it must go!
The massive "bailout package" has to be paid for. How? Perhaps a massive tax increase, definitely very tight credit markets for you and for small businesses.
There will be bank merger after bank merger which will limit competition for loans and bank services. The Treasury will hire "contractors" through "no bid contracts" to place a "value" on valueless paper and set the price YOU have to pay to settle all the debt. NO one will really know how to price these things. NO one will know what they're doing, but everyone will get INTO THE BUSINESS of buying and selling these worthless assets.
There will be a bail out of both foreign and domestic banks with your tax dollars, and all of this will happened without REGULATIONS or OVERSIGHT . THE REAL SOLUTION IS THE ONE YOU KNOW. If the markets were regulated NOW and Mortgage holders would be permitted to renegotiate the principal on their home loans this would STOP dead in it's tracks.
Every individual with a bad loan could offer to pay 60 cents on the dollar, more or less and keep their home. If we could make deals with credit card companies to settle our debts this would stop now because we'd have more money in our pockets to prop up the Economy.
If we raised taxes on Billionaires who created this mess and forced them to pay for this, This would stop NOW. If we lowered taxes on Small Businesses and gave them low cost inventory loans THIS WOULD STOP NOW. If we lowered taxes on everyone making less than 2M a year, and raised taxes through the roof on those who had profits of over $10 Million this would stop NOW. Small businesses would pop up all over America and people could go back to work, small business would flourish and the taxes we pay at the lower rates would pay down the DEBT. If we left Iraq NOW we would add 10 Billion a MONTH to the Treasury.
This Government Bailout of banks BEFORE they fail, including FOREIGN BANKS with Taxpayer dollars is PRE EMPTIVE FINANCIAL WAR on the American People. It is the last part of Shock and Awe."
You go Randi!
