Scary phrase

[aj]

The scariest phrase in the English language.."Hi, we're from the federal government, and we're here to help!" It is comical to watch congress try and micro-manage the bussinesses they tried to bail out. Government and Bureauacrats are so inefficient. Barney Frank and congress will probably now spend 200 million dollars trying to get the 150 million dollars of bonuses back from the AIG. Like always it is symbolism over substance. Barney Frank can't manage his own life and congress let alone every business in the world. Jimmy Carter was great at micro-management.....look how his presidental term turned out. Nixon tried to freeze prices,wages,whatever, and that was a disaster.Big government is not good and good government is not big. Just keep it simple stupid will be the phrase 4 years from now. Oh yes Obama is going to do late night now. I guess this is a modern feable attempt at a FDR "fireside chat"? Just feel right. I guess polls say 50% of the american public doesn't read and they get their news from the comedy channel,saturday night live, and Rachel Maddow this might be a political savy move. I MISS RONALD REAGAN! I know....there I go again. ;D

 

[justintime]

How about the multi million $ bonuses paid to AIG execs? The US government bails them out to the tune of a few Billion dollars and takes 80 % ownership in return, and then they give their top executives millions in bonuses. I heard yesterday that 11 top executives received bonuses of over $7 million each! There were also another group of executives that took the bonuses and then left the company. This is total insanity. This is more proof that governments should do what they were elected to do... that being govern... and quite messing with bailouts to any corporation. If a major company falls, the pieces will be picked up by some other company and they will run with it. It might also teach some of these high and mighty executives that there are consequences to their actions. This stuff makes me sick.I hope Obama and his crew find some way to strip these bonuses from every one of them.

GM in Canada just renegotiated a new deal with it's workers. I heard the Union leader on the radio and if I had been closer I would have smacked him on the side of the head. He was going on and on about the concessions the Union has given up to keep GM in business. It ended up that they agreed to pay $30 per month for a part of their health care package, but they kept their 4 spa days per worker, as well as their extended holiday periods. I almost when through the roof when he said that the average salary was approximately $50 per hour yet. Give me a break!  More proof that the entire world is slowly going mad!

 

[Jill]

It is my opinion that some of these folks should be in jail instead they are collecting a bonus for failure, I just don't understand how that works.
If you scam people out of billions in the stock market they call you a thief and prosecute, if you do it as a stimulous package it's ok, I also miss Ronald Reagan!

 

[farwest]

is that 50 per hour actual wage or total package.  Big difference.

 

[kanshow]

I miss Reagan too

 

[vc]

I believe that that would be their burdened wage. Puts them in line with Toyota, Nissan and the others, at one point I read that the auto workers in the big three in the US were getting around 75 dollars an hour burdened out. I also read that the first 5000-7000 dollars of each car goes to pay all the employees benefits, working and retired.

 

[farwest]

The us auto workers salary is very similar to Toyota and the Japanese until you get to benefits. Then the big difference is healthcare.  Our auto workers have company healthcare. Japanese have government health care. So let's go to government health care here. Even it up and let every one quit the whining

 

[knabe]

So let's go to government health care here.

where's that money going to come from?  why shouldn't all aspects of the economy be state driven?  which one's should be separate?

who will make the rules to ration health care?

who will make the rules to mandate controlled diets and excercise programs because it cost the government money?

where does the government stop?

why not just go to a one world currency and world courts?  it would be "cheaper".

let no one be responsible for themselves.

why not just have everyone work for the government.  it would be cheaper.

 

[farwest]

My point exacty.

 

[knabe]

    After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.

    Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

    The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.


revolt now before it's too late.  risking public safety?  what an idiot.  why even fly?

hiring SUPERVISORY STAFF with lifetime benefits and retirement which guarantees a voting constituency is the issue, not public safety.

if the left cared about anything, especially the female left, they would take on female genital mutiliation of girls of 6-8 years of age performed sometimes with broken glass.  but no, they are too worried that someone might eat horse meat in a foreign country.  well, those little girls are in a foreign country, and that culture is already here, yet there is NOT A PEEP from the left, especially women's groups.  desire must be eliminated.

and this, for obama's first judge appointment.

    Hamilton has been involved in several controversial cases. In 2005, he ruled that the daily invocation of the Indiana House too often referred to Jesus Christ and a Christian god, in violation of the Constitution, which forbids the government to show preference for any religious denomination. The decision was overturned on appeal on technical grounds.

    In 2003, Hamilton struck down part of an Indiana law requiring abortion clinics to give women information about alternatives to abortion in the presence of a physician or nurse. The information had to be given to women 18 hours before the procedure, requiring them to make two visits to the doctor’s office to obtain the procedure. That decision was also overturned on appeal.

the left hates choice.  must suppress alternatives.  women should not be encouraged to EVEN THINK OF ADOPTION.  of course the left will say they have already thought about it.  no hurdle must be allowed for human life.  but we can't slaughter horses.

 

[aj]

I don't like all this ruckus though. We have the media and Democrats and Republicans and the public raising hell. We have our hunting dogs out and our torches lit, and we have circled the tree and we are throwing rocks at the boogie man in the tree. And by god we will not leave untill fall when the leaves come off the tree and there is nothing there. Business is not the enemy! However, in politics perception is reality. It is not governments role to determine how much people make in business's. The bonuses in question are 1.4 % of the AIG bailout. The bonuses are .oo1 % of the latest bailout. The boogy man is standing behind our crowd curiously watching us as we spend all this time and energy on nothing. Look at the new proposed budget. That is what is going to kill our grandchildren fiscally. There is a difference between 145 million dollars and a trillion dollars. Words mean things. Look at the % of a trillion dollars against the "gross national product" figures. The government should never tell a business how much to pay its employees. Should we jump all over the Katie Couric,Rachael Maddow, Bill Oreily salary packages? Hell no! If you want to we are socialists and it is over. The federal government cannot manage businesses. Congress has spent more money in 60 days than Bush did in 8 years. We are entering a period of unbelieveable spending. Its not about the economy, it is about big government. Holly cow, we haven't even got to the socialized medicine yet. jmho

 

[aj]

Obama fired some exectutive in GM. Here's a guy who has never had a job, never run a business, and was brought up through the most corrupt political organization ( Chicago politics). Big government is micromanaging businesses when it is proposing trillions of dollars of annual debt in their upcoming budgets. Its kinda like Stalin running an anger management school in my opinion.

 

[BIGTEX]

If you want an example of the Government not working, just look at the US Postal Service. Their needing another bailout. Who on earth likes going down to the DMV? They are screwing up more than I ever thought was possible.

 

[jeffb1]

AJ, hard to disagree with most of your posts, however, the gov't is not attempting to "micro-manage" businesses. They are, unfortunately, actively macro-managing several. Agree on Obama's push to socialism. Disagree with the idea that health insurance be a gov't program for everyone(see other posts on gov't track record of "managing" business). Yes there needs to be consideration, but handing it over to the gov't, especially under this administration is fiscal suicide. With regard to the AIG bonus issue, yes it is outrageous, but there is something more disturbing occurring. While our politicians are pointing the finger at AIG(and rightfully so) they are collecting PAC money from some of the same "TARP" companies they are critisizing. Moreover, a recent article on CNNmoney.com identified BILLIONS in bonuses paid to GOVERNMENT ee's!!! Wouldn't this be the first "cut" to make as a new administration??? I tried to locate this article to link to my post here, but could not retrieve it from their archives(within the last couple weeks). Perhaps someone else who is less technologically disadvantaged as I, could take a look. It was disturbing. JB

 

[knabe]

i'm not clear on why it's an outrage to honor a contract that pays bonuses for work that was done.  the AIG bonuses are simply a political ploy by the republicans and democrats to play class warfare.  unfortunately, the public is a sucker for victim oppressor tactics for votes.  the bailout is simply the same thing.  it's all about votes, payoffs to unions and various constituencies and has NOTHING to do with a bailout.  but of course the public is too stupid and can only see through the lens of democrats and republicans and can't see they are the same monarchistic party with no turnover.

 

[jeffb1]

knabe, while I agree with many of your posts, I would prefer not to argue semantics with you. Perhaps I can provide some clarity to my use of the  word "outrageous" in my previous post. Just because someone is contractual obligated to pay a bonus, doesn't make it right. There is a difference between something being legal vs. ethical and that is my point of "outrage". JB

 

[knabe]

knabe, while I agree with many of your posts, I would prefer not to argue semantics with you. Perhaps I can provide some clarity to my use of the  word "outrageous" in my previous post. Just because someone is contractual obligated to pay a bonus, doesn't make it right. There is a difference between something being legal vs. ethical and that is my point of "outrage". JB

the constitution protects post facto transactions.  what was outrageous was the contract itself, who knew about what and when they knew it and who wrote exceptions.  of course NO ONE will vote dodd out of office.  that is the outrage.  if the government purchased a stake in a company but the employees started leaving, what solutions do you suggest?

my outrage is the government thinking it needs to be involved in this mess at all.  now they fired the pres of GM.  i am outraged at obama, bush, all these idiots.  to me, their involvement in the economy is like a huge PHA/TH issue on steroids.  no good can come of it.

 

[knabe]

here's more outrage

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/30/aig-chiefs-pressed-to-donate-to-dodd/

"Given his seniority in the Senate, he will also play a key role in the Democratic Majority's leadership," Mr. Cassano wrote in the message, obtained by The Washington Times.

Mr. Dodd's campaign quickly hit pay dirt, collecting more than $160,000 from employees and their spouses at the AIG Financial Products division (AIG-FP) in Wilton, Conn., in the days before he took over as the committee chairman in January 2007. Months later, the senator transferred the donations to jump-start his 2008 presidential bid, which later failed.

no one will notice.

 

[jeffb1]

knabe, no doubt Dodd is a poster boy for what's wrong in washington. My sloution is simple, but most likely will never happen. In a democracy we need to eliminate apathy and engage accountability at all levels of gov't. JB

 

[knabe]

eliminate apathy and engage accountability at all levels of gov't. JB

apathy guarantees the dissolution of the republic and a descent into democracy (mob rule).