Pork: The Other Right Meat

"Madam Speaker, this is a huge cow patty with a piece of marshmallow stuck in the middle of it, and I'm not going to eat that cow patty." - GA Congressman Paul Broun With Congress' unconstitutional decision to exact collective punishment on us all by using nearly one trillion U.S. tax dollars to engulf our entire nation in the bad debt of a few, we may still call ourselves America, but this is surely no longer the land of the Free, nor the Home of the Brave. It is the land of monstrous, tyrannical, socialist government that cares nothing for the backbone of this nation; the middle class.

---

We are slowly being suffocated to death under a pile of ever-increasing debt and are now being held hostage by thugs on Wall Street and within our own government whose collusion created this abomination. What is free about a country that disregards the will of 80 percent of the tax-paying, law-abiding public to rescue those who rolled the dice on their investments and came up with snake eyes? What is free about a market economy that has been repeatedly manipulated by the government in order to cover their lack of oversight and prevent that which would naturally occur in a true free-market economy? Republicans and Democrats alike have lifted a middle finger to all Americans who, over the last few decades, have fulfilled their social responsibility by maintaining good credit and living within their means. Together, these spendthrifts have taken the necessary steps to initiate the destruction of American capitalism through the socialization of our economy. While legislators and others are making all sorts of dire pronouncements of stock market meltdown and frozen credit markets, halting everything from home, auto and business loans to extensions of credit for businesses to meet payroll, the reality is quite different. • The very day of the failed House vote, when pundits began saying credit was frozen, a good friend of mine who is a loan officer closed two residential home loans. • On Friday, as the second House roll call vote was taking place, my wife received three separate credit offers worth a combined $70,000.00 from three different financial institutions for her small business, a solo venture with no capital that is barely 90 days old. One of these offers was from Washington Mutual, one of the very institutions at the center of this crisis. • I also received offers of credit that coincided with the televised tales of economic destruction and gridlocked credit markets. It doesn't take an economics major to see that Americans aren't being dealt with honestly. • There is a big stink beginning to emerge over one of these so-called "troubled Institutions". Both Wells Fargo and Citigroup are currently in a fierce bidding war over the purchase of Wachovia bank. Citigroup says had an exclusive agreement and has convinced a judge to temporarily halt the sale to Wells Fargo, who upped the offer. This type of free-market intervention is proof positive that this legislation could very well be entirely unnecessary, or at the very least, may have been passed with too much haste and too little deliberation. Credit has tightened. But only to the extent that lenders are no longer willing to give money to people with shaky credit histories or those who are basing their entire existence on credit. I don't blame them. For many years, credit was our culture. Many state governments abandoned all fiscal responsibility because of the ease with which they could obtain credit. California never needed to pass a budget on time or even balance it because they simply didn't have to. They could simply exist on credit. Many people in this country were encouraged to purchase homes they really couldn't afford based solely on falling interest rates. That anyone seeking help now is somehow a victim that needs to be rescued from foreclosure or bankruptcy is utter baloney. In 2003, Barney Frank, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee which is responsible for oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, was quoted as saying that both were "fundamentally sound, financially", in order to prevent adoption of rules which would restrict affordable housing to low-income individuals. Let's see: Democrats roasted John McCain for his comments that the "fundamentals of our economy were sound", but Barney Frank gets praised by Speaker Pelosi for the remarkable job he did "acting in such a thoughtful and intelligent manner" while crafting this abomination. But Democrats aren't the only ones who overreacted. No one knows whether throwing 700 billion dollars at this problem will fix it or not. But now we're committed. Beginning the same day the president's bed-wetting over the economy resulted in a near-panic, a chain of events was set in motion that ensured the stock market would collapse unless a bailout bill was passed by Congress. We were told that the huge drop in the stock market caused by the House's initial failure was just the beginning. And when the bill finally passed, did the stock market recover? No. In fact, after passage, the Dow collapsed another 157 points. Why? Lowered expectations. All week, the bailout was sold as an immediate solution. But after passage, it suddenly became several weeks before relief would begin to trickle in. Once it was safe to open their mouths, politicians everywhere freely admitted their plan may not even work. When the first House bill failed, many Republicans blamed their unwillingness to support that measure on ideological or philosophical differences with those who favored it. They voiced their unease at having the government socially engineer a solution that rewarded greed on Wall Street or irresponsibility on Main Street. So, what caused a 115-vote swing in favor of what was essentially the same bill that died a few days earlier over these ideological differences? It was attached to legislation brimming with goodies for states whose Senators were less than enthusiastic; • Federal timber payments for the state of Oregon. • Other federal payments to other states with federal lands. • Incentives for renewable energy. • Extensions on the business tax provisions concerning such items as economic development credits for American Samoa.  • Wooden arrows for the Boy Scouts. • Excise taxes on Puerto Rican rum • Motor sports race tracks • Wool duties • And even additional tax credits to those who don't itemize their deductions. Because bribery was the quickest way to ensure passage. The intent of Senate rules concerning floor procedure is to always favor deliberation over expeditious decision. During contentious negotiations, senators are supposed to favor strict interpretations of the intent of those rules. But they abandoned that traditional restraint and opened other loopholes in procedure to do that which the House could not because of constituent pressure. Once the Senate went on record, the outcome in the House was a foregone conclusion. Many House Republicans insist their awakening was due to calls from constituents who were getting financially hammered, but public opinion is still overwhelmingly against this massive government seizure. Congress believes that the solution for too much bad debt is to let the taxpayers acquire it by using parliamentary tricks and by packaging it inside a bill with enough wasteful spending and enticements to ensure its passage. Our national debt is obscene; now over 10 trillion dollars; a trillion of which was accumulated over just the last few months. But this is only the beginning of a Congressional spending spree the likes of which we've never seen. The states of California and Massachusetts now have their hands outstretched to the federal government for help. And there are no guarantees that Wall Street executives won't return with empty pockets six months from now and ask for more under threat of another collapse in stock prices. There is no limit to how much this could cost now that we've committed to fixing it. Wall Street will ensure we are kept hostage. We're fighting two wars, and battling high energy prices, We've now bailed out several corporations including a multi-billion dollar loan to the auto industry that was kept quiet. Presidential candidates still make regular promises of universal health care, increases in education spending, tax cuts and much more. Congress refuses to discuss spending cuts of any sort and pork-laden bills are still making their way to the floor.

WHERE DOES THIS END?

Congress failed all of America with this disastrous decision. It simply perpetuates the cycle of debt that caused it. It is essentially transferring your credit card balance from one card to another in the hopes of postponing the inevitable. This is not a financial or political crisis, but a generational crisis. The "Baby Busters" have completely lost control of themselves and their government. They are the children of those who weathered the crises of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. But they long ago rejected their parents' values of thrift and prudence and the end result is what we see reflected today in liberal ideology. A complete loss of moral, sexual, political and fiscal restraint leaving our entire nation fully engulfed in crisis.  Congress acted they way it did because many of them likely have stocks heavily invested in the very poison instruments killing our economy. Many admitted they may lose their seats over their votes, but were compelled to vote yes regardless. Although they would lose their jobs, at least their retirements would still be intact. My opinion, but a question worth seeking the answer to, if we are to ever understand what really happened. Many pundits have likened the process of negotiations over this bailout to making sausage. It was a fitting analogy. After all, the major constituent of sausage is that which even supposed conservatives cannot resist the smell of: Pork: The other Right meat.