The latest insight into the housing Obamanation was reported today at CNBC but isn’t getting a whole lot of real press.  It’s rather like bankruptcy but with only half the stigma. 

One of the ways in which those Democratic knights in shining armor intend to help all those “overextended” homeowners, hidden in the depths of President Obama’s mortgage modification plan, is to pay mortgage servicers to write off second liens.   You know, those home equity loans or home equity lines of credit that so many people have used for instant gratification, to “fluff up” their lifestyle with things like new cars, big screen televisions, a trip to Europe, a swimming pool, or a fancy addition on their house.

All those things some of us pay for through more traditional means of financing, including cash.

Sure, some people have used the equity in their home for truly responsible things, like college tuition, but the truth is that enough of it went for non-necessities that this is far too grey area at which to toss even more of the responsible American taxpayer’s money.

It’s always nice to see more people speaking out.

“…many of us are hoping that all those in power fail. Because those in power have a grating habit of being annoyingly self-righteous, hopelessly corrupt, resolutely incompetent and completely apathetic about the freedoms that they have sworn to protect.

Embrace the failure. It’s patriotic. “

Among the more interesting….

Wed., March 4, 10:00 AM
Senate – Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs – Investigations Subcommittee
Hearings to examine tax haven banks and United States tax compliance, focusing on obtaining names of United States clients with Swiss Accounts. – SD-342

Wed., March 4, 02:30 PM
Senate – Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs – Investigations Subcommittee
Hearings to examine tax haven banks and United States tax compliance, focusing on obtaining names of United States clients with Swiss Accounts. – SH-216

 

 

Nice “teaser”, Foxnews.com.  Looking to drive some ratings?  Sure hope it worked.  Though “worked”, perhaps, in ways you didn’t quite imagine.

Personally, I’ve never listened to Rush Limbaugh.  Never ever.  But what with the newly-Democrat-directed world spinning heedlessly out of control, and what with President Obama’s insistence on “change”, I decided to tune in and hear what Rush might have to say.  And much to my surprise, there was no “lashing out”.  Indeed, his address to CPAC was rather tame, and he could have found some of his material in the blogs right here at Smoke Break.  (Not that we’re unique, mind you; but to hear your words spoken on national television is rather amusing.)

I’ve never considered myself a literal conservative, and have resisted others putting such a label on me.  But if agreeing with Rush’s assessment of what it means to be a conservative, well, I guess I’ll go ahead and wear the t-shirt proudly.  It was hard to find argument with what he had to say, particularly his referencing the disembowling of the Constitution.  One particularly poignant observation is that the President and Congress take an oath to “defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States”.

For those unfamiliar with these oaths, I present them here for your reading pleasure:

At the start of a term in Congress:  “I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter:  So help me God.”

The Constitution (Article 2, Section 1) states that before assuming office the President must take the following oath or affirmation:  “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Is it pointing out that the Emperor is naked to ask how, pray tell, how President Obama and those riding his silver-tongued coattails could have possibly pledged to such an endeavor when they do not believe in it?  To quote President Obama from The Audacity of Hope, “What the framework of our Constitution can do is organize the way by which we argue about our future. All of its elaborate machinery – its separation of powers and checks and balances and federalist principles and Bill of Rights – are designed to force us into a conversation….”  He also has said that the Constitution, “says what the states can’t do to you, says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf.”

This is from a man who taught Constitutional law?  I don’t have a law degree but it’s pretty obvious.  Such missing “doing” was precisely what was intended by the Founding Fathers.  They wisely disallowed “conversation”, putting in those checks and balances to keep Big Government at bay and thereby encouraging individual initiative and individual expression, which in turn creates far greater and farther-reaching good than any government could possibly hope to create.

There are so many ways Rush could have ripped this so-called former Constitutional law professor to shreds, to be honest about it.  But he didn’t.

Pity.

“It appears that you can write down everything Obama knows about economics, wad it up and shove it up an ant’s butthole and it would rattle around like a BB in a boxcar.”

(Source:  comment at Hotair)

 

(Yes, we know full well that this isn’t exactly “politically correct”, however, we find the imagery sublimely hysterical.)

Take a deficit that has expanded to the ^HIGHEST ever in history and a President who says, “I’ll cut it by 50%; better yet we’ll save $2 TRILLION in 10 years.”

Let’s look at that 50% cut first.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has already said that the $1.4+ trillion deficit will be down to $701 billion if nothing is done.  Why?  Because that $800 billion is only for two years (supposedly) and IF this big pork package does anything, or if we just come out of this recession in spite of it, it will be at the $500 billion mark.  Tada!

Now, on the $2 trillion savings:  a good chunk of this is using figures as if the war in Iraq lasts till 2019 and the tax cuts don’t expire in 2010. If the war is over by then (and it will be), just like the taxes will expire, you get the $2 trillion savings without doing a damn thing.

Aha!  But here is how that really works.  They have this budget thing called a baseline, so let’s pretend that spending is increased by 20% one year for, say, Medicaid.  That 20% is added to the baseline numbers.  If someone says we are going to take 10% ofthat this year, in governmental weasel-speak it becomes a 10% cut.

The funding for the war in Iraq was always done in a special bill so was never added to the Department of Defense’s yearly budget.  Now it is going to be added – that transparency thing, you know – so we will have have the grand weasel-speak announcement at some point that $190 billion was cut from defense spending.

Another way this can be used is, for example, say the Department of Education submits their annual budget and they want 15% more than the prior year.  But someone in Congress or even the President says (he can say whatever he wants but it is up to Congress if it happens) no, you only need a 7% increase. Depending on who wants to make political hay, it either comes across in weasel-speak as “OH MY GOD!  They’re cutting education spending by 8%!” or “Yahoo! Look how wonderful and responsible we are because we cut education spending by 8%!”  When, in actuality, spending on education actually increased by 7%.

Congress writes the bills and appropriates the money, don’t forget that. The President can request money with Congress’ yea or nay and if Congress gets too out of hand the President can veto the spending bill.  Which can be overridden by a 2/3 majority vote of the Congress critters.

So who is really in charge of the purse strings? Pelosi and Reid.  That oughta make you feel real warm and fuzzy.

I suppose if anyone would know the cost of replacing military aircraft, it would be Senator John McCain.  Having ended up with 5 of them damaged during his military service, it somehow – ironically – hysterically, even – makes sense that he would be the one to question the administration’s inclusion of an overrunning $11.2 billion to buy 28 Marine One helicopters in the military procurement budget.

All kidding aside, it’s a valid question.  Of course, there may be a reason for having 28 helicopters to cart around 1 president, but the military, like God, apparently works in mysterious ways.

And when you’re more popular than God, I suppose it’s only natural that it all becomes even more mysterious.

This past Friday (2/20/09), ABC’s Terry Moran went on the record about White House reporting with mediabistro.com during their Morning Media Menu podcast.  In an affront to every drop of blood ever shed in the creation and in the defense of this fair Republic, he actually had the cajones (or the lack of simple intelligence) to make the following statement:

“In some ways Barack Obama is the first president since George Washington to be taking a step down into the oval office.  From visionary leader of a giant movement, now he’s got an executive position that he has to perform in, in a way, and I think the coverage reflects that,” he said.

Old George may not have been perfect; indeed, none of the Founding Fathers of this country would dare lay such claim, but they were far more visionary than Barack Hussein Obama could ever possibly dream of being.  And I’m quite sure they kissed the mirror a whole lot less.  The President’s not-so-secret wish to turn the Republic of the United States of America into a socialist state, or worse, a fascist regime, likely finds those wise old souls spinning in their graves at 50,000 rpms.  Their intention was never that one man – one man who has never held a real job in his entire life – would presume to tell the people of this country how they should live.

Yet such is the mantra of Barack Hussein Obama.  You became wealthy by working hard and fairly to deliver a quality product or service?  No, no; bad business owner!  You must share the gains of your sweat with those who don’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain.  To those senseless and therefore rather damp types, he’s taking on the role of the father they never had; promising them a bright future as long as they heed his always-knows-better Ivy League advice.

In a word, it’s bullshit.  Certainly Terry Moran is entitled to his opinion, however, those in the public eye and therefore in a position of influence really ought to be very, very careful just how they wield it.  Barack Hussein Obama is no Abraham Lincoln, and he’s no George Washington, either.  Having no real and tangible achievements on his resume, he then only aspires to greatness and, if we must be so bold as to write it out loud, is less honestly qualified to be president than it is that he merely put himself in the right place at the right time.  When he won the presidential election, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his lack of qualifications are evidenced by the unending revolving door of lying, cheating cabinet candidates, by the fact that he did not read the $787 billion stimulus bill, by the fact that there was no promised transparency with that bill, either; and that after a mere 3 weeks in office – despite his gloom and doom admonitions about the grave situation with the American economy and the urgency of the “fix” of that stimulus bill – instead of focusing on critical matters, like, say, actually reading the bill, he simply had to jet away from the overheated Orchid office on the American taxpayers’ dime to wine and dine his wife back home in Chicago in order to gird his loins for the oh-so-stress-filled, Herculean task of signing that pork-laden monstrosity into law.

Call me a conservative.  Call me tough.  Call me anything but late for that Wagu-beef dinner, but by no stretch of the imagination is that the definition of a leader, let alone a GREAT leader.  It’s the definition of a sub-par employee who needs to be put on a performance improvement plan and someone else put in charge of the Kool-Aid.

Remember that video about the woman Acorn helped break (back) into her house?  Did you watch it, all the while thinking, “Poor baby?”

Time for a re-think.

Here is an excerpt of the story from the good Acorn folks:

“Donna used bolt cutters to break the lock to the door and re-enter the home. Unfortunately, in the six short months since the home was seized, it has been extensively damaged, essentially partially gutted. The toilets are missing, and the upstairs ceiling is badly damaged. The greatest tragedy here is that Donna worked for months with ACORN sister organization ACORN Housing Corporation to try to get the bank to modify the loan so it could be affordable, but they refused, taking the home and now allowing it to be a haven for squatters and a target of looters.

“In Houston, where one in three homes sold in January was a foreclosure and foreclosure sales accounted for 34 percent of all homes sold – a 9-percent jump from the same time last year, Sara Chavez announced her refusal to leave here home. “My mother and I don’t leave,” she said. A mother of three who cares for her sick mother, she has owned her house since 2004, but has seen her mortgage payment double from $1,000 to $2,000. She joined with ACORN Home Defenders to declare her neighborhoods a “Foreclosure Free Zone”. And the Home Defenders backed her up.  ACORN member Pennie Saldivar said, “We want to fix this problem.  We are willing to go to any means necessary”.

What isn’t mentioned is that Donna Hanks is leader in Baltimore ACORN.  Are you starting to smell anything yet?

No?

Well, here is a comment about this story.  As Paul Harvey likes to say, it is “the rest of the story”.  Read it and weep.

“Thought you might be interested in some REAL information related to this foreclosure; Donna Hanks initially purchased her home (315 South Ellwood, Baltimore, MD 21224) on 7/06/2001 for $87,000.  At some date between 2001 and 2006 she re-financed the original mortgage for the amount of $270,000 with a mortgage payment of $1,662.00.  The FIRST foreclosure on this home was filed 5/31/2006.  Donna Hanks filed for bankruptcy 6/16/06 during which a payment plan was approved for the $10,500 she was behind in her payments.  This action stopped the original foreclosure.  When she did not meet the terms of the bankruptcy re-payment, a second foreclosure action was started in January 2008.  At the time she had not made her mortgage payments since September 2007.  It should be noted that her salary per the bankruptcy paperwork was $1625 per month and she was working a 2nd and 3rd job (supposedly giving her an additional $1,275 in monthly income – the employers were not listed).  Over extended?

“Also, during 2007 she was renting our her basement illegally (she was taken to court) and receiving rent while she was not making her mortgage payments.  The mortgage company “raised” her payment $300 a month – right?  Well, not exactly; it was $340.  The amount that she had agreed to pay back in arrears.  Not exactly truthful, but what I would expect from a person with her criminal record (theft and assault 2nd degree and possession of a dangerous weapon with intent to injure).  Oh and there is the small matter of breaking and entering.  The house at 315 South Ellwood had already been sold at auction on 6/26/08 for $192,000.  It just took them until September 2008 to get her out . Nothing like public information – it seems Acorn could have found this same information before they helped this “poor” victimized woman.”

When questioned about the source of this information, the poster of the comment admitted to simply purusing public records* and included another comment:

” Hanks, who works in hotel catering, refinanced the house several times since buying it to pay for renovations. She also had to pay medical bills, because she is uninsured. The last time around, in 2005, she responded to a flyer in the mail, and got a loan of nearly 250-thousand dollars. Wells Fargo, she says, subsequently bought the loan.  (story quote)

“This woman just can’t keep her stories straight. In another interview she said she was a union worker, you ever hear of a union worker without health insurance?  She did have medical bills to pay – however she didn’t pay them according to public records.  Also, the loan was for $270,000 which closed in 2005 (if we can believe that part of her story) and by May 2006 she was already $10,500 behind in her payments.  She must have went on one heck of spending spree to blow through the almost $200,000 she netted from the re-fi.”

If ACORN intends to defend this kind of stupidity, this country needs to be defended from ACORN because it’s quite clear, at least to me, why they are named after a tree nut.

UPDATE 2/23/09:  If you are too lazy to go research the documents referenced here, blogger Michelle Malkin has posted them.

 

 

* -Property records can be found here:  http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/rp_rewrite/ (search by address)
Maryland court records can be found here:  http://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/inquiry/inquiry-index.jsp
Maryland bankruptcy records are available on Pacer:  https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl (requires registration and they charge about $0.08 per page)

Before we go into anything in depth, I want you to take a look at your own paycheck.  For illustration, I’ll do one:

Gross (what you earn):               $1,000.00
Net (what’s left after taxes):      $    650.00

Still looks pretty good; especially if you add a bunch of zeros on the end.

But wait, you aren’t done yet.  You have to pay for utilities, a baby sitter, couple of loans, cars, etc.

So, when all is said and done, let’s say you have $100.00 left. With that you need to fix the roof, buy food, buy gas for your car, and maybe put some in the bank for a rainy day. That $100.00 is known as your profit margin, and in our little example here, that is 10% of your gross pay.

Now let’s take a look at the Big & Evil that we, the little people, always have to have, according to the government.  These are those Someones keeping us down; you can pick your favorite whipping-boy here.

Big Bad Insurance Companies – car, home and health. Am I giving these guys a pass? Not at all; but what you don’t know is when various politicians  throw out those huge numbers, 99.9% of the time those huge numbers are the GROSS.  That said, most of the time insurance companies have some pretty dandy net profits, too; at least until something bad happens. For example, a hurricane hits Florida; the coast is usually the hardest hit, it usually has the most expensive homes, cars, etc. and Big Buck$ go rolling out so those folks can rebuild their houses.  In the exact same spot.  And YOUR insurance rates go up.  But just let an insurance company try to place some restrictions on what they will and won’t insure.  The law suits fire up and the politicians start yelling to the roof tops about how “big insurance is screwing the little guy”.

Big Bad Oil – especially Exxon!  Heck, Exxon rules the world, doesn’t it? It sets those hideously high oil prices to rape the “little people” because  Exxon rules! Well, except when it doesn’t. Exxon is number 16 on the list for size and oil reserves; BP and Chevron are lower than that. Oil prices are set on the world market by investors and it is “usually” based on supply and demand. Except for that last big run that no one has quite been able to explain yet; however, Exxon is not allowed to play the market and, believe me, if it ever did THAT would be major news.  In contrast, there are no such rules for OPEC or other “state run” oil companies who are all much larger than Exxon and whose  countries are absolutely dependent on oil for revenue. 

Oh, here’s a little tidbit.  Exxon’s PROFIT MARGIN is 8-10%; please see paycheck above.  To put this in perspective for you, electronics, clothing retailers and others operate at a 15-25% profit margin.

Tidbit #2:  when they talk about the USA consuming 24% of the world’s energy, what they don’t tell you is  that “per capa” use means individual energy consumption compared to other industrialized countries with about the same wealth, but smaller populations. Guess what?  Our “per capa” usage is just about the same.

Let’s look at Big Bad Pharma, too (pharmaceutical companies).  It costs millions of dollars, sometimes billions, to bring just one new drug to market.  First is the Research and Development phase, then come the safety trials, then all the jumping through hoops with the FDA, and last, but not least, of course and inevitably, the law suits.  I am actually amazed that any new drugs are even developed in this day and age.  I can just about bet that if all this regulatory, law suit crap was going on way back when that penicillin would have never made it out of the gate.  Ever think about that?

Bottom line here:  are all the above companies perfect?  Heck, no; they are run by humans and, this may be another real shocker to you, they are run for PROFIT. Yep, a profit! And better yet, the more profit they make the more folks they hire; you know, those “‘little people”.  And some of those companies actually have profit sharing plans.

Wow!

Yet in this day and age it seems that many folks think businesses are here to provide jobs.  Wrong.  People start business in order to make money. They take the risk, put their own money at risk, and if they are very,very lucky it works.  Most don’t, but jobs for the “little people” is just a nice benefit if it does work. They do not owe you a job, and to be perfectly honest they don’t owe you any of their profits, either.  Hint:  the day companies are ordered to share the majority of their profits with their workers they will leave and there isn’t a law that can be made that can stop them. Call them greedy if you will, but how greedy are you?

One other thing about the big, bad and uglies noted above is that they employ loads of folks that buy stuff; “little people” that buy cars, houses etc.  All those things that help this economy churn along. Big corporations, big business, or Evil Greedy Folks when they make money, they spend money and put money into the economic engine.  Call it trickle down if you want but has money ever trickled up?  It is much much harder to start a successful business now, thanks to government regulations, but hey, if you want business profits then go get yourself some stones, hock or mortgage everything you own, and give it a go; that’s how those big, bad, ugly guys got started so have at it.

Evil investors and evil stock market players?  Well, hello…if you have a IRA, 401k, or just about any type of retirement or employer stock option plan YOU ARE AN INVESTOR and whoever handles your IRA, 401k, etc. is an EVIL stock market person.  And  you know what is going on right now?  Me, you, and other small investors are bailing out; WE are actually driving the stock market.  Hey, I’m right there with you…trust me.  The problem is that stocks are vital to companies both large and small because it is part of their operating capital.  They use that money to expand and (drumroll, please) they use it to BUY STUFF.  When they make a profit it means they pay out more in capital gains and dividends.  Are you still with me here?  If they raise the tax on capital gains and the dividends tax then YOU and ME will pay more.  I know the politicians like to frame it as only the rich will take the hits, but that just isn’t true.  It’s US.  And if you take the time to look deep into your mutual funds you will probably find utilities, insurance companies, and pharmaceuticals whose capital gains and dividends fatten your retirement.  Even you state, local, and federal employees will find that much of your retirement is invested in corporate bonds.

Now, back to where I was.  WE – the small investors – are  leaving equities in droves because we’re spooked; we have very right to be but at the same time we are hurting ourselves.  No, I’m not jumping back in yet, but I must be honest with myself, too. And in that being honest I also have to admit that Main Street won’t get fixed ’til Wall Street is fixed but right now no one is doing anything to calm our jitters.  All we are hearing is about the greed on Wall Street, evil CEOs; yes, some CEOs are absolute pukes, but for every bad CEO there are hundreds of good guys, hundreds of  good mutual fund managers, bankers, and real estate speculators (anyone in your family ever buy a rental property?)  There are loads of very good, honest folks that are getting painted with the same brush. You hear volumes about Maddof but did you know that not one dime of the money he swiped ever hit the stock market? Did you know that even if it had, and combine that with the outfit that just got popped this week, that all that money would not amount to .001 (1 decimal point of 1 decimal point) of the money that has left that market?

In this day and age it seems we need a Big Evil “Something” to blame everything on and, frankly, it’s working.  Buying into the political blame game spin is just a way to keep us from looking harder at the people who are now running the show in Washington.  Tell me – exactly how does someone who gets elected to Congress on a salary of $169K a year end up as a millionaire, anyway?  Many do but most folks don’t seem to notice.

So what is the point of this rant? I hope that anyone that reads this thinks about it for a while.  We’re being told that we, the “little people” are getting screwed or lead down the thorny primrose path and it is Evil Corporations or Evil CEOs that are doing it. But the reality is that it is the folks in D.C. that way too often, on our dime, become millionaires and, I don’t know about you, but I’m not seeing one penny of profit sharing.

Oh yeah, that $13.00 a week.  I forgot.  And you single folks get $7.95.  Don’t spend it all in one place.