Congress' clueless credit system
Exclusive: Chuck Norris urges Americans to stop being slaves to debt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: February 16, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
By Chuck Norris
There they go again! The House and Senate have buried us in yet another bailout-stimulus heaping pile of fiscal dung – a $789 billion loan that has been tacked onto our children's (and children's children's) already staggering $10+ trillion deficit. Are you just going to sit there and take another one up the tailpipe?
Though President Obama emphatically declared that this 1,100-page piece of legislation does not contain "a single pet project, not a single earmark," it's full of some type of financial fluff. Call it what you will, but few knew recessionary needs included $2 billion for battery companies, $2 billion for the National Parks Service, $2.3 billion for NASA and the National Science Foundation, $1.1 billion for airport improvements, $850 million for Amtrak, $800 million for federal prison construction, $300 million for additions to the federal fleet, $200 million for new Department of Agriculture buildings, $165 million for fish hatcheries, $100 million for the FBI, $100 million for shipyards, $50 million for an arts endowment, etc. Should I just shut up and be grateful that Republicans squashed the $200 million to re-sod the Mall in Washington and purchase a new Coast Guard polar icebreaker? Sure tastes like the same ol' partisan and political punch to me. (Remember, in 1988, when President Reagan vetoed a bill because it had six earmarks in it?) A detailed list of the stimulus package expenditures can be reviewed at the website of Patton Boggs legal firm.
And what about for you? The average hard-working American citizen? The middle-class blue collar worker? You'll get a whopping $13 increase to your paycheck. Now there's change (literal change, as in coins) we can believe in! And we'll have to believe, because only faith and a miracle is going to turn that $13 increase into a catalyst to jumpstart the economy. Is that the change you were hoping for?
How does one fight an administration and Congress that believes "only government" is the answer? Is it really true that in the absence of government intervention and doling out another trillion dollars of debt that our nation would certainly experience an economic holocaust? Former President G. W. Bush pushed the first trillion dollar bailout upon America. Nothing happened. President Obama has now pushed the second trillion dollar bailout upon America. Why should we believe there won't be a third, fourth, fifth or sixth governmental so-called stimulus? What other recourse do they have?
We're in the trillions tank. And Congress' only solution is to print more money and make more loans. Congress is constantly telling the American people to spend, spend, spend and nothing about living within their means. The Senate tries to save every financial institution, rather than to allow the reasonable death of some under a diminishing supply and demand. Our presidents repeatedly try to jumpstart the last and highest revolution of the credit merry-go-round by refilling the gas tanks of financial companies for one more go-round. But why? To lend out to those who are already maxed out on monthly payments? Or is it the unemployed who are now supposed to borrow the big bucks? We must quit bailing out what we've borrowed. As George Washington said, "To contract new debts is not the way to pay for old ones."
It's official. Government is out of control. But the fact is so are too many Americans. A big catalyst for both was during the Clinton era, in 1999, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extended their consumer credit wings to bring into the fold just about anyone who wanted to own a home. Credit cards were approved without applying, and proliferated in every mailbox across the nation, dozens of times over, including to students. And consumer loans were given to everyone from criminals to illegals. Anyone could get business or car loans, gold cards, equity lines of credit. Remember? "No credit? Bad credit? No problem!" So most borrowed and bought, borrowed and bought, borrowed and bought, and borrowed and bought, until we created a consumer black hole that was spiraling out of control, drawing everyone and everything into it, and could only be satisfied by a colossal and continuous river of credit. Most Americans maximized their credit and super-sized their limits, until their payments easily outweighed their incomes, and then it all began to implode. But how long did we think we could maintain the credit charade?
About this, the world should certainly listen to President Obama. In fact, Obama should listen to Obama! He said last week, "I welcome this debate but come on, we are not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin. Don't come to table with the same tired arguments and worn ideas that helped create this crisis." But that's exactly what you and the Congress are doing, Mr. President – repeating the same financial mistakes – the same government solutions. It's not time to reverse the money merry-go-round. It's time to get off of it.
There are only two things that are going to get us out of this particular financial mess, and "only Americans" (not "only government") can implement those solutions. Both come down to one word: restraint. We must restrain our government, and we must restrain ourselves. Feeding the money monster will not reduce its size – it will perpetuate the problem. We must tame the money monster. We must return it to its cage. We must return to a time when we put a bridle on the spending of government and our homes. We've got to simplify our lives. We've got to learn to be happier with less. We've got to get out of debt.
The late financial guru Larry Burkett prophesied almost 20 years ago in his book, "The Coming Economic Earthquake," that an impending economic calamity was coming upon the U.S. unless a drastic effort was made to curb massive federal spending and the soaring deficit. Larry was right. And he gave one basic principle to avoid the future market meltdown: "Don't be a slave to debt! Get out of debt!" Larry is still right today. That is why I wrote the entire economic chapter in my book "Black Belt Patriotism" on "Stopping America's Nightmare of Debt," both nationally and personally.
In the most recent interview with my wife, Gena, and me, I explained, if we are going to reawaken America, we have to return to our founders' principles, which include their fiscal prudence. We must follow the advice of those like Thomas Jefferson, who also warned us long ago, "To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." (Now read that again, then one more time.)
How do we do that? The same place we start with our personal lives: We cap our spending, and allow the supply-and-demand levels to drop slightly lower to points commensurate with our incomes (not credit lines). We must learn to downsize and live within our means, not borrowing excessive amounts for even investment debt like a home or business. We must cut spending, reduce our budgets, pay down our debts and stabilize our households and nation.
And, as far as that clueless Congress goes, we must demand that our representatives seek a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which will require the government to live within its means. We must return to a pay-as-you-go government and nation. It's our last resort for an out-of-control economy and people. As Thomas Jefferson once said that "the maxim of buying nothing but what we had money in our pockets to pay for; [is] a maxim which, of all others, lays the broadest foundation for happiness."
If our country is to survive, we must elect only those who show proof of fiscal discipline, refuse under all circumstances to increase our national deficit, and who commit to pass and live under a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget. And if our incumbents voted for the bailouts or bail on their fiscal frugality, then vote them out of office the next chance you can.
America, it's our choice, again. Do we follow the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said, "To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." Or do we listen to the words of President Obama, who said to his Democratic colleagues at their lavish Virginian retreat, "Thank you for giving me a reason to use Air Force One – it's pretty nice."
Exclusive: Chuck Norris urges Americans to stop being slaves to debt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: February 16, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
By Chuck Norris
There they go again! The House and Senate have buried us in yet another bailout-stimulus heaping pile of fiscal dung – a $789 billion loan that has been tacked onto our children's (and children's children's) already staggering $10+ trillion deficit. Are you just going to sit there and take another one up the tailpipe?
Though President Obama emphatically declared that this 1,100-page piece of legislation does not contain "a single pet project, not a single earmark," it's full of some type of financial fluff. Call it what you will, but few knew recessionary needs included $2 billion for battery companies, $2 billion for the National Parks Service, $2.3 billion for NASA and the National Science Foundation, $1.1 billion for airport improvements, $850 million for Amtrak, $800 million for federal prison construction, $300 million for additions to the federal fleet, $200 million for new Department of Agriculture buildings, $165 million for fish hatcheries, $100 million for the FBI, $100 million for shipyards, $50 million for an arts endowment, etc. Should I just shut up and be grateful that Republicans squashed the $200 million to re-sod the Mall in Washington and purchase a new Coast Guard polar icebreaker? Sure tastes like the same ol' partisan and political punch to me. (Remember, in 1988, when President Reagan vetoed a bill because it had six earmarks in it?) A detailed list of the stimulus package expenditures can be reviewed at the website of Patton Boggs legal firm.
And what about for you? The average hard-working American citizen? The middle-class blue collar worker? You'll get a whopping $13 increase to your paycheck. Now there's change (literal change, as in coins) we can believe in! And we'll have to believe, because only faith and a miracle is going to turn that $13 increase into a catalyst to jumpstart the economy. Is that the change you were hoping for?
How does one fight an administration and Congress that believes "only government" is the answer? Is it really true that in the absence of government intervention and doling out another trillion dollars of debt that our nation would certainly experience an economic holocaust? Former President G. W. Bush pushed the first trillion dollar bailout upon America. Nothing happened. President Obama has now pushed the second trillion dollar bailout upon America. Why should we believe there won't be a third, fourth, fifth or sixth governmental so-called stimulus? What other recourse do they have?
We're in the trillions tank. And Congress' only solution is to print more money and make more loans. Congress is constantly telling the American people to spend, spend, spend and nothing about living within their means. The Senate tries to save every financial institution, rather than to allow the reasonable death of some under a diminishing supply and demand. Our presidents repeatedly try to jumpstart the last and highest revolution of the credit merry-go-round by refilling the gas tanks of financial companies for one more go-round. But why? To lend out to those who are already maxed out on monthly payments? Or is it the unemployed who are now supposed to borrow the big bucks? We must quit bailing out what we've borrowed. As George Washington said, "To contract new debts is not the way to pay for old ones."
It's official. Government is out of control. But the fact is so are too many Americans. A big catalyst for both was during the Clinton era, in 1999, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extended their consumer credit wings to bring into the fold just about anyone who wanted to own a home. Credit cards were approved without applying, and proliferated in every mailbox across the nation, dozens of times over, including to students. And consumer loans were given to everyone from criminals to illegals. Anyone could get business or car loans, gold cards, equity lines of credit. Remember? "No credit? Bad credit? No problem!" So most borrowed and bought, borrowed and bought, borrowed and bought, and borrowed and bought, until we created a consumer black hole that was spiraling out of control, drawing everyone and everything into it, and could only be satisfied by a colossal and continuous river of credit. Most Americans maximized their credit and super-sized their limits, until their payments easily outweighed their incomes, and then it all began to implode. But how long did we think we could maintain the credit charade?
About this, the world should certainly listen to President Obama. In fact, Obama should listen to Obama! He said last week, "I welcome this debate but come on, we are not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin. Don't come to table with the same tired arguments and worn ideas that helped create this crisis." But that's exactly what you and the Congress are doing, Mr. President – repeating the same financial mistakes – the same government solutions. It's not time to reverse the money merry-go-round. It's time to get off of it.
There are only two things that are going to get us out of this particular financial mess, and "only Americans" (not "only government") can implement those solutions. Both come down to one word: restraint. We must restrain our government, and we must restrain ourselves. Feeding the money monster will not reduce its size – it will perpetuate the problem. We must tame the money monster. We must return it to its cage. We must return to a time when we put a bridle on the spending of government and our homes. We've got to simplify our lives. We've got to learn to be happier with less. We've got to get out of debt.
The late financial guru Larry Burkett prophesied almost 20 years ago in his book, "The Coming Economic Earthquake," that an impending economic calamity was coming upon the U.S. unless a drastic effort was made to curb massive federal spending and the soaring deficit. Larry was right. And he gave one basic principle to avoid the future market meltdown: "Don't be a slave to debt! Get out of debt!" Larry is still right today. That is why I wrote the entire economic chapter in my book "Black Belt Patriotism" on "Stopping America's Nightmare of Debt," both nationally and personally.
In the most recent interview with my wife, Gena, and me, I explained, if we are going to reawaken America, we have to return to our founders' principles, which include their fiscal prudence. We must follow the advice of those like Thomas Jefferson, who also warned us long ago, "To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." (Now read that again, then one more time.)
How do we do that? The same place we start with our personal lives: We cap our spending, and allow the supply-and-demand levels to drop slightly lower to points commensurate with our incomes (not credit lines). We must learn to downsize and live within our means, not borrowing excessive amounts for even investment debt like a home or business. We must cut spending, reduce our budgets, pay down our debts and stabilize our households and nation.
And, as far as that clueless Congress goes, we must demand that our representatives seek a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which will require the government to live within its means. We must return to a pay-as-you-go government and nation. It's our last resort for an out-of-control economy and people. As Thomas Jefferson once said that "the maxim of buying nothing but what we had money in our pockets to pay for; [is] a maxim which, of all others, lays the broadest foundation for happiness."
If our country is to survive, we must elect only those who show proof of fiscal discipline, refuse under all circumstances to increase our national deficit, and who commit to pass and live under a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget. And if our incumbents voted for the bailouts or bail on their fiscal frugality, then vote them out of office the next chance you can.
America, it's our choice, again. Do we follow the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said, "To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." Or do we listen to the words of President Obama, who said to his Democratic colleagues at their lavish Virginian retreat, "Thank you for giving me a reason to use Air Force One – it's pretty nice."
posted by shummer60 at Monday, February 16, 2009
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