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Location: United States

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Socialism here we come!

“—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

There is a disturbing and true fact in this country. I talk to many a folk in the course of the day each day and the object topic is always the economy and where are we today in this mess. I hear with out exception that the government will fix the mess we are in. I hear Obama will make the changes that we all have been awaiting. The disturbing thing is just that! 100 Total U.S. senators, 2 from each state and today, the number of congressmen is set at 435. That puts 535 people in charge of the welfare of 304 million as per the U.S. population in 2008. Source: Population estimates <http://www.census.gov/> “and that government of the people, by the people, for the people?”

At least 40 of the 100 US senators are millionaires, some many times over, according to financial disclosure filings submitted. Republicans on the list outnumbered Democrats by a narrow margin of 22 to 18. However, Democratic senators hold the top five spots on the list and eight of the top ten, according to an analysis of the forms by CNN. The House of Representatives is staffed with 28% of them being millionaires. Traditionally, the President is the highest-paid public employee. President Obama currently earns $400,000 per year, along with a $50,000 expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001; prior to the change, the President earned $200,000, plus expense accounts.

The First U.S. Congress voted to pay George Washington a salary of $25,000 a year, about $566,000 in 2008 terms. Washington, already a wealthy man, refused to accept his salary; however, he asked for his living expenses to be covered. Theodore Roosevelt spent his entire $50,000 salary on entertaining guests at the White House. John F. Kennedy donated his salary to charities. Obama, an established millionaire asked the auto makers, as a senator, to take a cut in pay as the senate passed a salary increase form themselves. “and that government of the people, by the people, for the people?”

I am reminded by the quote in the movie “The Matrix:” “The world as you know it is just a mask draped over your face to hide you from the truth.” Yes you must get mad at a bank buying a plane with their money as the government spends your money without your consent or accountability to those who received your money. Yes you must get mad at a company paying bonuses with their money as the government spends your money in fatty pork for special interests of theirs. It is deplorable to spend money on the super bowl with their money as your and our future children’s money is flushed in hidden agendas which will take years to un-flush. As your eyes are covered with the masks of diversion, your anger is also diverted from the source towards a false opponent. Of course get mad at Wall Street investor Bernard Madoff who confessed to running a years-long Ponzi scheme that’s believed to have swindled up to $50 billion in investments while through the years trillions of dollars has been swindled from you via social security. “and that government of the people, by the people, for the people?”

I can’t help but to remember the Great Ronald Regan who in his first speech as president stated:

The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we've had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we're sick--professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are, in short, "we the people," this breed called Americans.
As I go through the surrogation I have no choice but to feel as the pain of my fellow man is suffering and their pain permeates into my being, I wish for everyone to open their eyes. This Great Nation is founded on the premise and the promise that all men are created equal “and that government of the people, by the people, for the people!” Democracy and Capitalism is the founding principles of this great country. I would like everyone and everyone who professes to hate this country, or wish to criticize this country for the principles that has made us all successful, pack up and leave!
The principle of working hard toiling with the sweet of your back, hands or mind to achieve your goals is the true meaning of Democracy and accomplishment. Expectations of the powers to be to take care of you and your needs are the ideology of Monarchy or Socialism. The more you are taken care of the more you are controlled. The more you are controlled the less freedoms you have. The great program of the WPA from the Roosevelt era lead us into welfare and welfare lead to structured laziness, institutionalized illegitimacy and the brake down of family. Government take over of anything will bring dominion and that is truly un-American.
· Obama pay cap puts overdue squeeze on bank CEOs
Posted Feb 04 2009, 02:28 PM by Anthony Mirhaydari

· Throwing down the gauntlet on the villains of this downturn, President Obama has imposed a $500,000 cap on executive pay at financial institutions receiving federal bailout funds. Noting that American taxpayers are angered over "executives being rewarded for failure," he announced the limit ahead of next week's expected announcement on the future of the $700 billion financial rescue package.
Obama's move will help quell political backlash against the bailout after Wall Street paid out more than $18 billion in bonuses last year as the six largest firms mounted losses of $42 billion and received $90 billion from taxpayers. It also comes as traditional arguments for high pay (talent retention and performance encouragement) are ringing hollow in an environment rich with idled financial talent.

The principle of entitlements also betrays the Democracy. How may of you have grown children still living at home or depending on you for financial support? How often do I hear from folks that their thirty year olds, forty year olds and fifty year olds are beseeching for money or charity. The thinking is that their parents owe them something. There are so many that can’t wait for their parents to die to get “their” inheritance. I have even reason to suspect some “adult” children causing the death of their parents for houses or money. There is no guarantee in a Democracy for success. Hell there isn’t even a guarantee of fair equality in a Democracy. There is only opportunity based on your wiliness to strive and achieve in spite of not because of your race, creed or color. We have even forgotten what Lincoln stated:

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class--neither work for others nor have others working for them. In most of the Southern States a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor masters, while in the Northern a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their families--wives, sons, and daughters--work for themselves on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital; that is, they labor with their own hands and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class.
Again, as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these States a few years back in their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty; none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which if surrendered will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them till all of liberty shall be lost.
From the first taking of our national census to the last are seventy years, and we find our population at the end of the period eight times as great as it was at the beginning. The increase of those other things which men deem desirable has been even greater. We thus have at one view what the popular principle, applied to Government through the machinery, of the States and the Union, has produced in a given time, and also what if firmly maintained it promises for the future. There are already among us those who if the Union be preserved will live to see it contain 250,000,000. The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day; it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We are the people of the United States and we the people need to stand up for our rights and power of the constitution to stop the government as it runs us into a socialistic mindset and ultimately way of life. To tell a company how much its CEO can earn will turn into telling you that you must share you home with a family that can’t afford their own home. Dictating the wages of management will trickle down to management passing on the reductions of wages to their employees. “Stimulus” packages that provide jobs of infrastructure will only supply jobs to the working class laborers.
George lost his job as a professional salesman. His entire work life was in sales. Will infrastructure work be something he can do?

Mary lost her job as a H.R. manager in a company that closed because of the economy. She lost her health insurance and now must be a burden on her husbands insurance with a preexisting condition that will also be a burden on the household expenses. Will infrastructure work be something she can do?

Fiona has a home with a mortgage of seven hundred thousand dollars and Fiona is an immigrant from Africa who now finds her home only worth four hundred thousand and is trying to keep up the payments with a job that is laying off folks and is getting more demanding on the ones that stay. She has no time to spend with her children except by phone. Will infrastructure work be something that can help her?

John is a seventy two year old retiree who lost half of his investment in the stock market from his 401 and is unable to access what is remaining of his money. His savings is dwindling from the cost of supporting his grown children who live with him but providing no assistance. His bank provides no interest of any sufficiency yet it takes a service charge from him monthly. He is thinking he could earn more from his money by stuffing it under his mattress rather than paying a storage fee to his bank. Will infrastructure work be something can help him?
We are the people of the United States must stop looking to be bailed out and stop the insanity of bail outs. Is Forrest Gump smarter than us all for “Stupid is as stupid does.” Trust me the government is not the ones who are stupid. We are the stupid ones if we continue to allow them to do un to us as they are doing. Stimulus is only stimulating the bank accounts of the ‘535’ and their friends.
Condoms to the poor, needles to the drug addicts, tarp monies, and infrastructure monies will not stimulate the economy. Kickbacks to agencies, wooden arrows and a partridge in a pare tree will not stimulate the economy. The way to stimulate the economy is to put money into the hands of those of us who earn a paycheck. It is easy to write and talk of the problems and to point fingers. I don’t want to be a naysayer of gloom and doom without providing an answer.

Those of us who earn a paycheck! Those of us who have to put in thirteen hour days each day but the work week is considered forty hours! Those of us, who are forced to work harder, stay longer, have more responsibilities, and earn less! Those of us who if we calculate the pay versus the hours worked would be below poverty! Those of us who work two jobs in order to have one to support rents for our living in non-equity apartments whose rent rival homeowners! Those of us that have a reason to spend but can’t afford to! WE NEED THE MONEY! Tax relief and reasonable tax stimulus checks would be the real bailout that should take place. You wish to control the pay of CEO’s why not control the cost of goods. I have a 1968 mustang and I still have the original window sticker. In 1968 the price of the new mustang was $1,700.00 the price of a new mustang today is $26,000.00, that is a 160% increase. In 1968 the minimum wage was $1.60 per hour, why has not the salaries increased in the same manner?

No taxation without representation! A criminal has the right of being judged by jurors of their peers. Paycheck earners need now to stand up and voice their strength to ensure the congress is filled with representatives that too need to earn a paycheck. We the people, we the paycheck earners, need to rise up and voice our rights to ensure this is a government of the people, for the people and by the people! No Taxation Without Representation! As Ronald Reagan stated the government is the problem and he was so very right. The government swindled us all from our social security in a ponzi scam, and now pork lined kickbacks in the name of bailout stimulus. NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! There was a time when America was strong and its leader cared about the people and the strength of the people and the strength of the country. This has never been a perfect country but is has always been the best and greatest country. That is why hundreds of thousands have immigrated to be here. Capitalism and free trade as well as the American Dream of working hard and achieving success is the formula to wealth and accomplishment. Let’s not allow leaders who wish not to put country first run us into a socialistic dependent work camp. NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!
What to do? Make a phone call a day to your Representatives. Write a letter a day a week to your assembly, to congress to the president. Most importantly talk to someone and inspire them to do the same. Don’t just complain but find solutions and voice the solutions not just your frustration and anger. The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) should be renamed “Troubled Americans Relief Payback.” We need to demand a tax burden relief. We need to demand price roll backs and mortgage adjustments to reflect the present market. We, the income earners, the paycheck population need to have the weight removed from our shoulders and see some TARP monies to truly stimulate the economy and free enterprise.

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