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The clown show

I consider myself a moderate democrat that has voted republican in the past. The biggest problems I see with the republican party is their inability to admit they were wrong. They keep beating the same economic drum beat that G.W. Played. Lets face it he was wrong.
The list of candidates on the republican side are a joke. The two mormons on the list have a snowballs chance in hell of getting the nomination of the christian right. The one woman, possibly two if she decides to run, are not electable in the general election, they are way outside the mainstream, heck they are crazy. You have a black ceo that hates muslims, a possible texas govenor that will pray us out of our economic situation. And lets not forget moral values Newt. Ron Paul is a good man, but again not electable. Tim Pawlenty is probably the best pick of the bunch, but by the time the wacko christians in the Iowa get done with him he wont get the nomination. When will the republican party come back to the middle so I can have a choice again.

Religion does it belong in our political system.

I remember having a conversation with my mother several years ago about her concerns about the amount of strip clubs in the city which she lives in. Her opnion was that it should be outlawed. I asked her why did God put the apple tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and tell Adam and Eve that they could partake of everything in the garden with the exception of the the fruit of this tree. Why?
She answered as I expected, "it was to give man choice." She is correct, I asked her who gave her the right to cut down the tree? Religion is a personal thing that is between ourselves and our God. This country was built by people that fled europe in search of freedom of religion and freedom from religion.
Remember that europe was dominated by religion that was sanctioned by the government. I see this religious right  movement in this country is taking us back to where our forefathers came from. Our intollerance of other religions, ethnic groups and people with different social, sexual and economic situations that are different than ourselves, has an ugly un-christian look and feel to it.

Healthcare truth from the industy insider.

The Making of a Health-Care Whistle-Blower

By Kate PickertTuesday, Sept. 08, 2009

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1920893,00.html#ixzz1UXehNTqx

The Health Insurance Debate, who is correct.

The debate on the so called "Obama Care" is so clouded with alot of different views and opnions. I have to stop and try to figure out the truth, I know it's there. The only way to reduce the cost of health insurance is to have everyone in the same pool, this will spread the risk out across the board thus lowering the overall cost to every individual American and business. Ask yourself this simple question. Does redundant services make sense to you?  It is very simple, the cost of health care is being divided up by several different Insurance providers. You know the lingo, out of network, in network, exclusions, not covered, max out of pocket deductible...... The argument that the government needs to stay out of the way, that my healthcare is between me and my doctor is misleading, your healthcare is between you and your insurance provider. The reason that companies carry workmans comp. insurance is to ensure that health care and disability of the injured worker are taken care of. If everyone has health insurance then the need for the medical coverage of workmans comp. is redundant. This would lower the cost of workmans comp insurance, thus lowering the cost of business. The inclusion of everyone in the same healthcare pool will also lower the individual cost of health insurance, thus lowering the cost that business pays. I do believe in the free market approach to most industries. The truth is most people have a 80/20 healthcare plan. The tylenol 3 that the nurse brings you every 4 hours in the hospital will be billed to the insurance company. Look at your itemized bill and you will find the tylenol 3 cost $10/each, but wait you only have to pay 20%. What you are actually paying is the cost. We pay insurance premiums so that we will only have to pay the actual cost in the end. This country spends more of our GDP on healthcare than any other nation in the world. The argument that if we nationalized our healthcare system that doctors would leave and go elsewhere is complete hogwash, where are they going to go? The arguement that the rest of the world with their nationalized health care systems are a mess, Is this where the Doctors would go?

The Great Depression: Does History repeat itself?

Shortly before the crash, economist Irving Fisher famously proclaimed, "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."However, the optimism and financial gains of the great bull market were shattered on "Black Thursday", October 24, 1929, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) collapsed. Stock prices plummeted on that day, and continued to fall at an unprecedented rate for a full month.

In all honesty the economic policies for many years before the collapse where what led to the collapse, It would not be fair to blame Herbert Hoover (30^th President) a republican that has been in office only 9 months for this calamity, or would it, let’s have a look at the history book and learn from the less regulation and supply side economics platform that have been tried before.

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., was born in Plymouth Notch, Windsor County, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, the only U.S. President to be born on Independence Day. Was the 30th President of the United States (1923–1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight. Soon after, he was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, and also as a man who said very little. His reputation underwent a renaissance during the Ronald Reagan Administration, but the ultimate assessment of his presidency is still divided between those who approve of his reduction of the size of government programs and those who believe the federal government should be more involved in regulating and controlling the economy.

 During Coolidge's presidency the United States experienced the period of rapid economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties". He left the administration's industrial policy in the hands of his activist Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, who energetically used government auspices to promote business efficiency and develop airlines and radio. With the exception of favoring increased tariffs, Coolidge disdained regulation, and carried about this belief by appointing commissioners to the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission who did little to restrict the activities of businesses under their jurisdiction. The regulatory state under Coolidge was, as one biographer described it, "thin to the point of invisibility.

Coolidge's economic policy has often been misquoted as "generally speaking, the business of the American people is business. Some have criticized Coolidge as an adherent of the laissez-faire ideology, which they claim led to the Great Depression. On the other hand, historian Robert Sobel offers some context based on Coolidge's sense of federalism: "As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation, opposed child labor, imposed economic controls during World War I, favored safety measures in factories, and even worker representation on corporate boards. Did he support these measures while president? No, because in the 1920s, such matters were considered the responsibilities of state and local governments.

Coolidge's taxation policy was that of his Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon: taxes should be lower and fewer people should have to pay them. Congress agreed, and the taxes were reduced in Coolidge's term. In addition to these tax cuts, Coolidge proposed reductions in federal expenditures and retiring some of the federal debt. Coolidge's ideas were shared by the Republicans in Congress, and in 1924 Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced income tax rates and eliminated all income taxation for some two million people. They reduced taxes again by passing the Revenue Acts of 1926 and 1928. The reductions in federal expenditures was due largely to a reduction of regulations,

Coolidge had been reluctant to choose Herbert Hoover as his successor; on one occasion he remarked that "for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice—all of it bad. Even so, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing the popular Commerce Secretary's nomination. The delegates did consider nominating Vice President Charles Dawes to be Hoover's running mate, but the convention selected Senator Charles Curtis instead.

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933). Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience. To date, Hoover is the last cabinet secretary to be directly elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) to have been elected without previous electoral experience or high military rank. America was prosperous and optimistic at the time, leading to a landslide victory for Hoover over Democrat Al Smith.

Hoover, a trained engineer, deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement, which held that government and the economy were riddled with inefficiency and waste, and could be improved by experts who could identify the problems and solve them. When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with volunteer efforts, none of which produced economic recovery during his term. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by failure to end the downward economic spiral. As a result of these factors, Hoover is ranked poorly among former US Presidents.





What are the lessons that we can take away from the Great Depression?

Regulation of Banking and Finance come to mind. And so it was that the federal government set in motion the following Regulations

the uptick rule, which "...allowed short selling only when the last tick in a stock's price was positive", "...was implemented after the 1929 market crash to prevent short sellers from driving the price of a stock down in a bear run

The uptick rule refers to a trading restriction that disallows short selling of securities except on an uptick. For the rule to be satisfied, the short must be either at a price above the last traded price of the security, or at the last traded price if that price was higher than the price in the previous trade. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defined the rule, and summarized it: "Rule 10a-1(a)(1) provided that, subject to certain exceptions, a listed security may be sold short (A) at a price above the price at which the immediately preceding sale was effected (plus tick), or (B) at the last sale price if it is higher than the last different price (zero-plus tick). Short sales were not permitted on minus ticks or zero-minus ticks, subject to narrow exceptions.

The rule went into effect in 1938 and was removed when Rule 201 Regulation SHO became effective in 2007. In 2009, the reintroduction of the uptick rule was widely debated, and proposals for a form of its reintroduction by the SEC went into a public comment period on 2009-04-08.



In 1932, the Pecora Commission was established by the U.S. Senate to study the causes of the crash. The U.S. Congress passed the Glass–Steagall Act in 1933, which mandated a separation between commercial banks, which take deposits and extend loans, and investment banks, which underwrite, issue, and distribute stocks, bonds, and other securities.

The Banking Act of 1933, Pub.L. 73-66, 48 Stat. 162, enacted June 16, 1933, was a law that established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and introduced banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation. It is most commonly known as the Glass–Steagall Act, after its legislative sponsors, Senator Carter Glass and Congressman Henry B. Steagall.

Some provisions of the Act, such as Regulation Q, which allowed the Federal Reserve to regulate interest rates in savings accounts, were repealed by the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. Provisions that prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed on November 12, 1999, by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act.

The repeal of provisions of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act effectively removed the separation that previously existed between Wall Street investment banks and depository banks. Some experts believe that this repeal directly contributed to the severity of the financial crisis of 2007–2010 by allowing banks to gamble with their depositor's money.

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) is United States federal legislation that officially ensured the deregulation of financial products known as over-the-counter derivatives. It clarified the law so that most over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives transactions between “sophisticated parties” would not be regulated as “futures” under the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936 (CEA) or as “securities” under the federal securities laws. Instead, the major dealers of those products (banks and securities firms) would continue to have their dealings in OTC derivatives supervised by their federal regulators under general “safety and soundness” standards. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's desire to have “Functional regulation” of the market was also rejected. Instead, the CFTC would continue to do “entity-based supervision of OTC derivatives dealers.” These derivatives, especially the credit default swap, would be at the heart of the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent recession. Although hailed by the “Presidents Working Group on Financial Markets” on the day of congressional passage as “important legislation” to allow “the United States to maintain its competitive position in the over-the-counter derivative markets”, by 2001 the collapse of Enron brought public attention to the CFMA’s treatment of energy derivatives in the “Enron Loophole.” Following the Federal Reserve’s emergency loans to “rescue” American International Group (AIG) in September, 2008, the CFMA has received even more widespread criticism for its treatment of credit default swaps and other OTC derivatives.

On December 11, 2009, the House passed H.R. 4173, the so-called Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, which included a revised version of the Treasury Department’s proposed legislation that would repeal the same provisions of the CFMA noted above. At that time, similar legislation was pending in the Senate. In late April, 2010, debate began on the floor of the Senate over their version of the reform legislation. This is the so-called Job killing bill that the right wing republicans stood against.

I put together this timeline on the Great Depression of 1929 and can’t help notice that the same smaller government, less regulation, and manipulating legislation to the advantage of the unregulated commercial enterprises has freighting similarities to the same supply side economics line of thinking that we have had in 20 of the last 30 years. The recession of 2008 is very similar. The only difference is the president now was not in the party that repealed all the laws and deregulated the same institutions that they helped regulate in the 1930’s when they realized that their lack of regulation led to their demise politically for decades. History can repeat itself.

What is True with Entitlement Program cuts

The truth is both parties are guilty of the robbing of the Social Security shortfalls. The problem with our national debt debate is that the truth is hidden in the middle of the two different opnions. The largest holder of U.S. debt is the U.S. the Chinese are the largest foreign holder. The Social Security fund was raided by L.B. Johnson a Democrat. Congress and the president authorized the issue of Treasury Notes in place of the cash, Treasury notes are debt. I find the debate over keeping our keeping are AAA credit rating and the promise that the U.S. would never not pay it's debt, unless of course you are a taxpayer that is depending on Social Security for some or all of your retirement years, you my friend are on the list of the debt that the U.S. does not want to pay on as agreed, Hedge Funds, Foreign Investors and Countries on the other hand will be paid in full as agreed we would never default on our debt.
I do believe that we have put ourselves in a bad situation and the need to make some changes in the social security plan is necessary. I am 50 years old and enjoy a game of poker every now and then, The first rule in poker is the rules are established before your money goes in the pot. The rules don't change during play. I find myself looking at the second change in Social Security in my adult working life. The plan that Congress is looking at will not affect anyone over 55, I am thinking I sat down at the wrong poker table at the wrong time. I find myself and others between the age of 45 and 54 are the truly screwed group. We endured one change already and now we will get shafted again as we can see the finish line.

Where is the truth!

It is so difficult to really obtain the truth these days. I had a friend that used to say liars figure and figures don't lie. That is it !..... What we need to be able to do is think about what is being said and figure if that is true. Case in point, Mr. Hannity states that the wealthy pay 35% in tax's that would be true if they had zero in deductions. Lets face it none of us that itemize pay the rate that we should, that is the reason for itemizing. I do believe that the tax code needs to be looked at their has to be a better and more level way of collecting revenue.