First is the latest news on the bailout:
The Government Accountability Office yesterday released its initial report on the Treasury Department's bailout, finding problems with the oversight of the initiative. The report also questioned whether the government is adequately watching whether banks are complying with the plan's limits on conflicts of interest and executive compensation.
Auditors also said it was too early to tell whether the bailout plan was working.
Did you catch that? Now even the government admits that there is no oversight or control on this madness. Can we please stop the bleeding now?? We need to pressure our Senators and Congressmen to STOP THE BAILOUT IN ITS TRACKS RIGHT NOW!!! Why on earth would we continue to dump taxpayer money into mismanaged and corrupt private institutions when we know for a fact that those banks are not using that bailout money to free up credit or loans, but rather hoarding the money to see what the government does next? It's the height of stupidity. Some Reps have already taken steps in this direction; we need to kick the rest of them along, too. Tell them to stop wasting taxpayer money on this bailout, especially now that it has been officially admitted that it is a waste. The GAO says it's too early to tell if it's working; I think an editorial from Holman W. Jenkins at the Wall Street Journal frames it much better this way:
Maybe Washington will succeed in forestalling a deep and prolonged recession. Maybe all the money ($8 trillion by one count) being printed to acquire or insure mortgages, student loans, credit card receivables, commercial paper and banking shares will be seamlessly withdrawn once those assets are sold back to willing parties in the private sector when the panic has passed. Maybe taxpayers will even make a profit on the deal.
As Doug Flutie can testify, sometimes a 65-yard pass into the end zone lands in the hands of your own receiver.
And yet, in the entire history of football, how often has the hail mary actually worked? Two or three times? Half a dozen? And that's out of how many thousands of games?? Do we really want to do a hail mary with the entire American economy, when we have proven methods and measures -- like cutting taxes or keeping spending in check -- that we know will work to shore up an economy?Now, let's look specifically at the auto industry portion of the bailout. Despite 61% of Americans opposing the bailout for the auto industry, they're still begging Congress for their handout. Not at all surprisingly, the price has gone up from $25 billion to $34 billion. You might want to continue reminding your reps in Congress what you think of the whole thing.
The next big issue that should get you dialing is the next round of amnesty. Yep, we knew it was coming. From a Q&A with Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:
Q: With more Democrats in the Senate and the House and a Democrat in the White House, how do you see congressional efforts playing out on such issues as health care and immigration?
While some are downplaying what this means, take a look at this indicator reported by Mark Krikorian in the 2010 census report:A: On immigration, there's been an agreement between (President-elect Barack) Obama and (Arizona Republican Sen. John) McCain to move forward on that. ... We'll do that. We have to get this economy stuff figured out first, so I think we'll have a shot at doing something on health care in the next Congress for sure.
Q: Will there be as much of a fight on immigration as last time?
A: We've got McCain and we've got a few others. I don't expect much of a fight at all. Now health care is going to be difficult. That's a very complicated issue. We debated at great length immigration. People understand the issues very well. We have not debated health care, so that's going to take a lot more time to do.
A little-noticed item last week on funding for the 2010 census gives clues about what's likely to happen next year regarding immigration enforcement:
The Census Bureau plans to cut spending on advertising and community outreach for the 2010 census by at least a fourth compared with the 2000 census, provoking concern among congressional overseers that historically difficult-to-count groups such as minorities and illegal immigrants will not be accurately tallied.
And why are illegal aliens difficult to count? Because the immigration "gestapo agents" are oppressing them:
"With all the discussion of immigration reform, and the negativity in particular with respect to Latinos, there's especially going to be a lot of trepidation about filling out a government document," said Ramos, whose group sits on the Census Bureau's advisory council for the 2010 census.
One of the responses?
In addition, for the first time the bureau will be sending bilingual Spanish-English questionnaires as well as a second mailing to households that do not respond to the first one — a measure that testing suggests can increase mail-back rates by as much as 8 percent.
Another response will almost certainly be an effort to halt immigration enforcement during the period leading up to the census, so as not to deter illegal aliens from responding — this is what hapopened in 1980 under the Carter Administration. And the Census Bureau has already called for a halt to enforcement to aid in the counting of illegals. In fact, I expect that the new administration will use the upcoming census as one of the reasons for halting enforcement starting in January 2009, so that by April 1, 2010, the illegals will feel secure enough to respond to a government survey.
Think this doesn't matter? Think again: "four states each had one fewer seat because of the presence of illegal immigrants. Indiana, Michigan, and Mississippi each lost one seat in the House, and Montana failed to gain a seat it otherwise would have gained because of the inclusion of illegal aliens in the 2000 Census."
So, the government is already planning to relax immigration enforcement. Nice. Once again, this is in direct opposition to the desires of the vast majority of the American public. It's also amazing how the open-borders crowd maintains the idea that we cannot possibly find these illegal aliens inside our borders, but reporters never -- and I mean never -- seem to have trouble finding one or two for a good sob story. Someone is wrong there...The thing to understand here is that the Dems know illegal aliens will vote Democrat; that's why they're hell-bent on giving amnesty as soon as possible. Never mind the increased crime, never mind the increased drug trade, never mind the economic drag on welfare/food stamps/health care, never mind the flagrant flaunting of the rule of American law, and NEVER MIND THE AMERICAN CITIZEN. They're committed to shoving amnesty down our throats no matter what, and they've now got the votes to do it. The thing I don't get in all this is how Republicans are so abjectly stupid that they get on this bandwagon time after time. Look at McCain - he's the biggest GOP proponent of amnesty there is, and he got fewer Hispanic votes than George W. Bush did in 2004. Clearly, the Hispanic vote is more tied to the Democrat party than to whoever gives them amnesty. There is no legitimate economic, legal, legislative, or political reason for any Republican to support amnesty. It's politically suicidal, if you look at the long term.
Here's the last thing I'll leave you with. This morning I called Harry Reid's office to offer my opinion on the subject. It went something like this:
Reid staffer: "He's not planning to bring up a bill. He said that he thought someone else might bring up a bill to address the subject."
Me: "Well, either way, Sen. Reid is going to support it, right?"
Reid staffer: "Sen. Reid does not support amnesty."
Me (laughing): "Really??"
Reid staffer: "Really."
Me: "That's the first I've heard of him holding that position! He supported amnesty the last time it came up, he supported the DREAM Act, he supported all of the other incremental amnesties that have come up over the past couple years. If that's his position, I'm glad to hear it, but it's certainly news to me!"
Reid staffer: "Well, Sen. Reid supports securing the borders first, he opposes amnesty, and he..."
[I honestly don't recall the last part of her statement because I was still stuck on the first part.]
Me: "Okay, so if Sen. Reid is all about border security, why hasn't he pushed through legislation to build the fence along our southern border? In fact, he helped gut the previous bills that would have built the fence. He has had the votes to get it done, and as the Majority Leader, he has been in the perfect position to get it done, so why hasn't he?"
Reid staffer (after a long pause): "I'd be happy to pass your comments along to the Senator."
[Translation: damn the fact that citizens can check his record! And think.]
Me: "Thank you."
To her credit, she was very polite even after I gave her a bit of a hard time. But, this illustrates a couple things to me. First, that Reid (as with many Democrats) is quite willing to lie to the American people. They openly state that they support border security and oppose amnesty, and yet their actions are precisely the opposite. Second, that when you confront these people with facts and the record, they're stuck. They rely almost entirely on spin, deceit, and political double speak. When the truth hits them in the face, they're screwed.
Welcome to your Democrat leadership team for at least the next two years.
It's all the more reason to be educated on the facts and issues. Bone up, call in, and give 'em hell.
There's my two cents.
Sources:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/12/the_government_accountability.html?nav=rss_blog
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122826676533474525.html
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/12/03/auto-bailout-bill-up-to-34-billion-white-house-not-ruling-it-out/
http://timeswatch.org/articles/2008/20081201142049.aspx
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDJkNjc1YmJlMDFhNGI3YzFlYjQxN2E2MDJhNzRkMTY=
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmE3NjdjZWVhOTlmODQ0YTgzNGM0NGFiMmJmYWJiZDA=
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/12/02/nyts-latest-illegal-alien-sob-story/
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