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Not like the NAACP calling the Tea Party phenomenon racist or multiple blunders related to the employment of Shirley Sherrod were not enough to fuel more race debates but now another hot button is pushed.

It seems there’s an IG report describing the methods used in determining which dealerships would cease to be after Obama took over government motors, etc.  Besides criteria like how new the dealership or its importance to wholesale parts distribution at least two other factors were considered.  If the dealership was minority or woman-owned.

At first you might say ‘that is reasonable’.  But you may not be considering the fact that successful businesses not meeting the criteria may understandably take offense to such an arbitrary selection process.

And you can also see if the situation was reversed how offended all the liberals would be. That is why criteria based on anything other than the numbers, meaning financial success, is not the way to go.  Let performance be your guide.

If you had 100 dealerships and were forced to eliminate 20 other than keeping a presence in all markets the best performers should stay regardless of ownership demographics. But then that is just common sense talking. Some think we should make those decisions based on personal preferences or other bias rather than impersonal data like performance and viability.

But coming from an administration willing to take over the private sector their action on this is no surprise. Rather than economic survival based on free market principles their preference is to choose the winners and losers.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Read the rest here. (click)

For President Obama the honeymoon has long since past. The first 100 days analysis of each new American president is more common these days since ‘honeymoon’ characterizations may have faded with frequent two term administrations like Reagan, Clinton and Bush 43. The question in either case was how long will it take for the promises of a campaign to be discarded after election.

Hope and change was as pathetic a slogan as one might hear from a snake oil salesman. But the distinction between the ambitions of a community organizer and a seller of dubious liniments can no longer be defended.

With the midterm elections approaching Democrats prove the pundit forecast predicting the probability of the GOP retaking the congressional majority. Rather than a carnival atmosphere liberals appear as cannibals feeding on their own to redirect blame for their failure to govern properly.

Democrats are having a jolly good time beating up the White House.

You can see why. President Obama has caused the party to squander a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reclaim permanent majority status.

An example of how bad things are for Dems in the report above has this little tidbit:

Out in Iowa, the Democratic Governors’ Association spent money on mailers trashing Republican gubernatorial candidate Terry Branstad for being too much like Obama on health care.

Who’s selling the snake oil now? But it gets better.

WASHINGTON — Republicans are outraising Democrats in nearly a dozen open Senate races, increasing their hopes of significantly narrowing the Democrats’ majority in November.

Money as the root of all evil is not a phrase lost on politics. The idea that he who has the most money wins may be a subject for debate given the strength of the tea party and new conservative candidates. But outdoing your opponents on fundraising suggests more people support you than your opponent.

What else does the money game offer POLS?

WASHINGTON — A Republican lawmaker says documents show more senators and staff members than previously known received sweetheart mortgages from the former Countrywide Financial Corp., based on their perceived ability to help the company.

It wasn’t just Chris Dodd or Kent Conrad who took perks from Countrywide. This is no different than money from lobbyists or other special interest powerbrokers. Then there’s vote selling (bribes) like Cornhusker Cash (Sen Ben Nelson), the Louisiana Purchase (Sen Mary Landrieu) and the following:

GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Scott Brown of Massachusetts voted for the bill after Democrats agreed to drop a provision to raise $19 billion by imposing fees on banks.

It’s not quite that innocent. Collins, Snowe and Brown received perks for their states as the price paid for their vote to pass the bill. How is that different from Dodd or others taking perks from Countrywide in exchange for political favors?

That’s right. Throw the bums out. Repeat as necessary.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Upon reading an article from the Washington Examiner this morning I was once again reminded of the timely work of Michelle Malkin and her book the Culture of Corruption. This story has a connetion to the University of Chicago, the Obama administration and funny business going on in public office. Maybe not so funny for those affected by the acts of those in public office.

Fenty administration raided workers’ insurance fund
June 19, 2010

The Fenty administration took $10 million from a workers’ insurance fund that is now the center of multiple investigations, sources told The Washington Examiner .

Fenty and his attorney general, Peter Nickles, have now acknowledged that hundreds of disabled workers were charged for life insurance but weren’t actually given the policies. The administration announced that it was handing the matter over to the city’s inspector general last week.

The workers’ money, which might be worth up to $6 million, went into the city’s workers’ compensation fund.

And now for the Obama administration connection…..

Dan Tangherlini was the city administrator at the time and determined the city was safe in ‘raiding’ the fund. Tangherlini has been with Obama’s Treasury Department for a while now. The Examiner said he wasn’t available for comment on the story. Imagine that.

And the connection to the University of Chicago is, you guessed it, Dan Tangherlini. And even though the report states ‘authorities have not found any evidence of corruption’ you can bet there is.

It seems the Obamanation just can’t get enough people with questionable pasts to work for them. The only annoying part of the story is a common problem. ‘Sources familiar with the investigations’ and ’speaking on condition of anonymity’ appears in the report.

Tangherlini has been busy. He has had more than a few jobs at different levels of government. You can get his official info at Treasury simply searching on his last name. He seems a compatible match for tax cheat Tim Geithner. Although after AIG and his history at the NY Fed, Geithner’s tax problems may decline on the corruption scale.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

If you are the most liberal president the United States has ever seen and you give a speech that is panned by the mainstream media what does that tell you? If you cannot win the praises of the liberal media who fawned all over you since you declared your intention to run for the White House in 2008 it’s time to consider a career change.

For those who are interested and haven’t had a chance to review the commentary on Obama’s Tuesday night Oval Office speech two links are provided below:

Media on Obama’s speech: Did we mention it was short on specifics?

Reaction to President Obama’s Speech

Then there is the review from this blog. The handy White House transcript of the speech provides the targets. In just the third paragraph Mr President raised a question or two.

Because there has never been a leak this size at this depth, stopping it has tested the limits of human technology. That’s why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation’s best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge — a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation’s Secretary of Energy. Scientists at our national labs and experts from academia and other oil companies have also provided ideas and advice.

Not having any evidence to the contrary the size and depth of this gusher is not contested. But Mr President, if you ‘assembled a team’ of the best and the brightest to ‘tackle this challenge’ almost immediately what does that say about two months passing with little to show for it? And stating the event has ‘tested the limits of human technology’ is hard to believe. If reports are correct it appears you have declined assistance from those who have offered to help. A good example would be the Dutch offering to perform skimming operations.

The very next paragraph Mr President you claim the brain trust results had you tell BP to bring out more stuff. Hardly a testament to the limits of human technology if you simply ordered more stuff. And if, as you say, up to 90% of the gushing oil can be captured in weeks why wasn’t it possible before now? Or is ‘up to 90%’ a set of weasel words allowing for nothing more than has been done to date?

And it just gets better in paragraph number six.

But make no mistake: We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever’s necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.

That pretty much leaves everything open to interpretation. That may why the MSM said the speech was short on specifics. Think of the words in paragraph six as you would when discussing work to be performed by a potential contractor for your home repairs after some disaster. ‘For as long as it takes’ and ‘whatever’s necessary’ are not phrases you want to hear. Making someone pay for damage they caused is subject to legal challenge and in any event can take years longer than anyone can wait. So there you are, nowhere.

Obama says the federal government has been in charge of the cleanup since the beginning. But carefully says ‘we now have nearly 30,000 personnel’ cleaning up. Meaning ‘now’ and not since the beginning. Mr Obama also urges governors in the region to activate the National Guard yet carefully mentions he authorized it but when…. just before the speech?

It gets worse from this point. There is no reason to continue but feel free to review the video or transcript which is widely available and of course the White House website has it.

This is just pathetic. And yes, President Obama does not warrant all the blame for the spill. But his performance as President of the United States regarding this matter falls miserably below any minimum standard acceptable. If the person sitting in the Oval Office cannot muster the resources public or private to address the issue in a timely manner this country is in real trouble.

Gee, what will he do when a real disaster occurs? By his actions this apparently was not considered a disaster of the magnitude he describes in the speech. Or at least not until public opinion changed his mind.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Economic stimulus legislation, aka, Porkulus, along with government bailouts and nationalizing private sector entities also with taxpayer dollars reeks of socialism of the European style and causes many voters to be outraged. Most of this occurs at the federal level but the public needs to focus on other similar circumstances as well.

An earlier post on this blog reminds readers that state governments have a knack for whining for federal dollars (taxpayer money of course) as if it is somehow manna from heaven and not associated with the citizen burden known as taxes.

Just as POLS in Washington are crippling our nation with debt those at the state and local level are not immune to the addiction. We need to understand that this disease is widespread and more failures and disaster loom if it is not corrected. A welcome report from the WSJ helps illuminate the problem further. Wreckless borrowing is alive and well at the state and local level in these United States.

These abuses came to a head in the second half of 2008, when spooked investors were unwilling to bet on more municipal debt after several insurers who typically back these bonds exited the market. Then Washington stepped in with a new Build America Bond (BAB), allowing states and municipalities to issue them. Thanks to a federal subsidy, they carry attractive interest rates. Last year municipalities used BABs to rack up another $58 billion in debt.

Taxpayers are only slowly realizing that their states and municipalities face long-term obligations that will be increasingly hard to meet. Rick Bookstaber, a senior policy adviser to the Securities and Exchange Commission, recently warned that the muni market has all the characteristics of a crisis that might unfold with “a widespread cascade in defaults.” If that painful scenario materializes, it will be because we have too long ignored how some politicians have become addicted to debt.

Just what we need. More fiduciary malfeasance from other levels of irresponsible government.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

In an earlier post it was suggested a biblical reference about teaching a person to fish can feed them for a lifetime. It was part of commentary on entitlements and out of control spending. A final comment in the post warned the NEA would then ask for more funding but suggested the NEA would not ask to be held accountable for actually teaching. That brings us to the following story.

NY passes students who get wrong answers on tests

Despite promises that the exams — which determine whether students advance to the next grade — would not be dumbed down this year, students got “partial credit” for wrong answers after failing to correctly add, subtract, multiply and divide. Some got credit for no answer at all.

Examples in the fourth-grade scoring guide include:

* A kid who answers that a 2-foot-long skateboard is 48 inches long gets half-credit for adding 24 and 24 instead of the correct 12 plus 12.

That’s just one item in the guide. You can follow the link for the full story. But you do not need to read the rest to understand the sad state of affairs in US education. Is there any wonder why US education continues to cost more while student achievement continues to flat line and fall behind other students around the world?

You cannot teach a kid to fish if they don’t know what a fish is. But with this style of education you can all but guarantee most of these students will become entitlement recipients that promote the liberal agenda of the nanny state. Not to mention burden the taxpayer who will always be expected to pay for this failure.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

As with any tragic circumstance there are always people, places and things forever affected. Reasonable people everywhere will be empathetic and often contribute to solving the problems encountered. This is when the best humans have to offer shines. The generosity and community spirit of many Americans excels when tragedy strikes. But there is a problem that can overshadow inspirational human action.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is no exception. News reports are dominated by angry and otherwise emotional responses to the frustrating day to day events of this disaster in the making. Politicians are doing their dance and President Obama is no exception. Feeling the heat over what some call his Katrina the President lashed out at BP on his recent trip to the region and some have called for BP’s CEO to step down.

BP chief says not quitting over spill - newspaper

Chief Executive Tony Hayward has said he is not thinking of quitting despite the outcry in the United States over the scale of damage from a ruptured deep-sea oil wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico.

“It hasn’t crossed my mind. It’s clearly crossed other people’s minds but not mine,” he told The Sunday Telegraph in an interview when asked if he had thought of stepping down as head of the British energy giant.

All the angst and PR being displayed by so many is not helping. All involved should be doing what some are. Offering constructive suggestions and seeking solutions to the problem. Raising the emotional component of a tragic event does not contribute to solving the problem. There will be plenty of time for that for those interested when the problem has been resolved. Which may in fact be a very long time. But emotional outbreaks and political rhetoric will not make that day come more quickly. Quite the contrary, these actions will delay a positive outcome.

As for BP’s chief resigning, it makes about as much sense as McDonald’s chief resigning over the following:

McDonald’s pulls 12M cadmium-tainted Shrek glasses

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cadmium has been discovered in the painted design on “Shrek”-themed drinking glasses being sold nationwide at McDonald’s, forcing the burger giant to recall 12 million of the cheap U.S.-made collectibles while dramatically expanding contamination concerns about the toxic metal beyond imported children’s jewelry.

If you think that is not a fair comparison consider this. There is no excuse for not knowing what is in a product you sell. There is no excuse for not knowing cadmium has toxic properties and is an element long thought to cause severe health problems. Whether it is or not one should not allow it to be used at least in products sold to the public.

In comparison to the BP oil spill the McDonald’s recall is on point. Another case where someone let a problem or its solution slip through the cracks. If you think the problems caused by the BP spill outweigh the risk to millions of children try making that case on the network news. Every liberal on the planet will skewer your life for all to see.

The real point here is leave the CEO of BP and the one at McDonald’s alone. Or at least wait until the story ends and we know where we are before you seek your pound of flesh.

Can we simply work on the problem and leave the blame game for another time? Probably not, but hey, I’m just sayin’…..

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Earlier this year someone introduced me to the refreshing advice and commentary of Nicole Gelinas. Earlier this month at Roll Call Gelinas presented ‘A Simple GOP Plan for Wall Street.’ It is the subject of this post for two reasons.

First, it IS a simple plan and not just for the GOP although directing it toward them is helpful. Surely Democrats are not interested. And second, this blog has urged a return to a time before gutting Glass-Steagall, the attendant Gramm Leach Bliley and the sin of POLS at that time. The contract with America GOP and Bill Clinton set our course for troubles in the markets more than a decade ago.

According to Gelinas ‘Republicans should present to the public a clear goal — allowing free markets to govern Wall Street and a set of simple rules to get there.’

Republicans can say: Senators on both sides of the aisle want to end “too big to fail.” But the fatal flaw in Dodd’s bill is that it would try to decree an end to taxpayer bailouts, rather than create the conditions necessary to achieve that end.

Americans can understand that in a free-market economy, success in business doesn’t happen by decree. Instead, it is the result of a consistent, predictable set of rules that apply to everyone. Similarly, failure in finance can’t happen by government decree. It must be the result of consistent, predictable rules.

Follow the link to read the rest. You won’t be disappointed. Especially attractive are statements like this one. History shows that these rules work. That is what people usually mean when they use the words, ‘common sense’. Something sorely lacking these days.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

The bottom line is GM was running an ad about paying back taxpayer bailout money five years ahead of schedule for a loan. The TARP loan was being paid back with other TARP or taxpayer money. The loan is a tiny portion of the boatloads of cash GM received courtesy of the US taxpayer. And Grassley called them on it.

After reading Grassley’s press release below from April 22, follow the link to the letter sent by Grassley. It’s definitely worth the trip.

Grassley asks about GM repaying TARP loans with other TARP funds

WASHINGTON — Senator Chuck Grassley is asking the Treasury Secretary to justify claims that General Motors has repaid its TARP loans when GM is using other TARP funds to repay the loans.

“It looks like the announcement is really just an elaborate TARP money shuffle,” Grassley said. “The repayment dollars haven’t come from GM selling cars but, instead, from a TARP escrow account at the Treasury Department.”

Grassley said his concern is based upon the most recently quarterly report from the Special Inspector General for TARP. Mr. Neil Barofsky testified before the Finance Committee this week and stated that the funds GM is using to repay its TARP debt are not coming from GM earnings.

Grassley said it’s a matter of the Treasury Department being straightforward with taxpayers about its management of the $700 billion taxpayer funded TARP program. Click here to read Grassley’s letter of inquiry to Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The Special Inspector General for TARP was created at the urging of Grassley and Senator Max Baucus of Montana, and when the Treasury Department changed the focus of the program less than a month after it began, Grassley worked with Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri to retool the Inspector General’s authority and empower the office to adequately scrutinize TARP spending and management.

Grassley has gone to bat for the Inspector General throughout the year, when the White House and Treasury Department put up barriers to the Inspector General asking questions and collecting information about where the money has gone. Grassley has been an outspoken critic about the lack of transparency with how TARP funds have been used. Last fall, he cosponsored legislation to end the program.

A stop at Google News to see what the MSM offers today starts out with US considers Goldman Sachs criminal charges. You have to ask yourself if that includes suspects like former employees of Fannie and Freddie as well as their co-conspirators in Congress, then and now? The push to place everyone in a home of their own whether they could afford it or not started the whole mess. It took years of quiet meddling by POLS and regulators as well as those who made a bundle in the market to lift regulations designed to avoid such problems. But the liberals need a villain to cover their tracks and apparently Goldman Sachs will suffice for their witch hunt and slight of hand redirection of blame.

And you have to wonder if BP is stepping up to pay for the spill in the Gulf of Mexico now that the slick is reaching shore and conspiracy theories abound? And it is reasonable that the Obama administration would postpone offshore drilling plans due to the incident. But that delay plays well into the liberal agenda in the first place. Another set of villains to be targeted by the left for political purposes rather than pursuit of justice.

Economic growth is slower than expected according to a report at WaPo. Again you have to wonder who really expected it to be above a 3.2% annual rate in the first quarter of 2010? The public opposition to continued fiscal irresponsibility likely includes business leaders and those who do the hiring and manage the risk of whether or not to expand. That is if they even have access to the resources (funding) to do so.

You would be hard pressed to find examples exhibiting effective leadership in government these days. When the taxpayer via government entities should be partnering with the private sector to improve the economy and resolve issues across the board little evidence exists that anyone is prepared to do just that.

That leads well into a sentiment expressed frequently on this blog. Come November, throw the bums out. Continue natural term limits through 2012. Repeat as necessary.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

crossposted at Maggies’s Notebook

Oh my, let’s get all indignant on the topic of Wall Street and the liberal pursuit of villains to take the blame for choices made by others. Maureen (Moron) Dowd does her level best to support the Democratic party’s attempt to shift blame. She pans ‘Las Vegas metaphors’ used by POLS in chastising Goldman Sachs while ignoring a basic rule designed to remind consumers of the pitfalls in the marketplace - caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.

According to Princeton’s Wordnet, caveat emptor is described as ‘a commercial principle that without a warranty the buyer takes upon himself the risk of quality.’ Does it get any simpler than that?

From Dowd’s op-ed….

As Americans lost homes and lined up for jobs, Goldman made $13 billion in 2009, and Blankfein got a bonus of, as he haltingly admitted to McCain, “um, um, nine million.”

“The idea that Wall Street came out of this thing just fine, thank you, is something that just grates on people,” Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman told Blankfein. “They think that you didn’t just come out fine because it was luck. They think that you guys just really gamed this thing real, real well.”

Sure, let’s talk about the greed of Wall Street and the bonuses received by Blankfein and others. Never mind the greed of those who were stung by real estate investments they would never have purchased had they performed the due diligence required.

This is no different than the wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from Enron employees who lost their jobs when that house of cards imploded as well as retirement accounts exclusively or largely built around Enron stock. Though one should never place all their investment eggs in one basket, the meteoric rise of Enron stock enticed the greedy to ignore another simple and common concept. If it seems to good to be true it probably is.

Conveniently, Dowd also ignores the role of many politicians steering Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, banking regulators and other government entities toward real estate disaster. A long history of accommodating the notion that everyone should own a home whether they can afford it or not led to ‘no docs’ loans and banking interests scurrying to unload bad mortgages they would not have produced on their own.

While POLS ‘grill’ Goldman Sachs in the US Senate and call for ‘Wall Street reforms’ take a look at Fannie and Freddie now and tell me anything has changed. As for those facing foreclosure since taking a mortgage they cannot afford or others lured by greed during the recent real estate ‘bubble’ POLS advocating more bailouts for bad decisions should be retired in November 2010.

It’s about time people begin taking responsibility for their own failures. Crying foul when you end up on the losing side of a transaction and expecting others to take the blame is childish. Some forget that transactions on Wall Street between buyers and sellers are a zero sum game. For each transaction there is a winner and a loser. Someone posts a gain and someone posts a loss. Get over it or get out.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Attorney General Eric Holder Rules Out Death Penalty for Illegal Aliens Charged With Murder in Washington Suburb

(CNSNews.com) – Attorney General Eric Holder has directed prosecutors in a federal conspiracy and murder trial not to seek the death penalty for three El Salvadoran men who are in the United States illegally.

The three are accused of robbing and shooting Claros Luna on July 29, 2009 in Alexandria, Va., just a few miles from the Justice Department, as Luna transported a prostitute from Maryland to Virginia.

The suspects, Eris Arguera, Alcides Umana and Adolfo Amaya Portillo, admitted to being members of the MS-13 gang, court documents show. They were indicted on Nov. 24 on federal racketeering and murder charges.

Not necessarily in order of importance but here are some questions about this story. What about Claros Luna and the prostitute? Was Luna also here illegally? And how about the hooker? It might be fair to say these two were not exactly model citizens. But what’s their story?

Beyond the primary focus of the article there is the question of MS-13. Gee, how well is the US handling that problem? Every account of this ‘gang’ depicts a group of individuals with absolutely no conscience or limits on what crimes they are willing to commit. Another reason why so many Americans are angry. Government leaders are unwilling to give national security and border control top priority. Their failure to perform their duties results in stories like the one presented here. Another case of illegals committing crimes.

Although obvious suggestions for Holder’s decision not to seek the death penalty in this case exist it would be helpful to know the remainder of facts on this topic. That there is at least one death penalty case that raised debate over the sentence of a mentally challenged defendant serves as a contrast to this situation. And from another angle there is at least one story of someone posing as a member of MS-13 apparently to impress people. This could lead one to ask why the death penalty was sought for a mentally challenged defendant and is not being pursued for ‘admitted’ MS-13 members? The other example presented suggests the defendants may not even be members of MS-13. In addition it does not seem unreasonable to ask for the death penalty in a murder case.

But you have to wonder if the popular sentiment on this story is accurate. US AG Holder is doing the President’s bidding. For any number of liberal reasons they are avoiding the death penalty in a case involving murder and illegal aliens on US soil. Who are they pandering to with this one? Certainly not the perps or at least they are not the only ones.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

A heartwarming note for your Sunday morning is published here today. While we have Obamacare to deal with as well as cap and trade and a long laundry list of liberal legislative proposals one rises to the top this week.

You may remember RINO Senator Lindsey Graham teamed up with liberal lamb chop Senator Chuck Schumer for another run at shamnesty to pry America’s borders wide open. As if there weren’t gaping holes in them right now.

A February 22, 2010 memo attributed to James M Chaparro at Homeland Security laid out plans for improving performance on deportation quotas for illegal immigrants. Apparently WaPo picked up the story and a reply to their inquiry about the memo by the Department suggested not everyone’s on the same page. A revised memo from the same source, also apparently, did not contain any changes from the original.

The guess here is Homeland Security will have some personnel changes from infighting and/or there will be some interesting fights over whether or not the US government is serious about protecting citizens and borders as well as anything else that is, you know, American.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

If anyone cares to offer a compelling argument to explain the results of the following roll call vote it would be appreciated. The only condition for the argument is that it does not offer political strategy as an excuse.

While the GOP would like to be viewed as the loyal opposition to the Democratic party’s far left agenda some Republicans defy explanation for their voting choices. The roll call vote presented here deals with earmarks. Senator DeMint offered an amendment described as an earmark moratorium for fiscal years 2010 and 2011. More than a dozen members of the GOP voted to table the amendment along with the Democrats. One Democrat, Russ Feingold from Wisconsin voted ‘no’ with most Republicans. But that may be due simply to political considerations in a re-election year.

That DeMint’s amendment clearly limited the earmark moratorium to 2010 and 11 should have made it easy for anyone to support it given current economic conditions. If you cannot support what may amount to nothing more than a symbolic gesture of disapproval for wasteful government spending how serious can you be about reducing the national debt and deficits? Earmarks are reported to account for ‘only’ a tiny amount of government spending. But eight or nine billion dollars per year is real money to most people. Money that could be used to solve real problems that get postponed due to lack of funding. How’s that for twisted logic?

It is understood POLS regularly tout their ability to direct federal taxpayer dollars to their respective states. You can visit many websites of Congressional members of either party listing all the, let’s face it, PORK, they provide their constituents. But isn’t it really a select number of constituents? Isn’t this simply more election campaigning and vote buying sponsored by the American taxpayer?

This sort of thing needs to stop. It may explain in part the popularity of what some call the Tea Party Nation. The GOP and even the Democratic party should adopt measures like the one Senator DeMint introduced mentioned earlier. It is just common sense. And it would go along way to convince the public that politicians are actually serious about controlled spending, deficit reduction and retiring the national debt.

And it could all be done without the political risk of attacking the real problem. Entitlements like the latest healthcare legislation or the majority of the annual budget that is, go figure, entitlements.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Even though many countries throughout the world largely blame the US for what was called the global financial crisis the greed responsible and regulatory incompetence that enabled excessive risk in financial markets has its roots where most massive failures do; the legislative halls of the US Congress and other such institutions around the planet. Those countries citing the US as responsible for their crippling losses are as guilty as anyone for gladly participating while everything was working out in that house of cards.

International criticism and commentary aside there have been other suggested culprits throughout the long history of actions leading to the economic problems Americans now face. Senator Chris ‘Countrywide’ Dodd as well as sputtering Congressman Barney Frank are but two politicians connected to the banking industry. There are many more who helped themselves to the profits available in the mortgage industry during the run up to disaster and one such person is none other than Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff. The President’s choice for Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, also has dirt on his hands from his tenure at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

During the initial reporting on such matters over the last couple of years the mortgage portion of the crisis included criticism that the Community Reinvestment Act was responsible for much of what happened. It was suggested that financial institutions were forced to extend credit for housing that borrowers were not likely to pay back.

Another culprit receiving criticism in recent years was the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC. In the past this site featured press releases from the SEC describing the results of legal action against various types of fraud in the financial markets. Almost exclusively the outcome involved what essentially was profit sharing between the offenders and the government. Rather than ever seeing jail time the perps were merely barred from engaging in business in the financial markets and paying some amount of money to the SEC that no doubt came from the ill-gotten gains.

Testimony by former Fed Chair Paul Volcker has focused attention on what may be the single largest reason for problems in banking and Wall Street. The Banking Act of 1933 also known as Glass=Steagall was enacted to avoid problems within the banking industry that occurred then and are remarkably similar to what happened lately. Over the years various parts of the ‘act’ were repealed and some are calling for restoration of those limitations now.

You can do a search on the topic at your favorite engine. You will likely find information about the original safeguards and a repeal history. In addition, HR4375 is a bill sponsored by a Democrat and co=sponsored by nine more plus a Republican. The bill seeks to restore some of Glass-Steagall. Also Senators McCain and Cantwell are in the news claiming to want the same thing or something similar.

This story and the items mentioned above point to the central theme of this post. Political rhetoric and ‘after the fact’ reactions are all too common. It is the evidence that proves what most of us already know about government and those who run it. They govern poorly allowing events to occur that could have been prevented. Where were all these people before the problems referenced here took place? Certainly most of them were in office before the so-called global financial crisis emerged.

The author of this blog supports restoring common sense in government. Like most expressing a personal preference for conservative principles and adhering to our nation’s founding documents Congress and the rest of government is encouraged to concur. And if in this particular case wisdom dictates restoring Glass-Steagall to its original form, please do.

It seems logical to accept the following idea. If the current economic turmoil is in fact the worst since the Great Depression and none has occurred since Glass-Steagall until certain portions of it were repealed then restoring the original legislation is prudent.

It would be helpful to all involved if those in government could produce a series of consecutive actions that can be applauded universally as successful and impressive. At least then citizens could be reassured that it IS possible for government to do something right. There is currently little evidence to suggest that is the case.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com