Stimulus? Really?

How Obama Stimulus works


It is a slow day in the small Saskatchewan town of Pumphandle and streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.

As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.

The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her “services” on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything, no jobs were created…

However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a “stimulus package” works.





Best I can tell, this came from:
http://thepatriotsnews.com/indx.php/content/99

The UN and Foreign Assistance

For years I have been wanting us to to do 2 things.
1. Stop sending money to ALL foreign countries
2. Get the UN OUT of the US

(Posted from an email I recently received)

How they vote in the United Nations:

Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:

Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time

Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time

Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time

United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.

Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.

Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.

Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.

Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.

India votes against the United States 81% of the time.

Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.

Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.

U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:

Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States,still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.

Jordan votes 71% against the United States
And receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Pakistan votes 75% against the United States
Receives $6,721,000,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

India votes 81% against the United States
Receives $143,699,000 annually.

WHY? WHO IN THE HECK STARTED THIS AND WHY?
THEY ACTUALLY BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS THEM.

Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes.

Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know. (If you don't know any taxpayers just delete it!)

GO GREEN - Recycle Congress in 2012 ! ! !

“Twisted Liberal Logic”

“Twisted Liberal Logic”


President Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, has said “Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it. All of those are jobs. It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times." Are you serious? Do you really mean this? (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/08/16/obama_ag_secretary_vilsack_food_stamps_are_a_stimulus.html)

Now this SNAP program that he is discussing is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or what we used to call Food Stamps. Do not read into this and think that I am against this assistance program, as years ago, as a young, married father of 2 my family qualified for the program. We were living in Hawaii, and I was a member of the US Navy. The fact that an E4 in the navy makes a small enough amount of money to qualify for that program is a topic for another day though. But, I do understand the need for this program.

The program is useful and needed (but of course we also need to clean up some of the abuse in the program), but what I want to rant about is the Twisted Liberal Logic being used by former Iowa Governor, current Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack.

This man is excited over the fact that we are adding more people to the SNAP. Why? Because according to him, the more people we put on federal assistance programs, the more jobs we create. Really? I have a better idea. How about we create jobs for the people that are on these programs so they can afford to get off of this program and buy their own groceries instead of us (the taxpayer) paying for them? If we do that, then they will also have money to buy things like their groceries, gas, televisions, clothing, and other retail items, instead of these people having to rely on the government teat. This mentality only helps to create an “entitlement society”. Why should someone get a job when we can just give them money to buy food? They are supporting the supply and demand chain, but come on. Where is the common sense here? This guy cannot be serious in these statements.

I think this makes Tom Vilsack a total Ass-clown.

Thank you New Orleans!

Thank you New Orleans!

I just want to throw a big THANK YOU out there to the FORMER residents of the city of New Orleans. This one is a special one though because I only want to thank the jackasses that bailed out of a city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Why am I thanking you? Well, it’s for making life miserable for the rest of us that have to file an insurance claim after a storm or other natural disaster.

On June 21, 2011 a major storm rolled through the Denton/Highland Village area. My house sustained damage from hail (up to and including marble to quarter sized), high winds (sustained above 80MPH, with gusts to 100), and torrential down pouring around 3 o’clock on the morning. This storm did enough damage to the house that I thought I should call my insurance company (which I did 2 days later). The damage was determined to be bad and that I will have to file a claim to have:
1. The roof replaced
2. New tile in the dining room and kitchen due to wind blown water
3. Drywall replaced in the dining room ceiling and on the living room wall
4. The deck, pergola and fence pressure washed & re-stained due to hail damage
5. The outside AC units re-combed.
6. And a few other minor items that go along with that repaired (trim, molding, solar screen repairs).

The insurance adjuster and insurance company have determined that I have approximately $25,000 worth of damage (thankfully I am not as bad off as some friends in Lantana, who lost every window in the front of their house and will be passing the $75,000 mark in damage).

Up until this point I was not really too upset, but was not looking forward to the inconveniences I know this is going to cause. This is why we pay insurance (but it still sucks to have to get this stuff all fixed).

But here is where the issue really begins.

My insurance company informed me that they will be sending me a check for approximately $14,000 to get the work started (this is roughly the “depreciated value”). After the work is complete, they will send me a check for the difference between what they gave me and “replacement value” minus my deductible. This initial check that they are sending me will be made out to me and my mortgage company. It is then my job to contact them (mortgage company) to let them know what damage has been done, and that I will be sending them the check. Their policy is to deposit the check and then send me 1/3 of the amount so that I can get the work done. After the work is 50% complete they will then send me another 1/3 of the amount, and after everything is done, I get the last 1/3. So, basically, they want me to get $25,000 worth of damage fixed (or at least started) for $4,500.

I have already put together a list of contractors to get things fixed (Roofmasters of Denton, Carnival Paint, Carpet Plus), and have made arrangements to get things going, but are they really going to want to wait for their money?

Why does the mortgage company work this way? Well, I found out that it is due to when Hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana coast and did all that damage (to a city that was built BELOW SEA LEVEL…), a lot of people filed their insurance claims for tens of, or hundreds of thousands of dollars, then took those checks, abandoned their houses (meaning they did not use the insurance money for what it is for), and started their lives over in other locations. Because of that, hundreds of homes were never repaired, and the mortgage companies got stuck with property that is worthless. The mortgage companies complained to the government, and now it appears that they have become part of the “repair & inspection process” when you file a large claim (over $20,000 or so is “large” from what I’ve been able to find online).

But, I did find a way “around” the little 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 rule. By requesting an exception, and filling out a bunch of additional forms, and sending in a hand-written request, the mortgage company will endorse the check and send it back. To do that, I had to get letters, estimates and lien waivers from the major contractors I will be using (roof, floor, drywall & paint).

I guess I shouldn’t complain. I got the full amount, but what bothers me when this happens is where is that money sitting? It is supposed to be used to fix the house, but the mortgage companies have found a way to earn more money.

Imagine this if you will:
100 people have insurance claims with an average value of $25,000.
If each one gets an initial check of $15,000, the mortgage company will be able to put $10,000 from each of those 100 homes in an account that will then have $1,000,000 sitting in it, drawing interest.

Let’s go one further. What if it’s 100 homes with damages like they saw in Joplin, where there is total destruction? If a group of homes worth $100,000 are being rebuilt, how much money will the mortgage companies be sitting on if they use the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 rule?

Thank you Freedom Mortgage for understanding we aren't all deadbeats from the 9th Ward.

And again…Thank you former citizens of New Orleans for making life difficult on the rest of us!

The debt ceiling (in real numbers)...

So, the debt limit has been put into proportions that can be grasped by the average Joe. I mean come on, do you really comprehend what a Trillion dollars is? 1,000,000,000,000...a 1 with 12 zeros is a TRILLION, and we have 14 to 16 trillion dollars in debt...

So, Dave Ramsey says "If the US Government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year, they spend $75,000 a year, & are $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year. These are the actual proportions of the federal budget & debt, reduced to a level that we can understand."

HOLY CRAP! So really all the President & Congress wants to really do is reduce our spending by 4%. We are adding to the debt continually still...

These people are freakin' morons. They all need to go, but it's too late...shall we just give up? Why not? We lost our AAA credit rating already.

Harry for President

We live in the greatest country on Earth. There are so many things that we American’s are able to freely do, but as time goes on, we are losing our liberties, and watching our country go down the drain. Here are a few reasons why I think I should be elected, so…


The reasons why I should be president:
1. I would fix the damn welfare system. If you want a check, you bring in a bag of trash you picked up off the side of the road or in a park somewhere. On top of that, you’ll be pissing in a bottle. If people have to pass a drug test to get a job that then requires them to pay taxes, you’ll pass the same test to benefit from them being drug free.

2. If you are a female on welfare, you will be on birth control. I figure the easiest way to do that would be Norplant clinics. Line up once and you’re good for a while. If for some reason you end up getting knocked up while on the program, you won’t be getting more money for the new dependent. Your “kid count” is done the day you sign up, and you will not get increases for more kids.

3. Food stamp programs will no longer include anything other than the basics. Papa Murphy’s Pizza: NOT ON THE LIST. Pepsi/Coke/Dr Pepper: NOT ON THE LIST. Frozen Pizzas: NOPE, NOT ON THE LIST. You want a good meal, you will cook it! Yeah, cooking takes time, but hell, if you’re on this program, odds are you aren’t working, so what else are you going to do with your time?

4. Legalization of marijuana will be a priority. The war on drugs has wasted billions of dollars, and what have we got to show for it? Treat it like alcohol, control it, sell it only to people over the age of 18, don’t allow people to work while under the influence (unless you are a rock & roll magazine journalist), and tax the hell out of it. If we taxed it at the same rate as cigarettes, the government will make a crapload of money. Some professionals say that crime will go up, but I always ask “have you ever seen a violent stoner?”

5. The Anchor Baby program will be abolished. The meaning of the 14th Amendment was to give freed slaves rights as equal citizens. If you are born in this country to people who are illegally in this country, then you do not automatically gain citizenship. If 1 of your parents is a US citizen, then you are granted dual citizenship, and you can choose at the age of 18 which country you want to pick. The Constitution starts out with “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union…” Nowhere in there does it say “We the people of the United States and those that are here illegally…”…

6. The Federal Tax program really needs to be rewritten. I support a “Flat Tax” program. This one is so easy. If you make $XXX, you pay a set percentage (I think somewhere around 17% is good). There will be NO deductions for anything, which means NO loopholes. It’s flat. If you make $5,000 per year you pay 17%, if you make $5,000,000 per year, you pay 17%. That way people will shut up about the 48% of US citizens that pay nothing, and the rest can shut up about the rich getting all the tax breaks (but I still ask, how many of you have ever been hired by a poor person?...most of my jobs came from rich people or businesses). I would be willing to look into a “Fair Tax” or a “Consumer Tax” (nationwide sales tax, but income tax goes away).

7. All Federal Employees (INCLUDING the President, Vice President and ALL members of Congress) shall go on the Social Security program. If they make the changes to it, they should be affected by it. Additionally, if this fiasco we call “Obama-care” stays in play, they will all fall under that too. And that email about the “Congress shall make no law” amendment making them live by all the rules & laws the rest of us live by would be pushed too.

8. The United Nations will be asked to leave New York City. The whole “diplomatic immunity” thing has a place, but it is not here. They have racked up millions in parking tickets that will NEVER be paid, so, in lieu of paying them, get the hell out. Go to Paris, or Berlin, or Tripoli. Just get out.

9. While speaking of the United Nations, I would also cut out making any payments to any country until we are out of debt (yes, that $14 TRILLION debt we’ve racked up). No more money to Pakistan. No more money to rebuild mosques in Afghanistan. No more money to Columbia to fight a war on drugs (that we won’t win). We stop paying other countries to “like” us. It isn’t working, so screw it, keep the money at home (it’s bad enough that we’ll be paying back all the interest to China as it is). And if you are wondering, yes, I would cut off money to Europe and the Middle East (did you realize that in 2010 Israel & Egypt received about 1/3 of all foreign aide we gave out?...I’d cut both of them off too).

10. Change the status of Puerto Rico. As a territory, they are able to collect welfare & unemployment (and they do pay into the social security system), but they cannot vote in Federal Elections. The amount of money going in exceeds what comes out of Puerto Rico; so, let’s give them the opportunity to become the 51st state. If they choose to become a state, everything stays the same, but add in the right to vote. If they don’t want to become a state, they will fall under item #9. Yep, that’s right, no more $$ for them either.

11. Prisons will become PRISONS. No more cable TV. No more internet access. No more time in the yard. People are there because they screwed up and a court of law decided they need to be punished. There are people serving our country in the military that don’t have access to cable TV or the internet.

12. Stem Cell research would be ALLOWED. We have come a long way with science & technology, and if there is a means to help people (diabetics, people with bad backs, cancer patients, etc.), why not try to help them? I know it’s very controversial, but we could do a lot with Adult Stem Cells, and maybe even do a little “sperm & egg mixing” in a laboratory (give a timeline at which point it is required to be destroyed).

13. Churches will lose their tax exempt status. How many of the big name preachers on the television are multi-millionaires? And they are asking their people for more? Really? Come on guys. You are preaching the word of your god. To me, when I see the big preacher man on TV here, and he’s driving away in his Cadillac Escalade, I wonder “what would Jesus drive?” (Based on his profession, I hear he was a carpenter, I would bet he’d drive an old Ford Truck).

14. Since the President has Term Limits in effect, it only makes sense to me to limit Senators and Congressmen to term limits also. Since the Senators serve 6 year terms, 2 of those should be good. For Congress, a 2 year term, I’d limit them to 4 of those, so, let’s call it 8 years. I figure if you can’t get something accomplished in that amount of time, it’s time to move on out. And like I said before, the whole “retirement” program they have will go away, and they will move into Social Security with the rest of us (No more CSRS or FERS programs for them).

15. Border Security is also a major issue. We NEED a wall or fence that is guarded from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Illegal immigration needs to be dealt with, and dealt with harshly. We need to incorporate rules & regulations similar to what the Mexican government has in place. Mexico can put illegals in their country in jail for up to 2 years, and then deport the offender. If you come back, it can be a 10 year sentence. They also allow local police to work with and assist federal offices in enforcement. We can use our National Guard or State Guard to protect the border. Make it a crime punishable by long jail sentences for illegally entering this county (and this goes for people crossing the northern border too). Illegal is illegal. I don’t care if you are from Mexico, China, Iraq, or France. If you are here illegally, you go to jail for a little while (with no TV or internet access), then get shipped back to your country of origin.

16. The Department of Homeland Security will go away. There is no reason why airports can’t do their own security thing with Federal Standards in place. By not allowing our TSA people to be trained in how to “profile”, we are doing a huge disservice to our citizens. If we were to follow the programs that are in place in Israel (they profile the hell out of people), we could stop the insanity when it comes to checking diapers and 90 year old women in wheelchairs. Do it, but do it right. Will some feel that their civil rights were violated? Of course, but hell, that’s happening now.

I know I have absolutely no chance of ever being elected to public office, but, it is nice to have a plan. Of course most of the items on this list would make me a target for extremists, but hey, we can all dream of what a perfect world would be like…
HEO

The Texas Answer to Welfare

I know it's been a long time since I last posted something, but I came across this and wanted to share it:

This was in the Waco Tribune Herald, Waco , TX Nov 18, 2010

Put me in charge . . .
Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your "home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the common good..

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules.. Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self-esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self-esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Govt subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Govt welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.